SERMON BRIEF
Date Written: July 7, 2010
Date Preached: July 11, 2010
Church: OPBC (AM)
FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS
Series: Finding God’s Guidance in this World
Title: Seeking God’s Guidance
Text: Col 1:9-12 (ESV)
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Introduction:
This week we begin a new series… a series on Seeking/Finding the Guidance of God in this world. And with any other resource we get from God, we must are called to seek after it and ask for it.
For the believer, when we are obedient and seek after God’s guidance, it clarifies and confirms our openness to the will of God in our lives. When we submit to God it sharpens and quickens our desire to do what He desires us to do. This is why Jesus stressed in the model prayer that we should pray, Matt 6:10b [ESV]
“…Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Now I believe that Christians really WANT to serve God! When we come to Jesus and ask Him to forgive us and save us… we come with the knowledge that when we confess… He will forgive… when we cry out… He will save!
And what many of us want to believe is that God’s forgiveness and salvation are it… but with God’s forgiveness and salvation come our obedience and submission to Him as our Lord… not JUST our Savior!
So many people who profess Christ as their Savior, only want the forgiveness and salvation. They don’t want the submission and obedience that comes with it. They live their lives with an attitude that they want to be left alone to live as THEY see fit!
And then when it comes to them seeking God for advice or direction in their lives, the only seeking they do is the seeking of God to have Him bless THEIR own advice on what is best for their lives!
This is what the Colossian church was doing, they were trusting in their own advice OR the advice human wisdom, and they were straying away from God, but what Paul’s prayer to the Colossian church is about is that we must learn to SEEK God’s advice and not trust in our own wisdom OR try to convince God to bless our wisdom.
What happens when we begin to live our lives by our own wisdom? What happens when we try to pray to God to bless what WE desire? What happens when we seek our own way and we choose to ignore the guidance of God?
Paul had found that the Colossian church had begun to stray away from God and had began compromising their beliefs. Paul knew and understood that this would lead to their Christian conduct becomes weak and ineffective, and the witness of Christ would be damaged and even destroyed in that church.
In reading Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae, we can know that there were pagan philosophers and Jewish legalists who had infiltrated the church and they were mixing their own message with that of the Gospel message, and this ‘intermingling’ of their message with the Gospel was DANGEROUS!
The philosophers and Jewish legalists had told those in the church that Jesus alone was NOT enough, but they had a ‘more perfect’ religion and that was based on MORE knowledge of God, empty knowledge.
Paul understood that this was NOT a superior knowledge, but it was inferior to the Gospel message because it cheapened what Christ did on the Cross and the result was going to be a very weak and timid Christian walk! If they chose to follow this message the church in Colossae was going to compromise their beliefs and make a lie… their faith in Christ.
This is why Paul wrote to them… this is why Paul desired to set the record straight for these Christians in Colossae.
This is why Paul was praying for them to seek God’s guidance. He wanted them to grow strong in the Lord and develop into the church he knew God desired them to be.
In looking at Paul‘s prayer to the church in Colossae, we can see that he had 3 very specific hopes for them and today I want us to look at those 3 hopes and how we too should be seeking after these same hopes for OUR lives as well! The 1st hope Paul expresses in found in verse 9 …
“be filled with the knowledge of God’s will” v.9
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
Now we need to understand that knowledge ABOUT God is NOT what Paul was speaking about here… General knowledge ABOUT who God is useful, but what Paul was praying for is that they would gain is the knowledge of God’s Will… that they would grown in ‘spiritual understanding of God’… he was NOT praying that they merely gain religious knowledge!
Religious knowledge alone can be useful in making us SEEM spiritual, but it is useless unless it is placed in concert with God’s intent or God’s will. We can read the Bible and study about those in the Bible for years, but without the influence of God’s will in our lives, it is merely knowledge and it is useless for our walk with Christ.
Now I know that we are all human and fallible, we sin and are sinful! We are fallen creatures and we cannot FULLY know and understand God. Our best hope is to have God reveal Himself to us! Well we have that in God’s Word, but we are still fallible when it comes to taking what knowledge God has revealed and using it as He desires us to use it!
However, I can see 2 things in the believer’s favor for knowing the will of God:
God’s love for us… Paul wrote in Rom 5 that even though we were enemies of God and rebellious in nature, God revealed His perfect and everlasting love in the form of Jesus dying on the Cross of Calvary.
John tells us in 3:16, “For God so LOVED the world… meaning His entire creation. John tells us later in one of his letters to the church that God IS love and that we cannot know love without knowing God!
God’s love is the foundational element of us being able to KNOW God’s will! God loves us and wants us to know His will!
God’s unwavering desire to commune with His creation. In the Garden of Eden God would show up each day to walk and talk with Adam and Eve. And since the Fall God has used many different ways, but time and time again He has shown His willingness to reveal Himself and help us to know Him.
But we have to understand ONE thing about seeking God’s will. There is NO way we can know Him FULLY and TOTALLY here in this world. This is because we are finite beings with a finite mind and we can only understand finite things…
In the human mind, all things have a beginning and an end, but God is infinite and is not tied down by the boundaries of a beginning or an end… this is too much for us to rationalize … too much for us to comprehend… so we must take much of what we know about God on faith, not fully comprehending it but knowing God’s love and His desire to commune with us, we accept it as His will!
God’s desire for us to know His will and obey it is made know in Scripture, but we do have a free will and we can choose NOT to do what God has called us to do. Does that condemn us? Well ultimately we can be condemned if we reject the will of God… but here in this life, if a believer chooses to ignore the will of God and chooses to do his own thing… they can still be forgiven!
God permits our free will and will allow events and circumstances to occur that can serve as discipline to those who choose NOT to listen to Him. We also know that God can and does use difficult times to test our faith in God. Paul addresses this in Rom 8:28 [ESV] when he said,
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Paul’s desire for the Colossian church was that they seek and come to know as best as they could… the will of God… so that they would grow spiritually in their walk with God and that their witness would be solid and faithful TO God! However, Paul’s prayer had another hope he lifted up…not only did Paul pray that the church in Colossae would seek the Will of God, but in v.10-
That they PRACTICE God’s will in their lives – v.10
10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Paul understood that knowledge of God should always lead to ‘godly wisdom’ and when we have ‘godly wisdom’ we are going to have spiritual insight into the situations around us… with godly wisdom we will have a spiritual discernment… a godly perception of spiritual values and goals that will make God’s will the primary focus of our life!
This ‘godly wisdom’ leads us to a full ‘spiritual understanding’ on how we should apply the principles of God in our lives and how we are to relate to those around us to enhance our witness to the world and bring others to know Christ!
When we seek God… when we begin to do this, v.10 tells us what is going to happen in our lives…
10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord…
When we seek God’s direction in our lives and we begin apply godly wisdom in our lives, we begin to live a life that the world takes notice of… a life that glorifies our Lord… we begin to walk in a manner worthy of our Savior! This is because our focus in NOT on ourselves but it is on living as Christ desires us to live!
10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him…
Parents do you remember the days when your children were young. I know I can remember when ours were young and I can also remember when they would do their best to please me or Michelle! Something as simple as cleaning up their toys after they played with them, we would set some goal for them and they would actually get excited about doing what we asked… and they would get it done!
But what if we NEVER told them that what they had done was a good thing? What if we never showed them that their actions were pleasing to us… they would become discouraged!
God has promised that when we honor Him, He is going to honor us and when we seek to please Him that He is going to bless us! The blessing God chooses to give us may not be what the world considers blessing… but when we live our lives seeking to do God’s will we are going to be pleasing to Him and He is going to let us know!
10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
When we seek God’s guidance in our lives it is going to have an effect on our lives! When we seek to live as God desires us to live, we will begin to see the fruit of our obedience. The ‘fruit’ can be different things… but when we are seeking God’s will in our lives I can see 2 very specific areas where fruit should appear:
A more positive outlook on God and Christians (when our LIFE matches our talk… people notice)
New Christians (People notice that our faith is ‘real’ and our witness leads them to Christ),
I want you to know that, for the believer, it is NOT good enough to just avoid sin and stay out of trouble! For the believer, we should be seeking the will of God and practicing the ways of truth in all areas of our life, to enable us to bear the good fruit God wants us to bear! When we seek God in our lives, He opens the doors of opportunity for us to bear this good fruit!
