Greg Ford - Making Decisions
Hi, my name is Greg ford. I'm the lead pastor at One Church in Columbus, Ohio, and this is the Power of One. Today, I wanna talk to you about making decisions. When you think about it, our lives are a compilation of decisions. And I think we all would admit we have some decisions we wish we could have back. Some things that we regret, we'd do it differently, but you gotta cut yourself some slack, man. I mean, if you knew then what you know now, you'd have done it different. If you knew then what you knew then you'd probably have done the same thing. But I think all of us could stand to grow in decision making, right, as part of developing wisdom. Wisdom, applied knowledge throughout life, we analyze our experiences and we learn how to make better decisions. But today, even beyond our own human wisdom, I want us to learn from Jesus. We're gonna go to the book of Mark. We're gonna look at a couple different characters. We're gonna look at how Jesus led them into better decision making that can show up for us right here, right now. Let's go to God's word together.
Part of living life well is making good decisions. And we're gonna talk about how to do that better, alright? I'm gonna start in Mark 1:16. Mark 1:16 says, "One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living". This was their job. They were doing their job. "And Jesus called out to them, 'come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people"! Didn't give an explanation as to what he meant by that. But verse 18 says, "They left their nets at once and followed him." That's Mark 1.
Mark 10, starting in verse 21 says, 10 chapters later, "Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, and a man, sincere man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, 'good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life'? 'why do you call me good'? Jesus asked. 'only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Must not testify falsely. Don't lie. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother'". You know, do the good guy stuff.
Verse 20, "'Teacher', the man replied. 'I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young'. Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. 'there's still one thing you haven't done,' he told him. 'go and sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me". Verse 22, "At this the man's face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions". I'm gonna read you one more verse then we'll tie 'em all together. Ephesians 3:20, and I'm gonna read this one in the King James. 'cause every once in a while, you just gotta go King James on 'em.
Alright, here we go. Verse 20 says, "Now, unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that worketh". Turn to your neighbor and say, "Worketh". If you worketh it, it'll work... No, that's a different message but okay. The power that worketh in us. Better decisions, better decisions are a process of Revelation and response. Put down this equation. Revelation plus response equals good decisions, great decisions, better decisions. Let's work some vocabulary words. What is Revelation? Revelation is a supernatural disclosure. It's something that you previously did not know or see, and yet God shows it to you.
I can see with my natural eye: I can see with my life experience, and yet, God has the ability to show you something that you were blind to before. To open up your mind, to open up your eyes, open up your thoughts to see something new, Revelation. Throughout God's word, we see that God would reveal himself, reveal himself in different ways. In the Old Testament, we see he used mighty acts. So, he parts the Red Sea. Remember that? That's a miracle. The Red Sea parted, and that was God's way of revealing, "I'm in this, and here's your path". For whatever it's worth, if you walk up to a body of water and it just parts, just go ahead and take that path. That's God telling you he's in it, okay? But God did other things too. He had a pillar of fire at one point.
Another point, supernatural provision. He provided manna or food for them when they were hungry. So, we see God revealing himself through mighty acts. We also see he reveals himself through the person of Jesus. Colossians 1 says, "Jesus was the visible image of the invisible God". It says in Colossians 2 that "Jesus, in whom all the mysteries of God are revealed through Jesus, all wisdom and knowledge that came through him". And so, just by studying Jesus, by understanding Jesus, by listening to Jesus, learning, we have God, the Word of God revealed to us. And also it's through the spoken word, the written Word of God.
It says in 2 Peter 1:20 and 21, "Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in scripture ever came from the prophet's own understanding". People weren't acting unilaterally. "Hey, I think I wanna write this". It was a supernatural collaboration. It said it didn't come from human initiative. In other words, God initiated, he revealed. But look what it says next. "No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit and they spoke from God". At a certain point, these people that saw something in their mind or understood something disclosed to them by God, chose to speak and write.
So, John on the island of Patmos writes the Book of Revelation. What's he doing? He sees something. God showing him something, and he's writing it. And now that's the written Word of God. And we know that the Word of God is living and active. All throughout life, making better decisions is God will show you something, he'll reveal something to you. Sometimes it's a timely word that somebody preaches in a context like this. Sometimes it's a brother or sister in Christ speaks something to you. Sometimes it's actually you're reading God's word, and it's something you've maybe read before, and yet, God's speaking a new thing to you through that thing. But the idea of listening to God, Revelation response.
And what I would encourage you to do is to predetermine your response when God gives you Revelation, which is my response is gonna be obedience. Sounds simple, but it's really not. Because actually we see it in Mark 1 and in Mark 10. In Mark 1, you have the disciples. You have Peter and Andrew who are at work, okay? So, they fished for a living, they're fishermen and Jesus comes up and says, "I'll make you fishers of men". And they put down their net. That's huge! That's a big decision to put down your business, to put down the stuff you're good at. It was a family business. That's a big, big change, but they did it. Jesus revealed himself and they said, "I'm following, I'm gonna follow him. I'm gonna postpone everything else, and whatever this costs me, I'm gonna pay it. I'm gonna follow him".
And we see how easy it is to not do that. Because in Mark 10, the rich young ruler comes to Jesus. And Jesus, when he says, "Sell your stuff and follow me". He wasn't being legalistic. What he was doing was offering them, him the same thing he offered the other guys. "Put down your nets. Put down your business. Put down your identity, put this down and follow me". And in Mark 1, the disciples who eventually became disciples, they put down their nets, they dropped their nets.
In Mark 10, the rich young ruler dropped his face. One followed, the other left and went away sad. So, a big part of our lives is God will reveal something to you. God will show something to you, and you have to make a decision. "How will I respond to whatever he's showing me"? Don't do it now 'cause we got some more work to do today. I gotta talk to you and I don't want your mind going crazy. I need it to stay right here, okay? But like later, write down like the two or three biggest decisions of your life thus far. And really think about those decisions. How you got to those and what you can learn from those.
You know, I was thinking about decisions. Two big ones I could think of, the first is when I made the decision, my freshman year, after my freshman year of college, that I was gonna go into ministry. Which is crazy because I wanted to be a coach. I wanted to coach football or you know, coach. And then I also thought, "Man, maybe I wanna do that. Maybe I want to go into business". I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do, but ministry was not something I ever thought I would want to do, ever thought. In fact, the idea of doing this was horrifying. In high school I got a d in speech. It was my worst grade in high school. I did a speech on schizophrenia, it was horrible. I never looked up the whole time I was there, the whole time I was down like, "Schizophrenia, you know, it's a terrible disease".
I mean, I did terrible. I didn't, nothing in me, wanted to get up in front of people and talk. You talk to my parents, they'll tell you, "Man, we didn't see this on his life". This wasn't something I ever thought I wanted to do. And yet, I felt God pulling me in that direction. I felt God calling me to do it. And so, I made a decision to leave the school that I was in, to move a long way from home and to go into ministry. As you know, I look back, I think, "Man, what if I hadn't done that, you know"?
Like I felt really clear that this was what I was supposed to do, but I couldn't see all this. No way! I never thought I'd be up in front of people in a tie dye Hoodie with a smiley face on. I thought you had to wear a suit and tie and shave, and you know, all this. I didn't know, I had no idea it was, I didn't know earth, wind and fire could kick off the worship set. I didn't know we could. I didn't know. I didn't know we could do this. I had no idea any of this was in my future. I just felt like, you know, God was saying, "I want you to go in this direction". And I was, "Okay". And I stepped out in faith. I look back and I just go, "Man, that was a huge decision".
I still sometimes can't believe that I obeyed. And yet, I look back and I go, "What if I hadn't done that"? I remember feeling the weight of that decision. "Like, what if I screw this up"? Like, I remember thinking, I was praying. I'm like, "God, if this is really you, I'll do anything you say. But if this isn't you, I don't want to go into ministry and then when I'm 40 years old, I regret my whole life because I can't stand my life because I got emotional at 20 years old. Like, God, what do you want me to do"? I remember the weight of that decision. Another big decision was a few years later, I was working at this youth camp and they put me in charge of this thing. And my friend is driving off in a vehicle. And he calls over, his name's Tony. And Tony calls over, he's like, "Hey, Greg".
Okay, and I had no idea, but Shaylyn Tewers, my future wife was in the passenger seat, no idea. Couldn't see her, only could see Tony. Tony calls out, "Greg, Greg"! And if I had just gone, like, "Hey"! He'd have driven off, but my parents taught me, you know, you see a friend, you go speak to him. I'm like, "Hey". I was like, "Alright". So, I like run over to him and I was like, and then I look in the passenger seat and I was like. Nice to make your acquaintance. No clue when I go jog over to shake Tony's hand, I'm jogging over till death do us part. No clue! Absolutely no idea! And some of the decisions in your life, you sit at that crossroad and you can feel the weight of the decision. Other times you make a decision having no idea what you're doing. And yet, you're walking into your destiny.
If I had never walked over to shake Tony's hand, I'd have been single the rest of my life. All alone. Decisions. We think about these big, big, big decisions, right? "Man, should we pack up and move to another state? Hey, should I overhaul my career? Should I put all my money into launch this business? What should I major in? Should I marry this person"? We think of these humongous decisions, and yes, I do believe that the Spirit of God can give us Revelation on big macro decisions. But I think there are some macro decisions in our lives that actually appear to us as micro. I almost wonder if we realize how big of a decision it actually is.
I think especially decisions that relate to mindset and how we think. Like we would think a big decision is, "Who am I gonna marry"? But another huge decision is, who is she gonna marry? "Who am I gonna be? What kind of guy am I gonna be"? 'cause she's marrying me and I gotta decide if I want to marry her, but I'm also gonna decide, I have the most control of anybody of deciding the man she's gonna marry. "What am I gonna be like, how am I gonna look at the world? How am I gonna look at her? How am I going to develop and grow? And what's my relationship with God gonna be like? And what am I gonna do"?
That's a huge decision. Self-awareness is a huge decision. It's just very easy to go through life, just sort of blaming all the bad stuff on other people. But to look in the mirror and see my own patterns, you know? Some point that takes a lot of courage. 'cause you, you always have, by the way, the very convenient excuse as to how screwed up everybody else is. Everything they did wrong. But to see your own pattern, like you worked five jobs, and they all had a toxic work environment. Here's one, trust. If you trust somebody and they break your trust, you went in, you bought into them, and they break your trust, and they break your heart, and they hurt you. First time that happens, that's excruciating, it's shocking.
And you're like, "You know what? Never again man, never again". You get the temptation of, "I'm not gonna make myself that vulnerable again". Somebody do it one time. But imagine you're like, "You know what, no, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna put up a wall. Knock that wall down". And you trust somebody a second time and they hurt you. Same thing. You get hurt a third time. It's like, how many times does someone break your trust before you start doing the cost benefit, you start doing the analysis between what's worse, pain or loneliness? Gosh, I think, "Would I prefer loneliness? 'cause if I'm lonely, at least nobody's in here inflicting pain on me. I mean, yeah, I'm isolated".
You start thinking like that. And at some point you gotta make a decision. "Am I gonna risk a fourth? Am I gonna take that risk"? That's a decision. That's a big important decision. How tenacious, how much tenacity am I gonna have in in this life? Revelation response. God will reveal things to you if you'll be open. God will show you something where you can build wisdom and not walls. "I've already decided I will get healthy. Pastor, let me down. Pastor meant well. Pastor let you down". So, she said, "I went and got a therapist. Now, might have gone to a therapist. First one might not have been all that good".
Well then you go, "See, now I've been dealt a bad hand. Went to church, sang about he can do all things but fail. Went to pastor, pastor let me down. Went to therapist, therapist, I'm hope, no, I made a decision. First therapist didn't work, I'mma get a second one. Second one didn't work, gonna get a third one. Third one didn't work I'm gonna go, I'll get whatever I need to get. 'cause I've decided, I've decided I'm going to get healthy. I've made the decision. I'm going to get healthy. Go to a tough trauma, tough therapy session. It hurt, I hit my pain threshold". Go back. "Hit my pain threshold". Go back. "Pain threshold went up, got a little bit of healing". Go back! That is a huge decision. At the end of your life.
