God's Will, Your Will, Which Will?

God’s Will, Your Will, Which Will?

Colossians 1:9-10

INTRODUCTION... Pastoral Call. Source: unknown

A minister received a call from a church that offered him a salary four times what he was then receiving. Being a devout man, he spent much time in prayer trying to discern what God wanted him to do. One day a friend met the minister’s young son on the street. “Do you know what your dad is going to do?” he asked. “Well,” replied the youngster, “Dad’s praying, but Mom’s packing!”

All of us have decisions to make. Life is all about decisions and making good decisions or bad decisions. We then have to live with the decisions we make. We make decisions about all aspects of our lives: what to do for a living, where to work, when to retire, who to marry, when to have kids and how many, how to raise our family, what doctors to see, how to manage our health, and the list goes on and on for our entire lives. How do we make all of these decisions? How do we know what is for us?

If you are not a Christian, I have absolutely no answers for you. I do not know what is best for your life or even the best way to decide how you should live your life. Maybe weighing the pros and cons is the best way to go. Maybe flip a coin. If you are a Christian, the way you live your life and the decisions you make are directly tied to your faith. They are tied to your faith because when you became a Christian, you turned over Lordship and control to Jesus Christ. You live your life according to His Will. Colossians 1 has something to say to us about God’s Will and that is what I would like us to discuss today.

READ COLOSSIANS 1:9-10

I. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S WILL IS SUPREMELY IMPORTANT

Paul writes to the Colossians and tells them that he prays for them over and over that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. You might ask yourself, why do I need to concern myself with the knowledge of God’s Will? Why make effort to find out?

The first reason is because as Christians, we want to be like Jesus. Jesus says in Mark 3:34-36, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” If you want to be like Jesus and live the way that He did, you will hold God’s Will as important. Jesus lived His life according to God’s Will and did not stray from it to the right or to the left. Jesus says if you live your life according to God, then you are part of His family. As Christians, that is our goal is it not... to be more like Him?

The second reason is because life is hard and you need some kind of direction. It seems like in the past few weeks I have been talking with different people in the church and I know that you all are dealing with a lot of difficult situations. Sometimes life piles up and piles up and you wonder if you can keep your head above water. Life is hard when you are outside of God’s Will and life is also hard when you are inside God’s Will. Let me explain what I mean by quoting from 1 Peter 4:18-20, “And, ’If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?’ So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.” Life is hard for people who are not Christians and life is hard for people that are Christians. So what is the difference? Christians have a Faithful Creator who will give them guidance and direction through His will. Christians have hope. Christians have a God that works for their good in all situations. Christians have a God who loves and forgives and directs always.

One of the most important investments in your life and in your spiritual life and in your walk with God is to look into God’s Will and consult Him when you have decisions to make. God’s desires for our lives are not secondary. God’s desires for our lives are the primary concern for those who love Him.

II. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S WILL CAN BE UNDERSTOOD

So many things about God we cannot fully understand. We can look at the world around us, but how God actually spoke everything into being eludes us. We know that God sent His only Son Jesus to die for us and that it was an outpouring of grace, but none of us truly understand the grace of God. We can know the passages of Scripture are the very words of God, but how God actually inspired the writers through the Holy Spirit we do not know. There are many things about God that we cannot know. There are many things about God that He has chosen not to share with us: why do dolphins sleep with one eye open, why did He create our bodies so that fingernails grow faster than toenails, what was the Garden of Eden really like, why it never fails as soon as you get comfortable the phone will ring, and the list goes on. We cannot know all the things in the mind of God or understand all the mysteries of His Creation. There are many things about God that we can never understand. God’s Will is not one of those things.