(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) First Kings, chapter number three, as we always do, we're going to read the entire passage. I'm going to read out loud. You can follow along silently while I read. Starting in verse number one, the Bible reads, And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had made an end of building his own house in the house of the Lord in the wall of Jerusalem round about. Only the people sacrificed in high places because there was no house built unto the name of the Lord until those days. And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and burned incense in high places. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. A thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar. In Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, thou has showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with thee. And thou has kept for him this great kindness that thou has given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. And now Lord, my God, thou has made thy servant king instead of David, my father. And I am but a little child. I know not how to go out or come in, and thy servant is in the midst of thy people, which thou has chosen, a great people that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment, behold, I have done according to thy words, lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days. And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants. Then came there two women that were harlots unto the king, and stood before him. And the one woman said, Oh my Lord, I and this woman dwell in one house, and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the night because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead. But when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son which I did bear. And the other woman said, Nay, but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No, but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king. Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead. And the other saith, Nay, but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. Then spake the woman, whose the living child was unto the king. For her bowels yearned upon her son. And she said, Oh my lord, give her the living child, and in nowise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in nowise slay it. She is the mother thereof. And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged. And they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, Lord, we thank you so much for guiding us and giving us instruction. God, I pray that you would please open up our understanding tonight. I pray that you would please help us, help us to learn, help us to grow. God, increase our wisdom and our knowledge. Lord, please help me to preach this evening. Please help me to have clarity of mind and that you would lose my tongue and help me to be able to speak things that are true and right and just guide me through the sermon tonight, dear Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. Now. The subject for the sermon tonight is making wise decisions. Making wise decisions. This is something that's important for everybody. I think everybody would like to be able to, you know, we all have decisions to make in this life and we all need to be able to make the best choices. Sometimes you don't always understand what's what I should do. What's the right choice? And hopefully these principles will help you to figure out how to make good choices in your life. The first point that I want to start off with in order to make wise decisions is that you, of course, need to have wisdom. You need in order to make a wise choice. You need wisdom. As I know, it's very basic, very simple, but it's extremely important. You can't just expect to make really good choices and decisions without having some knowledge and without having some wisdom in order to make those decisions from. And what we see here is Solomon. We have this example of King Solomon when he first becomes king. Now, the king of the land is basically he's like the ultimate judge. He's the one that's going to be deciding a lot of things for the entire country. There's a lot of people that he's responsible for. There's a lot of decisions that he needs to make. And people are going to be coming to the king with their matters like we see at the end of this chapter, where the two women come in and they say, you know, you know, her child is dead and mine's alive. No, it's the other way around. And they argue before the king. The king needs to be able to make a judgment. Now, this is just one small example, right, of just kind of the authority and the role that the king is going to have. So Solomon knows he has this great responsibility. It's a great burden to bear, to have to be the person who's going to make decisions and make choices. And that alone is just puts a lot of pressure and stress on the person who's responsible for making choices. And I'll tell you what men, husbands, fathers, you need to be listening real closely. Tonight's sermon, especially everyone this is going to apply to. But just as with King Solomon, he's in a particular position of authority where it really has a lot of impact and ramifications. Well, husbands and fathers, you're you're running a household and the decisions that you make also have an impact on the people that are under you are in your household. So you are making decisions that don't just affect you. They're affecting everyone else in your household. So this is extremely important. And we see what Solomon does in order to be able to to be a good judge, a good king, to make wise choices. What does he do? He turns to the Lord. So when he has an opportunity and God presents him with this offer to just say, hey, it's the Lord, what do you want? What can I give you? Where God is just just, excuse me, posing the question to Solomon. Now, if people don't have their minds right, they're going to be thinking about all kinds of things, right? I would think that probably just ask your average person. The most common answer is going to be, I want more money, right? Oh, I just want more money, which is the exact opposite of what a Christian, a believer should be focused on. It's not, oh, I need more money. That's the last thing you need to worry about. We need to have a mindset that's more along the lines of Solomon here, where he's saying, you know what? I've got a tough job to do. I want to do the best job that I can in the position that the Lord's put me in. And he gives all this. He starts off just giving all his credit to the Lord, saying, you know, you've blessed my father and you've given him a son. Here I am, you know, to reign on this throne. And it's a big job. And I don't even know what I'm doing. I don't know how to go out and to come in, Lord. I need your guidance. I need your help. I need some wisdom. Please give that to me. And God likes that prayer. And God hears that prayer. And he says, you know what? I'm going to do that for you. He said, on top of that, I'm going to give you the things you didn't even ask for. So he really blesses him for having this heart within him. Turn, if you would, to James 1. So if you want to make wise decisions, the first thing we ought to do is pray unto the Lord for wisdom. And that's something you should be doing on a daily basis, asking God to give you understanding. If you want to, you know, in order to make wise decisions, you need wisdom. Well, where is a better place to get wisdom than from God's word? You may not realize it, but if you institute daily Bible reading as part of your normal schedule and you're just constantly in the book and you don't just go, oh, well, I read the Bible once, so I don't need to read it again. But if you just read it over and over and over again and just keep the Word of God fresh in your mind and you actually can turn to start memorizing scripture and studying scripture and reading, you will gain knowledge. And it happens just like anything else. When you gain knowledge, it happens slowly. It's going to happen over time. It's going to be precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little. But what you're doing is you're building this great knowledge base of wisdom in order to be able to derive your decision making from. So if you want to know what's right and wrong, the more of God's word that you know, the more you're going to be able to apply the situation that you're thinking about with what you've already seen in the scripture. The problem is a lot of people think, like, oh, well, this is a whole new problem for me. How do I figure this out? I don't remember any stories about this in the Bible. But the more you read the Bible, you know, the Holy Spirit will help you as well in discerning the truth to be able to apply what you've read and other places in the Bible to your situation, because everything is applicable. I don't think there's anything in this life that you cannot get guidance from, from