What Is God's Will For Me?

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What Is God’s Will for Me?

Selected Scriptures: Nu 9:17-22; Ro 8:14 

INTRODUCTION

We’re going to be looking at God’s will today.  What if I could say to you, “Here is God’s plan for your life.”?  Would you be excited?  Scared?  Relieved? 

Next week is our Fall Kickoff.  We are going to be talking about the goals we’re setting for the new year starting Fall 2009.  We’ve spent this summer trying to discern God’s will for our church, to sense where God is leading us.  How do we know our goals are right?  The process we’ve followed this summer is one that applies to each of us as individuals too. 

How do you make big decisions in your life?  What career path should you pursue?  What job should you take?  Should you get married or live single?  Should you have kids?  How many?  Should you buy or rent?  How full should your calendar be?  This is for Christians and non-Christians.   

Do you have a process for big decisions?  Is it just wisdom?  Do you read books or articles?  Ask other people for wisdom?  Just follow your gut? 

Does God have an opinion on these decisions?  How can we learn it?  Know it?   

The problem is that the people who talk about God’s will say things that are very different.  For some people it’s like God is talking to them constantly.  If you saw the movie, “The Matrix,” Keanu Reeves has this phone that tells him, “Duck down in your cubicle, turn left, walk to the window, go out the window.”   

Other Christians say, “We have the Bible, everything you need to know is in there.”

We want to look today at the Scriptures to see if we can discern—how does God’s will work in the world today?

I.   The Bible’s teaching on God’s will

II.   3 Ways God’s Will is Revealed

III. How to Apply it to your life 

  1. The Bible’s teaching on God’s will

To show that God’s will is revealed by the Holy Spirit, who is similar to the pillar of fire and cloud in the OT exodus story.   

The Exodus—The Numbers passage comes after the Exodus.  God brought Israel out of Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea.  They came to Mount Sinai and received the Law.  Then they traveled through the dessert to the Promised Land.  Numbers 9:17-22 describes how God led them through the dessert wandering.  The cloud, it was a large cloud to give them shade during the day and a pillar of fire to keep them warm at night. 

Nehemiah 9:19 summarizes this.  [IN BULLETIN] “You in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness.  The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way by which they should go.” 

So through the wilderness, God led his people by this fire and cloud, showing them the way they should go.   

Romans 6-8—This helps us understand the point that Paul is making in Romans 8:14.  In fact, in Romans chapters 6, 7, and 8, Paul is saying that the Christian life is a New Testament version of the Exodus.   

In Romans 6, Paul says God has brought us out of our sin through the waters of baptism (like the Exodus).  In Romans 7, Paul describes what happens when the Law comes into our lives (like Mt. Sinai).  Here, in Romans 8, Paul is describing life as a dessert, with us traveling through the desert of this life unto a Promised Land of heaven and the New Heaven and Earth. 

How does God lead us through this life?  Romans 8:14 says, we are “led by the Spirit of God.” 

The Spirit of God—the Holy Spirit—is what leads us in this life—just like the cloud and the fire led Israel through the desert to the Promised Land.   

So, today, God’s will for your life is revealed as the Holy Spirit leads you.  God has sent the Holy Spirit to guide us through life, to help us know his will for us, so that we can make decisions that he would be pleased with. 

This makes sense when we see what Jesus said.   

John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 

But what does this look like?  How does the Spirit lead us? 

  1. 3 Ways God’s Will is Revealed

This isn’t specifically in the text, but it’s needed if we are going to apply this idea of “being led by the Spirit” correctly.  So this point helps us understand how the Holy Spirit leads us differently based on how God has wired us. 

Know the WORD.  John 17:17 [IB] Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  Sometimes it’s as simple as reading the Bible to know what God wants.  The commandments aren’t meant to be rigid code to make us feel guilty.  They are a painting of a beautiful life.  A song that makes sense.  Ps 119:105 [IB] 

Some verses make it really clear what God’s will is.

1Ti 2:3-4—SAVED.

1Thess 4:3—SANCTIFIED.

1Thess 5:18—SAYING THANKS.

Beyond this—you can find verses and principles, stories of people to help you make your decisions. 

DT—we think that God is leading us to work on the following things this year:

  1.  
    1.  
      1. Reaching out to the homeless
      2. Growing in discipleship
      3. Deepening our community

 

UT—we think that God is leading us to work on the following this year:

  1.  
    1.  
      1. Reaching out to the LGBT community
      2. Developing a calendar of social events
      3. Growing our community group ministry

 

Be-ers:  Being in God’s Presence.  PRAYER.

You seek the face of God.  What does he think?  How does he feel?  What would please him?  Sensing the Spirit.

Isa 30:21[IB]; James 4:13-16[IB]; Pr 16:9[IB] 

I sought the Lord on all this.  We sought God’s face in these areas, and asked him, “Do you really want us to focus on these areas?  Should we do this?  We sensed that this is where God is leading us.  

