Biblical Decision-Making (part 2)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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We're back on the notes here, and now we're transitioning from ways not to do it.

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And I do want to just tell you, I used all those methods, some more than others, because I didn't know how to make decisions.

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And I was watching other people, and they talked about doing it that way, and so they were my mentors. And it wasn't until you mature along and God keeps growing you, and He keeps taking you out of those ways of making it into making it biblical.

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He wants us to grow in our faith and trust in Him according to Scripture. Now, here are a few prerequisites for biblical decision making.

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The first is you need to be reconciled with Christ. You need to be saved.

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Maybe the first place to go is, what is God's will for my life? Well, repent and believe in Jesus Christ to save you from your sins and to be right with Him.

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That would be the first place to go. After that, to say, well,

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I don't know if I should marry this person or go here or get that job. There's something more important than that if you're not saved.

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It's almost like, I'd like to know how to rearrange the chairs on the Titanic. Well, that may be fine, but you're comfortable as you sink.

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You're going down. You're going to die in your sin and spend eternity in hell. And there may be someone here tonight who's in that place in your life, and I'd encourage you to talk to someone here and just say, you know, help me, because that would probably be the first place to start, and how to have your sins forgiven and to be right with God.

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Number two, pursue a life of worshiping God. Remember the purpose and the prayer that Paul said?

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Be filled with the knowledge of God, all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the

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Lord, pleasing Him in all aspects. We need to think our whole day, how can

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I increase in my worship of God today and decrease in worship of anything but Him today?

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I think it was John Calvin who quoted

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Bernard of saying, if Jesus is left out of a conversation, it's pointless.

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It's a pointless conversation. It's just Christ needs to be on our mind through the whole day, and then recognize

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God's sovereignty overall. If you're His child, He loves you. He will care for you.

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He is working in your life. He's got a grand scheme, a plan. He's working all of it out.

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Recognize that. Trust Him and His sovereign, decreed will. Now, here are some principles.

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Scripture has bearing on all decisions one way or another. One way or another. You say, oh, come on.

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I mean, you're talking about even like if you go into the closet, I mean, what I'm going to wear? I mean, well, there is some principles there.

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Is it modest? I mean, there are some principles in Scripture. You say, well, okay, I don't think,

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I'm not going to wear anything like, okay. You know, is it going to draw attention to myself? You know,

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I mean, those are, you just have to think through, there are principles, there are commands, and there are principles.

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You just have to kind of think through, how do they all apply in every decision I make in a day? Everything down to whether I eat or drink.

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How do I do it for the glory of God? How do I eat for the glory of God? Well, I'm thankful that He provides.

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I want to exercise self -control. I want to be benevolent and share with others.

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I mean, those are ways that you bring glory to God as you eat. Then you have wisdom.

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Just, Lord, help me to think how these principles apply. That gets right into the purposeful freedom that God has given us, freedom in Christ.

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But He tells us in Galatians 5 .13, don't use your freedom, though, for an occasion of the flesh, of your flesh, your sinful flesh.

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But in love, serve one another. So even our freedom isn't do whatever you want to do.

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It still has purpose, you know, to please God and serve others.

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And there are different verses on that. And then you even have desire. What would you like to do? In 1

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Corinthians 7, well, I'll go back up there. Well, there are passages. I mean, here you have a virgin, a girl.

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Does she want to marry or not marry? Well, what does she wish? What does she desire? As long as it's in the

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Lord. So desire has a place, but at the end of your decision -making process, not driving it, but at the end.

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Here would be some ways that, I mean, as you're looking at how to do it, you'd want to start with a humble, yielded, dependent will before God.

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And I'm going to talk about humility and pride tomorrow morning, Lord willing, in Sunday school. You want to be able to approach

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God and say, Lord, the weightier the decision, the more time it takes. Not my will, your will be done.

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I mean, you want to start there. Lord, not my will, your will be done. Now, let me look at your will, both in commands and principles, so that I want to yield to your work in my life.

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Pray for wisdom. As I'm reading the commands and principles in Scripture, Lord, help me to make the application.

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That may even go into the whole doctrine of illumination. How does it apply to my walk?

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Then gather all the factual data about the decision you have to make. Again, we've made, my wife and I, on the weightier decisions, we use that worksheet, the last page of your notes.

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We use that worksheet on moving to Louisville, moving out to Grace Community Church, on the major decisions.

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We use that as a worksheet. And we gather the data.

