Making Wise Decisions – Dr. Charles Stanley

[Music] you need to talk to the one who always makes wise decisions and that is Almighty God and he is willing to give you direction he is willing every single time to answer that request he may not answer the way you expect he may not answer the way you want him to do it as far as the timing is concerned but he will answer next on InTouch making wise decision life is made up of decisions you know I've been making decisions since we were born the first one may have been crying when we wet our diaper I don't know but you made a decision and you've been making them all of your life and the most important decision you will ever make is the decision to accept the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God the savior of the world who went to the cross shed his blood in Calvary paid our sin debt in full and offered salvation to all mankind most important decision is to accept him personally as your Savior and Lord confessing and repenting of your sins and surrendering your life to Him number-one decision so when you have to make a decision how do you go about it you say well make this decision that decision the other decision in other words that you just make decisions on second thought or do you have a plan most people have no plan for making a decision you have a plan for lots of things but you never thought about having a plan of making decisions so what I want to do in this message I want to give you a plan I want to give you one that I know that works because it's been working in my life for over 50 years and so I trusted you'll take notes because you're going to be making decisions the rest of today you may end up by the end of next week making one of the most important decisions of your life how you going to go about that you ought to have a plan so I want to give you one and I want you to turn if you will to some 25 and I just want us to read a couple of verses here there are lots of verses in the Bible about prayer and answered prayer and discovering the Lord's will and so forth and here's what he says in verse 12 of Psalm 25 who is the man whose fear of a woman who is the man a woman who fears the Lord he will instruct him in the way he should go his soul will abide in prosperity now one of the parts of it I want us to understand is if you'll notice how he says it he says who is the man or woman who fears the Lord so what does it mean to fear the Lord an attitude that acknowledges one's absolute dependence on God for everything if I fear the Lord I'm going to depend upon him for everything and so where do you turn to make decisions who do you talk to who do you ask and they ask you this who do you trust in your family or you among your friends or people you work with to really give you wise advice when it comes to making decisions and let me say this to you talking about people is fine you need to talk to the one who always makes wise decisions and that is Almighty God and he is willing to give you direction he is willing every single time to answer that request he may not answer the way you expect he may not answer the way you want him to do it as far as the timing is concerned but he will answer and what I want you to understand is there's a way and you need a plan that whatever you're asking him about you certainly want God to hear and answer your request and I preached on finding the will of God about lots of things lots of times but but I've never given you a plan so here's the first step of the plan clear your heart of any known sin clear your heart of any known sin because sin introduces confusion in our minds and hearts hinders our capacity to hear and receive from God because you see sin and and the wisdom and knowledge of God don't fit together and so if I'm going to make wise decisions I gotta get rid of any sin and so how do I do that that's the first point how do I get rid of sin in my life number one I asked the Lord to show watch this carefully as Florida show me Lord is anything in my life that would keep me from hearing the truth I don't want to be prejudiced but I want to hear the truth anything in my life they would keep me from hearing the truth and exactly will the Holy Spirit will do is he's going to keynesian appoint to you whatever there is in your life it may be a relationship it may be a habit and it may be the way you think but whatever is not of God he's going to point it out to you you need to deal with this so how do you deal with sin you deal with sin by confessing it confessing sin means that I agree with God that this is sin in my life so first there's agreement followed by repentance on the basis God that you say this doesn't fit in my life I repent of this missing which means I turn away from it I walk away from it and I want to do absolutely whatever God says if you want to clear out all the static and all the humdrum stuff that goes on in the mind and making decisions you begin with that you begin with cleaning you're harder than in own sin and that's where a lot of people stop they say well you know what I don't give me that because there's some things in life I want to do well some things in life will make you a fool there'll be decisions that one of these days you look back and say how in the world could I possibly have been thinking that I'll tell you why because sin clouds your mind and sin confuses the mind and sin betrays the mind and so the first step in coming to know what is the wise way to make that decision is clearing the heart of any known sin secondly is bring your desires watch this bring your desires to a position of neutrality which means this this is what I really want above everything else and they say this they say that what I need to do if I want to know what God wants I've got to be willing to say Lord I want what you want I don't know what that is right now I don't know you will right now but I really want what you want now telling him that the first time probably won't work because deep down inside you've been thinking about what you want what you need what you desire who you wanna marry what you want to drive where you want to live what have you and there was all these things so the first time you say Lord I want I want what you want you may not you may not mean that but listen carefully when you begin to say God I want what you want I want I want to know what you know is best for my life I would I want to be wise God in its decisions I need your help I'm willing to listen to you and if I'm heading in the wrong direction please show me their God don't don't let me make a mistake in this issue will he listen to you yes he will you have to be willing to come to say God what is your will well what no it's listen to this you're asking the one person who knows everything about you knows what is best for you knows what will work for