God's Guidance | 1 Cor. 11:1 | Larry Ray

All right, everyone, you can make your way to your seat.

Are we good?

Okay.

Colton, we're starting, sir.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Just double checking.

Good morning, everybody.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Um, y'all, none of you really can uh fathom what a treat it is for me to be here today uh on the last Sunday here in this building.

And uh I'm I'm very grateful to the Lord and to Colton and to y'all uh for letting me have this privilege.

I I just felt as we were singing today, I also wanted to say just a special thank you uh to Chris and Zach and Justin and Sean and Derek and Bethany.

I know not all of y'all are here today, but um um it's um I was talking to some friends just a minute ago about how a fellow ought to always pursue uh and marry a girl that's way above their pair grade, uh their pay grade.

That's the the right equation.

Find a girl that is way above your pay grade and wear her down until she says yes.

That's that's what I did, and I think that's a good formula.

Our worship team has always been way above my pay grade, and I'm very uh thankful for y'all and your kindness and faithfulness uh with me.

I really am.

Okay.

Um this is the last Sunday of the year, and for forty-some odd years, I've always prepared a lesson, one way or another, with the underlying theme: what can we do to make the next year better than this year?

Always done that.

And various things that I am convinced we can do to make the new year better than the old year.

This will shock many of you.

Read your Bible every day next year.

You do it, and you'll have a better year than you did the year before.

I swear it on the Bible in court.

Double up on your faithfulness and consistency in learning how to pray.

Really pray.

And what that means, what that looks like, how that works.

Um double up on your prayer life.

Um make a determination that you're gonna forgive, that the people that you have struggled to forgive in 25, you're going to have intentional focus on learning with God's help how to forgive them in 26.

And the list is endless of things that we can do, practical, uh, intentional things that we can do in the new year to make the to make the new year better than the old year.

I want I want to share another one with you, one that I've never taught before, but I I've come to the realization over the last month or so, two months, that this is really something that if you would like to be able to say this Sunday next year, man, this year has been so much better than this Sunday last year.

It is, I can't even describe how much better it is.

If that is something you'd like to be able to say, I'm gonna share something with you today that'll make that true.

And I I give you my word as a Christian that it'll be true.

So, as we start, um my wife would would would testify to this.

No, she really wouldn't, but she should.

Um, in all great, truly great, in all truly great movies that encompasses Westerns, war, and action films.

Okay?

In all truly great films, when evil or danger or big problems come, where do you want to be?

When evil, danger, enemies come in one of those truly great films, where does a person want to be?

I can tell you, you want to be close to the hero.

You want to be right behind or right beside the person who knows how to handle those evils, those problems, those dangers, those enemies.

In fact, you'll even hear the hero very often say something like this: You stick close to me, watch what I do, and if you'll do the same thing, you'll be okay.

Now, how many times have you heard Stallone or Schwarzenegger or John Wayne or Clem Eastwood or the great actors of our day?

How often have you heard them make a statement like that?

When we face things that are bigger than our pay grade, what should we do?

Find a hero who knows how to deal with those things and stick close to them.

People, uh, I don't know why, but for a zillion years, people have felt comfortable coming and talking to me about their lives.

People that are unhappy or they're hurting about what's going on in their lives, their relationships, they come for different reasons.

They come because they're looking for somebody that will give them a listening ear, somebody that'll give them some pity.

Or the word y'all would use today, ready uses would be empathy.

Um looking for support, validation.

Very often people come looking for a plan to change the other people in their lives that they think are causing the problems.

This is a, as far as I remember, this is a true statement.

In 44 years of thousands of people coming to talk to me about their lives, their problems, their situations, I have never once that I remember heard somebody say, What am I doing wrong?

What do I need to change?

I'm unhappy with my life, with my circumstances, my situation, my marriage, my relationship with my kids, with my parents, with my friends.

I don't like my life.

What am I doing wrong?

What do I need to change?

I don't hear that.

I'd love to know if if uh Annie hears that.

I don't ever.

I was with a a friend of Shirley and I's uh uh not too long ago, and um for I don't know, 30, 45 minutes, this precious person started telling me about their difficulties with one of their children, and they have some real difficulties.

And they spent the better part of an hour telling me about all the difficulties in their child's life and all the people in their child's life that have caused those difficulties.

Never once did that person mention, declare, or even insinuate that she the mom or she the child might have contributed to those problems.

Now, I'm not trying to be mean toward that person because she's precious, and the truth is we're all prone to play the victim card, and when we don't like our lives, we want to find other people to blame.

Come on, you know that's true.

I I know it's true experientially, I know it's true, but I just want to declare to you today, in the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior, you and I are not like the dead leaves that I walked this morning for about two hours and 15 minutes, spent the majority of that time praying for most of you.

And as I was walking along, there were dead leaves swirling everywhere.

