Ep. 349 - How to Make God-Honoring Decisions in Life

In Christianity, decision-making is an often mystified topic. Life is full of choices, and sin complicates things. Ray, E.Z., Mark, and Oscar discuss how Scripture offers a much clearer way forward. Making God-honoring decisions isn’t about unlocking a secret code—it’s about confidence in God’s sovereignty. The heart of a believer is to walk in communion with God in every part of life, not just in moments of uncertainty. When someone fully surrenders to Christ, God will carry them. Walking in the fear of the Lord and having a reverent awe of who He is brings clarity. When someone lives for God’s glory, every decision filters through that lens.

The wisdom of God isn’t hidden, it’s available in His Word. The guys emphasize how we often overcomplicate things when Scripture is always sufficient. The more time someone spends in the Bible, the more their decisions reflect God’s heart. The world may pressure and mislead, but the believer stays focused on Christ. Practically, decision-making often involves affinity (what someone loves), ability (what someone is good at), and opportunity (which doors are opening). The church plays a vital role here—believers need objective counsel. There’s wisdom in a multitude of counselors. The guys remind believers to avoid surrounding themselves with yes men. Everyone needs people who aren’t impressed by them and will speak the truth in love.

Making unpopular decisions is difficult. That’s why it’s important to determine convictions before the moment comes. The more someone is in Scripture and community, the easier it becomes to stand strong. Even if alone, a believer is never truly alone- God stands with them. Knowing God’s Word also narrows options in a good way. Don’t ask God for direction while ignoring what He’s already revealed. If God seems silent, perhaps He’s already spoken and now it’s time for obedience. The Bible is the instruction manual. As leaders, especially husbands, decisions must reflect God's will, not self-interest. Husbands are called to lead, but not alone; wives are given to help discern God’s direction. Leadership is service- first to God, then to others.

The world says to follow your heart, but the Bible says the heart is deceitful. God-honoring decisions come from God-saturated minds. Those who seek wisdom must ask God for it and saturate themselves in His Word. Surrounding oneself with praying, honest believers matters. As the guys remind Christians, faith is a refusal to panic. Wait on the Lord. Trust His ways over your own. Cry out to Him because He knows more than we ever will.

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Learn more about the hosts of this podcast.
Ray Comfort
Emeal (“E.Z.”) Zwayne
Mark Spence
Oscar Navarro

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Because when you understand the greatness of God,
it changes your disposition.
You might be jumping up anddown doing cartwheels, but if
you're standing before the GrandCanyon, you're going to respect
the position you have in frontof that Grand Canyon.
You have a fear for the GrandCanyon?
The fear of the Lord is thebeginning of wisdom.

(00:21):
Not fear him like a tyrant, butjust recognize and fear the
greatness of God in the positionthat you have.
And I think to go back to answeryour question earlier in
regards to the sovereignty ofGod in the decisions that we
make, I think so often we getstuck thinking that somehow

(00:41):
again, this just goes back toyour phrase demystify thinking
that somehow we've got to unlockthe code to figure out who I'm
going to marry, what house tobuy, what career to take, when
God is our heavenly father andhe's like whatever you do, do it
to my glory, honor me in all ofit.

(01:01):
Where you go, I will be withyou.
There is so much freedom whenyou understand God as a
sovereign father, a God whostands over you and with you.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Welcome to the Living Waters Can you Do Math?
Segment where we find out if wecan do math.
Here we go, guys Ready.
Two plus two, four, four plusfour, eight, eight plus eight,
sixteen.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Sixteen plus sixteen, thirty-two, thirty-two plus
thirty-two, sixty-four plussixty-four, hundred twenty-eight
, hundred twenty-eight plushundred twenty-eight Two plus
two, that's where it fell apart.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oscar, you didn't even try.
I'm still in.
I'm 158.
158 plus 158.
316.
316 plus 316.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
632.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
No, oh yeah, pretty good Oscar, I have to admit Okay
so, oscar.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
So what's the purpose of this?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
There's no purpose.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
You're asking me what's the purpose to my
openings?
Right, you haven't learned bynow.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
There is no purpose, but I did want to actually ask
you, Oscar.
So you love books.
Obviously you're a big reader.
What were you like as a student?
Did you go to college or no?
I was trying to remember.
I did, but I didn't finish.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
I was a terrible student.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
Was it a homeschool college?

Speaker 1 (02:35):
I was a terrible student, but it's not fair.
I wish I had a differentexperience.
But you have to remember my momwas 15 when she got pregnant,
16 when she had me.
She struggled with addiction myentire childhood and so no one
ever told me to go to school.
So, like middle school, myattendance was like once a week,
twice a week maybe it was likewhen I was bored and I decided

(02:58):
to go, you know.
And so, yeah, I mean, you know,I got kicked out of three
different middle schools, highschool and I.
I often think back about itbecause I loved to read back
then, but I just didn'tunderstand the joy of education
and I wish I would have beenable to then, because I think it
would have been.
I would have enjoyed theexperience.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
But most people don't understand the joy of education
until they're older, that'sfair, so true, you look back.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah Now, ray, you hated school.
Oh yes, with a passion.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
Yeah, I loved leaving it.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Nothing like leaving school.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Threw all my books about 15 feet in the air and
crashed to the ground and wentsurfing.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Wow, I heard you skipped your last day of school
to surf Kind of that's a story Iheard.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
Yeah Well, I got a revelation that life is just
pleasure and if you're not, inpleasure, get out of it.
That was my revelation.
That's a good thing to say toour homeschool students who are
here today.
Did you hear that, guys?
They were from Sun Talking BC.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yes, of course, yeah, yeah, and Mark, you just
cheated your way through school,right I?

Speaker 3 (04:02):
did, did I mean, I attended 14 different schools?

Speaker 2 (04:05):
All at once.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
Not at one time.
That would have been difficult.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
But several years I did go to different schools
during that same year, exceptfor high school.
I attended all four years.
Oceanview High School andHuntington Beach represent the
Seahawks.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
And you were kicked out of schools too, weren't you
yeah?

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Two high schools 0.32 GPA.
Two high schools 0.32 GPA.
What a loser At the end of mysophomore year.
We're quite the role modelshere I know, aren't we?

Speaker 4 (04:27):
That's why we're doing this.
That's for our homeschoolfriends.
Thank you for joining us today.
Learn what you can.
Become friends, the foolishthings of the world.
Have you welcomed the?

Speaker 2 (04:35):
folks.
No, we're not going to.
Anyway, so Marika today,friends, we have with us the
Kindred Homeschool Group, whichis, I think, like 12 of you or
something, with moms in tow aswell.
Now let me ask you guys howmany of you have listened to the
Living Waters podcast?
Raise your hand.
Okay, the rest of you willshare the gospel with you
afterwards, so you can come toknow us, so let's give them a

(04:56):
big hand.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
Welcome.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Welcome friends.
That's great.
All right Time for a cool,classy comment.
This is from Sarah H Owsley.
Hello Living Waters crew.
My name is Sarah Hayden Owsley.
I live in Prattville, alabama.
I was introduced to your podcastby my husband before we were
married.
We've been married seven monthsand we've probably been

(05:20):
listening to your podcast forthe last year and a half.
Your podcast has been ablessing to our relationship
both before and during ourmarriage.
The way you set out to serveand glorify God and all that you
say and do inspires our walkswith Christ each time we tune in
to listen.
I can't begin to explain theimpact you've made on us and the
fire that has been ignited inmy husband to go out and share

(05:40):
the gospel with our community.
We plan to hand out your gospeltracks soon at a big city
festival in our community.
This will be the second time wehave gone out to share gospel
tracks since we got married.
We look forward to doing thismore and would love if you could
pray for our time spent sharingthe gospel with our community.
We are so grateful for each ofyou and we learn so much from
listening.
Thankful for Living Waters,sarah Hayden Owsley.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
How cool is that Wonderful Named after Spurgeon?

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, and like we talked about, you know the fact
that we're stirring people toshare the gospel and to see it
with a couple, you know, tostart out their marriage that
way, with the foundation ofreaching the Lord, I like that
our podcast is being usedthrough premarital counseling.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
To prepare you for madness, that's right.
Pretty much yeah.
To prepare you for madness,that's right.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Pretty much, yeah, yeah.
Well, thank you so much forwriting in, sarah, and hey, if
you're ever in California, comeby and see us at Living Watch.
What are you guys doing?

Speaker 4 (06:32):
We're helping out.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
It's hot in here.
It's just right, yeah, justright.
All right, friends, and nowtime for a radically
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Speaker 3 (06:45):
It's getting worse, dude.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
I know it's getting worse.
Isn't that great Scroll pen?
Listen, here, it's scrollfriends.
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Speaker 4 (06:54):
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Speaker 2 (06:59):
That's my workout, oh Shoulder day.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
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Yeah, this is one of myall-time favorites.
It's an exercise machine too,friends.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, this is one of my all-time favorites.
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Speaker 4 (07:20):
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Speaker 3 (07:51):
I feel bad for Rachel , do you?
Yeah, I mean, she has to livewith that.
She's here, hi, honey.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, poor Rachel.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
She must have just a mind Her psychiatrist bills.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
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Speaker 2 (08:09):
Guys, I'm so thrilled about this, seriously, just
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We'll do little segments thatwere impactful and then you get
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Speaker 1 (08:19):
Back to Rachel.
I think they should startgiving poll surprises to wives.
She'd be the first she would.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
First.
First she would First recipient, For sure.
All right, friends.
Today we're talking about howto make God-honoring decisions
in life.
The moms are wondering now, didwe make a good one?

Speaker 4 (08:36):
bringing our kids to this insanity.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
But guys, look within the faith.
I would say this is probablyone of the most common questions
that leaders and pastors gethow do I make good decisions?
When we think about it, life isfull of making decisions.
I mean, everything you doultimately traces back to you
having to to exercise yourdiscernment skills and then

(09:02):
finally decide whether to dosomething or not do something,
or if you're going to dosomething or not do something,
or if you're going to dosomething or not do something,
what specific things you dorelated to it, and so this is an
important issue to discuss,because I think there's a lot of
misunderstanding and, I woulddare say, a lot of mysticism
infused into decision-makingwaiting for a feeling, waiting

(09:23):
for a sign and things like that,rather than being a people who
understand how God has designedus and that there is a way,
biblically speaking, to makegood decisions.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, I remember Vance Havner once saying that
every decision we make itbalances on a razor's edge.
Not that you're gonna fall offthe cliff, but it heads you in
the trajectory of maybe adirection where you should not
take.
And this kind of goes hand inhand with our last podcast that
we talked about, withdiscipleship and accountability
and just being there for eachother, because friends can look
into your life and just say, hey, man, your trajectory is a

(09:57):
little off.
Remember when we had breakfastwith R Kent Hughes?
Yeah, and he was asked thequestion you know you've written
22 commentaries what hasmotivated you to do such a thing
?
And he said well, I knew thatwith God, I can open up God's
word, I can sit on my hands, Icould put my guard down because
I knew God was not going to lieto me.
And I open up God's wordbecause and I start early in the

(10:21):
morning because I know the restof the day I'm going to be lied
to yeah, Right, and for me theWord of God became my ultimate
sanity in a very confused,photoshopped world.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
So the rest of the world lied to him?
You're talking about thesecular world.
The secular world yeah, likeadvertising and everywhere.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Every billboard has been photoshopped, every
commercial that has been.
I mean millions of dollarsspent on all sorts of
advertisement.
You.
Every commercial that has been.
I mean millions of dollarsspent on all sorts of
advertisement.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
You just don't know what is real anymore.
It's crazy.
In my book I talked about whatwould it be?

Speaker 4 (10:49):
like.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
What's the book called?
Oh, fight Like a man, abiblical battle plan for
personal purity.
Yeah, I talk in there about howwonderful life would be if we
had no enemies, like there's nosin in the world, no one is out
to get you, no one is out to getyou, no one's out to do you
wrong, no one's out to.
But that's not the reality ofthe world that we live in.

(11:09):
I mean, we are constantly, youknow, being attacked from
different angles and we're beinglied to, like you said, mark,
and the problem is we'reinvolved in gallibles travels.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
We're gallible as human beings.
Gallibles travels, gullible'sTravels, where gullible is human
beings.
Gullible's Travels yeah, get it.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Did you come?

Speaker 4 (11:25):
up with that.
Yeah, pride, yeah, but I justhumbled myself immediately after
it, so it's canceled.
So anyway, yeah, I'm incrediblygullible.
Just the other day I purchasedsomething I thought this is
can't wait until it comes, andit's about a quarter the size I
thought it would be.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
And I paid a lot of money Not a lot of money, but
comparatively a lot of money.
Could it be that it's normalsize for normal size?

Speaker 4 (11:49):
people, but they photograph it to give you the
impression.
This is a six inch high tube ofsomething and when you get it.
It's like two inches and youthink, oh, I got ripped off
again.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
I remember you and I, Ray, being in an airport.
I can't remember whichrestaurant restaurant it was,
but you took a picture of theburger you got versus what was
up on the board and it waspathetic.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
My burger was just like someone has sat on it for
two days, compared to thepicture up on there.
It's like what is this?
Yeah, Crazy.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
I love in the introduction that you use the
word demystifying.
I think it's a really powerfulword, because making God
honoring decisions is not aboutunlocking some secret code or
being ultimately what it's about.
Is about being shaped by thegospel, saturated in scripture,
walking in community and beingconfident in God's sovereignty.

(12:38):
And the more that we seek Godhimself, not just his will, the
more we become a kind of peoplethat will naturally follow his
will.
I love Keller's way of puttingit.
He says if you seek God only toget guidance, you're treating
him like a genie.
But if you seek him because youlove him, you'll not only find
his guidance, but you'll findhim too.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Oh, that's so good and ultimately, that's the true
desire of every believer's heart.
It's Lord.
It's not just I'm living thislife and making decisions and
doing this, and that it's.
How can I be in communion withyou in every aspect of life,
mark?
We talk about that often.
Every avenue of life, everyopportunity that we enter into

(13:24):
is really an opportunity toworship.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
It is, I forget who wrote the book Practicing the
Presence of God.
Was that Murray?
Practicing the Presence of God,Andrew Murray I think it was.
Thomas Kempis, the Imitation ofChrist.
I mean, there's a lot ofcraziness in, I think, both of
those books, but the idea isjust simply always cognizant of
the fact that God is with you.
Every step right, every stepyou take is a step closer to God

(13:49):
.
Every breath you're breathing,every word that you're saying is
being deciphered right.
I mean, that's how in tune Godis with us in every single
moment.
And the more we would realizethat, the more it keeps us from
presumptuous sins, the more itkeeps us from entertaining
things that we shouldn'tentertain, for which Christ died
.
For the moment we realize thatChrist is with us and he looks

(14:11):
out the very eyeballs in whichwe are looking at right, I mean
just that close, we would beturning our eyes away from a lot
more things.
We would not be entertaining alot of things that maybe we
entertained at two years ago.
We are works in progress andpraise God for that.
But the fear of God, it clearsthe fog of confusion.
Proverbs 3, verse 5, we know it.

