Are you in charge of your life? We like to think so, but you wonder, with all
of the twists and turns of our lives. And we look at this world, with its joy and
sadness, good and evil, justice and injustice, health and illness, the thrill
of success and the agony of failure, and we wonder.
And where does God’s will fit in? Have you ever prayed: “Lord, your will be
done,” or “Lord show me your will.” or “Lord, I want to follow your will?” I have.
Scripture is clear: God desires for you and me to seek, to know and to
follow His Will. God wants us to open
our hearts and minds to His voice and guidance in all times and in all places
and in all our years.
What is God’s will? I doubt that this sermon will answer all of
your questions, especially since I still have questions, but it will give you
some biblical insights. Discerning God’s
will is not simple. Any minister who
says he or she understands and can explain God’s will to you is, let us say, not
lacking in self-confidence. Are you
hearing God speak to you or is it something or someone else?
A man goes ice fishing for the
very first time. All of a sudden, he hears a voice. "There are no fish
under the ice!" He ignores it and moves to another area, cuts a hole, and
tosses his line in. Again, he hears the booming voice: "There are no
fish under the ice!" He nervously looks up and asks, "Lord? Is
that you?" "No, this is
the ice rink manager!"
First, Scripture teaches that we
live out our lives in a context of conflicting wills. Our own free will, your will, my will, other
people's free wills, Satan's will and God's will. Toss accidents into the mix and you have a
real conundrum. Second, scripture says
that God's sovereign will is not only at work in individual lives, but in the
universe, history, in time, in the destiny of nations. Jesus prays in the Lord's Prayer: “Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The terms God’s kingdom, God’s Will, God’s
rule, God’s Plans or Purposes are synonyms/interchangeable. They mean the same thing in scripture. These terms mean God is alive and active in
this world and in our lives. God’s Will
has existed in the past, is a reality today, and it is coming in the future.
In the letter of Romans, we read:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and
acceptable and perfect.” We cannot
discern God’s will by thinking like the world thinks, but only when we allow
the Spirit to transform and renew our minds.
And in the letter of Philippians we read: “For it is God who is at
work in you enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” God’s Spirit is speaking to your spirit
helping you to grasp God’s will. We must
always pray to discern God's will vis-a-vis the world's will.
These are amazing biblical
passages. They bring comfort, encouragement,
assurance and hope. They affirm the truth
that God’s will is not silent or make-believe or a fantasy. God's sovereign and powerful will is a
tremendous force in our lives and our world.
You and I are not merely pawns in life; victims of capricious and
impersonal forces like fatalism over which we have no control. God's will is present and active and God has
given us a free will to seek and follow His will. God calls us to align our will with His, to
get in tune-with His will through faith.
Conversely, we also have the freedom to disobey God.
Nothing that happens in life is
God’s will! Is that true? Can we make that claim? No. We would be saying God is dead or
apathetic or complacent or on permanent vacation in the Bahamas . We claim through faith that God’s will comes
in many forms: blessings, answers to prayer, miracles, small and great, coincidences,
surprises of grace which we never saw coming, good coming out of bad, new
opportunities emerging out of dead ends.
Well then can we state this: Everything
that happens in life is God’s will? No
we can’t say that either. We are then
speaking about pre-determinism or even fatalism and we are immediately ruling
out human free will.
Was 9-11 God’s will? Are terrorist attacks God’s will? If a child
dies of an illness or in a car accident is that God’s will? If a person is diagnosed with cancer is it
God’s will? If you or I do something
foolish, which we later regret, it is God’s will? As a Christian and pastor I believe the
answer is no. You have no control over a
drunk driver who T-bones you or the cancer that your physician diagnoses. The God of the Bible just doesn’t operate
that way. Why not? We again live in a context of conflicting
wills and individual responsibility. Jesus
acknowledges the existence of Satan, of free will, of sinful of human beings, of
a fallen creation and of accidents which occur in life.
Think about Jesus, the Son of God,
the Lord and Savior of the World. In
Jesus we see God’s will being played out.
If sickness was God’s will, why did Jesus heal people in his ministry? Jesus does not tell a man with leprosy
that his disease is God’s will; Jesus cures him. If hunger was God’s will, why did Jesus feed
people? Jesus does not say to the
hungry crowds go away, hunger is God’s will; Jesus feeds them. Jesus does not tell people racked with guilt
that guilt is God’s will, Jesus forgives them.
If ignorance was God’s will, why did Jesus teach his disciples and teach
the crowd’s through stories and parables?
In his classic book, The Will
of God by Leslie Weatherhead, we find some key insights into this question. The author divides the concept of the Will of
God into three aspects – the Intentional will of God, the Circumstantial will
of God and the Ultimate will of God.
First, God’s Intentional Will
means God’s original plan for creation, God’s original purpose in creating the
world and human beings before the Fall. Genesis
says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Neither the earth nor the heavens existed. God created the universe and human beings
with a purpose in mind. God created
people with the free will to love Him and obey Him, to love their neighbor, to
worship God alone, rather than self or idols, to be whole - spiritually, intellectually,
relationally, physically, and emotionally rather than broken, to treat one
another with fairness, respect and dignity, to
live together in unity, to lead spiritual and moral lives, to care for
the earth rather than exploit it, to gain knowledge rather than live in
ignorance, to live a meaningful and joyful and fulfilling life in fellowship
with God. This was God’s Intentional
Will.
Second, God’s Circumstantial Will. Now we enter a gray area. Our eyesight becomes a little blurry. Why, because scripture says we walk by faith,
not by sight. Because of human
disobedience, the Fall destroyed man’s relationship with God. Humanity as represented by Adam and Eve, turned
away from God, fell from God’s grace; Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden
of Eden.
God’s Circumstantial Will refers
to the truth that despite the problems, sin and evil that resulted from the
Fall, God is present in this world working through us and with us in our
circumstances. God promises to help us
by His grace and power to not let us be defeated by our circumstances, but
rather to get through, to endure, and finally triumph over them.
God sent His Son Jesus to seal
this promise. Jesus is the seal of
God’s promise to be with us, to not forsake us. The letter of Philippians says: “I have
the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.” Scripture says: “Rejoice always, pray
constantly, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus for you.”
God promises to instill hope in the
midst of seemingly hopeless times. God
promises to impart courage to us when we are overcome with fear and anxiety. God promises to provide strength for us, when
we feel weak, exhausted and helpless. God’s
promise means don’t give up.
And so we look at today’s world
war, with radical extremist Muslim terrorist groups like Isis, dedicated to
establishing Sharia Law world-wide, infidels against other moderate Muslim
nations and democratic nations in Europe and the USA . Some say they can’t be defeated, they are too
strong. Others say we need the will and
a plan. What do you say? God’s will is that though we don’t know how,
God’s plans and purposes are at work today to defeat this barbarous and evil
threat to civilization. This is the
promise of Easter; Jesus’ resurrection was a victory over evil.
I Corinthians says: “God is
faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the
testing, he will also provide the way out, so that you may be able to endure it.” God brings good things out of bad
circumstances. God uses challenges for
our good. God redirects our lives when
we are lost or misguided. This doesn’t
mean that everything will always turn out perfect or the way we want it to be.
Like the story about a police officer
in a helicopter who spotted a car speeding down the freeway. He radioed his partner on the ground and a
few miles later the patrolman in the car stopped the speeder and began writing
a ticket. “How did you know I was
speeding,” the man asked. The patrolman
kept writing and pointed skyward. The man looked up and moaned, “Oh, no, you’re
not against me too.”
Listen to this story of a couple
whose son was born with a congenital heart defect. When he was four, he went to Children’s
Hospital in Los Angeles
for open-heart surgery. Despite their
prayers, and the skills of the doctors, sadly, the child died. His mother said: “God helped us through
our grief in such a loving way, that we continually marveled at what was
happening. The people who brought us the
most comfort were those who had also lost a child. They knew what we were experiencing and when
they softly said, ‘We understand what you are going through; there was a bond
between us that really lightened our load.
The Bible verse that popped into my head was: “In everything God works
for good with those who love him.”’ We
hung onto it for dear life and watched it come true. In the weeks and months to come, we were led
to accept Philip’s death without bitterness and other people’s faith was strengthened
as they watched what was happening to us.”
Lastly, we come to God’s Ultimate
Will. This means that God’s purposes in
the world will ultimately be achieved, will ultimately be realized, will
ultimately be established forever. They
will be fulfilled forever. God's plans
and purposes cannot be defeated or destroyed by any power or nation or evil
charismatic person or group. God will
make sin and evil serve His final purposes.
I close with a beautiful picture
of the future, a future which one day will be realized. We find it in the book of Revelation: “See,
the home of God is among mortals. He
will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself
will be with them, he will wipe every tear from their eyes, death will be no
more, mourning and crying and pain will cease.” “Lord, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.” Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment