God's Will Is What?

chapters three today, Colossians three. The title of the message is God's will is what? God's will is what? But you gotta 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. 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 gonna cover today from 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 just 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 the 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, no 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 seven that we read this week is those who do the will of God will enter the kingdom of heaven. - So the basis of foolishness and wisdom. The wise man built his house in Iraq, the foolish man built his house in San. One does God's will, one does God's word, one does not. And so we can know what God's will.

I'm gonna give you two steps today and we're gonna 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. 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 letters 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. Our good friend, Pastor Louis Giglio, a long time ago, we heard Communicator 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, 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. - Come on, come on. - What is God's will? Lord, help me out here, 'cause I need a little bit of Holy Ghost, Pixie Dust, call Tinker Bell "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 keychain for me, Lord, if you could give me a little bit of that luck

of the Irish, Lord, right? 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 that 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, 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 are bought at a price. "Therefore glorify 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, all the owners in the bathroom, right? Possession is 9/10 of the law. So I think 9/10 or maybe 99.999% of God's will is remembering who owned two. And if I'm my own, then yeah, I just get 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 "and 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, 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 wanna lay hold of that "for which he laid hold of me for." 'Cause 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 do you do 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. Okay, I'm not gonna do the thing that I can't do to the glory of God. If I cannot 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 co-worker to the glory of God. I can't cuss my co-worker out to the glory of God. It becomes as simple as the filter of would this bring honor to Jesus? 'Cause 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.

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. God's 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 attention. It is attention. 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 hero 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, as you walk in the streets, as you go to school, as you knock people out in dodgeball, right? That you do so to the glory of God. And then as you're doing that, you get, then the freedom, 'cause we told you God's will is not restrictive, it's not a straight jacket, 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, and you go, "Leave, 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 spent, 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 higher. I didn't belong in your vineyard. You gave me a shot, you gave me a chance. I did not deserve the fad and 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 help, but you gave me heaven. I deserve to be alone, but you gave me a family. You gave me a calling. You gave me a new nature. You gave me a new name. You gave me a new life. You gave me. 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 that 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. I believe this process 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 and 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 through the vehicle by which he is leading you. Okay, so you go leave 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, 'cause 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. My heart, the sinful and deceitful wicked and the seeking to, you know, right? The moment my worship's wrong, my desires can no longer be trusted. 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 no one 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 and longitude 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 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 and we decided we 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 concern. Whatever you dream, 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, we didn't feel like, as we said, God, what do you want? He gave us a clear, specific answer. What we felt like he gave us was, what do you want? 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 wanna honor you. We still feel desire, we still feel called. We feel called to this field. 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 like list of this. Jesus God's will, as much as just be enamored with Jesus, wanna bring him glory everywhere, every arena you step into and then do whatever you wanna do as you follow Christ. So those are the two points to the sermon. How 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 wanna do now is do some troubleshooting, right? 'Cause 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 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, the Bible says that 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 gonna 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 wanna 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 wanna 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. 'Cause 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. 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 simpleer. I could do this, do this, do this, do this. Oh, hold on a second.

So what we do is we subordinate our feelings and our sense of what his will is to what his revealed will is as outlined in scripture. So everything gets 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 one. - 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 'cause it is going to directly impact the outcome of the advice that you get. So the news flash, or to put it simply, you cannot get wise counsel if you're not listening to wise voices. So you go, well, how do I know if they're wise voices? Five G's, okay? If you ain't got five G, you ain't speaking 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. 'Cause listen, if I listen to your advice, I'm gonna 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 does it matter who you are in this world. Paul told the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 4, as a church he planted, he pastored, his kids in the faith, for though you might have 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 and 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 where I cannot physically be there. 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 wanna listen to? You are in a grove 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, come on through it, 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 cup bearer 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. Every single one 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 and 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. - 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, as you, oh, 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, but you never would have gone otherwise. You know, as we ask why do you ever call us to California, which 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, "Dad, maybe you're meant to talk to someone on the plane." I'm like,

(audience laughing) I could be 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. When he asked me what I would do, I'm going to speak at a church. He's grew up Hindu and only knows about Hindu gods and Hindu temples and got to a vitamin 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 had that happen through what I would have called a dead end and God does some of his most powerful 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 that 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. 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' house. 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 1042. Jesus says, "One thing 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. 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 then I'm cutting that sucker down. Yeah, I gave you three talents. I wanna return, I wanna return, I wanna return. So I think 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 or 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's, that is the goal, is that no matter what personality he's given us, 'cause that's the thing, is he's given us whatever personality, whatever strengths, whatever weaknesses. 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. Harmless like a dove, but also kind of like a serpent. All right, what's 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 was 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 live peaceably. And if there is 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 and 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. - Well, and I just think 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 gonna understand. We're not gonna know what God is doing. We're not gonna understand why is this person treating me this way. 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 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 and prayer for your kids is huge also. But God will lead you so intimately, so uniquely and so beautifully, trust him. - The question comes, I feel as though I'm outside God's will and wasting away my calling to be an addiction. 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 His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace." Whatever you choose to do with the calling you feel is on your life, which I will say you are kind of answering your own question. I feel like as I follow God, this is what to call, but I'm scared of it and that's okay. I'm intimidated by the cost, I'm intimidated by the, hold on, I'm not letting God down. I'm living under His smile, not fearing His frown. Nothing I do makes Him love me more, nothing I do makes Him love me less. But I want to bring you glory, and I know you're going to be with me through whatever cost, whatever difficulty it takes to get to the place of calling, but not doing so out of dread, doing so out of delight. Myself and the Lord, what is a master's degree compared to the one who, the master who made the world? Right? What is, if God called you two, He's going to give you the grace for it. And so don't live a life of a, I'm afraid I'm going to let Him down. I want to do something that brings Him on or brings Him glory and that He's with me, hell or high water. So, all right, the next question. How do I discern the will of God around divorce when it's not clear, like an affair or physical abuse, whether to stay or leave when the marriage is unhealthy or toxic?

Of course, divorce is such a difficult, charged, loaded, connected to the heart, land-minded talk around. But scripture presents to us this, divorce is not God's ideal, right? God hates divorce, right? We always hear that, that is scripture because God loves marriage. God loves a man and woman coming together, choosing each other, living till death through us part. And yet for the hardness of the heart, God does not create divorce, He allows divorce. And He does so because of what sin has brought into this world. It's hard hearts, they're sinful hearts, sinful choices, these things hurt people. And so God allows divorce and then can use, coming up on the heels, the ashes of divorce, can be beautiful new stories and brand new redirections. God can be a dead end, that seems like a dead end, that leads to a beautiful life-giving story. And so when we think about divorce and how to think about it, there's some primary scriptures that kind of reveal how God can use this in extreme cases where hardness of heart hurts people. Exodus 21, 1 Corinthians 7, and then Matthew chapter 5, we think famously about Matthew chapter 5, where abuse or rather where adultery is brought up. And of course, we do see other situations like abandonment, 1 Corinthians 7, 15. But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. A brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. So that's just one more example to point out how God does allow, not frivolously, right? But God does allow in extreme situations like what's referenced here, abandonment, or like Jesus says, in the case of adultery. And many theologians also would believe that such similar cases would give space for abuse as well. And so then we could say in the case of abuse, in the case of abandonment, or in the case of adultery, there is such a disfiguring of the marital covenant that God allows because of the hardness of heart of sins in this world for there to be the grounds biblically for

divorce. Wayne Grutam argues that in such cases, language from 1 Corinthians chapter 7 actually could have space for other similar situations like child abuse, like other relational cruelty. He would even say that it would be room for an incorrigible, non-repentant drug, alcohol, gambling addiction, pornography addiction, even. These are areas where a prolonged, unrepentant heart could show this is an in such similar cases as an abandonment. You're abandoning the duty to the marriage. Now, again, in saying all of this, this is meant to be walked through with biblical counseling, with pastoral and community, not taken into lightly. And I think in a day, there used to be sort of a neglecting of some of these cases and almost like people expected to soldier on in abuse in one area or another, I think maybe the pendulum can swing the other way as well, where it's almost like therapeutic language becomes so used and cited. And I saw seven TikTok videos and now this is toxic and I think you can move for biblical grounds for divorce too quickly, but you also can look for it too slowly. I think this is to be walked through realizing it is an extreme measure. can also become grounds for forgiveness. And you can have a grounds for divorce that you choose not to take based on the what do you want category. You could walk away, but we have also seen incredible beauty bloom from what was at one point and almost given up on dry bones relationship. - Great. James 415 says, "Instead, you ought to say if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. How literally should I apply that verse in my life? Where is the balance with what pastor leave I taught during the message, I'm doing it right now?

Where can we do what we want if we're following Jesus daily?" - And I love that. Of course, the context for James 4 is that you might be dead before the plan you made comes to pass, right? The life's a vapor. And so every time we're making a plan in our heart to do, we have to realize, hey, like I'm saying that, not knowing if I have even one more breath in my lungs. And so I'm doing so, of course, realizing what Proverbs chapter 16 says, and that is that a man heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. And so I'm gonna continue to plan like life's going on forever. I'm knowing also Jesus could come tomorrow and I could die this evening. And so everything I'm saying is subject to what your ultimate veto is God because you know better than I do. - Yeah. If nothing escapes the will of God, is it his will that we suffer? - Long answer, no short answer, yes. God did not invite suffering to the party we did. When we chose to sin, we chose to suffer. God created a good world with no suffering. God has been course correcting and redirecting and redeeming and overriding ever since the day we chose to bring death to the world. But as we follow Christ, we are not immune from suffering as his followers, but neither is anybody else on this planet. Follow Jesus, you'll suffer. Don't follow Jesus, you will also suffer, right?

But only following Jesus and suffering, do we have the promise of that suffering turning to glory and not just being wasted like everything else in this world is going to be when it perishes? I think about Romans 8, 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. In Christ, we have the promise that the cross and the resurrection is going to be true in our own lives as well just as it was true in the body of Christ. So yes, it is God's will that our sufferings would produce glory even though God is never one that brings suffering to this world. He warned us how to avoid it. But first Peter two does say for to this, you were called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. So it is God's will that you suffer honoring Jesus, suffer nobly and as an act of worship, spending your life pouring out your life like a drink offering for the name and the glory and the fame of Christ. - Yes, well, like we talked about last week too, our life is a vapor and we don't know how long we have and if God's calling us to serve him and to love him in the midst of the suffering that we are currently in, we have no idea, first of all, what he's doing in us, the character that he's building in us, but also what he's doing around us and how he's calling us like we just talked about, the passport, what passport is he giving you through this

to be able to share with people he would probably never get to see or be with otherwise. - Next question, we are the fourth generation on a farm and ranch. When facing economic hardships or drought, how do we discern if God's will is for us to persevere and have faith through the trial or if he is using these circumstances to close the door, i.e. scale back on the farming and lean towards our strong suit with ranching? Again, what do you wanna do and how thankful you should be that you have something to lean back on and to pivot to? - Honest. - Sometimes it's helpful to say your question out loud 'cause even almost the saying is like, sounds like you have your answer right there. What do we have that we can lean on that we're better at? God always says, what do you have in your hand? Oh, you have a staff cool, lay down. Oh, you got a cup, cool, offer to the king. Oh, you got a Roman passport? Go ahead and throw that down on the table. I'll use it to help you reach the whole Roman Empire, right? I don't know what God's will is for you, delay yourself in God, do what you wanna do, but it's pretty cool that you got a thing that's your strong suit in your own words to lean back on and to pivot to and you can be emidextrous in that way.

- Great. Next question, how do you walk forward in faith, believing firmly in God's promises without crossing the line into the world of manifesting? - Important. Jesus said, when you're glorifying me, when you're honoring me, this is John's gospel, he said you will be able to, Now that can, if you're reading it from a sinful secular cultural view, I could just gonna say what it is, and it's gonna happen. No, hold on, hold on. The context is, as you're delighting in me, and I've come with my father and made my home in your heart, and you're living to bring me glory, bring me honor, you're gonna ask whatever you want, and it's gonna be done. But guess what? If you're delighting in Jesus, what you're gonna ask for is not selfish. When you're delighting in Jesus, what you're asking for is gonna be in line with him. That, again, is a cross-reference to delighting yourself in the Lord. So we're not talking about name it and claim it, and blab it and grab it. What we're talking about in prayer is we're talking about, listen, we're talking about reminding, I always believe prayer is, God, you promised. Dad, you said. God, you promised, Dad, you said.

And as we're delighting ourselves in him, the scope and the scale of the things we're asking for are not gonna be selfish, 'cause they're never gonna be my will be done, they're always gonna be that I will be done. And the purpose of prayer is not to change God, but to change you. It's not about getting your agenda done in heaven as much as just bringing and unleashing his will and on earth. So we're not manifesting for our own self, some future life where we've got eight pack abs, right? And a sky, top penthouse condo in Miami on the beach. Like, no, no, how do I bring God glory? This is gonna be what we're praying for. So it's not about manifesting your will, it's about manifesting the light in this world and whatever it makes manifest is light. And so his light is gonna open up our eyes to see what he wants for us and doesn't want for us. - Yes, and I love how before Jesus went to the cross, he was telling his disciples like, I'm going to the cross, I'm glorifying myself, I'm manifesting. So we don't have to do any manifesting. Jesus manifested who God is and we just need to follow him and look to him and we'll get all the manifesting that we need because of his. - Very good. What you probably noticed and what we're gonna close here is every single time you asked us a question,

we pointed you to somewhere in scripture. It was never like, well, here's what I think. Out of my wisdom, it's, hey, what does the scripture say? What does the scripture say? What does the scripture say? 'Cause just like Jesus, when he was faced with this temptation, his response was it is written. And what we're trying to teach you is not that you need to rely on us to give you some sound and wisdom, there's the community of that, for the quipping of the saints, for the work of Christ, it's what we all wanna be grown up in God's words so we can help each other, but so that we know whenever I'm trying to figure out God's will, I can open up God's word. 'Cause God's word is how he reveals to us his will. And we wanted to close our time down with just a re-upping for all of us of our reliance on God's word, to be the compass, to be the navigational device by which we would make our way through this world. - Yeah, I said this earlier, but we read this this week and I love how it so clearly says, whoever hears these, Jesus is saying this, he says, whoever hears these sayings of mine in Matthew seven, verse 24, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house. This all sounds not great, but it did not fall for it was founded on the rock.

But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house, the same's happening on the fool as the wise and it fell and great was its fall. Jesus is the same here. He who does the will of my father in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven. It's what we want to close as we pray. It's just with a moment for us each all to just re-shift the weight of our souls onto the solid rock of God. It doesn't matter what we feel, it doesn't matter what we want. It's what you want, we want to live for your glory. And then as we delight ourselves in you Lord, what we want then matters all of a sudden. We thank you for that wonderful pivot, that upside down kingdom that we come to you to die and you go, here's life. We come to you to serve and you say, here's greatness. Lord, so we just surrender again our lives to not the sand, but the substance of your word. If that's you, I'm describing you and say, that's me, I want that. Just raise a hand up, just raise a hand up of surrender of worship. God, I want my life to be built on your word. I want to live for your glory.

And then to be trusted to the freedom of following your spirit, doing what you call us to do, what you've put it in our heart, what you lead through our desires to do in this world. Thank you, Jesus. You can put your hands down, bless your people with peace. We pray in Jesus' name.