(14:33):
It's something not just to behighlighted and underlined.
I've often said that the Bible,for a lot of us adults, has
become nothing more than anadult coloring book, and we stay
within the lines.
We color, we highlight, we doeverything and those things are
really great.
I can never stay on the lines.
Actually, I just had to confessthat trust in the lord with all
your heart and do not lean onyour own understanding.
All your ways, acknowledge himand he will make your straight

(14:54):
paths.
I remember this verse along withthe verse where shall I go,
lord?
You alone hold the words toeternal life.
Those two passages were justanchors, two sides of the same
coin, where I would hold ontoduring my earliest formable days
as a Christian.
Right Not having anybodyspeaking into my life Didn't

(15:14):
have the disciples.
You and I, we didn't havediscipleship.
We were left to ourselves totry to figure things out, and I
thank God for the heritageinside this house.
You know where people are ableto ask their parents questions
and if they're not walking withGod, you can ask your friend's
parent a question because theyare walking with God.
We didn't have that Right, rightand that's just how important

(15:36):
the community is andaccountability is, and putting
God first, fearing him.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, you know, ray, I'd love you to speak to the
sovereignty of God indecision-making in the grand
sense, in that I think sometimesbelievers are terrified oh no,
I'm gonna make the wrongdecision.
Oh no, what's gonna happen?
I've used the analogy beforethat I've heard of a cruise ship
on its way to a destination.
The people on that cruise shipcan make a bunch of different

(16:01):
kinds of decisions.
They might go into the wrongroom, or they might say the
wrong thing or whatever, butthat's not going to change the
fact they're going to reachtheir destination.
The ship is still moving.
You can get a bunch of thingson that ship, but it's still
moving.
And so, ray, how important isit for believers to really grasp
God's sovereignty over ourlives, even if we might make

(16:22):
wrong decisions at times?

Speaker 4 (16:22):
Yeah, it's very important for believers to grasp
.
I've got something.
The key is a surrendered will,total surrender to God.
You're no longer on your own.
You're brought with a price.
I've got to mention somethinghere.
I've probably mentioned itbefore and I don't want to
embarrass anyone but one of mykids I'm not going to say who it

(16:47):
was because I'll embarrass her,but she was about seven years
old.
I was just in the shower and Iheard her call out Dad, I want
to do a heading for my work atschool.
What color should I do?
The heading Green?
And I said, well, this is socool.
My daughter's coming to me andI was publishing.
Back then I had a Jesus paperand we're probably in our 11th
issue, and so she knew that Ihad an expertise when it comes
to color and make things standout.
So I said, well, I said yellowon a black background can be

(17:10):
great.
And she just called back whatabout green?
and so I thought, yeah, no, shedoesn't like you know.
So, um, red is an outstandingcolor.
I called back and she said whatabout green?
I said green.
Then she says thanks, dad.
And it really was a lesson howwe can come to God and say not
your will, but mine be done.

(17:30):
I've got my mind made up.
I'm going to pray about this soI appease my conscience.
I'm going to come to my fatherand get his opinion, but I'm
going to do my own thing, yeah,so it really comes back to what
Mark was saying walking in thefear of the Lord.
Another memory when my kidswere little our kids I built a
playhouse and it was about 12feet wide by about 6 feet long,

(17:54):
or 12 feet long by 6 feet wide,who cares?
And I had zeal, withoutknowledge this is going to be a
shock to you, ez, but I justwent for it.
I didn't bother using a squarefor the foundation or a level.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Shocker.
Yeah, just duct tape.
I'm just going to do this.

Speaker 4 (18:16):
So I didn't use a level or a square, I just went
by my eyesight.
Yeah, that's level and this issquare.
And what happens when I finishthe whole thing in my whole life
.
I finish the whole thing exceptfor the door, and when I went
to put the door in, it would notfit in because there was
nothing square, the windowwouldn't fit in, and so the
foundation for our lives asChristians should be the fear of

(18:38):
the Lord.
That should be the level, thatshould be the square, and
everything else is built on topof that.
Se devil.
That should be the square, andeverything else is built on top
of that.
Seek first the kingdom of Godand His righteousness, and all
these things will be added.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Oscar, there's a lot of misunderstanding when it
comes to the fear of the Lord.
People hear that and they'relike wait a minute, fear God,
but God's our Father.
What do you mean, fear God?
So speak to that a little bitso people can tie in with what
Ray and Mark are saying.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, there's many people that want to talk about
the fear of the lord and theywant to transition, to go.
You know reverence, respect,but to be clear, it does mean
reverence, it does mean respect.
It also means a recognition ofthe greatness of god and your
position before him.
Because when you understand thegreatness of God, it changes
your disposition.

(19:28):
You might be jumping up anddown doing cartwheels, but if
you're standing before the GrandCanyon, you're going to respect
the position you have in frontof that Grand Canyon.
You have a fear for the GrandCanyon.
The fear of the Lord is thebeginning of wisdom.
Not fear him like a tyrant, butjust recognize and fear the

(19:49):
greatness of God in the positionthat you have.
And I think to go back to answeryour question earlier in
regards to the sovereignty ofGod, in the decisions that we
make, I think so often we getstuck thinking that somehow
again this goes back to yourphrase demystify.
Thinking that somehow, againthis goes back to your phrase.
Demystify.
Thinking that somehow we've gotto unlock the code to figure
out who I'm going to marry, whathouse to buy, what career to

(20:12):
take, when God is our heavenlyfather and he's like whatever
you do, do it to my glory.
Honor me in all of it.
Where you go, I will be withyou.
There is so much freedom whenyou understand God as a
sovereign Father, a God whostands over you and with you.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, and really that becomes the kind of filtering
system or the grid through whichwe examine things.
And again we're looking asthese finite, fallen, broken
people who are seeking to do theright thing.
We're seeking to have somethingthat's going to help us
maximize decision-making in sucha way that it comports with

(21:02):
what's honoring to the Lord.
And that's why, having a visionin life I've shared, years ago
I gathered my family in ourliving room and I unveiled for
them the Zwayne Family VisionStatement to gladly and
passionately glorify God inevery thought, affection, word
and deed, while constantlyenjoying Him as our greatest
pleasure and most precioustreasure.
Rachel myself, all five of ourchildren, have memorized that.
It sits in a big plaque in themiddle of our living room.

(21:24):
Because when you are living forGod's glory, you're not going to
be haphazard.
When you're making decisions,you're not just going to be okay
.
Well, I want to do this,because I want it.
It's like you're alwaysfiltering it through the grid.
Does this glorify you, lord?
Does this make much of God?
Does this honor you and bringyou pleasure?
Because, 2 Corinthians 5, we'reall going to stand before the

(21:46):
judgment seat of Christ andwe're going to give account.
And he says.
Therefore, whether absent orpresent, we make it our aim to
be well-pleasing to him, andthat ties in with glorifying him
.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
Isaiah 33, 6,.
It says the fear of the Lord isZion's treasure.
And it's always kind of stoodout to me that we all have
treasures.
We all have something that wekind of seek after.
And Zion comes along and hesays well, we have a treasure,
we have a desire, we have asingle-handed passion it's the
fear of God.
To walk in the fear of the Lord.
Oftentimes we talk to youngpeople who say you know, I don't

(22:17):
know what to do.
You know, I'm confused.
There's two roads that aredividing in my life.
Which one is the one lesstraveled?
I'll take that Maybe broad is.
I don't want to know, I don't,what do I do?
And we forget that the wisdomof God is not hiding from us,
it's hiding for us.
And if we open up God's Wordand we dig down deep, that is
the safest place to be, thecenter of God's will, which is

(22:40):
inside of the Word of God.
Who was it?
Justin Peters, who said if youwant to hear God speak, read His
Word.
If you want to hear God speakout loud, well, then read His
Word out loud.
Right, we don't need toovercomplicate things.
So you want to be the wisestperson in the world?
Read the proverb of the day andLord, speak to me through your

(23:05):
word.
You know, as I go through yourword, I want your word to go
through me.
Search me, try me, see if therebe any wicked way in me and
lead me in the way everlasting.
And my heart's desire, myheart's cry, lord, is that you
would use me now, before it'stoo late, before I have too many
aches and pains and I'm justfilled with more excuses why I
refuse to march forward.

(23:26):
The army of God marches forwardon their knees, and that's how
we should be reading God's wordas well, asking God to fill us
with his wisdom.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Amen.
You know, mark, I'm so man, I'mso glad you brought that up,
because again wecompartmentalize in our minds.
Right, we think decision-making, and again we're always
thinking about it in terms ofthe big things in life which
school do I choose and which jobdo I take, and so forth.
But there are decisions that wemake in the moral realm in

(23:52):
terms of how we're going torespond to a given situation, to
a specific person.
And when you fill your heartand mind with God's Word, this
is how you're impacted indecision-making.
Okay, so someone comes at youand they're being harsh and
rough.
Boom, proverbs 15,.
One pops in your mind.
You know, a gentle answer turnsaway wrath.
Harsh words stir up anger thatmoves you to make the right

(24:14):
decision.
Because if you don't base thedecisions you make on God's word
, you're gonna revert to yourown human wisdom, which is
flawed and fallen.
It's always one of the two it'seither your own contrived,
man-centered wisdom or it's whatGod has revealed.
Someone is doing somethingtowards you and you're feeling
this bitterness rise up in yourheart.

(24:35):
Boom, ephesians 4, 30 through32, and do not grieve the Holy
Spirit of God by whom you weresealed for the day of redemption
.
Let our bitterness, wrath,anger, clamor and evil.
Speaking Now, you're informed,so you're moved to make a
decision that comports with whatpleases the Lord.

(24:55):
Now you're going to beforgiving and not hold on to
bitterness.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
Right, it's that sort of thing, yeah, I mean, have
you ever had that mindset of itdoesn't matter what the world or
what somebody does to me, thatyou're just like so focused in
that moment it just doesn'tmatter what the world or what
somebody does to me, that you'rejust so focused in that moment,
it just doesn't matter?
It's like somebody comes to youand says, hey, I need to ask
your forgiveness for something,and you quickly respond before
they ever say anything.
Of course you're alreadyforgiven.
Now what do you need to get offyour chest?
That's how we are to live ourlives with the people around us.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
Let's talk practically.
So imagine, let's talkpractically.
So I'm imagining, like you know, graduating college, like what
am I gonna do with my career?
Or headed towards college,whatever the case, which is a
conversation that I've had oftenwith people and I love in every
good endeavor.
It has what's called thevocational triage, in which he
talks about affinity, abilityand opportunity.
So he says, like affinity iswhat am I passionate about?

(25:42):
That's something to askyourself.
Ability what am I passionateabout?
That's something to askyourself.
Ability what am I good at?
And then opportunity what dooris God opening in front of me
right now?
And what he talks about in thatbook is like to explore the
vocational triage in the contextof a community, to have elders
and parents and friends andpeople at the church, to be able

(26:03):
to come alongside you and helpyou recognize blind spots,
passions, things that are trulyin front of you, so that you're
not reaching into an area thatmaybe you shouldn't be.
You know, if Ray came to us andwas like I want to be a
construction worker, we'd belike well, you have the affinity
, but you don't have the ability.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
We don't want to kill people, we don't want to have a
hammer running around, oh man,yeah, no, that's good and I'd
like to really kind of camp outon that a little bit that the
role of counsel in our lives, inhelping us to make good
decisions, and I think thatsometimes we seek out the
counsel that we want to coincidewith what we want to do, versus

(26:44):
like I really want objectivecounsel that is right and
coincide with what we want to do, versus like I really want
objective counsel that is rightand not just what I want.

Speaker 4 (26:49):
What about green?

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, what about green Right man?
You're putting Rachel sittingon display today.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
Oh yeah, that's right .
What you just threw her underthe bus.
She just heard aboutforgiveness, so I'll be fine,
but she just heard aboutforgiveness, so I'll be fine.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, so, mark, counsel.
You and I have talked aboutthis ad nauseum, the value of
good counsel.
I love it when young peoplecome, and I know they're not
just coming to me, but I knowthey're going to multiple people
to get their insight and input.
Speak to that.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
There's wisdom.
In the multitude of counselors,it's easy to find somebody that
will agree with you, right?

Speaker 1 (27:26):
And we need to be careful with that.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
I sent a text to Kurt Camerioni earlier today and his
response was this isinteresting.
It's a new topic to me.
I've spoken to several pastorsand Christian attorneys about it
.
I'm trying to really understandthe issues.
And he just went on to saywhere do I go right?
And so if we surround ourselveswith people who say, look, I

(27:49):
only want God's will, as youspeak inside somebody's life,
and somebody else speaks insidetheir life and this person
speaks inside their life,eventually they're going to find
that balance of what's good forthem, especially if they only
want God's will, if they wantGod's will listen.
This is going to be a very easything, and that goes back to
what I was saying before.
You're already forgiven.

(28:09):
What do you need to get offyour chest?
We had a couple of friends thatmoved from California over to
Arizona to be part of thisfinancial deal and he just
dropped off the map.
He didn't even say goodbye, hejust took off.
And when he came back I hit himup and I said, bro, what
happened?
Why didn't you tell us?
And he said well, I knew youwould say no.

(28:30):
That's a hard place to be whenyou're afraid that somebody's
going to say no, somebody'sgoing to say this isn't wise.
No, listen, weigh out thematters, put everything together
and then just make yourdecision.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
He's a multi-billionaire, his name's
elon musk and I'm like what areyou doing?
It was elon.
We have to confess I love thiswe have to confess our tendency
for yes men and women in ourlives.
We gravitate towards thecouncil that we want to hear
right, rather than the councilthat we need to hear.
And you I mean taking atestation of your life is there?
Is there anybody in your lifethat we need to hear?
And I mean taking a testationof your life?
Is there anybody in your lifethat are willing to challenge
you?
Everybody.

(29:10):
Yeah, I was just talking to ayoung youth pastor and we were
just talking throughfaithfulness in ministry and my
counsel to him was surroundyourself, because in ministry
especially, it's hard.
There's a tendency for yes mento gravitate around you, and I
explained to him one of the mostimportant things you can do for
your soul is to surroundyourself with people who are not

(29:34):
impressed with you, becausethen they can know you and they
can give you the counsel thatyou actually need, rather than
the counsel you want to hear.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
What are you two doing?
He makes me sick.
I'm not impressed with you.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
Mark's giving me condescending looks.
I am surrounded by guys likethat, seriously, very faithful
men of God, who will just saywhat's in their heart.
I don't have to listen to themif I don't want to.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
So it doesn't even matter what we say.
It reminds me of the account inthe Old Testament where this
one king had advised anotherking to call for a prophet named
Micaiah and the other king saidI hate him because he always
speaks against me.
And then he calls him andMicaiah speaks against him and

(30:17):
then he says did I not tell you?
He said I can only speak whatthe Lord has commanded me and
I'll only speak what the Lord'scommanded me and I'll only speak
what the Lord's commanded me.
And I love men like that in myown life, who I know, because
when you really want to pleaseand honor the Lord, those are
the people you're going to seekout.
All of us know intuitively whothe yes men are.
All of us know intuitively whothe people are that are going to

(30:37):
just, they don't want to offendor they don't want tension, but
those that love us and who aregoing to speak truth but who
also do it gracefully right.
There's a way to do it whereyou're not going to be hurtful
and offensive, but, brother, Ilove you, I care about you.
But here's honestly what Ithink and ultimately that's love
right when we give the personnot so much what they want but
what they need.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
I thought you were going to start singing a song
when you sing what's love.
What's love got to do with?

Speaker 3 (31:04):
it.
What have I done?

Speaker 2 (31:04):
Mark, you're my favorite backup singer.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
I'm always here for you, yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
If I can get Ray and Oscar to dance too.
Interpretive dance.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
Yeah, it's not going to happen.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
We haven't made.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
So here's my question what did you say?

Speaker 4 (31:20):
You haven't thought of the question.
You're right.
I didn't know that there'snothing in the brain, I know you
.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
What's for lunch, yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
No, but making decisions when it's not popular,
when we know that now we talkedabout people advising us who
may be uncomfortable to speakthe truth to us, but when we
need to make decisions that arenot popular, that can be one of
the most challenging things,mark.

(31:50):
What do we do to navigate that,to prep ourselves for those?
Hey, bow before my 90-footstatue, or burn right, stop
praying to God for 30 days orget thrown into the lion's den.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah, we need to determine in our hearts
beforehand what we're going todo.
That's why, each morning, whenI wake up and I just salute and
I just say reporting for duty,lord, what do you have today?
If you're in the army, ifyou're in the military, you
don't tell the generals whatyou're going to do.
You don't tell them how you'regoing to dress or how you're
going to style your hair.
You're in a battle, a spiritualbattle, and as a spiritual

(32:25):
battle, as a battlefield, not aplaying field, a battleground,
not a playground, we have torealize that people are going to
be people and we need to dowhat God has called us to do.
Spur said discernment it's notknowing the difference between
right and wrong, it's knowingthe difference between right and
almost right.
So the more we inundateourselves with the Word of God

(32:47):
and with godly accountabilityand godly fellowship, we're not
going to be making those poordecisions when they're coming
before us.
Remember MacArthur.
He said his most joyous timesin life is when he's in the
middle of a situation where theRed Sea's in front of him, the
army's all around him andthere's no way out.
Where God has to come in clutch, where a miracle has to take

(33:10):
place.
We have that famous quote fromGeneral MacArthur, when he was
leading his team, his warriors,his soldiers, his men, into
battle, and he went down intothe valley and when he went down
into the valley.
And when he went down into thevalley, there were people coming
up over the hill and they'renow in a compromised position
because they're down in thevalley.
And then he looked to the leftand there were people to the

(33:30):
left of him and people to theright of him.
And then he looked back andthere were the enemy behind him
as well, and his response to thepeople were well, the enemy is
not going to get away from usthis time.
People were well, the enemy'snot going to get away from us
this time.
Right, that is the mindset thatwe need to have.
One with God will always be inthe majority.
So when we are in the midst ofdifficulty, when trial is all
around us, it's a good place tobe.

(33:51):
Remember Vance Habner.
You know, sometimes God puts uson our back so that we look up.
Sometimes God calls you awayfrom noisy sheep because they're
just noisy, because there'sjust too much clamor going on.
You know what was it?
I mean it was only recordedthat John the Baptist leaned on
the breastplate of Jesus andheard the heartbeat of deity.
Who else heard the heartbeat ofdeity besides John the Baptist?
Who knows, maybe the others didas well, maybe they were close,

(34:13):
maybe they were intimate inthat fashion.
But if you want to hear theshepherd's voice, you have to
get away from the sheep, and themore you're away from the sheep
and you seek the face of God,you're not going to worry about
the face of other people.
You're not going to worry aboutthe applause or the plaudits or
the promotion or the positionof other people that are around
you.
So it is a good place to bewhen you are by yourself and
you're recognizing that you'llnever be by yourself because

(34:35):
he's always with you.
He goes before you and he'sbehind you and upholds you and
he guides you with his eye.
We take refuge under the shadowof his wing and he is our
strength and our horn, oursalvation, our buckler.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Amen, ray, I'd love you in a minute to just speak to
the role of prayer in helpingus in decision-making?

Speaker 4 (34:49):
Yeah, just one.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
Ray's always in prayer.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
But before that I did want to go back to what we were
talking about in terms of theword and decision-making in
decision making, when you knowand understand the Word, it also
limits your options when itcomes to making decisions.
For example, let's say it's ahusband or a wife and they're

(35:12):
just struggling in theirmarriage and they just don't
have these feelings or emotionsof love anymore for their spouse
.
They don't have to wonder woulda divorce be right in this
context, because they understandwhat scripture says that what
God has joined together, let noman separate, that you're not to
leave your husband or your wife, and so forth.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
I think the word wedlock, tells us, contains the
word lock, which means this ispermanent.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Wed with lock?
Yeah, forever, yeah.
But someone who's like man thisis permanent Wend with lock.
Yeah, forever yeah.
But someone who's like man thisgovernment stinks.
Should I pay my taxes this yearor should I cheat a little bit,
mark?
It's like the question that youask.
I think you mentioned it before.
You'll ask Mormons is it wrongfor me to steal a ballpoint pen,
right, no?
Well then, I never have to askGod, should I?
And I never have to ask God,should I and you do that with

(35:58):
the whole, like burning in thebosom or is revealed to me.
If you know, this is the Bookof Mormon.
Is God's word or not?
So that's hugely important.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
It's like don't ask God about where to walk if
you're not willing to walk inobedience.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Ooh, that's good.
Is that original?
I think so.
That was terrible, maybe not.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
And to add to that, and to add to that I've also
heard it worded this way thatGod just seems silent to me.
I open up his word and nothing,just it's not bouncing off the
pages like Braille, like maybeit used to at one time.
It's like I don't know what todo and I heard a pastor respond
with well, is it possible thathe's already told you what to do
and he's not willing to giveyou the next set of instructions

(36:41):
until you obey the first set ofinstructions, the first set of
instructions?
They're very simple.
We tend to overcomplicate andover-spiritualize and mystify
everything that's going on.
And it's a lot more simplerthan that.
Yeah, amen.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
Yeah, reading the word.
You just don't brush over it,you dig into it like you do a
good meal, and I think that'swhen you get the most out of it.
Prayer, acknowledge Him in allyour ways and He'll direct your
paths.
I think I'm going to learn alot from the world.
I'm overwhelmed with mysticismat how blind this world is.
That you can seriously talk tosomeone about a hummingbird and

(37:19):
they don't see God's creativehand in it.
It just blows me away.
It just happens.
They don't even think deeplyabout sunsets, sunrises or even
lightning.
One of my favorite things to dowhen I'm editing is talk about
sinning against God and thenturn my volume up, bring in
thunder and lightning into alittle video so it scares the

(37:40):
living daylights out of theperson that's watching it,
because that really puts thefear of God in you.
If you're in a storm and yousee real lightning, it really is
terrifying what it is.
In a split second, fire comesfrom the heavens and thunder
shakes you very hard.
I was in Reno I don't know ifRachel can remember this.
We were in Reno once and therewas a roll of thunder.

(38:02):
I don't know if it's called aroll.
It wasn't a roll, it was like ait came instantly.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Can you do that noise again?
Do that noise again, Ray Likethat.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
And it shook the whole house Seriously.
The whole house physicallyshook with the sound of thunder
and bring that into the fear ofthe Lord.
The Bible is like aninstruction book.
I don't know about you guys,but I continually have a battle
when I get an appliance.
I hate reading instructions.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Hallelujah, brother, yeah, you with me Amen.

Speaker 4 (38:33):
Women don't mind it, but they're usually written in
Korean and they're a one-pointfont and they're not even
written so you can understandwhat they're talking about and
you think bits are missing here.
So what I do is I put theappliance together and if it
doesn't work, then I get theinstruction book.
And that's what the world hasdone with the Bible.
It's the instruction book.
The whole world's in anabsolute mess because it hasn't

(38:54):
read the instruction first, seekfirst the kingdom of God and
His righteousness.
So the question is how sold outare we to God?
Listen to what GeorgeWhitefield said A true faith in
Jesus Christ will not suffer orallow us to be idle.
No, it is an active, living,restless principle and fills the
heart, so that it cannot beeasy until it is doing something

(39:16):
for Jesus Christ.
I just love that because youcan see it in the life of
Whitefield.
He was totally sold out, andthat's the key to being free as
a Christian.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Ray, do you still pray every day, whether or not
God wants you to witness?
He blew the door off the hinges.
Yes.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
The shotgun's gone I think we just realized that Ray
only shops at Timu, it's like.15.
Shops at Timu, right, it's like0.15 font.
What's Timu Nice?

Speaker 2 (39:44):
Yeah, okay.
So I want to get into an areathat's a little more sensitive
and that is our responsibilityRay's ribs, ray's, what Ribs?

Speaker 4 (39:57):
Oh, that seems.
Rachel, come and help me.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
I want us to probe a little bit the responsibility
Oscar I'd love you to addressthis the responsibility of
decision-making when we are inpositions of authority, Because
our decisions don't just affectus.
And I know that for us, I think, as fathers and as husbands,

(40:24):
sometimes as leaders indifferent spheres, it's easy for
us to forget that, you know,and we can sometimes become kind
of lacking in charity as wethink about how our decisions
affect others, or we'rehaphazard in that we're not
really seeking the Lord.
And it's interesting becausesometimes I think, when we think
about decisions that we have tomake, we're usually thinking,

(40:46):
oh, the decisions that don'tcoincide with what our family
wants, our wife, our children.
But sometimes it could be theopposite.
We may know we may have to makea decision that doesn't fit
what they desire and that mightcause tension, and how do we
navigate that?

Speaker 1 (40:59):
Yeah, there's two different, I think, ends of that
spectrum.
There's like the egalitarianfather and husband that does not
recognize that God ordained,calling on his life to guide and
lead and disciple and protecthis family.
Well, and whether or not herealizes that he is in some way,
shape or form leading thefamily, even if he's submitting

(41:23):
to something else, right.
But then there's the other endof the spectrum which is
thinking that because you're aleader, that you have some and
this is where pride comes inthat you have some way and form
of making a choice outside thecontext of what God wants you to
do.
And I think one of the thingsthat I encourage people all the
time, especially men in marriage, is to recognize your wife is

(41:50):
given to you as a helper.
Think about that.
That's not diminishing, that'snot less than that doesn't mean
my choice is primary and if youdon't agree with me, then it's
me and you got to submit to that.
Think about what God callshimself to Abraham a helper.
Abraham would never look at Godand be like well, if you don't

(42:12):
agree with me, just submit to meGod.
God was a helper to Abraham tounderstand God's will.
So for husbands, a helper toAbraham to understand God's will
.
So for husbands, your wife is ahelper to help you understand
the will of God, not for you totreat as a subordinate when you
don't agree with her everysingle time.
That doesn't mean you won'talways agree and you have to
blah, blah, blah.
But obviously the point is isthat God gives you your spouse

(42:36):
to help you understand his willin his way and, I think, to
really apply this.
I think about my life, likethere's been moments where my
wife and I will disagree aboutdecision on schooling, about
what house to buy, and she knowswhat to do In those moments.
Often what she'll do, she'll belike all right, I trust your
leadership, and that's alwayslike the oh no.

(42:57):
Like there's just like this, ohman where, and it often humbles
me to recognize and seesomething that I didn't see
before.
And so us, as leaders whetheryou're a leader in the home, a
leader in the workplace, aleader at school, as a leader,
we're here to serve.
Serve people, but primarilyserve.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
God's will in our lives.
I was imagining Kellyrephrasing that, as you're going
to give account to God, that'sbasically what she does.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
That would really work.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
So, mark, I've talked often about how the world has
this bully pulpit right.
It has such a massive avenuethrough which to impact our
lives, or avenues, rather,whether it's television, it's
social media, it's magazines,it's books, it's billboards, I
mean the radio programs.

(43:46):
The world comes in full forceand there is this propensity for
us as people to catch kind ofthe way of the world in the way
that we make decisions.
How do we combat that?
Again, we've talked about it.
Before you get a friend thatmoves to Texas, they come back
five years later.

(44:07):
Hey how y'all doing what in theworld happened to you?
But it's influence right.
So how do we counter theworld's influence in our
decision-making process?

Speaker 3 (44:16):
I think for young ones it first starts with
honoring your parents, listeningto your parents, allowing there
to always be an open door withyour parents, that your parents
have your best interest in mind,that they may not always make
the best decisions.
Remember Scripture doesn't sayto honor your mother, your
father as long as they are notRight.

(44:38):
It says to honor your mom andyour dad.
That's explicit across theboard.
Unless, obviously, we have thatcaveat, unless they're asking
you to sin, but to honor yourmom and dad.
Because friends are going tokind of come and go, voices are
going to come and go, shows aregoing to kind of come and go,
but your parents they're just init for the long haul that
they're not going anywhere.
Last time I looked that fifthcommandment honor your mom and

(45:02):
dad.
It's one of the top 10, right?

Speaker 4 (45:03):
So I think it really starts there Is that original
Spence.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
I don't know Pride, so you'll never outgrow that
fifth commandment right.
So we need to do that.
Exodus 20, verse 12, honor yourfather and your mother that
your days may be long in theland that the Lord, your God, is
giving you.
This is not a suggestion aswell.
Your parents are the only onesthat will continually be there

(45:29):
as long as they are there.
Especially, consider aChristian household I was
sharing with one of my kidsearlier this week.
I said look, I give you my wordthat I'm going to be here, not
as long as you're alive, but aslong as I'm alive, because more
than likely I'm gonna be gonebefore you.
What does this mean?
I really should be your bestfriend.
Yeah Right, there is nobodyrooting for you.

(45:53):
Such good manipulation, it isright.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
Go clean your room.

Speaker 4 (45:57):
Make that bed.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
Ephesians 6,.
It says children, obey yourparents in the Lord, for this is
right.
Honor your father and mother,that it may go well with you.
God ties your future to yourfamily.
He ties your future to yourfamily.
That's really the way it is andI want, when my daughters get

(46:19):
married, that they say I want tomarry somebody who's just like
dad.
When my daughters get married,that they say I want to marry
somebody who's just like dad,who honors mom, who puts Christ
first, who is quick to turn offthat television show.
If it's not honoring to walk inthe ways that they should go
right, that's just what it is.
If you want to make God smile,obey your parents.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yeah, you know something that we haven't really
talked about, but it's sort offloating in the air.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
Cereal Like you know something that we haven't really
talked about, but it's sort offloating in the air.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
Cereal Like fruit loops, honeycombs, Like fruit
loops is the condition of ourhearts.
As we seek to make decisions,we are always wrestling with the
sinful nature of our hearts andthink about, especially in our
culture.
That tells us to follow ourhearts.
That tells us to like buck offauthority, to never mind what
religion, what anything elsesays, to just do what's in your

(47:07):
heart.
And yet the scripture contraststhat with.
Our hearts are deceitful,desperately wicked.
I've always thought about that.
What are our hearts deceitfulto?
They're not deceitful to God.
God knows all things.
Our hearts are deceitful toourselves.
Our hearts are deceiving usabout what God's will is in our

(47:28):
lives, and so so much ofdecision-making comes down to us
submitting our hearts to thewill of the Lord, because our
hearts are naturally rebelliousto it.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
That perpetual idol factory Yep, that's right.
Luther said that our hearts arenaturally rebellious to it.
That perpetual idol factory Yep, that's right yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
Luther said that our hearts are perpetual idol
factories.
We make idols.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah, no.
And again, you know, the worldhas mantras and that's what I'm
talking about in terms of howwe're influenced by the world.
The world has mantras.
One of those mantras is followyour heart, right.
I mean, that's what grandma andgrandpa are going to write in
your graduation card.
It's the go-to.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
Follow your heart.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Proverbs 28, 26,.
He who trusts his own heart isa fool.
Right, I mean Jeremiah 17, 9,you just quoted.
The heart is deceitful aboveall else, and desperately I mean
think of the language usedthere desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
You know, and so we have tostep back and say no, we can't
listen to the world's mantras.

(48:22):
God wants you to be happy,because those are the things
that fuel decisions.
What are you doing, ray?

Speaker 4 (48:28):
I'm not annoying.
You think someone steals notes.
Which you do have you ever donethat, mark, maybe once or twice
what?

Speaker 2 (48:32):
are you going to say Ray Ace Charms?

Speaker 4 (48:36):
Are you going to interrupt me?
No, I'm going to Finallysomething that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
No, but you know, it's those mantras.
God wants you to be happy, no,no, god wants you to be holy,
righteous.
Happiness is a byproduct ofthat, but that's not, you know,
because that translates intowell, hey, divorcing my husband
or wife, or having premaritalsex or, you know, stealing this
that belongs to someone else,that makes me happy.
God wants me to be happy.
Therefore, I'll do that.

(49:02):
I mean, with divorce especially, that is the most often quoted
thing.
God wants me to be happy.
I know he won't want me in thismarriage because I'm not happy
man.
It's destructive.
And then you have you only liveonce.
Yolo, good old YOLO, right,yeah, you do.
But what does that mean?
Because you only live once onthis earth, you better invest in
eternity.
That's where scripture comes in.

(49:23):
In decision making, set yourminds on the things above, where
Christ is seated at the righthand of God, not on the things
of the earth, right?

Speaker 4 (49:29):
Yeah, life, liberty and the pursuit of righteousness
that's what the Christianshould live for.
I've told it before, but it'sworth telling again because of
what we're talking about.
Remember that famous kid'sstory called Tootle.
What we're talking about,remember that famous kid's story
called Tootle, who they didn'teven know about it?
It's famous.
Everybody knows about Tootle.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
In the 1840s.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
No, no, no, no.
This is a story, a kid's story,and it's really dumb, but it's
good.
There's little trains comingdown a hill every day and
looking across these fields andseeing all these little ponies
and lambs leaping about andhaving a great time.
And the train says to itselfthe train speaks at this time, I
wish I could be free.
I wish I could be free, I wantto be like them.

(50:08):
And so one day he comes downthe track, he gets his speed up
and he jumps the tracks into thefield and all he gets is
disaster, because he wasn'tdesigned to leap around in a
field.
He was designed to find freedomwithin the confines of the
tracks.
We were designed to findfreedom within the confines of
the tracks.
Wow.
And the lesson is that Godcreated us to be yoked to him.
Jesus said my yoke is easy andmy burden is light, and that's

(50:31):
where we find true freedom.
Listen to the Amplified Bible.
I'll read it louder.
Therefore, I urge you, brothersand sisters, by the mercies of
God, to present your bodies,dedicating all of yourselves set
apart, as a living sacrifice,holy and well-pleasing to God,
which is your rational, logical,intelligent act of worship.
So when you realize thateverything you have comes from

(50:52):
God every breath, your brain,your thoughts, your eyebrows,
your eyelashes, your heartbeat,everything is from God, from Him
and to Him, and through Him areall things, then it's your
reasonable service to love himwith heart, mind, soul and
strength.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Oh, that's so good, Ray.
I love the visual.
I've always thought about thevisual of what Peter is getting
at here, the phrase livingsacrifice, Because if you were
reading it back then you'd hearRomans 12.
He says it and Peter says it in1 Peter as well.
Oh, good, Good for you.
He's quoting Paul.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Yeah, they're both wrong.
This was in the Book of Mormon.
What are you guys talking about?
Come on, man, I think he'sright.
Get with it.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
The thing about living sacrifice.
So sacrifice, like they wouldhave understood a sacrifice as
on an altar.
That's what?
A sacrifice on an altar to Godto be burned, Sacrifices are
dead.
But Paul and Peter, and maybeeven the Book of Mormon, Paul
and Peter are like no, you are aliving sacrifice.

(51:53):
By sacrificing, by laying downyour life, those who lose their
life will find it.
By sacrificing your life to God, you will find true life.
You will be alive in Christ.
That's what he's getting atwith that living sacrifice.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
That's great I love this quote by R Kent Hughes.
Mark referenced him earlier.
God-honoring decisions comefrom God-saturated minds.
That good yeah, I mean.
Be like a sponge satur.
Saturate your mind, your heart,with the lord, and then you
know, like a sponge bob.
Hey, mr square pants yeah, so so, yeah, now, okay, I want to, I

(52:33):
want to pivot a little bit, markyou, you actually have cited
this a lot and you do it, uh,and that is.
You know you've talked abouthow Ray one of the primary
things Ray always does in prayeris ask for wisdom.
So James tells us, if any ofyou lacks wisdom, let him ask of
God, who gives to allgenerously and without reproach.

(52:53):
So, speak to the value of thatin decision making.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
Well, I don't remember who said it, but if you
lack knowledge, go to school.
If you lack wisdom, get on yourknees.
You know, reading the Proverbsand reading through the Word of
God and sifting through it andallow it to sift through you.
Right, I went through the Word,the whole Bible, within a year.
Yeah, but did it go through youwithin that year?
You know there's the balance.
We need to really figure thatout.

(53:16):
That wisdom is what we'reseeking more than anything.
When you enter into a counselingappointment, lord, give me
wisdom on what to do.
What is it that you want to do?
What is it that you want tospeak of?
When I'm talking to someone, Ioften will say Lord, place your
spirit between me and thisperson.
If you want to speak to me, orspeak to them, or rebuke me,

(53:37):
whatever, what do you want to do, lord?
I recognize that correctioncomes from the most unlikely of
characters.
I really I just want to livefor you, lord.
That's what I want.
That was Jonathan Edwards right?
The first resolution I willlive for God.
Resolution number two even ifnobody else does, I'm still
going to do it.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
Right.
So I want to live for God and Iwant to seek God and I want to
know God and I want to know Godmore than anybody's ever known
God this side of heaven.
His thoughts for me outnumberthe sand of the sea, and I've
heard that it was 10 to the 25thpower, which is like 100
million, billion, billion,billion.
That's a big number.
And the thing about God becauseGod is God, he doesn't need to
have the same thoughts for methat he has towards you because

(54:13):
he's God.
And of course, they are allfocused around the attributes of
God, god, those things thatmake up who God is.
Let him, who glories, glory inthis.
That he knows me and that heunderstands me, and this is life
eternal.
That they may know you, theonly true God in Jesus Christ
whom you have sent.
That I would know God bettertoday than I did yesterday.

(54:36):
That I may know God better bythe time we're done here than I
did when we began.
He knows my thoughts from afarand he knows my far off began.
He knows my thoughts from afarand he knows my far-off thoughts
.
He knows what I'm going throughwhen nobody else knows what I'm
going through, not even myself,when everything just kind of
seems confusing.
So may we be those people wholive for God and just surround
ourselves with people who wantto do the same.

(54:56):
Amen, amen.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
And you know it's the wisdom of the Lord, because
James talks about that.
The wisdom from above is firstpure, then gentle, willing to
yield, full of mercy and goodfruits, without partiality and
without hypocrisy.
Pure, peaceable, willing toyield.
You know, that's one of myfavorite terms in the word, like
that willingness to just pauseyield, Because oftentimes,

(55:18):
because we're self-willed, we'reself-driven and so we just go
forward like a bulldozer, justwanting our way.
But when we just yield and I'mguilty of this in times of just
frustration or wanting to getsomething done or settle
something, but just to pause, tohear others out, to listen, to
ask questions, because that'llspare us a lot of heartache.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
You know, and practically you can tell if
you're willing to yield whenyou're in a conversation, a
confrontational conversation,and you're only interested in
speaking while the other personis speaking.
If you cut off the last part oftheir sentence, then you know
you're not willing to yield,right, and the greatest thing to
do is, when they say something,to reiterate back to them.

(56:01):
So what you're saying is thisis that correct?
Yeah, you know, did I hear youcorrectly?
All right, well then, here's myresponse to that, and I want to
get your thoughts.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
I love what you guys are saying.
All of this comes back towisdom, and I'm going to use
myself as an example.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
Right right.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
Kind of embarrassing actually as a negative example,
Speaking of lacking wisdom, didyou know that I was in my 20s
when I thought Albert.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
Einstein wasn't a real person.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Stop, I thought he was a theoretical physicist.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
Give it a moment.
Yes, I got it.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Yeah, let's yield and try to understand that one.
Yeah, that's good.
It wasn't good, actually, thatwas pretty good.
That was good.

Speaker 4 (56:45):
Hilarious.
I like the owl one better.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
Yeah, the owl one.
That was a good one.
Tell our friends.
The owl one Oscar.

Speaker 4 (56:55):
Oh, there's someone here possessed by an owl who I
stepped up to the plate.
Thank you, Ray.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
None of them fell for it Not afraid to speak.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
This show is sponsored by NyQuil.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
Oh man, such good stuff.
Martin Lloyd Jones said thisJoins.

Speaker 4 (57:17):
Joins, joins.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
Faith is a refusal to panic.

Speaker 4 (57:24):
Who dropped that phone their.
Who dropped that phone in ourstudio.
That was a phone drop.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Faith is a refusal to panic.
Wait on the lord.
He always guides the believerwho has surrendered.
I think at the end of the day,guys, this is really the whole
sum of the matter.
It's are we surrendered to theLord?
If that is our ambition, ifthat's our passion, it's to

(57:53):
yield to Him, to surrender toHim, to be honest with Him,
right, I mean?
Look Jesus in Gethsemane whenit dealt with a difficult
situation, when he was sweating,as it were, great drops of
blood, where he was sorrowfulunto death.
It says he cried out to theFather God, is there any way
this cup can pass from me Threetimes right?

(58:15):
The second person, the triuneGodhead, the living Son of God
who spoke the worlds intoexistence.
He's now in the garden and he,as a human at that time, was
crying out to the Father isthere any way this can be
removed that this won't have tohappen.
But then he reverted to at theend of that yet not my will, but

(58:36):
yours be done.
That's surrender.
That's the epitome of surrender.
It's not that we don't havedesires and we don't wish
something was different thanmaybe it seems like it's going
to be, but it's the wisdom tounderstand.
God knows better than I'll everknow.
He loves me more than anyonecan ever love me, cares more

(58:56):
about me than I care for my ownsoul, and his way is better than
my way, even if it's not theway that I want.
And so, at the end of the day,it's that total surrender, mark,
I love it.
You've always talked about how,if our arms are full of other
things, we can't fully embracesomething else.
We've got to drop everythingand, in that vein, fully then be

(59:18):
able to embrace the Lord.
It's a life that says God, eventhough you slay me, I'm still
going to serve you.
It's like Shadrach, meshach andAbednego right.
Our God, whom we serve, is ableto deliver us.
They trusted in the power ofGod, but even if he doesn't, we
still won't bow.

Speaker 4 (59:35):
They trusted in the providence of God.
So they didn't have a word thatwe're going to.
Yeah, they were just trustinghim.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
no, matter what they're letting him know.
And why is that?
They trusted in the power ofGod and the providence of God?
Because they knew the person ofGod, our God, whom we serve.
They served him, and so theywere able to be surrendered.
And did they want to burn Duh?
Of course not, but if God willsthis, and this happens, he must
have a greater purpose.
We can't grasp or comprehend,and so we still won't do it,

(01:00:03):
because we're loyal to him.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
It's so fascinating because GK Beale connects living
sacrifice to that story.
They're on an altar to besacrificed and they walk away
alive, amen.

Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
Speaking of that my conscience is condemning me.
I shouldn't have corrected you.
I should have let it go.
So please forgive me on you.
That's pride right there,because you felt you look bad.
Now you want to look betterwhatever ray whatever don't do
that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
Salute in here, okay and, and let me just say, it's
not on camera there's ascreenshot for you okay, so um,
but let me just say down a finalnote.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
I love Daniel, you know how.
After he it says after he knewthat the decree was signed that
if anyone prayed to anyone elsebesides the king for 30 days
they'd be thrown to the line.
After he knew it says he wentup to his room, opened his doors
, faced Jerusalem and, as washis custom, prayed with.

(01:01:10):
It says with thanksgiving.

Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
I think he would have flung open the doors, but do
you?

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
know what I'm saying.
That's surrender to the Lord.
Did Daniel have to?
Well, oh, but I might die.
Should I Lord?
What decision do I make?
Do I pray to you or not?
No, Remember, as you referencedMark, we only disobey authority
when we're forbidden to dosomething God commands, or
commanded to do something Godforbids.
This wasn't something he had toseek wisdom on.
Or what should I do or no?
I cry out to God, no matterwhat, that's surrender.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
You can apply that to past mistakes too.
I love when Mark talks about it, like I was having a
conversation with my wife andshe was thinking about the past
mistakes that she's made and Iwas like, man, you just need to
embrace those.
And that's when she gave me ahug.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
That one worked.
Oscar, good one.
All right, friends, there youhave it.
I know you're wondering shouldwe have made the decision to
listen today?

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
It's too late, you can't take that back.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
You didn't pray about it, did you?

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Don't forget, friends , the Ten Commandments scroll
pen, the Living Waters mug, theEvidence Study Bible, living
Waters TV, all atlivingwaterscom.
Don't forget the podcastYouTube channel and if you have
comments, thoughts, criticismsfor Mark, oscar and Ray podcast
at livingwaters.
What in the world?

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
are you doing, Mark?

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
He tied a knot in my jacket Unbelievable Come.
Thank you for joining usfriends.
We'll see you here next time onthe Living Waters Podcast,
where everyone in this room hasno idea what they're doing, what
you're doing, true.