July 28, 2025 |
Sunday Morning
Proverbs 24:13-14 | How Do We Discern God's Will for the Future?
Colby Flowers |
Proverbs 24:13-14
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Hey church.
How are we doing?
Oh, we gotta do that again.
Good morning church. How are we doing?
It’s good to be with you
all this morning.
We have so much to celebrate
already in us in the service.
And can we just give it up again
for those who are baptized
and just thank God for what he’s doing?
It’s a privilege to be
the student pastor here
at Valley View Church.
My name is Colby Flowers.
And I’m delighted
to serve with our students
and our young adults.
But from time to time, I get up here
and say a few syllables.
And so I’m thankful for the opportunity
to share God’s Word with you
this morning. In fact,
we took a little break hiatus
from the Book of Proverbs,
but now we’re back in it to wrap it up
this summer,
we’re going to be heading
into another book of the Bible
here in the fall,
but we are finishing up
our Book of Proverbs series.
And today,
as we started to,
we’re covering
topics or ideas
that we see as really important
and fundamental
that come from the book of Proverbs.
And so today we’re going
to be talking about
future decisions, making decisions,
and how to discern, what that looks like.
But last Sunday,
I bravely took a group
of our boys, students
to kayak and canoe in Prospect, Kentucky.
So we went up there.
We rented some kayaks.
And don’t worry,
I did take a couple leaders,
would make sure
that we had eyes on everybody.
But,
I don’t know if you ever been
to Fort Harrod’s Creek.
Or Harrod’s Creek. I’m sorry.
It’s pretty cool place
I’ve never been before, so I was going
in, not having an expectation
of what it looked like,
how deep it was, or anything like that.
And so as I’m getting the canoes rented,
I asked the person
who I was getting the kayaks from.
You know, which way do I go?
Because there is two ways
I could go left.
I could go right.
So she explained to me,
if you go right, you’re
going to go to the river.
If you go
left, that’ll
be, the creek
and you’ll see some cool places.
In fact,
she said,
you will find a park on the left
as you go down.
And that’s a good spot to stop.
And then turn around and come back,
because we’re only allotted
a certain amount of time.
So we didn’t want to go too far
and then not have a time to get back.
So I was like, all right, great.
So before I finished talking with them,
boys were already strapped in
in their kayaks
and they’re going towards the river.
Okay, I had to call out to them “boys,
that way, left.”
So they eventually they turned around.
And then of course,
if you know boys
and I’m sure some of you do,
they start paddling as hard
as they can straight ahead.
And it’s kind of like this, paddle
now, ask questions later type of thing.
They just were paddling
and they had no idea
where they were going,
and I didn’t even know
where they were going.
So I took some concern to
that, I had to get out in front of them.
And,
I don’t have as much energy as them.
But it took me a little bit,
but I get up out in front of them
to kind of help navigate as best I can,
but then we come to a fork in the creek.
She never mentioned
anything about a fork,
so I had to use my best judgment
in that moment to discern where to go.
So I’m looking.
I’m seeing what’s in front of me
as best I can.
Well, I said,
all right, we’re just going to stay
right.
Well, luckily
it was a good decision
as I’ll get to in a second.
So we stay, right.
We keep on going to the creek.
And we’ve already, at this point
used up half of our time.
So now we got to make a decision.
Do we just keep going full
head of steam
and possibly not
be able to get back in time?
Or do we actually have to make a decision
to stop and figure out where to go?
Well, we find
a limb that’s hanging over the creek,
and then we notice
that there’s little footholds
and pieces of wood attached to the tree,
and we notice a big old rope swing.
This was our sign from
God that we needed to stop here.
So we stopped.
The boys put their kayaks out on the side.
One by one
they’re climbing up there
and bravely jumping off.
I say bravely.
A couple of them took a little bit.
They were a little scared,
but all of our boys
got on there, jumped off.
In fact,
one of them got on the rope swing
and I swear
I thought he was going to die
when he let go of that rope.
But he survived, I promise.
No, everybody came back, okay.
But it kind of
reminded me
and gave me this
feeling of it’s hard
to make decisions in the unknown,
is it not?
Sometimes when we’re facing a situation
where we don’t have all the facts,
we don’t have all the details.
We can’t see that far into the future
unless you all know how to tell me,
because I love
I really benefit from that.
