All right, everybody, thank you so much for joining us here yet again at the Everlasting Truth broadcast, where, you guessed it, we give you everlasting truth in an ever-changing world. Thank you for being here, listening in today. I hope you'll open your heart, I hope you'll open your ears, I hope you'll open your mind to the Word of God, and you'll let God's Word renovate, renew your heart, your mind, your soul, and if it goes against maybe previous patterns of living. Would you change your patterns and change your way today? The Bible said, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? He said, by taking heed thereto according to thy word. So I hope we'll do that. I hope we'll take heed to what God says in his word today. We'll take a brief minute and this one this broadcast is kind of special to me because I want to talk to you about a subject that I have wrestled for for a long long time and still do from time to time. But God showed me something in a passage here just within the last week or so that really radically changed the way that I thought about this certain subject. And so I want to share this with you, and I hope it'll be as helpful to you as God proved for it to be in my life. And I am so grateful that the Lord does that, aren't you? That when we're struggling with things and we pray about it, we say, God, I need you to help me with this. I need help understanding this. Show me what you want me to do about this. that God will do that. The Bible still said with absolute certainty and verity in James 1 5, that if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, which giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. And so God's promised to give you and I wisdom, but he said we got to ask for it. And I'm glad that when I sought the Lord on this issue, he helped me. And without further ado, I'll go ahead and tell you what the issue is. For a long time, and this is just me as a person, I struggle very hard with sometimes discerning if God wants me to do something or not. And I'm not talking about things that the Bible clearly says you should or should not do. I'm talking about sometimes, maybe, let me give you an example. So we just got done in this broadcast talking about supporting missionaries. I know it's a Bible principle. Support missions. I don't have to ask the Lord about that. But the kind of things that would weigh me down is I would ask myself the question, okay, well, what missionary do I support? That answer is not necessarily in the Bible. The Bible does not say, I want Calvary Baptist Church to support brother so-and-so going to such and such a country. You don't find that here. You find a principle, give to missions, but the way that that works out and the way that you know what missionaries to support, when and how to support them and how much to support them for. This is something that you have to ask God for wisdom on, and for a long time I struggled with making decisions like this that the Bible didn't speak expressly on, and the reason being is because I was so fearful I was going to make the wrong decision. And I've talked to other people about it, and they kind of had the mentality that they would liken it to a game of baseball. And they would say, if the ball comes at me, I might mess up, I might get it wrong, I might miss, but I'm going to swing as hard as I can, and I'm at least going to take my best shot. Whereas my philosophy of life for a lot of times was, okay, well, while the ball's coming at me, I'm going to think so hard and so long about how to hit the ball, because I don't want to miss, that in actuality, the ball's going to fly right by me while I'm thinking, and I've never even swung. And I didn't like being that way. And what I've discovered about myself is that I am very much so, and I'm just being honest with you people that are out there in radio land this morning, but I discovered that I am what they call a critical thinker. And I think very critically about things. I've always been that way since a child. When I think through something, I break it down in my mind and I consider all the possible outcomes. And I look at this decision and I follow out its ripple effects and I try to figure out what is going to be the total outcome years down the road from this decision. And while that is healthy to a degree, Sometimes it can be unhealthy, and sometimes it can get in the way of doing what we call living by faith. You see, I am a lot like Philip, and I have a feeling I'm probably talking to some Philips this morning. That's the way you do things. You are very analytical, and it's a strong suit in many areas of your life. You make a lot of good decisions, but then in areas it is very stressful in your life because You don't really know how to move forward and just trust God in certain decisions because you're so afraid, well, what if God doesn't side with me because I got it wrong? And this is kind of like Philip. In John chapter number 6, we find the feeding of the 5,000, and Jesus has made the decision that he's going to feed the 5,000. And it says in John 6 and 5, when Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip. And I believe there's a reason he said to Philip, not the rest of the disciples. He looked specifically at Philip because he knew Philip had a problem. And he asked Philip this question. He says, whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? Now, Philip, you'll find