Sermon Tone Analysis

GUIDANCE Core Seminar

Week #5: Scripture, Prayer, Counsel

Introduction

Good morning!

You’ve found yourself in week 5 of the Guidance core seminar on how to make decisions.

We spent the first few weeks of the class laying a foundation for how we make decisions, looking at God’s sovereign control over all our decisions, God’s will, and God’s goal for our decisions, which is that we be faithful as his stewards.

So now it’s time to build on that foundation and think practically about how we can make decisions.

Just a reminder: this class is all about how Christians should ordinarily make decisions.

Throughout Scripture, God guides his people through dreams, audible voices, prophets, visions, and so forth.

And if you heard God’s voice from a talking donkey or a burning bush, decision-making would be pretty straightforward, right?

Except that while God can guide this way—and has at times—this isn’t his normal practice.

Especially in an age when we have his Scriptures in full.

So you’ll need to give up on the expectation that you can rely on God speaking out of a storm or writing on the wall when you’re trying to decide whether to take your date to Chuck-E-Cheese or Chik-Fil-A.

Absent this extraordinary, unusual guidance of God, how can we make decisions?

Well, for the next two weeks we’ll be doing an inventory of the tools God’s given us to make decisions.

This week: the Bible, Prayer, and Counsel.

Next week: Circumstances, Feelings, and Wisdom, which kind of sums up all of these.

[Note: in each section there's a few thoughts on the wrong ways to use these tools.

Instead of simply jumping in, ask the class for examples of how we can use these tools foolishly—and move from their answers to the manuscript as written.]

I. Using God’s Word

Wrong Ways to Use God’s Word

Our first tool is God’s word.

How does God’s word help us make decisions?

Well, let’s start out by thinking of wrong ways that people think they can use God’s word to make decisions.

1) One good place to start: opening up to a random bible verse and applying it directly to your situation.

There’s the old joke about the woman who opened up to where it says of Judas, “he went and hanged himself.”

Dissatisfied with that, she flipped open to another random page where she read at the end of the parable of the good samaritan, “You go, and do likewise.”

Right.

Not how the Bible is supposed to be read.

Opening randomly and assuming that a sentence devoid of context is God’s special message to you is a horribly mystical way to conceive of Scripture.

That’s certainly not how Jesus used the Scriptures or how the Bible teaches us to read itself.

2) But that’s not the only wrong-headed way we use the Bible for guidance.

A related error is taking verse out of context.

How don’t know how many of you have read Peter Jenkins’ book Walk Across America.

Well, in it he describes becoming a Christian, meeting a Christian woman Barbara, and proposing to her—not only proposing marriage, but that she quit her job and finish his walk across the continent with him.

In church the next morning she hears where Laban asks Rebecca “Will you go with this man?” about going with Abraham’s servant to marry Isaac.

Barbara is transfixed: that question keeps ringing in her ears and she accepts the proposal.

Now, did God superintend for her to hear that passage that day?

Certainly.

Was it wise for her to marry Peter?

Perhaps—though they eventually got divorced.

Was Laban’s question a good one for her to be thinking through?

Maybe.

But here’s what’s critical: Should she have ascribed special significance to that question because it came from the Bible, as opposed to, say, hearing that question in a TV sitcom?

Absolutely not.

Because in its context Laban’s question has absolutely nothing to do with Peter’s proposal to Barbara.

It was right of Rebecca to answer that question with a “yes.”

But Rebecca’s situation in no way suggests that God would lead Barbara to give the same answer.

Just because a set of words come from the Bible doesn’t mean they are God’s message to you.

They are God’s word only in as much as they are read as God intended for us to read them.

In context.

Applied

Greg Koukl from Stand to Reason Ministries has a saying that’s useful for us: “Never read a bible verse.”

That’s right, “never read a bible verse.”

In other words, always read Scripture with the benefit of its context.

To give another example, consider .

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Many Christians have taken this verse to mean that they can achieve all their dreams and goals in life by the strength of Christ.

But, that’s not what this is talking about at all.

The surrounding context makes clear that Paul is talking about learning contentment in Christ through both good and bad circumstances.

Paul isn’t saying that he can accomplish anything through Christ, but that he can endure all things through Christ and still radiate contentment.

Context is key, and affects the meaning of a verse significantly.

Right Ways to Use God’s Word

OK.

So how do we use God’s word to make decisions?

Let me give you four categories of guidance the Scriptures provide.

1) Specific commands.

The most obvious way that the Scriptures guide us is through specific, clear commands.

“Is it God’s will for me to leave my wife and marry another woman?”

No. “Do not commit adultery.”

Case closed.

I know this seems obvious, but there are many times when Christians get all caught up in knots feeling God’s leading in one direction but seeing an explicit command in another.

God never contradicts himself.

If you feel God is leading you to commit adultery, I can guarantee you with 100% confidence that your feelings are mistaken.

2) Biblical principles.

Of course, there are many commands in Scripture that don’t clearly outlaw a particular action but are really helpful nonetheless.

Let’s say that you’re struggling with how you should respond to an invitation to a workplace lunch where one of your colleagues is going to announce his engagement to be married to his boyfriend.

It’s not like he’s inviting you to his wedding.

It’s not like the stated purpose of the lunch is to celebrate a gay marriage.

But you know how the room’s going to feel when he makes his announcement.

Is there a clear command in Scripture about this?

No.

But consider , “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore do not become partners with them.”

“Do not become partners with them.”

That’s a really helpful principle to keep in mind as you wrestle through what to do.

As is , “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

How can you act so that you don’t partner with others in their sin, and so that you do not seem to give approval to their sin?

3) Biblical goals and motives.

The Bible can judge the motives and goals we have in making a decision—and thinking about Biblical motives and goals can sometimes unmask what’s unbiblical in our hearts.

If you’re dating someone and are seeking guidance as to whether they would be a good spouse, you can look to and see what a godly wife looks like or to see what a godly husband should look like.

Or if we’re thinking about a career change and we want to assess our motives, we can look to passages like to show us the effects of sinful patterns of behavior, like the pursuit of riches instead of God.

It can help to write down all the motives and goals—both good and bad—that you have for a particular question.

Then write down the motives and goals that you see in Scripture, along with passages that describe them.

Spend time thinking through those passages, and pray that as you do that God will give you insight into where your hearts desires are right and where they’re wrong-headed.

4) Wisdom.

Honestly the main way that the Bible helps us make decisions has nothing to do with decision-making at all.

It’s simply the wisdom that you grow in as you spend more time in God’s word.

If you spend zero time in the Bible until the day you need to decide if you’re going to marry your boyfriend or girlfriend, I can pretty much guarantee that the Bible won’t be of much use to you.