How Can I Know God’s Guidance? Series

SERMON BRIEF

Date Written: July 21, 2010

Date Preached: July 25, 2010

Church: OPBC (AM)

FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS

Series: Finding God’s Guidance in this World

Title: How Can I know God’s Guidance?

Date Written: July 21, 2010

Date Preached: July 25, 2010

Church: OPBC (AM)

FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS

Series: Finding God’s Guidance in this World

Title: How Can I know God’s Guidance?

Text: Eph 5:6-14

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

INTRODUCTION:

Over the past 2 wks we have been looking at how we as Christians seek after and then receive God’s guidance for their lives here in this world.

We have looked at seeking God’s guidance and that as Christians we are to be:

 filled with the knowledge of God’s will.

 put in to practice God’s will in our lives.

 Finally we are to focus on waiting on God and trusting in His timing.

And last week we looked at what the Christian must do to ‘receive’ God’s guidance because we cannot trust in God’s guidance unless we are ‘receiving’ God’s guidance.

We can ‘receive’ God’s guidance because we have the mind of Christ. As Christians we have the mind of Christ because we:

 Have received His knowledge thru His Word

 Have received His Spirit, and

 Have received His invitation to pray which keeps us in close touch with the throne

We receive God’s guidance when we have the mind of Christ and that helps us also to do what we are going to look at today and that is Testing God’s Guidance.

God’s guidance is available… we know this by reading God’s Word! We have heard how we can seek it, and we have heard how we can receive it. Any info about God’s guidance can be found in His guidebook [hold up Bible].

We can check our understanding of His guidance thru this ‘faithful guide’ [hold up Bible] this is because He is there when we go to the Bible and He is there to instruct us. We can check and find God’s guidance when we go to God in a submissive spirit of prayer.

But even when we know we seek and receive God’s guidance… many of us still may not have the confidence or clarity to TRUST His guidance and believe that Gods will provide us with all we need.

I liken this to putting something together from the instruction manual; sometimes the instructions are not clear. The process may be easily understood and could even be confusing and frustrating to those who do NOT know what they are doing. There are probably FAR more parts and steps than you had ever imagined! It seems so much more complicated than you had thought it would be…

However, at the end of the instructions… you find yourself with a finished product. You got WHAT you wanted, but you could NOT see the end product through the maze of steps and instructions!

The guidance of God is like that for the believer! God’s Will can be a confusing element in the life of the believer! Especially for those who are NOT fully in touch with and in contact with God. Especially for those who are NOT seeking to live as He has called you to live!

Sometimes Christians who claim the same salvation have differing viewpoints on a subject. Like the new Christian who is a union worker, works diligently and his foreman who is also a Christian comes and tells him, “Hey man, don’t work so hard…you are making the other workers look bad!” This confuses the new believer because he has just read in Col 3:23 that the Bible says, “…work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do as if you were working for the Lord and not for other people…” [NLT]

So in looking at this from this viewpoint, how can we overcome any confusion in our lives? How can we respond to God’s guidance with clear-cut obedience to His will? I tell you that Scripture reveals to us that we can do that in 3 ways: