Gateway Church's Podcast
Living Above the Fray
Well, God bless you this morning. Good to see you. I'm Stephen LeBlanc. How many of you have, I see a lot of familiar smiling faces out there. How many of you have never seen my face ever before? Raise your hand. You don't look a thing like I expected either, so take heart. It's great to be here. I want to tell you what. Let me reiterate something that Pastor Tom just shared about Pastor Robert. I just encourage you to pray for your senior pastor while he is taking a time of rest. That is an amazing man of God. I've known Pastor Robert for 15 years. He gave you my first prophetic word ever in Presbyterian that many years ago. Told me I'd be doing what you're watching me do right now. He's a good prophet. If he prophesies over you, you can take it to heart. But every man of God needs to pour out and then needs to rest. And so we're praying that God just pours back into him. Everything that he's been pouring out here. So take the time to do that. You have an amazing church you're in. Your eldership here, I know each of them individually and they are men of God. And so continue to pray for your eldership. You're blessed to be in such a healthy house. One more thing and then my commercial is over. Let me just encourage you as a personal friend of Jimmy Evans. If you can possibly make that marriage seminar when Pastor Jimmy comes here, please go out of your way to attend that seminar. Pastor Jimmy has an anointing to teach on marriages. He is a father to me in ministry and a real mentor to me in marriage and in life. And I'll tell you what, that is a man of God you can really glean a lot from. So even if you have a healthy marriage, it can always use a little bit of help, a little bit of improvement. And so I encourage you to do that. So if you've got your Bibles, turn with me to Matthew chapter 27. And I'm going to start there. I know that your leadership has been in a series called Elevate, Breaking Through to New Levels in Life. And I realize that the last thing Pastor Robert spoke to you was regarding fun. Now this message will indirectly relate to fun. And I'll give you a verse that kind of ties it together. Romans chapter 14 verse 22 says, "Happy is the man who does not condemn himself in what he allows." Now, just let you know this and you're probably aware. You can't have a lot of fun if you're not happy. And you can't be happy if you condemn yourself in what you allow in your life. And so I'm going to talk to you about willpower. I'm going to talk to you about the strength of your will in God's principles of having a spirit filled will so you can live according to God's will. The title of the message is the power of pre-made decisions. And you'll understand what that means before we go any further. Let me just pray over the word. If you'd bow your hearts now, Father, I want to ask that you would give us Lord ears to hear clearly what you're saying, God. I pray we would hear more than the voice of man. I pray we would hear the voice of God. Lord, give us minds that can comprehend. And Lord hearts that understand how to apply what you say to us. In Jesus name, amen. Okay, Matthew chapter 27, I'm going to start in verse 11. This is Jesus is here on trial for his life. He's before Pilate and it says, it says, now Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him saying, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus said to him, it is as you say. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and the elders, he answered nothing. I want to point something out to you. When Jesus makes the statement in verse 11, when he says it is as you say, it is the last thing he says before he speaks to God. He completely stops talking. He does not answer his accusers another word. He doesn't say anything else. To the point that the Roman governor, whose name was Pilate, he watches Jesus behave by the strength of his will so intensely that he marvels. Watch this. He was being accused. Verse 13, Pilate said, do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you? But he answered him not one word and I want you to notice this next statement. So that the governor marveled greatly. Now it is no small thing in that day and age to get a Roman governor to marvel greatly. Pilate was a man who he had had probably thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of people, condemned to death, accused of various crimes that would stand before him. And his was the responsibility of passing the judgment of whether they would live or die. Pilate marveled greatly because this was the first prisoner he had ever seen who stood in front of him and did not beg for his life. He didn't say, Pilate, would you give me mercy like most of them had or Pilate? The devil made me do it. Or, Pilate, I had a bad hair day. That's why I did that. Or, Pilate, please, I have kids. Don't put me to death and they would cry and they would weep and they would plead their case. And that's what he was used to. But when Jesus stood before him by a sheer act of his will, Jesus stood in front of Pilate and he refrained from making any comment. And this is an amazing thing. Look at this one more time, verse 14 again. It says, "He answered in not one word so that the governor marveled greatly." That means he stood back and he just, he marveled at