Resources
Make The Right Choices
In the Forth message of this series Pastor Floyd continues his discussion on making it through difficult times, in this message he looks at 2 Timothy 2 and the importance of making right choices.
$6.00 — $12.00
In the April 4th edition of Newsweek Magazine, the lead article was entitled the “End of Christian America.” A summary of the article based off of most recently research is if you were to dial back to 2 decades or more in America, there are 10% less people in our day than 20 years ago that proclaim to be Christian.
What that can be stated is as follows in the article, and I quote, “Christians are making up a declining percentage of American culture.” When asked to respond in the article, Dr. Albert Mohler who is a prolific theologian author and scholar, stated the following words, and I quote, “The most basic contours of American culture have been radically altered. The so-called Judeo-Christian consensus of the last millennium has given way to a post-modern, post-Christian, post-western cultural crisis,” listen to what he said, “…which threatens the very heart of our culture.”
Perhaps you’re not aware, but I trust you are, the landscape of the American culture has not only changed, but is ever changing. You see the thrust of the article is that we are becoming less Christian by the day. We are becoming less influenced by the things of God, by the day. And the times in which we live, they are difficult days. They are challenging days. And we are facing the storms of living in a culture, proclaiming to be Christian; when in reality our culture is no longer Christian.
You see what we must understand this morning in this changing culture is the following: is that people are making very poor choices in so many areas of life. In fact, if you will note simply in your mind for a moment, morally the choices being made in our culture. You know what the moral code is today? What used to be wrong is now right. And what used to be right, we’re no longer sure about.
And all that is laid on the foundation of social choices that are absolutely unacceptable. You see, social choices today are built off of what we call situational ethics. Situational ethics means I will determine what is right based off of my situation. A decade ago or more, when a pastor would stand in a local church, and proclaim and denounce situational ethics, the people would join with him. Today, almost in one accord, the people live lives dealt with, motivated by, and driven by situational ethics. That’s where we determine based off our situation what is right, and what is wrong. Based off our situation what we interpret to be right, or what we interpret to be wrong. And all of a sudden our opinion, and our view is more prominent and full of priority than anyone else’s view or thought process.
You see in our culture today we see even people that are right now living in the reality of making poor choices financially. Our nation has made, and is making poor choices financially. People wonder where this nation is going financially, and we wonder what’s going to happen with this stimulus package, or that stimulus package, or more to come, or more is on the way. You know what? The economists do not even know. And all that we know is that there will be generations following us that will pay the price for the poor choices even within our generation.
And you see as well poor choices being made in the midst of family living. I am absolutely amazed as I talk with people about their family life at how flippant people are when something doesn’t go right in their family. How flippant they are in their commitment to their spouse, or their commitment to their parents, or their commitments to their children. I’m amazed that there are few men today who will fight for their marriage. And there are few women today who will fight for their marriage.
I challenge you today to understand is the poor choices of decision making that are happening in families, they are wrecking our culture! And you would be shocked if you knew how that exists even here today in the midst of many who are quote, “Christians.” You see the real challenge in family living, there’s not a whole lot of difference from what’s out there, than what’s in here. And therein lies the challenge.
We hear a lot today about swine flu. Who would have ever thought that we would have heard about swine flu a month ago? I mean is it not amazing. I haven’t been to Mexico in forever. I haven’t been to Mexico since I was a little bitty kid. Jeana’s never been. And here we go; we decide over Spring Break we’re going to go to Mexico. We bought our tickets in January, we’re rolling man. Well they’re down there killing each other over drugs, and now swine flu. Well Lord, did I pick a great time to go to Mexico? Well I made it so far to God be the glory.
But you know what? I think we’re far too worried about the pandemic of what is called swine flu. You see there’s another pandemic we had better be worried about very, very much, and it’s what I call the pandemic of poor choices, or wrong choices. Do you realize what the difference is between an epidemic and a pandemic is? Have you thought about that? You ought to go to the dictionary and look at it. But if you don’t want to go to the dictionary, let me tell you. An epidemic is when a disease arises in a culture that literally affects a culture, but then, quickly subsides. A pandemic is a disease that arises in a culture that affects a culture, it does not subside, and eventually, listen, can alter a culture, can alter a continent, and can even alter the world. Well I want to say to you today, those of us in America, we need to be far more seriously wondering what’s happening with the pandemic of wrong choices, than we ever should be worried ultimately about the pandemic of swine flu, at least at this point.
I want to tell you today our wrong choices have us where we are, and our wrong choices will be the death of our nation one day if we don’t change, and it will be death of your family if you do not address them, and could be even the death of your own life. You see what happens in the midst of choices is this: one wrong choice leads to another wrong choice. And that wrong choice leads to another wrong choice. Are you following me? And pretty soon, before you know it, you have developed a little reservoir of wrong choices right over here. And so therefore when you’re called upon to decision-making, what do you do in the midst of your decision-making? You go to what you’re used to, and you dip into your reservoir, which is now your frame of reference, your lifestyle choices, your thought processes, your interpretations, your opinions if you may, and you reach into that reservoir of wrong choices to make what? More wrong choices.
But I want to tell you today that it doesn’t have to be that way, because you see in the difficult days in which we live, which is what we’re talking about, we need to realize that one of the ways to make it through difficult times is to make the right choices. And that’s what I want to talk to you today out of 2 Timothy, chapter number 2. And if you would, get a copy of God’s Word, look with me to 2 Timothy 2, beginning with verse 22, reading through verse number 26. The scripture says, “Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. But reject foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they breed quarrels. The Lord’s slave, or the Lord’s servant, must not quarrel but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, instructing his opponents with gentleness, perhaps God will grant them repentance to know the truth. Then they may come to their senses, and escape the devil’s trap having been captured by him, meaning God, to do his will.”
Sometimes in life it helps you to know the end from the beginning. Sometime when I look at scripture and I face a challenging passage of scripture, I want to go to the end of what’s expected of me, what the result is in order to help me get there. But I’ve got to know what’s there before I can get there. You know what? As I dealt with this passage, and wrestled with this passage, most of the week, I had determined that we need to know the end from the beginning in order to understand what God is saying to us today.
So what is that end from the beginning? Well you have to go to verse 25, and verse 26. But right there in the middle of verse 25 there is a transition, and everything changes at that transition. Notice what the transition is. It’s with the word, “perhaps.” “Perhaps God will grant them repentance to know the truth.” Who is he talking about? He is talking about those that are lost, and do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. SO something has to happen from verse 22 to verse 25a to get us to the point where from 25b through the verse 26, the actions of what I want to talk about briefly for a moment.
And those actions are repentance. Repentance, meaning what? The scripture uses the word here. It’s not a popular word in our culture, but it is a biblical word, and a right word. It means a change of mind. It means a change of thought. It means a change of habit. It means a change of life. You see what he is referring to here is spiritual conversion. That something happens in verse 22 through 25a, through the lives of believers that end up in verse 25b, and 25, 6 that result in lost people who have never trusted Christ as Lord and Savior, willingly repent from their sinfulness, because of what they see in the lives of Christians.
But he not only talks about repentance here in the passage, notice what he talks about. He talks about those people once they turn from their sin, and they trust Jesus Christ and Him alone for salvation, they begin to be delivered from Satan’s intoxicating lies. That’s what the scripture’s referring to, is that once we know Christ, we begin that process of being delivered from these intoxicating lies, this reservoir of wrong choices, if you may, we begin to be delivered from that, and God begins to do amazing things.
You see, before you meet Christ, let me tell you what happens to you, and has happened to me before I knew the Lord. I became captured. I became captured alive to operate by Satan’s will. And I became alive and trapped to do Satan’s will for my life. All because this reservoir out here of wrong, and poor choices. But notice what he says here, “Once we repent from our sin, and we’re delivered from the traps of Satan, all of a sudden we are captured by God to do God’s will, and no longer are we captured by the enemy, but no, we’re captured by God to do God’s will.” In fact the scripture here says that we are captured alive to escape the traps of the enemy. And we are captured alive because we have escaped the will of the enemy, Satan himself, and we have captured to do the will of God.
