ARE YOU SURE THIS IS GOD’S WILL?
LUKE 2:1-7
Video clip: Life of Mary Part Three: Unfamiliar (BlueFishTV.com)
Introduction: The angel announced that Mary would give birth to the Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords. With the anticipation and wonder of the moment Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” Mary has traveled a hard sixty miles with Joseph to Bethlehem. Tradition says she rode on a donkey but we do not know. It is very possible that she walked most of the four day journey. Either way, both tired and in the pains of labor, Mary is confronted with the reality that there is no lodging available. She must give birth to the Messiah in a dark, smelly, animal stall, laying the new born baby in a feeding trough. When told of her calling Mary states, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true.” In the video Margaret Feinberg asks a good question: “Do you think this is how Mary dreamed it would turn out when she found out she was going to give birth to the Messiah?” Was Mary wrong about her calling? Not at all! You are called by God and are excited that you are going to be used by Him to help build the Kingdom. You have visions of a successful ministry, sweeping encouragement with little opposition and tangible results. But things don’t go the way you planned and you begin to question whether or not you are in God’s will.
I. Questioning the Will of God
A. If this is God’s will then why aren’t things going smoother?
1. It seems like it is just one problem, one hurdle or one detour after another. After all if it is God’s will, wouldn’t He remove the hurdles?
2. Consider Joseph – hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, thrown into prison and forgotten there.
3. Genesis 50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
B. If this is God’s will then why don’t I see more results?
1. If God called me to evangelism, why don’t I see more decisions?
2. If God called me to the children’s ministry why don’t I see more kids?
3. If God called me to teach why don’t more desire to learn?
4. Consider Noah – called in 2 Peter 2:5 “a preacher of righteousness” – preached for 120 years and only reached 7 other people who were all members of his own family.
C. If this is God’s will then why am I running into such opposition?
1. If God called me why do the doors seem to keep closing?
2. If God called me why is there so much opposition from Christians?
3. Consider Moses – continually challenged by the complaining, murmuring, rebellious, fickled Hebrews – even by his brother and sister.
4. Numbers 16:3 “They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?"
D. If this is God’s will then why am I struggling so hard?
1. I just don’t have the energy or stamina to go on. If this is the will of God shouldn’t life in general just go easier?
2. Consider David – anointed to be king of Israel – hunted by Saul, hiding in caves, often rejected by the people God chose him to rule over.
3. Psalms 40:8 I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.”
II. Prosperity is not necessarily an indicator that one is in the center of God’s will.
A. Psalms 73:3-4 For I was envious of the boastful, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm.
B. Psalm 73-3-12 (HCSB) For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have an easy time until they die, and their bodies are well-fed. They are not in trouble like others; they are not afflicted like most people. Therefore, pride is their necklace, and violence covers them like a garment. Their eyes bulge out from fatness; the imaginations of their hearts run wild. They mock, and they speak maliciously; they arrogantly threaten oppression. They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues strut across the earth. Therefore His people turn to them and drink in their overflowing waters. They say, “How can God know? Does the Most High know everything?” Look at them —the wicked! They are always at ease, and they increase their wealth.
C. Christopher Winans, in his book, Malcolm Forbes: The Man Who Had Everything, tells of a motorcycle tour that Forbes took through Egypt in 1984 with his Capitalist Tool motorcycle team. After viewing the staggering burial tomb of King Tut, Forbes seemed to be in a reflective mood. As they were returning to the hotel in a shuttle bus, Forbes turned to one of his associates and asked with all sincerity: ’do you think I’ll be remembered after I die"? Forbes is remembered. He is remembered as the man who coined the phrase, "He who dies with the most toys wins? That was the wisdom of Malcolm Forbes. In fact, that was his ambition. That’s why he collected scores of motorcycles. That’s why he would pay over a million dollars for a Faberge egg. That’s why he owned castles, hot air balloons and countless other toys that he can no longer access. The Lord Jesus Christ gave us words of superior wisdom when he said, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul"? (Matthew 16:26). It is a fatally deficient wisdom that declares "He who dies with the most toys wins.? - Family Survival in the American Jungle, Steve Farrar, 1991, Multnomah Press,
III. Adversity is not necessarily an indicator that one is out of God’s will.
A. Being in God’s will doesn’t make you immune to hard times.
B. 2 Timothy 3:12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
C. John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
D. Pastor Hans Voortman wrote, “God is wanting to fashion soldiers who can stand the heat of battle and who aren’t ’powder puffs’, distracted and overwhelmed by every roar of the enemy (1 Pet. 5:8). And somehow, it is only the tough times that temper this type of inner resilience.”
