Be Intentional
#1 – Living By Decision Instead of Default
Various Scriptures
December 29, 2002
Introduction
Today we begin a series that will take us well into the New Year, as we look at becoming people of purpose, people of intentionality.
I’ve mentioned before that this is probably the biggest area of my life that God is dealing with me right now.
I have lived far too long as a person who just let’s things happen to me, and not focusing my life on pleasing God and living for Him in whatever situation I find myself.
God has convicted me of my need to be a person who does not live by default, but lives by decision. To be a person who determines that I will do what it takes to know God better and love Him more, so that He can work in me to become more Christlike.
And in becoming more Christlike, to become the type of husband my wife of almost 15 years deserves. To become the type of father by kids deserve. To become the employee my other bosses deserve. To become the pastor you deserve.
To become the type of person God can use in the lives of other people.
So that’s where we will be spending our next few weeks. Looking at the whole area of intentionality, and breaking it down into specific areas of our relationship with God.
My intention today is to lay the groundwork for the series, and to challenge you to become a person who is intentional in all areas of your life, with the expectation that God will do wonderful and marvelous things in you because of it.
I’ve told you this before, but it bears repeating: there are three types of people –
Those who make things happen.
Those who watch things happen.
Those who wonder what happened.
It’s no different in the Christian life. Spiritual growth requires an intentional effort. Spiritual stagnation and decline require no effort at all.
C. S. Lewis – Screwtape Letters
Live redemptively. God has redeemed you not just from sin and its penalty, but he has also redeemed from an empty life.
1 Peter 1:18-19
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
Steps to Living by Decision Instead of Default
Determine to live decisively.
It always starts with a decision. The problem is that too many people end there.
EPH 5:15 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Determined people strive to make wise decisions. Decisions based on the Bible are wise decisions, no matter what the world says.
If you’re in business and you want guidance on making wise, ethical decisions, then let me suggest reading the book of Proverbs regularly. The practical wisdom contained in that one book alone has transformed many businesses. The book of James is another great book for that.
But my point here is that you need to put this kind of determination not on the back burner, but on the front burner, and turned on high.
Determine to live decisively.
Elevate correct priorities.
Colossians 1:18 says…
18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Priorities should:
1. Honor God.
2. Honor your family.
3. Honor others.
Covenant with God to submit to His authority.
ISA 29:16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"?
Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?
Quiz time: who created you? God. Who has the right to tell you what to do? God.
I have been ministering to a fella over at the Brown Co. Jail lately, and I had to ask him when he was going to let God run the show. Because the decisions he was making on his own didn’t seem to be getting him anywhere but in trouble.
He needed to put his agenda aside and look for God’s agenda.
And so do you. And so do I.
We need to recognize that only by the grace of God are we even here today. Can we not be so grateful that we allow the ruler of earth and heaven have his way in our own lives? Sure He deserves that much!
He is Lord, whether we want to admit it or not. Allow Him to not only the Savior, but the Lord, the boss, the CEO, or whatever you want to call Him. But He is the One we need to submit to above all others, especially ourselves.
Tell Him you are serious about following Him as Lord.
Next,…
Increase time in the Bible and Prayer.
Colossians 3:16 says to…
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Doesn’t it just make sense that if you want to live a life decisively seeking to please God, you need to know what pleases God? I think so.
And the best way to learn what pleases God is to read and study His Word.
Some of you need to increase some. Others need to just plain start. That’s okay. Start. Read 5-10 minutes a day. It doesn’t have to be an hour.
Choose a time that works best for you. If that’s the morning, great. If it’s the afternoon, great. If it’s the morning, great. The issue is not when you do it, but the fact that you do it. And it’s best to be consistent on the time.
If you are not in the habit of daily reading the Bible, then start off small. But start.
And if you are in the habit, then bump it up a little.
Pray while you are reading the Bible. As God prompts your spirit to respond to what you’re reading, just do it. After that, go over any requests for your family and others, then for yourself, always keeping in mind that prayer includes praise and thanksgiving as well as requests.
The next principle in living by decision instead of default is to…
Daily renew your walk with God.
You do that by just setting aside that special time every day to meet with Him, to tell Him you love Him and His Word.
Renew your covenant of love and submission on a daily basis.
Expect God to move.
I say this because, if you were to only look at what I’ve said so far, you would think that the results of living by decision are brought about by your own effort.
In fact, it’s only by the grace of God that He decides to move and work in your life at all. These things are not an attempt to jump through a bunch of spiritual hoops, trying to please God with our spirituality.
These ideas, these concepts are only tools to help us gain insight into the marvelous love and care of God, who works in us, not because we’ve done everything just right, but because He is honored in doing it.
He sees the benefits it brings us, so He blesses the efforts, because it brings HIM glory, not us.
We put forth the effort because it pleases Him, and benefits us.
But let me point something out to you. Even if God did nothing in your life because of your decisive efforts to become closer to Him, have you lost anything? I don’t think so.
Your deeper knowledge of God will be of benefit to you. Your clearer view of correct priorities will help you achieve the goals you have set for yourself and family.
You get the idea.
But the point here is that God brings the results, not us. We do these things trusting that God will be pleased to mold us to be more like Him.
And by the way, before you start thinking that it’s easy for me to say all this because I’m a preacher, let me remind you that I have been in the outside working world my whole adult life, and I’m still there. These principles have worked for me whenever I put them into practice, not matter what situation I’m in.
In living by decision instead of default, Jesus is our example. He did nothing by default. He was decisive about everything.
And nothing shows that better than Luke 9:51.
LK 9:51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
The King James says that “He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.”
I’m not looking to just point out that Jesus was decisive here. What I want to point out is the first part of that verse:
As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven…
He knew what was coming up. He knew that going to Jerusalem would bring about His death.
But the book of Hebrews tells us that He went to Jerusalem and faced the cross, scorning its shame, for the joy set before Him.
Huh? The joy? How could the thought of being tried illegally and in secret be joyous? How could the notion that He would be sentenced to die by a Gentile ruler who found Him innocent be a cause for joy?
How could knowing that He would be flogged almost to death, then paraded down a street to be jeered at and mocked be reason to see joy?
And finally, how can knowing that He would hang on a cross for hours and hours, suffering the most agonizing form of capital punishment before or since cause Jesus to see joy?
Because He saw beyond Jerusalem. He saw the result. Pardon. Forgiveness. Freedom. Opportunity for you and I to know God on a personal level.
Jesus did that for you. He did it on purpose. He didn’t just get to thinking one day in eternity that it might be kinda cool to visit earth for a few years, and it just so happened that people thought He would be the Messiah, and it just so happened that He needed to die so men could be forgiven, so it just happened.
He knew what would need to be done before time! And He decided that He would do it. And He waited for just the right time, and then He came to make it happen.
In comparison to what Jesus has done for us, is it really too much to ask that we spend a bit of time to deepen our relationship with the One who made that relationship possible?
Is it easy? No. But God works and makes it worth it. I came across a verse during a short vacation I took a couple months ago. It’s 2 Chronicles 16:9, and it has become one of my personal favorites lately. It’s one that I have committed to memory, and have asked God to remind me of. Listen to this, okay?
For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
I want to issue a challenge to you today. I want to challenge you today to make a commitment to live decisively.
If you have been living life by default, then I want you to make a bold step today. I want you to decide right now to live by decision.
You don’t have to have it all figured out right now, but you need to decide that you will make a determined and decisive effort to deepen and strengthen your walk with God, so that it effects every area of your life, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
And I guarantee that if you make the effort, God will change your life. Believe me, He wants to do that for you. But you need to be intentional about being intentional about it.
These next weeks I am going to give you some very practical ideas for doing that. Ideas that you can take and put into practice, or modify to your situation.
None of the ideas will be original with me, but borrowed liberally from men and women of God who have walked the walk for a long time, and have shown the wonderful working of God in their lives.
Before we go I want to issue a special challenge to the fathers in our congregation.
You have the honor and the deep responsibility to not only teach the Bible and Biblical principles in your home, you also are expected by God to model them.
And you cannot do that by default. You can model other things by default, but not godly living, not trust in God, and certainly not a love for God and His Word. That takes determined, decisive effort.
I admit to you that I have failed in this area, and I can only pray that God will override my shortcomings.
So I want to specifically challenge you to commit this next year to being a man of God. A man in whom God lives and rules; a man whom God can use in whatever situation you find yourself.
You know what I’ve found? We always make time to do the things that are important to us. Whether it is an important sporting event, or a trip, or whatever.
Make your relationship with God so important that you will make time for it.
I believe that if the men of the church will get serious about loving and living for God in a decisive manner, God will move among us individually and as a church, and it will overflow to the thousands out there we are trying to reach with the good news of life in Christ.
Ladies, I’m not discounting you at all. History is filled with godly women who have been used by God to change the course of families, churches, and nations.
But men, God will hold you and me accountable for how we model the love of Christ in our families.
Allow God to move in you in such a way that when that time comes, He smiles and says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
May God use this coming year as a benchmark in the history of this church – a benchmark of His Spirit being unleashed in us, for our benefit, to His glory, and for the advancement of His Kingdom.
Let’s pray.
