is discovering the will of God and that's not an easy thing to do and it probably means about a hundred different things to everybody in here. In other words if I were to ask you tell me what you think that means we probably have about as many answers different answers as there are people in this room tonight and so I'm sort of surprised that some of you came out given what I think some of you probably think okay but I'm glad you did and I hope that we're going to be able to make some progress in this I don't feel like I'm the answer man on this thing but I do believe that there are some important items and thoughts that we need to have as we search out what it means to discover God's will for our lives as individuals and even for this church corporately. There was a book written a long time ago by Toffler called Future Shock. Does anybody remember that book? It's several decades old now and he had a thesis there and the thesis basically was that in the future not too distant future there were going to be so many choices that we're presented with in this modern world that we will be immobilized unable to make choices and you know what that's like when you go to the grocery store and you see a thousand different versions of every kind of cereal on the shelf. What's one of my supposed to get all I said here was cornflakes and they're like nine thousand different kinds of cornflakes of various versions and various brands and that's the way it is I think sometimes maybe you face this when you're thinking about buying a car too many choices maybe even when you're thinking about buying a house too many choices. The reality is is that when you live in the world in which we are apart right now in this culture at this socioeconomic level there are so many choices and you have so many options that it becomes very difficult sometimes to figure out what to do. Now put that in a religious context put that in the context of faith and it doesn't change all that much. It does change some but not all that much because we have all kinds of options that we can choose from when it comes to what we're going to do for God too. Am I going to be this or am I going to be that? Am I going to work this long and then retire early and go do something else? Am I going to work my whole life this way? Am I going to be a giver? Am I going to be a sender? Am I going to be a goer? What am I going to be in all of this business? Am I going to be an officer in the church? Am I not going to be an officer in the church? Am I going to join this group or that group and on and on and on it goes and of course you also have the great options here in the city of choosing different churches. And so we do face I think in some ways future shock. I know my own father was a child of the depression and when he came back from Old War II he basically had no options. He came back and got a job to feed his family and stuck with that job the rest of his life put a period at the end of the sentence. That was my father's life. My life was a little more open. I was one of the first people in my family to go to college so doors open just a little bit more for me than for them but not all that much in part because I became a Christian at 17 and so my track was fairly narrowed by that. But now I think of my own daughter and she and her husband have so many options they don't even know what to do. The great thing is he can do anything and he does it well so they're never going to be starving or anything like that but you know they just have so many choices they don't know what God wants them to do. I kind of knew what God wanted me to do. My father knew exactly what God wanted him to do. Now I think about my grandchildren and the things continue as they are now if they're not immobilized I don't know what will be immobilizing to them by all the options that they'll have before them. Now times change we could be headed for some hard times in this country if we have a major World War which I expect or if we have a pandemic which I expect sorry then you may be back where my father was okay just figure trying to figure out a way to survive but apart from that I think we're all interested in knowing what God wants us to do among good options that are out there. So here's what we're going to do tonight. The first thing we're going to do is we're going to talk about what it means to speak of God's will, how the Bible talks about God's will, what in the world is that because different people have different ideas. They're going to talk about something that I'll call all through this three-week series circles of discovery. In other words how is it that we're supposed to discover this thing called God's will. And then finally I want us to deal with some basic Bible notions about what it means to be living for God, some Bible basics, some of the most fundamental things that you and I have to be concerned with as Christian people. So let's start first with understanding what it means to speak of God's will. When you talk about God's will and the way that expression is used in the Bible not so much the way we use it but the way is used in the Bible there are at least three things that the Bible talks about and uses the language of God's will okay three different kinds of things. It's the same terminology but three concepts. The first one is what we might call the decrees of God. God's decrees. Now what this means basically is is really very simple. If you if you knew this was a Presbyterian church and if you know what Presbyterians believe you know we believe in predestination and weird things like that, right? Do you know that? Do you realize that? Okay. Knowing that we believe those weird things and I don't care if you do or not done by the me. If you don't believe in it just stick your fingers in your ears because this won't mean anything to you at all. But basically the decrees of God are God's eternal plan for all of the universe and that plan from the Bible's point of view in my opinion and in this church's official opinion includes not just some things but everything. Every single thing right down to the finest little detail to the largest most general universal things that God has a plan for everything and everything including the hairs on your head are numbered by God and are put there and kept there or taken away whichever the case may be based upon what God wants and what God is planned for all eternity and now if you want to see a Bible verse that speaks of the will of God this way it would have to be one of them it would be Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11 where we find that the Apostle Paul says in Christ in him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will this is the way that the Bible often speaks of the will of God and that is that it's his plan his plan for things now the reality is apart from prophecy in the Bible which sometimes gives us glimpses into the future we can't know what God's plan is what God's will is until it happens you know the old joke right about the Presbyterian preacher who falls down the steps and gets up and says well I'm glad that part of God's will is over okay well that's what we're talking about if you want to know how many peas you're supposed to eat for dinner according to God's eternal plan then all you have to do is finish dinner and count the peas that you didn't eat and then you'll know what God's eternal plan was in many respects you can't discover this except just sitting around waiting for things to happen and if you do sit around and wait for things to happen they're usually bad so don't do it okay so in him we're chosen according to the will of God that's one sense in which the Bible speaks of the will of God but there's another way the Bible speaks of the will of God too which is a little closer to what we're interested in here tonight and that is God's precepts how many of you know K. Arthur's ministry precept ministry yeah good good she's a friend of mine that's a wonderful ministry she has and she always speaks in terms of learning the Bible precept upon precept right and you know a precept is basically a rule that's what it amounts to a law a command a the will of God in the sense of this is God's will for you do this and so we're talking about directives that God gives to us now that's a little more what we want to know isn't it what is it that God has commanded us to do how does he direct us how does he guide us through life what are the standards that we're supposed to be living according to and how does that work out for me when I have all these good options in front of me good options not just bad ones a good ones but multiple good options which is what most of us in this room are facing right now and of course the Bible uses that kind of expression the will of God to speak of that as well take for instance first of the only is chapter four verse three it is God's will that you should be sanctified that you should avoid sexual immorality so what's Paul saying there he's saying basically it's God's command that you should be sanctified this is his order this this is his directive and this is a little closer to what we're interested in because these are things you do need to discover you need to discover this ahead of time before you make choices what's God's precept what's his command what is his directive and how does it apply to this situation that I'm in right now now oddly enough I suspect many of you have heard of those two senses in which the expression God's will is used in the Bible and they're used this way all throughout the Bible first the decrees of God and second the precepts of God but there is a third way that the Bible describes the will of God and you have to sort of be aware that this is there too and it may sound a little strange at first but let me just go ahead and say it it's God's desires God's desires if you want the technical word it's the desiderative will of God how about that who decorative preceptive and desiderative those are the three categories if you want to sound fancy okay and what this means is that sometimes in the Bible the Bible speaks of God's will in terms of his expression of willingness and usually willingness or desire to bless people it's his intention it's his it's his as it were his hope it is his ideal is what he would like to do if things would just work out in the right way now of course we know that all of these things all three of these are speaking of God in very human terms aren't they I mean to think of God as having decrees that are maybe written down somewhere that's very much human talk isn't it God's decrees are much bigger than that and his directives are also very much in human terms that he actually speaks to people and gives them orders and commands and so it is with his desires too and just to give you an example of this and there are many of them in the Bible is a very well-known passage that where Jesus is talking to Jerusalem remember he is looking at Jerusalem as he's standing there weeping over Jerusalem and listen to what he says he says oh Jerusalem Jerusalem you who killed the prophets and stone those who sent those sent to you how often I long to and the word here is the same as will or want to in these other places as well how long I wanted how I longed or wanted to gather your children together like a mother like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you were not willing hmm now for those of you that have predestination on the brain that's a hard verse for you isn't it because you sort of figure that if Jesus really wanted to then he could just force the issue yes but the wonderful thing about our God is that he stoops low and speaks to us baby talks so that we can understand and one of the baby talks he talks is I would do this if you would I'm willing the problem is you're not so when you start thinking about the will of God I think we can eliminate this whole issue of the eternal decree of God we just sort of need to set that aside and not worry about it too much but we do need to start asking questions about what are the commands of God and how do they apply to my life especially