You Don’t Have To Make Mistakes

Research says that the average person makes 33,000 to 35,000 decisions per day! As believers, what is the tried and true way to make the best choices as we live out our lives? How can we honor God and walk in His perfect plan when faced with so many choices?

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Hey, can we actually get to a place as believers where we don’t have to make bad decisions?
I think you’re gonna be blessed by the answer. Hang on.
Let’s dive in and find out what the word of god has to say about that.
Real life presents the Jack Gibbs podcast.
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Now open your hearts to what god’s word has to say to you. Here is Jack Gibbs.
Hey, everybody. Welcome to this edition of our podcast, and we’re gonna be to Talking about decision making. Decision making.
Um, we’ve gotta jump into this somewhere. And so let’s just start with this decision making.
I’ve been told I was given to me that it’s either Google or the National Health Institute.
Somebody says that you and I make 33 to 35,000 decisions a day.
I don’t know if that’s true or not. Who counts? Yikes. I’m tired hearing that number.
It’s like, what? Decision making, um, can be so daunting and terrifying that we don’t wanna make decisions, and yet life cannot be lived without making decisions.
And so some of you are older than me. Some of you are my age.
Some of you are young, and I’m really grateful that we have a really a lot of young listeners, uh, that join in on our podcast.
So your decision making process, you might be asking the question.
Do I have to make the wrong decision every time? Can’t I make a right one?
And I wanna be able to say to you, in fact, just before we, uh, turned on the camera, Uh, I was asking the team that’s behind the lens right now behind, uh, behind the cameras is, uh, because they’re all Christians.
They’re all following the lord, and they’re young. Is when was the last time you made a bad decision? Yeah.
I wish you could have seen from my perspective, from my vantage point.
I asked them, hey, before I do this, I wanna ask you a question.
How many of you guys behind the camera? Have made.
Tell me about your your most recent bad decision. And all of them went like this.
They paused for a long time. You wanna know why?
Because there was no big bad decision that jumped out to their in the instance because they’ve learned, even though they’re young, they’ve learned in the scriptures they’ve been in the work for a long time, they learned to take their decision making to the word of god and to lay before the lord.
And so I have to say the same thing.
I’m sixty six years old, um, and what god has called me to do, there are many different hats that I have.
Multiple ministries. Some of them are connected. Some are not connected that I’m involved in.
Um, different boards of ministries that I’m on and decisions having to be made all the time.
And yet I’ve never had more peace in calm and those decisions are most often public.
Those decisions deal with people in their lives. Those decisions deal with, uh, sometimes 1,000,000 of dollars.
It depends on the ministry and where they are located in the world and what happening and what their mission is?
How do we make decisions? Hey. You say, Jack, forget all that junk.
Where do I get it? I need to decide on a job.
I need to decide should I marry her or not? I need to decide this or that. Great.
Listen. Super. Yes. We all do that on a continuous basis.
But the discipline in decision making still stays the same.
This is the beauty of what we’re about to talk about is that if I am yielded.
Lord, I wanna be yielded to your leadership today. Good morning, god. Hi. Good morning.
Before my feet hit the bed. I mean, I mean, the floor.
Before my feet hit the floor, having woken up, lord, I’m giving you this day.
I’m giving you my life. I’m asking you to feel my thoughts and to lead me because your Bible says that you wanna lead me by your right hand.
I believe personally that god leads me by his right hand every moment of the day so long as I’m walking with him in the spirit.
Does that make sense? If I’m sending, I’m on my own. I’m gonna be making dumb decisions.
I can’t do that. I have to stay away from that.
So I too have to agree with the team behind the camera.
I can’t remember when I made a bad decision. That’s a beautiful feeling. Doesn’t mean we’re we’re sinless.
My gosh. No. We’re extremely flawed creatures, but god’s not.
And it just goes to show you that throughout the scripture, when it says wait upon the lord, That, of course, the go to is you’ve probably already thought about it.
Proverbs chapter 3. This is what I do. Trust in the lord with all of your heart.
Go to him. What’s your first discipline? Trust in the lord with all your heart.
Number 2, lean out on your own understanding. Boy, this is a whopper. Lean not on your own understanding.
I’m gonna tell you little I’m gonna tell you some insight in my mind.
You would be maybe not so shocked, so surprised to hear how many times people say to me, listen, listen to me, Hi, Pastor Jack.
I’ve been seeking the lord about this decision I needed to make in my life, and 7 of my friends Um, I was praying one day and then, like, 2 hours later, uh, in, like, an hour’s time, all seven of them called me.
And we started talking about it and they said I should do it. So that’s pretty amazing. Right?
And I do not agree with them. Um, or they say, I had a dream.
And, uh, this dream, I think maybe the dream means that I should do this or move there or to take on this thing.
I say nothing to them. People will come up and say, Pastor Jack, Pastor Jack, Just wanna tell you, listen.
