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Last week when I was talking to you about prayer and praying for this church to become what it truly should be, it occurred to me that perhaps we should spend some time exploring just what God’s Heart truly is.

What is it that He desires?

What its it that He wants to do in the earth?

Where do we fit in?

What is it that He wants us to do?

What IS his heart?

What the writer of Proverbs was telling us is that if we don’t have a vision or direction for the future, we will simply be confused - going circles, so to speak.

But if we have a clear vision of the heart of God - what He desires to achieve in the earth - then it seems to me, at least, that we could all have a much clearer understanding of just what we are doing here and what we SHOULD be doing here.

Maybe you don’t care - you just want to live your life getting by the best way you can each day.

But I care - I want to live my life to the fullest, and I understand that I can only do that when I am squarely in the middle of God’s heart.

And I think that some of you feel the same way.

Perhaps you just need a bit of vision and direction to see it happen.

David - the Man after God’s Own Heart

Almost everyone who has ever opened a bible knows that King David was known as a man after God’s own heart.

He was a murderer and an adulterer, yet God gave him this title.

Paul explained why in these terms:

From this I take it that the man (or woman) who will do all God’s will will be called a person after God’s Heart.

You just need to know what His will is - right?

And there lies the problem for so many people - just what IS God’s will for my life?

I’ve heard it over and over again -

“I’m just waiting on God”

“I’m seeking God for his will”

“I’m trying to find the will of God”

“I need to know what God’s will for my life is”

In other words, WHAT IS GOD’S HEART?

Perhaps we don’t need to be as worried about what God’s will for MY life is as being worried about what His will for his creation is.

If we know that, and we work to help Him achieve that, then isn’t it pretty clear that we would be in His will?

If, for example, his will is that all should come to repentance and be saved:

then it would seem perfectly logical to me that if I work to help bring people to repentance (and salvation) then I would be in His will - and have His heart!

The question is not:

What His will is for my life?

but:

How can my talents and passions be used for His will in the earth?

When you put your talents, your passions, and your giftings to work advancing His will in the earth, you have put yourself squarely in His will.

You earn His favor.

And you build something that will last YOU for eternity.

Discerning God’s Will in the Earth

God has an overriding, overall will for His creation - he had it from the beginning.

Man did his part to detour it, but God had a way to get us back on track so that, ultimately, his will - his plan - will happen.

And its all laid out in the Bible.

God’s will is manifested in Creation

When God created the heavens and earth and all that was in them along with man, he had a plan and a purpose.

We see it in

In Genesis 1, we learn how God fashioned the world to operate in perfect unity, peace, and complete flourishing – what the Old Testament prophets call shalom.

In the first few verses of the chapter, God worked, molding the universe out of nothing.

If you read it closely, you begin to see God as a maker, a creator, and an artist who takes pride and finds pleasure in his good work.

He created the heavens and the earth, and he was pleased.

On the sixth day of creation, God topped it all off by creating man and woman, the crowning glory of his work, and he fashioned them in his own image (Gen.

1:27).

At the end of the day, he saw everything that he had made and declared it “very good” (Gen.

1:31).

God looked upon his work with love and delight.

Putting our creation in this context changes my view of my purpose in life.

God didn’t make me to be some robot - mindlessly and mechanically going about doing his work.

And he didn’t create me without giving me a purpose.

No!

He created me out of his great love and he made me in his image.

He gave me power and abilities to help him carry out his work while living in relationship with him!

I love and work with him because he first loved me - 1 John 4:19.

The second chapter of Genesis tells me that:

The story of creation lets us in on how awesome and great God’s love for us is.

He shaped and molded us in HIS image - made us like Him!

We were made to reflect his glory.

And he trusted us with the greatest responsibility of all that he created - to care for, cultivate and GROW his kingdom.

In his image, we have the ability and desire to be in relationships and to create.

These aspects of God’s image form the foundation of our human dignity, desires, and abilities.

You can never forget that because of God’s love for us, he gave us purpose on earth.

God’s plan from the beginning was for man to live in close, personal relationship with him while working to fill the earth with people made in his image.

However, a problem developed with the plan:

God’s will in Creation sidetracked by the Fall

The third chapter of Genesis makes it clear that because our first parents rebelled against God, we are fallen creatures with a sinful nature that manifests in selfishness, greed, and exploitation (Rom.

5:12).

Things are not the way they are supposed to be.

This rebellion of Adam and Eve against God in the Garden of Eden broke the command he had given to them and introduced sin into the world

Sin now contaminates every aspect of human life and the order in which God created things.

(Gen.

3:7-24).

The unity and peace God had so carefully built into everything began to unravel.

Every part of the created order was damaged; even the environment was altered.

Everything was broken, including our relationship with God.

The Fall effects every part of our lives.

Instead of living in close relationship with him, now we seek independence from God and look to idols to satisfy our longings.

Our relationships are broken and full of despair, hurt, pain, sadness, anger, and envy.

Instead of peace and happiness, we are filled with self-doubt, insecurity, pride, and depression.

Even the earth itself is effected, filled with famine, drought, floods, and other natural disasters.

Sin has touched every part of Creation.

Our relationship with God was damaged: intimacy and trust with Him was replaced with fear; our self-image was destroyed, as shame replaced innocence; our relationship with others was broken, as the blame game was introduced; and their relationship with the rest of creation became distorted, as God cursed the ground and the childbearing process.

These four relationships which have been so badly damaged: relationship with God, relationship with self, relationship with each other and relationship with creation are the basis of everything that we do in life.

And because they have been so badly damaged, they have effected everything - our economic, our social, our political and even our religious, and political systems.

EVERYTHING that we created throughout history has been adversely effected.

At the heart of all of this lies our broken relationships - relationships that are messed up because WE are messed up.

We deny what is true: that Jesus Christ is Lord over our lives, deserving of all honor, glory, and praise.

Instead, we value other things over him, especially ourselves.

We place our trust, confidence, and love in ourselves rather than in God.

We deny God’s truth and adhere to lies.

We choose to live in a way that glorifies “me.”

From that, all relationships suffer.

Sin has so badly damaged our understanding of truth and value that forming a lasting, trust based relationship is almost impossible.

That’s why Paul wrote:

Thank goodness, the story doesn’t end there.

For, even before man messed it up, God had a plan:

God offers recovery from the fallen state through Redemption

Our God is so faithful!