My wife and I went to a baseball game last week. I bought the tickets at the stadium and when I was at the ticket booth, this young fellow behind the window sold me two tickets and he is about to take my money.
And he insults me!
I couldn’t believe it.
I asked how much the tickets were and this young fellow looks at me and says, “You’re a – senior citizen, right?”
I have never been so insulted!
Imagine.
A youthful looking man like me being taken for a Senior Citizen.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Still…
I was shocked.
I was mortified.
I was humiliated.
I looked at this young fellow and said, “Of course.”
OK, in the end I told him the truth. I was too young. I didn’t get the Senior Citizen discount.
But afterward I thought about how we are always being given opportunities, and we always have to decide – take the opportunity or not?
Is it the right thing to do or not?
As you know, I have been given an opportunity to accept a call to another church, and I have taken it.
I do this because I believe it is God’s will, and I wanted to share with you this morning something about how I came to this decision.
How does one know God’s will?
That is a difficult thing, and ministers are not the only ones who struggle with this.
Whenever a minister accepts a job to go from one church to another, we always talk about how, “it is God’s will.” But we should all be talking in those terms – every time we move to another community, or accept a job, or when we get married – all of these things should be done because we should believe God is calling us to do these things.
But how do you know God’s will.
I want to share a story about the Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church – that is the church where I am going to be serving in a few weeks.
It took them 11 months to find a new pastor. I don’t know how long it will take Sunrise, but 11 months is pretty standard.
The church elected a PNC, or Pastor Nominating Committee. The chairman of that committee said that when they had their first meeting they were given instructions from a representative of the Presbytery named Joan.
Joan looked at this newly elected committee and said, “You have only one task to accomplish.”
The chairman said he felt a wave of relief – thinking this will be easier than he thought.
But then Joan continued, “All you have to do is discern God’s will.”
The chairman said he felt a wave of fear – thinking, how do you do that?
Listening for God’s will is a dangerous and risky and intimidating task.
Our New Testament lesson says, “Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
And how do you do that? How do you determine God’s will?
You, as a church, must search for God’s will as you seek a new pastor. You as church members must individually and constantly be in search of God’s will for your life. What job do you take, what person do you marry, how do you deal with day-to-day living?
Everyone needs to be able to discern God’s will.
As we seek the will of God, we often look for God to be visibly active in our lives. The way things come together, often reveal God’s will.
For me and my wife, we found one circumstance after another pointing us to move to another church.
Sometimes these circumstances and events were not very pleasant.
There were times when I felt that I was unable to use some of my skills here at Sunrise, and there were times when I felt Sunrise needed skills in me that I did not have.
But other signs and indications into God’s will were reflected in how well and how wonderful things came together.
After we made our decision to accept the call to serve another church, we had only three days in which we were able to visit the community in Georgia, and in those three days so many things came together so perfectly.
My wife got a job – actually, she was offered more than one teaching job in the school system there.
We were able to find my wife an apartment, which is important because she will be starting work on Tuesday.
We were able to sell our house here in Florida.
And we were able to find and buy a house in Georgia.
So many other things were coming together so rapidly and so perfectly – I couldn’t have planned it better myself. I truly think that God was in charge.
But as helpful as those sorts of things are, you can’t depend on circumstances alone. There is one very important thing to do, above all else, in seeking God’s will.
The first and most important step to take in this is to engage in prayer, asking God for guidance.
If you want to know the will of God, the most logical thing to do is to ask God in prayer.
My wife and I have been in prayer a lot in recent months. As we thought and prayed about leaving, we both had a strong desire to stay. We really like Sunrise Church, and we like living in Miami.
My wife and I would go back and forth with this issue. There were times when I would go home from work and think, “I’m ready. Let’s find a new church and move.” But the next day I’d be at work and think, “I’d be nuts to want to leave here.”
After months of prayer, my wife came to the conclusion that we should not move. She was teaching at Cambridge Academy, where she was not only a teacher but also in the administration of the school. They were working at the accreditation program and she felt it was important for us to stay in the community for at least one more year.
So we put any plans to talk with other churches on hold. And in our prayers we made the commitment that we would NOT leave unless God gave us a clear, absolutely clear sign that we should move.
That week, and I think it might have been the next day; Ginny came home with the news that her school was closing. There would be no accreditation, or next year. She was suddenly about to become jobless.
When I asked that God send us a clear sign – I hadn’t counted on anything quite so clear as that!
If you are searching for God’s will in your life, nothing clarifies it as well as prayer.
In fact, there is a verse in one of Paul’s New Testament books that came to mind recently as my wife and I were struggling with trying to discover God’s will.
“The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs that words cannot express.” (Romans 8:26)
This verse came alive for us a few days ago.
Several days ago I visited my wife’s family in South Carolina. I am always uncomfortable about that trip because of the kind of flights we have to take getting into this little airport in Florence SC. One of the elders, aware that I was a bit apprehensive about having to fly the last leg of the journey on one of those tiny turbo prop planes, offered to have prayer with me. You know how sometimes you are in prayer, and you sort of lose you train of thought and ramble for a moment or two – that’s what happened to this elder, and she starts praying for odd things – things that might not have made sense to her, but made sense to God. She prayed that during the vacation God would keep me safe, and help me to accomplish all I needed to accomplish.
Nobody goes on vacation to accomplish things.
But what this elder didn’t know is that we were adding three extra days to our vacation.
Her prayer was answered in ways she could not have anticipated.
In those three days I accomplished everything I needed to accomplish.
If you want to know what God’s will is for your life – start with prayer.
In the Old Testament, Psalm 25, the author writes this wonderful prayer: “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; in you I trust … Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” (Psalm 25:1-5)
I’ve been struggling for several months with the possibility of leaving Sunrise and going to another church. It has not been an easy decision, but you need to know that it was a decision my wife and I made with prayer.
And I know that many of you struggle with decisions.
How do you discern God’s will? You start with prayer.
Young people are full of questions that should be anointed with prayer -- Should you get married? What school should you go to? What should you major in? What career should you enter?
And not just younger people, but all of us have problems we are facing. We are struggling with needing a wisdom to discern God’s will about how to handle personal and powerful problems. What medical treatments should I take for a major illness? What should I do about a crisis in my family? How should I respond to the news that I may have found devastating to my life?
As the writer of Psalm 25 suggests, you go to God in prayer and ask for guidance.
After August 17th, I will no longer be your pastor. But I will always be your friend. And I will keep you in prayer as you seek God’s will.
I firmly believe that as God is calling me to Georgia, God has already called someone else to be your next Senior Pastor.
With a lot of prayer – you’ll figure out God’s will and discover who that person is.
Copyright 2003
W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved
