How to Know and Do the Right Thing

And it also segues well into what I want us to talk about a little bit today.

I love what Missy was saying before we sang about the amazing grace of God.

It's so easy to just boomerang back into legalism, right?

Like, I better keep God happy with me, uh, or that grace might be withheld a little bit.

I think there's just something about human nature, something about our flesh that just struggles embracing the free, unearned, unmerited, eternal, life-saving grace of God.

But that is the gospel truth.

It's amazing grace because it is amazing grace.

We can't earn it, we can't deserve it.

And I want that to be the backdrop of what we're going to talk about today because I don't want this question to make you think I've got to do the right thing all the time, or God's going to be disappointed.

He's going to pull away from me, he's going to withdraw his grace from me.

That's not true at all.

But true to some of the lyrics that we did just sing, when that amazing grace enters our life and we are freed from our chains.

We get to step away from that grave of the deadness of our sin.

I think the problem is there are times when we struggle knowing how to walk away from those chains into his freedom.

What does it look like to walk away from all the things that are dark and not light?

All of the things that are not of him and walk in his way and do things his way.

And praying for wisdom, we're going to talk about that wisdom piece again in a little bit.

But I believe the Bible gives us, I think there's just a lot of practical things we can take hold of and we can have answers more so than we think about.

How to know and do the right thing.

I want to say this.

As someone created in the image of God, you already have at your disposal all you need to determine the right thing to do.

Just because you're alive and breathing God's good air and he created you in his image, I believe there is this thing within you that deep down will help guide you, at least to some extent.

The reason that I know this is because if you're like me, I can look back at before I was following Jesus and doing wrong things.

And I still knew deep down those things were wrong.

Even though I still chose to do the wrong thing, I knew like this isn't the right thing.

And I would either keep it hidden or I would justify it or I'd rationalize it.

And this is before I embraced the amazing grace of God that saved me.

I was already knowing it was the wrong thing.

I've shared with you my story of uh putting my faith in Jesus as a teenager.

And at that time, I was already addicted to pornography.

But I will tell you, I knew it was wrong before that time.

But once I put my faith in Jesus, I remember very vividly walking from that worship service where I prayed and asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and walking to my cabin at this little camp thinking, well, that's gotta stop.

That really, really has to stop.

I that can't be a part of my life anymore.

And that's not legalism, that's leaving your chains behind.

That's walking in this new birth, this new freedom that I have in Jesus Christ.

And maybe you're here today and you're trying to figure that out still too, to some extent.

How do we do this?

Well, there's some very simple things that I think are easy that maybe you already know, but I want to share them with you today.

The first thing is search scriptures for a direct command from God.

I know this is so basic, but also it's so easy to overlook.

It's often the obvious things that we miss at times.

So if you're like trying to figure out what is the right thing to do, what is the right way to live, I need to figure out the way I'm supposed to live right now.

I can't emphasize enough to be in God's word.

It is so powerful, it is so transformative just to read scriptures and study it and do it regularly and do it on a daily basis.

Like this is the bread of life to us to read God's word.

We know about his amazing grace because of his word.

We know about the resurrected Savior who died on the cross for us because of his word.

But in addition to knowing that gospel, we know how to live in his way because of his word.

There's so many commands there.

The Bible can be very clear about things and speak to us and train us and show us how to walk in his way.

2 Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.

I love this.

It's such an easy thing to forget.

But his word right there, right on our phones, right on our screens, right on our computers, probably for many of us, right on our nightstands or our bookshelves or our coffee tables, we have at our disposal, at our disposal, not disposable, right at our disposal, the word of God directing us into his way, showing us how to live in right ways.

Now, like we said earlier, we have to be really, really careful that we don't replace faith with legalism, where our whole faith life is reading the scriptures and obeying it to the letter of the law.

There were a group of people that got pretty good at that back in Jesus' day when he walked this earth.

And they were the ones that received his hardest preaching because they were great at obeying these really strict little uh jot and tittles of the law of the Torah.

They even created even stricter rules than God's law and asked all the Jewish people to live by even those stricter rules.

That sort of served as a buffer is that they obeyed the stricter rules created by the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders, then surely they wouldn't disobey God's rules.

It sounds so logical when you say it like that, but what they were missing was the heart of God.

