Are there some decisions I will never regret?

Introduction

About five years ago, I was on my way back home after a trip out to Virginia. And while I was on the road making my way home, I decided to take a little detour to see an old friend of mine. You see, his wife had called me while I was traveling to tell me that he was in some serious trouble. And that I needed to come and see him. It was only about a hundred miles out of my way, and so we took this little detour an extra day to go and see my friend Steve.

When I arrived at their house, Steve’s wife directed me to a rehabilitation facility where he had been admitted a few days before. You see, Steve has a drug problem. He’s had a drug problem since he was ten years old and started huffing gasoline. And he has battled addiction ever since that time. And it’s really made a mess of his life. Ultimately, when he got older and left home, he left the Lord because of his addiction. He used up all of the money, and he made quite a bit of money he made during these years, used it all up buying drugs. He’s destroyed his body. He’ll never get back, his youth and vitality as a result. A relapse about a week before his wedding almost cost him his marriage, and now this relapse five years ago was about to tear apart his family.

I don’t know if you’ve ever visited a rehabilitation facility. It is not a pleasant place. The place where I went to see Steve was a very old home that had sort of been converted for this use. It was dirty and it smelled bad and it was filled with some rather unsavory characters.

But Steve needed to be there. And as we sat and visited in the little place that was his room, he just began to pour out his heart to me about everything that was wrong in his life. Here sat a man, ladies and gentlemen, that was in his later 40s, but whose entire life had been defined by this addiction. If he is statistically average, by that point he will have lived about half of his life. And his estimation, and I don’t think it’s far from the truth, largely his life had been wasted. Wasted on his addiction. He would give anything to be able to go back and start over again, sort of take a mulligan in life, if you will, and begin anew, begin afresh. But we can’t do that, can we?

And as he looks back on those wasted years, ladies and gentlemen, Steve is filled with regret. I don’t suppose that it is possible to live life without some regrets. I think every one of us, once we get a little bit of mileage on us, looks back and wishes we had done some things differently. But there is a way to avoid many of the painful regrets that people have to live with throughout their lives. We can make better choices. We can make better decisions so that we don’t have to live with the burden that comes with our bad choices. Let me say, especially to young people right now, since we’ve been focused on them this evening anyway. That even during the time of your youth, even during your growing up years, you can make some choices, some decisions that you will never regret.

You see, 30 years from now, when you get to be my age, we don’t want you to look back like Steve is looking back. Filled with regret, wishing he had made some different choices. And so for a little while tonight, I’d like for you to think with me about that. In fact, just let me say specifically, what I want us to do is to think about seven specific choices we can make in life that you never will regret. Isn’t that great to think about? That there are some things that I can do as I go through life that if I will do these things, I’ll never look back with regret on having made those choices. What are they? Well, this could be a lengthy list, couldn’t it?

1. Saying No to Drugs, Alcohol and Cigarettes

Josh told me I was supposed to stop at a quarter till. Bob said I could stop at 6.59. I’ll split the difference, okay? I want to give you seven things you’ll never regret. Number one, you’ll never regret saying no to drugs and alcohol and cigarettes. I say that tonight because I think, especially in our youth, we get a lot of pressure to sort of try these things out, to experiment with them, our culture says. In fact, some seem to believe that this is just sort of one of the rites of passages of youth. I think young people experience with these kinds of things for different reasons. I think some are just curious. What is it like? I think some get pressure from their friends and only go along because they want to be part of the crowd.

I think some do it just because they want to tweak their parents. As an act of rebellion. It’s something my mom and dad don’t want me to do, that’s the reason I want to do it. There’s a certain stupidity in making a choice like that. And in our culture, I think it is popular to believe. That experimenting with things like this is just one of the things we do when we’re young. Please understand tonight that that is absolutely a lie. It is not so that everyone in their youth experiments with these things. In fact, if you look at the statistics, people say 60% or 70% or whatever percent of kids try drugs or alcohol or cigarettes. But you realize that in whatever’s left over, I don’t care if it’s 10% or 20% or 30%, that that is millions and millions of young people.

Who go their entire lives and never touch this stuff. Now let me say to you, that’s what God would want you to do. If you’ll be turning in your Old Testament to the book of Proverbs, I’m going to Proverbs chapter 20. God would want us to make this choice because in His word we find repeatedly this warning about the danger of alcohol and the intoxicated effect it produces in our life. Proverbs chapter 20 and verse 1, this simple warning wine is a mocker and strong drink a brawler, and whoever is deceived by it is not wise. We could go over to chapter 23, and he starts spelling it out there in verse 29 about how you have all these problems and troubles because you choose to mess around with this stuff.

What is the point the Lord is making? This stuff’s just bad for you. Stay away from it. Nothing good comes from it. In 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10. Paul would warn that those who choose the life of the drunk, among other evils listed in that text have no part in the kingdom of God. In fact, what he goes on to teach the Corinthians is that our bodies belong to God and they ought to be used to his glory. Look at verse 19. Paul would write, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.

There’s the Christian’s objective. That’s what I’m supposed to do. That’s why I breathe. That’s why I’m on the planet. To live my life to God’s glory. And I will tell you, ladies and gentlemen, you don’t do that very well while you’re downing a beer at a party. Or smoking a joint. Or puffing on a cigarette. God is not glorified in those activities. In fact, what they do is they hinder my influence for good. They detract from the cause that I’m trying to advance, and they don’t want any part. In a person’s life that’s trying to follow Jesus. When I’m living my life for God’s glory, there’s no place for stuff like this. It’s the choice God would want you to make. But let me emphasize it is a choice you’ll never regret.

You know, ladies and gentlemen, I have never come across the person who looks back on their life and says, you know what I really regret? I really regret that it didn’t, that I didn’t do more dope when I was in school. What I really wish I had done is drank more. Used alcohol more, or I really wish I’d gotten addicted to cigarettes. Nobody says that. But I’ve been to rehab. Visited rehab. And met some guys that they hadn’t wished they had never taken the first puff of a joint. Or drank the first beer. I’ve been in some people and I see you who wish they’d never tried the first cigarette. It’s just a choice that you will never regret. It’s God’s will for your life. And if you follow his will, you’ll never regret that.

2. Listening to a Godly Mother and Father

Let me add something to the list. I know some of you know that I usually have three-point sermons. And so when I said I had seven, you’re utterly terrified. There’ll be really quick points. Number two, you will never regret young people listening to a godly mother and father. And I want to say that tonight because I know how difficult it is when you’re young to do that, especially when you’re going through that transition period where you’re moving from being a kid to being an adult. And trust me, I know something about this because I’ve got two boys that are in the throes of the transition. I’ve got a 19-year-old, one that’s that’s that’s 17 in terms of years, but believes he’s 27 in actual life experience.

And it’s tough when we’re going through that transition because we want to take charge of our own lives and we want to take responsibility for our own lives and make our own decisions. But I would say, especially young people who are coming into this time of transition or you’re in the middle of it, that there’s a really foolish choice that too many teenagers make today when they get to that point. They decide to ignore their parents, not because of the value of the counsel that they are giving, but just to make a point, to make a statement. And you can’t tell me what to do anymore. You can’t force your will on my life. So whatever you say, I’m going to do the opposite. About a year and a half ago, I sat down to have lunch with a good friend of mine.

Hadn’t seen him in 26, 27 years, Lance Potter, Bob, young man who used to sit down front with us and do Bible drill. Lance was sharing with me what a mess his life had been for the last couple of decades. And he told me what got him started. He said, you know, when I went to college, I decided my mom and dad weren’t going to run my life. And so whatever they told me to do, I did the opposite. Just to prove to them that I could do what I wanted to do. And I will tell you, he made his point and a mess of his life. Took him 20 years to even begin to get back on track. And I will tell you, about the best thing I can say about that is that it is just really dumb to do that.

To ignore good counsel just because you don’t like who it’s coming from. God would tell you to do something different. Open your Bible this time to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise. Well, there’s the command. Obey, honor. But look at verse 3. Look at the reason. So that it may be well with you. And that you may live life. Or that you may live long on the earth. I love that last little verse that so many times just gets passed over because it is the crux of the matter. Your life is going to be better. When you listen to godly parents trying to steer you in the right direction.

You’re going to be blessed because you make the choice to do that. The issue is, do I believe what God said about it? It’s what God expects of me. Let me say something else about it. It is a decision that you will never regret. The choice to listen to a godly mother and father. Listen, I don’t ever talk to people who look back on their life and say, you know what I really regret? I really regret that I listened to my mom and dad who were trying to get me to follow the Bible. I wish I had ignored them. I don’t hear people say that. But I will tell you, I have been on the visiting wing of death row.

And I’ve looked into the tear soaked eyes of a death row inmate. As he said, David, I wish I had listened to my mama and daddy. If you’ve got good parents who love you and love God and they’re trying to get you to listen to him, you’ll never regret listening to their counsel. Let me put something else on the list.