If you could look at life from the end of your life, looking back, what were the biggest decisions? Yes, who am I gonna marry? Yes, what am I gonna do for a living? Yes, where are we gonna live? All that, that's cool, that's big. I think some big ones are stuff like that. I will not stay here. I will not stop here. I will not die here. I will not put-up walls here. I will be tenacious. I will continue to move toward, I will become healthy. It's a big decision. Romans 12:2, Romans 12:2 says, "Don't copy the behavior or customs of the world". But look at this. "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think".
Revelation, transform you into a new person by changing the way you think, by renewing your mind. And then look what it says here. "Then you'll learn to know God's will for you". In other words, you'll know what to do. You see what that is? Revelation response. God will renew your mind: he will change your thinking and then you'll know how to respond in obedience. I wonder today if there's some paradigm shifting, massive decisions that God wants you to make. And it may have, it may be catalyzed. The catalyst for it might be some big decision that's facing you, but actually God wants to do something bigger in what you see, and how you think, and wants to reveal something to you. I'll share something personal and then we'll be done.
I've shared a little bit of our story, my family's story with you. My wife and I have three kids. Ella is our daughter, she's 14, and then we have two sons who are on the autism spectrum. And when our first son was diagnosed with autism I was actually somewhat relieved to know what was going on. I could tell something wasn't right, but I didn't know what. And so, once we could have an idea of what it was, and then we could get some help. And when our second son was diagnosed, I really plummeted emotionally. I was in tons of pain. I felt wounded. And really part of my journey with that has just been I felt robbed.
I felt robbed, I felt like there was this robber in our family called autism that was, it was taking away experiences that I want to have with my sons. And when I see other people have 'em with theirs, I'm a bit jealous. And it's not that I want to take your experience away from you and your kids, that's great, but I just want mine too. And to not be able to have it, it's been a struggle for me. And there was a point where actually i, you know, being their father, particularly for my sons, it takes a lot out of me. I don't feel that I'm, I don't feel, it doesn't come naturally. And so, it's just lots of work and trying and it's like, feels like sometimes like pushing a rock up a hill.
And so, when my son, miles was diagnosed, I took my wife to dinner and I said, "Hey, I don't think I can do this job at One Church and this job as father, I don't think I can do both. 'cause I know how hard it is, and I know how much work it is to do the One Church lead pastor job right. And to do that right, takes a lot. It takes a lot to do that and this, I don't think I can. And I'm not gonna choose my job over my family. I just won't do that. This is the one job I can do. Lots of people could do this job. I'll be gone one day. Somebody else will walk right up here and take it, and take it to the next level. But I can only, I'm the only guy who can be their dad. And I know regret would be that. 'whoa, man, I was this great pastor. And my family, my kids, I wasn't able to give them, you know, that. I gave them leftovers'".
I ain't doing that. So, I was like, "I'll just do something else and we'll figure it out". And my wife said, "No, I don't think that's right. You know, Greg, I know it feels overwhelming now, but lean into me, lean into God. You know, things are seasonal, things will shift. If we get to that point where you just can't do it, then we'll make that decision. But let's orient our lives in a way to do the best we can with both. And that means we gotta say no to some stuff and do this and that".
And so we did and we made that decision. Through that process the Lord has taken me, you know. I've made decisions about my sons, but God has showed me huge, huge new things in my thinking. Things that I don't know if I would've seen any other way, decisions that I've made. And one of 'em is, maybe the biggest one is, is to focus on, when I look at our situation in my family, to focus on what it is and not what it isn't. I get this call from my friend in Colorado. He's like, "Hey, will you come preach father's day"? This is last year. I'm like, "No. Father's... I have kids dude". Like, that's how you end up in counseling. "Like, my dad wasn't preaching in Colorado on father". He's like, "No, bring 'em all man. Bring 'em all".
