Doors Of
Decision
Clutch Student Ministries Pastor Jordan Biel Rock of Grace A/G 01.06 .2006
The
Doors Of Decision in life are God’s Way or My Way
(signs on the doors)
Choosing
the door of God’s Way and making the right decision always leads to the right
place.
It’s
about doing what you know is right and God will honor and reward you for
it.
Choosing
the “My Way” door represents making the wrong decisions in life –
doing
things your way despite what the Bible says, your parents say, and your youth
leaders.
Your
youth leaders are placed in your life by God to help you – they’re there for
you when things
are
great and when things are terrible. God
has given them to you to give you wisdom and to
help
you make the right decisions in your life.
Prov 14:12
“There is a path
before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” NLT
“Before every man there
lies a wide and pleasant road that seems right but ends in death.” TLB
God’s Way
God’s Way is about having wisdom to make the right
decision.
Wisdom is about making right choices. Wisdom, in definition, is the ability to make
Godly decisions.
When some of us think of wisdom, we might think of
old people with gray hair – you might even think of your
youth leaders like Dave Morris in the
back there.
(He’s there to annialiate you if
you step out of line! – He’s a real cop!)
X-Marine , X-Navy Seal, Special Forces –
Ok maybe not all that, but he’s a bad dude, no these guys are
here tonight if you have any questions
or if you any prayer – anything. )
Wisdom does come as you get older b/c you realize the bad
decisions you made in the past and now you know
not to make them. He even gives us
the Holy Spirit – which is the Spirit of Truth - & the Spirit of Wisdom –
The Holy Spirit is give to us to help us make the right
decisions. He’ll even give us the words
to say when
we’re struggling which which decision to make.
God said, He can give you wisdom
even while you are young to make the right decisions and have a great life –
following Him.
Choosing the God’s
Way door has many rewards.
Prov
3:4-7
4 “
If you want favor with both God and man, and a reputation for good
judgment and common sense,
then trust the Lord completely; don't
ever trust yourself. 6 In everything you do, put God
first, and he
will direct you and crown your efforts
with success.
7 Don't be
conceited, sure of your own wisdom. Instead, trust and reverence the Lord, and
turn your back on evil;
when you do that, then you will be
given renewed health and vitality.” TLB
In
other words, open the door to “God’s Way” and He will show you where to go –
what to do –
read
the Bible, His Word, pray for the Holy Spirit and He will make you successful
in life now and
of
course forever in Heaven.
And
it’s exciting – following God and being obedient to God - the Holy Spirit will
give you some really fun –
challenging experiences.
God’s
Way is not just about Doing Everything Right and Never
making a mistake. The jews thought that was the right
way to success –
and the
right way to God.
Choosing
God’s way is much simpler than obeying 10,000 rules and regulations.
Rom 10:2-4
“I know what
enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don't
understand God's way of making people
right with Himself. Instead, they are
clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep
the law. They won't go
along with God's way. 4 For Christ has
accomplished the whole purpose of the law. All who believe in him are made
right with God.” NLT
God’s way is trusting Him –
trusting in His son, Jesus. Loving Him
with all your heart
Rom 10:8-10 “Salvation that comes from trusting Christ —
which is the message we preach — is already within easy reach. In fact,
the Scriptures say, "The message
is close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart."
9 For
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For
it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by
confessing with your mouth that you are saved.”
NLT
Jesus summed up the law – the way to follow God with
this: “Love the Lord, your God with all
that you have.”
& Love your neighbor”
In other words, Love God, Love people
God’s Way is chosen
by trusting your parents, trusting
your pastor, and trusting the Word of God.
Ps 119:9-11 “How can
a young person stay pure? By obeying Your Word and following its rules.
10 I have tried my
best to find You — don't let me wander from Your
commands. 11 I have hidden Your Word in my heart,
that I might not sin against
You.” NLT
My Way
Conditions for Bad Decisions:
1. Aloneness
– leads to curiosity
and vulnerability.
Supporting Verses:
James
Those of you that struggle with pornography, and sexual
sin, you must have somebody to talk to!
You absolutely need someone to trust, be transparent with,
confess and hold each other strong.
trees
are not easily blown over, but they’re supported by the strength of the other
trees and their roots.
APPLY>
Develop a good root system – friends that will keep you accountable and hold
you strong when
the
winds of temptation come.
2. Late Nights – leads to being tired, emotional, and making poor
choices
Wisdom
again, is the ability to make Godly decisions – To choose the right door.
Going
to your girlfriend’s house at
a
situation to make a bad decision.
Your
body is given to you by God. You, who
are saved, are now the
1
Cor 6:15-20 “Don't you realize
that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body,
which belongs to
Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don't you know that if a man
joins himself to a prostitute,
he becomes one body
with her? For the Scriptures say, "The two are united into one."
17 But the person
who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. 18 Run away from sexual sin! No other sin so
clearly affects the body as this one
does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Or don't you
know
that your body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to
yourself,
20 for God bought
you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” NLT
Honoring
God with your body by staying abstinent until marriage is a great way to make
the right decision
and
live for God.
3. Foolish Friends – leads to peer-pressure and making bad decisions.
The thesaurus gives us other words for foolish as “stupid,
idiotic, imprudent, irrational.”
These words can also all be applied to sin.
Another way of saying “foolish friends” is simply “stupid
friends.” CSM will remember a few weeks ago how we talked
about how sin is stupid. Because stupidity is to do something that you
know will hurt you, or have a bad consequence,
yet doing it anyway.
Maybe you usually make good decisions but a lot of times
you realize your friends don’t. Get new
friends!
Your best friends should be those that encourage you to
live a life for God and make good decisions.
The Bible is repetitive on how important it is to surround
yourself with Christian friends.
You guys may recall the story of Job. Here was a man
that loved God and often made the right decision.
Because of Job’s good life, satan wanted to ruin it and make him fail. So God allowed satan to test Job.
Job soon lost everything!
His money, his retirement, every investment he’d ever made, - even his
family.
( Sounds like a country song ) And Job’s friend’s
didn’t help! . Job
Job
Though
Job was a man of God, he was lied to by his foolish friends.
They
kept giving him bad advise like “forget God” “God will never help you out!”
“This
is all your God’s fault!” But Job continued to make the right decisions
–
He
continued to choose the door of “God’s Way” instead of his own.
And
in return, God gave him double the reward of his investments, double the money
he used to have
and
gave him all his family back.
We know by God’s Word that sin has it’s
negative consequences – not only in our lives now, but of course the worst
being –
an eternity separated from God in
Hell.
But this is not what God wants – some preachers will
preach as though they and God want you to go to hell!
The reason I’m telling you the truth about sin and it’s
consequence of hell is because of love.
God loves you so much that he’s warning some of you to
stop sinning!
If He wanted us to go to hell, He would’ve let us. But instead, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to
come as just a
man and die on a cross for all of our
sins – forever taking away the consequence of sin. He gave us an alternative –
He gave us a choice – a decision to make – God’s Way or My
Way!
You see, satan’s
#1 strategy to get you to live for Him and be bound by sin is to get you to
live for yourself –
his objective is to entice you to
always pick the “My Way” door.
But God has such great things for us in life – He gave us
His Son. He gave us His all. Let’s give Him our all –
our everything and make a decision to choose His Way not
ours.