Are you frequently paralyzed by indecision or enticed by the comfort of not making choices? This episode of Born to Win challenges you to reconsider the role that decision-making plays in achieving a fulfilling life. Ronald L. Dart presents the compelling argument that life is built upon a series of choices, both minor and major, and that avoiding decisions altogether may result in a life that is far from what we desire. The episode revisits the teachings from the parable of the talents, urging listeners to take the bold step of investing their resources and talents instead of burying
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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What sort of decisions do you have coming up today? Do you know what you’re going to do about them? Have you made any preparation for the decisions? Maybe called a friend and asked for some advice? Read a book on the subject? Maybe did a little research, pulled down an encyclopedia and looked up some things so that when you make the decision, you’ll make a sensible one? Do you have a framework within which you make your decisions? By that I mean, do you have lifetime goals that you have written down somewhere or maybe put a needlepoint on the wall so that you can ask yourself when the time comes to make a decision, now how does this fit in with my lifetime goals? Is this in line with my career goals? Is this in line with what I really want to do with my life or am I just doing this because it feels good? Do you make your decisions within the framework of certain moral standards or ethical standards so that there’s a framework of right and wrong in your decision-making process? Now, when I ask you how your life is working… your answer is going to depend very much on the decisions you’ve been making, because the decisions you make, shall I turn right or left at this corner, shall I take this job or shall I not, has everything to do with how your life is going to work today, tomorrow, next week, and some of the decisions you’ll make today may well have an effect on the rest of your life. And you know, in a way, your answer to this question about how your life is working today may depend even more on the decisions you have not been making. Because among the things that make life work, the ability to make decisions and act on them ranks right up at the top of the list. Well, not the very top, but very near. Now, what keeps you from making decisions? Because we’re friends, we can talk, right? You oftentimes will put off a decision or avoid a decision just like I do. Why do we do that? Well, one of the reasons we’re afraid of being wrong. Sometimes we’re afraid we don’t have enough information. Sometimes we say, well, I think I’d like to get some advice. And, of course, if we’re really honest with ourselves, we know that some of these things are excuses, right? that we just don’t want to decide, because if we make the decision, then we’re responsible. You know, I decided. It went wrong. It’s my fault. And boy, I don’t like that. There’s an old song, remember, you may remember it well. It was, Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be. A lot of people live their life with a kind of fatalism, you know. It may be very comforting, but it’s well-named. Fatalism can be fatal. Maybe you’ve seen some of the old war movies where this guy with all sorts of bravado doesn’t bother getting down in the pits and the trenches or the foxholes because you say, oh, if the bullet’s got your name written on it, it’s going to get you anyway. So why bother keeping your head down? What is really stupid is to be killed by a bullet that doesn’t have your name on it because you didn’t keep your head down. But that’s another thing. A wise old king said, a prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. You know, it seems to me it may well be that there’s a bullet somewhere that has my name written on it, or maybe there’s a jaguar that has my name written on it that’ll come plowing into the side of my car at an intersection some of these days. But it makes sense to me to keep my head up and look around and pay attention to life and hide myself if I see evil coming my way. Doesn’t it make sense to you that stepping aside out of the way of evil, making a decision that will keep you from getting hurt when you can see the right way to go, isn’t that better than just sort of drifting along, making no decisions? You know, a successful life is really composed of a series of small decisions, some right and some wrong. Now, wait a minute, wait, wait. I said a successful life includes decisions that are wrong, didn’t I? Well, how can that be? Shouldn’t you, if you’re going to live a successful life, be making all the right decisions? Well, that’d be really nice if it worked out that way, but it doesn’t. The truth is the most successful people you know are wrong a lot of the time. Now, how can a wrong decision contribute to a successful life? Well, that’s easy. You make a mistake and you learn from it. You become stronger and more confident in your future decisions because you can say, been there, done that. And if you make the same mistake again, you can say, been there, done that, and I got the t-shirt now. I am not going there again. I’m through with that. But you know, there is one really bad decision that makes no real contribution and from which you learn next to nothing. It is the decision not to decide. I’ll explain what I mean in just a moment after these words.
