Behind The Scenes: The Importance, Beliefs, And Practices

Looking forward to Stuart's ministry this weekend. Dr. Stuart Scott is an old friend of mine. We go back a long way. It was in September 1977. Most of you weren't even born yet.

September 1977, Grace Theological Seminary. I'm sitting in a tiny little room called the Homiletics Lab. The homiletics lab was where we practiced preaching. And there were eight guys in each lab, all crammed into this little room, preaching to one another. Next to me is this tall, lanky guy who's just scared to death. At least that's what you told me last night.

And that's how I met Stuart. He's actually my first friend I made in seminary. and so we went through seminary together and went our different ways he to South Carolina pastored for a number of years down there ended up as as on the staff with John MacArthur at Grace Community and now is professor of biblical counseling at the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, as well as the executive director of 180 Counseling Center. And Stuart is also a fellow in ACBC, which you all remember as?

Very good. Formerly known as Nank. And Stuart is also on the board of ACBC, and so it's a real privilege to have him here. I tried to finagle every way I could to get him here, and things worked out. So I'm anticipating the Lord meeting with us. I'm anticipating Stuart being an instrument that the Lord is going to use in our lives.

And I'm just glad he's here. So, Stuart, come and minister the word of God. Thank you, Tim. Is this on? Is it all working? Do you know?

Okay. Okay. yeah there were many many memories back there at grace seminary with tim as he said i was extremely frightened to get up in front of people I didn want to take that course but you have to in order to graduate I avoided every public speaking event I could, and I wanted to go into forestry, away from people, sit up in a tower and look for smoke. It was sort of my, I helped God take care of his general revelation.

Just go out there. And the Lord just had other plans, but I wanted to know more of the scriptures, and we went to a seminary that just really got us into the word and the confidence of the scriptures. But I remember that lab that first semester, sitting there, and Tim was the only guy that seemed that was in that group that seemed to be real and honest.

You know, everyone else seemed like, boy, they were just, they're a machine, they're going to get up and they're going to preach, and they did well. And so did Tim. But Tim just was more real, approachable. And I was a mess. I had every fearful, nervous problem you can imagine. I couldn't sleep the night before, couldn't eat the morning of.

And when I got up there, and we graded each other. So we had a pink form. Everything that you're not supposed to do as a speaker, it was on there. And they were checking things off, and I hadn't even started speaking yet. That's how bad it was. The Lord graced us to get through, and one of the things that our prof said to me that first semester was, he said, Stuart, you don't look very comfortable up there speaking.

I said, I'm not. And he said, well, what are you thinking about when you're up there? I said, I'm thinking about what they think of me. He goes, ah, that's your problem. He said, that's just pride. Whoa.

No one had ever said that to me. They called me introverted, timid, shy, low self-esteem, but never, you're just being proud. Oh, and that was a bit of a turning point in my life. He just said, you need to know what the scripture says and then love God people and communicate God word to God people for God glory It not about you And I thought wow that is pivotal in ministering to God And God has helped me ever since just working through that, that it's not about me, it's about our Lord Jesus and giving him glory.

And you've come today to hear what God's word has to say about biblical decision making. But Tim has just always been a dear friend. and then we met up again at a counseling conference. We had no idea what happened after sort of we graduated, but I don't even know where it was. But we were at a counseling conference, NANC, and I was there and he was there, and we kind of made, wow, Tim, and it was just kind of a reacquaintance and getting back together, but I'm thrilled.

I meet up with different classmates from that year we were all together, and I'm so overjoyed when I see them faithfully serving the Lord and just by God's grace. But there are many in our class that have not fared well, and your heart grieves for that. So it's a joy to be here. It's a delight to be here, and thank you for inviting me. My wife would be here with me.

She just got back from California. That's where our children live and grandchildren. And she was wore out with the little grandkids, keeping them all week while our daughter had to take a business trip. So she was just completely wore out. She enjoyed it, but you know how it is. You who are grandparents, you're glad to send them home or leave yourself just for rest.

So she's home resting, but she would love to be here, but I think she would probably just fall asleep in the back pew. All right, we're going to take a look here today at the whole issue of biblical decision-making. I think every Christian thinks what they do is biblical in their decision-making process. I mean, I think if you go up to the average Christian and say, do you make unbiblical decisions all the time?