him. Now any of you that have small children like I do, you marvel at your small children. Have you ever just marveled at your kids? I marvel at my kids what they find to draw on in my house. I have stashes of paper. I probably have a forest worth of paper. I have four children, ages 11 down to three, who like to color all the time. So I keep a lot of paper on hand. I think I put a forest out of business. But sometimes my littlest ones will find other things to draw on. And I just marvel at it. I'm like, I can't believe this. It's amazing that you chose to do this this way. Pilot is marveling at Jesus here. And I want you to understand that pilot represents the world to us in this scripture. You see, Jesus represents the kingdom obviously, but pilot represents the world. And what I want you to see in that verse is that pilot or the world is marveling at what's going on through Jesus. But note this, Jesus is not healing anyone. There are no blind eyes being open. There are no deaf ears being opened. No limbs are growing back. No dead people are being raised. There's no demons being cast out. No walking on water. No supernatural manifestations of food. Nothing like that's happening. But yet the world begins to marvel. And I want to just give you this statement. The world marvels more at the character of God in someone than it does at supernatural outpourings and miracles. And you know what the world is looking for to see in the Church of Jesus Christ is not just power signs and wonders, but it's the character of God lived out in front of them in a real way that they look and they marvel. And they say, I can't believe I'm seeing this. He's not just talking about God. He's acting like God. And see, we get mainly as charismatic. So I probably resist that title just a little bit. Maybe you're a charismatic. I am, if you boil it down. Maybe you're here and you're a baptocostal. I don't know. I love baptocostals. I have loads of friends in Amarillo that are baptists and they pray in tongues in their closets. And that's okay. Long as you pray in tongues, okay? Well, you know, we tend to get a little bit enamored, a little bit kind of just caught up in power signs and wonders. We like to watch God move. You know what? That's an important thing to have. But when the world looks at the church, what they want to see is not the miracles that maybe we're in love with, but they want to see the character of God coming through someone, the patience, the kindness, the gentleness, the meekness, the long suffering and the self-control. And when they see that, they marvel because it's not just us talking anymore. It's a life lived out. And I want you to notice Jesus is in some very pressing circumstances when he manifests this character. There is a secret of how he did this, a principle, if you will. And I want to tell you what it is. It's the power of a pre-made decision. You see, a previously made decision is simply this. It's a decision you previously made and now you're walking in it. And when you do that, what happens is the character of God begins to be formed in you in a greater way. Character, by the way, dictionary definition is simply moral or ethical strength, but the real world definition is this. Your character is who you really are when no one's watching. It's how you drive in traffic in another city when you're in the rental car without the fish on it. See, that's your... I've been back in Dallas two days, been cut off by five fish cars. All right, it's great to be back, you know. Your character is who you really are when no one can hold you accountable. It's the depth of the nature of how you really act. And I want to give you another statement regarding your character as this. Your character is simply the sum total of all of your pre-made decisions or lack thereof. The things you have previously decided to walk in in life, or haven't decided to walk in life, you put that all together or the lack thereof. That is your character. It's what your character is and I want you to hear this. God is after character in you more than the manifestations of gifts and callings because character is the hard thing for God to build. Gifts and callings are easy and you could say, "Well, is anything too hard for God?" The answer is no, but you might be kind of hard for God. See, because character involves God's will and your will. And it's a formation process that begins when you get saved. God begins to go to work to make you not just talk like him, but make you act like him. He does a work in you called your character. You see, gifts and callings are easy for God. As a matter of fact, the day that you were born, the day that your mother gave you birth, you had all of the giftings and all of the callings that you would ever need to fulfill God's plan in your life. Did you know that? Everything you ever needed, whether it was a skill of thought, of speech, or of physical activity, whatever it is, in ministry, in some kind of business sense, you had that when you were born. You had those things in your mother's womb. But how many of you know when a baby is born, they're very low on character, right? The first word out of a baby's mouth is me. That's what that sound is. It comes out wah. It's me in another language. I'm sure of it. And we cry out man and God says, OK, now I'm going to form character once they come to know me as Lord and Savior. I'm going to begin to begin to build character in them. And God is not waiting on you there. As I look across the room, there are men and women of God here this morning with calls of God on their life. It's almost moving me back. There's ministry in here to the nations. There's ministry here to the cities. There's ministry here to the rich, to the poor, to those in between. There's ministry to the young, there's ministry to the old. You're called to some huge thing that God dreamed up for you long before you were ever born. And I want to tell you this. It's not your ability holding you back. It's simply an availability of the character of God formed in you. And the faster we come in line with letting God form his character in us, the faster he'll move us into the gift and the calling that he had for us since the foundation of the world. He's not limited by your gifts. He's not limited by your callings. God is limited by your character because he wants to be able to give those power signs and wonders to people he can trust with them, who won't rise up in pride, who won't become arrogant, who won't give place to the enemy or fall in some other manner. And so character is what God's after. And Jesus manifests it so wonderfully. And I want to show you quickly how he did this because the same thing he did is what we need to do. Go back one chapter with me, Matthew chapter 26. And we're going to start in, let's start in verse 36. This is before the trial. This is in the garden. Jesus is going to the garden of Gethsemane. And it says, "Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to the disciples, 'Sit here while I go over there and pray.' And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Pause for water. That's for our listeners at home. Relax, it's church. That's the happiest place on earth. See, the gateway to heaven it is. Verse 38 says, "Then he said to them, 'My soul,' and that's his mind, as well as his emotions, 'My soul,' is exceedingly sorrowful. Even to the point of death, 'Stay here and watch and pray.' And he went a little further away and fell on his face and prayed, saying, 'Oh Father, if it is possible, let this cup,' and that was the crucifixion and him being separate from the Father, 'let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.' And so by the nature of this verse, we see that Jesus will and the Father's will were not identical at that moment. Jesus was saying, 'This is what I want, but this is what God wants.' See, it wasn't a sin, it was simply he did not have a desire yet at all to go suffer and go to the cross. He wanted what God was going to produce, which was us. But Jesus wasn't saying, 'Oh, nail me to that tree I'm in.' I just can't wait to be separated from the Father with whom I've had total intimacy with an unbroken fellowship for eternity pass. No, he was saying, 'God, this is not what I want.' But see, nevertheless, Lord, what you will. Now, look down with me, go a little further down. And it says, verse 43, it says, 'He came and he found their eyes, his sleep again, for their eyes were heavy.' It says, 'So he left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words.' So what Jesus did, Jesus in the garden was making a pre-made decision of his will, saying, 'God, I prayed three times, but not my will, but yours.' And in that third prayer, what he did was he surrendered to the will of God, and he said, 'God, I'm now pre-deciding how I will act in the future.' And what that's called is a reflexive move. Now you have a reflexive decision. That means when you come into a trial, a testing, a temptation, or an opportunity, you've already predetermined how you will act. That's called a reflexive decision. Most decisions that we make are reactive decisions. That means circumstances come in, and then we on the spur of the moment decide how we will act. Jesus himself did not leave that to chance. He went in the garden previous to the temptation, and he settled it in advance, and we need to do the same thing. You see, when you do that, it establishes how you will act. You need pre-made decisions, even in the good parts of your life. Take your marriage, for instance. Gentlemen, we've got to have pre-made decisions in dealing with that wonderful woman that God gave us. Ladies, well, you just need more grace than we do to deal with us, so I'll just speak to the men. But ladies, every now and then, maybe once a month, you get a little fussy. Little fussy, you get a little quirky. Not bad, he's a little quirky. And see, gentlemen, we've got to have a pre-made decision of what we do when she gets a little fussy. So that we're not in the spur of the moment, and you've got a kid that just tripped and fell, and he's crying, and maybe the plumbing's leaking, and the bills are overdue, and now she's a little fussy. And so that adds just too much, and then what you do is you now have a reactive decision. Anger could come out, frustration could come out, but see, if you've already previously decided, when she gets fussy, this is what I do. I immediately do this. Then what you've done is you've already predetermined your will to act a certain way. It makes it very easy, and people can look and go, what a strong character, man, how look how he deals with his wife that way. See, the world marvels, and so does your spouse when you begin to make pre-made decisions. I'll tell you, there are some that I have, and I'll share just a couple with you, because I want to encourage you to do it. But I made a pre-made decision many years ago when I got married. My first year of marriage, I didn't have a lot of money, and I really wanted to take my wife to a nice hotel and restaurant, and our first anniversary was coming up, and so I knew of a real nice hotel I wanted to take her to. So I saved up some money. I figured out how much the room would cost, how much was transportation, how much the restaurant would be, tips, and everything I averaged and packed into the one amount. I saved up that amount and knew, now I can afford to take her out. But see, there's a problem when you stay at a very nice hotel, because in every nice hotel room, they put a little thief in your room. They do. It's a thief. It's about three feet tall. It's a little refrigerator called the mini bar. And the mini bar, if you don't know what this is, it's a little refrigerator with snacks and drinks of sorts inside of it, except the problem is these snacks and drinks cost inordinately large amounts of money. The hotel we were going to, I think the grand Snickers cost like five dollars per Snickers. Now that better be packed with peanuts. And what I knew was I was going to come into that room and over the course of two nights, it was probable I would spend about $50 in that little thief, mini bar. And so what I did was I knew that I didn't want to spend that $50 because I needed it. I didn't have a lot of money, so I made a pre-made decision. And I got up to the room, and the Bellman checked us in, he showed us everything, and I gave him a tip, and I said, "Now, hang on, before you leave, this little mini bar here, this has a lock on it, doesn't it?" He said, "Yes, sir, it does." I said, "Lock that mini bar for me, please." He said, "Sir, you don't understand. If you don't take anything out of there, you won't be built." I said, "Sir, you don't understand, lock the mini bar, and I definitely won't take anything out of it." So he locked the mini bar. Now guess what, my will, which was pre-decided earlier in the light and peaceful circumstances, my will was able to make a better decision than I would have been making that night, because lo and behold, I was sitting on the bed, you know, you're watching a movie, and all of a sudden you have these insane thoughts. Thoughts like, $5 is not too much for a Snickers, but you get in there and there's a $7 Coke and a $15 jar of cashews. You see, a reactive decision under stress is never good. You want a reflexive decision that's pre-made, and so that's why I did that. You see, all of advertising is geared toward making you react in a decision. You ever seen an infomercial? Have you ever seen an infomercial that says, "Listen, we really want you to buy this, but take your time, pray about it, make a good pre-made decision, and call us later if you decide this is the best thing for you?" No, they tell you, "Call now, call right now. It's two in the morning, but you really need to buy this underwater basket weaving course." Come on, call. Call in the next 30 seconds and we'll give you a free butter knife. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Because what they know is there's no way you're going to go away from that moment and go, "Let me consider this. I need to make a good decision." They know that's not going to happen. You're never going to come back, so they want a reaction out of you based upon emotion, but God's plan is that our will choose what our mind thinks and how our emotions feel. And we can have this if we'll obey God's plan. I'll tell you in other circumstances. I've not shared this back at Trinity with my church. I'm very open about this. I made a decision many years ago traveling with a minister of something that I still do till this day. I traveled with a man who let me know. He said, "There are opportunities for men of God even to fall when they're traveling." He said, "As a matter of fact, hotels are aware that when church, a lot of church leadership comes, there'll be denominational banquets, things will come together. Those hotels know that they will sell the highest number of adult movies in those rooms during those times." And this is not a shocker to you, but it was a shocker to me then. I quickly realized, "Listen, just because they put leader or pastor in front of your name does not exempt you from any temptation or from any failure, as a matter of fact, the enemy might target you more." And I made a pre-made decision and I said, "I will not going in hotel rooms that offer that, but if I do, I'm going to have them cancel that." So the first thing I do, when I checked in at Embassy Suites two days ago in Grapevine, I walked in there. I hand my credit card for "Incidentals" and I tell them, "Okay, now I want you to cancel the adult movies in my room. I don't want access to those." And I often hear this, "Well, sir, you can go up and on your remote control, you can cancel that." Well, that's very good for you. I'm not doing that. You cancel it. I don't want it in my room. And if I have to, I can send a bellman up and he'll do it, but I'm not going in the room if you have that in there. Now, you