How Well Do You Receive Instruction? Series

SERMON BRIEF

Date Written: July 13, 2010

Date Preached: July 18, 2010

Church: OPBC (AM)

FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS

Series: Finding God’s Guidance in this World

Title: How Well Do You Receive Instruction?

Text: 1 Cor. 2:16

“…For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ…”

INTRODUCTION:

Last week we started this series of sermons that is looking at Finding God’s Guidance in our world today. Last week we look in Colossians 3 where Paul’s prayer for the Colossian church pointed out 3 distinct hopes for the church…

Paul prayed that they would:

i. Be filled with the knowledge of God, and not just a head knowledge but a heart knowledge that knows God intimately!

ii. Take that knowledge and begin to put it into practice in their daily lives… to be able to live as God desired BUT also to reveal God to the world around them…finally

iii. To trust God and wait on God and know that God’s power will bring about God’s will in our lives…

Last week we looked at seeking and finding God’s guidance, but as Christians we cannot merely seek after God’s guidance! After we SEEK for God’s guidance we need to actually ‘receive’ the guidance that God gives!

As believers, it is important that we trust God and His guidance…Solomon tells us in Prov 3:5-6[ESV]:

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and He will make straight your paths.

I know that seeking God’s will or guidance in our lives AND then receiving it into our lives may sound a bit simplistic… after all why would we seek God’s guidance if we were NOT going to use it… but so often as I have said, many times we seek after God’s guidance, hoping and praying that it will be what WE desire… often it is NOT! For the believer it is all about not only knowing the will of God but receiving that Will into our lives and putting in into practice!

When we look at our passage today it is so very similar to what Solomon said thousands of yrs earlier. “…but we have the mind of Christ…’

To ‘have the mind of Christ’ does not mean that we KNOW all of what Christ knows… it does not make the claim that we are equal to Christ! But what it DOES do is let all of those around us know that we are seeking to do the WILL of Christ in our lives! We are seeking to think like Christ, see the world like Christ, love the world like Christ and live our lives to please the Christ we claim as Savior!

To some that may sound outrageous and arrogant, but when Jesus is the Lord of your life and you are giving Him the utmost priority in your life by seeking AND trusting in His guidance…it is a very normal state for the believer to have the ‘mind of Christ.’

Now the best way to see if this is something we should or should NOT do, we need look NO further than the examples of faith and submission by those characters in the Bible we can read about! It was NOT uncommon for those in the OT and others to trust God’s guidance in their lives!

When Abraham sent his servant to find a bride for his son Isaac, the servant traveled far away to a land where he was a stranger and the customs were strange to him and he was alone! However when asked about his journey this servant told those he was staying with, “The Lord has led me…” Gen 24:27 [ESV] He trusted God to lead him thru a strange land and help him to deal with strange customs while he served Him.

Have you ever known a believer like that? They seek after God’s guidance in their lives, and then when God reveals it to them… they actually ‘receive’ it and put it into practice in their lives. Just as Solomon tells us to do…

I have heard of missionaries praying about whether or not to go to another town or not… waiting on God’s guidance before they even set out on a trip. I have heard of those who pray for God’s guidance in every financial decision in their lives.

Preacher are you saying that I should pray about EVERYTHING I do? Preacher are you trying to tell me that what Scripture is telling us?

Again I want to use scripture to clarify an issue… In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonican church, Paul tells the believers that they should pray without ceasing… AND in his letter to the Philippian church he says, Phil 4:6-7 [ESV]