Bible Studies for Life, Oct. 13: God's will and my will

Posted

Rom. 11:33-12:2
Brian Parker, senior pastor
Kingsland First Baptist Church

According to AARP, on average 60% of people do not have a will – only 60%!. That number is affected most by age. Only 22% of millennials have a will in comparison to 81% of those age 72 and older. The more you know about wills, the better you will understand the Gospel, but even a general understanding will help you. Let me draw this out for you.

I recently asked my staff if they had a will. After their show of hands, I asked, “What is a will?” One person immediately responded, “It is what you want done with your stuff when you die.” Then I asked, “Does God have a will?” You see, many people are trying to figure out what God’s will is. God’s will for us is to do what He wants with His stuff since He died. 

 To be successful in knowing and fulfilling God’s will, you need to understand His death, His stuff, and His desires. Most of us affirm that Jesus died, but we don’t always grasp that Jesus died on the cross as God’s Son. He is the fullness of God. He is God made flesh. He is Immanuel, God with us. It is no small thing to think of God dying.

 Rom. 11:33-36 teaches us that God is profound and bigger than we can imagine. God has a depth that extends past our wisdom or understanding. No one has counseled Him or taught Him. He is the one true and great Teacher. His creative ability uniquely places Him above all others things in creation.

Verse 36 reminds us that all things are “from Him, through Him, and to Him.” All things are held together in Him, and as the Creator he possesses everything. The cosmos is His, the planets are His, the earth is His, and everything it contains is His. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and all good things come from above (from Him). The one who died is the one who owns it all.

To know and fulfill the will of God, you need to know what He wants done with His stuff. God has written a last will and testament. It is contained in two testaments (The Old and New Testaments). In His Testaments, He gives us the story of His life, our lives, and His plan for us after He died. He teaches us to be stewards of His possessions. He teaches us to value mercy, forgiveness, and grace. He has written His truth, His wisdom, His commands, and His hope for us.

Most importantly, we need to know God’s desires to fulfill His will. Simply put, God desires for us to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). God desires for us to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with” (Micah 6:8).  God’s desire is to have a loving relationship with every human being on the planet.

Jesus reveals this clearly when he meets a woman at a well one afternoon. He is sitting by Himself at a well in Sychar (Joseph’s Well) when a woman comes to the well to draw water. They begin a conversation that leads her to see Him as the “living water,” and when his disciples returned, she left to go tell the whole town about Him.

Meanwhile, the disciples try to make Jesus eat the food they had picked up for Him (John 4:31), but, Jesus tells them “I have a food you do not know about” (John 4:32). The disciples did not know what He was talking about because no one had given Him anything to eat. And Jesus teaches them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34).

This is what it means to know and do the will of God.  The person that finds his nourishment in obeying God’s commands, by accomplishing His goals, and by obtaining His righteousness, finds the satisfaction of pleasing God.

The problem is that we seek to live our lives doing what we desire. We seek to accomplish our goals and aspirations. This is base selfishness. It is the cause of the fall in the garden and the great obstacle to the promotion and expansion of the kingdom of God. Too many people are seeking salvation while attempting to maintain their own desires and aspirations. We pursue a salvation from sin with a continuance of our control and direction for our lives. Biblical salvation is a Lordship salvation where we conform to the image of Christ, and His goals and desires become our goals and desires. 

What is the real number? What is the number of those that find their satisfaction in doing God’s will and accomplishing His work? That is the only number that matters. God wants that number to be 100 percent.

my will