Making Right and Wise Decisions

Good morning. Greetings to all of you in the name of Christ, our Lord and Savior. Greetings from our small brotherhood there in Chile, too. It's a blessing to, uh, be here with you this morning. In some ways, it seems like it hasn't been all that long since we were here, just back in July of last year. Normally, we wouldn't plan our trips quite so close together, but then we were up because of the wedding reception for our daughter, and now this time we're up for the Mount Zion Literature Meeting in Tennessee, which is this coming week. So we're planning to travel down there, uh, this coming week, uh, for that. But it is good to be here.

It's encouraging to hear what you're sharing. It's a blessing to hear from others. I certainly would be blessed to stay sit- sitting, uh, sitting and hear someone else share this morning. But pray that the Lord will guide us as we meditate on His Word, what He has for us. I also would like to take time to thank all of you for your support and prayers over the years. Uh, we as a church here in Chile certainly have our needs and shortcomings. But we also thank the Lord for the ways in which He is working. There's a young family with four children who has attended off and on for some time, but has recently been tending very faithfully.

He is asking for, uh, instruction in pursuit of becoming members. Certainly pray for our young people. Those who are faithful. Those who are struggling with doubts and confusion. Uh, various young people have been attending. Just pray that the Lord would work in their hearts and lives that they could see their way with God and yield themselves to Him and what He has for them. As far as the book ministry, there's still many parents there in Chile seeking something different for their families, for their children, seeing the corruption, uh, of the government system and the evils that the government is trying to force on their children. They're looking for something else. And so we have a large number of homeschool families buying from us, uh, for to teach their children to use their books and teaching their children.

Uh, recently, the end of November or the end of September of last year, we had the privilege of attending a teachers' conference in Santiago, which was focused more on, on teachers and with a desire to inspire them to use the opportunity they have to teach their children in the ways of the Lord. It wasn't just, uh, teachers from Christian schools, but teachers in public schools and other places, too. And so we had the privilege of meeting, uh, lots of different schools, people from lots of different schools. Uh, one of them is a school in Coyoqui, uh, farther south from us, about 100, 220 students that they have. And they are buying this year from us a reading course that we have for grades two to six and are wanting to implement that in their teaching.

They are a government-subsidized school, so I'm not sure how much liberty they will have in the future always to do that. But at this point, that is what they're trying to do. They're wanting to incorporate, I think, in the future more of our books into their teaching. And we are, of course, very happy for that because the reading books that the government gives are not good, are not, uh, in any way godly in most of what they teach the children. And so we're very happy if they can use our reading books, reading course, to have their children read stories that have godly value, biblical values in them to help them, uh, understand what God's will is, uh, for their lives.

There's also an online school in, in Santiago that's been buying books for us for a number of years, uh, which is also endeavoring to use good reading books for, uh, their students.

For our message this morning, actually, I'm going to use something that I have used, uh, for our brotherhood there in Chile, thinking especially of the end of the year, the topic that I had, had used. I don't know if there is a marker here.

Thinking towards the end of the year and thinking towards a new year, uh, what I talked about was decisions. I'll just write that up here.

I think we all face that in our lives. I think it's something that none of us can avoid, right? We can't really live if we aren't going to make, uh, decisions. There are little decisions. There are big decisions and many other decisions in between that we may think don't have a lot of effect. But how many decisions have you already made today? And how many more do you have to make yet today?

Oftentimes, we don't stop to think about all the choices that we make, all the decisions that we make. But in reality, we're, we're making decisions one after another all the time. Our minds are, are making decisions. How many decisions will you have to make this year yet?

A decision is a conclusion or resolution reached after consideration.

Normally, our minds are, are functioning and we face something. We evaluate it and we come to a conclusion, right? As to what we think would be best. The word decide, which is part of decision, comes from what I read from two Latin words meaning off and cut, thus forming the meaning that this person said, to cut off everything but what's most important. Obviously, that would be one resolved decision. Hopefully, it is to cut off everything except what's most important. But many times, decisions are made and cut off what is good.

Obviously, a decision, when you make a decision, you're cutting off the other options. You're coming down to one conclusion or one thing that you're going to do when you're facing a, a decision. There are decisions that we make every day to get out of bed in the morning, what clothes to wear, what food to eat are all decisions that we need to make.

