SURVIVING INDECISION
PSALM 23:3b & PROVERBS 3:5-6
INTRODUCTION: Video Clip - The Rookie - Chapter 9 -12:20 - 15:27
That clip probably only showed a fraction of the struggle that Jim and Laurie Morris’ had to endure to accept a pro baseball offer at his age with all his family responsibilities. Another tough decision came 2 years later when Jim Morris had actually made it to the Majors but retired because he wanted more time with his family. Now, there’s not many that will have to make a decision to play sports, especially at the age of 35 like Jimmy Morris. But all of us face difficult decisions. Life is full of moments when we also must answer the question, “Are you considering this?” with “I don’t know.” So many decisions are difficult, what we decide does affect others and lead us down one road or another. But, is it the right way?
So, how do we know which is the right decision? How do we find out which is the right road to take? Well, David writes in Psalm 23:3b "He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake." He says the Survival Kit for the stress of indecision is to let God guide you. Remember, "The Lord is my Shepherd” so The Shepherd is my Lord. And the good Shepherd not only promises to feed us, but lead us, not only provide, but guide, not only protect, but direct.
So, let’s look at this verse and a companion passage in Pro. 3 & learn how we can allow our Lord, the Shepherd to lead us. Interestingly, when David uses the phrase “paths of righteousness,” he is literally saying “on the right road.” So, David would say to us, “The Lord will keep you on the right track if you’ll let Him.” So, let’s dig in to God’s Word, the Bible, and see how we can let God “lead us in paths of righteousness.”
I. UNDERSTANDING GOD’S GUIDANCE IN OUR DECISION MAKING:
Let’s begin by understanding the Biblical concept of God’s will. So many people are confused on this issue. But the Bible makes it clear that God wants to guide you. In fact, if your life is like mine, there have been times quite honestly, when He has wanted to guide you more than you want to be guided. So, here are 3 misconceptions that people have about God’s guidance in our decision making that I hope will clear away some of the confusion and make us more open to utilizing God’s guidance.
(1) God’s will cannot be determined in this life. There are some who would say it’s a waste of time to try and determine God’s will. They quote Isa.55:8-9. “God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts.. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways higher than your ways..” so we cannot know His will. But the Bible teaches quite the opposite. God wants us to know His will for our lives. Pro. 3 says it plainly, "He will direct your paths."(NLT) Literally the Hebrew word means "to make a crooked path straight." Other scriptures teach this principle. Read these scriptures aloud with me. Psa.143:10- "Teach me to do what you want for You are my God. Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground."(NCV) Eph.5:17- "Don’t be foolish, understand what the Lord’s will is." Scripture teaches us not only can we know God’s will, we should be earnestly seeking out His will on a daily basis. Romans 12:2- "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is."(NLT) A person who wants to know God is to be seeking what God wants, praying for God’s will & guidance, to "direct your paths."
(2) Here’s a second misconception. God’s will is always unpleasant. I know quite a few people who are afraid to seek what God wants, who don’t want to surrender to God’s will because they are afraid He will make them miserable. “If I surrender my life to God why He’ll immediately send me to be a missionary to Iraq or say I can’t have a glass of wine at dinner or He’ll make me give 50% of my income to the church. No thank-you!” That’s not true. Sure, while God may call you to sacrifice something for your good, the truth is His will is not usually unpleasant. Like the little child who doesn’t understand why they can’t run out in the street or touch a hot stove, God’s ways are for your good, it is to fulfill your life not constrict it. Rom. 12:1-2 urges us to surrender to God so we can prove what is "..how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is." God’s will isn’t unpleasant, it’s pleasing. It’s disobedience that bring misery. Psa. 37:4- "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." I don’t think that means if you surrender to the Lord He will give you everything you want, just like that child who won’t be able to run out into the street, but when you surrender to Him, He changes the desires of your heart to coincide with His.
(3)There’s a third misconception. That God’s will is easily determined. In Acts 16 we see this principle. Paul sought the Lord’s will in determining the next place to start a church. But though he sought the Lord for an answer, it took awhile. God could of told him right away to go to Macedonia, which is where he eventually went, but at first, all God did was stop him from going to the places he thought best. Paul discovered that God’s will sometimes takes effort to verify. God sometimes reveals His will in dramatic ways but most of the time He doesn’t use a handwriting in the clouds or telephone us with the answers. It takes prayer, counsel, meetings, interviews.. effort. Heb. 10:36- "God’s will calls for perseverance."
But not only is God’s will often not easily found, even after making the effort, God’s will won’t make your life necessarily easy. You might say, “Wait, I thought you said God’s will is not unpleasant?” It will never be unpleasant, unhealthy or more than you can bear. But, that doesn’t make it always easy. An athlete’s training is not easy but that doesn’t make final result unpleasant. The Bible tells us that the paths God directs us on are not always level, sometimes it’s uphill or through a mountain pass. In Acts 16 when Paul was finally led to Macedonia to start the church there, he came to Philippi the capital, and things started well. He found some women gathered for prayer taught them and several became believers. But then it went south! He got thrown into a smelly dungeon for preaching. Now don’t you think Paul could of said, "God I wanted to go to Asia but you sent me here. What do I get for going where You told me? Prison."
On Friday nights is a show called “Joan of Arcadia.” In it God speaks to Joan and at first nothing ever makes sense. In fact, sometimes Joan is mad. But in the end everything works out. That’s what happens to Paul here. While he is in prison, he and his buddy, Silas sing hymns, there’s an earthquake, all the doors are opened & the prisoners chains are loosed. That provided an opportunity for Paul to talk to the jailer, he becomes a believer and a great spiritual awakening breaks out. "God has not promised skies always blue. Flower strewn pathways all our lives through. God has not promised Sun without rain, joy without sorrow or peace without pain. But God has promised strength for the day, rest for the labor, light for the way. Grace for the trial, help from above, unfailing sympathy, undying love." God simply promises, "I will guide you in paths of righteousness.” “I have the right ultimate plan for your life and I will see to it that you reach your maximum potential for Me."
II. UTILIZING GOD’S GUIDANCE FOR OUR DECISION MAKING:
So the question of the morning is: How do I let God guide me in the right path? How do I figure out and utilize God’s guidance? The Bible says to do four things.
I need to:
(1) Admit I need a guide. David says here, “He guides me ..” But we’ve got to admit we need Him to do that and that’s not easy for us. Remember we don’t like to think of ourselves as sheep but that is who we are.. In fact we are, by nature wandering sheep. Isa. 53:6 "Everyone of us have strayed away like sheep! We have left God’s paths to follow our own."(NLT) In many cases, the real reason we don’t know God’s will is because we refuse to admit we need direction, that we are lost.
According to Phillip Keller, sheep have poor vision, they see pretty good peripherally, but not straight ahead. That’s why, on a path, they don’t know if it is leading them off a cliff or into a meadow. They need a shepherd, someone to lead them. And that’s what the shepherd does, leads.. Notice David doesn’t say, “He drives us in paths of righteousness..” No, a shepherd doesn’t drive a herd, He leads His flock. Why? So he will experience whatever danger there is before the sheep do. Well, we are like sheep. We can’t see the path ahead of us very well. We don’t know the future. And because as sheep we don’t see the path ahead of us, we tend to stumble. Prov. 14:12- "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." Oh, it may seem right.. But as Proverbs 3 says all we’re doing is figuring out ourselves, leaning only on what we know and understand, and so we get off the right path. So this first step is critical.. The Lord must be your shepherd, you must “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, do not depend on your own understanding.” Admit it: “God, I’ll make a mess of this if left on my own, I need You as my Shepherd.”
(2) Ask in faith for directions. David said, “He guides me..” God is willing to guide us if we will but depend on Him instead of ourselves. Jesus said, “Ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened."(Mt. 7:7) Ask, seek, knock -- ASK. God wants you to learn to ask. Let’s read James 1:5 together for it tells us how to get wisdom, "If you want to know what God really wants you to do, ask him, and he will gladly tell you, for he is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask him; but ... if you don’t ask in faith, don’t expect the Lord to give you any solid answer."(LB) God is willing to give wisdom, He’s anxious to give wisdom, He’s waiting to give you wisdom, He wants to direct you in life, but you’ve got to have two things lined up: You’ve got to ask the right person -- God. And..
You’ve got to ask with the right attitude -- in faith, expecting an answer.
(3) Here’s a critical one.. Attune yourself to God’s responses. Okay, so you’re willing to admit you need a guide and to ask with the right guide, the Lord, with the right attitude for directions. But how do you tune yourself into His directions? Sometimes my wife, Deb, will be talking to me and I’ll look like I’m listening. But the truth is I’m hearing without tuning into what she is saying. How do I know I do that? Well, because later she’ll mention something and I, like the brilliant person I am, will say, “What? I didn’t know that!” And she’ll give me her look (after 30+ years of marriage she doesn’t even have to say it anymore.. The look says, “I told you that but you weren’t really listening.” And she’s right. Well, if you have a relationship with God then you have been designed to hear His voice. But you need to tune in, pay attention to Him. Out of all the creatures God created and put on the earth, only human beings have the ability to tune in to God to take in what He says.
Job 33:14- "God does speak -- sometimes one way and sometimes another -- even though people may not understand it."(NCV) So the question is not, does God speak but are you really listening? Think of being able to hear your TV or a radio. When God speaks are you tuned in? If you don’t hear God then, a) You have your tuner turned off - you’ve never established a relationship with God. b) You’re too far away from the receiver.. You’re not paying attention. -or- c)You’re on the wrong channel- if God’s on channel 13 and you’re on channel 4 you’re not going to pick it up. What channels does God use? Well, I can think of at least 5, let’s look at them.
(A) The primary way that God speaks is through the Bible. A lot of the direction you need for life is right here. God says life is a journey and He’s given us a road map. 2 Tim. 3:16- “All Scripture is given by God and is useful for teaching, for showing people what is wrong in their lives, for correcting faults, and for teaching how to live right.”(NCV) The Bible is what you need to negotiate the maze and different pathways of this life. But if you neglect to read the road map you’re going to get lost.
You say, “Tim, God has never said anything to me!” Really? Are you reading the Bible? If you don’t ever look at the road map how’s God going to direct you? The most basic question you can ask yourself about the decision that confronts you is: “Does my desire agree with Scripture?” That gets some debris out of the road right away. It’s silly to wonder- “Does God want me to have sex outside of marriage? -or- “Should I take this job even though it means I won’t be able to attend church? -or- “Should I cheat this customer?” It’s a waste of time seeking God’s guidance in areas that are already clear in His Word. But in order to know those areas you need to read this book and fill your mind with it. Read it systematically, emphatically and repeatedly.
(B) God speaks through Godly, Biblical teachers. Not just Godly, but Biblical.. Because God’s will is not revealed through good teachers espousing their own ideas but Godly teachers espousing things that are consistent with God’s Word and compliment it. This series so far has been interesting. It is one of those that has a lot of you saying that you feel like each message is aimed right at you. I’ve heard, “Why didn’t you look at anyone else but me when you preached today?” to “You wrote that sermon just for me didn’t you?” Well, may I say this in all candor: If you’re in church listening to a Biblically sound sermon or in a class listening to a Biblically sound study and feel like God is speaking directly to you, guess what? In that moment God is speaking directly to you. Am I so bold to say that God speaks through me? You bet. I figure if he can speak through a donkey - remember that message? He can speak through me. It just means God can use a frail and failed instrument (me) to speak powerfully (His power) to you. There is no way that I could figure out what everybody in a Sunday morning crowd needs and fit it all in one message so that everybody’s need is met. But God knows exactly what you need to hear. By the way, that’s one of the reasons I don’t want to miss church. So many of the turning points in my life, have happened when I was listening to a Bible study or message. I want to be here, because I think.. "What if God has prepared a message for me and I don’t show up?" That’s why we don’t miss when on vacation. Because God may have had the preacher prepare that sermon that morning just for me. You see, it doesn’t matter if the delivery is boring or the voice is grating or if the format is not my “cup of tea.” God can and will use anyone He sees fit to speak to me. One of the ways to let God direct your paths is to ask yourself.. “Am I taking advantage of every teaching opportunity that’s mine, so if God has a message for me, I’ll be there to hear it?” Titus 2 tells us to listen to godly teachers.
(C) Christian counsel. Read Prov.15:22 with me- "Refuse good advice and watch your plans fail; take good counsel and watch them succeed."(MSG) Ask-"What do my Christian friends and my Christian leaders counsel me to do?” And let me emphasize Christian counsel. We make a mistake when we go to the world for advice. They don’t have the same set of values. Psa 1:1- "Blessed are those who do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly." Seek God’s will by listening to people who know God well & then ask why shouldn’t you follow their counsel?
(D) Common sense. Sometimes God leads through the brain He’s given each one of us. Some people think that after they ask for God’s guidance that they’re supposed to sit back and wait for God to show them the door, turn the door knob and drag them in. It doesn’t work that way. We still must apply some effort. Send out resumes, have interviews, make phone calls, consider options. Isa.1:18 says, "come let us reason together says the Lord." So another question you can ask is: “Are the doors opening up or am I hammering them down?” If the doors do not open fairly easy, forcing our way through them may mean we are rationalizing to get our own way. It should open with a reasonable amount of effort. Now you’ve got to be careful here because Satan can make things easy too. It’s an easy temptation to try to make God’s Will fit our desires instead of fitting our desires into God’s Will. Some of us are like the preacher who was on a diet and prayed as he drove to work- "Now, Lord if it is your Will for me not to have any donuts this morning You make sure there are no parking places in front of the donut shop." And he later said, "I ate the donuts because there were two places right up front on only my 8th trip around the block." We need to make sure we don’t play the game of making God’s guidance fit what we want rather than seeing if what we want actually fits His plans. Remember David said, "The Lord is my shepherd.. He leads me.."
(E) God uses circumstances to speak. Sometimes He uses pain. Someone said, “God whispers to us in our pleasure, but He shouts to us in our pain.” God gets your attention in times of adversity. Read with me, Pro. 20:30 "Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways."(GN) So instead of asking, “Why me God?” Ask: “What is God wanting me to learn through this?” He has something for your ultimate benefit coming from this. Sometimes he works through pleasant circumstances, like meeting someone who shares a story or some insight that really gets you to thinking. Or maybe it’s a movie or book or just a particular scene that speaks to you. Sometimes God speaks to us in pain. He uses both.
God is speaking all the time. Are you listening? If you’ll, tune in, He will lead you on the right path. If you don’t get in tune with God on a regular daily, moment by moment basis, you’re going to miss the right path God wants to lead you.
(4) (Repeat first 3) One more thing to do: Accept God’s direction even when you don’t understand. Remember, you are not God and you don’t have all the answers. David says He’s going to lead you “for His Name’s sake..” In other words, in the way that He knows is best. Sometimes that doesn’t make sense to our finite minds, but what we think is a wall our Shepherd knows is a door. The Bible tells us that when the Jews, the children of Israel were finally set free from Egypt, the whole nation started marching out to freedom and the first thing they come to is the Red Sea. On one side is an uncrossable mountain range. On the other an Egyptian fortress. In front of them is an ocean. Behind them, in hot pursuit, is the Egyptian army that has changed its mind and decided to come and slaughter them all. What is God going to do now? The path looks like a dead end. But God knew exactly what He wanted to do. He had not made a strategic error like some might of thought because He could see what they could not see. And He opened the Red Sea and they walked through. Years later the Israelites looked back and in Psalm 77:19 they said, "Your road led by a pathway through the sea -- a pathway no one knew was there!"(NLT)
Some of you are facing some dead ends right now -- financial, emotional, relational- but it’s not really a wall; it’s a door. God can see a path that you don’t know about. The path you’re on right now may be one that is dark, despairing, discouraging, and you feel depressed about it and you think there is no way it will work out. Impossible. If you will keep on moving in faith, trust God even when you don’t see a way, He can make a way. What do I do in the meantime? Proverbs 3- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and he will direct your paths." Four things from that verse.
1. Trust the Lord.. 2. Don’t panic & start depending only on yourself. 3. Seek His will.. In all you do... read His Word, seek Christian teaching and counsel, see if doors are opening or you’re forcing, pray, ask the Lord what He wants you to learn and
4. Depend upon Him completely to direct you.. Even when you don’t understand the way.
The ultimate question is: Who’s path are you going to follow in life? Why follow God’s path? Proverbs 12:28 answers that: "In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality." You go your way, the way that seems right, it’ll lead to death. But you make the Lord your shepherd and He’ll “guide you in paths of righteousness for His names sake.”
{All Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version unless otherwise noted.}
