“If anyone is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God….” (John 7:17 NASB)

The big question in every decision for the Jesus-follower is always: “What does He want me to do?”

In fact, it may be the only question. Everything else is secondary and in a sense, irrelevant.

Google “decision-making” and you will come away with a garageful of rules, principles, and considerations: list all the options, decide on the outcomes you want, identify your own wishes, inventory your resources and abilities, consider the practicality of each option, the number of people to be affected by each, the timing of your decision, what your trusted advisors counsel, how this will affect your future, what it will cost, what you will wish you had done a year from now, a hundred years from now, a million years. The list is endless.

Years ago, Billy Graham and his team were trying to find a word to describe salvation but one without a lot of theological baggage. They chose “decision.” Their radio program became “The Hour of Decision” and their monthly magazine, “Decision.” The concept figured in all his messages: “I’m going to ask you to make a decision tonight….”

And it incurred the wrath of half the Calvinists in the country.

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Pastor, scan through these offerings and see if you find anything of use as illustrations for sermons. Or, just as good, perhaps they will spark an idea inside you.

UNREQUITED LOVE

In 1964, a hitchhiker was picked up on the highway and given a ride by an 18- year-old woman. They chatted, she dropped him off, and they each went on their way. Within minutes, the man decided that he was in love with her. I mean, seriously, head over heels, a real goner.

The problem was that he had no way to contact her. She was gone. But he never forgot her.

Thirty-one years later, he came across her name in the newspaper in the obituary of her mother. So he sent her 5 dozen roses–alongwith all the letters he had written her over 31 years.

Thirty-one years of letters.

The police found in his house stacks of Christmas cards and boxes of birthday prsents for every one of those 31 years. Of course, by now she was 48 years old.

I said the police found them, because the woman had him arrested for misdemeanor harassment after he kept hounding her.

That’s the thing about love…

a) you love someone and they may not know it. Think of Charlie Brown and the little red-headed girl.

b) you love someone and they do not want it. So the love is not returned.

c) you love someone and they are not worthy.

“God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We weren’t worthy, were we?

“We love Him because He first loved us” (I John 4:19). We return His love when we turn to Christ in salvation.

WHO IS THE GREATEST?

The radio preacher I was listening to told his audience that the greatest orator in the ancient world was Cicero. The second was Julius Caesar. And coming in third was Apollos.

My question is: who decided this? And how did he know?

Since no one living has heard either of them, we honestly have no basis for comparison. And yet, here we have them ranked in order of effectiveness in oratory.

The man of God put this forth as fact, but I think we can agree that he was not the scholar who made this determination. But somebody did.

My problem is pastors who pontificate on matters they have no right or business or background for doing so. He did not cite an authority but laid that line before his audience as accepted fact.

Standing at the pulpit with the eyes of hundreds of people upon you presents a huge temptation for any minister. It can be a heady experience. One has to keep his wits about him and pray constantly for the Lord to “set a guard upon my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3).

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