The Journey to Life with Pastor JoelBremer
Guardrails Week 1- “The Power of Setting Down Guardrails”
I love new years. Anybody like new years? Maybe not, okay, maybe just me, okay, that's fine. The reason why is because it's like my computer. Once in a blue moon, if a blue moon's once a week, I have to just turn it off and turn it back on, okay? I like the reset. Usually my computer works better, simply by turn it off and turn it back on. Not always, right, anybody ever done that? You know, it's sometimes in life, you just need a reset button. In my marriage, I have to wake up one day and say, I need to make it better, I need to seek, pursue health in this area of my life. That's what New Year's is for all of us. And especially with my relationship with God, if you read the Bible, you know that things in life are seasonal, God really works seasonal. Some things that we deal with that are good. It's for a season, it's not gonna be there forever. Some things that we deal with that are negative and unhealthy, it's there just kind of for a season. So it's seasonal, but this season I believe with all my heart that you're gonna enjoy this season, I don't know specifically what you're gonna be dealing with personally in a heart right here, you know, relationally or financially. I don't know that, I'm not a wise, you know, guru of some sort, I'm not that. But I'm excited because every other year around January, I talk about similar things. One of the things that two years ago, I talked about making pre-decisions beforehand, how the year is going to be. This year is not gonna be a repeat of that. It's really that's the new part of what God, I really believe that God is doing. But I believe that you will set out what you wanna get out of God. I've always been told that, Joel, the kind of relationship you have with God is what you set out for, what your goal is with God. If I wanna go deeper with God, everything's gonna be revolved around that goal. I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get closer to God. If my goal is to do nothing with God, I don't care about my relationship, God, I'm just gonna show up to church, I'm gonna do that. And you don't have a goal, you're not gonna grow in God. You have to set out in your mind, this is what it's gonna be. If I wanna be closer to my son or my wife, I have to set out in my mind, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get close to those two individuals. 'Cause they're my family. And for you guys, if I wanted to grow closer to you guys, I gotta be purposeful in it. And that's what this whole series is about. It's making the decisions right now that's gonna set us up in this coming year. How many of us want a so, so year? Like eh, how many of us want that kind of year eh? How many of us wanna be blessed this year? That's a trick question, it's not. I want to be, how many of us want to grow in your relationship with God? How many of you guys want healing in your life? Okay, now this is not like putting God in a corner and arm wrestling him and going, you're gonna do this. No, it's just setting yourself up for the things that God already wants for you. Okay, the reality is we often get so busy and distracted that those things don't happen. It's not God's fault, it's my fault in my life, but it's not just my fault, it's life. Life has a way to get in the way, and I can get apathetic and sit back in a certain year and go out. I'll just let life, I'm just gonna let life happen to me, whatever, if you let life happen to you, usually it's gonna be negative, right? But if I set out my sights on a specific goal I want, it's I wanna be healthier physically, but I wanna deepen my walk of God. Everything's gonna revolve around that. So you need to make some decisions right now. You're like literally right now, yeah, start processing it, in your mind, certain things that you want to accomplish this year, and as long as there's not sin, like this is what God's leading you to, and I've made those, but we're gonna do seven of those, and I wanted an image to put in your mind as we're going through the series. I thought about guardrails. I mean guys, you know, the guardrails is, they need more of those on the river road, but when I was growing up there were, we had roads and different things that had guardrails, and there's two purposes for guardrails, this is to protect you from danger. If I go off the road, especially on Highway 12, you're gonna go on the river. I mean, that happened, we went to Lewiston, the person right behind us. It's, I mean, he was not even that long after we got, he drove in the river, well, he drove down closer. I didn't see it, we were ahead of him, some maybe five, 10 minutes, and that's because there was no guardrail there. The guardrail would have helped them, he survived, supposedly according to Facebook, but you know how that goes, you know? But a guardrail would have, if you're asleep, you hit the guardrail, okay, it wakes you up a little, but there's little rumble strips in the middle too, but it protects you from danger, and also if, let's say you have them on both sides, it would keep you on the road that you need to be on. Okay, it's pretend that Highway 12, it doesn't, but it has guardrails all the way down to Lewiston from here. That means it will help you to get out of danger, and it'll help you to get to where you need to be, on the same road that you're designed to go, and that's what this series really is. These decisions that you make are going to protect you to get you away from the danger, 'cause when you're outside of God's will, I've done this many times. When you're outside of God's will, you are not guaranteed his protection and his guidance, and he's not gonna go, hey, no, don't go with, sometimes he's gonna let you go back and go. You know, he's, especially if you have a heart where you're like, I, ah, it's too difficult. I think I'm just gonna do my own thing. I don't need to be in God's will. If you wanna have a guardrail, the first guardrail is God, I wanna be in your will. So these decisions are guardrails. We need to lay down in order for us to stay on the road that God has, the path that God has for us. He has this specific desire and a design for you that he wants you to get on that road, whatever it is, and he wants you to stay on that road, and that's his will, that road is his will. But how do you not get, how do you not go off the road? How do you not go on a ditch or on the river? Gotta have some guardrails. You know, we don't always make good decisions. How many of us always make good decisions? How many of us have good intentions, but sometimes the intentions don't turn out to be good decisions? I'll give you an example. I get him named a million examples from this guy right here. I think I've shared this years ago, but I, when I was in fifth grade, almost died, right there. There's a artery that goes right there. I almost died by cutting my wrist, okay? I survived, God saved me, I wasn't even a Christian, but physically my neighbor saved my life 'cause she was there. The person that was a very godly individual, that really, they didn't lead me a lord, but it was the first seed that was sown. They literally physically saved my life because I was walking home from spending elementary school in Puyall, Washington, and I lived, oh, I'm a mile from home, I don't remember. I don't know why my brother wasn't there. I don't know, we usually walked home with my friends. I don't know why I didn't stay and play football or baseball or something that we usually did, but I walked home and the moment I got home, I had a problem. Mom and dad weren't home yet. Mom and dad both worked. Mom was usually home about the same time I was, but she was a little bit late two minutes later after this instance happened, by the way. So if I would have just waited, this whole thing would have happened. So I had three options, I could wait. How many of us would think that was a good decision to wait? Do you think I wanted to wait? The second decision would have been kick open the door. Boom, dad will fix it, who cares? He'll be mad, he'll yell at me, he'll spank me with his belt, but it'll be worth it 'cause at least I'm inside I could play for some video games and get a snack, okay? Or option three, we already gave you the good option to wait, the second one would have been a disaster. The third one I thought, let me go in the backyard and my bedroom was on this side of the house in the back. Let me see if I unlocked, I kept the window unlocked. And sometimes I did that, you know? And I tried and I fell, I slipped and my hand went through the window, right here. And it was gushing blood, whatever. And so I'm like, no one's home, what do I do? Fifth grade, fifth graders are not that smart, sorry. She used to teach fifth grade. They're not that brilliant. The girls might be, but the guys were special. I still special, you know? But all of a sudden I go over to Linda McCoy's, Gordon's at work and Linda's there. And I mean, she was a great neighbor, very deep Christian. I mean, they had a great walk with God, but she goes, I showed her and she grabbed some towels, just stuck it on there and put it as tight as she could. Then at that moment, my mom, the Astro van pulled up. I said, oh, that's just wonderful. No, I didn't think that, I think I was. But my mom had to take me to the hospital and they stitched me up and here I am, I obviously lived. I know, you guys are like wondering if I lived or not here, I'm still here. But why do I say that? 'Cause I'm an idiot. If I had just made the right decision, I would have been better, I would, I almost died. Okay, I have a cool story to tell, but the doctor, they said it was like, I mean, less than a millimeter to the main artery that goes up to your heart. And I'm sitting there going, even, and I think back after I became a Christian, I thought that was one instance where God protected me and saved me literally, the glass went right to my wrist and it could have been a lot worse, but I shared that with you 'cause I often, I often in my life, maybe not always, but I can be a poor decision maker because of different reasons why. And that was a poor decision that almost cost me my life. That's just to prove that a good decision, a wise decision would have kept me on the road of safety and where I need to be. I could have sat there on the porch and whatever. I could have walked, I could have gone around the block a few times and my mom would have been there. But fifth grade, you don't, five minutes is like an eternity. But the main point is the quality of our decisions, I don't know why, anyway. The