Making Moral Choices: Part 2

An elderly man and a young boy left their tribal village. They went down to the river. When they got to the river, the young boy went and stood on the bank and he looked into the river and he saw a young baby that had been thrown into the river and he charges into the river to rescue this young baby. the baby at the feet of the elderly gentleman. The young man turns back around and there he sees now two babies that someone has thrown into the river. He charges in, grabs the two babies, brings them out, sets them at the feet of the elderly man, and then he turns and there are three babies in the river, and then four, and then five, and then six. And when he's coming out of the river with the six babies that he's trying to rescue and save out of the river, he looks and he sees that the elderly man has turned and the elderly man is walking up river. The young man is incensed. He says, what are you doing? We've got these babies that we need to save. We're trying to keep them from drowning and keeping them alive. And the elderly man looks at him and says, I'm going up river to stop whoever is throwing the babies in the river. We are looking at a series of lessons entitled, what should I do making moral choices in an immoral world?

And so often the church is downriver trying to deal with all the problems among its members. I'm going upriver to try to give us some principles to prevent those problems from arising in the first instance. To be sure, the church needs people downriver. We need to have people prepared to help people deal with difficult problems in life. But shouldn't the church be doing everything it can upriver to stop those problems from arising in the first instance?

So we're going upriver today. Let's pray as we begin. Dear Lord, help us as we think about these important issues in life. I pray for each person in this class. All of us, Lord, have sometimes made wrong choices.

But I pray today that we will have a renewed desire to seek to serve you, to be loyal to you, to be obedient to you, because, Lord, that is the safest place to be, the best place to be. And the reality is our lives are much more fulfilling, enjoyable, and more pleasing to you when we are within your moral will. Help us to think clearly, but then help us to do what you want us to do. for it's in christ's name we pray amen how do i make moral choices in an immoral world last week we began the first basic principle is always begin with god's moral will always begin with god's moral will and i gave you a diagram the diagram is on the reverse side of your handout Go to the diagram for me, Tim. You see the diagram? The big square is all possible choices in life. The circle is God's moral will. All of my choices dealing with moral issues in my life should always be decided within the circle of God's moral will and even my non-moral choices.

the color shirt I decided to put on this morning. That's a non-moral choice. My non-moral choices should always be within God's moral will. I will never make any choice or should not ever make any choice of any type that would be outside God's moral will. Everybody got that basic principle?

This is so important. Now, let me deal with one issue here, and I'm going to stay on this slide for just a minute. Here's what the culture tells you. The culture tells you the fun is out here. Right?

The culture says the fun is outside God's moral will. They're saying if you have to live by this restrictive moral will of God, that within the circle, it may be the right thing to do, but it's just not much fun. Do we not get that? Turn on your TV, folks. They're telling you the fun's outside the circle of God's moral will so often.

Is that not true? Well, I want to take a moment and tell you it's a lie. It's a lie from the pit of hell. It's the lie of the Garden of Eden. You remember what Satan told Adam and Eve?

It'll be better if you don't do what God commanded you to do. It'll be better for you. And we see the tragedy there. So I want to take a minute and tell you how much fun it is within God's moral will. I've had more fun in life.

And the fun is when I'm within that moral will. If I told you about my wedding night, Louise isn't here this morning.

we went to sapphire vat sapphire i'm going to tell you you're going to get the full picture here i went to sapphire we went to sapphire valley north carolina we didn't have much money when we got married but we went to a great little place stayed in a little condominium we got there late our wedding night we got our luggage into the room we went into the bedroom of the condominium louise shut the door and there we were together alone and being the biblical woman is and being very familiar with the words of Song of Solomon, she turned to me and she looked at me and she said, David, you are radiant and ruddy, outstanding among 10,000. Your hair is wavy and black as a radiant. This was 30 years ago. Your lips are like lilies dripping with myrrh. Your arms are rods of gold.

Your body is like polished ivory decorated with sapphires. Your legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. Your appearance is like Lebanon. Choice as it cedars. Your mouth is sweetness.

lovely all together. You are my lover. You are my friend." I said, whoa. And not wanting to disappoint her, I turned to the Psalm of Solomon and said, Louise, your graceful legs are like jewels. Your navel is a rounded goblet that never lacks blended wine. Your waist is a mound of wheat encircled by lilies. Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus. Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. Your hair is like royal tapestry.

I am held captive by its tresses. How beautiful you are and how pleasing to me you are. Oh, I love you and all your delights. Your stature is like that of the palm tree and your breast like clusters of fruit. I said I will climb the palm tree.

I will take hold of its fruit. May your breast be like the clusters of the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples and your mouth like the best wine. Folks, that's straight out of the book. Straight out of the book.

And all the words were actually a little different that night. But all the pleasures were within God's moral will. No guilt. No sneaking around. No hiding.

the fun is there, the pleasure is there. I remember other moments of pleasure in life. Floating in the Dead Sea in college, got to go there. Floating in the Dead Sea and seeing the Israeli jets shooting across the sky. Very exhilarating.

Scuba diving off the coast of Charleston, off of a sunken ship, and seeing a shark swim up. And he stopped and looked at me, and I looked at him, giving me the professional courtesy I was due. He swam away.

A few weeks ago, just taking off for an afternoon like I try to do occasionally, and by myself, hiking up through the state park, going up towards Caesar's Head on a small mountain trail, and getting hot, and just stripping off my shirt and jumping in the water, getting under the little waterfall there, just letting the water run over me. And this is good stuff. This is good stuff. Every Thanksgiving, my family goes backpacking. Louise, Caleb, Kate, and I.

We go the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. We'll take off to Pisgah National Forest. We'll walk out into the woods and set up camp. And we'll cook our own food and sit around the fire and get to talk with my children and my wife. Just out in the middle of nowhere.

It's good stuff. It's good stuff.

[Personal prayer concern omitted.]

Christmas Eve my family will the four of us Caleb, Kate, Louise and I we will cook breakfast on Christmas Eve and we'll sit around and we'll read Luke 2 and then we'll sing a couple of Christmas carols together and just talk and just have a good time. I tell you, the fun is within God's moral will. I remember watching Dan Johnson in eastern Ethiopia with Atu Bikela sitting out there feeding wild hyenas in eastern Ethiopia. And then I even got to go up and feed some wild hyenas. The fun is within God's moral will. Yesterday, hiking up in the mountains near Highlands with Caleb, Kate, Louise, and a new addition to our family, almost added, Caleb's fiance, Paige. We hiked up to the top of a mountain and just sat up there and got to look out over the valley. This morning, I left about 6 30 in the morning from near Highlands and the full moon was still over the mountains as I left. It was As I'm driving toward Greer, the man standing on the side of the road, 7 o'clock in the morning, obviously cold by himself.

I stopped. I picked him up to drive him, drove him through Hendersonville. He was going to see his mom, who he hadn't seen in nearly a year. He got to tell me about some of the difficulties in his life. And I got to encourage him because he's just now returned to church within the last month.

And we got to talk about the importance of that and the importance of Christ. I'm telling you the fun is within the circle. the deepest, most fulfilling joys in life, stay within the circle. Stay within the circle.

Are you hearing me? Let's go on.

Last week we talked about remembering the basics of God's will and we reviewed a number of areas

that the scriptures speak to. We talked about the basics of God's will and I say you got to remember these three things. We have to have a single-minded loyalty to Jesus Christ, a single-minded purpose in life, that is to honor and glorify Him, and a single-minded obedience. And if we'll keep those three things in mind, most of the moral choices we have to make in life, we will decide correctly with. Go on to the next one. We've got to live by the book.

