Quality decisions, good God honoring choices, frame the future. You are where you are today because of the decisions you made yesterday. On her golden wedding anniversary, a certain grandmother revealed the secret of her long and happy marriage. “On my wedding day, I decided to choose ten of my husband’s faults which, for the sake of our marraige, I would overlook,” she explained. A guest asked her to name some of the faults. “To tell the truth,” she replied, “I never did get around to listing them. But whenever my husband did something that made me hopping mad, I would say to myself, ‘Lucky for him that’s one of the ten.’”¹ You see this grandmother made a decision and stuck to it so much that she realized fifty successful years happily married to the same man. You are today the total of the decisions, commitments, goals, and systems you made yesterday. You may think, wow, “I’m not a good place today — life is messed up for me right now.” Well, here’s some good news for you. God is a good God and the game of life is not over yet. As long as you have breath in your lungs, you can make different decision that will frame your tomorrow. Why Quality Decisions Can Positively Frame a Better Tomorrow, that’s our focus on today’s edition of Light on Life.

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The Role of the Spirit in the Life of A Believer

Walking in love is a decision and not a feeling. God’s love is not an emotion. It’s a policy. Click To Tweet

Read the Notes

You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

Walking in love is a decision and not a feeling. God’s love is not an emotion. It’s a policy. Make the choice today to operate in 1 Corinthains 13:4-8.

Join the Conversation

Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: Share a story where you made a quality decision for the Kingdom of God and share how it framed your life.  Leave your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

If you would like to know more about growing in faith, see the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

1. Why Possessing Patience Is A Powerful Step to A Faith Filled Life [Podcast]
2. Why Praying in Faith Means to Believe You Receive [Encore Podcast]
3. How You Can Demonstrate Powerful Faith in God [Podcast]
4. Why Taking the Forgiveness Test Helps Your Faith in God [Podcast]
5. Faith and Prayer: Important Lessons to Know [Podcast]
6. Why It’s Important to Flow in Faith’s Domain [Podcast]
7. Scriptures to Feed Your Faith and Combat Fear [Podcast]

We are currently teaching in the book of First Corinthians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

1. #S11-016: Why Boasting Is Never Beautiful for Those Born Again [Podcast]
2. #S11-015: Why Your Powerful Victory Over Satan’s Wisdom Is Certain [Podcast]
3. #S11-014: How to SpotLight God’s Wisdom In Your Every Day Life [Podcast]
4. #S11-013:Why Total Confidence in the Cross Means Ultimate Wisdom [Podcast]
5. #S11-012: Why a Spirit of Division is Not Your Way [Podcast]
6. #S11-011:Why Moving In Strife Means You Need To Grow [Podcast]
7. #S11-010:How To Find Your Ultimate Calling for Your Life [Podcast]
8. #S11-009:How to Live a Sustained and Guilt-Free Life [Podcast]
9. #S11-008: What It Means to Be Really Mature in God [Podcast]
10. #S11-007: What You Need to Know about Knowing God [Podcast]
11. #S11-006: How to Impact an Immoral City: Lessons from Corinth [Podcast]
12. #S11-005: Why You Can Overcome Weariness With God’s Amazing Grace [Podcast]
13. #S11-004: Why God’s Thoughts On Discipline Are Superior To Yours [Podcast]
14. #S11-003: Why God’s Love and Direction Are a Match Made in Heaven [Podcast]
15. #S11-002:Why You Need God’s Protection in a World Gone Nuts [Podcast]
16. #S11-001: Why Growing in Faith Brings Amazing Results [Podcast]
17. #S10-052: Why Powerful Prayer to Advance the Gospel Is Right [Podcast]
18. #S10-51: Reasons Why People Fail to Receive From God [Podcast]
19. #S10-50: Why You Shouldn’t Be Quickly Shaken by Prophetic Happenings [Podcast]
20. #S10-049: Why Jesus Proven Second Coming Produces Ironclad Hope
21. #S10-048: Why God’s Amazing Dynamic Deliverance Is Coming Your Way [Podcast]
22. #S10-047: What Does a Spiritually Healthy Jesus Follower Look Like to God? [Podcast]
23. #S10-046: Why Repetition Is a Vital Need for Godly Spiritual Growth [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 47 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 42 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

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Prayer

Podcast Notes

• Well, again welcome.
• Let’s pray.

