Week 1 | “How can I really know God’s will?”

Now, I'm really excited to kick off a brand new series. Starting at this week, it's called, God, is that you? And this whole series is about trying to discern God's will or God's voice in our lives. Because sometimes it's kind of hard to discern, isn't it? Like, what is God's voice and what's my voice? Like, what does God want versus what do I want? Sometimes it's very difficult to discern those types of things. Because oftentimes we're just faced with decisions, big and small, and trying to discern what is the right decision to make. So, for example, you get an email offering you the job opportunity you have to answer in 72 hours, but it requires a move across the country. Like, what do you do? How do I discern what's the right decision? What does God want me to do in that situation? Or maybe you've been in a relationship for a couple of years. Everybody around you is asking you if you should, or if you're going to get married to that person. But deep down you're struggling because you don't know, is this actually the right person to commit the rest of my life to? And how do I know? Or maybe you're in life and you're somewhat stuck. And you're trying to get unstuck.

You're ready for the next chapter, but it doesn't feel like anything's moving and you don't know how to get it moving. And sometimes you're going like, God, could you give me a little direction? And so this series is all about how do we have some real practical handles on how we discern God's voice and how we take steps in the direction that God might have for us. And so I want to anchor kind of this idea in this cool passage in the book of Deuteronomy. And so Deuteronomy chapter 29 comes off the pen of Moses. It says this, it says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Now, I love the distinction that is drawn out for us here. That there are certain things that the Bible describes as secret things. God is a mysterious God. God is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. There are some things that I will never be able to answer this side of eternity. There are questions that I have that I won't get answers to until I meet with God one day on the other side of eternity.

And so there are certain things as secret things, mysterious things, things that we won't really be able to know. But there are also things that are revealed. That there are things that God does share with us. Things that we can confidently know, that we can confidently embrace, that we can confidently take next steps in. And so even though there are certain things that we don't know, there are certain things that we do know. And how do we anchor our lives in what we can confidently know? And so I think that this principle that gets drawn out of this is this. I would say God is not hiding His will from you. It's not this grand puzzle that has to be solved. God is actually revealing and desires to continue to reveal His will to us. Now, sometimes we miss it. There's a couple of reasons why we often miss it. One of the reasons we miss it is because we're never asking the question of what God actually wants. I remember for a lot of years growing up, my parents were great. They had me in and around the church, the challenges that church things didn't get in me. And so I was in and around it, but I would not have considered myself

a follower of God, follower of Jesus. I was pretty disconnected to things of faith growing up. And so the primary driving question of my life for most of my growing up years is, what does Sean want out of Sean's life? What does Sean desire? What does Sean want? What does Sean need? And my whole perspective in life was driven by my voice. I never even considered to ask the question, what does God want for my life? And it wasn't until after I graduated that I gave my life to Jesus, that I started asking the question for the very first time, what does God want? And saw a distinction between God's voice and my voice. And so where it starts for some of us is, some of us have never even considered the question. But when we begin to ask the question, I want you to know that God's will is not hidden from you, that God will reveal his desires for you and for your life. Another way that we can often miss this is that sometimes we'll justify a decision that we want, but we'll attach God's name to it. Because if I attach God's name to it, then somebody can't argue with me. It's not actually what God wants. I'm actually doing what I wanna do, but I'm just acting like that's what God wants. So sometimes you'll hear people say,

God told me dot, dot, dot. Or I'm feeling that God is leading me to dot, dot, dot. And what happens on the other side of that phrase is something that you're like, I don't think that sounds like what God would say. Let me give you a case in point. Years ago, I was talking to a guy who was struggling in his marriage. And he literally said these words to me. He said, I think God is calling me to leave my wife and pursue this other woman. I don't think that's something God would say. Because I think it fundamentally breaks a really important principle. I love what Greg Bosch, he says this about this, that if we're not careful, we will often try to forge God's signature on our lives. That it's actually something that we want, that we desire. But if we throw God's name on it, then all of a sudden nobody can argue with us. We just kind of go forward with what we want to do. That's not living in God's will. And I don't want to be the kind of people that forge God's signature on our lives. Instead, I want to walk in the actual ways of God. So here's an important principle. A couple principles I want to give you that will anchor this entire series for us. Here's the first. That God's word and God's voice