And we talked about some of the areas of life that the book covers. We had a whole laundry list of We talked about some of these. One thing I want you to give me a little feedback on is would it be helpful, and I'm not going to do this today, would it be helpful for me to go through each one of these items and take about a minute and a half on each one to say, here's what the Scripture teaches on this particular area. If you think that would be helpful, tell me. Tell me after class, and I will do that.

I'm not going to do it today, but Scriptures help us know how to live rightly in so many areas of life. that we don't know it or if we don't know it sometimes we don't do it but i'm just concerned that we first know what scripture requires of us next item and now we're to a place that we had not covered last week item d if you're going to make moral choices in an immoral world you've got to know the stories of the book and you've got to learn from them the bible is one great story, but within it are many stories. And the stories are there for a reason. And some of the stories are so basic to life that if we just remember the stories and why they are there, we will make good choices. Let me tell you a few stories. Remember two young men who had to stand alone? The children of Israel about to cross into the promised land. Moses says, let's send a little delegation over to see check out the enemy forces sends 12 men into the promised land they check it out they come back 10 of the 12 say yeah it's beautiful over there yeah it's a great place but those people are big and they're strong and there's no way we can go over there and take that land we're like grass grasshoppers in the eyes of those people we're so weak but two men two men stand and say we can take it we can take it because god is with us and he is on our side do not dishonor god by disbelieving that he can help us take that land and they stood firmly even though the text of scripture tells us the crowd almost stoned them because they were standing so firm. Another story, three young Jewish boys, when the king says bow down to the golden image, three young Jewish boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, stand at attention when everybody else bows down. And even when threatened with death, refuse to bow down. What about Peter and John, two apostles, imprisoned because they're preaching the gospel. They're brought before the highest body of the day in their part of the world, the Sanhedrin, and they're told they should never, ever again speak the gospel. And what do they say? They look at this legislative body and they say, are we to obey God or men? We're going to keep preaching. Now when you hear stories like that, those stories are teaching us lessons, aren't they? That we are to do what God wants to do, popular. We're to stand firm even when the crowd is against us. And if you remember those stories, then when you're faced with situations in life, it'll help you make right decisions. How about this situation? A guidance counselor at a public school has a student come to her. This is a true story, by the way. Names will be kept confidential, but this is another school, not Greer High or Riverside. It's some other school. But a student goes to see the guidance counselor. Student has problems largely arising from a very dysfunctional family and the student is so overcome with her problems she finally turns to the guidance counselor and she says would you pray with me and for me right now the guidance counselor is a Christian she knows some of the restrictions about prayer etc in light of the stories of scripture we just heard, what should the guidance counselor do? How about you're a public school teacher, and you're the biology teacher, and you're to the point you're talking about how people were created. And it's fine to teach the speculative hypothesis called Darwinian evolution. Our children need to know about that. But as a teacher, you tell them just part of what is taught in the scientific community?

Or do you tell them the truth? In light of the stories of Joshua and Caleb, Peter and John, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, what do you do? Could it cost you your job? Maybe. What do you do?

You tell them God created the heavens and the earth. And you tell them he created people. You tell them. I submit. I submit.

You don't have to be offensive about it. You don't have to, you know, keep hammering it day in and day out, but you tell them the truth. I submit. How about this situation? How about, it's 1950, Greer, South Carolina.

You're on a restaurant.

Black man comes in, sits down, wants to eat in your restaurant.

What do you do? You remember the stories of Caleb and Joshua, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Peter and John. Well, it might cost you business if you let black people eat in your store, in your restaurant. Yeah, it might. So what?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could have lost their lives, right? Did they bow down? No. Do you hear me? Christians need to live like Christians and we need to stand firm

even if it has consequences and I'm not saying we're rude or offensive just when everybody else says bow down we stand at attention do you hear me? we need to teach our children this when everybody else says let's do this that's wrong it's outside the circle of God's moral will We tell our children, you stand at attention. Even if it means you lose every friend you've got. Because you've got the best of friends. His name's Jesus.

