Your Decisions Belong In God

On today's episode of the Iron Saints Podcast, we continue our journey through the Gospel of Luke. Christ is done his back and forth lessons correcting the Pharisees and is moving on. Today we look at the example Christ sets for making big decisions and how that model can bring us blessing and conviction in our own walk.


The Twelve Apostles
12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. 

Jesus Ministers to a Great Multitude
17 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.


The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 6:12–19.

Prayer list:

Alissa’s Daughter @Positivitypants - Healing and praise for daughter

Jim Webb @Jwebb1967 - Place to stay

Eric Hoke @Erichoke - His year of drawing near to the Lord after stepping down from his Lead Pastor role

Anna @AnnaResearcher Bad PTSD episodes and flashbacks

Madison @JenniferBuck65 Covid pneumonia

Jesus,Christ,Gospel,Bible,Christianity,Scripture,Bible Study,Men,Faith,Spirituality,Christian, Jesus Christ

Transcript

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 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints podcast with your host, Dan Willis. 1s Welcome back, Saints. We are back at it again today. I've been absolutely blown away this past week and a half since returning to the podcast to see all of your thoughts, your input, seeing people listening to the episodes again. It has been so encouraging to come from that time of rest, worried about whether or not people might come back to the podcast after a brief hiatus, and to see people enjoying God's word, ripping through it, taking this journey through Luke. It's been an amazing thing. Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to share send prayer requests. Just listening to the podcast, it's a really great thing to be able to share God's word every morning, and I pray that we can continue to do that. With that being said, though, we get to continue through Luke today. So let's get down to it. Yesterday we took a journey as Christ continued to fight back the Pharisees on the Sabbath. The purpose of the Sabbath, the Lord's rest. What are we called to do? If you missed it, you can go back and listen to it. It was a great look at it. I did have a thought afterwards that isn't it interesting as the Pharisees are ripping apart Jesus for his work on the Sabbath, that here are these Pharisees who should be in the synagogue preaching and are instead following Jesus around, throwing stones? 2s Of pot calling the kettle black, I suppose from their perspective of you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing on the Sabbath either. Anyway, that was just a side thought. And aside, today we're going to get down to Jesus calling. Today is a day where we get to see Jesus calling his apostles and what that looks like. So we're going to dive into Luke here. Guys, if you're listening, wherever you may be, don't worry about it. I am going to read the scripture. I do that every day. I read from the ESV. I do encourage you if you do have a Bible around you that you would pick that up and read along. If you don't have a Bible around you, rest assured though it will be here for you in audio. So you can just listen if you have no other choice. So here we go. 1s Luke, chapter six, verse twelve. In these days he went out to the mountain to pray and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came he called his disciples and chose from and Twelve whom he named apostles. Simon, whom he named Peter, Andrew, his brother James and John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, the son of Alpha, simon, who was called the Zealot, judas, the son of James, and Judascariat who became a trade. 1s And he came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seaCost of Tar and Seidon who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowds sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all. 3s So this is a big deal. This is this is the moment when Jesus turns to God and says, okay, who's the team? Who are those that are going to come alongside me, that are going to be the ones that are the inner circle? Who are the ones that are going to be the accountable ones when I'm gone to guiding the church, leading the church, spreading the gospel? Who are they going to be? Lord? I think we see a couple of different really interesting things here as he gets prepared to do a big task. And as men, we constantly come up against us where we know we have a big task coming our way, whether it's in our professional lives, our family's lives, in our congregations and our churches and our communities, we have these big tasks. And right at the gate, right at the gate in these days. He went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 1s He starts with prayer. Jesus knows it. This is where it has to begin. This is where it has to start. He has to begin with prayer. Go to God, have that conversation. Consider the thing that you're about to do. Listen for God to speak to you, guide you, to give you that guidance. 1s Christ, without hesitation, moves, and he makes the choices that need to be made. And we see this roster of people that are collection from all over. We've got some Jews. We've got some Jews that have been working with the Greeks. We got some that are fishermen. We've got some that are tax collectors. We've got some that are going to betray Him. And he knew that when he selected them. But each of them have a purpose in their own way 1s and brings something to the group that needs to be there. It's a really interesting thing to see. And the amazing thing for me is there's no party. There's no celebration. There's no okay, guys, let's break out the wine. Let's break out the meat. Let's break out the feast. We're going to party and celebrate that this team has been put together. No, it's right down to it. Let's go. It's time to go. It's time to do it. Let's make it happen. Here we are. Immediately they come down, and he stands on a level place with a great crowd of disciples, a great multitude of people from all over Judah and Jerusalem, and they start to listen to Jesus teach. People are getting healed by diseases. People with unclean spirits are getting cured. Just the presence of Christ and the apostles. This is how they make themselves known. They don't write a newsletter. They don't send out a document to the churches. They don't wait till Sunday for everybody to show up. These men go, okay, Christ called us. Here we go. And right to work. And because they get right down to it, they. Demons are cast out, unclean spirits are cured. Healing happens. People hear the gospel. It's amazing to see what happens when you take that time and do it properly. Of I have a big idea. I have a big thing coming up. I have a big decision to make. I'm going to pray. I'm going to take that time. I'm going to dedicate the day and the night to the Lord. I'm going to take the time that's necessary to pray over this. And when I hear and I'm convicted of the decision that I need to make, I'm not going to wait on it, dwell on it, wait for the perfect time to do it. I'm going to move. I'm going to take the action. I took the time beforehand to pray and commit it to the Lord. And now that I have my conviction, I'm going to go. I want to challenge you guys today. For those of you that are listening out there, I'm sure you have something in your life that you are either in the middle of or you're about to come up against. I would ask you to consider how Christ lays out this process. Have you taken the time to go to the Lord in prayer? Have you taken the time to consider God's word and how he may be speaking to you, the steps, the decision that he wants you to take? 2s Take that time. Don't Dwindle on the front end, don't Doddle on the back end. When you hear clearly from the Word and in prayer what you're called to do, what you're called to move to what that decision should be, don't hesitate on it. Go right to it, and then take the time to appreciate the blessings that the Lord would give you in that 3s lord, thank you so much for the blessings that you show us. Thank you that you're with us as we make decisions and we face 2s trials, that we've got to come up to a decision, but we want you to be a part of that process. Christ shows us an excellent example in praying before we move and then moving. Once you've answered, Lord, I just lift up all the unheard prayers out there, those that are in that time of decision making. 1s Pray that they would listen for You, Lord, and then they would move swiftly. I lift up Lisa's daughter to you, Lord. Praise you for the healing we've already seen, and I pray that you continue to be with her as she heals fully. 1s I lift up Jim to you. He's seeking a place to stay, Lord. He's looking for your providence in that. I pray that you would help him in that decision. Pray for Eric. He's taken a year stepping down from his position as a lead pastor to wrestle with what it is that you have in his life. And I pray that as he's going through that, Lord, that he would wrestle through Your word, that he would listen in prayer, and when he feels Your call to take that next step, that he would step. Diligent Lee, I lift up Anna to you. She suffers from PTSD, Lord, and I know that struggle all too well as I suffer myself. I pray for her episodes and her flashbacks, Lord, that she would be able to overcome that and see you in those times and spaces. Pray for healing for her, Lord, healing of her heart, healing of her mind. I lift up Madison to you, Lord. 2s She is currently struggling in the hospital with COVID pneumonia. Pray for Jennifer, and it's never easy for a mom. She's Madison's mom, Lord, and it's always difficult to do all the things that you've got to do as a mom and watch your little one just suffer through something like that. So I just pray for Jennifer as well, Lord, that she'd be able to be the mom that she needs to be to make the right decisions for Madison in that. Pray for your healing on Madison, Lord. For all of those who have prayers that are unsaid, I know that you can hear them all, Lord. Work in them, lord. Your name, we pray. Amen. That's it, guys. Have an amazing day out there. We'll catch you tomorrow. Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all. Until next time.