when I've got good options in front of me and what about this willingness of God this desire of God this ideal that God sets before his people a number of places in the Bible he'll say things like this to Israel I desire to do nothing but good for you or as he told Ezekiel I take no delight in the death of the wicked no delight at all in the death of the wicked this is God's desire this is his wish this is his ideal and we're going to be focusing on those last two that's the senses in which those are the senses in which we're concerned about the will of God God's precepts and God's expressions of his willingness to do good things for his people okay so that's the first topic you got it was I didn't say man somebody okay you're not asleep yet right I'm trying to make this exciting I don't know how to do it oh brother now you might think to yourself you know if I want to know God's precepts I know where to go to find God's precepts where do you go to the Bible that settles it right God said it that settles it I just do what the Bible says you've got all you need well happily this is nothing new that I'm going to tell you tonight it may be new to your ears but nothing new in our branch of the church that's not all we've got God has given us much more than just the Bible to guide us now we're going to be talking about the Bible especially tonight and focusing on it and then moving on to other things also but God has given us the scriptures but the scriptures don't tell us many things that we would like to know do they I mean does anybody here think that the Bible tells you which whether to buy a red car or a blue car anybody good I'm glad to hear that does anybody here think think that the Bible tells you whether you'd have three children or four good see it's a little more important decision there isn't it red and blue car that's not that important third or fourth child that's a little more important isn't it do you think that the Bible tells us anywhere in here in the Bible that God wants you to be a missionary or stay in your job no it doesn't tell you that either does it could there be a more important decision that you might make in your life than whether I want to be a missionary or whether I'm going to stay in my job and just continue working the way I've been working for the last three thousand years okay so it's not just insignificant things that the Bible doesn't give us much information or much precepts about it's also some pretty important things so in our heritage there has been a as it were a pattern of thinking that an hour branch of the church comes goes all the way back to the Puritans and this is what I'm going to tell you about right now because it's what we're going to build on this week and the next two weeks and that is how the Puritans talked about discovering or discerning the will of God when the Bible is not specific enough or when the Bible just sets up certain parameters or guidelines and then we have to figure out what to do within those guidelines now this is the way a number of different Puritans talked about this as they were thinking about how to discover the will of God I'm speaking of these as circles of discovery okay sounds like a TV show doesn't it circles of discovery okay so let's think about this circles of discovery I think we all know that as good Presbyterians and good followers of Jesus the first thing we always want to consider when we're trying to figure out what God has commanded us to do or what God desires to do for us is the Bible the Bible is our only rule of faith in practice it is our absolute authority is the only thing you can't question and be faithful to Jesus the Bible tells us many things plenty of things to guide us in fact your head can get overwhelmed very quickly with all the information that's there in the Bible and it does give us many good things to follow and things that we ought to always follow once we're convinced that the Bible teaches it so let me just give you an example if you think tonight that God wants you to become an ax murderer I can tell you very plainly you should not now why yeah because the Bible says don't do it right okay good so the Bible as it were eliminates certain options before you you may want to become a thief you may you may even feel in your heart of hearts that God wants to become a thief but the reality is it doesn't matter what you feel in your heart of hearts if the Bible says don't be a thief then you shouldn't be a thief is that is that simple in many respects but also at the same time we have to realize that the Bible is written in general terms and only sets up parameters for us to guide us in our lives it sets up principles that guide us in life like the principles of the 10 commandments if you think about it in many respects all 10 of the 10 commandments are very important and they're absolutely for us and we are never to violate them but at the same time they only give us broad guidance as to what we're supposed to do in our lives if you want to take an example of that let's say thou shalt not what shall we want to pick one thou shalt not steal let's take that one okay now the problem is of course is that everybody in here is going to have to figure out exactly what stealing is yes now you never want to steal you never want to steal but there are going to be times when you sort of step into these areas and you say well I'm not really sure whether this is stealing or not you know I don't know I feel like it might be but then again I don't feel like it might be and all of a sudden you're left with parameters and not a pinpoint often we think of the Bible as pinpointing what we're supposed to do here here here here here here here and sometimes it does that because it's clear enough about especially certain kinds of things that we can say yep you're normal it's a pinpoint but for the most part what the Bible does is it sets up parameters for us let's take an example that the Apostle Paul gives in second Thessalonians he says let him who does not work not eat hmm wow that's a pretty bold statement isn't