You stick with him. Do you hear me? Some of living within God's moral will is just having a little intestinal fortitude. A little courage of conviction. And sometimes we tuck our tails between our legs and we turn and run at the slightest danger.

Jesus Christ wants saints who will stand firm and not run. If you know the stories of the book and learn to live by them, it'll help you when you make difficult choices. Next, letter E. Why did you do that?

Why did you do that? I'm going to submit to you that before we make choices, we ought to ask ourselves or picture the situation that after we've made the choice somebody's going to come up to us and ask us why did you do that? The question is will we be able to give good reasons for doing what we are about to do? And I'm asking us as Christians trying to make moral decisions in an immoral world that we ask ourselves questions something and sometimes it's helpful to think about what people might ask us after we do something why did you do that people I've asked people this question as a lawyer people have made decisions often decisions that have taken them down wrong paths in life and I'm trying to understand what why they did what they did I said why did you do that you know in hindsight it looks pretty stupid you are in the mess you are in because you made a pretty stupid decision why did you do that most people don't say i'm a lost sinner

who has just strayed from god's path and i've done the wrong thing i love i would love that kind of answer but most people have a reason for doing what they did usually it's a bad reason if they've done something wrong they they have some excuse for what they did i'm saying we need to think, can we make good, could we give a good explanation to somebody after the fact if they ask us why we did what we did? Puts things in a whole new context. In other words, my point is, think before you act. Think with your mind and not with any other body part.

don't let your feelings, your emotions overwhelm what you know in your heart of hearts and your mind of minds to be the right thing to do. Think before you act. Next, beware of the little compromises. The little compromises. C.S. Lewis has a great quote about the road to hell.

Listen to this. the safest road to hell is the gradual one now i wait a minute i gotta back up this is out of the screw tape letters screw tape letters are letters written by a senior demon named screw tape to a junior demon named wormwood so now screw tape is writing to wormwood about how to trip up christians and this senior demon is talking about how to get people into hell and this is what he says The safest road to hell is the gradual one. The gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. In other words, he's saying you don't really get the Christians typically by the most obvious route.

you get them by having them take little soft gentle turns downhill the little compromises they don't seem like a big thing at the moment but when added one upon another begin to add up and begin to develop a mindset in the person that it's alright to compromise with God's truth a little bit

it's only ten dollars a week from the company they'll never miss it you know they're so inefficient anyway and i'm underpaid i'm underpaid i really should be paid more so if i'm getting ten bucks out of the till every week it's not hurting them and i'm really getting what i deserve what I'm owed.

I didn't report that income on my taxes. But you know, Uncle Sam, he wastes that money. You know. You know, don't they? I mean, it wouldn't be right to give him all my tax money because he'll misuse it.

So I'm not going to report that income. Oh, I'm going to go out and have coffee with her. Not my spouse. person at work and we're going to talk about business. She's one of my co-imposants. Yeah, well, I mean, we're going to meet over at this little nice swanky little restaurant, but that's because so we can get away from the office and talk a little more intimately about business.

There's nothing wrong with that. Huh? The little compromises. The little compromises. Watch out. Watch out.

gradual slope, the gentle turn. He's leading in a trap. Beware. Next, the benefits and dangers of friends. The benefits and dangers of friends. There is nothing, well let me say it this way. One of the most beneficial things we can do to help stay within God's moral will is to have good godly friends who will encourage us who will help us who when we have difficult choices are there to help us make them but who live lifestyles that that are compatible with what God wants we tend to become like the people we run with so if we're running with folks who are seeking to really live within God's moral will, it gives us encouragement.

It gives us a boost. And we tend to want to please those who are our closest friends. So if your closest friends are godly people, not always, but typically you're going to try to live to please them. Whereas if you're running with a different crowd, it may be different, right? What do we tell our children when they go off to college?

