FBCWest 546 | Do the Will of God
Recorded On: 03/12/2023
Bulletin
Hymn # 277 “We Have Heard the Joyful Sound”
SCRIPTURE READING – John 3:14 - 18
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“How Great Is Your Love”
“Echo Holy”
“At the Cross (Love Ran Red)”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Resolved to Obey and Worship Only the Lord, God”
“Do the Will of God”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Great Things”
Benediction “There Is Freedom”
Sermon Notes
Matthew 6:10 Praying for God’s will on earth
2 Great Commands of the Father
3 Commands of the Son
God’s will for us
1 Thessalonians 4:3 – 8 Our sanctification
1 Thessalonians 5:16 – 18 Rejoice, pray and give thanks
Hebrews 10:36 Endure in doing God’s will
Psalms 40:8 Delight in doing His will
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
We've been doing a. Obeying and trusting God alone and not bowing to me. Any other you have seen over the course of the various different ones who took a stand and refused to bow the knee or stop praying, or to do whatever, stop witnessing, whatever they were told by authorities not to do, they continue to do because God and instruct him to do so. And then we looked. At times, when no one necessarily tells you what to do or not to do, that's kind of left to you. And the question is, what do we do? And we've taken a look at doing things God's way. We've also taken a look at. Deciding because a lot of people like to either go back and forth between following God and not following God or doing these types of things. So we've come to this place. In in in the series where. Last time we took a look at doing it God's way. But what is God's way? God's way is to do is. And it's interesting that we are instructed when the disciples ask. Jesus to teach them to pray because John had taught his disciples to pray and say, would you teach us? And So what we call, unfortunately, the Lord's Prayer is the disciples prayer. The Lord's Prayer comes much later in the. Gospel of John. Jesus praises by priestly prayer, but I want to start off with this thing about doing God's will with this very first verse, and that's found in Matthew Chapter 10 and it says this God is Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray and a power that it says your Kingdom. Come and your will be done on Earth. As it is in heaven. But we are told as part of our prayer life to seek God's will. Now I find it a little interesting because a lot of times when we pray for things, we feel like they're totally out of our control. That's why we're playing our times. We try to fix something and then after it isn't fixed or made worse. When we say God. Put it back together because I broke it. We've got to turn us to pray for his will, but if he will, we are to do his will. So there is a sense of while we pray that this will be done on Earth, which is far beyond our capacity, we should at least participate in doing his will when it comes to our life. And so we're to do that now. I also know. That there are many books written. I'm doing God's will. And what is God's? Will and people have made a lot of money on what that is. And if you're listening to me by here or through our various social ministries, I'm going to save you a lot of money. Now I'm going to save you money, not like my wife saves US money. My wife will go shopping and she'll come and bring home a dress that she's bought on sale for 50percent off and she'll try it on. And it's a beautiful dress and I'll say it's a wonderful dress. And she goes. Yeah, I. Saved 100. Dollars and I go. I don't know if we can. Afford to save. Paying more money. Now what I'm going to do here is you don't have to spend anything for this. You're going to get to save money because you're not going to have to buy another book. I'm not selling any books. Maybe that's a problem. Maybe if I write some books, people look at me as the guy who knows what he's talking about, and then you might pay attention, but this is. What is the rule of God? In your life. So you don't have to go out and invest in all these books that will tell you what the God the will of God is in your life and what your purpose. So I'm not going to go full page scriptures because you know them well enough.
So I'm not going to have you look them up so. But when it comes to the Old Testament, there are some 630 plus commands in it. Jesus said you can boil that down to two. The first one, the Supreme One, is the love, the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul. And all your strength. We are told to do that because if we do that, we'll avoid a lot of things that we're not supposed to do, like worship other gods or create golden images, or do all these other things because our love for God keeps us loyal and faithful to him and we love him. Because he first loved us, so one of the things that God's will is for us in our lives is. To simply love him. The second thing he told us is that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. And Jesus said on those two commands plus all of the Old Testament, the law and the Prophet. For we are to love. Our neighbor. As ourselves and as I tell you often, that is a high bar for me because I love. Meal a lot. I think I'm wonderful. I think I'm brilliant. I think I'm funny. I think I'm good looking. I think all, all the things about me. I like me so much. I love me so much. Take me wherever I go. OK. So, that's a high bar, but we are told we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, and then there are those who try to get around it by saying, well, who's my neighbor and whatever. You fail in that exercise. So those are the two that covers the Old Testament, but Jesus gives us specifically three during his ministry one of those. We read at the beginning of the service. Is that we are to believe on him. So that we might have eternal life, that God so loved the world, that he gave Jesus, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That was reported.
Jesus's conversation to Nicodemus through the Gospel of John Peter. Will later write. In a letter that says that it is not God's will or desire or wish that any should perish, but all come to repentance and so part of what God will is, is that we believe in Jesus. The second thing that Jesus taught us as a commandment, he says. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you. And have given myself for you for part of God's will. For our lives. Is that we love the fellow believers. The way Jesus did. It's not. We love each other, the. Way we love. No, we love it far beyond that. We love each other as the way Jesus love. A far higher. Commitment and loving you as I love me. And the third thing that Jesus has commanded us to do as part of his will is that we are to be his witnesses. We are to create and make disciples, teaching them everything that he has commanded us, and to baptize them, and he said in that whole endeavor that he will be with us. He will never leave us. So we are told that we shall be shall is a command. If something is optional, you may do something, but when it says you shall do something, then it is command. So we have two Old Testament commands, 3 New Testament commands that we are told as a part of God's will and something that you don't have to pay 2995 for. Because it's throughout the scripture. I'm having a little trouble. But there's some other added things that. It is God's will for us to do. And so this is where you're going to get. This savings. And so in. Thessalonians, first Thessalonians chapter of four, starting with verse three. It says this. For this is the will of God your sanctification. Now simplification means a process of making someone only. God's will for our lives is for us to be holy. This is not something that God has done recently. When the people of God left their enslavement in Egypt. And went to Mount Sinai to meet with God. Is God's plan for his people to be a holy people, a royal priesthood? But they didn't want to go. Peter will also tell us God hasn't changed his plan just because we are a stiff necked and difficult people doesn't mean God changes his will and Peter tells us that it is his desire and his goal for us and his will for us to be a holy Nation, a royal priesthood of people. After God's own Heart, that's what God's will for us. And if you will, if you look in revelation, the on the quote end of the book, it says that we are in fact a holy Nation, a royal priesthood. For it is God's desire for us to become fully to be sanctified. We don't do this by not doing or not doing, but by following the will of God. And so it says, for this is the will of God your sanctification that is that you abstain from sexual immorality. That each one of you know how to have his own vessel in sanctification and honor. Not in lustful passion like the Gentile. Who do not know God? And that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord His Avenger, goes of all these things just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us. The purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So that he. Who rejects this is not rejecting man, but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Voted his God's will for us to be sanctified, and as a part of that is to keep, if you will, sexual purity, both in our commitments. After marriage. Because we are supposed to be the church. And that's what kind of Christian marriage is part of is that we show the world that Christ is the head of the church and that we follow and that we commit ourselves to one another, that we love one another as Christ loved the church. And there's that picture. So in marriage, there is that sanctification that's setting apart. But it also says. Prior to marriage so that you might not defraud your brother. Well, what is he saying there? Basically saying there. Is that if you have sexual relations before marriage? And you don't marry.
The person who marries that other person. You've defrauded it because you've taken away something from him or her that they can never get back their purity. Which is not loving one another. As Christ loved us, nor even loving each other as neighbors. So God's desire for us, his will for us is to be sanctified and a part of that is sexual purity and a part of that is being separated apart is not being a part of the world. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. We are to be sanctified. We're to be wholly we're to be separated and God is a God of separation. Starting out in Genesis. God separates the day and the dark. From the light. And separates the earth from the waters. He separating all the time. He is showing that he is a God of sanctification, of setting apart of holiness and part of what he did is when he placed Adam and Eve in the garden, it was again setting them apart. For holiness, God is a sanctifier and his will for us is to be sanctified, and Jesus not only saves us and justifies us, he sanctifies us. So that one day we'll be blown. The God's will. For us. He has. Another will for us that comes in three things, and. I'm going to. Read all three of them and come back. And deal with each one. It says. Rejoice, always pray without ceasing, and in everything. Give thanks for this is God's will for you. So there's three added things. We've got the two commandments in the Old Testament, we have the three commands of Jesus. We just talked about sanctification. Now there's three and more things that are God's will for us. And so we'll go back to rejoice always. 2 words. And yet no one seems. To want to do it. We're safe. Well, the scripture says rejoice always. Well, Pastor, you don't know what I just was told this week. Either I have a. Physical death sentence. Or my finances as such that I'm losing everything. How is it? That you expect me to rejoice when these terrible things happen. Because no matter what. Whether you've been told by a doctor, do you have only a limited time to live? Nothing will separate you from the love of God. You can rejoice that not even the greatest opposition that comes in your life will separate you from the love of God. On top of that, whether you lose this body or your house or whatever it is God is making and preparing a dwelling place for you in his home. And he is preparing a brand new body that won't be subject to pain and suffering and illness and sickness and despair. We can rejoice always, regardless of this circumstances, because of what God has promised, because what God is doing, so we should rejoice always, not sometimes not when it's. Things are happening good or we're hoping they will happen. OK, it is God's will for you. Rejoice all. The second thing he tells us as in that is his will that we are to pray without ceasing. Now, some of us have a difficulty with this. Because we think well. Well, if I'm driving down the street or the freeway, how can I pray? Well, some of you ought to be praying while you're driving. Because I certainly am. When I'm seeing you, OK? It doesn't mean you have to close your eyes. This is a sense that we are supposed to. Be in constant communication with God. But you can understand sensing a little different. It's not necessarily that you have to pray 24 hours a day, seven days a week, although I highly encourage it and I recommend it to me. I don't do it. OK. But it's a great goal. But pray without ceasing means don't stop. A lot of times we pray for something and because it doesn't happen instantaneously. We give up. We cease. Lord, move the mountain. He didn't move the mountain. OK.
I guess I'll just. Stop praying about moving the mount. Maybe say, Lord, move the mountain. Lord, move the mountain. Lord, move the mountain. You're not moving the mountain, Lord. Maybe give me strength to climb the mountain or find the way around the mountain. Or stay here until you move the mountain. But I'm going to keep praying that you move the mountain or tell me what to do because I have a mountain in front of me. They don't stop praying as you don't get an. Answer Right away. Or maybe it's? When your brain moves the mountain. Without saying, stop being a valley. Maybe you need to rise above it. From raising what God can communicate to us, if we continue praying and talking to him and then letting him respond to us rather than giving him his orders and then saying in Jesus name, Amen. We communicate, we pray without stopping. We pray regardless of whether we're discouraged or whether we receive it, or whether. I use it specially because it. It's a wonderful bath. Paul, when he's praying that God would cut this thorn in his flesh, he goes. I prayed three times. I'm going. Oh, there have been things in my life I prayed more than three times and. But it's like. I'm used to getting. God responded because I prayed three times that. God did respond. My Grace is sufficient for you. My power is perfected in your leaf. He only stopped framed that friend. After God gave him better advice. We're going to rejoice always. Whether we feel like. It or not? We do not stop praying. And as Daniel did, even when they tell you not to, we still do it anyway. Because that's God's will for our life, who pray without ceasing. And the third thing here we find in this passage is in everything. Let me emphasize this in everything. Not some things, not the good things, not the wonderful things and everything. Give thanks. For this is God. 's will for you in Christ Jesus. We are told to be a grateful people. That they're entitled. But life is fair. That everybody loves me. We are to be grateful. We even parents try to teach their children. To be grateful. So how do? We start that by telling them to say thank you. We start out by telling them to say. Thank you. We don't. Unless they go. Thank you. We don't necessarily look into their heart. We're getting them to exercise that courtesy. They were hoping that as they exercised that thankfulness with their voice, that it will happen in the inside, in their heart. But you can tell when a person is grateful and when a person is just courteous. But it is God's will for us to be thankful in everything, because as I showed before, nothing separates us from the love of God. So it doesn't matter what happens, we can say God, I thank you. That this terrible thing that's happening in my life will not separate me from your love. I thank you. That I will, by your grace and by your power. Continue my walk with you. Because your word says that you dwell in me. We are also told. Not only there will nothing separate. Us from the love of God. We're also told that God will cause all things to work together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. He did say that all things are good. As a matter of fact, most things aren't. We can give thanks because we're saying, God, you're taking this thing that is tearing me apart. And somehow? I have no clue how. Because I'm not God and I'm not seeing it. You're going to make it from my. Even if it for my good is that I am going. To be more like you. More like him. As well. It's for us. Pray without cease.
And everything give thing. Now passing on to another is in Hebrews. Well, you see, we have this tendency to when things are doing great. Follow his. When blessings are fallen from the sky. We are. Rejoicing we are thankful. We are praying without ceasing, and stuff seems a little more difficult. It says this in Hebrews chapter 10 where you have need of endurance. So that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was. Now fortunately not saying you have needed patient. As you have need of endurance, endurance is dealing with circumstances. Patience is dealing with people, but we do have a need for endurance because sometimes we just don't feel rejoicing. We just don't want to pray. We just don't want to be thankful. I just want to take my ball and go home. Now like you anymore. So having done the will of God. You may receive. The reward? How tragic. Having partially done the William. And giving up. Then when we see our master. But you've made it by the skin of your. Teeth because you believed in me. But I so wanted to reward. I don't want to say, well done, my good and faith. But you just. Now you're safe. Yeah, you're living in it. You could be living. In the Malibu part of heaven. Of need of endurance. Do the will of God. Keep doing the work. No matter what this. And I would include this in Psalms chapter 4040, verse eight that says I delight. To do your will my God. Your law is within my. How is it that we do the will of God do we do the will of God and our sanctification and wife of plain about it, or do we say God, you you're doing this for my own good, so I will follow you. And do your will. I am going to rejoice always. And I'm going to lie in doing it. Not because I'm forced to, but because I love you. And I know that your will is in my best interest. That I am going. To pray without ceasing, because in doing so I can see your hand and at work throughout the world, as opposed to wondering where you are. That I can be grateful. An old thing. Because of who you are. And what you've done, and by your grace. I have received. All of your blessings and all of your promises and all of your good. Not because I deserve it. I don't. But because of your Grace, you have done so to me and for me. They're coaches. We'll yell at you. And parents and. Athletes oftentimes get discouraged when the coach yells at them. And I try to tell. For kids. Don't be worsened by. They're yelling at you. When they stop you. They've given up. Your God. Will never give up. But the other thing. As an athlete. What a coach wants. Is a culturable. Make you better and better. Yeah, I. I ran the route you're. Supposed to? You told me to do. As opposed to. Coach, can I do it better? And I get on the same page with my quarterback or my receiver, whoever it is that you're coaching and you're doing it. And to say in essence. Which no athlete really likes. I love crack. Because it makes me better. And say God. I want to delight in doing your will if you if you want me to run it out, I want to do it with perfection. I want to delight in doing it. I want to enjoy it. I want to enjoy the process, not just the destination. We're all saying when we all get to heaven, which is wonderful, and I'm looking forward to the day and may it come as soon as possible. And my wife and I go on vacation and we drive. We have a little difference of opinion. I'd like to get there. So I take the. Interstate and I'm zooming down and she look at all the towns that we missed, that we're zooming down the highway. That's kind of like what we do. In life, we're just zooming. Down the high. As opposed to saying God. Let me enjoy the churn. Not because the journey is necessarily wonder. But because I'm walking with you. And I will. And I can't think of a better thing to do. But it's in the desert. Or in the forest. Or in the valley. On the mountaintop. Wherever is being in God's present. It's where you ought to be. Doing his will. The lighting. In his. So I've given you 2 Old Testament, 3 New Testament commands of Jesus. And four rules of God. Densification. Rejoicing. Praying without ceasing and everything. Good thing. And you say, well, Pastor, that can't. Be all of. God's will. Here's the deal. Do that. Do those. And then maybe. You can go on to graduate study. But has been my experience in my life and the lives of people I've seen. These four plus the two plus A3. We'll take us the rest of our. Lives and do those. Like doing. He is an awesome, wonderful guy. Who loves you? As we started to serve.
God loves you so much. That he sent Jesus. The diaphragm. If he did that for you, would he withhold any good? And I say. But God, the world tells me if I if I do these other things, then I'll enjoy it. Those are passed through the struct. Follow my will. Not because I'm telling you to, but because it's best for you. And all God's people said.