| My second sermon on Psalm 23 this year
is a spin-off from last week's message on "The Shepherd Leading His Sheep"
I spoke at that time on how we know the will of God for our daily lives.
Today I want to consider decision making and the will of God.
How does the shepherd make you to lie down in green pastures and lead
you beside still waters and when you have to walk in the valley of the
shadow of death when it comes to decision making?
I. SOME PROFESSED CHRISTIANS IGNORE THE WHOLE ISSUE AND LIVE THEIR LIVES
LIKE CLOSET ATHEISTS.
1. Their view is that as long as he follows the moral will
of God the Christian can do anything he wants to do. In their lives there
is no sense of divine guidance or divine input. Probably among people who
regularly attend church, this is the majority view.
2. This often has the outcome of people managing unwisely, picking careers
that do not allow them to be strategically used of God during their time
on the earth and having lives that, in their vocational, domestic and social
aspects have no distinctively Christian qualities. How can this be squared
with such verses as "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want..." How
can it be that God protects and blesses and makes useful the lives of his
own if he has had no specific input in how those lives were lived?
This is not a good and worthy view about the Christian life.
II. I WOULD ALSO DISCOURAGE YOU FROM THE OPPOSITE EXTREME OF WAITING FOR
INTERNAL IMPRESSIONS THAT YOU INTERPRET AS THE VOICE OF GOD, AND THUS LIVING
YOUR LIFE AS IF YOU WERE CONTINUALLY ON
1. The frequent outcome of this familiar approach and conviction
is having the individual going around dogmatically asserting that God told
him this or that and led him to do this or that -- even in cases where
it strongly appears that the "divine" advice was disastrous.
2. God did occasionally lead many of his servants back in Bible times
by direct voice and he might do so in times of great danger and crisis
in our own century. But it is not a good rule for life in general. It presumes
that God is obligated to supernaturally reveal himself, making the individual
almost a prophet. Besides, even in the N.T. period, when God often spoke
directly, he did not always do so -- even in the case of the Apostles.
You frequently find them making their own decisions in response to the
circumstances of the times that they faced. They discerned the will of
God not so much by voice but by prayer and responsible and spiritual decisions
based upon the circumstances.
Have you ever been presumptuous and made a big mistake because you took
an internal impression as the leading of God? I know a lot of people who
have done so. Well, God is merciful and often uses our mistakes ultimately
for his glory. Or maybe you were presumptuous and it all turned out beautifully.
Well, I would urge you to not go on being presumptuous but give thanks
for his grace and mercy in which he often shields us from our own frailty
and earthboundedness.
III. BUT HOW DO WE REALLY FIND THE WILL OF GOD WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING
EITHER/OR, YES/NO DECISIONS?
1. I suggest that there are 7 considerations:
2. First, your own sanctified desires are a starting point. "Examine
yourselves," Paul says in another connection. But it is also applicable
here. God has promised to give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:
4), but only when your heart is sanctified in what you desire. Put your
motives and goals under the spotlight. Pray to God "Search me and try me
if there be any wicked way in me. (Psalm139: 23)" We continually pray that
God will change our heart and not allow us to desire what God would not
have us desire."
How many times can you look back at your life and see how you wanted something
with all your heart and that thing would have been disastrous to you? And
God withheld it? Learn the lesson that we are often like little children
in that we desire many things that are not good for us--not to say, sometimes,
things that are positively evil. Let us always pray to the Shepherd who
is our Heavenly Father, not just in the moral sense but in the area of
our acquisitions, and careers, and the use of our time, "deliver us from
evil."
3. Secondly, in deciding, we should pray continually that we
might see things as God sees them. We ask that God would make us like the
Psalmist who said to the Lord: "I delight to do thy will O God." (Psalm
40: 8 )
The answer may not come in our internal impressions but in the seemingly
unsupernatural way of how we perceive reality in a situation of our life.
God may sanctify you in the matter and you will begin seeing things as
God sees them.
I urge you--if this applies to you -- that begin to grow in your prayer
life, that you grow beyond the child stage of just asking, asking, asking
and begin praying that the Shepherd will give you the mind of God about
the affairs of your daily life and about the management of your long term
plans and desires, that you will epitomize Proverbs 3: 5 --
Trust in the Lord with all your heart And lean not unto your own
understanding; In all your ways acknowledge him And he shall direct your
paths.
4. Thirdly, we look at reality -- at what God seems to be saying
in circumstances. God may need to open a door or close a door to bring
about what you desire. And if he is not pleased to do so, you should probably
assume that you have an indication of the will of God in your decision.
5. Fourth, we consider the Word of God -- if there are any commandments
or clear principles that apply to our making a decision in this matter.
As for commandments, God will never lead you to break his commandment.
Maybe your decision at this point will become a very simple one. God doesn't
need to say a resounding "No" in a voice coming down from your bedroom
ceiling. He has already said "No" in his Word.
As for principles, there are hundreds of them that might apply: Priorities
for Christians; Principles about life-style and glorifying the Lord; Principles
about the higher priorities you have as contrasted with your non-Christian
neighbor; Principles about doing what best glorifies God and blesses his
church.
Presumably, we become more expert in these principles and their applications
as we grow in grace and in years and in connection with the community of
God's people. We have a considerable job set out for us in mastering these
principles because our education, the media, our friends, in some cases-our
family and secular society around us are continually throwing opposing
principles at us -- principles such as what is best for No.1, what will
bring the most pleasure, economic security and improvement of self image.
6. Five, we gather advice from godly, wise, reliable, trustworthy Christians.
They are not oracles who speak infallibly but wise people who may be wiser
than you (if you, indeed, permit such a thing) and, certainly, more objective
than you. The Book of Proverbs tells us two different times: "In the abundance
of counselors there is safety." (11: 14) It also implies the same in many
cases where it says such things as: "The way of a fool is right in his
own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice." (12: 15)
7. Sixth, we decide -- or better yet, take steps toward a decision,
asking God to overrule in any sense that we are deciding wrongly. Don't
expect God to make the decision for you! You may have to go back and prayerfully
review the previous 5 steps, but a part of being human -- even a regenerated,
sanctified human -- is having the capacity and responsibility to make decisions.
8. And, seventh, we should live with the consequences of our decision
made in this manner as God's will for us and accept the consequences of
our decision. Sometimes God allows us to make decisions that were not good
decisions but then he brings good out of the decision because it was made
with good intentions. Often in such a case, God uses the results of our
decision thus made to be a stepping stone for something wonderful to come.
In that case, let us be humbled and even more dependent upon the Lord who
is our Shepherd and redouble our desire to seek the Lord for his will in
the matter at hand. In the lives of godly people it has often happened
that what seemed to be the unpleasant outcome of a "wrong" decision was
really only a temporary resting place that eventually led to a wonderful
and unexpected blessing from the Shepherd who leads his sheep in paths
of righteousness and pastures of green.
There may be someone here this morning who feels that he has totally
ruined his life by a previous decision he has made. But God can take that
confused, mixed up life and straighten it out by his sovereignty and bring
good out of bad.
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