God's Will Is What?

0:00 If you have a Bible, we're going to be in Colossians chapter 3 today, Colossians 3. The title of the message is, God's will is what? God's will is what? But you got to say it like that. Your voice almost has to squeak to say it properly. Can you do it? God's will is what? That's much better. That's very good. God's will is what? It's been said that the two most important days in your life are the day that you're born and the day that you figure out why. why there is such incredible power in purpose. Purpose changes everything. When you know what something's for, you know exactly what to do with it every single day to answer so many questions. And that's really what the heartbeat of this series that we've been in, These Are the Days, is all about. Discovering and unleashing the power of purpose. But you can't do your purpose until you discover your purpose. And so that has to come first. And so we're talking about how do we figure out what God's will is. And I can confidently say that what we're going to cover

0:58 scripture has the power to change everything about how you see life if you allow it. When we talk about God's will, a lot of times we speak about it almost as though it's this like mysterious thing, you know, that you kind of want, but you don't ever know. It's nebulous. And it's, let me just tell you something, that's not how God wants you to see it. His will for your life is not fuzzy. In fact, and I love this, we started this series here, Ephesians 5.17. God's word says, therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. God wouldn't tell you that wisdom is knowing his will and foolishness or being unwise is not knowing God's will if it was something that he left us hanging in, right? Do you see what I'm saying? God's not saying, hey, know my will, but then messing with you by making it really hard to figure out his will, you know? Definitely. Well, and I love that we even read this week about this is God's will for your life to do it. Like so many people will say, oh, Lord, Lord, do this, do this. I've done this for you. I've done this for you. But what the Bible said in Matthew 7 that we read this week is those who do the will of God will enter the kingdom of heaven.

2:16 So the basis of foolishness and wisdom. The wise man built his house on a rock. The foolish man built his house on sand. One does God's will. One does God's word. One does not. And so we can know what God's will is. I'm going to give you two steps today. And we're going to save some time for your questions. But the first step to knowing God's will is this. Do what you do to the glory of God. Jot that down. What's God's will for my life? God's will is that you do whatever you do. This is life-changing to the glory of God. This culture is pushing on us, living with main character energy. And the Bible says, be happy to blend into the background and have a supporting role in the story of God, that it's all about Jesus. History is his story. And so it's all about him. We get to live in such a way where we're exalting his name or living to make Jesus famous.

3:14 The text for this, Jenny, read Colossians 3.17. Colossians 3.17, it says, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. That is so incredibly comprehensive because there's no wiggle room. There's no area of your life left out. There's no confusion. There's nothing gray. He says, hey, whatever you do in any area, if it's a word or a deed, so that's all of life. Anything you say or anything you do with your body, anything at all, everything at all, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Paul will double down on this when he writes his letter to the Corinthians. He will say, therefore, whether you eat or drink, or again, say it with me, whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.

4:15 Our good friend, Pastor Louis Giglio, a long time ago, we heard communicate around this and it completely changed everything. It was like a matrix moment, like I know Kung Fu moment for me. When he asked the question, he said, a lot of you are asking the question, what is God's will for my life? And then he said these words, the premise is flawed. Why do we have a hard time figuring out God's will for my life? He said the premise is flawed because it isn't your life.

4:50 What is God's will? Lord, help me out here because I need a little bit of Holy Ghost pixie dust. Call Tinkerbell and could you put a little zhuzh on my life? Could you, Lord, if you're not too busy, make my life? That's really what we're saying when we say, what's God's will for my life? Deep down, we're saying it's my life. I just need a little bit of God's help. If you got a rabbit foot key chain for me, Lord, if you could give me a little bit of that luck of the Irish, Lord. He says the premise is flawed when we ask, Lord, what's your will for my life? Because he says it isn't your life. He said the better way to phrase it is what? I want this life to be unleashed for God's will. I want this life, every bit of it, to be unleashed for God's will. And he anchors this thought.

5:43 When I first heard Louis share this in 1 Corinthians 6, Jenny, read it to us starting in verse 19. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price, God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And it feels like maybe you go, that's semantics, but it's not. It's the biggest difference in the world. It's the difference of ownership. Because then every day, it's not like, Lord, if it's not too busy, could you help out? I really could use your help in my life. It's not. It's because of the cross. It's his life. You were bought with the blood of Jesus. I was bought with the blood of Jesus. So every day, purpose comes from ownership. How something's treated comes back to who owns it, right? You don't just go get in a random car and just drive it away. And you don't just pick up a laptop at the coffee shop while the owner's in the bathroom, right? Possession is nine-tenths of the law. So I think nine-tenths or maybe 99.999% of God's will is remembering who owns who. And if I'm my own, then yeah, I just got to be like, well, Lord, could you give me a little input? Like, maybe I'll crack the fortune cookie open and it'll kind of give me a little bit of a sign how I can live my life and fulfill my goals. But once I remember that at the cross, he paid for me. He bought me. I'm not my own anymore. I belong to Jesus. All of a sudden, I am opened up to a life that goes, how do I every day go, Lord, how do I honor you in what is yours? How do I honor you in the words that come out of me? How do I glorify Jesus? Do all that I do? How do I write this email? How do I have this conversation? How do I drive down the road, every decision is, how do I honor the owner in his intent for why he bought me? Paul said, I just want to lay hold of that for which he laid hold of me for. Because when he got me, he had a purpose in mind, right? The goal in the heart of God when he bought me, I want every bit of that to come to pass. So how do we figure out God's will? It's what, W-H-A-T, do what you do

7:50 to the glory of God. It becomes really simple. You get to put it through this acid test. If it's not of worship, it's dead weight. If it's not of faith, it becomes sin. So you go, I'm about to do a thing. Can I work hard to the glory of God? Yes, I can. Can I cheat on my wife to the glory of God? No, I can't. OK, I'm not going to do the thing that I can't do to the glory of God. continue to worship while I'm doing it, if I cannot continue to pray while I'm doing it, if I cannot exalt Jesus and bring him glory while I'm doing it, it becomes that simple. I can share the gospel with my coworker to the glory of God. I can't cuss my coworker out to the glory of God. It becomes as simple as the filter of would this bring honor to Jesus? Because his will for your life, right, or his will for his life that he bought at the cross is not just that you would give him a song of worship on Sunday, but that the substance of your life, Monday through Saturday, would exalt him and make him famous and bring him glory and bring him honor.

9:02 Literally, it's a doxological grid to process life through. Do what you do to the glory of God. And I said, it's a two-point sermon. The second is this. Do then, as you're worshiping him, what you want to do. Do what you want to do. will is, what? You do to the glory of God, and then, what? You want to do. And you go, this is crazy. It feels like it's a tension. It is a tension. And yet Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, the great theologian, once said, love God and then do what thou wilt. He boiled it down. This was in his commentary or a homily he wrote on the book of 1 John. He said, love God and then do what you want. Do what thou wilt. God's will is you love the Lord with all of your, every fiber of your being, and you make it your intention that in all you do, all you say, all you eat, all you drink, as you sit at the table, as you walk in the streets, as you go to school, as you knock people out in dodgeball, right?

10:07 That you do so to the glory of God. And then as you're doing that, you get then the freedom. Because we told you God's will is not restrictive. It's not a straitjacket. It's a permission slip. It's not a prison sentence. It is a rocket ship to fulfilling things that you could never do on your own. You seek to live a life that says, Lord, I want you to be glorified. I want you to be honored. I want you to be made famous. And then as you're doing that, you get to do literally whatever you want to do. go, Levi, I need a scripture for that. You didn't think we thought of that? Come on. Psalm 37, verse four. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Do you see the beauty of that? Look at it on the screen again. Delight yourself. Be so enamored with him. Be so smitten. Delight yourself also in the Lord. That is what your primary preoccupation is. I want to glorify you, Lord. I want to bring fame to the one who had his arms stretched on the cross for me. I want everything to point back to you. I'm so grateful. God, I'm just grateful for what you've done. I'm just aware that I couldn't save myself. I was a five o'clock hire. I didn't belong in your vineyard. You gave me a shot. You gave me a chance. I did not deserve the fatted calf. I did not deserve the robe you gave me. In fact, I deserve the opposite. I deserve wrath, but you gave me life. I deserve hell, but you gave me heaven. I deserve to be alone, but you gave me a family.

11:32 You gave me a calling. You gave me a new nature. You gave me a new name. You gave me a new life. I delight myself also in the Lord. And then as a result, he gives you the desires of whose heart? Of your heart. The desires of your heart, he says, he will give you as you delight yourself in them. You see, the point is, the desires of your heart change when you're enamored with Jesus. As you love what the beloved loves, you will simultaneously learn to hate what the beloved hates. And God has the capacity to override and pull away desires you used to have that are just not that important to you anymore. And things of this world, they grow strangely dim. And now all of a sudden, new things begin to bubble up in your heart that you never cared about before, but now you're obsessed with.

