God's Design for Deciding

I'm going to make a couple of confessions to you right now, just so that we're clear.

I am more sore and more tired than I have been in a very, very long time.

If I nod off in the middle of this sermon, would someone please just commit right now to wake me up?

It has been a busy, busy week as we have relocated and moved into our permanent place here in the region.

I've learned a few things along the way.

Number one, I've learned that I'm I'm a I'm a richly blessed man, um, for sure, because I could there's not a single thing that I could ask the Lord for that wasn't in the basement of that house.

Like it was it was, well, I got everything that I need.

Uh I am blessed, but I did learn something else that might be a little more eye-opening, perhaps for you.

And that is this week I was reminded that blessings can also be burdens.

As I'm moving those things that maybe I should have parted ways with some time ago, um, that once I prayed for, once I sought, once I worked for, once I felt like I could not live without, uh, I was open, my heart was open up to the fact that sometimes blessings can be burdens.

Now, that's probably always the case, that the things that you want, they have to be tended to.

The relationships that you have sought after, they have to be tended to, right?

Don't raise your hand, but some of you, like you know, your spouse is a blessing to you.

But at the same time, they they can be a burden to you as well, because that's how relationships are.

That's how we're built.

Well, what I want to do this morning is I want us to look back at Ephesians chapter four, at just a few verses, and really just kind of take in the whole image of this short passage that we have looked at over the past four weeks and drawn out these important principles that you and I as God's people come together and collectively live by.

And the reason we're stating them so clearly is because this is a this is a special place.

It's a special place because you are part of the body of Christ here in this room.

And that, I mean, I don't know about you, but I think the body of Christ is special.

And so that makes you special.

But it's also a special place just because of the season that we are in right now.

And I know like I harp on this a lot, but I'm I'm telling you folks, man, I have I have pastor friends all over the country.

I myself have served all over the country.

And whenever I look at the resources that God has given us, and I'm not just talking about the facility, I'm talking about you and the spirit that God has put into you.

And according to Ephesians chapter four, the gifts that He has given you.

I'm just like, I'm here and I'm like, oh wow, God, this is such a blessed place.

And it is a burden, it's a blessing, but it's a burden on my heart too, because I want to leverage the gifts that God has given you and the gift that you have become to the church for the maximum glory that we can to reach this community for Christ.

And part of that necessitates that we protect what God has given us here at this church.

This is a special, special place.

We're very gifted, but those gifts sometimes create some, you know, some tension, necessarily so.

And Paul talks about this here in Ephesians 4.

Let's just jump into the text together.

I'm looking at verse number four.

Paul has just been talking about the unity in the church and how that we should protect it because that is that significant thing, unity, that separates us from the rest of the world.

The rest of the world is brawling, they're fighting, they're complaining against one another, backbiting, right?

Posting things about, you know, but that's not that's not God's people.

God, Jesus himself has said, this is the way the world is going to know that you're not part of them, but you're one of my disciples, that you have love one for the other.

And so Paul has set forth unity, and then he he really punches unity just really hard into the into the conversation with verse number four, where he says, There is one body and one spirit.

So if you're in the body of Christ, you are in the body with other people, some of whom are not like you, some of whom may not like you.

We are in this together, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your single calling.

Verse number five and six, he gives the staccato list.

There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Now, of course, the the problem with this is with all this unity talk, is that there's there's also a great deal of diversity within the body.

Um, keep up with me if you can in the back.

I think my notes may be a little bit misaligned, but that's you guys are used to that by now.

Look with me if you will at verse number seven.

Because even though we have this gift of unity, there's also another gift that God gives us, which is diversity.

It's distinction.

We have differences.

And that's an important gift because if everyone was like me, then this would be a very boring and a very dangerous place.

I need people who are in other corners of thought processes and administration and uh maybe even theology who are kind of like tugging me back to center.

That's why I appreciate so deeply the elder model.

Because I have served in places where I've been like the single guy.

I've been the pastor, and there wasn't really anyone else in charge.

Keep it a secret, but actually there they were.

But but I was the one who was the front guy.

And and I mean, there's a lot of pressure that comes with that because the older I get, the more I realize there's a lot that I don't know.

