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*The Last Lottery - *
*Decision Making in the Will of God*
*May 7, 2000 Acts 1:12-26*
* *
*Introduction:*
How many of you have had to make some really hard personal decisions in your life this past week, month, or year?
How did you make those decisions?
Did you make the right decision, or is the answer still out there somewhere?
For many people, decision making is like rolling the dice.
It is just taking a chance.
You act on what you think, and if that doesn't work, you may get a chance to try something else.
There are no sure things in life for them, it seems.
Life is a gamble.
You win some, you lose some.
Every once-in-a-while you just get lucky.
Every once-in-a-while you just bomb out.
Perhaps you've been there.
Perhaps you've recovered.
Perhaps not.
Perhaps you're still living on your winnings.
But isn't there a better way to make decisions?
I'll bet you there is.
I'll bet there are some of you here this morning who would like to know what it is.
Decision making can actually turn out better than the sign I saw this week – "I bet my cholesterol count on the lottery."
To many people, making the right decision is about like taking a chance on winning the lottery.
But who really wins the lottery?
/The lottery promotes the interesting moral notion that if people are inclined to waste their money, the government should make it fun for them.
And take a profit.
/
/ -- Charlie McDowell, quoted in the Tampa Tribune (Oct.
21, 1987).
Christianity Today, Vol.
32, no.
2. /
Amazingly, many people will go to great lengths to make bad decisions.
/Amount spent by one person on tickets for a 1990 weekly drawing of the Florida state lottery: $46,000 /
/ -- WBBM-TV news, 10~/14~/90.
"To Verify," Leadership./
/The chances you will eventually die in a car crash: 1 in 125 /
/ Develop a brain tumor: 1 in 25,000 /
/ Die in a fire this year: 1 in 4,000,000 /
/ Win a state lottery jackpot: 1 in 4,000,000 /
/ -- What the Odds Are (Harper Perennial, 1992) by Les Krantz, cited in Context, 2~/1~/95.
"To Verify," Leadership./
We have students here this morning who are just graduating from college degree programs and are wondering what to do with their lives.
What is God's call for my life, they wonder?
I don't want to act in my flesh, but how do I know what that is?
How do I sort out the many voices around me?
Which voice belongs to God?
And do I really want to obey God's voice, even if I knew it?
We have people who are wondering about how to save for their retirement or how to live on retirement with what they have.
We have people wondering about which direction to take in treatment for a medical problem for themselves or for a loved one.
We have people wondering whether to trade in the old car and buy a new one.
We have people wondering whether to take a second job to make ends meet or to let that second job go to spend more time with the family.
There are difficult decisions "on the job" that are facing many of you.
Some of you are wondering how to carry out certain ministries here in the church that you have graciously and obediently taken responsibility for.
You want to know how best to minister to your family.
There are difficult personal family interrelationship decisions facing you.
Do you have another baby this year or try to wait until next year, if ever?
Should we start having children now or wait until we are more settled in life?
The world, also, is offering us many more choices that don't make life any easier.
It used to be that many choices were made for you, and accepted as part of life.
When people got married, it used to be that kids came with the package - they came when they happened.
But now we have the option of making decisions about how best to tamper with our bodies for a more controlled family environment.
It used to be that you went to the grocery store and you were lucky if there were one or two brands of dish soap on the shelf.
And now you can't even go to the grocery store to buy dish soap without making a decision about what brand, scent, color, consistency, whether moisturized, or anti-bacterialized, and what size to buy.
And guys – just try to make a decision about what kind of shaving cream to buy, even in the brand you usually get.
That is, if you have already made the decision to shave with a safety razor instead of electric.
I'll bet you there is a definite way to end up a decisive winner every time.
The question is whether or not you really want the winning answer.
Once again we turn to God's holy Word in the Bible for our answers and find it sufficient, even excellent – not easy, but full of wisdom and truth.
We are investing time in the book of Acts.
It is full of wisdom as we learn how God worked through the apostles and the early church to begin changing the world.
Remember the twin themes of Acts are witnessing and the Holy Spirit.
The truth of God is still changing the world.
The truth of God is still changing us.
We saw last week that Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit, and then he gave them the last great commission and ascended into heaven – from whence he would one day return.
In today's passage in Acts 1:12-26, we see an account of the last great lottery.
It is about decision making in the will of God.
The apostles discovered or realized that they had an important decision to make.
So let us look to God's Word and see what principles we can apply to our own lives about decision making.
This situation in Acts is a unique situation – it will never be repeated.
The ten-day period between the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit to the church in Acts 2 will never occur again.
So how and what can we learn from such a situation?
What are the sequence of events or actions taken that instruct us here?
What would you do if left with the mandate to wait for the H.S. and Jesus had just left you to go into heaven?
*Big Question:* How can we know that we can make godly decisions?
*I.
Cycle One*
* *
*A.
The Effectiveness of Prayer (1:12-14)*
The disciples had been out on the hill called the Mount of Olives from where Jesus ascended into heaven.
Since this was the Sabbath, they could go no further, this being about one kilometer, or less than a mile from the city.
They returned as they were told and went to the upper room.
This most likely was the same upper room where Jesus held the Passover meal, the Last Supper, with his disciples.
It could also have been the room where he appeared to some of them after he rose from the dead (Lk.
24:33-36), or even a room in the house of John Mark's mother where the church later met (Acts 12:12).
These upper rooms of the houses were an appropriate place for such a meeting because they were above street level noise and prying eyes.
They were perfect for assembly, study and prayer.
Note the women who continue to play an important part in the early church (Lk.
8:2-3; 23:49; 23:55-24:10).
Here is the last reference to Mary, mother of Jesus.
Note that Jesus' brothers are now here whereas they had previously not believed in him (Jn.
7:5).
Note that only eleven apostles are listed.
Only Judas the betrayer was absent.
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