I mean, do you know? No. What I try to do is I want to please God. I mean, generally speaking. But that doesn mean everyone using Scripture properly in their decision making And so what I want to do in my time here is to encourage you in your faith That's some of the things I cover won't be new to you. You've been well taught.

Tim's just a faithful expositor of scripture. So it's to encourage you in your faith. If you're doing what's right and seeking to use Scripture in your decision-making process, praise God. It'll be part of this. We'll be stirring you up to remembrance, things you already know, but maybe need some tweaking and some bringing back into practice. We know a lot that we're often not doing.

And where there's confusion, hope there will be more clarity and confidence in your decision-making. and to really, again, encourage you in your faith. This is on page one of your notes, just sort of the importance of biblical decision-making. We have so many decisions. I think it's one of the biggest problems in counseling is decision-making. if they had chosen something different we wouldn't be meeting and being here and need to meet and if you don't help them with their decision making guess what will happen in a few weeks you're going to see them again they're going to be back and say well oh we we thought this was going to be a good decision and well we've gotten ourselves into some real trouble a couple at our church.

The guy works at a dealership, a car dealership, and his friend, Christian friend, told him that there was a real deal, a real financial deal, if he would borrow some money and buy some stock in a particular company, a pharmaceutical company, that was on the verge of coming up with a cure for AIDS. Now you can imagine what stock would do if that truly what there was a cure for AIDS. So he borrowed, he got five credit cards and borrowed 10 grand on each credit card.

His wife was not happy with the whole process, but he sort of coerced her. her to sign. So they borrowed $50,000 and bought stock in this company, only to find out that the company that they bought stock in was fraudulent. The government came in, found out about what was going on at this particular company, and shut it down, federally. well guess what happens to the fifty thousand dollars that they bought stock in well there's nothing to show for it but the credit cards now want their money back he doesn't have it they don't have it so they're in for counseling marital problems for sure she could he has to sleep with one eye open that kind of relationship so marital problems for sure but they've got financial issues and if i don't help them with decision making which was part of this whole thing it'll only be a matter of time before he makes another decision that you go what were you thinking what why didn't you process through the commands and principles of scripture And so on and on this goes in counseling.

It was one of the areas, early on when God saved me, I was 18 years of age at a boarding school. It was my choice to go to boarding school. My parents gave me a choice to stay at home and have been tough because I was unsaved. My parents were just wonderful, mature believers, but I wasn't saved. And I wanted to get away from the light. I wanted to get away from Christ, the light, anything that reflected the light.

And there was a boarding school opportunity. I could go to a Christian boarding school, but I could put up with it for a year and then be on my way. And it was there that God saved me. But after he saved me and I was truly converted, Lord, what do you want with my life? I mean, that's one of the first questions as a believer. What do you want from me?

And at 18, that's pretty pivotal for decision making. Do I go to school, not school, tech school? What do I do with my life? Do I stay single? Do I marry? I had a lot of questions.

And so I started asking my teachers how they made their decisions How did they know which way to go and how to serve the Lord and whether to marry And I got different answers with all of them And there were stories that people gave that were all over the place On, God laid it on my heart. God told me. He whispered and I had to really listen. And on all kinds of ways that they thought, I mean, they were making their decisions.

And so I was all over the place on decision making. I was flipping coins on some decisions, literally flipping coins, not who to marry, but other decisions, I would flip a coin. I was out walking in the woods trying to listen for some still small voice. Never heard it, only birds. I was looking for signs, anything that would... I couldn't decide whether to go work in Atlanta for a summer job or stay in Columbia, South Carolina, and I was out in the woods one day, and I'd given up on listening for anything.

And so I looked up at the tree limbs, and it seemed to look like it formed an A for Atlanta. So I told my roommate, who was from Atlanta, he said you could come live with his family and work a job there, so that's what I did. I was all over the place. And you know what? Many believers are, because they're never taught or discipled on how do you know what God wants for your life on a daily basis, let alone weighty decisions like vocation, etc.