the word of God, that any any decision making you need to do in this world, you can figure out from the Bible, even though not every single situation is laid forth in scripture. The principles are all there. Getting the principles down is what should guide your decision making. So, number one, we could pray to God for that wisdom. Because God loves to give wisdom, we read. I don't even have my notes, but in Proverbs, you know, you see, it's all about wisdom and even Proverbs chapter one, it's like wisdom is there crying out in the street, just waiting. You know, the fools are going to just walk by and ignore wisdom. But wisdom is just saying, hey, I'm right here, I'm available. You know, come to me. I want to be known. I want to make myself known unto you. It's up to us to decide if we want wisdom or not, if we want instruction. It's readily available. James Chapter one, look at verse number two. The Bible reads, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have a perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. So very clear. I love James one five is just saying, hey, do you lack wisdom? Do you need some understanding? Do you want to be smarter? Do I have more knowledge? Ask God, ask God, because God gives to all men liberally. So he's not he's not, you know, liberally, it would be the opposite of sparingly. So he's not saying, well, he'll just give you a little nugget, a little bit of what he's saying. No, God loves to give wisdom. God will give you more wisdom even than you're asking for. He'll give to you liberally and upbraideth not. He says it shall be given him. That's a promise. That's awesome. And that's that's great to know that if you truly go to God in your heart, that he will give you wisdom. And we could completely trust in that. Look at verse number six. It says, but let him ask in faith nothing wavering so we can go to God with assurance and we ask him for wisdom that he will give it to us. And we don't need to be wavering in our faith. Just ask him. He'll give it to you because it's written here. It says, for he, that waver is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. So when you go to God and you're asking him for something, be sure, be confident, be full of faith, knowing that God will give it to you and he will. But the person who's just kind of like, I don't know, will God give me wisdom and just just doesn't really have the faith at all? Then you can't expect to get it from God. I mean, it's laying it out for you right here. It's literally what the what the Bible is saying is, you know, don't waver in your faith when you ask God, you can go confidently unto the Lord and he'll give it to you. But when you're kind of unsure and doubting of God, then he's saying, nope, let not that man think that he'll he'll receive anything of the Lord. You know, don't don't be doubtful of God of what he can do or what he will do. Just trust him. And if you trust him and you have that faith, he will open up your understanding. He'll give you the wisdom that you're seeking. The Bible says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. And I could go off an entire sermon that one verse right there about being double minded. Being double minded means you're kind of wishy washy on things. You're going. Yeah, I could. Oh, wait, no. You're just kind of flip flopping, going back and forth. There's no stability there. One of the things about making wise decisions is you need to be able to make a decision and stick with it. Don't be so doubtful, even of the decisions that you make. Just make the decision, go with it, stick with it, and don't just be constantly flip flopping back and forth. You need to be able to remain constant. And this is an important attribute of being able to make wise decisions. Now, it doesn't mean that you can't ever change your mind about something. But this shouldn't characterize who you are, that you're just always changing your mind all the time, right? Because if you're changing your mind all the time, then you're either making decisions too quickly without even understanding the whole matter, right? And speak it without hearing and just kind of making real hasty judgments. Or if there's just no knowledge going into your decision making, which is why then you're always going back and forth. Either way, it's not it's not a good sound way to make decisions, right? If you're just too hasty or if you just don't even have any knowledge. You know, yes, we have to be ready to, you know, admit that we're wrong about something and make a correction. But that shouldn't be the you know, what you're known for is as just, you know, just being that unstable in all of your ways. You need to be able to make a decision, stick with it. And if you can't stick with a decision, then you're not going to be able to take action on it because the first step is deciding, what do I do? And then then you have to actually do it. Right. And if you're unstable, well, you're going to be too hesitant to even want to go forward with any decision that you make because you go, I don't know, maybe it's this way. And especially if you're leading people like, man, if you're leading the home, no one's going to want to follow you if you're trying to make a decision and you're wishy washy and say, well, I don't know, maybe we should do that. Well, I don't know, maybe we should do this. And you just kind of like you start making two steps this way and then you go back like, no, let's go that way. Look, it just causes confusion. No one's going to want to follow you. Make a decision. Stick with it, but make it based on wisdom. Now, you also need to be prepared to receive counsel. You want to make wise decisions. You need to be able to receive counsel from people. The Bible says in Proverbs 11, 14, where no counsel is, the people fall. But in a multitude of counselors, there is safety. So you're going to make it's going to be better for you. So it's safer for you to get some advice. Now, let me back up a minute and just and just state this. What I'm talking about making wise decisions. I'm primarily focused on on major decisions in your life. OK, obviously, we make decisions every single day from the moment you wake up. What clothes am I going to put on? What am I going to eat today? You know, there's a lot of small decisions that you make on a daily basis. Obviously, all of our decisions should be based on wisdom and knowledge. But some decisions are way more important than other decisions. Some decisions are very monumental in your life and life changing, life altering, you know, things that that could have a long lasting impact. These are the types of decisions that I'm mainly focused on tonight are these major decisions in your life. Right. Where am I going to go to church? Am I going to get do I want to get married? What do I want to do with my life? What, you know, just kind of real big things that you need to consider in your life. And this is where, one, having your own wisdom and knowledge is really important. But you know what? Having good counselors that also that you know to have wisdom and knowledge. This is going to be safe for you. To be able to hear from and not just one other person, but having a few counselors to hear from. You know, I definitely utilize this, I'm thank God for the people in my life that I consider to be my friends that I know that are very well read and knowledgeable people that I can rely on when I have hard decisions to make. I am not too proud to feel like I have to make every decision just completely, you know, it's all on my own and I can't ask anyone for any help or any guidance. Look, I'm all open for guidance. And I think that you should I think that the wise thing to do is to be able to, you know, bounce some things off a few people and get some godly advice from other people that you know to be very knowledgeable and wise. That is safe for you. The Bible says where there's no counselors, the people fall. So if you have no counselors, the people are going to fall. But in a multitude of counselors, there is safety. The bigger the decision that you need to make, turn to Luke, chapter 14. The more sure you need to be on what the right decision is, right? It makes it like if it's going to if you're going to have a huge impact on your life. You need to make you need to really make sure that you're taking the time to make the right decision as opposed to, well, what am I going to eat today? OK, you don't need to spend an hour figuring out what you're going to eat today. That the consequences of that decision are very small, right? You know, you want to think healthy and long term in the sense of in general, I should eat these types of things. And if you're making a full plan of your diet for the future, that is kind of a big thing. You could take some time to figure that out. But just day to day, just like, oh, should I have eggs or pancakes or what, you know, whatever, like just some don't spend that much time on that