Dharius Daniels - Body Language

Acts chapter 11, verse 27 is where we will begin our reading today. It says this: during this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them, named Agabus, stood up and, through the Spirit, predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. The text states this to provide some historical context: this happened during the reign of an emperor named Claudius. It says that the disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul, who we know as Paul. I want to teach today from this subject; it’s two words: body language.

Body language, family. A couple of weeks ago, we started a series that we’ve affectionately entitled «Listen.» Everyone say, «Listen.» This particular series rests on the following revelations: the quality of our life is impacted by the quality of our decisions. Allowing God to lead our life means we allow Him to influence our choices. All throughout Scripture, we are encouraged, admonished, and exhorted to choose for ourselves what God has already chosen for us. Decisions matter. However, we will all face seasons and scenarios where the decisions we have to make are so complex, at times so convoluted, that these decisions are outside the realm of our own expertise and information. When that occurs, we need help with our decision-making. We need someone who has insights we lack, someone who possesses information we do not, someone with expertise beyond our own to provide us insider information that influences our decisions so that we choose in a way that brings God glory and advances our own lives.

Every decision, listen to me, is not black and white. Decisions that aren’t black and white require needing outside assistance. It’s easy to make a decision when I’m choosing between right and wrong, good and bad, or what is helpful for me or unhelpful. But what happens when the decision falls in the gray category? When it’s not right or wrong, good or bad—it’s right door, wrong door, right time, wrong time? Do I leave? Do I stay? In these seasons and situations, we need assistance. When dealing with those complex scenarios, we’ve got two options. We can make what I referred to a couple of weeks ago as «dice decisions,» where we close our eyes, pray hard, roll the dice, make a choice, and hope things work out. Or we could follow the advice of a sage named Solomon, when he said in Proverbs, «Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not lean on your own understanding.» You know what happens when you lean on something you shouldn’t? It might break. If what you’re leaning on breaks, you might fall, and if you fall, you might hurt yourself—all because you leaned upon something that wasn’t strong enough to support the weight you placed on it. What Solomon is saying is our own understanding can’t always hold the weight. So he says, «In all your ways,» whenever you are about to make a consequential decision—not what am I going to wear, not a non-consequential decision—but a decision that is about to affect your life, he says, «Acknowledge God,» and this is the promise: one way or another, God says, «I’ll direct your path.»

I don’t know about you, but I have consistently declared throughout this series that I am in a season of my life where I no longer want to make dice decisions. I don’t want to reach the future and discover that a decision I made in the past was a wrong decision. So, Jesus, if there’s any way you can help me before I get started and go down a path where I’ve wasted time, invested energy, and caused injury, I’d prefer for you to let me know upfront which direction to go. Because I’ve followed my own advice long enough to know it cannot be trusted. Am I making sense? So, I can confidently say there is something that is just as important, and at times more important, than talking to God: it’s listening to Him. I need to listen.

Throughout this series, we have attempted to explore the ways we believe the Scriptures reveal that God communicates with us. Because if we don’t know the ways in which He speaks, we won’t know what to listen for. There’s a story of a man who was on the roof due to unprecedented flooding. He prayed and asked God to rescue him. The story goes that someone drove by in a speedboat and said, «Hey, get on the boat!» He replied, «No, God’s going to save me.» Then, people came along in a rowboat and said, «Hey, get on the boat!» He again said, «No, that’s all right, God’s going to save me.» Then a helicopter hovered above his head, and someone leaned out and said, «We’re going to throw down the ladder; get in the helicopter!» He said, «No, God’s going to save me.» So, he died. He went to heaven and approached Jesus, saying, «You were supposed to save me.» Jesus replied, «I tried three times; I sent two boats and a helicopter.» Are you following me? If I don’t know…