What is God’s Will for My Life? *Intro self, thank Shanon, taking her ideas and applying them more specifically. A lot of us, because we love God and want to be obedient to him, are very concerned about finding God’s will for our lives. What should I major in? Should I be a pastor or a missionary or should I work in my field or should I be a stay-at-home parent? Who should I marry? Should I even get married? What should I do this summer? Next year? Take 30 seconds at your table - what is one question like this that you would really like the answer to - a decision that you want to know what God’s will is? Write it down! How do we answer these questions? How do we know if we’re following God’s plan for our lives? Sometimes I have felt, if I just beg God harder, seek his will better, am more earnest in asking, then he will make his will for my life clear. Because, WHAT IF I MISS IT?! Do you ever wish that God would just tell you directly what you should do? Well, I started looking at some examples in the Scripture of people who had this kind of experience. God spoke to them directly and told them what to do with their lives, or at least the next stage of it. Let’s take a look at three of these and see what we can see. Split the room in thirds - one thirds read Exodus 3 (Moses). One third read Luke 1 (Mary). One third read Acts 16 (Paul) At your table, read the story together and answer the question at the end of it: Did these people earnestly seek for God’s will for their lives? Exodus 3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight— why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivitesand Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressingthem. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” Luke 1 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. Acts 16 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. [Answer: no!] I strongly believe in visions and dreams and divine revelation from God. But if God has not revealed a clear direction to you, you cannot force him to do so. None of these people were begging God to show them his will for their lives! God simply interrupted. Mary was just going about her business, assuming she would have an ordinary life. Paul and his companions were trying to go other places, but God told them to go to Macedonia. Moses was never planning to go back to Egypt, and not asking God if he should! Also, literally millions of God’s people have never had this experience. So we can’t sit around waiting for a vision! And don’t think you can’t hear from God if you don’t have a dream! God can direct you in all these other ways, and he has been doing for thousands of years. If he doesn’t want you to follow the normal patterns, he can always give you a dramatic encounter to re-direct you. Many of you have heard the story of how Brady was directed by God to come back to Western and devote his life to university students here. It’s one of the main reasons that we are here tonight. He was driving on I-5, and God showed him a picture of Western lit up on Sehome Hill, and said “A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” Brady knew that God was telling him to come back and see Western become that for the world. I asked Brady, were you looking for God’s direction? Were you earnestly seeking God’s individual will for your life? He said this: “I was not praying, asking, or wondering. was waiting to apply for teaching jobs when the Lord's grace attacked me like Abraham or Saul or any number of other young thick headed followers who needed such a clear awakening.” The truth is, God may give any of us these kinds of experiences, but if you haven’t had one, it’s OK. I haven’t either! Does this mean that I’m stuck? That I can’t know God’s will for my life? That I’m in danger of stepping outside of it? I have some good news - we are not the first people to be concerned about this question. In fact, it’s not even just a Christian question. (Good news for you if you’re here and not a “Christian” - all kinds of people have asked this question). I was surprised to learn that when we examine ancient texts, as in texts from several thousand years ago, nearly 80% of them have to do with this question! 80%! Ancient societies were obsessed with finding the will of their god or gods. So the vast majority of what we’ve found is specific instructions about how to do this. I read some pretty cool stuff involving sheep livers. But...what does one ancient text, the Bible, have to say about the subject? What has our God revealed to us about how to seek his will, and how we should think about it? We’re gonna look at a lot of Scriptures for the rest of the evening and we’re going to discover quite a variety of commands and experiences to help us answer this question. This leads us to step 1 to finding the guidance of God: Step 1: Read Your Bible You can know the will of God! The Bible actually does tell you God’s will for your life! God is not hiding his will from you! He has given you all that you need to make these big decisions.