The Forest for the Trees

Well, good afternoon again, brethren. It's a tough act to follow. Just, I love looking back out over a congregation when a child, when a children's choir is singing, and just the smiles on everybody's faces. It is just a wonderful thing and beautiful thing, and we are so unbelievably blessed here locally to have a larger children's choir than some feast areas when you when you get together with people.

I mean, it's just such a wonderful blessing to be able to have that many young people in this area. Well, they set me up with a table today, which I appreciate. I've been sitting, it feels like, for so long I actually want to stand. If that's okay, I finally got the clearances last week from the doctor that I can walk on things, and I'm done. I'm done sitting down with a leg in the air. I just want to stand up. So, permit me to stand. If I pass out halfway through, somebody roll me down to the table, and all shall be well.

Hopefully. Hopefully. Well, for those of you that ever tried your hand at deer hunting in the state of Oregon, you know there are times when it can be an exercise in futility. I will freely admit I am a little bit jealous of my friends back in the Midwest when they describe the number of deer that they're permitted to take in a year. You know, when they talk about numbers that approach four to six deer in a year. Or when you see advertisements for freezers in Michigan that are advertised by the number of deer that they will hold. You know, they sell the freezer with three cardboard cutouts of deer inside of it, like, it'll hold three deer!

Wouldn't see three deer in a lifetime in the state of Oregon. Or, while you're not getting any deer, you're scrolling your Facebook feed, seeing other people's successes, while you're staring at a hillside of ferns. For those that aren't deer hunters, the predominant deer on the western side of the state is the Colombian black-tailed deer. And according to most hunters, it's one of the most difficult deer in North America to hunt successfully. During the hunting season, they become solitary, they become isolated and exceptionally quiet. Sometimes they actually shift to becoming nocturnal in the late fall of the year, just outside of that magic little window where you can shoot them.

And that happens kind of right prior to the rut, which makes them very difficult to find and very difficult to tag. The uncanny ability that they have to disappear during the months of August through November has earned them a well-earned nickname. The Colombian black-tailed deer is known as the ghost of the Pacific. They are just that hard to find. And after a few unsuccessful seasons, you begin to wonder whether they actually exist. I'm exactly zero for five on deer in Oregon, and for those of you that are football fans, you'll recognize that Cleveland Browns have a better record than that this year, which has not happened in decades.

So for a number of years, I hunted towards the coast range, because that's what I was familiar with. I'd gone over there for elk hunting, and I generally knew my way around some of the spots outside of Willimina and Falls City. It's always nice when you know how to get yourself back out of the woods once you get back in there, and I just kind of stayed in those areas because I knew them and I was familiar with them. But after not coming across any bucks over several years of attempts, I started to consider doing something different.

So I applied for a different tag, and I shifted my pursuits up the canyon here in 22 outside the town of Gates. Many of you know where Gates is located at. There's a bunch of forest roads right up behind Gates that go way back into mountains. It's been said that you can actually get clear back over into eastern Oregon through some of those forest roads if you go far enough.

I didn't end up that far, but I'll get there in a minute. I found a spot to stop up on this old spur I pulled, you know, in and got off, and there was this beautiful little draw on. It was complete with this little babbling brook, and I thought, there is absolutely going to be a deer that comes through here at some point in time.

Hopefully it's a buck, but there's definitely going to be a deer that at some point comes through this draw. There was a nice little game trail there. The whole thing, everything looked great! Oh, everything looked great! So I, you know, sat down in the ferns and kind of blended in as best I could with my rifle across my chest and sat, and I waited. And I waited, and I waited, and I sat in that draw for probably, I don't know, a little over an hour until this little red squirrel behind me started sounding out an alarm call.

For those of you that have been deep in the woods, you know that call. It's over and over and over and over. I thought, you know, well, that game's over. You know, there's no self-respecting deer that's going to walk through that blaring siren of an alarm that's being, you know, spit out by this chipmunk. So I packed my things up, I hopped in the car, and I drove up further into the woods.

I pulled back down to where I got on that spur, and I went back out the main road up into the woods, rather than back in the direction that I went. And because I didn't have a map, I didn't have a GPS or a compass, and frankly, I didn't know my way around back there at all, I chose the first Y, and I went to the right.

And I made myself a deal. I was just always going to turn right. It seemed wise at the time. Always turn right, and then eventually, when you're coming back out, all you have to do is always turn left, and then you find your way out, theoretically.

It didn't quite work the way that I had planned, and I probably wasn't paying as much of an attention as I should have been, but I ended up getting out and heading up this road, and I realized somewhere in the process I'd taken a wrong turn, and I was lost. I was lost. And I kind of went up some of these hills and turned, and the road ended, and I went back down, I got back on another road, and I went up, and the road ended, and James Kim and his family got lost in the woods in California in 2006, and there's memories of that running through my head.

He didn't make it. Spoiler alert.

So I finally got to the point where I got back far enough, and I just went, forget it, I'm going to get out and at least do a little hunting while I still have some light. And so I went out and walked around in the woods a little bit, and then as the light began to wane, I headed back to my car. By the time I got back to my car, though, it was dark. All I could see around me were trees. I had no landmarks. I had nothing except the road and trying to remember how many turns I'd made to get back out. And I kind of started back and, again, made some more wrong turns, but I didn't really realize that it was as wrong as it was, and I kept driving.

What made things more difficult, as you might imagine, is at night all the trees looked the same, especially when you're on a lone forest road in the middle of the woods. It's just dark and trees. That's all you got. So I realized pretty quickly that I was lost. I didn't know which way was north. I didn't know. I had no idea where I was. I was lost, and panic started to kind of spread in a little bit. So I found a road that seemed to be heading up a hillside, and I thought, well, if I can get up ahead over the trees and get at least an overlook to where I can see the town of Gates, I'll at least know which direction I'm facing. So I drove up, thankfully found an overlook, and I was able to see the lights of Gates. The problem was they were the complete opposite direction than what I thought they were, and a lot farther away than I thought. I had really gotten back in their ways and really gotten turned around. By this point, it was almost 9 30 p.m., and I happened to have one bar of Stell's signal up on this overlook, and so sheepishly I called my wife, and I let her know that I was in fact lost in the woods, and that there was a very good chance that I was going to be spending the night in my car. So don't panic if I don't make it home tonight. I will try and get out in the morning. I told her about the chipmunk, and I informed her how it was all his fault. But, you know, after we got done talking, I headed down to the bottom of that road that I went up, and I did probably the worst possible thing that you can do when you're lost. I found another road, and I just drove down it, thinking, well, this has got to come out at some point in time. It seemed in the right direction, but it actually paid off as I was going down that road. A couple of good old boys were coming up the road in their truck. I flagged them down, asked for the way out. They told me the number of turns I needed to make, and sure enough got me out to the main road and got me home. I was able to sleep in my own bed that night, but that's probably the closest that I've ever been to spending an unplanned night in the woods. You know, when you're in a place where you can only see the trees themselves, it's impossible to see the forest.

When you can only see the trees, you cannot see the forest itself. You can't see the big picture.

And for me, I wasn't able to start even beginning to find my way out while I was at the tree level. I had to get up above the tree level. I had to get up above the tree line to where I could have some different perspective that enabled me to be able to see the bigger picture and where I was in space and positioned. I couldn't see the forest for the trees, you might say, which is true. I couldn't see the forest or the town of Gates, for that matter, for the trees. And as Christians, I think sometimes it's really easy for us to find ourselves in this place, unable to see the forest for the trees.

Now, this way of life that we lead, this calling that we've received, comes with its own big picture.

It comes with a big picture of the plan of God. We are individually and collectively a part of.

And in addition to this big picture plan, God's will is a factor. God's will is a factor in this process, His desire for His creation, for His people and for His life, or for their lives, I'm sorry. In addition to this big picture plan, we live our four score in ten in painstaking daily detail. Right? I mean, in God's eyes, our lives are but a snap of the fingers and a blink of the eye. But for us, it's four score in ten of painstaking detail, and by reason of strength, again, more than that. But the days march on, every day requires decisions, many of which are inconsequential, but a number of them are monumental decisions that we make. And as we make these decisions, we ask ourselves, or at least we should ask ourselves, what is God's will? What is God's desire of me in this situation? How can I be certain what God desires of me in this situation?

I think too all too often we project our own desires onto God, and we conclude that when things go according to our plan and our desires, when it's successful for us on our estimation, well, then it must be God's will. But is it? But is it? You know, it is certainly possible that these two things line up. It could be that God's desires for you happen to be the same as your desires for yourself or your loved ones. But when we consider only positive outcomes to be the will of God, it's a dangerous assumption. That is a dangerous assumption.

When we consider God's will and when we work to discern it in our own lives, sometimes it can be easy to miss the forest for the trees. Allowing ourselves to get bogged down in the daily details of our life are to become so obsessed with one particular desired outcome that we close off the possibility that God's will might actually be the complete opposite of our personal desired outcome.

Often, hindsight provides us with a very good perspective that we simply don't have when we're in the thick of it, when we're down in the trees, so to speak. And today, with the time we have left, I'd like to examine this concept of God's will and how we as Christians should be approaching God's will in our relationship with Him. The title for the message today is The Forest for the Trees. The Forest for the Trees. If you take a look at God's will in the International Standard Bible Dictionary, the Hebrew and Greek words used for will all contain within them the idea of purpose, volition, wish, or desire. In the Old Testament, the word actually means to breathe after or to long for. In the New Testament, though, there are three words that are utilized that are found and used, and each one has a slightly different aspect to it as we approach them and as we look to it. The first of those words is bulomei, which is G1014, which is a passive inclination or a willingness from which the active choice proceeds. So a passive inclination or willingness from which the active choice proceeds. The second and third word are built from the same root. They are thello and thelema, G2309 and G2307, respectively, and those words denote the active choice or purpose. In other words, the decision that leads to the follow-through. So to provide a very basic example of how these two words would work together, I'm thirsty and I desire water.

