JOSHUA 9 ASK GOD FOR COUNSEL2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Joshua 9 Ask God For Counsel

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. As we look at Joshua chapter 9, I want to start by having you consider your amazing negotiation skills.

Your amazing negotiation skills as demonstrated by your ability to get through a four-way stop intersection. You're familiar with those, right? You hit those from time to time, maybe a couple times a day. There's those intersections where you come and it's not red light, green light. It's not, you know, something that's already set or like that, but it's four-way stop. And I

The four-way stop is one of the most complicated, most difficult situations that you encounter in driving.

Because, well, there is traffic coming from four directions. And there is not only traffic coming from four directions, but there is a lot of personal opinion involved. There's a lot of subjectiveness. There is a lot of uncertainty about what is going to happen when you come to a four-way stop. When you come to a four-way stop and nobody is there, well, there's a little bit of simplicity there. But many times it is a four-way stop because...

There is continual and consistent traffic from all directions. And many times you're going to come to that stop and you're going to recognize that, well, there's a car coming from that way and a car coming from that way and a car coming across from me. And we're all coming to the intersection at the same time. And you all get there to the stop sign at the same time. And you all come to a complete stop where your wheels stop turning because that's the legal definition of coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. You do that every time. I'm trusting that you do that.

But then what happens? Well, then what follows is...

the negotiation. Now we know the right-of-way rules. We know that there is a system and we are to follow that and whoever got there first and then to the right and all those things. And we know that, but at the same time, we also know nobody follows that. That when you get there, it comes down to now you interacting with the other drivers and negotiating who gets to go first. And

Who's going to go? And part of it is, well, here's the right-of-way rules. Here's who has the right-of-way. But also part of it is, well, what's going to be the safest for me? Because that guy looks like he's crazy. I don't trust him. I'm not going to go ahead of him. I don't think he's going to wait his turn. So I'm going to let him go first, and then I'm going to go. Or you might be in a hurry. You're on the way to the hospital, and you're like, hey, I know it's your guys' turn, but I need to get to the hospital. And so please, let me go first. And so you're more aggressive in your approach to that, or perhaps you're

You're more casual because you're just going to work and you don't really want to get there anyway. So go ahead. You can go ahead. I mean, I know it's my turn, but go first. I don't care. And you can approach that intersection in different ways. And so there is this negotiation that takes place between drivers who are coming to a stop at a four-way stop intersection.

A negotiation is a discussion that's aimed at reaching an agreement. And that's what happens, not so much with words, but with, well, it's reading body language and it's, you know, kind of acknowledgements, but sometimes you can't even see the drivers. And so you have to read what the car is doing. In fact, as they're working on and developing autonomous vehicles, self-driving cars, this is one of the most challenging pieces of that equation.

Because, well, when you come to a stop and there's people at the wheel, you can make eye contact, you can wave each other on, you know, you can kind of have that communication. But what if there's nobody at the wheel? How do you know when they're going to go? And how does that car know when you're going to go? And back in 2009, when Google was first developing this and put their autonomous vehicle on the road, they found this to be quite an issue. What would happen is the Google self-driving car would just sit at the stop sign,

For a really long time. Because it was trained, here's the rules, you know, you can only go in to the intersection when it's safe to do so. So if somebody else is already in the intersection or entering the intersection, you're not supposed to go in the intersection. And so they would wait. The car would wait. And then what would happen is drivers, people,

weren't necessarily so concerned about, well, it has to be precisely this way, this turn and then this turn and then this turn. No, the people aren't so concerned about that. Hey, you're not going to go? Okay, I'm going to go then. And so there was this rolling forward, this inching forward, this constant movement from all the vehicles, and it would confuse the automated system. And they were like, that car is going. I got to let it go first. And so what they ended up having to do is to teach people

that automated system, that self-driving car, to start to roll forward a little bit. Not necessarily to go, but to signal to the other drivers, hey, I think it's safe to go. I think it's my turn, and so I'm going to go through this intersection. And in doing so, it had to learn how to negotiate with all the crazy humans who don't follow the rules. It had to learn how to negotiate and say, hey, I think it's my turn, and it's time for me to go.

And so there is this negotiation that's going on between the drivers all of the time as we come to the stop. Now, you might approach an intersection from a variety of different mindsets with a variety of different attitudes. You might come to an intersection and, you know, maybe it's your personality type. Maybe it's the way that you always drive. You're aggressive. You're aggressive.

And if you're going to be able to get it, you know, to go ahead of time, you're going to take that opportunity. And sometimes people are aggressive behind the wheel, right? And so that happens. But there's other times perhaps where you're not so aggressive. And so even if that's your normal mentality, your normal driving method, sometimes you're not that way. And so as you come to an intersection, you might be aggressive. You might be more like relaxed and laid back.

Maybe you're feeling like a stickler today and you're like, no, everybody's going to follow the rules. And so everybody behind you honking and you're yelling at them, no, it's not my turn. It's that guy's turn. I'm not going to go because it's not my turn. It's your, you have to go first. It's your turn. And so you're like, I got to follow the rules. You can insist on your right of way. You can surrender your right of way. You can try to go when it's not your turn. You can let other people go when it is your turn. And there's all these different ways that you can approach this. And so

Every person has that opportunity as well. And so now it comes together all in this one mess, this one four-way stop, and there is the negotiation that happens. Now, I would ask you to consider, what would Jesus do? How would Jesus handle that intersection? Would Jesus be a stickler for the rules? No, here's the right-of-way rules. I go, then you go, then you go. I'm not going before it's my turn. How would Jesus, is that what he would do? Or would he be aggressive and say, hey, will you let me go first?

And automatically, probably in your head, you're thinking, no, Jesus would never do that, right? Would he just let everybody else go? And then everybody behind him is mad because he keeps letting everybody else go because he's just being so generous and kind and patient. But not to the people behind him, but just to those people who are crossing ahead of him in the intersection. What would Jesus do? How would he handle this kind of negotiation? And here's what I would suggest to you this morning and ask you to consider.

This is just an illustration, but it goes to apply to more things that we'll look at this morning in Joshua chapter 9. But the illustration is that God may want you to approach the intersection each of those ways at different times and in different contexts. Sometimes God may want you to come to an intersection and to go before it's your turn. Now, not in an illegal way, but

But for you to indicate, for you to communicate, hey, I need to be somewhere. I'm on my way to the hospital. And so you ask permission. Can I go first? And maybe you roll forward a little bit or you roll down your window and say, hey, I need to go or whatever, right? I mean, think about it this way. If we all show up at Farmer Boys at the same time and we all get in line according to, you know, the order that we're in and then Harvey says, hey, excuse me, guys, I'm old. Would you mind if I cut in front of you? Yeah.

And I say, sure, Harvey, go ahead. You can take my place in line. Go for it. That's okay, right? He asked for permission. He got ahead of, you know, where he was in the line, and that's allowed. That's okay. That's not a moral issue. That's not a sin issue. The same thing is true at an intersection where it's a four-way stop, where there is some discretion. Now, red light, green light, that's a whole different context, but you get the point, right? You can ask permission and say, hey, I

I am feeling aggressive. I am in a hurry. Would you mind? Can you let me go first? Sometimes, though, God would have you surrender your right of way. And maybe you are still in a hurry, but...

Maybe the Lord would want you to say, hey, let that other person go. Let someone else go ahead of you when they need to. Sometimes God may want you to insist and say, no, we need to follow the order. Here's the order. You go first, then you go, then you go, then I go. Then, you know, that's the order. That's what needs to happen. So sometimes God may have you approach an intersection one way, and sometimes he might have you approach an intersection a different way.

But God wants you to be able to handle the intersection each of the ways, all of the ways, not just one way all the time, only that way, but all of the ways.

to be fully developed, to be able to handle the different types of contexts and scenarios. And by this time you're saying, Jerry, you've been talking about intersections for like 10 minutes. We haven't even like barely looked at the Bible. What are we talking about here? Why all this talk about the intersections? Well, this is something that God spoke to me about this past week. It was an illustration that he gave me that, well, it feeds into what we're looking at here in Joshua chapter 9.

The title of the message this morning is Ask God for Counsel. Because we're looking at a situation where Joshua, as he's leading the children of Israel into the promised land, they've had a couple victories. They've also experienced a defeat, but they came back and had a victory again. And they're now making their way into the promised land to take it over. With clear instruction from God, they are to drive out the inhabitants of the land.

But as they're heading in, as they're going in, well, a situation unfolds where this group of people comes to him and they say, hey, make an agreement with us that you won't fight against us. And we see as they have this negotiation, there's this discussion. They reach an agreement at the end and Joshua says, okay, sure, we'll agree to that. We won't fight you. But the thing to take note of as we look at verse 14 is that

They looked at the situation. They looked at all the details, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. And so in their negotiation, in their discussion, in what happened in this scenario, they did not ask God for counsel and they wound up making a bad decision. We face these kinds of negotiations at every intersection.

We face negotiations in all aspects of our life where there are decisions to be made, directions to be taken, things to be done, activities to be involved in. There's negotiations happening all of the time. And this morning, I want to encourage you in all of those activities and decisions and directions, in all and every intersection, to learn to ask God for counsel.

