I love sometimes there's summary verses in Scripture that are really helpful Micah 6 ver8 this one's really helpful because I'll get students that come up to me and go school a school B and school C which one does God want me to go to Micah 68 says this God is speaking and it says or Micah the prophet is speaking and he says I have shown you oh man what it is and what the lord requires of you but to do justice to love mercy and to walk humbly with the Lord your God do you know
what go know what God's will is for your life his revealed will of conduct the way that he wants us to act every day do justice love Mercy walk humbly yeah but what school do I go to the school where you can do justice love mercy and walk humbly so which one can you do justice love mercy and walk humbly at school a you can what about school B yeah School c yeah great well God's primary will for your life and mine is not what you do it's the person you become God's primary will for
your life is not what job you should take not mainly the city you live in whether or not you choose to get married what house you ought to live in what clothes you ought to wear today God's primary will is that you become a magnificent person in His image with the character of Jesus Christ and that wouldn't matter what you did see and no circumstance can prevent that from happening he gave you a free will your main goal is that you become people of Great Character judgment and discernment when you take one step to the
right or take one step to the left you're not actually breaking God's system because God's plan and will for your life is much more of a game plan than it is a blueprint what's a blueprint it's decision some of us we think that that's God's will for our lives it's like that blueprint and then you marry Brenda then you marry Tracy instead sorry friend God had big plans for you until Tracy came along no of course that's not the case right because if you married Tracy then what does that mean for the guy who was
supposed to marry Tracy then he's marrying someone else's woman and they're marrying some you see all need is one person in the history of the world to marry the wrong person and then everyone marries the wrong person so what do you do you do justice you love mercy and you walk humbly and your life and your marriage and your everything is just an example of God's grace and his Mercy given to us and we love people in spite of whether or not they're the perfect person for us that's not the objective of life is not
to find God's perfect will it's to live in the Brokenness of this Fallen World and to say God to you be the glory forever and ever amen that's our Point that's why we live secondly it's it's far more relational than it is directional with my kids I've got five kids and I tell them to like go in the backyard and play I'm not like and you will play hopscotch and you will like it I care far more about how they treat one another in the backyard than I do what game they're playing I care far
more about their response to me than I do exactly what they're doing in the backyard I do have vague generalized things that I mean when I say stay in the backyard like don't go to the front yard don't jump in the street but once you're in the backyard it's like you're my kids enjoy yourselves treat my daughter a way that you'd want to be treated I do care but it's far more relational than is directional can we actually know the will of God you know when you talk about the will of God it becomes this
mystical idea that oo what's the will of God like it's a floating cloud that you've got to you know look at the Sun and and measure the the weather and find the will of God and boom I'm in it I'm in the will of God everything's set and it's this mystical idea but the reality is we all need guidance in life and the great questions of life and these are important questions they're not easily answered questions like who should I marry should I make a certain move should I take a certain job what Ministry does
God have in mind for me and I really wish that I could give you a very simple easy one two three method that I through study and divine Insight had discovered on knowing the will of God in every situation I wish I could give you a special prayer that every time you prayed this prayer God would speak to you audibly and reveal his will to you but I've seen in my own personal life in my own Walk With Jesus that the will of God happened more as I took Steps of Faith trying to the best
of my ability to live by the principles of scripture there have been times when he's clearly spoken to me in a tangible way but most most of the time it's been a Journey of Faith finding the will of God is simply living in the sovereignty and grace of God and then moving taking steps of Faith trusting that the decisions the places you go are going to be the places that God wants you to go why because you are loving him with everything that you've got can we just trust him I don't have to know where
we're going I don't have to know every turn by turn I trust you I believe you I trust where you're leading me I trust where we're going and I trust that at the end of the road is my father's house yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil cuz yay you are with me and at the end of that Valley we get to be with Jesus amen the most common prayer is somehow connected to this question of what is your will God for my life it's certainly
the most common question I get as a pastor hey what's God's will for my life it's not always worded that way sometimes it's around a decision or around a relationship or around an uncertain future but we want to know God what do you want for me we pray and we ask God for his will and what he seems to typically do is give us um a flashlight approach a flashlight allows you to see the next step or maybe the next couple steps in front of you but that's about it like you can't really see where
you're going you don't know where you're supposed to turn certainly don't know where you're going to end up you can just take the next step this is often how God's will works in scripture look at Joseph's great-grandfather Abraham God says to Abraham I want you to leave your home and I want you to go yeah okay where are we going now I'll tell you along the way just pack things up tell your wife you're moving but I'm not going to tell you where you're moving yet and Abraham is commended for his faith and we're told
with without faith it's impossible to please God and so the will of God is often like this flashlight it lets us take one step at a time but it requires it requires faith I tell my kids the sooner you can embrace the adventure of God's will the better like if you just accept the fact that he knows what you don't he can see what you can't and you can trust him to just lead you in the next step one thing will lead to another that's how God's will unfolds we get a flashlight what we typically
want is more of um one of these this is a uh flood lights that's that's what we're going for when we pray for God's will we we want to see everything we want to know where we're going we want to know that it's going to be okay we want to be sure of where we're going to end up and without a flood light we start to feel pretty anxious or often feel overwhelmed because we look around and we look ahead and there's so much uncertainty and so when we pray for God's will this is we're
often praying for is God tell me what's going to happen let me know everything's going to work out the way I want it to it's going to work out okay I think a fortune teller is sometimes what we're looking for or sometimes it's a formula where we enter in the appropriate data and God works like this uh GPS system and he tells you here's where you're going here's how long you're going to be here and then you're going to turn right and if a detour is coming I'll let you know don't you worry about it
and and so we we give God our destination and we just want him to give us directions that's how we sometimes think of God's will or sometimes what we want is a feeling when we're praying for God's Will and we're trying to discern what that might be we want it to match up with a feeling how do you know it's God's will well I feel be careful whenever you answer it that way there's something wrong if it just turns out that God's will always seems to align line with your feelings of comfort convenience and happiness
like that's not how it works in scripture it's not always how it works God's will doesn't always just U match up with what we want in fact it oftentimes doesn't but have you stopped and said hey before I take another step father what is your plan for my life here's the scripture look at Psalm 32:8 Psalm 32:8 the Lord says I will guide you along the best pathway for your life I will advise you and watch over you psalm 48:14 for that is what God is like he is our God forever and ever and he
will guide us until when until we die this is the most important statement I will make you are not saved by the quality of your decisions you are saved by the grace and mercy of God and that's a good place to say Amen you are not saved by the quality of your decisions you are saved by the grace of God you've never made a decision so bad God can't forgive it you haven't messed up God's plan in an irredeemable way in your life you haven't you're not too far gone you're not Beyond hope you're not
Beyond repair you haven't sinned so great that the cross hasn't covered it you haven't gone so far outside of God's Sovereign will of story for your life that he isn't writing a story of redemption for you you're just not that powerful where your sin is great his love is deeper still and where you've veered off track the cross is stronger still so wherever you are today if you're that parked car hoping God's going to steer you move it's much easier to steer a moving car than it is a parked one God might not give you
that grand neon sign in the sky that says here's what you're going to do and here's where you're going to go but here's what he does want for you today his revealed will of conduct do justice love mercy and walk humbly this is the will of God for your life and on the last day when all is said and done you might know the title of your book but until then it's the parable of the the boy the fox the mole and the horse the boy looks at the horse and he says it's too foggy
I don't know the way through the forest the horse says can you see your next step the boy says yes the fox and the horse says then just take that step you don't need to know the full title of your story but you do know what obedience looks like today do that because that is God's holy pleasing and perfect will
