Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/david-yoder/guidance-for-making-decisions/
Good to see all who are here this afternoon. I have a few thoughts on my mind and hopefully they tie in and they're beneficial to all who are here today. I'm going to start by reading in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
We have been thinking a lot of the coming kingdom, building into the kingdom things to do that are practical in our life and there are a lot here that are younger and I guess I don't care if you're younger or older.
You have decisions to make in life. There's decisions that all of us have to make. And how to make those decisions and there's some things that aren't clear cut in the Word of God. It'd be easy if the Word of God gave us an exact answer, an exact science to everything because then we could give you a chapter and verse and say right there do that for that thing.
So what I'd like to do is present to you not what I think but just to help you think logically through as you make decisions in life. How to make decisions and see if they help you grow in the things of God and whether they encourage you.
Now I have a bunch of E's. I'm not going to go through them all. But maybe they'll just help you remember these and one of these was actually touched on yesterday I believe by our brother Gary Toombs.
But I want to read in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse number 23 to start. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 23 says all things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me but not all things, but all things edify not.
So there's things and I'm just going to throw a few out there just to get our brains going and I'm not going to tell you where I stand on any of these things because I don't want you to go away from here and say well I was at Ankeny Conference and David said do this or Frank told you to do something or Scott told you to do something.
I want you to go away and be able to decide for yourself where you stand in the word of God because there's coming a day when you'll probably be faced with some decisions and I could tell you what I believe but once you're actually faced with it I don't want you to do it because I said it.
I want you to know for yourself that the word of God says this. God gave this to me. This is my conviction and if it's your conviction you will stand on it. If it's my conviction and you're standing on my conviction you won't stand on it and you will falter and you will fail and then people are going to call you a hypocrite and then that's not a good testimony, right?
We were hearing about testimony, burying his testimony and I think sometimes we get so conflicted with things that we actually bury the testimony of God in our own mess that we make. So as we go through life I just want to look at these things so just to get us thinking about a few things.
What are some things that we have issues or people talk about? Some of these you might say well in our circles we don't deal with it but there are still people today that believe there are certain meats you can't eat or you shouldn't eat, right?
You might say well that doesn't affect us but just to throw it out there that would be an example from the word of God that you can't clear cut tell me that I'm aware of that there are certain meats I can and cannot eat, right?
You can go to sports. Do we watch sports? Do we play sports? Television. Is that something that we should have in our homes? The movie theater. How about on Sundays or some believe that you come to the Lord's Day you should do nothing except go to meeting and read the word of God.
You can go home, you can glutton, you can overeat but you can't exercise to get rid of it. That's the one sin that seems to be universally accepted in our circles. You can overeat on a Sunday but don't go for a walk.
Don't do anything to maybe work off what you ate. Just throwing things out there for you to think about, right? So where do we stand on these things? There are some that believe you shouldn't even play things like Monopoly because it teaches materialism and we're not here for the things of this world.
You might say that's a little extreme. I'm just throwing them out there for you to think because you're going to face things in life and you might have something you're thinking about right now going okay I have this decision to make.
How do I make it? So the first one we read today was 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 23 and it tells us all things are lawful for me so there's things that are maybe okay for me to do but all things are not expedient.
There's my first E, expedient. It's not profitable. It might not be profitable for you to do it. Is it profitable? Is it going to give you an advantage in your Christian life? Will it lead you spiritually?
Will it cultivate godliness in you? If I make this decision and do this thing, okay it's not a sin. The Bible doesn't call it a sin but will it lead me spiritually closer to God? Is it going to cultivate godliness in me?
Is it profitable for me to do? And so as we look at it just for a practical example, what are some things that we do that there's nothing wrong with? There's nothing wrong with sleeping but if you sleep all the time and you sleep in late every morning it can lead to slothfulness and that could lead to sin.
Nothing wrong with sleeping. You should sleep. You should sleep. It's good for your body. But you can overdo things in your life and by overdoing certain things in your life it can lead to sin and it's not profitable for you.
So just a practical thing to think about as you make decisions in life. Okay so tomorrow morning is conference, starts at 10 o 'clock but lunch isn't until noon and so I can sleep in and make it for noon.
There's nothing wrong with you coming in at noon but is it expedient? Is it profitable for you? Just examples, right? The second E I want you to look at is the end of this chapter says, all things are lawful for me but not all things edify not.
Is it for your edification? Will it build you up in the things of God? So the first one is will it profit you spiritually? This one is will it put you on a path to greater spiritual maturity? We were just being, Frank just referenced to us that some of us that are, some of you who are younger and I put myself still in that class, we are seeking to build homes, build families, build households and that's really the Greek word that you find here in verse 23, edify, it means to build a house.
And so as we are building into our Christian life, will it put me on a pathway to be more like Christ? As you make the decision that you might have to make in your life, the university that you are going to go to, is it close to an assembly that will build you up spiritually and edify you in the things of God?
