CONNECTING THE DOTS OF GOD’S WILL (SELECTED SCRIPTURE)

SERIES: DON’T BELIEVE IT, PART 7 (CONCLUSION)

GCEFC: SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

INTRODUCTION

1. There have been several times over the course of my life when I have made life-changing discoveries. Two times especially stand out in my memory.

2. The first one took place some 45 years ago when I discovered that I was a condemned sinner in need of God’s grace and forgiveness.

3. Upon this discovery I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, and received the forgiveness and the grace that I needed. Of course, it changed my life.

4. The second discovery I made some 25 years ago. This was when I discovered what the Bible teaches about knowing God’s will for my life.

5. I had heard about how to discover God’s will many times in the preceding years. But I found it confusing, elusive, and just a bit spooky.

6. The will of God seemed like a complex jigsaw puzzle with many missing pieces.

7. But when I learned what the Bible actually teaches on this subject, it was like a dark mist was lifted.

8. The first discovery liberated me from the eternal penalty of sin, and as the Bible says: I crossed over from death to life.

9. The second discovery liberated me from the fear that I might miss God’s will for my life. It remained possible for me to reject God’s will—but I could never again miss it.

10. This morning, for the final installment of the series, Don’t Believe It, I want us to see what the Bible teachers about knowing God’s will for our life.

11. We won’t exhaust the subject by a long shot. But I’ll be around if you have specific questions when we’re done and over the next few weeks.

A. IT’S ALL ABOUT DECISIONS

1. Though we don’t often think about it, our lives are pretty much summarized by the decisions we make.

2. Obviously—the things we think, and the things we decide to do determine the direction our lives take.

3. On April 14,1865, Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln decided to attend the play “My American Cousin” in Washington, D. C. It seemed like a reasonable decision. But we know the outcome was disastrous.

4. In the early morning of September 11^th, 2001, 92 people decided to board American Airlines Flight 11 in Boston for Los Angeles. At 8:46 am the plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

5. At about 3:30 on Friday afternoon, May 23^rd, 2008, Marian and I were leaving a restaurant in Charlottesville, VA heading for Fredericksburg, VA, about 70 miles away.

6. As we were leaving I decided to make a quick stop at the restroom. Three minutes later we were on the road, and 10 minutes after that we were in a head-on collision.

7. So a decision to make a 3 minute stop in the restroom could have left us disabled for life or dead. This simple decision could have changed our lives forever.

8. It would be impossible to overstate the importance of decision making. The decisions we make about what we think and what we will do.

9. And essentially, when we talk about the will of God for our lives, we’re really talking about our decisions.

a. When we seek what the will of God is for marriage, what we mean is…does God want me to marry? Who does God want me to marry? When should I marry?

b. Each of these aspects of God’s will requires a decision on our part. We want to know what God’s will IS so we will know what we should DECIDE.

c. When it comes to college, it’s similar…Does God want me to go to college? Which college? Does God want me to go into debt $9 million dollars to go?

10. Other than accidents, there’s really nothing we do without making a decision to do it. And for the Christian, there’s the overriding concern expressed in 2 COR 5: So we make it our goal to please him… Or as EPH 5 says: Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

11. As Christians, we want our decisions to reflect what God wants for us. We want our choices to be in line with his will for our lives.

12. We want to know what God’s will is—then make decisions that resonate with it. The good news is that God’s will is not difficult to find.

a. Tell me, as a parent, do you try to keep your will from your children? Do you make it mysterious and hard to know?

b. Do you make it so your children have to interpret all kinds of confusing signs? Do you make your will as a parent a kind of scavenger hunt for your children? So that only by diligent, concerted, laborious, and agonizing searching can they find it?

c. I suspect that the last thing you want to do is make your will hard for your children to know.

d. You want to make it as easy as you can. You spell it out for them. You review it over and over. You write it down and put it on the refrigerator.

e. Why do you do this? Because you want your children to know your will so your children will do your will.

f. You want them to know what you want so they will do what you want.

g. So why would God, our heavenly Father, make his will hard for us to know? Or hard to find? Or mysterious? Or some kind of puzzle?

h. He doesn’t. God wants us to know his will so we will do his will. It’s just that simple.

B. SO HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO?

1. So, doing the will of God means our decisions reflect what he wants us to do. Doing the will of God means that our actions resonate with God’s values and desires.

2. But in order to DO the will of God, we must KNOW the will of God. So how do we know the will of God?

3. There are 2 kinds of decisions God wants us to make. The first kind of decision is the decision that reflects his revealed moral will.

4. So what do we mean by the term moral will of God? The moral will of God is: the commands and principles God has revealed in the Bible that teach us what we ought to believe and how we ought to live.

5. There is only one authoritative source for the moral will of God—only one—the Bible.

6. The Bible reveals God’s specific moral will for his people. It’s the only truly authoritative source. Now, you may find God’s moral will through other sources, but the Bible is the only authoritative source. The others are subject to error.

7. Only the Word of God contains the authoritative will of God from the heart of God.

a. PSA 119:11: I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

b. JN 17:17: Jesus said: Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

c. 2 PET 1:3: His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness thorough our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

8. So even though it may sound incredibly simple, the way we discover God’s moral will for our lives is by searching out the Word of God. Reading it, studying it, listening to it, memorizing it, knowing it, and understanding it.

9. Whenever we know what the moral will of God IS in a particular situation, the only right response to it is obedience.

10. What if you told your young child that it was time to go to bed. And your child turns to you and says: I need to pray about that to see if it’s God’s will for me to go to bed now.

11. Well this would be unnecessary. EPH 6:1: Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. The revealed will of God for the child at that moment is obeying his parent.

12. When God has clearly revealed his moral will in his Word, there is nothing to pray about. Or research. Or weigh against our own wisdom and preferences.

13. Where the Word of God is clear on the will of God, we have only one correct response—obedience. I could cite 100 more examples, but I suspect that’s not necessary.

C. WHAT ABOUT THE DECISIONS THAT ARE NOT COVERED?

1. But you know as well as I do that not every decision in life is so clear cut and obvious.

2. Truthfully, more of our decisions are clear cut and obvious than we may care to admit.

3. Our problem is much more likely disobedience than ignorance. It’s not that we don’t know what God’s will is. It’s that we sometimes prefer our own will to his.

4. But some decisions aren’t so clearly spelled out in the Bible. Some decisions aren’t revealed in God’s moral revelation in the Bible because they aren’t moral decisions.

5. Whether I get married or remain single. Weather I’m a butcher, baker, or candlestick maker. Whether I live in Toledo, Tucson, Tulsa, or Timbuktu.

6. Whether I buy a certain stock, drive a certain car, or attend a certain college.

7. These are not moral decisions. For two reasons. First, they are not forbidden or even addressed in Scripture.

8. Second, in and of themselves they don’t have moral implications. Now there are biblical guidelines regarding marriage we must obey. But marrying or not is not a moral issue.

9. And though the Bible does not address the particular occupation/career we pursue, it’s clear that our work should be honorable and not immoral work.

10. We don’t need to pray about whether God wants us to go into drug dealing, illegal arms smuggling, or prostitution. These occupations don’t reflect God’s revealed moral will so we know these are occupations we must avoid.

11. But what about those non-moral decisions not mentioned in the Bible? How do we know God’s will? This brings us to the second kind of decision God wants us to make.

12. In those areas where God has not specifically revealed his moral will, we’re free to choose and responsible to use wisdom in our decisions. So what does that look like?

13. First—search the Bible for wisdom.

a. 2 TIM 3:15: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man (or woman) of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

b. We looked at ROM 12:2 a few weeks back: Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

c. Our minds are renewed by the truth of the Word of God, equipping us for wise and godly decisions.

14. Second—seek wise counsel from wise believers and other wise sources.

a. PRO 12:15: The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.

b. PRO 15:22: Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

15. Third—pray for wisdom and guidance.

a. JAM 1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

b. When we’re having trouble deciding what best reflects God’s will, we should pray for wisdom and guidance. God won’t scold us for doing so.

c. But a word of caution. We should not think that because we’ve prayed, that we have some guarantee that our decision is godly.

d. We still must use wisdom even after we’ve prayed. We can’t use prayer as some kind of superstitious good luck charm.

e. Have you ever had someone say: Well I prayed about it, so it must be right. Not necessarily. The human heart is deceitful and wicked even when we pray.

f. So you should never see just the act of praying as God’s seal of approval for your decision. It’s just one important element in the process.

16. Fourth—trust in the outworking of God’s sovereign will and purpose in your life in the face of the decisions you make.

a. Sometimes when we obey God’s revealed moral will, or make a sound decision on the basis of wisdom, things don’t turn out the way we expected.

b. That’s when we claim that other verse in ROM—8:28: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

c. Remember, God will see to it that nothing thwarts or defeats his ultimate purpose in our life. Not even our decisions—even when they take us where we never expected.

CONCLUSION

1. God wants us to live lives that are pleasing to him that reflect his revealed moral will as recorded in the Bible.

2. Where God’s moral will is revealed, we should find out what it is and obey it. This not only pleases God, but it gives our lives moral stability and purpose.

3. In cases where the moral will of God has not been revealed, we are free and responsible to make decisions that reflect wise and godly principles.

4. In all of our decisions, we should humbly submit in advance to God’s sovereign purposes that may supercede any of our decisions.

5. Now God communicated his will in unique ways to unique individuals in the past. But such communications were supernatural, and the individuals weren’t even seeking it.

6. And the times and circumstances were critical in the outworking of God’s redemptive purpose. We would be foolish to rely on such communication as normative.

7. Otherwise we might want to buy a donkey and keep it in a stall in the backyard to consult on important decisions. After all, it helped Balaam 3500 years ago.

8. Or we might want to go out into the yard each morning and stand by a particular bush to see if it will burst into flames and God will speak to us from it. It worked for Moses.

9. God doesn’t want us to waste time and energy trying to find his mysterious hidden will. God has no mysterious hidden will. Except in our minds.

10. God wants us to simply live our lives in obedience to what he has commanded. And where he has not commanded he wants us to make wise decisions that honor him.

11. God certainly has a sovereign will he is working out according to his own purposes. But he has not chosen to reveal it to us in advance. He has a reason for not doing so.

12. God does not want us to be worried about tomorrow. In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus said that we should let tomorrow worry about itself.

13. God is in charge of tomorrow. We’re to be concerned about doing his will today. That’s why he’s revealed it. And given us wisdom and freedom to choose when he has not.