Knowing how to participate in God's will

I have to admit that knowing God’s will can be confusing at times. Sometimes, it is difficult to know what God is doing. At other times, when we believe that we know what He’s doing, we may struggle with what our participation should look like.

As I read through John 8 this morning, it illustrated the latter …
In this chapter, Jesus was interacting with the Pharisees. While He spoke truth to them, they were not able to receive it. In fact, their hearts were conspiring to shut Him up.

But, it was God’s will that Jesus not die at their hands in that moment. Regardless of their intentions, it was God’s will for Jesus to die at a later time on a cross. So, it was God’s will for Jesus to remain alive despite their murderous intentions. How did Jesus participate in God’s will?

John 8:20 “These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.”

We are led to believe that Jesus did nothing except rest in the watchful care of God. We aren’t told that He left the temple. We aren’t told (ever) that He took up a weapon to protect Himself. He simply rested in God’s care for Him and allowed God to fight this battle for Him.

But, then there is another verse that appears at the end of this same chapter. Look at how Jesus participated in God’s will – to remain alive until He would hang on a cross…

John 8:59 “So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

Here, Jesus did not sit quietly and let God fight for Him. While He rested in God’s watchful care, He also took action. He hid from those who would desire to kill Him. Then, He secretly left the temple so that they could not harm Him.

In participating in God’s will for His life, we are told in John 8:20 that Jesus simply rested in God’s care without (apparently) doing anything to protect Himself. Yet, in John 8:59, Jesus acted – He took evasive maneuvers while continuing to rely upon God’s watchful care.

So, let’s go back to the first paragraph above – how do we know HOW to participate in God’s will for us? How do we know when to simply let Him fight for us and when we are to take action?

At the risk of being simplistic while bringing this post to a quick resolution, we absolutely must:
- desire to do God’s will,
- live with a conscious dependence upon Him,
- spend much time in prayer,
- inform ourselves with Biblical principles,
- “listen” for the promptings of the Holy Spirit,
- seek the counsel of those who are Christ-followers endowed with wisdom, and
- utilize good decision-making principles.

But, when it all comes down to it, while we must carefully discover what we believe God desires in a matter (and what our level of participation is), we can rest in the fact that He’s got things under control. If we genuinely seek His guidance, He will provide it. And even if we make a decision unsure of whether it is God’s will, He has promised to work it out for our good (Romans 8:28) meaning that it is an opportunity to make us more like Jesus.

Why the American church struggles with evangelism

People who care

about people they don't even know

will warn them.

Yesterday, I was in a pastor-training seminar on evangelism. The speaker was well-prepared, passionate and had the credibility to lead the discussion. His lecture was saturated with helpful ideas on how to make and keep an evangelistic culture in our churches.

Yet, as we went into small groups, a discussion ensued regarding the fact that the biggest problem in the American church isn't a "how to" problem ... it's a "why to" problem. It isn't that we don't know how to tell people how to get saved - after all, we just need to share with them what we have already experienced. The problem is that many people simply don't want to share their faith.

It's not a pragmatic problem that creative ideas can fix. It's a heart problem that only repentance and personal revival can fix.

It's just like God to help drive things home to my heart. This morning, a day after the previously mentioned discussion, I was reading in "Fresh Encounter" by Henry Blackaby and came across this:

"The problem today is that churches are striving to win their world to Christ without having first been revived themselves. The result is spiritually comatose church members going door-to-door asking unbelievers if they would like to have what they have—spiritual anemia! Such an invitation is patently unappealing. It explains the high dropout rate in the church today. Newborn spiritual babes are being placed into churches filled with spiritually lethargic people. It is a recipe for disillusionment."

We absolutely MUST tell people about Jesus. Whether we feel like it or not, people must hear about how they can be made right in God's eyes before they breathe their last breath. Yet, our efforts will be apathetic at best if we are doing so with a heart that has grown indifferent ("lost our first love") and isn't enjoying sweet fellowship with our God.

