“GOD’S WILL FOR THE NEW YEAR”
SELECTED SCRIPTURES
I. Introduction
There was a time when books often had very long titles. This was especially true of books that were written by and for Christians. Here is just one example from seventeenth century New England.
In 1661 Henry Dawbeny wrote a book in response to an ongoing dispute over the details of church services. This was its title:
“A sober and temperate discourse, concerning the interest of words in prayer, the just antiquity and pedigree of liturgies, or forms of prayer in churches: With a view of the state of the church, when they were first composed, or imposed. Together with a dis-covery of the weakness of the grounds upon which they were first brought in, or upon which Bishop Gawden hath lately discoursed, the necessity of a liturgy, or the incon-veniency of altering the English liturgy, the utility of church music, and the lawfulness of ceremonies: In which are mixed reasons justifying those godly ministers, who for-bear the use of the Common Prayer, against the late outcries of the said bishop.”
And that’s just the title. With a title like that you hardly had to read the book. But I have to admit that such long titles were pretty impressive. So thinking that I might try to do the same thing, I originally intended that this morning’s sermon should be called…
“The Importance and Relative Ease of Discovering and Discerning God’s Will for Living the Christian Life in the Coming New Year, or for that Matter, any Day, Week, Month, or Year as Long as You Live, all for the Express Purpose of Learning to be Obedient in Every Thing and Glorifying God Forever.”
Not bad, huh? But upon further reflection I decided that if I gave you most of the sermon right there in the title you wouldn’t need to listen to the rest of it. So I renamed it “God’s Will for the New Year.” However, there is a sub-title: “God’s will is not the big mystery so many of us seem to think it is.”
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II. Text
Is there anyone here who hasn’t wondered what God wanted them to do, to be, to say, or even to think about some particular detail, decision, or direction in their lives? We know intuitively that God has a purpose for us in this life. We just don’t always know what it is. This is especially true for young people, but God has a purpose for every single one of us, even if we are no longer young, and even if our lives are in the process of winding down.
Think about it. If He had no purpose for us, why would He leave us here? If God had no purpose for us, why wouldn’t He just take us home to be with Him?
Listen, Christian, if you’re here, breathing, and sitting up and taking nourishment, God has a purpose for you. And while you may not know every detail of it, you can certainly know what God’s overall plan, purpose, and will for your life is. That’s because the Scriptures are very clear as to what it is. There is nothing the least bit mysterious about the will of God for the child of God.
First, you must be aware of the fact that God commands us to do His will. Our motto when we began this church was “To Know God’s Word – To Do God’s Will.” The point is obvi-ous, is it not? You cannot do the will of God unless you know what the will of God is. We must know God’s Word because, as Christians, if we do not, we’re like a ship with neither a rudder nor a propeller. We can neither steer nor move. We’re dead in the water; we have no defense against the storm or even the waves. It’s only a matter of time before we capsize and sink.
Up in the Door County village of Bailey’s Harbor there are some nineteenth century naviga-tional aids called range lights. One is on the beach and is probably no more than ten feet high. The second is in the woods maybe two hundred yards back from the beach. It might be thirty feet high. These two old range lights were the “road map” for any deep draft ves-sel entering the relatively shallow channel. By keeping both range lights vertically aligned, the captain could enter the harbor safely; his ship wouldn’t run aground.
The Biblical principles that reveal God’s will for our lives are our “range lights.” They tell us how to navigate. Are you trying to navigate the waters of this life without using your “range lights,” the biblical principles you already know?
Or are you sincerely trying to navigate the narrow way that leads to eternal life, but you just can’t see through the fog? Maybe you’re treating God’s will for your life like an Arthur Conan Doyle mystery and you’re just not as smart or as insightful as Sherlock Holmes.
Or could it be that you’re be fearful of finding God’s will for your life and really don’t want to know what it is? You know, like you’re afraid God might want you to go on the mission field to deepest darkest Africa, and you don’t want to go to deepest darkest Africa.
Or might it be that you think you’re smarter than God? I know none of us would actually say that. Few, if any of us, would even go so far as to entertain the thought. But are you acting that way? Let me give you an example of what I mean.
There’s the story of the old Scottish woman who went from town to town selling shoelaces, buttons, and thread. When she came to a fork in the road, she would toss a stick in the air and the direction the stick pointed when it landed was the direction she would go. One day she was seen tossing the stick several times. Someone asked her, “Why do you toss the stick more than once?” She replied, “It keeps pointing to the left, and I want to go to the right.”
So she kept just tossing the stick until it pointed to the right.
Are you like that when it comes to God’s will for your life? Are you “searching” for God’s will like that?
Or what about those folks who think they can find God’s will by throwing their Bibles open to a page – any page – and pointing to a verse – any verse – and assuming that God divinely directed them to that chapter and verse. They conclude that whatever it says must be His divine will for their life. So, purely for the sake of illustration, let’s try that in the gospels…
Matthew 27:5b
5b …and he went away and hanged himself.