What they were missing was the love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God, the compassion of God.

It just became another rote religion that was dead.

And Jesus warned against that.

So when you think about Scripture as being able to guide us and show us right versus wrong, be careful, not let it turn you into legal legalism.

Look at it as God saying, I'm gonna lovingly give you a map away from the trappings of sin, to walk in freedom, to walk in power, to walk with me in the Spirit of God.

So I want to read to you a couple of other passages, a couple of other verses.

Galatians 3, 24.

I love this verse.

It says, So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.

And you can go back and read Galatians 3.

It's it's kind of an interesting chapter, it's kind of an academic chapter, but the book of Galatians is kind of the magna carta of the Christian faith.

It's the declaration of freedom.

That whole book of the Bible, that whole book of the Bible is about embracing your freedom in Jesus Christ.

And what Paul is saying is like, be careful to not try to think that obeying the law is your salvation.

You are not justified by works.

You're not justified by your ability to obey well, you're justified by faith.

However, the law is helpful.

It was kind of like a guardian, it was kind of like a tutor, it was kind of like a teacher, and it still can be that in our lives.

Uh, Paul continues to express that in the book of Romans.

Romans 7 7 says, What shall we say then?

Is the law sinful?

Certainly not.

Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.

For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, You shall not covet.

I love this one little verse there because Paul is saying, it's by grace you're saved through faith.

He says that over and over and over again.

But he also says, Don't just toss out the law.

Don't just toss out the Old Testament, don't just toss out all these commands that are there.

These commands teach us what sin is.

And it's very, very helpful.

He says, I wouldn't know what coveting was.

And so once again, your ability to walk in the amazing grace of God isn't contingent upon whether or not you covet at all.

In other words, what we're not saying is if you covet, you've lost the grace of God.

No, what he is saying is don't you want to be free from coveting?

Don't you not want to be ruled by comparing yourselves to what other people have than what you have?

Don't you want to be set free from the lack of contentment that all of us can have in the flesh?

Our natural sin nature of the flesh is to compare and want more and think there's more for you and see that the grass is greener in that person's life than what's in my life.

And so we covet.

It's such a subtle thing to covet, but coveting can stain our heart.

It can put chains back around us, and we're not walking in the contentment and the love and the peace and the freedom of Christ.

And that's why it's important to know his word so that we can be reminded, man, I don't about you, I don't go around thinking about the concept of coveting very much.

Hardly at all.

But then as you read God's word, right when you need it most, he gives you that verse to remind you, hey, you're dancing on that grave that you once lived in.

Don't go back to living in that grave.

Don't step back into coveting.

So we can spend a lot of time talking about this.

I want to keep moving forward.

I just would say go read scripture, pray, ask the Lord to give you understanding.

Pray after you read it, ask him to help you apply it.

And in doing that, you're gonna learn the right thing to do.

You're gonna know God's way and how to choose that over your way.

And here's what's kind of cool.

You could be in here today, you could be watching, listening online, and you're not sure if you even believe in Jesus yet.

And everything I just said, even though you're not fully embracing it, it can still be something you do.

And I think that's why I knew before I put my faith in Jesus that some of the behaviors I was living out were wrong.

The reason I knew they were wrong is because I had just enough little church and just enough scripture in me to tell me this isn't God's way.

And I knew it deep down.

And it wasn't until I finally put my faith in Jesus that I started learning that his presence and power in my life can help me walk away from living that way and live in a different way.

So if you're a follower of Jesus, one of the big issues sometimes can be figuring out the right thing to do versus the wrong thing to do if you can't find a specific verse about it.

Because that sometimes happens.

We're like, I can't find a verse to help me figure out this thing.

Is this the right thing for me to do or is it not?

Is this the right thing?

Is this the wrong thing?

So I mentioned to you that I uh put my faith in Jesus at a camp.

And I remember not, I mean, months after that decision to follow Jesus, me and some other peers of mine, we found ourselves at a Bible study with one of the guys that worked at camp.

He was a full-time missionary at that camp.

I think he was a bi vocational pastor too.

His name is Larry Toner.

And every time I see that man when I go down to southeastern Kentucky, inevitably about once a year, I'd run into him out of Walmart down there.

And I just wanted to hug him because he's like, oh, you're like a spiritual father in my life because he God used him to make such an impact.

