Following Jesus, Psalm 51 style is the theme of this blog.  With that in mind, I am pleased to connect readers to a sermon by Matt Chandler on Repentance: Good Guilt.  Matt is pastor of The Village Church in the Dallas area.

I listen to Matt’s sermons on my iPod.  The other day I listened to this one about the difference between good guilt and worldly guilt.  As I listened, Matt used the example of David’s sin with Bathsheba (and subsequent sins) to illustrate the kind of guilt that leads to repentance.  This repentance is made evident by David’s prayer in Psalm 51.

Chandler discusses David’s cry to God,

Against you, you only, have I sinned (Psalm 51:4)

We are tempted to say that David sinned against Bathsheba, against Uriah and against the nation.  Yet, David repents of his sin against God.  In sinning against Bathsheba, Uriah and the nation, David demonstrated contempt for God and his provisions.

Good guilt causes us to stand before God as one who has sinned against a holy God.

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What are some of the basic challenges that people face in trying to establish or maintain a good relationship with God?  Dr. Jimmy Scroggins is identifying these challenges and explaining how to overcome them in a 4 part series.  This series is part of PowerLunch, the weekday professional luncheon at First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach.

The 4 challenges that Sroggins considers are framed as statements that people often make.  They are:

1. “I’m Not Good Enough”
2. “Church Stinks”
3. “I Got Hurt”
4. “Mad at God”

I’m Not Good Enough

Most people have a belief system that can be summarized with the following statement:

Good people go to heaven.

This belief system usually has the following tenets:

1. There is a good God (goes by many names).
2. He lives in a good place (many refer to that place as heaven).
3. He’s not super strict, but He is keeping track of who is good and who is not.  Like a heavenly Santa Claus.  He is making a list.  Checking it twice.  Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice.
4. Good people go to the good place when they die.
5. When bad people die one of three things happens:
   1. They go to a bad place.
   2. They cease to exist.
   3. They have to come back and try again.

Almost all religious systems teach some form of “good people go to heaven.”  However, the Bible teaches that forgiven people go to heaven.

God desires that people repent of their sins, trust Jesus and enter into a life-long relationship with him.

Today was the final teaching in the series, “GPS: Making Wise Decisions” by Dr. Jimmy Scroggins at PowerLunch at First Baptist Church in West Palm Beach, FL.

This series has been extremely timely for me.  I am at a transition point in my life and desire to make wise decisions that will put me in the right situation, in the right place and at the right time.

Here is a summary of what Dr. Scroggins calls, The Road to Wise Decisions.  Throughout the series, he spelled out what he considers are 5 key markers that indicate the road one should be moving along.

• Marker #1 – The Bible
  • Where the Bible is clear, we do not need to pray, get other advice, or think more about it – we simply need to choose whether to obey God or not.
• Marker #2 – Prayer
  • As we pray, God helps us organize our desires, clarify our thoughts, and improve our decision-making.
• Marker #3 – Wise Counsel
  • We should get advice from the best Christians we know before we make an important decision.  Wise counselors help us see things we can’t see for ourselves.
• Marker #4 – Open Doors
  • We have to see what opportunities are actually available to us.  It does us no good to go on a wild goose chase when God has closed a door.
• Marker #5 – Desires
  • Once we have walked through the other steps in the process of godly decision-making, we must take into account what we want to do.  God is also in charge of our desires.  As we walk with Him, He will begin to shape our desires so that they match His desires for us.

In conclusion, Dr. Scroggins provided a great illustration of using these markers to make a turn onto the correct road.  It was an illustration to which people along the South Florida coast could relate.  He spoke of a boat sailing along the coast at night heading to an inner port.  The entrance to thewaterways that lead from the ocean to a port have jetties on either side.  These jetties stretch from the land out into the ocean as a marker for the entrance.  As one steering the boat nears the waterway, the lights on the jetties come into view along the jetty.  As the boat arrives to the entrance, the lights on the jetty align so that they appear as one light.  At that point the one steering the boat turns the boat into the entrance to the waterway.  In a similar fashion, we are able to see the lights of these markers as we near decision time.  When the markers align pointing in the same direction, the time has arrived to steer our lives in that direction.

I am at a point in life where I have to decide where we will live, how to earn a living and how to be involved in ministry.  Timely and instructive are the words I would use to describe the value of this teaching series.  I trust that it will be of value to you as well.

Please leave a comment about any decisions with which you face.  I will join with you in praying that God would give you wisdom.