Spirit-led Decision-Making, Session 2

Introduction

[laughter] All right. Okay. I need to We’re going to shift gears a little bit, but we’ll come back to the idea of of decisions being dependent on one another. I’m going to go through several passages of the New Testament to make one single point and that is I think that God has placed before us in our choice making really only two choices and that is to be led by the flesh or led by the spirit. And that’s a strong statement because remember we began by saying that there’s this whole area of our life that [clears throat] was our liberty.

1. Enemies of the Cross Set Their Minds on Earthly Things

Nothing wrong in and of itself. I’m going to try to show you that’s really maybe not what Paul was saying when he spoke to those Christians in the first century in those various letters he wrote including Rome by the way. Therefore, let us as many as are mature have this mind and if anything you think otherwise God will reveal even this to you. But nevertheless, to the degree that we’ve already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.

And then skip down a little bit. Brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, I’m sorry, this is red. I should have used another color. Should have used yellow. of [clears throat] to whom I tell you, sorry, of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame.

I’m sorry you don’t see those words, but they’re the important words. They are. Yeah. Um, right. And then uh who set their minds on earthly things. Did you hear that? Set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body. And so on. You you know that passage. And I I’m not going to stand for this. Um I’m going to just maybe turn these verses.

Never mind the words we’re trying to emphasize. They can’t be read. You can’t do that. Um, I’m need to get my glasses out to do this. Maybe not. You can probably read them on this chart. You see what I’m doing here? Yeah. But, and I’m I put them in red because I wanted red to be bad and blue to be good, you know. [laughter] Yeah. Well, it turns out I’ve got red is invisible and blue is kind of visible. I don’t know if you can tell the difference, but I hope you’re reading these as we go.

I hope and getting maybe the point I’m trying to make with all of these. Um, and that is as Paul talks about how you live. It just seems like he’s only giving two choices. And there’s not this gray space in the middle where you just do the best you can, but it doesn’t have anything to do with your Christianity. That has to do the hand motions. All right, that’s the one we looked at. So, let’s go back to this one. All right. I’m sorry. Thank you for that uh toleration there.

2. Led by the Flesh or Led by the Spirit

Come on. There we go. Yeah. Philippians 3. Now, Romans 8. Two ways of think. You all know Romans 8, right? You’re led by the flesh or you’re led by the spirit. What does it mean to be led by the flesh? I mean, in kind of easy terms. Yeah, you’re worldly. You’re thinking of things. Your body is actually driving a lot of your decision. Maybe your desires, maybe your anxieties are right. I’m desiring to have lots of riches so I won’t, you know, have to worry worry, right?

Worry is driving a lot of our decision. Y’all see that? That’s the flesh. Is that miraculous, by the way? Is the flesh exerting some magnetic field over our brain and it makes us think in a different way if we’re led by the flesh? I mean, no. Does that seem miraculous or is that just living in the world where Satan rules? Yeah, it’s not miraculous. It’s not miraculous. No, it’s it has to do with our motives. Right. Right. I mean, I’m being led by some desire of the flesh or lust of the eyes and pride of life.

You probably heard those words before. That’s that’s what that means. So, I’m just going to by analogy say, does it necessarily is it necessarily so that being led by the spirit has to be miraculous? I mean, led by the flesh, you say, isn’t? No. How could led by the spirit not be miraculous? You all know what I mean by miraculous? That is miraculous. Well, it’s I mean that I get an an objective uh decision, revelation from God that tells me what to do.

That’s what I mean by that. Right. I am puzzling over whether to go to Rome or not. And I say, “Please bring the urum and thumb and we’ll work this out.” Right? And so there’s a miraculous way in which God reveals that y’all. Does that happen to y’all? No. Okay. But I will say this. Do you see why some people might really be motivated to wish for that? Right. I mean, suppose you had a major life decision like do I register as a conscientious objector or not?

Wouldn’t it be nice and all that anxiety? Is this girl the right girl to marry or should I buy this house which is really a stretch? Wouldn’t it be nice if God would just tell you and and you know there’s a temptation and some people I think have decided that God does tell them, right? If this loan is approved then I’m sure that God wants me to buy this house. You ever heard that kind of thing before? Or you know what? I didn’t know if I should have gone to this place or not, but there was a parking space right by the door and I knew [laughter] that God was with me.

Y’all hear y’all hear that? You can see why we’d be motivated to wish for that for sure, right? But I was wondering, well, maybe Satan put that parking place there or Satan approved that mortgage loan. You You don’t know what I mean. I don’t know how we know for sure who’s talking to us. I do know one place to get information from God about how to live. I know one place. It doesn’t have all the answers in easy form, but that at least I know for sure who the source is.

So just listen to these verses. Two ways of thinking. And Paul’s going to say you’re either led by the flesh or you’re led by the spirit. I think they’re analogous and say what’s motivating you? The spirit of God. the motivation that he has placed in my heart or is it the flesh and its desires? Y’all see see if you see that in these verses. Romans 8 two ways two’s way and you I like to get a running start and talk about all about Romans 7 uh and the this uh war that exists you know within us that Jesus helps to solve.

But he says in [clears throat] chap in in chapter eight, those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. That’s it. Not hard to understand, right? Is that miraculous? But those who live according to the spirit have magical magnetic experiences in their brain. No, he’s not saying that. No, they’re led by the spirit in the same way you’re led by the flesh. Is that y’all see that? two ways of making decisions. Uh to for to be carnally minded, now that’s a different word, but it really just means led by the flesh.

It’s the word for flesh is death. But to be spiritually, see, again, there’s a contrast. I mean, but but they’re parallel contrasts, right? Um if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life. The spirit is alive because of righteousness. Now, when I if I just read that verse in isolation, I might struggle. But if I get to verse 10, coming from verse one, actually the end of chapter 7, I kind of understand this is kind of saying the same thing.

Is the body sometimes a motivation for me to do things, often wrong things? Wouldn’t it be nice if I could kill off that influence and the body would be dead? That is, it’s not working. It’s not alive. It has nothing to say, right? You you all understand that. And then the o opposite in a way is that the spirit maybe that’s God’s holy spirit but I think it’s the motivation in my heart based on that holy spirit comes to life and guess what’s animating me now it’s not the body that fleshly side of me it’s that spiritual side is that is that a good explanation at least based on the running start we got from the other verses right uh if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the and by the way this the next verse so whatever this is saying And I think he’s saying it kind of again or taking it a little further.

If the spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead, that’s God by the way. We know that dwells in you who demonstrated by the way his power in that resurrection of Jesus. Then he will also give life to your mortal bodies. I don’t think he’s talking about the resurrection there. But I’m not going to stop the whole class. If you disagree with me, it’s okay. I think what he’s saying there is look, the power that was demonstrated in raising Jesus from the dead can work in your life and keep that body that’s tempting you to do the wrong thing from having any effect over you.

Do you do you see that in here? He can give life to it. In fact, maybe even enable your body to be a force for good to lead you to the right things to build habits of prayer and study and devotion and other things which help you not hurt, right? Those habits are pushing me in. Can God bring my body to life in that way? Well, he raised Jesus from the dead. I think that’s Paul’s argument. So, I’m not going to argue that too far, but I see that in the context of that whole thing.

3. Friendship With the World or Put On Christ

We’re being led by the flesh or led by the spirit. You remember the title of the session is spirit-led decisionmaking. That’s kind of where where we’re headed with this. Okay, that was a little too theological. Perhaps we can go to James and maybe get something that’s a little simpler here. What does James say? You ask for stuff, but you don’t get it. And you’re asking wrong. A miss. I don’t know if the more modern translations say in error, sinfully perhaps.

Adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with Oh, sorry. I skipped over the main thing. What’s What’s wrong with what they’re asking for? a simple reason, [clears throat] right? You just want to have your pleasures. That’s all. And I might even add, they might not even be sinful in right. Yeah. Uh, whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Are y’all sensing a middle ground here?

Colossians 3 and in the Colossian letter and same as Philippians [clears throat] and Ephesians, there’s those sections where there’s the put off and put on. Y’all, you know what I’m talking about. Put off these bad things. Sometimes it’s emotions. Sometimes it’s bad actions. Sometimes it’s bad thoughts, enmities, and those kind of things. But he’s saying, “Get that out of you. Get that out of you and put on Christ.” And then he lists the characteristics.

For example, uh I I’m afraid there might be some red. Oh, no. I fixed all that, didn’t I? Okay, so the yellow is the best. Not on things on the earth. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. You died in your life. He said, put to death your members. And he lists some of those sinful things. Therefore, as the elect of God put on in their place, principle of displacement, I call it, right? If you can put on these positive things, the negative things don’t keep influencing you.

Above all these, put on love and let the peace of God rule in your hearts. And then we get to this verse, verse 16. You all probably know the rest of the verse. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and all wisdom. What? Sorry. Speak in. Yes, exactly. Sing. It’s kind of about singing when Psalms hymn spiritual songs. That’s what the rest of that verse is. But then this verse follows and I’m afraid sometimes we limit it to say so in the worship only do things that Jesus has authorized.

Well, I guess that’s included. [clears throat] But how much of my life is he saying? Whatever. What? I think that’s right. Whatever you do in word or deed. Do y’all know what the next section of verses is in Colossians? In Colossians 3, starting verse 18. The next set, what it has to do with husbands, wives, fathers, children, masters, slaves, everyday [clears throat] life, relationships. And we might think, oh, well, that’s my business, who I marry and all it. Well, no.

He’s saying this is the verse that introduces that section or summarizes this. I think both. It’s the transition ver verse between don’t live this way, live better, put on Christ. and in everything you do, do this. And then here’s some ways I live in my relationships, my family, and those kind of things. I think I’m overselling this point, but I don’t care. I think it’s maybe a key thing that we should be thinking about. Uh, okay. Oh, that was that. So, let’s go back.

4. Paul’s Foundation: Please God, Save Self, Save Others

Okay. You with me on that? Led by the flesh, led by the spirit. I think it’s a bifurcation if that’s the right word for that. I don’t know. Anyway, okay. What are his motivation? Where are the I remember that 1 Corinthians 5:9 and 10. We make it our aim to be pleasing to God. My heart’s desire for to God for Israel that they may be saved. I have great sorrow uh and grief in my heart for my brethren. I’m going to suggest you Paul had two foundational uh elements in his mission, his life mission.

The first one is to be saved to please God personally. Right? In fact, he says, I I buffet my body so that I won’t be a cast away after I’ve saved others that I would be lost. So, that’s a key goal, but saving others is the other. Okay. So, here’s our list. Remember that from before. So, I’m going to do something that’s a little weird, but go with me. You probably already know because you’re looking on the sheet there, and there’s those funny boxes and stuff. I want to try to put these in boxes and think about how we might organize Paul’s thoughts.

And this will be on the next page. I forgot to say this. If you fall asleep and wake up in the middle, this square right here tells you where in the lesson we are. Okay? I’ve tried to outline the lesson, you know, in typical outline form. D1, two, three. That will you maybe you figured that out by now, but if you if you wake up or forgot to keep looking, that’s where we are. We’re on part D. And we’re going to fill in the structure. Would Gio be okay with putting as fall Paul’s foundation in all of his life decisions.

Does this please God or not? That’s pretty obvious, right? We make it our aim to be well pleasing to God. in 1 Corinthians nine where he talks about our race as a Christian. It’s an endurance race. And he he talks about how I’m I discipline my body in every way. In every way so that I won’t be lost, I won’t be cast away. But I think our pleasing God, we just saw in these verses right here, these two that involves himself. Does he have responsibility to other people too in his life in pleasing God?

Of course he does. Right? So really we could kind of divide pleasing God into two things. One is saving himself and saving others. Y’all agree with that? I’m not sure there’s anything else. If if I if my goal is to please God, what’s the one thing he wants me to do? Save myself. Why is he giving Jesus? What’s the point of our life is to get to heaven. It’s not this life. This is passing away, right? And then the other goal I have is uh you know my neighbor.

I could almost say fear God and you know love God and love your neighbor. That kind of reminds me of the two great commandments even you know. So I feel like I’m arguing with somebody but y’all are just nodding. Yeah. Okay. This is boring. You got all this and nobody’s going to argue with me on this. All right. It’s going to get trickier now though. How do I save myself? or how did Paul do you see anything in that decision structure that was intended to actually help save Paul kind of in the theme of 1 Corinthians nine about disciplining himself in everything he did and what were some of those things in his decision that maybe were intended to make him stronger you know when in his struggle monologue he considered himself.

[clears throat] Well, and then he says, “I buffet my body daily.” Yeah. But in that decision, you mean Romans 7, the what I would do, I would I want to do right. Do wrong. Right. Right. But he was always considering what was right. Yeah. And what was wrong? Yeah. So, I’m going to say that, you know, there there are probably private what did you call it? Uh it’s his internal monologue, but it’s a meditation. And it’s a internal struggle. Y’all ever have any of those about doing the right thing?