The lord told me to do thus and so. And so I’m going to do that, pastor, Jack.
What do you think? I never answered them. Do you see where I’m going with this?
They’re feeling for an answer. They’re searching for an answer.
It’s so obvious to me, but not to them. That’s the sad part. I do not jump in.
When somebody says God told me Pastor Jack to go do that thing over there in Los Angeles or in Hollywood or in San Diego.
I am I’m gonna say, you know what? Keep praying to god. Seek the lord.
Open up the word. I am not going to say. I don’t think god told you that.
You say, oh, pastor, but you should. You’re a pastor. Let me tell you something.
When you stick your nose and someone else is god told me to go do it thing.
You set yourself up to be the one blamed for when they fall apart.
They’re gonna have to learn that god didn’t tell them this.
Well, then how do I know when god speaks to me?
Trusting the lord with all of your heart that sets you up that gets you ready that prepares you to number 2, lean not on your own perceived notions ideas and thoughts and understandings about what you are dealing with.
Don’t make it happen? Oh god.
If you want me to do this, cause the sun to come up tomorrow. That’s insane.
Listen, are you a believer in the lord Jesus? Do you have a Bible reading appetite?
Do you have scripture input from god’s word on your own? Then you don’t need to hear your friends.
It doesn’t matter what the pope says or the pastor says. God has spoken to you from his word.
You say, well, that’s what I wanna know. Well, that’s what we’re looking at.
Trust in the lord with all your heart, lean not on your own on your own understanding.
In all your ways, acknowledge Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, self help programs, five steps on how to hear the voice of god, Going to a seminar?
Nope. It tells you in the Bible, in all your ways, acknowledge him.
Recognize and insert him right in the middle of the thing.
I am not thinking about this one moment further without you you god being involved in my thoughts.
I am not gonna do one thing about this, god, unless you make it crystal clear beyond denying.
I’m gonna do I’m gonna be like Gideon. God bless Gideon. I love that guy.
God told her to do something, and Gideon was like, man, I wanna be so sure it’s god.
Then I’m gonna lay out the animal skin.
And if all the ground around it is wet in the morning, but the skin is dry, then I’ll know it’s from the lord.
And it was as he prayed. And Gideon was like, ugh.
I really need to know it’s from the gut, so he turned the animal skins over.
Got some more. They were absolutely soaking wet while the whole ground around it was dry.
It getting wasn’t a weirdo. Gideon wanted to know what god was leading him. He didn’t wanna make a mistake.
Listen. It’s so listen. You don’t have to make mistakes. Oh my gosh. I married the wrong person.
Listen. You don’t have to make mistakes. Listen.
In all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your ways or your paths.
Do not be wise in your own eyes fear the lord and depart from evil friends. Listen.
In decisions, not not not indecision, when you are making decisions, as a believer, you must make those decisions from the word of god regarding your life.
You see, well, Jack, come on. What about those 33,000 a day? That’s that’s a great question.
And it’s and there’s a beautiful answer.
When you have a reading routine of reading through a book of the bible Maybe you took on today, Jeremiah, the first five chapters of the first three chapters, and you just read in the and you’re making your way through.
Are you doing the a daily bible reading?
For me, I’m not knocking that, but for for me, that doesn’t speak to me as deeply as my own personal reading, but I know this that god Has the day ahead of me?
I’m in his word. And during the day, I wind up making the right decision.
Sometimes the decisions have to be made instantly. Is that pretty scary? How do I do that?
And I I do that based on the reading of the word that was guiding me that morning.
Or the word of god that is hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you, oh, lord.
You see? And so the decisions are decisions that are biblically based, and I love it because you know what?
You guys are so kind and generous with your words, but I gotta tell you, you know, you’ll sell pastor Jack.
You know, you’re so brave. You’re so strong. You’re so uh, bold.
You have no idea that that is so not true. I am none of those things.
If you ever perceive me to be bold and strong and courageous on an issue, It’s because I’ve become 100% secure from the word of god as to what I’m supposed to do about the thing that you that you see.
In fact, I don’t know.
I don’t wanna be a bad guy about this, but if some pastor thinks he’s courageous, if some pastor writes a book on courage.
If that guy doesn’t give all the credit to god, uh, something’s wrong.
Because you know what? It it’s perceived as courage, but think about Joshua.
Joshua, god tells Josh tells Joshua, Be strong of good courage. Here’s the translation of that.
Joshua, do what I tell you to do. If you do that, It’s gonna go well.
Just do what I’m telling you to do. And it works.
Joshua didn’t say, hey, god, I got this. You know, I was born with courage?
Kind of runs in my family. And so, adding you in into it. God’s pretty cool.
Let’s go take on the world. No. No. No. No. No. I actually have this belief.
I have this belief that Joshua was probably a pretty, um, pretty careful guy.
He was a great great general. He was a great warrior, but his strength came from the lord.
But how many times did god tell him? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, Joshua. Why?
Because Joshua was not a man of courage, and he was very, very prone to be afraid.
That’s why god kept telling him. Why did god tell Paul? Paul? Be of good courage.
I’m with you. There’s many people in this city that are gonna get saved.
So you just stand strong. Why? Because Paul was freaking out.
So listen, when you know what god says in the Bible, you can make decisions.
And when you make it, listen, sometimes in in actual life, much of our personality Uh, now has to manage the decision process.
And let’s say even god gives you an answer.
You know, this kind of like real life stuff for me is I can be mowing the lawn doing something completely completely brainless, and I love that because it’s so rare.
It’s like, oh, that’s so good. You can hear the birds.
You’re mowing the lawn and you’re checked out for a moment. It’s so great.
And I have found in my own life that there’ll be this Thought.
It’s like, man, that’s weird. A thought. You know what?
I’m gonna I’ll tell you something right now. This is for real.
That kind of a situation, that kind of a scenario.
Hit my head and I let it sit in my head in my heart for months.
I didn’t tell anybody. I didn’t tell Lisa. It’s just there.
And fast forward fast forward a couple of years.
I began to mention we need to do we need to do a service publicly out in the open to the world, but calling the church back.
It’s in the post COVID world, so many people are gone. Where’d they go?
We need to do a just church event.
That was something that was in my heart in my mind and my head for so long.
I can’t even tell you so long.
But when you announce it to people, they’re like, woah, that’s such a snap decision.
Oh my gosh, Jack, are you crazy? I totally get it.
I didn’t let them in on what I was pondering. Think about my poor wife, Lisa.
This happens to me, and I’m thinking about something for months.
And then the lord confirms it to my heart.
And then I turn to her and I say, hey, Lisa, guess what? We’re gonna vacation in Mozambique.
And we’re gonna go and witness to all the Muslims there that are that are killing Christians.
She’s gonna say, oh, no. We’re not. I get it.
I didn’t bring her in on it. Are you with me? Listen, husband, and wife?
I’m trying to learn this now.
Bring your spouse in on the revelation when it comes to if god is not sure yet.
God gives it ponder it for a little bit, but then start to share with him or her this.
Hey, don’t judge what I’m about to say. I’m judging it. Don’t critique it.
I’m just sharing something with you. It’s been in my heart now for several weeks.
It’s gonna sound crazy to you because when I first I believe heard it from the lord. We’ll see.
I thought it was crazy. Just hear me out. I wanna recruit your prayer support.
That’s all I’m asking you to do. Is pray that I’m hearing from god, and it’s this.
He wants you and I to move to the south pole.
But he didn’t say when.
A good wife or a good husband will say Okay.
I’ll pray for you because the temptation will be, you’re nuts.
That’s crazy. There’s no palm trees there. I already know all that.
Already worked all that out on my head, and yet god is intensifying the South Pole as an example.
You see where I’m going with this? It’s part of decision making.
As a believer, biblically based, read the scriptures daily, God will confirm.
And as your husband and wife or your friends, who knows whatever, whoever needs to know on a need to know basis, by the way, if it’s just you just you.
Need to know basis. God will also start speaking to them.
So god is in the process you are to obey him by being in the word.
And David summed it up perfectly thy word have I hidden in my heart.
That I might not sin against you. What word is that? Be more specific.
I’m gonna trust in the lord with all my heart.
I’m not gonna lean to my own under my own understanding and then all my ways.
I’m gonna I’m gonna acknowledge him, and he will direct my path.
If I do that, I’m gonna be like our staff a moment ago when I asked them the question.
When was the last time you made a dumb choice, dumb decision? And you go like this.
It’s been a while since I’ve goofed up. Awesome.
Walk in the spirit.
Let the word of god be the light and the lamp to your feet on a daily basis.
Don’t let emotions make decisions for you. Don’t let people make decisions for you.
Don’t let a pastor priest or pope make decisions for you.
Let god tell you what’s up next.
You’ll nurture a hearing ear of what the spirit is saying to you, and you’ll recognize more and more the voice of the lord And when that day comes when god says something like open the church, to preach the gospel.
Do not close the doors because of COVID. I opened a door that no man can shut.
You have no authority to shut the doors of my church, Jack.
I didn’t flinch one second. I did not have one second thought.
Not one. I knew what I had to do. And I’m nobody special, friend.
God’s word is here for you. Just make sure. That you are consulting his word. You’ll never fail.
God bless you guys. Listen. This is part, obviously.
Of us living out what we believe in. It’s real life we’re talking about.
It’s time for us to do that. Hit subscribe, share this with others.
If it matters to you, I hope it does.
And, um, we’d love to see this podcast grow more and more. And, um, love to get your feedback.
What would you like to hear about? Give us topics. They’re infinite. You know?
And, We’d love to handle those topics. We’d love to take them on.
Through the word of god, as always. So listen until next time, god bless you guys and stand strong.
Look up. Jesus has come in, hopefully, now.
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