You know sometime it is very hard for us to understand the tactics of Satan, but I want to give you a statement today that I want you to think about regarding Satan. You know what Satan does? Satan, he, he numbs the conscience. You know what numbing the conscience means? It means that once you’ve made a wrong choice, and you keep making that choice, no longer does it really bother you, and you’re conscience becomes seared, it becomes hardened, and it doesn’t bother you anymore. But Satan numbs the conscience, and not only does he numb the conscience, but then he confuses the senses, our senses. IN other words, we don’t know what’s right or wrong, therefore we operate in this reservoir, and we operate in it happily because this is our life, this is our frame of reference, this who we are. And then what he does, he paralyzes our will! We don’t get out of here. We like it. In fact, even after we come to know Christ, we return and we shop there quite a bit, in the reservoir of bad choices.
And that’s what Paul was telling the church of Galatia over in chapter 5 of the book of Galatians. He was saying, “Within you there is a constant battle, and it’s a flesh battle, and a spirit battle, and they will rage within the heart of a person. And you’ve got to understand that the flesh doesn’t like God; the flesh is fighting against God, but the Holy Spirit is there to help you win that battle.” And you know what? That’s all a battle over choices, all a battle of your life, and what you think about, and the way you live, and the choices that you make in your life.”
But you know because the American culture is so shifted, and it is so shifted, we’ve got to understand and follow what 2 Timothy is teaching us. Remember what it taught us in chapter 1, verse 12? Because a culture is so bad, and things are so shifted, what must we do? We must know whom we have believed. And then not only must we know whom we have believed, but may I remind you what he taught us last week in chapter 2, verse 15? We’ve got to be committed to correctly teaching the Word of God. We’ve got to be able to actively open up this book, and see what God is saying to us in His Word.
But you know what? That’s not enough to simply know whom we have believed, and to correctly teach the Word of God, but what this passage today teaches us in verse 22 through verse 25a is the following: that if we want to see people repent of their sin, and we want to see people delivered from the enemy, and we want to see people captured by God, and God’s will, then it’s not going to simply be determined by what we know, or what we teach, but it’s going to be determined with us doing the right thing, in the right way. Loving people in the right way. Sharing with them God’s Word in the right spirit. And having the right attitude as we face, and we walk through life. Because if we don’t do that, you know what the warning is here? You will forfeit your testimony, you will lose your witness, you will lose your influence, therefore today, we’ve got to operate, and we’ve got to understand verse 22 through verse 25a. It’s the process if you may, of getting over here to seeing people come to Christ, to seeing people let go of the enemy. To seeing people captured by the will of God.
So we’ve got a big old world out here, and we’ve got a big old NWA full of people who need to know Jesus. If we want them to come to Christ, I’m about to tell you one of the secret ways that they will come to Christ. Are you ready to listen? It all begins right here. Are you ready? Look with me to the Word of God.
1. Run from making the wrong choices. That’s where I want to start today. You’ve got to be willing to run from making the wrong choices. That word in verse 22 when it says, “Flee from youthful passions,” it is meaning fly from them! Don’t wait, but fly from them. I mean it’s quick action. It’s not of whether or not it’s right or wrong, I’m going to fly from them. I’m not going to give myself any benefit of the doubt at all; I’m going to fly from those wrong choices that are right before me.
When he talks about youthful passions, many times people equate that immediately with sexuality, or sensuality, but it’s far deeper than that. What he’s talking about is, is immaturity. Immaturity. We have to be careful to fly from our immaturity. You see immaturity happens when you don’t grow in Christ. There are a lot of immature Christians in this room today. Some of you have been Christians 50 years of your life, but you’re still immature. You see the only way you ever get from Christian immaturity to Christian maturity is obeying God’s Word. That’s it. It doesn’t have anything to do with how gray your hair is, or what other color you make it, or does it have to do anything with the element of your age. It’s not determined by any of those things. What determines it is your willingness to obey what God says in his word.
