Proverbs 29
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. —Matthew 24:1-13
There will come a day when the people of this world will witness and experience the very things Jesus spoke to His disciples about in this passage. But for any season, there are three important statements Jesus tells His disciples that will help us today:
1. Take heed that no man deceive you. When troubling times come, so does the fear of man and events and panic. People will rise up to deceive the hearts of the many who are fearful, unaware, or insecure. Some will come saying they are Christ or at least someone presenting themselves as one who can provide comfort or substance from the external pressures and events surrounding them. Their words will be carefully chosen and possibly be filled with a bit of truth, but their motives will be filled with deceit.
Why do we wait to take a leap of faith?
There are many things God places within our hearts (and tells us to do), yet we won’t move out on it. We sit, stand, and hide in silence unwilling to step out on what God has called us to because of fear. Under the banner of fear, we don’t step out because of:
1. Fear of the Unknown. The unknown is that…unknown. The hows, whys, whens, etc. Many times these questions are not answered until your first few steps of faith are taken.
2. Fear of Failure. What if I don’t succeed? I’ll look foolish in front of others, lose money, time, etc. But if God’s Word does not return void (Isaiah 55:9-11), how can you fail?
3. Fear of Being Alone. You don’t want to move until others come along side of you.
There are many reasons why we make the decisions we do. When we look back at the outcome of some of the decisions we made, sometimes we can’t understand how we got into such predicaments, how to get out of them, or what we can do to live as God desires. Listed below is an outline of why we make the decisions we do; the consequences behind them; and how we can make good (and godly) decisions.
1. What consumes our decision making?
- Fear of Man (Proverbs 29:25; John 12:37-43)
- Motives (Proverbs 16:2; James 4:2-3)
- Friend of the World (1 John 2:15-17)
- Emotions (Proverbs 19:2)
- Sin/Temptation (John 3:19-21)
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