E. Yet the apostle Peter says, “Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ.’ (1 Pet. 4:12-13). James further states, ’Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance’ (James. 1:2-3)
IV. How do I know if this is God’s will?
A. Romans 12:1 – 2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
B. Proverbs 3:5 – 6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
C. Trust God completely
1. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart”
2. Inside every airplane are instruments that are critical to flying the aircraft. The instruments will give a true reading of how the aircraft is flying, even if a pilot’s mind may tell him differently. On a clear, sunny day a pilot may not need some of these instruments, but at night or in poor visibility, these instruments become vital to his survival. Many planes have crashed because the pilot became disoriented and failed to trust his instruments. While attending Texas A&M, Jeff Patton and I became friends as members of the Corps of Cadets. He is now Lt. Col. Jeff Patton and flew as an F-15 fighter pilot in Desert Storm. On the first night of the war, his mission was to escort a large formation of fighters in bombing a chemical weapons plant in northern Iraq. The date for Desert Storm was chosen because the absence of moonlight and the high clouds helped the attacking allied fighters from being detected by enemy defenses. Flying in total darkness, the pilots became completely dependent upon their instruments. Shortly after crossing into Iraq, Col. Patton’s jet was "locked on" to by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile radar. He violently maneuvered his aircraft to break the radar’s lock on him. His maneuver successfully broke the lock, but it created a new problem. Those radical movements in the dark threw off the balance in his inner ear (which is what happens when a person gets dizzy), causing him to become disoriented. His mind was telling him his plane was in a climbing right turn, but when he checked his instruments, they indicated he was in a 60 degree dive towards the ground! He was sure he was in a climb instead of a dive, and his mind was screaming at him to lower the nose of his F-15 to halt the climb. While his mind commanded him to correct the plane in one direction, his instruments instructed him to do just the opposite. Because he was flying in total darkness, he had to decide quickly whether to trust his mind or his instruments. His life depended on making the correct choice. Even though it took everything within him to overcome what his mind was telling him, he decided to trust his instruments. He rolled his wings level and pulled his F-15 upward, which drew seven times the force of gravity, pulling the aircraft out of its dive. It only took a few moments to realize he had made the right decision. If he had lowered the nose of his jet like his mind had been telling him, he would have crashed the plane. Trusting his instruments saved his life! Immediately he looked at his altimeter, which told him the elevation of his aircraft. He had narrowly escaped colliding into the mountains of Iraq by just 2,000 feet. Although he had made the correct decision by trusting his instruments, he realized if he had delayed just three more seconds his plane would have crashed into the mountains. Even right decisions can be wrong ones if they are made too late. God will guide the "instruments" inside our hearts through his Spirit, even though our minds may tell us to do just the opposite. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5) (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 17-18)
3. The Lord doesn’t always let us in on what He’s doing. Trust fills the gap when we don’t understand. We must give the Father the benefit of the doubt. (Kent Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2004, 150)
D. Be completely Surrendered to God and His will
1. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”
2. God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him. – Andrew Murray
3. When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ
And He shows me His plan for me;
The plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way, and I see.
How I blocked Him here and I checked Him there
And I would not yield my will,
Shall I see grief in my Savior’s eyes;
Grief though He loves me still?
Oh, He’d have me rich, and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While my memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I can’t retrace.
Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break
With tears that I cannot shed.
I’ll cover my face with my empty hands
And bow my uncrowned head.
No. Lord of the years that are left to me
I yield them to Thy hand.
Take me, make me, mold me
To the pattern Thou hast planned. – Martha Snell Nicholson
E. Do not trust your own understanding
1. “lean not on your own understanding”
2. What seems reasonable is not necessarily right!
3. Leaning on our own understanding is like leaning on a broken crutch. If you lean on it, it will break and you will be in worse shape than before. Think about it, it is useless to depend on our own human thimble of knowledge compared to God’s ocean of wisdom. – copied
F. Acknowledge Him in everything in your life and your world.
1. “In all your ways acknowledge Him”
2. The emphasis in this clause is not so much on acknowledging God, which is pretty much taken for granted, but on the all your ways part. In all your ways acknowledge him. Running right through the lives of many, many people in churches today is a dividing wall between what they see as their Christian lives and what they see as their non-Christian lives. This is the so-called sacred–secular divide. The sacred–secular divide is the assumption that God cares about what I do on Sunday morning in church but not on Monday morning in the office. It is the assumption that God cares about whom I give my money to but not how I earn that money in the first place. It is the assumption that God cares which church I go to but not which house I live in. It is the assumption that God cares about my Bible reading but not about my television viewing. It is the assumption that God cares about my sin but not about my toothache… The call is to take every part of our lives, every minute of every day and to acknowledge that all of it is part of our journey with God. Not one part of the Christian’s life should be secular: God is there with us in the office; he is there with us as we drive our cars; he is there with us as we pick the kids up from school. He is watching television with us; he is with us down the pub. All of this is sacred, not just the church, home group and quiet-time bits. Let’s acknowledge him in all our ways. - © Copyright 2004, Ben Edgington.
3. Justification is based and procured on an acknowledgment of Jesus as a personal Savior. In like manner divine guidance is conditioned on the acknowledgment of the Spirit as a personal Guide.
G. Ask for Guidance
1. James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
2. "Just remember that when you don’t know what to do, God always knows what to do, and He will tell you (James 1:5)." - Kent Crockett
Conclusion: Trusting God completely, being willing to do His will, keeping self out of the picture, consciously being aware of God in everything, and asking God for wisdom enables us to “prove (determine) what the will of God is” while “He directs our paths.” David Livingstone tells how he was chased up a small tree and besieged by lions. He said the tree was so small that he was barely out of reach of the lions. He said they would stand on their back feet and roar and shake the little tree, and that he could feel the hot breath of the lions as they sought him. "But," he states, "I had a good night and felt happier and safer in that little tree besieged by lions, in the jungles of Africa, in the will of God, than I would have been out of the will of God in England." There is one safe and happy place, and that is in the will of God. – William Moses Tidwell, "Pointed Illustrations."
