God’s Will Revealed for Your Life
Introduction
Zach’s Story – I was 22 years old. Just graduated with my Bachelors and started my Masters, which was kicking my tail. I was engaged and set to be married in a few months, trying to plan a wedding, and needing to figure out how to live on our own with no money. I was working full time at Sam’s club, which I thought was only going to be temporary. I had planned to get a job in preaching then in the counseling but things kept falling through. My job at Sam’s kept lasting longer and longer and kept coming home smelling like fish every day, making less than people right out of high school. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, stressed, discouraged, and lost. I had thought that God was making me for a purpose of helping people and no matter how hard I tried I was stuck cutting up tilapia and restocking the cheeses.
It was about this time that I began to ask this question – “What is God’s Will for My Life?” I had this certain direction in my life that I thought he wanted me to go and then it stopped happening. Maybe, I made the wrong decision for my life. I went right when I should have went left?
Or there were other times in my life I was at the crossroads of a major decision and I have no idea what to do. Where should I live? Where should I go to school? What career should I pick? Who should I marry? What should I do to take care of my parents? Where should I send my kids to school? Should I take this job or that?
So you ask, “What is God’s Will for my Life?”
So tonight we want to look at what God’s Will Has Revealed for our lives?
How is God’s Will Revealed?
Through his word: Psalm 119:105 – “Your word is a lamp to my feet a light to my path.”
Ephesians 1:9-11 – God has made know to us this mystery of his will.
Here is the problem we run into… The Bible does not explicitly tell people whether they should move to Florida or Tennessee or if one should homeschool our children or put them in public schools?
When it comes to the questions like, “Where should we live?” or “What job should I take?” it is very tempting to look for signs because we are so desperate to look for direction. People can do this in a couple of ways:
You can pick out verses in the Bible that you take out of context and apply to your situation. Jeremiah 29:11-13.- “ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
We may think I was reading the Bible while praying about starting my own business and I saw that this verse and I knew that God wanted me to start my own business. Or I knew then that God would give me a baby.
Can you see the danger in that? What happens if you believe God told you to go a certain direction when he didn’t. What happens if that decision goes wrong?
There is also the temptation to look for signs in things around you to give some direction in which way you are to go. This is often confirmation for what they already wanted to do.
This is where you get stories of people seeing Jesus in a biscuit or I saw a palm tree driving down the road so I knew God wanted my preach the gospel in the Bahamas
Then If things are going well then you made the right decision if they aren’t then you feel like you made the wrong decisions and blame God or your ability to decipher God’s signs
Can you imagine if Paul did that all the time? Got stoned again, I guess this was not the right city to come to.
That is what Zach was doing when he was 22. Things were not going as expected so he felt like he had taken the wrong path.
We cannot decide what God wants for our lives because of how things are going at any particular moment. It has to be more concrete that.
We want to look at four passages in the Bible that explicitly say this is God’s will for your life and we want to see if you notice a theme:
Ephesians 6:5-8 - Slaves
Imagine yourself as a slave. Most slaves were either forced into it through financial hardship or were captured as slaves. This was not the plan you had for your life. Somehow you became a Christian.
You ask God, “What is your will for my life”? – You know God if I was a free man, I could do so much more. I could go around preaching, I could help out people. I could be like Paul….
What is God’s will for your life?
To work hard, obey your master, have a good attitude…
Is that easy? That’s hard. That’s difficult.
But so often we look at someone else’s situation and think if I only was in their shoes I could do so much
If I was only married, better job, had kids, retired, didn’t have kids,
We get so focused on what we don’t have that we are blind to the opportunities that we have right in front of us
Each one of you in your own circumstances, can be valuable for the Kingdom. We need each one of you. Focus on what you can do for the kingdom.
1 Peter 2:13-17 (Acts 5:40-42)
Remember what the context of 1 Peter? – Suffering. They are being persecuted.
What is God’s will for them?
To Rebel. To overthrow the emperor? To leave and set up in a new country? To just hole up and wait till it passes?
No! Be subject to the authorities. Do good! Love each other. Honor everyone.
When we experience pain, the temptation is fight, flee, or stay and ball up. Peters says God’s will for you is not to do any of those things. It is to stay and open up to others.
1 Thess. 5:14-18 (Colossians 3:12-17)
What is God’s will for you? – Rejoice, be thankful… are you seeing the pattern?
God’s will is more about who you are than what you do
God is more concerned about your character than the job you have
God cares more about how you act than the place that you live on this earth
Often, when people talk about the will of God, we apply it to what job should I have, when should I marry, where should I live
However, when you look at the places in the Bible which talk about the will of God, the bible talks more about how they are supposed to live, the person they are to be, the way they treat others
But what about the other stuff?
Romans 12:1-2 – This is how we will know the will of God.
He says at the end of verse 2 that we can discern what the will of God is (which is also that is good, acceptable and perfect). How do we get to that point?
Vs. 1 – The first thing you have to do is offer yourself as a living sacrifice, which means you die every day. You die to your will. You die to your desires. You die to your plans. You die to your thoughts of what is good for your life.
You die in a way that is set apart from God and acceptable to him, which is true worship
Then instead of conforming to the world, you are conforming to God. And when you are conforming to God, you are transformed. Your mind is renewed. It looks at the world differently. It sees what God sees. It values what God values. And when that happens, you can discern the will of God in your life (Philippians 2:1-4).
God does not expect you to be able to determine God’s cosmic will for your life, he does not expect you to change the situation that you are in that you cannot control
God’s will for your life is no matter where you are or what you do, he expects you to have good character, to work hard, to love all men, and to be thankful always.
And if God really does want you to be in a specific space to do a specific job, do you not think he will get you there
If you look at the story of Joseph God worked through the decisions that people made (Genesis Chapters 39-50)
God did not make Jacob give Joseph a coat
God did not make his brothers sell him
God did not make Potiphar’s wife seduce and falsely accuse him
God did not make the cup bearer forget about Joseph
God did not make Pharaoh listen to the cupbearer
God did not make Pharaoh put Joseph in 2nd in command
These were decisions that people made but where did Joseph end up?
Exactly where he needed to be (Genesis 50:15-21)
We believe that God could have worked out his will a thousand different ways depending on the decisions that people made
And if he can do that for Joseph then why can’t he do that for us today?
If God does have some specific place he wants you to be, some job he wants you to have, he will get you there, you have to trust in him
And no matter where we are or what we are doing we always make sure we are kind, loving, generous, we treat people right, do what we can, take opportunities, and try to bring others to Christ…
Conclusion
Zach finishes his story about Sam’s
We invite all in our audience to our Bible studies on Wednesday at 7pm and Sunday morning at 9am. We would love to study God’s together with you! Please check the scriptures we have covered tonight. We want to help you in any way we can. Contact us for Bible studies by telephone, e-mail, or simply come to one of our assemblies. Contact: We assemble at 8000 River Drive in Oak Ridge at 9am on Sundays and 7pm on Wednesdays; oakridgechurch.com; zachhardesty@oakridgechurch.com, murray.wade@oakridgechurch.com; (865) 693-1416.
Our next live program is planned for September 14, 2026 when we plan to study “Pruning in John Chapter 15” and we hope to see you next time on "Speaking the Truth in Love".