“The Importance of Follow Through” – FBC Morning Light (10/20/2023)

Well, a good Friday morning. I hope your week has gone well, and you're looking forward to a good weekend. This Lord's Day, I hope you'll be gathering together with God's people and worshiping and serving the Lord.

In our church on Sunday, in our adult Bible study, we're going to be continuing in the book of Acts, and then in the morning worship service we'll be close to wrapping up our series on the seven churches in the book of Revelation, and the letters to those seven churches.

And then Sunday evening, we're continuing our study in the book of Proverbs. So that's what's happening at Faith Baptist, and if you're in the area, we'd be glad for you to visit with us and to join us in our worship of the Lord together.

Seeking God’s Direction in a Difficult Decision

Well, today in our Bible reading, we're looking at Jeremiah 41 and 42, Hebrews chapter 6 and Ecclesiastes 8. And what we see illustrated in Jeremiah 41, well, 42, is a very important principle regarding decision making.

So what do you do when you are confronted with a challenging situation, and you have to make a decision, but you're just not exactly sure which direction to take? What do you do? What's the approach that you take?

Well, we get some good insight here in how to approach that kind of a situation. So here's the deal in this particular scenario, this set of circumstances. There's a whole group of people, they're trying to decide, do we stay here in Judah when the Babylonians are taking over and have conquered the land and so forth, or do we flee to Egypt for protection and shelter?

What would be the best prudent thing to do? They didn't know. They didn't have a good sense of what they should do. So here's what the people did. They went to Jeremiah the prophet, and they say in verse 2, please let our petition be acceptable to you and pray for us to the Lord your God for all this remnant.

See, we are left, since we are left, we're about a few of many, as you can see. Pray that the Lord your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do. All right, so here's the deal.

They didn't know what they should do. So they said, let's pray about it. Let's ask Jeremiah the prophet to pray and ask God to give us direction. So they clearly had a good approach. We want to know what God would have us to do.

And then they went further than that. They didn't just want to hear what God had to say. They went further and said, the people in verse 5 said, let the Lord be a true and faithful witness between us if we do not do according to everything which the Lord your God sends us by you.

Whether it's pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God. So they were not only intent on finding out what God had to say, they committed themselves to doing what God said, whether they liked it or not.

And they were going to do it. That's what they said. Well, that is certainly an appropriate approach to take under such circumstances. I don't know which direction to take, I don't know what God would have me to do here, but I'm going to find out, I'm going to pray, I'm going to seek his face, I'm going to seek for some direction, and whatever he directs me here, that's what I'm going to do.

That's what I'm going to do. That's the kind of commitment we need. But the key is follow-through. The key is follow-through. So what do you do when you get an answer to that question? Let me give you an example of this kind of situation.

A person comes to me, a married guy comes to me, and he says, I don't know what to do. I've got a problem here. I say, okay, what's the problem? He says, well, I'm married, I have a couple of kids, and I love my wife, but there's this other person that I've really become fond of, and I think I want to have a relationship with that person, and our marriage hasn't been great, and what would God have me to do?

I ask the question, are you determined to do whatever God says you need to do? Yeah, I'll do whatever God says I need to do. Here's the word from the Lord. You need to forget that other person, and you need to recommit yourself to your wife, and rededicate yourself to the Lord to be faithful to your wife, and faithful to your marriage vows till death do you part.

Hangs his head, says, yeah, okay, I guess I kind of knew you were going to say that. Goes out, a few weeks later, I find out he's taken up with the other woman, and he's left his wife. The key is follow-through.

This is the key in Jeremiah, chapter 42. People come to Jeremiah, say, would you pray the Lord for us so we know what to do? Whatever the Lord says to do, we will do, whether we like it or not. Jeremiah comes back and says, whatever you do, don't go to Egypt.

Do not go to Egypt. Stay right where you are. Don't go to Egypt. You go to Egypt, it's going to be a mess. You're going to be sorry. It's going to hurt. It's going to be painful. Don't go to Egypt. Well, guess what the people did?

They went to Egypt. Not only did they go to Egypt, but they took Jeremiah captive with them to Egypt. How did it go for them? Exactly as Jeremiah said, not well at all. What can you take away from this?

Let me encourage you, when you're in a state of perplexity and you don't really know what to do, seek God's direction. Seek what God would have you to do. Pray about it, enlist others to pray about it, get some counsel, some godly counsel, but do so with the commitment that whatever God says, I will do it, whether I like it or not.

I will do it. Then follow through. When that word from the Lord comes, follow through on your commitment to obey. Heavenly Father, we realize that sometimes you want us to do things we don't want to do, because we're sinful, our hearts are not pure, our motives aren't always what they ought to be, and yet we must obey.

We need to obey. Oh, Lord, I pray that we would truly indeed follow through on the desire that we express to do what you would have us to do when we know what it is. Oh, Lord, give us that commitment, we pray, and may we follow through on it, and we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. All right, well, listen, I hope you have a good rest of your Friday, and a good weekend, and gather with God's people on the Lord's Day. Have a good day. God bless.