I think that's going to continue.

And the older I get, the more I realize I need other people.

We need each other.

And so verse number seven tells us that in all of this unity, even though we're one and we're together, there is a great deal of diversity.

Paul says, but grace was given to what's the next word there?

Each one of us.

The idea here being that we have different gifts and different graces according to the measure of Christ.

We all share in the same power.

We all share in the same body, but we are not the same.

Now that's a gift because things that are distinct make for things that are strong.

Alloys are made up of different types of metal.

And when they're they're forged together, they make something stronger than they could be individually.

And that's the case for you and for me.

It's not easy though, is it?

Because because of the fall, because of my fallen and frail nature, there are things I believe about me and things that I I go after, and you know, I way the way I want to do things that that that contrast with God's plan.

Let me give you two of them.

So, because of the fall, we pursue autonomy.

We we want to be alone, we want to do things ourselves.

We want to, most of us want to stand on our own two feet, and we don't want to ask for help.

And beyond that, we also want to do things our way.

We think we know best.

And so we want to do the thing that we want to do the way that we want to do it, and we don't want anyone standing in our way or trying to convince us that maybe we might be off on a point.

I mean, none of us like being critiqued.

Can I can we just be honest about that for a minute?

Even if the critique is coming in a loving way, it is often difficult to hear.

Well, the proverbs, uh, the writer of Proverbs challenges that notion that because of pride, we are autonomous and we want to do things our own way.

We want to be our own God.

But the writer of Proverbs says that the one who states his case first seems right until someone else comes along to examine him or challenge him.

In other words, the autonomy that we, especially in this country, that we enjoy is dangerous because the more we get ourselves into our corner, the more we isolate ourselves, the more dangerous it is for us to be locked in with our own thoughts.

And our own thoughts will often lead us astray.

That's why we need each other.

The other attribute of our fallen nature that causes problems in community isn't just autonomy, but it's kind of built off autonomy.

It's uniformity.

Because not only do I think I'm a great person and I've got this thing mapped out and I know what's best for me and how I should do it, I believe that so strongly that I believe you all should be just like me, that you should think like me, and you should vote like me, and you should act like me.

Uniformity.

Now, you are probably aware that there is a lot of call, a lot of call in this country right now for unity.

And I want you to hear my heart on this, that when most people claim they want unity, they don't really want unity, they want uniformity.

Because unity implies that there are differences, those differences are going to remain, and yet we have to agree on some level, on some thread, some common ground that we're going to meet and shake hands and be unified.

What most people say whenever they claim they want unity is not unity, they want uniformity.

And let me translate that for you.

What they what they are saying is they want you to be like them.

Now, some of us, like that's the mode we converse about politics with, right?

We want unity, but what we really want is we want people to be like us, to think like us, to act like us, because you know, we're just such great people.

Why would you not want to be like me?

And it's because of uniformity, we sometimes have trouble dealing with people who are not like us, who think differently than us, who might make decisions that aren't the decisions that we would make.

They would like blue carpet instead of brown carpet, even though blue carpet is very clearly a sin, right?

All right, so um, but the writer of Proverbs, of course, addresses this earlier in that same chapter, chapter 18, the writer of Proverbs says, Whoever isolates himself and seeks his own desires, he breaks out against sound judgment.

In other words, you have to you have to experience the pressure of people who are not like you coming and doing things that maybe you wouldn't necessarily do.

How important is that to take in in an environment like this?

And it's so important.

It's so important because eventually, sooner or later, we are going to have decisions that we have to make as a church, and as we make them, like we're not all going to agree.

And as we step forward into faith as a body of Christ, sooner or later we have to decide how we're going to decide.

How do we decide?

Well, we can decide the way the world decides, the way the world makes decisions, but I think we can all agree that that's not going to lead us to the place where Christ wants us to be.

See, the way the world typically makes decisions as groups fall falls into four categories.

I'm going to give them to you very quickly and to show you how that the gospel contrasts the thought process of the world.

As God make sure we're on the same page here because you were awful quiet.

And let me remind you, I can't see you if you're nodding your head.

So that we're on the same page here.

Um Jesus in our life should change the way we think as individuals.