So what do we have to do? We have to fly from the wrong choices before us. So somehow we’ve got to get out of this frame of reference, and we’ve got to stop dipping in there once we know Christ as Lord and Savior, and going back there, we’re always prone to go back there, but we’ve got to get free from that, and we’ve got to fly from it. So what are some of those choices we have to fly from? Well we’ve got to fly from:
(1) Sensuality. From sensuality. I tell you sensuality is a big thing in our culture. It’s hard to drive down the interstate right now without being tempted towards sensuality. It’s hard to open up a magazine without being tempted in sensuality. It’s hard to get online and surf the net, and the web some, and all of a sudden you’re tempted with sensuality. And I’m not talking about deep hardcore pornography, I mean none of us should ever be involved in that anyway, I’m just talking about life, as you live your life! Simple stuff.
What about when you watch television? Or you go to a movie theater? I mean you’ve got to fly from it. You see you’re going to live in a world that is filled with sensuality. But what he’s saying to us is if we don’t fly from that sensuality, and we don’t flee from that sensuality, we’re going to hurt our testimony out here! So we have to flee from it. Run from making the wrong choices of sensuality.
Wrong from making the wrong choices of:
(2) Selfishness. Selfishness. Oh I tell you what selfishness is a big deal. In fact you remember last week we talked about always quarreling with our words. So worried about who’s going to win the fight, and who’s going to win the battle. Well in verse number 23 he returns to that subject, and he talks about that in the 23rd verse. He talks about we have to be careful with our words. Here we are, we want to win people to Christ, we want to influence our culture, we want to make a difference. We’ve got to be careful always getting our way. We have to be careful not to end up in conflict with believers and non-believers, and then making the issue, “Well I’m going to win. I’m going to prove that I can win.”
The problem is, listen to me now, if that’s your heart, you’re going to lose your testimony sooner or later. And then what’s going to happen? Well, think about how many marriages have been destroyed because of that very issue. How many relationships, friendships have been destroyed because of having to be sure you win. Well it’s not about us winning, it’s not about our selfishness, it’s about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the love of Jesus Christ being shared through our lives, and we should do nothing to forfeit the message. If we want to see people repent, we want to see people free from the devil’s lies, and we want to be captured to do the will of God.
You know, I talked about this in our first service today, and it’s so true. You know Jeana and I, we really have, we really have a very, very healthy, good, great marriage, most of the time. We really do. And even through the adversity sometime we still do. But I was thinking about it yesterday. You know if we would have lived in the days of the covered wagon, I think our marriage would have been absolutely perfect. But since we have cars, and since I drive most of the time, that tends to be our point of conflict. Can I get an Amen? Well you know what I’ve ridden with me a long time, and I’m, I’m, I can make it most of the time by myself. But I don’t know how many of you guys ever feel like when she gets in with you, your wife gets in with you, all of a sudden she’s going to tell you, “Be careful. Watch it. Here we are.”
Well yesterday, history happened, Nick, in our home. We’ve been married almost 33 years. I’ve never seen it before in our family. For the first time in almost 33 years of marriage, at 12:10 yesterday, and I looked on my watch to ensure [LAUGHTER] I was driving, and Jeana warned me about something, and she said, “Oh I’ve got this bad contact in my eye. I’m not used to it. You know it really, you were right there. I didn’t see it rightly.” I almost fell out. [LAUGHTER] I almost had a fit. I mean I looked at the clock, and I said, “Glory be to God, 12:10, I mean history’s made in almost 33 years of marriage for the first time ever because usually the issue is what? Selfishness. My point or her point. Right? That’s just life. Doesn’t matter what the relationship is, it’s about winning! That’s what causes so much conflict.
Well we have to flee from that mentality, and we also today have to fly away, not only from our sensuality, fly away not only from this thing called selfishness, but also from our:
(3) Pride. Oh pride is so deadly. You see pride means what? It means you’re arrogant, don’t feel like you ever do anything wrong. And we all deal with that sometime, don’t we? Pride is what? Pride means I don’t want accountability in my life. Pride means I’m not responsible. “Well it’s really not my fault.” Well why are you where you are? “Well I did that, but it’s really not my fault.” So we don’t want responsibility. Pride keeps us from being responsible for our what? Choices.
Well you know what? Whether the culture holds you accountable or not, the church should hold you accountable, and the Lord one day will hold you accountable for your choices. And so we have to be careful that we run from making the wrong choices. So many of us want to live on the edge so much, but if we’re not careful, we’re going to fall off the edge. It’s one thing to be cool, and it’s one thing to be vogue, but you better understand you can’t lose your testimony in the process of doing that.
So therefore, what do you have to do? You’ve got to:
2. Pursue making the right choices. What are the right choices that we are to pursue? He talks about those in verse 22, and then verse 24, and in the very first part of 25. If you’ll notice in verse 22, you’ve got to go to the bottom part of the verse, the end of that verse, to caption how that happened, and that is that from along with those who call on the Lord from a:
(1) Pure heart. Therefore you have to pursue what? A pure heart. If we want to see righteousness in our lives, and faith, and love, and peace, if we want that, then what must we do? We have got to have a pure heart! That’s a difficult thing. Let me show you tension. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitfully wicked, and who can know it.” And Jesus said over in Matthew chapter 5, I believe verse 6, could be verse 8, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”
So we have this challenge, we’ve got this tension. People all the time say, “Well I just want you to know my heart.” Well listen, you cannot even know your own heart, you better be careful saying that. Who can know it, God said? We’ve got to be careful, but at the same time we’ve got to pursue having a pure heart. And the right choices in life, if all this represents the reservoir of wrong choices, and over here represents the reservoir of right choices, than in order to live here, more than there, it’s a pure heart that gets us there.
SO we have to fill our minds with the right thing, and stay out of the clutter of this reservoir of poor choices. But also not only do we pursue a pure heart, we’ve got to pursue:
(2) Godly actions. You know what those godly actions are? It’s talked about right there. If you’ll notice it in the verse, in verse 22, he talks about those right actions. Righteousness. Do you know what righteousness is? Righteousness is being in right standing with God. Righteousness is righteous actions, right actions that you chose in your life.
Then he says faith. What is faith? Faith is one thing, and that is you having a whole-hearted confidence in God. You’re going to trust God with your life. And then he talks about love. Loving all people, not those you choose, but loving all people. And then he talks about what? He talks about this element of desiring peace with others. Well if we want peace in our relationships, it’s going to come from a pure heart. Sooner or later we’ve got to understand this is bigger than my choice, and bigger than my will. It’s a about my testimony. And I can’t lose my testimony or forfeit my testimony for Jesus Christ if I want to make a difference in this culture. I’ve got to be very careful, and I’ve got to choose godly actions.
But also, according to the scripture, I have to have a:
(3) Right attitude. Oh a right attitude is very, very important. He talks about that in the scripture, he talks about being a slave. That word slave is the word servant. You know what the word servant or slave means? It means that you don’t have any rights. Now that you’ve come to Christ as your Lord and Savior, you don’t have any rights. You don’t have the right to operate in the reservoir of poor choices anymore because you’re dead. You’re dead to yourself. You’re dead to your sins and your transgressions according to what the scripture said. And you’re alive and awakened to walk with Christ, and be all God wants you to be. And to live over here versus live over here.
But it all comes back to this element here today in the scripture of understanding that you don’t have any rights. And then he calls us, and he tells us you’ve got to have gentle kindness to everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with them or not, or whether they agree with you or not, it’s gentle kindness to everyone.
Then he talks about how you need to be a skillful teacher of the Word of God, meaning that you’ve got to be willing to teach others, and you’ve got to know enough to teach people the Bible, and teach people the principles of God. And then even when you are wronged by those people you are teaching, you are patient with them until they come to the knowledge of the truth.
You see what we’ve got to have in our culture today, and if some of you don’t listen to what I’m going to say in the next minute, you’re going to misquote me, and you don’t need to misquote me about this. When we’re trying to reach a lost Pagan world, which is so vast in our culture today, we’ve got to have a big old heart for tolerance. I mean a big old heart for tolerance. If all we do is going around this culture and pound them on the head with the truth, I’m sorry; we’re not going to win them that way. We’re not going to influence them that way. Their self worth, and their selfish nature will stand up defiant at our attitude, wanting to just relate the truth may forfeit them from ever coming to the gospel.
But listen, don’t forget what I’m saying, we have got to have a big old heart for tolerance, but listen carefully, we never, ever compromise the truth of God’s Word. I practice this all the time with laypeople. I practice it at times with our staff. But I want to tell you what my friend, I really see it in the church today. As I talk to people, especially when I get into family stuff and it gets real deep, and real heavy, and real ugly, and I think many of them come because they think I’m going to pound them. Uh, or I’m going to let them have it. And I try to tolerate, I try to love him, I try to do everything I can, but let me tell you something, as they spill their guts, and they tell me their life, and where they are, they also know that Ronnie Floyd will be faithful to share with them the truth before they go.
But you know what captivates them to the truth when they turn? The love, and the tolerance shared along the way. You know, sometime in our lives we think that we need to tell the world, “Well you know what, when ya’ll clean up and you become what you need to become, the doors of the church are open for you.” Well I’m glad God didn’t make those rules for us, huh? I mean that’s nothing but legalism, and I rebuke it in the name of Jesus. Our heart and our life needs to be, “Man you come in here. I don’t care what your lifestyle is, who you are, what you’re about, and I’m going to trust the Lord, and I’m going to trust that this word is going to be so powerful that sooner or later He’ll clean you up, and He’ll clean your life out. And He’ll make you be what you need to be for God.” [APPLAUSE]
You see, one of the real threats of our testimony is going back to what we understand about the enemy Satan. You see, listen carefully about Satan. If Satan can’t get you to do the wrong thing, he’ll get you to do the right thing in the wrong way. Did you hear that? If he can’t get you to do the wrong thing, he’ll get you to do the right thing in the wrong way. We’ve got to be careful. We’ve got to be pursuing constantly, doing what God wants us to do in order to win people to Christ in our culture today, we’ve got to have the right spirit. We’ve got to have the right heart. We’ve got to share the right words, and we’ve got to meet them exactly where they are in their life. And they don’t need to hear from the church condemnation! They need to hear from the church, “Here’s freedom, but there is no freedom without truth. And I hold in my hand love in one hand, but I hold truth in the other.”
I challenge you today to understand you can lose your testimony if all you ever do is think it is your responsibility to give this culture just a word of truth. We’ve got to learn to love them loudly. We’ve got to learn to love loud with our words. We’ve got to learn to love loud with our attitude. We’ve got to learn to love loud with our actions. No longer can we put up a sign in front of a store and accept, expect people to come to church! That day’s over! We’ve got to win our culture through our lives, through our words, our attitudes so they will hear what the message of the gospel is!
So today I want to close with making one thing crystal clear to you today because this is very, very important. This is what the real heartbeat is: Our life, our attitude, and our actions should point people to Jesus, not push them from Jesus. Let me ask you today, is your life, does your attitude, do your actions point people to Christ? Or do they push them from Him? Is your testimony forfeited because of that? If we want to see people repenting of their sin, come into faith in Christ, and we want to see them be delivered from the power of the enemy, and captured to do the will of God, then we better understand that it’s going to be our life, our attitude, and our actions with the truth of Jesus, and the truth of God’s Word that has the power to change their life.
Folks, hear me now, it’s your life, and it’s your attitude, and it’s your actions that’s going to call people to go to heaven with you, or push people to go to hell without Christ. We are responsible, we need to take and pursue right choices. I want us to bow our heads together…
- SKU:
- 2Y218L
- MP3:
- http://www.ronniefloyd.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/2Y218L-Make-The-Righ32K001.mp3
- Vimeo:
- 4487290