“Evaluating Options” – FBC Morning Light (1/5/2024)

Well, a good Friday morning to you, coming to the end of the first week of January, here in January 5th, 2024. Looking forward to the Lord's Day this coming Sunday, the first Sunday of the new year. What are your plans for this coming Lord's Day?

Perhaps at the beginning of this year you needed to establish the goal of being committed to a local church, faithful attendance at the local church every Sunday. Maybe you already are faithful and you attend every Sunday.

Do you have a goal of growing in that commitment? Maybe adding a service that you don't attend? Many people come on Sunday morning and then about half the number or the most would return for a Sunday evening service or an afternoon service, as the case may be during the winter months, and then don't do anything about the midweek service.

I would encourage you to pray about and ask God to direct you about how you can be more committed to the people that comprise your local church, and may he guide you in that thinking. Today in our Bible reading plan, as we're chronologically reading through the Bible, we're in Genesis chapter 12, reading chapters 12 through 15.

Evaluating Decisions by Weighing Benefits and Dangers

I want to look at something in chapter 13. A few weeks ago we were preparing to celebrate Christmas, and you go through that process of asking your loved ones, what would you like for Christmas? A mom I know asked her 10-year-old son that question, and one of the things he said he wanted, because he looked around and he saw other kids, was his own smartphone, so that he could play games on it, and he could communicate with his friends, and so on and so forth.

His mom is a very wise woman to the things of this world, and she wasn't going to give him such a gift. But here's the thing, a lot of parents make a terrible mistake in that decision, because they simply look at the benefits, the perceived benefits, of having such a device in their child's hands.

They think, well, it'd be easier for my child to get in touch with me, and it is. My child can entertain themselves with wholesome stuff. Sometimes they can. My child plays video games, and they can do that on the phone.

Yeah, they can. It's more convenient. They can communicate with friends by way of texting, or chats, or whatever, and there's the possibility of that, and very convenient. They can see some perceived benefits, but a lot of parents don't take time to think about and analyze the negative, harmful effects that a child that young, having a phone, can cause to him.

That tendency to just focus on the benefits, and kind of ignore and let the benefits shroud, if you will, the negatives, is something that goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 13. I'm talking about the opportunity that Lot has to choose where he's going to live.

You remember the story in chapter 13, that Abraham and his household and holdings, livestock holdings and everything, have become so expansive, and so have Lots, that the two of them can't really dwell in the same immediate area, because there's not enough pasture land, and can't take care of it all.

So Abraham says to Lot, you choose where you want to go, and I'll take the other direction, I'll go the other direction. And Lot lifts up his eyes, and he looks over at the plain of Jordan, and he sees the area where Sodom and Gomorrah was, and he sees it's well-watered, he sees it's so beneficial, etc., etc., etc., and he thinks, that's the place to go.

And in fact, that's exactly what he does. He pitches his tent toward Sodom, thinking that all the benefits of that area are going to be nothing but good for him and his family. But he ignores the fact that Sodom and Gomorrah are, you know, heinous places, and exceedingly wicked.

And it tells us about this, it says in verse 13, after it says that Lot pitched his tent even as far as Sodom, it says the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. It wasn't just that they were sinful, as all men are, it's not just that they were wicked, as all men are, but they were exceedingly so.

We're going to find out later the extent of that wickedness, and just how vile the people of those cities were. But now, Lot just doesn't want to see that, he doesn't want to consider that in the making of his decision.

He just looks at the benefits, and his thinking is, the benefits are going to far outweigh any of the negatives that might possibly come up along the way. And he makes a horrific decision. I want to challenge us to think clearly in decisions that we have to make.

Some people make decisions about moving to a new location, and they look at all the benefits of the new location. They look at maybe a better climate, they look at maybe a cost of living that's lower, and so forth.

And they don't consider, how about your spiritual needs? How are they going to be met there? Are there any really good churches where your family is going to be nourished in the faith? Don't think about that, they just assume that, well, sure, we'll find a church, we'll find a church.

Look, whatever decisions you have to make, and you'll have to make some this year, think clearly, and don't allow the benefits of the positives to cause you to ignore the dangers of the negatives. See them both, and see them clearly, and as you pray to God for wise decisions to be made, may they take it all into consideration.

All right, Heavenly Father, thank you for this good warning and encouragement in our thinking today and decision-making processes. Help us, Father, to think clearly, to see clearly every aspect of a decision that we need to make, and this we pray in Jesus' name and for His sake, amen.

All right, well listen, have a great weekend. I trust you'll have a good time in God's house on the Lord's Day, worshiping with God's people, and getting your Sunday year off to a good start. God bless.