The Blessing of Being in God's Will

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. I would like to extend Christian greetings to titled this message, the blessing of being in God's will for us. I would like to begin by reading Exodus 40, maybe begin reading in verse about 34 or so, and maybe just a little bit of background here where this is familiar. [00:00:34] We know about the children of Israel and we know their doings and I didn't study a whole lot of background but right before this where I'm going to read it's talking about where they built the tabernacle and all the things that went in there and they were instructed to build it and they put in a lot of effort. at verse 34, right at the end of Exodus here. [00:01:09] Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day and fire was on it by night [00:01:40] In the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys Now, this morning we could speak about a lot of things in this But I would like to focus just a little bit on this cloud and the fire and God's clear direction that they had concerning this and this was a visible assurance of divine guidance upon them [00:02:12] and I think they needed that and probably my thoughts were directed in this way because of some of our thoughts as a group and maybe should we start an outreach, should we go, should we stay? Or, if we go or if we stay, have we made the right choice? Did we do the right thing? And I recognize that this is in the Old Testament, this is in, we are not under the same law anymore that they were at this point. [00:02:45] And I don't know how we would feel this morning if we had such clear direction like they did, in a physical way. If we had pulled in the parking lot this morning and there was a cloud hanging over Rosewood, and maybe this is just some imaginary story that went through my head, but maybe we would have a committee of men that were chosen to go out and look for a spot. How would we feel if this cloud started moving and we would have this committee would go out 50 miles, 500 miles, and there it was. That's where God wants us. [00:03:22] Wouldn't that be something? Sounds like a fairy tale. It's probably possible. But in seeking God's will today, I believe that there are other avenues that God speaks to his people. And yet just as effective, just as effective, we are now, we now, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, we have another guide. And John 14.26 in part says this, He shall teach you all things. [00:03:57] We have the Holy Spirit's power to guide us. We need the Holy Spirit to aid us. As Paul says in Romans or 2nd Corinthians 5 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. Now, I think probably from where I'm at, it looks rather attractive to have that clear direction that God had on them. And maybe it does to you, too. I don't know. But we also have God's directive right here [00:04:31] If you need an answer, maybe it's not just all clear to us But through the aid of the Spirit and through God's direction here We have answers, God gives answers to His children And let me just take it a step further You know, we look back and we see those clear directives God placed, put in place for them at that point. And we see what happened. What, what happened? What would have happened? I don't know that we read that they didn't, they, they tried to move on and this cloud was just setting here. And finally the cloud was 50 miles behind them and they were just moving on. I don't know that we read that anywhere, but you know, we read in, in various different places that they, they went to battle with sin and [00:05:24] They did a number of different things that God told them, don't do it. And they did it anyway. And God withdrew his blessing. And, you know, I think God's people still have the same judgment upon them if they do not stay in his will. The enemy is able to come in and destroy. But I do believe that God's blessing rests upon His people when they are within His will. [00:05:58] When we are within God's will. And I don't know what kind of thoughts went through your head when you heard that title. I don't know what you're expecting. But how important is it to be within God's will? In your mind, how important is it? Not just for me, but for all of us. How important is it for you to be within God's will? And there's numerous places we can read about that. Mark 3.35 says this, For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, my sister, and my mother. [00:06:35] And this was taken, this is just taking and pulling a verse out, but his family was waiting for him, I believe, and he said, here are my brothers and sisters, whoever shall do. I don't think that he's saying that he didn't like his brothers and sisters and his mother. I don't think he's saying that at all. But a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ supersedes our earthly relationship [00:07:05] We can be a brother or a sister to Jesus It goes beyond just the physical And he wasn't against his siblings at all, I don't think I think he was simply stressing the importance of obedience to God But there's a key word in this verse that I would like to notice here. It says, do, doing the will of God. And I think that word demands action. [00:07:38] It demands that I am doing something, that I am with, in being in the will of God, I can't just sit around and do nothing. I have to do certain, there are certain things that are required of me. It goes beyond just knowing the will of God. It involves application in a very practical sense. And I would like the thrust of this message to be that we would gain or develop or have a keen interest in being within God's will. [00:08:13] And I think many of you are. That's the way I take all of you to be. You desire that. James 4.15 says this very familiar verse, you ought to say of the Lord will, we shall live or do this or that, whatever we do, it doesn't matter what we're doing or where we're going. We need to recognize that who is in control and I don't think it's wrong to have goals or make plans or look forward to