God's Will for Your Life

The Scripture is Matthew 10, verse 29. Here Jesus Christ is going to tell us something, that oftentimes we humans misinterpret. Because of this, at times, our lives change in various ways and are limited in various ways, that I do not believe the Bible intends for us to have that happen. In Matthew 10, verse 29, he says, Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? Copper coin was the least amount of money that the Roman Empire was using. So, are a pair of sparrows not sold for next to nothing? Sparrows, after all. And not one of them falls to the ground, apart from your father's will. Apart from your father's will. Verse 30, But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. It's been tradition in the Church to use this verse, and perhaps others like it, to say that God determines everything. God has a will that determines which birds will fall, which hairs will fall, and which will stay. I don't know why, but for some reason, God wants some of you to be bald in this room. And the rest of us who are fighting that, well, the result is not yet known. But if God determines everything, and without it, nothing happens, then sparrows can't fall to the ground dead, can they? Unless God wants them to. Your pet can't die. You can't comb hairs out of your head, ladies or men, without the will of God, if we read it in this way. And so, discovering God's will for you becomes a kind of quest for church members. What is God's will? What does He want me to do for my bird, for my hair, for my car, for my house, for my career? Every choice that I make, it becomes a necessity to determine somehow to divine the will of God.

Before making any big decision in life, many try to go through a process of divining God's will. Should we move? Should we buy a house, or should we rent? There's something over there. Should we go for that? Should we take courses for this career? Or should we buy that pair of shoes? I don't know.

Big decisions. Should we move to a different climate? The divine will is often done through various methods. Prayer, obviously. Fasting.

But, you know, prayer and fasting don't necessarily get answers. You don't hear the heavens rock. You don't hear the answers flash on the TV screen. And so, there can also be some sign seeking after the prayer and fasting. So, you're sort of on all alert. What is the sign? What is the answer? We're looking for it in any kind of science. You know, the phone rings once, and nothing else. Is that good or bad? You know, if a grandma calls up and she's fond of the ideas, is that a go? We run it by the pastor, and he thinks it's dumb. Is that two thumbs down from on high? How do you interpret the decision of what God's will is? Sometimes it's just a feeling. Oftentimes, I hear people saying, well, I've got this feeling. Now I just feel it's God's will. I know it's God's will, and I'm going forward. I know it's God's will to sell everything I have and put it into this business, and then the business goes south. And they lose everything. And what's the answer? Well, I guess it wasn't God's will. See how that works?

We kind of have a hunch, a hankering. And after determining what God's will is, then many times we have the faith, then, that it's going to succeed. Because after all, it's God's will. It cannot fail. This venture that we have, this relationship that we have, this whatever it is, this cannot fail. And when it doesn't, I hear so often the response, well, I guess it just wasn't God's will. I'd like to consider this part or this verse in the light of some recent events.

In January, I was at a site in Tanzania where 10 little children were killed by the tsunami. That tsunami went on to kill many, many tens of thousands of people. Obviously, if a bird can't fall to the ground without God's will, a tsunami can't wipe out tens of thousands of people, including those 10 little children in Tanzania. Was that God's will? That those people were killed? That all that destruction took place? In neighboring Sudan, some 70,000 people have been slaughtered. 1.5 million or so have been displaced from their homes. Has that been God's will?

Last week, a commercial truck driver went to his doctor to get the biennial recertification, the medical, that goes along with the CDL. And in order to get your two-year medical, evidently you have to have a blood pressure of 140 over 90 or below. His was 210 over 130.

Is it God's will that he loses his job?

Teenage son of a minister has been fighting for his life in California after a one-car accident.

Is it God's will that a teenage boy is in that state week after week?

A person applied for a job and was not hired. Another person started a business and it failed. A member prayed about buying a house, sought God's will. The house was bought out from under them by someone else.

Were those God's will?

A member of the Council of Elders was bitten by a poisonous snake.