12:26 is the mechanism by which God steers you. What I'm trying to say is your passion becomes your permission. If you can say, I'm living to exalt Jesus, I'm living, my hope is that he would be made famous in all that I do, all that I say. He then steers you and he does so through what you care about, through what you literally want to do, through where you want to go. And you can trust that as you keep your eyes on him, he's making the goodness and mercy follow you vehicle by which he is leading you. OK? So you go, Levi, the big question then, like, is there any way to check or audit to make sure my worship is staying right so that I know my trust is right? Because the moment I'm not living for Jesus, I'm living for myself, the moment I'm not focused on him anymore, now all of a sudden, my desires become corrupted and tainted.

13:17 My heart, the sinful and deceitful wicked and seeking to, you know, right? The moment my worship's wrong, my desires So how do we keep our desire in Jesus right and audit it? It's called 5G living. And that's why we've said again and again and again, this is how we see. This is how we test. Anytime we're confused, am I living in grace? Am I living in community and grove and godliness? Am I growing in that way? Is there known sin in my life? Am I living a life of generosity? Am I living in an area where I'm out of step with God's revealed will? If so, I can't trust that I'm getting the beep, beep, beep of the homing signal to correctly follow the latitude to get me to his concealed will. And so what I'm saying is your worship becomes your rudder. And as your worship rudder is continuously attached, you can trust that the desires of your heart are for what God has called you to live out. And we've seen this happen.

14:12 Just one small example in our lives, when we were considering coming to Montana, we never felt like it was God's will to come or to not come. We felt like we had a permission and an openness, wanted to. And then a couple of years ago and a couple of years before that, when a large ministry calls and says, unlimited budget, pretty much large metropolitan area, would you come and take over this church that no longer has a pastor, hundreds of millions of dollars of real estate and the budget, no, no concern. You're wherever you dream that God, it pretty much can be funded. And we never, as we would pray about the opportunities, of course, felt like God said, no, you can't do that. No, you should. We didn't feel like, as we said, God, what do you want? gave us a clear, specific answer. What we felt like he gave us was, what do you want? And you know what we wanted to do? Preach and lead at Fresh Life Church and build his church in the Northwest. And listen, we didn't feel, we haven't felt, God doesn't want that. What we felt is, we love you, Jesus. We want to honor you. We still feel desire. We still feel called. We feel called to this field.

15:20 And so I believe that your desires can be safe to trust as you delight yourself most in the Lord. And so my goal isn't for you to have some list of, this is God's will, as much as just be enamored with Jesus, want to bring him glory everywhere, every arena you step into, and then do whatever you want to do as you follow Christ. So those are the two points to the sermon. How do you like it? God's will is what? Do what you do to bring him glory and do whatever it is you want to do as you seek to live a life glorifying Jesus. What we want to do now is do some troubleshooting, right? Because those are our two steps. And when you read a PDF manual for a device, it'll give you the steps, but then there's always like the troubleshooting, right? We've boiled down a few troubleshooting tips that could be helpful. Jenny, what's the first one? The first one is listen to the Holy Spirit. Yeah.

16:16 the helper, the comforter, the third person of the Trinity is there willing to steer us, willing to guide us, willing to lead us. He's going to work with the desires of your heart. And John 16, 13 puts it this way. However, when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. And so we want to trust and ask and invite the Holy Spirit to lead us. And that means that when there's a check in your spirit, that's probably him. When there's a nudge, that's probably him. we want to trust the nudge. Yeah, that's so good. And the second one is filter everything through scripture. This is life-changing. Massive. God will never contradict himself. So this is how we audit the desires again to see whether we're delighting ourselves in him. Because if what we perceive to be God's will is out of step with what he has already revealed in his word, then we know to trust his word and to write off the impression or feeling that we have.

17:15 This is what Jesus did. When the devil brought what was an enticing opportunity to him, he ran it through. It is written, it is written, it is written. He was feeling this perceived sense of, oh, I could jump off the temple or I could, you know, do this, do this, do this, just, oh, hold on a second. So what we do is we subordinate our feelings and our sense of what his will is to outlined in scripture. So everything is filtered through scripture. It's a cross-referenced life. And we're using God's word to guide us in his will. That's great. The third is lean into wise counsel. Yeah, read that text that we have for this. Proverbs 11, 14 says, where there is no counsel, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. You never want to step out on a limb on what you perceive to be God's will without running it through the filter of the wise voices, the trusted voices in your life. And who you put into that category matters greatly because it is going to directly impact the outcome of the advice that you get. So the newsflash, or to put it simply, you cannot get wise counsel if you're not listening to wise voices.

