Auto Generated Transcript
Today, we’re going to answer one of the key questions to our facts series that we’ve come up with together. And I just want to say, as an encouragement to you guys, really appreciate all the questions that you’ve given and submitted. It has been a wonderful challenge to me in how to present those to you and make sure we get all those questions answered. And so towards the end of the series, we’re going to lump a lot of those questions together and supply you with the answers to the questions that you’ve asked in this series that we’ve done and frequently asked questions. And so the question we want to focus on this morning is, how can I discover God’s will for my life? An important question, especially when you consider the opportunities that we have today with those being baptized. It’s a symbol and reflection of your submission to Christ and desire to follow him in your life, knowing that he is your Savior and he is also your Lord. And really, to those who follow Jesus, this should be a question that we ask ourselves every day. God, what is it you desire for me to accomplish in you and through you throughout this day? As a matter of fact, if we’re at a place in our lives where we don’t find ourselves frequently pondering this question, it’s an indication to us that we need to center our lives back on Jesus. He’s Lord.
I am his. In this life is what he has created, intended for me to bring him glory. And so the important question we ask is, how do we discover and determine what is will is for our lives? And I got to admit, when beginning this study on the idea of God’s will and discovering it for our lives, it comes across somewhat challenging and a little difficult to understand, especially when you crack open the theology books and see what they say. From the outset, when I began to read about discovering God’s will for our lives, giving you all the information that you need on Sunday to impact your spiritual lives and transform us for Christ, it began with a series of God’s wills. Theologians have different words for determining what part of God’s will we’re actually talking about. Listen to this if you’re interested in finding out God’s will, well, you have the specific will of God to consider. You have the unique will of God to consider the permissive will of God, to consider the sovereign will of God, to consider the moral will of God to consider, and the personal will of God to consider. I’m done. Amen. Whew! And usually when we ask the question, God, what is your will for my life, we’re typically intending it an understanding of what is God’s personal will for me. And as if it gets any more challenging for us, first Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 12 says to us, for now we see in a mirror dimly that’s meaning this life that you’re living in.
It’s a little hazy and a little bit foggy. I has to completely understand what God intends for you, and to fulfill and have find complete satisfaction in his relationship with you. It’s not always going to happen. Sometimes it might feel like you’re walking through a fog in determining God’s will for your life, and it tells us that when that fog will be lifted, or when that dim mirror will be seen clearly, it says, for now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known. It’s talking about the day that we meet Jesus face to face. This passage helps acknowledge for us that God’s will can sometimes seem difficult to discover. We talk about God’s will. We understand that God’s will can be found in God’s Word. However, God’s Word doesn’t tell us everything in life. This sounds blasphemous, but let me explain. God’s will is not going to tell you what health care plan to take from work. It’s not going to tell you how to change your oil or teach you how to play baseball. God’s word doesn’t cover everything. God’s word covers the important things, the essential things to our lives. And so we discover God’s will for our lives and His word. But then we ask important questions in our lives, and we challenge us when we consider what God desires for us.
How many kids should I have? Should I marry this person? What should I do about marriage? Should I move? What job should I take? What do I need to say about my mother in law who’s rubbing me wrong? When do I need to talk to her? What do I do with my teenager? Who knows right what treatment is best for me? For my illness? When should I retire? What college should I attend? All significant life questions that we ask. You know, I think in asking and wondering what God’s will is for our lives, if we if God were just to come down and just map my entire life out for me and explaining everything to me all at once, I wouldn’t want that either. If God told me the things that I would have to endure before I endured it, I might give up on life. That road looks difficult. God no way. Pass that on to someone else. I’ll just stay here in the corner. Reality is, is not only do I want to know God’s will and and God revealing his will to me in a complete sense from the beginning to end of my life all at once, kind of robs me of the joy and the experience of understanding how to walk with Jesus through my entire life. I don’t really want to know all of God’s will for me at once.