3. Getting Up on Sunday Morning

You’ll never regret getting up on Sunday morning. And right now you may not have a choice about that. I’ve got three boys living at my house. When college came for my oldest, we didn’t get rid of him. He stayed and brought an extra one. But I’ve got three boys living at my house. Who are essentially adults. And they don’t get an option about this. They have to get up and go to worship on Sunday morning. And maybe that’s the way it is at your house too. But I will tell you, there’s a day that comes for all young people when you won’t have mom and dad there to rouse you out of bed and make you get up and go. When it’ll be completely your choice.

Maybe it’s when you go off to college. And that first Sunday morning, you’re laying there in the dorm room. Perhaps you were out too late on Saturday night or too early Sunday morning. And the alarm goes off, and you’re dead tired, and your body says, stay in bed, I don’t want to get up. And guess what? Mom’s not there to come get you up. In fact, mom and dad may be a thousand miles away, and they won’t even know whether you get up or not. And a voice within your head says I can sleep in just this one Sunday. I can miss Bible class just this one time. I can miss services. I’ll just do it this one time. And I will tell you, a lot of young people begin their gradual slide away from the Lord with that first time they decided, I’m going to sleep in today.

When that moment comes for you, and I think it comes for about all young people. I hope you’ll make a wise choice about that. What would God want you to do? He wants you to be here. I’m thinking about the words of the Hebrew writer in Hebrews 10 and verse 23. When he says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And then the passage we looked at this morning, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. And then the part you’ve expected me to focus on, verse 25. Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some. But encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near.

God wants you to be here. But it’s not just so. You can put your little check mark next to your name and say, okay, I went today. God wants you to be here because there’s important stuff going on. The stuff we talked about this morning, the stimulation and stirring up and provoking each other to want to serve the Lord and be faithful to him and do his work. But notice that there’s even a bigger picture than that. Because where did the Hebrew writer begin the thought in verse 23? He says, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. Being together and encouraging each other. Ultimately, ladies and gentlemen, is about helping all of us hang on to our faith. Would you appreciate with me that getting up on Sunday morning ultimately is about helping us hang on to our faith.

But it’s not just what God would expect from me. It’s a decision we will never regret. I have yet to meet the person who looked back on their life from an older point, from a little bit further down the road, and said, You know what I really regret? I really regret that I got up and went to church all the time. I wish I’d slept in more often rather than going to worship God. I’ve never met a person who said that. Have you?

But I’ve met some people who really regretted that they’d grown up in a home with a mom and dad who took them to worship and taught them that that was the right thing to do. But when it was their decision, they made a different choice. One Sunday morning rolled around and they decided, I’m not going to get up today. And it started a gradual decline that didn’t just take them away from the gathering of God’s people on the day appointed for worship. It took them away from the Lord and made a mess of their life. And so when your moment comes and you’ve got to decide, you’re lying there in that dorm in the bed, trying to decide, am I going to get up or am I not?

4. Waiting Until You’re Married to Have Sex

Let me suggest to you, make a choice you will never regret. You won’t regret getting up and go. Now, let me put something on the list. You probably expect it to be there. Number four, you’ll never regret waiting until you’re married to have sex. Once again, there is a climate in our culture that wants to say to our kids, well, David, but everybody does it. In fact, the popular sentiment in our culture today, what people say all the time is that teenagers are just going to have sex. We can’t stop them. What we need to do is to teach them how to engage in this behavior without getting pregnant or a disease. The concept of safe sex. I don’t understand why young people are not more insulted by that.

You should be. The whole notion that somehow you are just a little better than animals and that you are the slaves of your lust and have absolutely no self-discipline or self-control ought to be deeply insulting to you.

The truth is you can live lives of purity, and the fact is a lot of young people do. I know we hear the statistic all the time about how many young people will have sex before they graduate high school, and how many more will have sex before they finish their years in college, but listen, there’s always another number. I don’t care if it’s 70 or 80% of the kids who do that. If it’s only 10 or 20% who wait, do you appreciate how many kids that is? There are millions and millions of young people who wait all the way until their wedding night. And who give to their spouse the gift of their purity. And you can do that too. In fact, it is exactly what God expects.

I’m going in my Bible again to the book of Hebrews, this time chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 4. The Hebrew writer says that marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers. God will judge. God doesn’t just believe in the concept that we can wait until marriage. God demands that we wait until marriage to share this act of intimacy. Keep in mind that God doesn’t require that of us because He’s trying to make our lives more difficult. It certainly takes more self-discipline and self-control to resist the urge to do what so many others around us may be doing. Especially in this time. When people think so little of sexual immorality, it drives me crazy to hear people use the language, it’s just sex.

Listen, folks, when God gave these rules, these guidelines, he gave them for our good. Every command from God is for our good. And we will be blessed. We will avoid all kinds of grief and trouble in our lives when we adhere to his guidelines. It’s never just sex. It’s serious business reserved for a couple only within the commitment, the bond of marriage. And our lives will be better when we follow his guidelines. But that’s not just what God expects. Would you appreciate with me that it is a choice, it is a decision that you will never regret. I just don’t meet any people who look back on their growing up years and say, you know what I regret? I regret that I wasn’t more promiscuous.

I don’t meet a couple who come together to be married on their wedding day, who say, you know what we really regret looking back is that we waited and saved our purity for one another. I don’t meet people like that. Do you?

5. Choosing to Get Involved with the Lord’s Work

Well, I will tell you, ladies and gentlemen, I talked to some folks who didn’t protect their purity. Who have terrible regret about that? And who have suffered because of that choice and looking back with so much they had made a different decision. You will never regret waiting until you’re married. But let me add something else to the list. Number five, you’ll never regret, right now in your life, choosing to get involved with the Lord’s work. A lot of young people don’t do that. For some reason, some young people look at their at their growing up years as a time when they get a pass on the Lord’s work. God doesn’t really expect anything from me, some believe, until I turn 18 or 21, or until I finish college, or until I’m 25.

That’s after all when we get our insurance break. That must be when I’m really an adult.

But there’s so many young people who made a different choice about that. I know some young people who are teaching their friends the gospel. Who go into the public school system. And instead of being drugged down by the crowd that’s there, they’re pulling those people to Christ. Isn’t that great? We’ve got some young people in our congregation that get up every Sunday morning all by themselves. They get themselves dressed. Mom and dad are still sleeping in. And they find their own ride and they come every Sunday because one of their classmates took the time to tell them about Christ. Young people can do that. We’ve got some young people in our congregation that every year give a week of their summer to travel down to some remote place in Mexico where there are a group of our brethren that meet, and a lot of young people in that group, and they go to have Bible studies with them and encourage them.

And I see young people even in their growing up years get involved in teaching Bible class and leading in the public worship. I know some teenage boys that are that are preaching. In fact, I got a phone call today from one of the boys back home who was preaching for a little church in our area. He said, Yeah, I got lost, wound up all the way in Louisiana before I figured out I was going the wrong way. I said, Reuben, just tell me you got there in time. Don’t worry, I got there in time.

It’s kind of stuff that won’t get your name in the paper. Won’t get you any recognition at school. But we just have to settle it with knowing that the creator of the universe is delighted. It’s what he expects from us. Remember the passage we put on the slide this morning, 1 Peter 4, verse 10. As each one has received a special gift. Did you notice there isn’t an age limit on that? If you’re a teenager, you have a gift. Some way to be involved in the Lord’s servant. And the command is employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If I’m a disciple, then I’ve got work I’m supposed to be doing. Whether I am 13 or 33 or 83.

God expects that. But listen, it’s a choice you’ll never regret. I don’t meet people who look back on their life and say, you know, I really regret that I spent so much time teaching Bible classes. Or I regret that I worked so hard to tell my friends about Jesus. Or I really regret that in my growing up years I learned how to lead public worship. Do you meet people who say things like that? I don’t.

6. Letting Go of a Grudge; Sticking with God

But I have met a few people who look back on their lives and say, you know what I really regret that I never really got involved in the Lord’s work. Not for years and years and years. I’ve been a wall flower in the church. I’ve warmed a pew. I’ve never been involved. You’ll have a choice to make. To be an observer, to sit back and watch, or to get involved. Let me tell you, you’ll never regret getting involved in whatever way you can, in whatever gift you have in the work of God. Number six, you’ll never regret letting go of a grudge. Well, we’ve been talking a lot to young people. This one kind of broadens out and touches maybe more of us than that, doesn’t it?

It’s a decision we’re going to face. It grows out of the reality we were talking about this morning, the sort of diverse family we’re part of in a congregation. Typically results in us periodically bumping up against each other and having moments of frictions and wounds and offenses and things like that. It’s just part of being a spiritual family. But listen, when that time comes and somebody hurts my feelings and somebody and somebody wounds me in some way, I’m going to have a choice to make about that. Really, there are only two choices. One choice is to be angry and bitter and to hang on to it and shut that person out of my life, or I can choose to forgive them and move on.

I’m thinking about Paul’s words in Colossians chapter 3. Colossians 3 and in verse 12, he says, so as those who have been chosen of God, holy good beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Well, that pretty much covers it, doesn’t it? Whoever has a complaint against anyone, and then he had to throw the cross in the middle of all that. Just as the Lord forgave you. Think about Christ, what he’s done, so also should you. Ladies and gentlemen, it is the work of the devil to get in among us and to persuade us to hang on to bitter grudges.

Turn over just a little ways. I’m going to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4 and verse 26 be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. That’s who’s behind this bitterness.

So, what does God tell us to do? God says, You forgive. Let it go. Move on. It’s what God expects of us. But ladies and gentlemen, it is a decision you will never regret. I have yet to meet the person who said, you know, the thing I really regret in life is 40 years ago, Bob hurt my feelings, and I chose to forgive him and let it go. And I really regret that. You ever met that person? I haven’t.

I will tell you this. I preached about bitterness. And I’ve had people come out with tears streaming down their cheeks. I remember one lady saying, I haven’t spoken to my only sister in more than a decade.

Now I’m going to go home tonight and write her a letter.

We’re going to get our feelings hurt. And when we do, we’ll have to decide what we’re going to do with that. There is one decision we can make that we will not regret, and that is the decision. To forgive. To let go of the grudge. Okay, last thing we’re going to be doing. You’ll never regret sticking with God. Staying with the Lord for your whole life. And I will tell you, I say that, and I especially say that thinking about young people. Because as we go through this life, one of the things that we’re going to discover is that there will be other people who will not make that choice, who will not stick with the Lord all the way to the end.

You know, in the relationship all of us have had together. Going back to January of 1997 when Heidi and I moved here. We’ve known some people together, haven’t we? That didn’t stick with the Lord all the way to the end. Some fellow disciples that we’ve known and loved have dropped off along the way. I want to say to our young people, you’re going to go through that experience too. There are going to be some people that even now you know who you’re serving the Lord with. Who won’t stick with it all the way to the end. And the average congregation, do you know what that number is? About 60%. If you were part of the average congregation, that means that more than half of the kids that you went to Bible class with and went to Devos with and hung out with, that’s somewhere along the way, they’re going to drop off.

They won’t stick with it.

I am sure glad this is not an average group. I got to believe that.

We know what God expects. Again, I’m looking at the book of Hebrews, chapter 3 and verse 12. The Hebrew writer says, Take care, brethren, that there not be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God, but encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today. Here it is, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sins, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.

We’ve got to stick with him all the way to the end if we want to go to heaven. It’s not just what God expects, not just what he demands. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a choice that you never, that you never regret. You ever been with somebody when they died? When they were coming to the end of their life. I will tell you that I’ve never been at one’s deathbed and heard someone say, you know what I really regret is that I serve the Lord my whole life. You know what I really regret is that I stuck with him all the way through. Sometimes it was hard. Sometimes I was discouraged. Sometimes my brethren let me down. Sometimes I felt like I was the only one trying to be faithful to the Lord.

And what I really regret is that through all of that I stuck with him all the way to the end. I’ve never heard anybody say something so foolish, have you?

I’ve heard people get to the end and say what I regret is that I didn’t serve the Lord with my life. Even people who’ve who’ve come to the end of their lives and decided they needed to make things right. Listen, that’s a good thing to do. But as they look back on their family and their kids and their grandkids and their friends and their loved ones that they never bothered to reach out to with the gospel because they weren’t interested with that. Oh, the regret of getting to the end and realizing I didn’t stick with the Lord all the way through. You’ll never regret that choice. Well, go ahead and take out your songbooks, please, and turn to the number that we’re going to sing as the invitation song.

Conclusion

Thank you so much for your attention tonight. It may be that for someone in this crowd right now, tonight, it’s decision time for you. Maybe there’s someone in this crowd that you look at your life and you know that you’re not right with God. Whether you once made a commitment to stir to serve him, but you’ve not stuck with that. Or maybe you’ve never become a Christian, even though you know Jesus is the Son of God, and you know that you ought to be serving Him, and you know that you ought to be immersed in water for the forgiveness of your sins because that’s what He said to do, but you’ve not done it. I’m just wondering. Will you make a decision tonight that one day you’ll regret?

Or will you make a choice tonight that you’ll never regret? The decision to come back to the Lord who is longing to see you come home. That’s a choice you can make with full assurance you’ll never regret it. You need to do that tonight. Make the right choice. God in heaven is watching, anticipating that right decision. You make it right now. Come to the front while we stand and sing together.