God's Will Is Both Broad and Specific

#3 GOD’S WILL IS BOTH BROAD AND SPECIFIC

GOD'S WILL: Why People Need To Live According To God's Will

UVCC Preaching Series for August 2020

Aug 16, 2020

GOD’S WILL IS BOTH BROAD AND SPECIFIC

Intro:

When we talk about God’s will as both being broad and being specific, we will need to talk about the Sovereignty of God the human free will.

By quick definition, the sovereignty of God is God’s unquestionable prerogative and authority over all His Creation. While the human free will is about God’s gift to people to choose and to decide about the matters of life.

Now the question is how can the human free will operate well within God’s sovereignty?

God’s Sovereignty and the Human Freewill

The book of Daniel

Pontius Pilate (John 18:28–19:16, esp John 19:10–11)

THE MAJOR PROBLEM IS HUMANKIND’S DISCONNECTION TO GOD’S SOVEREIGN WILL!

How Do You Make A Connect Between God’s Sovereignty and the Human Freewill?

Overcome Pride and Arrogance. Pride is the greatest disconnector between people and God. With the presence of pride and arrogance, there will always be conflict against God’s will. Why? Because corrupted human free will is always rooted in pride and arrogance. Whenever you see pride and arrogance, there will always be chaos. And chaos is not part of God’s will. God’s will is about God’s kingdom. The jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees, as well as Pontius Pilate are classic examples of pride and arrogance against God’s will. However, in God’s sovereignty, God was still able to make use of their pride and arrogance for God to accomplish His sovereign will. In God’s Kingdom rule, there is righteousness, joy and ‘shalom (peace)! Thus we need to submit to God’s Will for us to experience God’s shalom!

Acknowledge the Supreme Authority of God. People need to convince themselves the they never can replace or overrule God (This is called playing God). And people must never put anything or anyone in the place of God (this is called idolatry). For Pontius Pilate, he thought that he has authority over the the situation of Jesus (see John 19:10). For Jesus, the authority Pilate has ultimately came from God (John 19:11). Same with us, our possessions, our skills, all our abilities and whatever we have and can do, ultimately came from God. God in His sovereign will gave us everything we have. We don’t need to boast as though we did not receive it (see 1 Corinthians 4:7)

Be Enlightened By God’s Will Through Scriptures. For the Pharisees and the people who cried out “Crucify him!” (John 19:5–7), they are not in authority then. They have willingly participated into God’s overall will to let His Son suffer for the salvation of people. They quoted "a law” (John 19:7), however, they did not recognize the One whom they used the law against. This is a clear evidence that they are not enlightened by the heart of God’s law. For us, let us intensely desire to be enlightened by reading God’s Word. We need to treat the Bible correctly via hearing it, reading it, meditating it, studying it, and memorizing it.

Conclusion:

We need to make a connect between the will of God and our human free will. Only then can the chaos of our lives be turned into shalom (peace).