The Top 40

Here is an excerpt from my sermon of Feb. 14 of this year:

God’s will is in the Bible. To know God’s will doesn’t take Sunday school lessons to discover it. It doesn’t take prayer circles or revival meetings and for that matter it doesn’t take listening to preachers ... much. All we have to do is read the Bible. It says God’s will for us is to –


Worship.

Love one another.

Heal the sick.

Feed the hungry.

Clothe the naked.

Visit prisoners.

Pray for your enemies.

Forgive.

Tithe.

Work for godly justice in the world.

Bear one another's burdens.



All of these things are in service to others. Most church people know the Bible says that. But they object, “I know God wants us to do that, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I want to know what God’s will is for me. Should I change jobs? Move to another city? Get married again? That’s what I want to know.”



When God’s specific will for onself seems obscure, it’s a safe bet one has ignored God’s general will for serving others. People who cannot discern God’s will for personal matters are lost in a fog probably because they have spurned God’s will to do the general obligations God lays upon us all. We have no right to expect that God will serve us if we refuse to serve others as God commands us to do. Jesus said that if we cannot be trusted with a little then we can’t be trusted with a lot.



If we reject doing the basics of God’s will we have no right to expect that when some personal decision looms that God will cause the clouds to part, the angelic choir to sing and a voice like thunder to roll through the valleys.



Usually, the tasks of obeying God are not actually difficult. They only seem so because to obey God we must first disobey ourselves. Jesus knew this, which is why he said that to follow him we have to deny ourselves. It is in disobeying ourselves that we find it hard to obey God. And so God commands more often than tries to persuade.

Interesting subject. At Bible Study last week we were discussing a similar question which went something like this. A new believer sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise, indwelled with the Holy Spirit and who knows very little Bible -vs- a Believer of many years who has been in the word for 30 or 40 years. When either of them asks to hear the will of God in their lives, or either of them states that thus and so is the will of God for their lives. How do you respond to this?
The best answer went something like this. We cannot expect God to answer our questions or address our individual problems as they come up when we have ignored the express Will of God as revealed in the Scriptures. How presumptuous for a believer to expect an answer from God about which house to buy or whatnot when that same believer ignores what God has already said in General.
Although your post has more to do with service and a believer failing to serve others, I thought the ideas similar. We only know of God's will, about service and other things from His Word. How can we ignore such a thing and yet expect clarity in certain areas of our lives?