Knowing the Will of God
Rev. Steve Grice
Pondering Difficult Questions • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 48:37
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Crisis Questions
Crisis Questions
Can I Lose My Salvation?
Why does God allow Evil and Suffering?
What happens after I die?
How Do I Love My Strange Neighbor?
Why Do I Continue to Sin?
How do I spot a False Prophet?
What does it mean to follow Jesus?
How can I know God’s will for my life?
That is what we are going to be discussing for the next 8 weeks...Pondering the Difficult Questions on Life.
We will begin with...How Can I know the Will of God?
Now before I dive in to this...Some of you may be asking...why is he not talking about Easter. Does he not see my fancy Easter dress. My white shoes. My fancy new pocket book. My Easter Bonnet.
I see you. And He sees you. But we are not here for you. Today is not about you. Today is not about me. Today is about Jesus and exactly what He said to us before He ascended into heaven.
Matthew 28:19–20 ““Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.””
We could take about the cross. The beating He took. The horrific death. The burial. Mary and Mary as they approached the tomb and saw the stone rolled away. We could talk about how John and Peter ran to the empty tomb. We could take about all of that IN DEPTH. But we are not.
I am so glad that tomb is empty. It is one of the greatest miracles ever achieved by God. It is part of the puzzle that unlocks heaven. Romans 10:9
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
The resurrection is a vital part of the gospel. But we are not gonna talk about that today.
We are gonna talk about the Will of God. Why you ask? When we obey Matthew 28:19-20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
When we do this...they have questions. They have Crisis Questions. And we better have answers.
One of the Crisis Questions people often ask...
How Can I Know the Will of God?
How Can I Know the Will of God?
I believe the only way to begin to answer this question is to start with the Scriptures.
And belive it or not, the Scriptures do not have much to say specifically abbout doing the Will of God and one the other hand has MUCH to say about the will of God.
I only ofund three times in Scripture where God specifically notates THE WILL OF GOD.
You would think that it would be easier to follow the Word of God if it were spelled out in detail. But we have the 10 commandments spelled out in detail and we don’t follow those!
Three times in Scripture God specifically mentions the WILL OF GOD.
#1 - IT IS GOD’S WILL FOR YOU TO BE SAVED
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
God’s perfect Will is that ALL MEN be saved. Ultimate Desire. That is why He sent His only son to die on the cross. John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
It is God’s Perfect Will for you have Eternal Life. That is what He wants. That is what He planned for in the event of man’s rebellion. It was always in God’s plan to give us freedom of will, free choice. To make our own choices. And God also planned for man’s rebellion. He knew that freedom of choice meant that we might choose ourselves.
And God made a plan (And I believe before teh creation of the universe) to provide a way of reconcilation and restoration for fallen believers who chose themselves.
ARE YOU SAVED?
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
I mentioned the 10 commandments earlier.
I am the LORD your God; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy.
Honor your father and mother.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or belongings
How many of you have ever looked over at your neighbors yards and said...man I got to get me one of those? #10
How many have ever lied? #9
Stolen? #8
Looked with lust #7
Hated your brother #6 (Same as murder)
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Have you ever confessed before God that you are a sinner?
Sin broke the connection between Man and God...The Cross and the Resurrection rebuilt it. Our Repentance restored the flow.
This is somewhat of a flawed analogy...
Hurricane Helene knocked out Hwy 40 to Tenn.
You could still get to Tenn...but it was much harder. Detours, back country roads. Took longer. Not the ideal route.
A few months back...NCDOT and Tenn DOT opened a two lane section up and retored traffic flow between the 2 states.
When mankind sinned, the connection between God and Man was knocked out...destroyed.
Man then tried to create ways to get back to God...to no avail. (They hid in shame due to their nakedness, they tried to clothe themselves, God demands a better sacrifice...a blood sacrifice - So He kills an animal and makes a covering for them. THIS POINTS TO THE CROSS. THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE)
God desires for you to be saved and He has done EVERY SINGLE THING for you to make that decision.
If sin was the Hurricane that knocked out the road. Then GOD was the architect of the road back to Himself. He built it, He provided the materials, He did the construction, His son paid the price.
You your responsibilty here? Take the road. Quit trying to tack the back roads. There is NO OTHER PATH THAT Leads to you to God. John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
God’s will is that you BE SAVED.
#2 - IT IS GOD’S WILL THAT YOU BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
Not one person in this universe can be filled with the Spirit of God without being saved.
This is a progression...You cannot be Spirit Filled until you are Saved.
Once you are saved...you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Led by the Spirit - Romans 8:14
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Temple of the Spirit
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
Confessing God
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
If you have a spirit in you that is not cenfessing Jesus Christ...it is not the Holy Spirit.
If you spirit in you that is contrary to the work of God...is is not OF GOD.
Taught by the Spirit
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
This is a huge benefit of being in Christ and being filled with the Holy Spirit. He will teach you all things.
Evangelize in the Power of the Spirit
but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
The Spirit of God will cause you to tell other people about Jesus.
We FInd Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Spirit
for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will bring Righteousness
The Holy Spirit will bring Peace
The Holy Spirit will bring Joy.
It is God’s will for you to be saved
It is God’s WIll for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
#3 IT IS GOD’S WILL FOR YOU TO BE SANCTIFIED
For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
3 “IFICATIONS”
Justification - The moment of Salvation. You are redeemed. It is a judicial act. It is the moment God sees you as Holy and Redeemed.
Sanctification - A Process. A daily process. A daily walk.
Glorification - The moment of Death for the believer. Changed in the blink of eye.
How to be sanctified?
“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
By staying in the word. By staying in the Truth.
Become a slave to Righteousness
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
We were cleaning the swimming pool the other day and I flicked that water hose towards Tonya and Ella and sprinkled them with that cold water.
Just enough to get their attention...In ten minutes they were both dry as bone. Just a little sprinkling.
If you try to live with just a sprinking of Sanctification...You become what is known as a luke warm believer.
If they had jumped into the pool however...they would have been wet all over. Soaked. Probably inside and out...water up you nose...swallowing a mouthful. In you ears. Total immersion.
That is the kind of sanctification we need. Total immersion in Christ.
Living so that God, and Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit permiates every single aspect of our lives.
Our walk.
Our talk.
Our work.
Our play.
Our family.
Our church.
Every single thing that we do should love like we are madly in love with Jesus.
The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
On the flip side of that...The world is passing away, and also its lusts. The one Who DOES NOT do the will of God...DIES FOREVER.
Every Day....Jesus. Every Day.