might easily, yeah, that's a good thing. It is a good thing. Praise God. It's a good thing. You could easily wonder, and I'm not afraid of this. You might think, "Oh my goodness, well, does pastor Steve in have a struggle? Is there something he struggles with? No, I'm not struggling at all. I've had a pre-made decision for many, many, many years that insulates me and keeps me safe." You see, their character is sometimes misconstrued. Character is not seeing how close you can get to that sin and how far over you can dangle your toes without falling. Character is getting as far away from that thing as possible and saying, "That is not dragging me down and ruining my life. I don't want to go near it." I've been reading my Bible lately. Praise the Lord, right? It says, "If any man thinks he stands, let him take heed, lest he falls." It also says, "Flee youthful lust." It doesn't say, "Fight youthful lust." It doesn't say, "Go in the room and resist." It says, "Flee." It says, "Get as far away from that as you can." And so that's what I do. If you will adopt this principle, what you can say with me is, "My character is ever increasing with every pre-made decision I make, and my will becomes strong and beloved, the world will marvel." Then I'll look at you and go, "Ooh, that's not just talk. That's walk. That's what God's looking for as well." Let me give you a disclaimer and then I'm going to tell you the best way to make these decisions. Here's a disclaimer, "Every pre-made decision you make will involve something called purposeful neglect. You've got to know this. Otherwise, it'll sneak up on you and bite you." It's easier if you know it up front. Purposeful neglect is simply the neglecting of something good for something best, or the neglecting of something dangerous for something safe, or the neglecting of something deadly for something life-giving. You have to neglect something in any pre-made decision. I'll give you an example of this. There was a young violinist. I've heard John Maxwell talk about this. A young violinist who was progressing amazingly fast over the period of 12 months. And her teacher called her aside and said, "I want to ask you, what is the secret of these last 12 months because you're making such tremendous progress?" She said, "It's purposeful neglect." She said, "I used to go home and I would eat a little dinner, do a little homework, clean my room, and then I would practice my violin. But now what I do is I go home. As soon as I get home, I practice my violin. Then I clean my room. I eat a little dinner and I do my homework." And she said, "And that's made all the difference in the world." You see, she chose to neglect even temporarily those things that were good in lieu of what was best. See, I have to do this in my family. If you have kids, I'm telling you, you're going to need to practice a little bit of this. Listen to this, but you never heard a pastor say this. I neglect my kids for one hour every day. Did you know that? My kids are neglected. I'm a good father, but I have to neglect my kids. I'll tell you why. For one hour every day, the routine is always the same. I have a pre-made decision, the first thing I do in the morning. I get up, well, I hit the alarm clock. You ever wake up and you just don't feel saved and just take it out on the alarm clock? I go through tons of alarm clocks. So I hit the alarm clock, I get up, and my wife and I have a love seat in our bedroom. And I go and I sit down on the love seat and my wife goes into the kitchen, takes her about a minute, and she comes back in with two cups of green tea. It used to be coffee, but the doctor helped me make a decision. So she brings me a cup of green tea, and there I sit with my green tea, and I have what I call my Kelly time, Kelly's my wife, and Kelly has her Steven time. And I sit there for the first hour of my day, and I look into her eyes. She looks into my eyes. We talk about what's happening. We sometimes offer prayers for our church, for people. We sometimes just talk about the kids. Sometimes we just shoot the bull, but what I believe is pouring into my wife by purposefully neglecting my kids is something that will bear good fruit. And believe me, beloved, I have to purposefully neglect the kids. I have four kids, eleven, nine, changes every year, five, and three. My house is loud. That's why I'm like this. It's loud, and we'll be in there with our cups and drinking and talking, and we close that door, and I'll tell you those kids can't bother us, but I have heard sounds come through that door. So I do not know what they are to this day. Just sounds. But I do not open that door unless I hear two key words. Daddy, blood. And you could say, that's terrible. You're neglecting those kids. I am neglecting those kids, because what I believe is it will bear more fruit. If I will neglect them for one hour, pour into my wife, then she will in turn have the strength and the covering to go do what she needs to do, and the kids will know daddy puts mommy first. We're not first, daddy puts mommy first, and daddy loves mommy, and that makes for some very secure little kids, and I've got some very secure little kids. And so, and sometimes it gets hard. It gets really hard. Knock on the door. Who is it? My little five-year-old little guy. It's me. And see, this is an attempt ation. This is, this is an opportunity, but you still have to neglect it for the best. Oh, what do you need me? And he says this, "Cuck him give you a hug." Oh, that's what I do. Oh, his cuteness is weakening me. No. Honey, mommy and daddy are talking. We'll be out in a couple of minutes. You see, I have to neglect to have that. And the way I choose that is based upon the fruit. And so, if you want to choose to do that, I want to give you these, these pointers to do this, to help you with this. There are seven things here. Now, don't be afraid. I'm going to go through them quickly. Don't be afraid of a seven-point message. Just be afraid of a no-point message. Yeah. There's a real good point. This is how to make a pre-made decision. And I'm going to show you these things rather quickly. This is number one. Look at Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 3. It says, "Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established." This is number one. You pray. Now, I know how obvious that seems. I pray. Well, of course I pray. But the Bible tells me that if I will pray a prayer of committing my decision, it's like taking your decision and saying, "God, I'm committing this to you." It says, "Your thoughts will be established." Do you know that means that God will actually help you think what you're supposed to think related to that decision? Isn't that good? That means God will say, "Yes, you've now committed it to me. Now, think these thoughts." Have you ever had something just dawn on you? And you think that is a wonderful idea. Where did that come from? I'll tell you where it came from. That's God speaking to you. Mother Nature didn't give you that. Father God gave you that. And you say, "God, that's a great idea." And God is saying, "Yes, it is." Thank you. I have many more I could give you. I have an endless supply of great thoughts for you related to your decision if you'll just commit your work to me. And you do that in prayer. Committing is a simple thing. Have you ever heard of someone being committed like to an institution? Have you? You got one in your family too? What do you do when you commit when someone is committed somewhere? What does that mean? That means that person is now under the care, the authority, the covering, the provision of the institution they were committed to. Doesn't it? Well, that's how it works with God when you pray and you commit that decision to God. You go, "God, I commit my work to you." And he says, "Oh, thank you very much. Let me take that. I'll take care of it from here. Here, think these thoughts and I'll help you make this decision." It's very simple. You got to pray. Always start down in prayer. Number two, Matthew chapter 12 verse 33. It says, "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad for a tree is known by its fruit." This is number two, you weigh the fruit. You just weigh the fruit out. You've got to know, if I make this decision, what will the reward be? And see, it's important that you weigh out the fruit so you can choose good from best because good is the worst enemy of best. Always choose the one that bears the most fruit. You see, spending time with the kids would bear fruit, but spending time with Kelly before the kids will bear more fruit. So I choose that one. You've got to weigh the fruit. By the way, if you'll weigh the fruit, you'll know the reward of your decision and that will keep you strong when it's tested. See, you remember the minibar? I knew there'd be a $50 bill for me. That was the fruit if I would stick to my decision. I believe Jesus did this. The Bible says that for the joy set before him, he endured the cross and despised the shame. You see, Jesus knew what the fruit would be. He had the joy set before him and the joy was you and me. And he looked down through history and he said, "I'm going to have a bride for myself. I'm going to have a people bought by my blood, bearing my name, who are part of my family. I'm going to have what I always wanted if I stick to this decision." So we've got to be the same way. And we say, "Jesus, help me do this." And what Jesus says is, "Here's the reward." So you've got to weigh out the fruit. It'll help you be strong in the moment of temptation. Okay, number three, Luke 14, chapter 14, verse 27. Jesus says, "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." Okay, watch. "For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it, lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. This is number three, you count the cost. You've got to count the cost. You've got to know, what is this decision going to cost me when I neglect what I can't have? You've got to count the cost. If you don't count the cost when you make the decision, that cost could sneak up on you and shock you. And you'll be surprised and you could be moved. But if you counted it in advance, then you say, "You know what? I weigh the fruit against the cost and the fruit is worth it." So I knew the cost of locking that mini-bar would be, "I will not get a Snickers." But I waited against a $50 bill and I said, "No, Brainer, see?" So the temptation sneaks up, but you've already counted the cost. Okay. Number four, Proverbs 15-22. It says, "Without counsel, plans go awry. But in the multitude of counselors, they're established. This is easy. Get wise counsel." That's simple. Number four, get wise counsel. By the way, the key word here is wise. Not just get counsel. Get wise counsel. The Bible tells me that wisdom is justified by her children. That means that you don't want to go and ask for advice on money from someone whose finances are falling apart, right? You don't go talk about child training with someone whose kids are out of order. Find someone who already walks in that wisdom and get their counsel. Here's another little hint. This is for free. When you ask for counsel, after you've asked, close your mouth. It helps the listening process go easier. Also, the Bible tells us that the multitude of counsel brings safety. That means you need many people. So you have a decision. You don't just go to one super pastor or one, your best friend. You go to a lot of people, three, four, five. And you say, "What do you think about this decision I'm presenting you with?" Okay, now what do you think? Now what do you think? I want counsel. And what you'll find is when it's God, that counsel will start saying the same thing. There'll be an amen. And you'll become known as someone who walks in relationship. And that's valuable. Very valuable. So get counsel. All right, number five. Now this one is easy. It's so deep that I couldn't tie a scripture to it. It's just absolutely too simple. This is profound. It's going to blow you through the back wall. So hold on. Number five, make the decision. Well, that's tough, isn't it? Deep. We need to see law a moment, maybe. Make the decision. Why is this important? Well, listen to me. Have you ever known someone who just couldn't make a decision? Right? So it's like, would you make a decision, please? You know, paint or get off the ladder. March or get out of the parade. They're like those weeba wobbles. Do y'all have small kids too? You ever seen a weeba wobble? It's these little, like, those little Fisher Price people, but they have a rounded, weighted bottom. And so no matter how hard you hit them, they always just go like this and they wind up standing up. Now this is for free too. Weeba wobbles are great toys because you can hit them with GI Joe darts and they bounce right back up. I knew there was a reason you came to church. Ever seen someone who just, they vary. They go back and forth. This is the fact we've got to have a time in our life when we say, I've nailed the decision down. You tell two or three people, this is a pre-made decision in my life. I'm not going against it. You realize even in the Old Testament times, what they would do is when God moved significantly or they made a big decision, what would the Old Testament patriarchs do? They would gather together stones and they would pile them in a heap and it was called an altar. And they would leave that there for people who saw it and for themselves to remember what happened or the decision that was made. That meant no matter how long you went 10, 20 years down the road, you could always look back and see that altar and say, that's when I nailed it down. That's when I made that decision. I do not change because I remember the day I made that. You've got to nail it down. You've got to have those altars in your life because they will establish your character in the moment of testing. You've got to make a solid decision. There's got to be a moment when you do it, okay? Okay, two more. Number six, John chapter 12 verse 24. Jesus says, most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. I'll explain the verse here in a moment, but let me tell you the sixth thing. It's this, memorize the scriptures. You've got to memorize the applicable scriptures related to your decision. This is what Jesus did. You remember when Jesus dealt with the devil and the wilderness and he said, it is written, it is written, it is written. See, he had a pre-made decision that he would only worship God, but he needed the word memorized in him. It sounds so children's church, but it's so true. We've got to memorize this book. This is life to those who hear it. It's peace to those who find it. It's a sword spiritually. And what you're able to do is when you have that verse, you say, I don't know devil. I don't turn away from this because it's written. And you know the verse related to the temptation that you're in or the opportunity. See, I believe Jesus knew this verse. Well, I knew he knew it. He said it. I believe he carried this verse up the hill with the cross. I think he kept thinking, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies. It abides alone, but if it goes into the ground and dies, it'll bear much fruit. And the joy was set before me and he knew, I'm going to have so many of them that'll come to me. And there'll be a day where we're all together and Jesus is going to say, this is what I had in mind as I walked up that hill, as I didn't speak a word against my accusers, as I let them nail me to that tree. And this is the fruit of my reward. You've got to have those verses. This is the verse that the Lord gave me when he told me to go to Amarillo. The Lord spoke to me, he said, go for me to Amarillo. And so I told the Lord, I can't go to Amarillo. It's too windy there. And it's too hot. God, it's like living in a hairdryer. And I explained to him, Lord, Amarillo is not a destination, Father. Amarillo is a place you stop for outback when you go skiing. And I had to wrestle, I had to get a pre-made decision. I went and told my wife, I believe this is what God said and she said, okay, tells you how we work. Every great man of God needs to marry high above themselves. She just had total faith. But you know what? When God gave me this verse, it nailed it down. And when people came to me after the decision was made, and they said, you know what? You might be throwing your life away. You're going to ruin your destiny. If you go and do that, they don't want a college ministry over there. Are you kidding? God has things for you here. I'll tell you what, I had that verse. I said, well, you know what? Unless the grain of wheat goes in the ground and dies, it abys the loan. And I'll tell you what, God never forget the things that God wants to do through me. God never could have done in me what he wanted to do in me. Hidden in Amarillo, Texas. And I wouldn't trade the fruit. It's born in my life. If I never do another thing for God, I'll forever be grateful for what God did in me. Because I say, God, I'll stand on your word. And it's always worth it. But you've got to memorize the verses. Forgive my emotion, I'll try not to ball on you. I'm going to need a hug. Okay. One more thing. Let me show you this. This is James chapter 1. You memorize the verses. James chapter 1, 7 and 8 says, "For let not that man, suppose talking about a double-minded man, let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways." Now this word double-minded literally means two-headed. Okay. Have you ever seen anything two-headed? Do you know what you call something with two heads? A freak. You ever heard freak me out? That's how God feels when we vary and we double-mind. You see, this is the seventh thing. The pre-made decision. Be close-minded. You close your mind to other options. The Bible says we don't receive anything if we're double-minded. So what we do is once we nail it down, once we memorize that verse, we close our mind to every other option, every other opinion, every other comment, we say no. I know what God told me to do and my will is set. My face is set like a flint on this decision and I don't vary. And you know what? We, as Christians, hear me. We're supposed to be close-minded. Did you know that? We're supposed to be close-minded but open-hearted. But the world wants us to be so open-minded, our brain rolls out. Okay? I'm not open-minded. I believe in the infallibility of the Scriptures that the Spirit of God is needed by the baptism, the Holy Spirit to worship and Spirit in truth, to live in power. I believe that I'm supposed to love my wife as Jesus loved his church. I believe the local church is the hope of the world. I believe that anybody that comes to Christ through faith will be washed of their sins and have newness of life. I am stubborn on these things. That's what endurance is in Jesus' name. Amen? Yeah, give the Lord a hand in that. You close your mind to other options. You stand your ground on a pre-made decision. And what you'll find is your character will go through the roof. You'll grow more in the next 12 months than you may have grown in the last 12 years. You'll find that the things you stand in are solid. And you say, "I've already decided this and I don't make reactive decisions. I've already fixed this decision." If that's your desire to do that, we want to pray with you. I want to pray a short prayer for you. And then Pastor Tom will close the service. Let me ask you this. Would you buy your hearts with me right now as we end? And just close your eyes. This is just going to be between individuals and God. We don't need to look around. It's just between us and God. If you're here and you say, "Pastor Stephen, would you pray for me? I want to be included in this." You're not admitting some awful thing. What you're saying is, "I want to show a sign of humility because God gives grace to the humble." You say, "Would you pray for me? I want my character to grow like that. I want to make these pre-made decisions. I want to walk in integrity. I want you to do this in faith. Just slip your hand up and then put it back down. I don't need to see it. Hey, man, God's watching you say, "It's me. I want prayer. Let's pray." Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for grace to the hearers. Lord, that they would easily identify what areas need to be decided. God, I pray all across the Metroplex. God, lives would be changed tonight as decisions are nailed down that will forever mold the character, the people of God. God, I pray for the word here to go into good soil. I pray, God, that it would bear up good fruit 30, 60, and 100 fold. Lord, I pray that you would establish such a light at Gateway Church that the Metroplex would stand in awe. God, not just at the power, the signs and the wonders, but as the character of God emerges that people would be in awe and they would marvel greatly, saying, "God is in their midst, and God is in them, and they're like him." Lord, I thank you for this house, God. I thank you for what you're doing and all the plans you have. I speak your peace, your favor, your provision, Lord, as we walk out your character, make us more like you, and we thank you in advance for it. In Jesus' mighty name, everybody said, "Amen." God bless you guys. Pastor Tom.