Mailing Address: PO Box 797 Molalla, OR Phone: Fax: Pastor Dale Satrum. Page 1

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1 Mailing Address: PO Box 797 Molalla, OR Phone: Fax: Pastor Dale Satrum Navigating Life Navigating With Caution (Part 5) Intro: I have never been known to be a very cautious individual. Being cautious isn t something that comes naturally. It wasn t even as a child (aerosol can in fire explain) Even as an adult, I like adventure / risk Vacations that allow for this explain) God doesn t want us to live this life in fear, but He doesn t want us to navigate without some caution either. Caution: simply means careful forethought / a warning. This life is dangerous. We should travel with caution. There are definite hazards to steer clear of. The Bible tells us to be careful. Prov. 14:16 The wise are cautious and avoid danger; fools plunge ahead with great confidence. (NLT) Eph. 5:15 Therefore, be careful how you walk (NASB) What does it look like to navigate life with caution? 3 Biblical essentials. I. Navigate Being Spiritually Engaged (What does this mean?) A. We must be spiritually alert I Cor. 16:13 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith (NASB) I Peter 1:13 Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit (NASB) 1. It is impossible to be spiritually alert if our spiritual head (mind) is not in the game. If your mind is distracted. If you re not paying attention. 2. I love that coaching term. Get your head in the game! But, what does that mean. It means focus your mind on the game. Stop thinking about everything else. Stop letting there be mental distractions when there is a game to be focusing on. A singular mental focus that produces alertness. 3. Because so many people are not spiritually alert, they miss the caution signs by God, and they run full speed ahead despite the warning that says the bridge is out! It s like driving your car half asleep. You re not alert. 4. I love I Peter when it says gird your minds for action, keep sober He s not referring to physical intoxication, but mental / spiritual intoxication. If we get consumed by things like possessions / careers / money / busyness / our minds are no longer alert. We are not mentally / spiritually sober. Page 1

2 Eph. 5:14 Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead and Christ will give you light. (NLT) Some of us need to spiritually wake up because we re living life spiritually groggy or even spiritually asleep! 5. To physically wake up I must have my best friend and constant companion coffee. Can t imagine a morning without it. (studies about caffeine) National Geographic cover article / brain function with / without 6. Constant intake of the word of God is what helps keep us alert spiritually. You cannot be spiritually alert / spiritually engaged / having your mind prepared for action without it. It s like spiritual caffeine. (I wish they could do a spiritual scan to show the difference.) B. We must be prayerfully anticipating Col. 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it (NASB) Eph. 6:18 Stay alert and persistent in your prayers (NLT) 1. I believe that one of the primary reasons we are told to be alert in our praying is so we can be anticipating / watching for the answers God is bringing. 2. How many times have you prayed for things / forgotten about what you even prayed for / and have no idea if God even answered? Prayer is one more way we are to be spiritually engaged. Being alert in prayer is another way we navigate with caution. 3. If we don t stay alert while we pray, we will miss the sign posts God gives us along the way. We will miss His answers / his direction. 4. Have you ever ed someone / text someone with an important message and you anticipate their reply? How often do you check your ? This is how we should pray! Not pray and forget, but pray and anticipate. C. We must be consistently resisting I Peter 5:8-9 Be careful! Watch out for the attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him and be strong in your faith. (NLT) 1. If there was ever a reason to be cautious in this life, here it is. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we re in a spiritual war and we have a great enemy and he doesn t like you. In fact, he wants to destroy you. 2. If we are not spiritually engaged ready to resist his attacks, we become another victim of his. He prowls around looking for the people not paying attention. 3. How does the Devil attack us? His tactics are many, but he usually sticks to a few cores ones. Temptation attack on God s goodness / distorted thinking Father of lies attack on God s truth / relational conflict dissensions attack on our relationships / fear doubt discouragement attacks on our faith. Page 2

3 4. The good news is that the Bible says if we resist him, he has to flee. WHY? Because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. Jesus in you is greater than your enemy! HOW? 5. We resist these attacks with God s word and God s people. (explain) We must know God s word in the area of the temptation Truth! We must stand with each other isolation = vulnerability II. Navigate Making Careful Decisions We ve all made decisions we later regretted. How do we improve our decisions as we navigate life. Is it just a roll of the dice or does God provide some help? A. Decide by discovering God s word (read together)ii Tim. 3:16-17 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do. (NLT) 1. If we do not have a commitment to know the word of God it will be impossible to make the right decisions. God s word does more then corrects us. It is God s way of preparing us and equipping us for everything He wants us to do. 2. So many people over the years have said, I just wish I knew what God s will for my life is? I wish God would tell me what to do? He already has!!! 3. Well, I don t know how to use it. I don t know how to find answers in it. Great question, let me show you how to use this book. 4. You need a tool it is called a concordance: Explain show book form or online Biblegateway.com. Maybe this book is too intimidating 5. Will you go to the word of God this week and start using it? To make decisions with no idea whether or not God wants you to is a careless way to live. First step is to discover what His word says. B. Decide by listening to godly counsel Prov. 15:22 Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many counselors bring success. (NLT) 1. Do you seek out godly people to get advice from when making major decisions or do you go it alone? God wants us to first go to His word, then we go to other godly people. 2. Why do we need to go to other people? We need other people s godly perspective. Our perspective is limited / our motives can be mixed / and often we are too close to a situation to be objective. Sometimes there s too much emotion and not enough objectivity. 3. I need the gifts / perspectives / experiences / the wisdom of other godly people. Often what will happen is as you talk to other people, you will hear God Page 3

4 through them. How? They all say the same thing! There s a godly pattern. I must recognize and follow that! 4. Everyone needs godly counselors in their life. Where are yours? C. Decide by looking for God s hand I Cor. 16:9 For there is a wide open door for a great work here, and many people are responding (NLT) Paul is choosing to stay because he sees God hand in the circumstances. 1. I believe the other way we make careful decisions is by looking for God in the circumstances. I call these God ordained circumstances. Situations where you see Him working / moving / providing opportunities or closing opportunities. 2. This is one of the ways God put Foothills in this building. (Explain story) 3. It s not the fact that we base decisions merely on circumstances themselves. It is discerning the circumstances that God is orchestrating. When I see God s hand in the circumstances, I need to be moving my feet. As we navigate life and make decisions, all of these work together. (The word / godly counsel / prayer / God s hand in the circumstances.) III. Navigate With Eternity In View Living life with eternity in view will help you navigate with more caution. A. What I do in this life is remembered in the next II Cor. 5:10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in our bodies. (NLT) This one fact alone should be enough to make us cautious! 1. Accountability promotes caution. Think about students in school. They have a grading system for a reason. Students, knowing they will receive a grade, motivates them to be careful with your work. Why be careful is there s no grade? 2. On your job, many people get performance reviews. Knowing that there is a review built in motivates you to be careful to do a good job at work. 3. Knowing that I will be held accountable for my life in eternity motivates me to be careful in this life. There are just some things I don t want remembered! 4. Most people I know want to live in denial of this fact. Most people want to believe they can live however they want in this life and it has no bearing on the next. This is biblically incorrect!!! 5. Please understand this has nothing to do with where we will spend eternity. That issue is decided when we trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Eternity is not based upon our performance. Rewards in eternity are! Therefore B. Some of what I do in this life is rejected in the next Page 4

5 I Cor. 3:13-15 But there is going to come a time of testing at the judgment day to see what kind of work each builder has done. Everyone s work will be put through the fire to see whether or not it keeps its value if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss (NLT) I want the fire to be as small as possible! 1. Everyone one of us is a builder. We are either involved helping to build the Kingdom of God or we are involved building our own kingdom. We are either investing in eternal things or temporary things. We can either store up treasures here on earth or in heaven. In eternity, this will all be revealed. 2. God will test our works (not our character) with fire to see what burns up. Some of what we ve done in this life will not count in the next. It s going to go up in flames. 3. Some of you are disturbed by this. The problem with most people is they have a concept of heaven that is more based on Hollywood then it is the Bible. 4. I thought heaven was all about joy / happiness / peace / mercy / love. It is! BUT, it s also about accountability / faithfulness / and rewards. My works in this life are going to be evaluated. 5. Therefore, even in heaven, if I have lived this life for myself, I will experience a sense of loss even regret. Now, this doesn t mean we ll be forever sad in heaven either. BUT, this does make me more cautious. C. Some of what I do in this life is rewarded in the next I Cor. 3:14 If the work survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward. (NLT) Matt. 5:11-12 God blesses you when you are mocked and persecuted and lied about because you are My followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. (NLT) God continually reminds us in His word about future rewards for following Him in his life. 1. God guarantees us that obedience to Him in this life is worth it; even if it results in persecution. The eternal rewards that wait for us can t be compared to the temporary suffering of this life. 2. Heavenly reward facts: Rewards are real / tangible / and eternal. If they are not real then Jesus lied! If they are not real, how does that provide any motivation? I don t know what they are, but they are legitimate! Rewards are yours! You get to keep them. You don t give them back to Jesus. Rewards are not unspiritual! Rev. 4 is not referring to us!) Rewards impact your eternity. Eternity is not where life ends, but where life actually begins. Therefore, what I do in this life carries over and continues into eternity. Everything we do in this life is preparation for the next. We are not all the same in this life, and we will not all be the Page 5

6 same in the next either. (responsibility / growth / discovery / purpose / learning all continue in eternity) This life impacts all of this. 3. Knowing this should have a major impact on how I navigate this life. How I live this life REALLY matters! It matters eternally! Therefore, I must be careful how I navigate. Maybe it s time to navigate with a bit more caution? Not fear / not paranoia / not dread Will you be willing to get spiritually engaged / make careful decisions / live with eternity in view? Page 6