SPEAKER_00: You may grab a seat.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really looking forward to the next couple of weeks as we get ready for our next sermon series.
SPEAKER_00: I had two weeks to interject just one short little mini-series.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all have ever made a decision in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody make a hard decision in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone ever wish you could make the decision over again?
SPEAKER_00: That's well, I I don't have a genie in a bottle.
SPEAKER_00: I can't give you that today, but I do believe that God's word speaks to how we make decisions.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the questions I get asked the most is often, what should I do?
SPEAKER_00: And I always look back at them and think, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean you don't know?
SPEAKER_00: Well, well, I don't know for your life exactly the details of how everything is mapped out, but I know the one who does.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning the heartbeat behind, the burden behind today is this is that we would allow God's word to instruct us on how to make spirit-formed decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Spirit-led decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Not I'm I'm I'm a CEO or I'm a president of a company and I know how to make decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Not I'm the mom and we all know who runs this house kind of decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Man, you're not supposed to laugh at that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about God-informed decisions.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard it said, but we don't just want good decisions in our life, we want God ones.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want just good decisions in our life, we want God ones.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning I'm gonna be talking to you out of 2 Samuel chapter 5 in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we're gonna go through the life of David and some times in his life where he had to make some very big decisions.
SPEAKER_00: And so I brought my weekly uh sermon illustration today.
SPEAKER_00: Little element of suspense here.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I well, I'm just gonna start this illustration by saying I'm gonna need lunch plans after this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh anybody go into Perry's for lunch?
SPEAKER_00: Because uh I may not have a date after this illustration, but I uh I'm putting these down for my wife so I don't get our bedroom pillows on the dirty floor.
SPEAKER_00: Just I'm a well-trained man, I know how to make good decisions now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh men, this sermon is for you.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody's bed look like this?
SPEAKER_00: 14,000 pillows because home goods was running a sale.
SPEAKER_00: Sale?
SPEAKER_00: Honey, I saved us money.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, it started young in marriage, but it seems like every year it just grows and it grows.
SPEAKER_00: Babe, by the way, I love you very much, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Just thank you for serving the Lord this morning through your ministry of sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, you know, there's pillows on our bed for decorations, right?
SPEAKER_00: Every night, we men, we come in, turn down service one by one, make sure they're stacked neatly in the corner.
SPEAKER_00: They can't get dirty.
SPEAKER_00: We take all these pillows, these are useless.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever tried to sleep on one of these?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they c they look good, I guess, but they don't.
SPEAKER_00: And then and then you finally get to the stack of pillows that you've been waiting on, and you realize, listen, here's my wife's pillows on top, because she likes to sleep on rocks.
SPEAKER_00: So you set those aside.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, these ones are mine because I love a good soft pillow.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone, come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Man, just fall into that thing.
SPEAKER_00: But then these are the pillows I got because I got old, you know?
SPEAKER_00: The temperatic pillow right here.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm saying the really expensive fancy pillow that's supposed to, because I I asked my old friends, I started waking up sore in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: I asked my old friends, why am I so sore?
SPEAKER_00: They said, try your pillow.
SPEAKER_00: So I bought this big fancy pillow, expensive, it done work.
SPEAKER_00: So this is the 20-year-old pillow I've my wife maybe put in the closet.
SPEAKER_00: It came back out.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't feel so old anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And now I've now spent three minutes of my life getting the bed ready just to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: And then what's the first thing I do in the morning?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a proud mama right there.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: And every morning I go back and I do the very same thing again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: Men, amen.
SPEAKER_00: And I start to think these thoughts in my head that I know are not from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And I begin to think about all the mountains I could climb and how much money I could be making, or all the big dreams I could have fulfilled in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know ChatGPT told me that by the time I'm 95 years old, I will have spent 55 consecutive days of my life doing this right here.
SPEAKER_00: 55, 24 hours a day.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: Where did this all begin?
SPEAKER_00: It began in home goods when we were making a decision about what pillows to buy.
SPEAKER_00: We thought we were just buying pillows.
SPEAKER_00: What we didn't know is that we're making a decision about the rest of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
SPEAKER_00: Craig Craig Rochelle would say it this way: he says, the decisions that you make today will determine the stories that you tell tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: The decisions that you make today will determine the stories that you tell tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And I know I'm being ridiculous and I know I'm being funny, and I know I'm not gonna have lunch plans now, but I just want to do this today because I want to illustrate how such a small decision can make such a big impact in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Every day we make decisions.
SPEAKER_00: We have big ones.
SPEAKER_00: The obvious should I sell my house or should I move or should I take the job?
SPEAKER_00: Should I get married or not get married?
SPEAKER_00: Should we make a decision with our kids to do something we didn't do last year?
SPEAKER_00: Do we do this activity on our calendar or do we not?
SPEAKER_00: We all have these big decisions that we make in our life.
SPEAKER_00: But then we all have these seemingly small decisions.
SPEAKER_00: The small ones.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows, you know, oh, I'm I'm getting ready to uproot my life and change everything about my life.
SPEAKER_00: I should maybe stop and pray for just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: But what about the small decisions of everyday life that actually become the fruit that we walk in for the rest of our life?
SPEAKER_00: What about the seemingly small decisions of should I say this to my kids, or should we interact this way, or should I forgive in this relationship, or should I act this way at work, or all the small decisions of everyday life.
SPEAKER_00: What I want to do this morning is I want to talk to you about decisions that are being made with the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because every decision we make in life, we all already know this is not the message today.
SPEAKER_00: We all already came in the room with the presumption inside of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: We all know that the decisions we make have consequences.
SPEAKER_00: Good or bad.
SPEAKER_00: We all know that.
SPEAKER_00: We've all experienced that in our life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not here today to tell you about the bad decisions that you made and the impact that it's having on your life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here today to tell you how to make a God-informed decision so that the fruit that you're eating for the rest of your life is good, that it's blessed, that it can walk in the strength of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to do that through a story of a guy in the Bible named David.
SPEAKER_00: David in the Bible was the king.
SPEAKER_00: And in 2 Samuel chapter 5, we're gonna read his story here in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: And part of what I love about David is he always had a heart that stayed postured before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And his posture before the Lord meant there was no decision that was spiritual and unspiritual.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know every decision you make in life is a spiritual decision?
SPEAKER_00: It's not just when we planted the church, we made a decision, a spiritual decision to start a church.
SPEAKER_00: But how many of you know our budget discussions, and that's what we call them in our house, our budget discussions around our house are just as spiritual as the decision to plan a church?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know the conversations we have about how to raise our kids are just as spiritual as the decisions we make about the direction and the future of our church in Magnolia?
SPEAKER_00: There's no such thing as an unspiritual decision before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That when you bring something before the Lord, there's a spiritual component to everything that you do in life.
SPEAKER_00: Only in our American world have we segregated or or or pulled the two apart and said, I have a spiritual life and an earthly life.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how it works.
SPEAKER_00: And what I love about David is David, being the king, knew how to go before the Lord to ask the Lord the hard questions and sometimes the seemingly easy ones.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Samuel chapter 5, if you're ready, say, I'm ready.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek out David.
SPEAKER_00: And when David heard about it, he went down to the stronghold.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all ever started a new job and feel like they saved all the fires for you on day one?
SPEAKER_00: Like, thanks, glad to be here.
SPEAKER_00: David, anointed king, steps up to the plate, and now the Philistines are coming out to get them.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 18, the Philistines came and overran the valley of Repham.
SPEAKER_00: So David inquired, you try saying the hard words of the Bible in front of a couple hundred people, all right?
SPEAKER_00: David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines?
SPEAKER_00: Will you hand them over to me?
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to David, Go up, for I will certainly hand the Philistines over to you.
SPEAKER_00: Then David came to Baal Perazim and defeated them there.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, The Lord has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore he named that place, Baal Perazim.
