Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Costi Hinn. And whether you're listening to this on your favorite podcast platform or watching on our YouTube channel, I'm really thankful that you've joined me for this episode today. This is part two of a three-part series on walking in God's Will and based on my newest book, Walking in God's Will, hence the title. And that book is now available everywhere books are sold. I'm excited to share that it is now out. And so you could pick that up, whether that's Amazon or in person. You can go to a Barnes and Nobles if you like to shop at Target Online, whatever you prefer, it's there. And then Christianbook.com and every other Christian book outlet. This is what the book looks like. It's right here. I'm thankful for the way that it turned out cover-wise and everything. Grateful for the endorsement of faithful men like John MacArthur, Tim Chalice, Randy Alcorn, and a number of others and some faithful sisters as well. All of the information that is in this book is based on what scripture teaches. And there are some practical applications that I wanted to give you to help you make great decisions and live your life for the glory of God with confidence. And so if you want to pick that up, that's great. There's some small group questions in it. If you want to take your church small group through it or work through it at a Bible study. Now, last time I took you through 10 things that are God's will for every Christian. And now I want to get into decision making, specifically decision-making cripplers, the things that hinder you and I from making great decisions. When we're talking about God's will, one of the particular tributaries that we need to go down is decision making. And it's not a light subject. In fact, we usually want to know God's will for the purpose of making great decisions that are in line with God's will. And so we can't divorce that and the practical aspect of decision making from the subject. I want to help you make no regret decisions in line with scripture and walk confidently in the will of God. And by no regret, I don't mean you're never going to make a mistake in life. I mean that you can look back and no matter where you've ended up, you can say, I filtered that decision through a biblical grid. Maybe you make a decision about where to move. And then you go through some trial there and you think, we would have never dealt with this if we didn't move to and then fill in the blank. If you make a decision through a biblical grid, well, guess what? You can go through anything and say, we're right where God wanted us to be and wants us to be. The CSS Hunley was a submarine that was used in the 1800s. And yes, you heard that correctly. A submarine in the 1800s. It was named after its inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley, and ironically, he died before uh it ever really went big because he died in the test drives. But the submarine became famous not only for being the first submarine in history to attack a warship, but for its own self-destruction after bringing down the enemy ship it was targeting. It was February 17, 1864, and the Hunley was under the cover of darkness when it attacked a 16-gun warship, the USS Hugh Satonic, off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. Now, after the attack, the Hunley was never seen again. And what happened on that fateful night wasn't discovered until more than 130 years later, when in the year 2000, the Hunley was rescued by archaeologists from the depths of the sea. And Duke University conducted a study on the Hunley, and afterwards it was determined that the submarine, with all of its ingenuity and promise, had self-destructed from its own torpedo detonation that night. The Hunley sank not only the USS Houstatonic, but also itself. And I use that illustration in the book and I share it with you here because in doing some research, I was struck with this thought. The Hunley represents a vivid picture of the kind of self-destruction we can inflict when we face decisions. With the best of intentions, we muster up the gusto to take on a goal, only to sink ourselves in the process. And whether that's through paralysis by analysis in our decisions. Oh yeah, tomorrow. Tomorrow. Yeah, no, I'll definitely get to that. That's a good goal. We should probably deal with that. Yeah, tomorrow. What about perfectionism? I want to make the perfect decision. And so I'm going to do nothing until I have it all perfectly laid out, and then I'll act. And then shame and fear. Shame being, remember you messed that up last time? Better just do nothing. Or fear. Well, what if it doesn't go like I hope? And what if this? And and what about the unknowns? On and on and on. We can be like the Hunley, our own worst enemy in the process of making decisions. But God has provided us many ways to confront these decision-making cripplers. And so they don't derail or define us. I want to walk you through five of those decision-making cripplers. I just listed them. They need to be exposed. And I unpacked these to greater depth in the book, but this will really help you and get you rolling here. And then we'll jump in the next episode to a forward-thinking process in how to make decisions. But first, let's dig into these cripplers. Number one is paralysis by analysis. And this one is near and dear to my heart because it might be the most common issue I encounter in pastoral counseling situations where people are just paralyzed from overanalyzing. Why? Well, they, you, I, we want to desperately know what God's will is. And so we come to a decision and we analyze, analyze, analyze, analyze. I mean, it's a good form of prudence to analyze something, but then it can have an evil twin, which is over-analyzation leading to paralysis. Wisdom would have us pause and assess. In fact, we'll talk about prudence, and that's in the seven P's for no regret decisions that we're going to talk about next time. And maybe you've already got an early copy of the book or you've seen some videos. We released one last week at For the Gospel called How to Make No Regret Decisions. And it is prudence that will help you do that. But we don't want to go too far. And all of a sudden, you know, it's not just watching the paths of our feet and considering our ways so that they will be established. It's sitting there overanalyzing every single thing. So soon we're crippled and we lack the gusto and the confidence to make a decision. That's the devil's goal to freeze you in that process. We need to analyze the way we live and analyze decisions, but then act. I would say that one of the best illustrations of uh paralysis by analysis in my life was just a few years ago, kind of a humorous approach, but it really does mirror life. Those are the Cheesecake Factory. If you've heard of that restaurant, it's got a massive menu. I was there with my wife. We had five kids at the time. We just had our sixth. And if you know the menu, it's got like 250 items on it. It's crazy. And you see some and you go, wow, that looks good. And then you flip the page and you realize, oh, there's a whole nother section here. And then there's another section, another section. It's like a giant novel. And you're reading through this thing, and my wife and I always laugh because that's the last time we ever went to Cheesecake Factory as a family. When you're there with five kids, your wife, you, you're looking and so-and-so wants this and wants this. Well, what about this? Well, what about this? What about this? And it was absolute chaos. I'll never forget it. I resorted that night to just eating the bread at Cheesecake Factory and kind of picking off stuff from the kids' plates. Christine got her food to go, and I'm not even sure if she really ate it. And because Cheesecake Factory food's not that great to go, no offense if you love it. Uh, and then the kids pretty much ate mac and cheese. I mean, those kind of moments helped me just embrace the fact that too many options is not a good thing, it's a bad thing. I mean, that is an entirely American idea. I was talking to a missionary recently at the Masters Academy International Symposium. We're in LA for Shepherd's Conference, and uh TMAI hosts this conference, day conference the day early. Incredible. Paul Washer preached, Conrad and Bayway. All these missionaries in different ministries were there. We're all connecting, and everybody has the same goal to advance the gospel around the world. And I was talking to a particular missionary, and we were talking about something else entirely, but he said, you know, it is a very interesting thing, Americans and distraction. And he wasn't bah humbugging us as Americans, and typically you'll hear that in like the missions world. It's like, oh, America, America, everywhere. But he was really making a point about the heart. And he said, We're so distracted, we have so many options. I mean, in certain parts of the world where I serve in others, you just don't have a lot of options, and so you become very content with what you have, and then you also become very content to just focus on what's in front of you because you don't have a massive menu of options. Too many options is not a good thing, it is a crippling thing. And that's why the Cheesecake Factory illustration becomes humorous and yet convicting and serious because like trying to order off the menu of a Cheesecake Factory or just living a life with so many options, those pressures build. And you start comparing and you lose contentment because there's a plethora of things you could do, you could have, you could chase. And it clouds the simple, the clear, the biblical. And so we've got to do the work to sift through all of that overanalysis and all of those distractions and go back to the heart of why we're here, the heart of a decision, the goal. And we got to think eternally, we've got to think biblically, we've got to think practically and not get into all of the other options that this world will offer us. If these sentiments sound familiar, I'm certain that you could use a tune-up when it comes to paralysis by analysis. You might think both of these options seem good, I just can't figure out which one is best. Or there's so many options, you know, I don't want to mess this up. Or, oh, look at what so-and-so did. That went really well, or that went really bad. I should or I shouldn't do that. What about uh this other option? You know, oh, oh, wait, what about this other option? Oh, but what about this option? Well, what if something bad happens that I didn't see coming? I just need to do more research, more research, more research, then I'll decide. And then you repeat that process endlessly and you become a research junkie. And then people will say, I researched, and as I researched, I found more research, and now I'm really unsure. I don't know what. Overthinking and anxiety is saturating our culture. And one of the things I would blame is also one of the things we utilize as a ministry, and so it has a good side and a bad side, a light side and a dark side is social media scrolling without a purpose or engaging platforms that don't lead you to your purpose. One of the reasons that here at For the Gospel, we're trying to invade those social media spaces, is because there's not a lot that offers eternal perspective. And more and more, of course, people are doing that, and that's a good thing. But with so much out there, our goal is to invade your timeline, invade the scroll, give you places to go on YouTube, give you things to listen to that edify and sharpen you, because there are so many options and so many derailing distractions out there. Paralysis by analysis is real. Whether you're trying to find out what job to take or which spouse to choose or what to do with your money, your time, where to go, right down to what to order at a restaurant. If you will face this crippler head on and put into practice biblical principles, you're gonna overcome it. You're not gonna make hasty and impulsive decisions from a lack of analysis, but you're not gonna sit there paralyzed from overthinking and over-analysis. The second crippler I want to walk you through is procrastination. I heard an older, much wiser man once say, hard work is usually the easy work you didn't do at the proper time. And unless you perform hard manual labor as your vocation, isn't it true that we make things much more difficult for ourselves because we procrastinate? I mean, procrastination is not your friend. I was recently driving my car late on a Sunday night. This particular light came on the dashboard and I procrastinated. I was like, ah, it should be fine. Uh, but it was the warning light that represents electrical failure in my car. And I continued home thinking, like, you know, those warning lights usually come on, they'll go off. Let me see, I'll wait a few days, just kind of see how this plays out. I was super busy, and so I procrastinated on doing something that would derail my focus on well, what I wanted to do ministry-wise. I just didn't have time to go deal with the car. Fast forward to a day later, and the car breaks down in the middle of the road. And it was during one of those hot Arizona summers. This was just this past summer where we broke the record for consecutive days over 100 degrees. And so one tow truck, one alternator, and some other mechanical fixes later, and I was one guilty procrastinator. That is what procrastinator does. I love this little poem I read from Gloria Pitzer that kindly and but convictingly just calls us all out. It says, procrastination is my sin. It brings me naught but sorrow. I know that I should stop it. In fact, I will tomorrow. That is what we do. And God's will is going to involve all sorts of aspects of waiting and wondering and praying and prudently assessing, but procrastinating is not part of his will. And so we ought to change our minds about procrastination. If we've been viewing it as neutral and harmless, like, ah, no big deal. Proverbs warns about procrastination. And one particular passage is always a renewing perspective for myself personally, Proverbs 14, 23. In all labor, there is profit. But mere talk leads only to poverty. Look, I talk for a living. I mean, all preachers do. And in ministry, just like for you, if you're in business or in some other vocation, we could talk a lot about what we want to do and ideas. People love to ideate. I love to ideate, dreaming and envisioning what could be. And that's a huge part of leading ministries, organizations, businesses. We've got to talk and think through and dream. You need to have ideas, and maybe you have a hundred of them and only two of them were worth taking action on. That's fine. But if you become known for talking a big game but not delivering, if you become known for one who loves to talk but not do, if you are a person that loves to throw out ideas at everyone else about what they should do and they should do and they should do, but you don't do anything yourself that you should be doing in your own life. I mean, that is just what everyone does at sports games. Everybody's an armchair quarterback. I think he should do this, he should that, he should that. Well, you don't play the game, and yet we could be a fan and we could kind of know what's going on, but that's an illustration of how we often all are or we can be when we are in this particular crippler. Procrastination. I'm not gonna really gonna do anything about it, but I'll just keep, you know, saying what we should do. Or I'm gonna throw a ton of ideas and talk a big game, but not actually execute. There are those who talk and those who do. Mere talk is a lot like procrastination. Uh, I'm definitely gonna get to that eventually. I'm gonna this and I'm gonna that and I'm gonna that and I'm gonna that. Yeah, yeah, tomorrow I'll start. Procrastination is not your friend. It's very important that we take this mentality of what ought to be done cannot be done too soon. I have an administrator friend who used to always say that. And I would ask, you know, why are you so quick to the draw? And ideas come out or a meeting happens and strategies are employed, and then you go and execute. And they said, uh, what ought to be done cannot be done too soon. That was the mentality. I mean, you will hire and fire based on that mentality in an organization, and you will succeed or fail, win or lose based on that mentality. What ought to be done cannot be done too soon. Let's get to it. Let's not procrastinate. Make that decision you know is right and watch God bless the results. Crippler number three, perfectionism. It is not God's purpose for you to be crippled by perfectionism. He's the only one who's perfect. And all that matters is that you are humbly progressing one step at a time. And if even if it's only a one-inch step, one-inch step at a time. So don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough. And I want to pursue excellence in my life. We want to pursue excellence as a ministry here at FTG. We want to pursue excellence in our church, and that's something we can all pursue while keeping perfection far from us. Excellence is our best. It's it's what we can do and using our gifts. A old baseball coach of mine used to say, maximizing our talents for the glory of God. That was the definition of excellence. A perfectionist is someone who whose pursuit of excellence has become a pursuit of self-worth. And rather than the pursuit of pleasing God, they're seeking to please man or themselves. That's an old adage that you'll hear. A perfectionist is someone whose pursuit of excellence has become the pursuit of self-worth. The perfectionist has to learn to accept that a task or goal or a desire is complete to the degree that it can be done in order to please the Lord with your best effort and to be careful of extremes. Impulsively striving is not the solution. Neither is indecision until perfection comes. It never will come. And so trust the Lord and pray. This is a prayer I often pray. Lord, cover my gaps with grace. I need God to fill in the gaps. I can't. I can only use my gifting and my abilities to so far of a degree. God has to do it. Number four, shame. In the back corner of your mind, there is this kind of negative self-talk that will bring up your past decisions that were failures. You're such a failure. Remember, last time you had an important decision to make, you blew it, you messed it up, you didn't do this, you didn't do that. Uh, or maybe it's more covert and you start to think, man, I really let everyone down last time. Uh, it's better to just do nothing and decide to do nothing rather than risk making a mistake. And so the shame that creates a fear of action is from the devil and not from God. You think about this. Is God a shame monger? Does he enjoy racking your brain all day with all of your bad decisions and all of your mistakes? No, you walk in grace. And can you learn from your mistakes? Absolutely. I do, you do, I hope we all do. But God doesn't want us lingering over those past mistakes. We move forward and learn from them. Finally, number five, fear. A big decision-making crippler is fear. Everyone has a fight or flight response to situations in life, but sometimes we freeze in fear. And this is something that everybody is going to face. I remember the first time I ever played paintball back when I was a teenager and was all excited, kind of the thrill of it and being under attack. It was this adrenaline rush, and you're out there. And then pretty soon I start seeing the balls fly through the air and I'm seeing guys get hit. And I just got crippled with this feeling of I'm just going to go hide in a back corner and sort of wait and sit there and hope that nothing happens. I admittedly didn't want to be shot. I was seeing guys get hit and thinking, this is going to hurt. I mean, I was just a young teen. And so I froze, I tucked into a barrier, and then eventually they just swarm you and then pop, pop, pop, and you're done. I got shot because I didn't move. And fear of what could happen immobilized me. And that's what fear will do. It will cripple you to the point of immobilization. And now, oh, the devil has you right where he wants you. There is another side to fear which causes us to react emotionally and hastily. Because of fear, we're irrational and we just start firing off. Listen, you've got to put fear in its place. And you do that by shifting your eyes off of the situation and putting your eyes on Jesus. Lord, you are in control. Lord, you are sovereign. You are the king of heaven and earth. You determine the end from the beginning. You hold the world in your hands. You have my situation under control and I will trust you. You go with faith over fear. And so those five decision-making cripplers all are something that you can overcome if you will follow what Scripture teaches, to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, to be honest about these things, because in the face of all of these, there is a clear path forward, and that will include confession, confession to the Lord. God, I'm weak in these areas, and I need your help. And so next time I want to walk you through a decision-making tool that I've developed. It's going to help you make no regret decisions. It's based on principles in Scripture, and it will at least, if not annihilate, all of those cripplers, it will weaken them to the degree that they can't have a long-term foothold in your life. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Thank you for sharing and thanks for supporting. Don't forget, you can order Walking in God's Will on Amazon, Christianbook.com at Barnes and Noble Target, and more. And I pray that this is an easy to read, practical, biblical resource that helps you not just know a theology of God's will, but make great decisions based on scripture. I'll be back next Monday with another episode of Keep on Living for Mm-Qué, I'm not sure.