But we we sometimes really struggle
to make decisions
for something that we don’t know.
We’re unknown to it.
And so the book of Proverbs helps us
discern that process of making decisions.
So here’s what we’re going to see.
There’s the question
that I’m going to ask
and answer this morning is how do we
discern God’s will for the future?
How do you discern your
will or God’s will for your life,
for the future?
That is the immediate.
That is the long term.
How do I go about making these decisions
when I don’t have all the answers?
The picture is unclear
and I don’t know what to do.
The book of Proverbs certainly helps us,
and I’m
hopefully going to break down
some misconceptions
about how we can discern God’s will.
Because I sometimes I’ve gone about it
the wrong way.
My life is written with ways
in which you’re not supposed to go.
So I’m going to hopefully share
with you from God’s Word
the Book of Proverbs today.
I believe the best way
to make decisions
in discerning God’s will. Amen?
So here’s our main idea.
Our big point
that we’re going to accomplish today.
Okay,
so to discern God’s will for your life,
your future decisions,
we must receive God’s wisdom.
We must build
and receive a godly character.
And last
but not least,
we need to receive wise counsel.
These three things
the Book of Proverbs helps us underline.
Also the book.
The Bible as a whole
also does the same thing.
But this morning
we’re going to be running
around the book of Proverbs a little bit.
So if you’ve got the handout,
that will be helpful.
If you don’t,
the words will be up here
just to help you.
But we’re going to be first in Proverbs
chapter 24 verses 13 and 14.
And this is God’s Word this morning.
And it says,
my son,
eat honey, for it is good.
And the drippings of the honeycomb
are sweet to your taste.
Know that wisdom is such to your soul.
If you find it,
there will be a here’s our word future
and your hope will not be cut off.
So in these two verses,
the writer of Proverbs
right here is comparing wisdom to honey
Honey’s good for you.
Honey is sweet to the taste,
and like honey, wisdom is for your soul.
Wisdom to your soul is sweet.
Wisdom to your soul is good.
It benefits you.
And not only that, the result.
What the verse says
is that you will have a future,
a good future with hope.
Wisdom helps you navigate the future
so that you can make the best decisions
for you,
your family, your communities and so on.
So understand here that biblical wisdom.
It secures us a hopeful future.
But here’s why.
Because it leads us on God’s path.
That’s what
biblical wisdom will always do for you.
The wisdom that we find in the Bible
will always lead you on God’s path.
And as we’re going to see, it
doesn’t lead you on your path.
This is so crucial
when we talk about this whole idea
of making decisions,
because I am the foremost example
of what not to do.
I remember
growing up
and playing
baseball my whole life
in my one dream,
my path, my will, my decision,
my plan was
I wanted to play baseball
for the rest of my life at any cost
until I started getting injured.
Here comes God’s plan.
I had four shoulder
injuries, ended up
having surgery in college, did not.
But eight months later
I hurt my other shoulder
to have surgery on that one.
So two shoulder surgeries within a year.
Then God was telling me, hey,
baseball is too big in your life.
You need to make a change.
Instead,
in that moment, God led me to the gospel
I heard.
I believed, I accepted Christ,
and from there he slowly started drifting
and changing my path
to follow him into ministry.
If I were to live
and go after my own path,
I assure you I wouldn’t
be here in front of you today.
I don’t know where I would be,
but it was God’s path
through biblical wisdom
and God working in my life
that I’m here today.
And I praise God every day for that.
But here’s the problem
we sometimes get locked into our path,
our plan, our decisions.
You want me to share with you
what the Book of Proverbs
says about that?
Proverbs 19:21 –
Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the Lord
that will stand.
You may have a lot of plans up here
intellectually, logically,
scheming, planning, even budgeting.
Those things aren’t bad.
But if we are solely relying on
what’s up here,
God will straighten
your path out really quick.
It is the purpose of the Lord
that will stand.
We can plan as much as we want,
but ultimately it’s
what God wants that will happen.
Proverbs 16:1- the plans of the heart
belong to a man,
but the answer of the tongue is from
the Lord. Proverbs 16:1.
So it’s
not just an intellectual planning,
it’s your desires.
It’s your emotions, it’s your feelings.
I feel like I should go this way.