Speaking about decisions, when you think about what's going on today, two just recently that were in the news this one woman and you know when women want to be married I mean I I'm burdened for them I want to get after guys who are single and want to get married who are waiting on the Lord and just say you know why don't you just trust God and get moving ask somebody but they're just waiting on something so I have a burden for single women who want to get married and there is one down in Houston that where Nicholas Allen is right down there so he should have fixed everyone down here in Houston but anyway this this particular woman vowed that she would marry herself if she didn find love by the time she turned 40 Did you hear about this this person She would marry herself. So she turned 40 and no one had asked her out or proposed, so she had an elaborate wedding for herself. She had ten bridesmaids and other guests and she actually gave vows and everything.

It was her sister who performed the ceremony. You know, I hope she never goes through a divorce. I kind of wondered about what the honeymoon would look like. I... Woe to the man who finds her that would be two in love with one I think that would be kind of the ratio with she loves herself and so would he this was an Indian bride I don't know if you saw this one about making decisions she was in the wedding ceremony and her fiance had an epileptic seizure.

Well, his illness was a shock. His wife-to-be did not know that he had any apparent disability like that. So instead of calling the wedding off, she quickly chose one of the wedding guests, her sister's brother-in-law, to replace him and married him. decision making I like the comments after these news reports what people comment and one guy put that seizure that he had was the best thing that could have happened to him yes one of the best things that could have happened so as I mentioned in counseling specifically in ministry and discipleship in our homes, our families, our marriages, our decision-making, for us to be sure that we trying to be faithful to what God wants us to do and to teach others to do the same how important that is And I want to show you I just going to read some different ways that professing Christians make decisions And you're just going to see, they're all over the place.

And you might even say, well, I did some of that. More likely, I mean, a lot of these things I used to do. it's just that God wants to grow us to be more mature in our decision-making process. Now, granted, here in the United States, it is more challenging for decision-making. We have many more choices that we are faced with than they would in other countries.

And I know Tim just got back from Romania. And when I was over in the Ukraine for some time, when you go into what's called a grocery store, you don't have choices like you have here. We have ten varieties on every item. They don't. They just have one item on the shelf. If you want it, that's it.

So it makes decision-making a little easier. But when I was in California with our daughter and we had to help her move from one place to another. It was getting late, and I said, you know, rather than you try to work at getting a dinner together, let's just go get a hamburger. I mean, how hard is that? Let's just go get a hamburger. She goes, I know the place.

Let's go get one. So we went down to this hamburger place called The Counter, and it's a menu you have to fill out for your hamburger. I wasn't looking for more decisions I just wanted a hamburger you have to choose what kind of meat you want on your hamburger do you want beef, turkey, veggie or grilled chicken and I'm thinking if it's a hamburger it's beef and veggie to me wouldn't be on the bun it wouldn't be a veggie burger but four different choices right there.

And then what size do you want? You want a quarter pound, third pound, two-thirds pound, or a whole pound. And then you have to build your burger. First choose a cheese. There are ten different cheeses. I don't even know what some of these are.

I can't even pronounce some of them. And then you choose four toppings. There's a list of 18 different toppings on your hamburger. And if that's not enough, you can even choose premium toppings, which are another 10 different toppings. You've got 28 toppings on your hamburger. Who wants a fried egg on your hamburger?

But maybe some of you do that. There's all kinds of choices here. And then you choose a sauce. 18 different sauces. And then what kind of bun? And there are choices there.

I mean, this is paralysis of analysis, as they call it. I just want a simple hamburger. So only more in America. You're not going to find menus like this in third world countries. So that complicates living a little more, doesn't it? When we have so many decisions we have to make, weightier and then down to mundane decision-making.

So over the years, I've been collecting all kinds of ways people make decisions. And I'm just going to read a few of them for you to see why it's so important. Maybe you don't make decisions this way, but people who you know and love and other Christians who come across your path, maybe they do make decisions this way. And how do we help them? One, strengthen our own faith and help others.

This was a lady in Colorado who was trying to decide whether to see her family in California. And she couldn't figure out what God wanted for her and for God's direction in her life. So while she was praying on her knees one morning, she glanced up at her digital clock and it read 747. And she knew that was a type of aircraft. So she believed that God had just told her to get on a plane and fly to California.