There's four thoughts I'll work through, four points we'll work through as we consider this idea of asking God for counsel. The first point is, ask God for counsel during negotiation. Ask God for counsel during the negotiation. Now, here in this case, again, the children of Israel are there in the promised land, and now the people, the inhabitants of the land are starting to recognize what's going on.

And they're coming up with different strategies with how to deal with this threat that is Israel coming in to conquer the land. In verses 1 and 2, we see one kind of strategy. The kings...

all grouped together they bound banded together to form a coalition to try to fight against joshua looking again at verse one and two it says and it came to pass when all the kings who were on this side of the jordan in the hills and the lowland and all the coasts toward lebanon the hittite the emirate the canaanite the parasite the hivite all these different people notice it says when they heard about it that they gathered together to fight with joshua and israel with one accord

So they heard about Jericho. They heard about Ai. They heard about the victories so far. And they decided we need to join together, to join forces. The king said to each other, hey, let's not just like sit here in our own cities and let them take us one by one. Let's join together and go fight them. There was a deliberate joining together to battle. That was one strategy for dealing with this threat that was before them.

But then there was another strategy, a different group of people, the Gibeonites. They came up with a plan to trick Israel instead, and that's in verse 3. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked, notice, craftily.

So here comes the Gibeonites. They decide, you know, we're not going to join the coalition and try to fight against Israel. We're going to take a more deceptive approach.

if we can convince them that we are from really far away, they'll make an agreement with us to not fight, and then we'll be protected. They trust it. They'll honor their word if they make this covenant with us, then we'll be protected, and they won't fight against us. And so in dealing with this war that is going on, these two groups come up with two different strategies.

And that's significant for us to consider because as we talk about asking God for counsel, as we talk about the intersections of our life, we sometimes forget that we are at war, that we're in the midst of a war, that there is real spiritual battle taking place, that there really is an enemy who desires to destroy us. And sometimes we forget about that. We get caught up in the day-to-day and the situations that are right in front of us and

And we fail to ask counsel of God because we fail to recognize sometimes how serious the situation that we're facing really is. Sometimes we're not aware of what's happening behind the scenes in the things that we're facing. And there's more to the story. There's more to the account. And that's what happened with Joshua and the leaders of Israel here. They entered into the situation, but they really weren't aware of the full context. They didn't know really what was going on.

And so they fell prey to this deception and they lost this battle, not with the physical fight, but they lost this battle by being tricked and by not seeking the counsel of God. Warren Wiersbe says it this way, "'What Jericho could not do with walls or Ai with weapons, the Gibeonites accomplished with deceit. Satan tries one device after another to defeat God's people and we must constantly be on guard.'"

Jericho was noteworthy for its walls. It had huge, impressive walls. Not only that, but it had a double set of walls so that it was thought to be impossible to break in to Jericho. But God did a miraculous work and brought down the walls of Jericho. So even though they had the best walls that money could buy, it wasn't successful in protecting them from the attack of Israel.

Ai, they didn't have strong walls, but they had fierce men. And so they came out and they fought Israel. The men of Jericho, they just stayed inside the walls. Hey, we don't got to fight. We have the walls. The men of Ai said, we're going to fight. And so they went out to meet the men of Israel and to fight them with weapons. And the first battle happened and they were victorious because, well, there was sin in the camp. But God dealt with that and then brought Israel back to Ai and now

The men of Ai tried to come out with their weapons and have victory again, and nope, this time they're defeated. The city is burned, they're conquered. They were not able to withstand the attack of Israel. But the Gibeonites did withstand the attack, not with strong walls, not with fierce weapons, but with deception.

And we need to be mindful and be recognizing and be understanding that we have an enemy who is against us, that we have an enemy who is desiring to destroy us. We have an enemy who wants to take away from us what God has given to us. And sometimes he will mount up a direct attack. Sometimes he will use deception to try to trick us into making agreements, to making deals, to making decisions that God has not called us to make.

And so during the negotiations, while the negotiations are happening, we need to learn to ask God for counsel to help us get some perspective beyond what the conversation is going on, beyond what we're seeing right there, beyond the things that are right in front of us. We need God's insight and God's help while the negotiations are going on. Think about what Nehemiah did in Nehemiah chapter 2.

When he's yearning for Jerusalem because it has been destroyed and he wants to rebuild it, but he's in service of the king. He can't just up and leave. And the king notices that he's sad. He says, hey, what's going on, Nehemiah? Why are you so sad? Oh, Jerusalem's a mess. So the king says, well, what do you want to do about that? In verse four, the king said to me, what do you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs, that I may rebuild it. The king says, what do you want? And Nehemiah says, I'd really love to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild it, if you'll allow me. But between that question, what do you want, and between Nehemiah's answer, it tells us at the end of verse four, so I prayed to the God of heaven. Nehemiah here says,

Ask God for counsel, for how to deal with this conversation, for how to answer the king in a way that is wise and that is, you know, in accordance with the will of God. Now, when it says, I pray to the God of heaven, it doesn't mean that Nehemiah said, excuse me, king, can you hold that thought for a second? I have to go into my prayer closet.

Jesus said, you know, when you pray, you got to go into the closet. So hold on, hold on a second. Let me go in the closet. I'll be about 20 minutes because, you know, there's the ax model. You know, I have to, you know, I have to give praise and then I have to, you know, then there's the tabernacle model. I got to enter in the courts of Thanksgiving and then enter the, you know, ask for forgiveness and then go on in the pitch. I have to follow this pattern. I have to do the daily prayer or the Lord's prayer, you know, give us this day our daily bread, our Father in heaven. You know, I have to follow, I have to do, so give me about 20 minutes, King. I'll be right back.

I got to pray to the God of heaven in order to learn how to answer you. That's not what happened. What happened? Nehemiah, in the middle of the conversation, just shoots up a quick prayer to God, probably not out loud, but just in his mind, in his heart, communicating with the Father and asking God for help, for counsel, for wisdom, for discernment, for insight into how he wants Nehemiah to handle this conversation, this negotiation.

And I think he sets a good model for us. Ask God for counsel during negotiation. We don't see that happen with Joshua and his leaders as they're interacting with the Gibeonites. They didn't have to go, you know, take off for 20 minutes, a couple hours, give me a couple weeks to pray about this, right? Just in the moment, being able to communicate with the Lord, that opportunity was there, but it wasn't acted upon.

And you and I face all kinds of negotiations. We hit a lot of intersections, literally on the road. And definitely that, you know, we need to be in prayer for our intersections because things are crazy out there. But in the intersections of life, in the negotiations that we experience.

The negotiations between husband and wife, the discussions, the conversations, the negotiations between employee and employer, the negotiations between neighbor and neighbor, the negotiations that take place and the conversations and the decisions. And there is a need for us to learn how to ask God for counsel while the conversation, while the negotiation is going on. This isn't something that's going to happen automatically.

But this is something that we are going to learn how to do and to train ourselves to do. God doesn't always just break in and reveal his will. There are many times where God waits for you to ask. James talks about that. You have not because you ask not. In James 1, verse 5, he tells us, if anybody lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives liberally to all without fault, and God will give it to him. He has a promise to us of providing wisdom to

for the situations that we face, and for the lack of wisdom that we have. But there does need to be the proactiveness on our part to ask for the wisdom, to ask God for counsel, even while the situation is unfolding, even while the conversation is approaching. Ask God for counsel.

While it's happening, but then also before the final decision is made, and that gives us point number two, ask God for counsel before making commitments. Here again in verse 14, it says, then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. Verse 15, so Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the rulers of the congregation swore to them.

So there was a conversation, and the conversation was good. Even there was some wisdom shown in that when the Gibeonites came, the people of Israel said, well, how do we really know that you're from far away? They didn't just believe it because someone told them. They said, well, maybe we should think about this. It wasn't a conversation, a negotiation that happened without any wisdom or without any thoughts. The Gibeonites had a response, though. They had prepared for this. They said, well, look at our bread.

I mean, when we left, it was like hot out of the oven. It was like, you know, I could barely hold the bread. It was so hot out of the oven. But now look, it's old. It's moldy. It's all dried out. It's old bread. My shoes were brand new, but look, you can see the duct tape on them now. It's like they've just been worn out because I've been traveling for such a long time to come to you. And so they had their

reasonable you know uh explanations that it was reasonable at least from joshua and the leader's perspective is like yeah you're right yeah those shoes are messed up yeah those are it's time for you to put on a new shirt you know and and yeah your your bread is really old okay uh so it looked everything looked like it was in order they had some questions but they were answered but as they get to the end of the discussion now it's time to make the decision will we make a covenant with this people

And Joshua says, yes, we will make a covenant. We will commit to you. We will promise to you. We will not fight against you. Now, the problem with this covenant was that God had given them a very clear instruction about how to deal with the people that were living in the promised land. They were instructed to drive them out completely and to not make any covenants with them. In Exodus chapter 34, verse 12, God says, take heed to yourself.

lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest a snare be in your midst. God says, take heed to yourself. I always find it interesting when God calls us to take heed to ourselves. It happens a few times in the scriptures. Take heed to yourself. There's some things about you that you need to be aware of, that you need to pay attention to, and that you need to make some deliberate effort to protect yourself from. You need to take heed to yourself.

Some of the things that happen automatically for you, well, you need to be careful about that because they're not always the things that God wants. You're going to be vulnerable to, tempted to, make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. God says you're not to do that. And you need to take heed to yourself because that's a vulnerability. And you may not be aware of that weakness that you have, but you have that weakness. You make commitments. You make covenants. You make promises.

that God doesn't want you to make. We need to ask counsel of God before we commit to things, before we make those kinds of agreements. Thomas Constable puts it this way. We need to seek the will of God before we make these commitments. We should look for it in prayer and in scripture. We should also consult other godly people who understand God's ways. We need to ask God for counsel. And how do we do that?

Again, as we looked at Nehemiah, we can spend time in prayer. And maybe that is a prayer closet experience where we have some devoted, dedicated time. Before I make this commitment, before I make this agreement, I need to spend some time with God in prayer. And that's possible. Sometimes it is just the one quick, you know, just between me and the Lord and a quick prayer. But then there's also the need for us to search the scriptures, right?

Before we make commitments, before we make big decisions, before we commit to these kinds of things, we need to check what does the word of God have to say? And then God's also given us that great resource of one another.

fellow believers, others in the body of Christ who have experience with many of the things that we face and are able to provide us, not necessarily thus says the Lord, but here's what I've experienced. Here's my experience with what God has done with me throughout the years. And here's what I've seen. And here's what I think God would say about this kind of situation. There is a need for us to ask God for counsel before making commitments. Now, what's interesting about this is

If you look to Joshua chapter 8 at the end, it tells us in verse 30, Now Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the children of Israel. It goes on to describe the fulfillment of what God had instructed through Moses in Deuteronomy. Without getting into all of the details, God had told them and given elaborate instructions, Hey, when you get into the promised land,

Go to Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. They're two mountains like right next to each other with a valley in between and have part of the congregation stand on one side and have the other part stand on the other side and recite the blessings. Deuteronomy 28, 29, 30. Recite the blessings, recite the cursings, commit, recommit and confirm your covenant with God.

And it tells us in that, in verse 35 of Joshua chapter 8, as they fulfilled that, as they did that, there was not a word of all that Moses had commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel. So that verse, Exodus chapter 34, which I just quoted a few moments ago, where God says, don't make covenants. They just read that in Joshua chapter 8. And then in Joshua chapter 9, here come the Gibeonites. They just read, they just like refresh their memory. Here's the way God wants us to operate in the promised land.

It was part of what they went through as they recommitted themselves to the Lord. But now is a challenge to that. And this time, you know, it wasn't a obvious attack that's going to happen with those other kings who are gathering together. But in a deceptive way, when God has given them clear instruction about that, they fall prey to this trickery, to this craftiness. And they make the commitment without asking God for counsel.

They base it on what they can see, what they can understand, their perception, their wisdom, their judgment, but they don't ask God for counsel. And this is a dangerous thing for us to be involved in.

There are lots of decisions that we should not make without first hearing from the Lord and giving him an opportunity to speak. James talks about this in a similar way in James chapter 4, verses 13 through 15. He says,

It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Verse 15, he says, instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. James challenges the people. He says, look, you're making all kinds of plans. You're making agreements. You're making commitments. You're saying, we're going to be here for a little bit. We're going to do this. We're going to sell these things. We're going to take the profits from that, go over here and make a profit from this other thing and do that. And then we're going to come over here. And you have these plans and God wants you to plan.

God wants you to use common sense. He wants you to use judgment. He wants you to make those kinds of plans. But the problem was not the plans themselves, but the leaving out of God in the midst of those plans. He says, instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills.

Now he's not saying, okay, here's a magic phrase. Just insert this into whenever you declare your plans. If the Lord wills, and then you can just say whatever you want. He's not just saying, you know, insert these words every time. He's saying, you're not including God in your plans. You're not giving God opportunity to redirect, to change your plans. You're not stopping to ask God for counsel about these plans that you're making. You're just operating however you think is best. And that's an issue, right?

That is not the way that God has called us to operate. We need to ask God for counsel before we make those commitments and commit to things that God has not called us to. Before we execute the plans, before we confirm the plans and are bound to our agreements in those plans. Again, God wants you to plan. He's given you wisdom. He's given you discretion. He's given you judgment. He's given you those things.

but not that you would use them without also including him in the process. As you come to the intersections of life, there's decisions to make. Make sure you include God in those decisions. Again, here in verse 14, it tells us specifically, they took note, they took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. They used the best judgment they had. Again, it's not that they just made a dumb decision because they didn't think about it. They thought about it.

It's not, God's issue with them was you didn't do a good enough investigation. I mean, you looked at their bread and it was moldy, but how do you really know it was hot when they left? I mean, you should have tracked that down better. You should have been better in your investigation. That's not the issue that God had. The issue that God had was, great, you did the best you could with the information you had, but then you left it at that. And you didn't give God an opportunity to speak into the situation. If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask, James says.

And God will give the wisdom that we need. And so that brings me to point number three, and that is train yourself to ask God for counsel. There's some training that is necessary. There is some habits that need to be formed. There's some disciplines that need to take place. I think if we were able to sit down with Joshua in the midst of this situation that was unfolding,

If you and I were able to go back there and sit down with Joshua and, you know, hear about the situation and talk with Joshua about it and then say, you know, Joshua, what do you think? Is this something that we need to pray about? I don't think that Joshua would have come back and said, no, we don't need to pray about this. Look, we can see the moldy bread. I don't think that would have been Joshua's answer. I don't think it was a deliberate conscious decision where, you know, he has this in front of him. Will I pray about this or will I not pray about this?

And that he purposely said, yeah, I'm not going to pray about this. I don't think that was a deliberate conscious decision that he made. It was what happened as a matter of default. It didn't even occur in his head. It didn't even cross his mind that maybe this is something that should be prayed over. I think if you and I would have been able to have that conversation with him, it would have like triggered the thought and remind him, oh yeah, I should pray about this. I should ask God for counsel. But that didn't happen.

And so it didn't even cross his mind. Again, it wasn't like a deliberate decision. I'm going to purposely do what God doesn't want me to do or a deliberate decision. I don't want to check in with God. Sometimes we do that, right? We're like, I don't want to pray about this because I know what God's going to say. So I'll just, you know, save myself the effort because I'm going to do it anyways, right? And it wasn't, I would suggest it's not like that for Joshua, but it's just that it didn't really cross his mind to be able to make a decision about it.

Going back to the idea of the intersections, you come to a four-way stop, you probably don't think all that much about it, even though it's, you know, incredibly complex, and if you're building a self-driving car, you have to think about it a lot. But for the most of us, I mean, we just, we show up at the stop sign, and then it's like,

Well, let's figure out what we're going to do. There's not necessarily that deliberate effort. You're not stopping to think, okay, I'm going to approach this intersection with this mentality, with this aggressiveness, with this passiveness. I'm going to, you know, there's not that kind of deliberation that's happening before, typically. Now, there are some intersections that I prepare for in advance on purpose. Do you have any of those kinds of intersections? There's this one, driving up to my in-laws' cabin up in near Crestview, and

Crestline? Crestview? One of those. Anyways, up in the mountains, there's this one turn, this one intersection. It's a little bit complicated because it's not only a four-way, but then there's also another road that's an offshoot in the intersection as well. And so that makes it a little bit more complicated, and you have to kind of turn off that weird offshoot. But what makes it even more complicated is it's in the mountains, so it's on a hill. Visibility is very limited because I'm coming up the hill like this,

At the top of the hill is the other road. So you're coming up and then there's this other road here. And then you have this road coming here, right? And I have to get to the top of that and then make a left turn...

Not onto the main road that's crossing, but onto the other offshoot road that's slightly further. And I can't see the people on the other side because there's also a hill on the other side. And so cars are coming this way. I'm coming this way. We can't see each other until we get here. And then I have to turn. And there's, you know, it's a busy road. And so there's cars behind me. There's cars coming this way. There's cars coming this way. Every time I have to go through that intersection, I know it's coming.

Google tells me it's coming ahead of time. You're going to have to turn left. And I go, oh, I know that one. Okay. So I'm like calming myself down. I'm trying to clear my mind. Okay. I got to prepare myself because here I am. I'm going to get to the top of the hill. I'm going to have to make a split decision about whether I'm going to take this turn or miss it because someone else is going to run up behind me because they're trying to get up the hill. You get the point, right? There's some intersections there.

that I prepare for. There was this one intersection that I didn't have to drive through, but I got to watch for some time. It was in Shanghai with Pastor Cisco. We were staying overnight on the way to Japan and looking out the window over this intersection. It was crazy. Check it out. So this is the intersection in Shanghai. This isn't even a major road. This is just like a minor road, but this is a time-lapse intersection

of that intersection, okay? I sat there and watched it for like an hour. This is not an exaggeration, even though it's a time lapse, and so it's kind of sped up a little bit, but seriously, it's more scary in real time. Like, there's people. Look, you see a dog running across the street. There's people. There's scooters. They're going different directions. Some are driving on the right-hand side. Some are driving on the left-hand side. There's these side lanes, and there's crosses. There's people parked in the street. I mean, there's like all this stuff going on,

And they're not like everybody take turns. It's like we'll just kind of weave through each other to get through this intersection. If I had to drive through that, I would have to pray and fast for a couple days first. And then after I've sought God for counsel, get through it, right? Those big ones you know about, you prepare for. The big decisions, big commitments. Those are the ones where we're more likely, most likely to stop and pray and ask God for counsel, right?

The more challenging thing, I think, is the little decisions, where it's not even occurring to us that we should stop and ask. Like, the decisions are being made, the things are happening before we're making a conscious, deliberate effort to make the decision and to go in that direction. You have some defaults that are built into you. It's part of your personality, perhaps.

Part of your training, part of your upbringing, part of, well, there's different influences that have been in your life that have established these habits, these defaults, things that happen in

And you don't even really think about it. And so when that family member says that kind of comment to you, then your attitude coming back, it's, well, it's your default attitude. It's the way that you always respond because they always tell you that same thing. And here's how you respond. And you have this default attitude that you respond with. It's not a deliberate decision. I'm going to be angry over that, or I'm going to be annoyed at that, or I'm going to be happy about that. It's not a deliberate decision. It's just...

that's what you've trained yourself to do. That's how you are. It's your default attitude. There's some things that you face, decisions that you make, and it's just a default decision. I mean, if you don't know where to eat, but you got to pick a place, what's your default? Now, for me, it used to be jack-in-the-box. And then, now I got married, and, you know, I can't be jack-in-the-box anymore. Now it's

Baja fish tacos in Norco and Hamner. That's the default. That's the place. If we got to go somewhere, that's the place to go. Unless it's Baker's because sometimes cost-wise, you know, it's a little bit cheaper over there. But anyways, you know, there's defaults that you have. You're just making decisions because, well, that's the default. This applies to all aspects of your life. How are you going to serve the Lord? There's some defaults.

Well, here's my giftings. You know, here's what I've learned about myself. Here's how I've served in the past. And so I have some defaults. Where do you go when you need counsel? Well, you have your default expert for different things. You know, you have your finance guy. You have your, you know, different situations kind of. Well, this is the person that I go to. You have defaults. In the technology world, there's a saying called the tyranny of the default. The tyranny of the default. That is the default settings are king, right?

on your operating system, there's a default browser. Now, the majority of users, maybe you're sophisticated and you actually intentionally pick a specific website browser, web browser. Maybe you do. You're one of the few if you do. Most people, they use the default browser. Just as a fun experiment, I asked Pastor Cisco, what internet browser do you use? He's like, he didn't even know how to process the question. Like, what do you mean? I just opened the internet.

Yeah, Internet Explorer, oh, that's the thorn in the side of web developers because it's old, it's not updated, it's insecure. Listen, if you're using Internet Explorer, side note from the message, here's Tech Jerry, get off Internet Explorer. Okay, don't use it. It's not safe. It's not secure. So,

All kinds of issues there. But there's Chrome, there's Firefox, there's Safari, there's Opera, there's abundance of different types. But that's not what people use. Majority of people use what the default is. It's just what reigns. And the same thing is true in us. We have our defaults. Some of those defaults are reinforced. You know, we've taken the personality profile. I know I'm a lion, and so I behave this way, and so I just behave that way. And

Hey, that's really great for helping to understand some of the things that you do and why you do it. But also, that's not to say that you should just always live that way. Again, coming to an intersection, you should not always approach every intersection with the same attitude, with the same approach, with the same technique. Sometimes God wants to change that up. I have a default.

As I'm teaching through the Bible in three years, reading through the Bible in three years with you throughout the week, and then teaching a portion of that on Sundays, here's my default. I don't teach the same passage that I taught three years ago as we were in this same portion going through the Bible in three years. That's my default. So every week as I'm reading through the scriptures and the passages for the week, the chapters for the week, I'm looking it over and praying out, okay, God, what do you want me to teach from these chapters?

But one of the things I do is I look back, okay, what did I teach last time? Okay, so that passage is out. I'm not going to teach that passage. So from the rest of these chapters, okay, Lord, what am I going to teach from? That's my default. A couple weeks ago, I did teach the same passage that I taught three years ago. I've been waiting for you guys to call me on it, but you haven't done it yet. So now I've outed myself, but I tried not to.

Not even so much in a deliberate way, but I just, I didn't even consider, I didn't even evaluate that passage. I didn't even pray over that passage because I taught that three years ago. So I'm not teaching that. So I tried to teach a completely different message and I prepared it. I had slides ready. I worked hard at it, but at the same time, it wasn't sitting right. My spirit was unsettled. This wasn't really the message that God had for us. And I was frustrated because I couldn't figure out what is the Lord saying until finally,

late Saturday evening, the day before Sunday morning, right? Late Saturday evening, I finally start thinking, maybe I should consider that passage. Maybe God is saying something different. And it was funny because Josh and I just had the conversation a couple, like a couple days earlier, I think, where he was asking, hey, is it ever okay to teach the same message that you've taught before? And yeah, it's okay. But even though it's okay, it's not a sin. It's just not my default. It's

And so finally, I looked at that other passage, and then suddenly, boom, God just began to like speak, boom. But you know, here's all this insight, not the same message as the previous three years, but from the same passage. And the Lord breathed into that fresh life. And I was like, oh my goodness, I'm such a dummy. It was my default. And I let that rule. I made the decision without making the decision. I didn't even give God opportunity to tell me, yeah, that was what you taught last year, but I want you to teach that passage again.

I just ignored it because, well, that's what I do. That's my default. And we have to train ourselves to not just always do what we've been, you know, taught to do or caught up in doing, but to let God redirect even in those things. Now, those defaults that we have, many times they're defaults for good reason because they're good things. And typically, yes, you are to operate that way. But sometimes God wants you to take that intersection differently.

Sometimes he wants you to handle it in a different way. And we need to train ourselves to teach ourselves to ask God for counsel, even in those things that we're so familiar with and we do so automatically. Well, that gives us point number four, and that is ask God for counsel without ceasing. Here's how to train yourself. Here's how to catch those things. And that is to just always be looking to God first.

for counsel, without ceasing. Paul put it this way in 1 Thessalonians 5, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. That is, open up a dialogue with God every day, each day, every day, throughout the day, that again, not that you would be in the prayer closet, not that you would necessarily be in a formal time of prayer, but that every conversation, every discussion, every decision, every activity that you're participating in, it's

It's being done with an open line. It's like, you know, you just kind of have God on the phone all day long. Just, hey, you know, what do you think about this? What are you saying about this? What do you want to do? And God may have some clear instruction and he may just be silent and let you make decisions based on how he's taught you and what he's revealed to you already. But we need to have that open line of communication. Not just in the morning and then at mealtime you pray and then in the evening, you know, before you go to bed you pray, but...

Pray without ceasing. Have an ongoing, deliberate conversation with God throughout the day, through all of your activities, through all of your decisions, through all of the negotiations that you're facing, but giving God an opportunity to speak. And God doesn't always lay out everything and give us all the clear insight. Many times he says, use the judgment that I've given you, use the wisdom that I've given to you, and make the best decisions that you can make. But he doesn't want you to do that.

without also giving him opportunity to redirect. And so ask God for counsel without ceasing. As you come to the intersection, again, I would suggest God wants you to be able to handle an intersection all of the ways. Sometimes he does want you to be more aggressive in your decisions, in your dealings, and not just default to the way that you normally are. Sometimes God wants you to be more

permissive and say, hey, you go ahead, you know, you go ahead and you go ahead and everybody behind you is mad, but hey, you go ahead and you go ahead, you know, that sometimes God wants you to approach it in different ways and you need to give God opportunity. Let him be able to direct you and redirect you and lead you in the way that he wants you to go. Let's pray.

God, I pray for each one of us. Lord, there is an abundance of negotiations and decisions and directions, Lord, as we face things every day. And there's activities and conversations that are happening. And Lord, we don't have all the insight that we need. We don't have all the wisdom that we need. I pray that you would teach us, help us to ask you for wisdom.

Help us, Lord, to seek you for your insight about the situations and those things that happen so automatically. So they're just default. We look and we can evaluate, we can see the moldy bread and we know exactly what decision needs to be made. Lord, I pray that you would help us to catch ourselves in those situations. And Lord, maybe it is the right decision that we've come to, but before we make it, help us, Lord, to seek you for counsel, to invite you to speak your truth.

to provide your perspective, to lead us in your ways. And so God, I pray that you would give us wisdom, help us to learn how to walk with you and truly have that ongoing dialogue with you without ceasing. Lord, that we would be looking to you, talking with you, hearing from you, not caught up and consumed with the situation at hand, but Lord, conscious and aware that you're in the midst of

There's a war going on, and so we need to be in touch with you, our commander, to be able to handle these things in the way that you desire, in the way that's best for us and everyone around us. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.