in your Bible, is an analytical guy. He's a critical thinker. And the Bible said in verse number six, and this he said to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do. So, Jesus has a plan, and we know this plan is a supernatural plan that Philip could have never predicted. We know Jesus is going to take the loaves and the fish. He's going to feed 5,000 with just a little bit of food. That makes no sense to an analytical mind. There's no way that Philip could have sought out, reasoned out, and worked out this answer to what Jesus has told him to do. And Jesus knew that. And so he's prompting the mind of Philip to think this through. And it said in verse number six, this he said to prove him. I want you to listen to Philip's answer. Philip said in verse number seven, Philip answered him, 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little. You see, Philip is a guy, he's a numbers guy. He's a reason guy, he's a logic guy. Phillip is the kind of man who wants to add up and he's looking and he's saying, okay, we got this many fish, we got this much bread, there's this many people, and x plus y equals z, and therefore, Lord, it's not enough. And Philip is very reasonable, intentional, and deliberate in his thought process. And I'm sure there are times where that helped Philip. And there are times where that type of mentality has even helped me. But there are other areas in my life in which it has been a curse. And what I mean by that is like the analogy I gave you. There have been times where I wanted to do something that I believe would honor the Lord. But I wasn't sure that the Lord wanted me to do it for certain, and therefore I don't do it at all. And instead of swinging at the ball and taking my best shot, I watch the ball go right past me and I never swing at all. And it's stressful because you're constantly wracking your mind. trying to figure out, well, does the Lord want me to do this? And maybe he doesn't. And I would look at examples in the Bible, like David. And when David wanted to build the tabernacle, that seemed like a wonderful thing, didn't it? Why wouldn't God want David to build him a house? David's coming from a good place in his heart. And David is saying, Lord, if I'm going to build me a house, I'm going to build you one too. And I'm going to build you a great house. By all standards of David's thinking, why would God not want David to build him a house? And so David starts the process and gathering everything. He's going to build the tabernacle. And we find out later in the book, God didn't want David to build him a tabernacle. And I was always afraid. What if I'm going to make a decision like David that seems biblical? Why wouldn't God want me to do this? And I would have some kind of biblical principle or some worshipful insight and intention behind it. So of course God would want me to do this. And I would move into something only to find out God didn't want me to do that. And I was so afraid of that happening. that a lot of times I never built anything because I was worried that I would be building something God did not want me to build. And I think that's reasonable within a degree. I don't think you throw all caution to the wind and you just run. You need to use discernment. You need to pray about things. But there's also a point in time where your analytical mind and your analyzing becomes crippling. And that's where it was for me. I'm just baring my heart to you this morning. And I brought this example to some brethren, and I discussed it with them. And they made the case every time, and they're absolutely right. And it really challenged my thinking. Even though David set out to build him a house, build God a house, and God said, no, that's not my will, David. I don't want you to do it. God did not punish David for trying to do the right thing. God simply sent Nathan, and Nathan said, no, God's not going to let you do that. You can't build him a house. Your son's going to do it, though. And God simply redirected David into the purpose that God did have for him, didn't he? He said, David, you're not going to build the house, but you can gather the materials. That way, when Solomon comes along, he'll build it. And God lovingly said, David, I appreciate you trying to do that, but here's what I really want you to do. And moved David into what his actual purpose was. God did not look at David and said, David, you messed it up. I didn't want you to build me no house. And you made the wrong decision, even though you meant well, and now you're out of here. God graciously and lovingly directed him where he wanted him. There were times where the apostle Paul wanted to go preach in areas that the Holy Ghost didn't tell him to go to. For example, he was forbidden of the Holy Ghost to go preach in Asia. Now, by Paul's understanding, hey, I'm to go preach the gospel to every creature. I'm going everywhere, Asia, whatever, whenever, however, I'm going. And that's a biblical perspective in many ways. But at the same point in time, when areas came up that God said, no, Paul, I don't specifically want you right here, right now. The Lord didn't bash Paul for it. He simply sent a prophet and told him, don't go. Don't go. And so what I'm telling you is if you've got something you want to do for the Lord, and maybe you're really wrestling with it. You say, I don't know for certain though, that God wants me to do this. You got some biblical