Father God, thank you for the power to say ‘yes’ to all your plan and purpose. And today, we do just that. We say yes to what your Word says. We say ‘yes’ to the Holy Spirit’s direction. We say ‘yes’ to keeping focused and staying in line with your will. That’s our choice and our decision. We choose you and give you all the credit for everything done in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Quality Decision: Background on Corinth

• Paul is in Corinth.
• In a previous podcast, “How to Impact an Immoral City: Lessons from Corinth,” we looked at what the city of Corinth was like.
• Corinth was an Isthmus 10 miles wide.
• There was a harbor on the east side and one on the west.
• Ships would unload their goods in one harbor and haul it overland to the other harbor to avoid a dangerous 200-mile trip around the bottom of the isthmus.
• So, there was a substantial amount of traffic through Corinth.
• Which means there was a significant amount of money flowing through Corinth.
• And, since the love of money is the root of all evil, you can fill in the rest.
• The morals of Corinth’s pagan society were so corrupt that “to Corinthianize” came to mean to live a most disgusting life.
• In plain language, to Corinthianize meant to fornicate.
• Prostitution and wrong sex were rampant.
• Little ‘g’ false god temples were filled to the brim with thousands of slave girls who sold their bodies as a religious act to raise money for the temples.
• Every kind of sin was common and open in the city.²
• In that podcast, we also talked about the Isthmian games.
• Which were kind of like the Olympics.
• They were held every other year about ten miles east of the city.
• In Paul’s letter you’ll find some sporting references.
• Now, what we didn’t talk about in that podcast was the orators and philosophers of the city.
• And with that thought, here is the Historical Background of the Day.
• Fancy speech making and delivery were highly prized among the Greeks.
• Among the Greeks, the significance of speech, that is, the theory and practice of “speaking well” was appreciated as early as Homer (9th–8th century b.c.e.).
• The heroes of his epics often use figures of speech, arrangement, and style to argue and persuade.³
• So, this love of public speaking existed hundreds of years before Paul ever hit town.
• It was almost like a form of entertainment.
• You must remember, this is the 1st century.
• They didn’t have television, social media, computers, and movie theaters.
• The Corinthians listened to speeches.

When an orator came to a city, he would often schedule a speech; if this speech brought him enough reputation that he could begin teaching students how to do what he did, he would make that city his home.⁴

• With all that background now in tow, listen closely to what Paul says as he addresses the Corinthians.

Quality Decision: Paul’s Choice

2 Corinthians 2:1–5 (ESV) — 1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

• There are two words that Paul uses here that can help us in our everyday life as it helped Paul set the course for his life and ministry.
• Paul said, “I decided.”
• “I made a quality choice.”
• What are decisions of quality?
• They are choices that you make in advance that act as boundaries or anchors to your life.

Quality Decision: Definitions

• So, defining terms will help us here and with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
• The Greek word ‘decided’ means to come to a conclusion after a cognitive process.⁵
• Cognitive process is a fancy term for methodical thinking.
• Paul thought about — he used his brain — you know a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
• But, his thinking was inside the Word.
• You know the Bible is God speaking to you.
• The Bible contains God’s thoughts and mind.
• Jeremiah 29:11 — I know the thoughts that I think toward you.
• If you want to know what God thinks about you, read the book.
• The Bible contains His intentions, His revelations, His guidance, wisdom, add to that His character, nature, and His will.
• The Word of God is living and active.
• It discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
• That’s Hebrews 4:12.
• And it is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” — that’s 2 Timothy 3:16–17.
• Paul is saying, ‘With the Word of God as my guide, I decided.’
• ‘Decided’ means that the man sat down and thought about this choice ahead of time.
• Paul made up his mind.
• And with that thought, here is the Quote of the Day.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. Theodore Roosevelt.⁶

• Let’s look at this decision that Paul thought about — what was it?
• Well, he tells us what it was in verse one and he alludes to it again in verse four.

when I came to you, brothers, [I] did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom… 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom,

• Look at the words Paul uses to describe how he did not, I am going to repeat’ did not preach the gospel.
• Paul did not use lofty speech.
• He did not use plausible words of wisdom.
• You know some people in the crowd viewed his ‘preaching’ as just another form of public speaking.
• Now, lofty speech, what is that?
• It’s high sounding speech.
• This type of speaking indicates a state of high rank or position with the implication in some contexts of being too high or excessive ‘high status, high sounding, pompous’ ⁷.
• The English Version Bible translation has it as, ‘big (words) … great (learning).’⁸
• The word ‘plausible’ means persuasive — some of your translations, in fact, read that way.
• The word ‘plausible’ also means skillful, convincing or enticing.
• So overall, we’re talking swaying or convincing people (with clever arguments) of human wisdom.⁹

Quality Decision: Paul Said I Want to Know Nothing Except…

• Paul made up his mind to not play to the crowd’s desire for fancy oration.
• By the ‘crowd’ means the constituents of Corinth.
• It means he didn’t give a speech using the expected devices of the day — flowery speech — big words — skillful or enticing human based arguments and logic.
• A question must be asked here and, with that thought, here is the Question of the Day.
• Here’s the question” Why didn’t Paul just try to fit in with the group? Wouldn’t trying to fit in and giving the people a sample of they wanted — wouldn’t that have made the gospel more presentable?
• I mean that’s what people were expecting?
• It wouldn’t have worked.
• Giving the people what they wanted wouldn’t have made the gospel more attractive.
• It would have reduced the message to Paul’s ability to speak rather than God’s power to save.
• Do you know what the crowd would have done?
• They would dissected the message of Jesus based on Pau’s speech making skill.
• They would have given it a score.
• That’s why Pauls said, ‘I decided not to play that game.’
• ‘I decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’
• This thing about the expectations of flowery speech is something Paul fought throughout his ministry.
• He felt pressure to go there.
• But, Paul’s decision kept him steady throughout his ministry.
• Your decisions will keep you steady.
• The gospel is the message of Jesus — the focus is Jesus.
• Flowery speech is message of the orator and the focus is the ability of the speaker.
• Engaging in ‘speecifying’ would have shifted the focus from Jesus to Paul.
• Here’s the thought: it’s hard but keeping the main thing — the main thing is the right thing.
• Keep the focus where it needs to be on Jesus.
• The power is in the message of Jesus.
• Present the message as it is.
• The power is in the gospel — God doesn’t need any additional help.
• You can’t say a thing better than the way God said it.
• Do you think your grasp of the concepts of salvation are better than His?
• Go back to the previous chapter for a minute.

1 Corinthians 1:18 (ESV) — 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

• Why do you think Paul said the word of the cross is foolish?
• Paul wanted the focus on the message not the messenger.
• He said, ‘I decided.’
• What did he decide?
• Paul decided to know nothing.
• What does ‘to know nothing’ mean?
• “To know nothing” does not mean that he left all other knowledge aside, but rather that he had the gospel, with its crucified Messiah, as his singular focus and passion while he was among them.¹⁰

Quality Decision: I Decided

• Let’s talk about the concept of making these kinds of decisions — that is ‘quality decisions.’
• Let’s talk about, ‘I decided.’
• You know there are some things you must decide.
• It’s wise to establish your core values before crisis hits or else the crisis will establish them for you.
• You shouldn’t have to scramble to construct a value system when you are in crisis.¹¹
• What is a quality decision?
• First, it’s is a decision from which there is no turning back and so they should be made with adequate time and sufficient thought.
• Quality decisions should never be hasty or emotional.

Ecclesiastes 5:4 (ESV) — 4 When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.

• It’s good to think of quality decisions as ‘death do you part choices.’
• Saying ‘yes’ to Jesus for the salvation of your heart is this kind of decision.
• Do as the Apostle Paul did.
• Spend time pondering your choices.
• Why should you?
• Here’s the reason — anything lightly spoken is easily broken.
• If you are one who regularly changes his mind, your faith will be weak.
• The reason for that is that faith is released with words.
• When you deal with God’s Word, you must stick to it.
• How can you stick to God’s Word when you won’t stick to yours?

James 1:6–7 (ESV) — 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

• What are you doubting?
• You’re doubting God’s Word that came out of your mouth.
• If you’re a person who is used to keeping their word in the everyday natural situations that occur between men, when you get over into the realm of praying with God’s Word you will have less trouble believing that you receive from God.
• You’re already in the habit of working with words.

Psalm 15:1–4 (ESV) — 1 O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? 2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; 3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; 4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change;

• When I was courting Sharon, I told her, “If I tell you ‘I love you’, if I let those words go out from my mouth, we are going to the altar.”
• I didn’t speak those words until I was sure that I knew.
• Over forty years later, this year it will be forty three years, ‘I love you’ still stands.
• Many a young person, dare I say even old folks that should know better, make a great mistake letting the words “I love you’ come casually flying out of their mouths.
• You know every Tom, Dick, and Sally they date — I love you.
• It’s careless speech.
• And, careless words have sunk many a marriage.
• “I love you” is a commitment phrase.
• “I love you” is a covenant phrase.
• “I love you” is a quality decision.
• We’ll talk some more about that.

Quality Decision: You Decide

• God’s commandments must be treated as non-negotiable items to us.
• There are some decisions you can make along that will help you rip the flesh off compromise.
• Paul said ‘I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.’
• The period at the end of that sentence serves notice.
• Yes, we live and move in the age of Grace, and thank God for it.
• But we refuse to let down just because forgiveness is available.
• We thank God for His mercy.
• We give Him glory for the Blood that washes us clean when we miss God.
• But, do I dare say it?
• We have set our hearts in such a manner toward the Father, where we choose not to sin just because grace is easy to obtain.
• We want to live like we don’t need the Blood.
• Now, mark it down, you’re going to need it.
• You’re going to miss God, it happens.
• But our purpose is immovable like granite.
• We don’t fold.
• We don’t cave in.
• We look to God for strength to help us.
• Our heart’s crave to be perfect towards God.
• Here are four decisions of quality that you can make right now.

Quality Decision: Decide to Be a Word Person

• What does it mean to be a ‘Word’ person?
• It means that the Bible is the final authority in my life.
• You must constantly ask yourself what does the Bible have to say about this, whatever it is that you’re doing?
• Your standard for conduct is the Bible.
• If what I’m doing violates God’s Word, the discussion is over.
• If you experience something supernatural to you but it violates the Bible, you push that experience aside and go with the Word.
• If you see what you think is the truth of a scripture but it’s crosswise to what your church teaches, you push what you have believed aside and go with the Word.
• It doesn’t matter how many years you believed it.
• In the world of people, there are a lot of mistaken beliefs.
• There’s a place where you must arrive when it comes to the Bible.
• You must believe that the Bible is God speaking to you.
• Until you believe that the God that sits in heaven had a book written that you and I could find our way to heaven, and live life here on earth — until you actually believe that you will never accomplish much for God.
• God works primarily through this book.
• The empire of Caesar is gone.
• The legions of Rome are vanquished.
• The avalanches that Napoleon hurled upon Europe have melted away.
• Pharaoh has fallen.
• Hitler has died and gone to hell.
• But, the Word of God endures forever.

Quality Decision: Decide to Walk in Love

• You know love may not make the world go around, but it sure makes the trip worthwhile.
• You will always have difficulty growing spiritually until you make the decision to walk in love.
• Spiritual development is primarily your ability to live in the realm of love.
• We’ve already touched on this but, what is love?
• One way we can find out is by looking at what it isn’t.
• Love is not a feeling.
• The entire planet functions on feeling.
• “How do you feel?” is a common question.
• “I don’t feel like going to work today.”
• A Jesus follower’s life based on feeling is headed for a gigantic collapse.
• Mark it down: society has placed an inordinate emphasis on feeling good.
• They have made self-esteem judgments based on feeling.
• If I feel good, I must be good. If I feel bad, I must be bad.
• Believers do it as well — If I feel saved, I must be saved.
• Love, honey, is a decision and not a feeling.
• God’s love is not an emotion. It’s a policy.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 (AMP) — 4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. 5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. 7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. 8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].

• Believe it or not this is how God loves and this is how you are to love one another.

Quality Decision: Decide To Be A Person of Integrity

• The first thing you have to decide when you make decisions is to keep them.
• Honor the words of your mouth.
• This is nothing but character.
• You want to have character not be one.

Charles Spurgeon said, “A good character is the best tombstone.”

Proverbs 11:3 (ESV) — 3 The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

• There are some cases where you don’t need to seek God’s guidance.
• The direction you should go is in the direction of doing what’s right in God’s eyes.
• Have you ever read Abimelech’s integrity in the matter of Abraham’s wife?

Genesis 20:1–6 (ESV) — 1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.

• Not bad for a sinner, wouldn’t you say?
• Abimelech had a lifestyle of integrity.
• He was healed when Abraham prayed for him.
• Within the framework of integrity decide these issues.
• I will not lie.
• A lie is the refuge of weakness — A man of courage is not afraid of the truth.
• I will not curse.
• Profanity is the effort of a feeble mind to express itself forcefully.
• I will not speak badly about other people.
• He who flings dirt upon another dirties himself more.
• I will not gossip.
• Gossip is social sewage and a confession of malice.
• All of these are integrity based tongue decisions.

Quality Decision: Decide To Pray for Your Leaders

• I’m not going embellish this point because we covered this previously.
• Make a quality decision to pray for your leaders according to 1 Timothy 2:1–4.

Now, Father God, thank you for the opportunity to set our hearts firm and unmovable before you via your Word. Thank you for the strength to follow through and for the Holy Spirit’s ministry of reminding us of these truths. We thank you for it in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

• Why Quality Decisions Can Positively Frame a Better Tomorrow.
• You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

#005: Choosing to Be Decisive [Podcast]

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