I have this urge,
this desire to go this way in life.
But listen, it’s really God who controls
what happens in the tongue,
in your life, in your body.
It’s his plan
that will ultimately come to fruition.
And we’ve got a decision.
We either go with God or go against God.
It says here in Proverbs 16:9,
the heart of man plans his ways
way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
Maybe some of
you have come this morning
and you feel like your steps
are not established.
Ground shaky beneath your feet.
Things aren’t working out
the way that you want them to.
Maybe that’s a time to say, okay, God,
am I walking in your path or my path?
Have you established
my steps
or am I trying to establish my own steps?
Even the song we sung today
that I will build my life on God,
the foundation under my feet
that will never be shaken.
Or you can choose your own foundations.
Last but not least, Proverbs 20:24–
A man’s steps are from the Lord.
How then can can man understand his way?
This is interesting.
If your steps in your life are actually
God’s will and God’s path for your life,
then how can we even understand them?
It’s very interesting.
So my four year old likes to play
board games.
So one of the games we like to play
a lot is Candyland.
Anybody play Candyland? Anybody?
It’s a good it’s a good game. It’s solid.
So premise of the game is
you have your little game
token, you’re on the board
and you flip a card
and that gives you a color
and that tells you what space to go to.
But my daughter has the habit
of flipping over that card,
seeing that color,
but then going to the color
she wants to go to.
And so I as a parent, I can easily say,
okay, fine,
you can go to the spot you want.
It’s not that big of a deal,
but if you all know anything about me,
I am a rule follower.
If there is a rule in a
game, it’s being kept.
So I don’t care if you’re
4 or 34, okay, the rule’s being kept.
So I have to tell her.
Honey, sweetie, darling,
that’s the wrong space.
You need to go back.
And sometimes she sells herself short.
So I say you need to go forward.
But it’s sort of like this where we think
we are to go to this space.
But God wants us in another space.
And sometimes
he has to do the hard work
of getting you there.
And that hurts sometimes.
Amen.
My wife is full of it.
When I thought I was in the space
I needed to be,
but God knew
it would need to be different.
His path and plane were different, so he
has to move me.
Friends,
this is almost
like saving God time in a way.
I want to go where you are, God.
I want to go on the space
and path that you have for me. So.
So listen to this point this morning.
You’re scheming and planning alone
will only get you so far, because it is
God’s
purposes and plans
that are going to stand.
It is God’s plan and purpose,
this cosmic purpose
that he has for your life.
You and I may be playing chat
or checkers,
but God’s playing chess
on a cosmic, eternal level.
God sees things from beginning before
there was nothing, and to the end
when there will be nothing.
God has all of this
figured out and planned out
and for us to say it’s alright
God, I got this.
You’re going to end up in a place
that you don’t want to be.
First point for you this morning,
if you want to discern
God’s will for the future,
you must do this-
delight in God’s wisdom
and plan for your life.
You’ve probably heard it,
heard it that it was said.
Some of you have probably experienced it.
But God’s plan for your life
is much better than your own plan.
So we should take delight in God’s plan
for our life first,
and his wisdom that he’s given to us.
We should trust in God’s wisdom.
Proverbs 3:5 right?
Y’all know the verse.
We shouldn’t
be relying on our own understanding.
This isn’t a life
that we should be navigating on our own.
But it is God’s wisdom
that will get you where you need to go.
So as we consider this idea
of how to discern God’s will,
the first thing is
you have to go with God’s
wisdom in his plan first.
Some of you
this morning may be trying to go about it
according to your plan,
but maybe God has you here for a reason.
This morning, folks.
Maybe he has a
has you here for a reason
because he wants you
to turn to his plan and not yours.
But as we think about this too,
the question begs to be asked, well,
okay, Colby. It’s good.
You know, I want to discern
God’s will for the future.
Well,
why doesn’t
God just tell me
exactly what I need to do?
Why doesn’t he give me, like, a clear, exact
answer of exactly
how I’m supposed to live?
Well,
let me give you something here
this morning,
because I think we might know this,
but sometimes we overlook it.
But even in the Bible,
God’s word, God’s wisdom
is not always prescriptive,
meaning God’s Bible, God’s word
doesn’t always give you exactly step
by step how to do something,
but what it does give you
is principles to live by.
That’s the entire book of Proverbs.
For instance, I’ll give you an example.
God commands us to work.
It is a good thing to work,
but God’s not going to lay out
in the Bible
exactly
where you need to go to get a job.
Yes, God restricts
us from certain things,
like being a thief or being a prostitute,
but God is not going to lay out,
hey, you need to go into
mechanical engineering.
You need to go work at Big O Tires.
You need to go work at chick fil
A, although that’s a good place
to start with God’s will. But.
But
God isn’t always going to lay out
exactly, perfectly step by step
what you’re supposed to do.
But he gives us guiding principles.
And there are times in Scripture
where God gives a prescriptive, perfect,
step on how to do that.
Sure.
But when we’re talking about some things,
how do I make a decision
when God is not perfectly giving me
every step and every clear answer?
I’m glad you asked.
Let’s look at the book Proverbs, verse 11
or chapter 11, verse three.
Look what this says.
The integrity of the upright guides them.
Notice what that says.
The integrity
of the upright guides them.
What guides them, their integrity.
Another word could be character.
This word literally means
perfect, complete, pure.
It means something like
your moral compass is perfect.
So to have a moral integrity
on the inside, it guides you how to live.
Does that make sense? Other part. Other.
The opposite end is also true,
but the crookedness of the
treacherous destroys them.
The word here for
crookedness literally means
someone who takes things
and twists them to get what they want.
A treacherous person
is someone
who looks at their life
and wants to twist and turn moral,
moral things
good and bad
so that they can get what they want
and they can navigate how they want.
You see that?
This is what these verses mean,
that your character on the inside matters.
When you’re making decisions,
what’s on the inside matters a lot.
Look at this in Proverbs 12 verse five.
The thoughts of the righteous are just.
What does that mean?
A just person has righteous
thoughts on the inside.
They think right righteously after God.
But the counsels of the wicked
are deceitful.
Those who are wicked
have deceitful counsels
and advice and directions.
So if you can just see from
these two verses
alone, here’s what this means.
Our internal character
will guide our decisions, actions
and words.
Meaning who you are internally
will guide your actions,
your choices, your words.
Because I think sometimes
what we do is let me fix the outside.
Let me worry about making
better decisions on the outside.
When really
we need to focus on
what’s going on in the inside,
because that’s what it comes from.
Does that make sense?
We need to fix the inside
before we go to the outside.
But there’s also this idea,
I think too as Christians, as we
sometimes will pray this
God, give me a sign,
give me a sign, God,
so that I know what I need to do.
Put it on a billboard
as I’m driving by and I see it –go here.
Got it. That’s where I’m going.
Or God, give me this
clear, obvious, big miraculous sign.
Does God do that?
Has he done that?
Of course.
How did God appear to Moses?
In a burning bush.
That’s a pretty big sign, right?
How did
how did Jesus reveal himself to Paul?
Jesus came down
and literally
stood in front of him in his blazing
glory and blinded him.
That’s a pretty big sign.
So does God do that?
Of course he does.
Is that what he normally does?
No.
I think sometimes we get into this,
frame of thinking
that if I just pray for a sign
that God’s
going to give me this miraculous sign
right here, right now, and he may.
But often that’s not how God operates.
God intent actually operates
through your internal character,
your integrity.
And he does that over external
signs and miracles,
because there’s something
about God’s Word
being pressed onto your heart
that becomes powerful,
because you may go down the street
and look at a billboard
and see something that you think is God,
but it’s actually not.
Verse John four says, test
the Spirit’s test what you hear.
Test what’s on your heart
to make sure it’s from God.
And friends,
how do you test those things?
God’s word.
Look at this in Jeremiah 17:9–
The heart is deceitful above all things.
Yikes.
And not only that,
and it’s desperately sick.
It’s because of that.
The question is asked
who can understand their heart?
Meaning your feelings,
your emotions, your planning,
your scheming.
They aren’t bad things,
but they’re not a God thing.
Because they’re desperately sick.
You and I are
are still dealing with the issue of sin
in our practical life.
It’s still an issue as we walk
because we’re still going
to struggle with it.
But if I can say this this morning,
your emotions
can be a passenger to your decisions, but
it can’t be the driver.
Your emotions are good, but
they should not be
the primary vehicle
to get you to where you need to go.
Your emotions are highly subjective
and even signs
and other
things can be highly subjective.
That’s why they cannot be the driver,
they only the passenger
to your decisions. Does that make sense?
So we’ve got to be careful.
Can God use your your emotions
and feelings to guide you in your life?
Sure.
But should that be the primary way
you make decisions? No.
Emotions and feelings are God given.
Signs can bring a powerful means
for God to work in your life,
but God
normally will work
through your character.
And here’s the danger, friends.
Proverbs 16:25.
If this doesn’t scare
you, I don’t know what will.
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but it’s end is the way to death.
Think about that.
You may be on a path in your life
right now
that you think is right, but it’s not.
So the question you got to ask yourself,
how do I know the decisions
in the path of my life
right now are good?
Well, here’s what I would say.
What does your character on the inside
in God’s Word say?
So if I could bring this to a point,
your compass for making decisions,
that is this internal compass
of how you make decisions,
it should come from the godly character
that God is slowly impressing on you.
Does that make sense?
God is impressing on your heart,
on your internal soul,
his godly character,
so that you can make wise decisions.
That is your compass.
It’s your
compass for making those decisions.
Otherwise, we’re working off
of very subjective things.
God delights
in putting his character
on your heart, friends,
and he does it through the word.
And we’re going to get to that
in just seconds.
So here’s my second
point for us
this morning to pursue a godly character
or insight to discern
God’s will for your life.
We need to pursue a godly character.
Instead of worrying about all
the external things,
what if you started working on your heart
and letting God do the heart work?
What if you daily got in the word,
spent time in prayer
and let God shape you inside
so that the decisions on the external,
the outside don’t make a lot more sense.
Here’s a beautiful quote from Tim Keller
I couldn’t say it
any better than than him, and this point.
Says the more we know God,
ourselves, the human heart,
the order of creation,
the times and seasons,
the more we will have the wisdom
to good decisions,
to make good decisions.
Does that make sense?
The more you know God,
the more you know yourself,
the more you know
how creation is ordered.
What is good and bad?
The more you know
the culture and the times, and the seasons,
and how things work,
you will make better decisions.
And you know where those things are
shown to you?
God’s word.
So that’s why
we’re so passionate
about God’s Word, about you.
That’s why I want more scripture
mentioned in a sermon
and on the screen that
I say in my own words,
because if it’s not coming from God’s
Word, I’m giving you really bad advice
friends.
God’s word has the answers for you.
So the question is asked too, well,
how do I pursue a godly character?
How do I get it?
Two ways, ready for this?
Number one, I can’t say it enough.
It’s through his word.
Friends, this morning,
if you want an answered the decisions
you have to make in the future
and even in the immediate begin
the heart work right now in God’s Word.
God can turn your heart
and give you wisdom
and give you discernment more
and any more than anything.
Then in God’s Word,
get in the Word of God.
And as I say, I’ll
get the Word of God in you.
And here’s a couple examples
for cross references.
I can spend a lot of time on this,
but just just for our time this morning.
Proverbs two verse six,
for the Lord gives wisdom
from his mouth.
That is, his word
come knowledge and understanding.
He stores up sound
wisdom for the upright.
He is a shield
to those who walk in integrity,
guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints.
And look what verse nine says.
Then you will understand righteousness
and justice and equity.
Every good path
you’re praying right now.
God, where do you want me to go?
You want understanding?
Get in God’s Word and get it in you.
It will equip you.
It will strengthen you.
It will transform your mind.
It will put you in the place
where God wants you,
because it’s working on your heart,
and it’s transforming
you to be more like Jesus.
It starts there.
Number two,
second way through
godly habits.
How does God build a godly character
in you?
It’s through forming godly habits.
Second Peter one is is a cross-reference.
You can look at later.
But look at this in second Timothy three.
It’s on the screen.
But as for you, continue
in what you have learned
and firmly believed,
knowing from whom you have learned it.
Paul spent a great deal of time teaching
Timothy.
Timothy had a mom
and a grandmother
who were faithful believers
who taught him.
So what Paul saying here is keep going.
Build habits to grow and to learn.
And as he says in
another part of the book, fan into flame
the gift of God.
Keep going.
Some of you,
I think
this morning,
just need to reestablish good habits
with your relationship with God.
