The Will of God for You, part 1
The Will of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Questions about God’s Will
What is God’s Will for my life?
Can I be outside God’s will?
What does the phrase “God’s will” even mean?
Why is it important to know God’s will?
Why is it important to do God’s will?
The Will of God: Secret and Revealed
The Will of God: Secret and Revealed
29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.
1. The will of God sometimes refers to his will of decree - planning all things, the course of history & your life
For example, James 4:13-15 expresses the need to submit ourselves to God’s plan, His will of providence
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.”
14 You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”
This aspect of God’s will is not for us to know, but to trust in His good providence (Romans 8:28-29)
2. The will of God sometimes refers to his will of command - the moral regulations he has given us to live by
Doing God’s Will
Doing God’s Will
There are many verses which speak to us of doing the will of God - which clearly means obeying the commands He has given us
For example,
35 For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”
6 And do this not only to please them while they are watching, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
36 You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.
17 The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.
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 in heaven.
8 I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”
34 Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.
Clearly doing the will of God is an important thing in Scripture - obeying His revealed will of the commands and instructions He has given us for our lives.
We Owe God our Obedience
We Owe God our Obedience
He is our Creator - He made us for His glory, so we must honor Him with our lives
He is our Redeemer - as believers, we have even more reason to live for him, because He has purchased us at a very high cost
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (BSB)
19 … You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
So it is our duty to do God’s will because He is our Creator and our Redeemer
But in order to do his will, we need to know His will.
Knowing God’s Will
Knowing God’s Will
Many passages speak to us of the importance of learning and knowing God’s will for us.
We are commanded to understand His will:
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Paul prays that God would fill believers with the knowledge of His will so that they would be fruitful in obedience to Him.
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you 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 and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
By the renewing of our minds, we can test and approve what God’s will is for us (this happens through time in God’s Word)
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Ultimately we are dependent on God to reveal His will to us in His Word. We must search for it with a readiness to obey, but we must do so humbly depending on Him.
10 Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
PRAY
The Will of God for You, message 1:
The Will of God for You, message 1:
God Wants You to Be Holy and Pure
1 Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more.
2 For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
3 For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
4 each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,
5 not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6 and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you.
7 For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.
8 Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.
Holiness / Sanctification
Holiness / Sanctification
1 Thessalonians 4:3 (BSB)
3 For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
What is holiness?
What is holiness?
being set apart, consecrated, dedicated
being set apart from sin and set apart for God
a gradual process for the believer
Why should we pursue holiness?
Why should we pursue holiness?
because it’s God’s will
3 For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
because God is holy
But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
because holiness demonstrates the reality of our profession
Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.
because it is one of Christ’s purposes in dying for us
For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.
14 He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
because you are free from sin and a slave to God
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness. What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life.
How will we become holy?
How will we become holy?
Through the truth of God’s Word - the reality of who God is, what He has done, and what He has promised. Practically this means we need to give great attention and effort to God’s Word in our lives if we are to pursue His will for us in this matter.
Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
Sexual Purity / Avoiding sexual sin
Sexual Purity / Avoiding sexual sin
The specific area of holiness that Paul especially emphasizes in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 is sexual purity. We must abstain from sexual sin (v. 3)
1 Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more. 2 For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality; 4 each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness. 8 Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.
The word translated “fornication” or “sexual immorality” is the Greek word πορνεία, which when combined with the Greek word for writing, graphe, results in our English word pornography - the “writing of sexual immorality”.
It refers to sexual sin in general, any perversion of God’s rules for sexuality - one man & one woman for life “til death do us part”. This is the way God created things in the beginning (Genesis 1-2). And that is where we should go whenever there is confusion regarding a person’s sexuality.
That’s where Jesus directed the religious leaders when they asked about divorce, and it’s where we should direct people whenever there are questions or confusion regarding what is right or wrong in the area of sexuality.
2 Some Pharisees came to test Him. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” they inquired. 3 “What did Moses command you?” He replied. 4 They answered, “Moses permitted a man to write his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away.” 5 But Jesus told them, “Moses wrote this commandment for you because of your hardness of heart. 6 However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
The modern issues of gender identity, cohabitation, adultery, polyamory, homosexuality, pornography, and any other perversion of God’s good creation of gender and sexuality — all these things find their answer in the beginning.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
18 The LORD God also said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper.” 19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each one. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the area with flesh. 22 And from the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him. 23 And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.” 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.
God created man and woman - two distinct but complementary genders (not a spectrum)
God brought the woman to the man - God united them into one flesh (the first marriage)
The conclusion in v. 24 is that this is the way it should always be.
The NT shows us that marriage points to the ultimate reality of God’s relationship with His people (Ephesians 5, Christ and the Church). So any perversion of God’s design of marriage is distorting the image that marriage is supposed to depict. That’s why proper sexual conduct is so serious. Because when you transgress the rules God has set regarding sexuality, you are living a lie, saying something that is not true about God. That’s a very serious thing.
In v. 5 Paul tells us that if we do not live within the bounds that God has designed for our sexuality, we are living like unbelievers. We’re acting like we don’t know God.
5 not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;
In v. 6 Paul warns us that a life lived in sexual immorality is inviting God’s judgment
6 and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you.
God is the avenger. If you persist in this sinful lifestyle, you cannot expect God’s blessing. You might even be showing that your profession of faith is false.
That’s not to say that believers don’t struggle with these things. But if this characterizes your life, you will not have assurance of your salvation. You cannot “know” that you’re a believer while living openly in sin.
True believers will be fighting sin in their lives. If you’re a genuine believer, you have at least the desire to do what’s right, even if you’re failing to do it much of the time. If you don’t even want to do what’s right though, you’re probably not a true Christian. And you need to be warned of God’s coming judgment.
7 For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.
If you’re a believer, the call of God on your life is to pursue holiness - to seek to imitate Jesus Christ in the way that you think and speak and act. If the way you’re living does not look like what Jesus does, you need to repent, seek His forgiveness, and trust His grace to continue changing into the kind of person He wants you to be.
8 Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.
But if you reject this call to holiness, you are rejecting God Himself, and you’re inviting His judgment on you.
Paul tells us some similar things in 1 Corinthians.
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 12 “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
Flee sexual immorality. Make no provision for the desires of the flesh (Romans 13:13-14). Run away from it. Be prepared to run like Joseph did (Genesis 39). To sin in this way is not only to sin against God, but also against yourself.
You might think that looking at pornography doesn’t hurt anyone, but it does. It hurts you. It hurts your spouse or future spouse. It hurts your relationship with God. And Jesus had to suffer and die on the cross because of that sin. Think about that next time you’re tempted to look at something or watch something you shouldn’t. The Son of God gave His life to free you from that, so don’t go there. Stay away from it. Flee sexual immorality.
The basis for this is in v. 19-20. You don’t belong to yourself - unlike what our culture says. You belong to God, not yourself. He is your Master and has the right to tell you how to live, and He has told you how to live. You belong to Him, so you must be pure.
We read this in Hebrews:
4 Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
God’s judgment comes against those who pervert His good gift of sex. Make sure that you’re not on the receiving end of His judgment.
Marriage is a wonderful thing, but if you’re filling your mind with sexual perversions now, marriage will not magically make you pure.
What will lead you to be sexually pure and holy is the truth of the Gospel - regularly going back to the realities of who Jesus is, what He has done for you, and what He has promised you.
Behold the Man upon the cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished.
Behold him there, the Risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I AM
The King of Glory and of grace
Keep going back to the Gospel over and over again. Meditate on who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for you. Let His love and grace take hold of your life and transform you from the inside out.
And then, by His grace, motivated by His love, do His will. Obey Him. The blessing comes through obedience.
17 If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.
Questions for Application:
What evidence of holiness and purity is there in your life? Would someone watching your life know that you’re a Christian?
Are you actively pursuing holiness and purity in your life? What sin in your life are you currently fighting?
Are you currently struggling with sexual sin? What steps do you need to do to fight that and begin living in obedience to God’s will? (get help from a friend, pastor, teacher, parent, mentor, etc. -and know that this is a common struggle - 1 Cor. 10:13. You are not alone in your struggle, so don’t struggle alone)
God’s Will for you is to live in holiness and purity. Will you commit yourself today to seek to obey Him and do His will?
PRAY