I remember not long after putting my faith in Jesus, him giving this talk.

And the way he talked about it was how to form personal convictions, how to say, this is what's right for me, and this is what's wrong for me.

And this may not have a specific scripture for it, but for me, this is what I need to choose to do.

And it was very powerful.

I call this the freedom filter.

How to take what you're thinking about, could this be wrong for me, or could this be right for me?

And to take whatever that is and sort of run it through this biblical filter to make a determination.

So I want to share it with you.

Uh, it's based on some verses that we find in the New Testament.

1 Corinthians 6 12 says, I have the right to do anything you say, but not everything is beneficial.

I have the right to do anything, but I will not be mastered by anything.

Now, Paul speaking to the believers in the city of Corinth was basically quoting back to them one of their own freedom chants.

I can do anything.

Your copy of the English Bible might say, everything is permissible for me, is another translation there.

Their big thing was I can do anything.

I'm free, I have freedom, I could do whatever I want.

And Paul's like, true, but and he says a couple of different things there.

Not everything is beneficial.

I will not be mastered by anything.

So here are three questions to put in your freedom filter.

Things to ask if you're trying to determine is this good or right for me or not?

Question number one, is this beneficial?

Or is that harmful?

Is this really good or not good?

Question number two, does this master me?

If by doing this or being a part of this or still embracing this in my life, does it have control over me?

Does it kind of become a Lord in my life?

Is the second question.

And then a third question, and we'll give you the verse that goes with this in a moment, is does this bring glory to God?

And some of these might be, as you're you may be thinking of something right now, you might be running something through that filter.

Sometimes for some of these questions, one or two of them, or maybe three of them, you're like, I don't even know.

And that and that's okay.

But maybe one of these will be the one question that tips it in one direction or the other.

Does this bring glory to God?

That's based on another thing he said to the Corinthian believers, 1 Corinthians 10, and I will read to you verses 31 through 33.

And this gives us not only the basis of question three, but a new question.

He said to the Corinthian believers, So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the Church of God, even as I try to please everyone in every way, for I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

So another question we can add to this, he mentions, you know, do everything that you do, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

So that question three is important.

Can I do this and be able to still give glory to God as I do it?

It's a great question.

But a fourth question would be would this cause others to stumble or be distracted from the gospel?

If I were to engage in this.

So what I want to do as share with you, and I may have shared this with you before, one of the most common examples that I see this freedom filter being used on is the issue or the topic of alcohol consumption.

Using that as an example, if you were to go look and just say, what does scripture say?

Starting with what we just talked about at the very beginning, search for commands of scripture.

You'll see a command in scripture to not be drunk.

Ephesians 5.18 says, do not be drunk, but instead be filled with the Spirit.

That's what it says very clearly there.

But there is no verse in the Bible that says you should never even take a single taste of alcohol.

You won't find that in Scripture.

So people have debated this, believers have debated this.

Like, you know, uh, I got some people in my life that are teetotalers, I got some that that still drink every now and then.

You know, what is the right thing to do for me?

Could be the question.

And that's where these filter questions really help.

For you in your life, has it been beneficial or harmful?

For you in your life, has it become something that's mastered you?

For you in your life, has it prevented you from being able to truly give glory to God?

For you in your circumstances, where you live, where you work, and you play, if partaking in that, would that result in it actually being a stumbling block for someone else in your life?

Those are great questions to ask.

And because of that, I've got a multiplicity of people in my life who love Jesus, who either completely abstain from alcohol because of these questions, or they responsibly are able to partake in it because of these questions as well.

It's a personal conviction.

That's just one example of other things that there are things that I choose not to be a part of in my life because I know this could master me, or this could be a stumbling block for someone I care about, that other people they don't have to think about that.

That's not something they have to give a lot of thought to.

Because of my, as a teenager being addicted to pornography, there are things I just will not watch that I know other people can watch.

Just little things that I just won't want in my life.

I don't want triggered in that way.

I don't want to be a part of that.

I'm more cautious and careful because of that former addiction that I don't want to form chains around my life ever, ever again.

And I have to live differently because of that.

That might be you as well.

That's something to think about.

It's a freedom filter.

Here's what's so awesome: true freedom has godly guardrails.

Don't ever forget that.

God wants you to live in freedom and in power and in peace.