stuff. It doesn't really matter. The consequences are very minor. But the things that are big decisions, you need to really make sure you're doing what's right. And don't be too impetuous, like just just too fast with these important life changing decisions. Anything that's that big, you normally don't have to make in an extremely short period of time. Make sure that you take the time and make sure that you count all the costs and consider everything, the pros, the cons that goes into whatever decision you make. You need to be able to look beyond the immediate decision into the future and say, well, what are going to be the ramifications of this decision? What is this actually going to mean if I go this way or if I go that way? What is going to happen? What's the outcome going to be and how is it going to how long is it going to take to get there? What's it going to cost? You know, you have to think about all of these things when you're making these decisions. I return to Luke Chapter 14. Look at verse number 28. The Bible reads, for which of you intending to build a tower? So building a tower is a pretty big work. Right. This isn't just we're not talking about like a Lego block tower. He's talking about actually building a significant structure, a significant building. This isn't something that you're just going to. Well, I'm going to whip out my tools and, you know, cut some wood and just I'm going to build this little tower. You know, this is a significant project. It's sizable. It's something that's going to require more thought and time, you know, putting into, he says, which of you intending to build a tower? You want to build a tower. Sit is not down first and count the count at the cost, whether you have sufficient to finish it, saying, OK, I've got this project. I need to get a good idea, a good estimate of the materials is going to require how much money I have right now. Can I even buy enough materials to finish it? Or are we stuck with this tower that's kind of half built and then going, oh, well, I ran out of money. Now I've got this completely worthless structure that I've invested all this money in and I ran out of funds. And now it's not doing anyone any good. And it's just making me look like a fool for not thinking about, oh, I guess I didn't have enough money to finish this, right? It should be the first thing that you do when you're making wise decisions is looking at that. This says in verse 29, less happily after you have laid the foundation is not able to finish it. All that behold it begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going to to make war against another king sit is not down first and consult it, whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000 or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambisage and desire with conditions of peace. So likewise whosoever be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. So now he's talking about making this other decision of like in warfare, right? You're not building something, but now you're saying, OK, well, what if he comes at me with this? What am I going to do? You're thinking ahead of all the different possibilities that's going to happen and what's going to be my course of action, right? And these are both big events. I mean, waging war on someone, building a tower. These are major decisions and you need to sit down and take the time to to consider out possible outcomes and what's going to happen as a result. So you can be prepared for it. You know, making deciding to make a move, I've counseled people who have wanted to move their family across the country to go to a good church. And I think that's a great idea. I encourage people to do that in general. But you need to be able to count the cost to do so. And being able to be responsible and do things the right way and make wise decisions, you know, especially you've got a man, you know, it's different if someone's just some single guy and they don't really have anyone else to worry about but themselves and it's real easy for them to pick up and go and they could pick up a job wherever. And it's not that big of a deal. That's way different than someone who's got a family. They've got they've they've got their, you know, extended family. They've got people who've been able to help them with their kids. They've got established with their work and everything else to then decide to pick up and move. And I'm not saying not to pick up and move. I'm just saying you need you know, that's a big life decision and you have a lot of factors to consider if you're going to make a decision like that. You have to think about all these things. You know, first and foremost, what is God want? What is the right decision to make? But then you also have to weigh in other factors, you know, because there's not just going to be, well, only one place you can possibly go to be in the will of God for something like that. You can you could have lots of things you can do. It's not just one choice, but you're going to need to you know, figure out, well, you know, I need to maintain a good marriage, right? You don't want to just for you, even though you have the authority, do you want to just force your wife and family to just go somewhere and just just add undue stress to your life? You know, try to find a place where you work to try to keep everybody happy, to try to do things that, you know, there's all these things you got to figure. And you also figure is going to be cost involved. You're going to need to move some stuff, move some things. You need to find housing. You need to find a job. You know, there's a lot of things that you're going to need to be thinking about in making a decision like that. So, again, you know, receiving count, sitting down, count the cost, figure out what's it going to take. And then receiving council as well and saying, hey, what do you think? Do you know anyone that's done this before? You know, someone who has done this before and getting receiving wisdom and counsel for them and getting advice and going, you know, what's the best way to do it? Instead of just picking up, moving, showing up and being like, I'm here, you know, try to get some advice is going to help you out. It'll help you out in many ways to make the most solid decision that you can make and give you the, you know, hopefully, you know, we all learn from mistakes that we make. But it's way better to learn from mistakes other people make, right? If you can, if you can get if you can make good choices when you're young and not have to go through things, look, I don't know how many things I've done the hard way. And yeah, you learn from it. Hopefully, you learn from them. You know, you don't want to be just a fool or, you know, that's never learned from your own mistakes. You ought to be able to learn from your mistakes. But it's so much better to never make the mistakes to begin with. It puts you so much farther ahead to not have to go through the grief and the stress and whatever that these mistakes can add to your life. So glean everything that you can from other counselors, from from people that can give you wisdom and especially from the word of God. Right. That this should be able to guide your life. You know, the things that don't that that are less of a problem, like the like the financial impact of moving your family. That's not the same type of, even though it's a big decision in your life and you ought to to put these principles into play. It's not as big of a decision as like. Should I move here for a good paying job or should I move here for a good church? Right. Like that's a kind of a different level of what's right. And you start thinking about like what's morally right, as well as also it's different than maybe saying, well, who should I marry? What type, you know, what am I looking at a spouse? Those types of decisions are real, real big decision or just what am I going to do with my life? You know, what do I want to really invest my time in and start using my energy to do? What am I going to do with my life? It's a big, big decision. It's way more important even than any financial concerns. And ought to deserve that. It's more deserving of your attention than any money decisions you can make either way. Turn to Luke chapter 21. You're in Luke 14, let's flip over to chapter 21. Bob Rees in verse 16, and he shall, excuse me, and ye shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren. And we're in verse 16, by the way. I didn't mention that. Luke 21, verse 16. And you shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren and kinsfolk and friends. And some of you shall they cause to be put to death and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But there shall not in hair of your head perish in your patience, possess ye your souls. And I want to focus kind of on that statement there in your patience. So this is, you know, during a time when there's a lot of trouble, when there's a lot of tribulation, when there's a lot