Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Mysticism in Decision Making. Sanity in Scripture. Hearing the Shepherd’s Voice. – Highlight Episode 349

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Mysticism in Decision Making. Sanity in Scripture. Hearing the Shepherd’s Voice. – Highlight Episode 349 · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Today, we're talking about how to make God-honoring decisions in life Within the faith.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I would say this is probably one of the most common questions that leaders and pastors get how do I make good decisions?
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: When we think about it, life is full of making decisions.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, everything you do ultimately traces back to you having to exercise your discernment skills and then, finally, you know, decide whether to do something or not do something, or if you're going to do something or not do something, what specific things you do related to it, and so this is an important issue to discuss, because I think there's a lot of misunderstanding and, I would dare say, a lot of mysticism infused into decision making waiting for a feeling, waiting for a sign and things like that, rather than being a people who understand how God has designed us and that there is a way, biblically speaking, to make good decisions.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember Vance Havner once saying that every decision we make it balances on a razor's edge, and not that you're going to fall off the cliff, but it heads you in the trajectory of maybe a direction where you should not take.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: And this kind of goes hand in hand with our last podcast that we talked about, with discipleship and accountability and just being there for each other, because friends can look into your life and just say, hey, man, your trajectory is a little off.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Remember when we had breakfast with R Kent Hughes?
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and he was asked the question you've written 22 commentaries, what has motivated you to do such a thing?
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: And he said well, I knew that with God I can open up God's word, I can sit on my hands, I could put my guard down because I knew God was not gonna lie to me, me.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: And I open up God's Word and I start early in the morning because I know the rest of the day I'm going to be lied to.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: And for me, the Word of God became my ultimate sanity in a very confused, photoshopped world.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: The key is a surrendered will, total surrender to God.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: You're no longer on your own, you're brought with a price.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: We can come to God and say not your will, but mine be done.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: I've got my mind made up.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: I'm going to pray about this so I appease my conscience.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I'm going to come to my Father and get His opinion, but I'm going to do my own thing.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: So it really comes back to what Mark was saying walking in the fear of the Lord.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Again, we're looking as these finite, fallen, broken people who are seeking to do the right thing.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: We're seeking to have something that's going to help us maximize decision-making in such a way that it comports with what's honoring to the Lord, and that's why having a vision in life I've shared years ago, I gathered my family in our living room and I unveiled for them the family vision statement to gladly and passionately glorify God in every thought, affection, word and deed, while constantly enjoying Him as our greatest pleasure and most precious treasure.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Rachel myself, all five of our children have memorized that.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: It sits in a big plaque in the middle of our living room.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Because when you are living for God's glory, you're not going to be haphazard.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: When you're making decisions, you're not just going to be okay, well, I want to do this because I want it.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: It's like you're always filtering it through the grid.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Does this glorify you, lord?
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Does this make much of God?
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Does this honor you and bring you pleasure?
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Because, 2 Corinthians 5, we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and we're going to give account.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: And he says therefore, whether absent or present, we make it our aim to be well-pleasing to him, and that ties in with glorifying him.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: I've told it before, but it's worth telling again because of what we're talking about.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Remember that famous kid's story called Tootle, who they didn't even know about it it's famous.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Everybody knows about Tootle In the 1840s.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, no.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: This is a story, a kid's story, and it's really dumb, but it's good.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: There's little trains coming down a hill every day and looking across these fields and seeing all these little ponies and lambs leaping about and having a great time.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: And the train says to itself the train speaks at this time.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: I wish I could be free.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: I wish I could be free.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: I want to be like them.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: And so one day he comes down the track, he gets his speed up and he jumps the tracks into the field and all he gets is disaster, because he wasn't designed to leap around in a field.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: He was designed to find freedom within the confines of the tracks.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: And the lesson is that God created us to be yoked to him.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: Jesus said my yoke is easy and my burden is light, and that's where we find true freedom.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Listen to the Amplified Bible.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: I'll read it louder.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, dedicating all of yourselves set apart, as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational, logical, intelligent act of worship.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: So, when you realize that everything you have comes from God, every breath, your brain, your thoughts, your eyebrows, your eyelashes, your heartbeat, everything is from God, from him and to him and through him and all things.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: Then it's your reasonable service to love him with heart, mind, soul and strength.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's so good, ray.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: I want us to probe a little bit the responsibility Oscar I'd love you to address this the responsibility of decision-making when we are in positions of authority, because our decisions don't just affect us.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: And I know that for us, I think, as fathers and as husbands, sometimes as leaders in different spheres, it's easy for us to forget that, you know, and we can sometimes become kind of lacking in charity as we think about how our decisions affect others, or we're haphazard in that we're not really seeking the Lord.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: And it's interesting because sometimes I think, when we think about decisions that we have to make, we're usually thinking, oh, the decisions that don't coincide with what our family wants, our wife, our children.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: But sometimes it could be the opposite.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: We may know we may have to make a decision that doesn't fit what they desire and that might cause tension.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: And how do we navigate that?