it let him who does not work not eat in other words the church is not supposed to feed people they don't eat poor babies poor children poor widows who can't get a job they don't get to eat do they see unfortunately that's often the way we treat the Bible but the Bible's not given to us for that kind of treatment the Bible is given to give us parameters to guide us what do you think the parameter is what do you think the guidance is of a verse like that what do you think the principle is that's right if someone's able to work and they're just goofing around don't put them on the dough that's right that's right that's right exactly even though the verse doesn't say that you have to interpret it that way right because there are other things that the Bible says too so let's just face it the Bible eliminate certain things very clearly and it also sets up parameters but the Puritans always brought up the fact that when you start narrowing down trying to pinpoint what you're supposed to do at this moment in your life you have to consider something else as well and this is the other thing the second circle that they always talked about providence now some of you may remember that when we speak of the revelation of God we talk always in our circles about two kinds of revelation special revelation which is the Bible but then there's another kind of revelation do you remember what it is natural or general revelation that's the revelation of God in circumstances in life around you and the Puritans are very very very clear about this that when you're trying to decide how God wants you to live your life you also have to consider the situation that God has put you in who he's made you to be because providence eliminates very clearly certain options for you let me say this if I wanted to be the first female African-American pastor in the PCA it would just be impossible for me to do it with that be fair to say providence has eliminated that option for me I have no moral dilemma about that I'm not facing any kind of moral struggle any kind of question of what does God want me to do with respect to becoming the first female African-American pastor in the PCA I don't have to worry about that one why because providence has eliminated it for me I can tell you another thing that providence has eliminated for me at my age I will never learn another language fluently enough to be able to communicate well in it because my brain has frozen like many of you okay now I can do well in Spanish but it was because I learned Spanish through the years earlier when I was younger and I can read a bunch of other languages but I will never for example be able to be fluent enough in French to do much good in France so that providential reality has narrowed down some moral choices for me I don't even have to really take seriously unless something just overwhelms me which we're going to talk about the third circle in a moment I don't even have to seriously consider whether or not I'm going to go to France to be an event a street evangelist are you with me on this a lot of you are right now at this stage in your life narrowed down by providence because you have children in your home and you feel responsible to make sure your children are cared for and that certain things are provided for them and oddly enough providence doesn't stand still does it because as you get older children go away and you better get out of there and go do something exciting before grandchildren come along because they lock you in again okay so just know that I remember my wife and I used to think that as soon as our daughter left home we'd go out into the mission field and all of a sudden grandchildren come who wants to leave the grandchildren that's more of a choice actually but the reality is that you have certain backgrounds you have certain personality traits you have certain kinds of things that are true in your life and they have to be considered when you start narrowing down within the parameters that the Bible gives you what you're supposed to do with your life so for example the Bible teaches you be honest be honest in business all right well which business and in what ways those are questions of providence they're not questions of the Bible they're questions about providence what business am I supposed to be in which one am I supposed to choose all right I'll be honest in any of them that I get into but I want to know which one I'm supposed to choose a lot of you who are younger here are asking that very question what career should I take what young woman or young man should I take as my spouse you're asking those kinds of questions and the Bible tells you parameters it says if you're a believer don't marry an unbeliever that's good rule in the Bible right there a precept yes don't marry an unbeliever but there's there are tons of believers to choose from how do I figure out which one to choose from the men in here are told by the Bible to love their wives as Christ loves the church and I want to tell you something that the way you love your wife Newman is different than the way I love my wife why that's right because you're not married to Gina that's right exactly in other words good answer man that's great you're right on target here you're in trouble if I know your name you know that right in other words the principle of the Bible is husbands love your wives as Christ's love Christ loves the church but the reality is that the definition of love to a large extent depends on the strengths and the needs and the desires and the hopes of the spouse not on some kind of abstract well I'm loving you huh loving you as much as he is do better than he does what's she gonna say to you if you say that to her so what so what that doesn't matter I'm not her that's right she's not and so the reality is is that the Bible gives us parameters of a providence narrows down the options even more let's take another example pastors are told that they must preach the word in season and out of season there's a good principle for preachers that they're always supposed to preach the word now how much how many options do I have when I get up on Sunday morning as to what to preach five six 20 a hundred a million a dezylion yeah I think about a trillion options yeah that would be about a trillion options how do I decide what God wants me to preach a lot of is based on what can you tell me on providence what aspect of providence good job come on speak up you can not go get it you can't get out of here to speak up you primarily you okay I can guarantee you that if I were preaching through first Corinthians for another church the sermons would not be like these sermons these sermons are for you does that make sense okay that's the way it is and that's why providence is so very important to us we have to look at the circumstances that God has put us in it doesn't always mean that we succumb to the circumstances because sometimes circumstances are undesirable and we're so actually supposed to break them but it is one of those guys that God has given us and we're gonna talk about that a lot next week the third circle however is the one that's going to be the hardest for us it's what Puritans called vocation vocation and this unfortunately fits in with this morning's message if you were here this is a Holy Spirit thing where you wait and seek the blessing of Holy Spirit and the guidance of Holy Spirit in a way that many of us are scared to seek it you seek the Holy Spirit's guidance on an intuitive level on that inner voice level what we would call conviction what we might call in our circles the leading of God so for example let's just say you're trying to decide if you're gonna be a missionary or not get I'm trying to get somebody to be a missionary from this church can you tell so you decide whether you're gonna be a missionary not how do you decide that does the Bible command you to be a missionary no does the does providence insist that you be a missionary no so how do you decide well normally what happens is you go to a missions conference or something like that and the preacher stands up and says I want you to consider whether God is calling you to be a missionary that's right that's vocation and we understand that when it comes to ministry in fact when young men come before Presbyterry they're always asked this question why do you think you're called to ministry and the answer must be two things or they don't say these two things the trapdoor opens and they're gone forever okay the they have to say first I have an external call from the church the body of Christ has said that I am called to minister they've tested my gifts and they have said yes and then the second thing they must say is I have an internal call I have usually they make it very dramatic and they say things like I've tried not to do this and I would like to do anything other than this but God has called me to this and so I must do it I've got this overwhelming conviction in my heart that this is what I ought to be doing with my life we say way to go and then we forget about it from that point forward now what's different about the Puritans and us today is that the Puritan said every single person is supposed to have that kind of calling if you're a stay-at-home mom you're not a stay-at-home mom because well you know what else am I gonna do your stay-at-home mom because God has called you to be a stay-at-home mom just as much as he called me to be a pastor if you are working in the office you're working in the office not because well you know what else am I gonna do no you're seeking the call the vocation of God to that place to that office space that desk is you're calling from God and the level of conviction has to be strong because if you don't have a level of conviction then when the hard times come what do you always do second guess maybe I'm not really doing what God wants me to do but if you've got a strong vocation to something then when the hard times come you know what's the devil yeah and that's what you want are you with me on that we're gonna talk about that to the third week that's gonna be the main thing we talk about third week tonight what we want to do is focus primarily on the Bible and the way I want to do this is to take us back to some of the most basic elements of the Bible that talk about God's precepts for us and is extremely important for us all to sort of come back to this because this is gonna set us up for figuring out what God's will is for us in this world some of you have heard me say these things before maybe bits and pieces but I'm gonna try to lay it all out for you here in a way that makes some sense in just a few moments we all know we're supposed to obey God but I always want to know why I always want to know what's the goal what's the dream what's the purpose I mean okay I'll do whatever you say Lord I'll try anyway but can you give me some reason for this because that would help me a whole lot well the Bible does give us reasons for this the Bible gives us good reasons for obeying the law of God and the precepts of God in every area of life and it goes all the way back to what life is all about why we're breathing on this planet right now why you exist on this planet you know I think a lot of people don't know why they exist on this planet I think we just sort of have to deal with the fact that we are here and so we sort of bumble our way through it well the Bible tells us why we're here God is the great king in heaven and he's got a big plan and his big plan is for history to develop in a particular way do you remember the Lord's prayer our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name now here it comes here's the plan thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven God made this earth for a reason the reason he made this earth was to display to every creature that he is the great king of all this is the place is going to happen right here on this planet and he's going to do that by turning this earth into his kingdom it's going to make it such a beautiful and wonderful and holy place that one day he will come here in all of his splendor and set up his