Understanding God's Will for Your Life

 TEXT:  Matthew 28:18-20

TOPIC: Understanding God’s Will for Your Life

Pastor Bobby Earls, First Baptist Church, Center Point, October 9, 2005

            I suppose I have preached more sermons and perhaps even quoted these verses found in Matthew 28:18-20 more than any other passage in all the Bible.  Usually I bring messages related to evangelism, church growth, discipleship or missions from this passage.  But today, I want to share with you a different kind of message from a familiar passage.  I’m preaching today on the subject, God’s Will for Your Life.

            So please open your Bible to Matthew 28:18-20, and stand with me to honor the reading of God’s word. 

18And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20“teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always,

 even to the end of the age.” Amen.

            If there is one question I have most often been asked as a pastor over the past twenty-five years it would be this one.  “What is God’s will for my life?”  People want to know God’s will.  Knowing it and doing it are two different things!

            And I want you to know that God wants you to know His will also.  God’s not like some cosmic Easter bunny that hides His will from His children like the Easter bunny hides colored Easter eggs!  No, God wants you to find His will for your life.  He wants you to know His will for your life, all of you!

            I appreciate that tremendous passage of Scripture found in Romans 12:1-2 as well.  It’s another place in the Bible where God clearly states His will for each of us.  Look at it with me.

1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

            I’ve often joked that if anyone doesn’t know God’s will for their life to come see me.  I’ll tell you.  Not too many have taken me up on that offer, so I’m going to tell you all tonight what the Bible says is God’s will for your life.  And it’s found in part, right here in Matthew 28.

            Before I give you a three-fold plan of God’s will for your life, let me make one admission.  While I do believe there are some ways in which God’s will is the same for all of us, and that’s what this message is about.  It is just as true that in another sense, God’s will for our lives is also just as different for each of us as we are all different from one another.  Just as we all have different DNA and different fingerprints, so in some ways, more specifically, God’s will can be different and unique for each individual.

            So I am really preaching today about God’s will for all of us, collectively.

1. God’s Will for Your Life is for You to ACCEPT Him as Your Savior and Lord!

Matthew 28:19

That’s in Matthew 28:19, “Go and make disciples of all the nations…” 

      Our Lord’s great commission to His followers was that each of them should “make disciples of all the nations.”  That leads to a couple of questions.

            One, what is a disciple and two, how do you make a disciple? 

            The first question is a lot easier to answer than the second question. 

            So what is a disciple?  A disciple is “a growing Christian who is becoming more like Christ by being established in the disciplines of God’s word, prayer, fellowship and witnessing.” 

            What I want you to understand in this definition of a disciple is that before you can become a disciple you must first become a Christian.  Before you can grow as a Christian, you must first become a Christian.  Have you done that?  Are you a Christian?  I believe it is God’s will for your life.

            Do you know what 2 Peter 3:9 says?  It says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

            I will come back to 2 Peter 3:9, but let me make a very important digression.  I am talking about knowing God’s will for your life.  I told you that it is God’s will that you accept Christ as your Savior and Lord.  Here’s the digression. 

God’s purpose is for you to know Christ and have everlasting life.  How do I know that?  Because that is what the word of God teaches.  2 Peter 3:9 tells us that using a negative, it is not God’s will that any should perish.”  John 3:16 tells us the same thing but in a far more positive and beautiful way.  “For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten, (one and only) son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

            Back to 2 Peter 3:9.  That great Bible teacher J. Vernon McGee says, “Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” It is not God’s will that you should perish. One of the reasons that you have been reading this book is simply because God does not want you to come into judgment; He wants you to pass from death unto life. And you can do that—you can turn to Him and receive the wonderful salvation that He has for you. [1]

            The King James Version Study Bible editors said this about 2 Peter 3:9, “God is not willing that any should perish clearly expresses desire for the salvation of all who will trust in Him. Salvation is equated here with repentance.”  [2]         

            Let me add one final sub-point to this idea that God’s will and God’s purpose for each of us is to accept His dear Son, Jesus Christ.  God’s plan for each of us is found in John 10:10b, “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” 

            What a wonderful truth as we think about God’s will for your life.  He loves you.  He desires for you to know Him.  He wants you to trust and accept His Son Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord!

1. God’s Will for Your Life is for You to OBEY Christ in Baptism,        Matthew 28:19

Still in Matthew 28:19, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

      I can say with certainty, it is God’s will for you to be baptized.  After you have received Christ as Savior, the next step is baptism!  Why? 

A.  Because Christ was baptized, Matthew 3.  We should follow His example.

B.  Because Christ commanded baptism for His followers.

C.  Because baptism is the pattern of the New Testament.

D.  Because baptism identifies us as a disciple of Christ.

1. God’s Will for Your Life is for You to GROW as a Christian,             Matthew 28:20

Look at Matthew 28:20.  “Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”  This means more than baptism.  Baptism is only the first step of obedience that starts you on your journey as a growing Christian.

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[1]J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible commentary [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, c1981 by J. Vernon McGee.

[2]Thomas Nelson, Inc., King James Version Study Bible [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, c1988  by Liberty University.