Knowing God's Will. Series

INTRODUCTION

- Life is filled with choices.

- In fact, your life is the culmination of every decision you’ve ever made, each choice layered upon the last.

- Where you are today is the sum total of choices that came before, and new crossroads will take you to where you will be tomorrow.

- There is so much potential for making bad choices.

- When you make decisions, how do you know your decision was right?

- What happens if you were to make a bad choice?

- Could any series of new choices undo that one wrong choice?

- Can we still find meaning and happiness even if we make the wrong choice?

- Can there be more than one right choice?

- Many of life’s decisions seem small and inconsequential.

- Which shoe do I put on first?

- Does the toilet paper unroll from the over or under position? (According to the 1891 patent for the toilet paper roll, the over position is correct.)

- We rarely put any thought into these decisions.

- We never pray about them.

- I don’t think we had a morning prayer like this, “Heavenly Father, please show me whether I should put on my left sock first or my right sock?”

- We just do it.

- Most of the time, we struggle over what we see as the big decisions in life.

- We go through a whole bunch for about a decade, beginning about 16 or 17.

- Which college? Which degree? Which career? Which job? Who to date? Who to marry? Where to live? Where to work?

- It slows down after that, but life remains a series of big choices—jobs, houses, children, and moving across the country for a new job.

- When I retire, do I move in with the kids?

- YES!

- In our mini-series, Beyond Belied, we have been diving into some concepts that can be difficult for Christiansto believe and embrace.

- We examined the concept of there being no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

- That may be one of the most difficult truths for us to embrace.

- Last week, we examined the concept that we can radically change when we are in Christ.

- In our passage this week, we examine the question of whether we can know God’s will.

- Why is the answer to the question concerning whether we can know God’s will for our lives important?

- When we are in Christ, I believe we want to know God’s will so we can follow it.

- When our life is patterned by following God’s will for our lives, our lives will be better, and our lives will reach their full potential.

- Let's turn to our passage.

1 Corinthians 2:16 (NET 2nd ed.)

16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.

SERMON

I. Can one know God’s will?

- This is an interesting question, so let's examine the context of the chapter so we can appreciate what Paul writes.

- In the first few verses of chapter two, Paul starts to explain where his message to them came from.

- He tells them that he did not come to them with fancy words.

- Paul stresses that what he gives them is not wisdom from the world that is perishing but rather the wisdom of God.

- In verse eight, he further states that the rulers of this age did not understand the wisdom of God, for if they did, they would not have killed Jesus.

- Paul says that the Spirit of God revealed to him what was to be taught.

- God revealed His will through the Spirit, who searches all things, even the more profound things of God.

- Then Paul moves to the example of humans.

- In verse 11, he asks who can know the things of man except the spirit (SMALL S) that is within him.

- With this thought being true, who could know what is going on in God's mind other than the Spirit of God?

- Look at verse 12

1 Corinthians 2:12 (NET 2nd ed.)

12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God.

- Now look at verses 13-15

1 Corinthians 2:13–15 (NET 2nd ed.)

13 And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.

14 The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.