The Divine Direction Connection
I Kings 22:48-49
2 Chronicles 20:35-37
Intro: Text about King Jehoshaphat making ships to haul gold from a distant land. In 2 Chronicles see not God’s will him join forces with Ahaziah the wicked king of Israel. So God ruined their plans and destroyed these expensive ships.
See Proverbs 16:9.
Have you ever made some plans that maybe God had to step in and ruin? We try blame all on devil but here God brought destruction.
Almost 365 days have gone by, another year of your life is about to turn over. What are your going to do with another year? Do you have any idea what God wants to do with your life this year? See Jer. 29:11.
Do you realize if you are God’s child and are trying to do something that is against His plans for you that it will fail or make you miserable?
How can I know what God’s plans are for me? Start with a clean, pure heart that is right with God. When you heart is right with God then you can trust your heart. See Phil. 2:13.
He places desires, dreams in your heart. I recommend you sit down with God and write out goals/dreams for various areas of your life. Spiritual, physical, family, financial, education, career, etc.
How will I know if these are God’s goals for me?
1. Is it biblically correct to want or seek this goal?
2. Is it morally right…?
3. Can my conscience be clear as I pursue this goal?
4. Am I ready to start towards this goal today?
Realize you probably won’t be able to achieve everything you set as a goal. Read attached illustration about jar, with big rocks in it first, then marbles, then sand, then water to illustrate full.
What are the big rocks that should go in my jar first? The things that are most important. Jesus said they were kingdom things, spiritual things, things that will matter 100 years from now and beyond. So the first things need to be the priority of my spiritual life.
Didn’t Jesus reveal in Sermon on Mount that if you put kingdom things first in your life that all other things would be taken care of? Read Matthew 6:33 NCV.
What is God’s number 1 goal for me? That He has my heart. He does not need me to work for Him w/o first having my heart. God is not impressed with our gifts, service, if it does not have with it a hot passion of love for and to the Lord. Everything we are doing is just superficial until we deal with our hearts!
Sometimes I think God is waiting for us to get done with all our religious commotion so He can deal with our hearts.
Ill. One time religious people questioned Jesus about what was the most important commandment. Jesus basically replied there really only two commandments to be concerned with. They are Matt, 22:36-40 in Living bible.
I. The Main goal for your life is to love God.
This new year what are you going about your love relationship with God. Since this is the main thing in your life, what are you going to purposely do to love God?
Ill. Similar marriage covenant. To spouse you promise to love, put them first in your life. You promise to be faithful not try to be faithful like I hear people say about their relationship to God. You both had same priority to put each other first. Nothing comes before that. Then somehow with time the other woman or other man came into your life. The other man or other woman may not be a physical person it may be a job, career, kids, hobby. Something came into your relationship and shifted all your priorities. Same type of thing happens in our relationship with God. At first He is #1. Then something bumps him from this place in our hearts. Oh we still love God, we know he knows we are just busy. But deep down inside we know too, things are not right. We cannot in this condition be confident about our plans, future, goals etc. We are out of sync with God’s plan and everything is screaming for our attention.
Without realizing it, we have moved from loving God to liking God. We can say we love God but our lives show different priorities than the One we say we love. God warns us “Don’t be like those who honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.”
II. When you love God you will learn to love what He loves.
Ill. I love my wife. I am learning to like what she likes. When dating she liked go out have cup coffee. I did not drink coffee but I learned to like it. She liked to walk on beach, I did not see any sense in walking I thought we should be running. Now I like those things. She loves Xmas decorating. I think it is waste of time. Still don’t like it but we do a lot of decorating and more each year!
III. What does God like to do?
Several ideas I wrote down.
1. He likes to take walks and talk with us. (Kind of sounds like wife thing?)
2. He likes decorating His scenery with the change of every season. (Kind of like Pam?)
3. Likes us to see all His handiwork and enjoy it. (Kind of like window-shopping w/o buying anything?)
IV. What does God want from us?
1. That we make Him first in our lives. = Love
2. That we be faithful to Him all the time. = Commitment\
3. That we trust Him and He can trust us. = Trust
4. Share our hopes and dreams with Him. = Hope
Concl: The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Get back to seeking the main thing in your life = loving God.
Start moving towards that goal and everything else will fall into proper priority. You can’t do it all. You don’t need to do it all. But you do need to set priorities in you life today.
Start moving towards what you know God wants you to do.
Jeremiah said we should plow up that old hardened ground in our hearts and plant a fresh crop of seed. New years coming, now is the time to set your course.
No sense in making plans that God will not bless. No sense in building ships that never set sail.