of people against you, when there's a lot of things going on. He says in your patience, possess ye your souls. Patience here is talking about keep still being able to keep a level head, not freaking out, not just just running off and being real hasty and just reacting without thinking in your patience, possess you. So, you know, that's going to help keep you alive during these times is still being able to think clearly. Oftentimes, where people fail at decision making, it's due to some outside stress being added. That's that's clouding your judgment from making the right decision. And again, this is another reason why counselors having counselors, be people able to give you advice is extremely helpful because there's certain areas in your life because it's personal to you, because things may be real close, because you may be influenced more by emotion or more by some other factors than the person who's actually in the situation. It's oftentimes easier for someone standing outside of the box, outside of that situation. Personally, to be able to say, yeah, this is pretty clear, actually, what what's right to do. The right decision is this. Whereas people who are in the situations, it's harder to see that because you have other things drawing at you, oftentimes it's emotional, oftentimes it's due to family or some other relationship that you have, you know, where it's harder to think, you know, what's right to do. So for someone from the outside perspective could say, oh, yeah, it's no problem. You were talking about this earlier this morning, you know, where the Bible teaches the Bible's teaching on divorce and remarriage, right? For a person who maybe is new to Christianity, kind of new to the Bible, they've already been divorced. They started a relationship with somebody and feel started to feel real close to that person or considering getting married. And then they see something in the Bible. They might be like, you know, more prone to make the bad choice of going through with the marriage when the Bible strictly forbids it because they're so close, you know, they're so personally impacted by it and they might kind of have their vision clouded a little bit thinking, oh, well, that can't be what that means or what, you know, as opposed to someone who's not involved in that going, you know, no, this is really black and white is pretty clear. You know, this is what it says. This is what's right to be able to get that. You know, that's just one example. There's plenty that would be similar to the same, you know, the same thing. I know for me personally, one of the things that's harder for me to see and I need to take a step back with is just when it comes to family members and their salvation. You have to keep on reminding myself going, well, if I was at the door and I was talking to someone and they were giving me the same answers that I'm hearing here, what would I think? Would I think that that person saved or unsaved? Because you want your family members to be saved. You want to think like, oh, well, maybe they're you know, maybe they really do believe. I don't know. It just seems more confusing because you have such a desire and a want for them, you know, because you love them so much. But, you know, you kind of get the outsider perspective of going. Yeah, I wouldn't say that for anybody else, but for them, because of that closeness, it kind of can blind you a little bit. So all things that you need to be able to consider. But anyways, we're getting a little bit off track. The Bible says in your patience possess your soul. So when you have these pressures and things that may be coming down on you to make a decision, we need to remember to be patient and not be hasty in our decision making, because you're much more prone to failure when you do things too quickly, too snap judgment. Oh, there's this deadline. I need to get this done by right now. You know, you need to be able to exert patience. Patience will come with wisdom. The Bible says, and you have to turn these if you want to turn, if you would, maybe to. Ecclesiastes, Chapter five, I'm going to read some verses from Proverbs for you, from a book of wisdom about just being hasty. Proverbs 14, verse 29, the Bible reads, He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. So when you're real quick to just kind of jump into things, you don't really think about it, you're just real quick to react and do. It says if you're hasty of spirit, that exalts folly. Folly is foolishness. So you're going to be doing foolish things. You're kind of lifting up foolishness when you're just real quick to just kind of jump on whatever without even hearing a whole matter. He'd answer the matter before he hear it is folly and shame on him. That verse comes to my mind all the time. And this is just a side note. We go out soul winning and people just like slam the door before you even get a word out or just say, oh, no, I already know what the Bible says, you know, it's like. Every time that happens, it's over and over my head, just, you know. You answer a matter before you hear it, it's folly and shame, like just just hear it out. Listen, don't be so hasty, don't be so quick to think you just know everything. Be patient in your patience, possess your souls. Unfortunately, there's unsaved people that are too hasty in their action, too hasty in their spirit and they're exalting folly when the soul winner comes to the door and they don't want to listen. Well, it's easy for us to say that about them. But this sermon is designed to flip it around on you. OK, where are you being hasty? Where are you making bad decisions? Because you're just being way too quick to judge way too quick to just make decisions when you need to be being a little bit more patient in coming to your answer. Proverbs 21, verse five. The Bible reads, The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but of everyone that is hasty only to want. Proverbs 28, verse 20 says, A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. Proverbs 29, verse 20. The Bible reads, See us thou a man that is hasty in his words. There is more hope of a fool than of him. So just being real quick to speak, just just not even thinking about and just real hasty to get their opinion out there, get their voice out there. The Bible says there's more hope of a fool saying you're really foolish if you if you are that hasty in your words. Ecclesiastes five, right? You turn to verse number one. The Bible reads, Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. For they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven and thou upon earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. Now, a lot of these verses and proverbs and ecclesiastes that we're looking at have to do with being hasty of speech. But it stands to reason and it's applicable the same way with making decisions, because the same way that someone who's just rattling off and just quick to speak on everything, they're doing so too hastily. It's the same. It's the same folly as someone who's just real quick to make decisions without. Taking a step back, considering and thinking about things you really need. I mean, we ought to do that with our own speech. Unfortunately, too many people today are just so quick to give an answer. One of the reasons is because of pride. They just think they know everything. One of the reasons is just because they don't have a good filter and they're just allowing their mouth to run and the culture promotes it. The more, you know, everyone's got an opinion. Everyone goes on social media and everyone's leaving comments and, oh, you're this and you're that. And you want to get a good laugh as these people who just rail. I mean, look at some of our sermons. We get these comments regularly. People just rail on you. Oh, this guy knows or doesn't know this. And how do you know what I know? You don't agree with what I'm preaching, but like, you know, just making these statements, you don't know what I know and what I don't know. You make these assumptions and being real hasty with their comments and real hasty with just putting stuff out there and they're just words without knowledge. And you know what? I don't respond to those people. You know why I don't respond? Because they're showing themselves to be full. The full is known by the multitude of their words. So these trolls or these people who just get all irate and commenting, you know what? They're just showing that they're a fool. I don't need to respond to that. And I feel no desire to get involved with that really at all, because you're doing a really good job of making yourself known to everyone else. I don't want to be that person who's just constantly throwing things out there and not really thinking about it. It's and again, if you think about it this way, because social media is a great example of of people who make bad decisions. And no one's immune to this. I'm not saying I'm immune to this. I've definitely grown from it. But I remember some time, you know, a long time ago, way back, kind of in the early days of the social media, where I would get involved in these back and forth before I just realized how vain it was and that you're not really changing anyone's mind anyways. But there's been multiple times where I start writing things out and then I end up deleting the whole thing, at least because it's giving me some time to think and go, you know what? This isn't the wise decision to make. This isn't the right thing to say. I'm just going to end it. I'm not going to waste my time or whatever, right? Or what I'm saying here isn't really right. I've just gotten a little bit too emotional and too upset about whatever is going on. You need to take a step back and the wise person will be able to have the patience and not just react with emotion or because of emotion or because of, you know, your feelings get hurt or whatever the problem may be. But to be able to deal with things wisely and use patience, exert control and be not quick to answer, quick to speak, be slow to speak, slow to wrath and quick to hear. Be ready to listen. Ecclesiastes chapter seven, if you want to flip over to chapter seven, the Bible says in verse number eight, better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. And again, we can apply this to, you know, things that people may say to you or whatever and kind of cause you to be too hasty to be angry. We need to have thick skin, especially as Christians. You need to be able to, you know, because one of the attacks of the devil is going to be to try to get you to say and do foolish things because you're not using good temperament. You're not using patience to make solid decisions and you're just reacting too quickly. And, you know, the devil knows that he's going to be able to get you to screw up because he understands human beings pretty well by getting involved in folly and foolishness by responding too quickly. You know, there's always those people, you know, those people are able to push your buttons. They just know what's going to, you know, trigger you and get you all upset. The only way you can overcome that is by being patient and not and not getting triggered. Right. When you get triggered, your response is not going to be is not going to be with wisdom. You need to be able to to temper yourself. You know, occasionally hasty action may be appropriate because there may be some important things that are on a deadline and that you need to figure out right away. Not normally, that does happen sometimes, but you need to be able to recognize that and make the best decision you can with the time that you have and not let the time influence, you know, negatively whatever decision you make. You need to be able to still draw from knowledge and don't let a time crunch cause you to fear. OK, time is what it is. I mean, there's a time there's a deadline on every decision that you make. Ultimately, we only have so long to live. So you can you spend your whole life trying to decide if you're married to someone or whatever. But, you know, you still have a limited time. Everyone has limited time. Some are shorter, some are longer, but don't allow that to to cause you to make bad decisions. Still needs to be based off of wisdom. Patently waiting is usually the wise choice. If you have the time, just being able to take a step back and say, you know, I'm going to think about this, you know, before I decided to pastor a church and to even just kind of be willing to offer myself to the Lord in that capacity and say, you know, that took time of a lot of thought, consideration, prayer, counsel, you know, before making a decision that's that big of a decision, because it is a big decision. Making a decision to move out here was not something that's just made overnight. It took time, counsel, prayer, you know, all of these things. I spoke with my wife, family, you know, everything to try to make the most wise decision. Now, it doesn't mean you're always going to be right, but you do, you know, you need to be kind of following these steps to have to make wise decisions. And we also need to make sure that even though you, you know, patience is a virtue and and you need to be able to kind of think on things, don't get so stuck or paralyzed going, oh, I don't know what's right. And I'm just going to wait. And then you never make a decision because that's not good either. You don't need to get stuck in. You still need to be able to go through, make a decision and just keep plowing forward instead of just being stagnant because you just don't know. Right. You know, sometimes it's better to just to make the decision and fail, but then recover from that, learn from that and keep moving forward than it is to do nothing at all. Now, obviously, I'm speaking in real generic terms, because as you apply this to every single situation, some things have more serious consequences than others. Right. So if you're if you're thinking, I mean, I've been having a dealing with with making decision for the church and I still don't know for sure I'm making the right decision. But when it comes to having church services here and things, you know, there's there's a lot involved. I have a responsibility for, you know, pretty much for the safety of the people here and just kind of looking out for their spiritual well-being as well as their physical well-being. I mean, when you're here, you're still under, you know, my authority in the church and and to the best of my ability for people being here and trying to keep things safe for everybody. And, you know, there's a lot of decisions I can make. And that's why I'm not, you know, I'm not jumping the gun. And when I hear, oh, I heard this one interview and like, now my mind's changing on my mind, you know, it's like, no, you got to take a step back and say, let's let's kind of listen to everything. And, you know, maybe someone else can tell me if if if my my thought process here is wrong, but I'm just going to open up on how I look at things and how I've been dealing with things. I think they're wise. I think I think being able to take a step back and just kind of wait and see at least for a while and err on the side of caution is the wise thing to do. At least that's been my experience in my life is being able to say, hey, I'm not going to jump, you know, right into this thing where I don't really know the facts on. And I'm starting to hear some things. And there's a big potential that this could be a big problem. What what are all the consequences? What you know, what is really going to happen if we don't have services and we only live streamer do stuff, you know, you outweigh what's the risk, what's the benefit and just kind of think about everything at hand and going, you know what? At the end of the day, in the span of a lifetime, if we shut down services, the only live stream for a few weeks, is that really like some huge problem? Is God just going to be furious at me because we did this? Or is he going to understand that this is all the information that we're hearing and this is what we're being told by our authorities and this is what, you know. You got you got to think about all those things, because first and foremost, it's what's right in God's eyes. Do I think that God's going to? I mean, think about this, too, because, you know, again, the covid-19 thing is on everyone's mind and the media is just kind of making it that way and maybe not being able to work normally is making it that way and everyone's life being impacted by this is kind of making it that way. But do you know when you read in the Old Testament, people weren't going to church like three times a week when they had the the temple in Jerusalem. You know, people were living all over the place. You know, they would bring their tithes like once a year or once every three years. Two, and they would make this trek. Now, I'm not saying they wouldn't hold something locally, but like even just by means of transportation, it just wasn't possible. You have people, you know, growing crops and doing all this stuff. Yeah, they would have their feasts. Yes, they would do these other things. But they weren't just I mean, it's not like God says you have to be here all of these days, all this time. Now, the Bible does say that we ought to to come together so much the more as we see the day approaching. And it's good for us. But it's not like other than forsaking the assembling, which again, we're not doing. We're not just forsaking the assembling. We're putting some things on hold. But it's not just a total forsaking. It's not like, well, we're just not going to church. OK, well, church is just canceled because they made it illegal or whatever. Like it's not just we're shutting down. There's just no more church. OK, we're not forsaking it. People who just completely just get out of church, leave, that's forsaking. OK, we're not doing that. That would be sinful and that would be wrong. We're not doing that. It's obviously