Just with a digital 747. She went and told her pastor, who wrote this book that I got this out of. And he said, I must confess, I wasn't convinced. I would have been more impressed if the clock had read 767 Now think about that one for a minute That would be a bit miraculous I think for 767 to appear on your dial This is a book written by two Christian women on dieting called Free to be Thin.

In chapter 3, you've got to figure out how much God wants you to weigh, how many calories to eat each day, and how much he wants you to lose. So this is what they say. You need to pray, they said, Father. In the name of Jesus, I need specific guidance and direction in my life right now regarding my eating habits. You can see that I need your help in losing the extra pounds on my body.

Show me your will. Please speak to me and show me how much weight you want me to lose. And what if she looked up at the digital clock? Maybe she ought to pray a little longer until the numbers change. But show me how much weight you want me to lose, how much you want me to weigh, and how many calories I need to eat each day. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.

So, they're pulling a verse from the Old Testament and misusing it. A verse from Samuel. Most verses used in decision making are abused. They're mostly from narrative, which is the most abused section of scripture there is. 60% of our Bible is narrative. It tells us what happened.

Not always what should have happened. But people go in there and they'll pull out verses, and this is one of them. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening. Well, she's not Samuel, and God didn't always do that. He spoke in different ways, it says in Hebrews 1, in the past. But now he has spoken through his son, Jesus.

So that's what they're doing. And now, what are women? This has sold over a million copies. if these if all the women I would assume who buy this read it and are praying that how is God supposed to show them how much weight to lose how much to weigh and how many calories to eat each day you can see how subjective and mystical decision can become When I went into Grace Community Church and I'm just trying to give some background to this whole topic of decision-making, and we're gonna get to the scriptures here pretty soon.

I just, this is a huge issue. How many decisions do you think you make in a given day? And you're probably thinking, did I make a wise one to come here this morning? we make thousands of decisions every day every day you've already made hundreds just to get here you probably made 10 as soon as your alarm went off do i hit the snooze do i hit it how many times do i hit the snooze button we make decisions constantly so how do we make them and glorify god but when i went to grace community church one of the associate pastors had met and was counseling this couple, a married couple, who had problems their entire married life, marital conflict from the get-go.

And so this associate pastor asked the couple, what convinced you that you should marry? I mean, how did you ever determine to marry each other to begin with? The husband recounted how he had gone to his pastor, it was a different church, seeking to know the will of God for himself and his girlfriend, who is now his wife. that pastor reminded the young man of how Joshua and the Jews had marched around Jericho several times.

Now the walls collapsed. Oh no, we're back in narrative. Then the pastor suggested that the boyfriend literally, in the office, walk around his girl several times. And if the walls of her heart collapsed, then he could be sure God wanted him to take her for his wife. So he obeyed. He circled the girl several times and popped the question, have the walls of your heart tumbled?

She responded by saying she felt strange inside. That, yeah, you know what that means when you feel strange inside when someone's doing that. That means get up and run out of that office as fast as you possibly can. Now, they concluded that that meant her heart had fallen in love, and so they made plans to wed each other Notice there was no horn blowing That the only way the walls came down in Joshua But narrative once again misused in people following these kind of directions.

And that was a pastor doing that. Then people say, well, God impresses on my heart different things. Well, how do you know if it's an impression from God? Gary Friesen, in his book on decision making, says impressions can come from any number of sources. Hormonal imbalance, your own desire, God's desire, a bad pizza that you ate. All kinds of impressions from various sources.

How do you know it was God? So this book was written called Impressions from God or Satan and How to Know the Difference. Dr. Dobson says this timeless book is the best I've seen on the subject of God's will. Praise God it's out of print. It's not timeless.

Because this is what the author says. You can detect the devil by one or two things. The devil always talks loud. Jesus always talks low and tender. So when a spirit makes an impression on my mind, that impression could be made in a loud, boisterous way, or the conviction can come quietly, gently, and sweetly. When the devil makes an impression on people's hearts, and when he speaks to the soul, he talks loudly. so now you have to go was that impression loud or soft now another verse from narrative in old testament is he's using here do you know which one yes elijah and first kings 19 the still small voice that's the only record that we have of that saying he spoke to elijah and that was it for a purpose.

