Who Gets the Final Word in Your Life?

Meta Description: Hard questions deserve honest answers. Here's what the Bible actually says about marijuana, abortion, sexual past, and hearing God's voice. URL Slug: who-gets-the-final-word Featured Image: A close-up of open hands, palms up, suggesting surrender and openness — warm, natural lighting with a soft, hopeful tone.

Some questions are easy to avoid. Others follow you home, sit with you at the kitchen table, and keep you up at night. Over the past four weeks, you submitted more than 4,000 of those questions — and I've been doing my best to bring honest, biblical answers to them.

This past Sunday, we wrapped up Asking for a Friend with some of the heaviest topics yet: marijuana, abortion, sexual past, and how to recognize God's voice. But as I looked back over everything we covered in this series, I realized that underneath almost every single question is the same deeper question: Who gets the final word in your life?

Let's walk through what we explored together.

What the Bible Actually Says About Marijuana and Alcohol

The Bible doesn't use the word marijuana — but it has a lot to say about self-control and intoxication. 1 Peter 5:8 calls us to "be alert and of sober mind." And in Ephesians 5, Paul writes: "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit."

The principle is clear: don't surrender your mind, will, and body to the control of any substance. Only be controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit.

Something can be legal. Something can be socially acceptable. And it can still not be wise. As followers of Jesus, we don't just ask what we can get away with — we ask how we can honor God with our mind, our will, our soul, and our body.

Abortion: Truth and Grace Together

I want to handle this one carefully, because I know it's not just political for many of you — it's deeply personal. Some of you may be facing an unexpected pregnancy right now. Others carry the weight of a decision made years ago.

Let me start with the truth. Genesis 1:27 tells us that God created human beings in his own image. And David wrote in Psalm 139:13: "For you, God, created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." The Bible consistently shows us that the life in the womb is a life God created, knows, and loves. The unborn child's life matters. The mother's life matters. Both matter to God.

But Jesus came full of both truth and grace. And if you've had an abortion, here is what God's word says directly to you: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). And Romans 8:1 reminds us: "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

You may carry grief. But if you're in Christ, you do not have to live in condemnation.

And if you're pregnant and scared and feel like you have no good options — please don't walk through this alone. Let us be the church with you. You are not alone. Our God is with you, and we will walk with you.

Your Past Does Not Get the Final Word

Several of you asked some version of this: I've messed up badly in my past — sexually and otherwise. Can God still bless me? Did I ruin it?

I want to be honest with you: before I was a follower of Christ, I was not perfect in this area either. And what I've learned is that you cannot change your past, but Jesus can redeem it.

David committed adultery and murder — and God still called him a man after his own heart. Rahab was a prostitute — and she's listed in the lineage of Jesus. The woman caught in adultery was dragged before Jesus by religious leaders demanding justice, and Jesus looked at her with both truth and grace: "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more."

Hebrews 8:12 says: "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." When God looks at you through Christ, he doesn't see what you did. He sees his Son. You are not what you did. You are not what someone did to you. God's grace is greater than your biggest regret.

Three Questions to Recognize God's Voice

So many of you are trying to make a big decision right now and wondering — is this God, or is this just me? Here are three questions I gave from God's word to help you discern:

1. Does it line up with God's word? Psalm 119:133 says, "Direct my footsteps according to your word." The best way to know God's will is to know God's word. If what you're considering contradicts Scripture, you don't need to pray about it — it's not God's voice.

2. Does wise counsel confirm it? Proverbs 15:22 tells us: "Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisors bring success." Get around godly people who know the word, know God, and love you enough to tell you the truth.

3. Does it make you more like Jesus? 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that "the Lord makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image." The Holy Spirit always leads you toward Jesus. If something is pulling you away from him, that's not God's voice.

The Question Under All the Questions

As I've kept thinking about this throughout the week, I keep coming back to this: every hard question we wrestled with in this series was really asking the same thing. Is it your desires that get the final word — or is it God?

I'll go first. For me, the thing that's been getting the final word more than it should is fear. Fear of something happening to someone I love. Fear of not being enough. And God's word speaks directly to that: "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

What's yours? Maybe it's control. Pride. Unforgiveness. Lust. People-pleasing. A sin you've been quietly justifying.

Whatever it is, I want to invite you to name it — and lay it down. Not your will, but his. That's the prayer Jesus modeled for us, and it's the prayer that changes everything.

If you've never fully surrendered your life to Jesus as Lord — not just savior, but Lord — today is a great day to do that. Reach out to us. We'd love to pray with you and walk with you into what comes next.

And if you're walking through something heavy right now — a pregnancy, a painful past, a decision that feels impossible — don't walk through it alone. We are the church, and we walk together.

Missed any part of this series? You can catch all four weeks on our website or YouTube channel. And if you'd like someone to pray with you or help connect you to community, reach out — we consider it an honor.

Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): Underneath every hard question — about marijuana, abortion, sexual past, hearing God's voice — is really one deeper question: Who gets the final word in your life? This week's message tackles the tough stuff with honesty, grace, and what the Bible actually says. Read the full recap at the link. 🙏

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