Toss the coin and roll the dice
Proverbs 16:1-9
Prayer-
Good Morning
Introduction-
Proverbs 16:33 tells us that (NIV) “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord”
The passion version says, “We may toss the coin and roll the dice but God’s will is greater than luck.”
The title of the sermon is toss the coin and throw roll the dice!
What kind of person are you?
You have to know yourself well enough to answer that question.
People have no plan for their life and they get mad at life and God because they don’t go anywhere.
If you strive for nothing- you will achieve your goal of nothing.
If you waste your life in front of the TV every waking hour of the day, at the end of the day you have nothing to show for the time that you spent.
Do you realize how many people actually believe that success will magically happen or appear to them with no effort, no determination, no discipline, no purpose, no goal.
They believe they will one day have as much or more than the person who has worked hard in their life and have been disciplined to achieve what they have.
They actually have the nerve to be mad at God and the world for not getting any breaks.
I know that isn’t anyone listening here. Church people would not think like that!
How do you determine and direct your path and your life?
Have you always been the one who rolls the dice and whatever happens… happens ?
Have you taken a direct or indirect approach to your life?
Like the four main roads leading out of boom town USA- Are you going “this way’,” that way’,” any way’, or are you one of the few that go “His way’?
When it comes to our lives and eternity, it is not good to play Russian roulette and let the ball fall wherever it would land.
I would want to have a part in the decision making process and I would like some divine help because I know that I am not smart enough to make all the right decisions as evidenced by my life.
Proverbs 16:1-9 (Read from the Bible)
Let’s take these verses and see what the Lord has to say - Amen?
(v1) “To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue.”
Put another way- Go ahead and make your plans you want, but it is the Lord who will ultimately direct your steps.”
I am talking to you as a believer this morning, so the plans that I am talking about must line up with God’s will for our lives or they will have some bumps in the road- Right?
The starting point is a surrendered heart toward God.
That is first- if you do not have that, you will be doing what you want instead of what God would want for you.
The surrendered heart says to God that it is my desire to please God first with every part of your life and every part of my resources.
What He wants is what I want.
Now, if you are not a believer and listening to me this morning- you know that you can make plans but there are no guarantees in life. Life is a bit of a rat race and if you have no guidebook or person to direct your path- you seem to hit every pothole of life and don’t know what to do with it.
The first step is a relationship with God- being saved from your sins and walking with Christ.
The second step is seeking His will for your life and allowing him access into any part of your life.
No hidden doors and no hidden agendas.
I offered my life to Him almost 50 years ago, but I surrendered my life to him 35 years and I willingly allowed Him to do with it what He wants.
Now, that does not mean that I surrender all and do nothing. (Repeat) No!
It does not mean that I do not have a part in the process, it means that I am not going to let my will overstep the will that God has for my life.
As a believer, God’s wisdom trumps my wisdom.
God’s direction is more important to me than doing my own thing.
Is that true in your life? Is God’s will more important than doing your own thing?
If that is not true, that is the first thing you have to do is surrender your life. If you won’t, you will probably have some bumps in the road because the Lord takes very serious the commitment that you made or the one you need to make to Him.
Proverbs 15:33-
“The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor.”
Before honor and humility and before we see the glory of God in our lives, we have to have surrendered lives for His will to be done in our lives.
Victory, defeat, success, failure, start, finish,
(Hand motion back and forth- wish it was that easy.)
Let me say this- there are two sides of a coin for a reason-
At every football game before it starts, a referee takes the captains to midfield and a coin is tossed who will have the ball first.
It gets the game started but the end result is still on how well the players play on the field.
We can blame life on the toss of the coin, but reality is how well we do on the field will determine the outcome for our life.
I believe we can learn something from the coin toss- because no matter if you won the toss or not, there still is a strategy on what you are going to do after the toss of the coin.
There is our way and God’s way- two sides of the coin.
I would want you to consider one more aspect of the coin toss on your side of the coin.
We have our way and we have other people’s way.
I think we get ourselves in trouble because we have been a Christian for awhile and we base every decision on what we would do and how we will do it.
