Hello and welcome to Living Word Bible Church. Today our format is different, not just because we can't meet in our usual location, but instead of continuing Exodus, where we've been studying for months now, I'm going to focus on a topic that has One question I get frequently from both teenagers and adults is, what is God's will? What is God's will for my life? How do I know God's will? And that's an important question. So we're going to discuss it together today. What does the Bible say about knowing and doing God's will? I'm going to answer that question by asking and answering some other questions. And you're welcome to follow along if you'd like with the handout. I provided a PDF version with this sermon on Sermon Audio. Let's start with a question. Is it possible to know God's will? Yes, in fact, God has commanded us to know his will. Here are some verses. Romans 12, 1 and 2, probably familiar to you. I 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. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. that you may prove, here it is, prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We're supposed to prove what is the will of God. Ephesians 5.17 is a little more succinct. There it says, therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Colossians 1.9. For this reason also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." To be filled with the knowledge of his will. So the Bible tells us that we're supposed to prove God's will, to understand God's will, and even be filled with the knowledge of his will. So obviously, we must be able to know God's will. But that leads us to a second question. How can I know God's will? Now, if you know me at all, you know that my answer to that is going to involve the Bible. And it does. But the Bible is a big book, and it's not arranged topically. I can't go to the table of contents and look for the chapter that's about God's will. So what can I do? I can study the passages that talk about God's will. You can do an online search for the phrase, the will of God, or you can use an old fashioned concordance and look up the word will and see how it fits and where it shows up. But the good news is I've already done that work for you today. I've located five passages in the New Testament that explicitly state clearly state what God's will is. These are five things we can do today, or should I say be today, in the Lord's strength and by His grace that assure us that we're doing His will. The way I figure it, if I obey God's revealed will today, I'll be prepared to do God's will tomorrow and each day in the future. Another way to say that is that if I do the part of God's will that He's already revealed to me, in His time He'll reveal what else He wants me to do. So here they are. Five things that we should be that are without question God's will. The first one is be submissive. Be submissive. And in this context it means obey your boss. This comes from Ephesians 6, verses 5 and 6, where it says, bond servants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart as to Christ. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but as bond servants of Christ, doing the will Is that what you expected me to say? More importantly, is that what you expected God to say in terms of obeying His will, to obey your boss? For those of you who've been studying the Ten Commandments with us, you may remember that we talked recently about honoring our parents and submitting to all our God-given authorities. If you're a student, for example, you should obey your teachers and administrators. If you're self-employed or retired, Simply obey the other authorities God has placed in your life. Unless someone is telling you to do something that goes against God's clearly stated will, you should obey your authority. You should obey your authority happily, as if you were doing it to God himself, because you are. The Ephesians passage I just read says that, and so does Colossians 3.23. Let's look at a second character quality. Number two is be pure. First Thessalonians 4.3 says this, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality. We're going to dig into this one a little more next Sunday when we return to the Ten Commandments, but for now understand that it's God's will for us to be pure in our thoughts and our actions. That's what this says. This is the will of God, your sanctification. This is how you please God. This is how you become more like Jesus. This is how you obey the command to be holy, to abstain from sexual immorality. That includes what we look at, listen to, watch, read, and think about. Are your thoughts pure in God's eyes? If so, you're doing God's will. What about your actions? Are you honoring God with your body? Here's a parallel passage from 1 Corinthians 6, this is verses 18 to 20. There it says, flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? for you were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. God has redeemed us by his blood. That means Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sin and my sin. And because he has redeemed us, we belong to him. Our bodies belong to him. So I'll ask this, are your actions pure in God's eyes? If so, you're doing God's will. These next three go together. This is number three, be joyful, prayerful, and thankful. Be joyful, prayerful, and thankful. This is from 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 16 through 18. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. What is God's will for my life? That I would rejoice in Him, pray to Him, and give thanks to Him constantly. When should I find joy in God and His ways? All the time. But I can rejoice in God and find joy in Him regardless of my circumstances. That's His will. When should I pray? And by that I mean talk to God. Again, the answer is all the time. And by that I don't mean hold up in some tower somewhere praying to God all day long. But what I mean is that we can and should always be in a spirit of prayer, constantly talking to God throughout the day, because that's God's will. When should I give thanks to God? You probably guessed it. All the time. I should have a constant sense of gratitude for the life He's given me, the many blessings He has given me, the relationships He's given me, the way He's provided for me, the way He's protected me, and so on. That is God's will. How are you doing in those areas? Are you obeying God's will, doing His will, by thanking Him, by praying to Him, by rejoicing in Him? The fourth characteristic I should have in order to obey God's will may sound familiar. May sound like a repeat, but the context is different this time. Number four is be submissive. And by that, I mean obey government authorities. 1 Peter 2, verses 13 through 15 say this. Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." This time we learn that God's will is to submit to government authorities. Other passages teach us to pray for government authorities. And we should. But this one specifically teaches us to submit to the government authorities that God has raised up, and to obey them, and to obey their laws, provided that they align with God's laws. That's God's will. And I believe this fourth passage has a bonus command. And that is, do good. Or we could say, do right. Live an honorable life. Why? Because obeying government authorities in this surrounding context, that's the statement about God's will in verse 15. That we must do right by obeying the government, and in so doing, we will silence those who falsely accuse us or say that we're somehow dangerous to society. That's God's will to do good, to do right, to obey government authorities. That leaves us with one to go. you'll never guess what the blank is for number five. This characteristic, the fifth characteristic, ways I know I'm doing God's will, be submissive. But in this context, it means to trust God in times of suffering. 1 Peter 4 19. Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good as to a faithful creator. You mean suffering is a part of God's will? Yes, sometimes it is. Maybe I should say often it is in a fallen world. Job is the classic example of this, but he's only one example. Many of the people described in the Bible suffered, and most notably Jesus. But what is your attitude towards suffering? Are you mad at the world or some other person because you're suffering? Are you mad at God? This verse tells us to commit ourselves to God. Why? Because he's faithful. To trust ourselves to a faithful creator. He's the one who made us. He's the one who keeps us. And to suffer faithfully is also God's will. Now, some of you are probably thinking, Bob, you didn't tell me what to do about my job decision, or my financial decision, or my health care decision, or my education decision, or even my dating decision. How do I know what God's will is for those? And as you've noticed, I haven't told you what to do in those specific decisions. In this sermon, I can't address every one of those issues, and even if I could, I'm not God, so I don't necessarily know His will for you about those. If you're part of our church family, I'd be glad to talk with you, listen to you, pray with you about some of those decisions concerning God's will. But as I said at the beginning, God commands us to know and do His will. I think it's important for us to know what the Bible says is doing God's will because we can be confident if we're doing those things, if we're being those things day in and day out, that we're doing His will. I believe with all my heart that if we obey the Lord and what He's shown us in His word and seek Him daily, He will show us His will. He will guide us. He will direct us. I appreciate what Warren Weersbe wrote. When you seek to edify, that means build up, when you seek to edify others and glorify the Lord, know what to do. Build up others. Build up God. Glorify His name. You'll know what to do. As we obey what He's shown us to do, He'll show us the next step and the next step and the next step after that. In closing, here are some Proverbs and promises that may encourage you as you seek God's will in both big and small decisions. Proverbs 16, nine. A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. And as I read through these, pay attention to path and step. Path, the more general trajectory of our lives, but steps, the incremental, the day-to-day, putting one foot in front of the other. That's true of this next one. Psalm 37, 23. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way. He cares about the big and the small. Those seemingly insignificant decisions and then the big life-changing ones. And he'll direct us through them. He'll order our steps. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, some of the best known verses on this topic. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Acknowledge Him. Don't assume you know what's best for you. Seek His will. If you're seeking to do what pleases the Lord, guess what? It's gonna please you, and it's gonna be doing His will. What's another way we know His will? Psalm 119, 105. Your word, the Bible, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. God's word will show us His will. That's what we've been doing this morning with these five different areas, these five passages we've looked at. Here's one of my favorites, Psalm 37, 4. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. If we delight in Him, He'll give us our desires. But here's the thing. If we delight in Him, He may change our desires. And that's what we want Him to do, to change our desires to be in alignment with His will. So we delight in Him. He gives us our desires. Those desires, if we're delighting in Him, will be to know and do His will. More specifically, Psalm 32 verse 8 says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye, my eye upon you. I will see your path. I will see where you're going, where you are. I will guide you. I'm sure many of you use a GPS, you use your phone or something to help you in a geographic location that you're not familiar with, you need directions. So you're glad that it knows where you are by using satellites. In the same way, God sees where you are. He'll guide you. He'll tell you the next steps on your path. He'll tell you to turn here, to turn there, or to keep going straight. I want to add one more here. This isn't a promise or a proverb like the ones I've been reading, but it's an important one to consider. 1 John 2.17, the end of that verse says, he who does the will of God abides forever. The first and I would say most basic part of obeying God's will is to become his son or daughter, become his child. How do we do that? We do that by faith, by putting our belief in him, by believing in the son he has sent, Jesus, who died for my sin, for your sin, who rose again the third day. I believe that I have a sin problem that I can't do anything about, and I believe that God has sent the Rescuer, Jesus, and that He is the Savior from my sin. I can call out to Him. I can pray to Him. I can ask Him to forgive me and to save me, and He will. That is God's will. Peter also wrote that God's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I'm gonna close in prayer, and I hope that you will pray as well, that you will pray that you will know, that you will do God's will. If you do what he shows you to do, he'll show you the next step, you'll know what decision to make when you come to a crossroads. He desires us to know, he's commanded us to know, he wants us to know, and then to do, to obey his will. Let's pray. that you've given us your word. We're thankful that you've given us your Holy Spirit to dwell inside us. And Lord, there are times, we confess, there are times we don't know what to do. We don't know which way to go. Or there are times that we run from your will and intentionally disobey your will. And we confess that that is wrong, that is sin. We want to do your will. We want to know what it is. And sometimes we lack knowledge. So we thank you that you've promised that anyone who lacks wisdom can come to you and ask freely. You won't turn us away, but you will give us of your wisdom. And we pray that you would do that. I pray for anyone who's listening to this, who is struggling with a decision today, desiring to know your will. I pray that you would reveal yourself and reveal your will to that one today. that we would seek you and that we would find you, that we would continue to search for you with all our hearts. Lord, we pray, too, for anyone who is listening who does not know you as Savior, that that person would be obedient to your will by receiving your gift of salvation. Lord, may we be diligent to seek you, to seek your will reading about. You'll guide us with your eye. You'll make our paths straight. We ask you to do that today. Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.