Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
September 24, 2006 - W0639

Have you ever made a bad decision? Of course, we all have. Some of them are good and some not so good. However, out of over 300 decisions we make each day, there are about 10% that can be considered life altering and will affect our future in major ways. The choices we make in relationships, in our jobs, or whether or not to vent our feelings will either cause us to move further ahead or lag behind on our path to God. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% what you decide to do about it. Some may say that successful people are just lucky. The truth is success does not happen by chance, it is really the choices we make.

How then do we make better decisions? “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is” (Rom. 12:2 NLT). The ability to make divinely-guided decisions is available to all because …

GOD GAVE US AUTHORITY TO MAKE DECISIONS.

“God created man in His own image … and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply … and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Gen. 1:27-28). What this means is that God put us on this earth to rule over and make decisions for creation. So He’s entrusted us to make good decisions. How? The Bible says that God created us in His image or His imagination and not necessarily in his visage. God knew us before we were born and His works were finished before the foundations of the world were made. Think of it this way: it is similar to the making of an automobile. Basically, the designer imagines a finished model before it is actually produced on the assembly line. God, the designer, imagined us and our life plan in His mind first and then he condensed all that potential for our best life into a seed and here we are.

Some people say that their life is a waste or a big mistake, but we should remember that God already planned our life before we were born. He imagined the best potential for our lives. Not only that, but He gives us a guide in order to fulfill that potential. Yet He gives us free will to either accept or reject His plan. It’s up to us. How will we choose? What’s the next step?

OUR RESPONSIBILITY IS TO LEARN HOW!

“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night … be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success” (Josh. 1:8).

God not only made us into His likeness, He also gave us a guide book, the Bible to help us walk in His ways. He gave us the ability to imagine. Think about it, all the wonderful technology that we see – the lights, the electronics, the computers, and cameras started in someone’s imagination. Someone imagines it first before the technology is created. Our imagination is part of His design. That’s what makes mankind so unique. That’s why harnessing our imagination for the Kingdom of God is powerful! God wants us to use our imagination for good. Otherwise, the enemy wars against our mind and tries to distract us with temptation. So clothe yourselves with the armor of salvation. Remember, the Devil is a headhunter, the mind is his battlefield, and our imagination is his trophy. That’s why it is important that set our mind on things above and renew the spirit of our mind. That will help us to make divine decisions.

According to the Bible, “Your wickedness has deprived you of these wonderful blessings. Your sin has robbed you of all these good things” (Jer. 5:25 NLT). When we reject God, we are actually hurting our own future. Our own wickedness robs us of God’s blessings. Remember that Christ died not because of the Law, but because of Love.

When Aaron was little he used to love driving the golf cart whenever I went golfing. We both happily agreed that I would take him with me to the golf course the next day. However, my wife Anna grounded him for stealing a candy bar. Both Aaron and I were disappointed because his choice forfeited his chance to go golfing with me.

It is the same way with God. He has wonderful plans for us and He is heartbroken when we disobey thereby causing us to miss His blessings. So how can we be sure that we are making divine decisions? Here are three guidelines that will help us to do that. The first is…

1.     IMAGINE WHAT KIND OF PERSON GOD WANTS YOU TO BE.

“To Him who by means of His power working in us is able to do so much more than we can ever ask for, or even think of, to God be the glory in the church …” (Eph. 3:20-21 NEV). Imagine your divine future. Imagine what kind of father, sister, brother, spouse, son, or daughter you want to be and know that God’s plans are better still. It is our choice. God has given us authority to decide. So we get to choose how serious we will be about our faith. Then the next step will be to…

2.     WRITE DOWN LIFE VALUES.

This is important because God holds us accountable. It’s not about how much we’ve done. It’s about how much we have done with what God’s called us to do. So we must find out what God wants. Pray to God and ask Him what kind of person He wants you to be and write it down. “Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets that the one who reads it may run” (Hab. 2:2). Guidelines like being moral, honest, trustworthy, dependable, and so forth will be life’s guiding values that are guardrails against sin. If we violate them, then we know that we are on the wrong path. I know that my life value guidelines help me to stop before I sin. Finally …

3.      ESTABLISH DAILY DISCIPLINES.

As the Bible says, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness …” (1 Tim. 4:7). Think about it, who ultimately disciplines you? Yourself! So you have to ask yourself everyday “What do I need to do today to become the person God wants me to be?”

God has given us a powerful imagination to help us live a wonderful life full of His blessings. If we follow His divine way in making decisions, one day we will look back on a life full of divine blessings and know that we made divine decisions.

Some of you may be saying that you have already ruined your life by making bad decisions. Well, one way of undoing bad decisions is by asking forgiveness and then overriding the bad decision by making a good decision. Then God will bring us back onto the right path and into His best.

So remember, let God transform you into a person able to receive His blessings by changing the way you think. In order to achieve this, we must understand that God gave us the authority to make decisions and it is our responsibility to learn how to make divinely guided ones. So God gives us three guidelines to help us. The first is to imagine what kind of person God wants you to be. The second is to write down Godly life values and the third is to establish daily disciplines and to discipline yourself because no one will do it for you. Always ask yourself what you need to do each day to become the person God wants you to be. If you follow through, you will become the divine decision making person that will receive all His blessings.

Summarized by Leighton Loo

Sermon notes ministry: Debbie Chang, Robin Hart, Doreen Rabaino, Leighton Loo,

                                                Jay Tsukayama & Rhonda Pang