And we make them every day, often without even thinking much about them. But there are also decisions, uh, that we make, you could say, for a time that can be changed, what jobs we have, where we're going to live, what friends we have, who we relate with. All those are things that we make daily decisions, what we're going to do that do affect our lives. But there are also decisions that are for life, you could say, or decisions that affect us for life, whether to be a Christian or not, obviously, is the most important, uh, decision of our life. Who to marry? Are we going to get married or not? You know, our decisions that will affect us for a long time.

In other words, decisions are very, very important for us today. They will affect our lives. Can decisions be changed?

Obviously, there are decisions that we can make and then later change it. We can paint our house one color. Next year, we can paint it another color. We can make those changes in some things. I think some things can be changed. There are other things that if we make a decision, we can't change it. You could maybe say the exact event or event or time in which we make a decision can never be repeated.

So there is an aspect that as we go through life, making decisions, we can never backtrack and make that same decision in the same time again. I mean, there are things that we can, yes, change or reverse so that we go back to what we wanted before, but we can't actually change that actual time and event that we were in before.

Now, I'm not saying that we become so decision-conscious that we fail to make right and good decisions. Obviously, we can start thinking too deeply about all these decisions I make and, and start getting scared that, no, I, I can't make any decision or I can't have fear that I can't make it right. I'm not trying to drive us to that point, but I do want us to think seriously about decisions that we make, uh, the fact that it's going to have on our lives.

Who or what is guiding the decisions of your life or of my life?

Whether we want to or not, we will be greatly affected by many things in our lives. We are affected by things that happen in our lives, events that happen, who our parents are, what church we go to. All those things affect our decisions, affect what we're going to do in life. And so we need to be conscious, I believe, of who or what is affecting our decisions, who we allow to affect those decisions.

Obviously, God should be the main source and His Word should be the main source of what affects our decisions. We should base our decisions on, on what God, what we feel God wants for our lives and what He is leading us to do, uh, throughout our lives.

It's a daily decision to mortify the deeds of the body, as we heard about in the Sunday school lesson. It's a daily decision to mortify the deeds, mortify that which wants to rise up within us to gratify ourselves in order to lay that down and make decisions that glorify God and follow what He, uh, wants for us. Are we bold and clear like Joshua in his decision to follow God and not the idols of the world? We could look at Joshua 24:14-15. Here, Joshua is taking a clear stand, uh, choosing, deciding to follow God. Joshua 24:14-15 says, "Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord.

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

So here, Joshua made a clear decision that he was going to follow the Lord. His decisions were going to be based on what God wanted for his life, not following these evil gods and the gods of the world. His decisions were going to be based on God and what God wanted for him. Every decision we make will have its effect on our lives.

And obviously, some will have more effect than others. Obviously, there are some things that don't really have any moral value, you could say, to the decision that we make. But there are others that do and that will affect us for many years into the future.

It seems that many today like to talk about liberty. Everybody wants liberty to live as they want, to do what they want, to make decisions as they want.

But I'd like to say that everyone has the liberty to make their decisions as they want to. I think everyone has that liberty to make their decisions as they want to, but no one has the power or the option to decide the results of their decisions.

You may say, "Wait a minute. Those with power and money can make their decisions happen."

Yes, in a physical sense, there are those who can make things happen the way they want more than others. In other words, the, the position we have, the money we have can make a difference in us, uh, making happen what we want to happen.

But I'm referring more to the laws God has placed in order. Looking in a physical sense, a physical example would be putting your hand into boiling water. Who can dip their hand into boiling water and decide, "It's not going to burn my hand.

I want to stick my hand in here and pull it out, and it'll be the same as before"?

Do any of us have the power to decide that? I mean, obviously, God can have a miracle and, and make it not burn your hand. There are powers of evil that possibly can also protect in certain instances to make it look like it's something good. But physically speaking, we cannot do that.

If we make a decision to do that, our hand will be burned and burned very bad. Another example would be planting apple trees. Can anyone here plant apple trees and harvest pears?

It's not an option, right? What we plant, we harvest. We can decide to plant what we want, but we can't decide what fruit the tree is going to bear.

That is by God's design. That is what God has designed it to be, and it will be that way. We could look at Galatians 6:7 and 8.

Galatians 6, chapter 6, verses 7 and 8, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh shall the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." We talked some about it in the Sunday school lesson too. It's like whatever we sow, we will reap.

So we can decide to sow whatever we want. We can make whatever decisions we want in life, but we can't decide the outcome. We can't decide what we are going to reap. If we sow to the flesh, we will reap of the flesh. We will reap things that are carnal, things that are not godly. But if we sow to the Spirit, if we sow what God wants us to, then we will also reap of the Spirit and reap life everlasting.

We could also look at Ezekiel 16. A number of my verses come from Ezekiel. I recently read through the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 16:49-50. Here we see it's talking about the sins of Sodom.

I think we know that they obviously planted wicked seeds and the things that they did. But it's interesting looking here. I believe some of these sins that they committed were something that came on gradually. Sometimes we think of the extreme sins of Sodom, and so God wiped them out because of how awful they were. But I don't think it was decisions that they, from one day to the next, all of a sudden decided they were going to commit.

If we look here at Ezekiel 16:49-50, it says, "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and I committed abomination before me. Therefore, I took them away as I saw good." I believe these sins started gradually with small daily decisions.

It's not that they decided to pursue pride, but I believe the daily routine of their decisions to satisfy self led them down the road to a proudful and idle lifestyle. It was those daily decisions that they were daily making. Verse 50 in Spanish, it gives to me a little more of the idea of they were filled with pride.

Obviously, in English, it talks about they were haughty as pride too. But it kind of occurred to me that as they did those things, they were filled with pride, and who they were changed. It's like they became more and more evil in their way of living.

They didn't have the option to decide, "Oh, I'm going to make daily decisions to just satisfy myself, to, uh, do what I want, to use what I have for myself. And then on the other side, I'm still going to be spiritual. I'm going to follow God. I'm not going to be proudful. I'm going to do what God wants." No, it's I believe those daily decisions led them farther and farther from God and what God wanted for their lives to the point where they were living in clear abomination to God and the things they were doing and saying.

And so I believe that can happen in our own lives too if we are not careful. We cannot choose to live haphazard lives indulging in the selfish desires of the moment and expect to reap great spiritual benefits. The two do not go together.

Psalm 106:14-15.

It seems like there are times maybe when God does, in a sense, give us what we want, but we will not reap the spiritual blessings that we want. Psalm 106:14-15 says, "But lusted exceedingly" talking about the Israelites living here in the wilderness, "but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the wilderness. And He gave them their requests but sent leanness into their soul." There was a sense there where God maybe gave them their request, what they were pleading for, but it wasn't really what God wanted. And so they weren't going to reap great spiritual benefits in their lives. They reaped leanness of soul that came also with it. In Luke 16:10-13, I'd like to look at some fundamental truths.

You can maybe say that Christ gave to us Luke 16:10-13.

Luke chapter 16:10-13. Here, Jesus is speaking. He says, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

"He that is faithful in the little things will be faithful in the bigger things." I think these are truths that Jesus was teaching. He that makes faithful decisions, he that makes good decisions in the little things will also make good decisions and right decisions in the bigger things.

But he's also saying, "He that is unfaithful in the little things will be unfaithful in the bigger things."

In other words, we can't think in our lives, "Oh, these little things that nobody sees. I'm just going to do as I want." It doesn't matter if I have a little hidden sin, a little thing of whatever it may be that I want to hide and think that in this little thing I can get by without doing what God wants.

I think the truth that Jesus is teaching us here, if we make decisions like that, we will not be able to be faithful in the bigger decisions. We will not be able to do that which is right. In verse 13, "If we choose to serve money, we cannot serve God."

I believe is what Jesus is saying here. It's like if we make a decision that we're going to serve money and follow that which the flesh wants, we can't serve God. So in other words, the little decisions that we make will determine who we are choosing to serve.

That decision, those little decisions in our lives will affect who we are serving. It will affect the outcome, uh, of the bigger decisions that we make in, in our lives. The other thing that I believe Jesus taught, we could look at verses that he said about the need to do our part in seeking God, doing what is right. I'd like to look at Ezekiel 11:18-21.

Verses here in Ezekiel, Ezekiel 11 verses 18 to 21. Here we see, I believe, a situation where obviously the children of Israel many times had gone away and lived in sin, far from what God wanted and what God's will was for their lives.

Here was a time where God was calling them back, and I believe we see here some decisions that they made. I'll read verses 18 to, uh, to 21 here in Ezekiel chapter 11. "And they shall come hither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take the sterny heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances and do them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God."

Maybe I'll talk about those first before reading verse 21. But here we see, I believe, these people God is calling them back. They are coming. But in verse 18, I think we see that they are making a clear decision. They are taking away all in Spanish, to use more of the word idols, which obviously is a, a detestable thing to God, but they are taking away all the idols, all the idols it says here, out of their lives, not just part of them, not just trying to clean up the service. I believe they were making a clear decision to take away all of their idols and all the abominations that were in their life. That was an abomination to God.

They were making that decision to do away with them, to take them away. I think that was a personal decision that each one of them needed to, to make. And then in verse 19, God was then going to give them a new heart. He was going to take away that sterny heart out of them and give them a heart of flesh, a soft heart, a heart that was open to what God wanted and what was God's will for their lives.

But I believe it was based on their decision here to take away. That was an abomination to God. It wasn't forced on them by God, but it was God wanting to do that as they made a deliberate choice to follow Him, to seek Him. I believe God was there, uh, to do that. And so we see in verse 20, "The Lord gave them this new soft heart so that they could have the power to walk in obedience to His will for their lives." I believe God gave them that heart that was turned towards God, able to walk in God's ways.

But then in verse 21, "But as for those whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their heads," saith the Lord God. I don't think these people had a choice as to what they were going to reap of their decision. They decided to not put away the abominable things that God wanted out of their lives. And their heart still wanted those things, and so they were going to reap the judgment of God. "To those who decided to not take away their idols and abomination out of their lives, whose hearts walked after the detestable things, the Lord judged them and brought upon their heads the reaping of their own wicked ways."

And so that is, I believe, the result of our decisions in life if we refuse to follow God and what He wants.

In Ezekiel 13, a little farther on, Ezekiel 13 verse 3, uh, here in this chapter, I believe God is telling Ezekiel to talk to the prophets. It was a time of many false prophets who were trying to say what the will of God was. "Thus saith the Lord God, Woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing." In other words, these prophets were trying to speak and say what was the will of God, but they had not received anything from God. They were just speaking out of their own, uh, hearts or out of what they wanted. If we go down to chapter 13 verse 10, "Because even because they have seduced my people saying peace, and there was no peace, and one built up a wall, and lo, others dabbed it with untempered mortar, say unto them which dab it with untempered mortar that it shall fall, and there shall be an overflowing shower, and ye, O great, and ye, O great hailstone, shall fall, and a stormy wind shall rend it.

Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the dabbing wherewith ye have dabbed it? Therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury, and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. So I break down the wall that ye have dabbed with untempered mortar and bring it down to the ground so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof, and ye shall know that I am the Lord."

False prophets saying peace when there was no peace and building walls with untempered mortar did not bring about a reaping of something that was good. They could not change the decisions or what was going to happen in their life. They could say all they wanted about peace and cover up their walls, build their walls, uh, with mortar that was weak.

The picture I get here is one where they are saying, "It is too hard to follow all of God's ways. It is easier to follow sinful habits and cover them up, cover them with this mortar that is not good." Saying it is okay to live with a little bit of hatred, a little bit of unforgiveness, a little bit of lust, saying it to live by the old laws of God of truthfulness, honesty, and purity are too hard and old-fashioned.

Saying they'd rather live after the desires of the flesh. I believe that's what these prophets were trying to say. You're okay. Live in peace. Just keep living as you are. Don't take time to make right decisions to, uh, rid your life of those abominations as we talked about before, but rather just live as you want. But obviously, in these verses, we see that God did not allow them to reap what was good, uh, for them. To build with untempered mortar in Spanish, it uses more of the idea of, of mud, using mud that is, that's loose. Obviously, if you build a house, if you're going to build a brick wall and you just use, make some dirt and make it wet and stick it in as mortar, do you think the wall is going to be very sturdy?

No. I think the picture it's giving is if we make decisions in life just based on a moment, based on what we want, that's what our lives will be like. Think of Adobe walls in, in Chile. There's various places where they use, still use, or have used in the past. I'm not sure how much they use it now in, in new buildings after all the earthquakes, but they did use a lot of Adobe. It actually makes a fairly sturdy wall. But if you see a wall that was never plastered over with mortar or with cement, with time the weather wears that away. It doesn't last. You can see it washing away. But when they cover it with mortar, cover it, it can last for years and years, but not when an earthquake comes through.

I saw lots of those walls that, that collapsed under the earthquake. They don't take much movement of the ground under them, and they fall over. And so our lives, I think we want lives that are sturdy. If we want lives that are firm, we want to use mortar that is true and tried, which in a sense spiritually we'd be looking at the Word of God and what God wants for our lives and applying living in truthfulness, honesty, purity, following the laws of God for our lives. That is the way that we can have something that is sure and true, uh, for us today.

In verse 22, yet I'd like to look at in the same chapter, chapter 13, another thing we see. Like obviously here the prophets were, were trying to make everything look right and good, uh, even though they were making unwise decisions. Verse 22 also brings out, "Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way by promising him life." Obviously, the prophets were trying to affect their decisions. And I think we often see this today in our world today also where those who are doing right, those who are following God, the intent of the world is to make them feel sad by telling them lies or trying to convince them to feel sad or feel guilty in doing what is right.

That is the intent of the world. The intent of Satan is to get those who are doing what is right, those who are living as God wants, those who are making right decisions to stand for truth and to do what is right, the goal of Satan in the world is to get them to feel bad, to feel like they're not doing what is right. If you do what is right, you say what is right, you're not loving. I mean, they'll use Christian words. You're not loving. You're not kind.

But is that true?

No. To say peace, peace like we read before when there is no peace, that is being unkind. That is being unloving. To tell somebody that they are doing what is right, like later in this verse where they are strengthening the hands of the wicked, they're telling the wicked, "They're right. You're doing what is right and promising life to them. If you live as you are, you will live." But does that change the truth?

If you plant an apple tree and you tell everybody that you're going to reap pears from that, or you see your neighbor planting an apple tree and you tell him he's going to reap pears from it, however many times you tell him that, will that change what the tree bears?

It will still bear the same fruit. And so in our lives today, if we stray from the truths of God's Word, if we stray from what God wants for us, no matter how many people tell us we are right, it doesn't change what we will reap. It doesn't change the outcome, uh, of our decisions. It doesn't change the judgment of God upon our lives and the lives of those around us. If we convince anybody else to also follow those ways, it will be a very sad, uh, ending.

Let's not be like the people in, uh, Ezekiel 22:28-31. Here the people talked like they were coming to hear God, to hear what Ezekiel, I think it would be referring to here, had to say.

I'm sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm talking about the next section of verses. First of all, here in Ezekiel 22:28-31, here we see, uh, I believe, the call of God. Obviously, there was all this corruption and things among them, people seeking their own way, making their decisions. God here was calling for a man to come and stand in the gap, a man who was going to stand for truth and be willing to suffer. I think as we talked about here before, um, suffering for truth, suffering for Christ. Obviously, there's lots of suffering in the world for physical things. That is a part of life. It's a part of living in a fallen world. But suffering for Christ, I believe, is different.

Suffering for truth, suffering for doing what is right is something different than just the normal suffering. But if we are going to follow God's leading, we need to stand up for truth and make decisions that will count for truth and what is right. Because here again we see the prophets are trying to dab their walls with untempered mortar.

I'll start reading here in verse 28 of 22, "And the prophet and her prophets have dabbed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God when the Lord hath not spoken.

The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and evect the poor and needy. Yea, they oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none."

So I believe God was crying out for men or for a man to stand in this gap, to teach the truth, to point them towards God and what was right and true. He's saying he found none. "Therefore I poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God."

And so if they did not turn from the wicked way, did not make a choice to follow God, God was going to pour out His wrath upon them. God sought for a man to stand in the gap, someone to stand for truth and righteousness, willing to go against the flow, willing to say, "Wait a minute. The decisions we are making today are not right. They are not leading us closer to God and His will for our lives. The reaping of these decisions will lead us to ruin a few years down the road."

And so we need to be awake and aware of the daily decisions that we are making, focusing on God and what He wants for us today. I think there are many examples we could look to in God's Word. Obviously, what I referred to already was Joshua where he stood up to what God wanted, followed God and said, "We, I, as for me and my house, we will follow the Lord. We will serve the Lord." He was being an example. I believe he was standing in that gap calling others to also do the same.

And I think as we see in the history of, of Israel, for the most part, Israel followed God while he was still living. But after he passed away was when a lot of their troubles, uh, came in. Saul could be an example of someone who didn't stand in the gap. King Saul had a wonderful opportunity to follow God, to stand in that gap, to lead the Israelites in the ways of the Lord, but he strayed from that and sought his own way instead of what God wanted for him. Timothy would be another example in the New Testament of someone who I believe stood for truth. Paul encouraged him to preach the truth, to stand for truth, and to be unashamed of what God wanted for his life and for the lives of, of His people around him.

So let's do the same. Let us not be like a people who say they want to hear and don't do. A little farther on in Ezekiel here, so I started talking about earlier, Ezekiel 33:30-33, here the people were acting like in a sense like they wanted to come and hear the Word of God, but God was very clearly seeing that they were not going to obey, not going to, to listen to what He had for them. Ezekiel 33:30-33, "Also thou, Son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh from the Lord.

And they came unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words; but they will not do them, for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

And when this cometh to pass, lo, it will come; then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them." So I think God was clearly saying they were going to come. They may even enjoy your words and think that you have lovely words to speak, but they will not do them.

So apparently there was within their heart still a decision to not follow what God wanted for their lives. They were still deciding to not yield to what God wanted. And so God was still going to cause, I believe, that they would reap the results of their way of living, the results of their decisions. So let's be a people who come to hear God's Word and allow it to affect our lives in a way that we then live as God wants us to live, not just that we hear it, but that we apply it to our lives and live as God wants us to in our daily, daily lives.

A saying that I had read, and it was actually in Spanish, but I'll say it here in English, talking about, "A weak mind complains about everything. A strong mind accepts, analyzes, and resolves." In other words, when facing decisions, all of us, it's easy for us to complain rather than see our need of what we need to do. That changed a little bit, I think, more a Christian perspective, maybe what the saying is saying would be, "A proud and selfish person complains about everything.

A surrendered true Christian accepts the difficult things of life, prays to God for wisdom and power to make right and wise decisions, analyzes the situations in which he is in, and resolves them by the power of God, by God's grace. He does what God wants him to do."

I think we all face difficult times. If we don't, maybe we're not in the will of God. I think if we follow God, we will face difficult times. We will face difficult decisions. But it's as we yield to Him, as we rely on Him, uh, to make right decisions, I believe He will be there to guide us, to lead us, to encourage us. What do you and I base our daily decisions on? Do we base them on just what feels good in the moment, or do we base them truly on what God wants for us, truly what He, what is His will for our lives? We will live with the results of our decisions. We can't change what the results are going to be.

I'd like to look just a little here yet at First Corinthians 9:24-27. We are in the race of life, and so the decisions that we make will affect the race in which we are in. First Corinthians 9:24-27 here says, "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that strives for the mastery is tempered in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep my body, but I keep under, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast away."

So our decisions that we make each day will determine how we are running this race. "Run that ye may obtain." You could think of the well-known story of the hare and the tortoise. Obviously, the tortoise won, right? But did he win by some great big decision? I believe the tortoise made many small decisions, one foot in front of the other until he won the race.

It wasn't some big grand decision, but he won. He made right decisions to move his foot one in front of the other until he won the race. So it's not the one who jumps the highest or shouts the loudest who wins, but rather the one who faithfully makes each decision, whether big or small, in a way that counts for God and His kingdom, who will win the race, who will be pleasing to God in the things that He says and does.

A more familiar saying is, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Obviously, all the decisions we face, sometimes there are decisions that we can do to change our lives, to be what God wants us to be.

There are also many things in the world, in life around us, that we can waste lots of time on trying to change, trying to make a difference when it's not in our place to do.

So let's us endeavor to focus on what God wants for our lives, what will be pleasing to Him, changing the things that we can, accepting the things we can't, not being bitter over them. As someone mentioned here this morning that bitterness will corrupt our lives. It will not bring a good harvest.

But if we accept the things that are difficult, the things that we can't change, and allow God to use them to mold us more into who He wants us to be, I believe it will be a blessing upon our lives. Let us humbly admit where we have failed and seek for God's wisdom to make right and wise decisions in every day, little things of life, so that we are fit and able to make right and wise choices in the bigger things in life also. Lord, help us to see into the future as to what the unchangeable results will be of our decisions, so that we can by Your power and wisdom make decisions today that will have results that are pleasing to You.

So may the Lord guide us and lead us in our everyday lives to make right and wise decisions that honor Him and are pleasing to Him in what we do and say. Lord's blessings to each of you.