Okay, I'm thirsty and I desire water. That's bulomei. I desire water. I have an inclination or a desire towards water. As a result of that desire, I choose to take a drink.

That's thello, thelema. My will is now done. I desired to make the decision. I made the decision.

My will is done. And in the Word of God, both of these words are used frequently when discussing the will of God throughout. And it seems at first like a pretty minor distinction, but personally I think it can help us to recognize and understand some of the nuances of God's will as we see it in Scripture. For example, let's turn over to John 22.

John 22. And we'll see an example on the night that Christ was betrayed. John 22.

I'm in the wrong book. I did it again. Luke 22.

I don't know why I think that John and Luke are the same book. I don't. I don't know why. I don't know why I mix them up every single time. But in my brain, John equals Luke and Luke equals John. So my apologies. But in Luke 22, on the night that Christ was betrayed, he prayed in Gethsemane with his disciples. Right? So he prayed in Gethsemane with his disciples. At one point in the evening, he distances himself about a stone's throw, and he prayed to God about the events of the next day. He prayed to God about the events of the next day. It says, we'll pick it up in verse 39 of Luke 22. Coming out, he went to the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed, and his disciples also followed him. And when he came to that place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down, and he prayed, saying, Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done. Verse 43, then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. And then his sweat began like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When he rose from his prayer and had come to his disciples, he found them sleeping from sorrow. They were so wore out from their sorrow, they were asleep. Then he said to them, Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation. Verse 42 of Luke 22 in Greek reads as follows, Father, if it is your bulimae, if it is your inclination or willingness or desire, take this cup away from me.

Nevertheless, not my pheloma, not my choice, but yours, be done. If it is your inclination, your wish, your want, your desire, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my pheloma, not my choice, but yours, be done. Christ is acknowledging that this eventuality, at least in that temporal time and the way and the method, may not be set in stone.

That God may choose to do something different with his desire to offer up Christ for mankind. Perhaps another time, perhaps another way, perhaps he could have more time on this earth with his disciples. But we see here Christ praying to God in an attempt to intercede on his own behalf.

Might say he tried to change God's mind. Christ's choice, his pheloma, was that the cup would pass from him. That was what he prayed for. But he acknowledged, not my choice, but yours, be done.

You know, it doesn't happen often in Scripture, but there are examples where God states his desire, but the choice and the action has not been made yet, and there is earnest intercession of someone that changes God's mind. We see that in Genesis 18. You can jot it down. Genesis 18, Abraham intercedes on behalf of a lot and his family. God determines he's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. His will, his desires want, is to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. But the choice and the action that had not been made yet. Abraham negotiates with God, finally settling on a number sufficient that allows Lot and his family to get out. And then the determination was made.

Abraham interceded on behalf of Lot and his family. In Deuteronomy 9, another example, God tells Moses to let him alone so that he may destroy Israel. He's done. They're stiff-necked, they're stubborn, and I'm wiping them off the face of the map. I'm done, God tells Moses.

Moses prostrates himself before God. He fasts 40 days, 40 nights, intercedes on behalf of the Israelites, and the Lord relents. The determination was made, the desire was there, but the action and the choice had not yet been fulfilled. Moses interceded on behalf of the Israelites.

Second Kings 20. Second Kings 20 is another example. God tells Isaiah to inform Hezekiah to set his house in order. He's going to die. He tells him it's going to be soon. Set your house in order.

Hezekiah weeps bitterly as Isaiah leaves, prays to God that he relents, and before Isaiah made it to the middle courtyard, God sent him back to notify Hezekiah he would live 15 more years.

Again, the determination, the will, the desire, the inclination was there, but the action and the choice had not been completed. Hezekiah interceded on behalf of himself and obtained 15 more years.

You know, as Christ began to reflect on what was going to happen the next morning in Gethsemane, He didn't desire the pain. He didn't desire the suffering that was to come. And perhaps in his human self he hoped there might be another way. The determination was made that it would happen, that this was God's desire, and he prayed to God earnestly to change the outcome.

The angel came down, strengthened him, he prayed more earnestly. I kind of wonder if we don't know for certain, but I kind of wonder if the angel's answer was, sorry, but no, you got this? This is going to happen. Here's how it's going to happen. We see that he was in agony after that angel came to strengthen him, and his sweat fell like great drops of blood to the ground. It appears the answer to his prayer, based on history and what we see in Scripture, the answer was no. The answer was no. Christ, in an incredible example of what to do in these situations, showed us what we do in these difficult times of our life. He didn't run. He didn't throw a fit. He accepted God's will, accepted God's desire, and his ultimate choice, and he was crucified the following day.

Understanding God's will isn't something that comes to us naturally. If you turn over to Psalm 143, Psalm 143, we'll see this is not something that comes to us naturally, understanding the will of God. Psalm 143, Psalm 143, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 9.

Psalm 143, verses 9 and 10. David's really reflecting here on the protection that God provides. He's reflecting on God, his protection, his relationship, and in Psalm 143, 9, he says the following. He says, deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies. In you I take shelter. Verse 10, teach me to do your will. Teach me to do your will. For you are my God, your spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness. So teach me to do your will. This wasn't something that David just naturally understood. He asked God to teach him, to show him, to help him to understand so that he could learn. We know David is one of those who God described as a man after his own heart. David prayed to God to be taught to do his will, to recognize it, to yield himself to it.

It wasn't something that came naturally. It wasn't something his own human reasoning could bumble through. Only God could reveal his will to David, whether it was through direct revelation, whether it was through the prophets, through Scripture, but we learn God's will from him.

As believers, it's an extremely important thing for us to understand, and it's essential for us, as believers, to discern what God's will is as we're able and to operate within it, particularly as Scripture contains a warning if we're not willing to follow his will in our lives. Let's go over to Luke 12. I'm reasonably certain this is actually Luke 12 and not John 12, so now you're always going to be questioning, though, aren't you?

As I turn to John 12. A disaster, everybody, I'm sorry. Luke 12. Luke 12, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 42. So, ways down there in Luke 12.

Luke 12 and verse 42, in the midst of this kind of breaking into the context here of the faithful servant and the evil servant, verse 42 says, And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward? Who is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food and do season? Blessed is that servant, whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Remember, so doing, there's action there. There's action in that process.

Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. Verse 45, here's the warning. But if that servant says in his heart, and we read this on trumpets again as we talked about, all that preparation coming into the day of the Lord. But if that servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming, and he begins to beat the male and the female servants, and to eat, and to drink, and to be drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him into and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. So we see there's certain actions here that God takes exception to, delaying this, I don't know, dissipation-type lifestyle when the master's delaying his coming. But in verse 47 we see that equated with God's will. That servant who knew his master's will, who knew what they were supposed to be doing, and did not prepare himself, or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed these things deserving, or things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. Because again, for everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required, and to whom much has been committed of him they will ask them more. Those who knew or know God's will, and do not do according to it, will be beaten with many stripes, will be considered to be an unprofitable servant.

I don't know, that should give us pause. That should give us pause as we consider God's will in our life. And it does. It begs the question, what exactly is God's will? What's his desire and his choice for us? There are a couple places in Scripture that specifically describe what God's will is for us as believers. Let's go there. One of them is 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 3.

1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 3, if you'd all go ahead and turn over there. We'll take a look at one example of God's will. It's kind of this, they're all kind of related in this overarching concept of sanctification that's listed here. But 1 Thessalonians 4, and it's in verse 3, but we'll go ahead and pick up the context in verse 1.

1 Thessalonians 4 verse 1 says, Finally, then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God. So they pass these things on to the people as to how they ought to walk and please God. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

Know the type of things that they taught. For this is the will of God. Plain as day.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality.

The word used for will there is not bulame, it's pheloma. This is the decision, the choice, that God made for you. This is the decision. This is the choice that's already made. You're not going to intercede your way out of this one. You're not going to kneel down on your knees and say, okay, God, just a little bit of sexual immorality, it's okay, right? Just a little? Just a little bit? Just a small bit of fornication? God's decision, his choice for his people, his pheloma for his people is made. God says, no, the decision is made. This is the choice that I have for my people, sanctification, because he sacrificed his son for our sins. As such, there's an expected course of action that follows from that on our part. You know, we recognize, we understand, we're created with free will. God gives us the opportunity to make our own decisions, to decide for ourselves how we'll respond to his expectations, how we'll live our life. And he desires we make the decision that corresponds to his will to us, or his will for us, but he allows us to choose. He gives us the ability to exert our own pheloma, our own choice, our own will. But his ultimate desire for us is outlined in Romans 12. Let's turn over there. This section of Romans, Romans 12, 1 and 2, is such a linchpin to so many different things. Romans 12, 1 and 2, just an absolute linchpin passage. It talks about God's will, it talks about us not being conformed to the world, it talks about living sacrifice, being wholly set apart. I mean, all these things, and there's so many facets of the word of God that come back to this place in Scripture. But his ultimate desire for us is outlined right here in Romans 12. Romans 12 and verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, do not be kind of formed by its mold, shaped by its mold, so to speak, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Again, the choice has been made. The choice has been made in this situation. Jesus Christ was offered up for the sins of this world, and as a result of that decision, that action, the expectation, or we might say choice, of God is that we will respond to that sacrifice, that we will present our bodies a living sacrifice, set apart, acceptable. He desires we don't allow ourselves again to be shaped by the worlds of mold, but that instead we are to be transformed by the renewal of our mind comes through God's Holy Spirit so that we are able to understand God's will for us. So we are able to understand what His will is in our life. Kind of along this same vein in 1 Peter 4 and verse 2, the Apostle Peter writes similar.

1 Peter 4 and verse 2.

Again, kind of very similar to Romans 12 in the way that it's written. 1 Peter 4 and verse 2. And we'll pick it up in verse 1.

I like context. It says, I lost my place, sorry. Verse 2.

He goes on and continues, and it's a good read, the rest of 1 Peter 4, but I'm going to cut it off there. Peter's point to the recipients of this epistle is that because of what Christ did for us, we must put on the same mind. We must put on the same mind. It's a suffering in the flesh to cease from sin so that we no longer live the rest of our lives in our own human fleshly lusts, but that we choose to live it according to the will of God, that we are commanded to live it according to the will of God. He goes on to say that we've spent enough time living our lives during the will of ourselves. We've spent enough time living the will of this world, the lusts of the flesh that this world has, the lewdness, the drunkenness, the revelry. The insinuation of the importance of understanding God's will for their life was what was being sent to those who received Peter's epistle. Understanding God's will for their life so that they would govern their lives accordingly is implicit. We have to be willing to surrender ourselves to what God says.

We have to be willing to surrender ourselves to what God says. It's an absolute and total obedience and submission, even though that kind of obedience, submission, total and absolute rubs our human nature. It's like petting a cat backwards. It just does not treat our human nature. It's submitting to anything to our boss. We don't want to listen to that guy. That girl. We don't want to submit ourselves. It's what human nature fights against submission. But it means we have to be willing to give up what we want, sometimes what we want most for what he ultimately wants for us.

In addition to all of that, which is hard enough already, in addition to all of that, maintaining an attitude of gratefulness and thankfulness and praise for his wisdom in our life, in addition to submitting ourselves and desiring more his wants for us than our own. It means sometimes we're grateful and we're thankful and we praise even if it doesn't turn out the way that we desire, which brings us back to God's specific will for our life, the specific will for our life. It's a really interesting account located in the book of John.

Dialogues found in John 21. Let's go ahead and turn over there.

John 21. We see in this particular account that Christ and Peter are talking back and forth after he appeared to his disciples for the third time. They're enjoying breakfast, a nice big breakfast of fish, which you know not necessarily ordinarily think of as a breakfast item. The rest of the world they eat fish for breakfast. Sardine omelets is a big thing in Nigeria.

Cook an egg, drop some sardines in it, and bada-bing! You've got food. So give you a little protein, a little bit of egg. It's not bad. I made them once we got home. It's not terrible, but it's not great. It's not great either. But anyway, having a nice bit of fish for breakfast. And Christ starts the talk with Peter a little bit here. John 21. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 15.

John 21 and verse 15. So when they'd eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? Now this might be a little reminiscent to what you remember hearing and experiencing from the night that Christ was betrayed. He told him he was going to deny him three times. Well, now we have a very specific set of questions being asked of him. He says, Do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said, Feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Ten my sheep. Verse 17. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? And Peter, I mean, you can imagine he's getting a little more insistent with each time that he's asked this question. And it says, by the third time, it says Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, Do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Verse 18, most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and you walked where you wished or where you chose Thelema. But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you to where you do not choose to go, where you do not wish again Thelema. This he spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, so he's given him the end of the story. He's provided him with the spoilers. And then he says, follow me. This is how it ends, Peter. Follow me.

This is the decision that has been made. Follow me. Then Peter turning around, Peter, I love Peter, then Peter turning around, who saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who had also leaned on his breast at supper. And he said, Lord, and said, Lord, who is the one that betrays you, Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, what about this guy? What about him? What's going to happen to him?

Jesus said to him, if I will, then he remain until I come. What is it to you? You follow me.

It says, look, if I decide that I want to keep him alive all the way up until the point of my return, what's it to you? Follow me. Your path is set. You going to do it or not? You going to follow me or not?

So don't worry about John. Don't worry about him. You'll let him take care of himself.

But your path is chosen. Your path is set. But then, as we can see, some things got a little haywire, a little sideways after he said that. Verse 23, then this thing went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die, and yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die. That said, if I will or if I choose that he remain until I come. What is it to you?

So we can see he did not say John was going to live until the time of his return. He simply said, if I decide to keep him alive until my return, what is it to you? Your path is set. You follow me. It's an incredible conversation. It's an incredible conversation. It's got so much insight in a lot of Peter's personality as well as Christ's point to him. But Peter's basically told in verse 18 the method by which he would die. In his old age he would stretch out his hands and other would gird him and carry him to where he did not wish. And then verse 19 says, then this he was speaking of his death. Things kind of came full circle here. Remember the night that he was betrayed? Peter denied him three times. I don't know that guy. Because to admit to knowing him might have well meant that he was going to be crucified right next to him. But I don't know that guy. Christ told him, look, by the time of the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three times. And as it went, oh, you know this guy. No, I don't. Woman, I don't. And then Christ looks across the crowd and catches Peter's eyes. And Peter flees, sobbing. He tells him, look, you're going to be martyred, Peter. That's the decision made. There's no guesswork. It will end in your death. Are you coming or not? And Peter is left to make his choice. We know that ultimately he did. We do know that according to at least the legend, ultimately he was crucified. He said to be, he would desire to be crucified upside down because he did not want to be crucified in the exact same manner as his Lord. But Peter was martyred. That's where that road led for Peter.

It was God's will that Peter die in this fashion. It was his decision that God, or that Peter die in this fashion, that he die a martyr's death. Now, could he have chosen not to follow Christ?

Sure. Yeah, he could have walked away at that point. Would he have potentially avoided that fate? Maybe. Hmm. Maybe. But the decision was made, and Christ's point was, this is where this road ends.

But it's not going to be the same for each one of you. Again, John, don't worry about what John's doing. It's not your problem, Peter. You take care of yourself. And all of our human reasoning, when we read these kinds of passages, go, that's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair. Why would some have this happen and others not? And why would some people get sick and others don't? And why would some people die and others don't? And we go, it's not fair. Our human reasoning says, it's not fair. Let's turn over to Romans 9. We'll see the Apostle Paul kind of looks at this concept a little more in depth in Romans 9 and kind of deconstructs this argument. And I love this particular section. A lot of Paul's epistles are written as though he was speaking to people. Like, they're written in a way that it's like he could have been saying it to them because he anticipates in some ways the crowd response as he goes through things, you know, in this section where he talks about, well, does that give us license to sin? I was like, yes, no, it doesn't! You're wrong, you know, he tells the crowd. So he kind of anticipates the crowd response a little bit as time goes on here. But in Romans 9, the Apostle Paul kind of deconstructs this argument of fairness and God determining his will to be done. We'll pick it up in verse 6. This whole section of Romans 9 is worth a read if you haven't been through it in a while, but we'll pick it up in verse 6 of Romans 9. Verse 6, it says, But it's not that the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of I'm in Romans 9. That is not what I'm trying to say.

There's what I'm trying to say. Wait, no, I'm in Romans 9-9. I am sorry, ladies and gentlemen.

There we go. A little further down is what I was looking for. Romans 9.

And nope, I did want 6. I am sorry, I'm all over the place. It says, But it's not the word of God that has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children, because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called. That is, those who are the children of the flesh, those who are not the children of God, but the children of the promise, or counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise. At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one man, even our father Isaac, for the children not yet being born, not having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of him who calls. It was said to her, The elder or the older shall serve the younger, as it's written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. He's making the point to those gathered, these are decisions and choices that God made. These are decisions and choices that God made. These were his will that had acted on and decided. The choice was made. He desired Abraham have a son, and that that son of promise would be Isaac. We know that, you know, Sarah and them took things into their own hands, and Ishmael was born.

We see that he desired that Isaac marry Rebekah, and that ultimately the child Jacob would be chosen as the father of Israel. We see Esau gets the short end of his thick hair, and as a result of his own actions, but also the choice that God made. You know, if there were a crowd present at this point in time, and it wasn't a letter, there is no crowd present, but if there were, you might imagine the crowd to go, but that's not fair! That's not fair.

But Paul was already prepared for that response, because he launches into it in his next section. Kind of gets into the primary argument in verse 14. He says, What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. Verse 17, for the scripture says to the Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth. Verse 18, Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. He asks the people, Is God therefore unrighteous?

His response? Absolutely not! Certainly not! He says to Moses, I will have mercy upon whom I have mercy, compassion on whom I have compassion. Pharaoh was raised up. He was placed into power for the very purpose that God determined. He has mercy on whom he wills, and on whom he wills he hardens. Verse 19 says, You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will? Again, like this is written as a response to a crowd in a back-and-forth discourse here, he says the crowd would have said, Well, if that's the case, and if God prepares people for certain eventualities, and then that person responds exactly as God anticipated, or go Pharaoh, for example, then who has truly resisted his will? How can you hold Pharaoh accountable for that? Didn't they just not have an option anyway? Paul's response is telling, personally, I think it's telling, and frankly, it's probably tough to swallow for some.

It's tough to swallow. His response in verse 20, But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay? From the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? Paul's response is somewhat similar to what Christ said to Peter.

I formed the clay. I can choose that clay for honor, for dishonor. But God says, Because I am the potter and I have power over the clay, it's my call. It's my decision. It says, What's it to you?

Follow me. And that can be tough. Oh, it can be so tough for us to swallow.

And sometimes I think when we consider God's will in our lives, we focus on the outcome we want, and we think that it is God's will for that specific outcome to occur. Clearly, God must lie in exactly the same exact way as I do.

And what can happen is we can become obsessed without that outcome. We can become absolutely obsessed with it, such that anything that happens contrary to that desired outcome is therefore not of God. Did Job desire losing everything? Of course not. Suppose John desired being exiled? No. Paul enjoyed being imprisoned and beaten? Maybe. It does seem he allowed himself to be beaten an awful lot. Do we think Peter was excited about being martyred? No. We already saw Christ's prayer to have that cup pass from him the night before the crucifixion. These weren't humanly desired outcomes, yet they were God's will. So why, then, do we assume that it is a special outcome?

A sign of God's will only when there is a successful outcome that we determine.

These weren't things that they would have determined for themselves, and yet it was God's will.

I think I've told this story before here, and I apologize. It fits too well not to mention it again. So if you've already heard this, my apologies. For those that are new, I hope that it helps to make a point. A few years ago, I was angling to switch jobs. I think I've talked a couple times about that. I was angling to switch jobs. I was fed up at the school that I taught at, frustrated with the kids. I was sick of my subject area. I was desirous of a change. My personal will, my personal desire, my want, was a change of scenery. What I wanted was the proverbial greener grass on the other side of that fence. I got an email out of the blue the very first week of school from a principal at a local high school that essentially said, hey, there's a position here, it's open, it's yours if you want it. Ooh! Really? Okay. Two to three days into the school year.

And as I thought about it, and as I considered it, it's everything I wanted. I wanted out. I wanted this opportunity to shift up levels where, theoretically, I thought kids wanted to learn.

Theoretically, of course. I had a friend that worked in that particular science department at that high school, and they had to hire somebody short notice. He recommended me. He told the principal, this is the guy you need to call. You need an email and get a hold of this guy. Turns out the assistant principal at that school was the teacher of my ESOL program when I did my ESOL certification. See, she seconded the recommendation enthusiastically. Because the school year started, it just wasn't feasible. It just wasn't. I would have left my principal an alert. She would have had to hire somebody short notice, and it just would have been a disaster. I very politely declined. I thanked her for the consideration, and I told her if the job was still there at the end of the year that I would enthusiastically apply. Fall became winter. Winter became spring. The district started their first consideration process. For those that aren't familiar, this is in-district folks that want to move positions or move levels. They either want to leave their school and go somewhere else or move a level or do something different. And so I applied. I applied for a move to the high school level. I listed one school as my consideration. The one that they said they had a position available at. That was the one I thought, if this is what God wants me to do, okay. All right. It's like, you know, talk about lottery. All you got to do is buy one ticket. If God wants you to win it, that one ticket is going to be enough, right? No. This is kind of the same principle I suppose. Not advocating buying lottery tickets. Just throwing that out there. But I was called in to interview. I was called in to interview for this first consideration process. The person interviewing me was the principal of the high school that I said I wanted to go to.

We'd never met one another. Not once had we met one another. She'd never met me aside from the email that she'd sent me a few months earlier. She noticed that I had only listed her school.

She saw the name. She made the connection. She admitted openly. She said, this is a little spooky.

Kind of like fate or something. I said, yeah, this is a little spooky. Interesting that the only school that I applied for, the principal, was the person that was there. We got done with the interview. We had a wonderful time talking. She said, we'll be in touch. Very definitely be in touch. Spring went on. My friend that worked there texted and emailed me and told me it's a done deal. They're already referring to it as Ben's room. So when Ben's here, this will be his room. He'll have this. They're already setting up and planning to send you to this conference down in Texas for international baccalaureate stuff because that's what I would have been teaching. Working out all the classes based on your strengths. They're getting you to study. It was like progressing forward in an incredibly high, fast rate of speed. Got a phone call in the late spring for an in-person interview with a few of the people in the department. Nailed the interview. I don't know if you've had those interviews before where you walk out of it and you go, absolutely nailed the interview. At the beginning of the interview, I was basically told this is really kind of a formality. This is really kind of a formality, but we just kind of want to sit down and talk to you just a little bit. Looking forward to having you join the team, etc. Again, the interview went very well. Went back to Waldo and started making plans for a change. Sometime in the weeks between that interview and the email that I received telling me I didn't get the job, the door slammed shut.

Hard. I mean, like, hard enough to knock the door off its hinges.

And if I would have taken all of those things as they started falling into place, just, I could have concluded it is God's will for me to have this job. Period. Because it's like a one-way freight train. Nothing's getting in the way of this. But then the door slammed closed.

And so, when that door slammed shut, my principal came into my room and asked if I was interested in a job there at Waldo. The job I wasn't qualified for, I didn't have the necessary qualification. She encouraged me to apply anyway. I got the job. I didn't qualify to have it.

I got the job. That was the job that I ended up getting. That was the one that had been essentially provided for me. And the training that I received in that particular job has been incredibly useful to me in this particular role. When that door slammed shut, I had a lot of options. I did. I had several options. I could conclude that life wasn't fair. That this is what God had been giving me, this is what he'd been preparing for me, and then you took it away at the last minute. How dare you, God? I could have concluded that. I could have made a stink. I could have chewed out the principle. I could have spoke ill of them to every single person that I came across. I could choose to be angry at God. I could conclude I was under attack. I could include any number of things. But now, three to four years later, having the benefit of hindsight and being able to clear that tree line a little bit and being able to see what God was doing, I can see his hand in it from the beginning. You know, as I thought more and more about this over the last several months, a successful outcome based on our personal expectations is not the definition of God's will in action. It's not. A successful outcome based on our expectations, our desires, our wants, is not necessarily God's will. Now, do they sometimes line up? Sure. Yeah, absolutely.

Do they always? No. In fact, I would say they probably more often than not do not.

We also tend to consider God's will to be something that's hard to find, something that's difficult to discern, something that we just can't always understand. And I think part of that is because we're looking amiss. God gave us free will for a reason, because he expects us to make our choice. Now, he expects us to make our choice in accordance with spiritual principles, but he expects us to make our choice. I don't personally believe that God cares whether you drive a green car, a blue car, or a gray car. I don't think he cares. I truly don't think he cares.

He may not even necessarily care as to which job you have.

He may not even care who person is that you marry, necessarily.

What he does care about is that you're wise financially when you purchase that car, that you apply biblical principles, you apply biblical finance principles. With regards to the job, he cares that you're providing benefit with the talents that he has provided you, with the skills that you have been given and that you have been trained in.

And he expects that you're going to work for your boss, like you were working for Jesus Christ himself.

Provided your job does not contradict God's law, does it matter what you're doing? Provided you and your spouse are both willing to yield yourself to God and to one another, you're committed to making your marriage work, you could be happy with a number of people.

Provided you're willing to do those things.

I came across a quote in an article on the UCG website as I was researching this message, and it really resonated with me. It's from a book called God's in the Small Stuff. I can't attest to the rest of it. I can attest to what is in this section in this passage. I think they're spot on in the assessment. It says, Don't think that God—this is quotes page 280 and 281 from God's in the Small Stuff— don't think that God is trying to play a guessing game with you.

He's not difficult to find, and neither is his will for your life.

But most people are looking for the wrong thing when they're trying to find God's will.

They're looking for a time or a place or a person or a job. Oh, these things may be a part of God's plan for you, but his will for your life is mostly an attitude of your heart.

God wants you to give him a place of priority in your life. He wants your relationship with him to be the part of your life that is the most important to you.

As you relinquish control of your future to God, you are doing God's will for your life.

God's will for us is that we live in accordance with his way of life, that we believe in his Son, that we become a new creation, that we apply spiritual principles in everything that we do, particularly in those things that are not specifically spelled out for us in Scripture. Apply spiritual principles to understand the things that are not specifically laid out. He desires that we yield ourselves to him and to let go, because then and only then can God's will in our life be manifest. When we are stubbornly holding on to the one desired outcome that we seek, unwilling to admit that it's possible that God's will is opposite of our desired outcome, we should seriously take a moment and pause, because we may not have the perspective to be able to see the forest over the top of those trees. So how can we apply these things to our lives? How can we better yield ourselves to God's will in our life? You know, there's nothing wrong with outlining your personal desires to God. There's nothing wrong at all with outlining the way that you would like to see things go. Nothing wrong with that at all. Christ did that night before his death, but in the example that he provided us during such a stressful time, when that answer came back that was against necessarily his own desires, he accepted God's will for his life and he moved forward. He said, not my will, but yours. He outlined his desires and he said, not my will, but yours. During those times in our life where we're uncertain as to what God's will is for us, the first question we need to ask ourselves is which of the decisions before us best pursues God's ultimate will in our life? What is going to help us most become converted followers of God? Which options are going to help us live our lives accordingly and help us to walk this world as ambassadors for the kingdom of God? Which of those decisions is going to enable us to marry and to support a family, not just financially but emotionally, to provide the necessary care for that family in addition to a paycheck? Which one of those decisions is going to allow us to best make and raise Godly offspring? You know, if all of your options before you are able to satisfy this, pray to God, consult Scripture, seek wise counsel, talk to people who've been there before, ask for their advice, ask for their assistance, for their wisdom, and then utilizing the gift of free moral agency that God has provided us, compile all of these things and make the decision. God can work with you wherever you happen to be working. God can work with you regardless of the color of the car you're driving. You know, some of these things are somewhat inconsequential. God's working in our lives. He's helping to make us complete. He desires that we live in accordance with his way of life, that we apply biblical principles in our life, and that we live a good example of his way of life on this earth to show all of those, all of those that we come into contact with, that God's way works, what true Christianity looks like as we interact with people in the world around us. Being willing to take a hit on one cheek and turn the other instead of getting revenge. Being willing to love even when people are unlovable. As we conclude today, let's turn over to one final scripture. Go to Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13.

And we'll pick it up in...sorry. We'll pick it up in verses 20 and 21 of Hebrews 13.

Give us a passage to meditate on over the next week. Hebrews 13, verses 20 and 21, says, Now may the God of peace, who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, may he make you, verse 21, complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I hope you all have a wonderful Sabbath. Shannon and I and the family will be headed up to Montana to keep the feast this year. I know some of you will be traveling in the next week or so, heading into the day of atonement. I just wish you all a safe travels and a wonderful day of atonement and very inspiring and enriching remainder of your fall holy day season. I look forward to hearing about it all when you guys get back.