He endured the swelling and the pain. It didn't kill him. He's okay.

Was it God's will that he was bitten by a poisonous snake? What is God's will? Is God's will being done? And if so, where is God's will being done? I hope some of these questions and things have you thinking, scratching your head, as I've been doing for some weeks now and preparing this sermon. Today I'd like to take you on a tour of some scriptures, looking at this very important subject about what is God's will in your life. First of all, let's ask the question, can anything be done apart from the will of God?

In other words, without God willing it, does he sit up there with the master plan and sort of divinely forecast everything that's taking place and nothing can take place on this earth without his involvement? I'd like you to go to Matthew 6 and verse 9, and let's take a look at the introduction to what is called the model prayer or the prayer outline that Jesus Christ left us. In Matthew 6 and verse 9, Jesus said, in this manner, therefore pray. This then is the prayer, the core of the firstfruits, those with the Spirit of God, those who want to have that Spirit to be a part of the family of God.

And as we go into the prayer, he says, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is being done in heaven. Now that should tell us some things. There's God, the Father, the one with the will. And we are praying about a time when his will would be done on earth as it is now being done on earth. His will would be done on earth as it is now being done in heaven.

Isn't it interesting that in the connection of God's kingdom which is yet to come to this earth, we are told right here that his will is not being done in this earth. Rather, it is being done in heaven. It's part of our prayer. It's part of the whole concept that this world and the things that go on in this world are not God's will. But we pray that one day God's will will be done on this earth just as now it is being done in heaven. Why not on earth today? In 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 3, the Apostle Paul says, But even if our gospel is veiled, is it God's will for the truth, the gospel, to be veiled?

Is God the Father desiring people to be in ignorance, to be lied to, to have falsehood talk to them? If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Is it God's will for people to perish in the short term or in the long term? We'll find out a little bit later.

Whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. Hmm. The light, the truth, God in godliness is being keepin' from this world. Is that the will of God? No. It's certainly not the will of God. Whose will is that? If you look in Revelation 20 and verse 2, we'll find out whose will that is. Revelation 20, beginning in verse 2. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more. This is God's will, is for his will to be done on earth instead of Satan's will to be done on earth.

That no more of his will of deceiving the nations would take place. That's what the whole kingdom of God is about. That's why we pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, just as it is in heaven. So, again, this is the will of God. That his righteousness, that his mentality, his mind would come to this earth and Satan's would be pushed away. We find out this is not God's will. Wars are not his will. Killings and death and strife and all forms of sin are not the will of God.

Accidents are not God's will. Tsunamis are not God's will. In fact, since God's will is not being done on earth, as Jesus said in the model of prayer, most things that happen are not God's will, believe it or not, even in your life. We're called to repent of a lot of things in our life, aren't we, that are not God's will. Let's go over to 2 Peter 3 and verse 9. Take a look very briefly here at a statement that begins to give us a glimpse of the will of God. At the end of this verse, 2 Peter 3 and verse 9, it says, The Lord is not willing that any should perish.

So all these disasters and perishing and people who are blinded in the process of perishing, is that God's will? No. The Lord's will, it says here in verse 9, is that He is not willing that any should perish, and that certainly is in the eternal sense, but that all should come to repentance. Now we begin to see a statement about what God's will is. God's will, it says, is that all should come to repentance.

Let's go back and revisit the verse in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 29. I'd like to show you how this verse trips us up. I believe it puts church members on an unfair, unequal playing ground, as it were, with others who do not believe that some sort of fate controls their life or some sort of other power controls what is going to happen, what will happen, what is best to happen, and you must somehow get in touch with this power, this being, or this divine fate, and know the future, be able to sort of tell the future as to what is good or bad. Here we see in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 29, Now let's take a look at the Greek for the word will, shall we?

The Greek for the word will doesn't exist because the word will is not in the original Greek text. That was added. Sorry, you can't find it because it's not there. You can't define it because the word is not there. Actually, the Greek manuscripts don't contain it. The King James Version, the New Revised Standard Version, the New American Standard Version all translate it correctly, which is, without or apart from your father, not your father's will, without or apart from your father. Somebody said, well, that means his will. They wrote in the word will. That's not what it says. What is it talking about? Well, if we go back and look at the context, what's he saying? God knows everything. God observes and knows everything. He knows when birds fall from the sky, even the most insignificant birds. He knows how many hairs are on your head, even if it's not a big number to have to count.

And those are insignificant. And if he knows that, how much more important is your life, your salvation? How much more important are you to him than a couple of hairs or a couple of sparrows? Are animal attacks God's will? Bites from snakes or lions or sharks? Or from malaria-bearing mosquitoes that infect our members and millions of people around the world? Is that God's will? This era does not reflect godliness. The nature of the animals do not reflect God's nature.

The things that happen on this earth do not reflect the mind of God. They reflect a very carnivorous, self-centered, self-seeking mind that is ever present and is radiated from the mind of Satan and his demons. The next era, however, that one that we pray for God to come back, Jesus to come back, the Father's will to be done on earth, the saints to rule, that's going to reflect the nature of God.

Let's notice back in Isaiah 11 and verse 6, just to give us a visual representation of what it will be like on earth when the will of God is being done here. Isaiah 11 verse 6, The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together.

Mmm, we have coyotes running around. You wouldn't want to try one of them on a lamb or on a pet, because they always lose. Over in Africa, the lions and the leopards, they are incredibly fast and powerful and good at killing. They think nothing of it, but they rip and tear. And the giant crocodiles over there, that 15 and a half feet long, and why does a boat some of them?

They're just voracious. But then, when God is ruling here and His will is being done, it says, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them, and the cow and the bear shall graze, their young one shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den, and they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.

That's what's going to happen when God's will is being done on this earth. It's a very different time. That will happen when His kingdom come. But for right now, this is Satan's era. And we have to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves as we make our way through very treacherous times for us, physically and spiritually, because we have a roaring lion that wants to devour us and rip us apart. And that is Satan the Devil.

1 John 2, verse 16, says, For all that is in the world is not of the Father, but is of the world. Now think about that for a minute. All that is in the world is not of the Father, but it is of the world. The lust of the flesh, the pride of life, etc. We begin to see here a sharp contrast between the world, the era, the society, the cosmos that we exist in, and that environment where God has His will being done, which is right now in heaven, and within those firstfruits of the kingdom, of the family of God, who are linked to Him by the Holy Spirit.

That's where His will is being done. Only those have submitted to Him. We are part of, really, an intrusive group into this society. If you think about it, we are an intrusion of God-mindedness into a society that has selfish-mindedness. We don't really fit here. We shouldn't look around and somehow try to sew the two together and think that God's will is somehow being done and everything. I think you can see some tragedies that take place regularly to church members, to people outside the church, to innocent people, disasters that take place on a regular constant basis, that have nothing whatsoever to do with God or with the will of God.

And for that reason, we pray, thy kingdom come. If you look, for instance, back at Isaiah 53, we see one of the chief individuals in this invasive, intrusive group show up on the world scene. Who has believed our report, verse 1, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him, before the Father as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He doesn't fit. The dry ground, the desert, the wasteland, there's none of God's Holy Spirit symbolizing water.

And yet here's a tender root. It's different. He has no form or comeliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men. It doesn't fit. Jesus Christ didn't come into a world that was doing His Father's will. Jesus Christ was doing His Father's will.

And look what happened to Him. He got killed. The apostles, the prophets were doing His will. But they got killed. People down through time. Look at Hebrews 11. You see many people towards the end of that book who were unnamed, who were doing the will of God, and they didn't fit. And they met an untimely end for it.

Verse 5, But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him. And by His stripes we are healed. We see in verse 10, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief.