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there's two different, I think, ends of that spectrum.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: There's, like the egalitarian father and husband that does not recognize that God ordained, calling on his life to guide and lead and disciple and protect his family.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: Well, and whether or not he realizes that he is in some way, shape or form leading the family, even if he's submitting to something else, right.
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: But then there's the other end of the spectrum which is thinking that, because you're a leader, the other end of the spectrum which is thinking that because you're a leader, that you have some and this is where pride comes in that you have some way and form of making a choice outside the context of what God wants you to do.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: And I think one of the things that I encourage people all the time, especially men in marriage, is to recognize your wife is given to you as a helper.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: Think about that.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: That's not diminishing, that's not less than.
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: That doesn't mean my choice is primary and if you don't agree with me, then it's me and you got to submit to that.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: Think about what God calls himself to Abraham a helper.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: Abraham would never look at God and be like well, if you don't agree with me, just submit to me God.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: God was a helper to Abraham to understand God's will.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: So for husbands, your wife is a helper to help you understand the will of God, not for you to treat as a subordinate when you don't agree with her every single time.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: That doesn't mean you won't always agree and you have to blah, blah, blah.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: But obviously the point is is that God gives you your spouse to help you understand his will and his way.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: And I think, to really apply this, I think about my life, like there's been moments where my wife and I will disagree about decision on schooling, about what house to buy, and she knows what to do In those moments.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: Often what she'll do, she'll be like all right, I trust your leadership, and that's always like the oh no, there's just like this oh man, where?
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: And it often humbles me to recognize and see something that I didn't see before.
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: And so us as leaders whether you're a leader in the home, a leader in the workplace, a leader at school, as a leader, we're here to serve, serve people, but primarily serve God's will in our lives.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: One with God will always be in the majority.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: So when we are in the midst of difficulty, when trial is all around us, it's a good place to be.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Remember Vance Havner.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: You know, sometimes God puts us on our back so that we look up.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Sometimes God calls you away from noisy sheep because they're just noisy, because there's just too much clamor going on.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: You know what was it?
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was only recorded that John the Baptist leaned on the breastplate of Jesus and heard the heartbeat of deity.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Who else heard the heartbeat of deity besides John the Baptist?
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Who knows, maybe the others did as well, maybe they were close, maybe they were intimate in that fashion.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: But if you want to hear the shepherd's voice, you have to get away from the sheep.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: And the more you're away from the sheep and you seek the face of God, you're not going to worry about the face of other people.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: You're not going to worry about the applause or the plaudits or the promotion or the position of other people that are around you.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: So it is a good place to be when you are by yourself and you're recognizing that you'll never be by yourself because he's always with you.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: He goes before you and he's behind you and upholds you, and he guides you with his eye.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: We take refuge under the shadow of his wing, and he is our strength and our horn, our salvation, our buckler.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights from the Living Waters podcast.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Friends, we value your time, so we've created a bite-sized version of our podcast for listeners who want to get equipped.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Without the jokes and fellowship.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Be sure to check out the full episode every Thursday where we dive deeper into the topic.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Until then, you can watch the full podcast episode available now on livingwaterstv.