SPEAKER_00: And the Philistines abandoned their idols there.
SPEAKER_00: So David and his men carried them away.
SPEAKER_00: Here's David.
SPEAKER_00: He steps up on the scene.
SPEAKER_00: God, I want to do what it is that you're asking me to do.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be the kind of king and the kind of man you want me to be.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you know trouble found him, day one?
SPEAKER_00: Because anytime you begin to advance what God wants to do in your life, there's always all this other stuff going on.
SPEAKER_00: There's always all this other noise.
SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of that, you have a decision to make.
SPEAKER_00: What do I want the fruit of my life to be?
SPEAKER_00: What do I want to be doing for 55 consecutive days?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of things have value?
SPEAKER_00: What direction is God going?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's the direction I want to go.
SPEAKER_00: And David, as the king, here's what I love about what it says about him.
SPEAKER_00: He came up and he had a decision to make.
SPEAKER_00: And the word that it uses is that David inquired of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he made it a point.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going any farther until I stop right here and figure out what God is saying about this matter.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not moving.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to think that I have the answers.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to pretend like I'm a leader and I just have everything in life figured out.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, the leaders in our life don't have all the answers, they just pretend like they do.
SPEAKER_00: And the best ones?
SPEAKER_00: The best ones are the ones that don't know.
SPEAKER_00: They know they don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And they have a heart about them that says, God, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm asking you.
SPEAKER_00: That's why God would pick a guy like David.
SPEAKER_00: Because David had the humility to say, God, I don't know what I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know how we're going to get there or if we're going to get over there or there.
SPEAKER_00: But I do know this, God, you do.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to inquire of you.
SPEAKER_00: Every great decision in your life requires you to inquire of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Have you asked God lately about the decision that you're making today?
SPEAKER_00: Have you asked him in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: And this is what David did.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Shall I go up?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's saying, Listen, just because the bullies on the other side threatening me doesn't mean I have to go.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, just because there's a fire in front of you, or listen, an opportunity in front of you doesn't mean you have to take it.
SPEAKER_00: I hear this all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I got offered a promotion and I knew it.
SPEAKER_00: I just knew I've been waiting.
SPEAKER_00: I knew it was for me.
SPEAKER_00: But the second I took that promotion, it feels like all of a sudden I don't have any purpose anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And my family, we feel like we don't have any time together anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And we have the job and the money we didn't have before, but we don't have the life we had before.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, every great opportunity is an opportunity to ask the Lord, is this of you?
SPEAKER_00: Because just because it looks good on the outside doesn't mean it's God.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how could it not be God?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna make more money.
SPEAKER_00: Just because it looks good on the outside doesn't mean that it's God.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what David knew.
SPEAKER_00: David knew the enemy's up threatening us.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, I know we live in Texas and we got a bunch of good country boys up in here all packing heat, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But just because the enemy comes threatening doesn't mean it's your job to go out and do the fighting.
SPEAKER_00: And David knew I could go out to battle because that's just what kings do.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of kings go to war.
SPEAKER_00: This is just part of the job, it's just what we do.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody does it.
SPEAKER_00: But David said, No, I'm not going until I ask the Lord what I should do.
SPEAKER_00: And I love the question he asked the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Will you hand them over to me?
SPEAKER_00: He just gets right to the point.
SPEAKER_00: God, I God, um, I want to know what it is you want me to do, but most of all, I don't really care.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to know, are we gonna win when we do it?
SPEAKER_00: Because he just wants to know the outcome.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to know the fruit before he ever even makes the decision.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to know this.
SPEAKER_00: God, are you going with us?
SPEAKER_00: Because God, what I already know about the fact is that if you go with us, we're gonna win.
SPEAKER_00: But if you don't go with us, we don't want to go there.
SPEAKER_00: This is the posture and the position of David's heart.
SPEAKER_00: Shall we go?
SPEAKER_00: Will you hand them over?
SPEAKER_00: These are great decisions.
