Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
January 25, 2015 - W1504

The scripture says faith is the evidence of things hoped for or the substance of things not seen.  Hope is something very, very important.  You've got to have hope.  But what is hope?  Is it just an emotional kind of thing where you have this pipe dream?  No.  Hope is really having a picture of what your life should be like according to God's design; and when you put that up there, regardless of whether emotions are up or down, circumstances are up or down, you run with hope.  Hope doesn't change.  Consequently, if you have a poor hope, you'll have a poor life.

 So in this message I’m going to be talking about you deciding what your life should be like with God's guidance and writing it down.  If you don't know where you're going, the Bible says then you'll have a life without direction.

 If you were always making decisions when you were upset, discouraged, depressed, and desperate, your life would be terrible, wouldn't it?  But in actuality, many of us make our most important decisions when we're mad, upset, discouraged, and that's why we run into so many dead ends.  The Bible is going to talk about that.

 So let's take a look at one thing you need to do for yourself.  It's called discipline yourself for the purpose of Godliness.

 The Bible talks about that and having a little bit of basic principles of life will help you so much, and sometimes you're going to feel a little bit cornered when it comes to life, in a marriage or at your job, and there's certainly things you just got to do for yourself.

 Sometimes you just feel like you don't have a choice.  You're put into a situation and you got to do certain things by yourself, and having a few basics of life down really, really help.  So we're going to talk about that when it comes to disciplining yourself for the purpose of Godliness.

 The Bible talks about the same thing which is true with life.  You got to know where you're going.  And the Bible says it this way: that the end of every man or one of the goals of mankind is to be like God; after all, God created us in His image, so He wants us to be like Him. In other words, the Lord wants us to think like He would think, to act as He would act, and to make decisions that He would make.

 That's what the Bible calls Godliness. But when it says to discipline yourself for the purpose of Godliness, those goals for your life, what Godliness means, has to be intentionally plugged in.  It has to be plotted.

 Godliness, what does that mean for your family?  I say you got to have a preferred future, a picture of a preferred future for your life.  Plug it in, a preferred future for your family, for yourself, for your finances.  And when you plug that in, then all of heaven's powers start to assist you to get you where you want to go.

 But that definition of Godliness has to be written down, and I'd encourage you, you got to write it down.  You see, Habakkuk 2:2 says this:  “Record the vision, make it plain so that those who read it may run.”

 See, you got to be able to write it down. Because when you write down that picture of what it means to be Godly in your attitude or your family---what's the preferred future, what's a preferred picture of your family, your life, your disposition, your perceptions, your finances---when you get that down you need to make sure that you are in the clearest minded state that you can be in.  You got to be clearheaded.  You got to be close to God. You don't want to make those life?important decisions when you're overly optimistic or overly discouraged because those will be false readings.  You want to make sure the coordinate that you plug in is the best, and that only happens when you're clearheaded and close to God.  Then write it down.  This is critical because you'll not always be in that frame of reference.  There will be times you'll be discouraged, there'll be times that you'll be depressed and lonely and ready to bail out, but you don't want to make decisions when you're in that frame of mind.

 Think about it this way.  What if all of our decisions were made when we were depressed, discouraged, exasperated, ready to bail out, lonely, and then you make life's most important decisions in that frame of mind, what do you think our lives would look like?  It would be terrible.  But did you know that most of our decisions are made with that kind of frame of reference?   

 You see, things happen in our families that aren't that good, and we just say, that’s it, I'm out of here, I'm discouraged, I'm mad, and in a heart filled with anger, with a heart of discouragement, exasperation, we make decisions.  And some of our most important life decisions are made when we are at the lowest of the low.

 So when you are clearheaded and close to God, you establish those coordinates of what's most important for your family, for your life, for your finances, for your attitude, who you're going to be, what kind of person you want to be, and then you got to write it down.  That's what Habakkuk says, write it down.  Because there's going to be times you want to bail out, but you look at that and say, no, I wrote these decisions down.  I want to be this kind of person.  This is what it means to be Godly, and even though I don't feel like it right now, I'm going to ?? here it is ?? discipline myself for the purpose of Godliness.  I won't feel like it, I want to bail out, I want to make another decision, but I look at it and I say, were these decisions about my family, my marriage, the kind of person I want to be, my faith, my devotion to God, did I make these when I was depressed?  No, I made it when I was clearheaded and close to God.  Then even though I want to make another decision, I say no because I am going to discipline myself for the purpose of Godliness.  Otherwise, our decisions will be horrible.  This is what we want.  If you do it wrong, you'll make crazy decisions.

 As I said before, what if all of our decisions were made when we're depressed, discouraged, out of breath?  It won't be a good decision that we'll make.  But most of us make our decisions at that low point in life, in that state of mind, that frame of reference.  But I want to encourage you to take some time that when you're close to God and you're clearheaded, to take time to paint a picture of a preferred future for your faith, for your marriage, for your family.  And you establish that address, plug it into your GPS, and even though things don't always seem good, you run with that hope in mind.  You don't make decisions when things are down.  You keep that hope and you run with hope.

 So the Bible talks about a hope that does not disappoint.  There was a time when my family wasn't doing really well, but I had a picture of what I wanted for a family, and even though things were not the best, I ran with a hope of my family being that, a bright picture, a bright future.

 It is sort of like the bus.  Let's say people want to catch the bus.  Now, the bus hasn't come around the corner yet, but let's say some of the riders know that a bus is going to come at a certain time and the driver is always faithful to be there right on the money.  Now, even though the bus hasn't turned the corner, they know that they've got a minute to go and they're running to that bus stop.  Is the bus there?  No.  But they know that the bus will be there.  They're running in hope of the bus arriving on time.  Now, they know that bus driver is always faithful.  So are they running by sight?  No.  Is the bus there?  No.  But they run in hope.  They know the bus will be there.

 You see, 1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “Now abides faith, hope, and love.”  Now, we've heard a lot about faith.  We know about love, but we don't hear much about hope.  Hope is a picture of a preferred future that you have that when you're clearheaded and close to God, you write it down.  Remember Habakkuk 2:2, write the provision, make it plain so those who read it, they run.  You write it down, and when things don't seem so rosy and you don't see the bus, you run with a hope in mind that it's going to come to pass.  And then that gives you motivation.  That keeps you strong even when you don't see results.  You run with hope.

 Can I encourage you to pick up a life planner?  The New Year is available for you.  In the middle of every life planner there's a place to write down what's most important.  In other words, you can paint a picture of a preferred future for your faith, for your marriage, for your family, for your finances.  You write that down when you're clearheaded and close to God, because you'll not always be in that frame of reference.  You'll get discouraged and depressed, but you'll know that this is what you're going to run with.  This is the GPS set point, not how you feel.  Because if you make decisions with a bad frame of reference and a bad state of mind, our decisions and our futures will be horrible.  But take one of those life planners and write that in and run with that hope in mind.  Even though it doesn't look like it's going well at that time, you run with that hope in mind.  And when you do, you'll be able to see a bright future.  You'll run with hope, and you'll be on the money.  If you do that, you'll never miss the bus.

 Questions:

1. What is hope?
2. Why is it important to be clear-headed and close to God when making important life decisions?
3. Why do we need to write down our important decisions in life?
4. What is a life planner for and why is it important to have one?