Find good friends, right? on there and find good friends. Why is that? We know that we tend to become like our friends, and we know if we've got a good circle of friends, they can help us do the right thing. It's true for adults.

If all the friends that you have that are the closest, if none of them are really seeking to live for God, you need to look for some good, godly Christian friends. Good, godly Christian friends can make so much difference. Now I'm going to talk about the dangers of friends.

who's most likely to get you to do something you shouldn't do it's not your enemy somebody that you don't like the one who's likely to get you to stumble is somebody who's close to you somebody who's your friend oh come on it'll be fun let's go let's go do this

so friends can are can be a very positive thing but quote friends can be something of a danger i wrote uh my daughter kate as you know i like to write letters to my children you say some things sometimes at least for me i say things in letters i might not say otherwise so i write letters here's something i wrote my daughter kate about friends walking in the narrow way is often portrayed in our culture as the way of foolishness. Some who claim to be your friends will seek to persuade you to walk in the broad way. They may try to make you feel as if you have been less than a true friend if you remain on the narrow way. Don't be fooled. Such persons are not your friends for they are asking you to leave the path that leads to life.

Be willing to stand alone if need be of Christ and for your own sake. And then I go on to talk about the importance of good godly friends and how she should try to develop a group of those around her. So look at your friends. Next. No, I got to tell one story there. A friend taught me to cuss. Third grade. This is a good illustration. Good friend. Third grade sat right next to me Miss Bull's class he had a couple older brothers I was the oldest in my family so I didn't have the benefit of the education that comes from older brothers his older brothers taught him to cuss so he came to school and I noticed when he said all these little four letter words everybody laughed I didn't know what they meant I did I really didn't I really didn't know what they meant but I noticed everybody laughed and so one day I said one of the four letter words. Everybody laughed. So I said several and they laughed even more.

And I kept saying them. Then one day I was standing in the kitchen at my home. I dropped something in the kitchen. My mama was standing right there and I said the F word. Third grader. Well after my mom got up after my mom got up off the floor

it's all a blur she asked me she said do you know what that means I said no I have no idea and she explained and I learned in a very persuasive way that I wasn't supposed to say those words but the illustration is it was a friend right that that and I wanted to

Be careful about those pressures, influences of friends. Next, safety nets. Erect safety nets to help you stay within God's moral law. You know, if you have a fine piece of china, what we often do with a fine piece of china is we take it and we put it where people don't see it normally. We put it up on a high shelf.

We'll shut the china cabinet door, and some china cabinets even lock, very protective of that fine china. Now, if I left that fine china just out on the table, it might be safe. It might be safe. But there's danger out on the table, right? It can get broken.

So to protect the china, I have these safety nets. It's up high. People don't know what's there. I shut the door. I lock the cabinet.

With our children, don't we build, or we should. I hope you do as parents. I hope you have the law of the safety nets. This is what Louise and I use this all the time in our thinking, the law of the safety nets. and how many safety nets were there to catch our children before they hit the ground.

In other words, when they went off to a friend's house, we wanted to know some things. Well, who's the friend? Will the parents be there? What are the plans for the evening? You got your cell phone with you?

If the plans change, you're going to call us, right? Check with us so we'll know where you're going to be. You know what time you're going to be in, right? If something happens, you know, and you need to be later, you call us first. Otherwise, you're home on time.

Now, they probably would have been okay if we just said, just go, see you later.

But we used the law of the safety nets. All those little decisions we made were protective measures, safety nets, to make sure they didn't get into trouble. We adults need safety nets, folks. Now hopefully, those of us who are older have learned.

Hopefully we're wiser. Hopefully we don't make bad decisions. But I've found even for adults we need safety nets, folks. Maybe the safety net often is keep your spouse close by. As much as possible.

That's a great safety net. All sorts of things aren't problems when your spouse is right next to you.

Maybe there are other issues for you. Maybe the certain crowd you're with, if you get with a certain crowd, certain things start to happen that shouldn't happen. So you need some safety nets. You need maybe not to be with the crowd at all, so you need to change the crowd. Maybe you need to have somebody who's always checking on you or sort of an accountability partner that every week you're going to maybe talk to questions about what happened this week. Where were you? What did you do? You need the law of the safety nets. You know your weaknesses. You know them. I know my weaknesses.

If you know your weaknesses, when the temptation is not present, think about the safety nets you need and build them in so that when the temptation does arise, you've got some help to help you avoid the temptation.

This requires some honest assessment. You have to be honest with yourself about your weaknesses. You have to think carefully about how you can help avoid the trap that you can fall into. It's not easy admitting to ourselves that we have problems or temptations that really do get to us. But my guess is everybody in this room has something, some area where you're more vulnerable to temptation than others.

Build some safety nets. Next item. Consider the consequences of wrong choices. This is what you don't get on TV. You know, the sitcom, the primetime drama where the lead character has two or three different mistresses just grand and glorious and so forth, you don't see the heartache, the difficulty, the betrayal, the fractured relationships.

Let me tell you, think about consequences before you act. If you're about to do something, say, what will be the result if I do this? Am I willing to trade my relationship with my spouse for this illicit relationship? Am I willing to damage the relationship with my children forever?

by taking this action. You know that when spouses betray one another in a marriage, you know what the children think, don't you, so often? The children think, what did I do wrong to make Daddy do that? Or Mama do that? So often.

They think they were responsible somehow, so often. Do you really want your children to live with that kind of guilt, that kind of responsibility? I think not. Taking a little bit out of the till each week at work, jail is not a pleasant place. I've been inside jails, not because I was the prisoner, but I've been to see prisoners.

Walking to CCI in Columbia, I got appointed to represent a criminal defendant. You walk into the first set of doors, they open them up. You walk in, they shut them. You go through about three or four sets of doors You're deep in the heart of CCI. It is a scary place, folks.

You don't want to be there. Maybe you've got some addiction or possible addiction. You know, maybe it's the alcohol, maybe it's the drugs. Before you get into it, it's so hard to deal with addictions. It's so hard.

So you want to do everything you can to avoid the addiction. And then if you're dealing with it, you've got to do everything by God's help you can to avoid it and build in more safety nets.

I can tell you my Citadel experience convinced me that the portrayal that going out and having drinks and getting drunk is a party. I've cleaned up after too many guys. It ain't no fun. it's not much fun when you're not sure what you did the night before really but you know what people do because they're embarrassed they try to make like it was fun they know what they did was wrong

life is so much simpler and better within God's moral will the last point and we conclude for today is don't wobble

even if it offends others don't wobble now listen Christians insofar as possible, we are taught we are to live at peace with all people. We are to be kind and generous. And I am not asking that we go out and look for ways to cause offense. But I'm saying when we stand at the crossroads and we have to decide whether we're going to take the road for Christ or another road, do the right thing. Don't wobble even if it offends others.

be willing to look other people in the eye and lose them as a friend if need be to do the right thing. This is tough. This is tough.

But if you sit, sit. If you stand, stand. But whatever you do, don't wobble. We've got too much wobbling in the Christian church. I'm going to conclude there for today.

and we look forward to seeing you next week. Lord, I pray for this group. I know as in any group this size, there are people who are struggling with difficulties. Some face difficult moral decisions. Some of them are experiencing either themselves the pain of someone's immoral decision or maybe they're having to live with the pain that others are living with because of an immoral decision.

Lord I pray that we as the church will surround those people with love that we will help them to deal with their problems but I pray today Lord I pray today that your spirit will fill the Christians in this room and give them a renewed sense of your presence and a renewed determination to end this world that is so often making immoral choices to stand for the truth to stand for what is right to make the right choice even though that may have consequences that are difficult. But may we be a people who seek to honor you first and foremost in our lives. And may we prove that we love you. May we prove that we love you by obeying your commands. For in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.