The Search for God's Will
Notes
Transcript
Finding your purpose
Finding your purpose
Does everyone have a single purpose for their life?
Why is the search for God’s Will so important to us?
Why is the search for God’s Will so important to us?
1) Seeking to please God.
1) Seeking to please God.
1) We want to please God.
1) We want to please God.
There is a deep desire in everyone who is a Christian to please God with our lives.
This is obviously a good motivation,
But, in our search for God’s will we often focus on the non-moral decisions in life rather than the one that God cares/speaks about.
Reality:
God isn’t going to tell you where to live, what school to go, who you should date or marry, where you should work or not work, how you should spend you weekend, whether or not you should be on a particular team or not.
But He will give you principle to guide you.
Why do you want to date that person? How should act in that relationship? What motivations do you have to work this summer or not…?
Or in our search we think God wants us to break the code to His will by deciphering the clues
Like some kind of National Treasure puzzle.
We have a tendency to over spiritualize the decisions we make when God just wants us to make a decision guided by His Word.
Pleasing God is more about day to day decision then it is BIG decisions.
31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
micah
2) We are timid and indecisive.
2) We are timid and indecisive.
Or in our search we think God wants us to break the code to His will by deciphering the clues
Like some kind of National Treasure puzzle.
Our timidity and indecisiveness is rooted in thinking that God is somehow hiding things from us.
Our timidity and indecisiveness is rooted in thinking that God is somehow hiding things from us.
That we need to go on some kind of treasure hunt to find His will.
We have a tendency to over spiritualize the decisions we make when God just wants us to make a decision guided by His Word.
We second guess our selves, over think decisions, or make decisions bigger than they actually are.
We second guess our selves, over think decisions, or make decisions bigger than they actually are.
Your decision matter, so seek wisdom, pray often, but then you just have to trust and obey, for there really is no other way.
And if you fall, get up, seek more wisdom and start down the new path
And that looks like being who God calls you to be
And letting
But always seek faithfulness.
3) We desire perfect fulfillment.
3) We desire perfect fulfillment.
There is an innate desire in all of us to get the BEST out of things.
It is the American dream
There is a deep seated feeling that we are going to miss out on something.
That God’s perfect plan or our designed purpose is going to pass us by.
We probably just expect too much out of life.
The bible is full of instructions on how we are to suffer well.
How can we get through pain, conflict, struggles, frustrations...
If we God’s perfect will is everything going right in our life, then most of the biblical characters didn’t find it.
I am not saying “Don’t pursue your dreams.”
I am saying let contentment in God be your focus.
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain,
4) We have too many choices.
4) We have too many choices.
In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz tells of a trip to his local moderately sized grocery store. He found 285 varieties of cookies, 13 sports drinks, 65 box drinks, 85 kids’ juices, 75 iced teas, 95 types of chips and pretzels, 15 kinds of bottled water, 80 different pain relievers, 40 options for toothpaste, 150 lipsticks, 360 types of shampoo, 90 different cold remedies, 230 soups, 75 instant gravies, 275 varieties of cereal, 64 types of barbecue sauce, and 22 types of frozen waffles.
I like choices, but too many choices have an adverse effect.
When we are faced with too many choices anxiety is often the result as we consider how the wrong choice may effect our lives.
“Anxiety is simply living out the future before it gets here.” Kevin DeYoung
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
5) We are fearful of the future.
5) We are fearful of the future.