Look at this quote from
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
This is a great quote as well.
Sow a thought
and you reap an action.
Sow an act and you reap a habit,
sow a habit and you reap, as we
talked about, a character.
Sow a character and you reap a destiny.
It starts with your thoughts.
It starts with your desires.
It starts with your day by day,
giving God the room
to mold you into being Christlike.
And eventually
you know where it ends up?
In your destiny.
So if I can put it this way, character
is won or lost in the little things.
Your character is being built
each and every day.
In fact, every decision you make
is putting you on a path
just for just for,
just for fun.
Think to yourself how many decisions
does the average person make every day?
And don’t Google it.
Don’t you be cheating.
I’m watching your hands.
Think to yourself,
maybe even say
to the person, to your left
and to your right,
how many decisions
does the average person
make every single day?
Go and tell them.
Tell your neighbor.
Go and tell your neighbor.
Because I want to make sure
we get some accountability on this, okay?
And Pastor John can’t say it
because he’s already he already knows.
Or do you forget? Okay.
All right,
all right.
You ready?
35,000 decisions
every day.
That is decisions
you make habitually like
it’s decisions you make.
And you don’t even have to really think
about them.
Things that you make quickly.
Like you’re in the drive thru
and you want to know
if you want the number one
or the number two,
the decisions
to how am I going to pay my bills,
how am I going to disciple my kids?
The decision to turn on the TV
or get in God’s word?
Like we make
up to an over 35,000 decisions a day.
You know what that means.
You have
35,000 opportunities
to put yourself on a path.
Do you hear me
this morning, church?
You have 35,000 opportunities
to put yourself on a path
either to Christlikeness or worldliness,
to trusting your path or God’s path.
Every decision
you make puts you somewhere,
even the small ones.
Which is why
if you have godly habits
formed in your life,
which is a never ending process,
you will make better decisions.
Do you hear me
church?
Character is won
or lost in the little things.
This is
so crucial for us to understand.
It’s not based off of big external signs.
It’s not based off our emotions.
It’s based off of God slowly
pressing into you
His character.
So last third point
I’ve got for it this morning.
I want to give you a couple verses
and wrap it up with some advice.
But here.
This I think, is sometimes overlooked.
So Proverbs 15:22.
Here’s a third way that we can discern
God’s will– without counsel
plans fail,
but with many advisors they succeed.
If you are trusting on your own personal,
individual, intellectual counsel,
plans often fail.
I mean, it’s small.
Something going to YouTube
to learn how to fix something
is is adding counsel to your life.
But when we bring other people’s
voices and wisdom
and experiences into our life,
we are a lot more likely
to make wise decisions. Amen?
Proverbs 12:15–
The way of a fool is right
in his own eyes,
but a wise man listens to advice.
In other words,
this is a hard headed person.
That’s what a fool is.
They hear what is good,
but then they do the opposite
because they want to keep
going in this direction.
But wise people,
they pause and listen to advice.
They welcome advice,
they seek for advice.
And I can’t tell you how many times
we probably talked about this
in the series in the book of Proverbs.
But it’s important
definitely here
when we’re making decisions.
So think to yourself,
who are the people
that I go to for advice?
And if that list is less than three,
look around.
You have some godly people in this room.
You have people
I hope in your life groups.
If you don’t have a life group,
that’s what life groups are for.
When you’re
concerned about your children’s
spiritual health,
when you’re concerned about
how to make ends meet,
when you’re concerned
about how to balance life,
I can tell you where
there’s some answers.
It’s probably in the room
that you could be sitting in
as you’re looking at God’s Word.
It’s in your life groups,
it’s in your families,
it’s in your friends, those who are wise.
And you got to be careful
about that, too.
You got to know who to get advice from.
Here’s my third and final point.
If you want to discern
God’s will for the future,
you need to seek wise counsel.
Notice I didn’t say seek counsel.
There’s plenty of counselors out there.
Just go to TikTok.
Go to YouTube.
Go to my students.
Don’t don’t do that.
I’m just kidding.
They’re really smart.
Sometimes.
There are plenty of good,
wise counselors in this church
that want to pour into your life.
So let me give you
three pieces of advice.
These are really practical
pieces of advice for you this morning.
Three pieces of advice.
If you’re struggling with this issue,
as I have,
I have had to grow
in a lot of these areas.
But I want to give me
three pieces of advice. Okay. You ready?
Everybody ready?
Pray more than you plan.
I think I spent more time
trying to plan my life than pray
to the God who who gave his life for me.
I need to pray more than I try to scheme.
So what if you prayed first
then you planned?
God help me understand this.
Then help me make these decisions.
Prayer is
I didn’t
speak about it
much in the message,
but prayer is so crucial
when making decisions.
You should bathe your decisions in prayer,
and we ought to always
don’t have time to make time for prayer,
because life’s hitting us really quickly
and we have to make split
second decisions.
But for the most part,
we can pray about those decisions
that we have.
So pray more than you plan.
Second thing, consume God’s Word
more than your screens.
We are in a epidemic today.
I’m reading a book right now
called Anxious Generation,
and it details
the destructive nature of phones
and screens to our young people.
But before I get to my
young people, adults,
we face that every day too.
Your screen could be the death of you.
Your screen can be the death
of your relationship with Christ,
to your family, to your marriage.
How dare we say
I’m going to plan my life
and I’m going to keep on scrolling.
But you know what?
What if you formed a godly habit
to put that phone
and before you even
picked it up in the morning,
the first thing you did when you woke
up, your knees hit the ground
and you opened up God’s word.
And you looked and said, God
help me navigate today
the little and the big.
Show me what you want from me
in your word today,
and I guarantee you he’ll answer.
Instead of the first thing you do
when you get up in the morning.
Check my notifications.
Get in the word church.
Third,
listen to the Holy Spirit
more than yourself.
Scripture is clear
do not quench the Holy Spirit.
Don’t operate
in opposite direction of the Holy Spirit.
Listen to the Holy Spirit in your life,
and some of you are probably thinking
how do I listen to the Holy Spirit?
Great question.
It’s by listening
enough to God’s Word,
and then you listen to the Holy Spirit
speaking in you.
I’ve never heard
the audible voice of God,
but I hear the Holy Spirit daily,
thankfully, because of God’s Word.
And here’s something so true
the Holy Spirit
will never contradict the Bible.
If you’re listening to the Holy Spirit
and it says, do this,
you find it in God’s Word.
You shouldn’t be doing that.
That’s not the Holy Spirit.
If you’re listening to the Holy Spirit
and you confirm it with God’s Word,
you know who that is, Holy Spirit.
So it’s just another reason
why you need to be in the word.
You really can’t listen fervently
and honestly to the Holy Spirit
unless you’ve got God’s Word.
So listen, friends,
God’s Word, the Holy Spirit in prayer
will change the way
that you make decisions,
but it is the day by day
push to become more like Christ.
Here’s your challenge this morning.
Which of these things
do you need to pursue harder?
Which of these three
do you need to pursue harder?
God’s wisdom,
a godly character,
or last but not least, wise counsel?
Let’s pray.
Father,
I’m up here today
preaching about a topic and an
and an issue
that I don’t have fully worked out
that I stand before you as an imperfect
man who needs your wisdom daily.
God,
I need your power to become a godly man.
And I certainly need
other wise believers, men and women
of the faith to help me discern
what’s next.
Without it, I am hopeless.
But God, your wisdom is like honey
that is sweet to my soul
and will give me a future.
And God,
I pray this morning
that we would be humble enough
to say, God,
I don’t have my life figured out
and I can’t plan in my life,
but today I’m coming to you.
And even today, father,
there may be people in this room
who were living their own life
and had never come to you for salvation.
As we
beautifully got to
witness three young people
who have given their life to Christ
display it in baptism
that today
there might be someone who says,
I’ve been walking my own path,
but now I need to walk in God’s
path for my life. And the first place
that begins, God,
is to confess and believe in Jesus.
Today
I ask if there’s someone in this room
who has not confessed
and believed that they today
right now would do it,
and that they would find someone
before they leave to come and share it.
God, I pray for everyone in this room
that any decision
that they have to make coming up
big and small.
God, the things that are scaring people,
the things that keep us up at night,
that you would give them wisdom,
a godly character
and wise counsel to take the next step.
And we have a God
who raised Jesus from the dead
and you have the power
to provide all that we need in our life.
We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus.
Amen.
