Good morning. I trust God has given you a good week. This week is a blessing to have the sunshine outside and to have the nice weather and our ability to still walk. And I thank God that we can still get out right now. And even though we can't be with one another, we can spend time in God's creation and get out and about. And praise God we can spend time in his word as well. And I'm thankful for the opportunity that we have on Thursday nights. to study the book of James and look forward to what God is going to do in our hearts tonight as we study his word. As you know, our furlough plans are currently on hold until God opens the door for us to be able to go. But a few weeks ago, we didn't know that, so we're preparing to go and getting everything ready. And part of that preparation was a routine health check for myself and for my wife. And, you know, it's kind of like servicing your car before a long journey, just making sure I went in for a health screening and had diagnostic tests that they do, you know, to make sure that there's no problems. And part of the diagnostics is just questions and answers and asking you things to get a sense of what's really kind of going on there. And by the way, I was fine and I am fine. But it's important to have those diagnostic questions asked. And what we're looking at here in the book of James tonight is God's will versus man's will. And as we consider that topic, it's good to have diagnostic questions that we can ask and discern, is this God's will or is this man's will? Not everything we can do is what God wants us to do. We have many options in our life that we could pursue and things that we could do, but not everything that is in front of us is what God would have us do. God's will is very specific, even on a day-to-day basis. Paul, the apostle, didn't plan his missionary journeys. God directed those journeys in Romans 1 verse 10. He says, making requests, if by any means, now at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. And Paul was burdened to go to them, but Paul didn't just go, well, I'm burdened to go to them, I'm gonna go to them. He waited on God and prayed about what God would have him to do. Romans 15, 32, that I may come unto you with joy by the will of God and may with you be refreshed. Even as an apostle, Paul wasn't an apostle because he got saved and he thought, hey, that's a great thing. I wanna serve God as an apostle. Paul was an apostle because of God's will and God's guidance in his employment and his calling. 1 Corinthians 1.1, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. And Paul would often make that statement in the opening of his letters that his calling was in the will of God. Jesus, of course, as the great example, did God's will perfectly in his life. John 4, 34, Jesus said unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. And so the Savior would, every day, just get up, and his purpose in life was to fulfill his Father's will. Matthew 26, 39, he went a little further, fell on his face and he prayed saying, oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup, the cup of his death and suffering and sin being put upon him and the punishment of man's sin, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And even there in that garden, as he faced incredible adversity in the will of God, he prayed about it, but as he prayed, he said, not my will, but thy will. And so tonight we could say categorically, Jesus wants us to do the will of God for our lives. Mark 3 35 says, for whosoever shall do the will of God, the same as my brother and my sister and my mother. And so if we want that close walk with the Lord, certainly that we have through our salvation, that walk is best done in and only done in the will of God. And we can find God's will and do it. And so I'd ask us tonight, are you in the center of the will of God? Am I in the center of the will of God? Romans 12 verse two says, and be not 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. And if we're walking rightly with God, we ought to be able to discern this is the will of God, this is the will of God, and be absolutely convinced that we're in the very center of the will of God. Ephesians 6, 6 says, So again, as we come to that topic this evening, We're going to take diagnostic questions. First of all, about the will of God. Is this the will of God? And then diagnostic questions. Is this the will of man? As we seek to discern whether or not we're in the center of the will of God. Let's pray and ask God to bless as we study James this evening. Father, we're thankful for the grace that you give. Thank you for the opportunity that we have now to come to the word of God. And father, we are thankful for the nice things. Thank you. Thank you for the sunshine. Thank you for spring and the life that is coming into our gardens. And Father, we're thankful for friends and family and loved ones and technology. Father, as we have often thanked you for that, we do thank you for that means of communicating the truth of the Word of God to one another that our church can still meet together online, even as we did this week on Zoom. And Father, what a blessing that is to be with each other, even though we're apart. And Father, I praise you that we could do that in prayer as well, that we could be with each other in spirit. And Father, I pray for that tonight as we study the Word of God together And as we take the time to invest in our church and in our personal life, that God, you bless us. Father, that you grow our church, that you develop our church. Father, that you'd help us to be well-rounded Christians. Thank you for the book of James as we look at it, that it's just a practical guide in Christianity. And Father, as we talk about a very important topic this evening, the will of God, may the spirit of God give us insight into your truth. And Father, I can't speak without your enablement. I commit myself now to your good care that the Spirit of God would guide me, please, and enable me as I speak, that I speak as you want me to speak. And Father, that your truth would be accurately communicated and that it would speak to our hearts. And Father, we need that. We need revival. Father, we need a spiritual awakening. Father, we need you to quicken us in these times of isolation and bless our time in prayer and bless our time in the Word of God and bless our time under the preaching of the Word of God. And Father, would you make it more powerful because of your mercy, your love, and your grace, and your goodness to us. Thank you for your help tonight. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. And so we can find God's will and do it. So let's take the diagnostic test that James has for us here this evening. So the first question is, is this God's will? Is this God's will? Because it says in verse 17, the wisdom that is from above. The wisdom that's from above is God given wisdom. It's what James spoke about already in James chapter one, verse five, when he said, if any of you lack wisdom, let them ask of God. that giveth to all men liberally and abradeth not, and it shall be given him." If it's going to be given him, it's going to be given him from above. It is going to come down from the Father, the direction and the leading of God. And we often don't know what we ought to do. We have to ask God, God, what should we do? Remember last week, we were talking about walkings and talkings. And we had ended with the deceived walk, and that's a person that is walking outside of the will of God, but they think that they're walking in the will of God. And the Bible told us in verse 14, if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descended not from above, but it's earthly, sensual, devilish, for where envying and strife is, there's confusion. and every evil work. And remember, it was talking about let him show out of his good conversation, his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and strife and these things in your life, you're not in your conversation, your lifestyle. walking in that place of obedience to God, you're contrary to that, so you're outside of the will of God. And so again, when we're talking about a lifestyle, a walk, it's what God would have us to do, and we rightly call what God would have us to do the will of God. So somebody that thinks they're doing what pleases God, but they are not doing what pleases God, they are outside of the will of God, and it's not wisdom from above. And so is it the will of God? Is it the will of God? So here we come to the diagnostic questions about the will of God. Well, first of all, is it pure? Is it pure? It says, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure. Notice the word first. It has priority in this list. God's will, first of all, is holy. It is something that is separate from sin. It's something that is sanctified. If it's unclean, you could say it very easily, if it's unclean, it's not of God. My, many in our family have moved since we've been in the United States. Even this past year, several of our family have moved and we're looking forward to going back to the States and seeing their houses and where they live and whatnot. But we've seen their houses online, you know, sharing the same mediums that we have here tonight. Just being able to look into their house and see it. But let's imagine that we had not had that opportunity and we got to my in-laws house and she wasn't there. My mother-in-law was gone and father-in-law were gone and you had the opportunity to show me around. If you took me into that house and that house was filthy and a mess, And we walked back out of that place and you said, well, how did you like your mother-in-law's house? I'd look at you and say, you're trying to deceive me. You're trying to pull some trick on me because I know my mother-in-law and my mother-in-law, if you can't perform surgery in any bedroom or any room in her house, it's not her house. She's a very tidy person, a very clean person. And so I know that about my mother-in-law. But you know what I know about God is God is a holy God. And God is a pure God. And so if somebody would come and say, I'm in the will of God and it's something that is impure, then I would know that they're a deceived person because God's will is always pure and always in accordance with his word. Sadly, I know a man that was a preacher that counseled a woman that was a married woman and committed adultery with her. and then divorced his wife and proceeded to, this woman got divorced and he married her and he said that God led him to do it. You know, it's very easy for me to take James chapter 3 and the word of God and say, you know what? God did not lead him to do that. The word of God says that God's will is pure. God's will would not lead somebody to commit adultery or fornication. God would not lead somebody to embezzle. God would not lead somebody to lie. God would not lead somebody to cheat on their taxes. God would not lead somebody to murder a baby in their womb. God would not lead into those things because those things are impure. And so the purity diagnostic, how are we doing tonight as we look at the will of God in our lives? Is it the will of God? Well, first of all, is it pure? Don't claim that this is something that God led me to do or God wants me to do or God accepts that I do if it's not pure. Then secondly, is it peaceable? It says, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. Peaceable meaning that it's the condition of being in or at peace, tranquil, quiet. free from or not disposed to war disorder or excitement not quarrelsome and our family likes to watch the the old black and white westerns and really old stuff Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, that kind of thing. And there's one man that he's got this line and he's a cowboy and he's a tough guy, you know, but you got to push his button to get him upset because he will say something like, normally, I'm a peace loving man, you know, and and his thing is that that's his normal character. But you brought out the kind of the worst in him. You know what? Believers ought to be peace loving. If it's God's will, then it ought to be something that is unifying, something that right, godly people would find great peacefulness in, and agreement in. You know, the Bible tells us that it's not God's will for us to take a believer to court. There's criminal courts that would obviously take care of anything that was criminal, but when it comes to a lawsuit, if a brother has done me wrong and owes me anything, God says that I'm not to take them to court. 1 Corinthians 6, 1 says, dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world should be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels, how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there's not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brother, but brother goeth to law with brother and that before unbelievers. Now, therefore there is utterly a fault among you." And Paul is saying, you are outside of the will of God and what you're doing and going to law before unbelievers and fighting against each other. Why do you not? There's a fault among you because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourself to be defrauded? Nay, you do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. God's will is that if it's gonna cause a battle and a division, and if I can suffer, it's better for me to suffer than to divine. To go back to last week, we talked about churches have split over the color of the carpet, and somebody's saying it's gotta be red, somebody else saying it's gotta be blue, and rather than yield to one another, They say, this is God's will, I guess, and this has got to be this color, and they let it divide. God's will is peaceful. Proverbs 13, verse 10 says, only by pride cometh contention. but with the well-advised is wisdom. 1 Peter 2.20 says, for what glory is in it when you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently. But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. Jesus himself taught, turn the other cheek. He said, if they compel you to go a mile, go two miles. If the soldiers come along and say, you got to carry my bag a mile, go two miles. If somebody sues you for your coat, give them your cloak also. the Bible says. And so if it's causing contention, you ought to stop and ask, is this the will of God? Heresy would fall into that. Somebody that, this is the will of God, that this is what we believe and what we understand, but it's coming in and it's tearing apart God's church, we ought to examine it and say, is this really the will of God? Because God's will is peaceful. It's also gentle. There's another diagnostic question for us. Is it gentle? It says, but the wisdom that is from above is gentle. Gentle is having or showing a mild, kind, or tender temperament or character. It's a precious characteristic or attribute found probably more in women than in men. A mother is generally known as somebody that is gentle, somebody that is very easy in the way that she works with somebody. You know, it's kind of a manly thing that if it won't budge, men tend to pull out the big guns, you know, and gonna blast that thing off. If it's not coming off another way, we'll get her done. When I was a youth pastor, I bought a little pickup truck, my first pickup, and a little Ford Ranger. And our church had a sign that had rotted out in front of the church property. And I looked at that and thought, man, somebody should have dug that up. And I thought, you know, pulling rope kind of a tow rope it's got a tensile strength of like 3,000 pounds and you know I'm just gonna tie that up to my truck and tie that up to that post and I'm gonna rip that thing out of there and I kind of thought I just kind of go like that and so I got my rope out and sadly I got about 75 feet of rope out and forgot that the rope stretches. And I got her pulled tight and the foot on the accelerator and I felt the post go in before I could turn my head that post, which was about 100 feet away from me. hit the back of my truck going about 100 miles an hour and could have killed me, really could have. Praise God he protected me, did a little bit of damage to the truck. But I mean, I wished I hadn't tried to force it. I got out of my truck and I looked at the dents in my truck and I thought, oh, I wish I had just kind of dug around it gently and gently pulled it up rather than try to force it and get it out of there. Let me ask you this evening, are you trying to force it? If it's God's will, it ought not need brute strength to get it done. It ought to be something that is going to be done gently with the grace of God. 1 Thessalonians 2 says, but we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherished her children. It's not a bad thing for us as men to be gentlemen, to be able to be gracious in getting the will of God done. Is it gentle? Another diagnostic question about the will of God is, is it persuasive? Is it persuasive? The wisdom that is from above, it says, is easy to be entreated. You don't have to force it because God's going to clearly reveal it. It's not something you have to twist the arm of God to get him to reveal. Easy to be entreated means easily persuaded, compliant. It's convincing. It is an inner conviction that this is what God would have me to do. I've shared this story before of when God called us to Scotland. I was an assistant pastor in Michigan and we were leaving there in Michigan to go to orientation week at Camp Joy in Wisconsin on a Sunday and we got up that morning and got ready for our trip. And at the church, I taught my teen Sunday school class. I led the scene in the morning service. And then the pastor gave the announcements. And after the announcements and the song service, we were actually going to leave because we had an eight hour drive to get to camp. And Pastor Clark said, as he led the church in prayer, he said, you know, pray for the shores that they don't doubt what God is doing in their life. And I know my heart. I was sitting on the platform and I think kind of a little smile came across my face. I think there's no way that I would ever doubt this is so clearly of God. But that morning at two in the morning, our house had been teepeed, awaking us. And it's a funny story, but that had taken place and we had the busyness of the day, the travel. We got to camp that night and found out my grandma sure had passed away. And now instead of being at orientation, we're going to have to fly to Colorado from Wisconsin and we live in Michigan and now our car is going to be in Chicago while we go out and we've got to plan flights and it's actually when my wife and I finally got a mobile phone and we didn't have that. We ended up at the wrong airport. There's two airports in Chicago, missed our flight, had to cut across to the other airport. There were some other things that were taking place. And you know, praise God, that was kind of a really rough couple of days. And I remember saying, God, why is this happening? I'm in the will of God doing what you want me to do. Why is this happening? And God tested the call, but God never allowed us to doubt what God had led us to do. And you know, the call of God is going to face incredible tests. As we do what God wants us to do, it's gonna be really tough times. And we need to be able to look back and say, you know what? I know this is of God. It might be marriage, it might be ministry, it might be vocation. I need to be able to look back and say, you know what? God convinced me. And if it is God's will, let God make it clear. Because God's will is easy to be entreated. It's something that we can know this is what God wants me to do. And then as we question with diagnostic questions about the will of God, is it merciful? Is it merciful? It says, but the wisdom that is from above is full of mercy. God's wisdom is compassionate. It's merciful because God is merciful. I had somebody tell me as we got ready to come to Scotland, he was somebody that had been here in ministry in Scotland. But he made a statement to me that was unexpected and he said, don't try to get on with any other American ministers that are there. Just do your own thing because it will never work to have fellowships or things like that. And I looked at him and I said, you know what? Church unity is hard to come by, but we don't give up and say, well, I can't get along and so I'm just not gonna get along. If it's God's will, it's going to have a quality of mercy. And so if it's God's will, it's going to be ready to forgive. There's people that are ready to get a divorce or ready to leave a church and separate from an assembly, a local church. And if you were to ask them, why are you doing this? And they said, it's the will of God. You could ask, well, have you sought reconciliation? Have you sought to get right with your spouse? Have you sought to get right with your church? Because if there's forgiveness that must be given on your part, the Bible says to give it, and the will of God is merciful. It's full of mercy. God is full of mercy. So don't claim it's God's will if it's not, if you can't ask the question, is it merciful? And come away with the answer of yes. And so God's will is merciful. Then another diagnostic question that we can ask is, is it fruitful? Is it fruitful? It says, but the wisdom that is from above, full of mercy and good fruits. There ought to be the quality of something that you look at and say, this is of God. It's got such wonderful fruit to it. maybe you've kept a vegetable garden at some point. I was passing out flyers for our community with an emergency number to call for the community council if you needed help and so I had to collect those and I was speaking with a friend in Lone Head there and in his garden he's actually started to plant some vegetables this year because of everything taking place and and whatnot, just trying to be well prepared. And it's just tougher here to grow vegetables than it was for us in the United States. Our growing season is not as good here. The heat isn't as intense if you don't have a polytunnel or a little glass hut, you can't properly grow vegetables. But in the States, a lot of our Midwest is just ideal for growing vegetables. And we had a little three meter by three meter plot in Michigan that was for vegetables. And it was incredible, the fruit. that would come off of that. I've said to the church before, Benson, when he was a two-year-old, would go tottering over and he's popping little cherry tomatoes in his mouth as a little kid and enjoying the fruit of the garden. You know, as you examine what you're looking at, and we haven't nailed down anything tonight regarding what are we talking about with the will of God. It could be anything in my life. But as I examine it, I ought to be able to say, if this is God's will, then there's good fruit. There's benefit to myself, there's benefit to my family, there's benefit to my relationship with God. It is accomplishing something that is good and right, and it ought to be able to be examined with that quality of good fruit. Remember, confusion and contagion are results of the world of flesh and the devil, in contrast. And so what kind of fruit is there? Is it fruitful? Another diagnostic question about the will of God, is it impartial? It says the wisdom that is from above is without partiality. And James has dealt with this in depth as he spoke about, you know, if a rich person comes in and a poor person comes into your assembly, you're to treat them the same. They're to be treated equally. And we talked about, as we looked at that in Genesis, partiality is something that causes great problems. It caused great problems in the life of Isaac and his family. Isaac and Rebekah had their favorites. Isaac had Esau and Rebekah had Jacob and that favoritism caused rivalry within their home. Partiality hurt Jacob's family. He was partial, Jacob was partial to Joseph and the other brothers got jealous and it caused division. The wisdom of God is it considers all equally. It's not partial, it's not a decision made to please somebody other than God. Is it impartial? Two more questions, all right, about the will of God. Eighth, which is, this is number eight as far as diagnostic questions, is it sincere? Is it sincere? It says, but the wisdom that is from above is without hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a play actor. Maybe many times they would have a mask or a costume on to cover who they really were and acting like somebody else. It's like a facade. You put a, you got a nice facade on a building, but behind it, it may be nothing like what is that covering, covering up what is really there. If this is of God, it ought not be hidden. It ought to be able to be in the open. It ought to be able to be something that anybody could examine, anybody look at with unashamedness and be something that is not something that is cloaked behind a mask. Let me ask you as we speak about that, is there anything that you have in your life and you'd say, it's okay, God accept us, but I don't want the church to know about it. I don't want a godly authority to know about it. In fact, I'd be ashamed if a godly authority saw it, but as for me, I feel like it's okay and I feel like it's okay with God. And yet the Bible says about the will of God that it is without hypocrisy. It's not something that has to be cloaked. It's not something that has to be covered. It's not something that has to be hidden. It's something that could be opened and examined because it's the will of God and the will of God is not something that has to be hidden. Let me say this as well. Just because it's out in the open doesn't make it okay. We go back to the purity test and examine it with the purity test. Does it meet the will of God? If it does not, it's not right any more than something that's hidden that somebody would say this is okay with God. Is it sincere? If it's God's will, why does it wear a mask? If it's God's will, why can't it be known? And the answer is, if it is God's will, it can be sincerely shared. Is it sincere? And then, is it good and peaceful? Is our last diagnostic question about the will of God, is it good and peaceful? It says, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. There's a righteous harvest of peace associated with this. And you know, when you squeeze a lemon, you get lemon juice. When you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice. When you take these things that we've considered tonight, pure, peaceable, gentle, persuasive, merciful, fruitful, impartial, sincere, it's the will of God. Why wouldn't it yield peaceable fruit of righteousness? That is a expected harvest in the will of God. So is this, whatever again this is, is this the will of God? Okay, now let's switch. Is this the will of God to is this the will of man? Is this my will? Not as many questions as we come to these diagnostics, all right? Have you ever made a decision and thought, I don't know if that was God's leading or if I got in the way? I'm not really sure that I should have done this or that. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, Let me just ask you, who's directing your path? Is it really God? Is it that God is leading or is it that you are leading in your life? And so we ought to have great caution when it comes to that. What questions can we ask ourselves to discern that? Well, first of all, does your flesh want it? Does your flesh want it? It says, from whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members? James, again, is dealing with a church as a whole and there's battles taking place and he's trying to let them know, hey, this isn't of God. So where do these wars and these battles come from? Do they not come from your wrong desires in your members? Our body has different desires, desires that are prone to perversion or wicked desires. There are three main wicked lusts in our body. 1 John 2.16 speaks about them. It says, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the flesh is the fleshly appetites. that our body has cravings for. It's like Eve wanting to taste the apple. It's Jesus being tempted to turn the rock into bread and to satisfy his flesh outside the will of God. And so fleshly desires. Secondly, covetous desires, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. This is unrestrained wants, that covetous desire. I've got to have that outside of the will of God. It's Eve looking at the apple and wanting it, even though God forbid it. It's Jesus' temptation to prove or to to look at the kingdom of the earth, that Satan would attempt him to be covetous of what he had possessed, and he did possess, but what he had given up to come to this earth, Satan tempted him that he could give that to him, and if he'd only look at it with covetousness, of course our Lord did not. Then prideful desires. It says, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It's me first. I've got to have this, the I in pride. And the pride of life is not of the father, but is of the world. And this is Eve wanting that fruit that would make her wise. It's Jesus being tempted to throw himself off the temple to prove who he was for the pride that he did not possess in his heart. You can ask yourself about this, is this desire a fleshly desire or is it a spiritual desire? Some people would say social drinking, that's the will of God. They'd say that rap, rock, pop, contemporary music, that's the will of God. That entertainment, it's the will of God. Well, answer the question, is it something that your flesh craves? Because if my flesh craves it, at the very least, I ought to be incredibly cautious and say, you know what? I need to be very discerning because it's easy to see that it's the will of man when there is a lust for that. Does your flesh want it? And then does it satisfy? Verse two says, ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. It's like they gave themselves to it and even to the point of killing as it were for it and arriving without satisfaction or possession. Remember David's son Amnon lusted after his half-sister Tamar and sadly took her and got her in a private place and took advantage of her and raped her. The Bible says about that in 2 Samuel 13, 15, then Amnon hated her exceedingly so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, rise and be gone. And his lust that he had lusted after her was not satisfied, it dissatisfied, and that's what sin does. Sin will never satisfy, and yet Christ satisfies. John 10, verse 10, It says, I am come to have, that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. John 6, 35, Jesus said unto them, I'm the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And so if it's something that God has given, it's something that will be right and pure, and it's something that will deeply satisfy. But that which is outside of God will never satisfy. And all those addictions and things that are outside the will of God do not satisfy. I would even say to my teens in my youth group, look, you're defending that music as if it's okay. Do without it for a week. Do without it for two weeks. And you'll find that your body is addicted to it. It does not satisfy. It creates a craving that has to have more and bigger and better like all addictions. And yet the Bible says in Proverbs 10, verse 22, the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it. If this is God's will, then it's something that is deeply and richly satisfying. It's something that is, the needs are met. And so does it satisfy? And then third, is it something that you prayed about? Is it something that you have carried to God? It says you fight and work, yet ye have not because ye ask not. You fight in war, but, you know, have you prayed about it? Is it something that you have gone to God and prayed about? You know, when Paul got converted, he asked a great question that ought to be a question that we ask God daily. As he was converted, Acts 9, 6, he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? A basic step to knowing the will of God is praying about it and say, God, sincerely, what would you have me to do? And today as I get up, God, what would you have me to do? Is it something that you have prayed about? And then are you asking, if you have prayed about it, are you asking God to do something contrary to his word? Are you asking God to do something contrary to his word? It says in verse three, ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lust. If you have prayed about it, are you praying not to satisfy yourself, but sincerely asking God, God, what wilt thou have me to do? Like Jesus, as he prayed again in the garden, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. There's a great man of God, George Mueller, that started orphanages that eventually, by faith, served some 2,000 orphans at a time. But as he did that, he said in his prayer life, he would seek to get to the point where he had no will of his own. If he's praying about a property, to buy a building, to build an orphan house, he would seek to pray in such a way that he would get his heart to a point where either way, God, whatever you do is fine. When Katie and I were dating, the first year we were dating, we were apart a little bit that summer, and there was a panic point in our relationship where there was some doubt as to, is this of God or is this not? And we decided to pray about it and think about it. And I spent more time in prayer in those three days than I had spent in prayer about anything else. But as I prayed about it, the Lord in his grace brought me to a point of saying, God, either way. Either way. And she sent me a letter, and praise God, it had stickers on it. And I thought, that's a good sign, there's stickers on it. Before I opened it, though, I went to the church next door to my house, got in there and got in prayer and told the Lord, it doesn't matter what it says, either way. And praise God, God in his grace can bring us to that point, but are you content to let God say yes or no? If God says no, that's fine. If God says yes, great. But God, what would you have me to do? Have you prayed about it not to consume it upon your lusts? And then is it worldly or is it godly? Verse four says, ye adulterers and adulterers says, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James rightly points out that there's no middle ground in this idea of the will of God. You're either for God or you are against God. Somebody could say something like this, but I don't hate God. I just enjoy some things that God despises. I feel like they're okay. In fact, I believe God understands. I don't feel like I'm outside the will of God. And yet the Bible says in Matthew 6, 24, no man can serve two masters. None of us is gonna be the first person that's able to serve God and serve something other than God, because anything that is other than God is against God. If I'm not doing the will of God, then I am contrary to the will of God. I can't have it both ways. And so we gotta examine our life in light of that and say, is it worldly? Because if it's worldly, it's not of God. Is it worldly or is it godly? And then lastly, this evening, Does it recognize the rightful jealousy of God? Does it recognize the rightful jealousy of a holy God? Verse five says, do you think that the scripture saith in vain? The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy. Lust isn't always a bad word in the Bible. It just means strong desire. Obviously in the context, we've been looking at wicked lust and wicked desires, but now as it comes to this verse, it's right desires. It's a desire of the spirit of God within us. He lusteth to envy that we would do that which is pleasing to God. When somebody gets married, They say vows, and one of those vows is forsaking all others. And a spouse would rightly, jealously guard their mate from anything that would lead their mate away from them. If it's God's will, it won't hurt my covenant relationship with a jealous God. If it's something that God intends me to do, it's not gonna be something that in any way draws me away from God. Somebody could justify the fact that I'm going to do this sport and I'm going to do this thing on the Lord's stand. I feel like it's fine. I feel like God accepts it. Except the thing is this, God would never allow us or direct us to do something that's going to take him away from himself. Somebody can say, I'm gonna take this job even though I can't be at the Lord's house on the Lord's day and I can't be at the midweek Bible study and it's God's will and God's provided. I've been praying about a job and look, God gave me a job. And yet the thing is, God would never give me something that would take me outside of a close relationship with him. Anything that's gonna come in between me and God is not of God. God will not put us on a path of departure from himself. And so if it is God's will, there ought not to be any danger of it taking me away from God. All right, so we have got God's will, and we've got man's will. How have you done tonight? As you look at the diagnostic questions that we've considered, is it the will of God? Well, is it pure? Is it peaceable? Is it gentle? Is it obvious? I mean, it's clear, this is of God. Is it impartial? Is it unhidden? Is it full of mercy? Is it bearing good fruit? Can you look at it and say, I mean, that is a good thing that's in my life. Or is it the will of man? Is it a lust of your flesh? Does it satisfy? If it doesn't satisfy, it's not of God. Have you prayed about it? Does it agree with God's word? Is it worldly or godly? Does it recognize the weakness of our flesh and our departure from God and the jealousness of a holy God, the spirit of God that lusts for us to do what's right? You know, God wants us to be in his will and we can be. but we gotta scrutinize our life. And if we're not healthy spiritually, these diagnostic questions ought to have hit home. It might've hit home in areas of entertainment. It might've hit home in areas of music. It might've hit home in areas of just exercising my time each day for God's glory. And if it's not of God, then it's of man. but God would have us to have it all of God. And by the grace of God, let's say with Jesus, my need is to do the will of him that sent me. I wanna be a brother or sister to Christ and do his will and do the will of the Father. May God help us do that, all right? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the grace that you give. May the spirit of God help. And Lord God, would you please help somebody maybe that listened to this and sees these things, Lord, to realize that Jesus Christ and salvation is the first step to doing the will of God. and then baptism and then being faithful to a local church and getting involved in a local church and find that your will is that we live our life for the glory of God. And so may the spirit of God take the word of God and put it deeply into our hearts. We thank you for it. Thank you for your help in sharing it this evening. It's in Christ and we pray. Amen.