To Make Wise Decisions, Connect The Dots
1/10/2021 Joshua 24:14-24 Philippians 3:7-14
How many of us have ever made a decision that we later regretted? How many of us have said, “If I had known then, what I know now, I would have chosen a different path?” When you make a poor choice, are you more likely to blame yourself or to seek to put the blame on others or on your circumstances?
What do these words have in common? Yield, bump, curve ahead, stop, one way, bridge freezes before road, detour, and left turn only. These are all words that you find on roadway signs. What’s the purpose of the information?
These words all want you to think and to make adjustments before you keep moving forward. They do not have the power to make you do anything. They do provide you with a choice to change your behavior to keep you from regretting a bad decision.
Sometimes you can ignore the signs, and there might not be any apparent consequence. Sometimes you can ignore the signs and experience an inconvenience, minor damage to your car, or a traffic ticket. Sometimes you can ignore the sign, and it may cost you or others their lives.
It’s not a matter of whether or not you like the particular message of a particular sign that should impact your behavior. It’s a matter of connecting the dots into the future of what might happen if this sign is ignored. The very sign that we are tempted to ignore, might be something that’s there to save our lives.
There is a passage in the book of Proverbs that provides us with direction and insight on how to make wise decisions by connecting the dots. By connecting the dots I’m talking about drawing a picture.
Do you remember as kids, we use to be given a piece of paper with numbers all over it? If you drew a line from one number to the next in the right sequence a picture will begin to emerge on the page.
Choosing to go from #5 to #6 would further create the picture. Our decisions do not happen in a vacuum. We are drawing a picture whether we like it or not of our lives with each decision that we make.
Jesus understood this very well. He knew he had a certain purpose to accomplish with his life. He was to be in Jerusalem on a particular day in order to be crucified and to die for our sins.
When others tried to get him to make choices to show who he was, “Jesus would say, my time has not yet come.” Jesus connected the dots between his current behavior, and how the choices he made now would impact the final mission that his Father had sent Him to do.
Proverbs 27:12 says in the (NIV2011) 12 The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. In the Message bible it says (MSG) 12 A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks; a simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered.
This same verse is found in Proverbs 22:3 Proverbs 22:3 (NIV2011)
3 The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. Why do you think God would write the same thing to us twice? God wants us to pay attention.
We don’t use the word prudent much but it means shrewd in a good sense. It’s the person who sees a situation and thinks before acting upon it. Google defines it as acting with or showing care and thought for the future.
A prudent person takes the time to connect the dots between where I am now, and where I will be in the future. The prudent person knows that, I must make some changes to avoid a danger that is in front of me.
In our Old Testament Reading, God had made a promise to the people of the nation of Israel. Gold told them that He would deliver them out of slavery in Egypt, take them to a bountiful land, remove the people out, and would defeat their enemies. Well God did it.
Moses was the leader God used to get them out of Egypt. Joshua was the leader God used to conquer the land and to distribute it to the people. Finally, Joshua was ready to retire from his job and the people had everything God had wanted to give to them.
Joshua said to the people, “You need to make a choice. This is it. Either throw away the gods you have been hiding and carrying around in your back pockets so that you can serve the Lord faithfully or choose to serve the gods you’ve been carrying around, either the old ones or the new ones you just found.
Joshua was a prudent person. He could see the danger of trying to hold on to certain things while having a goal of trying to walk with the Lord. He saw very clearly that if they were not willing to get rid of the gods they had been collecting, they were never going to follow God and that they would lose everything God had given to them.
The people agreed with Joshua, that God had done some incredible things for them. They agreed with Joshua that serving the Lord was a good thing. They agreed that God was holy and even though God could take away their blessings, they said we will serve the Lord our God and obey Him.
They claimed they wanted the same thing Joshua did, but nowhere in chapter 24 does it ever say, “the people went and got their foreign gods and idols and threw them away as Joshua told them to do.”
They honestly believed there was no danger in compromising what God had told them to do. They saw the same situation as Joshua did. Joshua was prudent.
He looked ahead and said “I don’t care how attractive these idols are, I do not want them in my house and in none of the houses of my family.” He connected the dots into the future and found his safety in God. He declared as for me and my house ,we will serve the Lord.
The people on the other hand kept going forward as they had been doing and like the second half of verse 27:12, says the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
Within a few years of the death of the elders who outlived Joshua, the people lost their land, their freedom and their relationship to God because they did not connect the dots between the decisions they were making in the present with the consequences of the future.
A prudent person asks questions before marching off into a decision. 1) Is the decision I’m making a wise choice. 2) What will I gain if I choose this option? 3) Who will be affected if things don’t go as I plan. 4) What will this do to my walk with Christ. 5) Will I be pleased if others find out what I have done?
Do you know why Jesus said, “come follow me?” Because He knows we are all following something or someone and we are all headed to a destination of some sort. Many of us are tempted to make decisions today without attempting to connect dots for the future.
Let me ask you something? Do you think verse 27:13 could apply to a nation. For instance is it too much of a stretch of an imagination to say that 12 “The prudent nation of people sees danger and take refuge, but the simple nation of people keeps going and pays the penalty.” There are two realities that we sometimes miss that affect this nation.
First, there is a satanic influence in this world that wants to destroy anything good that humans are blessed with. We see it in Ephesians in which we are told in Ephesians 6:11-12 (NIV2011) 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Satan is determined to wreak havoc on this planet out of his rebellion against God.
Second, there is sin in the human heart, and there are those in high positions whose goal is to make money regardless of how destructive it is to us and to our nation. They profit off of us hating and warring against each other.
We have a created an American political cash demon that knows it can raise more money through fear and demonizing candidates and parties than it can simply stating “here is what I stand for.”
We are being fed a lie that has us gripped in fear, by claiming we are a divided country and therefore we can’t work together. If you look at our last elections you will the numbers have not really changed that much. We have always been a divided country in the popular when we vote for Presidents. 2020 46.9% 51.3%, 2016 46% 48%, 2004 50.7% 48.3%, 2000 47.9% 48.4% and 1968 43.4% to 42%. It doesn’t mean we can’t work together. It does mean we have to make compromises and realize that both sides have mainstream views.
What has changed is us? We have rejected even the basic teachings of Jesus which should apply to all of us whether we believe in God or not. At the most basic level Jesus said, “do to others what you would have them do to you.” Of course, Jesus hold his followers to a higher standard than this, but at the moment this would be a good place for us to start.
What happened in our nation’s capitol this past Wednesday was utterly despicable? Nobody should feel the right to destroy something that belongs to all of us. Nobody should see violence as a way to force a change in legislation or to change the results of any election.
But if we were a prudent nation, we would have seen this day coming. Though we might now want to admit it, we have all been complicit to some degree in it. We have allowed our respect for political leaders and political processes to reach an all time low even to the point of contempt and disgust. When that happens and you connect the dots you see where we are headed.
Social media has allowed us to think we know people who we really don’t know at all. We simply repeat words and phrases that others have said about people and claimed them as facts even our own facts. Now everybody had an opinion about everything and is ready to share it with the world.
We are not aware that what appears on our social media pages about people is based on what we click on as likes and dislikes. We only are fed material that supports our view. The more we click, the more narrower the material that is sent to us.
We are constantly given biased views that we accept as reality. The majority of ads that we see in Cuyahoga County about a candidate on the local news stations are vastly different from the ads seen in Ashtabula County.
Mass media, has stripped a lot of the respect we had for the office of the president. Our current president made it worse with having to tweet about everything under the sun. I hope in the future when our presidents have something to say, they do it in a respectful setting where we can ask them what exactly did they mean by what they said.
We gain nothing as a society by reporting as news each time a celebrity or athlete makes a negative comment or name calling of the office.