As the wind would blow, those leaves would fly.

But those leaves had no power, they had no ability to control or even influence how they flew, where they flew, if they flew.

They were completely the victim of the wind.

The Bible never suggests that we are the victims of other people's power.

The Bible always declares because we are the image bearers of the one that created the universe, because we are that being's creation, we are that being's habitation, we are that being's sons and daughters, we are that being's bride, we are that being's friend.

Because of our relationship with the one that created the universe, the Bible would declare we have great power to have great influence on how our lives go.

Life is hard, it's confusing, it's complicated, and it's scary.

And all of us are battling with some kind of mess, loneliness, health issues, relational conflict, failure, financial disaster, uh, emptiness.

We're all battling with stuff.

And we all are facing journeys with our mates, our friends, our parents, our kids, our neighbors, our co-workers.

Um, and we have so many challenges, so many questions about how to handle these situations and relationships.

What am I supposed to do?

Uh how is this supposed to work?

What am I supposed to do next?

Everybody's searching for help.

Everybody needs help to navigate these very real and very daunting challenges in our lives.

Now I'm about to say something that I know very little about.

But being around my wife and my daughter, and to some degree my son, I have learned that I live in a world where many of us, if not most of us, when we face these big questions, these big challenges, these big problems, it has become incredibly popular to seek out, to listen to, and to follow people online.

We are drawn today to people who are tech savvy, that are slick communicators, and that are especially pretty.

Um my wife and I lay in bed every night together, yay, and I cannot tell you how big a yay that is.

And the way we most nights end our night um is she will get her phone and she'll pull up these little games, Wordle and the New York Times crossword puzzle and uh Sudoku and all these different little little computer games, and we'll do them together.

That's the way we end our day, most nights.

And uh it's uh it's we enjoy it.

And then when we're through with that, sometimes that takes 10 minutes, and sometimes that takes 40 minutes, but we we do that together.

And uh then at the end, Shirley said, Do you want to look at some reels for a few minutes?

And I'll say, sure.

And so she pulls up her reels and we start looking at these little skits.

I call them skits, I don't know, little little things.

Sometimes it's people talking, sometimes it's people doing crazy things, sometimes it's selling stuff, but you know, whatever it is.

But I'll go, that's the most incredible thing I've ever seen in my life.

You'll say, and Cherley will say, you know, that's probably not real.

And I'll go, well, okay.

And in the process of watching these for a few minutes, 15, 20 minutes at night before we go to bed, and then listening to Colton and Rainey and Cheryl Lee, I've learned how popular it is for us to go to people who we don't know to seek wisdom from them about our problems, our decisions, our choices, our challenges.

And what makes it even more amazing to me is that we we don't, because we don't know them, we don't know whether or not what they're suggesting even works.

They might be telling us how to do our marriages, and they don't have a good marriage, how to rear children, but they don't have good children.

They we they how to do our finances, but they're flat broke and bankrupt.

It is remarkable to me, and I know this is the world we live in, and I'm not trying to change the world.

I really not.

I am old and retired, and I'm so happy I cannot communicate it to you.

But I'm telling you this.

I mean saying that to you makes you smile, but me saying that to you, if you've got a brain in your head bigger than an English pee, you know something that that doesn't ring true.

That we would go with our life battles and challenges and and and conflicts and questions, and we would go to people that we don't know, and they don't know us for direction and guidance, and we don't even know if what they're offering works or not.

I came this morning with a very strong mission, and that was to declare to you, hopefully to remind you, that the God of the Bible, the God that sent his son as a little baby to grow up and die for you and for me, and then he rose again, that that God promises, doesn't just state it, he declares it and promises that he will guide us through our lives on a daily basis.

That is his desire, that's what he wants to do, that's what he's trying to do in your life and in my life.

Every day when we get out of bed, God wants to guide us through our journey, our challenges, our battles.

The whole point of the journey of God's people from Egypt to the promised land.

Remove all the details that everybody debates over, remove all the laws, the dietary laws, and the priestly garments and the tabernacle and the all the things that are involved in that incredible story and get it down to the bare bones.

What's the point of that whole deal?

God told his people, I want to take you from a bad place of slavery to a great place of abundance, and if you will just let me, I give you my word, I'll get you there.

Yes, you're gonna face obstacles, problems, you're gonna have more questions than you can load in a in a in a truck.

You're gonna have tough days and fun days, but at the end of the day, I will lead you and guide you from bad places to good places if you will just let me guide you and lead you.

He promises this over and over again in the scriptures.

In Psalm 23, Colin, you might, if you can pull that up.

He promises, and probably the most famous chapter in the whole Old Testament.

He promises, I will go.

Guide you along right paths.

Later he says, this is the way.

I'm showing you that this is the way.

Walk in it.

Later he says, I will direct your path.

