WWJD: Seek and Do The Father's Will
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He Would Seek and Do The Father’s Will
He Would Seek and Do The Father’s Will
Main Idea:
Intro
Hello!
Welcome back!
In case you missed it last week, we are in a new series called WWJD?
We want to examine the life of Jesus and see what he did and what he said and more specifically how did he respond to people and situations.
We talked last week about the Love of Christ.
We asked what would Jesus do?
He Would Love First.
This week we are going to be looking at What Would Jesus Do?
He would seek and do the Father’s will.
We are going to be looking at God’s will.
This can be very interesting because understanding God’s will is a common question.
Because this has to do with future tense.
We want to know the future.
Me:
When I was in high school it was cool to read the daily horoscopes.
I don’t know why, but we did.
I have never bought into them.
but i had some class mates that would live by these things.
We would read them out loud and as we would be saying them, people would be like that is so me today.
It could say you should be in glowingly good fit today.—
And we would have people be like yes— i walk to the bus stop and I do I feel fit today.
And I would be like— You walk every day to the bus stop.
Daydreams and reveries could inspire new ideas for creative projects today.
You know I was daydreaming as I drove to school today and I now know what I am going to write my english paper on.
You mean the book report on To kill a mocking bird? Like the topic is literally the book.
Don't be surprised if you grow closer to those around you.
I feel so close to everyone at my table.
Oh you mean all the people that you sit next to everyday, you feel close to them, I would hope so.
You might meet new people and get closer to the ones you already know.
I just met this freshmen on the way into school and I had a 30min conversation with my bestie that is so me.
I would be like we met new people everyday, and of course you are going to grow closer with those you already know.
Visitors could come by and other people could call with interesting news.
My aunt told me her friend is pregnant that is so interesting— Gemini! That is so me!
I would say: You know that all horoscopes are just generic they are saying that someone is going to tell you something interesting today.
I could tell you I have webbed feet and that could be interesting—
to which they would respond Zach that is so interesting— you are the answer to my horoscope.
There is something about the future or our at least attempts at guessing the future that draws us in.
This world craves to know the unknown.
And if we can look at the stars or into a crystal ball to give us some insight we will.
What is the future.
We:
As long there have been people there have been fortune tellers, wizards, and those in the mystic arts who attempt to exploit our anxieties about tomorrow.
We all ask question that make us wonder about the future.
Will I graduate high school?
Will I get promoted?
Is it cancer or do I just have the flu?
People use snakeskins, crystals, ouija boards, horoscopes and tarro cards to get just a small margin of insurance against an unknown future.
Here is the deal, Christians have the same curiosity, but we frame the question differently.
“What is God’s will for my life?”
Now this question does one of two things, we approach God will a great deal of arrogance as we treat God like our own future teller.
Or we humbly come to him out of submission.
RC Sproul puts it this way.
Can I Know God’s Will? Chapter One: The Meaning of God’s Will
God delights to hear the prayers of His people when they individually ask, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” The Christian pursues God, looking for His marching orders, seeking to know what course of action is pleasing to Him. This search for the will of God is a holy quest—a pursuit that is to be undertaken with vigor by the godly person.
Have you ever ask some of these questions before?
God what is my purpose?
God what is your will for my life?
God what will do have me do?
God I don’t know what to do, give me clarity on what I need to do?
I don’t think that this is a bad things.
It does come down to how we ask it.
I think it is wise to bring our questions before the Lord and wrestle with the unknown.
But we ask so much about God’s will for our own individual life that it makes me wonder, do we even ask, or seek out His will?
Like not His will for my life, what is your God’s will.
God’s will for the believer.
What is His will for the world.
God’s will.
Because here is the deal.
We may have all sorts of things that we want God’s will to be our will.
We want God to match our will and when He doesn’t we get mad, we assume God doesn’t love us, or we just do it anyways.
I am not saying that you can’t go to God and say hey God here is what I want, here are the desires of my heart.
We can Jesus did, but lets look at the difference.
God:
Let’s open up to Matthew 26:36-46
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he told the disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.” Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, “So, couldn’t you stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And he came again and found them sleeping, because they could not keep their eyes open.
After leaving them, he went away again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? See, the time is near. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up; let’s go. See, my betrayer is near.”
Jesus the son of God.
The savior of the world was about to pay the price for our sin.
He was about to be put to death as our sacrifice.
And He and his 11 disciples, remember Judas had already left and sought out to betray Jesus, are in the garden of Gethsemane.
In this place Jesus would feel the incredible weight of being the sacrifice for all of mankind.
He knew the cross was coming.
He knew his death was upon Him.
And He doesn’t seek more time with his friends, no we get away and seeks the Father.
When we are in the valleys of life, it is great to have people to go through the valleys with you but if we are not seeking God in those valleys I think that we are honestly neglecting the only one who can do something about it.
So Jesus goes away to the Father.
He tell his disciples to sit and also pray.
But look at what else he says before he leave them.
He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.”
I am grieved to my very soul.
Jesus knew his path and it was now a huge burden on his life and He was feeling the burden on him now.
A common response when we go through the hard stuff is God take this throne out of my flesh.
God relieve me of this hurt or this burden.
Lets see Jesus’ response
Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Let this cup, let this burden, let this path for me pass away.
I think it is important to note that Jesus was willing to go to the cross but to say that he was over joyed and happy about it I think is not correct.
He goes to the only one who can do something about his situation.
The only one who knows the plan.
The plan they both came up with.
The plan that was going to be extremely painful.
Jesus comes to the Father hours before he would be put on the cross and he asked for another way.
He says Father look if it is possible, God please let this cup pass from me.
Father if there is a way that is not painful, Father is there is another way to bring salvation to our people, lets do that.
Father this is too hard.
Father if there is another way let it be.
We totally get where Jesus is coming from here.
We do this.
We go to God and tell him what we want.
What we desire to happen.
But Jesus does something that many fail to do.
He finishes all that by saying, God not my will but your will be done.
Jesus even though he would rather have the cup pass from him.
He understands that it is the Father’s will not his that has to play out.
The Father’s will is greater then His will.
In this moment it Jesus submitting to the Father’s will.
Jesus is willing to say, Father you heard my will, but it is not my will that has to be done, it is yours.
Then he leaves and heads back to this disciples they are sleeping.
This is Jesus’ last night, he is wrestling with the agony of the cross coming up and here they were sleeping.
He wakes them up and then He goes back to the father again.
Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”
Father if salvation can’t come unless I do it then so be it.
Father let it be your will not mine, but yours.
Even if that means I have to be used by you for your glory I will do it.
He leaves, the disciples are sleeping again, and then comes back a third time.
After leaving them, he went away again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.
Three times Jesus comes to the Father in a matter of minutes to beg the Father for the cup to pass.
Jesus was asking for the Father to grant His will.
But the Father couldn’t grant Him that.
It was not in His will.
But it was the willingness of Jesus to say, okay— its not in your will.
I will do what you have asked of me.
I will go to the cross to be the redemption.
Jesus understood that the Father’s will was better than His will.
We ask God for his will in our life, but what we fail to do is to be okay when he says no, or when his will doesn’t line up with ours.
Like I said last week, when our views don’t line up with God’s view we are the ones that need to change not God.
It is the same this week, when our will is off or counter to God’s will we need to change.
I wanted to talk about God’s will more than anything else because I don’t think we truly address this well.
You:
Because here is what this means for you.
I think like Jesus you can go to the father and present what is happening, and what you truly desire and want.
And God hears you.
You get this incredible privilege to have the God of the universe listen to your plea.
Think about that.
It is an incredible privilege.
It is not a right, but a privilege to be heard by the almighty.
You need to approach the throne with humility and respect.
And I think we can do this well.
It is the submitting part that you have an issue.
You have no problem going to the father and laying down the wants.
But it is admitting to God— God it is your will not mine that we have an issue with.
Because when you don’t get your way, how do you respond?
Many times you take matters into your own hands.
You try to do it on your own.
You say God didn’t answer me, so now I guess I have to do it on my own.
Or sometime what you do is you begin to look for anything that could be a sign from God, like we begin to over-spiritualize everything.
Last bagel! #blessed!
Wait bagel begins with a B— b stands for boy— I know that God wanted me to date Adam!
Like— yo its a bagel.
So how do you determine God’s will?
We have talked about submitting to God’s will but it is important to know God’s will.
God’s will according to Jesus was substance for him.
“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” Jesus told them.
God’s will was food for the very soul of Christ.
As in doing God’s will filled up.
I don’t know if I can say that for me?
Like doing God’s will fills me up?
It’s important that’s for sure--
Because look at Matthew 7:21
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
I don’t know about you what I want to know what God’s will is right!
And not only do I want to know it but I want to do it.
I think God’s will can be broken into three parts.
His glorification
Advancement of His Kingdom
Salvation and sanctification through Christ
His glorification:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
God’s will is for Him to be glorified.
I know that it sounds so arrogant.
If anyone in this room were to say— my will is for you to glorify me— we would hate you.
But understand that we are not God.
The God of the universe wants you to bring Him glory.
Because he deserves it all.
All of your worship.
All of you praise!
He wants it all.
And he deserves it all.
2. The Advancement of His kingdom.
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,
God’s kingdom is what will be eternal.
For ever and ever.
It is our purpose to share the gospel so that others and accept the gospel which further’s the kingdom.
God’s kingdom is what we will be living in— in the future.
3. Salvation and sanctification through Christ.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Jesus says that God’s will is to see others believe in Him and be saved.
And then we see the process of sanctification.
It is one thing to believe and be saved but there is an on going growing that needs to happen as well.
This process is call sanctification.
It is finding freedom for sin and in ongoing growth in your life to become more like Christ.
Here is what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians:
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
Sanctification does have to do with sin and his will is that you abstain from sexual immorality— sexual integrity.
But that is not where it ends.
It means that you have control over your bodies, your anger, your greed, your gossip, your lustful eyes, your hate, your envy, your thoughts.
This is the will of God.
His glorification
His Kingdom’s advancement
And your salvation and sanctification through Christ.
And God’s will for your life.
Is the same:
That you glorify Him
That you share the gospel
and that you come to a saving faith and continue the process of sanctification through Christ.
That is God’s will in a nutshell.
There are of course things that we ask and seek guidance on but when it comes to deciphering what the will of God is— if it breaks any of these three its already off.
If we find ourselves getting the glory— that is against God’s will.
If we are asking good for our kingdom to be built that is against God’s will.
If we are asking for God’s will to date some we can mate— that is not in God’s will.
If we are asking God for things that will cause us to get into sin— that goes against God’s will.
We:
I want you to understand that it is good to come to the father and lay out your needs but at the end of the day it is for God to grant his will.
And look sometimes you may have to decipher it.
How do we know?
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
And you know the best way to do that?
#1: Go to his word.
and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
God’s word is living and active and if you want to know God’s will you have to spend time with God.
We don’t know His will because we don’t seek his will.
Here is where we start.
So when some boy says God told me that we were to date and have sex we know that is not in God’s will.
When someone says look God told me that it is okay to spill the tea because we should pray for them.
No No No.
That goes against His word.
#2: Number 2- we seek counsel.
Without counsel plans fail,
but with many advisers they succeed.
And it is not just any counsel it is counsel from someone who is mature in their faith and they are also seeking to do the will of God.
It does no good to seek counsel from someone who is not mature in their faith nor is it a good idea to see counsel from someone who is not growing their faith.
I love that proverbs says seek many advisers.
Now too many can get complicated, but have like 3-5 people that can offer you good counsel and if those people are in one accord that is good counsel.
#3: And lastly there is peace in knowing God’s will.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The peace of God is perfect.
It does not leave you longing for a different decision.
God is not confusing.
And when you chase after God’s will in your life you will find His peace.
I implore you this week to ask the question what would Jesus do?
He would love first
He would seek and do the will of the Father.
Let’s pray