Luke 10:37c
37c …Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”
John 13:27b
27b Jesus therefore said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”
I admit that example is pretty silly, but I know at least one person who has actually sought God’s will by doing just that! So how do you find God’s will? That is a really important question. King David came to the point in life where he understood just how important it was to do God’s will. Here’s what he said…
*Psalm 143:10
10 “Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”
Notice that David didn’t say, “Teach me to understand Your will.” He didn’t say, “Help me to find Your will” or, “Please reveal Your will to me.” Rather He said, “Teach me to DO Your will.” The clear implication is that David already knew what the will of God was. So because David also knew that his flesh just naturally rebelled against doing God’s will, he asked God to empower him to do it.
Jesus Himself is the ultimate example of one who was devoted to doing God’s will. There is no greater example of that than Jesus on the night before He went to the cross. You know what He said.
Luke 22:42
42 “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
Jesus knew His Father’s will and He prayed for the strength to do it. You say, “Well sure, Jesus knew God’s will, but He was God in human flesh. Of course, He knew God’s will. And David was ‘a man after God’s own heart,’ so knowing God’s will would have been easy for him.” Really? Aren’t you and I people after God’s own heart? And if so, shouldn’t it be easy for us too? Well, my premise this morning is that it’s easier than you might think.
Where does one begin? Let’s not begin by trying to find God’s will in the small things in life. Let’s begin with finding God’s will in the big things.
Only then will you be wise enough to know God’s Word and obey it. And only then will you see clearly enough to discern God’s will for your life and make wise decisions about the small things.
So where does doing God’s will begin? It begins with your salvation. Obeying what you know about God is the key to doing His will because obedience comes with true salvation. If you are not saved, if you are not a child of God, the rest will not matter, will it? So, first and foremost, God expects His children to know the truth about repentance and salvation. In Peter’s second letter he tells his readers, the church, that God “…is not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).”
In Paul’s letters to Timothy the apostle emphasizes the Christian’s need to know God’s truth.
1 Timothy 2:3-4
3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
So it is God’s will that you repent and it is God’s will that you are saved. “All right,” you say, “I do repent and I am saved, but I still don’t know what God wants me to do with my life.” Good! Then you have made the right start. And having made the right start, God has a command for you. In the second half of Paul’s letter to the Church at Ephesus he instructs the church as to how we, God’s children, should walk through this life. If you really want to know about God’s will for your life, read Ephesians 4-6. It’s all about your Christian walk.
*Ephesians 4:1-3
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love,
3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
So you are repentant and saved, but how is your Christian walk? It is God’s will that you walk according to those three verses, isn’t it? Are you walking according to your calling in Christ? Are you humble, gentle, patient, loving, and working to unite the body? Those things are God’s will for your life.
In the rest of Ephesians 4 Paul tells us much more. In v. 12 he tells us to use our spiritual gifts. Are you using yours? In v. 14 he tells us to speak the truth in love. Are you doing that? In vv. 22, 24 he tells us to lay aside the old life and take hold of the new. Are you? In vv. 27, 30 he tells us not to give the devil an opportunity and not to grieve the Holy Spirit.
How are you doing with those things? Then in vv. 31-32 Paul tells us to put away all bitter-ness, anger, slander, and malice, and be kind and forgiving one another. All of that is God’s will for your life. And that just Ephesians 4! But Paul goes on. In Ephesians 5:1, 3 he tells us to imitate God and put away immorality, impurity, and greed.
In vv. 6-7 he tells us not to be deceived by false teachers or be partakers with them. How are you doing with those things? They too are God’s will for your life. Then Paul says this:
*Ephesians 5:15-17
15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise,
16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
But Paul isn’t finished telling us about God’s will for our lives. He reminds us that we are not to be drunk. Rather, in vv. 18-21 we are to be filled with the Spirit, thankful in every-thing, and submitted to one another. Then Ephesians 5 ends with God’s will for husbands and wives, and Ephesians 6:6-9 gives us God’s will for children, employers, and employees. Finally, in v. 13, God calls us “…to take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”
What is “the full armor of God”? It is truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer. And you said you didn’t know what the will of God was for your life.
Granted, much of what we learn from Ephesians tends to be broad-based and general. That doesn’t make it any less God’s will, but where are the specifics? Where does God zero in on the details and give us, His children, some very specific and detailed commands? All right, here are six of them.
(1) Are You Spirit-filled?
*Ephesians 5:18b
18b …be filled with the Spirit.
This can only happen as you willingly yield yourself to God’s leading. That little old Scot-tish lady at the fork in the road wasn’t yielded to God, was she? She pretended to be, but she predetermined to go her way, not His. So there’s a specific command for you when it comes to God’s will. You are to consciously, willingly, and deliberately yield yourself to His leading and He will fill you with His Holy Spirit. That’s a command and a promise for all believers. So be filled with the Holy Spirit. The fruit of yielding oneself to the Spirit is found in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia.
Galatians 5:16
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
(2) Are You Being Sanctified?
*1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel (body) in sanctification and honor,
5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.
7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
Being sanctified means you are in the process of becoming holy. And that literally means you are being set apart from the world and its systems. That is to say, you are becoming more like Christ with each passing day. There is no debate or shadow of doubt about this. God has made it as clear as can be. You are to be set apart from the world. That is God’s will for all of His children.
Think about it. There are many marks of holiness, many marks of a life that is separated from the world. One such mark is abstention from illicit sex. That’s the specific issue Paul is talking about here in 1 Thessalonians. But the bigger picture is that God calls you to be sanctified in all areas of your life.
And if we’re Christians, then that process is taking place right now. But we’re not there yet. We’re being made holy (sanctified) but we’re not yet completely holy. That comes later.
1 John 3:2
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.
When the day comes that you step into His presence, you will be like Him, you will be holy. But for now, it is the will of God that you be filled with the Spirit, that you be sanctified, and that you humble yourself and submit yourself before God and men.
(3) Are You Humble and Submissive?
*James 4:6b-8a
6b God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8a Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…
So we are to submit ourselves to God directly. But we are also called to submit ourselves to God indirectly. By that I mean that we are to submit to other people and institutions as His word dictates. For example…
*1 Peter 2:13-15
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,
14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.
15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
Simply put, obey the laws of the land and pay your taxes. But there is one exception to that.
When the law of the land attempts to force you to break one of God’s laws, you obey God, not the law of the land. But that is the only exception. What about submission to others?
*1 Peter 2:18
18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.
Simply put, obey your boss. By the way, the same exception applies to you as an employee as it does to you as a citizen. You obey your employers until you are called to break one of God’s laws.
What about submission in the church? Does God command us there as well?
*Hebrews 13:17
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.
(4) Are You Being Persecuted?
This one isn’t so easy. Scripture teaches us one very important point that we don’t like to think about. But Scripture teaches it and we can’t ignore it.
*2 Timothy 3:10-12 (Paul speaking)
10 But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perse-verance,
11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord deli-vered me!
12 And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
If you are willing to stand for Christ you will suffer some kind of persecution at some point in your life. It’s a sure thing!
• You might not lose prestige in the community. But you might.
• You might not lose a friend. But you might.
• You might not forever lose the love of family members. But you might.
• You might not lose a position of authority or a job or an opportunity or a thousand other things. But you might.
• You might not die a martyr’s death. But you might.
If you stand for Christ, you will eventually lose something this world has to offer. You will!
*1 Peter 3:14-17
14 But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled,
15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;
16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
17 For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right, rather than for doing what is wrong.
Ask yourself this question: If you are going to be persecuted and suffer for something you do, wouldn’t it be better to be persecuted and suffer for doing what is right in God’s sight?
Listen, the fact is that being persecuted and suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ is a privilege. What did Peter say? “…if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed.”
Philippians 1:29
29 For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake…
If you are persecuted and suffer for Christ’s sake, it’s a clear indication that you are in God’s will. So then – being saved and repentant, being filled with the Holy Spirit and growing in Christ, being humble and submissive before God and men, and being willing to suffer for Jesus’ sake – all of those things are God’s will for your life. And don’t forget all of God’s instructions for living this life in Ephesians 4-6.
You say, “All right, I all of get that – even the persecution and suffering part. But none of those things give me the specific answers I’m looking for. I want to know God’s will for which job or career I should pursue, who I should marry, where I should live, what church I should attend, and how to invest my money? I want to know if I should buy the green coat or the brown one…or the green Chevy or the brown Honda. The Bible doesn’t answer those questions for me.”
No, it doesn’t. Nor do I believe God intends that it should. Listen carefully, please. If you are striving to live your life in obedience to the Scriptures we’ve looked at today, I would suggest to you that you’re one of those Christians who is learning to be happy and content in Christ. Do you remember this promise from the Psalms?
Psalm 37:4
4 Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Do you see? If you are in God’s will in the big things, I am convinced that He will conform your will to His in everything else. Then what He wants for you will be what you want for yourself. And you will be doing God’s will.
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III. Conclusion
How do you decide which job to take, which person to marry, how many children to have, which house, cars, shirt, or pair of shoes to buy?
How do you, as a Christian, decide any-thing at all with complete confidence that you are in God’s will for your life?
I believe you can follow this fundamental and simple rule: First, whatever the issue, if the Bible says anything about the issue, obey God’s revealed word! Second, if the Bible says nothing about the issue, you are free to do as you please.
You want to know God’s will? Are you saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, humble and submis-sive, and willing to be persecuted and suffer for Christ? If so, your desires will be His in line with His desires, “…and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Then you may, in complete confidence, do just what you want! You’ll be in His will.
And then you’ll gladly being doing one of the other things that the Scriptures reveal about the will of God for your life.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
18 …in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
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This is when I would normally close in prayer. But I want to do something a little different this morning. Rather than listening to me pray for us, let’s listen to the Apostle Paul pray for us. Johann-Peter read it for us to open the service. I think it’s appropriate for us to hear some of it again.
*Colossians 1:9-12
9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it (your faith in Christ, your love for each other, and your hope of heaven), we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attain-ing of all steadfastness and patience; joyously
12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Thank you, Father. May we all know Your will for us, but more than merely knowing it, I pray that we do it!