SPEAKER_00: These are great questions you should be asking God in the midst of your really big decisions.
SPEAKER_00: God, are you in this?
SPEAKER_00: God, should I do this?
SPEAKER_00: God, should I talk to this person?
SPEAKER_00: God, should we go in this direction?
SPEAKER_00: God, should we list our house or sell our house?
SPEAKER_00: And what I love about David is this he could have said, but I'm the king.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the king.
SPEAKER_00: At my word, everybody's gonna do what I say.
SPEAKER_00: He could have said, This is my house, and we will not be having this many pillows.
SPEAKER_00: He could have said, I'm the leader, I'm the president, I'm the CEO.
SPEAKER_00: He could have said, I I I am, I know how to do, but you know what he said?
SPEAKER_00: Not at my word, at God's word.
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference in the decisions that we make.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a matter, do we know best?
SPEAKER_00: It's a matter of, is this the direction that God is leading?
SPEAKER_00: It's not at my word that my family should follow me, it's at God's word that my family should go with me.
SPEAKER_00: And so we ask this, and and then David does this.
SPEAKER_00: He asks the next question.
SPEAKER_00: And then David could have said this.
SPEAKER_00: He could have said, I have thousands and thousands of soldiers and chariots.
SPEAKER_00: We're strong enough to do it.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't rest in his own strength.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, Yeah, we we got the power to do this, we should do this.
SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He trusts in the strength of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And before David pursued his plans, listen to what David did.
SPEAKER_00: David pursued the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: Before he chased after his own plans, he made the decision, I'm gonna pursue the promises of God, not only for himself, but for the people that he was leading.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I love the next word that comes through, the word breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: In the scripture, right here, we we learn of who our God is.
SPEAKER_00: The nature, the DNA of our God is that he is a God of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he said The Lord has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters.
SPEAKER_00: David stopped, he asked the Lord, the Lord said, Go up, we're gonna do it, it's gonna work, you're gonna win.
SPEAKER_00: And and David took his men, they go up, they fight against the Philistines, and here's what it says, and they broke through.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but there are times in my life where I've gotten to a place where I've said, I really need a breakthrough on this decision.
SPEAKER_00: I really need something to go in a direction different than it's been going.
SPEAKER_00: I really need something.
SPEAKER_00: The idea of a breakthrough is this.
SPEAKER_00: The breakthrough is the idea that the waters, he said, were bursting forth.
SPEAKER_00: It's the idea that the waters are moving into a place they weren't before.
SPEAKER_00: It's the idea that the waters were were up against the dam and the force of the waters were pushing on the dam, and there was no movement, and there was no movement until God breathed on it.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden the waters break through the dam.
SPEAKER_00: It's the idea of a force that that the Lord is moving and working behind the situations in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, in the decisions of your life, you need a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: You you don't just need a good idea, you need a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't just need something that somebody's done before, and so you think you should try it, it'll be a good plan.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe if it worked for them, it'll work for you.
SPEAKER_00: You need a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because there are times in our life where all we feel like we are doing is taking the pillows off and putting them on again and taking them off and putting them on.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever gotten a situation in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, baby, got dirty.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever got to a decision in your life where you feel like you're trying everything you possibly can and nothing is working?
SPEAKER_00: You need a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's what David says of my God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he says: he says, Baal parizim, he named the place Baal Parizim, which meant the God of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: How did he get to a place of breakthrough in his life?
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't by accident, it wasn't by chance, it wasn't God shooting an arrow and hoping that it landed on them.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it was David inquired of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And because he inquired of the Lord, he was in a place in a position where he got to see the Lord break through a place that he could have never broken through on his own.
SPEAKER_00: So anybody in the room today, and you're like, I need a breakthrough in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Man, there's a thing that just keeps coming against my family over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: We need a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: Man, there's this thing that I just can't break in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I've tried to make all the right decisions, but it seems like none of them are going in the right direction.
SPEAKER_00: I just need a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: I need a breakthrough in my marriage.
SPEAKER_00: We need a breakthrough in our finances.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the word from David this morning is this that when you inquire of the Lord, you have a God who works behind you to break the damn.
SPEAKER_00: But if you never stop to inquire of the Lord and you stare at the dam and wonder why it's not breaking, we have a problem.
SPEAKER_00: When we're staring at the dam, wondering why it's not breaking, it has nothing to do with the power and the strength of our God.
SPEAKER_00: It has everything to do with the position of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm coming before you because I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: God, my family wants me to be a better leader, but I don't even know how to be a better leader.
SPEAKER_00: Father, my family, we're going through some financial struggles, but I don't even have an answer.
SPEAKER_00: I've tried everything I can.
SPEAKER_00: I don't really know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: You get in a position, in a posture, in a place that says, Lord, I'm coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: I've tried Google, I've tried all the blogs, I've tried Chat GBT.
SPEAKER_00: Man, we're really moving up these days.
SPEAKER_00: But none of it works.
SPEAKER_00: What do I do now?
SPEAKER_00: David had a heart that inquired of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you some things this morning on how to make spirit-led decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Number one is this.
SPEAKER_00: We learned from David.
SPEAKER_00: Number one is this.
SPEAKER_00: Don't assume you know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Ask God what to do.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, Clayton, did you really pray all week about this message?
SPEAKER_00: And that's the best you could come up with is ask God what to do.
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
SPEAKER_00: That's all the revelation you need on the matter.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't rocket science.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't looking for something nobody has ever heard before in their life.
SPEAKER_00: This is coming to a place where we make the understanding and the realization in our heart that oftentimes we are guilty of assuming that we know what to do instead of asking God what we should do.
SPEAKER_00: I know this because I have kids, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: My kids, when I took them to Silver Dollar City, they thought it was Disney World.
SPEAKER_00: Silver Dollar City, if you don't know it, it's they call Branson, Missouri, the uh Las Vegas of the Midwest.
SPEAKER_00: Christian Las Vegas, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: We took them to the lake, we went by Silver Dollar City, and I had no idea what that decision was gonna make for my family because every day for the next year, my three year old at the time asked me to go to Silver Dollar City.
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing today?
SPEAKER_00: Dad, can we go to Silver Dollar City?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's 11 hours away.
SPEAKER_00: Dad, can we go to Silver and one day?
SPEAKER_00: We rolled up on the way to school.
SPEAKER_00: We rolled through Chick-fil-A, our daily stop.
SPEAKER_00: You know, just get the blessing from heaven right there before we go to school.
SPEAKER_00: And the lady asked through the window, she said, What are y'all doing today?
SPEAKER_00: And my three-year-old son shouted out the back window, We're going to Silver Dollar City.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Really?
SPEAKER_00: I said, No.
SPEAKER_00: I said, That's his plans, but listen, they weren't my plans.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you know out of three-year-old, they were cute plans, but they still weren't my plans.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he had no perspective how long it takes to get there.
SPEAKER_00: He had no perspective of how much money they were going to steal out of my wallet.
SPEAKER_00: He had no perspective.
SPEAKER_00: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_00: I knew things that he did not know.
SPEAKER_00: Buddy, you're going to school today.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's the best thing for you.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to school today.
SPEAKER_00: And I we joke about our kids, but how many of y'all know we just grown up kids?
SPEAKER_00: My wife doesn't like when I say that.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all just a bunch of grown-up kids.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what happens we have cute plans.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I think the Lord says, Yeah, that's cute.
SPEAKER_00: I love ya.
SPEAKER_00: Great idea.
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
SPEAKER_00: Your friends did that too.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't get good results for them, so I don't know why you think that's a good idea for you, but I'll let you try.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I think the Lord would just stop us right here and say, if you will go back to the basics, you'll get real far.
SPEAKER_00: What are the basics?
SPEAKER_00: Don't assume you know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Even when you've done it a hundred times already.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we never graduate from asking God.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that right?
