Life Goals and Our Decisions
Notes
Transcript
Handout
The Goal of Life/Y-Diagram
Our Critical Moments of Decision
(Our choices reveal what we are loving) - Write at top of the board
The Goal of Life
The Goal of Life
(Write, the Goal of Life on the bottom right of the board. Do NOT draw the heart or reference it yet) Work your way up the diagram, to the right, back to the center, left, and back down, ending with the heart/inner man)
What does God want from our lives? What does God want for us?
This is another way of asking, what is the goal/purpose of our lives.
Many times, we think that God wants to make us happy, to bless us.
And certainly, God is not out to make our lives miserable.
But our temporal happiness, our physical blessing is not God’s highest purpose or goal for our lives.
Let’s start with a passage you should be familiar to us.
1 Corinthians 10:31.
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
According to this verse, what is God’s purpose or goal?
His own glory.
God is ultimately concerned about his own glory.
In this concern, is concern for our highest good as well.
When we are satisfied and delighting in His glory, we have the absolute best thing God could possibly give us.
God’s pursuit of his own glory IS the pursuit of our highest good
God gets angry and jealous when we find satisfaction in “glories” other than his own because they deprive us of the greatest good he can possibly give to us…Himself.
It harms us to run to lesser “glories” and because God is good, this angers him. Because he is just, he must deal justly with such injustice and harm.
God is so zealous for our good that he MUST BE jealous for his own glory but his own glory IS the best for us.
God’s glory and our delighting in it…IS THE GOAL OF LIFE.
Which brings me to three key statements.
3 Key Statements
3 Key Statements
Let me set the first one up with a question...
If God’s goal is making much of a delighting in his glory, then what should be our goal?
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
What should our goal be according to this verse?
My Goal in Life is to Please God
My Goal in Life is to Please God
2 Corinthians 5:9.
Our goal in life, should be to please God.
Our goal in life should be to make much of God’s glory.
Our highest objective should be to please God in all our desires, motives, thoughts, and actions.
How though? How do we please God?
I Please God by Being Like Jesus Christ
I Please God by Being Like Jesus Christ
Matthew 3:16-17; Romans 8:28-29.
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
What do these two passages tell us about how we please God?
By being like Christ.
God is WELL pleased with His son
We were predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son
We please God by being like Christ.
The good news is, God helps us do just that...
Hebrews 2:14-18.
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 4:14-16.
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
God does not tell us to be like Christ and then force us to do it on our own.
God gives us everything we need to become like Jesus, so that we can please Him, so that we can delight in and make much of His glory.
God Knows I will Not Be Perfect, but He does Expect Me to be growing
God Knows I will Not Be Perfect, but He does Expect Me to be growing
Ephesians 4:17-24; 2 Peter 3:18.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
As long as we are alive in the flesh, God expects us to be growing spiritually.
There should never be a time when we are content in our spiritual state.
Our goal should be to please God
We please God by looking like Christ
God expects constant, consistent growth in the process.
How does this growth happen?
How do we become more like Christ?
Ultimately, it comes down to what we value, what our goals and desires are.
These in turn will be reflected in our decisions and choices that we make.
When we value God and our goal is to please God by becoming more like Jesus, we now have a paradigm to help us in making our decisions.
What follows for the remainder of today is a simple diagram that may help us in those critical moments of decision making.
(Draw straight black line up center of board - The goals we hold determine what we think and what we do - represented by the black line)
Y-Diagram
Y-Diagram
Let’s think for a moment how decisions are made; what are decisions reveal or mean.
You see, God has designed us in His image and likeness to worship Him. The expression of our love and worship is in our decisions. Every decision will express and expose the object of our worship; God or self.
How is this expressed in Genesis 2:16-17?
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Adam and Eve were led to believe by Satan that they could become like God knowing good and evil. If they obeyed God, they were worshipping and loving God. The moment they disobeyed, they began “loving” and worshipping themselves. Sin at this point in history entered the world. Man, ever since, has been worshipping self. God now teaches us there is a better choice. The choice is to worship Him through loving worship.
Consider another example....
Joshua 24:15.
15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
How does Joshua express his love and worship of God?
By choosing to reject false gods and worship the one true God.
By rejecting any other ruling, influence thing besides God.
By submitting himself to the ruler and authority of God.
By expression his faith and devotion through obedience.
Through his choices, he exposed the values and priorities of his heart.
The choices we make, reflect the values and goals in our heart.
SO…ALWAYS we will come to a critical juncture in life.
(Draw the top of the Y. Draw big circle at the juncture. This point here represents the critical moment of our decisions. Right side will represent our sinful decisions and the left side will represent holy decisions).
We will come DAILY, probably several times per day to this critical point and we will have to decide with path to take.
The Sinful Path OR the Path of Faith
Proverbs 14:12.
12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
When man begins to worship self in his choices and decisions, what will be the result?
Death
What is the motivation behind man’s choices; feeling or faith?
Feelings
Sinful decisions are always based on feeling (Write this on the board)
Sin decisions are easy. They are selfish (Write on board)
They SEEM right to man…because they FEEL right.
Galatians 6:6-10.
6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
What will result from our self-worship choices?
Corruption.
We reap what we sow.
Course, the inverse is also true…if we sow righteousness, we will reap life.
It is sin to make decisions based on feelings. (Write on board)
Galatians 5:19-21.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Explain God’s description of what our sin will reap for us.
Every form of sinfulness that you can imagine.
Sin begets sin (Write on board)
What happens to our emotions as we surrender more and more to sinful choices?
Ephesians 4:31.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
What emotions are a signal to us that our decisions are self-worshipping?
Bitterness
Wrath
Anger
Clamor
Slander
Malice
When our decisions are being made in a self worshipping way, these emotions will arise.
Our emotions are warning lights on the dashboard of our lives to warn us that something is wrong.
When we make sinful choices, life will keep getting harder (Write on the board)
So where do we go from here? How do we correct our trajectory if this is where we are?
We return to the greatest commandment
Mark 12:30.
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
What does Jesus teach us to be our highest priority?
Love God
Is that not the same thing as being concerned first and foremost about God’s glory?
The solution to making bad choices which reap corruption and death, making life harder, is to LOVE GOD, to LOVE HIS GLORY above all else.
When we humble ourselves and decide that loving God is the wiser choice, what does God expect us to do to show our love for Him?
Ephesians 4:22-23.
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
Put off the old self and be renewed in the spirit of our minds.
If we do this, we can depend on this promise...
2 Corinthians 5:17.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
God will make us new.
This kind of decision making corrects our trajectory and develops a new life.
This kind of decision making is rooted in a different goal/value system. Instead of loving self, it is loving God.
1 John 5:3.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
How do we show our love for God?
By keeping his commandments JOYFULLY.
Love for God results in willing and joyful obedience because it delights us to do so.
One can argue that doing the thing asked WITH THE WRONG ATTITUDE is not true obedience. Obedience is WILLING and JOYFUL.
Merely doing something because you are told to and have other choice is not obedience, but merely compliance.
The HEART ATTITUDE determines true obedience. Not one’s actions.
Holy decisions will always be made on faith.
Romans 7:15-25.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
From reading these verses, how would you describe our choices to live for God; easy or hard?
Faith decisions are harder, due to resisting the sin nature (Write on the board)
Whereas sinful decisions are usually easy to begin with and result in life getting harder, FAITH/Holy decisions will be harder to start but life will get easier because of them. (Write on board)
As we make the decision to submit ourselves to Christ, to make decisions based on truth and faith, we WILL face opposition.
From the flesh
From the world
From the adversary
Faith decisions, truth decisions will be hard because we have an enemy that does not want us to make them.
BUT REMEMBER, we have a much more powerful ally.
1 John 4:4.
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
At this critical juncture of decision making, we have a choice to make...
Take the easy way based on feeling
or take the harder way based on truth and faith
One will make your life harder in the end (easy way)
One will make your life easier in the end (Faith and truth way)
What do we need to live this way?
Romans 1:17.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
What is necessary to worship God in holiness?
Faith
And where does faith come from?
Romans 10:17.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Where does faith come from?
God.
The Word of God.
A commitment to truth
A love for truth
A submission to truth
BUT, when we live this way, when we live by faith, by truth, what does God promise?
Galatians 5:22-23.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
When we make choices based on our love for God, what does God promise?
The fruit of the Spirit.
Life circumstances MAY NOT ALWAYS GET EASIER, but life WILL get easier because we will not have the negative fall out from our sinful decisions weighing us down.
We will be filled with the Spirit.
We will know joy, peace, and will have the strength of God that DESPITE hard circumstances, we can know peace and joy.
At the yoke of the Y is an object lesson to help us visualize what God expects of us from each choice we make. It is the moment of critical decision. We are born sinners and we will all make sinful decisions. The sinful decisions are nothing more than expressions of self-worship. When we tell God we acknowledge our sinfulness and accept His gift of grace, we then are capable of making choices to express our love for God. This then becomes our highest priority for the rest of our earthly existence.
This returns us back to the goals of life.
Consider again 1 Corinthians 10:31.
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
What will be the result of obeying God?
He is gloried.
Where do our values and goals originate?
The heart
The inner man.
The Inner Man
The Inner Man
Matthew 15:19.
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
See, all of this finds its origin in the heart.
It is from our hearts that these decisions will pour forth.
Which is why, we must work to humble ourselves, possess the right goals and desires, the right purpose and values, so that when we come to the critical juncture of decision, we will be able to make the hard choice by faith, walk in the truth, and so glorify God....as the highest goal of life.
Homework:
Homework:
Review and memorize 3 key statements with references
Memorize 2 Cor 5:9.
Explain Y diagram next week
Give 3-5 specific examples of where you consciously chose to please God even when you didn’t feel like it.
Application
Application
Why are thinking and acting the product of the goals and values in our hearts?
What we cherish and value determines what we think. When we value or cherish something, it will determine how we interpret circumstances, it will determine how we look at life, it will change how we prioritize our time and resources. Our values will affect what we think and thus what we do.
Why does emotion/feeling follow thinking and acting?
Everything begins as a value, which produces thoughts and actions. Emotions/feelings follow. We will feel stuff based on WHAT we think or HOW we act. We feel what we feel because we want what we want.
Why are sin decisions always based on feeling?
Sin entices the emotions/feelings. It appeals to desire. Thus, when we make sinful choices we not basing those choices on truth but on the desire that is being enticed.
Why are sin decisions (based on feeling) always easy?
Emotions/feelings/desires are easy. The flesh is naturally prone to them, thus, when we make sinful decisions, we are making them because they are easy and appeal to the desires.
In what way(s) do sin decisions make life harder?
Sin beget sin.
Sinful choices will have consequences and fallout. They compound the more sinful choices are made.
While it may feel good initially, the emotional fallout of sinful decisions will compound and add up.
Why are holy decisions based on faith/truth?
Holy decisions recognize authority and willingly submit to that authority. They are trusting the authority to know what is right and good and true and that it will be of benefit in the long run even if it is hard to begin with.
Holy decisions are not based on feeling but on objective truth because it acknowledges that such standards exist.
Why are holy decisions harder?
They go against feelings and often mean self denial in order to do what is right and good.
In what way(s) do holy decisions make life easier?
There is no guilt, shame, remorse to be had.
There is no negative emotional fallout from making the wrong choice
While we cannot control other’s actions or responses, when we do what is right, it will produce the right fruit/intent of the action and do what God designed it to do, thus making life easier and not harder.
If we desire to address sinful choices and sinful thinking, where must we focus our efforts and why?
The heart. What we value and cherish above all else. What our goal/purpose is. What we worship.
This is where all our thinking and acting originate, which leads to what we feel.
What sinful goals/values do your thoughts and actions reveal? What choice will you make next time you reach the critical moment of decision making?