I don't think Jesus around the Sea of Galilee speaking over 10,000 people there with no microphone was whispering. You follow that? It's abusing verses in scripture. This man, his father owned a business and he couldn't decide whether God wanted him to take over his father's business or go into the military. He was very prone to go military, but he was caught between a decision.

So he opened up the Bible method. Are you familiar with this? You just open it up and point your finger somewhere and that's God telling you, since it's God's word. Well, that's what he did, and his finger landed in Jonah. And it says they went down to the ships, so he joined the Navy. No joke.

Had he read the context of where his finger landed, he would have found out that Jonah was not doing God's will. Right? He was going in the opposite direction of what God wanted. but that's what people will do in misusing the scripture are you familiar with promise boxes? some of you know what those are little plastic loaves of bread it looks like and they sell and verses cut out of context and put in there like their pieces of bread and a loaf and they put it on their kitchen table and every morning they pull out a verse and claim it for the day it's like an evangelical fortune cookie.

Way of living. So you pull out a verse, you read it, that's your promise for the day. Well, they make promise boxes, they make promise calendars. They're just verses at random. Well, this was one that I even pulled out of the calendar and had to put it, because you wouldn't believe this one. This won the award for most abused portion of scripture. the promise of the day, right here.

It says, so if you worship me, it will all be yours. That's the promise of the day from Luke 4, 7. Now, you think about Luke 4, 7, is Satan tempting Jesus? And he says to Jesus, if you worship me, it will all be yours. That's not a promise to claim for the day. your day won't go very well if you claim that promise that that that won the category for most abused portion of scripture this was a guy who said um he was doing the open the bible put your finger down method he said i i asked god one day um whether i should go out with this really pretty girl named Melissa.

So I opened the Bible. The first verse that met my eye was Proverbs 6 which says Do not desire her beauty in your heart and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes Well, that Proverbs 6 is talking about almost a prostitute and adulterous woman. Hopefully he's not looking at that kind of a woman to date, but that's where he went. So what he said was, he closed the Bible and said, well, then who should I go out with?

This time he opened the Bible. The first verse that met his eye was Isaiah 55, 12, and it says, you shall go out with joy. So I asked joy out. That's what he says. This really gets you into trouble the more you do this kind of thing. But on it goes. all kinds of ways that people make decisions.

And I want to encourage us as we think through our own way of making decisions. It's important that we remember the scriptures on the importance of decision making. So I want us to turn to some of these different passages. I'm going to give you a list of various passages. We're not going to look at them all. just a few of them, to see how important it is.

First one is Deuteronomy 29.29. Deuteronomy 29.29. It says, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. There are secret things that God has planned. We're going to look at that in the next hour of the will of God, namely His sovereign, decretive will.

He's doing things that He knows about and we don't. There are things that are secret, belong to him, not to us. And then there's a part of God's will, an aspect of his will, that he's revealed to us namely the scriptures And it says there that we would do the words of the law We don have to go find them We don have to find God will It not lost It revealed We need to do it You will find the biblical writers talk more about doing the will but there nothing that says go find it It right in front of us We just need to read study it and follow the principles of the law and the commands.

Deuteronomy 29, 29. You don't have to turn to some of these other passages, but Matthew chapter 6 is what the Lord taught his disciples to pray. A father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So we are to be praying that every day. Lord, may your will be done today here on earth.

So we should be about doing God's will. Matthew 6, verse 10. In Romans 12, 2, a verse that many of you have memorized, one and two probably, but verse 2 says, Stop being conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may test or prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. we would test out what his will is.

It's a word that means exactly what happens when you go to a car repairman, you say the car is not working right, and they hook it up to diagnostic testing, a machine that starts looking at everything that's going on in your car. That word test, it means to examine carefully and see what God's will is to do it, because it is good, acceptable, and perfect. In Ephesians 1, verse 11, it says that God works everything according to his plan and purpose.

Everything works according to his plan and purposes. And that's an aspect of God's will called his sovereign will. Let's go to Ephesians 5. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 15 look carefully the spirit says through Paul writing here then how you walk not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time because the days are evil. And then this verse, verse 17, Therefore, do not be foolish or lacking understanding of what the will of the Lord is.

And so the whole context will tell us what the will of the Lord is. In other words, walk carefully, morally, not immorally, be controlled with the spirit of God there in verse 18, and the unity that occurs in ministry amongst the body of Christ. But it says, don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Then there are a few prayers that are prayed.

One is Philippians 1. We won't go there, we won't read through this, but Philippians 1, verses 9 through 11, praying that we would increase in understanding of God's revealed, the scriptures, God's revealed will. You have the prayer that we're going to look at, Lord willing, tomorrow morning, in Colossians chapter 1, about increasing in the knowledge of the will of God. but as part of our prayers we need to be praying each day to understand and to apply God's will to our lives.

1 Thessalonians we could turn there 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 there are a few different passages that just will flat out tell you this is God's will for you giving thanks and all things for this is God's will for you here in chapter 4, verse 3, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, your holiness, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, and then it goes on. So sometimes we're just told this is God's will for you, but every command in the Bible would be God's will for us. It doesn't have to say this is God's will for you.

If it's a command from God for his people, it is God's will for us. That's how we please him. If you go to Hebrews chapter 13, at the end of this letter, Whatever the author, human author was, he says this in verse 21. Well, I'll start at verse 20. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may, what's it say?

Do. Not find. you don't have to go find it do it do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever amen you'll find more and more about doing God's word as I mentioned James if you're right there in Hebrews 13 if you look over to James 1 verse 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. We like to be blessed before we do it.

We want to be blessed and feel all great and wonderful about doing. No, you're blessed in the doing, not before the doing. You know you're pleasing God by being obedient, with the help of the Holy Spirit, for his honor and his glory. And then there's 1 John, 1 John chapter 2, and it says, don't love the world or the things in the world, in verse 15. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that's in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world's passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will, whoever does the will of God abides forever. See, the emphasis again, doing the will, doing the will. That's why Dr. MacArthur, he wrote his book, a little booklet called Found God's Will.

And he just starts off with, it's never been lost. It's right here. If you want to know what God's will is, let's read, right? Read, study, and apply. And there are books written today called Hearing His Voice Trying to hear what God has what does God want from me trying to be quiet and listen No Read It pointing people back to what God has given us his communication namely his revelation, the scriptures.

And then in 1 John, if you're there, over to chapter 5, verses 14 and 15. And this is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him. But it's not just ask willy-nilly. It's not ask whatever you want.

It says the confidence that we have, if we ask anything according to his will. And that would be the scriptures. You know, oftentimes people will go to the end of James and they'll say, look at Elijah. Wow, a godly man. He just prayed that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain. And then he goes up and he goes, I want rain.

That's how people think about that. And so he prays, and God just opens up the heavens, and it rains. So what kind of person is this that can just pray, and it rains stops, and he prays, and the rain comes? He prayed according to the will of God. That's why that happened. You say, well, what will did he know?

He knew the law. The first five books of the Old Testament, he knew it quite well. and in Deuteronomy chapter 8 God says that if my people start worshipping idols I will shut up the heavens and it will not rain what were they doing in 1 Kings what were the people of Israel doing they were worshipping idols Baal to be exact and so Elijah look at this the law says God will shut up the heavens if they're worshiping idols they're worshiping idols and so he prays according to God's will Lord shut up the heavens that what you said you would do and he did God did and then when you read the rest of Deuteronomy 8 it says but if they will turn I will open up heavens like a floodgate So after they had that whole incident there with Baal, and he kills all of the prophets, the whole nation says, God is God. Baal is not God, God is God.

So they come back to worshiping God. So what's Elijah do? He goes up, knowing the law, the will of God, he prays according to the law, which, Lord, you said, if they come back, you'll open up the floodgates. And sure enough, that's what happened. He wasn't just praying whatever he wanted. He was praying in accord with God's revealed will.

And what confidence we have when we're praying that way. So at prayer meetings, for example, when someone says, could you pray for my aunt so-and-so who's been diagnosed with cancer, that she would be healed? You know, I don't know what God's revealed will is. I mean, God's will is for the aunt. I don't know. Maybe God, that's not his will, to heal her. maybe God is if she's a believer he's bringing her home that way now can we pray Lord if there's our desire is that she be healed and stay here longer with us is is that a fair request absolutely even Jesus said Lord if there's any other way let this cup pass from me but nevertheless not my will but your will be done so I don't I can't pray with confidence for healing I don't know what God's will is on that but we can express our desire that the Lord would graciously heal and sometimes he does sometimes he just brings home his children but what can we pray confidently about a believer who's suffering what can we pray confidently knowing the scriptures we can pray that their faith would grow that we can pray confidently because the work that god began he will perfect until the day of christ he is growing his children faith So we can say Lord may her faith grow during this time And yes, we would desire her to be healed if that would please you, but we definitely can pray for growth and anything that we can do to help her grow.

Sending verses or a booklet that she could read and supplemental and maybe some passages that she could go to to be comforted by God. maybe go over there and help comfort her which we're told to do with one another so we can pray confidently what the scriptures tell us and then we can offer our desires up to the lord of whatever would most bring him glory but our prayer meetings would look a little different i think in many churches rather than everyone always praying with faith and confidence for healing and deliverance rather than maybe growth in their faith and dependence, not always deliverance. As the Apostle Paul prayed that the thorn would leave them. And no, dependence, not deliverance.

So as we think through this topic, I want us to close here this first session with Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. which says, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. Now just think about that. In times past, Old Testament up to this writer, Old Testament times, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, and he did it in many ways.

He did it through visions and dreams. I mean, they used the umim and thumim. They had various ways God would communicate to them. But it says, but in these last days, there's a change. There's a change. He has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

So based on Hebrews 1.1, we shouldn't be asking the questions. How has God spoken to people and guided them in the past? There are too many Christians today going back to the beginning. How did God do it in the past as if that's what they're supposed to use in the present? No. I mean, that's not the question for us today.

How did he do it in the past so that we know how God's going to do it for us today? No, no. We should be asking, how does God promise to speak to us now and guide us now with our conscious cooperation? not going in the past because it says that's over now he has spoke to us through his son we need what we need is Jesus and the full revelation of him one writer said this God has completely revealed his will to mankind through Jesus the incarnate word and he's done that in the bible this is where his mind the mind of Christ is sufficiently revealed to let us know God's wisdom in decision making so we reading in the scriptures now more in the New Testament How did God start What was the normal way God would speak to his people in the New Testament And I'm not talking about the prophets or apostles.

I'm talking about the people, the Christian people in the churches. And it was through the scriptures. That was the way he did it. not going back to still small voices, not going back to visions and revelations. And that does not stifle the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, we are to have such a vibrant walk with Christ that the Holy Spirit is in us. We know that.

The Scripture tells us that. We don't have to pray, Lord, come and be with us. He already is. We shouldn't be praying, Lord, be with so-and-so as they travel. He always is. He never leaves us or forsakes us.

Maybe we're just more careful about what we pray. But we walk with Christ in a daily basis The Spirit of God is in us in all the different passages that are after these points He empowers us the Holy Spirit does He empowers us Romans 8 9 He comforts us, John 17, 7. He enables us both to will and to do God's good pleasure, Philippians 2.13. He strengthens us.

He gives us holy affections now to want things that God wants because we wouldn't come up with them on our own. In Philippians 2.13, he convicts us of sin in John 16. He illumines our minds to help us to understand his word. 1 Corinthians 2, 12 and 13. He indwells us, 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. And he has spoken to us through his word in 2 Timothy 2, 15, 3, 15 through 17 and 2 Peter 1.

Holy Spirit's very alive and active, but he's going to point us to the word that he inspired and has preserved and it important we know that that we go what is God will And we kind of looking up we have our ears open trying to listen No, it's right here, the will that he wants us to pay most attention to. And so the next session that we have, I just want us to kind of go over again and remind us, stir us up to remembrance of things, So just how do we handle God's word carefully? The third session today, just kind of thinking ahead here as you're planning your day, the third session is going to be all the ways, some of which we should not be using in decision making and to be very cautious of.

And then the fourth session is, here are the biblical principles of making decisions with a couple of examples of how to do it. So trying to give a big picture, look at the scriptures, how to carefully handle those, how not to make decisions, and then how to make them. And then I believe after that last session there will be about a half hour or so for questions.