are never in conflict with one another. And sometimes the reason we have a hard time hearing God's voice is that we don't know God's word. But God's word and God's voice will never be in conflict with one another. Here's the reality. You show me somebody whose Bible is falling apart, I will show you somebody whose life is not falling apart. Because God's word and God's voice are never in conflict. I'd also say this to be true, that it's easier to know God's will when you first know God's heart. I mean, if you know who God is, what God cares about, what matters most to him, it's easier to discern God's will when you first know God's heart. Let me illustrate that for you. I was fortunate enough, as I mentioned earlier, to grow up with an amazing mom. My mom is incredible, she always has been, she still is to this day. My mom is amazing. Now, as a kid growing up, my mom would do all the things that a great mom does. She would encourage me when I needed encouragement, she would challenge me when I needed to be challenged. She would give me instructions, she would give me direction. She would do all the things that you need to do, right? And because of that, I got to know my mom's heart. So that even if my mom wasn't present

when I was in a decision-making moment, I often knew what my mom would think without even asking her. I mean, if I was at school and I was in some sort of conflict or tension and I was trying to figure out how I was gonna respond to that, I didn't need my mom's audible voice telling me what to do because I knew my mom's heart and that guided me on what to do. Or even if I was out in a social setting as a knucklehead teenager and I found myself doing some shenanigan types of behavior, I didn't need my mom's audible voice because I knew my mom's heart. Now, sometimes, candidly, I didn't always follow my mom's voice and direction, but I always knew it. And I think the same is true when it comes to understanding God's will. It's so much easier to discern God's will if you know God's heart. So I wanna anchor us in that kind of idea. As we think about God's will, I think it's multilayered. And so I'm gonna walk you through kind of a paradigm and a picture that will really become the framework for this entire three-week series that we'll be in together. And I wanna talk about some different layers

of God's will that I think shapes how we think about different decisions that we face in life. And so let me give you this paradigm. You excited for a theological paradigm? Hey, you're way more excited than the other service. Great, okay, so here's the first piece of the paradigm. I would say this, the one aspect or layer of God's will is what we would call God's sovereign will. And so this is what God ordains. Now, maybe the word sovereignty's familiar to you. Maybe it's not. It's kind of a big, fancy theological word. It literally just means our God is a God who's in control, which is really encouraging to us because we live in a world that sometimes feels like it's out of control. And the Bible consistently reminds us that there's a God who sits on the throne who's not surprised by anything. God is not deterred. God is not anxious. God is not concerned. Our God is a God who's a sovereign God who's in control. And there's nothing anybody or anything can do that would ever thwart the sovereign will of God. No government, no politician, no culture, not even Satan himself can ever thwart the sovereign will of God. Our God is a God who's in control.

And I hope that gives you encouragement because even though our world sometimes feels like it's spinning out of control, we serve a God who is fully in control. Now, the Bible tells us a little bit about his sovereign will. There's a piece that he has been bent on since the very, very beginning. You go back to Genesis chapter one and two, first book of the Bible. If you remember the creation account in Genesis chapter one and chapter two, after God created everything, He said it was, it was good. Not just good, it was really good, it was amazing. God created all of creation to absolute perfection. Then chapter three happens. In chapter three, we, meaning humanity, brought sin into the world and it shattered God's perfect creation and it created what the Bible describes as the fall. And from Genesis chapter three, throughout the rest of the Bible, all the way to the very end of the book of Revelation, God has been on the relentless pursuit of redeeming his creation and draw humanity back into relationship with himself. Everything you read from Genesis three to Revelation 22 is all about a God who's bent on his sovereign mission to restore all of creation to himself. And there is nothing, there is nothing

that will thwart the sovereign will of God to accomplish that purpose. God is a God who is in control. I'm not one that believes in a lot of coincidence or happenstance. I believe in a God who's purposeful, who's intentional. What's interesting about God's sovereign will though, is sometimes it's hard to recognize in the moment, but you can see it more clearly looking back in hindsight. Let me give you an example from my own journey. Some of you, you've heard me tell the story about how I came to faith. Again, I was a young person that really didn't give faith much of a chance. I didn't really care much about it. I wouldn't have considered myself a follower of Jesus. But instead I threw myself into other activities. One of the things that I did when I was a freshman in high school, I jumped onto the debate and speech team. Loved it, had a lot of fun with it, found some early success in it. But one of the big goals I had at the time is I really wanted to qualify for the national tournament. It was kind of a big deal at my school. I thought it was a big deal to me. It was kind of this aspiration I had as a young person. Well, freshman year, I really wasn't very good. I didn't really compete. Sophomore year, I finished third

at the national qualifying tournament, which made me the alternate. I didn't get to go to nationals, but I was pretty encouraged as a sophomore. Junior year rolls around. I was a little bit more optimistic, but I finished third again. And so I was the alternate again. I was a little disappointed, but I still had my senior year ahead of me. My senior year rolled around and I had a really strong year. Things had gone really well. I was very optimistic when I got to the national tournament. Now, what's interesting about the national qualifying tournament is it was cumulative scoring. So how you did early in the tournament had carried weight as far as how you did later in the tournament. Well, I'd done really, really well in the earlier rounds, so much so that all that I had to do was not get last place in the final round, and I was gonna qualify for nationals. I got last place in the final round. And so I ended up finishing third again. I was the alternate again, and I was shattered as a kid. I mean, I was so disappointed about it. But what happened is, after graduation, the national tournament was the second week of June,

and this week of my calendar opened up. And I was invited by a friend to go to a church camp. To this day, I can't tell you why I said yes to that invitation. I rolled into the church camp really frustrated because it was the last place on earth that I really wanted to be. There's some other places I'd much rather be. It was at that church camp that God so radically got a hold of my life that my life has been altogether different every day since. I surrendered my life to follow Jesus. Instead of pursuing medicine at a state school, which is what I thought I wanted to do, I found myself at a Bible college two months later studying to be a pastor. My life fundamentally changed. Now, I look back at that season of my life, I could have made no sense of it when I was walking through it. But hindsight being 20-20, I would tell you, it's the best decision my sovereign God ever made for me. His relentless pursuit of redemption of my life. And so let me take you to Ephesians chapter one. It says this about God's will. It says, God works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. That's what God's doing. He's a sovereign God. He's at work in your life, he's at work in mine.

Let me give you another layer of God's will. So we've got his sovereign will. I think what we also have is what I would describe as his moral will. His moral will is what Scripture reveals about him. Now, what Scripture even reveals about you and I. Now, I'm not much of an artist, but I think I'm even okay with drawing what I'm about to draw you. But this was helpful for me, it gives me a little bit of a picture of God's moral will. So if you get a picture, let's draw a quick circle. You can imagine that everything within God's moral will is inside of this circle. Everything outside of God's moral will is inside of this circle. moral will would be outside of the circle. Now, some of this we know without even thinking about it. If you look at what scripture teaches about what's outside the moral will of God, we can come up with a few things. We'd say, well, God told me not to murder somebody. God told me not to steal stuff from people. God told me not to lie or to deceive or to slander or to gossip. God told me not to covet somebody else's possessions. God told me not to do things harmful to somebody else. We could go on and on, right? There's so many different things. The Bible clearly describes that are outside God's moral will of who he created us

and designed us to be as his people. Now, at the same time, there's all kinds of things that he told us and what it means to be inside his moral will. And so things like he's called us to be radically loving toward people, even so much so that we might even love our enemies. It's crazy. He would say that he wants you to be somebody who serves others, who cares for others, who's kind to others, who forgives others. Somebody who deals with people honestly. Somebody who's willing to come alongside of somebody in need. We can go on and on about all the different things that are inside of God's moral will. This is one of the things that God has revealed to us. He's made it known. Now, why does this matter? This matters because oftentimes we're faced with the decision, we're like, God, what do you want me to do in this situation? And sometimes the what is clear, sometimes the what is not clear. But what's always clear is the who God has called us to be regardless of how the what plays out. Let me make that make sense. So we're in a season that our high school graduates, they're about to graduate in the next couple weeks, which is awesome.