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You know, what's the position? What's the issue? What are we trying to decide here? Then, are there any commands in Scripture that speak to this decision?

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Any direct commands to this specific issue? I would think, most of the time, we would say, well, not really, there's nothing directly about whether to take this job or that job.

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I'm not being dishonest about anything. Just, no, I guess not. I'm working, I want to work.

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Then go to the next. How about principles? What about principles?

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Are there any principles that shed light? This is going to be the compass. I mean, the other is going to be, your direct commands are going to be your roadmap.

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How about in the area of a compass? Principles. Financial principles, from 2

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Corinthians 8 and 9. What about stewardship principles in other areas of your life?

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How about how it affects your family? Or, what about health issues?

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So, well, we're going to get a pet. Well, did you know your wife's allergic? Don't say, yeah.

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But principles can get bearing in on decisions that we make. It's sort of the indirect light.

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Then, what about the use of freedom? Now you're in the wisdom category. Okay, there's no direct command.

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I've looked at the principles, and that kind of shoots me in this direction. So, I have the freedom now to bring glory to God, considering others, and then move on with, so what would you like to do?

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For the glory of God, and then love for others. Then go in that direction.

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You think, that's it? That's it. And know that God, in his sovereign, decreed will, is over what you're doing.

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And your heart is yielded to him, Lord, I want to please you. Not my will, your will be done, and so I'm looking at your will.

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And I'm submitted to you. I'm trying to follow your will as best as possible, and be obedient.

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And now I'm in your hands. I mean, you redirect my steps however you choose to do that.

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And you just trust him, and you walk ahead. You don't have to second -guess yourself to death. I had that kind of a problem.

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You know, the paralysis of analysis, they call it. Just analyzing everything to death, and flow charts in my mind, of this and that, and if that doesn't go.

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I mean, it's crazy. And if you're married, you will drive your wife crazy.

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Make a decision. Well, you know, I just don't know if I'm going to miss God's will, and that kind of thing.

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So just follow the principles, commands, principles, the wisdom area, desire.

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Then make your decision. Trusting God to redirect your steps in accordance with his decreed will.

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It's not that complicated. I just wish someone had shown me this as a new believer.

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I wouldn't have been walking in the woods, listening for voices, and looking in the trees for signs. I was a wreck of an individual.

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Very difficult early on in marriage, if any of you guys are in that position. Very hard for a wife to follow her husband, the leader, if he won't make decisions.

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Very hard. And then what happens is, you're making them, but you're really doing whatever she wants.

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You know, it's like that, my friend's big Greek fat wedding, whatever that movie's called, you know, the wife is the neck, and she just turns the head any way she wishes.

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You don't want to be that kind of leader, where your wife's just making the decisions, and you're saying,

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That sounds good, but you're not making them. You're not leading. Now, I don't know if you want to go through a case study or just do a quickly run -through.

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Oh, I'm going the wrong way. Here we go. Here's Mike. Not Pastor Mike. Hopefully he's found a church.

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This Mike says he's got a problem in his church membership, and you say, well, what do you mean?

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And he said, here's the situation. I'm a single, 25 years old. I attend two churches.

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I like both of them very much, but I don't know that I should become a member of one and devote all my energies there. Or I know

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I should, he says, become a member of one. So I've been praying for guidance for a long time, he says, but the

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Lord still hasn't shown me which church I should join. What do you think I should do? And you ask, what have you done to find out what

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God wants in this matter? Well, I've mostly prayed a lot that he would show me. I really believe he will.

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Well, that's fine, but how have you been expecting him to reveal his will to you? Well, you know, the normal ways.

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I suppose you know by little signs, good feelings, and positive circumstances. I really want to know inside where I should be and have a real peace about it.

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So how are you going to help Mike? Well, we probably want to start, you know, what is the issue with Mike?

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He says he's caught between two churches. He attends both, some factual data, he attends them, and he expects

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God to answer in some subjective way. That's why he's not making any decision. He's got all kinds of subjective methods up there, and it's not helping him at all.

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Now, he's passive in his decision -making, and he's even looking for you to make his decision. What are some direct proclamations for Mike?

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Well, once you'd want to start it, is he a believer in Jesus Christ? Has he repented of his sins and trusted in Jesus Christ as his

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Lord and Savior? That would be a place to start. Second, there is a direct proclamation there that he be in a local body and not forsake the assembling of that body, and have people who shepherd him and watch over his soul, and that he serve and use his spiritual giftedness.

