Discerning Godly Choices

Well, good evening. It's a pleasure to be here.

I thank you all for making the choice to come here. That'll be a little bit about what we're talking about tonight: choice, making decisions, and discernment. We rely on the Holy Spirit as a gift from above to make choices, right choices, and that allows us to fall in line with God's Word. On average, the average adult makes around 33,000 to 35,000 choices every day.

I thought that was a staggering number. I don't know how you could ever figure that out, but it's a statistic, apparently, so they did. And we often talk about the many choices that someone can make—good, bad, right, and wrong. Little things like blinking nobody thinks about, and big ones like what car to purchase are all important ones. We just don't put them on the same levels.

And I like to think about the people who make that important choice to become a Christian—very important, the most important, I would think—and then those who choose to walk away from that same choice or have not known that and choose not to take part in that. And while thinking about these, I came across an article that spoke about eight tests that you can run a choice that you'd like to make through to see if it lines up or is biblically backed.

And we're going to go over those eight different tests, and then I'm going to give two examples in my life, two experiences, that I want to run through these tests to see how they line up.

So a scriptural test: does it line up with God's Word? Is it clearly spelled out? Is there an actual command that helps you, "Well, this is, yes, what I'm supposed to do," or "No, clearly told not to"? And I'm going to have a scripture for each of these. And this first one is in 2 Timothy 3:16. We're going to read that quick. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." And I underline that: for instruction in righteousness. If we're trying to make a choice that is going to line up with God's Word, if it's going to be in scripture, it's going to line up, and we can base it off of scripture.

So what choice I'm going to make, is it clearly spelled out? Number two: the secrecy test.

In Proverbs 11:3, it says, "The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them." The integrity of the upright. So integrity, I always grew up learning that that was to do the right thing when no one's watching.

Well, here, people are watching. And am I willing to expose the choice I'm about to make to everyone around me? Am I willing to become vulnerable with whatever choice I'm making? Is that okay for people to know about?

Yeah. I see it's fading here.

Okay. Number three: the survey test. What if everybody followed my example?

In 1 Timothy 4:12,

it says, "Let no man despise his youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." Not only now are people watching you, they're also doing what you're doing.

Is the choice I'm about to make, if all of you followed my example, would it be edifying? Would it be a good choice?

So number four: the spiritual test.

And in Galatians 1:10,

it says, "For do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ." Am I being people-pressured with this spiritual test? Am I being people-pressured or spirit-led? Is somebody influencing my decision, or is the Holy Spirit directing what I'm doing?

If we run that through whatever choice we're trying to make, it should open up a little bit about whether there's influences, exterior influences, and not an internal guiding. Number five: the stumbling test.

We're going to look in Romans 14:21 for this one.

It says, "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." Now, we know that this one is referring, at least how I've come to understand it, that if I know that an individual is weak around, let's say, meat because that was something significant in biblical times, then I should not be eating meat. I should not be doing that around that brother because we know he is weak. He or she is weak with that area. So could the choice that I'm trying to decide whether to make or not, could that stumble somebody else? Could that be a block in front of another individual?

Number six is the serenity test.

And we're going to look in Philippians 4:6-7.

And it reads, "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

The serenity test is: have I prayed and received peace about this decision? Whatever it is that I'm getting ready to choose to do, am I at peace? If we look at whether that does give us peace, oftentimes the world around us will still be in chaos and will still be in an upheaval. But if we have internal peace from the Holy Spirit, we know that that choice may lead in the correct direction.

Number seven is the sanctification test.

Will this keep me from growing in the character of Christ? In 2 Corinthians 3:18, it reads, "But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed in the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Is the choice I'm about to make going to change or affect my pursuit of the character of Christ? We should all be longing to be like Him, to have the same standard that He had, to follow after what He followed after.

Is my choice going to affect that? That's very important, I think. And finally, number eight: the supreme test.

Does this glorify God? This seems really broad and really vague, but if you break any decision down to its absolute root and choice decision, to its very base, you should be able to tell whether this will ultimately glorify God or pull you away from Him and separate you.

In 1 Corinthians 10:31, we all know this one: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." That's pretty basic, pretty simple to understand. Now, making a decision based on that maybe will require some breaking down, but it ultimately is: will this glorify God? So now I'm going to look at two examples. We've gone through the eight tests: scriptural—is it written down in the Bible? Secrecy—would it bother me if everybody knows this?

Survey—what if everyone followed what I'm doing? Spiritual—am I being people-pressured, exterior, or spirit-led? Stumbling test: could this cause another brother or sister to stumble? Serenity test: do I have peace with this decision? Sanctification: will this keep me from growing in the character of Christ? And supreme: does this glorify God?

It's a lot to work through sometimes. I know I came across this recently, but in these two examples, one that is favorable and one that's not, sometimes it takes a long time to work through some of these. The non-favorable would be when I joined the Marines, the military.

It's kind of interesting. I obviously wasn't going through these when I was going to make that choice. But now, walking through each of these steps, it's amazing how every single one of them is very clearly the wrong choice.

If you look at the first one, scriptural, it's very clear: "Thou shalt not kill." We can go through other ones that are very clear too, but that's the biggest red flag that should have stopped me from that choice.

I ignored it and continued on and paid a small price for that. The secrecy test: I didn't want to tell nobody. I was very—I knew my church did not support this. I knew even my parents. They were the only ones I told. Even my brothers and sisters knew I was making a wrong choice, and yet I went on, and I was stubborn.

Number three: the survey test. What if everyone followed my example? Well, that would be terrible. We would not have any, if any, Christians left because there are exceptions with the conscientious objectors when the wars break out. And there are still some that are faithful that go into that. But that would be a terrible thing if everybody was a part of that. The spiritual test: am I being people-pressured or spirit-led? At the time, I was working in a bicycle shop, and there were individuals there, and one in particular who encouraged me to take that step, told me to move forward because it's something new. Try something different. And he knew my history and the Christian background that I grew up with and was trying to push me, not necessarily away from that, but thought that they could converge.

And I should have seen that heavy influence pushing me toward that decision.

The stumbling test: would someone else be affected by watching me make that choice? Well, there's a guy that—well, he goes to Faith Tabernacle or whatever church he goes to, and he's walking around in a military uniform. I thought the Christians weren't supposed to fight or kill. That could have been a bad influence on other people around, could have made a big impact on a lot of lives.

Number six: serenity test. Did I have peace about this? Of course not. I prayed about it, and I was wanting God to tell me that that was all right, but I did not have peace. All the way through to the end of that experience was very, very restless. Number seven: the sanctification test. Will this keep me from growing in the character of Christ? That's an obvious yes, but I didn't see that at the moment, in the time. I thought I was doing something good, helping people around me. You always hear, "Thank you for your service," to those military members.

And that's an easy one to say, "Well, yeah, they did a lot for other people." Well, on top of that, there's a lot of unseen, unheard hurt that goes along with that.

And the supreme test: did this glorify God? I wrestled with this one for a long time because He has control over my life and everything that happens to it, and all things work together for good. So maybe something from that experience may have ended up glorifying Him. But that choice directly—joining the military—did that glorify Him? I don't think it did. I had no peace about that and was ashamed and spent a lot of time asking for forgiveness for that choice.

So running through those eight steps on whether this was a good choice or not, very clearly every one of them said no. This was not what you should have done. Now, looking on the flip side of this, something that I could run through these tests that say yes, that was a good thing to do, an edifying thing to do.

And that was becoming a conservative Christian, joining a Mennonite church, moving to an area that supports plain living. I don't like to use that term because, yeah, there's a lot of things that come along with that connotation. But for this example, we'll continue to use it.

Scriptural test: well, there's lots of things in the Bible that encourage a plain living, a simple lifestyle, a not-so-flashy way of going about things, putting God first. And by doing that, you have to put away the flashing lights of the world in order to grow closer to Him. That was an obvious green light. The secrecy test: was I afraid to tell anybody? No. I am proud. I'm happy to say and talk about my conservative beliefs. No, we don't support the military. No, we don't vote. No, we don't X, Y, Z, whatever you want to put in there for whatever we do. And even if we don't have a verse and chapter for those choices, there are the bigger picture gospel that says living this way will help you.

It's not the only way, but it is a way that will help you to grow closer to God.

The spiritual test: am I being people-pressured or spirit-led? The only initial experience or influence I had was when I was introduced to the Martin family there at that recital, first time that I was ever introduced or tried or invited to come into a plain circle. We'd always seen Mennonites in Amish whenever we'd pass through Lancaster or other areas. And we were always impressed with the plain dress. We were always impressed with their subtlety, it seemed. And having the opportunity to come to a church like this and now moving on to Perry County is just a wonderful way to put—a wonderful choice to put through this test because I know that it is beneficial. There's no outside influences.

There's no outside pressure to make that choice.

I believe it is spirit-led.

Number five: the stumbling test. Could this affect another person?

I believe this lifestyle, in a way, encourages others to seek after God. They see the way we dress. They see the way we act. And I mentioned subtlety earlier. People haven't used that before. I would describe a plain person as subtle. There's something about a person who is just quiet. There's a serenity about them. There's a way that others can see our lives, even if we don't dress the way we dress. That helps. But I think that when you act the way God intended you to act and dress the way that conservatively, modestly, that's a way for the world to see we have something different. We have something beneficial.

And I think that was a positive choice to make. And I think people see us, and we are an influence on the world. The sanctification test: will this keep me from growing in the character of Christ? No, I think it benefits the growth toward Christ-like living. I believe it accelerates that because joining a church that you can plug into and be a part of and reach out to the community around helps us to grow. It helps us to extend ourselves, stretch ourselves in a way that most times in a comfortable life does not do.

And finally, the supreme test: does this glorify God? Well, I hope and pray that everything that I'm doing does glorify God. I make mistakes like anyone else.

And being a plain person, being a conservative Christian does not give me that ticket to heaven. But however—not but—however, being a part of a congregation and a community that can support you in the choices that you make, can support you in the way that you live, is very beneficial. And in that, God can be glorified because of those choices.

One last scripture: in Ephesians 5:8-10, it says, "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord."

This encourages us to walk in the light of the Lord and to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. We have lots of decisions to make every day up until our last breath. We can make that continue to die to self, like we heard earlier. We can continue to forgive, continue to love. We can continue to do all these things and choose to walk away from these things.

So there are very weighty matters. And living that light for the Lord, living that life that glorifies God, is the only way that we have an assurance by faith through Jesus. Once we make that choice and are baptized and accept Him into our lives, that we know that we can give God all the glory, the honor, and praise for everything that we do.

Thank you for your attention.