This morning we are going to play a game that became very popular in the seventies and continues today. It’s called “Let’s Make A Deal.” Do you remember it? People would dress up in the most silliest of costumes in hopes of being selected to play in the game. If you were chosen, then you would be awarded a prize. But there always was an opportunity for you to swap your prize for an unseen prize that could be better or worse than the one you possessed. Most people swapped and actually missed the better things.
So let’s play “Let’s Make a Deal.” I have in my hand an envelope. If you have an ink pen and want to trade for this envelope, then come on up to the front. (Participant comes forward. In the envelope is a check for $100 made out to the church). Now I will give you an opportunity to keep this envelope or trade it for what’s in the larger envelope or what’s in the strong box. (The larger envelope holds a CD. The strong box is filled with fake money. If they choose the smaller envelope, they get to drop the check in the offering box since it is already made out to the church. If they swap, they get either a CD or a handful of fake money.) Thank you for playing “Let’s Make A Deal”.
It seems that we approach life’s decisions that way at times. The average turnover rate for employees in the workplace is 39.6%. In the Leisure and Hospitality industry, that rate is 74.6%. The world asks us “Do you want to keep the job you have or trade it in on the job behind door number 1?”
Every year a church loses 25% of its congregation. In addition, 60% of the young people leave church completely. The world asks, “Do you want to stay at he church you are attending or trade in for the church behind door number 1 or choose door number 2 and leave completely?”
The divorce rate is at 50% on first marriages. The world asks “Do you want to stay in the marriage you are in or trade it for the marriage behind door number 1 which averages a divorce rate of 67% or go for door number 2, a third marriage, with an average divorce rate of 74%?”
The average span of time that people are keeping their cars is 5 years. 43% of Americans will move this year. We live in a world of constant decision-making. How do we make the right decisions?
Let me share four steps to making wise decisions.
1) Pray for his will to be done.
Proverbs 3:6 “Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.”
There are two aspects to seeking God’s will. One is submission to his will. And God’s will is very clear in the Bible. We are not to be like the world. The things that the world pursues should not be our pursuits. The world pursues materiliasm, gratification, and pleasure among other things. We are to pursue love for God and each other.
We are to be holy. That means set apart for God’s use, different. We are to be a living sacrifice offered to him. We are to be his flavoring so his word would be tasty.
We are to be thankful on all occasions. We are not to be downtrodden and defeated. God’s word says in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.” We are not crushed, driven to despair, abandoned by God, or destroyed. For these things alone we should be thankful.
We are to live honorable lives. I did a little research on epitaphs written on people’s tombstones. Here are four of the best.
William Hahn Jr - “I told you I was sick”
Talk show host Merv Grifin - “I will not be right back after this message”
Mel Blanc, voice for cartoon characters including Porky Pig - “That’s all folks”
And my personal favorite, Rodney Dangerfield - “There goes the neighborhood”
Have you ever wondered what might be written on your tomstone if the people you encountered daily were to be able to choose the wording? Would it be flattering or demeaning? It depends on whether we have lived honorable lives. And to live honorable lives we must submit to his will and be set apart and different from the world around us.
When we submit to his will then the second point factors in. God will lead us on a straight path. It’s not God’s desire that we wander aimlessly through life, trying to find the right path like Israel did in the wilderness. Remember the fact that they wandered around because they were not dong the will of God.
If you are doing God’s will, then look for straight paths. If you are on a twisted, rocky, and dangerous path, you are probably not on the right one. If the path you are on keeps hitting deadends, you are probably not on the right path. Proverbs 21:8 states “The guilty walk a crooked path; the innocent travel a straight road.” Be aware of the path you ar on.
Okay. We have submitted ourselves to God, so what’s next?
Proverbs 16:3 “Commit your actions to the Lord,
and your plans will succeed.” To commit to the Lord is to turn them over to him. Each morning we should wake up and pray, “Lord, these are my plans for the day. However, you have the right to change them. I give you this day.”
In doing that we have a guarantee that our plans will succeed. The reason for that is that our plans for ourselves are now what his plans are for us. We have come to an agreement.
Making the right decisions in life begins with praying that God’s will be done, submitting to his will, looking for that straight path, and turning over all your actions to the Lord.
2) Plan for what lies ahead
I want to describe to you the W.A.Y. to plan for what lies in your future.
First, there is the Wife. Proverbs 31:21 “She has no fear of winter for her household, for everyone has warm clothes.”
When making plans ask yourself how this will benefit others around you. The wise wife prepared warm clothes for her family for winter. She had no knowledge of how cold winter would get so she prepared for the worse. And others would benefit from that fact.
When life wants to make a deal, you must decide how each decision will affect the life of those around you. Will your plans run the risk of leaving them out in the cold? Have you placed the security of those under your care above your own desires? If your plans are risky enough to endanger their well being perhaps you to re-evaluate your plans.
Next, there is the ant. Proverbs 6:6-8
“Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones.
Learn from their ways and become wise!
Though they have no prince
or governor or ruler to make them work,
they labor hard all summer,
gathering food for the winter.”
Do you have a network of friends and loved ones helping you to accomplish your plans? The ants pull together for one purpose; to ensure safety when the winter arrived. They did not look for someone to goad them on because they served with a common purpose.
When life wants to make you a deal, you must decide how each decision will affect your network of friends and loved ones. Ants find food by rubbing their antenna together to inform each other of the source. If one ant gave another ant bad direction then that ant would pass those bad directions along and the food source would disappear.
If your network of friends and loved ones are fed bad information so that you can accomplish a plan that you know is not beneficial, then you are not planning in wisdom.
Then there is the youth. Proverbs 10:5
“A wise youth harvests in the summer,
but one who sleeps during harvest is a disgrace.”
Are you making plans for your “golden years” while you are young? Have you set aside retirement funds? If not, you join the other 57% of Americans who have not done so. In fact, 30% of those who have retired find themselves needing a job to supplement their retirement income. Only 15% actually find work.
It is suggested that you have a savings of $200.000 to last you into your 90s so that you might live comfortably. The average Ameican has managed to save only $25,000 before retirement.
When life wants to make you a deal about your fnances, you must decide how you will be affected in the long term. Do you want instatnt gratification or wise planning for the winter months?
The Bible says those that slumber during the work years will be disgraced, put to shame. Are you wating to stand shamed before the world, begging for handouts or be secure in your winter years?
3) Prepare before you act.
Proverbs 13:16 “Wise people think before they act; fools don’t- and even brag about it.”
A middle-aged farmer who had desired for years to be an evangelist was out working in his field one day when he decided to rest under a tree. As he looked skyward, he saw some unusual clouds. Stepping out he saw two clouds. One formed the letter P, the other the letter C. He immediately knew what he needed to do.
He began declaring to his neighbors that God had finally called him into the ministry. The clouds, p and c, stood for Preach Christ. He sold his farm and all of his equipment to begin his ministry.
Unfortunately, he was a horrible preacher. Those that came to hear him walked away mortified. Finally, one of his neighbors said, “Friend, I believe you missed what Gos was calling you to do. I do not think that the p and c you saw in those clouds was calling you into the ministry. I think God may have been telling you to plant corn.”
We have many desires of what we want to do with our lives. Most of those desires are good. But not all of our desires are God’s desires for us. The worst thing we can do is to act upon a desire before we have really thought about the responsibility and consequences of our actions.
I must admit that I have the tendency to jump aboard a cause or a mission for Jesus before really thinking it through. For example, last year I was approached by an individual who was starting a Christian organization for local business. Not only was I asked to be a “founding father” of this organization but also I was asked to be the president. It seemed certain individuals had recommended me. I accepted immediately. I came here and made the announcement to the entire church body about my new role in the community. It did not take me long to discover that this individual was more interested about making money and less about promoting Christ. After two months, I resigned.
I did not think before I acted. I was a fool. I even bragged about my foolishness to others. While my intent was to be a driving force behind a Christian organization of businesses, I came to be viewed, I am afraid, as a shister. I fear that some may have considered me a con man, just trying to make a buck. I have no one to blame but myself.
We get angry and we act before we think. We say harmful things to someone and brag about it. “Boy, did I give them a piece of my mind.” Have you ever said that one?
Whenever we are facing a circumstance in life, we should step back, evaluate the situation, and prepare a means by which we can accomplish our goal. When the world is offering you doors number 1, 2 or 3 for what you currently possess, prepare yourselves for the decision that you will make. Ask yourself “Do I want to let go of this known for the unknown?” Think about it before you act.
4) Pursue good counsel
Proverbs 12:15 “Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.”
Dave Navarro has written an article entitled, "The 5 People Who Secretly Control Your Life." In it, he says, what you may not realize is just how many people influence your life, feeding you ideas about what is "right," "wrong," "good," "bad," and practically every other subjective decision-making criteria that guides your life. Some of these ideas are good for you, while others are bad. In fact, there are more people than you'd like to admit secretly controlling your life by influencing how you make your most important, life-guiding choices. They're "secret" because we usually don't know that it's going on." So who are these people?
The five influences he names are your heroes, your enemies, your parents, your spouse, and your image of who you should be.
We can listen to our heroes and let them influence our lives in a positive manner. After all, they are our heroes for a reason. We consider them our heroes because they emulate what we would like to be.
We can listen to our enemies and actually they can be a positive influence. They can cause us to take a step back and evaluate ourselves, keeping us humble and guarding us from pride.
To the young people I say, “You’re parents are wiser than you think.” To us older generation, we realize now our parents were wiser than we thought. I know in my own youth I always thought my way was the right way. Had I listened more to the advice of my parents, my life may had been a little less rocky.
To those who are married I say, “Your spouse is a little smarter than you think. Listen to them. Let them have a voice in all decisions.” If I am foolish enough to think that all of my ways are the right ways, I am setting myself up to be made a fool. Debbie never says to me “I told you so.” when I blow it, but her eyes do.
Listen to yourself. What is the image you have for yourself? Because that image of who you want to be will influence who you become.
If your image is to be a person of the world, delighting yourself in all of its wordly pleasures, you will become that person. If your image of yourself is to be a follower of Jesus and a child of God, you will become that person. You have the most tremendous impact on your life based on the image you project.
Proverbs 15:22 “Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.”
Seek advice from godly people. Ask them what they think and listen to their answers. Even if the answer is not the one we are looking for. We should seek as much advice from as many people as we can. Because in the midst of numerous answers we will eventually hear a consensus of what we shoul do.
The world will play “Let’s make a deal” with you this week. Before you make choices remember to pray, make plans, prepare to enact those plans, but first pursue the wisdom of godly people.