throne right here on this earth and when he does every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord the glory of God the Father that's why this planet exists is the theater is the stage on which God demonstrates that he is truly the great creator of all and against all naysayers he glorifies himself by transforming the earth into his kingdom now if you can believe that because that is the story of the Bible from cover to cover that's why the Bible begins with the creation and ends with the new creation we can also see then that this as the Bible tells us this plan of God works out as a high priority for you and me this is why Jesus tells us of all the things we're supposed to seek in life the number one thing we're to seek is what see key first the kingdom of God the coming of God's kingdom to this planet because that's the way we're going to prove to the honor and glory of God that he is the creator which is our great goal and our great desire to honor him the best we possibly can you know there is a religion that still believes that you know there is still a religion that believes God made this earth to prove that he is the great creator God against all naysayers spiritual and physical and that his servants on the earth aren't to be involved in that unfortunately it's not Christianity we just want to float away to heaven what religion am I talking about now Islam and a little joe is when it's to but Islam is the main one yeah in other words they think that the role of earth is to prove that God is the great king and in that respect they're right they just got the wrong king wrong God wrong profit wrong way we got the right God the right profit and the right way okay but we still have the same goal and that is to take over the world and to turn it into a holy place so that God will come here and dwell here forever in all of his glory that's why this planet exists now the strange thing about the Bible is is that it tells us that even though you've got this long plan for the earth and that the earth is one day going to become the place where God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven so that God's reign is established on the earth like he already reigns in heaven in heaven his will is done perfectly what we want is for the same to be done here on this planet because God's not going to get rid of the earth the earth is going to be made new but he's not going to get rid of it remember world without end oh man oh man I thought hey I thought the world ended no world without end oh man oh man say I got that one okay okay so this is the place this is it that little blue speck in this huge universe is the place where God will prove he's the king by making his will done here as it is in heaven but the big question is by what instrument is God going to do this and this is where you fit in you want to know why you breathe you want to know why your heart keeps beating while your brain keeps on firing up there all those chemical reactions are still taking place in your brain to whatever extent they are you want to know why that's true it's because you were put on this planet as the instrument by which this planet would be turned into the kingdom of God human beings were called the image of God for that reason of all the things that could be said about you that's the most fundamental not even center that's not the most fundamental the most fundamental thing about you is you're the image of God and the image of God was given a task of turning the entire world into paradise so that God's glory would appropriately come here in all of his fullness throughout the whole planet just like he was in the beginning in the little garden of Eden that's why when God put Adam and Eve on the planet he had a command that he gave them God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the air so do it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth this is why you live believe it or not this is it I know that we put it in very pious terms and say things like well you know we're here to serve the Lord or we're here to bring glory to God this is how you serve the Lord this is how you bring glory to God by turning the earth into his paradise by turning the earth into his kingdom so that what was true in the little garden of Eden was supposed to be true all over the world and this is why Adam and Eve were told not to stay in the garden but to multiply and to fill what the garden the earth and to subdue the garden no the whole earth to rule over the entire world this was our role this is our job where the representatives of God on the planet and this is what we're supposed to be doing the way Jesus put it was we're supposed to be seeking it first the coming of the kingdom of God and his righteousness to this planet so do you wonder why you should consider what God has to say about how you work at your job or what you do at home or how you drive your car or how you fly in an airplane or how you do your hair or how you what clothes you wear or all the many things that we're asking ourselves the answer is this is why because we were created to bring the kingdom of God to this planet and anything short of that anything short of that is not worthy of you not worthy of you now when God commanded Adam and Eve to do this to make the earth into his kingdom he basically gave them two kinds of jobs you saw that in the verse on the one side he said have lots of babies right there got to be lots of you were going to do this job and on the other side what he said was I want you to have dominion over the earth to basically what God said to Adam and Eve in the beginning was this is the reason for human civilization human civilization is not against God in itself it can be twisted and perverted into something against the will of God but human civilization was designed to develop the earth and to prepare the way for the great king to come I can tell you something for sure if you knew that George W. Bush was coming to your house for dinner tomorrow I can guarantee you would not be here tonight why what would you be doing cleaning up that's right you'd be buying new furniture beginning new drapes you'd be doing all kinds of things medicaring the lawn all kinds of things why because it would not be appropriate for the president of the united states to come to your house looking the way it looks tonight fair to say okay so you would get it ready for him to come well I've got some great news for you the king of the universe is coming to plan at earth