principle. that says, Hey, this would be within the will of God, but you're waiting on kind of that, that voice from heaven for God to spell it out in the clouds and say, you, I want you to go do this. And you're, you're kind of waiting on that. Don't worry too terribly hard, pray about it, proceed with discernment, proceed with caution. But at the end of the day, the Lord will direct you where he wants you. If you're willing to be directed. Now it's one thing to go into a situation and say, I don't care what God thinks. This is what I'm going to do and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. Yeah, God might let you walk off and go ahead and mess something up because you didn't seek his counsel. But if you're walking into it and you're saying, Lord, I'm here because I believe your word gives me this calling and principle, and I'm trying to apply it, I'm trying to live it out, I believe God will lovingly direct you and guide you. And this was such a weight off my shoulders when I discovered this. And I know I'm talking a lot. I'm about to give you the passage that God used to communicate this truth to me. But I wanted to lay it out for you first, because I'm sure there are people out there that are listening this morning that are just like that. You are scared to death you're going to get it wrong. And we're not talking about living wrong. We're talking about you want to do something for God, but you don't know that the exact way God wants you to do it. And so instead of doing anything at all, you sit around and you wait and you worry and you don't do anything. You spend all your time in fear. If that's you, listen to Philippians chapter number two. Take your Bible, look at Philippians chapter number two, and I want to give you what God gave me, and I pray that this will be a help to you. I prayed before this broadcast that it would be a help to you. So let's examine it through the power of the Spirit. Let's ask God to help us. Lord, teach your word to us. communicate it to us if there's one struggling here today father trying to figure out what your will for their life is God I'm asking you make it clear to them give them guidance and direction you said if we act lack wisdom and we ask of you you would give it please give it to these people now in Jesus name we pray amen Philippians chapter 2 verse number 12 The Bible said, Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Look at verse 13 closely. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That verse is massive. What he just said is if you have a desire to do any one particular thing for God that's within the will of God, it's God that worked that will inside of you. Moving on to verse number 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Let me give you what God gave me. Verse number 14 rattled me. When I read this verse 14, he said, do all things without murmurings and disputing. And I I'm a, I'm a word study guy. And I began to study out the words and that word disputing there. He said, do all things without disputing. And that word disputing means doubt, confusion, anxiety, worry, fear. And it can have an internal sense. It's not just talking about external arguing, external worry, external disputing. It's also talking about internal. And for me, Every decision it seems that I come to, I have this internal disputing. And there's this argument going on in my heart and my mind. Do I do this or do I do that? Should I do this? And then I play devil's advocate against my own conclusion. And I'm reasoning all this stuff out and there's this giant dispute going on in my mind about should I do this or should I not? And I spend weeks and months and years disputing and disputing and disputing trying to figure out what I am supposed to do. And when I read verse number 14 and he said, do all things without disputings, I said, my goodness, how do I do that? And I began to back up and read the context of this chapter, these few verses here. And God spoke to my heart about how to do things without disputing. Verse number 12 and 13. Let's look at these again. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. So God is telling you to work something out. He's telling you to do some good works. He's telling you to do something with your salvation. Work out your own salvation, not work for your salvation. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I would look at the works that I wanted to do, and I'd say, well, Lord, I want to do this work for you, but I don't know for certain that you want me to do this work. But then he tells you, in verse number 13, you're going to work out, in verse number 12, what God has already worked in, in verse 13. And you ought to circle these words. Verse 12, circle work out. And verse 13, you ought to circle where it says, worketh in. He said, verse 12, work it out. Verse 13, he said, for it is God which worketh in you. He says, I want you to work out what God has already worked in. Now, what is it that God has worked in? It says, verse 13, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and do of his good pleasure. If you have a will and a desire. to do something that is within the pleasurable means of God. God has written in His Word. He has given you something in the Scriptures where God said, this is my desire. I am pleased with this. I like this. This is what I want you to do. If you have a will to do something that falls within the biblical will of God, do you know who gave you that will? Verse 13 said, it's God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Anything you want to do that is in alignment with the Word of God has been given you by God. You see, when I began to wrestle with the thought of if God was calling me to pastor or not, God spoke to me through a certain verse. And the Bible says, giving the qualifications of a bishop, he said, if any man desire the office of a bishop, the first qualification is you have to have a will to do it. He said, if any man desire the office of a bishop, let him be blameless, the husband of one wife. And he goes down the list of these external qualifications, but the first qualification is an internal qualification of a will. And this is an indication of the calling on one's life, is God gives you this will. Now, you have to make sure that that will lines up with other biblical parameters. For example, if a woman says, well, I have a desire to be a pastor, and so God gave me this desire, we know that's not true because that doesn't line up with the rest of the qualifications that He gives in His Word. But for me, what I found was I met these qualifications, and I had this desire burning, and ultimately, God would speak to me and show me, this is my will for your life. I am calling you to the pastoral ministry. But it began with a desire, and it was something I wanted to do. It was a will that I had, but I wrestled for six months. God, I want to do this, but do you want me to do this? And so when that will is in us to do something that is in accordance with God's word, then it's God that's working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So if you've got the desire for it, that is a sign immediately that God may be doing this work inside of you and calling you to it. So in verse number 13, he told you to work out the will that God had worked in. And in verse number 14, he said, don't worry about it. I'm trying to alliterate this for you. Verse 14, do all things without murmurings and disputings. Remember that disputing that's worry, fear going back and forth. For me it was worry if I was in the will of God or not. He said don't do all things without murmuring disputing. If God puts the will inside of you in verse number 13 then verse number 14 says do it without worrying about it. Don't argue internally about oh I don't know if I'm supposed to do this or not. Verse 15, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. And then look at verse 16, holding forth the word of life, holding forth the word of life. So in this working out that began, and my Schofield Bible breaks 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 up as one parenthetical passage. They are one contextual passage stuck together. And verse 12 began with telling us that God wants us to do some works. And then we're trying to figure out what works does God want us to do. And in a part of that journey of figuring out what works God wants us to do, we're talking about the fact that it's the works that number one, God works in the will inside of us to do in verse number 13. But in verse number 16, it has to be works that is found in the word of life. He said, holding forth the word of life. It's got to be in alignment with the word of God. But if you're looking at any particular decision, and I hope God has shown this to you the way he did me, but let me just summarize quickly. If you're looking at any particular decision and you're saying, well, I need to know if it's God's will for me to do this. Maybe it's a calling on your life. Maybe it's a ministry you want to start. Maybe it's a family decision that you want to honor God in who knows, but you want to do something for the Lord. And you're just not sure if God wants you to do it this way. Let me say this. Number one, hold forth the word of life. Does it line up with the word of God? Can you find biblical principles that support your desire? And if you can, and you've prayed about it, and God's not shown you where it's unbiblical, and that will and that desire is still swelling inside of you, that fire in your bones that says, I want to do this. I feel like I should be doing this. I feel like I should be doing this. He said, you need to recognize that it's God which is working in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Maybe that's God telling you to go. And I don't know who this is for. I know it was for me when God showed me. But maybe there's somebody this morning wrestling with a call. God's wanting them to do something and they're torn. Should I be doing this? Let me ask you this. Does it line up with the word of God? And has God put a fire in you for it? A will, a desire. He said, if any man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. It begins with a will. If you got the will and it lines up with his word, do all things without murmuring and disputing. Don't worry. Let me say that for you one more time. If you have the will for it and God's got a word for it, don't worry about it. Do it. I hope this will be a help to you. Once again, this is not a commendation to just throw caution out the window and not be discerning. Oh no, you better pray about it. You better take some time and seek it out. But there also can be a time where you become crippled and paralyzed and don't ever do anything because you're so scared you're going to do something wrong. May God bless you. We'll see you next broadcast.