The Decision Grenade

In New Mexico our Governor and her merry band of liberals went into a special session without voter approval or input and legalized recreational marijuana for the State. This decision was done for a couple of reasons. One, to keep people dumb and dependent. Two to make a lot of money on taxing said dumb and dependent people.

There is an interesting unintended consequence to this seemingly harmless decision. While the jury is still out on all the ramifications of young adult addiction, increased violence crime as a result of the black market , increased traffic fatalities etc. This unintended consequence was something apparently no one considered or even thought about.

In order for a Law Enforcement Officer in New Mexico to detain, search or detect drugs on an individual or property, there needs to be probable cause. This was easily done by the presence of a K-9 officer and his highly trained drug sniffing dog. The conundrum faced by the judicial system is that all of the K-9 Drug dogs are trained to detect by smell all forms of Marijuana and other assorted drugs including crack, cocaine, heroin, methadone etc. Since marijuana is now going to be legal, there will probably be situations where a user with the legal amount of marijuana will be detained and their rights violated because the dog cannot tell the officer what type of drug it is smelling. Therefore New Mexico will have to retire every single K-9 drug sniffing dog in the State and replace them with dogs that are not trained to identify marijuana as an illegal drug. The estimated cost of doing this will be well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An unintended consequence of a poorly made decision.

I. Unintended Consequences

Galatians 6:7–8 NKJV

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

A. The Decisions that We Make

We are accountable for our choices and all the outcomes produced by our choices. This is an unavoidable condition and situation we cannot avoid as human beings. God has created us as individuals and will hold us accountable as individuals. The problem is that we often operate in a vacuum, what i mean by that is we think that we can make decisions and choices that only matter to us. We do not think, or believe that there are many repercussions and unintended consequences that flow from that single decision. We often deceive ourselves about the choices we make.

Jeremiah 7:9–10 NKJV

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?

We have no control over all the consequences of our choices. Just by one decision we can set in motion a chain of events and circumstance that we have no hope of directing or correcting. You see we are all connected and we all impact each other on one level or another.

Take for example this grenade. This grenade represents a stupid, selfish decision. If i lob this grenade at a single person here in this middle section. They will be most effected by the blast and shrapnel, the devastation will gradually work it’s way out and around this room. Those immediately next to this person and even a few chairs out will be critically impacted by this decision grenade , most usually family and friends. As the circle of detonation expands to those in adjoining sections, they will be injured by the concussion of the blast and possibly occasional shrapnel, creating walking wounded, usually extended family, co-workers and students at our school. Even people on the fringes will be impacted by the flash and the force of the detonation. These are people who watch us from afar and are considering whether they want our form of Christianity or maybe people we were destined to impact in a positive way but have now sent them running, screaming for cover.

All this damage, all this impact from what we think is a simple decision. There are unintended consequences and we cannot control them.

Romans 6:23 NKJV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“Sin will take you further than you intended to go, cost you more than you intended to pay, and keep you longer than you intended to stay”

Paul said, “The wages of sin is death.” But people do not sin because they want to die, they sin to fulfill the desires of their flesh, pleasure, personal advantage, stealing, lying, adultery, dishonesty.

The lament of unintended consequences is ‘But I didn’t mean too’.

While a toy grenade may be a good illustration of unintended consequences, there’s nothing more tragic than real life examples of this played out.

B. The Actions We Take

There was a young man involved in our Rap ministry many years ago. He was active in ministry, brought his wife and children into the church. Made a lot of right decisions in finance, moral choices and he told me that he believed God had a powerful call on his life. His mom and brothers, all Catholic began to see his transformation and watched the changes in his life. They began to be impacted by his lifestyle and decision to live for Jesus. This went on for a few years.

Then something changed. He began to miss services, his giving stopped and became intermittent at best. He began to get moody and sullen, he would yell at his kids and wife. Over a rapid period of time his marriage began to fall apart, his wife wanted a divorce and threatened to move back to where her family lived in a different State. Their young children were caught up in this and their whole vision of a happy family living for God very quickly came to an end.

As I tried to work with him he finally backslid completely, leaving the church. I ended up meeting with him in an attempt to bring him back to the will of God. As we sat there he began crying about all that was happening and how everything was completely falling apart. He then said a statement that i will always remember. He said, “I shouldn’t have taken that drink.”

You see a year earlier after a rap concert in Albuquerque, he was on his way home with his family and when they got home he gave in to a temptation, apparently his brother left some beer at his house. So he took a drink. The decision grenade had just gone off. He was previously an alcoholic but God had delivered him. But all it took was one drink, one decision that he didn’t think would impact his life. Nobody would know. But he began to drink more and more and hide it from everyone at church. the pressure of this deceit and weight of this sin began effecting all those around him.

His sin impacted his immediate family, his extended family, his church family his destiny with God, all those he should have been able to reach with his gifted ministry. His family left him, he became addicted to drugs and a few years ago died from a drug overdose at an all to early age. Because there are unintended consequences. My wife recently was able to reconnect with this mans ex-wife.

How tragic their life is now as they struggle with the loss, the guilt and regret of what could have been.

We see this same issue played out in scripture

In 2nd Samuel you can read about David’s sin. His sin ruined the lives of Bathsheba, her unborn child, Uriah the Hittite, Joab the captain, the future children of David, the entire nation had to endure his shame as well as a civil war, because the moment he decided not to go to war, to do God’s will, the decision grenade went off.

“Unintended Consequences are outcomes that are not the ones foreseen and intended by a purposeful action. (Robert K. Merton)

In Genesis chapter 13 we see the same thing with Lot. He wanted to protect himself and his family by being near and eventually in a fortified city. But we see that Lot began to become aware that his choice was making things difficult for him and his family;

2 Peter 2:7–8 NKJV

and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—

The tragic thing is he took no action. He decided to remain anyway. Hoping it would work out. but he had already detonated the decision grenade when he set his eyes toward Sodom and Gomorrah. He was a moral man who chose to live among the most immoral people in the world.

He didn’t mean for all the tragic events that followed to happen, he just wanted financial security, a protective home for his family in the safety of the world, but he didn’t have to go to Sodom to do that. He could have gotten all those thing by living for God. Doing God’s will.

We didn’t mean for it to happen. We may be tempted to make choices in the name of popularity, convenience, or financial security, but at what catastrophic, unforeseen cost? Choices we make now can eternally affect our families for generations to come.

II. God’s intended consequences

Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

A. Why We Cannot Control All Outcomes

Because God loves us he doesn’t give us the ability to control all the outcomes of the decisions that we make. We are ignorant of many things and can only operate in the present. While we might hope for a certain outcome, we cannot guarantee that outcome. We do not have the ability to know every detail or potentiality of the choices we begin to make or how they will affect us in the near term or long term.

We often make errors in understanding a crisis or question, we follow maybe plans and patterns that worked in the past but don’t apply to the current situation that we are in. Often our immediate interests override our long term interests resulting in rash decisions to fulfill an immediate lust or perceived need.

If left to ourselves our way often goes wrong resulting in confusion, conflict, cost, loss, regret and pain.

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful” (Margaret Wheatley)

God’s answer to this is what he intends for us. He intends for us to have faith and to rely on Him for the things we cannot see or control.

We should be prayerful about decisions we make. We should do all things with temperance, not rashly just making one bad decision after another. I remember Pastor telling me that I should never make a major live changing decision in a crisis and if a decision is needed it should be done with Godly consultation. My Pastor has never made a life changing decision for me, but he has asked me ‘have you considered this possible result of that decision?’ which i hadn’t, and because of that pause, that interjection of sanity in a moment of crises my Pastor has saved me from making many wrong ‘life changing’ decisions. For that I’m forever grateful.

B. God Intends to Hold Us Accountable

God has always and will always hold His people accountable for their actions. You will be held responsible for the unintended consequences created by your decisions.

Exodus 22:5–6 NKJV

“If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed, and lets loose his animal, and it feeds in another man’s field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard. “If fire breaks out and catches in thorns, so that stacked grain, standing grain, or the field is consumed, he who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.

Bad choices that are made in compromise with evil, by good people will destroy their influence. This is why we must guard our testimony and the purity of our lives as we take stands for Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 25:26 NKJV

A righteous man who falters before the wicked Is like a murky spring and a polluted well.

What’s sad is that we overlook the pain of our unintended consequences, but are enraged by the unintended consequences of others. You can see that in David’s reaction to being confronted by Nathan the prophet. Outraged over what happens to a lamb but numb to the harm he’s had because of the decisions he’s made.

We are so blind to our own actions and the ability for those actions to have long ranging effects on those around us. We never consider the impact of the loss of our destiny and calling when we choose to take an easier path. The people that were supposed to be impacted by our life now have to search for another.

We have the same calling that Moses had;

Exodus 9:16 NKJV

But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.

III. What this All Means

Matthew 25:1–13 NKJV

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

A. Actual Consequences

Every parable of Jesus, every ‘the Kingdom of God is like’, has so much to learn from, so much to unpack and so much it can apply to. So let me cover a few basic understandings of this scripture and then we’ll see a very interesting aspect of what is going on when we deal with unintended and intended consequences.

So first we need to look at the intended audience of who Jesus is addressing here. This is not a reference to those who are ‘Churched’ and ‘Un-Churched.’ This does not say there were five virgins and five prostitutes. It says there were ten virgins, they were all to be part of the wedding, they were all to be part of the celebration. They all attended church. They were not hardcore rot gut sinners, they were all virgins they all had a measure of purity.

So why 10 virgins? If you look at all the other 10’s in scripture it reveals God uses this number as a sign of His completeness and authority and as a symbol of obedience and responsibility of His people towards His law and will. It also implies testing. Just as an example the number 10 is the most mentioned number in scripture at 242 references, the phrase ‘God said’ appears 10 times in Genesis during the creation, Noah was the 10th patriarch and there were 10 generations of man before the flood, 10 plagues in Egypt, 10th day of the 1st month Passover, 10 commandments, 10 Talents, 10 Coins, 10 Virgins, 10th is a tithe.

What God is showing us is that His intended purpose for us is to have us live our lives with the intent of serving Him completely, not half halfheartedly or as an after thought but in anticipation of His coming!

This is the difference of attending a church and being the church! The difference between the five Virgins was that those who were ready invested in oil! They paid a price to be ready. They measured the need and determined what was required to be ready for Christs return. Those who weren’t ready didn’t invest in their walk with God and they made a decision that it wasn’t all that important. They detonated a decision grenade not realizing that the unintended consequence was that they would be left behind.

You purchase this oil by investing your life, your time, your dreams. You surrender all to Jesus, your resources, your gifting, your calling.

There is an important thing to understand....while Christianity is all about us, it’s not all about us! It’s about all of them out there. We serve a personal God who operates in a corporate way. He works with us individually so that we can work as a church together for His purpose.

But if we let a poor decision, a single grenade to go off, without considering the consequences. Then we are like the 5 foolish Virgins. Who attended church, but they weren’t the church.

Our salvation is not a wedding gift that we receive and take home and put on a shelf to show visitors when they come over. Our salvation is a Journey, it is a path taken, it is a walk with a destination.

In Hebrew culture the Bridegroom would travel from his home with the wedding party after all the preparations were made and would travel, sometimes a good distance to the Bride’s residence usually her father’s house. There he would meet his bride and they would travel back to his home with the whole wedding party and guests, were they would have the wedding ceremony. It’s a journey. A path that must be followed.

What decisions are you making today? What decisions are you pondering in your heart? What unintended and maybe intended consequences are you getting ready to face?

I want you to know that sometimes, not making a decision is a decision in and of itself.

(Altar Call)