Jeremiah 29:11
“11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – NIV
I truly believe that God has a plan and a purpose for every person who is living today.
Each and every one of you has a plan already mapped out for you. God has a will for your life. He has a purpose for your life. It was already pre-planned before you were even born.
Jeremiah 1:5
“5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” – NIV
According to Scripture we know that God has a plan for our lives, He has a will for each and every person here and out in the world. A lot of times though we tend to think what is God’s will for my life. We wring our hands and walk through our Christian life as though we are searching for some kind of purpose. We believe God has a purpose or plan for every believer, but sometimes we have trouble finding what it is that God actually has for our life.
There are plenty of books and pamphlets that you could pick up form various Christian bookstores to help you find exactly what God has planned for your life. Some may wind up with various ideas as to what God would have or there are even some who thinks God’s will is lost. To some maybe they think God is some kind of Divine Easter bunny who has stashed His will in various places, like eggs, and we are to go out wandering around hoping to happen upon one of them. And He is up there saying to us, “Your getting warmer.”
Some think that God’s will for their lives is through some kind of traumatic experience in their life. Like while running down the street you slip on a banana peel and fall on a map with India circled in red ink. Immediately you say, “Lord thank you for that clear leading. I understand it. India it is!” Or we wait for a booming voice to spring out from the Heavens, “I want you to go to Chile, set my people free!”
Then there are those who are afraid of God’s will for their life. I read in a book somewhere that there was an athlete from a camp and said, “I am not sure I want to give my life to Jesus Christ because I am afraid of what He will make me do.” This person had the idea that God was going wanted to take robust athletes, break both their legs, and make them play the flute. These kind of people think that God is some kind of “cosmic kill-joy” that stomping on everyone’s fun and raining on parades.
Then there are those who are in the race, they run, they complete the race, but are happy to get a participation ribbon. In other words they are not in the race to win, but just to be in the race.
In the middle of all of this is there a way to find out what God’s will is for us? What can we do to find out what God’s will is for our lives? Can we know what job to seek, what school to attend, what girl or guy to love, what decision to make in any given situation? Yes there is.
We know that God has a will for us, He has a plan for us, and He wants us to know it. In order for us to know it He must communicate it to us. How does He do that? Simple. Through His Word and prayer.
The Word of God is our instructions to life. It is God’s plan written down in the simplest form for us to read and understand. Some say well I don’t understand the Bible, it is difficult. I understand that. I can relate. What I would tell you is to 1, get a translation you can understand, and 2 ask for wisdom.
James 1:5
“5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” – NIV
That is where prayer comes in. When we want to look for the will of God in our lives we tend to search everywhere but the source. Sometimes it just never dawns on us to simply ask God, “What is your plan for my life?” It never dawns on us to search the Scriptures to find the answer to the purpose of our lives.
First Will of God
As your pastor it is my job to help you find what it is God has planned for you. For those I have spent time with and know I can give you an idea of what God may have for you, but ultimately it is God who has to tell you. Luckily for us God tells us in His Word.The first step into knowing the will of God in your life is really simple. You ready. Write this down.
2nd Peter 3:9b
“He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” – NIV
If you read the first 8 verses before this we see Peter writing to believers that there is coming a time when people are going to come and they are going to be concerned about their own desires and they will mock or scoff at believers about the second coming of Christ. Paul reminds them of what happened with the flood and the judgment of God and he tells them that there is going to be another judgment brought upon those when God is ready to send His Son for His church.
During all this Paul reveals to us what God’s will is for all of mankind. In verse 9 he says, “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” If you want to know what God’s will is for your life the very first thing you have to do is accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. God’s will is that all are saved. So much that He is withholding judgment until all have heard the message of the Gospel.
1st Timothy 2:3-4
“3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” – NIV
It is God’s will that we be saved. If you are stumbling around in life and tossing up some periodic prayers to God but have never come on your knees to the foot of the cross and met Jesus Christ, then you are not even in the beginning of God’s will. God has no reason to reveal to you anything particular to your life because you have not met qualification number one: Salvation.
Without Christ, man is a stranger to God. He is a rebel against God, a foreigner in God’s universe.
James 4:4
“4You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” – NIV
If you are not for God then you are against God. You cannot know the will of God without being saved. It is through Christ alone that you can be saved. No other way. No other door. Only through the cross.
God’s will is that men be saved and that is where it starts. Jesus made it clear in:
Mark 3:31-35
“ 31Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you." 33"Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked. 34Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." – NIV
Jesus was already ministering here in this building when His brothers and mother arrives. Someone in the crowd told Him that His family was outside. Jesus looked around and said that they were His family.
What was Jesus saying? He was saying to them that in order to be related to Him, one has to do the will of God. Turn it around. To do the will of God one has to be related to Jesus. He is talking about Salvation. Being adopted into the family of God.
1st John 2:15-17
“15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” – NIV
· Who is going to live forever? – Those who do the will of God
· Who is the only one who can give eternal life? Jesus Christ
The very first step in walking in the pathway of God’s will, then is to be saved. If you have never committed your life to Jesus Christ, you cannot expect anything at all from God. He owes you nothing. People reject this. The doctrine of salvation is unpopular, because it includes the recognition of sin. Nobody likes to admit sin. And many people resist the idea that they need to be saved.
This doctrine of salvation is even being rejected by the church. If we refuse to preach against sin, we are rejecting the idea that we have to be saved. This is happening more and more as the day of the Lord approaches.
2nd Timothy 4:3-4
“3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” – NIV
That time is here and now. We see it all across the church world. Preacher refusing to preach against sin because it offends people. They want to give an uplifting message. I am not against the uplifting messages, a message of a future and of a hope, but it is not our plans or our will that gets us there. It is only the way of God…it is His plan, His will, His way or no way. Only through the name of Jesus can one be saved. He is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE, and NO ONE CAN COME TO THE FATHER EXCEPT BY JESUS!
Coming to church does not make you a Christian. Just because you come and sit in a pew does not mean you are saved. Only coming to the cross at Calvary can one be saved. Only by admitting you are lost, admitting you are a sinner, and accepting Jesus Christ makes you saved. Only by accepting Christ first can you know what the will of God is for your life.
God’s Will – Evangelism
Either you are not saved from your sin tonight and you need to come to Christ because that is God’s will, or you are saved and need to reach others with the message of salvation. There is a world out there that needs Jesus. God wants them to be saved and you and I are the vehicles for the transportation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is God’s will for all believers. Evangelism.You say you do not know what God’s will is, but I will tell you what it is. First you come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and except Him as your Lord and Savior, then you go and tell someone else. Make sure your neighbors know what you know. That is His will.
We sit around for years twiddling our thumbs, dreaming about God’s will in our lives, God’s will for us in a distant future, when I graduate, when I get another job that is more convenient for me that lines up with my church schedule, when I get a degree, when someone shows me, when the church does special services, when we are not even willing to stand up on our own two feet, walk down the street and do God’s will right now.
Matthew 28:18-20
“18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” – NIV
Listen it is not just the pastors job to tell people about Christ, it is not just those who are in leadership to tell people about God. It is the job of every single person who claims to be a follower of Christ! It is God’s will that all be saved, that should be our desire as well.
I believe that we are all ministers. I believe that God has a calling on each of our lives. Each one is going to be different.
Ephesians 4:11-13
“11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” – NIV
Listen, we may not all be called to preach, we may not all be called to prophesy, we are not all called to teach, but we are ALL CALLED to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are all called to be Evangelists…to tell people about Christ!
God doesn’t save you just to save you. God saves you so that others may be saved. If you are really saved, if you have really been brought out of sin, then you would want to share that with others.
Matthew 5:13-16
“13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” – NIV
God’s heart is people. If Christ is living in us and through us then our heart should be people.
If you want to know what God’s will is for your life here it is: the first thing is to know is His will is for you to be saved and if you are already saved then it is to proclaim to the world who Christ is.
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