If you’re if you don’t, first of all, I don’t think you’re telling the truth. Second, I don’t think you you’re living in the same world I live in. But yes, of course, we struggle and it’s internal. And I maybe address that with prayer and thinking about the word and other things like that. So, I think there are things that Paul did to just grow and be encouraged himself. time in the word um and in prayer and those kind of things. There there are analogies in our life. I hope y’all see that. Right. I mean, yes.

But there are other things that perhaps helped to both save himself and to save others. For example, if he spent some time in study or preaching or whatever, he would be helping his own faith, I suppose, but maybe primarily aimed at at saving others. Right? Y’all agree with that? And you see some of that in there, right? Uh and then he had some other things. It was like uh you know imparting gifts I think would be in this category. But then the saving others for Paul especially and that’s his special mission badge that he’s got.

Um it took a special uh almost extreme case where he had to go because God told him this is your mission. He had to go to places where the gospel hadn’t been preached and find non-Christians and at least let them hear the gospel one time so he could do that. I think we have part of that mission, but it may not be as explicit as Paul had. So, you see here, he’s encouraging himself. He’s encouraging other Christians and strengthening them, but he’s also evangelistic. He’s speaking to others about the word.

Do you think that’s something that pleases God? Yes. The reason it does is because it attempt to save others as Paul said in those two things. And saving others is something God’s commanded us to do, something part of our life mission. Yes. Fourth question. Okay. Yeah. The little star. I cannot It says special mission. I don’t And I only that’s a very small point. I want to at some point I might come back and say if you’re a mom, [clears throat] you have a special mission.

And in some ways it might take priority over some other things right in your life that might be good, wonderful, beautiful, edifying things. And yet you have a special mission. Now I’ve made my point. Okay. Maybe I don’t have to make it later. If you’re a dad, I’d make the same speech. Y’all agree with me on that? And there are things that might be real good, but I have that special mission. I might I need to think about that maybe as a priority.

Just [clears throat] like Paul wanted to go to Spain. I think he wanted to go to Spain more than he wanted to go to Rome. Y’all did y’all did I convince you of that? Right. Why? Well, because he had a special mission, which is to speak to the Gentiles. You know, ties in with everything else that God has done. When you look at Christ, Jesus, he some other things. We got a very special special mission. Yeah. Holy Spirit. Yeah. That doesn’t mean that all these Well, sorry. I’ll get to that later. Okay. So, let’s be more specific.

How how y’all remember this word I’m using now is how how was Paul going to grow and be encouraged in in regard to this decision? Well, he was going to go to Rome. And when he got there, I suspect they’d have a special service and they’d have worship and they’d pray and he’d spend time with those brethren and they’d talk about temptations they were overcoming and teaching of the Old Testament that would confirm their faith. I’m making up a lot of stories here, but I think something like that would have happened. And what else? He would preach while he was there in Rome.

He would impart gifts. That would be one way that he strengthened other people. And he would also preach to Gentiles. And Rome would help him because it would help him on his way to the bigger goal which was to go to Spain. All right? [snorts] Do y’all see these are getting more specific here? We can start with the abstract at the bottom, but in each case I can say, well, how are you going to do that? And I can put more specific things in there.

And so it turns out [clears throat] that going to Rome [laughter] actually supported all of these. Did you notice that really going to Rome was the how? If I said, you know, how are you going to do this? How are you going to do the how? How how you would say, well, going to Rome actually does all of that, including my special mission, which is get on get help me get to Spain. Hope this is making sense. All right. And I think there are other things he decided, right?

I mean, besides going to Rome, there were other things. Not only that, I might ask the question, well, how’s he going to go to Rome? Now, let’s go back to Acts 19. What was he thinking about? He probably thought, well, I get to, you know, uh, what’s the coastal city? Um, Cesaria, right? I’m going to look for a ship. It’s headed to Rome. That’s the way you do it in those days. You find a ship and purchase a place. And, you know, and, you know, he might he he might have actually um this is I don’t know why this picture is fascinating.

Can you imagine Paul walking around on the dock in Cesaria thinking these these baskets are they for sale and uh yeah uh are they are they waterproof? You know that would they you understand what I mean right? Do you can you imagine Paul shopping for baskets? Do you think he did? Never thought about it either, but I started thinking about how many little decisions I asked you this morning how many little decisions you’ve made coming to come here.

You think Paul shoed for a basket that would hold by the way I my parchments can’t get wet. That’s the main thing. Yeah. And it’s got to be durable because it’s going to be, you know, unloaded and loaded a bunch of times. Can you imagine Paul doing those kind of small things in life? Deciding which shirt to wear. Right. Right. And yet, and yet, can you imagine Paul making those decisions without keeping this in mind in some way? Yeah, I need this to get on my journey.

H yeah, let’s all be quiet. That’s a hard one to think about, but I think Okay, y’all understood what I was doing there. Whenever I said how, all you have to do is read up and similar really the exact same question. It might be why are you doing that? So you read down. Does that make sense? So here’s a here’s a practice question. Um why was he going to preach in Rome? Why? Reads down. And why was he going to do that? And why was he going to do that? You’ll see you read down. Or I could ask you, how is he going to please God?

Well, he’s going to do this. How’s he going to do that? He’s going to do that. How’s he going to do how? How? So, how just reads up the same question, just two different forms. That make sense? Okay. Uh here’s another thing that I think you can see in this, and that is the blocks at the bottom are the most important and unchanging goals, right? I I mean, Paul didn’t get to Rome. Y’all understand that top block got knocked off and he put something else there.

But did the please God get affected? No. No. Did the Did the save self and save others go away? No. No. He just found other ways to do that. It wasn’t in Rome and it wasn’t with those Christians the way he thought it was going to be. But he still So what happens is the higher up you go, the more these have to be replaced as as whatever you said life happens to us, right? And so our plans, if you think of a plan, it’s this stack of blocks here, right?

and be prepared for the upper blocks to have to be knocked over because we’re not in control of those things. But also be prepared to not let these get blocked knocked over. You see that these are constant. They’re the basis for everything. Okay. Um and that’s that’s all this really says. So I have some observations which I think we’ve all made. The blocks in any row are the why for the blocks above them and the blocks rows above are the how for the decisions below.

I said that that’s a backward way of saying it but I think you remember what I said. Some of the higher blocks uh decisions they support multiple lower blocks. You all remember that going to Rome had a lot of good things to say about it. It supported multi blocks below. Higher level blocks are usually more tangible and visible to others. Y’all y’all y’all are aware of that too. Like I might decide well I’m just going to wear this shirt. Well that everybody sees that. What you don’t see is why I decided to wear this shirt, right?

Um and so but but the higher you go, the more visible and also their measurable outcomes. Did he get to Rome or not? Well, yeah. Did he get to Rome the way he wanted to get there? No. Y’all see what I’m saying? These are visible results. I can say that that was a failure or that wasn’t. Uh, but the higher you up you are. Now, I can’t really quite see his heart, his love of others to save them. I don’t know that, but I can watch for that by looking at the higher blocks.

Y’all, you’ll see that the lower blocks more significant, unchanging. The higher they’re more likely to change. We covered that. [clears throat] Um, and I think it’s the case that a higher level block when it stops supporting the block below, what should you do? Change. Change it. Right? If that’s not supporting me getting to Spain, I’m not I’m not doing it. I think that’s what hindered Paul is things that he wanted to do. They didn’t really support the higher level goals. And so, he needed to stay in Ephesus.

And this is great work going on here. If I go to Rome, it’s going to not let me accomplish these goals. And so, y’all see how that works. You maybe should be constantly evaluating all those decisions at the higher level. Is this really helping me satisfy my goal to please God, save self, save others? all that. So you see that that’s a place where the evaluation could happen. And looking at only one block [clears throat] like he’s going to Rome. That’s all I know.

He’s trying to get, you know, boat tickets to Rome. Does that tell me much about his motivation? No. It’s just that’s what he’s doing. I might think it’s like a problem or I might think it’s a great idea, but I don’t really have a basis for saying because after all, going to Rome is not a sin in itself. Right? Y’all see that? [clears throat] And what I’m trying to tell you is there’s nothing in our life that’s in and of itself. It’s all connected to things.

Either it’s helping me accomplish or it’s standing in the way of something I need to do. Now, you might say, “Well, but what about the most trivial things?” I’m still I’m gonna be absolute. I don’t like caveats because it gives us little trap doors to run out and escape, right? I might agree with you, but I I’m just stubborn. Y’all see I’m not just not going to have caveat caveats here. You know, he he got the wrong in a way other than he had. Yes.

But he did not have to raise any money to get to one. All there were great blessings. And I and I like to say in retrospect, we might think we can see God’s wisdom in overruling these blocks that we put on there and eventually get knocked off. Satan hindered us or I was hindered in some ways. And here’s a kind of a important point that is um despite this pyramid shape this way, if if every block was the same size, what would be the shape of the pyramid really?

It’d be that way, right? And I only made them big and you know large font because I wanted that to be at the foundation at the bottom. But you can see as you go up there are lots more house that are getting stacked on but you hope it’s coming down to a single goal. So I I know that’s confusing but I just that’s the graphic that I chose. Okay. We’re kind of the interlude now. Yes. A lot of things are on a continuum motivation wise. In real life, we do a lot of things for mixed motivation.

Some of them spiritual, some of them not spiritual. I know they all serve together. So y’all y’all heard what he said. Maybe some of our motives are mixed. Do you mean by that they satisfy the flesh? They they work in two different directions. Okay. Like to get married. Okay. So we talked about that that one block can be the how for more than one block below. I think Paul being encouraged with the Christians in Rome helped him help them. Right? So I’m doing two things at once.

Right? I am going to push back to say well sometimes we can serve the flesh and the spirit at the same time. And we can come back to that in a minute. But I wonder if that’s can that be true? Can that be true? Oh now wait a minute. Who says master. Yeah, the master said he’s not a master, right? Y’all heard what he said. You can’t serve two masters, right? So, and and that’s what I I see in Jesus teaching, you can’t serve God in mammon. And I do see it a just a dichotomy. And I don’t think we think that way enough.

And that’s why I’m pushing in an absolute way on this is that I wish we would stop thinking about all my area of liberty and you know, here’s something’s not really spiritual. It doesn’t affect anything in any. No, we need to be thinking harder than that. about our use of time and other things. So, I’m getting to the end, but y’all I’m not to the end, but I mean I’m getting to my end points, but y’all see where I’m going with this. I hope and that if we could see our lives as a series of hows that are all rooted in pleasing God, man, what a difference it would make in our Well, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

But I want to go back to the common question. I promised I’d give you an answer to this. Uh, do you think it’s a sin to miss one worship, take one drink, go to an establishment where drinking is served, but I’m not going to drink anything? You think it is sin to stay on social media, to binge watch TV, play video games for hours and hours? Do you think it’s a sin in of itself? To spend lots of money on credit, even for conveniences, vacations, hobbies, toys, and sports.

Or maybe spend lots of money not on credit for those things. Watch a movie contains immorality and profanity, but I’m not doing any of it. Form my closest relationships with non-Christians. You think that’s a sin? Date a non-Christian. Marry a non-Christian. Get a tattoo. I’ve been thinking about what tattoo would I get? [laughter] One pleases God. Yeah, that’s right. Please God. That’s right. Don’t forget it. One of my sons said this. She said, “I I can’t think of what I would put on a tattoo that I wouldn’t be worried that I would change my mind in about 10 years.” Right? I mean, you put your wife’s name and she dies, you know, or whatever you you could see.

Well, sorry, we’re down the wrong path. Divorce and unfaithful spouse. [laughter] Well, now that’s an area of Well, is it? I wonder if I should think about what pleases God and what saves other people. take a job and move where there’s no church. Let’s think about that one for a minute. I mean, I I see some of these young kids and man, what a great career opportunity. Man, the pay is great. Well, there’s not actually a church. You in fact, we had one of our members, he moved to Florida, had built his dream vacation home near the beach and all that.

And he was describing all that and how kind of I think his point was how irrevocable that decision was, right? Gazelva and he said, “But I forgot to see if there was a church in the area.” Actually, Paul did that that a lot. Thank you. Now, I wonder what the difference would be. So, there’s this young man. He’s got a great job. He forgot to see if there was even a sound church in the area. That’s not the whole story. He went on to say, “And I’m actually thinking of starting a church.”

And I said, “Well, have you ever done that?” “Oh, yeah. I’m I’m I’ve converted two or three people in college where I am and uh you know what I mean now? Are you getting a little deal little different view of this? Right. So, there’s more to the story. Uh spend a large portion of my time on entertainment and [clears throat] you put your favorite thing there. All right. Y’all have any idea what an answer to that might be? We’re going to come back. I’ll give the answer to that after one more section here.

5. What Should Be at the Bottom of This Pyramid?

How to do with our uh our lives. Okay, this is an example. This is um a Christian. All right, I’m on G1 if you’re following along uh in the in the notes there. What do you think should be at the bottom of this pyramid? Wild guess. Oh, good guess. Please God, that’s no different. in just a while. What’s that? I know there are a lot. There are a lot of boxes. And I think that’s more realistic, right? Remember, this thing really looks like that, but what do you think might be the next two things above this please God box?

Just wild guess. Save self, save other. I mean, there’s no difference. Love the Lord, love your neighbor. There’s a a role we have. Save self and save others. Now, we might start to get a little bit more specific here, but to save myself, I need devotion time. I need time with God. I need time to learn his word and pray and build my own faith and and so on. So I need somehow to grow and to be encouraged spiritually. That’s important. Was that true for Paul, too?

Of course, we saw that. Uh I care for have care for others, right? And that could be both physical care, but mainly aimed at saving them, right? That’s the other part. This should be a how for this, right? Or say it a different way. Did I say that wrong? I said it backwards. This should be a how for this and this should be a why for that. Why am I caring for others? What’s my primary goal? Forming friendships, getting married, having kids. Why am I doing that?

[snorts] Right. For me, yes, exactly. It’s helping that. But also here edify others. That’s building them up. Teaching others if maybe the lost. Um, I’m not a special mission to the Gentiles, but I’ll tell you there are lots of Gentiles around me I should be talking to. Uh, I should be okay. So, remember how reads up. How am I going to grow? Anybody got anybody got any specific ideas about how a Christian could grow and be encouraged themselves?

Just somes specific activities maybe, read, study the word, pray, right? Those kind of things, right? I have a personal devotion time. Any other ideas of where maybe it might it might be a how for both helping me grow and helping other people grow too. What do you think? Bible classes. Bible class, work in a church, right? Exhort one another uh you know while it’s called today and those kind of things. Uh would I actually marry? Now marry is an area of liberty, right?

I mean, it’s just it’s an in and of itself. It doesn’t support or affect any of these goals. Do you agree with that? Of course not. In fact, it’s almost essential that it affect these goals. So, you know what I’m going to ask is why would you marry? And you know how to easily answer that question. Why would you marry in this picture? I mean, maybe this isn’t your picture. No, really. You get married to save somebody? Well, Like who? My children that are going to go there marriage.

That’s right. I’m like I’m not wrong on that, am I? No, [laughter] there probably is a dependency here. I’ve forgotten there. You have to get married before you have co children. But that’s not my point in a way. I would marry and have children. And the question why is I read down here. Why am I having kids? I need somebody to take care of me when I get old. Really? Or are you making disciples for God, bringing more children into his kingdom? Or I’m not just keeping up with the neighbors, right?

Or my siblings who had four kids and I only had three or some other carnal thing. Is that what we think about why we get married and why we have kids? I might I might even form friends. In fact, I might form friends. my neighbor who’s not a Christian. Why in the world would I do that? Why? Why reach down? I could bring others to Christ. And I hope I’m living in a way in this friendship that they’re seeing these things down here and then I have this opportunity to teach others.

You could ask the how question if you wanted to. How am I going to teach others? Well, one way is you need to have some friends that are not Christians. I think associate with them somehow. How am I going to build my personal devotion? Well, I mean, how am I going to do that? I’m going to build my study skills, right? You know what I’m talking about by that? I’m going to get a Bible library. I’m going to understand a little bit about how to look up Greek words, right? I’m going to do keep my own notebook, just listen to tapes of things that are important to me, right?

I might uh support and care for my family doesn’t quite line up over, but I need to create some time for these things, right? Because how am I going to do these things that do these things without some time? I need to create some time. And I might even have I might even join the Kowanas club. Is there such a thing anymore? I don’t even know. But I might ask the question, why would I join the Kowanas Club? Meet some people, right? You know, I can keep building on this.

How am I going to build my study skills for the Bible? You know what? I might just get some training, right? Um, I might have a job. Why would I have There it is. Why do I have a job again? Why? Because I’ve always wanted to be a whatever scientist. I always wanted to work in a refinery my whole life. I’m glad y’all are laughing at that. I thought, but this I mean that’s so significant to me. [crying] What is the reason we tell the kids that they need to pick a career?

always support the family. I wish we told him that you need to pick a career that will support your family and that’s it. But also does this I want to stay healthy. I might even go for a jog, right? I’m going to go and put some more things up here. I go to school to get that training. Now, why am I going to college again? Why am I learning these life skills? How to get along with other people? How to study? how to manage my money, all those life skills that we really need to know so I can amass a fortune.

Why else would you learn that, right? Why would I exercise and go for a job? [clears throat] I want to stay healthy. Why do you want to stay healthy? I want to look buff. I’m a single guy. I need to attract some women. You know what I mean? I’ll feel better. But what what’s the point of that? So I can do these other things, right? I I this may seem simplistic to you, but it seemed to me we don’t think in these terms. I’ll illustrate in a minute. I might even have hobbies which help me with this or help me with this, but mainly aimed at that, aimed at that, aimed at that.

Y’all see what I’m doing there? All right. Can you imagine kind of a structure in your life that kind of includes a lot of things that you might not have thought? You think that all these things are just in and of themselves, but I wonder if they are maybe. So, let’s think about what it would look like if we were led by the flesh whose God is their belly. For example, Paul says the Philippians, what would be the bottom block of a decision process led by the flesh?

Well, the flesh kind of, but you know, pleasure, fun, right? You understand what I mean? Pleasing myself. Now, is that a value system that you ever see in this world, in this country? Absolutely. Yes. That is I do this because it makes me happy. Or y’all, you never hear that before. And you know, if your job doesn’t make you happy, what should you do? You should go get another job. I mean, after all, what are we working for if it’s not to be happy?

If the wife you have doesn’t make you happy, what do you need to do? [laughter] I’m getting there. So, to be happy, I need to have lots of things, right? I just need to have toys. I mean toys, big boy toys that burn gas and you know make loud noises and you know I just got to have toys or otherwise I life would be too boring, right? [snorts] I need [clears throat] to have a lot of fun activities, ball games, sports, you know, all kinds of uh competitions and outdoor things improve my masculinity and those kind of things.

Sorry, this is kind of a male oriented talk. I should I should flip over a little bit to the females. So, y’all help me with that. Uh, I need to, by the way, fun friends. That’s key, right? I mean, you don’t go off and do all these things by yourself. You need to have people who share those same uh that same enthusiasm for these hobbies, right? In fact, I can borrow their stuff if I need, you know, uh, and by the way, deepest pleasure, I mean, in a way, is the pleasure of a sexual relationship.

Am I going to need a sexual partner for this? This is a how question. How am I going to do this? You need that, right? Right. I mean, yeah, God makes you have singular instead of plural. Oh, thank you. Right. Well, I’m going to satisfy it. The how in more than one way, as you might guess, right? But okay. So, how am I going to get lots of things? Well, I need to have a lot of money. That’s the point of having money, right? You can’t eat it. You I’ve probably noticed this before. You know what I mean? It doesn’t heal anything, but you have money.

You can buy lots of things that are fun and and I need to have power. That is the ability to do what I want to get my way. If something stands in the way of something that I get pleasure out of, then [snorts] I need to have power. I need to have a lot of relationships so I can get these front these are the how fun friends, fun activities, getting lots of things, also sexual partners. And you know, is it possible that a person with this decisionmaking pyramid would actually get married?

Is it possible that they would get married? Yeah. Now you’ll know the question I’m going to ask. Why would they get married? Make me happy. Oh, really? To get money. Get power. Get power. Yeah. I mean, I married into a big nice rich family. No, no, people don’t marry for that reason, right? Because this is a sexual partner I’ve always wanted. She makes me happy. I can’t imagine my life without her. That kind of thing. Sorry, this is male oriented. I should flip it around.

People don’t get married for that reason, do they? I’m being facitious. You know that I am, right? Yes. In fact, when you ask somebody, “Why did you pick her?” Very often, even a Christian will say, “Well, we were just so much in love.” What are we saying? What does that mean? Oh, well, to get money and power, I need good income and I need good investments. I need to be popular, by the way, to get these friends and have this power and all of that.

And I need to meet people so I can marry and have a family. I need a good job. And by you know what I mean by a good job probably I mean make a lot of money but I may also mean it gets me power. I may also mean it’s very you know satisfying to my ego and my sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. What’s the word? The Maslo word actualization, self-actualization, all that. Yeah. Um I want to have a house but which by the way needs to be a great investment.

That house needs to be a great investment. So maybe a big one in neighborhood that’s on its way up. Uh so I might actually have to h build one way out somewhere so I can get more house for the money. Never mind how far from the church or the Christians or anything, right? Because what’s the point of my house? Well, it’s that it’s that, right? I mean that that’s that’s the why. Um would I be engaged in civic service? Did that projector just get brighter?

I think the projector likes this. Could you start over with? [laughter] Yeah. Um, would I join clubs if I was on this decision process? Sure. Why would I join a club? Read down. Meet people. Why? Have fun. Find partners, right? Whoa, wait a minute. Join a church. Would I join a church? Yes, sir. Why would you? Why? Why would you join a church? Makes you more acceptable. Yeah. Oh, all Yeah. All the good people in my neighborhood are members. In fact, how would I choose the church? You’d be the one that was influential and politically correct and I’ll tell you what else.

Remember, we said that if these blocks stop satisfying what’s down here, like for example, my wife gets cancer and I don’t get this anymore and I don’t it’s hard. It’s not fun. It’s ugly. What do I do with this block in this p in this pyramid? I get rid of it. I can find another one that satisfies this a lot better. Y’all get that? If this church has trouble in it, right? And that is somehow another it’s got a reputation for being very narrow-minded and orthodox and all of that, not approved in the community.

What might I do with this block? Or maybe they can’t even get along with each other. I go find another one. I put another block or take it out all together. Right. I’m I’m tired of this. We’re not doing it [clears throat] anymore. Does that ever happen? Some people do. No kidding. Um and I’m going to go get an education. But why am I getting an education? And what would be the criteria for the college I go to? And the major is that the right word?

What what am I going to study? What would be the criteria for that? It’s right there. Max income, right? Or maybe it’s just that’s what I’ve always wanted to do my whole life, right? Could be that. Could just be a pleasure. Y’all see that people don’t go to college because it’s something they just like to do or because it would they get in an Ivy League school despite the extreme cost and debt and all that because they can do this and do this. Yes.

These things interact, don’t they? My dad worked with a guy that uh was asking him what the Church of Christ taught on divorce because he wanted to divorce his wife. Oh, he he was shopping for a church divorce his wife. Oh, yeah. I Yeah. In an honorable way, right? Yeah. I remember as an elder, we had a guy come, he had a stack of papers and they were all the articles that defended his right to remarry. He didn’t have a clue what they said. I’m exaggerating, but I did ask him say, “Well, you know, these papers don’t matter. You need to explain to us what what do you think the scriptures teach?” He couldn’t do it. Why was he carrying those around and interviewing elders?

He wanted to get his way. Yeah. He wanted to find a church that would say, “Okay, well, if you got that much paper, it must be okay.” And he will find them. He will. Yes. Y’all see how this decision-m works? If you think about why are we doing these things, it changes the way we view a lot of things. Um, I will stay healthy because I need to do all these fun things down here and I [snorts] need to, you know, be in a social environment and a lot of other things.

Y’all, y’all see this? Do you know anybody like this? I think this is my next door neighbor. No, I think this guy lives in my house sometimes. Yeah. I want to point out something on the previous one that you had up there. um we can get locked in as to what our answers are. It’s very individualized. Like people look for a job and they wanted to [clears throat] fit in with their church. Yeah. But we’ve had people in the past in this area even that say that you can’t get a job shift work.

Preachers that come in from other places. You can’t do that. You have to get a job. And you the number of day jobs out there are very limited. And so you can’t because that’s your solution doesn’t mean it’s the other person’s solution. I think do the best. Can you all hear what he’s saying? I’m sorry. I have to do this. Do you think it’s a sin to take a shift work job? Is that wrong? We’re going to get to the answers to those questions in just a minute. But I y’all hear that’s the same that’s the very thing he’s asking or he’s not asking you but he’s just saying that’s been a source of controversy in the past.

Let me just ask about this guy. Why won’t stay bright? Go back up if you can. Yeah, I’m really um y’all know this guy. Is he uh is he married? This guy up here in this chart. I don’t know that’s in Is he married? You can look in there and see. Look close. Yep. He’s married. Is he Does he go to church? Is he an upstanding citizen? Right. Does he have a good job? Right. He useful in the community. He’s not hurting the neighborhood. He mows his grass.

I don’t know. Y’all see what I’m getting at? What do you think? What do you think about this guy? He must be a Christian. Yeah, for sure. And you see the dilemma. There’s something missing in the picture, right? This is a respectable person as I say. Maybe it’s me. What’s important though is what’s down there. You see that? Now, who knows that. So, you may think that you’re coming to this to find an easy formula to make decisions by. I think this is harder.

It’s a different way of thinking about a decision, but it it it also requires you to know your heart. Isn’t that right? Yes. Um here’s some symptoms of the mind of the flesh. I’ll just go through these. You maybe heard these. Where does the Bible say it’s wrong? Which is the same question as do you think it’s a sin? Right? Uh there’s no harm done. No one will be hurt. It might actually somehow turn out good. I don’t know. Right. Surely that’s a lady that shows up occasionally and causes trouble, but surely God doesn’t expect me to whatever, right?

Fill in the blank, right? Stick with this husband who’s, you know, a jerk or stay in this terrible job just because it supports my family and gives me time and or whatever. Or it’s not fair that I can’t. Y’all heard those kind of arguments before. And by the way, what may be at the root of that is this is hard or unpleasant or making me unhappy or it’s causing pain and therefore I don’t have to do it or shouldn’t have to do it. God doesn’t expect me to do it. Y’all see that?

Well, God God just wants you to be happy. Well, of course it says that in some some verse. I think it’s Ephesians 7 or something, right? But but I will say this, I’m afraid we think this way. Um I’ve presented this at camp occasionally uh you know for where the boys are there and uh I’ll kind of go through it with them and [clears throat] um do do you know uh somebody gets a new job. Let’s do an example. Somebody gets a new job got a brand new job. They’re excited. Start a new job. What’s the first thing we ask them? What do we say?

We might ask them. I don’t ask how much they make. What what’s the thing? There’s just a common conversation a little bit like how are you doing? But you got a new job and I say how do you like your new job? Isn’t that right? Then what do we say? What’s implicit in that question? Yeah. I mean that’s the first criteria. Why you have that job? Because you like it. Almost not quite but almost. Is it fun? Right. I mean and if their answer is, oh man, I’m having all kind of fun.

That’s a good thing, right? I mean, somehow that’s their answer to not only do I like it, I’m having fun. And so, you know, and you know, kid goes off to school. Well, how do you like it? You know, and I I tell the boys at the camp, I say, now when your mom picks you up, what’s the first thing she’s going to ask you? Yeah. Did you have fun or did you like camp? Right? Isn’t that true? Moms, you all know. Yeah. What’s the value system we’re kind of implying when we ask that question? Is that fun?

Well, of course. Why would you go to do something, put all this effort, spend the money if it wasn’t fun, right? So, I told the boys, I said, this happened one camp. I stopped doing it. But I said, when your mom asks you that question, you be ready. I want you to say this. No, [laughter] but it’s consistent with my spiritled decision-making process. Let’s practice. No, but it’s consistent with my spirit led to you. Y’all see the point of that answer, right?

Yeah, it was hard work. It was hot or whatever. That’s okay. I wasn’t know why I was here, right? So, of course, some knucklehead did that. And his mom comes to me and she said, “I asked him if you liked the camp.” And he said, “No.” And then I don’t know what he said after that, you know? [laughter] So, I stopped doing it. But y’all see the point. Anything we do, we always ask, “Was it fun? Did you like it? I wish there was I try to ask, you know, somebody gets a new job and say, “Listen, is it going to help you in your walk in some way, saving others?

I don’t know. Supporting your family, supporting the church, giving you more free time, building you up spiritually, building other people up. I mean, do you see what I mean? These are better ways to think about what we decide to do. But it’s also hard. and I got to get done. I’m gonna be on time. Otherwise, y’all won’t come back maybe. Okay. But here, what I do, it’s my business, right? This is my area of liberty. There’s nothing to do with my religion.

[clears throat] It’s natural or lots of people do it. And I, by the way, if someone says that this is just natural, I’m thinking about, you know, the mind of the flesh and the mind of the spirit, right? We are by nature children of wrath. Yeah, y’all see what I mean? I think that should at least be a warning sign when someone says it’s just natural. Okay, maybe. But that’s probably a All right. Just one time won’t hurt or if you just don’t go too far.

I was so angry, lonely, scared. This is after the fact, you know, I couldn’t help it. It makes me angry. Some people are on my back about this. By the way, that’s another warning sign. If there are people who you love who are trying to talk to you about a certain decision or action and it’s making you mad, man, that’s the engine light bl. Well, my car has a thousand lights that come on, but you know what I mean. Those are warning lights coming on.

6. What Makes a Good Decision? God Judges the Heart

I know people in the church who’ve done a whole lot worse things. Y’all ever heard those kind of things? That’s a mind of the flesh. You can just hear it in each of those things. Okay. So, what makes a good decision? Is it that it works? It’s successful outcome. By the way, did is it Netherland or Netherland, right? Did they win last night or not? They did. I saw they were up by what, two touchdowns first early in the game? Um, I don’t know if this ever came out, but did they have like a fourth and one somewhere in the game?

Y’all know what I’m sorry ladies, you probably know more football than me, but fourth and one kind of maybe midfield somewhere. It’s late in the game. Maybe you’re down by a touchdown. Uh and uh coach, you got a decision. What’s the decision? You got to go for it or punt, right? You know, don’t have much time left. And uh now you maybe you think you know the answer every time you go for it because the statistics say, but just to say it’s a valid decision and he goes for it.

Now, how will that coach be judged the next day? By one thing, only by one. Yeah. The outcome. Did they make it? If he if they made it, this is the he’s the most br he’s the best coach we’ve ever had, right? If he didn’t make it, be looking for a job, man. And what’s interesting is if they don’t make the first down and yet and yet all week long they practiced that play and it worked 95% of the time and he knew the soft spot in the defense, right?

And everything about he practiced it over and over. The team knew exactly what to do. They’re all ready to do that. And you know, all those background facts, do they matter if you don’t make the first down? Doesn’t matter. Sorry. That’s not the way God judges us. Thankfully, y’all know what I mean. And why is that? Because, and now back to some of the things we talked before. We don’t know the future. I may make a decision, but who’s determining how it’s going to turn out?

Right? See that the Lord’s purposes prevail. I don’t know what they are. Proverbs, this is I think James quotes this. He says, “Do you not know what a day may bring forth?” James says, “Stop making predictions without at least saying if the Lord will.” Why is that? Because you don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I am so thankful God does not judge me by the outcome of my decisions. In fact, I ought to be more thankful that he overrules some of my plans, right?

Um but okay, but it’s not that. Okay, it’s not that. What makes a good decision? It’s not that it’s not a successful outcome. It’s not whether it’s popular in the world. You don’t know what I mean by that. I think I have in my life made decisions sometimes because I’m thinking, well, this is what everybody expects me to do. That doesn’t mean they were wrong. In fact, their wisdom might have been better than mine. But that’s not that doesn’t make it a good decision.

