Keys For The Christian Living: Making Decisions

Summary: Life is filled with decisions, many of which never even reach our conscious level. Often the same decision-making process we use for minor issues is used for major decisions as well. So the question is: How do we choose wisely?

Series:Keys For The Christian Living

Scripture: Genesis 18:20-33

Date: 29 January, 2017

ILLUS 

A man had been made the president of a bank at a relatively young age. Not feeling that confident, he went to see the elderly chairman of the board for some advice. "How can I succeed as president", he asked. "By making the right decisions." "But how do I make the right decisions?" "Experience." "But that's precisely my problem. I don't have much experience. How do I get the experience so I can make the right decisions?" "By making the wrong decisions".

There is a thought-provoking scene in Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s tale, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. 

Young Alice comes to a fork in the road and asks the Cheshire Cat which direction she should take. “‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.“‘I don’t much care where –’ said Alice.“‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk,’ said the Cat.”

[Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1984), 89.]

Life is filled with decisions, many of which never even reach our conscious level. Which socks to wear? Should the shirt button from the top down or from the bottom up? Which lane to drive in? Most of these decisions are made out of habit.

On the other hand, there are some decisions that you spend time thinking about. What sounds good for lunch? Which voicemail needs to be answered first? Can the haircut wait until next week? These decisions may seem small and insignificant, but woven together, they form the tapestry of our daily lives.

Then there are life-altering decisions that cause you to struggle. Which career path is most in line with your unique skill-set and calling? Should you marry or remain single? Which church will allow you the best opportunity to grow and minister to others? These are often hard choices that deserve a great amount of thought.

Often the same decision-making process we use for minor issues is used for major decisions as well. So the question is: How do we choose wisely? What criteria do we use to evaluate, to discern the best course of action? Clearly, gathering information and carefully analyzing our options is essential. Beyond that, we need wisdom and clarity of thought in order to make prudent decisions based upon the facts at hand and our understanding of God’s will.

Many bad choices are made simply because we move through the decision-making process too hastily, basing our conclusions on emotions, bad information or impulses. There is something to be said about “gut reactions,” but basing our every purchase on our feelings leads to a lot of buyer’s remorse. The opposite extreme would be to automatically rule out any emotional factors in our decision-making method. We should allow an inner sense of conviction to serve as a “red flag,” without allowing ourselves to fall into the “paralysis of analysis” when it comes to determining our next move.

The complexity of this issue shows how important it is to not make decisions in a vacuum. Particularly on very important matters, it is wise to seek counsel and advice from others who are experienced and godly. The only basis for really good decisions is correct thinking. This kind of wisdom comes from above and is given to us through four primary avenues – God’s Word, God’s Spirit, God’s Providence and God’s people. In other words, to ensure good decision-making habits, we must be people whose minds are consistently being renewed by God’s Word. We must also be people who walk in step with the Spirit of God, paying attention to his promptings and leadings. We must watch carefully and understand how God works providentially in our circumstances. And we must live in community with other faithful believers.

Life is all about making quality decisions.

This is our fourth message in our series Keys For The Christian Living, and we're talking today about Making Decisions.

How do we make good decisions?

1. Ask God

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

God's knowledge is unlimited - He is omniscient.

ILLUS - 

According to one website, there are probably about 400 billion stars in our galaxy, and the way to estimate the number of stars in the universe is to multiply that number by the number of galaxies. The Hubble telescope is capable of detecting about 80 billion galaxies. So multiply 400 billion by 80 billion and that tells you about how many starts there are.

Ps 147:4 He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.

God knows everything; no wonder He wants us to consult Him when making our decisions.

God is sovereign – at times, inscrutably so. That being the case, in what sense can we say that the Sovereign Lord, the One who transcends all imaginable boundaries and who knows all things, makes decisions? In his timeless plan, God has conceived all possible scenarios and has thought of every possible contingency. There has never been an event that took God by surprise, and there never will be.