What I want to know is God’s will for my life as I’m going along when I’m ten years old. I don’t care who I’m marrying When I’m about to be married, I don’t care what I need to know as far as being a child. When I’m older, I don’t care about parenting and God’s will for parenting. Kids are gone. What I desire and understanding God’s will is God’s will in that moment. So we as people, as adults, when you’re a kid, you’re curious about life and everything. When you get older, you lose a little bit of that curiosity and you learn on a needs to know basis. So I think the Old Testament helps a lot for young kids. It’s a beautiful story of the way that God works in people’s lives. You get older, you tend to flock more to the New Testament stories because it gives you just a quick, factual statement you can look at rather than read the stories of people’s lives. It’s all God’s Word. It’s all important to see how it plays out in our lives. How do we determine his will? After reading and studying on the idea of determining his will for our lives and discovering it, one thing that I have found is it’s not difficult. Asking this question and receiving an answer from the Lord isn’t difficult. We make it difficult. But the Lord’s made it easy.
And the reason he’s made it easy is because he’s created you for that purpose, and he doesn’t want you to spend your life wandering around, wishing that you knew what it was you were supposed to do and how you were to live your life because God created you to live your life in a particular way. We’re created in his image. The Bible tells us whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for his glory. So how do we determine God’s will for our lives? If you brought a Bible this morning, feel free to open it up to the Book of Proverbs, chapter three. If you want to follow along, there’s some Bibles in the front of your seat. Proverbs chapter three, verse five and six gives us one of the most profound, difficult statements for us as people and being able to understand and discover God’s will for our lives. It is a famous verse, no doubt some of you have probably heard it at one point or another in your life. I believe even on the ladies retreat, you guys had it on your gift bags. If I remember right when you went on the ladies retreat, it says this. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding in all of your ways. Acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. The idea of this proverb carries with it the thought of surrender.
Discovering God’s will for your life starts with you surrendering to him. As Proverbs says, it’s with all of your heart or with all of your being. You say, nevertheless, Lord, not my will, but your will be done in my life. God now direct me a pretty rational thought and wanting to understand what God’s will is. You have to give your life to the one who knows how to direct it before it can be rightly directed. Sometimes after church, people like to go out to eat when you walk into the place in which you want to eat the establishment, you surrender your life to the host and they direct you to the table, right? You want to learn how to become skilled in a particular trade or master. You submit yourself to one and authority in that position. Who has mastered a craft? You want to fly on an airplane to a new location. You submit your life to the pilot. You want to understand why you were created. You submit yourself to the creator with all of your heart. The Bible tells us. Scripture has a beautiful way of painting this for us. It it happens in Leviticus chapter one, verses six and 17. It was a modeling sacrifice that was to display the life of Jesus. But it’s in Leviticus chapter one and verse 6 to 17. It talks about burnt offerings.
These burnt offerings were a reminder that Israel was to give to God. It was a reminder of the Messiah who would come as a sacrifice for them. A burnt offering of an animal in Israel went into the temple, and they were to make a sacrifice of a burnt offering. Literally the entire animal was consumed by fire upon the altar. Sacrificed, all of it laid down for him, symbolically reflecting Jesus and the life. Then later that Jesus would call you to do. Pick up your cross and follow me. It’s funny, your whole life you have probably learned more about the burnt offering than you realize. There is a particular Greek word that reflects the Hebrew word for burnt offering. That word holocaust. Sort of helps create a more vivid picture in our mind of what we’re talking about, a total consummation of the object being burned. Historically, this has come to have negative connotations to us as people when we say. Biblically speaking, what Jesus has called us to and reflecting on this word. Offering yourself as a sacrifice to him becomes a beautiful thing. Because an offering yourself to Jesus for the first time in your life, you truly get to live for what God has designed you for in this world. You’re given the opportunity for him to fill you with his joy, and to show you all that he has for you in this world. I thought about as a parent, this question is such a big deal that it’s something that I really want my kid to grab a hold of early on in his life.
So how do I explain this to a child? I love it when I come home from work every day I get to walk into my house. And as a man, we talked about this at the men’s time last night. You guys missed it. All right. Testosterone everywhere. But. But to be holy as a guy. God has called us to not just to to teach our children to do what we say, but to do as we do, to be holy and to love our wives and allow God to control every area of our world. And I love it when I come home after work because I get an opportunity to walk in into our kitchen. It’s usually where I come in first. Stacy’s usually in there doing something. I give her a kiss, remind her how much I love her. I don’t have to hunt down my son because he’ll come running into the kitchen and just screaming daddy! And then he says things I don’t even understand. He just talks forever about. I don’t mumbles how? How can I explain to my kid about God’s will? I thought, you know, I could say to him as his comprehension ability grows, son, you know how every day I come home and you just want to play with dad? You think I’m your bestie here, right? And you just want to see dad? Well, son, I want to do the same for you.
I want to come home every day, and I want to see you. And I want to spend time with you. And I want to show you what it means to do as I do to be a man. God wants the same thing. Every day. In the midst of your busy life. God wants you to surrender where you are and come running to him because he wants to run into your life and he wants to show you how to live for him. Amen. He wants you to spend time with him so that he can influence your life for his glory and your goodness. This is an easy thought. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Just take the time to run into his life excited and he probably won’t understand what you’re saying. Be excited. Just be there and just sit with him, trusting with all your heart, not leaning in your own understanding. I love the way that the Bible breaks down the word. All this is like beautiful Hebrew. The word all in Hebrew means all that means everything. Trusting with all of your heart. This is like leaning so deep into Christ that if he moves, you fall. It’s not about your understanding. He knows better why he created you than you do.
It’s his understanding for your life. It’s taking his mind and seeing the world that way that he sees it. Trusting him with everything that you have. And Paul, with this thought, I think of just the Holocaust, the consummation, everything that you are laying it down on the altar of sacrifice says in Romans chapter 12. Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God. God didn’t have to give you an opportunity to do this. His mercy has allowed it that you present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Now, I think, honestly, if we get this part right, you get everything else right. The Christian life isn’t about trying harder. It’s about giving up and surrendering. And I love the way that Paul paints the picture, because when we think about Old Testament sacrifices, when that animal got on the altar, it wasn’t coming back off. It died. But we are different. I think it’s much easier to die for the Lord sometimes than it is to live for him. And being a living sacrifice, it’s a reminder to all of us every day. We need to crawl back on that altar, because every day we creep back off, surrendering to him, discovering God’s will for your life as giving God the opportunity to just work in your life, to teach you and to direct you. The second thing is this we talk about in Proverbs three five, trusting in the Lord with all your heart.
It takes time and understanding. Discovering God’s will for your life will require dedication to His Word through time and understanding. I don’t know why one particular area of our life, we as people have the tendency to get lazy, but we do. You think your whole educational system, growing up as a child, the things that you’ve learned to do, going to public school? Not much. No. Okay. The things that you learn to do growing up as a kid, you’ve learned mentally to challenge yourselves. You’ve learned physically. If you’re an athlete, where’s Daniel? Is he in here? His name got called a thousand times last night at a football game. He did a great job training as an as an athlete. You learn the athletic program physically giving to your body. But little dedication in life is given to us to teach us the discipline of learning things spiritually, dealing even with our character, trusting in the Lord with all of your heart is about dedicating your time and understanding in God’s Word that he can spiritually train you and mold your character into the desire that he has for your life. Don’t get lazy. Wanting to know God’s will should carry with it a desire to know God’s Word. In fact, Proverbs chapter one, verse one. At the bottom it says the Proverbs of Solomon. Solomon wrote it the son of David, King of Israel.
To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding. God, I want wisdom in how to live this world. Okay, here’s my word. Solomon wrote. It tells us in the first chapter this word so people can gain wisdom and understanding. And then he tells his own son, listen, son, absorb these words. Let them bleed into your life. Become what I’m talking about as I’m communicating this truth to you. If you want to know God’s will, here it is. Trust in it with your heart. We should carry with ourselves the idea of continuing to trust in the Lord. And it tells us in Romans 12 two, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. He answers the question in Romans two, how do you determine what God’s will is Verse one. Surrender your life to Jesus. Verse two. Don’t be conformed, but renew your mind in Christ. We had the question submitted in one of the fact cards. How does a Christian overcome the draw of conforming to the world? It’s not simply by avoiding the world, but it’s by saturating your mind. In Jesus all day long You’re propagated with messages contrary to the nature of God. And if you’re not careful, eventually you’ll begin to believe those lies as if maybe they did come from God.