SPEAKER_00: Where's my believers who've been a believer for years and years?
SPEAKER_00: You never reach a level of spiritual maturity in which you can no longer ask God and think that that's just gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the longer you go, the more you should realize I can't make this decision without God.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I know people who have moved on a word from God.
SPEAKER_00: I know people who have sold houses on a word from God.
SPEAKER_00: I know people who have bought companies on a word from God, and they will tell you this: they will say, I had no idea what I was doing, but God told me to do it, so I just did it, and here we are, and look what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: We never graduate to a place where we become so smart.
SPEAKER_00: I I think that's part of a challenge in the Western civilization in which we live, the American church culture in which we live.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not knocking because I'm one of them.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying, I think sometimes we think, well, I've done this a few times, God.
SPEAKER_00: I know.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes, God, I've been to seminary, I've I've read the Bible, and I know what you would want.
SPEAKER_00: Do you really?
SPEAKER_00: You know my least favorite line from my kids?
SPEAKER_00: I already know that.
SPEAKER_00: That line doesn't work with the Lord, and it's not because he's mean, and it's not because he's harsh, it's because he's kind and he's patient and he's loving and he wants the best for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this, even more than you do.
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody in all the world who wants you to win at his plan more than he does.
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody in all the world that in the midst of all your failures or your setbacks or the times you feel like you've messed it up, there's nobody in all the world who is who is more willing to help you than the Lord when you ask him.
SPEAKER_00: So before you list your house and uproot your family from what God is doing in the place that you're in, ask the Lord, is this my plan or is this your plan?
SPEAKER_00: Before you take the promotion, you stop and say, God, is the enemy behind this or are you behind this?
SPEAKER_00: Because listen, here's what I know about my heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just being truthful and honest with you.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: I know that my heart will often take me to places that God is not.
SPEAKER_00: Clayton, that's not possible.
SPEAKER_00: God, he's everywhere all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I know that he is.
SPEAKER_00: But there are times that my heart will take me to places that God cannot bless.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what I know about the leading of the Lord God will never take you to a place where he is not already.
SPEAKER_00: And when we ask the Lord, and when we lean in, and when we trust him, what we will find is that we get to the place we've been waiting for, and we didn't even know we were waiting for it.
SPEAKER_00: So don't assume.
SPEAKER_00: Don't assume you have all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because David could have said this God, I already fought the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: I'm already strong.
SPEAKER_00: I already know, I already know their weak spots, I already know their strategy and their tactic and how they fight.
SPEAKER_00: But David, when the Philistines came back up against them again, said, I'm not gonna go based off what I assume or what I think to be true.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go back to the same place.
SPEAKER_00: You're telling me, Clayton, I I can't just pray one time about selling my house and that work for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm saying every time you do it, you go before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying every day you wake up, you go before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he has some days where he's gonna tell you to go, and some days he's gonna tell you to stay.
SPEAKER_00: He has some days he's gonna tell you to open your big mouth, and he has some days he's gonna say to shut your big mouth.
SPEAKER_00: We have a God who doesn't work the same way every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, David learned this because when the Philistines came back up against them, here's what it says in 2 chapel Samuel chapter 5, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Philistines came up once again, because if you've ever had to make a decision in your life, you know that another one's coming.
SPEAKER_00: You know that just because you knocked it down a couple blocks doesn't mean that it's not coming back and the enemy comes back.
SPEAKER_00: So David inquired of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this, as he did before.
SPEAKER_00: That was his pattern.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, it didn't matter what the enemy looked like.
SPEAKER_00: What mattered is the strategy that David had anytime the enemy knocked on his door.
SPEAKER_00: And his strategy was the same.
SPEAKER_00: If the enemy knocked on my door before and God helped me through, then when the enemy knocks on my door again, I've already got my mind made up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not making the decision in the heat of the battle.
SPEAKER_00: I already made it long ago.
SPEAKER_00: When I was a little kid, I made the decision I'm following Jesus no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever battle that I walk into, I'm asking the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever battle I walk into, I'm gonna make the assumption that I my assumptions know nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what David did.
SPEAKER_00: He the Lord said to David, you shall not go directly up.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this, it's really important because the last time, what did God tell David to do?
SPEAKER_00: Go directly up.
SPEAKER_00: And this time the Lord says, You shall not go directly up.
SPEAKER_00: Do it different this time, God says.
SPEAKER_00: Circle around behind them and come at them in front of the Bacchashrubs.
SPEAKER_00: And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the Bacchus shrubs, then you shall act promptly, for the Lord will have gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: Then David did so, just as the Lord had commanded him.
SPEAKER_00: He struck and killed the Philistines from Giba as far as old geezer.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't do it the same way.
SPEAKER_00: And if David would have assumed that he already knew what God wanted, he would have missed it big time.
SPEAKER_00: I love this heart posture.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot let what God did for you last year be the thing that you say, well, then that's just how it's gonna be this year.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: That's what we call fresh manna.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we call go get from God what you need from God today, not yesterday's victory.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't say, Well, I've done it before and I had victory before.
SPEAKER_00: No, here's what he knew: it doesn't matter how many times he's been in the winner's circle, he knows that the one that got him to the winner's circle is the one he's still dependent upon today.
SPEAKER_00: And the posture of a heart, listen, there's no decision in your life that is too big or too small for your dependence on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And your heart that comes in and says, God, I don't know how, I don't know what to say to my daughter.
SPEAKER_00: She's really going through something right now, and I can really tell it and I can really see it.
SPEAKER_00: And I've tried every mom tip in the book, but she's not hearing it on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: God, I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just asking you, would you give me three words to tell my daughter today?
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord, in your dependence, can give you victory and a place.
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
SPEAKER_00: It's a breakthrough in your family.
SPEAKER_00: God, I've tried everything at work, and it seems like it's not getting through.
SPEAKER_00: But God, I'm just asking you, will you show me what to do?
SPEAKER_00: And listen, and when he says to do something, what do you do?
SPEAKER_00: You can preach today.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, don't let your feelings decide.
SPEAKER_00: Let God's word decide.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let your feelings decide.
SPEAKER_00: Let God's word decide.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord told David over and over before he went into battle, this is how it's gonna be.
SPEAKER_00: He told him the end before David even stepped into the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord told him over and over how this was going to be.
SPEAKER_00: So he had to make a decision in the middle of making decisions.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to trust my feelings today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to trust what God says.
SPEAKER_00: Why is this important?
SPEAKER_00: Because one day the Amalekites came against David's family and his house and his children and his wife.
SPEAKER_00: And one day the Amalekites came in and took everything they had and burned everything they had while David was out.
SPEAKER_00: And when they came back to their town and they saw their homes on fire and their wives and their children gone, and everything they had ever accumulated in their life that was missing, how many of you know when you go through something like that, your feelings get real loud?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I live in Texas.
SPEAKER_00: I already told you, I know y'all all packing heat.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna stop and say, you know, should we go get our wives and children?
SPEAKER_00: You know, should we go get our stuff?
SPEAKER_00: No, this is the great country of Texas.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to war, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: And David comes back and everybody's gone and everybody's missing.
SPEAKER_00: And do you know what David does?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't get on his horse and say, Everybody, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: You know what he does?
SPEAKER_00: He stopped and he inquired of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But that's my wife, that's his wife, and that's his kids, and that's his stuff.
SPEAKER_00: He did not let his feelings get the best of him.
SPEAKER_00: He made the decision, I'm going to trust not in my feelings, but in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And if God has not told me to mount up and ride out, then I'm not going.
SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of one of life's hardest battles and one of the greatest challenges of his life, David made the same decision as the day he made later on to go out to battle against the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: What is that decision?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going if God's not going.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't let his emotions make the decision for him.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I don't know about you, but my emotions make really bad decisions.
SPEAKER_00: My emotions make really bad.
SPEAKER_00: Last summer, listen, it's hot this summer, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Last summer, our AC went out.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget, we're sitting in a hot house with as many fans as we could drum up, and my four-year-olds running around shirtless.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, we're just doing everything that we can.
SPEAKER_00: We said, why are we sitting in this hot house?
SPEAKER_00: We can just get in the car and go get dinner at any one of these places that has air conditioned.
SPEAKER_00: So, next thing you know, I'm sitting in Chile's eating chocolate molten lava cake for the first time in 17,000 years, and I'm like, what am I doing with my life?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever found that in the middle of hot trials, have you ever found that in the middle of hard places you make decisions you wish you weren't making?
SPEAKER_00: We have to be like David and make this decision.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to let my feelings lead me to a place where God is not.
SPEAKER_00: I want to go with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So don't let your emotions make the decision.
SPEAKER_00: Let your faith in what the Lord has said make the decision for you.
SPEAKER_00: And the last one I would give you this morning before we close, I'm gonna ask the band to come up.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pray out as we as we close today.
SPEAKER_00: But number three is this don't lean on what you think might happen, but trust in what God says will happen.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lean on what you think might happen, but trust in what God says will happen.
SPEAKER_00: I love all of those scriptures in 2 Samuel and the ones in 1 Samuel 30.
SPEAKER_00: Here's words that the Lord gave to David, for I will certainly hand the Philistines over to you.
SPEAKER_00: Not I might, not if everything goes according to plan.
SPEAKER_00: Not David, if you are the best king, you'll figure it out yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Not you better be hoping and praying that I hear you.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord says, For I certainly will.
SPEAKER_00: Another scripture, he says, this, for you will certainly overtake them.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all are waiting on some certainly in your life?
SPEAKER_00: God, you told us to do this, and I'm not seeing it yet, but I already know what you said, so I'm gonna choose to believe it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna go based off what I think, I'm gonna go based off of what the Spirit of God has already said.
SPEAKER_00: How do you make it through these hard decisions?
SPEAKER_00: You have to learn how to trust the voice of the Lord in your life.
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm not leaving without you.
SPEAKER_00: And when you tell me to leave and I get up and go, I'm not looking back.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I saw what happened to Lot's wife and that didn't go so well.
SPEAKER_00: God, I get up and I'm gonna go and I'm not gonna look back.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you already said it.
SPEAKER_00: And here's here's the implication.
SPEAKER_00: The implication is that his word is nothing like our word.
SPEAKER_00: That if he says it, here's what he's saying: it's already done.
SPEAKER_00: It's not it might happen, it could happen, maybe if you think hard enough or do enough good stuff in your life.
SPEAKER_00: No, here's what it's saying: that if the Lord says it, it is already done.
SPEAKER_00: And David, every time he goes out to battle, has to lead thousands of men into battle, knowing the Lord gave me this word, I inquired of him, and I'm staking my whole life on the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's better than anything else I got.
SPEAKER_00: It's better than any bright idea, it's better than any blog, it's better than anything anybody has ever told me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going based off my assumptions today, I'm not going based off my feelings today.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'm going.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going off the fact that the Lord told me to go.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go.
SPEAKER_00: And I just wonder this morning as we close out, if you would just stand, we're gonna have a minute and just pray.
SPEAKER_00: And I just wonder this morning for you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you need a bit of certainty infused back into your decision-making process?
SPEAKER_00: We can do this.
SPEAKER_00: God is with us, God already told us.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stand on his word today.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna ask you to do this as the band plays.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a decision in your life today, big or small, that you're asking the Lord, here's what I want to invite you to do.
SPEAKER_00: The altar is gonna be open.
SPEAKER_00: I want to invite you to just come right here.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't about prayer partners.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna come lay hands on you, we're not gonna call you out, we're not gonna embarrass you, we're not gonna, we're not gonna come pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: I just, if you have a decision in your life that you are making, here's what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Your act of faith in coming forward is this you're saying, Lord, I'm inquiring of you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm