All right, this morning's text is Ephesians chapter 5, if you would turn there. Ephesians 5, it's also there in your worship guide. We'll begin reading in verse 8. For at one time, you were darkness, but now you are light in the world. Walk as children of the light.
Joel Brooks:For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and is right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret, but with anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, awake, oh sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.
Joel Brooks:Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Pray with me. Father, I ask that this morning we would understand what your will is for us in this place. I pray that we would come to see Jesus as more beautiful and glorious.
Joel Brooks:Put it in our hearts, the desire to hallow His name above all else. And may that affect every decision we make. And now may my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:Let me tell you what the next few weeks are going to look like. This morning, we're gonna look at decision making and what it means to make a decision that is pleasing to the Lord. Next week, we're gonna look at the first couple of chapters of the Bible and the last couple chapters of the Bible and how God's desire for humanity is he moves us from a isolated individual into a glorious community in which Christ is at the center. And so, we wanna look at how God moves that theme forward throughout scripture and in our lives. And then come January 22nd, we're gonna begin a new series on the gospel according to Esther.
Joel Brooks:And we're gonna take 4 or 5 weeks and walk through the book of Esther. But this morning, we're gonna look at decision making, which is an important topic because you are the result of the decisions you make. And, I don't think that is an overstatement, that you are the result of the decisions you make. I know that many things were decided for you and there's a number of things that are outside of your control, but who you are in here, who you are in your heart, your character is almost completely decided by the 100 of decisions that you make every day. Every decision you make has consequences for good or for bad, and because you were designed by God and you were placed in the world that he created, when you make decisions that are according to his will, your life flourishes.
Joel Brooks:You invite beauty. You invite peace. You invite joy into your life. But if you decide to do things that do not please him, things that are against his design for both you and the world, you invite harm and emptiness and destruction into your life. So we want to make good decisions.
Joel Brooks:I've never met anybody who who has said, you know, I'm really looking to make a bad decision. Could you help me out with that? We want to make good decisions, but how? Paul tells us here in chapter 5 and in verse 10. Look at verse 10 again.
Joel Brooks:He says, And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. It's an incredible verse. Incredible concept, really. That you and me, we can do things that would bring pleasure to God.
Joel Brooks:That that we actually can can make him smile, if he will, by by what we do. It's not saying that we can make God love us anymore because God loves us unconditionally, but just like I love my children unconditionally, there are certain things that they can do. There's certain ways that they could obey me, and it it really brings me pleasure. It puts a smile on my face, and Paul is saying that we can, in a real way, please God. But notice he doesn't say, do what pleases the Lord.
Joel Brooks:He says, try and discern what pleases the Lord. He's letting us know right off the bat that that making right decisions that will please God is going to is gonna take effort. He's implying that there's gonna be some ambiguity involved. There might be some gray areas involved. We're gonna have to make judgment calls as to what's right and what's wrong at times.
Joel Brooks:Decision making, it's it's a spiritual skill or it's an it's an art that we're gonna have to craft our entire lives, in which we try to discern what is the will of the Lord, what will bring pleasure to him, ways we can invite flourishing into our lives. Now, I guess before I go any further in this, I do need to make one thing clear when Paul says that we are to try and to discern what pleases the Lord is he is not talking about clear moral instructions that God has given us here in the Bible. No. God has given us some moral directives that are crystal clear, and that's not what Paul is talking about. You don't have to sit here and try and to discern whether murder is wrong.
Joel Brooks:Whether lying is wrong, or whether you should steal, or whether you should be gluttonous, or whether you should be greedy, or whether you should not forgive, or whether you should have sex outside of marriage, or even as define what marriage is. The Bible is completely clear about these moral things. And that's not what Paul is saying here, that we're trying to discern these things. These things might be hard for us to do, but they are not hard for us to discern. Alright?
Joel Brooks:God has clearly laid out many of the moral instructions for us, but that doesn't affect most of our decisions. The vast majority of decisions that we make, you will not find a chapter and a verse telling you exactly what you are to do. So should you marry? If so, who should you marry? Who should you invite over for dinner?
Joel Brooks:Should you homeschool, or should you send your kids to public school? Should you adopt? How much should you spend on clothes? Should you use social media? Should you take chemo to fight this cancer?
Joel Brooks:Or try some experimental means? Or perhaps, not fight it at all? Should you put your parents in a nursing home, or should you take care of them yourself? From big decisions to small decisions, you're not gonna be able to find that that chapter in the verse that tells you explicitly what to do. Now, God could have put those things in there.
Joel Brooks:I mean, he could have done it. I don't think he did it for starters. For 1, I mean, the Bible's long enough and you had 10,000 more pages. You know, detailing every little thing. You know, you make this amount of much money, you can only have this amount of shoes.
Joel Brooks:You know, you're supposed to give this much to the church, this much to the poor, this much to a charity of your choice. You know, if God outlined each one of these things, the Bible would be incredibly long. But more than that, we would start concentrating or fixating on what we do and not who we love. We would start just thinking we could just make list and list and we could just start checking off all these lists and we would forget about really what we're trying to do is be in a relationship in which we try to please the one that we love. And that's what we wanna do.
Joel Brooks:We wanna try and discern what's gonna bring the Lord pleasure because we love him. So how do we do this? I want us to go through 8 things. I wanna go through 8 things fairly quickly. 8 ways or things we need to consider if we are to try to do things that will please the Lord.
Joel Brooks:1st is this, set up a posture of obedience. Set up a posture of obedience. And what I mean by this is that before we ever know where the Lord is leading us, before we ever know what he is first. When the Lord called Abraham to a place that Abraham did not go, did not know, Abraham didn't know where he was supposed to go. He didn't know what the result was gonna be, but his answer was yes.
Joel Brooks:Yes, regardless of where you take me. When Jesus taught His disciples to to pray and he said, Pray this way, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Hallowed be thy name. That means above all else, we want to treasure the name of God, we want to glorify the name of God. That is not done when you get to the outcome of a decision.
Joel Brooks:That is done in the making of the decision. It's when we hallow God's name, When we show that above all else, we wanna honor and treasure Christ not knowing the outcome, we want to obey him. So we wanna set up a posture of obedience. 2nd, we wanna trust that obeying God is for our good. Trust that obeying God is for our good.
Joel Brooks:Alright. We we make a lot of the worst decisions because, quote, we just wanna be happy. We just wanna be happy. Do you know how many times somebody has has come and they have tried to justify the worst decision before me? And they've they've tried to justify this by saying, I hear you Joel, but I just wanna be happy.
Joel Brooks:I just wanna be happy. I have heard husbands justify leaving their wives, having an affair, choosing to live a certain sinful lifestyle, all because they just want to be happy. This excuse is built on a terrible lie. It's built on the lie that God doesn't want you to be happy. That you wanna be happy, but but God apparently does not want you to be happy.
Joel Brooks:That God does not want you to have a life full of joy. But actually, God's a real kill joy. And he just really kinda delights in making up a lot of rules that are impossible to follow, you know. And he just puts them out there, just so we would be miserable. It's a lie.
Joel Brooks:And if it's honest, if we're honest with ourselves, I think we'd have to acknowledge that that's a lie that we often believe. I believe that lie a lot. And when that happens, what we need to do is take a step back and just think. Okay, did God really create me? Create me.
Joel Brooks:And then, he sent his son to take human form to die for me in order that I might be miserable. Is that really God's intention for me? It's absurd. Now, can it be hard to obey God? You bet.
Joel Brooks:Can it feel like death at times to obey God? Absolutely, but God raises the dead. Amen. God gives us life. There's certain things that we really want to do because we think we'll be so happy, and those are things we gotta die to.
Joel Brooks:And in that death, God resurrects life. Ultimately, through obedience, God is calling us away from the things that will destroy us, and He is leading us into joy. 3rd, does this decision line up with scripture? Is it biblical? Not not necessarily the chapter and the verse, but does it fit in the flow with scripture?
Joel Brooks:Perhaps a better way to state this is is this way. Does this decision demonstrate the gospel? Does this decision demonstrate the gospel? Because the gospel's not only the message that we are saved by, the gospel is the message that we live by. So do our decisions reflect that God works powerfully through weakness?
Joel Brooks:Do our decisions reflect how God humbled himself and became a human servant? Do our decisions reflect that God has a heart for the poor and the
Caleb Chancey:powerless?
Joel Brooks:Or do our decisions reflect something else? That really, we are no different than those who don't believe in Jesus. And if if I could just get really direct here. We have a number of singles at our church. We're probably about half singles.
Joel Brooks:Is the way you date, does it reflect the gospel? I've been working, you know, with with college students. I worked for about 10 years, and then just working here at this church for so long. And I'd say about 17, 18 years of ministry, it hurts me to say I have seen little, if any, difference in the way that Christians date and the way the world dates. And typically, what happens if you're a guy, you can go to a place.
Joel Brooks:Maybe it's a wedding reception or whatever and you can see, you can see 10 10 women out there. 2 of them are just gorgeous. So you go right there and you just pray that one of them has character. Lord, please let one of these have character. But we don't look at the heart like God looks at the heart.
Joel Brooks:Do our decisions reflect what we actually believe? It's a probing question. Do they demonstrate to the world the gospel, or do we go about our decision making just like everyone else? 4th, understand the cultural current in which you have been placed. Understand the cultural current in which you've been placed.
Joel Brooks:All of us grow up in a certain place, in a certain family, at a certain time, with certain values. And it's important to understand all of those dynamics. So most of us here were born in the most prosperous country that has ever existed. I mean, it's it's really astounding if you think about it that that most of us here actually live like kings would have lived centuries ago. It's part of our everyday life.
Joel Brooks:I mean, we can sit on a couch for half a day in our climate controlled room. And we can, you know, be eating nachos while we binge watch something on this huge screen TV and it's not even seen as a luxury. Tell me when that has ever happened in the history of the world. That's just seen as normal. We live, we're placed in a culture that is obsessed with entertainment, obsessed with comfort.
Joel Brooks:We just need to understand that. We live in a culture that is obsessed with freedom. There has never been a society that has been more individualistic than the one that we are in today. And we place the highest value on personal freedom. So this is the current we've been placed in.
Joel Brooks:I don't say this to make us feel guilty about it. We didn't have anything to do with it. We were simply placed and born in to this, but it's a current. It's not stagnant. It is, our culture is taking us someplace and we need to be aware of where it is taking us.
Joel Brooks:What we need to realize is if if we make decisions that seem to be a good idea to everybody else who's in this current, it's likely a bad decision. If what the decisions we are making seems normal to those around us, it's likely a bad decision. The author of Hebrews says in chapter 2, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. I love that word, drift, because I found myself drifting so many times. To drift you, you don't have to do a thing.
Joel Brooks:All you have to do is just kinda lay back and let culture carry you. And then all of a sudden, you wake up and you look around, and you're miles from the truth. We need to understand cultural current in which we have been placed. 5th, we need to understand our emotions. God made us emotional beings, and emotions play a huge role in our decision making process for both the good and for the bad.
Joel Brooks:So we when we're making a decision, we need to realize what emotions are in play, And you gotta be honest when you do it, right, because nobody really wants to honestly examine the emotions that are going on when you make a decision. You don't wanna say, well, honestly, the reason I'm not inviting this person over is because I'm jealous of them, or I'm feeling envious. You don't wanna acknowledge that you're really feeling bitter or proud, but we need to be honest with ourselves. I've gotta admit that when we've been trying to decide whether we go to 3 services or not for a while now, And internally, I have really been resistance to this, really. I have tried not to to put it externally out there, but inside, I'm just going, no way.
Joel Brooks:I do not wanna do this. And I was I was having a very strong emotional reaction to wanting to go to 3 services. And then, but the more and more we're just thinking about it, people filling the membership covenant, of course, are gonna grow, people being hospitable. What are we telling people when you tell them to leave? We're planting churches.
Joel Brooks:We're doing that. We're It's not like we just wanna be the biggest, baddest church on the block. I mean, we're the only church on the block. But I still had this strong no. And so I started taking inventory of my emotions.
Joel Brooks:What was my emotion? And I was able to put a name on it. This is embarrassing to say. The name was dread. I dreaded it.
Joel Brooks:Yeah, I didn't dread the work, the extra work, or, dread all the all the other things that would have to take place for us to do 3 services. Sounds so silly. What what I dreaded was being in a room with somebody who had been part of that original 20 people who were in my house when we started the church, and them just having a conversation with me. Man, you know, I really, I loved it when we were just so small and we were back in your church. I just loved it when we were back then.
Joel Brooks:I dreaded being in a room with a person who was part of that original group. It was an irrational fear. I kind of wish we were back there many times, but this is where the Lord has taken us. And when I was able to just put a name to it, oh, that's not of the Lord. Then then, the decisions really became so much more clear.
Joel Brooks:And perhaps, many of you when you were to really look at the decisions you're making and why there's so much opposition to maybe just something. Take an inventory of what is the emotion that's driving this. Is it fear? Is it anxiety? Is it pride?
Joel Brooks:Are these emotions from the Lord? Or perhaps this is a decision that's being driven by delighting in the Lord. It's really purely my joy to do this. Take inventory of your emotions. 6th, seek counsel.
Joel Brooks:When you have a big decision that you need to make and you wanna make a wise one, seek out wise counsel. And, let me be clear about this. Seek out counsel, not allies. Seek out counsel and not allies. Don't go around just trying to find people who will agree with your bad decision.
Joel Brooks:That is not seeking counsel. Let me tell you about a common conversation that that that I have. I might I might have with somebody who comes into my office for counseling. They're they're telling me about how they're about to make some horrible, wicked decision. And you know me and how, you know, subtle I can be in things like when they're in office, and I'll say, you're making a horrible wicked decision.
Joel Brooks:And I say that, and almost all the time, I get this reaction. Like, well, I I know it's I I know it sounds wrong, and I know it's wrong for most people, but but in this particular case here, if you were to really look at this, it's it's actually okay. Most people always think they are the one exception to this. It might be wrong for all others, but they're the exception. They also think that nobody understands what's really going on except for them.
Joel Brooks:And if I really understood them, of course, I would agree. And when they present that to me, I'll often ask, have you have you sought counsel about this? And almost all of them say, yes, I have sought counsel. Alright, now now keep in mind, this can be a person, this could be a person who is leaving his wife, leaving his children, emptying all of his savings, and going off with some girl he met on a business trip. And I'll say, have you sought counsel?
Joel Brooks:And they he will say, look me in the eye and say, yes. And they've all said it's a good decision. They've all said it's a good decision. They all agree with me on this. I'm like, who are you kidding?
Joel Brooks:You're not seeking counsel, you're finding allies. You're ignoring the 95% of the people here who will point out the obvious log in your eye. How you're making a horrible decision and you're gonna find the person over here who's a model of character and say, what do you think about this? It's what we do. It's what I do.
Joel Brooks:As I try to find people who are just gonna pat me on the back and agree with the terrible decision I am making. What we need to do is deputize people, godly people who are wise and say, I have blind spots. By definition, that means I don't know what they are. Would you point them out to me? Have people who have the boldness to point out those things in you.
Joel Brooks:7, do you have a peace about this decision? Do you have a peace about this decision? Now, once again, I feel like I need to be careful because peace is the trump card that's often thrown out there. I mean, people could be in terrible financial situation. They're like, you know, I really feel like I'm supposed to empty my savings, bet it all on this one horse I got a tip from.
Joel Brooks:You know, I know it sounds crazy, but I got a real peace. You know, I got a real peace about this. That's kinda the trump card that Christians play, and and and it means don't ask any questions. I've got a peace. Boom.
Joel Brooks:Walk away. Alright. That's that's not peace. That's that's not the peace I'm talking about. That's not the peace that comes from just shutting off your brain or refusing to think through things.
Joel Brooks:It's also not the peace that comes from just making a comfortable, easy decision. If you make a decision that will lead to more comfort, a decision that will make your life easier, of course, you're gonna get a degree of peace, But it might absolutely be what God does not want you to do. I'm talking about a peace that surpasses understanding, a peace that supersedes every circumstance, a peace that comes through prayer and thanksgiving, as Paul says to the Philippians, A peace that can only come from Christ. Do you have that peace? Finally, trust God's sovereignty.
Joel Brooks:Trust God's sovereignty. If you've gone through all of these things, and you're still unsure, you still really don't know what to decide with that decision in front of you, then just rest in the fact that God knows and that he's guiding you. God hasn't set up your life like a maze, like you're a lab rat or something, and he puts you up in front of it, and you just had to kinda figure a way out. And if you make a wrong turn, you're forever messed up? If that were the case, let me go ahead and tell you, you're messed up.
Joel Brooks:Because we have all made wrong turns. But that's not how God operates. God is the one who's guiding our life. Did you know that Paul had a really hard time discerning the will of the Lord? The great apostle Paul had a hard time discerning the will of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Paul knew his general calling. God said, hey, I wanna make you a missionary to the Gentiles. You're supposed to go and share your faith with the Gentiles. He knew the general calling, but when it came to actually what that looked like, he was kinda groping in the dark at times. And he didn't know what he should do to try and please the Lord.
Joel Brooks:So we read about this in acts 16. Paul's thinking that he needs to go to Asia, because there's lots of lost people in Asia. So why not? That's where I'm gonna go. And we read this, And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
Joel Brooks:And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the spirit did not allow them. Surpassing by Mija, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night of a man of Macedonia who was standing there, urging him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. When Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. I love this story, because Paul, he gets his his general call, you know, to go to the Gentiles.
Joel Brooks:Where does this look? Well, I'm not sure. So he's going along the northern border of the Mediterranean, and he thinks, okay, it's gonna be up here in Asia. And so he tries to go north, and God keeps him from going there. God shuts the door.