And in Romans chapter 12, it reminds us to take off the thinking of this world and give your mind the opportunity to saturate in the thinking of Christ. God needs your time. You can’t be molded into an object without spending time. You’re not going to become a great athlete without training. You’re not going to become a jeopardy champion without learning. And you’re not going to look like Jesus without spending time with him. He works out the rest for us. He says that we will begin to prove what the will of God is for us. So if you just begin to spend time with Christ, we’ve used the word oftentimes as devotion time. If you just set aside a devotion time with the Lord in that time, God has you near him, and as he has you near him, you will begin to reflect him. And in reflecting him in your life, you will begin to live out his will for you. If you just get near him. The Bible says for us we think about. If you ever go on a walk at night, we went for the 4th of July up a mountain with ginormous boulders that felt like it was just going to kill us on the way down, and we had one of the most important things we could have with us on the way back down after the fireworks were finished was a flashlight, and when I was walking down the hill, do you know where I carried my flashlight in front of me? I wanted to see what was the next step I was about to take, and where my foot needed to go so I could avoid the tarantula along the way.
The Bible carries the same idea for us in Psalm 119 and verse 1 to 5 it says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Meaning, if you don’t have that light on, how are you going to know where to step? This Christian life and discovering God’s will. Sometimes I think people have this idea in their mind that all of a sudden they’re going to have this important decision they need to make, and they’re just going to stop and just start praying for the supernatural revelation from God. And the answer is he’s already given it. You don’t need to pray for a supernatural revelation from God when God has already supernaturally given his word for our lives. It’s as if you’re praying for a prayer that’s already been handed to you. God’s word reveals his will for us. It’s important to know the Lord through His Word. It’s important to be in the Lord through His word in the Bible may not tell us specifically who to marry, but what it will tell you is what qualities to look for in a mate.
How to prepare your own life to be married. What to do after marriage. How to build unity together. How to give your life to your spouse and to grow a family. As you think about all those plans that God desires to have for your family, it begins to eliminate those you may be considering and those you may not. God’s word will speak that truth the The Bible may not tell you where to work, but it will tell you how to submit to an employer. It will tell you your need to supply for your family. It’ll tell you the integrity that you need to carry in the workforce, how to give generously, how to be responsible, how to do everything unto the Lord, and what gifts and talents that the Lord finds pleasing so that you can look for a job that would that would bring those forth in your life. The key to gain a biblical understanding of the Lord’s heart is just to get near to the Lord. Meaning, if you desire to know God’s will for your life and you’re a business owner, it is a great idea to open up the Bible and learn all the verses about business. If you’re looking to be married in your life, it’s good. Before you make that step to look up the Bible verses on marriage. And if you’re already married, you forgot to do that. Do it now.
What does it mean to parent? What does it mean to live single? Where is it that you’re supposed to go to school? I love the way that Ezra does this. In the Bible, Ezra is looking at a nation who’s walked away from God, and they’re looking back at themselves. How in the world did we get here? Let’s change it. And so Ezra makes this comment for Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. I believe Ezra was on a journey in discovering God’s will. That way, his nation could get back to the Lord, that a place and time where they were taken into captivity as slaves because they walked away from God. They’re now being brought back into the land. And as we’re saying, listen, guys, we need to get back to doing what God says is important for our lives. And knowing him, and in growing with him and the way that we’re going to do it is we’re going to we’re going to read his word and we’re going to study it, and we’re going to practice it, and we’re going to teach it to one another. Paul said the same thing to Timothy study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that doesn’t need to be ashamed, rightly dividing God’s Word. I hope this morning it’s the idea of discovering God’s will elevates for us the understanding that we need to surrender, but also just spend time in His word.