There is great comfort in this, because we come to realize that as imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world, we can never really disappoint God. We can grieve him, but we cannot thwart or frustrate him. In spite of how our world appears to us, because of God’s supreme sovereignty and wisdom, it is exactly the way he knew it would be, and we are right on schedule in the unfolding of his plan to bring us to the best of all possible worlds. God has even incorporated the foolish, sinful decisions of people into his divine scheme. Things that were meant for evil and harmful purposes, God weaves into his good will to accomplish his program in our world (Genesis 50:20). Because he is omniscient, his plan is based not on appearances but on consequences. Because he is omnipotent, he is able to fully accomplish his purposes. Because he is omnipresent, his dominion continually encompasses the created order. Because he is not bound by space and time, he views all things from the perspective of an eternal now; a particular moment to us can be an eternity to God, and yet the entire life span of the cosmos can be an instant to him (2 Peter 3:8).

Though the Lord our God sits enthroned on high, he “stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth” (Psalm 113:6). He is transcendent and majestic, but he is also imminent, attentive and compassionate. Even though God is all-powerful, all-knowing and ever-present, the Scriptures portray his very real interaction with his people in earthly time and space and affirm that our prayers make a difference in the outworking of God’s purposes. As Philip Yancey writes:

God is not a blurry power living somewhere in the sky, not an abstraction like the Greeks proposed, not a sensual super-human like the Romans worshiped, and definitely not the absentee watchmaker of the Deists. God is personal. He enters into people’s lives, messes with families, calls people to account. Most of all, God loves.

[Philip Yancey, The Bible Jesus Read (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999), p.33 ]

God is not a man, nor does he change his mind (1 Samuel 15:29). However, the Bible does not shrink from attributing emotions to him. No one has expressed this more eloquently than Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel:

To the prophet, God does not reveal himself in an abstract absoluteness, but in a personal and intimate relation to the world. He does not simply command and expect obedience; He is also moved and affected by what happens in the world, and reacts accordingly. Events and human actions rouse in him joy or sorrow, pleasure or wrath…. Man’s deeds may move Him, affect Him, grieve Him or, on the other hand, gladden and please Him.
[T]he God of Israel is a God Who loves, a God Who is known to, and concerned with, man. He not only rules the world in the majesty of his might and wisdom, but reacts intimately to the events of history.

[Abraham J. Heschel, “The Divine Pathos,” in Judaism, vol. 11, no. 1 (January 1963), p. 61. ]

Of course, before God was the God of Israel, he was the God of Abraham. The story of Abraham’s prayers on behalf of the few righteous people in Sodom illustrates the biblical truth that God mysteriously incorporates our prayers into his eternal plan. Abraham founded his intercession on the unswerving justice of the Ruler of the world:

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?”“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”
He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”
He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

Genesis 18:20-33

Theologians from many different backgrounds find common ground in the important role of prayer. John Wesley is frequently quoted as saying, “God will do nothing in the affairs of men except in answer to believing prayer.” John Calvin affirms that the providence of God does not exclude the exercise of human faith. 

While God neither sleeps nor slumbers, Calvin says, 

“He is inactive, as if forgetting us, when He sees us idle and mute.” 

[See John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III:XX:2-3.]

Jack Hayford says, 

“You and I can help decide which of these two things – blessing or cursing – happens on earth. We will determine whether God’s goodness is released toward specific situations or whether the power of sin and Satan is permitted to prevail. Prayer is the determining factor.”

[Jack W. Hayford, Prayer is Invading the Impossible (New York: Ballantine Books, 1983), p. 57] 

As Walter Wink is fond of saying, 

“History belongs to the intercessors.”

[The first time this phrase appeared was in his article “Prayer and the Powers” in Sojourners, October 1990), p. 10. ]

The Bible often uses language that ascribes human form or attributes to God, and because of this, it appears that God changes his mind in light of new input. If this were true in an absolute sense, it would mean that at least some of God’s decisions were initially inadequate or ill-informed and in need of revision. Based on God’s perfect character, we know that isn’t true. So it appears that these passages provide us with a relative – rather than an absolute – perspective to stress the dignity of human choice and interaction with God.

In fact, the Bible sometimes makes a point of mentioning people who failed to consult Him - kind of a dishonourable mention.

ILLUS - Josh 9:1-14

No decision is wise if it’s made independently of God. In Joshua 9, the people of Israel made a terrible decision because they left God out of their plans, and had to live with the consequences of a decision which God did not approve:

Now when all the kings west of the Jordan heard about these things – those in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the entire coast of the Great Sea as far as Lebanon…came together to make war against Joshua and Israel.
However, when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they resorted to a ruse: They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. The men put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant country; make a treaty with us.”
The men of Israel said to the Hivites, “But perhaps you live near us. How then can we make a treaty with you?”“We are your servants,” they said to Joshua.
But Joshua asked, “Who are you and where do you come from?”
They answered: “Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of the Lord your God. For we have heard reports of him: all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan…. And our elders and all those living in our country said to us, ‘Take provisions for your journey; go and meet them and say to them, “We are your servants; make a treaty with us.”’ This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But now see how dry and moldy it is. And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey.”
The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.