As you choose a spouse, whether it's a young lady or a young gentleman, will that person lead you towards God or away from God? Will it edify you? Will it build you up in the things of God? These are things, you might say, well there's nothing wrong with me dating this person.
She says she's a Christian but maybe she's not for you, maybe she's for someone else and because she's not for you, she could take you away from God. She doesn't have the same goals and the same desires that you have for the things of God.
Now let's turn over to Hebrews chapter 12 for our next E. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse number 1. Hebrews 12 and verse number 1. It says, Wherefore seeing, we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witness.
So remember, as he's coming into chapter 12 here, we just came through, he just got through Hebrews 11. We call that the chapter of faith. So we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, these that board testimony, the bearers of testimony.
It says, We are compassed about with a great cloud of witness. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
My next E here would be excess. Excess. You might say, what do you mean by excess? Chapter 12 and verse 1, I remember reading this multiple times before it ever dawned on me. It says, Let us lay aside every weight and sin.
Those are two different things. It is not calling the sin the weight. It is saying, lay aside every weight and sin that does so easily beset you. There are sins that will separate you from God in your Christian walk and it will hinder that relationship with God.
But he is not talking about sin as the weight here. He says, lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us. So let's look at this maybe just practically. How would this refer to us today?
We could have gone back to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and there he talks about running the race that is set before us. He talks about running with endurance and to strive because there is only one that wins the prize.
I am going to look at this just as a thought of a runner, a marathon runner. We just came through the Olympics, right? Those that sprint. Can you imagine if somebody trained? Those sprinters, they train.
They train. And they don't train for, if I had to go run a mile, I would start training about a week before and figure I will be alright. That's how. But those people that have dedicated their lives to running, what they do is they get up every morning and they run and they eat right and they sleep right and they work out right and their one goal and their one dedication is I want to, if I have to just be one tenth of a second faster than the guy next to me, I will do whatever I have to do.
I will shed that last pound. I will put in that extra 20 minutes. I will do whatever it is because only one wins the prize. Only one. Can you imagine if some of those that have dedicated their whole life and some of those athletes will start at the age of 10, 12, 13 and they will separate themselves from classmates.
They will separate themselves from the party lifestyle. They separate themselves away from everything with one goal that maybe when I'm 17, 18, 19, 20 years old, I'll have a shot at the Olympics. And if I get that shot and I get on that stage, I want to win because I only have a short period of time to run this race.
You sit and you look at your life today, whether you're young or old, and especially if you're young and I have to constantly remind myself of this, as you look at life and I go, well I have plenty of time before me, but then if I stop and I step back, I have to acknowledge that I'm probably close to halfway through my life of when I can actually do things for God and I have the energy to do things for God.
And if I go in for career, if I go in for the things of this life that might not be sin, but I focus more energy on that, if I died in 30 years, everything I worked for, whether it's career, whether it's the house I lived in, within 30 years, no one will remember those things.
Those things aren't going to matter whatsoever. Your family isn't going to remember. They might drive by every once in a while in a generation or two and go, I heard great grandpa live there, but it's going to be insignificant.
My great grandpa did that for a job, but it's going to be insignificant. It's not like it's going to impact their life, right? And so when you stop and sit and think about this, and so here they are and they have one goal and so they train their whole life and they separate themselves out and then they get there and the night before the Olympics, you might say, okay, this would be a dumb thing to do.
This would be the sin aspect of it. They get there and the night before they go out and they party, haven't partied for 12 years and they party and they get drunk. Drunkenness the Bible tells us is a sin.
They overeat, eat sugars and stuff they normally don't eat, maybe load up on the wrong foods and they're cramping the next day when they show up to the race and they have a pitiful performance, finish nowhere close to first.
And you say, what a shame. That would be sin. But it isn't, I don't want to talk about sin today, I want to talk about the weight that does so easily beset us. So say that person trains their whole life and the night before they go to bed when they're supposed to go to bed and they get up when they're supposed to get up.
They stretch, they go out and do their morning routine, maybe a brisk run to warm themselves up, make sure they're ready to go. Moment of the event comes and they're supposed to walk out of the tunnel, get onto the track and he comes out and he's got a long fur wool coat on and army boots and a backpack.
It's not against the rules to run like that, but it is a weight that will easily beset him. The chances of him winning that race have dropped, not because of a sin or that he false started on the race or that he took performance enhancing drugs, nothing to disqualify him that way, but the decision he made in life, in that moment, say foolish, why would you do that?
And yet if we stop and acknowledge there's every one of us here, some of us probably have, speaking for myself, I probably have a lot that I need to lay aside, wait. Maybe some of you who are older and wiser have narrowed it down to two or three things, but if we all stop and self-examine, there's probably at least one thing in each one of our lives that we could say, I would be better if I distanced myself from that.
Not because it's a sin, not because it's something that, okay, I can't do that because the word of God clearly says I can't, but it's an excess weight. It is separating you from the things of God. It is taking you away.
What's just a practical example, and I'm not going to criticize anyone for doing this, on a Saturday night, maybe you decide Saturday night's date night for you and the wife and you go out for supper, and you stay out way later than you need to, and then you come home, there's nothing wrong with going out and taking your wife out for a date, but you stay out longer than you need to, and then Sunday morning you're dragging when you come to the Lord's table.
Nothing wrong with that. I won't point a finger at you and go, sinner, I hope you don't do the same to me, but it could be something that's just excess weight, right? As you make decisions in life, as an athlete makes decisions in life, they think, how will this impact me, not in this moment, but tomorrow, and the next day, and six weeks from now, and that's where if you look at athletes that did this and do these things, there are some that had God-given ability, just raw, natural talent, and you said if they would have just had the same work ethic as the guy over there that didn't have it, but he worked out 10 times a day.
He put in that effort and that time, and he got rid of any distraction that he had in his life, and he ran the race that was set before him. Can you imagine if that one that had that God-given talent and ability?
We were hearing yesterday about gift. There's some here, I have no doubt that God has given you a tremendous gift, and I hope you put the same effort into your gift as you put into the things that are in this world, whether it's your career, whether it's your family, there's nothing wrong with putting effort into your family.
If God has given you a family, you have a responsibility to raise your family in the way that God would have you raise your family, but do it in the way God would have you raise your family, and put effort into that for the things of God, right?
But here you are. We have to acknowledge that there's times where there's weights that we have that so easily beset us. I'm going to go back now to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, and I'll just look at maybe one more and then I'll stop.
1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse number 12, if you want the rest of these E's, you can come ask me if you're really interested, and then you can search them out yourself. But 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse number 12 says, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient, there's that word again, all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any, enslavement, there's my next E, enslavement.
If I do this, does it have the potential to bring me into bondage? I know of people that never had a drink their whole life, had it once, and could never stop. The Bible tells us that being a drunkard is wrong, it doesn't, I'm not up here promoting you to drink.
It says being a drunkard is wrong, but it doesn't say that you can't drink at all, because then we couldn't have wine on a Sunday morning. But if it has the chance of bringing you into slavery, making it your, it becomes your master and you are its slave, can I suggest to stay away from it?
There's simple things in life that are that way, right? So we give up control over little things, men turn into fools because they can't control what comes out of grapes. If you think about that, that sounds pretty foolish, but we do, we turn into fools over what comes out of grapes.
There's many people that die because they can't deal with tobacco, and they can't say no to it. Or TV, there's some people that as soon as they come around to TV, they can't look away from it, and a box and some wires controls their head and their minds and their hearts.
I heard yesterday about phones, and we carry those with us, and now all of a sudden TV or your phone is king, and I have to speak to myself on the phone aspect, and it becomes king, and you're a slave to it.
Don't be enslaved to the things of this world, a man can become a slave. Your friends, you can become slave to your friends. I know some young people that are, if they could just figure out how to say no to their friends, they'd be great young men and great young women, and they just can't say no to their friends.
They're a slave to their friends, and if you told them you're a slave to your friend, they'd look at you and go, no, I'm not. There's some of us that are slaves to what we're worried about other people thinking about us, maybe people that aren't even really our friends, acquaintances, and we're so worried about what people will think about us that we walk on eggshells around them, and we trample on the blood of our savior in so doing, right?
So don't, if it's something that's going to bring you to enslave to it, don't do it. There's nothing wrong with playing golf. I know people that love it. I've never played it, unless you count mini golf, but I've never played golf, but I heard a story of a man who was an evangelist, and he had a gift, and he started playing golf, and he got hooked, and then he started betting on golf, and he got hooked, and he was so sucked into it, he quit preaching the word, and a little ball and a stick controlled him.
There's things in your life that you look at and go, I would never, and then you do it two times, three times, four times, and before you know it, it controls you, you don't control it. The hardest thing you might ever have to say in your life is no, but you will have to say no if you want to run the race that is set before you.
If you want to lay aside the weight that does so easily beset you, and run with patience, and live for the kingdom that is to come. When you make decisions in life, it will impact you not only in that moment, but in the next moment.
There's some decisions that you might be able to overcome if you make a bad decision. There's other decisions that if you make one bad decision, it could impact you the rest of your life. I want you to weigh the consequences.
So these are just simple E's that I gave you, and there's others I could give you. Things that shouldn't encroach upon you. Things that sometimes we make a equivocation for things, we are hypocritical and we say, well, there's nothing wrong with that, and so I'm going to do it, and we use it as an excuse to cover something that we lust after.
Something that we want to control us, even though we say doesn't control us. There's E's in your life, but hopefully, there's things in your life that will do that, but hopefully with these few simple E's that I gave you, it will help ease your decision making process.
As you go forward, that you would not bury the testimony of your Savior, but that you would bear it before Him for the rest of your life.