We forget that there are other ways to do things and our way is not necessarily the only way.
WE NEED TO EXPLORE BOTH SIDES CAREFULLY.
Illustration-
Each of us has journeyed differently to get where we are today.
Our lives have crossed but they are not the same.
We have not done and been through the same things. I am a city boy down to my core. I have been out of the city for over 30 years but I am a city boy. I was raised in the city and went through things that a person living their whole life in the country has never experienced.
My wife Becky is a country girl and has never experience anything about a big city and the dealing and attitude of big city people except when she has to deal with it still in me.
These two worlds should not have common ground but they do because each one has respected and accepted that we are different but does not make one person better than the other.
Our first argument when we were dating I made her mad, just shows you how wrong she was because she was mad at me- she got that frustrated with me that she was beside herself and blurted out, you baloneyhead! I was in shock! Here she was really mad and upset and blurted out baloneyhead- I said to her is that the best you got! Baloneyhead. I am from the city! We laughed about it for almost 30 years now.
We really can count on both hands the times that we have argued. I think because we have accepted that we are different and that our paths have had different roads but we desire now to travel together.
(2) “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him.”
Anyone besides me think that your ways and thoughts are always right and from Mt. Sinai?
They must have come right from the throne room of God.
God must have directly given me the oracles of God on the Mountain top.
Scripture says-“EACH PERSON VIEWS HIS OWN WAYS AS PURE.”
We could not possibly be wrong. Our opinions are so strong that we have a hard time letting God break through and change us. (Repeat)
We have to advance God’s ways instead of our ways because God looks at our motives-
Motive is “something that causes a person to act in a certain way or do a certain thing.”
You can understand how this can get complicated- suppose we are Christians (not anyone here) that have anger problems so we react with anger and then justify it. We never handled the anger problem, we are just now Christians with an anger problem.
We have to fix the problem so the motive is right.
We can do the right thing with wrong motives and we can do the wrong thing with right motives. We need God to sort that out.
It is possible to want to do the right thing but do it wrong- Our motive would be right but not successful.
We can do wrong thing with the wrong motive.
Motives were always important to God. Sometimes the ancient Israelites did the right things even though their hearts were far from God (we all do that sometimes).
Our motives are key in those who are citizens of God’s kingdom.
This is proof that God not only wants to change the things we do, but change the reasons why we do things.
“See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:24
See whether there is in my heart, or in my life, any evil habit known or unknown.
If there be such an evil way, take it me from me.
As I hate the wicked (wrong) in their way, so would I hate every wicked (wrong) in my own life.
See if there is any wicked in me. This would be a beautiful prayer for us everyday. Amen.
(3) “Commit to the Lord whatever you do.”
If we would do that, we would take a different perspective.
We would unpack both sides instead of calling it our way or the highway!
We would have a teachable spirit- come on now!
We would be open to at least hear what others have to say and then line it to God’s Word for authority.
(5) “The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this; they will not go unpunished.”
Stephen Covey
“If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster’
So listen, so our time doesn’t get away from us- I hope that you are not one who puts all his trust in the toss of a coin or the roll of a dice for your life – leaving your life a game of chance- the odds of success happening are almost nonexistent.
If you are trying to find the will of God that way it is impossible.
The word of God tells us that God has a plan for our lives and it is a good one. I believe better than what we can come up with ourselves.
God has given us common sense, given us his word, desires to be Lord of our lives. If we were smart, we would use commonsense and study His word and allow Him to be Lord of our lives and it would be better and blessed far more than what we could do ourselves without him.
Illustration-
An HR manager advertised a job opening and a large group of applicants showed up in the waiting room. The first man was ushered into her office, and she began explaining the job to him: “We need someone who can make fast decisions, someone who can think quickly on his feet. Can you show me that you’re capable of doing that?”
Without a word, the young man immediately stood up, stuck his head out the door, and announced to the waiting applicants, “Okay, you guys. You can all go home…the job’s just been filled!”
As we close-
You know, it would be much easier if we’d just figure out where God is heading and decide that’s where we want to go.
Don’t spend time beating on the wall hoping to transform it into a door.
Prayer-