We've put so much pressure on 18 year olds to have their life figured out. Like, what are you gonna do? Where are you gonna study? What are you gonna be ultimately? And a lot of times young people are like, I'm not really sure yet. And so they're trying to discern, am I gonna be a doctor? Am I gonna be a lawyer? Am I gonna be an accountant? What if a young person starts asking God, God, do you want me to be a doctor? Do you want me to be a lawyer? Do you want me to be an accountant? And maybe that decision will become clear. But even if it doesn't, here's what is clear. That no matter which profession I choose, it's very clear what kind of doctor I should become. Or what kind of lawyer I should become. Or what kind of accountant I should become. That oftentimes we prioritize what we do over who we are. God prioritizes who we are over what we do. And so what he reveals to us about who he's calling us to be actually is transferable to matter what we do. Let me give you another example. Let's say I'm in a relationship and I'm trying to discern, is this the person that God has for me?

Is he calling me to marry this person? This gives you a filter to think that through. Is the person that I'm in a relationship, does their life align with what is inside the moral will of God? As it relates to that person who they're helping me become, does that person help me become somebody who's inside the moral will of God? Or does that person lead me away from the moral will of God? And even that provides some spiritual direction to answer that question. But here's the reality in the world in which we live. We live in a culture where sometimes there are groups that do theological gymnastics to take things that are outside God's moral will and try to justify them as a part of God's moral will. Let me be really, really clear. The Bible's pretty clear about what's inside and what's outside. And we don't get to change that. Even if we don't like that, if it's not what we would desire, God's truth is God's truth. We don't get to edit God's truth. Sometimes you'll even hear people say things like, well, my truth is, or your truth is. Can we be on the same page? There's no such thing as my truth and your truth. There's only one truth, and it's God's truth. And if I ever find myself in a situation

that my life is not aligned to God's truth, I can't change God's truth to align with my life. Instead, I gotta change my life to align with God's truth. That's part of the moral will of God. That's what it looks like to walk in His ways. And so again, we've got the sovereign will of God. We've got the moral will of God. Let me give you a third one. It's what I would describe as the permissive will of God. This is what God allows. Let me be candid. This one's more difficult. This is the one that requires us to be a little bit more honest. There's some things that happen in life They're actually really hard. They're really challenging. They don't make a lot of sense. And I want to be really clear that God is not the author of evil, that God doesn't cause evil things to happen. It is a part of living in a fallen world. However, he is a God that allows it to happen, that at times he permits it. Now, candidly, I don't know that I can explain sometimes why God permits what he permits. Sometimes there are things that happen in people's lives and I'm scratching my head and it doesn't make any sense at all. But we recognize that there's an aspect of God's will

that's God's permissive will. Now, as I think about that, I want to take you to a quick story in the book of Daniel chapter three. Maybe it's somewhat familiar to some of us. It's about these three guys named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Remember these guys? We should definitely name more kids Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego. What fun names. Now, you think about these three guys. They were in a cultural climate that they were being demanded, it was by law that you're supposed to bow a knee to the king that was in charge. They refused to do so. Like, we bow a knee to only God. We don't bow a knee to any earthly leader. And so they were, because of that, the consequence that they would potentially get thrown into this fiery furnace. And it's in response to this that they say the most profound thing. They say this, if we're thrown into this blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it. And he will deliver us from it, from your majesty's hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, your majesty,

that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of the gold that you've set up. And so it's this really, really powerful statement that shares to us a little bit about the permissive will of God. I wanna go back through, I wanna highlight a couple of things and draw out some principles. Here's the first thing. It says that the God we serve is able. That's something we gotta really be aware of. God is able. He is. Next thing they say is that God will deliver us. So not only is God able, God is willing. God desires to work on behalf of those that he loves. But notice what this says. But even if he does not, we refuse to disobey him. And this reveals this idea that God is able, God is willing, but God is also mysterious. That sometimes God does things that we don't fully understand. The question is, will we allow God to be God when it doesn't make sense? And will we choose to follow him even when it doesn't make sense? It becomes this question that we deeply wrestle with when it comes to God's permissive will. Let me give you a story from my own journey.

I think about, I've been in ministry for, I don't know, 20, I was about to do the math, 25-ish years now, holy cow. Been in it for a while. I served in the Naperville area for a lot of years. And then in 2014, I got a call from a guy by the name of Judd Wilhite. He happens to be my brother-in-law, my sister's husband. Loved Judd. Judd's poured a lot into my life. And Judd called me, he said, hey, would you come out and serve with me at the church that he's the senior pastor of? Candidly, I'd love to tell you I prayed a lot about it. But really, I wanted to serve so badly with my family that I thought this was an amazing thing. Now, I would have told you at the time that God was calling us to Vegas. And maybe there's some truth in that. But there's also a big piece of desire that I wanted to do it, too, certainly. And so we relocated as a family across the country. We lived in Vegas. And truly, the ability to serve alongside a family was one of the greatest joys. I loved getting to serve alongside a family. My parents moved out there. We really enjoyed our time, our season there. So much about it was great. And Vegas was really hard on us as a family.

And come to find out, Vegas is a little bit different than the Chicagoland area. And it beat us up a little bit. My wife struggled there. My boys struggled there. I struggled there. I would call it the hardest ministry season of my life were those five years. And it kind of caused me to wonder, like, did I miss God's call? Like, did I just follow my own voice and just do what I wanted? Did I actually take that step in disobedience? And there's a couple principles that I think are really important for us that I would say this. Just because it's hard doesn't mean that it's not God's will. That sometimes God's will is actually difficult. But I would also say this, that even if I did get it wrong or even if we do get it wrong, that also doesn't mean that God can't use it. Because I think back about that season and I learned so much in that season. God shaped my life in so many ways. so many ways in that season that I would go as far to say that I would not be the man I am today, I would not be the leader I am today, I would not be in the position I am today

if it wasn't for that season in my life. It was a really hard season. But I would say that God not only permitted it, God ultimately used it. It reminds me of Romans chapter eight. This powerful statement that it says, and we know that in what? All things. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose. I don't know why God sometimes permits what he permits, but what I do know is that a God who can use all things for his will and his purpose in your life and in my life. God's will is layered. There's a sense that it's his sovereign will, his moral will, his permissive will, but I'd also say this about his will. There's an aspect of it that's his personal will. It's how he guides you uniquely. Now as I think about this, this is what we're gonna spend the most time on the next couple weeks, so I don't feel the pressure to unpack this one totally this morning. I wanna invite you back next week in the following. We're gonna anchor mostly in discerning God's personal will for our lives. But as I think about God's personal will, it really again, you can more easily recognize God's voice

when you know God's heart. It's almost impossible to know God's heart without spending time with God. Now we know that, right? Yet we live in a cultural climate, and I'm as guilty of this as anybody, that sometimes my life is so noisy, I can't hear the voice of God. It's not that God's not speaking to me, it's just I can't hear the voice because the voices that I'm allowing to influence me are some voices on social media, or voices on kind of news media, or whatever it looks like that my life gets so loud and so chaotic because all the voices that I'm allowing to be speaking to my life, but yet I'm not slowing down and quieting my life enough to listen to the voice of God that actually is trying to speak to me on a consistent basis. It's a part of what we're gonna walk through the next couple weeks is how do we do that? How do we slow down and not crowd out God's voice? I wanna remind us of this proverb that may be somewhat familiar to some of us. It says this, trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Again, we gotta be in relationship to discern between what God wants and what's our own understanding. Because in all your ways, submit to him and he will make your paths straight.

And there's a lot that we'll do to really discern what that looks like, but I would say when it comes to the personal will of God, it's not just about right technique, it's more about right relationship and really positioning our lives relationally with him. Now, there's a lot of pieces to this and again, we'll talk about them in the coming weeks, but let me talk about one aspect. One of the ways that I've found that God speaks in very personal ways is actually through the godly counsel that I'll put around me. Sometimes how I discern really key decisions in life is I've surrounded myself with people who are further along in the spiritual journey than I am, who are really faith-filled, who really love me, and oftentimes I can hear God's voice through them. And so if you haven't yet positioned your life around other followers of Jesus that can be kind of that encouraging, sometimes challenging, not just people who will affirm whatever you think, but people who love you enough to tell you the truth. But surrounding yourself with those kinds of voices. Now, around here at Willow, we create groups environments and that's the heartbeat of these groups environments is to surround ourselves with other Christ followers who are on the same journey with us that sometimes we can hear God more clearly when we're listening to these godly voices that are around us

and so if you're not yet in a group, we're kicking off some new groups in a couple weeks. The group's directory launches this weekend. I'd encourage you, jump into a group. So many different options, so many different ways to go. There truly is a group for everybody, but it's so critically important to begin to lean into God's will and God's voice in your journey. Now, lots of options for you. Let me highlight one group for you. It's a brand new group. We're piling it at this coming term in the summer. Then we're gonna teach a how to read the Bible kind of workshop seminar. There'll be group aspect to it right here at Barrington. Check that out, come and join us. It's gonna be a 10 week journey. It's gonna be really, really great. I'd encourage you to lean into something like that. So lots of layers when it comes to God's will. Let me give you some action that you can take within it. So let me kind of walk back through them. I would say this. When it comes to God's sovereign will, we learn to trust God's sovereign will. will. In other words, oftentimes we try to control what is ultimately in his control. And he's the only one who can actually carry it anyway, so we learn to trust God's sovereign will, even if it doesn't make sense in the moment. Hindsight being 20-20, it's amazing what God can show us. When it comes to the moral will, let's be people that obey God's moral will. And maybe for some of us, it's not just about asking from a new word from

the Lord, but it's actually following what he's already told us. For some of us, we need to recognize that some of our life is currently operating outside of God's moral will. And that's why we confess, that's why we repent, that's why we come back to the things of God, because we want to live within the center of his will, which is less about what we do and it's more about who we're becoming. And when it comes to the third aspect, the permissive will, I would say that we learn to accept God's permissive will. Now when I say accept, I don't mean act like it's not hard, because it is. I don't mean act like it doesn't create an immense amount of pain, because it does. But I mean, when you accept it, you recognize that God can even use the really hard things in life to actually shape us and form us to who he's calling to be. That maybe, just maybe, that he permitted it for the very purpose of drawing us closer to himself. Because we understand and believe a God who can work all things for good for those who love him or according to his purpose in Christ Jesus. With the last one, we'd say this. I would say we learn to walk in God's personal will. We learn to walk in God's personal will. And what I mean by that is, again, it's learning to walk closely enough that I can actually recognize his voice. I know what his voice sounds like. I mean, if I know what his voice sounds like, then I can actually do what his voice is telling me to do. We learn to walk in it. I would encourage you to think about, when it comes to these aspects of God's will, is there one that potentially you've got a step to take even today? For some of us, again, maybe we'd never even ask the question, what is God's will for my life? Can I try to sum up what God's will is for your life? A book of 2 Peter says this. It says, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. It is God's sovereign will, the foundation of the world, that you would be drawn back into relationship with Jesus. It's his will for your life. And maybe for some of us, we've never bent our knee to him. We've never surrendered to him. Maybe he brought you here, so today would be the day that you surrender to him. Would you surrender to God's will for your life? Again, maybe there are others of us that are just currently making choices that are outside of God's will. Maybe the reason he brought you here today is to recognize that, to confess that, to turn from that. So you'd like to walk more in the center of his will so that you can have this life and you can have it to the full. So just a moment, we're going to bring prayer teams up here. If you want

to talk to somebody about that, if you want somebody to pray for you in that, it would be our joy and honor to come alongside and serve you in that way. But if you allow me to, we'd love just to pray for us as a church. God, we love you. God, you're a good God who does good in our lives. God, we believe that you're a God who's able. We believe that you're a God who's willing and candidly. God, sometimes you're just flat out mysterious. Yet at the same time, we believe that your will's not hidden from us, that there's so much that you have revealed to us. And when it comes to what you've revealed, may we hold it. May we be shaped by it. May we walk in it. God, we love you. We thank you for doing the incredible work that you do in our journey. We love you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.