Let me give you a good thought for this morning, a good challenge. Christmas present for Jesus. Any of you who are interested in giving a Christmas present for Jesus, just buy me something. Put it in. Don’t do that. A Christmas present for Jesus. Actually, yeah. Buy me something. Put it under. Um. And another. Here’s another one, though. Read his. Read his New Testament between now and December 25th when we celebrate that day. Rita’s New Testament on Christmas morning. Wait till you get to the last couple of chapters of revelation. It talks about heaven. Anyway, it’s beautiful and just on Christmas morning, sit down with your family and read those last two chapters and say here, Jesus for you. For Christmas we read your word. Discovering God’s will is about spending time in God’s Word. He hasn’t kept it a mystery for us. He has revealed its truth to us. But here comes with a warning. Studying God’s Word on your own without a church, family can sometimes become unhealthy. It will become unhealthy. Some people pick up the Bible and come up with the craziest thoughts of what Scripture is communicating, and it has no business being read into the text at all. And so God has created a family for you to come and to share what you’re learning in God’s Word.
They can share with you. If one of you sounds a little bit off from what Scripture is talking about, let’s talk about what the passage says. If someone else found something that’s just mind blowing, challenging, great for our lives, let’s share it and encourage each other in God’s Word. You know, when the when the Bible was first written, not everyone carried a copy of it. Okay? There was the impossibility of it collecting dust on your shelf because very few people owned books. Think of the tedious effort of writing a book in the olden days, before the printing press. Writing the New Testament’s 200 pages in your book today can imagine how long it would have been on scrolls. But when they learn from the Bible, they really learned as a community. One person typically owned a possession of of a portion of a letter from the Bible, and they would get together and read it collectively and bounce the scripture, the learning that is taking place off one another to discern what God is talking about. And so studying God’s Word without the accountability of his church can lead to dangerous thinking. One of the pervading thoughts maybe is health and wealth. Name it and claim it like Jesus wants you to be rich. All you have to do is tithe 100% right and then you’ll be rich. After that. God will bless your life. Or or if you have enough faith, whatever ailment that you have, God will heal you from it.
And I’m not opposed to any supernatural thing happening. God intervening in our lives, giving us gifts, but simply the health and wealth. Name it and claim it. Junk that we hear isn’t biblical. You can look at Jesus’s life himself. He lived poor. He suffered. He died on a cross. The apostles followed suit. Jesus doesn’t always promise us that we’re going to be super wealthy, living on the mansion on the top of the hill, with perfect health your entire life. Eventually you’re going to die. The one promise that Scripture gives is when you’re born, you will die. What does Scripture say? We need people to challenge us in God’s Word. Our tendency is to be birds of a feather and flock together, right? We honestly need to seek people in our lives that will encourage us and challenge us in ways that we need to grow. Not friends that will tell us just what we want to hear, but friends that will tell us what we need to hear, even if it’s hard to hear. Through His Word, you think about what the Book of Proverbs is. It’s one guy and his wisdom before the Lord. Sharing with someone else how to get closer to the Lord. This morning, that’s what the preaching and teaching of God’s Word is. One person sharing God’s Word to help us find the joy in knowing the Lord.
Then we talk about understanding God’s Word. We talk about learning and growing and finding his will for our lives. The joy and all of this is that it keeps us close to him. And I think God isn’t as much interested in what you’re doing as he is interested in where you are. And what I mean is, God is more interested in you being near to him than anything else. Because God knows as you spend time nearing him, he’ll get your heart. And as he works on your heart, he’s going to encourage what you do. And so God is far more interested in where you are rather than in what you’re doing. Because if he can discover and you can join him in where he is, he’s going to change what you’re doing in this life. Discovering God’s will isn’t about trying harder. It’s about surrender. It’s about giving him the opportunity to renew our minds saturated on his thinking, discovering it in his word and living it out as we find it in Scripture. Discovering God’s will isn’t about supernatural revelation. He’s already given it to those that beg the question, What is God’s will for our lives? God has given the answer in His Word if we would just seek it. And so the thought this morning, in discovering God’s will to us as a church family is simply be faithful, be faithful, and trusting your life to the one who’s given it to you.