Amen?

And so collectively, he should change the way we think and the way we choose and the way we make decisions as well.

And so the way the world makes decisions typically falls into four categories.

Let me give these two of you, and I want to explain to you very quickly why it is they don't work.

Number one, they pursue the best outcomes.

Now, there's, I mean, you know, what's the alternative, right?

You want to pursue the worst outcomes?

No, no, it's not that.

It's just that sometimes we don't have all the facts and we have trouble defining what best is or how things are going to turn out.

Anybody here know the future?

Like you, you, you picked, you picked Bitcoin was going to peak, right?

I mean, we don't know.

And so sometimes making the making decisions, pursuing the best outcome is is challenging.

It's difficult to do.

Um great example of this happens in the Old Testament.

The last sovereign king of Israel was a man named Josiah, uh, grandson of Manasseh, one of the most wicked kings in all of Israel.

Josiah was a righteous king.

He did so much that pursued holiness for his people.

And yet, whenever war came, he he got nervous.

He was unsettled, and he was trying to figure out what was best.

Now, God had told Josiah and and all the kings, don't rely on partnerships with the other nations.

They're gonna lead you astray and they're not going to help you.

And so um Josiah knew better.

But whenever Pharaoh Neco brought his army up from Egypt to wage war against Nebuchalazar coming over from Babylon in a valley called Armageddon, we know it today as the valley of Armageddon, Josiah decided he would get involved because he felt it would be best if Babylon won and Egypt was conquered because he was more afraid of Egypt than he was Babylon.

The math made perfect sense in his head.

The problem is that God had other plans.

God did not want Josiah relying on Babylon.

Josiah proceeded into the battle, hid himself as as just another soldier, and during the battle, an arrow pierced his heart and he died.

Sometimes what seems best, what seems reasonable, is not the best.

You can't know the future.

You can't know where the arrows are flying from or even what the future is going to hold.

Most of you, like if you know your biblical history, you know that Babylon was a far greater threat to Judah than Egypt ever was during that time period.

Josiah didn't know that because he didn't know the future.

Of course, we should pursue what's best, but we can't build our decision-making apparatus as individuals or families or churches or even communities built solely off pragmatism and pursuing what we think is the quote unquote best thing to do.

The second way the world pursues decision-making and the way they choose is oftentimes through the largest crowds.

How many of you voted two weeks ago?

Forget it, I'm not even gonna bring it up.

Yeah, we got another election.

Whose idea was it in Virginia to have an election every single year?

Can someone just tell me that?

This is typically how we make decisions in this country because it's democratic.

We want everyone to have a voice, and the founding fathers certainly had a place for this in their mind.

They wanted some level of democracy, but if you go back and you and you read the founding documents, you know they knew that sometimes uh sometimes 300 million people can be wrong.

It happened in the old in the New Testament, in the Bible.

Pilate standing before the most innocent man who has ever lived.

He knew that this guy had done nothing wrong.

He told the crowd, he says, I don't there's nothing wrong with this guy.

I don't find anything wrong with him.

Matthew tells us in chapter 27 that he knew the scribes and Pharisees, the the ruling council rather in Israel hated Jesus because they were envious of him.

He was aware of that, and still he steps out onto the steps of his palace there and he says, Okay, I'm gonna give you a choice.

You can vote.

Do you do you do you want this candidate or this candidate to die?

Do you want do you want me to release Barabbas or do you want me to release Jesus?

And he pleads with them three times.

He's trying to get the crowd to think soberly.

Crowds are sometimes just insane, though.

That's they don't always do the reasonable thing.

And so they demand Jesus because they've been they've been uh razzed up to demand Jesus be crucified.

And there, there it is, ladies and gentlemen.

Great example from scripture of one of the processes, one of the democratic processes gone awry.

People come together, they take a vote, and they decide to execute their there in Jerusalem the son of God.

Might does not make right, majority does not equal holiness.

And so sometimes crowds can get it wrong.

So, number one, crowds decisions are sometimes made by best outcomes, sometimes they're made by the largest crowds, other times they're made by the loudest voices.

In um pastoring as well as management, right?

If you've ever um you know been a supervisor of any kind, we refer to this as the squeaky wheel.

The squeaky wheel gets the what?

Right.

You know, you just want to get that person settled down and to be and to be quiet.

We want to placate to them, and so the loudest voices in the room sometimes get the attention.

This is why we have um lobbyists in Washington, because they go in and they represent us, and supposedly the idea is they make lots of noise.

And when they make lots of noise, we get lots of attention and we're able to sway the decision-making process.

But just because a person has a loud voice or a larger, uh higher volume, that doesn't equate to being correct or right.

Just because someone has a has a channel or a podcast, or they're able to read a line or to sing a s to sing a song, they got a great voice, or at least a media team that works out the synthesizing of their voice so they sound good on the stage, just because they can do all of that.

That doesn't make them qualified to make decisions for for us or for them.

The example from this from the Old Testament of is Korah's rebellion.

You may recognize the name, it's referenced several times in scripture, but essentially there was this guy named Korah.

Um, and uh this was during the 40 years wandering.

Israel was, I mean, they were worn out, you know, they were it was tough times, and Korah was upset, and and he's not happy with Moses' decision-making process, and probably the people that he had delegated to help him uh out with leadership, and and Korah was upset, and he he comes up to Moses and he says, Listen, you know, you're not the only one holy here.

He's right.

He wasn't the only one, Moses wasn't the only one holy.

Uh, all of Israel was set apart by God, and in one sense, he was holy.

The Levites were themselves were holy, Aaron's descendants were holy in another kind of way, and and and so in one sense he was right, but he comes up and he says, You're not the only one who's holy.

And right there in public before the congregation, he and a couple of his cronies and 250 other leaders in Israel say to Moses, There's no reason why you should be the only one calling the shots.

And he starts making demands.

You know what Moses does?

Moses falls, he like for me, I know what I would do.

Like, I would, my inclination would be to blow him up, you know, be like, oh yeah.

Uh you know, you try to go up to the top of the mountain.

Who stood face to face with God and talked to him?

Who brought you back down the law?

Who threw the staff down and it became a serpent?

Who extended that staff and the water divided?

Like, I'd want to give him my resume to let him know how much greater than.

Him, I was.

That's not what Moses did.

This, by the way, is probably one of the reasons why the Pentateuch tells us that Moses was one of the most humble men who ever lived.

Moses simply falls on his face and he prays.

And I think in a in a very real way, he's praying for Korah.

Because essentially what he says is tomorrow morning, we're going to come back out here and we're going to see who God wants to be in charge.

And Korah's, the next morning, Korah's loud voice was silenced as the earth opened him, opened up and swallowed him whole.

That led to a bad decision.

The best outcomes, the largest crowds, the loudest voices don't always lead to the right decision.

Finally, most influence.

Most influence.

Sometimes we make decisions based on the influential people who are around us, those who maybe could help us if we do what they want us to do or hurt us if we don't.

Sometimes our attention is drawn to people who are popular and they're influential in our life because they are able to do something we admire, as I mentioned a moment ago.

They're able to sing or play or, you know, they have some gift that we admire.

And so for that reason, they have influence in our life.

But sometimes, I'll just say it truthfully, influence does not equate to authority.

You can see this throughout scripture.

This is probably one that has the most examples.

But for this one, the one that came to my mind was Abimelech.

Now there were a lot of Abimelechs in the Old Testament.

The one I'm thinking of in particular was the son of a man named Gideon.

Now, Gideon, you know.

Gideon was the one who God found in a threshing uh in a uh uh wine vat threshing grain and lifted him up to become a general in Israel, and he defeated the Moabites, and people at the end of that battle came to Gideon and said, Okay, you're the one we've been looking for.

We're gonna make you king.

And Gideon had a brief moment of divine wisdom when he said, and this happens right in the middle of the book of Judges, so you know this is like the point of the book of Judges.

He says, I'm not gonna be your king.

God's gonna be your king.

You don't need me.

I'm just a dude, I'm just a guy.

Let God be your king.

Now, the problem with Gideon is he then went out and proceeded to live like a king.

He had 70 sons.

That's a lot.

One of his sons he gave the name Abimelech, um Abby for son, and Melech for king.

In other words, he named his son son of a king.

So it tells you a lot about how Gideon had said one thing but then did another.

Now Abimelech became a very influential man.

So influential that he came to the leaders at the home, his home city of Shechem, which was a significant city in Israel at that time, something of a capital of the ten northern tribes.

It was very, very significant.

He came to the leaders there and said, Listen, you're treating Gideon's sons like they're all very special.

And there are 70 of them.

I'm just one guy.

So I'll tell you what you do.

You let me be your king, and I'll take care of the other 69 guys, 70 guys.

And Abimelech executes his brothers.

And his influence he's now laid on the people to become king.

It all made perfect sense to them.

He was an influential guy.

Why not do it?

And yet, that decision, as well as all of these others, the best outcomes, the largest crowds, the loudest voices, the most influence, none of those decision-making variables helped the people achieve the peace and prosperity and oneness that they sought.

See, all of these different aspects of the decision-making process that we all use, right?

I mean, we're all drawn to be affected in our life, making decisions based on the best outcomes, based on the largest crowd, based on the loudest voices in our life, and based on the most influence.

But of course, the problem is that all of those are human variables.

And because they are human, they are going to fail.

What we must have when we're making decisions for ourselves, for our families, for our churches, Lord help us for our communities and for our nations, is a plan to go back to hear what God has to say in his word.

God's word will tell us the truth.

God's word doesn't need to yell.

God's word doesn't need to be repeated.

God's word, I mean, thank God that it is, but it comes to, it's delivered to us in with clarity and with great love and affection.

And so that is the that is the one source of authority that we turn to to make decisions for ourselves and for our families and for our communities.

Now, you may be sitting there saying, okay, Pastor, that's great.

That is exactly what I believe, and the Bible is the authority, and so when it speaks, I know I need to respond.

But of course, there are times when the Bible doesn't speak directly to decisions that you're going to make.

I mean, the Bible, the Bible may tell you, whenever you're looking for a mate, that that mate should be Christian and that uh that yet that the individual that you're marrying should be someone who's going to commit themselves to you.

But the Bible doesn't tell you whether or not you should, you know, go online and uh, you know, sign up for e-harmony, or, you know, if you should, you know, pursue this person or, you know, this this other individual, should you, should you wait?

Like you don't get that level.

I mean, if you do, you let me know, right?

Because I am constantly looking for an email from God that gives me very specific instructions on the things that I should do.

Unfortunately, we don't get that.

God gives us the general principles, God gives us the depth of his word.

But whenever it comes to the day-to-day decisions that have to be made, we have to grope and trust and rely on him.

Now, in an environment like this, in a church setting, the um the way that's handled is throughout scripture, the way that it's been handled is that decisions are made in small groups and they're confirmed in large groups.

We talked about the fact that democracy in church does not work, neither does autocracy from like a single pastor leader.

I have served in both types of churches, and I'm here to tell you they both have significant problems.

God's plan, as illustrated throughout Scripture, is that there is a role of leadership that is assigned to a particular group of individuals.

Today in the New Testament, they're usually referred to as elders.

We see an example of this in the book of Acts, chapter six.

The church is brand new.

It still has that new car smell, you know what I'm saying?

And right out the gate, there's this conflict between Jewish widows, Jewish-born Jewish widows, and widows who were born who were Greek that had come into the church.

And the Greek widows felt like that they were being neglected.

They were the minority.

And so they complained.

They said, hey, listen, we've seen how much how many how much mashed potatoes you're putting on the Jewish widow's plate, and we're getting less mashed potatoes.

That's a reason to complain.

Can I get a witness?

Right?

A reason to complain.

And so they come to the elders and to the to the disciples at this point and say, We need someone to address this issue.

And so there they the disciples get together and they make a decision.

They say, Listen, here's what needs to happen.

You need someone to oversee this.

So they appointed what appears to be deacons.

They say, You go and you appoint men who will oversee this matter, and we are going to focus on the presentation of the word, in other words, preaching and discipleship and prayer.

And so you go do this, and we're going to do this.

And the scripture tells us the way Luke puts it, he says, the saying pleased the multitude.

So what apparently happened is this decision was made in the small group and the larger group that had been praying for that small group, that had been praying for each other, had been seeking unity, said, okay, this makes sense to us.

There's nothing unbiblical about this, there's nothing negligent about this.

And they moved forward.

And because they did, the church experienced tremendous unity.

And the very next verse tells us that the church grew by leaps and bounds.

Why?

Because they trusted God's word.

And they trusted God's power to protect the leaders.

Let me tell you, this is again why we're going to talk more about this in the coming months.

This is why we are moving forward into an elder-led model, because uh the truth is power needs to be shared.

Authority must be shared.

That the moment you give one person unchecked authority, they are eventually going to misuse it, abuse it.

I mean, given enough time, we all have feet of clay.

And so pastors have to be held accountable.

I mean, I'm just telling you that as a pastor, we have to be held accountable.

The elder board is a great way for that to happen as we hold each other accountable.

You bring in individuals who have particular gifts and abilities.

I'm here to tell you.

I'm here to tell you, I am not a great administrator.

Some of you are like, oh yeah, yeah, we know that, Pastor.

We are very familiar with the fact that you are not a great administrator.

But we have individuals on that, on the board who are dynamic administrators, incredible leaders, who are able to come in and fill the gaps that I have, of which there are many.

And I'm fond of the idea that maybe along the way I might be able to fill in the gaps that they have.

And this is how the body works.

This is how we come together to make decisions in small groups confirmed by large groups, having, yeah, having input and conversations, and in a community, we're all talking to one another.

But at the end of the day, what we seek above all things is unity and the glory of God.

You see, it's um this is this is this is different from how the world handles the thing.

They seek the best outcome.

Our question is not the best outcome, our question is, is it biblical?

They seek the largest crowds.

Our question is, does this glorify our audience of one?

We only have to make one person happy.

How about that for you, right?

If Jesus is happy, if the Son of God is happy, then he pleasures in us and he's the only one that we have to please.

The loudest voices, but yet our our plan given to us in scripture teaches us to ask the question does this does this honor God, uh does it honor God's still small voice?

We don't need the loud voices.

We have the still small voice speaking in us, and then finally the most influential.

Does this, instead of it we pursuing the most influential voices and the power that comes from individual, the question really that needs to be asked is does it wield the influence that Jesus himself wielded?

Because you know, Jesus had all the authority, he was it, and yet he stood before Pilate, as we talked about a few moments ago, and he did not exercise that authority with a heavy hand.

And you know why?

It is because he was pursuing the will of God, doing as he stated, the will of his father.

And aren't you glad that he did?

Because Jesus did not make decisions the way that you and I make decisions often.

He wasn't, I mean, he wasn't pursuing the best outcome from an earthly standpoint.

He wasn't listening to the multitudes, the largest crowds.

He wasn't listening to the loudest voices as Peter got in his face and challenged him.

He wasn't listening to the influence of the man standing across in front of him, saying, Don't you know that I have the ability to take your life or to set you free?

Jesus had his eyes set like a flint on the cross.

In other words, he had his eyes set like a flint on the will of God.

Church, as we get ready to wrap up this series, let me tell you, that's where our eyes need to be set.

Decisions become a whole lot easier.

Listen, and I know, like we've talked about this stuff periodically, and we will continue to talk about this stuff because it's so important.

But I don't know about you.

No matter how much I talk about that, talk about this stuff, I still struggle making decisions the way I'm supposed to make decisions.

Because I'm distracted, because I'm afraid.

Because I'm all the things that the Spirit of God has says said to me, please don't be these things.

If we do what's right, we know God will always do what's best.

If we honor Him as the as our soul source, our our audience of one, we know He will do what's best.

If we will turn down the dial on the voices that are all around us and our families and our culture that are trying to distract us, we know His voice will be heard so clearly and He will do what's best.

If we stop trying to please those whose unbiblical views weigh on us, even though they may be people of influence, then we can have the we can experience the influence of the one who created the universe in which we live.

That's good stuff, isn't it?

And Lord, I just pray that as we go out these doors, we'll take your love with us and uh shine it on others.

And Lord, uh love you.

I praise your most blessed name.

It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.