INTRO: Have you ever thought you were making the right decision, then you get into it and—oh, what a disaster.
One of many poorly made decisions in my life was when I was playing ball in the summer. Over the past several years I played on Roberts Electric. They called and were wondering if I was going to play again and I said yes. Right before the season started I had gotten a chance to play on a team that traveled around to different states. I jumped at the opportunity.
I was around this time Tammy and I were going to get married so some of my friends were throwing a bachelor party. I wanted to invite my old baseball buddies from Roberts Electric. I show up at their game, go in the dugout and invite them. They smiled and listened. I sensed kind of a coolness, but I related it to them losing the game.
Well it’s the night of the celebrating and not one of my friends from Roberts Electric showed up. It bothered me that they didn’t show up.
It began to dawn on me how I broke my word to them about playing, how I let them down. It was like my eyes were opened and I was amazed at how much I was focused on me.
Question: How do you make the right decision?
Today we’re going to look at a process that will help you making the right decision.
TITLE: How Do I Make the Right Decision?
TEXT: Exodus 33:15
I. Doing the right thing. When you want to do the right thing you first have to know the truth.
A. There is only one who knows the truth – that is God. He is the author and perfector of truth.
1. Text this morning. The children of Israel are on their way to the Promised Land. This is just after they make a golden calf and judgment has fallen.
-The Lord tells them to go to the Promised Land, that he will send an angel to go before them but he will not go with them.
-Moses counters, “Lord if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”
2. Moses teaches us the first principle about making the correct decision: without God everything else is irrelevant.
-Moses was willing to give up the Promised Land for the presence of God.
Point: Without God we cannot come to the truth of a matter. That is, to do the right thing.
-God has to be a part.
B. This is why the Bible is so important. It gives you direction in your life.
1. It helps you with right and wrong. It tells you about the things of God. It teaches us right choices have a cost or a price.
-The world is trying to conform us into what it wants and believes. So when we bring the truth there is going to be pressure.
2. The Lord still wants us to do right – no matter what the circumstances are.
Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Thought: Doing right can become wearisome because of the pressure that is brought to bear.
Example: It’s hard to love others when they’re thrashing you, or slandering you.
C. Warning: Not following the Bible only leaves you worse off.
1. When I know what it says and don’t do it I fall into being deceived, and the end of that is where I call evil good and good evil.
Example. The Pharisees and Sadducees, the teachers of the ways of God, the spiritual leaders of Israel, what happened when God showed up as the Messiah?
-They thought he was of the devil and had him killed. They saw good as evil and missed what God had for them.
2. So when you know to do right, then do it. Know what the Bible says and obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
TS: You not only have to do right but you have to do it at the right time.
II. Doing the right thing at the right time.
A. Timing is everything. A while back I was watching this nature show on Discovery. It was about the wild animals in Africa and how they migrate. It focused on wildebeests and zebras as they migrate and how the predators would wait for them. In this one instance they had to cross this river and these huge crocodiles were waiting. They would cross by the hundreds. As these zebras and wildebeests were crossing this one zebra was crossing a bit downstream from the rest and out of nowhere this giant croc grabbed the zebra by the head and dragged it under the water and drowned it.
-This poor zebra was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
1. Timing is very important. I wonder if I would have married Tammy if President Carter didn’t close the Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs.
-As a result I moved to Nebraska where I met Tammy in Spanish class.
B. You can do the right thing at the wrong time – and it will be wrong.
1. In Peter’s confession of Christ, Jesus is asking, “Who do you say I am?” to his disciples. Peter pipes us and says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus commends him for this. Well a little while later Jesus was telling his disciples that he was going to be killed and Peter pipes up, “Never Lord, this shall never happen to you.” Jesus turned to him and said “Get behind me, Satan.”
-Amazingly Peter thought he was doing the right thing (murder wrong) but his timing was wrong. It was almost the appointed hour, Christ dying for humanity.
2. Another example: Parable of 10 virgins. The bridegroom was coming, the virgins awoke, they trimmed their lanterns, but five didn’t have oil. They had to go and buy some. They returned to go to the wedding banquet but the door was shut, it was too late.
-They wanted to be with the bridegroom (right thing) but they missed the window of opportunity.
C. Being right at the right time – is very important.
1. This is why it is so important to be led by the Holy Spirit. He will tell you the right thing at the right time.
-In Acts 16 Paul was visiting the churches he had founded. Paul tried to enter a new territory for the Lord by traveling east into Asia Minor but the Lord closed the door. Everything had been going well on his second missionary journey but God led Paul west into Europe, not east into Asia Minor.
2. One can only guess why. My former professor Dr. Hall’s theory was that God knew the future. In the next few hundred years Islam would sweep Asia converting or killing anyone in its path. Lord knowing this, had Paul go west out of its path.
Summary: Doing the right thing at the right time is very important. But this is not all, there is one more important factor in making right choices.
III. Doing the right thing at the right time with the right motive.
A. Think for a moment about Judas. When we hear his name we think of the betrayer. We need to realize a few things.
1. He was chosen by God to follow him. Jesus asked many people to follow him but they would not. Even when the majority of Jesus’ disciples left him, Judas stayed with Christ.
Thought: So when you think about Judas did he make the right decision when the Lord called him? He gave up his way of life to follow him.
-The answer is yes.
2. The second part of making the correct decision is timing. Doing the right thing at the right time.
-Judas followed Christ at the right time. The children of Israel were waiting for the Messiah while other people, especially the religious, missed the Messiah.
-Judas did the right thing (followed the Messiah). Judas also did it at the right time (not every day the Messiah has come).
B. Judas’ problem – he had the wrong motive.
1. Judas followed Christ with wrong motives.
-You can see this at the end of his life, where he betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver (literally trying to force God’s hand).
a. Believing if he would back Jesus into a corner that Jesus would call down his angels and set up his earthly kingdom where Judas would be a part.
Point: Judas was doing it his way and not the Lord’s way (his motives for serving God were wrong).
In Conclusion: Making the proper decisions is very important because one day we will all have to give an account. Remember to focus on three things.
1. Doing the right thing.
2. Doing the right thing at the right time.
3. Doing the right thing at the right time with the right motives.