Y’all agree with me, I hope, on that. It’s just following the consensus or I heard a story about a guy who did this or that, and I’m going to try to recreate that story. God judges the heart. Jesus said this. This is so scary. These You are those who justify yourselves before men. You know what? I could make up a pyramid structure that looks pretty good. And who knows what I’m really thinking inside God probably better than I do. Every way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.

Y’all understand that? Yeah. You can have, you can look real nice, successful, moral, church, talented, affluent, secure, all of that. Is that what God cares about? He’s It’s this bottom block down here. And that’s the why question. Remember that. Read down for the why. I think sometimes we ought to be thinking about everything in our lives. Another little point I was going to make earlier, but it just occurs to me now to say it. If you have built that pyramid with the mind of the flesh at the bottom, pleasure, you know, at the and you’ve built all this stuff, money, house, relationship, church, all of that, does that make it harder to change the bottom once you’ve gone way up and built all that structure above it?

Just a just a side point in a way. But I think the longer we go in our life, and I think the rich young ruler had to deal with that, don’t you think? Why was it so hard to do what Jesus said? Because he had a man of great wealth. He had built so much structure in his life around that when you say, “Wait, I’m going to collapse this whole thing down to why am I doing any of this? Why am I doing any of this?” And it might change a whole bunch of things.

And the more structure you have, the harder that will be to please God at the bottom. That’s how we identify ourselves. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that’s a real good point. Why isn’t that in my presentation? Y’all understand what he’s saying? We’ve we we’ve somehow made this our [cough] identity. Where should our identity be? In Christ. It’s down here. And this may be a disaster from worldly point of view. It likely will be on occasion. All that would live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Second Timothy.

Conclusion

But does God judge the outcome? No, he judges our hearts, which is not meaning that it’s easy. I think that creates another perhaps even harder problem to know our own heart. Y’all understand that? Okay, we’re ready to answer all these questions. Whoops. This way. I told you I’d give you an answer. Remember all these questions? You ready? One answer and we’ll practice and you’ll have it and we’ll be done. Almost done. If you hear a question that begins with, “Do you think it’s a sin, too?”

What do you think the answer, a good answer might be? [laughter] Thank you. Right. Don’t you see that? There is no decision in and of itself. The question is, you’re accomplishing something with this. Why did you miss that service? Right? I was teaching my neighbor. I didn’t want to break off the discussion. He looks like he’s very interested in the gospel, but it just I needed to do that. My judgment was it was going to help me save him. Yeah. I’m sorry I missed class, but that’s what I was that’s what I was doing. Can you imagine that? Was it a sin in and of itself?

It didn’t exist in and of itself. And if you think about every one of those, the question back is why are you doing that? Is that something that’s going to please God, save self, save others, and all those other blocks below it? Does this am I making sense out of that? this but we want to know show me the verse right if you can’t show me the verse then free pass right y’all with me on that all right we got there Jeremiah so I hope you don’t think I’ve given you an easy picture of how to make decisions so we were talking earlier about some of the algorithms the one I always think about is hey you put all the pros on one side and all the cons on the other and then you add them up y’all heard that before I don’t think that’s a bad approach but I think it should be informed by this value system.

Y’all understand what I’m saying, but this you so you had one where you could ask questions like, well, what if everybody did that? How would the world turn out? That’s a good thing, too. But I’m just saying I think it’s in I don’t have the pyramid up, but I think it’s informed by this kind of thinking, right? Right. Yeah. I mean, if it if everybody in the world would be happier, also consequences for other people. We don’t we care about other people.

Our decisions very often impact other individuals. Yeah, totally free to do what we do, but we need to consider as Christians how what we do might affect another person or person. Is there any Bible teaching on thinking about how a brother might be caused to stumble or offended? And by the way, who are the ones that are often the most fragile in that consideration? It’s the new ones or weak ones or whatever. Is that a valid consideration for saving others?

That one block over there. Yeah. What is this going to look like to other people? I know what I’m thinking. I know what I’m trying to accomplish. Oh, it’s a spiritual goal for sure. But what’s it going to look like? How will other people be affected? And Paul makes arguments like, are they going to be caused to stumble or whatever? Yeah. So, in that thought process, getting a tattoo is okay if you bother. [clears throat] Yeah. [laughter] So, you know what I’m going to say? Do he’s asking, do you think it’s a sin to get a tattoo?

And I’m going to ask, why would you do it? and you’re gonna say, “I think it’ll be a great evangelistic tool.” And I’ll say, “Go for it, man.” Right? I’m being pretty sarcastic on all fronts there, but I’m just saying. And by the way, will it offend any weak Christians or will it, you know, or or older Christians like me that are stuck in the muds? I’m a weak Christian just in a different dimension, right? I’m stuck in the mud. But y’all see what I mean?

You can you imagine all those considerations would help you decide instead of finding that Old Testament Deuteronomy verse that says something about bodily markings and may or may not apply. Y’all y’all see what I mean by that? Well, that’s the Roman world. Tattoos were considered something slaves have. So, it would be something that would offend. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. But those seem complicated to me when it might and I don’t know that it’s simpler, but you got to because you have to evaluate your own motives truly.

And that’s this Jeremiah passage, by the way. Uh, but I think you should do that. Why are you The heart is to see. You know what? I can make up the best stories about stuff I really want to do. Here’s the reason I’m going on this fiveweek hunting trip to Alaska. And I, man, I’ll build a house of cards for sure. You know, about why that’s a spiritual benefit to me or something. Y’all, you see what I mean? Um, I thought about that. I mean, here’s a silly example. I’m I should just finish earlier than you know vacations.

I mean that’s comes up in these well can you take a vacation and you know what I’m going to say. Why would you do it? What is the purpose of that vacation? Enjoy God’s enjoy. Have fun. Wait, wait, wait, wait. No, that was the wrong. I wonder if a vacation ought to have a spiritual purpose for our family. Sure. And I mean, compare a couple of vacations. Go stand in line in separate lines all day in Disney World and spend a whole bunch of money or go to the Rockies, hike, discuss things with the boys that you have not had time to talk about because you work so late every day.

There’s your home truth in the last. Yeah. See, I’m not here to help you make up your house of cards to justify you want to do, but I’m challenging you to say you better think about that. And when you’re thinking about it, remember this verse from Jeremiah. The heart’s deceitful above all things and by the way, desperately wicked. Who can know it? You see the challenge in that? I’ll tell you who knows. I the Lord search the heart. I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

That’s a scary passage. It says as we’re making these decisions led by the spirit, we need to be thinking that God is looking at our hearts. He sees the bottom of the pyramid that we don’t really ever see in other people for sure. Uh, I’ve had enough. You probably have, too. All right. I’m not going to cover this. So, how do I get off the stage?