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You'd want a church with godly leadership, according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

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And if he's a believer, he's been gifted by God, and he must be serving. I mean, those are just, he needs to do this.

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You can almost tell, if he is a believer, that the spirit there is saying, this isn't working, this going to two church thing.

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You need to be in one place and serve and be shepherded. Some indirect principles.

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Well, let's ask this question. Why might Mike be going to two separate churches? What might a single 25 -year -old guy be going to two churches for?

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What's that? Yeah. You know, it might be that there is, the girls are in one church, and maybe his parents are in another church, and so he goes to that one, or maybe one has a, maybe that he wants to go to church, but one church doesn't have a

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Sunday evening service, and so he goes over to another church. I mean, you don't know enough here, and there wasn't enough said to know why he's doing this, but you ought to explore that.

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Why is that going on? But when you think about stewardship principles, time, money, relationships, where can he be the most useful and fruitful?

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What if one church is around the block, and the other one takes him 40 minutes to get to? And let's say both are of equal stance on Scripture.

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Where is he going to be a good steward of time, money, relationships, and where he can be the most useful and fruitful?

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We had a couple come from San Diego up to Grace Church. Now, can you imagine talking to your neighbors, would you like to go to church with us on Sunday?

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We get up at 4 .30 in the morning. Yeah, yeah. And we head up to Grace Church.

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Now, after a while, I mean, I talked with him. I said, you know, you don't invite people over to your house.

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Come on over Friday night for supper. We're going to San Diego. I mean, this is not a half -hour trip.

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This is three -plus hours getting down there. Can the kids get involved in the youth ministry and youth act?

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No. So they moved. Finally, they sold, and he changed jobs and came up and moved to L .A.

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You have to kind of think about stewardship. And the motive of his life is to worship

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God and please him. Is that why he's going to church and wants to attend and serve there, or is it to be entertained?

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In college, I used to kind of go on Sunday nights to places that had the bands, you know, or some music thing.

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That was wrong, but that was very popular. You know, people would say, hey, do you hear this group is going to be at this?

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Oh, really? Let's all go. Why people do things, it's good to explore what's motivating them.

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The word is our guide, not subjective leading, and he would need to be taught how to make principles, I mean, how to make decisions with principles so he's not just waiting around in all these feelings and peace, various passages that he needs to study the word and not trust his experiences.

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Here are some questions to ask. Is this freedom of choice providing some opportunity for his flesh? Is there an area he's struggling in his own walk with the

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Lord and going to this one church caters to it? And maybe it's not a good situation at all.

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Where does he believe that he can bring the most glory to God and minister to others? How can he love God more and serve others more?

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Which of those two churches? And again, you need to check them out biblically. Where are they at? Then desire.

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He wants to devote himself to one church alone, and I would commend him for that. That's good. If both churches are discerned to be equal, biblically speaking, then for the glory of God, he can make his desired choice.

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You ask a person, and when I would, if I were meeting with Mike, I would say, bring everything to me that's been printed, that you can bring to me from your church.

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I'd like to see their constitution, their bylaws, their doctrinal statements, and I'd like to see what's on the back table because you will find some doctrinal statements in some churches that they would pass the litmus test, but the church leadership doesn't even believe that.

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And things that they're putting on the back table for people goes in a whole different direction.

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Excuse me. So I'd just be careful. I'd want to know everything

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I could before making that decision. Excuse me. The decision of the two churches, which one's the most biblical?

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Which one can he truly bear fruit in? And which one would he like to join after this biblical evaluation?

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Maybe all the speaking's caught up to me. Make a decision and then trust

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God. And that's not acquiesce and go with the flow. That's a privilege. Follow his word, trust him.

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That's what he wants from his children. That's just one quick case study.

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It's not complicated. You don't need a Ph .D. in this kind of stuff. It's right there in our word.

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Just follow those principles. And the Lord will help you get better and better and more wise, more skilled.

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And you'll be able to tutor and help others and disciple them. There's some really excellent books up here.

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A couple I would point you to. Gary Friesen has come out with a revised version on decision making and the will of God.

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It's been updated. It's easier, I think, to read and follow.

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Dr. MacArthur has this little book called Found God's Will. It's a good start. And I think he even has a tape called something easy decision making.

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Let's see. Another one I would encourage you. Gary Meeters, Decision Making God's Way, a

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New Model for Knowing God's Will. Gary Meeters. And then Dave Swavely has an excellent book called

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Decisions, Decisions. He was out on Grace staff at Grace Community Church.