314. Doing God's Will

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 Doing God’s Will

 

1.        Jesus came to do God’s will:  Hebrews 10:5-10

 

5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

 

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,

    but a body you prepared for me;

6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings

    you were not pleased.

7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—

    I have come to do your will, my God.’”

 

8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Jesus changed eternity by his willingness and surrender to God’s will.  God’s will for him was to suffer and die for each one of us.  Jesus embraced that will, no matter how difficult it was for him and changed our lives. 

We are called to imitate him and to seek and pursue God’s will for our lives.  That’s not easy and yet it’s the most exciting thing we can do with our lives.  We know that God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  If you repented and got baptized, you submitted to God’s will for your life.  However, there is so much more to look forward to.

2.       God has a purpose for your life:  Ephesians 2:8-10

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

None of us is saved by our good works.  However, we’ve been created and called by God to do good works once we’ve been born again.  God has prepared good works for you to do in advance.  It’s already in the mind of God the good you can and will do.  You were called into the kingdom to do God’s will and to do some amazing things.  You just have to continue to follow and discover the good works God has planned for you.  God had some surprises for me:

• Saving people
• Overseas missionary work
• Church plantings

 

3.       Be a person after God’s own heart:  Acts 13:22

²² After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’

David and Saul are contrasted in this passage.  Saul was a natural leader.  He was tall, handsome and courageous.  He built and developed the nation of Israel.  However, he got removed from his position.  Why?  God had a will for him, a mission to accomplish and Saul said no.  He didn’t actually say no, he just didn’t do everything God wanted him to do.  God had called him to destroy the Amalekites.  Saul partially obeyed.  He wasn’t willing to do everything God had called him explicitly to do. 

David, on the other hand, is commended by God as “a man after my own heart.”  Why?  He was willing to do everything God wanted him to do.  Was he perfect?  No.  However, there was something that was submissive to God’s will.  When he sinned in the affair with Bathsheba, he fasted and prayed for 7 days and returned to God in repentance. 

I think each one of us wants to be known as a person who is after God’s own heart.  You want God to commend you as a man or woman after his own heart.  What does that look like?  How do you define it?  It starts with a willingness to do everything God wants you to do.  It’s so tempting to pick and choose and simply do the part of God’s will that is appealing to us.  That’s where we are often so different than Jesus.

4.      Ask to do God’s will and not your own:  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.”

Jesus didn’t want to go to the cross even though his whole life and ministry were directed toward the cross.  When he got there, he faltered, he shook, he cried, he sweated blood, he was in emotional agony.  He honestly told the father to give him a back door, an exit strategy, but finally he said, not as I will, but as you will.  Jesus is the perfect example of a person who fulfilled God’s will and reaped the fruit of perfect obedience.  All nations will say, Jesus is Lord and acknowledge him.  There is power in submitting to God’s will.

5.       How do you know when you are doing God’s will?

God is calling us to do his will.  We have a choice in this life to live small or live big.  Doing God’s will is choosing to live big, to live dangerously, to fulfill the intention of God and his creation of us. 

When you start doing God’s will and asking to fulfill it, you’ll experience:

Fear

Emotional turmoil

A desire to find an exit strategy

 

When you resist doing God’s will you will experience:

• Depression
• Boredom
• Lack of meaning
• Unease
• Confusion
• Restlessness

Why?  Because God’s Spirit is gently calling you to the good works you were created for and you are resisting.  You weren’t meant to live small, you were meant to do God’s will, even though that is scary.

I recently read a book that said each morning we are confronted by two gremlins sitting at the foot of our bed when we wake up.  Those gremlins are fear and lethargy.  We fear taking risks to do God’s will and we have to overcome our lethargy that says stay in bed and do God’s will tomorrow. 

Monday, I woke up and thought I don’t want to get up and go to a service activity.  I wrestled back and forth.  That gremlin of lethargy and laziness was saying, “don’t do it Rob!”  I finally forced myself out of the house and had a great time serving with other disciples.  The battle is real.

How do you fight the gremlins of fear and lethargy?  You need to ask God for faith and love.  Faith overcomes fear and love beats out laziness.  “Whoever loves much does much” Thomas A’kempis said. 

6.      Understanding the difference between your career and your calling:  Acts 18:3-4

³ and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. ⁴ Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

Paul had a career, a way to make money, that was tentmaking.  He relied on it when he couldn’t find support from churches.  However his calling or vocation was to spread the gospel.  Here’s the definition of vocation: 

A vocation (from Latin vocatio 'a call, summons'^[1]) is an occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. Though now often used in non-religious contexts, the meanings of the term originated in Christianity.

 

You have a job, a way to pay the bills and that is important.  But you also have a vocation, something that God’s Spirit is calling you to.  That is God’s will for your life.  It may include your current job, but it’s a lot more than that. 

When Pam and I wanted to plant a church in my hometown, my career changed from full time ministry to Real Estate sales, but my vocation remained the same to preach the gospel and make Jesus known, to build a church of dedicated believers and try to reach my family with the gospel. 

What’s your calling?  You have to seek it.

 

Seek God’s Will for your life:  Psalm 138:8

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
    your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
    Do not forsake the work of your hands.

 Psalm 57:2

I cry out to God Most High,
    to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

 

Cry out to God that he gives you the courage and the strength to make the tough choices to do God’s will. 

To say no to:

• Distractions
• Sin
• Temptations
• Shadow missions
• Alternate purposes
• Greed

These lead to a sense that you aren’t living up to the high calling that God called you for originally.

 

Say yes to the challenges and risks associated with doing God’s will.  It’s scary.

• Becoming a Christian
• Going into the ministry
• Moving to Japan
• Planting a church bi-vocationally
• Moving to Tucson
• Doing missionary work in the future

 

Let’s pray to do God’s will.

 

 

Reflection Questions:

 

• What do you sense God is calling you to do?  What is God urging you to do?
• What is keeping you from it?