Joshua 9:1-15, emphasis added

The Israelites gathered data (vv. 7-14), but they missed a crucial step in the process. “The men of Israel…did not inquire of the Lord” (v. 14). Many years later, James spoke to this very same issue when he wrote, “[Y]ou ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15).

In Decision Making by the Book, Haddon Robinson comments on James’ statement: 

“James is not against making plans…he is not taking a cheap shot at charts or making an argument against commitments…. What James warns us about is that our freedom to make plans is not a license to live free from God. To come to that conclusion would be arrogant.”

In fact, Robinson asserts,

“The phrase, ‘If it is the Lord’s will,’ ought to infect our thinking. It ought to be a standard part of our vocabulary.”

[Haddon Robinson, Decision Making by the Book (Grand Rapids: Chariot Victor Publishing, 1991), pp. 64-66. ]

In this instance, Joshua failed to consult God and made a bad decision. In the end he was obligated to hold himself and his people to his commitment to the Gibeonites – a commitment that prevented Israel from fully conquering Canaan. While Joshua did, finally, make the best of a bad situation, the end results were far from optimal. James urges anyone who believes in our Sovereign God to consult him before making decisions. 

Robinson reminds us again: 

“You and I are never free from God. We must make our decisions in submission to His sovereign will.”

[Ibid]

ILLUS - 2 Chr 16:12-13 And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians. (13) So Asa rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.

Because He knows everything, and is perfect in wisdom, God has an expectation that we will always seek advice from Him in our decision making.

2. Seek Advice

Prov 11:14 Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Prov 15:22 Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.

Prov 24:6 For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, and in a multitude of counsellors there is safety.

The simple message of these Scriptures is: Get advice.

Don't just go it alone, seek the counsel of others.

That doesn't mean that you need to ring up all your friends on a daily basis to ask their opinion on what shoes you should wear.

But the more important the decision, the more important it is that you seek advice.

What's the best way to handle seeking advice and processing it once you've got it?

One of the biggest complaints I've heard from pastors over the years is that people come to them for advice, and then don't take a blind bit of notice.

They didn't really come for advice, they came for permission.

There are two extremes in getting advice.

First, to go for advice with your mind already made up. Which kind of makes it a pointless exercise.

The other extreme is to take the advice of your counselors without ever thinking it through yourself.

Don't ever think for yourself, just let everybody else decide your future for you. This is what happens in cults; decision making authority is taken out of your hands.

Neither of these two extremes is healthy.

Let me give you two basic principles when it comes to advice:

A. Seek advice from an appropriate person

ILLUS - 

If you're 15 years old, and you're contemplating running away from home, where's the worst place you can go to for advice? Another 15 year old. That's where you get advice like, "Yeah, dude, I reckon leave. And torch the place before you go. Punch some holes in the wall. That'll teach them to tell you to tidy your room.")

ILLUS - 

If you're experiencing a rough patch in your marriage, where's the worst place you can go for advice in sorting it out? Your friend who's only been married for a year, your other friend who's been divorced twelve times, or your other friend who's never been married at all.

If we want to make quality decisions, we have to be smart where we look for advice. You want someone with a track record of success in the area where you need advice. Here's what you look for in a counselor - wisdom, experience and impartiality.

Three most important qualities:

Wisdom - they have a sensible approach to life.

What sort of advice is the 15 year old giving to his friend? He's just venting his own frustrations with his own parents; he doesn't care if it's in your best interests to punch holes in the walls and leave home. He doesn't look ahead with his tremendous foresight and see the years of broken family relationships that lie ahead, or the police record, or the guilt. We'll soon see an example in the Bible of someone who didn't like the good advice he got, so he asked his mates instead.

Experience- is important too - they must have a proven track record in the area where you are seeking advice.

ILLUS - For instance, you don't go to someone who's been bankrupt three times to get financial advice. Maybe they've learned their lesson. But you don't know that.

Impartiality - they don't stand to gain something in advising you one way or the other.

Seek people out who prove by their life that they have something to say that's worth listening to.

And a fourth quality, which isn't absolutely essential if you have the other three, is they have your best interests at heart.

But it's a bonus to have someone who actually cares about what happens to you.

B. Weigh the advice carefully

ILLUS 

1 Kings 12:1-13 Rehoboam wasn't wise when he sought advice.

If you look for advice, think it through carefully. Don't just dismiss it because it doesn't fit in with what you want to do. Advice doesn't mean that you have to take it, but at least think it through. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it isn't good advice.

Weigh it up carefully.

3. Research

Did you know that you can get advice from a person without even talking to them? You might decide that you want to set up your own business. How do you make a decision on the best way to go about it? There are plenty of good books with good advice. Read them, and listen to what they have to say.

4. Walking In Integrity

What does walking in integrity have to do with making decisions? When we walk in integrity, 70% of the decisions we have to make, have already been made.

Let me give you some examples:

*If the checkout operator accidentally gives me ₹50 too much change, should I hand it back, or not? If I want to be a person of integrity, that decision has already been made.

*If I'm self-employed and I find a tax invoice on the floor of a store for ₹20000 worth of stationery, should I take it home and use it to claim a tax deduction? If I want to be a person of integrity, that decision has already been made. 

*If I'm staying at a Hotel, there's a knock at the door, and a young woman is offering her services at a good price, should I accept, or not? If I want to be a person of integrity, that decision has already been made. 

*If I'm manning reception, there's a call for my boss, and he says to tell them he's not there, should I lie, or not? If I want to be a person of integrity, that decision has already been made.

These might seem pretty obvious, but so many of the issues of life are affected by whether I want to be a person of integrity or not. Decisions have already been made because of the type of person I want to be. How I do my work, how I act as a husband, how I act as a father, a neighbor - many of these areas have been profoundly affected by my choice to be a person of integrity.

Here are three questions to ask yourself to ascertain whether or not a course of action has integrity.

But before I do, let me give you a new definition for integrity.

The dictionary defines it as "uprightness of character", but we are spiritual beings, so I want to add a spiritual dimension to it. So I've defined integrity as "having the kind of moral character that pleases God."

Here are the three questions that will help you figure out if a course of action has integrity.

A. Is it right?

We've already looked at some situations, but let's bring it down to everyday life.

• *Is it right for me to lie? 

• *Is it right for me to cheat on my tax return? 

• *Is it right for me to commit adultery? 

• *Is it right for me to yell at my wife, to treat her badly? 

• *Is it right for me to neglect my children?

My character defines who I am as a person. I'm not perfect, but if I want to make quality decisions throughout life, they have to be based on what is right.

B. Is it good for others, or just good for me?

Will my decision be good just for me? How will it affect others? Will it only benefit me, and leave others out? Or worse, will it have a negative impact on others? 
Phil 2:4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Selfish decisions don't please God.

When I look at taking a course of action, I have to ask myself the question: Is anyone else going to benefit from this, or is it just going to be me?

C. Is it good for the Kingdom, or just good for me?

And by "Kingdom" I mean the Kingdom of God.

Mat 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Jesus had just been telling His followers not to worry about food and drink and clothing, because that's what unbelievers worry about. Instead, He said that believers should look out first for what's in the interests of God's kingdom. In other words, don't think first of yourself, and your own needs, and what's easiest for you, or convenient. 

But put God first in everything.

So, when I look at taking a course of action, I have to ask: How will this be good for God's Kingdom? Am I looking out for His interests?

Mat 26:36-39 

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." (37) And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. (38) Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." (39) He went a little farther and fell on His face,  and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."

This is how Jesus operated; no matter how tough the decision was, He always acted in the best interests of the Kingdom of God.

Invitation And The Final Challenge

Ronald Reagan is credited with saying,

 “America was founded by people who believed that God was their rock of safety. He is ours. I recognize we must be cautious in claiming that God is on our side, but I think it’s all right to keep asking if we’re on His side.” 

[This quote is taken from his 1984 State of the Union Address]

If we blithely assume that God is always on our side, we will fall headlong into foolishness. We should search ourselves regularly to make sure our thinking is in line with his will. We should strive to develop the character and conviction to make decisions that are products of our relationship with God.