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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

John Shin

Thy Will Be Done: Knowing and Following the Will of God

Dear Heavenly Father, This morning, as we hear this message, I ask that you please be with my mouth and help the words that I speak to be the words that you want us to hear, Heavenly Father.

Teach us, Lord, how we should go about understanding what your will for each of our lives is.

And more importantly, Heavenly Father, teach us, Lord, how to obey all these things.

The topic for this morning is understanding how to discern and know the will of God.

And the title for my message is Thy Will Be Done, knowing and discerning and following the will of God.

And I think this is a relevant topic to everyone in the room.

If you have ever wondered what God's will for your life was, could you please raise your hand?

I'm glad I chose a very relevant message for everyone here today.

But the problem is, I think if we're honest with ourselves, we'll all admit that very often we come across a problem, which is we're not sure what God's will is for our lives.

Well, first of all, wouldn't it be nice if God would speak to us in, say, a pillar of fire and cloud?

If He came down 1 day and He said, this is my will for you, and he spelled it out clearly.

It would take all the guesswork out of it.

How would it change your life if God came down and he granted you, of all the people in this world, he granted you a 10-minute interview in which you could ask him anything you wanted, and you're guaranteed a direct response.

But more importantly, what would his answers do to your life?

If he told you, for instance, that the job you're currently working is not the job that he wants you to be working, would it make the decision easy to quit your job?

If he told you the person you're dating right now is not the 1 I have intended for you, would it make it a little easier to go through the painful process of separation?

With that certainty of knowing that God himself told you this is what I want you to do, would you find it easier to obey?

So the question is, does God still speak to us in that way today?

Is it possible to hear God's voice in such a clear and distinct manner?

Because often we read stories in the Bible of how great men of faith like Abraham and Moses did such tremendous things for the Lord.

But I know that there are many times when I read those stories that I thought to myself, If I had the privilege of hearing God's voice the way they heard His voice, I could do similar things too.

So how can God hold it against me if the signal's not coming through as clearly?

And So I'm confused as to what his will is.

Have any of you thought that way, perhaps?

There's a comedian who once said, why is it that when we talk to God, we're said to be praying.

But when God talks to us, we're said to be schizophrenic.

Could it be that more often than not, we don't hear the voice of God in our lives?

Because we don't actually expect to hear a response.

When you pray, do you really believe in your heart of hearts that someone out there is listening and that if you listen carefully enough, you will hear what He has to say to you?

Let's see what the Bible has to say about whether it's possible to hear God's voice.

Turn with me to John chapter 10, and we'll be reading verses 1 through 5.

It says, truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.

To him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice.

And when he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

And he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

A stranger they simply will not follow, but flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.

According to this passage, friends, it's not only possible to hear the voice of God in our lives, but if we call ourselves Christians, it is expected of us to recognize His voice, because it is by that recognition we are to follow.

So the question remains, how do we hear the voice of God in our lives?

Well, we start by seeing what is revealed of His will in His written Word.

Let me read for you a quick succession of passages, and rather than trying to turn to all these, just listen and see if you can catch a common theme in all of these verses.

I'm going to start in Romans 12, verse 2.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by that renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the less of men, but for the will of God." Colossians 1, verses 9 and 10.

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." Do you hear a common theme in these texts regarding the will of God?

How about 1 last verse to crystallize it for you?

First Thessalonians 4 verse 3, for this is the will of God, your sanctification.

Our initial problem in discerning God's will is that we're focused on the wrong things in life.

We're primarily concerned about our decisions, our education, decisions regarding our education, our career, our spouse.

God is primarily concerned about our character.

He wants to conform us to the image of his son.

We are concerned about what we should do.

Do you see a little tension here and a little disconnect?

So if God is primarily concerned with our sanctification, What is sanctification?

This is 1 of the terms in the church where if we're not careful, we throw it around very loosely without fully defining and explaining it, and people come into it with preconceived notions which may or may not be correct of what true sanctification is, and then the message doesn't get through.

So I want to dig into the nature of what is sanctification.

The Greek word used for sanctification in the New Testament is hagiosmos.

And It conveys the meaning of personal dedication to the interests of God, holiness, consecration, being set apart, sanctification.

1 Corinthians 1.30 says this, "'But by His doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

And we know that in Philippians 2.5 it says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Sanctification, my friends, is the process of becoming more like Christ.

Being set apart to do the will of God, to execute it perfectly, ultimate sanctification is to become Christ-like.

Just as Moses built the sanctuary according to the pattern shown to him from the mountain, we are to build a temple of our lives according to the pattern revealed to us in Christ.

Listen to this quote from Desire of Ages, page 209.

They had not built it according to the pattern, but Christ, the true temple for God's indwelling, molded every detail of his earthly life in harmony with God's ideal.

He said, I delight to do thy will, O my God.

So our characters are to be builded for an habitation of God through the Spirit, and we are to make all things according to the pattern, even Him who suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps.

The words of Christ teach that we should regard ourselves as inseparably bound to our Father in Heaven.

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Thy Will Be Done: Knowing and Following the Will of God

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