10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
How do we know when we are ‘increasing in the knowledge of God? When I was young I asked myself this question. “How do I know if something is God’s Will? Can I find guidance in the Bible to answer this question?”
First let me say that God’s Word is the absolute FIRST place we should go to seek the will of God. But God can and does speak to us in other ways as well. It could be the circumstances in your life that confirm God leading OR it could be the people God places in your life that confirm God’s will… God uses many ways to speak with us…
My granny was a wise and wonderful woman who loved God and she gave me some wonderful advice that I have cherished. She told me that if I believed something to be the will of God that I should ask several questions about what was going on. I discovered that the questions my granny gave me were questions derived directly from Scripture, taking the biblical principles and applying them to your situation.
Will it bring glory to God?
Biblical Principle found in 1 Cor 10:31 [ESV] “…So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Will it lead me into temptation?
Biblical principle found in Matt 6:13 [ESV] “…and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Will it enslave me?
Biblical principle found in 1 Cor 6:12 [ESV] “…All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything…”
Will it defile my body?
Biblical principle found in 1 Cor. 6:19 [ESV] “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own…”
Will it damage my influence on others?
Biblical principle found in Rom 14:21 [ESV] “…It is good not to…do anything that causes your brother to stumble…”
Does it create doubt in me about God’s Will?
Biblical principle found in Rom 14:23 [ESV] “…For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin…”
If we seek to increase in the wisdom and knowledge of God we have to seek after God himself… we can do that starting in the Word of God. We can then take what we glean from God’s word, the circumstances in our lives and those people God has placed in our lives and we can apply those principles learned and begin to put into practice this godly wisdom… this will be pleasing to God and will lead us to a greater understanding and knowledge of God.
Paul prayer mentioned 2 hopes… 1st that we SEEK the wisdom of God, and 2nd that we put that godly wisdom into practice in our lives, but we can see one more hope that Paul prayed for in this letter to the Colossian church
Rely on the power/might of God – v.11-12
11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Why is it that many believers have a great deal of difficulty in knowing God’s will and putting it into practice in their lives? The main reason is trust and patience in the God we claim as Savior!
In our society today, we don’t understand ‘waiting’! We live in an instant society. We have microwaves that can cook meals or defrost meats in a matter of minutes where it used to take hours.
We live in a society today where we can go to the internet and ‘download’ a file, song or even a book to our screen and we don’t have to order it or wait on it to be shipped to us…
We live in a society where our cameras show us our pictures WHEN WE TAKE THEM! No more waiting on pins and needles to see if the picture we THOUGHT was a great picture is actually a great picture…
When taking family pictures, we don’t have to wait for the ‘proofs’ of the family portraits…we can see them immediately! We can even get prints from our own camera RIGHT there in the store…practically NO waiting at all.
Paul is telling the believers the same thing Isaiah was telling the nation of Israel 1000 years earlier. When we seek God’s wisdom and put it into practice, we must trust in Him and wait on Him to deliver.
Isaiah 40:28-31 [ESV]
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
What Isaiah AND Paul are saying here is that this is GOD we are talking about… trust in Him and wait upon Him and you will NOT be disappointed… He will NOT let you down!
Because of our society it has become almost impossible for us to wait on God. One example of this is how often do we sit silently and contemplate on God and seek to ‘hear’ His voice speak to our hearts? If you try that in a Baptist church today, 15 seconds seems like an eternity…
Sometimes it seems as if we just cannot survive without an answer from God, but we are to patiently wait, trusting in His might and power, knowing that He has delivered us from our bondage of sin and so He is going to deliver us in whatever situation we may find ourselves in… It may not be the answer we are looking for, but we must trust Him!
Truly seeking God’s guidance means striving to please God AND trusting in Him regardless of the cost in our lives:
Regardless of the cost to our business or career
Regardless of the cost to our family relationships
Regardless of the cost to our friendships and acquaintances…
Jesus said that if we are to be His disciples we MUST be willing to trust Him MORE than any of these things. We must be willing to turn our backs on ALL this world has and follow Him. Jesus was NOT against family, but He tells us that if family interferes with your walk with Me… you have to TRUST Me and follow Me even if it means turning away from your family!
Matt 10:37-38 [ESV]
37 "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Full trust in God is the only way for us to know His will and increase our knowledge of God and grow in His wisdom.
Now preacher that sounds crazy, God does not want to come between me and my family! God doesn’t hate the family! This does not sound like the love of God you just said wanted us to KNOW Him!
God does not hate the family! However, Jesus knew that His very presence in this world would be a dividing factor. This world desires a utopian type of peace where all people get along and everything is perfect and there is NO conflict, but because of sin, we know that this is impossible.
Jesus knew humanity and that would never happen, and Jesus knew His mission, it was NOT to bring a utopian/impossible type of peace. Jesus declared His mission in Luke 19:10 where He said that He had come to seek and to save that which was lost… Jesus came to earth to offer a way to God and in this world of sin, when we make the choice to accept Jesus it is going to separate us and it bring about conflict within our lives and the lives of those around us...
This conflict is a necessary thing, but it is does not have to be bad thing. In choosing Jesus Christ it separates us from the world and all that is in the world. But that doesn’t mean we condemn the world we live in, this is because ours is NOT a mission to judge but ours is a mission to love and seek reconciliation! We are NOT called to sever relationships, but restore and reconcile them. Our priorities change when we come to know Christ… we begin to TRUST Him and we learn to wait on His guidance.
Jesus must be 1st in our lives. Seeking God’s guidance must be the 1st thing we do every day! There is NOTHING wrong with seeking the counsel of others, in fact the Bible tells us to surround ourselves with good godly counsel. But what I am trying to say is that we must FIRST seek the counsel of God like Matt. 6:33 tells us…
Matt 6:33 [ESV]
“…But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you…”
We need to understand that Jesus tells us to seek 1st the Kingdom of God for a reason. That reason is so that GOD is the 1st priority in our lives.
A young missionary was once asked why he was going oversees. The man told the missionary, “You could be just as useful in a ministry here as you could be there, why are you going?”
The young missionary told this man, “Being useful and effective in a ministry is NOT my priority…my priority is being in the center of God’s will for my life. God wants me to go and I am going to go!”
Conclusion:
The commitment for the believer is to seek God’s guidance always…in every part of their life! Seeking God’s guidance AFTER we are saved is JUST as important to the saved believer as SEEKING God’s forgiveness is to the lost person!
The Apostle Paul had 3 hopes in this prayer for the Colossian church. As your pastor, I pray that these same 3 hopes are evident in YOUR life as well.
Paul was praying for a church that was troubled over its understanding of God’s will. Our situation today may be a little different from the Colossian church, but we too need God’s guidance for our own situation! We must seek to be filled with the knowledge and understanding of God’s will and then begin to put that at work in our day to day lives. Our focus and priority must always be to function and dwell in the will of God! And to DO this, we need to be focused on fully pleasing God by being obedient and submissive to His calling on our lives!
I guess the most important decision to be made in response to this prayer by the Apostle Paul is to decide to please God in all of these areas. To please God above all things.
This morning are you ready to step out and make the decision to please God in your life?
You may be lost and living for yourself… I call on you to step out today and give your heart to Christ and please Him by confessing your sin and accepting His forgiveness…
You may be here today and you don’t have a church home. You may be seeking a fellowship to serve God with… today if God is leading you to be a part of our fellowship here at Oak Park, I encourage you to step out and please God by being obedient to His calling you here to our church…
You may be here today and God has placed a ministry on your heart or has called you to a ministry, but so far you have refused… so far you have put God off… I urge you to please Him today…step out and come and surrender to Him this morning. Come as Bro Steven comes to lead us in our hymn of invitation…