Joel Brooks:We're not sure how, but he does. So Paul goes, okay, well I'll just keep going along the Mediterranean. And then then he thinks, oh, oh, okay. I need to go up here into Bythinia. But then the spirit of God keeps him from going there.
Joel Brooks:We don't we don't really know how. It's actually a strong term. Like, he's really trying to get there, but maybe God's not letting him get his passport. God's canceling flights, or God's making roadblocks to where he can't get there. But Paul wants to go, and he is continually being thwarted.
Joel Brooks:So it's like, well, okay. And so he just keeps going along the Mediterranean, so he gets to the town of Troas, which is a port city. It's likely here that he's about to take a ship and go back to Jerusalem, thinking, well, I tried. But on the other side of this bay, there is Macedonia. And so God sends this vision.
Joel Brooks:I love it. I mean, Paul, right now, he's just, he can't figure it out, so God's like, hey, Paul. This is me in Macedonia. Come over here. And Paul's like, and so he discerned that the Lord wanted him to go to Macedonia.
Joel Brooks:It's like, but I love this. Paul's like, okay, this makes sense here. Well, no. Well, okay here. Well, no.
Joel Brooks:Maybe I go back to Jerusalem. Hey, Paul this way. Oh, okay. He's trying to discern the will of the Lord, but he didn't have a clue. But what you see him is trusting in the sovereignty of God.
Joel Brooks:God God never punishes people for making a wrong decision. Let me be crystal clear about that. He is unhappy when you don't seek him in your decisions, but he's not unhappy with you for making a wrong decision, because he can make every wrong decision right. That's what he does with Paul. The image I have is a moving car is easier to steer than one that is parked.
Joel Brooks:And so Paul's like, I think this, and he starts moving. God redirects. Well, I think this, and keeps moving. And he redirects and he redirects. And so finally, Paul gets in the right place.
Joel Brooks:Paul trusted in God's sovereignty. Some of you are not making any decisions. And you know why? But it's not. When we have a decision before us, and we've gone through all of these things, and we really don't know, we can say, Lord, you know I want to please you.
Joel Brooks:You know I want to serve you, and the best decision I can make, and it might be wrong, is this. And we do it, and we trust God to make that decision right. I love it, and one of the the biggest decisions that the apostles made after Judas had gone and he hung himself, Peter gets together with all the apostles, and he's like, hey, we need to replace Judas. I'm like, alright. And, you know, there are certain criteria and 2 people fit this criteria That's how they made their decision because all things were equal to them.
Joel Brooks:And I love it, we actually don't know if they made the right decision or not. The bible is actually quiet on it. But what they were doing was trying to discern and please the Lord. Some people actually think they made the wrong decision and that's why God brought in Paul. I don't think that, by the way.
Joel Brooks:But we need to have this trust in the sovereignty of God that he is God and that we are not. And I hope you realize how freeing that is. Freeing. Some of you have stood at the precipice of a decision for so long, and you're just scared to death. They're gonna mess up your entire life.
Joel Brooks:God is worried so much more about what's going on in here, not the outcome of that. He's in control. Alright. So what do you do if you've made a bad decision? I would guess that 100% of the people here have made a bad decision before.
Joel Brooks:Some of you are in here right now going, no. I haven't made a bad decision. I'm in the midst of horrible decision making right now. And you've heard this and you're just like, crud. Okay.
Joel Brooks:I wish I'd heard that years ago. What should I do? 1st, I would say is repent. Repent where you need to repent, and then trust that God causes all things to work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. That God can even take your horrible decisions, and he can use them for his glory, and that your life is in no way thwarted.
Joel Brooks:It's in no way off the rails, that God is in control. And realize that the blood of Jesus covers every sinful decision you have ever made. God's grace is so glorious, and it's even on top of just covering your sin. His grace is so glorious that even will take your bad decisions and use them for His good. What a glorious gospel we believe.
Joel Brooks:If you would, pray with me. Our Father, I I pray for every person here that you would put in us a delight for you. You say through the psalmist, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give us the desires of our heart. And what that means is if we delight in you, you place in us desires. And we wanna delight in you, and then we want to have desires for you.
Joel Brooks:Give us those desires. And, lord, I pray that in all that we do, we would try to discern what pleases you, not go through a laundry list of things, but really that we would want to know what can make you smile. And when we fail, and we will fail, Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are in control of our mistakes, and even when they are sinful mistakes, that we willingly choose your blood covers us. And we are so ever grateful for you. Thank you now.
Joel Brooks:Thank you for our time together with your word. Thank you for your spirit who does guide us. We pray this all in your name, Jesus. Amen.