(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now tonight in this chapter I want to talk about how to make good decisions and what consists of making a bad decision and I want to start in this chapter, Ruth chapter 1, because this is one of the worst decisions that anybody ever makes in the entire Bible and I want to illustrate that to you and then I want to talk about why we often make bad decisions and how to make good decisions but the decision that I'm talking to you tonight about in Ruth chapter 1 is about the decision that Elimelech and Naomi made with their two sons, Mala and Kylian, to leave the Promised Land, to leave God's nation, Israel, and go to a heathen country. Now you say, well why would they do such a thing? Why would they leave the Promised Land? Why would they leave the place of God's blessing and God's will to go to a heathen, wicked, ungodly country? Well look at verse number 1, it says, It came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. There was a recession, there was a famine. Food was scarce, money was scarce, people were poor, they were struggling, they were starving, and so they said, we can't make it here anymore, we're just going to have to pick up the whole family and move them to Moab. Now do you remember where Moab came from? Go back to the book of Genesis, read chapter 19, you'll find out that Moab was the son of Lot and one of Lot's daughters. Now think about that for a second. Lot had committed incest with one of his own daughters and the child that was produced was named Moab. The word Moab means from father, okay? And it was a wicked thing that he did and it wasn't really something that he wanted to do. He got, he was made drunk by his daughter and she forced him while he was so drunk and so, and by the way, that's why you should never drink alcohol. Because when you drink alcohol, people can take advantage of you and abuse you. Yes they can. The Bible says, if you will unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that put aside a bottle to him and make turn there, would you? Habakkuk 2.15, I want to show you this. I don't want to just quote it to you, I want you to see it with your own eyes because I want to show you something in particular about this. And I'll quickly give an illustration. I had a friend, Eric, that worked with me and he told me that, he said, I'm not really a big drinker, he said, I really hardly ever drink at all. He was an unsaved guy. And he said, I hardly ever drink at all. But he said, one time I got really drunk, just one time. And he said, I got so drunk that I passed out unconscious in the front yard. And you know, it's, I don't have any real experience with this, but I've talked to people and I've read it in the Bible about people getting so drunk that they're literally just unconscious. I mean they're just gone. And so here he is, this guy here, he got so drunk that he's passed out in the front yard in Chicago. And so his brother picked him up, brought him into the house, stripped his clothes off of him, down to his boxers, you know, still kept his boxers on, dragged him into the shower, turned on the shower, showered him off, took him out of the shower, dried him off, put clothes on him, and put him in bed. And this guy, Eric, did not even know that any of it was happening. I mean he was that unconscious, literally. And the next day, his brother told him about this and he said, I took a picture of you in the shower, just passed out, just completely unconscious, just because I knew that you wouldn't even believe me. I just wanted to show you this picture and just show you, you know, to teach him a lesson, because he wanted him to understand how dangerous it was to get drunk like that. But look down at your Bible if you would, I got so carried away in my story I didn't turn there myself. But Habakkuk 2.15, the Bible reads, woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink. Now, here's a little English lesson. The word him is talking to a man, right? Because otherwise it would be her, alright? Do you understand that? So it says, woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink. So who's giving somebody a drink? A man or a woman? A man. He's giving it to his neighbour. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that putteth thy bottle to, what's the next word? Him. So is he giving the alcohol to a man or a woman? A man. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that putteth thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness. That's pretty disgusting, isn't it? A man giving another man alcohol so that he could sodomize him and molest him. Can you think of anything more filthy? Can you think of anything more wicked? But I'm going to tell you something. Go ahead and drink. Go ahead and get under the influence. I wouldn't want to be so drunk and so stupid that somebody could strip my clothes off me, drag me wherever, put me in the shower, spray water in my face, and I'm not even going to wake up. That's pretty dangerous. We see Locke was raped by his daughter because he was drunk and he didn't even know when she lied down. He didn't know when she got up, the Bible says. But back to Ruth chapter 1, I just wanted to show you that. If you just do a study in the Bible, just study all the time that the Bible talks about alcohol, it's just a roll call of weird, filthy acts and nakedness and sin and abomination. It's a bad thing. Look up the first time alcohol is mentioned, the second time, the third time. I'm not going to tell you. Do it yourself. Look it up and you'll see what I'm talking about in Genesis. The first mentions of alcohol in the Bible involve filthy acts. But in Ruth chapter 1, we see that there's a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab. Now the word sojourn means just to go somewhere temporarily. It doesn't mean that you're moving there permanently. We're just going to go sojourn there for a while. It's like a trip that you're taking. He and his wife and his two sons, the name of the man of Alimelech and on and on. And it says, and they came into the country of Moab at the end of verse 2 and continued there. And Alimelech, Naomi's husband, died and she was left and her two sons and they took them wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth and they dwelled there about 10 years. Now you know that the famine did not even last for 10 years. I mean think about it. There's no way the famine could have lasted. Famines don't last for 10 years, okay? A famine in the Bible is because of a drought. The longest time there was ever famine in the whole Bible was for three and a half years because Elijah prayed specifically. It was a miracle, an act of God. It happened one time. They went over there because there was maybe one lean year, maybe two lean years, but they just ended up staying there for 10 years. And then now their sons are marrying these women. And what happens as a result? They all lived happily ever after, right? No. It says in verse number 5, and Malon and Kylian died also. So in verse 3 it says, and Malon and Kylian died also both of them and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. Now why did she move there? Because money was tight. Don't you think that God could provide their needs in the promised land? I mean don't you think that God has promised to provide our, and my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I mean the Bible says I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed-baking bread. Do you really think that they would have died if they would have stayed in God's will, stayed in the promised land, stayed where the house of God was? You think they went back every year and offered the sacrifice they were supposed to offer in Jerusalem in the temple? No. They were over in Moab. They disobeyed God. Was church in Moab? Was the house of God Moab? No. In those days they all went to Jerusalem three times in the year. I mean if you say to the real husband, they had to go there three times a year and bring specific offerings. They weren't doing that. They were all the way over in Moab. Sojourning over there. They all ended up dying. It ended up being a disaster. Look what Naomi says down in verse number 13. Would ye tarry for them till they were grown, Naomi sang to her daughters. Would ye stay for them from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for it grieveth me much for your sakes, that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me. Do you see how she's blaming God? You're the one that went there. Who knows what's going to happen when you go to this heathen wicked place? God's not going to be blessing you, Naomi. Look down at verse number 20 again. And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi. The word Naomi means full. Call me not Naomi. Call me Merah. Merah means bitter. Remember the bitter waters of Merah in Exodus chapter 15, I believe? Why then call ye me Naomi? I'm sorry, look at the beginning of verse 21. It says, I went out full. Wait a minute, Naomi. I thought there was a famine. I thought you were struggling so bad. She says, no, wait a minute. Compared to the situation I'm in right now, I was full back then. She said, I went out full, and the Lord had brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord have testified against me and the Almighty had afflicted me. When you make bad decisions, when you get out of God's will, when you go off on your own and take things into your own hands, doesn't matter what God said, you got to do what you got to do. Hey, you're going to go out full and come back empty like she did. You see, this is a bad decision. Now I'm going to go through just several things of what makes a good decision versus a bad decision, just all throughout the Bible. Number one, you should always make your decisions based on principles and not based on emotion. Always principle, not emotion. You see, the tendency is to make an emotional decision, a spur of the moment kind of a decision. Just, well, I guess I'll just kind of decide when the time comes. That is the worst way to live your life, to just make decisions as you go. You should have principles that are guiding your life that never change and that's what your decision should be based on, principles. Let me give you another example. Abraham, he left God's will, he left the land where God said, this is the land that I'm promising to you and your seed, Abraham. There was a famine, he went down to Egypt, a wicked, ungodly place. Even Pharaoh said, I was just reading the Bible to speak in Exodus, even Pharaoh said, I and my people are wicked and the Lord is righteous. That's what Pharaoh eventually said. I mean, after all the plagues and everything, he said, I and my people are wicked. I mean, Egypt was a wicked place and what did he do while he was down there? He picked up a maid, Hagar, brought her back to the promised land and eventually Abraham committed adultery with the maid that he picked up in Egypt that they never would have picked up in the first place if it weren't for the fact that he was leaving God's will, leaving the promised land and going to the wrong place. But here's a good way, let me give you some ways to not make emotional decisions. Instead of deciding, let me explain it to you this way. We make too many decisions. Like for example, do you think that I decided this morning when I woke up, do you think I woke up and asked myself this question, am I going to go to church this morning? Let me think about it, I got to decide. Honey, can you give me a few minutes, I got to decide whether I'm going to go to church. Do you think I'm still in the process of deciding whether I'm going to be here Wednesday night? No. You say, well you're the pastor. But even before I was the pastor, when I was 18 years old, I made a decision, one decision, okay, that just said, I'm going to be in church just every time. You know, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, I'm just going to be there. I made a decision when I was 18. I went over to Germany and I was helping out with different missionaries and everything over there for three and a half months and while I was over there I just said, you know what, you know, and I usually, I went to church because I like going to church, not because I felt like I had to, you know, and I hope you don't come because you feel like you have to because you don't. You know, and people ask, is it a sin to miss church? So what, who cares, it doesn't matter. I come to church because I want to come to church. I love the Bible, I want to hear the Bible. And I used to come because I wanted to and I hope that's why you come. But every once in a while, someone would come up that was just a lot funner. You know what I mean? Someone else would come up that was just really tempting to miss church and occasionally I would miss church for things like that. But when I was 18 I made a decision, I said, you know what, I am just not going to miss church for anything. Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night I'm going to be there and, you know, at first maybe I slipped up a few times, but I just got into a pattern in my life where I just never miss church. So I don't have to decide, am I going to church on Sunday night? Am I going to church? I already decided that a long time ago because I'm not going to make that decision based on emotion. Well, I don't feel like it. Oh well, this is going on. Well, these people are in town. Hey, I already made one decision that's based on principles in the Bible that says I will be in church every single time. I don't have to make it again. You know, part of the reason why so many people watch all this filth that's on TV, and you know what, anybody who's honest knows that what's on TV is a bunch of smut, and a bunch of filth, and a bunch of pornography. Hey, you can go ahead and tell yourself it's not, and lie to yourself. Hey, go right ahead. I haven't even watched TV in like five years, but you know what, don't try to tell me after the service that they cleaned it up in the last five years. I mean, I'm not going to, you know what I mean? He said, well, you don't even watch it. You don't know what's on there. I dread to think what's on there. I mean, based on the stuff that was on there like five, six, seven years ago when I saw what was on TV, I mean, I dread to think what's on there right now. I mean, I can't even imagine. I mean, it was already just homosexuality. I mean, it was already just nudity. I mean, it was already just filth. It was already garbage. I was working in a nursing home the other day. I was doing the fire alarm system, and I saw like some kind of a cartoon on the TV screen just as I was walking by, and they were just blaspheming Jesus Christ. Like they're just making fun of Jesus. It was like some car, I think it was that show, what's that show called that's on real, it's on like real late at night, and I've heard of it. I haven't seen, I haven't watched it, but it's like these little South Park or something. I think that's what it's called, right? I think that's what this show was, and they're just blaspheming and mocking Jesus on a cartoon. You know, and I'm sorry, the last time I watched TV in my whole life, I was watching a really clean show. There was nothing, it was like a game show, you know what I mean? It wasn't anything weird. And you know what, just that fast, the commercial came on, and it was Victoria's Secret, and it was all these women just marching around in their underwear. But part of the reason why so many people watch so much of this garbage on TV, and even pastors, I mean, I remember I've walked into a pastor's house of an independent fundamental pastor. I walk into a pastor's house, and I heard this sound like, duh, duh, duh, duh. I was like, man, I didn't know the pastor was into heavy metal, you know? I was like, is this pastor listening to heavy metal? You know, what's the deal? But then I said, oh, it's the TV. The TV's on. Oh, man, I thought the guys was blaspheming. But you know, I'm telling you, why is it that all these independent Baptist pastors who were supposed to be a man of God, they watch American Idol? Why do they watch all this stuff on TV? Why do they watch CSI? I'll tell you why. Because they have a process for deciding what they're going to watch, where they take it on a case-by-case basis. Do you understand what I'm saying? They basically say, let's turn it on, and if there's something bad, we'll turn it off. Right? I mean, that's pretty much the way it is. If there's something bad, we'll change it. Or we'll look at each show and say, like, okay, is this show something that I'm going to watch or not, and they're going to look at a specific show. Now, wouldn't it make a lot more sense to say this? Okay, I'm not going to watch any shows that contain this. Like, for example, let's talk about, for example, bad language. Okay? You got the rating system of, you know, whatever they call it, the Hollywood, or I don't know who makes the ratings, but the R, the PG-13, the PG, the G, okay? If I use the F word one time in a movie, just one time, and everything else in the movie's clean, that movie would be rated PG. I mean, I could name for you a couple after the service, a couple movies that are PG rated and they use the F word one time. But if you use the F word a hundred times, that would be an R rated video. Is that the truth or not? That's how it works. I mean, you're allowed maybe just one, now look, isn't that hypocrisy? It doesn't even make sense. Because if I could just get the PG one and just keep looping it over and over, right? I could just keep rewinding it. You know, blankety, blank, blank, blankety, blank, blank. It doesn't make sense. The world is full of hypocrisy. And Pharisee preachers and Pharisee Christians have these rules that don't even make sense. I mean, well, this one has too much cussing, too much nudity, too much this, too much God's name in vain. I mean, look, if you're going to have a rule that you don't want cussing in the movie, shouldn't it be like any movie that has cussing, I'm not going to watch it. Okay? Any movie that has anything derogatory about Jesus, I'm not going to watch it. Any movie that takes God's name in vain or Jesus' name in vain, I'm not going to watch it. Any movie that contains nudity, I'm not going to watch it. Any movie that promotes fornication and has people, you know, kiss and then the lights turn out and then the next morning they're making breakfast. But it didn't show anything bad. Well, I wonder what they did. They're kissing, the lights went out, and then all of a sudden they're pouring orange juice and they're wearing their jammies. And it was the first date. There's movies like that, I mean, that's all the time on TV and movies. What are you teaching your kids? What are they learning? And so, if you made a rule and just said, I'm not going to watch anything that has this, this, this, this, or this, that would throw out every movie. That's why they don't want to do it that way. They just say, well, this one's not too bad. I don't want to live a life where Jesus says, hey, Steven Anderson, your life wasn't too bad. Hey, I pressed for the mark for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I want to do the best that I can. I want to be the best person that I can. I'm not going to sit down in front of a television and say, this isn't that bad. I'm going to sit down and say, is this exactly what God wants me to be doing right now? Now, that's a better way to make decisions. Here's a great way on making decisions. Don't choose the worst possible thing that you can get away with. Why don't you choose the best possible thing you can be doing at any given time and make that be what you're going to do? I mean, when you choose to make decisions. Don't make decisions on a case by case basis. Don't make emotional decisions based on your circumstances. Well, I would normally believe in living in God's land. I would normally go to church. I would normally live in a town where there's a good church. There are people all over America who live in a town where there is no good church. Well, I normally wouldn't do that, but you don't understand the economy right now. Well, you don't understand my situation. You're making decisions based on case by case and emotional decisions. You're going to make the wrong decisions. If you make it on a principle that never changes, you're going to make the right decisions. Think about clothing. You know, again, hypocrisy. People have rules. And our church doesn't have any rules. I don't believe in making a bunch of rules. I just preach the Bible. And you know, colleges and schools, Christian schools, they have these rules. Like, a girl's skirt has to be to her knee. You know, it has to be three finger templates from the collarbone. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, all these rules. Well, the problem with having rules like that is that what do those girls end up doing? They wear clothing just right exactly to the line that they're allowed, but then they just wear it so tight that you can see every single curve of their body. So in the, you know, I guess they're technically obeying the rule, but their heart is not obeying that rule because then they're just wearing it super tight or whatever, super form fitting just to try to be, you know, immodest. Now, do I, of course I believe it's wrong for a woman to expose her thigh because the Bible says that in Isaiah 47.3 and in Exodus 28.42. It says that that's nakedness to show your thigh. But the problem is that a Pharisaic latitude says, oh, okay, so this is where it's wrong, so I'm just going to do exactly the minimum that I can get away with. Our pastors will preach, you should be off soul-laying every week. So people go soul-laying for like 59 minutes and 59 seconds so that they can say, I did my hour of soul-laying. Whereas I don't want to live my life saying like, well, I'm just going to do the minimum. Is this a sin? But is it a sin? Well, you know, I don't think God wants you to do that. Well, but is it a sin? So what? Do what God wants you to do. Be the best you can be. Ladies, why don't you decide when you're putting on your clothing in the morning, why don't you say, Jesus, what would you, what would be the best possible thing I could wear? What would be the best thing I could wear? What would be, what would make you the happiest? What could be the most feminine? What would be the most modest? What would be the most godly and righteous? And why don't you base your clothing based on that, male or female? I mean, look, I'm not trying to see, well, you know, I know I'm a man so I should wear pants. I'm not trying to see how feminine I can be and still be wearing a pair of pants right now. I mean, look, are you looking to me right now? And, you know, and it's, I mean, think about it. Are you looking to me right now wondering whether I'm a man or a woman, like, from my appearance? How long did it take you guys to notice whether I was a male or a female when you walked in the night? You ever see people that you can't really tell? It happens. I mean, you're like, you know, and you start to, whoever you're with, you start to kind of argue, I know that's a man. No, it's a woman and here's why, you know, and you're arguing, you're trying to figure it out. Look, I'm not trying to be right on the line. Good night. Why would I want to be confused, you know, as well? Look, you say, well, what, what kind of a fashion statement are you trying to make? You know what? Man, male, that's my, that's my fashion statement tonight, male, man. I mean, good night. You think I'd go down to the mall and try things on? I haven't even, I haven't even picked out my own clothes since I've been married. Okay. This is why I'm married. So I don't have to go to the grocery store ever again. It's like, I don't know if you want to go to the grocery store again. I don't ever want to shop for my own clothes again. It's like, thank God for being married. You know, say, does your wife work? You know, she works for me. You know what I mean? She gets the groceries, she gets this, you know, she picks out my clothes. Honey, what's your style? Man. You know, what store should I go to? Should I go to Gap? Where should I go? Abercrombie and Fitch or Urban Outfitter? I just tell you, you know what? Is there like a Carhart's outlet in town or Dickie's? There we go. Dickie's outlet. Or go to the uniform store. Right? And just buy me the most generic looking, meanest looking clothes you can find. Alright? And she, you know, she buys me, you know, suits and everything at the thrift store, you know, for preaching and everything like that. And for work. I mean, good night. It's a pair of pants that's not like tailored to my every curve. It's a pair of pants. It's a polo shirt. It's a t-shirt. Whatever. But I'm going to dress like a man. And you say, well, pass your answer. Do you think it's wrong to wear pink shirts? I don't have a feminine tendency. So I don't even ask myself that question. I mean, it's not a sin because the Bible doesn't even mention the word pink. But if you think I'm going to come to church next week in a baby pink suit with a white shirt and a pink suit, you're wrong. Now that church is in the other side of the parking lot. You guys know where I'm from. I'm serious. You go down to this church down here. It says right outside in the parking lot. I saw a guy in a bright purple suit. Like, I'm not even kidding. Like the Joker on Batman. He had bright purple pants, bright purple suit, and his shoes were purple. I'm not even kidding. You think I'm joking? I'm not. Another guy was bright red. Top to bottom. Okay? And so, I don't want to get too carried away on that point. But sometimes you can make one big decision instead of having to make a bunch of little emotional on the spot decisions. Another big decision. Like, I go to church. Here's a big decision. I'm a Baptist. You know, I don't have to wonder like what denomination I am every week. I dress like a man. I'm going to dress, if you're a lady, you know, dress in modest clothing. You should only have to decide that one time. Not every day. Not every time. You're just going to have to wonder about it. I'm going to live in a town where there's a good independent Baptist church or else I'm not going to live there. That'd be a good place to start. I'm going to live somewhere else. Because you can't just go through life making decisions on the spur of the moment when it comes. Okay, how about this? How about this, you know, single men? You got your girlfriend, right? And you decide right now that you're not going to sleep with your girlfriend. Okay? That should be a decision that you make at the time. Okay? You should decide right now, I will not sleep with my girlfriend before I'm married. I am not going to have my hands all over her. She's not going to have her hands on me. You have to decide that when you're having a sane moment. Like, sit down somewhere by yourself with the Bible or get on your knees and pray and say, God, I am not going to commit fornication. You shouldn't just in the heat of the moment say, well, I'm just going to go over to my girlfriend's house. We're just going to see what happens and I'll make the decision when it comes. You're going to make the wrong decision because you're going to find all kinds of ways to justify what you're doing when you're doing it. That's the way sin is. You get in a situation, maybe it's a decision that you need to make about alcohol, you know, a decision that you need to make about fornication or whatever. Because you get in a situation when the alcohol is flowing and being passed around, you're going to make a dumb decision unless you've already got it purposed in your heart like Daniel did. He purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat nor of the wine which he drank. He said, I'm not going to drink your wine and I'm not going to eat your meat that was sacrificed to idols because it's wrong. And so he didn't decide when they put the plate in front of him. He'd already decided in his heart what he was going to do. Do you understand that from the life of Daniel? He said, I already know that I'm not going to do this. And so when the time comes, you're already ready and you know what you're going to do. But not only that, not only do you not want to make emotional decisions and spur the moment, make a big decision that just says, I'm not going to commit fornication. I'm not going to drink. I'm not going to whatever. But number two, when you're making a decision, you want to determine what is the will of God, right? I mean, let me break it. That's, you know, this religious will of God. Let's bring it down to just our vernacular, what God wants. That's what the will of God means. What does God want you to do? I mean, if you have a decision in front of you, we've already eliminated all the little everyday decisions because you should make big decisions about what you do. Big decision, I read the Bible every day, right? I don't decide every morning, do I feel like reading the Bible? Just I read it. And not, well, on a case by case, I'm going to decide what's okay on TV. I made a really easy decision. I took my TV and just threw it in the trash. I just found that I had too many decisions in my life, so I just said, get rid of this stupid TV. And I never have to make that decision again. I'd rather have no TV. I never watch anything bad on TV because I never watch anything on TV. Whereas you might watch 99 good things on TV, you liar, and one bad thing. But you still watch the bad thing and you're a liar because you probably watch like 99 bad things and one good thing. It was like Animal Planet was the one good thing, you know? This message was brought to you by Animal Planet. But number two, hey, determine God's will. Find out what God wants you to do. Shouldn't that matter? What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and that you're not your own, but you're bought with a price? Wherefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. You belong to God. You can't just make whatever decisions you want. You should consult what does God want. Now, how are you going to know the will of God? Well, some pastors will tell you, come to my office for counseling. I'll tell you the will of God. Whatever I say is God's will. Wrong. You want to know how to determine God's will, let me give you two ways. Number one, and turn to Hebrews chapter 10 if you would. Hebrews chapter number 10 toward the end of the New Testament. You say, I want to know what God wants me to do. Because sometimes we have big decisions in life like where you're going to live, who you're going to marry, what you're going to do for a living, what your job is going to be. You know, there are all kinds of big decisions. So number one, you have principles that have already made your decisions, big things. But number two, you've got to find out what is God's will. What does God want me to do because I'm not my own. I need to please Him. Well, look at Hebrews 10 verse number 6. The Bible says, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above when he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offerings for sin, thou wouldst not, neither has pleasure therein, but draweth by the law. Then said he, lo I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that he may establish second. What's he saying? The will of God is written in the Bible. That's what he says. He says, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. You see, the will of God is not found through prayer. Well, I'm going to pray and see what God wants me to do. No, we're going to get to that in a second. Or, well, I just feel like this is what God wants me to do, I just feel that God wants me to live here. I just feel like this is the right thing. No, what is written in the Bible? You see, the Bible is the revelation of God's will to us. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 for example, you don't have to turn there, it says, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication. God says, let me tell you my will, that you be holy, that you not fornicate, that you live a clean life. The Bible says in everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. You see, 99% of the Bible, of what God's will is, is written in the Bible. If you would be diligent enough to look for it. You ever heard people say to this subject, well, the Bible doesn't really talk about that. Who's heard somebody say that? Well, the Bible doesn't really mention that subject. How do you know? Have you read the whole Bible a hundred times and you know everything that's in it and everything that's not in it? I mean, a lot of times people have said to me, well, the Bible doesn't mention that subject. And I say, well, here, let me show you where it mentions that subject. Look, I don't know the whole Bible, cover to cover, memorized, and nobody does. So to sit there and say, well, the Bible doesn't deal with that subject, hey, the Bible has everything I need to know about every subject that there is, period. I believe that. I don't know about you, but that's what I believe. And so when I want to know, hey, when I want to know about any subject in the world, I just look it up in the Bible. And it takes a lifetime of studying and reading and memorizing the Bible to find all the answers, but the answers are in the Bible. You know what I mean? The answers about politics, the answers about your diet, the answers about your life, the answers about marriage, about raising children, about any aspect of life, succeeding in your diet, it's all in the Bible. You just have to look forward and find it. And so the best way to know God's will is to read what He wrote He wants, what He tells you to do. And if you do everything that God tells you to do, you won't have all these decisions that you don't know what to do. Like if God's commanding you to be in church, if He's commanding you to be out soul winning, He's commanding you all these things, it's going to be easy to determine where to live, because you've got to go somewhere where there's a good church. You've got to go somewhere where there's soul winning that you can be a part of. You say, well, I'm going to go to this church and I'm going to teach him soul winning. Okay, go ahead and try it. I've known so many people who went to a church and they said, this church is dead and they don't win souls, they don't get anybody saying they don't have any kind of ministry of evangelism and going out and getting people to say, they said, I'm just going to start, I'm going to take the pastor and teach him soul winning. Look, if you have to teach the pastor soul winning, you're in the wrong church. He's supposed to be teaching you something. I mean, if you have to be training the pastor on the most basic thing, and yes, that is the most basic thing. I mean, I believe that if a person got saved yesterday, I want to take them out soul winning today. That's what I believe. Oh, the first thing is that they dress right. Wrong. Oh, the first thing is that they stop fornicating. Wrong. First thing is that they stop drinking. Wrong. The first thing is that they bring forth fruit and win souls and win people to Christ, and then God will purge them of those bad things in their life so that they can bring forth more fruit. I mean, I've taken people out soul winning that just got saved. They're still living with their girlfriend. They're still drinking. They're still doing all this stuff. And I took them out soul winning. And they didn't look like a Christian. You know, I mean, they looked pretty worldly and stuff. You say, were you embarrassed to take them to the door? Absolutely not. I was just so happy to have somebody that I could train how to win souls. Care what they look like. Come soul winning with me. And it's amazing how they strain themselves out after they got into soul winning. And so, the will of God is written in the Bible. God will tell you what to do. He'll tell you what the answer is. You just got to be diligent enough to look in the Bible and find the answer. But number two, look at Romans 12. The second way that you're going to determine God's will in your life. Now, let me just break something to you. God's not going to speak to you audibly. God is not going to, you're not going to go in your backyard and one of your bushes is going to be burning. And you're going to hear a voice coming out of the burning bush. Stephen. This is what happened to me earlier today. Stephen. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place where I'll now stand as this holy ground. Do you think that's going to happen to you? It happened like once. It's in the Bible. Okay. God's probably not going to part the Red Sea in your lifetime either. Okay. That happened like once. Okay. Do you understand? I mean, this isn't the way God normally communicates through a burning bush. You know what God's normal way of communicating is? Through the Bible. And you know, I'd rather have the Bible than the burning bush to be honest with you. Say, oh man, the burning bush would be so great. Hey, there's a lot more in the Bible than Moses heard from that burning bush. And the Bible says we have a more sure word of prophecy. I mean, I'm just as sure that this Bible is true, I'm more sure than if I heard a voice coming out of a burning bush. This is more certain. And there's more of it. Moses didn't have the New Testament. Moses didn't have the book of Psalms. Moses didn't have most of the Bible. Moses only had a small portion of the Bible. Thank God that we live in 2008. We have the whole thing. Of all people, we should be able to find out what the will of God is with the resources that's at our hand right here in the Bible. But look down at Romans 12. I'm going to show you a second way of determining what the will of God is. Number one, man, you just need to do a lot more Bible reading, a lot more. You'll know what to do. I don't go through life wondering. Now there are times when I do something wrong, but it's usually not because I didn't know better. It's usually just because I'm a sinner and I made him a Satan, okay? I committed sin. But I don't go through life just wondering what am I supposed to be doing with my life? I don't know what to do all day Sunday. I don't know what to do Monday through Saturday. I just don't know what to do. No, I know what to do because I've been reading. How read is thou is the question that we should be asking. But look down at Romans 12. Here's the second way to determine God's will. The Bible says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, why that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. How are you going to prove the will of God in your life? The Bible says you're going to do it when you present your body to God and sacrifice it to God and say, God, I am willing to do what you want me to do. Now think about this. If my son walked up to me and said, Dad, what do you want me to do? And he's already got in his mind that he wants to go swing on the swing set. And no matter what I tell him to do, he's going to go swing on that swing set. Wouldn't that be silly for him to walk up to me and just say, God, or not God, Dad, what do you want me to do? Son, you're not going to do it anyway. So why would I even tell you? I'm not even going to waste my time. I'm just kidding, son. And so I'm not going to sit here and waste my time telling him I want you to do this, this, this. I know he's not going to do it. But when you go to God and say, God, whatever you want me to do, I'm going to do it. Why in the world wouldn't God tell you? Wouldn't that be silly? If you're down here on earth, underneath saying, God, please tell me what you want me to do. And he's just up in heaven just like, no. Wouldn't that be dumb? I mean, don't you, okay, who do you think wants you to do God's will more, you or God? God's will and wants you to do it. Do you think he's just going to leave you wondering what to do if you're willing to do what he wants you to do? I mean, look, when I was, I was 16, I was just turning 17. I wanted to do what was right. I wanted to do God's will. But nobody was teaching me what to do. You know what I mean? I was like, this didn't have any guidance. And I remember I used to go to, I went to church, you know, Sunday morning, Sunday night, I went out with my parents. And I went to all kinds of other youth groups and Bible studies that were going on for teenagers. And I would, I had a lot of Christian friends. And I was, I was doing this, I was doing that. But I just, and I even tried a couple times when I was 16. And I would, I went to public school and I would, I would be on the bus and I would try to give the gospel to somebody on the bus. You know, I would say, you know, I'm going to try and give you God's, but I didn't know what I was doing. Nobody had ever taught me like how to win somebody to the Lord. And so I did a very poor job of it. You know what I mean? Because I just, I was really just stumbling through it. I was stammering, stuttering. I didn't really know what to do. I hadn't been taught. The church that I was in was not teaching me anything. I mean, it was just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Nobody ever got saved. Nobody ever got baptized. It was boring. They never taught us anything. It was just, I couldn't even understand why we went there. And I just had no direction at all. But I had, I had a desire to serve God. I had a desire. I reached the praise, I used to praise this teacher. God, please just let me get one person saved in my lifetime. I prayed that prayer so many times I couldn't even tell you how many times I prayed. I mean hundreds of times. God, please in my life I just want to win one person in the world. And you know, God looked down at that and saw somebody who wanted to do God's will. Who was presenting himself saying, and I even said like, God, if you want me to go to a foreign country or be a missionary, I'll do it. Whatever you want me to do, God. Just show me what to do. And one day, I just turned 17, or I was about to turn 17, one together, and I was riding my bicycle and I went to a used bookstore and I bought a bunch of books that I, that I wanted. And I was walking out with all these books in my hand and a guy walked up to me and said, he said, hey kid, I remember it like it was yesterday. I mean I can picture it in my mind. He said, hey kid, you want to go to church? And he reached out and he handed me an invitation to church. And I took it out of his hand and I didn't even say anything to him. I just opened it up and looked at it. And it said Regency Baptist Church. And on the back it said, you know, do you know 100% for sure if you died today, you'd go to heaven. And it had a plan of salvation and it had a lot of, and I looked up at the guy that gave it to me and I said, I said, I'd go to a Baptist church. I said, I'm saved. I said, I've been saved since I was a little kid. I said, I'm saved and I go to a Baptist church. And he said to me, he said, does your church go out and get people saved? They go out and like knock doors or preach the gospel? And I said, no, but we should. And he said, amen. And he just left. And I thought it was kind of weird because I thought he would talk to me more or say like, hey, you know, we'll come to this church or I'd like to invite you. But I just said, no, but we should. And he just said, amen. And he just left. It was weird. So I had this invitation, right? And I looked at it and I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. I was reading it. I was like, okay, this is great. This is the kind of church that I wish I went to. And literally this is kind of a little bit based on that one. Okay. In reality, the one for our church. And I got home and I went to my parents and I said, I said to my mom and dad, I said, I think this is where we should be going to church. Mom, because I said, or dad, I get my dad. I said, I think this is where we should be going to church. I said, you know, and I I've been kind of complaining about our church lately because I've been reading the Bible a lot and it just wasn't really maxed out. Okay. So I gave it to my dad. I said, I think this is where we should be going to church. And he looked at it and he said, this looks like a good church. And he said, let's go try it. And so we went and tried it. And the, what do you think the first thing I did when I got there was at that church? I was looking for the guy that gave me the invitation, right? Never saw him again. He was never there. I mean, I never saw him. I don't know if he did. I don't know if he didn't even go there or I mean, literally I think God could have just sent that guy like an angel of the Lord just to give me that invitation. I'm not even kidding because I'm going to tell you something within weeks of going to that church, I was out sold for the first time I was out knocking doors. I was with a guy named Dan Deon and he, uh, he went around and I followed him around and I just listened and watched him. And after about an hour and a half, I said, Hey, can I get the next door? He said, sure. He thought I'd been doing this. I'd never even done it for him in my life. And you should have seen the way I looked back then. It was fine. I'll show you a picture sometime. But anyway, I, uh, I knocked on that door and I tried to give the gospel to this young girl and she didn't get saved, but she ended up coming to church the next day and somebody else got her saved at church, you know, cause I wasn't really good at this. Okay. But I, man, I started going soul winning every single week. I started getting people saved. I started growing. I started getting rid of a lot of the junk, all the junk music and all the garbage and all the sin and everything. I started to, it took years, you know, but just slowly just getting right with God, reading the Bible more, getting closer to God. Hey, why? Because God looked down and said, here's a guy who wants to do my will. He's stupid. He doesn't know what he's doing. He's in a dumb church. He, he dresses like an idiot. He doesn't even know the first thing about what's right. And, and, and this guy loves me. I'm going to show him my will. He sent somebody, whether it was an angel or whether it was a stick. Either way, God sent that guy to give me that because that was exact time that I needed that. I wanted to know the truth. He said, I'm going to show you the truth. Seek and you shall find. And God somehow got that track in my hand. And you know what? Within weeks, whether I was doing it or not, I knew what the truth was about a lot of things because I was, you know, it's a great church that taught me a lot of things. And so what am I trying to say? The second way to know God's will, the first one, the obvious one, read the Bible. And, and I'm not talking about some little devotional. We need to get out of this shallow, we've gotten so shallow in our Christian, not a little devotional, not your little five minutes in the morning. You need to sit down. You need to learn what it's like to sit down and read the Bible for like an hour, two hours. I mean, seriously. Oh man. If you watch a movie for two hours, sit down and read the Bible for two hours. It's too hard. Grow up. I mean, good night. How are you going to know God's will? You're not even going to know what to do. Think about it. You're going to mess up your life. You're going to make dumb decisions because you don't even know what God wants. Let alone obey what God wants. Think about it. You got to read and read and read. You got to meditate during day and night, that's what the Bible says. That's when you're going to be blessed. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and there's a lot of people who meditate day and night. You got to read the Bible a lot, not have a little talk with Jesus. Sit down and get comfortable and get the Bible and just read it for a long time. Get on your knees and pray to God. You're going to find God's will by reading the Bible and number two, when you present yourself to God and say, God, I want to do what you want me to do. So show me what you want me to do and I'll do it. Of course God's going to tell you what to do. Is he going to tell you audibly? No, he's going to tell you through the word of God. He's going to speak to you through the Bible and the Holy Spirit speaking through the Bible. But I got to hurry because I'm running out of time. Look at Joshua chapter seven quickly. Joshua chapter number seven. So number one, you got to make your decisions based on principle, not emotion, not spur the moment, not based on the situation. Have you ever heard of this term situational ethics? You do what's right based on the situation. Well, I'd have to know the scenario. You know, somebody asked me a question, do you think abortion is wrong? Well, I guess it depends on the situation. No, it doesn't matter what the situation is. It's always wrong. Murder is wrong. Always. Period. Well, what about this? No. Well, what about this situation? No. No. I don't care what this is. I don't need to hear about it. You ever wonder why Pastor Anderson doesn't do any counseling? You know, every Baptist Church in America seems like has all this counseling. I mean, you know that's right. Come to me for counseling. Get in my line after the service. Come for marriage counseling. Come for this counseling. Come for this counseling. Look, the reason that I don't do counseling is because this is what counseling does. And, man, I have so much to say, I've got to hurry up. But this is what counseling does. What's the first thing when somebody comes to counseling? Okay, tell me about your situation. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah for like 20 minutes. And then I'm supposed to like tell you what to do in your life. First of all, I don't like telling people what to do. Live your own life. I'm not going to live your life for you. But the problem is that, now look, a guy asked me before, and this happened to me a couple of times. A guy asked me, he said, do you do marriage counseling? I said, no. He said, he just couldn't believe that I said that. He said, well, why not? I said, because you don't need counseling. And he said, well, this is my situation. And he started telling me his situation. I said, stop. I don't want to hear about your situation. I said, I don't need to know about your marriage and your problem. That's between you and your wife. I said, I don't want to hear about it. And he said, well, what do I, but I got to tell you so that you can tell me what to do. And I said, I'll tell you what to do without you telling me anything. I said, come to church three times a week, read the Bible every day, and go soul winning with me every week. And then, and then we'll talk. He didn't come to church three times a week. He didn't read the Bible at all. And he didn't go soul winning. Why would I spend my time talking to somebody like that? You know what I mean? I told him what to do. He wouldn't do it. You say, oh, but you know, these marriage problems are complex. No, they're not. The comp, the problems may be complex, but the solution is simple. Here's the solution to marriage problems. Women obey husband, husband. Done. So just solve that problem. Man, love your wife. Done. Divorce is not an option. There. We just, we just solve a lot of marriage problems right there. So all kinds of people are going to get divorced in your church. No, they're not. Not if they decide that divorce is not an option. Oh, but you don't understand their situation. It doesn't matter what their situation is. If you vow a vow to God, the Bible says you must pay your vow period. That's what it says. Did you know that there was a man who killed his daughter in the book of Jud, I mean it was a horrible story, in Judges 11, because he would not break his vow to God. He said, I've opened my mouth to the Lord and I cannot go back. I mean, the people in the Bible, man, when they vowed a vow, they didn't break it. The Bible says you break your vow to God, you're a fool. That makes sense. Is lying ever right? Is it ever right to lie? I know this is complicated. Do you think it's ever right to lie? So if I say to my wife, till death us too hard, for better, for worse, richer, poorer, sickness, health, I mean the worse, I'll never leave thee nor for safety. Do you think that there's ever going to be a situation where it's okay for me to break my promise? No. Wrong. See, oh, but this guy slapped his wife across the face. You can't break your promise. Oh, committed adultery. You can't break your promise. It's a lie, my friend. When you break a promise to God, you've lied. You've broken a vow. It's a sin. I have a whole sermon on that. It's called Marriage and Divorce, and I went through and proved from the Bible that there's never a reason when God allows divorce, period. The only time God ever allowed divorce was because of fornication. And here's a news flash. Fornication is not adultery. There's a difference. Adultery is married people sleeping with someone who's not their spouse. Fornication is people who are unmarried. And the Bible says that if a man goes in unto his wife the first time and finds her not to be a maid, he has made an exception, and he can divorce his wife before he consummates the marriage. That's what Joseph was going to do in Matthew chapter 1. Remember, he found out that Mary was with child, and he said, I'm going to put her away. He says he, being a just man, was minded to put her away. Because that's what God's law allowed in Deuteronomy 24 and Deuteronomy 22. That he could divorce them before you consummated the marriage. Once you've consummated the marriage, that's your spouse for life till death us do part, period. So you see, we'd solve all our marriage problems if we quit letting the world and Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Phil tell us what we believe, and go back to the Bible says that the man is the head of the home. The man is to rule over his wife and children. It's in Genesis 2. It's in Ephesians 5. It's in 1 Timothy 2. And the Bible says that a man is supposed to love his wife. How much has Christ loved the church and gave himself for it? A self-sacrificing love that a man is supposed to have for his wife. That he'll give himself for her. You see, people spit in the face of Jesus Christ when he was being led away on the cross, and what did he say? Father forgive them for they know not what they do. The kind of love that I'm supposed to have for my wife is that if she spits in my face, curses me and blasphemes me, I will still love her and still stay with her. That's the kind of love that I'm supposed to have for my wife. No matter, if she treats me like the world treated Jesus, then I'm going to still love her and forgive her. And you say, well what is the wife's obedience supposed to be like to her husband? The same way that the church is to obey Christ. Ephesians 5. Wives obey your husbands. It says the wives are supposed to be subject unto their husbands as the church is subject unto Christ. So should wives be their own husband. I mean, how much do you think this church, to what level should this church be in obedience to Jesus? Most of the time? We try to do things the way Jesus wants most of the time, at Faithful Word. Every once in a while, it's just what we want. No, I mean look, we're supposed to be doing everything the way Jesus wants. I mean, we got to do it the way that He's commanded. Now look, I'm not some kind of a dictator that tells my wife every little thing. I mean, I let her have so much freedom, okay? I'm not trying to be some kind of an Islamic guy or something that, you know, keeps my wife chained up or something. Hey, my wife has so much freedom. The Bible says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. She has so much freedom, but you better know that when I put my foot down about something, that's how it's going to be. Period. It's called male authority. It goes back all the way to the Garden of Eden. When God said to Eve, it says, He shall rule over thee. So if we get that philosophy right, that we have not a two-headed monster, but one head in the home, the man, and then we have a wife who submits and obeys Him, and we have a husband who's not selfish, but he's doing things for his wife and loving his wife, spending time with his wife, you're going to have a harmony in the home. Is there ever going to be fighting? Of course. You know, anybody who thinks that there's no fighting in marriage is because they're not married. Anybody who's married knows that, you know, that you feel, oh, I can't believe I ever had a fight. You know, people who've been married for like two weeks, man, hang on tight. Wouldn't even have been married for a couple of years. You're not going to be making such a big deal out of it when it becomes daily. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding about that. But you know what? Anybody knows that there's fighting in marriage except the people that disagree with me right now is because they're single. Period. Because, you know, that's why, why do you think 75% of marriages end in divorce? Because it's so wonderful. It's so easy. It is wonderful, but it's not easy. And you know what? You've got to have a commitment that says, I'm not going to get a divorce. And you've got to, you don't have to sit there, I don't have to sit there and make a decision about your marriage. Let me tell you how to make your marriage work. Tell me all about your problems and I'll tell you what to change. You do this, you do that. I'm not going to be some dictator that tells you how to run your house and your marriage and your life. Run it yourself and use God's principles that say no divorce, man's in charge, love the wife, will never leave thee nor forsake thee, just like Jesus is never going to leave me. I mean, look, is Jesus going to divorce me? Am I going to lose my salvation if I go out and sin? Is Jesus going to divorce me? No. I mean, is Jesus going to kick me out of the family and divorce me if I commit murder? No. And that's the same kind of commitment that I have for my wife. I'll never leave her nor forsake her no matter what. Period. These are the kind of decisions that you've got to nail down. These are the kind of decisions that you need to make. We don't have counseling sessions here because the truth is the same for everybody. That's why we don't have a counseling session. A counseling session is where I give it to you one on one. Come to church, I'll say it to all of you at the same time. I just counseled all your marriages. This is effective. You're not even married yet. Hey, you've already got it. Go on into it. You know what to do. Look, this is effective time management. I'm not going to sit around giving this sermon to everybody separately. I got an idea. Here's a great, I just came up with this great idea. Instead of me going around to everybody's house teaching them one on one, we're all just going to get together three times a week. I made this up myself. I made up this idea. We're all going to get together three times a week, Sunday, March, Sunday, Wednesday, we're going to call it church. I don't know how I came up with that word, but we're going to call it church. We're going to all get together and I'm going to teach it to everybody at the same time. And then I can just get on with my life. You know what I mean? Instead of just spending my whole day going around to each person one on one. Oh yeah, God already thought of that. That's what we're supposed to be doing all along. Counseling is just, tell me a bunch of smut. Tell me about your bedroom life. I don't want to hear it. You keep that between you and I don't want to hear about it. You hear about all the nitty gritty of your marriage. Keep it to yourself. It's the last thing I want to hear about. But look down at Joshua chapter 7. Here's a way not to find the will of God. Joshua chapter 7 and verse number 10, I got to turn it on myself. Sorry, I'll get there. Joshua chapter 7 verse 10, the Bible says, And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up. Now Joshua is praying. Get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Why are you lying on your face? Get up off the ground, he's saying. Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them, for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen and dissembled also, and they have put it even on their own stuff. Here's a situation where the children of Israel have sinned. Joshua is praying. God, what do I do? God, what am I supposed to do? He's saying, Joshua, don't pray. The Bible already tells you what to do. You see, the time to pray is not to figure out what God wants you to do. People will pray to ask God what to do. God, what do I do? Now look, that's great, but then get up off your face and read the Bible and let God tell you what he wants you to do. And by the way, you don't have to pray about whether something is a sin or not that God already said is a sin. That's why he's telling Joshua not to pray right now. Joshua, I already told you that it's wrong. Get up off your face and deal with the problem. Don't pray about it. Say, well, I'm praying about whether I'm supposed to get married to somebody who's unsaved. You don't need to pray about it. God said no. Well, I'm praying about whether it's right for me to go to this drunken party with my friends. God already said no. You don't have to pray about it. You see what I'm saying? Well, I'm praying about whether I should go soul winning. God said go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You don't have to pray about it. God's will is not found through prayer. Now you can ask God, God, show me what to do and then let God show you through the Bible, through preaching, whatever. But to sit there and just pray about things that you already know, you're being lazy sometimes by saying like, oh God, show me the answer. Oh God, show me the answer. The answer's been there all the time. You just need to find it. Pray for God to show you it in the Bible. But not only that, I've got to hurry. Number one, don't make emotional spur of the moment decisions. Make one big decision to cover you for life. Number two, determine the will of God. Number one, by reading the Bible. Number two, by presenting yourself to God and saying I'll do whatever you want me to do. That's the person that God's going to show his will to. Number three, make your decision based on godly priorities. I'm not going to spend much time on this because I just preached a whole sermon on this a couple of months ago, but you've got to put priorities in your life of what is more important to you. The Lord Jesus Christ, the house of God, church, and the things of God should be at the top of the list. Then after that, I'm going to put my family first. After that, before I put my friends, I'm going to put my family. Before my job, I've got to put my family first. After that is my job, okay? Because my job is very important. That's how I pay the bills. That's how I keep... And so, if I have things broken down in priorities, God, family, job, you know, just a basic list right there. Well then, if the boss says, hey, can you work on Sunday? I need you to work on Sunday instead of going to church. Do I have to make a decision there? Do I have to pray like Joshua and say, God, what should I do? Do I have to go scour the Bible? I'm trying to find the answer. See, if my priorities are in place, I'm going to say, well, church is my priority. I mean, what's going on at church is far more important than anything else. Outsole winning, knocking doors, I mean, people are in the balance between heaven and hell. I mean, that's going to take priority. You won't have to make these other decisions because the decision has already been made. Winning souls, church, family has got to come first before making money and buying things, okay? And so, there are times when your job has to take some priorities. It shouldn't be cutting into church. It shouldn't stop you from being a soul winner. It shouldn't cut into your Bible reading. I mean, you've got to have priorities in place. And when you're missing a bunch of church because you can have a better paying job, your priorities are out of whack. So, how do you make a decision? How do you make a decision of where to live? Well, I'm going to live in the place of the best job opportunity. Wrong. If I'm choosing where to live, you know how I would choose? I would find the best possible church to go to, and then I would start looking for a job. I mean, I've moved somewhere just to go to a church before, and when I did that, I didn't even have a job waiting for me. I just moved there, and then I started looking for a job out there. My sister, my older sister, she just, she moved to Farmington, New Mexico. And you know what the first thing she did when she moved to Farmington? Before she even considered moving to Farmington, she said, I'm going to make sure that there's a church there that I like at least as much as the one I'm going to now. Because I'm not taking a step down. I mean, I want to go to a church that's at least as good as the one that I've been going to. In fact, I'm only going to move somewhere if I can find a better church to go to. You know, and then she moved, she ended up later, years and years later, moving from Farmington to Fort Worth, Texas. And she said, I'm going to make sure that I'm taking a step up with church. I'm not going to go to a church that's inferior to the one I'm going to right now. If anything, I'm only going to move anywhere. Because, you know, her husband was offered a job opportunity, a raise, a promotion to move to Fort Worth. And she said, only if I can find a church that's better than the one I'm going to right now. Because church is a priority. And she found a great church that she did like better, and that's where she moved because of church, not because of the job. She didn't say, oh, that's where the job's moving, let's go there, a couple bucks an hour more, we'll take the raise. Wrong. Be where church is. Be where the Bible's being preached, be where the truth is. But I've got to hurry. Number four, you want to make good decisions? Look at Nehemiah chapter 5. I'm almost done, but look at Nehemiah chapter 5. We saw number one, make big decisions for life. I'm always going to do this, I'm always going to do that. Principles. Number two, make decisions based on the will of God, what God wants. Number three, make it based on godly priorities. Number four, look at Nehemiah chapter 5. Number four, consult with yourself. Look at number five, I'll show you what I mean. And I was very angry, verse 6, Nehemiah 5-6, I was very angry when I heard their cry at these words. Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles and the rulers and said unto them, the exact usury, every one of his brothers, and I set a great assembly against them. What does it mean to consult with yourself? Here's what you ought to do when you have a decision to make. This is a very important point. Think about if someone were to ask you, let's say your friend came to you with the exact same decision in front of them as you have right now. Think about a decision in your mind, like the type of decision. Somebody else comes to you with the exact same decision, and they tell you the situation and say, what should I do? What would you tell that person? That's going to be your right answer. Do you understand what I'm saying? Because sometimes we get so emotionally caught up in the situation that we make the wrong decision. I mean, you know, let's say you're fighting with your spouse and having problems and stuff, and you say, well, what should I do? You go to somebody else. What would you do? You're a Christian, right? I mean, you love God. You love the Bible. You're in faithful Baptist church. I mean, you're a godly person. You love God. You love so many. You love the Bible. If somebody came up to you and said, my husband and I are fighting like crazy. We're thinking about getting divorced. What should I do? You'd say, you need to stay with it. You need to work things out. You need to make it work. It's till death does do part. You promise that before God. You know, you got to stay with it. You got to do right. Or would you just tell them, honey, you need to get rid of that zero and get you a hero. You're not going to tell them that. But then all of a sudden, when it's your problem, right? You know, and then you're thinking about divorce. You wouldn't tell that to anybody else, would you? See why it's important to consult with yourself like Nehemiah did? Let me give you another example. Somebody gets disgruntled about their church and tells you, I go to a soul lending, king James Bible fundamental church. I'm learning a lot every week, but the pastor said this, this, this that irritated me. What should I do? I'm thinking about getting out of church. Or I'm thinking about going to the charismatic church, where it's all love. What would you tell them? Tell them, grow up. So what if the pastor said something you didn't like? Suck it up. Take it. Don't be a little kid. Don't wear your feelings on your sleeve. That's what you'd tell them. So when you hear something that maybe rubs you the wrong way, maybe that's the attitude that you ought to have. That's what you would tell every other person. I mean, if a woman asked you, I'm having a lot of marriage problems, this, this and this, what advice would you give her from the Bible? She said, I know you're a Christian. I know you love God. I know you know the Bible better than I do. Can you give me some advice about how to have a good marriage? What would you tell her? You'd tell her to submit to her husband, right? You'd tell her to quit trying to be the boss of the home. So why don't you live that? You know, I mean, if somebody came to me and said, my wife is doing this, what's your advice for me? I'd say, I don't know, man. It's women. No, I'm just kidding. You know, if somebody came to me and said, I'm having this, this and this problem in my home, I'd open my Bible and show them what the Bible says. So I got to live that. You see, don't get so emotional about it. Have you ever known people that are just messing up their life? They're making one bad decision after another, one foolish decision after another, and everyone around them could see it except them. It's obvious to everybody. They're like, look, can't you see what's going on? Look, Elimelech, didn't you notice that as soon as you went to Moab, your whole life started going downhill? You went downhill financially. Your kids are dying like flies. Can you see that there's a problem with what you're doing? But Elimelech doesn't see it and Naomi doesn't see it. Everybody else could see it. You got to take yourself out of this situation. You got to consult with yourself if you want to make the right decision. But not only that, I got to hurry. Number five, pray that God will lead you. Now you say, well, where does prayer come into making decisions? Do I pray and ask God and then He speaks to me audibly? No. You pray that God will lead you, and then you make your own decision based on godly principles. There are times when you've gone through this whole process. I mean, you've read the Bible. You've read it and read it and read it and pored over it and studied it. You said, I'm going to do what you want me to do, God. I'm going to present my body to you as a sacrifice, a living sacrifice. You say, I'm going to make it based on my priorities. I mean, God's going to be first. I'm going to put my family before other people. And then you consult with yourself. You say, what would I tell someone that's in the same position? What would I tell them to do? And you get through this whole process and you still don't know what to do. You pray and you say, God, I want you to lead me. And then you just make the decision. You say, give me an example. Okay, here's an example. I went through this whole process a couple of years ago, and I was deciding what to do, and I decided that God wanted me to start a church. I told my pastor, I said, I think I should just go start a church in Phoenix, Arizona. But before it was even finished, I said, I think I should go start a church. And he said, yes, that's what you should do. And I went through the whole process, but here's a decision. Where should I start the church? Isn't that a pretty important question? I mean, look, if I'm starting a church, I've got the whole United States in front of me, right? Where? 50 states, all kinds of cities. And so I tried to apply godly principles like, well, I want to go somewhere that has a great need, you know, somewhere that really there aren't a lot of good churches, a lot of unsaved people that need to hear the gospel. But even that doesn't really narrow it down very much. I mean, you've got the whole nation in front of you. You've got the whole thing. You've got thousands of cities across America, literally, with 10,000 people or more, 20,000 people more. You've got all kinds of places to start. So I went through this whole process, and you know what I said? I just said, God, lead me. I want to do what's right. I've followed the Bible. I've done everything I can. And you know what? To be honest with you, when I started this church, I picked the place at random. See, how did you pick? People have asked me that so many times. What made you decide to go to Phoenix? How did you decide? Random. This is a word that you need to learn. Random. There are people all over, young men, who believe that God wants them to start a church. They have preaching ability. They have the ability to preach. They have a desire to serve God. They have a desire to preach. They have a desire to preach the truth and righteousness and godliness and soul winning. But they're paralyzed because they just don't know what to do. And I've heard them say, I'm just waiting until God just makes it so clear to me what to do. I'm just waiting for God to just, I just have to know for sure. I've heard them say that. I just have to know for sure before I go anywhere, to start a church or pass church. I just have to know for sure. I just don't know for sure yet. What about this place? I don't know. And they're paralyzed. Look, the word Phoenix in Tempe and Arizona and New Mexico and Texas is not in the Bible. You know, sometimes you just got to do something. You just need to make a decision. You need to learn how to just be a man and make your decision. Because did you know that there are a lot of things where God gives you the decision? God's not a dictator. God's not a puppet up in heaven with everybody on strings controlling him. That's not how God operates. The first thing God ever did with man, the first thing he ever did was he said, of all the trees in the garden thou mayest freely eat. God is a God of freedom, liberty. He said, I want you to be free. It's one of the first things he told man. You think God wants man to be enslaved anywhere in the world? No. You think God wants America to be enslaved? No. Do you think God wants us to be free as an individual, as a nation? Yes. God is a God of freedom. And by the way, our country is going into slavery right now. We're going into bondage. All our money is being taken out of our paycheck and spent for us. We're being taxed and bled to death. We live in a police state. Police are everywhere. Watching us. Telling us, do this, don't do that. Watching us. Telling us every little thing. Stopping you. Where are you going? I mean, just when I started texting back, how many cops did I have at me? Where are you going? Where did you come from? What are you doing? You know, all these little checkpoints. You know, we have people wiretapping our phone, looking at our emails. You know, the federal government is invading our personal lives. It's a lack of freedom. God loves freedom. In fact, it's one of the first things he did in the Bible. He said, I want you to be free. Well, God, would you tell me what to have for breakfast this morning, God? Adam, just eat what you want to eat. Oh, God, what should I have for lunch? Look, Adam, just eat it. Eat something. Just don't eat the one treat I told you not to eat. He doesn't want to sit there and give you a diet plan for the next seven days. Do you think God is this megalomaniac that's going to give you a diet plan that says, this is what you're going to have for breakfast, this is what you're going to have for lunch, sister? God gives you freedom. He wants you to choose. Look up the word in the Bible, choose. God is telling you to choose. Many times throughout the Bible. Choose who you're going to serve. Choose what you're going to do. Choose. You say, oh, who does God want me to marry? Hey, pick one. Choose the one that you like. But make sure that it's a believer. Make sure that they love God. That's all. But choose who you want to choose. You know, people, I've seen guys date a girl for like four years. I'm just not sure if this is the one. Just pick, would you just pick one? And so sometimes you've got to learn to make your own decision. Now, make it according to godly principles. Consult God. Let God, look, here's a verse for you. In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. God will lead you. But you can't just be paralyzed and just, you come to a crossroads in your life, there's two ways to go, and you just, I'm waiting for God, there's only which way to go. You're going to be sitting there for the rest of your life. Why don't you do something with your life? You're going to end up, you're going to end up going through your whole life unmarried, because you couldn't choose. You'll be 50, 60, 70 years old, no wife, because you couldn't decide, you couldn't pick one, you couldn't choose. You're going to be starving for days. I couldn't pick, I couldn't pick a place, I didn't know what to eat. I want God to show me what to eat. Look, God doesn't care whether you eat at Panda Express or Chipotle. Would you just pick the one that you want? Be free. You know it feels good to be free. I'd rather live in poverty and be free. I like what Patrick Henry said, give me liberty or give me death. I'd rather be poor, I'd rather be destitute and be free than to have a whole bunch of money and have somebody else deciding how I'm going to spend it. Freedom. Liberty. Choose, choose what you want to do, but choose according to God's will. And God will lead you. You say, Pastor Anderson, do you believe that God wanted you to come to Phoenix? I do. But how did I get here? I just chose. But I believed God led me when I chose. Because I asked Him to. But I chose it right now. But I chose at random. I literally, I just said, you know what, Phoenix looks as good as anything else. I like the palm trees, I like the weather, I hate the cold, it's hot all the time, love it. I came here. I got out of the plane and this is the truth, I'm telling you the truth. I went to the rental car place, picked up my rental car because I was just going to drive around and decide where to start. I asked the lady across the rental car counter, I said, I'm here. I hadn't said anything to her. I didn't tell her who I was. She just said, hi, how you doing? You know, this is Enterprise or whatever. And I said to her, I said, hi, I came here to start a church. I'm looking around and I said, what do you think I should start a church? And she didn't say anything except just, how about Tempe? And I said, okay. That's where you're sitting right now, in Tempe. You know why you're sitting in Tempe? Because the girl at the rental car said Tempe. Isn't that spiritual? But it's the truth. I'm not going to stand up here and lie to you. This is what happened. I was walking down the street. I looked up in the sky and the clouds were glowing. The clouds formed the word Tempe. I saw Tempe on the back of a truck. I was driving down the freeway. It was really late at night. I was falling asleep at the wheel. And all of a sudden I heard this, you know, from the semi that I was about to hit. And I, you know, because I was falling asleep at the wheel. And all I saw was this big semi in front of me and across the side of the semi, it just said Tempe, Arizona. And I said, that's where I'm going to start my church. That's what God's trying to tell me. He's trying to get a hold of me. No, it was random. But, tell me if you think this was random. Amanda, right here, sitting in the front row. I knocked her door within a week of being in town. And she's been with us that whole time. Do you think that was random? No. God, if you think it was random that she came home that day and she was crying because she was looking for a good church to go to. And when she got home, this was on the door. You think that was an accident? You think that was a mistake? I mean, do you think it was random that the first month and a half of being here, I just knocked doors all around my subdivision and all around the neighborhoods that were across 48th street? And that's where all the people came from in those early days, is from knocking those doors? I believe that God put me in a place where He knew were people that would come and be a part of this church and be a backbone of this church. Because I, you know what, I just yielded my will to Him. I did it based on Godly principles. It had nothing to do with work when I moved to Phoenix. I didn't know what work was going to be like. I didn't even think I had a job when I moved here. Turned out I did. Turned out I got to keep my old job. I didn't know what was going to happen. I just picked a place because I said, a church needs to be built. People need to be safe. I'm just going to do it. You've got to quit making these dumb decisions, spur of the moment, going through life by the seat of your pants. You need to nail some things down about your decision-making. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for the opportunity to preach to God and I pray that, I don't know, just something that I said tonight, even if it was just one thing.