things but we need to remember who's in control of those plans and who can change those plans and we have to be in subordination to that or in submission. [00:09:00] Now the phrase, the will of God, I don't know if this was through my computer program I found this. It's used 22 times and almost all of it was when people were saying, Paul many times said, if the Lord will. If the Lord will, I'll be going over here. If the Lord will, I'll be doing this. Always he recognized that it's within God's will. Now, what does it mean to be performing someone's will? [00:09:33] Most of us, my age at least, or younger probably, know that when people die, many times they leave behind a will. and unfortunately, well it seems like even the person in the grave can almost reach out of the grave and still control events for people that are still here, their children maybe or whoever. And that can be good, but it can also be bad if the children or the family decide that they want more of the money [00:10:13] or they want for personal gain or there's there's some riffraff and they and finally they are in court and they're saying, you know, couldn't we just change this? And they're trying to get their way in there, changing the will. But of course, we understand that if there's a judge there with any integrity or if the court has any integrity, they'll say this is what this person wanted and this is what's going to happen. Now, how is God's will for us? Is it just a suggestion? I think God's will is our command. God's plumb line is straight up and down and it stays that way. It doesn't matter how I try to bend it, how I try to change it, it's still there. [00:11:05] Are we guilty sometimes of trying to change the will of God? Are we guilty of that? I tried to look what the original Greek meaning of will is. And there are several different definitions of it. But as closely as I could see or figure out, it says this. This, the will of God is His, we are, if we are in the will of God, we are fulfilling His wishes. [00:11:40] And I think we are fulfilling His desires as well, if we are within the will of God. Now, some of us struggle with this thing, and I have myself. Self, the will of God. What does God want me to do? And we face issues and we we struggle with this thing. Well, let me just say this. The Lord's Prayer says this. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. We he instructs us to pray, to pray that that his will would be done here as it is in heaven. [00:12:22] And God, I think, has every right to impose his will on us. And he does that, I think he has every right, whether we are in tune with him or not, he has every right to do that. There's an element of this that is saying that when we pray that prayer, that I commit myself, that I am committing myself to whatever happens, Whatever God chooses to happen to me. [00:12:53] But it's also, there's an element in here that says this too, that I commit myself to do the will of God, to do what I already know is God's will. And I don't know if I'm confusing you, many times when we think, when people say, what's God's will for me? They're questioning something beyond what they know. But I think we should notice that when we say that, when we pray that God's will be done, [00:13:26] we also need to remember that we're saying, I'm committing myself to doing what I already know is your will. It can be rather disheartening sometimes when you don't know what you're supposed to do, but at the same time it's comforting when you look back and you see, Well, here I know what I should be doing too. There's an element of that. Now, two things I would like to notice here. If we pray that prayer and we are serious about that, thy will be done, then we are in submission. [00:14:06] We are in submission. If we want God to bless our life and what we do and have His approval on our lives, we need to be in submission. You know, many times I have or we have our own agenda or idea of what we feel that God wants to do in my life. And we have these ideas. But you know, I've found for myself, strangely enough, I don't know if you can relate to this or not. [00:14:38] When I say, thy will be done, and I have my own idea, it fits right in my schedule. It's just the way that I wanted it to happen. But when I'm in submission to God, it's not always that way. It doesn't always work that way. We might say things like, well, it just feels right. And I'm not saying, well, I don't think that we should go by feeling. I don't think that's true discernment of God's will when we're praying that prayer. [00:15:13] You know, I think that when we ask for God's will and we have a keen desire to be following Him and we are in submission to Him, our hearts need to be truly empty and neutral On the issue that we're praying about. Otherwise, I'm afraid we'll be swayed by our own feelings. We cannot depend on our feelings. You know, have you ever thought about this? Probably have. [00:15:44] What did Paul and Silas feel like when that old whip was coming down on their back and they were being tortured for following Jesus? All of a sudden, probably this thing just came to head. I don't know what they were thinking. It says they sang at midnight, they rejoiced. But I would imagine if that was me, I would wonder, is this really what God wants of me? Is this, and this is what I'm getting for being within his will? I don't think our feelings are a very good indicator of God's will. [00:16:19] At least, not unless our feelings are in line with the scripture. or the early Anabaptists being led to the stake in front of their families and their neighbors. I would guess that all of a sudden when reality hit them, they were saying, if God really wants me to do this, surely he has something better for me. Now, how do we feel sometimes when the heat is turned up and we need to take a stand? [00:16:52] Can we trust our feelings? Can we trust? Can we depend on him? I would doubt that it's a very good indication. Maybe again if we're in tune with God. Probably at times like this, absolute submission to the lordship of Jesus