Sermon Central
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Rest In God's Will Series
Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Dec 6, 2013 (message contributor)
Summary: Thesis: To know God’s will for your life comes from you knowing God personally, having an encounter with God like Jacob, Moses and Nehemiah did and then taking step one.
Series: Rest in
Our Scripture for this series - Isa. 40:29-31:
"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope (rest) in the Lord will renew their strength. They soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
God from the beginning of time mandated/demonstrated that we all must rest in Him. We have to connect with Him to get energized!
Sermon topic “Rest in God’s will” – another way to put it “Help! I Need Direction!”
How do we discover the will of God for our lives?
Thesis: To know God’s will for your life comes from you knowing God personally, having an encounter with God like Jacob, Moses and Nehemiah did and then taking step one.
Scripture Texts:
10Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.
11When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
12He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
14Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
15I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
17He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
18Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.
19He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.
20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear
21so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God
22and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
22That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
24So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
25When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
26Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.
28Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
29Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
30So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
32Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.