God’s Word

Intro

Mini series - Discerning God’s Will

4 Legged Stool

Some of you may feel you have a good understanding of these things separately…but I feel that we can do a better job understanding how these things work with one another.

God’s Word

God’s Spirit

God’s People

God’s Will

Tonight is God’s Word.

Title - Discerning God’s will through God’s word.

Turn in your bibles.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

As we begin discussing God’s word and a way to discern God’s will in our lives…we need to lay down a solid foundation of understanding. Here’s the first one.

It’s GOD’s Word

I get this from the phrase “by God”.

Now, there are dozens of messages that could be preached on God’s word and why you can trust it. That’s not what this message is about. This message is about understanding the ways that God’s word helps us discern God’s will.

If you’re looking to have a better understanding of why you can trust God’s word in the first place…here are a couple of resources.

Pastor Rob’s message from January of this year.

Epic Story of the Bible

So that’s the the foundations of understanding God’s word as part of his will for our lives…it’s GOD’s word. Not man’s.

Not only is it the words of God because he spoke them through man…but it’s the word of God because it’s.

Empowered by the Spirit

I get this from the phrase “breathed out”.

This is what makes God’s word living and active. Because his spirit works in it and through it.

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

So the bible is God’s word, it’s empowered by the Spirit…and it’s given for a purpose.

Given for a purpose

What is that purpose? As always, the ultimate purpose of all things that are in God’s will are things that are for his glory.

This passage actually states how it goes about accomplishing that purpose…and it’s stated there right at the end…do you see it?

The purpose of God’s word in man’s life…not the only purpose, but the purposes we are focusing on tonight are to be complete…and to be equipped.

But complete and equipped for what?

Good Works.

So how does God’s word become the discernable will of God in our life? When it moves to complete and equip us for Good works…that is GODLY works.

So now we have this understanding…

If God’s word is to be used as a means of discerning God’s will in our lives…we need to understand that it works in our life to equip and complete us.

Let me put it to you this way…

Daughter’s birthday is coming up…if she opened up her presents to find ballet shoes, a tutu, classical music, and several leotards…what would you say that my will for her life may be?

That she would dance. Now, she may desire to dance, and be passionate and love to dance…but at the end of the day, I’m expressing something to her…that is…the things I am giving to equip her and complete her as a ballerina are the means and representation of my will for her life.

God is the same way.

God has given us a gift through his word…and it’s a gift that is numerous and comes in many forms. But it is a gift that we get to open…and see his will for our lives.

So here’s how I want to spend the rest of our message tonight…looking at some of the gifts God gives us through his word…some of the things we get to open up in his word to better understand his will for our life. I want to evaluate some of the ways his word equips and completes us.

So here’s the first one…

God’s word teaches.

Here. we are talking about actual factual knowledge. Meaning there are things that God’s word teaches us in a historical, factual, real world sense.

We call that..

His story.

As in, the story of redemption. Scripture teaches us about creation, Israel, the history of nations and God working through all of it.

Scripture is full of historical data, and interpretation of that data.

Kings, Chronicles, Judges, the Prophets, and so on.

His character.

Much like a letter written from one person to another…we see God’s character in the letter he has written to us. We see what makes him passionate, what makes his angry. We see the things that stir his heart and the things he plans to accomplish.

We see he is a God of love, justice, mercy, grace, wrath, kindness, goodness, power, and strength.

His law.

We see God’s will in his word because his word teaches us his law. That is, the things that glorify him and the things that don’t. The things that please him and the things that don’t.

When God gives Israel the law in Ex. 20 he is essentially handing them a list of the things that tell them what to do to be LIKE him and what they break to be UNLIKE him.

His promises.

I use the word TEACH here because God’s promises are fact. They aren’t maybes, or potentials, they are absolutes.

God’s word convicts.

Originally I had these points worded as the word is the great…fill in the blank. When I did that…I had to invent a new word for this one. Because it would have been the word is a the great convicter.

God’s word is amazing not only because of what it contains…but how it makes us feel.

Conviction.

Define conviction…

Praise God when you feel it. It shows his word is at work.

God’s word corrects.

It doesn’t just make you feel bad. It doesn’t just point out flaws…but it actually corrects the errors that you’re making.

Imagine an airplane, flying from moline to Chicago.

Imagine the instruments they have in the cockpit that tell them their position in the sky, what their course is, what their course should be.

Can you imagine if you boarded the plane and the pilot said, sorry folks…looks like only the instruments that tell us we aren’t on course are working today…so this flight might take a little longer.

It’s gonna be a disaster.

They wouldn’t be able to see where other planes are to avoid mistakes, they wouldn’t know how the correct the mistakes they are making by being on the the wrong course…they would essentially be useless.

Can you imagine if God’s word only convicted but never corrected?

But thank God, his word corrects.

It not only shows us our errors, but shows us how to correct them and where to look out for places we are going off course again.

Don’t believe me? Sit in on any message this church preaches and you’re going to hear not only what God’s word says about our sins, but you’re going to hear how his word applies to our lives to shape us into the image of God…correct our course.

And this lines us similarly with our next point…but it’s a little different.

God’s word trains.

Think of this like a coach who trains.

A good coach, a great coach doesn’t just point out what you’re doing wrong…or give you one off tips to do better.

A great coach comes alongside you, to set you up for success and ensure that success. A great coach evaluates your whole life…your diet, your exercise plan, your sleep schedule and so on…

And God, through his word, evaluates our whole life. It doesn’t just correct the wrong, but it trains us in righteousness for all our days. It shows us how every aspect of our life can be redeemed.

Think of all the amazing examples that God gives us in his word to coach us.

iFit illustration….

God gives us those coaches.

So how do we guarantee that God’s word is becoming God’s will in our lives? Submit to it.

Our response: Submit to it.

Submit to it’s teachings…it’s convictions, it’s corrections, it’s trainings. If you’re doing that, sincerely and authentically…then you can with confidence say you are discerning God’s will in our life.

Now…I want to remind you, that we are going through a series of discerning God’s will through four parts…not just the word. Although his word inform the rest of it…it’s not all of it. There’s more to be had.