some circumstances here, so, you know, there's all these things that kind of play into making a decision. And I'll tell you, for me, I don't make just these split second decisions on a whim and they're not split second anyways, but it's definitely not on a whim. I've been put a lot of thought into this and I don't want to be going, oh, we're having services. No, no, we're not having services. We're having services. No, we're not having service. I want to be able to be as consistent as possible because, you know, I'm trying not to be unstable and be a double minded person. I'm going forward. Now, obviously, you need to be flexible if there's some new evidence and some new information and all this stuff comes forward. That's just going to be like, whoa, OK. But at this point, like for the covid-19 thing, I don't see that happening at all. I mean, I'd be shocked if something came out to the contrary of everything that we've seen up to this point. So anyhow, but but also what you don't want to do is just kind of get stuck in this inaction or indecision going, oh, I don't know. Oh, what's right? You know, you have to be able to make decisions, right? You have to be able to go forward and say, well, this is what we're going to do moving forward. I may not have all of the information and I can't afford to wait for all of the information to make a decision necessarily. But you need to do it based on as much wisdom and knowledge as you have to continue going forward. Hopefully that makes sense. You know, waiting around forever because you don't know what to do. Turn, if you would, to 1 Samuel, chapter 13. And this was in my notes, but just one more point, because 1 Samuel 13, what we're going to see here is we're going to see King Saul making a bad decision that's based off of fear. He makes a foolish decision. It's based off of fear. We're going to see kind of the circumstances that he got in and then he ends up making a bad decision based off of fear. But back to the covid-19 thing, you know, I'm not making decisions for our church based off of fear. Like, I'm not afraid of the virus. I'm not afraid of the government. I'm not afraid of these things. But you still have to make wise choices, just like, you know, I'm not going to go out and tempt God. I'm not going to do something really foolish, even though I could say, you know what? I'm not afraid of dying just because I'm not afraid of dying doesn't mean I'm going to go put myself in harm's way. Does that make sense? I'm not just going to say, oh, well, you know, like the devil did to Jesus, you know, well, the angels will pick you up. Let's all dash that foot again. So let's go ahead and throw yourself off this building. It's like, no, I'm not going to do that. So if I see something that I perceive to be a threat, like, you know, a potential pandemic virus and things like that, it's not that I'm afraid of any of it. It's not it's not a fear thing. It's a rational decision going, well, what can we do that's going to make the most sense for our church? What's you know, I don't want people to be in harm's way. Let's see if we can avoid this somehow. Let's follow these instructions that are being given, because this is the way it's being dealt with. This is the way it's being handled. And this could be a very serious threat. So let's do this right. I mean, there's a there's a key difference between making a decision like that and and, you know, the thought process and what you're doing to come to a conclusion, as opposed to just being driven by fear. OK, and it may seem like a fine line, but it's a very important distinction to make. What we're going to see with Samuel here is more a decision being driven by fear than it is, you know, making this decision on what's going to be the best outcome. This is let's read this verse number five and first Samuel 13. The Bible reads in the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots, 30,000 chairs, a lot, because a chariot was a much you know, you have footmen, foot soldiers, and then you've got these chariots. The chariots are much superior in battle to just having a footman. Like you could do way more damage with someone on a chariot with the horses and, you know, and just have a much bigger impact in the battle. So they had 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen and people as the sand, which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and pitched and make match with eastward from Beth Ava. So it was a huge army, right? Enough to instill fear in the people of Israel, which it says in verse six, when the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait for the people were distressed, then the people did hide themselves in caves and in thickets and in rocks and in high places and in pits. So Saul's trying to lead this army. He's got this huge opposing force against them. They're stuck in this strait, right? Like they're in a real bad place to be in to have to fight a battle. And on top of that, now he's got all of his people are going and running and hiding. This is a good position just to put yourself in his shoes and kind of in his position where, you know, it's important to do that because you may find yourself between a rock and a hard place, as it were, and be forced to make a decision. See, he's going to make the wrong decision. We're going to go through this and see why. But just to just to see where we're at. Imagine being in charge of an army and you're facing this huge force and your own people are running scared and hiding, right? That's not it's not a very powerful, a very good place to be in as a leader, as a decision maker. OK, verse number seven. And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal and all the people followed him trembling. So they're in a lot of fear. So the people that are still with them and following are just just shaking, right there, and they're trembling. Verse eight. And he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed. But Samuel came not to Gilgal and the people were scattered from him. So he's starting to lose his people. He's saying, OK, I waited. Right. He waited the seven days that he was supposed to. But now what what's happened is that the deadline came. Samuel's not here. So this adds even more stress to his decision making. And he's going, OK, well, now what? He didn't have a plan. Well, what if Samuel doesn't come? Right. What am I going to do? He's stuck now in this position, because what he was waiting for Samuel for was to make this offering unto the Lord and basically to. Get counsel from the Lord and do what's right before going into battle and waiting for Samuel, waiting for the man of God to come and offer this offering. So what he decided to do is he's focused on, well, we need to do this. This needs to be done. And same was not here. So I must have been doing it. And what he does, because he's in this whole situation, he feels like he has to do this. But the big problem with what he does is that God never allowed him, never said that he can do this. This wasn't his job. This is only the job for the priest to do this, not for the king. Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin. He was not a Levite. He was not, you know, a son of Aaron. He was none of those things. He had no place in doing and doing any of the aspects of the of the office of the priest at all. So. Because of all of these other factors, what Saul does is he dis obeys the law of God and disregards God's law, which is a complete opposite thing. If you're a make a decision based on knowledge and wisdom, the first place you start is with the word of God. When you're going to make a decision, if you have if you're at a crossroads, no matter what those crossroads are, you got to decide, hey, if if doing this is sinful, if doing this is against the word of God, then you don't do that. I mean, that's just bottom line. I don't make this choice. That should be a very easy choice to make. Doing this is a sin, doing this is against the word of God, then I won't do that. That should have been number one for Saul. He'd have to figure out, well, I've got some other options, maybe. Maybe we retreat. Maybe we do something else. Right. But if this is going to cause me to break the break, God's laws, not an option. It's not even a consideration. Should never be on the table to begin with. And these circumstances do not change God's law for what was right and what was wrong. And it says here, verse number nine. And Saul said, bring hither a burnt offering to me and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering. And it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering, a burnt offering, behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him, that he might sue him. So notice, too, the timing here. He just had to wait out just a little bit more. Just that little bit of patience, just that little bit more holding off. Even though you've got all this stress and all this pressure and, you know, you feel