But that kind of freedom has guardrails to it.

And we love guardrails more than we realize.

We might say deep down, I just don't want to be restricted.

I just don't want to, I want to have freedom, I don't want to be whatever.

But man, when you live your life with no guardrails whatsoever, with no boundaries whatsoever that you know of, it actually can be daunting and difficult and such a burden to live.

But God wants to give you those guardrails where you know the way in which to go, to live in peace, to live in freedom, to live experiencing the goodness of God.

Now it's possible to do the freedom filter, and it's possible to search scripture for commands, and you're like, what I'm facing right now, I still am not sure what to do.

So I got some more for you.

Here's another thing that you can think about in determining God's will in your life.

Do that which aligns with the fruit of the Spirit.

Do that which aligns with the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5, 22 through 25 says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.

Some translations say patience, but this one, the New International Version says forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

It says, against such things there is no law.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

The Bible is clear that if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit Himself dwells within you.

And probably about a month ago, maybe a little longer than that, our youth minister Jack Myros was right up here with a grapevine right in front of you, talking about man, God wants to bear fruit in your life.

You can't do it apart from Jesus.

One of the worship songs we sing at times is abide.

Lord, teach me to abide in you, to remain in you.

If we remain vitally connected to Jesus in our life, it will result in him bearing fruit in us.

But I want to say something else about this.

And it's something that God sometimes hits me with.

So just stick with me, remain in me, and I'll bear it.

And he didn't tell us what the fruit was.

No, he names the fruit right here, right here in his word.

The reason for that is I believe we still have to say, I'm choosing those things over anything else.

I think he wants us to aspire to bear these fruit.

And and I do think there's I can't bear it without him.

But also, if I for me to abide in him means for me to come before him and say, I'm gonna choose.

To do things that show your love, that are in your love, Lord.

I'm going to choose to live my life that is a life of rejoicing.

The Apostle Paul told the Philippian believers, rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again, rejoice.

We have to sometimes choose joy.

And with the help of the Holy Spirit living within us as a believer, we can choose joy.

Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, those are things we can literally make a choice to have by the power of the Holy Spirit living within us.

Sometimes this is the thing that tips us to I don't know whether to do this or to do that.

But when we look at the fruit of the Spirit, we can say, you know, the patient thing to do, the kind thing to do, the thing that exhibits love and joy best is to do choice B instead of choice A.

It can really help in making those decisions.

Here's another thing that we are offered as a principle in God's word, and that is seek wise counsel.

When you're trying to figure out what to do, what's the right thing, what's the wise thing to do, seek wise counsel.

Proverbs 12, 15 says, the way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.

And we've been talking about it most of this uh school year at the beginning of this school year, the last month, last six weeks.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you are part of the family of God.

You're part of a big group, a worldwide global group of people who have experienced the amazing grace of God, who are seeking to choose right over wrong, who are praying, who are studying God's word.

And there's a lot of people in this room who've been doing that longer than me, longer than you.

Why not approach them and say, Man, I just want your wisdom.

Find someone you trust who also believes in God and who loves Jesus, and someone who won't tell you what you want to hear, but will tell you the truth in love.

And surround yourself with one to a million people like that, and let them speak wisdom into you.

We are the family of God, so talk to your family.

And then this is the last one, and I love this one.

I think this is easy to overlook.

Do that which best allows me to be a light for Jesus.

If you're choosing between a couple of different things in your life, you're in a at a fork in a road, maybe this is a thing that helps you lean in one specific direction by asking this question: which option best allows me to be a part of his mission, to pierce the darkness with my light, to show someone else the grace and the love and the goodness of Jesus.

You exist to proclaim his gospel, you exist to be a light wherever you are.

Jesus said in himself in Matthew 5, verses 14 through 16, you are the light of the world.

Matthew 5:14–16

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

So, whatever it is you're trying to decide about, whatever thing you're trying to figure out what to do next, maybe a good question to ask is what would best allow me to be a light for Jesus?

Which course of action would allow that to happen?

I would say too, this question is great for sometimes choosing priorities.

You may not be trying to decide right from wrong.

You may not be trying to just make a decision to go either this direction or that direction.

You may not be just choosing among a handful of options that aren't right or wrong options.

You just might be trying to figure out what's most important in your life right now.

Because you might be overwhelmed with so many duties, so many responsibilities, so many tasks, and something's got to give.

Perhaps this question here is the thing that will help you prioritize.

What things in your life would most enable you to be the light of Jesus and make those the most important things that you do?

So we've looked at biblical principles, how to figure out the right thing to do, but now how do we actually do the right thing?

Maybe that's a whole other sermon or a whole other whole other sermon series.

But as we close our time together, I think we see a strong glimpse of how do we put in action.

Like, once you know, like I think God's leaning me in this direction, or I've run this thing through the freedom filter, and I think it's time that I start doing this instead of that.

Or I need to stop doing this because it's mastering me, or it's bad for me, or bad for others.

And maybe you know what that is.

Maybe you know it and you're not fully willing to admit it yet, but you are you're getting a sense of that.

So then what?

What do we do next?

I love this verse buried deep in the Old Testament, coming from God Himself, Joshua 1 9.

Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

I love that.

I mean, Joshua is about to lead the people of Israel into the promised land, crossing over the Jordan River, into a land where the enemies of God will dwell, and who knows what they would face.

And yet he was saying, step into it, because I'm with you, and now you just need to choose to not be afraid and just move forward and trust me.

And I wonder if that's the word that God wants to give you right now.

What is it that you're facing that you need to step into?

Stepping into this right thing or this best thing, but it's scary and it's hard.

Maybe the thing you're scared of is, well, I just fell.

And maybe you might do that.

Welcome to the family of God, where we seek to do his best, and sometimes we fall.

But what we do when we fall is with the help of the family of God and the help of God Himself, we pick ourselves right back up and we keep following the good shepherd.

Sometimes the shepherd just comes and scoops us up as a little sheep.

Says, I know you failed, I know you fall, I know you got a little lost, I know you wandered, but you're still mine.

And I will put you right back on this path of freedom to walk freely in my love and my joy and my grace.

One thing I will say before we pray is this perhaps today, the thing that you need to do is finally say yes to Jesus.

He's been pursuing you your entire life.

Maybe you were like me when I finally put my faith in Jesus.

I knew scripture.

I'd gone to church a little bit in my life, enough to know what the Bible was saying about him, but then it suddenly started clicking.

It's like the Holy Spirit finally opened my eyes to say, no, no, this Jesus, he died personally for you.

And he rose again to make a way for you, to live with him forever.

He has a totally new life, a resurrected life waiting for you, a life of freedom, a life that he will lead you as a shepherd leads his sheep.

And you don't have to guess, he will lead you.

And he's inviting you into that today.

And if you've never said yes to him, perhaps right here, right now, is your time to finally enter into the family of God.

Let him adopt you into his family, embrace the amazing grace of God once and for all and forever.

The way you do that is you simply call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved.

Romans 10, 13 says that.

So as I pray out loud, if you've never placed your faith in Jesus Christ, I invite you to do that now as we pray.

You pray with me.

Father, I thank you so much that you don't leave us to live blindly and try to figure out the right thing to do.

You give us your word, you give us the Holy Spirit, you give us wise counsel in your family, and you show us the way.

You don't want us guessing, you're not trying to trick us.

You really want us to live in the freedom and the love and the joy and the light.

Maybe someone here needed to hear this today because they've been trying to make a decision to finally step into freedom in you.

Or maybe they've been just facing a decision, they're not sure what to do.

Or maybe there's so many things on their plate they need to decide what's most important and choose that.

But Father, if someone's here today or someone's watching, listening online right now, and they've yet to say yes to you, my hope and my prayer is that this would be the moment that they don't deny you, that they don't turn from you, they don't say no to you.

But right here, right now, they would say yes.

Oh Lord, right now, I just say I believe in you.

Please forgive me of my sins.

I want to be your child now and forever.

I want to be that sheep that you lead all the days of my life.

Forgive me of my sins.

I turn from my sins, I turn from my chains, and I'll walk out of this grave into your life now and forever.

Father, whoever might be praying a prayer like that, help them to know that today they're born again.

And you're a child, you're your sheep, and you're never gonna let them go.

You will walk with them all the days of their life.

Father, thank you for that.

And as we continue to worship you now, even in this moment, help us to be strong and courageous to walk into your good and perfect will and live that out today and all of our days.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.