Do-ers:  Learning by Action.  ACTION.

Acts 16:6-10[IB]; Ps 37:4[IB]

Taste and see that the Lord is good.  Try him. 

We watched—would God open doors for us?  He absolutely has! 

Often, we’re strongest in one of these areas.  Which of you are know-ers?  Be-ers?  Do-ers? 

Healthiest, most well-rounded Christians are people who are all three. 

People with little know-ing end up focused so much on doing the right thing, they can be prone to legalism, or be swayed to believe anything.

People with little be-ing can end up knowing about God, but not having a relationship with him. 

People with little do-ing can end up deceiving themselves.  They think they know God, but their lives don’t show any evidence of a relationship with him. 

But you can use your strength to help improve the other two.

Know-ers—learn how knowledge should affect your heart and actions

Be-ers—let your experience drive you to know God better.

Do-ers—See Jesus in your acts of service, connect with his heart in what you do. 

So if you are strong in one, let your strength lead you to grow in the other two.   

Have to know that there are 3 kinds of people.  This will better enable you to understand others.  Already I’ve spoken to people about these three areas, and it has really begun to have an impact.  This helps marriages and relationships, it helps churches:

    Presbyterians can tend to be Know-ers

    Charismatics can tend to be Be-ers

    Baptists can tend to be Do-ers 

All 3 are good, legitimate.  Understanding this helps us act as a family. 

  1. How to Apply it to Your Life

WORD:  Does God’s word have something to say about this? 

PRAYER:  Seek wisdom.  How do you apply what the Bible says to your situation? 

  1.  
    1.  
      1. Ask God for wisdom.  James 1:5—this is prayer.  Bring it before the Lord and ask, “God, how would you apply your word to my situation?”
      2. For Know-ers:  Sometimes new verses will come to your mind that will make God’s will clearer to you.
      3. For Be-ers:  Sometimes you’ll think of people that you could talk to who have experience in this area.
  •  

      For Do-ers:  Sometimes you’ll think of a plan that will help you determine the right path.    

ACT:  Move forward, trusting God to lead you—to close doors or change your direction if you’re going the wrong way. 

CONCLUSION

So what do you do if you feel like you’ve neglected all of this?  There’s nothing more depressing than realizing that you’ve been doing things wrong for a long time.  Maybe you feel like you’ve neglected God’s word, neglected prayer, or neglected this idea of stepping out in faith and trusting God enough to do his will. 

Some of you are ready to get back into the word, to get back into prayer.  But others of you just feel separated from it all.     

If you’re there today, you’re not alone.   

Jeremiah 29:11-12   11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 

You might here this and think—that can’t be true.  You don’t know my life.  You don’t know my story.  Plans for peace? a future and a hope? 

The reason that God can say this to us—the reason that his will for us is peace, future, and hope—is because  

Acts 2:22-23 23 Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God to be crucified and killed. 

The cross shows you every single day that if you have failed in any of these areas, if you haven’t cared about God’s will for you, then see that God hasn’t given up on you.   

And God raised him up—Jesus’ resurrection shows that he wasn’t dying for himself, but he was dying for us.  The resurrection means that God accepted his sacrifice for us.  So if you call on God and pray to him, God will connect you to Jesus, and you will experience his love, and you’ll get a fresh start. 

SHOULDER NERVE STORY: 

In my dislocated shoulder, my shoulder muscle is still completely dead.  There’s no nerve firing the muscle—it won’t contract.   

You can have the strongest muscles on earth, but if you have no nerves, they will never flex.   

The nerve doctor I saw told me that there are two possible problems:  either my nerve has been stretched and needs to heal itself, or my nerve has been torn or severed and needs to grow back.   

I think this is a great picture of what happens to the heart.   

Some of you are Christians who have wandered away from God, or you don’t feel close to him anymore.  You don’t sense that you’re living in his will.  The connection is there, but there’s no fire in the muscle of your heart. 

You need to return to the cross again, realize that Jesus’ feelings for you haven’t changed from the day you first believed.  Confess to God that you’re far from him and see in the cross what he’s done to draw you close. This will heal the nerve to your heart, and enable you to have confidence to seek God again in his word, through prayer, and action.  This will restore your relationship with God. 

Some of you aren’t Christians yet, and for you, you don’t have this nerve running between your heart and God.  My suggestion for you is actually the same thing:  Come to the cross, realize that God used the death of his son to deal with everything that separates you from him.  When you believe, God grows that nerve new between you and him, and you will know that you are right with him. 

I learned that nerves grow 1 millimeter/day.  It will take over a year for the nerve to grow from my neck down to my two fingers.  I just have to be patient.  For many of you, it’s been longer than a year, hasn’t it?  God has been reaching out to you, drawing closer and closer for years, hasn’t he?   

When you believe, that nerve from God finally touches your heart and gives it fire. It fires it to life and makes you new.

 

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