Greater Than: God Has a Greater Plan for My Life - Full Service

have you ever done something that you regret have you ever made a decision that you thought was good in the moment but didn't turn out to be all that great in the long run if so you're in luck this service is for you welcome to sagebrush church we're so glad you're joining us today this week we're continuing our series called greater than if you've missed any of the previous weeks of this series you can always catch up or watch them again on the sagebrush app on our youtube channel or at sagebrush.church watch today we're going to talk about the three questions we need to ask before we make a decision if you can ask these three questions it will help you make wise decisions and have fewer regrets if you know someone who could use this message please share it right now speaking of decisions this weekend we are celebrating everyone who has made the decision to go public with their faith by getting baptized if you're interested in getting baptized you can sign up for our next baptism service at sagebrush.church baptism well we're about to start the service so go ahead and get your message notes ready in your sagebrush app as we get ready to sing together [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] let's sing this out together behold the lamb of god who takes away my sin who died [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] empty [Music] oh she cannot accuse me [Music] for the trees [Music] who died [Music] beyond the king of grace who washed my guilt away and he overwhelmed the grave [Music] oh [Music] once [Music] [Applause] once [Music] the way that you work in my life [Music] again hallelujah [Applause] [Music] well today's a special day because as we continue singing we get to cheer on these people who are coming forth to publicly profess their love for jesus through baptism so let's cheer them on as we continue singing together come on come on [Music] drink of the water come on you sinners come find his mercy come to the table he will satisfy the taste of his goodness find [Music] [Music] is whoever believes in him will live forever your addictions come lay them down at the foot of the cross jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] forever defeated now it is [Music] god [Music] for the wonders of his love praise god praise god praise god [Music] the world that he gave us his one and only son to save for god so loved the world that he gave us is [Music] of hell forever defeated now it is well i'm walking and free [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] jesus jesus our redemption our salvation is in his blood yes it is jesus [Music] friend forever [Music] hold it up fix your eyes on this one truth god is manly in love with you so take courage hold on be strong [Music] [Applause] [Music] remember [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh we lift it up one voice we sing swing wide all you heavens let's lift the praise right now you're singing with me [Music] let the praise go up as the walls come down all creation everything with breath repeat the sound all his children clean hands bureaucrat grace good god his name is jesus [Music] his name is [Music] [Music] [Music] yes [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] repeat the sound [Music] jesus our redemption our salvation is in his blood thank you jesus and jesus [Music] his kingdom comes you've seen what you can do oh god of wonders your power has no end the things you've done before in greater measure [Music] you will do again cause there's no reason why you can't break through no mountain you can't move all things are possible there's no broken body you can't raise no soul that you can't save all things are possible the darkest night you can light it up [Music] death is overcome [Music] victory and [Music] so why should my heart feel what you defeated i will trust in you alone cause there's no prison wall you can't break through no mountain you can't [Music] there's no broken body you can't raise no soul that you can't say all things [Music] oh [Music] [Music] combo [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] i [Music] you can light it up [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] i [Applause] oh god we come in here today bringing all of who we are all of our hopes and dreams all of our goals and aspirations god and we surrender them to your will god we want what you want we're just saying the things that you've done before in greater measure you will do again god you've given us a million reasons to trust you you are our refuge god and we can we can trust in your plan even if we don't know that whole plan god we pray that you'd reveal the next step for each of us i pray that that would begin even now speak to us lord it's in your name that we pray jesus amen thanks for sticking with us you can go ahead and have a seat every day we have countless decisions to make that will directly affect our future from the little things like what am i going to wear tomorrow to the big things like what are we going to eat after this is over we have budgets calendars spreadsheets 5 10 even 20 year plans but those plans we make often change those goals we set shift and the dreams we have fade let me ask you a question we know every choice we make is a step in a direction but do we even know which direction we're going so when you look at your life what's the plan well i want to welcome everybody here today and everybody join us on the stream and on tv we're glad that you're a part of the sagebrush family we're in the middle of a series called greater than we've looked so far that god's love is greater than anything we've ever dreamed or imagined we've also looked at the uh god is greater than our greatest fear and greater than our greatest worry and today we're talking about that god can make greater decisions for our life uh than we can now one of the things that i know about the human condition is that we struggle at making good decisions from time to time got on the internet and i found some pictures of people who struggle to make good decisions here's a picture right there for you i don't know if you can see that as a reason everybody has a hazmat suit might not be an opportunity for a photo op you know what i mean at that point in time that's not a good decision right there let me let me show you another one this guy probably thought in his head that this was a good idea but that's not a good idea that's not a good decision how about this one this is for all the folks who love evil knievel okay good decision kid on the bicycle bad decision kid under the bicycle that's not a good decision by any stretch of the man i used to do that when i was a kid that was so much fun let me show you another one another bad decision this is why women live longer than men right there that's the number one reason and this is also another reason why women live longer than a man what in the world is he thinking right there using the ladder in that way and then we have this picture as well you know it's kind of interesting when i was looking for pictures it kind of showed that a woman makes bad decisions i couldn't find a single picture on the internet of a woman making it isn't that the craziest thing you've ever heard well here's what the bible says friends there's a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death now that's true wouldn't it look at that look at the totality of your life and all the bad decisions that you've made maybe you made bad decisions with money maybe you spent money on something you shouldn't have spent money on you bought a car that you later regretted bought a house that you later regretted maybe you went out on a date and you thought to yourself what in the world was i thinking going on this day maybe i had a deal that wasn't the deal that you thought that it should be but you thought you were doing the right thing didn't you i mean there's a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death why is that because we have a way of convincing ourselves that bad decisions are good decisions you ever said anything like this it's not that big of a deal it's just this one time nobody's ever going to get hurt you ever say any of those things to yourself that's when you know that you are in serious trouble and then when we make a bad decision we find ourselves on a dead end reminds me of a story of a guy who was driving his car and he wanted to pull into this one particular street but there was a sign right there that said street closed bridge out well he kind of looked down the road a little bit to see what the world was going on and as far as the eye could see it looked like the road was absolutely fine so he thought well maybe it's an old sign maybe the bridge isn't really out really want to go this direction so he headed that way drove about four or five miles and wouldn't you know it he got to the place where the bridge was completely out it was completely impassable so the guy's got to turn his car around got to go all the way back four or five miles he gets back to where the sign was by the street that said bridge out and on the back of it someone had written welcome back stupid friends that sums us up doesn't it we think we're going the right direction we think that we've made the right decision but in the end it leads to death or it leads to regret so what we're talking about today is of the utmost importance because every single one of us are going to make a ton of decisions from the columbia university there was a professor that said that the average person makes about 70 conscious decisions every single day did you know that did you know you make 70 conscious decisions every single day i'm not talking about no-brainer decisions no-brainer decisions like should i shower should i put on deodorant should i brush my teeth i'm talking to you middle schooler the answer is yes to all of those all right these are bigger decisions that you have you're actually consciously deciding which direction you're going to go we make 70 of those decisions every single day in the course of a year that's 25 550 decisions and if you're so lucky to live to be the age of 70 you will make 1 million 788 500 decisions you want to know why you are where you're at today in your life it's based upon your decisions because you make your decisions and then your decisions make you we are the summation of the choices and the decisions that we have made and every decision we're building our life there was a rich man and he had a particular employee who had been with his company for 30 years building homes well he gets to the very end where he wants to retire he's just got three months until he's gonna kick back take life easy he's gonna retire and be on easy street well the rich man said listen before you retire i want you to build me one more house he said would you do that for me would you build me one more house well the guy who's getting ready to retire doesn't really want to build one more house he's tired he kind of wants to coast over the last three months so he begrudgingly says yes i will build you one more house well the rich man goes off on some exotic vacation leaving him to work on this house and he's kind of tired he's kind of frustrated all he wants to do is retire and so he begins to kind of you know shorten the house a little bit he begins to use inferior products he doesn't he kind of cuts some corners along the way he says you know what i can cover everything that i'm doing that's kind of poor craftsmanship i can cover it with sheetrock and other things i'll make sure the finishing touches look good but the infrastructure of this house won't be like a typical house that i built the foundation won't be like a typical foundation because i just want to retire i just want to be done well three months goes by he finishes the house rich man comes back from his vacation he says man so excited you finished your last house congratulations i hope you will thoroughly enjoy your retirement then the rich man said this he said is a special gift to you i'm giving you the keys to this house and the man at first was very excited thank you but then he thought about how he built it and out of the naked eye you couldn't see how messed up the house really was but he knew he knew what was going on behind those walls he knew about the foundation that he poured he knew about every shortcut he had made along the way what's the point of the parable every single day you're building your life you're building your house you want to make certain that you're building it one brick at a time with one good decision after the next after the next after the next so you can see how important this is for us today so i want to give you three questions i know there could be a lot more questions we can ask ourselves to making good decisions but i'm going to give you three questions i think these three questions are so good that they're worthy to be written in the front of your bible and you know i don't say that very often about you writing stuff in the front of your bible but i honestly believe these three questions will save you from a world of regret if you will apply these three questions to the tough decisions that you have throughout the course of your life i think you'll make better decisions and i think you'll get to the end of your life with fewer regrets if you'll just ask yourself these three questions you ready to write them down here's the first one what does the bible say about this what does the bible say about this decision i could see some of you are like oh man i knew that was coming i knew he was going to say that when he's a preacher of course he's going to say what does the bible say about this and to be honest you don't like that one at all and the reason you don't like that one all is because you don't know what the bible has to say about anything you really don't care about what the bible has to say about anything because you never read the bible i mean you're fortunate enough to be one of the few generations of people who have all 66 books of god's word but it's you know sits on your desk it it's in your nightstand drawer it's not something you pour into it's not something you meditate on it's not something you memorize and the reason you stay away from the word of god is because you really don't like what it has to say there's something inside the human condition where we don't like anyone telling us how to live our life we don't like anybody telling us what we should do and what we shouldn't do we don't really appreciate that we we think i'll handle my life the way i want to i'll make my decisions the way i want to make my decision no one's going to tell me how to live my life there was a guy who went out and he bought himself a jet airplane and he was opening up the owner's manual and he was reading how the airplane was supposed to function and there was a warning on the manual and it said this do not exceed 400 miles an hour well this ticked the guy off he said you got to be kidding me right now i don't know who the guy was who wrote this owner's manual but no one's going to tell me how to fly my plane i will fly my plane however i want to fly my plane it's my plane so he's mad he's upset he throws the owner's manual down nobody going to tell me how to fly my plane i'll fly my plane way i wanna fly my plane so he immediately takes it down the runway and takes off going 150 mile an hour then go 160 165 170 175 mile an hour 180 185 do i hear 190 190 195 995 200 205 210 he's just flying through the air nobody's going to tell me how to fly my plane i'll fly my plane anyway i want to fly my plane going 300 mile an hour 310 320 330 340 350. 360 370 somebody tell me how to fly my plane i'll fly my plane anyway i want to fly my plane 380 390 400 410 420 he got to 425 mile an hour do you know what happened the wing sheared off and he died that's a parable i just made that story up but he ignored the wisdom of the owner's manual you see the one who built the plane knows how the plane operates who made you who created you who knows how you operate how you run how you run best that is the word of god that is the owner's manual to our life and yet i'm shocked at the number of people who say i trust what god's word says about my eternity but they don't read it for their today i mean for many of us we just don't have very many verses memorized we don't really allow the word of god to guide us in any major decisions that we make whether it's voting whether it's how we handle our marriages how we handle our finances we just kind of do whatever we think is right picking up a little bit of this and a little bit of that but the true north is the word of god isn't it but most people don't have a clue what the word of god has to say and that's unfortunate because how can you gain the wisdom of god if you don't know and apply the word of god please listen to me 99 of god's will for your life for my life is already written in the pages of of the holy bible of those 66 books that we've been given and it's a miracle that we even have it kings and queens and tyrants and princes have all tried to ban and burn that book and get rid of that book people have been imprisoned people have died so we might have possession of it here we are we live in the united states of america you live in the country of belize and it's not against the law for you to read the word of god it's not against the law for you to have the word of god yet we don't take the time to read it we don't take the time to gain its wisdom and to apply it to our life we make ourselves the exception to the rule we say i don't need to tell me what to do or how to live my life i'll do what i want to it's just a matter of time for the wings of your life come flying right off you and you crash and you burn look what the bible says about itself in psalm 32 verse 8 god says i will instruct you and i will teach you in the way that you should go i will counsel you with my eye upon you in the pages of the bible we have the opportunity to be mentored by the great men and women of our faith i mean please don't tell me that you're the kind of person that has to learn everything the hard way that you have to make your own mistakes please tell me that you have some wisdom inside of you that says you know i can learn from others i can learn from other people's pitfalls i can learn from other people's successes right please tell me you're the kind of person that doesn't have a problem learning from the life stories of somebody else why are there so many stories in the bible why are so many people in the bible because god wants us to relate to these people and he want us to learn the mistakes that they made he wanted us to learn the things that they did right and then maybe we could learn from their failures and learn from their successes and our life could be better as a result of that you've got the opportunity to be mentored you understand what i'm talking about you can be mentored by moses one of the greatest leaders who's ever walked the face of the earth you can walk in his footsteps as the dust comes up in the desert and you can watch him lead two million slave children out of captivity into the very cusp of the promised land for 40 years you can watch him deal with the biggest bunch of gripers and moaners and groaners and complainers and see what he did right and see what he did wrong you should take a master's course in the leadership lessons of moses or do it with nehemiah nehemiah built a wall all the way around the city of jerusalem in 52 days that which has never been accomplished for a hundred years before was done in 52 days watch him cast vision watch him rally the people together watch him show them that teamwork makes the dream work watch him recast the vision 26 days into the project because the people grew tired and they grew fatigued life lessons are right there in the pages of this book you can sit down with david and say david what was it like when your son absalom tried to throw you off your throne what's it like to be betrayed by a family member that way what could you have done differently david in your parenting with absalom that maybe you hadn't ended up in that dead end hey david what was it like the day when you were snot-nosed teenager and you heard that giant saying all kinds of terrible things about the kingdom of god and god himself and you said you know what somebody's got to put this loud mouth sucker down and i'm just the guy to do it what caused you to run out onto the battlefield when everybody else quivered in fear where did you get your courage from where did you get your perspective from maybe i can gain some courage too what was it what was it like peter when you left everything you left everything the greatest catch of fish you'd ever had to this point in your life and you left it all to follow jesus why in the world did you do that what what did you know about jesus that we didn't know what did you hear what did you see and every time you put your foot in your mouth what did you understand about jesus's grace and the ability to give you a second chance what was it that caused you to be so sold out to the things of god into the kingdom of god that you were willing to be crucified upside down a cross because you didn't feel like it was you were worthy to be killed in the same way that jesus was killed there's over 400 men and women's unedited stories you know what they're screaming out learn from me learn from my failures learn from my successes look what the bible says here in first corinthians chapter 10 verse 11 these things were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages has come god had these stories written down and preserved for us so that we might gain the very wisdom of god himself can you imagine how different your life would be and the trajectory of your life would be if you and i would stop arguing with the word of god or stop ignoring the word of god what would it be like if we actually started applying it can you imagine if we all applied the word of god to our finances i bet you wouldn't be in debt anymore i bet you wouldn't worry about having more month than you got money because you'd be living long below your means and you'd be generous too wouldn't you when we put things up on the church and say hey we accomplished this and we did this and we did that and you'd say man that's where the god's money went that's awesome i was a part of that you weren't having so many fights about money anymore would you i bet this past week many of you in this room and at home i bet you had some fights about money didn't you because why because you're not doing it god's way you're doing it your way because there's a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death can you imagine if you applied the word of god to your relationships you'd be the best friend anybody's ever had you'd love one another and care for one another and pray for one another and encourage one another you do all the one another's that the bible tells us to do wouldn't you i mean you'd just be there for that other person no matter what you would be the best friend anybody's ever had and you'd be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to become angry if you just applied the word of god to your relationships to your friendships how about to your marriage if we applied the word of god to our marriage maybe we wouldn't fight so much maybe more patient with each other maybe if we got on our knees and prayed with our spouses it could make a difference maybe we could read the bible together maybe go to church together maybe we could serve god together it put jesus as the center of peace or you could do it your way and you can fight and be cantankerous and put pet put downs slams each other and just got more and more distance between you can you imagine if we applied the word of god to our soul if we would finally admit that the only way our emptiness inside of us could be filled is through jesus and that we were never satisfied with just saying some sinner's prayer along the way that we wouldn't think that the sinner's prayer was the finish line but the beginning so when we prayed and asked jesus into our life that we really surrendered our life to him that when we said we're going to follow him we actually got around to actually following him we would have the peace that passes all understanding we'd realize that nothing none of the stuff of this world can satisfy us except for him and we'd pray every single day oh god less of me and more of you because all i want is what you want from me if we just would apply the word of god to our lives but what do we do it's in the it's in the drawer it's under the bed it's somewhere collecting dust show me a bible that's falling apart and i'll show you a life that's not show me a bible that's fallen apart and i'll show you a life that isn't so are you a small group do you read this thing on a daily basis do you mark it up do you say this i'm going to apply that was that's the verse for me i'm going to apply that to my life things are going to be different because now i'm being guided by god's holy word and not by pop culture or the opinion of this person or the opi i'm being guided by the word of god here's what i found to be true you ready for this one in life there are two teachers okay you'll pick one or the other if you don't pick the first one you will get the second one by default and both of these teachers will cost you something so you understand that there's two teachers in life you're ready for the teachers one is wisdom the wisdom of god and it will cost you something to gain the wisdom of god it'll cost you time you'll have to actually put the phone down you'll have to actually stop streaming whatever show you're binge watching at the time and you'll have to spend time on a daily basis in the word of god it will cost you time you ready for the second thing it'll cost you it'll cost you pride because you can't argue with the word of god anymore if you're going to apply it and you can't ignore the word of god anymore if you're going to apply it so it's going to cost you time it's going to cost you pride you come to the word of god humbly god whatever you want whenever you want it that's what i want and that's all that i want you are the true north your word is wisdom your word is truth i will apply your word to my life now you can choose that one if you want a lot of people do and a lot of people don't a lot of people choose for the second teacher the second teacher is consequences and it'll cost you more than the first teacher it could cost you your life could cost you your marriage it could cost you your kids it could cost you everything that you hold precious there's a way it seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death so which way will you choose first good question to ask yourself what does the bible have to say about this and here's what's great if you have a study bible in the back there's a thing called a concordance and somebody really smart has written down every verse by every topic that the bible speaks of so if you're curious about what to do about this or that you just look in the back of the bible and there's a whole bunch of verses and you can find the wisdom of god super simple that's the first question let me give you the second one what is the loving thing to do that's a good question isn't it look at this first corinthians 13 13 and now these three remain faith hope and love but the greatest of these is love first john 4 11 and 12. dear friends since god so loved us we ought to love one another no one has ever seen god but if we love one another god lives in us and his love is made complete in us how about john 13 34 jesus said a new command i give you love one another as i've loved you so you must love one another by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another you kind of get the idea verse upon verse upon verse that we're supposed to love god and we're supposed to love others so the question we ask ourselves is what's the loving thing to do because most decisions that we make affect somebody else don't they don't just affect your life but it also affects the people in your sphere of influence right it affects your wife it affects your husband it affects your kids it affects friendships it affects a whole bunch of different people so the question we ask ourselves is what's the loving thing to do well making this decision make me the husband or the wife that i longed to be what's the loving thing to do well making this decision help me to be the parent that i want to be is what's the loving thing to do will this decision help me draw closer to god or farther away what is the loving thing to do years ago a guy came to my office he wanted to have a conversation with me it's kind of funny he came to me for wisdom that's hilarious he came to me for wisdom and then he had a he had a concern and i said what's going on he said well i've got a job opportunity in another state now that happens quite a bit in albuquerque we're kind of a middle state a lot of people transition from albuquerque to denver or dallas or phoenix bigger market bigger opportunities etc etc etc and so this young man comes and he says i've got an opportunity i got a chance to move to another state he says i'm pretty excited about it means a whole lot more money which means that now i can take care of the college fund for the kids which is a very good thing and that also means that we can live in a bigger house we could have nicer cars and a lot of nicer stuff and a lot of things that my mom and dad couldn't provide for me when i was a kid i'll be able to provide those things for my kids if i take this job i said well that's the problem here i don't know why you came to me for any wisdom sounds like it's a pretty good deal to me he said well here's the downside i kind of have to travel more and i'm not going to be home as much as i am in my current job in fact it's going to cost me about three months a year spread out but i'm about three months less time with my wife and with my kids if i take this job but boy it's a big step up in the corporate ladder so i looked at him i said you know that's a tough decision i understand why you're having a hard time i i get that i said i'm in a different stage of life than you're in my kids are pretty well grown up and but i can tell you what i did when i was your age and when my kids were your age he said yeah tell me about that i said well i'll tell you a little secret that most people don't know about 18 months into starting this church there was a huge church that called me on the phone wanted me to become their senior pastor it was a bigger church it was a bigger budget it was a bigger opportunity it meant a lot more money for my wife and i whoo a lot more money i could put away for the college education i could have the bigger house the nicer cars all that stuff that you're talking about right now i could have all of it but it's a bigger church so it had more responsibility so that meant that there was going to be a whole lot more meetings that i had to attend there was going to be a lot of nights that i was going to be out and i wasn't going to be available to be the dad that i really wanted to be to be the husband that i wanted to be so christian and i we sat down and we wrote out the pros and the cons and then we prayed about it and we prayed about what we thought the right decision would be and so i passed on the job and the reason i passed on the job was because of them i didn't want to miss them growing up and i didn't no friends i didn't i was there for every game for every birthday party for every vacation for every moment for every broken heart for every celebration i was there and there's no amount of money that you can offer me that would somehow entice me to miss everything i got to see and be a part of you see you don't get to my age and have regret because you pursued money and wealth more than you pursued the things that god put you on this earth to be about love this verse of scripture ecclesiastes 5 10. whoever loves money never has enough isn't that the truth i bet most of us in this room are making more money than you've ever made before in your life and you still want more if you're like me you do whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income am i here to worship the almighty dollar or almighty god am i here to do what he's called me to do what's the loving thing to do am i here to be the dad or to be the money machine it was an easy choice for me and i have zero regrets do you realize how good this question is what's the loving thing to do you have an opportunity to say something unkind stop and ask yourself what's the loving thing to do you want you want to slam into your wife you want to slam into your husband again because they did something stupid they did something wrong your children once again did the thing that you just told them five minutes ago not to do what's the loving thing to do should you help your friend what's the loving thing to do should you see a need and then meet a need well what's the loving thing to do when you get to the end of your life what do you want to be known for don't you want to be known for someone who just loved god and loved others that's the second question let me give you the third one will this help me fulfill god's purpose for my life will this help me fulfill god's purpose for my life now here's what's interesting if you don't know what god's purpose is for your life then you'll never know how to answer that question and what's interesting to me is that a lot of people don't understand why they're even here on this earth why are you here so i'm here to make money i'm here to pay the bills and i'm here to live my life and you'll say oh no i think this is a greater purpose than just that don't you think i mean if that's all there is this is kind of a cruel joke when you look at the life of jesus he understood why he was here i mean there were people had all kinds of agendas for jesus they were pull him over here and play him over here and they wanted to be this and they wanted to be that and multiple times they tried to make him king and he just walked away every time because he knew becoming the king of this earth was not his plan not purpose of god in fact he said it over and over and over again here's one time luke chapter 19 verse 10 he says the son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost he wouldn't be deterred would he he had his focus on golgotha the place of the skull he was going to die for the sins of all mankind and he was going to rise again from the dead that was god's plan that was god's purpose for his life and nothing would sidetrack him so do you know why you're here why do you exist why is there breath in your body why is your brain still functioning why is it that your body still works for what purpose are you on this earth for well i have a purpose statement it's the same purpose statement as our church i exist to know christ and to make christ known that's it now there's lots of ways that that plays out in my day-to-day life but at the end that's god's plan and purpose for me i was made by god for god to have a relationship with god so i'm here to know him that's the whole point of this thing is to get to know him to have a relationship with him and then my job is to make him known to other people who are far from him because there really is a heaven there really is a hell and people really are going to go to one place or the other do you know why you're here because in the words of the great theologian alice in wonderland she once said if you don't know where you're going any road can take you there and that's true isn't it i like the way proverbs 29 puts it where there's no vision the people perish when you don't know why you're here and for what plan and for what purpose a little bit of you dies inside and if you don't understand how god fits into your marriage and the plan and purpose he has for that a little bit of your marriage dies if you don't understand why you're here for being a parent a little bit of your parenting dies if you don't understand the kind of single you're supposed to be a little of your singleness dies as well so the question you had to ask yourself is what's god's vision for your life why do you exist why are you here and then does this decision help you advance the kingdom of god and again there's a myriad of different ways that that can happen everybody ends up somewhere in life but very few people end up somewhere on purpose so those are the three questions i'm sure we could come up with more but i'm out of time are they worthy of your time and attention whether you put in the front of your bible what if you could have your default mode go to those three questions and just maybe just maybe we would all choose a little wiser what's the bible have to say about this not going to argue with it not going to ignore it i'm going to do it what's the loving thing to do in this situation will this leave people in better shape or in worse shape if i make this decision and why does god have me here in this situation in this point of my life what does he have me to do what am i supposed to be about and does this decision help me accomplish the purpose that he set forth for me friends we are the summation of our choices 1.7 million choices over the course of 70 years we need to choose wisely let's pray dear heavenly father i pray that we would take your word seriously that we would take your truth seriously that we would take loving you seriously lord i pray that we would take your plan and your purpose for our life seriously and that everything would funnel through those three streams when we make life's decisions and choices lord every single one of us has regrets every single one of us did what we thought was right in our own mind and it ended up taking us down that dead-end road lord this next week we're going to make a lot of decisions help us to do them with you help us to be attentive to you to listen to you and to do what you would have us to do even when the road is hard even when the road is narrow help us lord to seek you and to do your will more than anything else and lord i pray for anyone watching me or here in this room that's never made the decision to trust you to be the leader in the forgiver of their life that today would be the day that they would finally make the right choice and they would surrender the control of their life over to you your plans are greater than anything we've ever dreamed or imagined god help us to choose wisely we ask this in jesus name amen [Music] you make it easy to love you [Music] you are good [Applause] you make it easy to trust you you have never left my side you've been faithful every time [Music] you are the fire that leads me through the night i'll follow you anywhere [Music] there's a million reasons to trust [Music] [Music] oh jesus you came to my rescue took my place upon that cross you redeemed what i had lost now [Music] you're the center of my life you're the treasure you're the is you jesus [Music] anywhere there's a million reasons to trust you nothing to fear for you i'm i'll by you anywhere follow you anywhere i'll follow you anywhere [Music] whatever it costs me all i want is you jesus all i want is you wherever you leave me [Music] whatever it costs me all i want is you [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] is you are the fire that leads me through the night i'll follow you million anywhere to trust you nothing to fit for you i'm by my side but i'll follow you anywhere [Applause] anywhere [Music] you can't make wise decisions without god guiding you and your life no matter what you've done or what mistakes you've made jesus wants to forgive you and he wants to have a relationship with you if you're ready to make that decision today or if you have questions about your faith our pastoral team would love to connect with you you can call or text 505 505-922-9200 or visit sagebrush.church connect and someone will be in touch with you soon to learn more about how to follow jesus right now visit sagebrush.church jesus if you're new here we would love to send you a free gift go to sagebrush.church hello so we can get connected mark your calendars for the weekend of may 8th and 9th as we celebrate mother's day everyone who holds the title of mom and your family will receive a special edition mug and each campus will have a limited number of t-shirts available to give away as well if you live near any of our new mexico locations this would be the perfect time to stop by and check out a service in person we will also be giving out extra mugs after the services in the parking lot for anyone who's not quite ready to join us in person just yet we will also have our mother's day shirts in our online store if you want to purchase one or send one as a gift thanks for spending some time with us today have a great week

Channel: Sagebrush Church

Views: 2,742

Rating: 4.891892 out of 5

Keywords: daily devotions, christianity, bible study, church social media, pastor, social media pastor, youtube pastor, sagebrush, sagebrush church, Albuquerque church, New Mexico church, todd cook, pastor todd

Id: Oj6XKTLHon8

Length: 63min 19sec (3799 seconds)

Published: Sat May 01 2021