Vision 17 One

The Bible says that when we don’t understand God’s purpose and future plan for you, the natural tendency is to abandon yourself to a compromised lifestyle...

__________________

The good news is—God has a plan for you...not just for us as a church corporately, but for you personally as an individual!

ILLUS: Dog adoption

I had a plan for Katie, a purpose, a vision for her future, and she’s discovering it more and more on a daily basis.

Likewise, when God brought you out of the cage of sin,

paid for your deliverance with the blood of His Son,

and brought you into a whole new kingdom, He had a PLAN for you!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11).

___________________

The Bible is very clear what God’s plan and purposes are for every person...

I may not know the specifics of things like who you will marry, where you will work, where you will be living ten years from now...

But I DO know what His will is for everyone I meet in several key areas...

First, we must start at ground zero...

It is God’s will that every person be saved

This is God’s will for every man, woman and child!

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise (to return), as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).

Listen: No matter what you’ve done, how many terrible sins you’ve committed, how unworthy of God’s love you may feel, He totally, completely, fantastically loves you!

ILLUS: hold up two dollar bills, one crumpled, the other new, and how they both have same value.

_________________

Second,

II. It is God’s will that you be sanctified

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality” (1 Thes. 4:3).

Sanctified means “set apart for a special purpose.”

Sanctification is the daily process where the Christian is removed more and more from the pollution of the world, from fleshly habits, and from worldly ways of thinking and doing, to become more like Jesus.

ILLUS: This week for Thanksgiving I had some family and friends over...

Because it was a special occasion, I pulled out the China and set the table with things I didn’t use at any other time of the year.

The China had been “set aside” for a higher purpose.

And so are you!

“...for you have been chosen by God himself—you are priests of the King, you are holy and pure, you are God’s very own—all this so that you may show to others how God called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Pet. 2:9).

__________________

The good news is—God promises to be our Sanctifier!

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ” (1 Thes 5:23).

Religion says, “Clean yourself up!”

Jesus says, “Come to me and I’ll clean you up!”

_________________

So it’s God’s will that we be saved and sanctified...

But there’s one more crucial thing we must do in order to fully discover God’s will...

It is God’s will that you...

IV. Change the way you think...

Ro. 12:2 “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. THEN you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

HYPERLINK "http://www.apple.com"________________

Watch this:

We all view life through a lens, much like putting on sunglasses that tint and shade the way we see everything.

When we first come to Jesus, the lens through which we view life has been formed by past hurts, and from learning worldly ways of thinking and doing.

Our minds have gone through years of programming from living in a fallen, ungodly world.

_________________

For instance, people who have experienced the sting of racism come to see the world through a racial lens.

And then others who may have been sexually or emotionally abused will see life through the lens of fear and mistrust.

Still others see themselves, the world, and the entire universe through the lens of evolutionary teaching, which has taught them...

there is no true meaning to life,

no ultimate purpose,

no divine destiny—everything is random and meaningless.

All of these types of “stinking thinking” are lenses through which we see and interpret what happens to us...

And the Bible says we must renew our thoughts and get a whole new lens!

________________

LISTEN: You will never change your life until you change the way you think.

Proverbs 23:7 "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he…"

Everything begins with a thought—your being in church today began with a thought, “I think I’ll go to TPC today.”

Both evil and good, right and wrong, good and bad begin with an original thought, and that thought becomes an action, and that action results in a consequence.

________________

The good news is: Our wrong ways of thinking and doing can be erased and replaced by the power of God’s Word!

You see, This is how so many Christians get fooled by the flesh and the devil into believing something is God’s will—they haven’t properly renewed their minds!

So each and every day we must read the Word of God, which has the power to reprogram our minds into God’s way of thinking!

This is God’s will!

________________

Now watch this!

As our minds are renewed, the Bible says we grow increasingly skillful at “proving” what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God!

The word “prove” means “to test, examine, scrutinize, to see whether something is genuinely from God, or from the enemy.

By renewing our minds we are able to prove—examine, scrutinize, discern—whether something is part of the good, acceptable and perfect will of God for us!

Renewing your mind guarantees that you will no longer come to the same conclusions that someone would who is conformed to the world.

A renewed mind can see through a counterfeit and discern whether something has come from God or from the enemy.

ILLUS: Paul the Apostle one day found himself being followed around by a young lady who had been involved in the occult.

She followed behind his missionary team saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation!” (Acts 16:17)

This was true...but something was wrong about the whole picture.

We’re told that Paul became, “greatly annoyed,” and turned and cast a spirit of sorcery out of her.

How did Paul know that, while her message was true, she did not come from God?

He’d learned from Scripture that God will never promote men—“My glory I will never share with another” (Is. 42:8).

In her whole message she never once mentioned Jesus, only Paul’s team.

___________________

It is God’s will that every person be saved, sanctified, and cultivate a renewed mind.