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You would be surprised, or maybe you wouldn’t, at how many people think they have avoided something or sidestepped something by not making a decision. They think that they have put it off. The truth is that they made a decision not to decide, and in doing so, they made a decision to take whatever comes, to let time and chance rule their life. There’s a parable where Jesus speaks to his disciples and tells them that the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling into a far country. He called his servants together, and he delivered to them his goods. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to every man according to his several ability. And then he took his journey. Now, the parable in question is found in Matthew 25, and if you’re looking for it, it starts in verse 14. The idea here is that a man’s got three people that work for him. They are differently abled. That is, one is more able than another. They have abilities and talents. And so he gives them responsibilities, apparently money, in relation to their ability, and he takes his journey and goes away. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same and made five more talents with him. Smart guy. Made decisions, put the money out there on the market, bought some stock, bought some property, resold some things, bought some goods and traded them off and made five other talents. Now, was there a chance he might have lost some money? Yeah, of course. I mean, it’s possible one of the trades could have gone bad. He could have bought a load of vegetables that rotted on him before he could get them sold. Likewise, he that had received two, he went out and traded and gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged a hole in the ground and hid his Lord’s money. Now, after a long time, the Lord of these servants comes and reckons with them. And so he that had received five talents came, and he brought the other five talents and said, Lord, you gave me five talents. Behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. I have doubled your money. The Lord said to him, Well, well done, you good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Now, I identify with that. I’ve hired a man to take care of my stuff, and he does a good job with the small stuff I give him to take care of. I’m going to trust him with more, aren’t you? You’re going to want to take that guy who really does a good job for you and promote him and make him ruler over more things. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Look, I’ve gained two other beside them. He also had doubled his money. This is good. This is the way we like for things to work. We like to put an investment out there and come back and get double. His Lord said, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, that you reap where you haven’t even sown, and that you gather where you have not even strown. And I was afraid, and I went and I hid your talent in the earth. Lo, there you have what is yours. Well, I guess that’s something. He didn’t lose anything. He gave him a talent, he went away, he came back, and the one talent was still there. So how did the Lord feel about that? The fact that he got his own back, that there was no loss involved in the situation. Well, listen to his words. He said to the servant, you wicked and slothful, lazy lout. You knew that I reap where I don’t sow. You say you knew I gather where I don’t strode. You ought, therefore, to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my own coming I could have received my money with interest. Well, yeah, that’s true, isn’t it? This lazy lout of a servant did not even take into consideration the time value of money. I got a shock not too long ago. I was talking to a group of people about the time value of money, and I asked them, I asked the group, how many of you would rather have $100 today or $100 a year from now? Same $100. Absolute guarantee, you’re going to have the $100 a year from now. There’s not going to be any chance of you’re not getting it. Don’t worry about that. Would you rather have it today or would you rather have it a year from now? I don’t remember the numbers and distribution, but probably out of a group of 20, there were five or six people that said they would rather have the money a year from now. Their reasons for it were kind of curious. They had to, well, I’d be afraid I might lose it. I might have something to do with it in a year from now. They kind of like to have something coming to them in the future and so on. But don’t we all realize that $100 in the hand today is worth a lot more than $100 in the hand a year from now? For one thing, if you have $100 in the hand today, you can go down and buy a suit of clothes with that $100 and come out of the store wearing them. A year from now, that same suit of clothes you probably can’t afford with $100 you’re going to get a year from now because a year from now, $100 is only worth $90 in today’s dollars, right? You know prices go up, and you know you can’t buy as much a year from now with $100 as you can buy with $100 right now, right? We all know that. We got our lessons in inflation some time ago. We’re kind of tending to forget them now, but we’ll remember them again. The truth is that if you put the money in the bank… A year from now, you might have $103 or $104. It’s not a lot more, but it’s more because of the time value of money. So the Lord to the servant says, You ought to have put my money to the exchangers. Then at my coming, I could have received my own with usury. But what if he had lost it? What if he had gone out and taken this talent and bought 100 shares of stock, and the stock went bankrupt, and he came back and said, Lord, I invested your money, and I lost it. Well, listen to what happened to him as things did work out. He says, Take therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that has ten talents. For to every one that has shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even what he has. And cast you the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Well, tell me, how much worse off would he have been if he had bought a hundred shares of stock and lost the whole thing? Well, he lost everything anyway. There really was no risk involved for him then when it comes right down to it in going ahead and taking the most outrageous risks and trying to double or triple his Lord’s money while he had it. He would not have been any worse off at all. Now, I can already hear someone saying, I don’t think that’s fair. I mean, after all, the guy only had one. Why are you taking it away and giving it to the guy with ten for he’s got ten? I mean, after all, we look for fairness. Give it to the guy who only has the two. Well, now, wait a minute. You’re looking at this from the wrong angle. Whose money is this anyway? Well, it’s the Lord’s money, right? It’s the Lord who gave them the money to do these things with. Now, here you are. Let’s say that you got an inheritance from your Aunt Jane, and you went out and you found yourself three financial advisors. And you split that money into thirds, and you gave some of it to each of these financial advisors out there. And at the end of a certain period of time, you go back to your financial advisors and see how they’ve invested your money. And one of them has tripled it, one of them has doubled it, and one of them hasn’t done anything with it at all. Now, you’re going to feel sorry for the poor guy who didn’t do anything at all with your money? Well, I don’t know about you, but I would take the account away from him. And I wouldn’t give it to the guy who doubled my money. I’d give it to the guy who tripled my money, wouldn’t you? When you look at it that way, you can understand the parable, I think, a whole lot better. That God puts things in our hands and God expects us to do things with the things he puts in our hands. By this man in the parable, if he had just stuck his neck out, He had a chance of success. By doing nothing, by risking nothing, he had no chance at all. You know what is really interesting about this passage? God gives us permission to take chances and make mistakes. And in the long run, we learn so much more by correcting mistakes than we do when we get it right the first time. It’s funny, isn’t it? But you know it’s true. You make a mistake and learn from your mistake, you’ll remember it a lot longer than you will if you hadn’t made the mistake. But let me tell you who is really in trouble. It’s the man who doesn’t make mistakes. Actually, there are two people here. There is the man who thinks he can avoid mistakes by doing nothing. I’m not going to make any mistakes. And then there’s the man who refuses to admit that a mistake was a mistake. You know, politicians are very funny people. I think in a way they’re a mirror of all of us. They don’t make mistakes, but a lot of mistakes are made around them. When have you ever watched television and seen a politician walk up in front of the camera, stand there, stare straight in the eye, and say, I’m sorry, I was wrong? Oh, no. They will come before the camera, and they will stand there sanctimoniously and say, mistakes were made. Now, you just try to get one of them to change that phrase from the passive voice to the active voice and say, folks, I’m sorry I screwed up. No, I’m sorry. You’ll never get that out of them. Mistakes were made. Mistakes make themselves. Mistakes just happen. Mistakes drop on us out of trees. That’s how mistakes get made. You know, politicians should really keep a sacrificial lamb on staff. Somebody they can fire and then tell the public, Bob did it and we fired him. Oh, that would be simple, wouldn’t it? We just blame Bob, and we fired him, and he’s gone. Then they can go hire another Bob. Bob knows going in that he’s the sacrificial lamb, so he’s not going to complain. There are plenty of Bobs around where that one came from, and so every time you make a big mistake as a politician, you just sacrifice another Bob. But seriously, what does all this have to do with you? Well, what do you do when you make a mistake? Swear off of decision-making? Do you own up to it and learn from it? Or do you deny that it was a mistake? Well, you know, it couldn’t have been a mistake because I prayed about it. I mean, I’m special to God, and God wouldn’t let me make a mistake. You know, this is going to sound funny to you, but it’s odd how many people mess up their lives because they depend on God alone. Don’t turn me off now. Wait and hear what I’m going to tell you. Because everybody knows we should depend on God. The problem is with a person who God has heard their prayer. God has intervened in their life. He may have done one or more miracles for them sometime in his life. And they seem to presume that because God loved them, and still does, and because he did a miracle for them, and still will, that His presence and blessing are now unconditional in their life. They assume that He will be with them no matter what kind of stupid thing they do. Well now, God may be with you true enough, but God will not be a partner to stupidity. And He will not bless you when you refuse to pay attention to what He tells you. I want to illustrate what I mean here.
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7.
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So what do I mean when I say that God may be with you, but that He will not be a partner to stupidity? Or that He will not bless you when you refuse to pay attention to what He tells you? There was a man, his name was Saul. He was made king over Israel when he was really a nobody. God told him that when you were little in your own eyes, I exalted you to be king over Israel. God chose him. God gave him the kingdom. And then God gave him the Holy Spirit. It came upon him, and he even became a prophet. And God gave him every gift he needed to be the king, and God was on his side. He said, you’re my man. I chose you. I’m with you. I’m for you. And then God gave Saul some instructions that Saul did not follow. And when he was corrected for not following them, he justified himself. Now, look, it seems to me, wouldn’t you agree, that if God comes to you and says, you’re wrong. that it’s best just to take him at his word and say, you’re right, I’m wrong. I think I’ll accept your word for it. But Saul thought he knew better. He was the king. It’s good to be the king. He could make decisions. Men carried out his orders. He was a man of destiny. What men of destiny seem to forget is that destinations can be changed. And to whatever extent that some of us little guys think we’ve got destinies or that, well, God’s with me and I don’t know if he’s with you or not. You know, we forget the simple truth that the destination can be changed, that God can reject a man whom he has previously chosen. When we forget that simple truth, we are headed for trouble big time. It’s true in every aspect of life. Just because your method has always worked, your product has always sold, does not mean it always will. So, when your life is working, don’t assume that it always will. You know, I really don’t think what I’m saying will have much effect on those of you who have already gone beyond being admonished in this type of thing. I’m telling you this because you will still listen. The most important critic you have is the one down inside of you. You need to nourish that critic. You need to feed him information to use in evaluating what you are doing. We call that critic a conscience. But a conscience is worthless if it has no standards, if it has no guide, if it has nothing to base decisions on. Read the Bible for correction. Read the Bible to see where you’ve gone astray. Read the Bible to see where you have made your mistakes. Learn from the mistakes and the successes of the great men and women of the book. And there’s something else out there, too. You know, you have critics of your own. Maybe awfully close. Maybe your wife. Maybe your husband. Maybe your mother. Cherish your critics. Value their comments. Value their reactions. They are not always right, but only a fool will fail to listen. But above and beyond all that, when you are wrong, Own up to it. Don’t blame someone else and don’t make excuses. You don’t learn from making excuses. You don’t learn from blaming someone else. And when you don’t learn, you don’t grow. So what do you do? Well, you make a big confession of your mistakes to men. And you make a big confession of your sins to God. You don’t get up in front of the camera and say, well, mistakes were made. You say, I made a mistake. It was mine. It was all mine. And I take responsibility. You know, when you make honest confession, it’s all but over. When you cover it up, explain it away, justify it, minimize it, and deny it, it drags on and on, and you learn nothing. Look at the politicians. How many times is it going to take before they learn that they get into more trouble by trying to cover up what they’ve done than they would have ever gotten in by just owning up to what they had done? You know, going back to the parable of the talents I gave you earlier in this broadcast where I talked about the poor man who had the one talent, do you know what his biggest problem was? He was afraid. He said, Lord, I knew that you’re a hard man, and I was afraid. There’s an old saying that says, do not take counsel of your fears. In other words, don’t take advice from your fears. Your fears are going to lead you astray every time. There’s a great danger in taking that advice. The great danger is we have a way of bringing our fears to pass. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know how it works. I could never describe for you the mechanism by what it happens. But in the book of Proverbs, chapter 10, verse 24, Solomon says this, The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him, but the desire of the righteous shall be granted. There is something about fear that when we are taking advice from our fears and responding to our fears, we have a way of bringing the very thing we’re afraid of to pass. So never take advice from your fears. You know, when so much of success in life depends on the decisions we make, it is really remarkable that we avoid thinking about them as much as we do. It is also surprising that we don’t seek good advice more than we do. Maybe it’s because there is so much advice out there and most of it comes from people who don’t know what they’re talking about. They know less about it in some cases than we do. There’s an old saying, advice not asked for is advice not wanted. Well, yeah, and there’s a reason for that. Because the advice we ask for usually is worthless. But you know, I’ll bet you know people whose advice is valuable. I expect you know someone who has common sense and wisdom, that you know people whose advice has been sound before. You need advice? Ask them. There’s another proverb, 20, verse 6, that says this, Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Yeah, sometimes you have to work at it to get the right advice from the right people, but it’s worth it. Ask for all the advice you want, but never forget whose decision it is. If you have to live with the results, no one but you has a right to make the decision. The truth is, God can make even a bad decision work for your good, but if you don’t decide at all, you’re like the man who buried his talent in the ground. You know, decisive people win out in the long run. The people who refuse to decide are losers. God does not intend to spend eternity with a bunch of losers. This is Ronald Dart reminding you, you were born to win.
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The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1 888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.
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