The Kingdom/Will Connection
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George W. Truett once said: "To know the will of God is the greatest knowledge! To do the will of God is the greatest achievement!”
God’s will is one of those terms that we throw around in church, but I wonder if we really understand what it means. We say certain things are God’s will, or that it was not God’s will. We pray for God’s will and talk about trying to discern or understand God’s will. Meanwhile, many people have never stopped to think about what they are actually saying when they say it. So, for the month of May we are going to be studying some of the passages in the Bible that deal with God’s will, and we are going to try and build a theology of God’s will.
Ok, let’s cover some foundational understandings this week…shall we?
#1- God’s will is a real thing and not an abstract idea- God’s will is a real thing. When we are talking about God’s will we are talking about something that is literal and practically applied. There are quite a few studies about what makes a person a person- or what builds our personhood, and while some studies argue different things the common three that stretch across most studies are: emotion, intellect, and will. In other words, these three are identifiable and present in any person- we all have them right? And they are real, so if we are made in the image of God, would it not be safe to assume that God has these same things? In fact, there are multiple Scriptures that point to these things.
Now, think about your will, do you not have some concrete things that you desire and want for your life and your family? Of course, maybe it is a goal for health, or you have a desire to move to a new home, or a retirement goal- that is the main goal you have right in the middle of your life right now. Then, most, if not all, of your other decisions revolve around this main goal or desire, right? Let’s think about it practically. Let’s say that you want to buy a cabin in the mountains to retire to. You have about 10 years left in your retirement, so you figure out how this is possible. You budget, you plan, you pick a location that offers what you need. You are all set. Now, let’s say that your car breaks down- let’s say its a dropped transmission- $2-3k repair. You have a choice to make, drop the $2-3k on the transmission, or buy a new car, but let’s say that buying that new car enters you into a car payment which pulls from your budget for retirement- that will certainly affect your decision, right? Of course.
Well, God’s will is presented the same why in the Bible. The big idea of God is the Kingdom of God- a place where all is right and there is no pain, no hardship, no sin, and all that was made wrong in the Garden of Eden is set right. Jesus compared it to a large bush from a mustard seed in :
English Standard Version Chapter 13
The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
So, in the center of God’s will is the Kingdom of God. It’s like a bulls-eye that everything else in the universe revolves around. In the Lord’s prayer in we see that God’s Kingdom and God’s will are intricately connected. You cannot have one without the other.
That means that everything that God wills is connected to God’s chief desire, the institution of the Kingdom of God. So, if we want to know why God does the things He does, the core of the answer is for the Kingdom of God. Why did God send His son to die? To accomplish the Kingdom of God. Why did God rescue Israel from Egypt? To accomplish the Kingdom of God. Why did that same God allow that same Israel to be taken captive generations later? To accomplish the Kingdom of God.
We see this played out in the life of Jesus. He himself told his disciples in “ For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” Now, we will discuss this passage in detail another week, but for now consider this: Jesus was servant to the will of God. He did not allow his own agenda of will to drive his ministry. No, we see in his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus had to suppress his own will to do what God desired for him- Not my will, but thy will be done.
As God’s people we too have an responsibility to God’s will. Many times we answer the question of “How will they know that we are Christians?” we quote “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Good answer. But I wonder, how often do we ask ourselves a similar, but different question- How does GOD know that we are a Christian? This is a very different question- and Jesus provides the answer to it in
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .
English Standard Version Chapter 12
46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Jesus connects our relationship to him with our obedience to the will of God. So, if our relationship to Christ and our obedience to God’s will are connected does it not stand to reason that God would make his will knowable by us, then? I think so. Next week our sermon is on discerning God’s will.
With that in mind, we can break God’s will down into 3 categories God’s Sovereign will, God’s Will of Law, God’s will of Command. Let’s discuss the difference.
As God’s people we have an responsibility to God’s will...
1- God’s Sovereign Will- I like to think of the Sovereign will of God like a freight train going down the track, you can try, but you are not going to stop it. God’s sovereign will is desires of God that are unchangeable. There is nothing anyone can do to prevent it from happening- God has sovereignly spoken over a situation and it will come to pass in the way and at the time God has commanded. Let’s think of some examples- Jesus coming to be born is a great example. Jesus’ birth was prophesied and predicted hundreds of years before it happened. Scriptures in Isaiah and Micah point us toward the birth of Christ. There was nothing any man could do to change it, the Sovereign God of the universe had already decided and put it into motion. In the same way, Jesus’ death shows God’s sovereign will- there was nothing that could change the fact that Jesus was going to die- it had already been decided. I have heard other Christians say things like “Jesus died because of treason” or “Jesus’ died because the people in power wanted to oppress the lower class” those things may look like the cause through Earthly eyes, but the truth is that Jesus died because of “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus died because his death was God’s sovereign will. One more, a verse like shows us God’s sovereign will extends over us. “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” There are times in our lives that we are going to suffer persecution or trouble, not because we have done anything, but because God has willed it. These times mold us and make us into his image.
2- God’s will of Law- I like to think about the will of Law like trying to stop a moving car- you can do it if you want, but it is going to hurt. Then there is a second kind of God’s will that is set forth in God’s Law. These are things that God has decreed across mankind that place the barriers and rules around the life of man. This will of God can be broken by man, but there are consequences for breaking these things. Let’s look at a few- like the 10 Commandments, these set down rules and laws for life on the Earth- they are breakable, but God would not advise it. How about a verse like:
“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" This verse, and others like it clearly state that things like sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, and others are 100% wrong 100% percent of the time- God has willed that they are always sin.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .Good news, friends, I am going to make knowing God’s will a little easier for you today- you never have to pray and ask God’s will about committing adultery- he has already said NO! It is never God’s will that you have relations with any person you are not married to. How about a passage like Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” God wills us to give tithes and offerings, end of story. No need to go come and pray and discern over whether or not you should give- all Christians are called to give. Now, if you want to go home and talk to God about how much, that may be good, but not on the basis of yes or no- God’s will is yes 100% percent of the time.
How about ? “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;” Good news, friends, I am going to make knowing God’s will a little easier for you today- you never have to pray and ask God’s will about committing adultery- he has already said NO! It is never God’s will that you have relations with any person you are not married to.
How about a passage like Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” God wills us to give tithes and offerings, end of story. No need to go come and pray and discern over whether or not you should give- all Christians are called to give. Now, if you want to go home and talk to God about how much, that may be good, but not on the basis of yes or no- God’s will is yes 100% percent of the time.
3- God’s will of Command- Lastly, we have God’s will of Command. This is God’s specific will for specific people and specific circumstance. Researchers from Cornell University concluded that the average person makes around 226.7 decisions in a day. Now, the Bible will tell you a lot, but it wont tell you what house to buy, what job to take, what person to go on a date with, or tons of other things. These kinds of decisions are held between God and you, and are extremely sensitive to your relationship with Christ. Now, I will be the first to tell you that I believe that God is a loving God that gives us freedom of choice for a lot of things. For example, when Jessica and I decided to adopt our dog Bentley from the SPCA we did not spend a lot of time debating, discerning, and praying over the dog or the adoption because I believe ultimately God leaves decisions like this up to us. God is saying “Hey Jon and Jess, I want you to be happy! You have money to feed a dog, and you a have space to raise a dog- if you want a dog cool! If you don’t that’s cool too! Whatever makes you happy.” I do not pray over what kind of sandwich to make for lunch, or what shoes I buy from the store- I believe God is allowing me freedom of choice. True story, I once met a man that prayed over EVERY decision- he stood in his room and prayed over what outfit to wear, what he was going to eat for breakfast, EVERY TINY DECISION OF HIS DAY…now maybe that works for him, but I think I would have a breakdown! I think God allows us to make these types of decisions for ourselves when we begin to understand God’s character and our calling.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .””
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .
But there are other decisions we need to make that God certainly wants to directly influence and we need answers for them. God is keenly interested in where we live because it is the neighborhood where we will do ministry, where we go to school because it will form our intellect, where we take a job, where to go to serve him on mission and a hundred other decisions we make. For these we need understanding and discernment. Or as Paul put it in the mind of Christ:
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .
English Standard Version Chapter 2
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
So, over the next few weeks we will be spending time building our understanding of the mind of Christ, and learning tools and practices for discerning the will of God. I hope you will join us for the upcoming few weeks.
Because there is one central truth to remember today, God’s Kingdom and God’s will are connected- you cannot have one without the other. Here’s the connection-
If you want to be ambassadors of the Kingdom of God you must follow God’s Will
In order to know God’s Will you must Know God’s Character
In order to know God’s character you must know God’s Word
In order to know God’s Word you must immerse yourself in it, personally, cooperatively, and intentionally.