Knowing and Doing the Will of God. Introduction: It is a frustrating and hopeless feeling when driving in a strange city, or in a section of the city you are unfamiliar with to come to a crossroad or intersection of streets and with lights changing, time running short on your appointment, cars lined up behind you, you are unsure which road to take. Our map is not up to date. We need more detailed instruction or information on how to get where we are supposed to be going. And here we are and we do not have it. It is the same in life. We have all stood at crossroads in our lives when we have needed God’s guidance to make a major decision. “God, show my your will for my life.” “God, give me guidance to know the direction I should be taking.” How many times have we not said those very words? What we are asking for is more detailed information. “Some indication God, even a slight of hand as to what You would have us do?” If you have been back for a high school reunion you have seen the wreckage in people’s lives because of poor decisions at the cross roads of life. We make our decisions and then our decisions make us. We are all the product of a myriad of small seemingly insignificant decisions. “God, what is your will for my life?” The will of God is something we all want to know. I googled “Knowing the will of God” and got 6,990,000 hits. Countless books have been written on knowing the will of God. Book with titles like this: “Finding the Will of God in a Crazy Mixed Up World” “Yearning to Know God’s Will.” “A Workbook for discerning God’s Guidance for Your Life.” At some point we need to dedicate more time to this subject. Today I want to stay within the truth found in Romans 12:1-2 We must start by reviewing what we have learnt from these 2 verses to gain insight into our challenge: the longing of our hearts, to know and do the will of God. Stand and read out loud with me Romans 12:1-2 Let me throw my cards on the table right now. This is what I believe Romans 12:1-2 will teach us if we let it. “God, what is your will for my life?”—is not the right question. I agree with Henry Blackaby in his book Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God when he writes “I think the right question is, What is God’s will? Once I know God’s will, then I can adjust my life to Him. In other words, what is it that God is purposing where I am. Once I know what God is doing, then I know what I need to do. The focus needs to be on God, not my life!” “Offer your body as a living sacrifice.” This is not more religious duty, or something reserved for, and maybe only yet possible for those few gifted, courageous saints that the rest of us aspire to emulate. It is the desire of a heart that has been awakened by God in His kindness to see His mercy in Jesus Christ and our need and invitation to receive it. And that understands that this offering of our bodies as a living sacrifice, as Paul says is reasonable, logical and could be our only appropriate act of worship in view of God’s great mercy. And yet we live in this world where there is a whole system of finding life apart from God that continuously bears down on us pressuring us to conform to its values, goals, and objectives. It is a challenge not to “…follow the crowd in doing wrong.” [Exodus 23:2] In view of God’s mercy “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” Paul says, “But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We learnt from Romans 1 that we naturally internally suppress God honoring and Christ exalting truth in our minds. We must discipline ourselves to fix our thoughts on Christ and we do it with effort and intentional focus and training. Naturally we do not think it worthwhile to glorify God. By nature our minds are not God-worshipping minds. Our minds are ego-centric. We worship self and not Christ. In the next life our physical bodies will be transformed. In this life we are to be transformed internally in the way we think. That we conform to the pattern of this world is a mind problem. We need to be renewed in the spirit of our minds by pursuing Christ-exalting truth an asking the Holy Spirit to renew our minds and soften our hearts to humbly accept and submit to the truth of Jesus Christ and exalt Him in our minds and external life and behavior Paul starts these verses with the word “Therefore”. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy…” Before he gets to the practical instruction on how to live our lives, he uses the word “Therefore” to say that the Christian life is built on something. It doesn’t come out of nowhere. It has roots. It has a foundation. It has causes and grounds and reasons. That we finite and fallen humans can test and approve the good, pleasing, and perfect will of the Almighty God has its reasons, grounds, and roots in the mercy of God. It has nothing to do with any inherent goodness on our own part but rather the greatness of God and what He can do in transforming men and women. Jesus says to us in John 15:15 “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” I pray that this humbles us to the core and we no longer exhort God to show us His will for our lives. But rather in humility ask God to show us His will that we might submit our lives to Him. When we allow God to transform us by the renewing of our minds inherent in this is that we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is His good, pleasing and perfect will. The questions before us are these: What does Paul mean by the term “will of God” and how do we test and approve it? 1] The first question: What does Paul mean by the will of God? There are two very clear and different meanings in the Bible for the term “will of God.” The first meaning is the sovereign will of God. We can find this meaning in many scriptures. Here are a few: Ephesians 1:11 “In him we were also chosen,[a] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,” Daniel 4:35 “All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?" Matthew 26:39 “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." The sovereign will of God cannot be changed but rather is submitted to and trusted. We are aligned to it whether we realize it or not. Acts 4:27-28 the prayer of the early church referring in prayer to the crucifixion of Jesus: “Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people[a] of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” Psalm 139 it says that God knows how many days He has ordained for us before one of them came to be and in Matthew 6 Jesus reminds us that not one of us by worrying can add a single day to his life. The sovereign will of God. The second meaning is God’s will of command. God’s will of command can be disobeyed. Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” We can decide not to do the God’s will. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 “It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;” Many people do not avoid sexual immorality and so go against God’s will. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” The Bible contains God’s revealed will of command. This is how God desires us to live. In Romans 12:2 Paul is referring to God’s will of command. God does not intend for us to know most of His sovereign will ahead of time. John Piper “If you want to know the future details of God’s will of decree, you don’t want a renewed mind, you want a crystal ball. This is not called transformation and obedience; its called divination and soothsaying.” The result of a renewed mind is that we will be able to see and understand and desire God’s will as revealed to us in scripture. We will be able to test and approve God’s will. What does this mean and how do we do this? My second car was a 1960 something red Toyota Coronna. I went from a Ford, Mustang, G.T. Cobra to this car. It had been owned by a older couple and was almost never driven apart from short trips to the grocery star and wasn’t driven at freeway speeds. I bought it off of my brother in law and now I was driving it very frequently and at higher speeds on the freeway. In a matter of months this car became a lethal force against the spread of mosquitoes in the lower mainland. You could literally smell this car from a block away and you could say I was guided by a cloud of smoke by day. People would literally roll up their windows at intersections. It was a bit embarrassing. In the heat of summer the vinyl on the ceiling would come unglued and would sag. Every few minutes I had to stick it back to the ceiling as I drove. I loved it. Every time I would turn it off it would keep going and then back fire. It was great for scaring people and my friends loved it. The poor car finally died on a long hill about a half hour outside of Cache Creek. Especially when buying a used car we walk around it and examine it carefully. We look at the paint, we kick the tires, check them for wear, we get inside and get a feel for the interior condition and leg room. We pop the hood and take a look at the engine. But to prove the vehicle, we must start it up and go for a test drive. It must be proved by using it for the purpose for which it was built. The will of God is not something we stand back from and examine, it is not merely external information. To test and approve the will of God means that we enter into it. We live it, we obey it, we submit to it and we find that it is good, it is pleasing to God, it is perfect. For 8 years of my life I had an incredibly disciplined, regimented life obsessed and driven with building my body. This was my first thought in the morning and my last thought as I fell asleep at night. Everything centered around it. God, in His mercy, had been drawing me back to Himself, and yet I was resisting. I woke up one morning knowing in my heart with God that today was the day I would have to choose. I fought, I wrestled with God, I wept and finally in tears I said God, I am yours. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. I will no longer conform to the pattern of this world. I submit to you. Please do what I have been resisting: Transform me by the renewing of my mind. I do not want to go to bed and wake up in the morning and spend virtually every waking hour with a mind consumed with my body. I entered into the will of my Father instead of my own. Knowing God’s will is not a destination but rather a journey. It is like a romance that cannot be broken down into 5 easy steps, or 3 key practices anymore than love and romance in a marriage can be experienced by following 5 easy steps for success. As one commentator said, talking about testing and approving the will of God “…it is not that you are seeking after ‘victory’ or ‘blessing’ or even instruction in truth; but you are to enter into the will of Another—even God.” Often we can think of God’s will as entering into an experience of victory and blessing or a place of instruction in truth. A place of enlightenment and extra measure of grace that is tangible or evidenced in how we are experiencing life. And so this is what we seek. We read verses like James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” What we are asking for is for wise counsel, or understanding in a situation, and knowing God’s will and receiving wisdom becomes similar to receiving a piece of bubble gum from a candy dispenser. We put a quarter into the slot, turn the crank, and a bubble gum rolls out the bottom of the dispenser. If we pray long and hard enough, in God’s timing we will receive a choice bit of information about our future as He is planning it. It is an entirely different thing to enter into the will of Another. This is the sacrifice of our bodies. The complete giving over of ourselves in humble submission and obedience to the purpose and plan of God. We do not simply know God’s will as knowing some external truth. We enter into His will. His will becomes our will as we surrender our will to His. Conclusion We can know God’s will and remain in God’s will only through immersing ourselves in God’s Word. 2 Timothy 3:16 “16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” Phillip Brooks The Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope he sees worlds beyond; but if he looks at his telescope, he does not see anything but that. The Bible is a thing to be looked through to see that which is beyond; but most people only look at it and so they see only the dead letter. Paul’s meaning is paraphrased almost exactly in Hebrews 5:14 “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” When we immerse ourselves in the Bible we can discern right from wrong in the life circumstances to which the Bible does not explicitly speak. We begin to think with the mind of Christ rather than waiting to hear God’s voice to tell us to do this or that. Romans 12:2 is telling us that we can test and approve God’s will. Rather than divine pieces of information it is thinking like Christ. We can talk about crossroads in our lives. We have all stood at them. Should I take a new job? Should we move to another province or stick it out where we are? What do I do after school? There are things we must do in seeking God’s guidance in these situations. Read God’s Word, Prayer, looking at circumstances, getting the counsel of respected men and women of faith. Throughout this process we are using our reason, logic, intellect, insight. God still speaks through visions, dreams or miraculous revelation but He does these things in His own sovereignty and they are not something we should seek. The guidance more often than not is internal rather than external. It is a settled peace about a direction, a knowing in ones heart with God. And so we can talk about crossroads in our lives but the truth is that this is not where we live: I agree with John Piper when he says that 95% of our behavior we do not premeditate. That is most of our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors are spontaneous. They are spill over from what is inside of us. We have God’s will of command. God’s will of command includes things like this: Don’t be angry. Don’t be prideful. Don’t covet. Don’t be anxious. Don’t be jealous. These are all behaviors, attitudes and thoughts we do not premeditate. They simply spill out of us and we are guilty of breaking the commands of God. Now again we can see the central importance of what Paul is saying: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We need new hearts and new minds. As Jesus said in Matthew 12:33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good,…” Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Lets not forget the great mercy of God that we can know and obey His will. God’s grace is enough. We want to close with this song. Maybe you need to come up here and meet with God. I encourage you to do just that.