So, we bring 'em. My kids never been to the mountains. So we go to Colorado, and we go to the garden of the Gods, which is Colorado springs. If you go to Colorado, it just goes up like this, right? So, if you go to Breckenridge, and if you're from Ohio and you go to Breckenridge, you gotta spend like three days just learning how to breathe. Like letting, you know what I'm saying? Colorado's a little lower altitude. We go to Colorado or Colorado springs: we go there and we're walking around the garden of the Gods. My temperament, "Let's go to the peak, put our flag in the peak, right"?
I've got my son, we start walking, I've got some pictures, we start walking up. My sons are walking up, I'm walking behind them, and then they decide to just pop a squat, you know, "We'll sit here". I'm like, "Hey guys, now let's just keep going now, we gotta summit this thing. You know, we gotta get to the summit". They don't know what the summit is. They don't care. "Dad, we're gonna hang out right here. We're gonna slow it down. We're gonna slow it down".
We keep going in there, my son miles, you know, he comes over, give him a hug and then we're looking at each other, we're having this moment. He goes to rips my sunglasses off my face, you know, as children tend to do and put 'em on himself. You know, generous little guy. And then we sit there and we have this incredible moment with my family. Now, I have to tell you, I'm just being honest and you can judge me if you want, but I don't think of this, this is my life, not necessarily yours. Think of it metaphorically for you. But I want you to think about that. Like, for me, I'll be honest, I felt tension the whole time I was there. It was a battle. Because part of me is I wanted adventure.
"Let's go, let's find the highest point, let's climb to the highest point". That's not my family. That's not where they are. So, I can sit there and focus on what it isn't. "Stinking autism, these guys would be more ambitious. We'd be doing more of this, we'd be doing more of that". I can focus on what it isn't or I can let God show me and reveal what he's already revealed to me, which is this, "Greg, for the rest of your life, I don't want you to focus on what it isn't, I want you to focus on what it is. Focus on what it is". Ephesians 3:20, "To him who's able to do exceeding abundantly above what you would ask or think".
Exceeding abundantly above. It's hard to find, exceeding abundantly above what you would ask or think when you're always focused on what it isn't. 'cause you think exceeding abundantly above is something other than what you have right now. I don't know if I ever would've thought that way. I don't think God gave my boys autism, but I think God's used autism in that situation to help me make a decision that every time, and I'll tell you, I feel temptations daily to feel robbed. I feel temptation daily to think about, "Ah, but it isn't this. Ah, but I wish I could do that. Ah, but I can't do that. He can do that. I can't do that".
Here's what it isn't. I feel the temptation daily, but I've made a decision. I will not focus on what it isn't, I will focus on what it is. And you want to talk about getting robbed. You wanna talk about getting robbed. Imagine being in the garden of the Gods and your son is on your lap, and all you can think about is what it isn't. But if you'll let God show you what he wants you to see, help you make better decisions, Revelation response.
"I see what you're telling me. I hear what you're saying God. I hear what you're saying and I'm listening. Speak, Lord, your servants... I got you. I'm gonna focus on what it is". And if you focus on what it is, you have one of the greatest moments of your life. I had one of the greatest moments of my life with my kids. And some piddly little cliff wasn't all that big. Certainly wasn't 14 peaks, but it was the garden of the Gods. Come on, focus on what it is, not what it... That's a word for somebody. It's a word for you. God brought you here today. You can focus on what it isn't or you can focus on what it is.
Thank you so much for joining. Before you take off, I want to encourage you with one final verse. In James 1:5, it says, "If anyone lacks wisdom, we can ask our generous God and he will give it to us liberally without finding fault". In other words, God is both eager and willing to show up with real time wisdom. So, you may have some real uncertainties or you're like, "Man, I don't know. Should I speak up or should I stand down? Should I be proactive or should I sit back and be patient". Often, it's really hard to know. And once you've done all this thinking and everything, you ought pray about it. Even right now stop and pause and invite God in. Ask him for his wisdom and watch him show up. Thank you so much for being here. I'll see you next time.