you those what will make you happy what will he also knows will make you miserable you think you can't live without her or without him you won't even begin to realize what you're getting yourself into what's the will of God what are you trying to say to me Lord so lord I want I want what you want whatever it takes that's what I want you to show me when you bring your mind and heart toward neutrality lord I really don't know what to do but I want to know that God's going to be in there work in your life and the third thing I want to say is you have to exercise patience this is where people get in trouble for example there's some things I prayed for for a long time before God ever answered my prayer but watch this why do you keep praying when God has an answered for a while he doesn't there's not a verse in the scripture says asking it should be given to you immediately seek and ye shall find it now there was no wearing the Bible's would say that and so some things you know what God is doing he's getting us ready for the answer and so what God's pauses are very important and his plan for our life it isn't tell me now so this is why you came up and make decisions about important things in your life all things that don't seem to be very important when you are not sure exactly what God has said to you so you've got to exercise patience and you got to be willing to wait now I want you to write down something and I want you to understand what we mean when we say waiting upon God you shouldn't write this down it is not simply to mark time well I'm just going to wait upon the Lord rather it's to live in a confident expectation anticipation of his actions on their behalf that God has heard you and he's your answer that it is to refuse to run ahead of him trying to solve our problems for ourselves it says be still and know that I am God now being still is very difficult sometimes especially there's something that you really want my soul wait in silence for God be strong and let your heart take courage wait on the Lord some people don't like to wait for anything but if you're going to make wise decisions in your life sometimes you have to wait a pretty good while sometimes you don't have to wait for long what's this God knows where the emergencies are in your life he knows where the answer must come now he knows when you're not ready for the answer he knows when you think you are but he knows when you're not and he knows if you gave if he gave you an answer now you an accepted because you're not ready for it think about this just think about this an all-wise omniscient God who knows you perfectly knows what's best has heard your request he knows exactly the things that need to change before he can answer your prayer he knows the kind of attitude you have and he knows that there may be some aspects from that attitude that need to change before God can get it's not that he doesn't want you to have it he just knows you're not ready for it right now so it is required of us to be patient got to have it now we live in the age that has to have it now and it's an age of this aster I gotta have it now I don't have to ask God whom I cannot see when I can see her I know him so I know what I want and why why should I ask God I don't know these why would God listen to me with that attitude he want very important that we are patient and willing to wait upon God and number four be alert to pressure be careful of that pressure you're going to get pressure from your friends you're going to get pressure from your enemies you're just going to get pressure from yourself maybe you've had things your way all your life you've not had to ask anybody anything you've just done it your way well it's time to learn a lesson here is that listen here is one of the most difficult things we have to deal with this oppression now watch this pressure at a two types of pressure there's external pressure and there's another kind of pressure will come to that external pressure is pressure from your friends you have to be very careful who you are listening to and especially people who are your bosom friends it may be you've been friends with somebody that you've been a friend long time usually I can trust him no matter what I can trust her there's one step above that I can trust God because my dearest friends may make a mistake my dearest friends watch this may because they love me may want to make me pleased and happy I don't want to be pleased and happy I won't know what's the will of God so we have to be careful about those pressures then there's internal pressure you get it from the outside you get it from the inside and I think about things that I've been through in life and our own fears with our own fields of laws and so forth and I'll give you an example of probably a moment in my life that I hope God never repeats but when I came to I came to Atlanta they came a time when we were going to vote on a Wednesday whether to make me the pastor or not so this is what happened but I'll never forget and asking the Lord to give direction in clarity and having the trust him and your own sense of the problem on the inside and so usually by Thursday I'll have my outline they got I don't want to get I don't want to get a sermon to complete I want to have to work on a little bit of setting because I want I want to be a hot on Sunday morning I don't I don't want something that's uncool off between Thursday and Sunday so anyway Thursday came along no sermon hmm not even I have a one Friday no sermon Saturday no sermon and I knew that we were going to vote on the pollen Wednesday Saturday night I'm saying God tomorrow is Sunday and I don't I don't even I don't even have a single verse of scripture Sunday morning I'll wake up and the devil did his best to try to get me to reach back and find an old sermon or something that I could pull out gotten Sunday morning I'm sitting in the chair and the choir begins to sing so help me God no sermon no text no Scripture nothing he just absolutely shut me down and I'm sitting there thinking god I think this is about the last part of that Cora song and I don't have anything to say yeah nothing so they say I said okay God picked up my Bible walked up opened it up and then the pradhans up and it fell on proverbs 3:5 and 6 I read it trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not to your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he'll direct your path my Lord but just get started this is the truth I started preaching and just like a machine gun for 35 minutes about something I never even thought about but it taught me this awesome lesson God can shut you down when he wants to and then when he gets decides to open you up it's like I can on the or know the thing that I had to deal with was that interfere God what is your will about all of this and and it's Wednesday then it's Thursday invited insert in Sunday and Sunday morning you know what God wasn't in heaven saying you know what charlie don't do on on this Sunday morning the other was sitting back in promising that now I'm going to show you what I can do and that is he answered my prayer in the most awesome way and the pressure was my pressure that's number four number five persistent prayer PRS is a persistent prayer and that is keep praying no matter whether you understand it or not presto sonja's 5:17 he says we are to continue in prayer that is continuously praying you don't stop no words because you don't have an answer you don't stop praying pray without ceasing it's what Paul said pray without ceasing in other words he didn't promise to give us answers to give us Direction he didn't promise to give us that in any particular time and I think God takes great delight in doing what in watching us respond to him and watching how we move from doubt and fear and unrest and all the rest to begin to trust him and to begin to be confident and to begin to ask him and know absolutely in our hearts he will show us exactly what he wants to say to us and so what happens is sometimes people will say well I am going to pray and they'll pray about two or three days and God doesn't shout from heaven and so they thankful you know I just go and make this decision I can't wait forever I don't know anywhere in the Bible that God says that he'll answer prayer a certain time watch this when he does not answer the way you expect what is he doing he's teaching us to trust him when we don't have any evidence that he's heard anything can you trust him like that he's teaching us to trust him he knows he's going to answer it and if you'll think about it we start out by saying it's a God's book he says ask and it shall be given you not at 10:30 he doesn't say that seek and ye shall find he doesn't say today knock and it shall be opened instantly it isn't say that so his delays are on purpose and when I think about his purpose its certain to teach me to pray teach me to listen teach me to trust him just have to trust him and so that's why Paul said pray without ceasing and what's this and I'm not to move ahead until I get Direction even see a lot prayed about that for two solid weeks like it was eternity prayer is the greatest gift God has ever given us a poison salvation and then there's number six once he's under arrest in God's promise he makes he promises here's what I'm going to do and if you'll think about it the Bible is the most valuable resource we have in making decisions because it's full of wisdom and what it is it's the mind of God in print think about this you want to know what God thinks about anything getting the Word of God and yes what the word does the words filters my thinking when it's not exactly right filters my desires the Word of God is a filter and our minds are continually bombarded by what the world thinks and how they think but when you're not getting the Word of God we begin to read his word what Evans he sifts and he's only while he's sifting he's also building our faith God said God promised and if God said and God promised I can go with it and remember this he gives us promise after promise after promise he will hear and answer a prayer I'll just trust him be patient wait upon it and then vii wait for his piece wait for his piece and that very word degree in the Greek means to bind together the peace of God he and I are together about this decision therefore therefore I can I can trust him and I love Colossians 3:15 listen to what he says in that passage and you may want to turn to it Colossians 3:15 and listen to what the Apostle Paul says in the 3rd chapter 15 first listen what he says he says let the Peace of Christ listen this let the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful let the peace of God rule in your heart that is when I have his peace I know that I have the answer that's God's grace God is willing to give us the grace of absolute assurance and so when I think about all the things that would keep us from knowing the will of God I think about we have a plan and I wish someone had given me that when I was a kid the plan now you have the plan whoever you are wherever you are what we've talked about here you've heard you've seen what works here works everywhere in the world but Jesus Christ is preached and people understand who he is if you have never trusted him as your Savior this is the time to do it ask him to forgive you of your sins tell them you're repenting of your sins confess and repent of your sins surrender your life to him god I give up I'm out here's my life god I want to find out what you will do with me listen to this care for you listen to amen it has nothing to do your nationality your language your color your inheritance it has nothing to do with anything are you willing to believe in and until you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior this won't work the most important decision you ever make is to trust the Lord Jesus Christ because that decision determines your whole entire eternity decision number one decision number two follow him every day if you've never trusted him as your Savior we don't have a prayer in just a moment you can be saved seated right where you are this lesson says you're going to do anything but that but you need to tell somebody you get saved in your eternal destiny changes you're going to want to tell somebody about it so let's pray father we thank you for your love for us now I pray for the person seated here today who has never trusted you as their Savior maybe they were afraid too maybe they didn't understand what confession repentance means to turn away from sin surrender little light to you and recognize that the shedding of your blood Calvary paid our sin debt in full and that's why you said come unto me all you that labor and heavy laden and I'll give you rest believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved so I pray that those who need to be saved will pray that prayer right now and trust you to keep your word and then Lord that this message will become a part of every person's life in Jesus name Amen if you've been blessed by today's program please visit us and touched our RG in Dutch leading people worldwide into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and strengthening the local church this program is sponsored by InTouch ministry and it's made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts [Music]

Channel: In Touch Ministries

Views: 1,003,315

Rating: 4.8611608 out of 5

Keywords: Charles Stanley, making wise decisions, wisdom, discernment, in touch ministries, in touch with dr. charles stanley, dr. charles stanley, charles f. stanley

Id: 3wn3P87jOi8

Length: 26min 44sec (1604 seconds)

Published: Tue May 30 2017