When you make His soul an offering for sin, Yes, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. This is the will of God. That Jesus Christ would come and die for many. Verse 11, So He shall see the labor of His body, And be satisfied by His knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many, For He will bear their iniquities. The will of God isn't always what humans think it is, But humans expect it to be.

His will is that His kingdom comes, And that on this earth, and in all places, He will bear their iniquities. His kingdom comes, And that on this earth, and in all places, His will eventually will be done. But now, Paul says, back in 1 Corinthians, You see your calling.

Not many now are called. And what's that calling all about? Well, it's so that no flesh would glory, But that God's truth would go out, And He would receive the glory and the honor. We're told to resist the devil, And He will flee from you. Matthew 6, in that same prayer, Jesus Christ tells us, Pray that you will not be led into temptation, And that the evil one will not get you.

Protect us from the evil one. Deliver us. Yours is the kingdom we seek, not the one that's here. Those He is called, He is sanctified. This small group of those He is sanctified. We will rule with Him if we do not faint. Begin to see that this group is different. The people who God has placed His Spirit in have been given a deposit. They have been given the first part of the Spirit dimension That they will have for all eternity. That is our salvation. The Spirit dimension now is a little part of our mind.

Eventually it will compose everything, including what we are and who we are. It's a wonderful thing. It doesn't exist on this planet outside of those whom the Father is drawing. Jesus said in John 17, in verse 15, It was His final prayer before going out to be crucified or taken that evening.

Verse 15, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world. So here we are in this society. We really don't fit when we have the mentality that it's not of this world. Jesus said, I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world. Just as I am not of the world.

You see how this is not God's world? His will is not being done here. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. And as you sent me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. So here we are in hostile territory. We are an intrusive group. We don't fit. The adversary, the roaring lion, seeks to devour us. Our eternal lives are at stake. Here are the rules of engagement, Jesus gives us.

He who seeks his life shall lose it. He who loses his life for my sake shall find it. The Apostle Paul says, I have forsaken all and I count it done. Those are the rules of engagement. Hmm. What is God's will for you? Surely he has one for me, you say, I say. Surely God has a will for me. What is his will for me? Is it to buy that three-story house or just the two-story house? Is that the Humvee with the armor plating?

No, I'm just kidding. Turn with me to Matthew 19, and I will read God's will to you. God's will for you. For you, personally. Let's go to Matthew 22, instead of 19. Let's start in verse 37. Here is God's will. This is the bottom line. This is as good as it gets. You wake up in the morning and say, what is God's will for me today? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first in great commandment, and the second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. That, brethren, is the will of God. That comprises the entire Bible. That is what is on God's mind for you and for me. In doing the will of God, we perform that for which we were created, and this whole universe was created. Becoming children in his family. That's what he wants for us. That's what he wants for us. What you do with your physical life on a daily basis need only be in accordance with the will of God. That's not a big, dark secret, but it's a very big challenge.

In other words, as we wake up in the day and we're put before us certain challenges, certain opportunities, certain decisions, we should look at God's will and apply it to those choices. What we say, what we think, what we do, why we want to do certain things, why we would choose to do certain things, the risks that we take, the security measures that we take, should all be in accordance with God's will.

In loving God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, loving our neighbor as ourself. And then, see, the responsibility isn't up to God as to whether you buy the house or those shoes, or you take that course, or you move, or whatever choice is in front of you. You now have the will of God to apply to those choices, so that you make the choice according to the will of God.

Not that God makes the choice for you according to His will, which would take all the responsibility away from you. And we would not, therefore, have to make any choices in life, or exercise the Word of God in our life. We need God's Holy Spirit to guide us in our hopes and in our dreams. Some of those hopes and dreams are very self-centered, and they need to be revised. Not necessarily that the choice is a wrong one, but the reason for the choice could be a wrong one.

Sometimes it's just the mind, the mentality, the thought processes that have to be changed around. When you have a decision to make, when you have an opportunity, when you have a choice to make, don't ask God. Ask yourself, is this in accordance with God's will? That's what we each need to ask. When you're about to say something, is this in accordance with the will of God?

What am I about to say? What am I about to do? Whose will? We're praying, your will be done in my life, because I am a little part, advanced link to that kingdom of God now. You should be ruling in my life. I should be doing your will, you see. So am I, or is the choice I am about to make, according to your will?

God's given you all the information you need. All you have to ask is, does it enhance my relationship with God? Does it enhance my relationship with my neighbor? Loving God, loving neighbor. Does this enhance that in any way? Does it detract from it in any way?

Does it embellish? Would it serve or help anyone? Would it hurt someone? Would it cause someone to stumble? Would it cause me not to be able to serve or love God or my fellow man better? Weigh it in those terms. Then you know if it is in accordance with God's will. He's not going to choose from you.

He's not going to give you a special sign. I've heard some real doozies of signs in the past. And just because something personal didn't work out for you didn't mean it wasn't God's will. God gets all the credit on the one hand and all the credit on the other hand. If it was in harmony with God's will and it didn't work out, you just blew it.

You know? That's all there is to it. You blew it. You just didn't apply what were called the seven laws of success. You run down through the seven laws of success. Now, let's have mystical will of God over here. Never know. Sort of have to divine this and read the tea leaves to figure it out.

Over here you have the seven laws of success. One, two. See how they work. You have this desire. Now, which are you going to apply? Have the right goal. The first law of the seven laws of success. The right goal means it fits in with the will of God. Did you have the right goal?

Number two. Preparation needed to achieve the right goal. Did you prepare? Did you work for this? Had you planned for it? Had you done the research? Had you done the math? Had you saved the money? Had you checked it out? Had you figured out the career or that or this relationship or whatever? Had you really done your homework? An old saying, knowledge is money. Knowledge is power. It's something. When you know and you've done your preparation, you have an advantage. Number three.

Good health. If you go in on that job interview and the person across the desk determines that you're a health risk for the company's health benefits plan, you may suck it dry in the next five years. You might not get the job. Plus, if it's something that's going to take whatever your goal is, if it's going to take a large amount of stress or whatever, you may not have the health to get through it and do a good job.

Are you sharp-minded? Do you have the mental sharpness? If it's marriage you're pursuing, are you an asset or a liability? Have you prepared? Are you just coming in as a... I don't know... I look good. Or is there some preparation there? The fourth key is drive. You know, the early bird gets the worm. Only one wins the prize, the Apostle Paul said. So run in a way that you may obtain it.

How about the businessmen? The Bible says, See a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before obscure men. Isn't God's will that a businessman succeeded in business? He just works hard. He's diligent. The Bible does not condone laziness or shiftlessness. It counsels us to consider the ant. And be wise. Commands industriousness. That's the drive. Fifth is resourcefulness. You're going to hit obstacles. Wasn't God's will? Hit a wall. I remember one time I went hunting. When hunting for deer and elk. And they were up on this big mountain ahead, up in Canada. Only problem was, coming down this four-wheel drive road in my van, the bridge was washed out. It's the deer and the elk abi. No, I got my deer. Just the bridge was washed out. Just had to build another bridge. Has to prospect you who came out of there. He says, nobody's been up in there for 20 years. We came out with the deer. How'd you get up there? They had to rebuild the bridge. Just an obstacle. No one else had been there for 20 years. Wasn't a big bridge. It was a little bridge. Anyway, resourcefulness. There's always going to be crises, dead ends. These things are not God's will. They're just roadblocks. A roadblock is something you go over, you go around, go through it, whatever. Perseverance. After you do all that, you still have to persevere. I mean, stick to it. Things aren't working out. Guess it's not God's will. No. You just have to keep trying and trying and trying and trying and trying and trying and trying and stick to it. And when things aren't working, you stick to it. Just keep going and stick to it. Remember Jacob and Leah? Oh, didn't get Rachel. Guess I'll go home. No. Worked another seven years. Perseverance. You know, we kind of like light bulbs. Edison tried a few filaments and they didn't work. That's why we don't have lights today. I don't know how many hundreds of substances he went through to get tungsten and finally have the breakthrough of the light bulb. But we're pretty happy he did. Perseverance. And the seventh point is having contact with God, the continuous help of God. Look at the first law. Having the right goal. Sitting in with the will of God. Look at the last goal. Having a relationship with God. The last goal and the first goal are essentially the same goal. And if you put either one last, you'll fail. Mr. Armstrong said in the book, Seven Laws of Success, understand this. You are a free moral agent. Hello. No will of God mapped out for you. You are a free moral agent. He will never force you to decide to go his way. He will only allow you to choose. He compels you to make your own decision. Otherwise, his purpose would be thwarted. He commands you to choose the way that leads to real success.

You must make the decision. You must set this right goal. You must set your will. You must expend your full effort. You must work at it. Overcoming, growing, developing spiritually, sticking with it. Yet God supplies the all-important ingredient. His power, his love, his faith, his guidance, his life. See how this life really is our responsibility, isn't it? And the decisions that we make on a daily basis are our responsibility. At the beginning of this sermon, I mentioned several situations and asked if they were God's will. Just because God doesn't prevent something from happening, doesn't throw it back on his back as him desiring or willing for it to happen.

The truck driver couldn't get his commercial driver's license renewed. High blood pressure. Doctor asked him, do you eat vegetables? He replied, absolutely not. Do you drink a lot of water? No, I don't.

Doctor knew something and said, you know, I'm going to show you something here. Just to show us how the 7 Laws of Success can factor in here and not the divine will of God in this person's driving career. Doctor says, I want you to go in the other room and drink a liter and a half of water. Because the doctor knew that if his blood pressure dropped to 190, he could get a 3-month temporary medical and he could keep driving. An hour later, after a liter and a half of water, the man's blood pressure was down below 190 and he got a 3-month suspension. And a warning that he only had 3 months to drop it, you know, what, another 50 points. It was in that man's power to do something about it. There's a teen in the hospital from an accident. He fell asleep at the wheel, slammed into a pole.

The number one, if not one of the most frequent causes of fatal accidents at night, between the hours of, I think it's 2 and 4 a.m. The number one cause of fatal accidents is falling asleep. Did that teen have any control or was this the will of God?

Person applied for a job. He wasn't as knowledgeable as the other applicants. He wasn't as timely as the other applicants. He wasn't as well-dressed and he wasn't as skilled. Put that one over under personal responsibility. Person started a business. 90% of businesses fail in the first two years, they say. Why should yours succeed? That's the question I like to ask people when they're starting businesses. Why do you think yours should succeed?

They have a good answer. If they can answer it to themselves, that's fine, but why should yours succeed? Person prayed about buying a particular house. They sought the will of God. They fasted.

Goodbyes don't last. Early bird gets the worm. That house went in the flash and wasn't there when they came back. Certain women desired to marry Boaz. Ruth got to him first.

Show me an example in the Scripture of anyone praying for guidance in selecting a house, a job, a career, money, or any physical, personal thing. The prayers in this Bible are aimed at God's will, God's work, God's gospel, God's kingdom coming. People repenting, people growing. The Apostle Paul praying for members in their spiritual growth. Repeatedly throughout Scriptures, the prayers are about doing the divine will of God, which is people being brought into the kingdom of God. The daily physical details are our responsibility. And yet we paralyze ourselves thinking that we must seek God's will before we make any choices in our lives because He has some pre-decision already planned. Think over to James 4, verse 13. This Scripture came to me the other night and was thinking, Oh no, here's a Scripture in the Bible that might negate everything I'm saying here. Maybe I'm on the wrong track. So I had to look it up. Got up in the morning and went and checked James 4, verse 13-17.

In other words, our works need to be done properly according to the will of God, not following some divine plan of fate, which the pagans believed in, of old. Amen, James 3. Let's go to James 4. I like that Scripture, though. Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, make a profit. Those who say, this is going to happen in the future, we're going to do this tomorrow, and there's a demonstrative statement, we're going to do this tomorrow.

Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. I think this is an important statement. I knew someone who would make a statement, I'm going to do this in such and such a time period, and I'm going to do that in such and such a time period. I kept count. I quit counting. He was zero for twelve. It's just the way it is sometimes that we don't know what the future is, okay?

We don't know what the future is. And also, we don't know if what we think we will do will actually sit in with the will of God when we get there. Have you ever reconsidered when you get up to a certain point and think, you know, I thought this was going to be a really good idea? Maybe it's not such a good idea. Maybe it's not the right thing.

Maybe it's not out of love to God or my fellow man. So he says here, but instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, so everything that happens in the future is by divine plan, right? Look up that Greek word. It can mean take delight in or have pleasure in. Now, this really throws it back on me when I read this verse. Don't say I'll do this or I'll do that. But I'll say, if the Lord takes pleasure or has delight in this, when I get there, I'll do it.

That means the Lord taking pleasure into lighting in my being alive when I get there. That's a good prerequisite. And it's fitting in with His will. His will being for me to love Him and love my neighbor as myself. I find that verse stretches the responsibility back to me and to God. It kind of puts it as a dual involved or almost a dual responsibility there. If God will let me live, if God allows it, and if when I get there, using His Holy Spirit and using His word, it is fitting.

And it pleases and He would delight in that. Then I'll do that. In John 6, verse 38, we begin to see some Scriptures now where the will of God is stated stronger and stronger. John 6, verse 38, For I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. Guess what He's going to tell us?

He's going to tell us the will of the Father. Verse 39, And this is the will of Him who sent me. Here it is. Drumroll. Here's the will of God. Jesus Christ is going to define it for us. That I should lose none of all that He has given me, but raised them up at the last day. That's what the will of God is. That human beings would come to know God the Father, cleanse through His Son Jesus Christ, and be raised into the Kingdom at the last day.

For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise Him up at the last day. In Acts 20, verse 27, the Apostle Paul tells us the whole will of God. In case you thought that was just part of it. Acts 20, verse 27, because I sort of suspected that too.

Well, maybe that's just the will of God for Jesus Christ. What's His will for me? Acts 20, 27, For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Here it is for you and me, the whole will of God.

Keep watch over yourselves, and the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. That's the will of God. That the flock that He bought with His own blood would be protected from Satan and enter the Kingdom of God.

Hebrews 10, verse 36, You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For in just a very little while, He is coming and will not delay. Doing the will of God means being ready for the Kingdom, being ready for Jesus Christ when He returns.

God's will is for us to be in His family. The physical details of what you wear, what you drive, and how you live, that's your business. That's the things that challenge us in life. How your physical condition is and any limitations you have weren't God's will. But God's will is for you to live eternally, and He will use whatever comes along, whatever happens to you, whatever accidents happen to you, whatever disabilities you may have. He will use that in conjunction with the rest of your spiritual development because His will is for you to be in His Kingdom. Not to live some enchanted, lined-out physical life in this life. We have choices now. Some of those choices have reactions.

Those reactions are up to us. You get a big house, you get a big bill every month, you know? It's up to us to choose some of that. God has put us on an earth full of physical opportunities. What do you want to do while you're here? It's limitless. You can go to Peru and work in the Peace Corps. You can climb Mount Kilimanjaro. You can make igloos out of ice in Alaska. Whatever you want to do, swim with the dolphins. It's up to you. It really is. Proverbs is full of encouragement of how we can do better in this physical realm in which we live on a daily basis. But it's opportunity and its seven laws of success apply to those opportunities. Diligence, hard work, honesty, go to the ant. I mean, do we need more? Do we need the will of God? No. We just need to apply godliness and go about our daily life. That's our job. We're to figure it out. God's job is to provide what we can't. Spiritual knowledge, forgiveness, eternal life, His Holy Spirit, along with the life that we're living. The two go hand in hand. Do you want a house? Choose wisely and rapidly, at least in this market. Want a car? Proceed wisely. Look at long-term value. Look at endurance. Want a career? Prepare aggressively, according to your interests, your abilities, and its benefits, and according to how it may contribute to the lives of others that you may want to bring into your life, such as God, a spouse, the church, etc., etc. Now, plenty of variables come along in this life. It kind of makes things interesting. Kind of like a board game, or dice game, or card games. You never know what you're going to get dealt on any given day. Ecclesiastes 9-11 says, the race is not to the swift, not always, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill, but time and chance happen to them all. If time and chance has happened to you, and it doesn't seem fair, it wasn't God's will. It's just that time and chance happens to everybody. And the great singer on the radio with that gravely lousy voice, who's making a million dollars off every tune, that can't sing half as good as you, is there by time and chance?

Sometimes unexpected tragedies strike, and those are always difficult to deal with, like the shooting that happened at the services of the Living Church of God in Wisconsin recently. In Luke 13, verse 1, Jesus Christ describes events that happen on this earth outside of the will of the Father.

There were present at the same season some who told Jesus about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. These must be deficient people in some way. And Jesus answered and said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans? Because they suffered such things? I tell you, no, they were not worse sinners. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them.

Do you think they were worth sinners than all the other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no. When the tower in Siloam fell, it was probably on a street. And probably a busy street, a market street back then, Siloam was a busy city. If it had fallen a few seconds earlier, it would have killed eighteen different people. A few seconds later, it would have killed, again, eighteen different people. Time and chance happen to people. Now, there are some things that we can do in life to better protect ourselves and wear hard hats around falling towers. We can have security. For years, we have met in a location where one of the pilots that flew a jet into the World Trade Center, two blocks away from here, he lived and he knew about this synagogue that we meet in every way. It's a no-brainer that we're on somebody's radar. And we have a little extra security that we take into consideration here. When you're doing something dangerous, you might wear safety goggles or a safety hat. You might wear gloves. If you're driving a car, you might take a defensive driving course in order to not be hurt by some of the crazies that are out there when you're not doing anything wrong. It ups your chances, you see what I mean? It increases your chances of not getting hurt in an unfair world. You can diet. You can exercise. You can do things to help your body. You can use wisdom. You can avoid certain locations at certain times that are more dangerous than others. You can employ safety equipment. Or when things are dangerous that you might fall off a ladder and kill yourself, you might hire someone else to come do that particular job. So again, what is God's will for us in all of these things? Love God most. Love our neighbor as we love ourselves. In other words, become perfect like God is perfect. We're to be perfect. It's a process. We have to become like God is. That's how the events of this life work together to bring us to a state whereby we can be accepted into the kingdom of God. Otherwise, if we go back over to this side, we'll think that house that we wanted, that we didn't get, was not God's will for us to buy. Instead, He wants us to buy that dump down the street. It's been available for two years. If you don't get that company job, you're going to think that He wants you to work for your brother-in-law, who's the only other guy that will hire you. But God gave you a mind. He gave you creativity. He gave you resources. He doesn't have to do it for us, brethren. He doesn't have to do it for us. In closing, God's will is that you become like Him in all ways. The rest of this life in the process is up to you to live. 1 Corinthians 9, 24. Do you not know that those who run a race all run but won, receive the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. Do you want to win more races? Learn to run better. Do you want to win the prize? Do everything according to the will of God. Love Him. Love your fellow man.