Decisions are like dominos. And here we are—2026—standing in front of the next domino.
In this message, Lead Pastor Jamie Nunnally shares how your life hasn’t been shaped by big moments as much as by little choices. This message is called “Last Year’s Choices.” This isn’t to give you a hard time about what you did last year—we all made good decisions and bad decisions in 2025. This is to help you understand how you got where you are and how to use the domino effect for your good.
Our current lives are the sum total of our decisions. Some choices were intentional, some reactive, some made under pressure, and some dominoes were knocked over by others. I’m not saying you chose everything that happened to you, but you did choose how you responded.
“We are all born looking like our parents, but we all die looking like our decisions.”
If decisions brought us here, decisions can take us somewhere new.
Where you are didn’t happen all at once. It happened one choice at a time, one habit at a time, one reaction at a time. Last year’s choices produced this year’s realities, and this year’s choices will produce next year’s reality.
You really do have a choice.
Deuteronomy 30:19 reminds us God sets life and death before us and calls us to choose. You can’t control your upbringing or circumstances, but you do control your decisions. You can’t rewrite yesterday, but you can redirect today.
When it comes to decisions, your default is not good.
Joshua 24:15 shows that if we don’t choose God, we don’t choose nothing—we choose what’s familiar. If you don’t choose what’s godly, you’ll choose what’s comfortable.
You are good at making bad choices.
Jeremiah 17:9 says the human heart is deceitful. Your heart doesn’t just feel; it steers. That’s why Proverbs 4:23 says to guard your heart, because it determines the course of your life. Good intentions don’t stop bad decisions—good decisions do.
Your choices begin as thoughts.
James 1:15 shows how desire becomes action. A thought isn’t a sin, but when desire meets decision, it produces direction. Philippians 4 reminds us to think on what is true and right, then put it into practice. Your thoughts are practice for your actions.
Your choices are not private.
Every decision affects someone. Numbers 32:23 reminds us what we repeat privately becomes who we are publicly. Personal choices become public patterns.
Today is next year’s “last year.” You can start now.
Is the domino effect working for you—or against you?