Christ is really what we need in determining God's will for our lives. The second thing I notice, and it goes right along with submission, and I recognize that we could speak for a long time on submission, and I have struggled with some of these issues. [00:17:30] I will just be very forthright. I have struggled in my life. The second thing, the thing that goes right along with submission is obedience. If we ask that the will of the Lord be done in our life, and we are in submission, obedience just follows. follows. It's just natural that we obey the will. We obey God. You know, what did Jesus do? And we often ask that question when we're faced with something. We heard that years ago that saying came in. What would Jesus do in this situation? But let's look at what Jesus did. [00:18:11] He was in agony in the garden and he was praying, Lord, couldn't this just be done some other way? And he knew what he was facing. His disciples probably didn't. But he knew what he was facing. And yet, there it was, in the middle of all his struggles, he said, Thy will be done. Whatever you want, God. And I think that is the ultimate expression of submission and obedience. We may have our own agenda. We may have our own feelings about something. We may be doing well in what we're doing, but we need to say, thy will be done, if we want the blessing of God to rest upon our lives. [00:18:57] Now, I would guess that in a message like this you can't hardly get away from the popular or the thing that always rests on our minds We want to know, we question, we want to know what God wants for me And so I guess we'll speak a little bit about discernment of God's will And by this I'm saying, I'm talking now about things that aren't absolutely clear to us. [00:19:35] But if you're here this morning and you're hoping to hear some magical new way of finding out what God wants for you in the future, you'll probably go home disappointed because I don't think, I'm not planning on saying that and I don't have the answers to that. In fact, I'll just say this. I believe if I would have known God's will for the future in every situation, you know, I think I would have tried to alter my life a little bit and tried to. [00:20:07] I don't think it's good for us to know every every answer, but we do know this. We don't know what the future holds, but we know that God holds the future and we can always depend on that. We can trust in that. And but I would like to focus more on the things that we do know, the things that we have in his word in black and white this morning. But let's talk about this for just a little bit. We've already talked about our feelings and and how they can lead us in the wrong way. But I've noticed several things that we do and I do the same thing. I'm not accusing this morning. [00:20:44] I'm just sharing with you. We tend to focus on big decisions. And I do the same thing. Now, things like, should I go to service? Should I sell my house and move? Should I invest money here? Things that are big in our mind, that look big to us. And that's not wrong [00:21:14] But I would like to focus on things that we do know Questions that we do ask Am I dressing in God's will? Am I dressing myself the way that God would want me to? Am I dressing, if I'm a parent, am I dressing my children the way that God would want me to? We have direction Am I in God's will? Is God pleased with my level of obedience? Does God, does he approve of what I'm doing? [00:21:50] Am I submissive to God? And as a husband, and we know these things, but I think it factors in in God's will. We are concerned many times about the things that are almost beyond what we can figure out. But am I as a husband taking control of my family? Am I doing God's will in my home? Am I as a wife being submissive to my husband? And you can fill in your question, your life. [00:22:20] If I'm not married, there are many things that God has for me to do. I can still be within His will. Those things that are out there that we sometimes struggle so much with, We struggle with them because I think maybe we need to be faithful in little things. Things that we know to do already. And I'm not saying it's wrong to struggle. It's not wrong to fast and pray and ask for God's direction in our lives. I would encourage that very much. But I think if we want proper discernment in the big issues of life, [00:22:56] we have to be faithful in the little issues of life. The little things that happen. Now, in discerning God's will, how do we go about doing that? Well, there's a number of things, and I'm not prepared to give you a message on discerning God's will. But there's another thing that sometimes factors in. Popular opinion factors in. And you may think that's, maybe I am far out. Popular opinion versus God's will. Sometimes we're influenced by the things that are around us. [00:23:30] And the fads of this generation or this era or whatever it may be And the smooth arguments about we're still in God's will We're still doing what God wants us to but we're just, we're moving over here Popular opinion There's often an explanation for God's will in this thing This popular opinion, this thing that draws us away, and everybody's doing it, that type of thing. [00:24:04] But let me say to you this morning, again I come back to the Lord's will. There is much right here in this book. There is no explaining away, immodest dress, drift toward the world, and many of the things that people in our day just explain away. God's plumb line is straight up and down. There is no way that we can explain them away with a clear conscience. [00:24:39] And somehow the term new age, new ways hasn't made its way in the King James Version. It just somehow this this the will of God is the same as it was. and it will stay the same. It doesn't matter how we try to explain things away and why we do things the way we do. We need to be sure that we're within God's will the way that God would want us to. Also, we could look in, I think it's Ezekiel 13, says the prophets had vain, vain prophecies [00:25:15] and the Lord said, I