18:29 So you go, well, how do I know if they're wise voices? 5Gs, okay? If you ain't got 5G, into me, right? I don't care who you are. I don't care what you've done. If I don't see the outcome of your life, is that life of exalting Christ. If you're not living in community, if there's not that generosity. Because listen, if I listen to your advice, I'm going to end up where you are. And I do not want to go where you're going unless you're doing what God has called you to do. And so it doesn't matter who you are in this world. Paul told the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 4, this is a church he planted, he pastored, these are his kids in the faith. For though you might of 10,000 instructors in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. So therefore, I urge you, imitate me. For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. He's saying, don't just listen to everybody. Listen to the select few. I led you to faith in Christ, and I have sent wise, vetted leaders to be in your life I cannot physically be there.

19:34 I mean, I think we would love to sit down with every single one of you and talk about God's will. Hello, that's what the body of Christ is for. That's what your campus leadership is for. That's what the Fresh Life staff is for. That's what every single Fresh Life group leader is for. And every single person in a Fresh Life group is for. Every single person leading a team. We are carefully praying through. Are we seeing the character of Christ? Are we seeing that they're imitating us as we follow Jesus Christ and those voices you want to listen to? You are in a grove for a reason.

20:02 to people you're walking with Christ to help you bounce. This sounds like God's will. This is not God's will. That's the second one. I think that's the third. That's the third one. And the fourth is use all your passports. Massive. Every door that opens up for you, every border that opens up for you in this world opens up because you have a passport that allows you to get in there. You cannot leave this country or get back into this country, I should say, without the passport. So it's what opens up a border easy. You flash that passport. Oh, well, come on through, right? You have passports that can open up God's will for you. And God's will is often connected to the network opportunities he's effortlessly put into your life. What am I saying? I was saying Nehemiah was a cupbearer that gave him access to a Babylonian dictator. I'm saying Esther was the wife of the king of Persia that allowed her to have access to that throne room. I'm saying Daniel had his job as a wise man that gave him a similar level of access.

20:59 of us in this world have certain doors that just open up for us that it would take an act of God to get anybody else in front of. And so as you're asking what God's will, it's partially connected to context and circumstances in your life, whether that's a school room or an ambulance, or it's a tax practice or a lawn mowing business. Who are the people that God has put in your life where you can bump into them effortlessly and easily simply by way of punching into work? These are people that it is God's will for you to reach so that they can come to know him and that they can begin to live that life of flourishing as well. So don't forget to ask yourself the question as you piece together his will. What are the passports? For Paul, he's like, I'm a Roman citizen. I'm using that passport. But I'm a Jew born circumcised the eighth day. I'm using that passport, right? And what we must not also forget is the passport called pain. Our pain is a passport that can allow us to go places and be listened to by people that we might not have ever reached otherwise. That's right. And the fifth and final is rethink dead ends. Rethink dead ends.

22:11 There really is no such thing. What I want you to rethink about dead ends is that there is really no such thing as a dead end. That's what you have to think about. As you, oh, I hit a wall, it's a dead end. I must have gotten it wrong. Hold on a second. If I hit this in the will of God, maybe this dead end actually is intentional. Maybe it serves a purpose. We talk a lot about closed doors, right? Well, maybe the closed door is not a closed door at all. Maybe there just wasn't a nonstop flight, and this is just a layover to where you actually are meant to be, would have gone otherwise. You know, as we asked, why did you ever call us to California when it felt like it was only this thing that was like a waste of time to get to Montana, but maybe we wouldn't have ever gotten to Montana without being willing to follow God to get to California. I think about something as simple as the other week, Daisy and I were flying on a ministry assignment and we couldn't get seats together. And I was frustrated because I wanted to sit next to my daughter and talk with her. And my other daughter, when I was complaining about it, said, to someone on the plane. I'm like, quit being so spiritual all the time. And then had the most beautiful conversation with a man next to me who had never been to a Christian church in his life.

23:28 When he asked me, what do I even do? I'm going to speak at a church. He grew up Hindu. He only knows about Hindu gods and Hindu temples and got to invite him and he got to come. And I've been emailing back and forth with this guy about the service and what he thought about it. And how'd that happen? Through what I would have called a dead end. And God does some of his work through what frustrates us the most. So those are our troubleshooting tips for walking in the will of God. But let's get to some questions. And you've sent so many and we can't get to most of them, but what we tried to do is pick the questions to answer or try to talk about the answer to that are most emblematic of the different categories that came in so that it would be most helpful. Yes, yes. The first question here is, when do I back off and let God lead? I know I can't provide more than God can, but as an A-type person who tends to think, I can figure this out, I don't always know when to let go.

24:25 When it comes to the choices I have to make, do I believe I'm an active part of God's will for me or do I pray, stay willing to follow his will and back off? Yeah, I think as we were looking through this question, it felt to me like the text that came to my heart first was the Mary and Martha passage in Luke chapter 10. And you have Martha who is focused on making excellent guacamole and you have Mary who's sitting at Jesus's feet. And I don't think the point of that story is for us to think that Martha had it wrong. I think that Martha simply missed the order by which we should approach serving God. So the text is Luke 10, 42. Jesus is needed and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her. So it's not like God's mad. If you have an A-type drive, like Martha, who sees what needs to be done and gets it done, I don't think God would be honored or glorified by a dinner that no one gave thought to the menu. No one gave thought to the seating and to the decorations. I think that Mary was right in first sitting at Jesus' feet, so then she could then rise to serve him like Martha.

25:46 So I don't think it's either or. I think it's both and. And I think this brings up what is in life not a problem to be solved, but a tension to be managed. And so it's not like God doesn't want drive or why would there be so many parables that have the point about fruitfulness? And hey, if that tree is not bearing fruit, cut the tree down. I'll give it one more year, but I'm cutting that sucker down. I gave you three talents. I want to return. I want to return. I God's honored by Martha and Mary, but first we sit at his feet before we rise up to serve. What do you think? Yeah, well, and I think that also it's John 15. It's abiding in Jesus. So whether you do have an A-type personality or another kind of personality where you can just go with the flow and you're not really thinking about the next thing, the whole point is that we're constantly coming to Jesus. We're constantly keeping him at the center because he said, apart from me, you can do nothing. So that is the goal is that no matter what personality he's given us, because that's the thing is he's given us whatever personality, whatever strengths, whatever weaknesses.

26:52 and if we're just aligning ourselves with his will, just being close to him, just being stuck with him, then we're gonna get the little nudges and we're gonna get the little steps. And it's not so much as I'm gonna do everything I can, but then now I'm gonna back off. It's let me just stay close to you, Jesus, and you're gonna show me where and what and who. So it's not, do I play an active part or pray? It's yes, right? I think that's the snake bird. like a dove, but also serpent. All right, what's the next question? And the next question is, my adult son has disowned me. I've tried to mend our relationship many times, but he still refuses to talk to me. As a Christian and a mother, when do I just give him what he wants, no contact with me? I pray for God's will in this situation daily. I don't know what to do. The text that immediately came to my mind Romans 12, 18, which says, if it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. So, we are relieved of the responsibility of overseeing the outcome of any situation that has another human being involved in it. All we can do is be faithful with our part. So, you are relieved of the burden of changing your son. You can't change him. All you can do is do your part to anything you've done in a previous season or before Christ or whatever that would cause there to be this consequence, there's a sense in which you have to remember that trust is built in drops, but lost in buckets. And so if there's something that has caused him to have a reason to disown you, and maybe there's not, I'm not saying there is, it's you doing the simple work of rebuilding trust and praying and doing your part to live peaceably, and then relieving yourself of the responsibility of feeling like you have to carry the weight of the world to change your son.

28:54 of the verse that you brought up a few weeks ago, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all of your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. I just think of the fact that don't lean on your own understanding. Cause I think for the most part, we're not going to understand. We're not going to know what God is doing. We're not going to understand why is this person treating me this way? Why, why is, why am I coming up against this wall over and over and over again? And I think the key is that we're not leaning on what we can see or understand, but we're trusting God. And so I'm, first of all, so sorry that that's happened. I can't imagine that kind of grief and pain, but I also know that what God is building up in you to trust Him and to be desperate for Him and His plan for you. And being desperate in prayer for your kids is huge also, but God will lead you so intimately, so uniquely, and so beautifully.

29:51 Trust Him. comes, I feel as though I'm outside God's will and wasting away my calling to be an addiction counselor. I know God has called me to a higher calling, but I'm stuck in a rut. I do not want to get a master's degree because of time and finances. I feel as though I'm letting God down by wasting his gifts. The text that immediately came to my mind was number six, the Lord make