constrained. If you would have just waited out a little bit more, held out, then relief would have come. You would have been able to have been just fine in the situation. But instead, you reacted too quickly. And and chose poorly and made a really, really bad decision because of these other factors I think had a big influence on that decision. Verse number 11. And Samuel said, What is thou done? So what did you do? And Saul said, because I saw that the people were scattered from me and that thou camest not within the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered themselves together. And he said, look, look at everything that's going on. Like he's basically saying I was forced to do this. And that's why he says, Therefore, said I in verse 12, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal and I have not made supplication unto the Lord. I forced myself, therefore, and offered a burnt offering. He said, I forced myself, he forced himself to make a bad choice, the wrong decision. And this turned out to be an extremely foolish decision for him to make, because it actually has a lot of repercussions then from God by sinning in this matter and not, you know, using wisdom in his decision making here. Verse 13, And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly. Thou has not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue. The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people because thou has not kept that which the Lord commanded thee. So this is this is a huge loss. This is a defining moment in Saul's reign, in Saul's life of of making a bad choice. Look, our decisions oftentimes can have ramifications going forward. So it is extremely important that you can make decisions based off of wisdom and knowledge and not by being pressured into these these situations and make a bad choice, because making bad choices can last a lifetime and can last even to the next generation. Unfortunately, that that is reality. You know, it's interesting because there you hear and this is kind of a side note, I don't really have time to get into it, but go ahead and turn, if you would, to 2 Timothy 4. These people who think that, you know, that are against one saved, always saved. Oh, well, what if you don't want to be saved anymore? Huh? What if, you know, it's like is God just going to force you to go to heaven? Which is such a stupid argument anyways, because it's like who wants to go to hell? I mean, you hear people say that sometimes, but like in reality, no one wants to just be burning and tortured forever and ever and ever. I'm sorry. It just there's no one honestly wants to be in pain and suffering and torture forever. They don't want that. People will say things like that because they're mocking it because they don't really believe it. But no one really wants that as if you're going, yeah, I don't want I don't want to go to heaven. I just want to burn in hell. Like no one wants that, first of all. But second of all, you know, I try to explain it sometimes to people like this. It's, you know, once you make decisions. Some decisions that you make, there's no going back and changing. There's no undoing. So when a person is born again, you can't undo that birth. That's already happens, already taken place. So, yes, you make decisions sometimes and it lasts a lifetime. You make decisions in this world sometimes and you can't change them. You can't go back, even if you change your mind about something. You know, unfortunately, people make bad decisions and sometimes lives are lost as a result of someone's bad decision. You might change your mind about ever doing that again, but you know, it doesn't change anything. That person's still gone. And in a similar fashion, the same way that that decisions can have lifelong ramifications. Hey, when you put your faith in Lord Jesus Christ, guess what? That's a decision that you make. It's your decision to make. But that has an eternal ramification for your soul. Obviously, that's a good thing. But decisions that we make, I mean, this isn't this is that isn't some weird thing. Decisions that people make have ramifications in some cases cannot be undone. It's a fact, it's reality. And that happens to be the way it is with salvation, too. It just can't be undone once you make that decision to put all of your faith and your trust in the Lord. Can't be undone. Thank God for that. The Second Timothy, Chapter four, we also need to be able to make choices, make decisions based on what's right and not on what's popular, not on what most people think, not on what the world wants you to do, not on what's going to get you the most likes on Facebook, not on any other reason, but just on what's right, right and wrong. That should be the foundation of your decision making. Is this right? Is this wrong? Second Timothy, Chapter four, we see in verse one, I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead is appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. So he's warning Timothy about a time. You know what? People, they're just going to want to hear lies. They're not going to be able to endure this sound doctrine. But, you know, he said in verse two, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, saying, you know, either way, just because there may be a whole bunch of people out there that don't want to hear your message, they'd rather be lied to. They'd rather have their ears tickled. You know, they'd rather have that. It doesn't matter what they want. Your job is to just preach the truth. Your job is whether it's popular in season, out of season, popular, unpopular, doesn't matter. Just stick with what's right. Same thing with your decision making, because God's word is eternal. God's word doesn't change. It is what it is. What's right is right. And what's wrong is wrong. You just need to focus on making right decisions. And it doesn't matter whether it's popular or not. Making decisions all matter of decisions. I mean, even something as simple as as clothing, what clothing I'm going to wear. And you think about, in general, men and women, you should wear it. Men should be wearing men's clothes and women should be wearing women's clothes. And you make those decisions. You know, it doesn't matter if it's popular with your family. It doesn't matter if it's popular with the world. You just make the decisions based on what's right, not based on, oh, well, this person might not talk to me or they're going to think I'm weird or they're going to, you know. That's not the foundation of wise decision making. It's based on what is right, what's going to be acceptable and pleasing in the sight of God. We ought not to let lusts rule our decision making either. So we talk about fears, right? We talked about things that maybe are unpopular, but then also our own lusts. And you turn if you would to Hebrews Chapter 12. Genesis 25, we have the story of Jacob and Esau. Esau makes a really bad decision, a really important decision, a really bad decision, though, and it's based on his own fleshly lusts. Genesis 25, 29, the Bible reads and Jacob saw the pottage and Esau came from the field and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee with that same red pottage for I am faint. Therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, sell me this day, thy birthright. And Esau said, behold, I am at the point to die and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, swear to me this day and he swear unto him and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. So Esau makes a really bad choice here of of thinking way too short term and not thinking in the long term. Right when we make decisions. You need to be concerned more than just about the immediate ramifications and just about the long term ramifications. You know, I think about when you're when you think about doing what's right. And we were talking about this before service, too. You know, I've had people come and ask me questions and you could think about, well, what are the immediate ramifications of how I answer this person? Well, immediately they may just leave because it's real. It's real harsh or whatever may be perceived as real harsh. So if you want to avoid that, you can water things down. But then, you know, the long term ramifications that are just going to are going to be bad. It's not it's not going to be where you want to be. What you need to do is think about. You know. More than just short term, I mean, you can think about all kinds of things here is a great example because he sells, you know, he's hungry. He's real faint. He's just been out all day. He's just exhausted. He's tired. He's hungry. He's like, man, I need some food. I don't care about the birthright. Just you know, what's good is that for me if I die? Just just whatever. I'll sell it to you. Just feed me. Right. And he's so focused on getting that physical food at the moment. Like this is why I'm just in pain right now. So it's give this to me. I don't care about anything else in the future. And that was a huge price of the most expensive cup of soup probably in history that Esau paid for, you know, just for this one cup of soup. Look at Hebrews Chapter 12. It references this story. Verse number 14. The Bible reads, Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person is Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. So it says it's referring to Esau as being a profane person. Does that sound like he made a good choice there when he sold his birthright? No. And a fornicator is also someone who's kind of giving themselves over to their own lusts and desires. Well, Esau was doing the same thing. The lusts of the belly of just literally being able to eat food and stuff. If he literally was going to die, I don't think he would become down on him as hard. I don't think that he was actually physically going to die if he didn't have a bowl of soup right then. I think he was exaggerating with he may have been extremely hungry, but he wasn't at death's doorstep. He was just like just making that statement. Well, what good is it going to do me if I die? Give me the food, you know? And that's why he's being brought forth in a negative light here as being a profane person who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place of repentance. So he sought it carefully with tears. You think about another maybe a better example. I was trying to come up with a good example of people who in the short term will make a decision, but has bad impact on the long term. Just think about lying. Right? Maybe you did something wrong, you made a mistake, or you just you made a transgression, you did wrong, and then you're confronted and someone says, hey, you know, did you do this? Did you do the job I told you to do at work or whatever, you know? And oftentimes people make a bad decision of lying to cover themselves and go, whoo, man, I missed that because then you don't have to deal with the ramifications of what you've done. So you lie and say, no, no, that wasn't me, right? But then the long term, it's going to be way worse for you, because as soon as it's found out that you lied, then you're probably going to, you know, a situation where you might have just had to do something over or get reprimanded or maybe get written up. Now it's like you're going to get fired because you lied, because you need to have integrity and character and not just lie about things. You know, the ramifications, repercussions could be way more severe. But you are just focused on the short term. And, you know, too many people live that way and make decisions that way of just, well, I just need to do this right now. Who cares about what's going to happen in the future? People want to feel good right now and do drugs and drink booze or whatever, and just don't care about the long term impact that it has on your body, on your organs, on your family, on your children, on other people. You know, just no consideration to that. It's just the me, me, me, gratify self right now. Bad decision making, we need to think of the big picture now. One last point I want to make, I'm way over time, is just. Well, no, that's it, I'm not going I'm not going to go any further. I'll close on this because I just had one little section to try to bring all of these principles home. I've been making applications throughout the sermon, but, you know, one really big decision you make in life is marriage. And the Bible says that marriage is for life, right? I mean, it's until death you do part is when you make that vow. So you really want to make sure that you're doing the right thing and don't make hasty decisions because you feel pressured and I need to make this decision. You know, you don't have to make a hasty decision to marry somebody. If you don't find someone that you think is that you're going to be happy living with and is going to have the same mindset as you and you're going to go along well with and you're finding someone who's a godly person who shares the same values of don't feel like you have to jump in and rush anything. You know, we saw in 1 Corinthians Chapter seven that is better to marry than to burn. And that's a true statement. It's absolutely a true statement. It's better to marry. But you know what's even better? It's better to not commit fornication and it's better to take your time in making a decision instead of just making the decision to marry just based on your own lust of saying, oh, I can't contain myself. OK, you know what? It is better to marry because fornication is so bad. Right. It really is a true statement. It is better than just to get married so that you can you can do that. But you know, what's even better than that is being able to control yourself. And that's pretty much what 1 Corinthians 7 was teaching, too. He's saying, oh, it's better for you just to not marry as they focus on the Lord or whatever. Right. That's kind of, I think, goes along with the teaching of what he's going there. Be able to contain yourself. Because then you can make decisions for the right reasons. You know, Proverbs 31 30 says favor is deceitful and beauty is vain. But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Don't be so caught up in a person's physical appearance and beauty and things like that, because, you know what? Beauty is vain. Go for what really matters. We want to make a wise decision on finding a spouse. You're marrying a person. Marry someone for who they are and who they want to be and who they are in the Lord. Right. Like, obviously, you need to be looking at people who are saved, but. You're going to be spending your life with that person and divorce isn't an option. That's a big decision to make. It's not it's not like because if you make the wrong choice, you're stuck. You say, oh, you have to make it work after once you make that decision. One of the reasons why, you know, and again, I'm kind of a product, unfortunately, of culture and things like that. But I never got married until later in life. Just was one of the reasons because I just wanted to make sure like when I get married, I just want to do it once. And I've made mistakes along the way, for sure. But I mean, I think, you know, I thank God that I'd never got divorced. That would have then that would have precluded me from being able to pastor a church. You know, I never did that. I've had other sins, but I never did that. And, you know, I'm very happy. I waited for my wife. I thank God for my wife. I love my wife. But I mean, you don't feel so pressured and stressed. No matter how much you want to be married. Take the time. Don't rush it. Know who you're getting married to. Before you make a decision, spend time in prayer, spend time getting some counsel, spend time getting to know the other person as much as you possibly can. Don't get swept off your feet with a bunch of, you know, smooth oil coming from the lips. We read that this morning, right? Or or just vain beauty, because beauty fades. Everyone gets older. No one looks like they did when they were younger. And if that's all you're basing your decision making on, that is very surface level and that's not going to last. And you want to make sure you make decisions that are going to last. It's right. Think about what what, you know, what God would have you to do. You're not sinning by by marrying someone who's an unbeliever. You're not yoking yourself up together with an unbeliever. You know, just just. Patience. Don't you never should feel pressured and forced into making that big of a decision. Take a step back. Do the right thing. Obviously, as I mentioned before, you don't want to just like get to a point where you could never make a decision, but. You want to be careful because that's something that impacts you for the rest of your life. That is a lifelong decision. There's others like it. You know, I was going to go into a little bit more detail on it. Don't have the time, but hopefully it doesn't matter on the actual specific, because regardless of the decision you're going to make, use the principles laid out in the Bible of making wise decisions. Pray, pray, pray, pray to God. Pray for the wisdom. Read, read, read. Get the word in your heart and use this for your decision making. Don't succumb to fear, pressure, outside influences. Maintain a level head and make decisions from here and here and not just from emotion or anything else that's that could cause you to make a bad choice. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for all of the wisdom and instruction that you've given us, dear Lord. I pray to please help us daily to become more knowledgeable, help us to be able to learn to apply your words to our daily lives. God, we love you and we want to serve you completely. We want to make good choices with our life. We don't want to do anything that's going to be a hindrance for our service to you, dear Lord. And I pray that you would please guide us and bless us. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right.