What humanity really craves

The human spirit is like a vacuum ... it is born empty and craves to be filled. Many seek to satisfy this emptiness and go after a hundred different things that never ultimately deliver (i.e. pleasure, money, fame, food, power, alcohol, drugs, etc.).

Jesus tells us exactly where we can go to be filled to overflowing...

John 7:37-39
"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." ' Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."

A powerful moment at a funeral home

As a pastor, I get to be with people in their times of great joy and their times of great sorrow. I'm there when their faces beam as they hold their healthy newborn in their arms. I'm also there as they stand beside the casket of their loved ones and their cries emanate from deep within the recesses of their souls.

Today, I experienced one of those powerful moments...

I was with a member of my church and her family as they went into the room in the funeral home to view the body of her beloved husband. The grief she experienced was overwhelming and can only be understood by someone who has stood beside the cold, lifeless body of a loved one knowing that they will never see them again this side of Heaven.

As friends were invited into the room for the viewing, a few ladies from Westside were at the front of the line. They gave hugs to the bereaved. They gave words of condolence, the promise of prayers and the assurance of their presence. Then, they came and stood by me as we talked.

These ladies are extra special to me. They are incredibly encouraging to me in their words virtually every week. They each have assured me over and over that they are praying for me as I pastor Westside Baptist Church.

But there is one thing that was true of each of those three ladies that made that moment extremely powerful for me. They each had been married and had also previously stood by the casket of their beloved husband. As they watched a newly grieving widow this afternoon, they knew what it was like. They had been there. They, too, had cried. They, too, had wished a thousand times that the pain would go away. As they stood beside me and looked on the intense pain and sorrow, it almost certainly brought back painful memories.

Yet, they showed up anyway to encourage a grieving friend knowing of the pain it would cause them.

THAT is true friendship. THAT is what it looks like to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. THAT is what it is like to be "Jesus" to others. And THAT was a powerful moment that I won't soon forget.

God is good and mighty no matter what happens

I was out running an errand a few minutes ago and spending some time in prayer when I witnessed a vehicle wreck at the intersection of Main and 18th Street.

I was headed westbound on Main following a guy pulling a trailer. As we approached 18th Street, I noticed a tan Ford SUV aimed eastbound waiting for the truck and me to pass so that she could turn onto 18th. The driver of the blue minivan behind her apparently wasn't paying attention. She slammed into the rear driver side of the Ford and ricocheted into the driver ahead of me. Fortunately, he had passed milliseconds before and she didn't hit him - she slammed into his trailer. Metal and plastic smashed and exploded into the air in that moment. I don't remember hitting my brakes but I was able to stop and avoid hitting anyone. I then called 911.

If I had been about 2-3 seconds ahead of schedule, I would have been involved. Instead of hitting a lifeless trailer the driver of the Chrysler would have hit me head-on or on the driver's side. While I was glad that everyone seemed (at least immediately) to be OK, the vehicles were horribly damaged and I was left thinking about what could have been.

And in those moments, I was reminded of how some people would say things like: "Wow! God was watching out for you, Matt! You could have been in a horrible accident but God protected you!" Well, that's true but doesn't saying such things imply that the persons in the wreck were NOT protected by God? Doesn't saying such things question God's goodness or power in keeping those in horrible tragedies from such events?

God is just as good and just as in control by protecting me as He would be if I had been involved. Following Jesus doesn't create some promise from Him that things will go well for us. It simply assures us that whatever comes our way is intended for our good (Romans 8:28) and that He will be with us (Hebrews 13:5) as we go through it.

With this understanding, we really can "give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). We can thank God when He protects us and when He doesn't because we know that He intends everything for our good (to make us more like Jesus) and it absolutely must come through His powerful hands before it gets to us. There is much comfort to be found in these thoughts.

An afternoon at Land Between the Lakes

I took the following pictures at the Land Between the Lakes (Kentucky) Elk and Bison Prairie.