I pray in 2021, each time the president is mentioned that it be President Biden or Vice President Harris. I pray that we would remember that our words and our choice of words do matter. We are calling for healing and unity in this nation. The only way that will happen is if we stop painting everybody with the same brush.
All Democrats don’t have the same position on issues. All Republicans don’t have the same position on issues. Would you be sensitive enough to recognize that and use the word “some” when it is appropriate and speak up when others make the error?
Could we bring back democracy by discussing the merits of issues without calling each other names to shut down the discussion. My plan for healthcare or immigration may be different than yours, but that does not make either of us a racist or a bigot.
Can we judge candidates based on what they plan to do now if elected rather than letting me know something that may or may not have happened 25 years ago. God is able to change people without getting our permission. God changes us all the time.
Could we stop intentionally flaring up hatred and animosity with the words we use. 99% of the people who voted for President Trump had nothing to do with Wednesday riots and were not aware they were going to take place.
Yet to listen to the Media, with there constant use of the words “pro trump supporters” does nothing but causes further mistrust and animosity. The last thing some people want for us as nation is to see an end to the tension and anger and hatred within us.
You could have said a small group of Americans who would not accept the election results stormed the capital. But that would not have made us angry enough. We want to hate those people and as a result those like them. Not only that, we don’t want to be associated with them by calling them Americans.
What is it inside of us that makes us think we are better than “those people” whoever “those people are.?” It’s called sin in our hearts. When we were fasting and praying for our nation on Friday, I had to confess my own sin in thinking I know what’s in the heart of certain candidates that I don’t particularly like.
I know one thing. God loves that person just as much as God loves me. I know that Jesus didn’t die any less for that person than Jesus died for me.
I think one of the worst thing these elections have done over the past decade is to have exposed an unhealthy amount of hatred that we as believers have been content to carry around in our hearts.
Although we claim to want to serve God, just like the Israelites did, we have refused to let go of the idols of the gods we use to serve and the gods that others want us to serve today.
We have placed ourselves in little self righteous bubles that are nothing more than a stench in the nostrils of God. We have forgotten that although we are to make a difference in this world in terms of working for justice and righteousness, this world is not our final home.
There is a God who is going to hold us accountable for how we have treated each other as brothers and sisters in Christ based on politics.
John put it this way, “How can we say we love God whom we have not seen, and hate our brother or sister whom we have seen.” The easiest thing to do is to say. “well maybe they are not really my brothers and sisters.” That only places us back in our “self righteous bubble” and puts us in the place of Jesus Christ of being able to read the hearts of others.
If we as the church refuse to become prudent, what hope is there for our nation. If we genuinely want to see a change, we need to get a glimpse of God that is far bigger than the one we have.
When we see the holiness of that God, we need to fall on our knees in repentance and confess that we have not been connecting the dots from what’s going on in our hearts, to what’s going on in our nation.
Satan is determined to kill, steal and to destroy each one of us. Why should we help him in the process? What are you doing that either builds up or tears down the people of this nation? What is it that God wants you to do?
God has given us a nation with unparalleled freedom and opportunity. Sure it has its faults because it is full of sinful citizens called Americans. But we should be working together to correct them so that we pass to the next generation, a better United States than the one we live in today.
As believers in Christ, we should know that God raises up leaders for His own plans and purposes. I pray that President elect Biden and Vice President elect Harris will be the greatest team to ever lead this country. Because if they fulfill God’s plan, we as a nation move closer to what God has for us.
Are we willing to stop jocking to win the next election and sit down and earnestly discuss and legislate policies of what’s best for the people of this nation?
A prudent nation sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple nation keeps going and pays the penalty.
Can I remind us, that Jesus never gave us a commission to go out and win the next election. Our call is to actually tell people the good news of Jesus Christ and to make disciples of all nations. You can’t ever forget that God has you in the party you are in, to make a difference there for the cause of Jesus Christ
