"Knowing God's Will"

“How I Got Over” series

There is an overcoming power that is available to believers:

Revelation 12:11

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

We have to tell / testify / talk about how the power of our God in order to continue to help us overcome, get thru, & operate in victory!

Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)

New Living Translation Chapter 12

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

New Living Translation Chapter 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.

“Knowing God’s Will”

The struggle of wading through all the information, all the feelings, what to choose in a context of difficult choices.

How should a Jesus-follower in the era of divisions in our culture, pandemic, and hard choices, know what God’s desires & perfect will is for them?

How is/can God’s will be made known to us?

Paul had just quoted the rhetorical question from the OT (Is40:13) in 11:34 - who can know the Lord’s thoughts?

THESIS: God’s will is revealed to us as we are being transformed.

God’s will is revealed to us as we are being transformed.

Principle: According to Rom. 12:1-2, knowing God’s will for our lives follows a simple formula: a + b = c

A + B = C

Living Our Lives as Worship

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. ...

Sensible

In view of God’s mercies / because of all He’s done for us

Sacrificial

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament 2. The New Testament Evidence.

Life is a sacrifice

In both Jewish & pagan religions at that time, animal sacrifices were an important part of the worship rituals.

Paul is saying that, in Christ, God doesn’t want an animal to die as a ritual of worship, He wants US (our will, our control, our selfishness) to die on a CONTINUAL BASIS as our worship ritual to Him!

Luke 9:23 (NLT)

New Living Translation Chapter 9

23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.

Giving control of our lives to Jesus, rather than trying to stay in control

2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world...

Satisfactory

the kind of worship that He will find acceptable & worthy

Exhibiting a Transformed Worldview

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. ...

Conformed - patterned, shaped by it systems & schemes

We log on to church, but do we still think like the world?

Is our attitude nothing more than sanctimonious Karens?

Are our thought processes the same that we had before we met Christ?

How we view the world, the way things work, what is important, the grid through which we process information has to be transformed by the Spirit’s work in us

How we view the world has to be transformed by the Spirit’s work in us

Our thinking has to go thru a process of metamorphosis, such that, what was ugly & slimy is turned into something beautiful that can transcend where it came from!

2 … 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.

The Perfect Will of God Will Be Revealed

When we relinquish control over to Jesus & live our lives as worship to Him, then WE can know what God’s will for us is!

A + B = C

If we’re fuzzy on what God’s will may be or unsure of if a certain decision will be in line with what God is thinking/desiring for us, we only have to go back to the A + B

Am I living my life as worship (sacrificing my desires for His expectations)?

Are my thought patterns/decision-making processes being transformed by my relationship with Christ?

If I am doing those things, God WILL reveal His GOOD, PLEASING, AND PERFECT will for me!