TEXT: Ephesians 5:17

SUBJECT: The Will of God #2

The topic of this year’s Family Camp is Finding God’s Will for Your Life. The study is built on three assumptions:

• God has a will for your life.

• You can know God’s will for your life.

• If you want to know God’s will for your life, you’ve got to look in the right place.

At one time, many people looked for God’s will in tea leaves, tarot cards, crystal balls, and the intestines of a goat! Thankfully, we’ve outgrown these ancient follies and replaced them with a set of our own: Christians today look for God’s will in warm feelings, in peace after prayer, in open doors, and in Bible verses, taken out of context and only half read.

Looking for God’s will there is like looking for your wristwatch on the moon—it’s not there and no matter how hard you look, you won’t find it.

The will of God for your life is found in the Bible—and nowhere else. The best known passage is II Timothy 3:15-17,

A couple of things should be said about the passage: First of all, it doesn’t say the Bible contains all truth—it doesn’t. What it says is that the Bible contains everything you need to know to be saved and to live a life pleasing to God. In other words, it will guide you in all the decisions of life—big, small, and medium.

For the last fifty years or so, conservative Christians have used the passage to prove what’s called The Plenary Inspiration of the Bible, in other words, every word in the Bible is God’s Word. That is a true doctrine—it’s taught here and other places too. But in stressing the full inspiration of the Bible, many have missed the other thing it teaches: the full sufficiency of the Bible.

The Psalmist put it this way,

What a lamp for on a dark road? It shows the way to go. And that is exactly what the Bible does for us on the dark pathway to heaven.

The Bible doesn’t teach us French grammar or how to bake an apple pie, but it does teach us what God’s will is for our lives and how to find it.

The Bible reveals the will of God in two ways: directly and indirectly. If you’ve read the Bible much, you know it was written to people who lived long ago in a place far away. Much of what it said to them has little relevance to us. When was the last time you coveted your neighbor’s ox or his donkey? You might think, therefore, that the Ancient Word has little to say to the Modern World. But if you think that way, you’re as wrong as you can be.

The Scriptures speak directly to the main issues of your life: your life at home, at work, at church, in the neighborhood, and when you’re alone. I don’t know about you, but that pretty well covers my time!

• At home, the Bible tells the husband to "Love your wife as Christ loved the Church". It tells the wife to "Submit to your husband, as to the Lord". It tells kids to "Obey your parents in the Lord". It tells parents to "Not provoke your children to wrath, but to bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord".

Does this cover every circumstance in detail? Of course not—if it did, you wouldn’t live long enough to read it. But what it does is give guidelines for everything that comes up in the home. If I’m supposed to love my wife, for example, I’ve got to pay attention to her; I can’t belittle her; I need to make a living for her; I should never give her a reason for jealousy.

• At work, the Bible tells the employee to work hard—even if the boss doesn’t deserve it. It tells the boss to be fair to his workers and merciful, remembering he has a Boss too—in heaven.

Does this tell you what to do every second at work? No, but it tells you the kind of person to be at work: industrious, respectful, cooperative, just, and kind. If you’re all these things, you’ll please the Lord at work.

• At church, it tells you to "Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace". This means you’ve got to be patient with others, slow to take offense, easy to make up with, and generous with your time, your prayers, and your money.

It doesn’t tell you what church to attend, or when to leave it or whether you should teach Sunday School or not, but it goes a long way in telling you how to be a good member of your church.

• What kind of neighbor should you be? "Love your neighbor as yourself". Thus, you’re the kind of neighbor who doesn’t eavesdrop on the people next door, who doesn’t make a lot of unnecessary noise, who doesn’t let his yard become an eyesore, and who is courteous at all time and helpful when opportunity presents itself.

• What about citizenship? The Bible doesn’t tell you who to vote for—or even to vote, necessarily, but it does tell you to respect your leaders, pay your taxes, and obey the law as long as it doesn’t contradict the Law of God.

• In private life, the Word tells you what to think about—and what to not think about; it tells you what to do with your body—and what not to do with it. It tells you what to look at when you’re alone and what to turn your eyes away from. Does it tell me to read John Bunyan instead of C.S. Lewis? But it does tell me to occupy my time well—and reading either one does that.

When people tell me I don’t know what God wants me to do, I wonder if they’ve read the Bible at all! It tells me what kind of husband and father and son to be; what kind of pastor and church member; what kind of worker, what kind of neighbor, what kind of citizen, and what kind of person to be when no one’s around but the Lord. The great majority of life is covered by the direct and easy-to-understand teaching of God’s Word.

You know all of this, of course, but I wanted to say it again, so you’d realize how much of God’s will you already know. And the things you know already are the most important things in life.

What Micah said to his people long ago is even more true of us, living under the New Covenant,

Most things in life are covered by the direct teachings of the Bible. But not everything. And these are the things that tie us up in knots.

In my experience, the four issues that most confound sincere believers are marriage, career, moving, and ministry. We’ll look at marriage for now, but if you apply the same kind of thinking to career, moving, and ministry, you’ll be able to think through them for yourself.

You want to get married. You read the Bible very carefully and all you can find is that marriage is good and singleness is too. That’s no help at all! You want to know if God wants you to marry Suzanne. No matter how much you read the Bible or pray, you cannot get a straight answer. What do you do?

You don’t ask for a sign or trust your feelings. What you do is consult the Bible, find out what it says about marriage, and ask a series of yes/no questions.

1. Is marriage lawful? It is.
2. Is marriage between me and Suzanne lawful? It is (we’re not married already, we’re not related, we’re both Christians, and so on).
3. Am I capable of being a husband right now? Yes--I have a job, as far as I know I can father children, and I love her.
4. Is Suzanne capable of being a wife right now? Yes—she’s of age, she’s willing to leave her parents, and she wants to be my wife.
5. Is there any reason I shouldn’t marry her? For example, if I’m a missionary to the Eskimos, her extreme sensitivity to cold might be a problem. But, no, there’s nothing like that to stop us.
6. Is there anything in the Bible to keep us from being married? No.
7. So what’s the answer? If the Bible neither commands it nor forbids it, you’re at liberty to marry her or stay single or marry somebody else! You get to choose and whatever you choose to do (if it’s done in love) pleases the Lord.

This kind of reasoning takes time, effort, and a willingness to admit mistakes and start over. To help you get better at it, let me offer you a few suggestions.

1. Be honest with God. Many people read the Bible but don’t find God’s will in it because they don’t want to find it. They skip over the parts they don’t like or read them sloppily, or explain them away. You won’t learn God’s way that way.
2. Read the Bible carefully and all the way through. No one book in the Bible has all the answers—not even John or the Psalms or Romans! To be "Thoroughly equipped for every good work", you’ve got to read "All Scripture"—and not just the parts you like best.
3. Pray that the Holy Spirit will give you understanding. A man as great as David wasn’t afraid to ask for help—Psalm 119:18.
4. Think about what you read. You don’t have to be a genius or a scholar to be thoughtful. The Word is geared to the ordinary reader. But you won’t understand it or see how it applies to your life unless you think about it. Again, David said,

because—I’ve got an IQ of 190? No, but—

1. Seek the advice of other Christians. The Proverb says, "In the multitude of counselors there does not lack wisdom". Talk things over with wise and brave friends, and you’ll know God’s will better than you do. By the way, note the word, brave. The wisest man in the world can’t help you if he doesn’t have the guts to tell you the truth. If a friend is always flattering you and telling you what you want to hear—go to someone else for advice.
2. Don’t be enslaved to anyone’s opinion. Listen to others, of course, but don’t follow anyone blindly—not me, not a professor of theology, not the man on the radio. Nobody is called "Rabbi" but the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Be patient. The Lord will make His will known to you—but on His timetable, not yours. If you don’t know God’s will today, keep praying and working on it until you do.
4. Be content with God’s will for you today. Worry may be defined as wanting to know God’s will for you tomorrow. You don’t need that until tomorrow. Be satisfied with knowing and obeying His will today.

CLOSE

God has a will for your life and you can find it if you want to—and if your look in the right place. That place is His Word. Not His Word and feelings, not His Word and dreams, not His Word and a sense of peace. But His Word alone.

Be content with God’s Word. And more than content, be thankful for it. After all,