quality of our decisions determines the quality of our lives. The quality of our decisions determines the quality of our lives. In other words, if you make it, I wanna set aside for just a minute, I wanna be very clear here. Just because you make a good decision doesn't always mean a good thing will happen to you. Life happens. How many of you guys have ever done the right decision? The right thing in life still treated like garbage? Yeah, of course. We live in a horrible, sinful, nasty world. That's gonna happen, it's out of your control. But when it comes to the will of God, when it comes to doing the right decision, more times than not, the reason why things are going poorly in our life is 'cause we made a bad decision, okay? Every time I think about the fact that I got blessed, I was gonna say lucky, but I'm lucky too, when college, when I met my wife, because when I met my wife, I knew I could stay with her the rest of my life. I could grow old with her, I can't explain it, she was dating someone. So I had faith. I said there was hope. In the moment that didn't work, I'm like, I'm here to put your hand on my shoulder and just cry. That's fine, you'll be fine, you're good. Here, I'll go buy you some food. Let's go, that'll help, you know? But that was a good decision. I don't know if it was a good decision for you, Lid, but that's still beside the point. For me, it was a good decision, but there was a lot of reasons. She was like, I don't wanna marry a pastor. That was one of the reasons, but here you are. That was her goal was to not marry a pastor. You go to the wrong school for that, Lid. But if you constantly, constantly make bad decisions, you'll always be on the struggle bus in life. Okay, again, you make a good decision. Sometimes life's just gonna throw a monkey wrench your way. Sometimes the road is gonna curve to the left or the right. Okay, so you have to, but at the same time, God, I want your will to be done in my life. I'm gonna stay on your road and your path, whatever that is, God, lead me and guide me and direct me. And there are things we're gonna talk about this series that are gonna help you stay on that path. Now, I love the fact that we don't make poor decisions. Why? Because you can identify with the Apostle Paul in the Bible. Okay, if you have a Bible, Romans 7, 19, you're gonna wanna underline this. Go get it, you know, if you don't have a Bible that you can highlight in or underline or do something or circle or make notes, buy one. Buy one that you can write in and underline. This is one of the verses that I don't want you to forget. Now, who is the Apostle Paul? He is the guy who God called, who used to murder people or at least, at the very least, he was the guy who said, go for it, kill them. Stephen got stoned in the book of Acts and who was the guy that gave the nod? Paul, Saul, also known Paul as Paul. But Paul was the guy who was used by God to do the majority of the New Testament writing. More chapters and any, more words than any other person in the New Testament. And the Apostle Paul, it would be, it's in my opinion, we do a weird job, we vet people, we vet people. Okay, are they gonna be good or not? God didn't really vet the Apostle Paul that much 'cause he had a history. In my opinion, God, you chose the wrong guy. And if you don't believe that, I want you to read Romans 7, 19. He goes, I want to do what's good. How many of us wanna do what's good? He goes, but I don't. I want to do what's good, but I don't. Oh, how many of us can understand that? Do you want to do what's good in your life, but you don't? Okay, he goes, I don't want to do what's wrong, but I do it anyway. Think about this in the coming weeks, they're gonna be a time about, we're gonna talk about temptation. That every time that we're tempted, every time that it's presented there, usually a temptation is just a little whisper in your ear, or it's just a little figment in your mind that's saying, do this, say that. The reality is, you have a choice to make. Am I gonna go through with this or not? You have a decision to make or not. The reality is, I'm gonna let you know that, sometimes I do, I go through with what I don't want to do. My desire is to honor God. Now, I don't wanna embarrass anybody, but how many of us, your number one goal, and hopefully this will be all of us, your number one goal is to honor God with your life. Is that successful, every decision that you make? Think about it. Now, what does that mean? Are you saying that give us permission to just go through with it? No, but I'm giving you a reason to smile today a little bit. The Apostle Paul, who is literally writing the Bible for all of us to get, and how do you get to know God? Be in the Word of God, right? Yes? So, God knew something that we don't know. He's gonna use a guy that wants to do good, so his intentions were great, but his decision-making habit, his ability to make good decisions, apparently was very poor. I mean, this is the Apostle Paul that we're talking about. The whole, if you look at the New Testament, if you look at Peter's writings, he mentions Paul and how harsh he was, and how his writing was hard to understand. I mean, you look at that, you're like, there is something with this guy that he was godly, but there was something about him that people often would go, ah, he just rubs you in the wrong way, and also, he made poor decisions. I don't quite know what it is, but you know what? If you make poor decisions from time to time, you're not alone. It means that God could still use you. You just need to be aware of the fact that I've got to bring my poor decision-making habit before God and say, God, help me to make the right choice. Help me to make a decision right now in January of 2025 to make the decision to honor God with everything. And whatever it takes in this next year, you will honor God. You will honor God with your life, with your words, with your actions, with your forgiveness, all of that, you will honor God. That's our goal, but we don't make poor decisions from time to time. Why is that? Well, there's three reasons why, if you take a note, the enemy of an excellent decision, number one, is we are overwhelmed with the amount of decisions we make. We're overwhelmed. How many decisions do you think you make an average day? I was overwhelmed with the stat that I found, and it was hard to believe, but then I thought about how many decisions. You had to decide what to put on today, right? You had to decide if you're gonna brush your teeth or not today. You had to decide if you're gonna put on deodorant or not. You had to decide if you're gonna come here or not. I mean, that's just Sunday morning, you know? The average person, usually some people do more, some people do less, depending on your life. 35,000 decisions every single day, you know? Am I gonna say hello to my wife in the morning? Or am I gonna ignore her? Am I gonna go to work and ignore everybody? Or am I gonna be a light in a dark world? That's a decision I have to make. Yeah, I have to make decisions. Am I going to pray today? Am I gonna not pray today? Am I gonna read my Bible or not? Am I gonna hit the snooze button or not? I usually, I haven't hit the snooze since college. That's a long time ago. I've decided in my life, I'm never gonna hit snooze, 'cause it makes it worse in my life. But anyway, that might be the takeaway for you guys. You know, what shirt to wear? For the Sunday, I have an order. Next week, you'll see the same shirt, but it'll be in a different color, you know, basically. It's a nice button up, that kind of thing. You know, I have to make a decision. Am I gonna post on social media? Or am I gonna like a post? Or am I gonna go into that dark, deep, dark web of comments on Facebook, which are not always good? Am I gonna comment on that thing? Am I gonna talk to someone about some situation? Or am I gonna wait 24 hours before I want to deal with that? To think about what I'm gonna say. I have to make decisions every single day, what are we gonna have for dinner? What are we gonna have for lunch? What am I gonna, how fast am I gonna work? Go to work, how am I fast, am I gonna work with things? How am I fast, am I gonna put away Pepsi? Is there so many decisions that we get overwhelmed? It's like those things never stop coming to decisions. Like right now, I just had to know, I had a thought. Some of us are deciding if you want to continue listening to me or not, or think about what you have, you know, for dinner, or your shopping list. Some of you guys take a notes, it's not really a notes, it's your shopping list, right? But you have a decision all the time, you have a decision. And so the reality is, as the volume, what's this? As the volume of your decisions in life increase, the quality of your decisions decrease, because it's too much. Decision making is a muscle that you need to exercise. Sometimes I have to, I have to say, you know what? Especially certain things, like I'll give an example. Decision that I don't have to make anymore is if I'm going to respond on Facebook with something, I'm gonna wait 12 to 24 hours before I do it. I don't have to decide should I respond? See, I have family who, they believe differently than me. They vote differently than me. So I am tempted every single time to make a comment. And you know what happens when I make a comment on my family's posts, I get in trouble for a long time. And then I have a friend of mine that he was a pastor and something happened, he is not Christian blah, blah, and we've gone through the rounds on Facebook, making a decision, because I simply did not wait 24 hours before I just, oh, that's it. I'm giving him peace of my mind and I hit sin without even thinking about it. And I got in trouble, not in trouble, but I mean, I went, I regretted it, because the comments were like days long. It's, some of them, the, some of those posts are still being commented on and that's a couple years ago. Because, you know, you never win argue on a Facebook. So I made the decision, it's not a hard one. If I want to comment on someone's post, not happy birthday, that kind of thing, just the deep stuff of Facebook, the horrible stuff. I'm gonna wait a little bit, because I don't know if I want to jump into that cesspool, that swamp, that sewer of Facebook. You know what I mean? I mean, how many of us have ever been in Facebook battles? It's not a fun one, but that, it makes life a little bit easier when you decide, I'm not gonna, I don't have to decide now if I'm gonna comment, I'm gonna wait 24 hours. So that's one last thing I have to deal with. And so, we stopped making the right choice because we're overwhelmed. The second one, and this is a big one in my life over the last 20, 30 years, almost from the beginning, the enemy of an excellent decision, number two, we're afraid to make the wrong choice. Think about it, the major things that you have in your life, if you choose A, B, C, or D, which one do you choose? How many of you guys have ever had to make a choice between A or B or C or D? And you're like, if I choose the wrong one, my life will be ruined, right? I mean, you should've seen college, all the ladies were after me. I had to choose the right one, so I had like 26 women after, no I didn't, no I didn't. It was the opposite, no it wasn't. No, like, who am I gonna marry? Oh, 'cause believe it or not, my wife, when you're in high school, I think that girls, they go, they look at their last name and they go, "Oh, and they have dreams about their wedding." I didn't even think about that at all, even in college. I was like, what are you talking about, wedding, right? I just showed up here, 'cause she said there's a wedding, right? And I just showed up here. And literally right up here. And so, when we're afraid to make the right choice, because what if I screw up? Like, what if I choose a different job and I hate it? What if I decide to move and I regret it? What if I decide to stay here and I wish I would have moved, right? I mean, we get afraid of making the wrong choice, so what do we do? We make, we don't make any decisions. We just go, nope, I'm gonna survive in my life and I'm not gonna make any major decisions, because I don't want to get all afraid that I'm making the wrong choice. Then if you're a Christian, you put the whole, hopefully you do this. What's God's will for my life? And you don't have to raise your hand, but if you're a Christian for even five minutes, at least you're trying to grow in God. You're afraid that you're going off of God's will in his plan for your life. If God has this road in my life, what if I go on that road for like five minutes? You start getting afraid. I've done that so many times. Like God, if I make this choice and it's not your will, how's my life gonna be affected by it? How's everything gonna be? That is a horrible thing to weigh and we have to understand that no decision though, that's a decision that's going to stall you from growing in God. You have to be in relationship with God like a, this sounds weird, but you have to be in second marriage. You have to have an intimate deep relationship with God where you communicate, you listen, you talk, you read the scripture, and you have to be in right relationship with God where you can trust that he's going to lead you where he wants to go. And then you'll be in God's will. You don't have to be afraid to make the right decision or the wrong decision. You lean upon that still small voice that God has. Number three, the enemy of excellent decisions. We are emotional. And what that means is we make decisions based on our emotions not on logic. I'll give you an example. Now Hayden's gonna graduate in like a few months. Let's say when he was six years old, he did something stupid. Six year olds make stupid choices. I mean, 43 year olds make stupid choices. So I know a little kid will, right? So let's say that he did something really horrible. Now as a father, logic says be patient, be kind, right? Be like, allow this to be a time where he can learn and grow and be a mature six year old as much as a six year old can be. Emotion, which this, I never dealt with this, so don't worry about it. It was always logical as a father, okay? Emotionally, I'm gonna yell at him. Emotionally, I'm gonna get angry at him. Emotion, I'm gonna go, what happened? Well, the answer is he was a six year old. Six year olds don't always make the right choice. See, the problem is emotions usually, not always, but oftentimes went out over what logic says. Logic for me would say be kind to him. Show him what it means to be a patient father. Emotion for me, I went, you know what? Now I'm just gonna yell at him. And that never helped, just trust me on that. It never, ever helped. So if you want to make great decisions, you need to think ahead, you need to say, what are the, what is the consequence of my choice I'm making right now? How is this going to affect my life if I make the wrong choice right now? How is it gonna lead me to God? How is it gonna lead me away from God? Now I wanna say something I really agree with. Your life is the sum of all the decisions you make, not the big ones who I'm gonna get married to, if I'm gonna have kids or not, where I'm gonna live. Your life and my life are the sum of the small, minute decisions that I make daily. Am I gonna be loving to these individuals here? Am I gonna be loving to these individuals here? Am I gonna be kind to people? Am I going to forgive people? Those are the major decisions, they don't seem major, they seem minor, but those are the decisions that God uses to create the individual he wants you to be. If I'm gonna be kind, if I'm gonna be loving, if I'm gonna be forgiving, those are the things that God wants from us and for us. Now I have a quote, I love this book. It's called "Atomic Habits." You might wanna write that down that title. James Clear, it sells a lot during January, just to let you know, I've seen on Amazon, but James Clear in the book "Atomic Habits," he says this, I love how he says it. Every decision that you make is a vote towards who you will become. Every decision that you make for good or bad is a vote for who you will become in the future. So if I make a good decision, that's, if I make, let's say I make a decision right now, I wanna be more loving and kind to people. I wanna extend mercy to God. You know what? That's the person I'm gonna become. But if I wanna be more bitter than I've ever been this in 2025, I don't think we go out and wanna be bitter, but if I don't wanna change who I am and I remain bitter, that's the kind of person I'm gonna be the rest of my life, it doesn't gonna be bitter, I'm gonna be hateful, I'm gonna do this and that, and I don't wanna be that way. I gotta decide right now. I gotta pre-plan, I gotta plan ahead, I gotta pre-decide what kind of life do I want in 2025? You should be taking notes at some point in your life in the next week or two. This is what I want my life to be like, fill it out. This is what God wants in my life in 2025, period. 'Cause if we don't plan ahead, we're gonna make a bad decision and it's gonna cause us to go over the guardrail. There's a quote, you don't need to write this, I would have it on here, but that thing's froze. But it's from C.S. Lewis, Mayor Christianity, I can put the whole book up there and it'd be great. But he said this, listen to this, it's C.S. Lewis, Mayor Christianity. Good and evil, both increase at compound interest. That's why the little decisions that you and I make every day are such infinite importance. The smallest good act today, like to love people to forgive, the smallest act good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which a few months later, I may be able to go on to victories I've never dreamed of. He goes in apparently trivial indulgence of lust or anger today. Gave I choose the wrong thing today, just a little thing. It's the loss of a ridge or a railway line or a bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible. In other words, what's C.S. Lewis, again, he says it so deep, I can barely understand what he's saying so I have to read it multiple times. He's saying that the decisions in your life determine your direction. Okay, if I want to be more godly, I have to make that decision first, as simple as it seems. You know what God, I want to be more like you Jesus. If I want to be more forgiving and more and extend mercy to people, like God does for me, I have to make that decision. God, I want to be more forgiving. I want to extend mercy to the people around me. You're going to, that's just a fact. It's going to happen, but you have to start with a decision to do that. Now, I'm going to ask you some tough questions. I want you to seriously answer these in your mind. Do you like currently where the decisions your life are taking you? Do you like the results in your life? Do you like where you currently are between you and God? Is God pleased with the direction of your life? Those are some hard questions to answer. But the best thing that you could do right now is to answer them yes or no, honestly. If you're not happy with where you're at in God, if you're not happy with the direction of your life, if you don't think God is pleased with the direction of your life, you have to make that decision right now. You need to step back and go, you know what? I am not, I don't think God is really happy with the decisions I'm making. You can step back and you can finally say, my goal in 2025 is to live a life honorable to God. And then you start pinpointing things that you can do in your life to help in that direction. For me, if I want to be forgiving, I have to be in God's word. I have to be a worshipful person. I have to be remained faithful to his body, the body of Christ. I have to because if I don't, I become the worst version of myself. But the more I spend time with God, the more time I'm in his word, the deeper I pray, the more I worship him daily, I have a tendency to go, oh, I love that. I love the presence of God. And he makes me the person that he wants me to be. He has a great habit of doing that. Now, you may not think that you will ever change. Let me say this right now. How many of us deal with things that you've dealt with the last 20 years? Or you come snuck back to it. Maybe you don't want to raise your hand. There's things that I, from time to time, those things creep back up. And it's easy for me to go, I'll never change. Things will never change in my life. But I want you to listen to this verse, Isaiah 43. And if you've been in the Bible, this is a great verse to read anytime of year, but especially in January. He says, in Isaiah 43 verse 18 and 19, forget the former things. Do not dwell in the past. See, I'm doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I'm making a way in the wilderness. And streams in the wasteland. Listen to me, if you want to change in your life, if you want to go on the direction that God wants you to, you've got to trust that God's ways are better than yours. And you've got to trust that God is going to get you there. He's going to get you there. He wants what's best for your life. You've got to walk in His confidence. I'm going to read one more verse and we'll be done. But I love Daniel chapter one verse eight. Daniel chose to do the right thing. He pre-decided, they took the people of God into captivity. They went to Babylon and they brought him there. And Daniel was there and he decided beforehand, if the king, which is kind of a weird thing to think about, if I'm hungry, I'm going to the king's throne room. I'm getting his, I'm getting the stakes and the burgers and all that. I don't care. I don't care if it's a religious thing. I'm going to go after it, but he made the decision because he's Jewish. And he says, I don't want to defile myself with the king's food. So I'm going to say no. And Daniel 1a, he says it. He says, but Daniel resolved, everybody say it resolved. He made the decision ahead of time resolved. He resolved it in his mind, not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. And he asked the chief official for permission, not to defile himself this way. The king had asked Daniel because he liked him, hey, come on in here, I'll give you the food that the rest of the Jewish people are not going to eat. You can have that, the best stuff. And as a Jewish person, he said, with my conscience, I can't go there. So he went, he pre-decided beforehand. If the king ever asked me, I'm going to say no. That's why he was successful. When the time came around to make a choice if I'm going to eat the food or not, he already knew that beforehand I'm going to honor God. He resolved in his heart to honor God no matter what. I need to do that. We need to do that. So as we close in prayer, we're going to have potluck. But if you're right and notice, I want you to write this sentence down. And I gave myself some examples. When faced with blank, I have pre-decided to blank. So for example, when I'm faced with a certain situation, I have pre-decided in my life and I'm going to have this action. I'll give you an example, I wrote down. When I worry, you have to raise your hand if you're worried or not, but some of us, I know you're worrying, anxiety. When I worry, I have pre-decided, I'm going to first, I'm going to read 1 Peter 5'7. Give all your carers and worries to God. And he, because he loves you, because he cares for you. I'm going to, when I worry, I'm going to read 1 Peter 5'7. I'm going to pray, and I'm going to give that burden to God. I have pre-decided in 2025. The moment I have that anxiety, I'm going to read that scripture. I'm going to give the burden to God. I'm going to seek his face. That's my decision. I wrote that down the other day. Also, I got an example. When I want to make an impulse buy on Amazon, I will wait 24 hours before I hit the click and buy button. Nobody ever has ever bought things that they regretted. Buyers remorse, right? That's just an example. When I write an angry email, or Facebook message more than that, I'm going to wait 24 hours before I send it. When someone makes me upset, never happens. But, you know, once in a while, because I'm always a happy, go lucky guy. But if someone makes me upset, or I get, or offends me, I'm going to wait 24 hours before I actually respond to them. I'm not going to burst with anger, because I've done that before. You have to, probably. Some of us have. You know, someone makes you mad, and you kind of verbally vomit on them. And you can't get your words back. That's the problem, you know? I said this a lot, and I do it. You know, it's like, the moment the words leave your mouth, you wish you can go grab them. And you're like, nope, that did not help. That's my decision. I will wait before I send that message. OK? This series, as we pray, is going to help you make the right decisions, and it's going to keep you on the road that God has for you. And trust me, God is not a buzz kill. He's not a joy kill. He's not a kill joy. He wants the best for your life. And the only way that you can really, truly experience God's best for your life is to stay in His will. Stay on the road that God has for you, and not deviate from that. So you have to have guardrails on the left and the right of your life so that it takes you where God wants you to go. These seven decisions in the next couple weeks, they're going to help you set up some guardrails. Let's take a moment to pray. Father, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, that you are a God who loves us. You are God who cares. And we dedicate this year to you. We pre-decide to live a godly life and to make the right decisions with the best of the help that you have, God and Holy Spirit, help us make the right choices. But we resolve right now, like Daniel, that we're going to honor you, God, with our life, and with our words, and with the way we treat people. God, let this be the best year in those areas. Let us be the people who love people the most. Let us be the people who are forgiving the most, because we demand it of you, God, but we rarely show it. But help us to be the people that you want us to be, God. Help us to stay on the road that you have us on. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Wednesday at seven, if you need to go, go. If not, there is some potluck food that needs to be eaten, because then we don't want to-- I don't want to take a home and eat it tonight, OK? So I will, if I have to, but-- [LAUGHTER] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]