Later he says, I will lead you and guide you in the way you should go.

And then one of my favorites, he says, no matter where you are, my hand will guide you and lead you.

But that begs the question.

How does God do that?

If that's God's promise, that's God's desire and intent, how does He lead us and guide us on a daily basis?

Well, I would suggest that there's many ways that God wants to do that.

Read your Bible.

Pray.

Listen to good preaching every week.

Read deep, rich, meaty, thought-provoking books written by brilliant people.

And there's many others.

But I want to suggest to you today, just very quickly, one of God's favorite ways to guide and direct us.

And that is God sovereignly chose to guide you and me daily through life by putting people around us who are living life well.

And he wants us to watch them, get to know them, listen to them, and follow them.

And if we'll do that, God will use them to lead us from places we don't want to dwell to places that we do.

God created us, as Colton reminds us on a regular basis, He created us for community.

And He wants to use that community to help us experience God's best life.

God wants to show us how to live successfully by watching and listening to and following the lives of people who have learned to do life well.

I have a handful of people in my life that are my heroes.

And I don't say that lightly or tritly.

One of my heroes is a lady, and she's hard for me to talk about her without crying.

She's just, she's had such an impact upon my life.

And she's one of these people that just she roams around the world making things better.

That's the truth.

She roams around the world making things better.

I hear about it every day.

And she's got a young lady in her life who has who is truly an expert at making bad decisions.

Every decision this young lady makes is bad.

And that's the truth.

Bad relationships, bad finances, bad spiritual relationships, decisions.

She just she's an expert at making decisions that don't lead her from bad places to good places, but rather from bad places to worse places.

And my friend, my hero, one of my heroes, she has spent years trying to help this young lady.

Help her financially, help her with words of encouragement, with wisdom, with just all kinds of help.

And it's never helped.

And a few, about a month ago, I guess, give or take, I was having lunch with this person that's one of my heroes, and she was telling me about the most recent um experiences with this young lady.

And uh, and my friend, you could tell she was so weary, so frustrated, so discouraged, so worried.

And she looked at me and she said, She said, Larry, I I I listened to her complain about all the problems in her life, all the difficulties, all the needs, all the pain.

And what she in her mind, if she could just get more money, that'd make everything better.

And she's uh and my friend looked at this young lady and said, Babe, if you would just watch me and listen to me and follow me, I would lead you from where you are, which is a life you hate, to better places, to places that you would love to be.

And man, when my friend said that, that man, God spoke to me as clearly as he's spoken to me in a long time.

That's the way God wants to do it, not just in that young lady's life who's an expert on bad decisions, he wants to do that in all of our lives.

He wants God sovereignly put my friend, my hero friend, in this lady's life.

And God wants to, God doesn't want that lady to live in a terrible place the rest of her days on this planet.

God wants this lady to move from a bad place to a great place.

That's that's what God's doing.

That's God's plan for us.

And he put my friend in this lady's life who knows how to live life well.

And he wants this young lady to go, oh, I don't know how to live life well.

You do, I want to watch you and listen to you and learn from you, and I want to emulate you, and that crazy man up there saying that if I do that, God will lead me from places I don't like to places that I do.

That's God's plan for you.

That's God's plan for me.

For God to move us from bad places to good places by following the example of people that have learned to live life well.

Listen, that's God's plan in the Old Testament.

How many times I found one, two, three, four, five, four, four, but there were many more times where soldiers would be facing enemies and battles that were far superior to them.

There's no way in the world they could defeat the enemies they were facing.

But God would put somebody in that group, a judge, a king, somebody.

And that judge or that king would stand up when those men were facing enemies that they could not defeat.

And that king or that judge would make this kind of a statement.

Men, do what I'm doing.

Men, do what I'm doing, and if you will, we will win.

You see, with Gideon and Abimelech and Jonathan and David, and the list goes on.

You're facing battles you can't win.

They're bigger than you are.

Find somebody that knows what to do and is doing it well, and do what they're doing.

That's God's plan.

That was Solomon's plan, the wisest man that ever lived.

He wrote the book of Proverbs.

Forget about all the details for just a second.

Don't worry about all the details.

What's the the big theme for the book of Proverbs?

What was Solomon's main message?

If you don't know how to live life well, find a wise man.

Find an honest man.

Find a courageous woman.

Find a generous person.

Find a person who speaks the truth consistently.

I listed all these things that I found.

Watch sharp people.

People that are wise, diligent, generous, truthful, godly, forgiving, people that are careful with their words.

You don't know how to speak well, you're constantly letting your mouth get you in trouble.

I understand that better than you might imagine.

Find somebody who knows how to use their tongues well.

Hang around them, listen to them, and follow their example.

That's Solomon's plan for living a successful life.

It was Jesus' plan.

John 13, 15, Jesus says, I've set an example for you so that you should do as I have done in front of you.

It was the Apostle Paul's plan.

2 Timothy 3, Paul says, You know my teaching and you know my way of life, my goals, and my priorities.

His point, do what I do.

He said it more plainly in 1 Corinthians 11, follow me as I follow Christ.

And there's numerous other examples where he told people, just watch me.

Do you think I have a successful walk with God?

Watch me and do what I do.

Peter's plan, it was Peter's plan in 1 Peter 5.

He said, church leaders, show your people how to live by your own good example.

That's my message today.

That's what I felt like God wanted us to hear and be reminded of.

That's what I believe God wants us to work on to make 2026 better than 2025.

God's plan is for you and I to evaluate where in our lives we're weak.

We struggle, we fail.

We're not happy with our lives in that area.

Find somebody that God has sought, not some imaginary AI person or some knothead on the internet that you have no idea if that person knows what they're talking about or not.

Find a real live person that God has sovereignly put in your life.

Watch them.

And when you recognize that person, they're strong where I'm weak.

Get to know them.

Listen to them.

Let them get to know you.

Build a relationship if possible.

And follow their example.

Learn to do life well by following people who have learned to do life well.

Find people that are strong in the areas of life where you are not, and let them show you by their example and hopefully by their words how to live life well.

Versus going to people that are just tech savvy, that are slick communicators, and that are cute, and you have no idea if what they're offering you is real or true or good or life-changing.

I'm not suggesting in any way that by following the example of others, we're all gonna wind up being little uh uh, you know, robots that all look alike and act alike and do alike, uh one size fits all rules.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about observing people that by our own definition, that person knows what they're doing in an area where I'm weak.

And through interaction, I learn how God wants me to date, to be married, to handle my finances, to learn to be a good mate, a good parent, whatever it uh to learn to walk with God.

My wife is uh is wonderful, and she has been wonderful in my life for 44 years.

But as wonderful as a wife as she has been to me, she's even a better mom.

I'll give her a run for money on being a grandpa, but I but I she's a better mom than I am a dad, and she always has been.

And I will never be able to thank her enough for that.

And I'll remember when we were um, we hadn't even gone on the mission field, so Rainey was probably four, five, six, give or take.

She was teaching school, and I was an associate pastor at the at the church of the school.

And there was this lady who also taught with Shirley.

I'll tell you her name, her name is Nalita.

And this lady was just a wonderful lady.

And um, Randy, like I said, was four or five.

And um, this lady had three daughters, and her daughters were all teenagers or above, and they were all three, great.

I mean, home runs.

It's the kind of daughter you want.

That's who I want right there.

And danged if Miss Nalita hadn't raised three out of three.

Now, anybody can look up and raise one good one, but she raised three out of, she had three, they're all three home runs.

And so my wife says a lot about who she is.

One day uh she went to Miss Nalita's office and she said, ma'am, I've been watching, I've been watching you.

You clearly, I've taught all three of you daughters.

You clearly know how to raise daughters.

I'm new at this.

I want you to teach me how to raise a great daughter.

And Miss Dolita said, I can do that.

I can do that.

I can show you how to go from a place you don't know to a place where you know how to do great things.

And Sherry got to know this lady.

They spent time together.

Sherry would bring her questions, her problems, her battles.

I'm sure she talked about me about half the time, but nonetheless, um, she she my wife had enough wisdom to recognize I've never done this before.

I don't know how to do this well, but I want to.

God's promised to guide me, to show me the way.

He sovereignly put this lady as a co-worker, a colleague in my life.

She clearly does it well.

I'm going to use that as a resource.

You can agree or disagree, but if you disagree, you're an idiot.

Look, look what my wife produced.

I leave you with this word.

We are not leaves, we're not victims.

We don't have to stay in Egypt, in the land of slavery, to our circumstances and busted, crummy, stinking relationships.

God wants to lead us to better places, and he has put people, he can do that in many ways, but one of the ways that God has sovereignly chosen to help us move from Egypt to the promised land.

Financially, relationally, spiritually, you pick the topic, is he has sovereignly put people in our lives who live life well, and we need to watch them, listen to them, emulate them, and if we do, we will wind up in good places too.

You and I get to decide to a large degree.

This is not perfectly true, but it's true.

You and I get to decide the life we end up with.

You and I get to decide the life that we end up with.

And one of the ways that that happens is by our choice or our rejection of finding people who live life well, especially in the areas where we're weak, and letting them guide us or letting God guide us through their lives to better places.

Father God, I um I believe what I've said today is of you.

I believe it is a useful truth to help us experience a better 2026.

I pray that you'd give us ears to hear and hearts that are humble enough to consider the the possibility that it is it's a truth that we might need to apply.

I pray that you'd let it be so, and I ask it in Christ's name.

Amen.