so get busy and get the place ready for him that's what we do through the gospel and that's what we do also through our work and through our home life through our raising of our children our educating of our children all the choices we make are to be made for one goal and that is to prepare the earth for the coming of the great king you might think that God's got so sick of us messing up like we do that he just got rid of us and decided to do it all by himself he didn't what happened was the father in heaven said to the eternal son you become one of them and you do what they fail to do you become a human being and as a human being do what they have failed to do second Adam do what first Adam failed to do son of David do what David failed to do that's why your Jesus was incarnated that's why he's one of us that's why he's a human being because we and he are the image and the likeness of God who have been ordained to prepare this planet for the coming of the king of glory can you think of anything more important than that and yet Christians by and large don't even know that's why they live but that's the principle that's the goal for every single choice you and I make in this world when you think about how you do your recreation and what you spend on your recreation and how you handle recreation and those sorts of things it's all supposed to be done for this purpose the transformation of the earth when you think about what job you're supposed to take how you're supposed to work your job how much you're supposed to work your job it's all for this for the transformation of the earth the preparation for the king when you think about your education and how much education you're you're going to get and what you're going to do with it is all for this, for the transformation of the earth. When you think about this church and what independent Presbyterian churches for, this is it. It's for the transformation of the earth, is to get things ready for the great king to come to this planet. And when Jesus comes back, he will finish all that we have left undone. Now frankly, that helps me a lot because I don't feel anymore like my life is a waste. I feel like, okay, what little bit of contribution I can make to the history of the world is something that will endure. It's something that will move on into the next world. And it's something that's worth doing because it's according to the will of the Father. You know, the reality is, is that as you begin to think about what God's will is for your life. And before you get down to the details, you have to get the big orientation. And the big orientation is, there's one thing you're supposed to be seeking more than anything else in this world. So that every choice that you make is designed to feed into this great goal. And that great goal, I'll repeat it again, is seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added to you. Let me close this way. Jesus made a promise to us. He promised that if we lose things in this life, we'll get much more in the life to come. Do you remember what he said? That those who lose family and those who lose house for my sake will receive a hundredfold in this life and in the world to come. Everything you give up in this life for the sake of the kingdom of God, you will be richly rewarded for it in the life to come. Everything you sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom of God will be your rich reward in the life to come. That basic fundamental principle that's in the New Testament and in the Old Testament is one that you and I need to remember when we think about what we do with our time and what we do with our money, what we do with our energy, what we do with our affections because the next world is not going to be like this one. This one fades away. You blink twice and you're dying. The next world, you're going to glorify God and enjoy Him there forever. So do you want one house or a hundred houses in the next world? A lot of that depends on what you do in this world. That's Bible basics. Okay, so let's review it real quickly. God has will and the Bible says that it's three kinds. His decrees, his precepts, and his desires. And the Bible says that we can discover the will of God, especially his precepts and his desires for us in the Bible, yes, but second in Providence and in third in the vocation that God gives you for your personal life. We'll talk about those things more in the weeks to come. But the basic Bible principle is this that you and I are the image of God redeemed in Christ and equipped by the power of a Holy Spirit to begin the transformation of this earth and to the kingdom of God. And everything we do is for that purpose to make this world a holy and righteous place so that it would be appropriate for the God of heaven and earth to declare his glory against all naysayers here on this planet. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we adore you and we thank you that our lives are not without purpose and without destiny. Would you please grant to us as we genuinely and honestly and humbly seek to know what it means to discover your will for our lives to get these basic Bible principles down in our hearts so that whatever particular choices we make so that whatever specific issues we face we know we're able to do them in ways and to face them in ways that honor you and further your great purpose for history. And as you do that we will praise you and we will honor you for it. Amen. Thanks everybody. Don't rush home. There's nothing good on TV tonight. Hang out. Hang out. Total number four. Good. See, there's a little more important decision there isn't it?