Pre-Decide: The Greatest Decision Maker

Maybe you've seen this meme before. I just saw it again this week and it goes right along with our message today. It says this, everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason is you're stupid and make bad decisions. The legendary actor John Wayne said it this way, life is hard. It's harder when you're stupid. I'm not trying to call any of us stupid, and the bible doesn't do that, but the bible does clearly teach that we often make bad choices. And if we want our lives to be better, we have to learn to make better choices because the choices we make build the lives that we have. [00:23:52] (44 seconds)  #ChoicesBuildLives

And we can look at where we're at right now, good and bad, and our choices have led us to where we are. I know things happen to us that we didn't choose, but we still choose how we respond to everything that happens to us. So, choices matter. [00:24:36] (17 seconds)  #ChoicesMatterNow

But each week, we've been looking at different scenarios, different situations where we can predecide before we ever get into that situation. Here's what I'm gonna do. Here's what I'm gonna say. Here's how I'm going to act before we even get into the situation. Because we all understand, I think, this principle that if we wait until we're under pressure of the moment, we don't always make the best choices, do we? Under pressure, when we're tired, when we're worn out, we don't always make the best choices. So if we predecide, we get better at making better choices. [00:25:07] (37 seconds)  #PredecideYourChoices

I mean, we wanna learn from the best, don't we? That's that's kind of what we like to do. If you like golf and you wanted to get some golf lessons, which if I play golf, I need lessons for sure. What if Scottie Scheffler said? I'll teach you. You you could just play with me for a few rounds, and I'll give you all the tips that you need to have. That'd be great, wouldn't it, to learn from the very best in the game? Well, today in our final session of predecide better choices, better life, we're gonna sit at the feet of the greatest decision maker in the history of the world. [00:28:17] (34 seconds)  #LearnFromTheMaster

This person never made a bad decision, never made the wrong choice. This person never reacted the wrong way. This person always followed through in the right response to the situation that he was in. He never got carried away by his emotions. I think you know who I'm talking about. It's Jesus Christ. I want us all today to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from him. The filter that we see revealed in scripture that he went through in making the decisions that he made where he never missed. He never failed. [00:28:56] (37 seconds)  #JesusDecisionModel

He faced every kind of trial and temptation that you're gonna face while he was here in the flesh. Yet, he was able to maneuver through all of those decisions without sinning. Therefore, he says, we can have confidence when we approach his throne of grace. Why can we have confidence? Because we're going to a high priest who knows us well, who knows what we're gonna be dealing with, who has experienced what we experience in the flesh, and who knows the answer, who knows the way, who knows the encouragement, who knows the accountability we need to have to get this choice made in a better way for our lives. [00:30:37] (46 seconds)  #ConfidenceInChrist

And we could have confidence not in ourselves, so that's a mistake. We should understand not to have confidence in ourselves. We should understand to put our confidence in him and his guidance, and his direction, and his wisdom, and his provision for our lives. [00:31:27] (15 seconds)  #TrustHisWisdom

by the spirit. This is the spirit. This is God's spirit leading him out into the wilderness. Why? To be tempted by the devil. Can you believe that? That god's spirit led god the son into the wilderness to face Satan and the temptations that Satan was gonna bring to him. Why? Because he could be our high priest better that way. If he had to face things like this and he knew how to make good choices in the face of it. So, he's being led there for that purpose. Now, he's in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Verse two, it says, after fasting forty days and forty nights, here's the most understatement in the Bible, he was hungry. [00:32:58] (41 seconds)  #LedByTheSpirit