haven't spoken. I haven't said anything. There is a way that seemeth right unto men, but the end thereof is death. The end thereof are the ways of death. Now I recognize in discerning God's will, there are times that we come to the place where we don't see. It looks like the end of the road. It looks like there's nothing beyond that. And where is God going to take us now? Where are we going? What's going to happen in this thing? [00:25:49] But you know what? We have a choice to make in this. We can be critical. We can stand there. A man told me this once. He said life is similar to being in a room full of doors. He said if one door gets shut, you can stand there and stare at that door and wonder, why didn't God let me through that door? I had everything, it was right, it was the right thing to do and over here there might be another door open that God wants you to walk through and I don't understand all of these things but let's be very careful [00:26:19] when something doesn't work out that seems so right to us let's make sure that God is not allowing for another avenue to go down now I would like to just quickly focus here and bring this to an end and on several of the things that were on my heart with the blessing of being in God's will. Nothing new, nothing profound, but I'd like to notice some characters in God's word and the blessing they experienced in doing God's will. [00:26:57] First of all, Naaman, he was a captain of the Syrian army And no doubt he was probably a proud man Probably had medals hanging on his chest, on his suit But he was a leper We all know this story I'm not going to take time to read all this His skin, I don't know how leprosy works But he was losing his life And we know this story How he journeyed over through the maid that worked for them [00:27:27] And he journeyed over and saw the man of God And how he was advised He was told what to do. The prophet didn't even tell him. And how he flew in a rage. And he said, aren't there rivers back home that I could go to and that would be much cleaner than the Jordan River? But what I want to focus on this morning is he was told to dip seven times and he had clear direction on what he was supposed to do. He knew what he was supposed to do. [00:27:58] You know, sometimes I get to that point myself. I know what I should do. But let's just think about it a little bit. We've all heard this story many times. If Naaman would have dipped five times and said, that's it, Lord, or he didn't believe in God. But I've had it. I've tried it five times and my skin looks just the same as it did. I'm not doing anything else. I've given it an honest try. Look at the blessing. Look at the miracle he would have missed. And that's the burden on my heart this morning. We have all these promises and many times we have clear direction on what we should be doing. Let's not miss that blessing. Let's keep going until we are where God wants us to be. Let's be obedient. [00:28:49] There's many more Moses was another man God asked him We know the story He asked him to lead his people And Moses said I can't speak I can't do it It's too much There are other people that can say it Much better than I can But you know what? What would have happened if Moses would have stopped right there and said No God I can't do it It's too much It's more than I can do But God asked him. He asked him directly. Is God asking us to do something this morning and we're unwilling to do it? [00:29:26] The blessing that followed, and I know it doesn't seem like a blessing to me to be leading almost a million people or however many people, but somehow Moses received a blessing. He was the meekest man on earth and you could say a lot of things. And there's Joseph. There's Daniel. Joseph. It didn't matter if he was in the king's house or in the prison. And we had a study here recently, and I appreciate that very much. He was always willing to do what God wanted him to do. He could have done many things, but the blessing that followed. [00:30:05] Daniel kept on praying he did not it didn't matter he didn't eat the king's meat I believe he had firm convictions he knew what God required of him but he stayed the course he stayed the course that's what I would like for us this morning now we don't not everything is clear in our lives maybe where we should go what we should do tomorrow [00:30:36] but there are things that are very clear to us that are clearly spelled out in scripture let's hang on to truth and let's, the will of God the things that we know that God wants us to do and there could be many things that are said but I noticed in Matthew we were studying it this week I'm not going to read it we were studying about the commandments and many of these things Jesus said you have heard but I say and then he then he keeps going and he gives commandments clearly spelled out maybe we have a little bit different application than other people but it's clearly spelled out and I would just like to say in closing that if we want if each one of us as individuals now wants God's approval upon our life [00:31:33] We have to be, in order for us to have God's blessing. Let me say this yet. I want to be clear on this. When I'm talking about the heroes of the Bible and the blessing that they receive, sometimes I think we have this wrong idea that if I only do this, great riches will follow. or like Abraham, he was the father of many, of a nation. [00:32:07] But I think we need to be very careful. We need to be doing God's will. We need to remain faithful, whether it costs us everything. You know, if you look at some of those things, Abraham, I believe, was one that he left. The Lord said, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house and unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. [00:32:38] I think he suffered much. It is difficult to leave everything that you have known. But I want us to remember that it's not always glamorous, but there's peace in knowing that we are doing what the Lord wants us to. But I want to say this, if we want divine approval upon our lives, we have to be