Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Hi, everybody. Good morning.
[00:00:08] My name is Evan. I am one of the senior pastors here, and if you're visiting, especially want to say welcome to Westside. We are in a series called Big Questions Today. And today's question is, what is God's will? What is God's will? I enjoy these. These topical sermons that we're doing during the summer here, and I think. I think this will be an interesting time or a talk today to discover what is God's will. I think we all have decisions to make, and many times those decisions happen every day, and they don't carry a ton of weight.
[00:00:42] What to eat for breakfast, what socks to put on, et cetera, et cetera. In fact, this morning, I got dressed and I came here, and as soon as I walked in, I realized my brother Brent, who was on the keys today, was dressed exactly like me, which is. We look enough alike already. I was like, oh, no. So I went, and Pastor Ben has some clothes. Actually, I didn't have anything.
[00:01:03] So this is Ben's shirt.
[00:01:06] No joke.
[00:01:08] What is God's will? It's for me not to look like a twin with my brother. So here we are. Thank you, Pastor Ben. He's on vacation today.
[00:01:15] He leaves. He goes one week on vacation. I'm wearing all of his clothes. That's how shared leadership works at Westside.
[00:01:25] We all make decisions. We all make decisions. I was looking back over the last hundred years, some of the biggest, most consequential decisions that have been made over the last hundred years. Here's a few of them. I just want you to start thinking about decisions that you make that have a lot of weight.
[00:01:42] 1928. A man by the name microbiologist named Alexander Fleming decides not to throw away a moldy petri dish in his lab and begins to discover something called penicillin, which will go on to save hundreds of millions of lives.
[00:02:00] He wrote this about that day. He said, when I woke up, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionize medicine, but I suppose that's what I did.
[00:02:07] Good for you, Alexander.
[00:02:08] 1939. Albert Einstein pens a letter to President Roosevelt and says, I think the Nazis are about to develop an A bomb. In response to that, the Manhattan Project is launched, and we rush as the United States to beat them to it and in so doing, change the course of history.
[00:02:28] 1955. Rosa Parks says no to giving up her seat on a bus, and the civil rights movement is born.
[00:02:35] And finally, 1997, a man by the name of Steve Jobs returns to Apple. And now you will on average, spend five and a half hours a day looking at your phone. Congratulations.
[00:02:46] Seemingly small, maybe consequential, maybe not. Things that happen, a letter here, a decision to take a job, a second look at something in a lab, and it changes the course of human history. Now, we may not have those kinds of decisions in front of us that would change the course of human history, but I believe this. We probably have decisions in front of us that will change the course of our history and your life and your family's lives. And maybe you're on the moment of decision about a job to take or a house to sell or a city to move to, a person to marry. A decision that will not only affect the next months of your life, maybe the trajectory of the rest of your lives. These are big, heavy, consequential decisions. And so if we're wise, we're asking the question before I make this decision, does God have anything to say about this?
[00:03:44] Does God, in his wisdom and his care for what happens in my life, does he have a plan or a purpose for me?
[00:03:55] So that's what we want to talk about today. What is this will of God? What is it that God intends for us to do? Proverbs 3, 5, 6. Here's our scripture for today. And maybe if you grew up in Sunday school, you might have memorized this one. It's very widely used. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
[00:04:14] Do not depend on your own understanding.
[00:04:16] Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
[00:04:22] Sounds pretty simple when you're writing the proverb, right?
[00:04:26] Just seek his will and he's going to show you which path. And I know for many of us, we would love it if the path that we're supposed to take would just light up just like that gps.
[00:04:36] Just show us the way, turn by turn.
[00:04:39] Directions, God, that's all I'm asking for.
[00:04:42] And yet we find again and again the process of discerning the will of God. Looks a lot more like relationship than it does a to do list.
[00:04:51] And so I want to pray. And then we're going to get into first of all, what God's will is not. So let me pray. Lord, we thank you for your word today. We pray especially for those on the edge of a big decision that they would experience from you a sense of confidence in choosing the path that they would walk with you and experience your companionship and your guiding as they make These decisions in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:05:21] So before we get to what the will of God is, I'll tell you what the will of God is not. Two things. Number one, the will of God is not a tightrope.
[00:05:29] I want to relieve some folks of maybe some regrets, some feeling that you made a wrong decision somewhere in your past, in your history, and that has taken you off course and off. The will of God so much for your life, that it is hopelessly far away from what God had intended for your life to be. I want to tell you and give you this great relief today that the will of God for your life is not a tightrope. That the second you fall off of it, you've made a huge, huge mistake. Do you ever feel like that, though? Do you ever feel like trying to figure out what you're supposed to do if you make one wrong move, like you just hopelessly screwed it up and you're out in the wind on your own? I know the bigger the decision and the higher the stakes, the more you feel this weight of pressure to make the right decision. And I've found this in my life. Sometimes the more burdened I feel by a decision, the more likely it is I'll make a bad decision.
[00:06:25] It's actually a place of confidence and peace that when you make a decision from that place, you tend to make better ones. You tend to make more wise decisions. So how can we have confidence and peace in discerning the will of God and making the right decisions for our lives when it feels like the more important the decision, the more pressure we feel on our own shoulders?
[00:06:48] Well, if God's will is not a tightrope, I want to give you the picture from Scripture of how our relationship with God is actually offered to us, not this God who is going to judge us one day with such, you know, fury and anger if we made a single mistake in our lives, but instead something else? Paul lines it out.
[00:07:14] Romans, chapter 5, verse 1 and 2 in the message version says, by entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us, set us right with him and make us fit for Him. So this is his will. We have it all together with God because of our Master, Jesus. And that's not all. We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment he has already thrown open his door to us.
[00:07:38] We find ourselves standing where we always hope we might stand, out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and his glory, standing full and shouting our praise.
[00:07:50] Amen.
[00:07:51] That instead of a tightrope walk of faith where we might fail and fall at any moment. Instead, we throw open our doors to the one who has already thrown open his doors to us. And we find ourselves in the wide open spaces of his grace and mercy.
[00:08:06] And it's from that place that we face the decisions that are in front of us with a confidence and a peace. Not in our own ability to be the smartest person out there, not in our ability to make all the right decisions because of our intuition, but confident and full of peace because we know who stands beside us.
[00:08:25] Oftentimes the will of God. I believe this is not so much about where and how. It's about who is with us in the process.
[00:08:35] So if it's not a tightrope walk, it's also this. It's not a to do list.
[00:08:41] Alyssa and I, for a while, we had a shared to do list on the phone, right? And we could. We could add to do's for each other to do on the phone.
[00:08:48] And I'd like to think that I just intuitively know everything that she needs and wants. But that's another case. We have a to do list.
[00:08:58] And I was thinking about this, that oftentimes what we want from God is we want, like a shared to do list. Like, here's God, what I need from you, and then you tell me what you need for me to do, and then we'll have a good relationship. Thing is, if that's the only communication, if that's the only engagement that Alyssa and I ever had was a to do list, that's not a marriage.
[00:09:17] And so it is with God that if we think our faith is just this way that we communicate what we need and he tells us what we should do, and that's how it is, we actually miss out on the relationship. That is the whole point.
[00:09:29] And so maybe the will of God is less of a to do list and more of an invitation into a kind of relationship where we are so close to the person and the presence of Jesus that we walk in step with. With his hopes and desires and his intention for us.
[00:09:48] So if that's what the will of God is not, then what is the will of God? Number one, here we go. And by the way, feel free to write these down or take pictures of the screen when they're all up on the screen if you want. I think this is really important that we catch this. What is God's will? Number one, It's God's promise. Okay, so I wanna tell you three things, actually. Throughout all of scripture, whenever the will of God is discussed. Usually it's gonna fall into one of these three categories. Number one, God's promise.
[00:10:13] So this is the will of God that is expressed through his word as the promises that he will carry out and do no matter what. Okay, so in the Old Testament, he promises that he would send a Messiah who would bring salvation to everybody. Okay, he's going to do that whether or not people pray for it, whether or not people do the right thing. God was intent and his promise was that he would send Jesus the Messiah. And so he was going to do that no matter what. And throughout Scripture, we have these promises that he's going to redeem all things in the end of the story. In the book of Revelation, he says, behold, I'm making all things new. That's going to happen regardless of what you and I do or don't do, regardless of how we pray or how we don't pray. God is intent on fulfilling his promises. This is part of his will.
[00:11:04] Next we get this consideration in the will of God. That is God's instructions.
[00:11:11] Again, his word is filled with how we should then live. He gives us commands and instructions. He says the greatest commandment actually, is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:11:24] He talks about how the commandments are important. You know, don't lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery. These are things we don't have to pray about. You know, you don't wake up tomorrow and say, God, I'm considering lying, and I just want to know, what's your will? Give me a sign. God, Tax season. Lord, do you want me to cheat on my taxes or not?
[00:11:50] No, it's the instructions.
[00:11:54] There's a moral will of God that is in black and white, and it's written down. And. And so we study that and we take that in.
[00:12:03] And by the way, we have to contextualize and we have to interpret in our setting scripture, right? There was a man who decided to, in the interest of writing a book. He spent, I think it was six months or a year trying to fulfill every single law in the entirety of Scripture.
[00:12:23] And so, you know, everything from he refused to wear cotton mixed with polyester to his diet to what he would do during festivals and seasons. And by the end of it, it was so absurd the lengths he was going to to try to fulfill every single instruction in Scripture. It made a really compelling point that actually we have to take the heart of Jesus and the instructions of Christ and internalize those and contextualize those to our setting right.
[00:12:50] Otherwise we end up just throwing it all out cause it's too hard.
[00:12:53] And so this is our job is to understand and align ourselves with God's promise. But then it's to read and take in his instruction in we need community to do this so that we can understand number three, God's intention for what we should do.
[00:13:12] And the intention is usually where we go immediately to God. What do you intend for me to do next?
[00:13:19] What is the next best step for me? And I think this is actually the invitation of God is to align ourselves with his promise, follow his instructions, and then find ourselves very naturally pursuing his intention for our lives.
[00:13:34] In fact, in I'll give you the actual scripture here.
[00:13:40] In Psalms 37, the Psalmist writes, delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. The delighting is to take on the promise and the instructions. See, I used to read that and I remember as a kid being like, I really want a new guitar. So if I delight in the Lord, he's gonna give me the guitar. Cause that's what I desire in my heart. And I think what the psalmist is actually saying is when you delight yourself fully in what God has promised and what he has instructed, and when you live there, the desires of your heart change so much that everything you desire is in line with what he intends for your life to look like.
[00:14:16] And so we give ourselves out of delight, not obligation.
[00:14:20] We give ourselves in delight to the way of Jesus and the way of God so that he changes the desires in our hearts. And what do you know what we desire actually comes to us.
[00:14:31] Not in some name it claim it kind of prosperity gospel way, but instead in a way where we've been so transformed by the renewing of our minds in the Holy Spirit to what we're praying for and hoping for and leaning into is actually what God intended for us all along.
[00:14:44] That's good preaching.
[00:14:51] It's this wide open spaces of God's grace and his mercy.
[00:14:56] The more familiar we become with his promises. Actually, let's put this on the screen. The more familiar you become with his promises and the more obedient you become to his instructions, the easier it will be for you to understand what he intends for your life.
[00:15:11] And I know that for many of us we jump to the what is your personal plan for my life, God? And oftentimes he's saying it's for you to be so close to me that what you desire the most is.
[00:15:25] And it is the path 1 Thessalonians 5 says, Always be joyful.
[00:15:32] Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
[00:15:40] Micah 6:8. The Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. This is the kind of person that he intends for you to be. So wherever you're headed to, whatever city you land in, whatever marriage you commit to, whatever job you take when you get there, this is the kind of person that the will of God intends for you to be. Thankful, joyful, prayerful, just merciful and humble, because you know who makes the best decisions. I've noticed this. You know, the kind of people that make the most wise, best decisions in their lives? The ones that always seem to, like, just get it and know what call to make is people who are thankful and joyful and prayerful and just and merciful and humble. Find a person like that who's making bad decisions.
[00:16:32] Find them. Show them. I want to see the person who is all those things and makes terrible decisions. Because for what it's worth, everybody that I know that makes terrible decisions lacks a lot of these things.
[00:16:44] And I remember came out of youth ministry many, many years ago. And Pastor Josh knows how this works too. Oftentimes, high schoolers will come to you and they'll really be wrestling over a decision, or they'll have made a decision in their minds, like, this is the best thing, and they share that with you. And it is so obvious to anyone who has even an ounce of wisdom that this is a really stupid idea, right?
[00:17:11] Or it's just like, why is that the conclusion you came up to? I remember one year, one of our graduating seniors, we did, like, testimony night for our youth group. And he said. He's like, so, what's next? I was gonna go to college, but I think I'm not gonna go to college anymore. And I wanna become a fashion model. So that's what I'm gonna do. And we're like, okay, that's interesting. And then the next person got up and they're like, I think I wanna be a fashion model, too.
[00:17:40] And it was like this, you know, this pandemic of fashion model coming out of our youth group. I'm like, whoa, hang on, everybody, hang on.
[00:17:49] Is this even a good idea? Are you even up for it? You know, like, how is your fashion right?
[00:17:55] But sometimes you need just a little bit of wisdom to say, well, hang on, hang on, hang on. Have you talked to anyone about this.
[00:18:02] And this is the opposite of isolation is this community where hopefully we gain wisdom from the council of many. And so that's why we need each other.
[00:18:15] This is why we need the Holy Spirit. And this is why we need each other is so that we make good decisions when the time comes.
[00:18:23] And oftentimes I know this, that we tend to want like a mystical experience or a sign or a feeling to determine which path we should take. And while I think sometimes God can show up in ways that feel like that, and I don't want to discount that, oftentimes we shouldn't rely on the fuzzy feelings to get to the right decision.
[00:18:47] Right?
[00:18:50] Even this idea that we would in prayer, say God, whatever I feel most peace filled about, that surely is your path. For me, it flies in the face of Jesus in the garden before he goes to the cross where he's sweating blood and saying, if there's any way that I can do anything else, God, please.
[00:19:07] But not my will be done. Your will be done.
[00:19:10] So even that it pushes against this idea that wherever there is a pleasant feeling, that's where God wants me to go. And maybe you've heard the scripture in Jeremiah 29:11, very famous, it says, for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.
[00:19:30] Sold a lot of mugs back in the day, you know, with that on the mug, because it's very inspiring. It's this idea that whatever God's plan is for me, it's all gonna be perfect and good. The issue is, if you actually read the whole passage in Jeremiah, Jeremiah is prophesying that. And then what's gonna happen is the people that he prophesied that to are gonna stay in exile for 60 years.
[00:19:55] 60 years, and then they're gonna be brought back into the land and all this prospering and goodness is gonna happen. But first there's gonna be a period of 60 years where a bunch of them are and never actually make it back. And so that didn't make it on the mug growing up, you know, after 60 years and many of you will die.
[00:20:17] And so what we have to understand is that sometimes the will of God for us is not always the most pleasant thing.
[00:20:22] It doesn't mean that it's the wrong thing just because it doesn't feel like it's going to lead to the easiest path. And so what we need is we need the discernment of the Holy Spirit because If we rely on our own intuition, we're always going to go to the path of least resistance or the path that we think is gonna be the quickest shortcut to the preferred outcome. And oftentimes Jesus leads us in a different way. It's the way of Jesus.
[00:20:45] And so we have to stay close in this friendship with him, because sometimes he actually leads us to choose things that we wouldn't naturally choose because they're gonna take us in the way that is gonna shape us into the people that he wants us to be.
[00:21:01] And some of you are listening to me talk and just saying, like, okay, so just get to the point. How do I know?
[00:21:08] How do I know the will of God? How do I know what decision to make next?
[00:21:14] And for all of us who feel that adverse risk thing, you know, where we don't really want to step out until we know what's going to be under our foot. We don't want to take a turn until we know what's on the other side of that turn. We want to know what's in front of us. I would encourage you that actually a life of faith is a life of uncertainty by definition.
[00:21:38] For those of us who are going to God and saying, God, would you just please give me certainty about what's next? I would remind us that we are called to live a life by faith, not by certainty. And in fact, a desire to live in certainty at all times. That God is the one who's supposed to provide us the certainty is a desire to live a life completely void of faith, where we say, faith is too hard and too risky and too unknown. And so God, just give me the next thing. Give me a script that I can live by, give me the to do list. And God says, that's not what you signed up for.
[00:22:14] A life of faith is a life where we don't always see what's next. I'm reminded in the great passage talking about the faith of the ancient people.
[00:22:23] In Hebrews, chapter 11, it says that Abraham himself, the father of the faith, he set out from a place from his home into a place where he did not know where he was going.
[00:22:34] This is the model for how we walk in. The will of God is that we are willing to say yes to God even when we're unclear where it will take us, because we have the kind of relationship that is built on what? Trust. It's trust.
[00:22:50] And so in this season where maybe you are trying to make a big decision and you don't want to get it wrong and you want to follow God and you want for his wisdom. I would encourage you a get familiar with his promises, get immersed and saturated in his instruction, and then walk into the next best thing with confidence. You're not going to know that you know that you know, and that is the life of faith.
[00:23:21] And in the end, if you will look back on your life and realize that what you did again and again was to delight yourself in him and then walk into the next best decision, trusting God with the outcome, I will promise you this.
[00:23:34] You will not have a life filled with regrets.
[00:23:37] Maybe not every decision was the right one. Maybe you took some turns and maybe you felt like you fell off that tightrope a couple times. But I'll tell you what, you were not in the Colorado River. You were in the wide open spaces of his mercy and grace. Come on.
[00:23:51] And so we have this confidence.
[00:23:54] We have this confidence that he is with us and he is close.
[00:23:57] And I want to close with this scripture. Out of Psalms 32, 8, it says, the Lord says, I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
[00:24:08] I will advise you and I'll watch over you.
[00:24:11] And so I want to pray for all of us today, especially those of you on the edge of a big decision. If you'd bow your heads. And I want to pray that this Psalms 32 would be your theme today.
[00:24:24] That out of a place of relationship, that God would guide you along the best path, that he would be your advisor and the one that watches over you. That he would be close to you in the biggest decisions and the small ones.
[00:24:43] That as you are weighing these options, that alongside you would be the presence and the wisdom of a God and a father who loves you, who wants the best from you, who is not hiding from you, but desires to show you and make your path straight.
[00:25:00] And so, Lord Jesus, for those weighing big decisions today, come close, stir in them a delight in your way that they might discern and know and test what is the perfect will of God for their lives.
[00:25:19] And Lord, I pray for anyone here who feels regret and feels like they had fallen off your will for them maybe days ago, maybe years ago, that they would have this confidence today in your grace and your mercy and your closeness.
[00:25:38] This is not a tightrope, but it is a wide open space of your presence today.
[00:25:45] Lo, we love you, we trust in you, we delight ourselves in you.
[00:25:49] Transform us by the renewing of our minds by the Holy Spirit today, in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
