Sermon series on "God's Will sermon 1 7/6/08
Sermon Series on “God’s Will”
Sermon 1
7/6/2008
Ever since I was old enough to think about God, I have from time to time thought about the will of God. It usually comes to mind when I have witnessed or read about some terrible event, especially events in which there appeared to be no reason for it to have happened. There were things like the death of an apparently healthy baby or child. Things like the death, that was reported in the news this past week, of the woman in the emergency room that fell to the floor and then was ignored, for an hour, as she lay there dying. Things like watching someone catch some deadly disease that had done everything right, in taking care of themselves. The list could go on and on as you look at wars and natural disasters.
Then there are those people, the ones that plague society, the cheaters, liars, those who prey on the defenseless, those who blatantly defy God and still live a good life. That does not even count those who govern others, living in luxury they starve their citizens and generally abuse them.
Then look at the Old Testament where we see time after time that God told his chosen people to level entire cities, sprinkle salt in the fields, hamstring horses, enslave people, and yes even kill babies. What type of God does these things? Is he the God of love that we all follow? What is God’s will in all those things that are recorded?
The will of God has been the subject of my study for years as I wrestle with what is recorded in the Bible and what I see happening in the world around me. It has been probably 20 years now since I heard a beloved pastor of the church that Penny and I attended, say to the grief stricken mother of a son who just died unexpectedly, “God gives and God takes.” I thought the woman was going to come out of her chair and whack him. She was so angry. She was not angry at the pastor, but God, for how could a loving God who died for her and her son take him away from her. It just did not make sense. She left the church for some time, for how could she worship a God that did that to her son, her only son.
That incident was the catalyst that got me really involved in the study of the “Will” of God, for it was then that it became perfectly clear to me that not only a person’s faith is affected by their understanding of the “Will” of God, but their whole outlook on life is affected.
This is what I mean. Each one of you has your own opinion of the will of God. I know that more than likely most of you might never have ever set down and really thought about the specific subject of the will of God. Even though you haven’t you still have a specific view of the will of God. Some of you, when you have thought about it, see God as the powerful ruler in the sky. He is in complete control of all things including your life. You might believe, as much as you would hate to admit, that you are at his whim. Your attitude would be much like the story of Job. You just see yourself being tossed between God and Satan. You know that God wins, but your life is still a game in which the two most powerful beings are using you as their game piece.
There are probably some of you who really don’t see God as being involved in your life. He came to earth. He died and rose and because of that when you die you know you will be in heaven, but other than that God’s “Will” is pretty much out of the picture.
Then there are others, who are probably more like I am. I give credit for all the good stuff in life as being God’s “Will” while saying that the bad stuff is not his will. Oh we might say if something good comes out of a bad event that God’s will was done, but for the most part God gets credit for the good and Satan gets credit for the bad.
Do you see the problem? We are easily tossed to and fro in life’s tragedies, because we don’t know what is God’s will. We need to know, at least as much as we can for every Sunday, and I am sure for most of you every day of the week, we pray that God’s will, will be done.
As a good Lutheran I first looked up every passage in the Bible that referred to God’s will. I then looked in Luther’s Large Catechism to see what he had to say about God’s will and found this out. He wrote in his explanation of the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, that we should pray, “Dear Father, your will be done and not the will of the devil or of our enemies, nor of those who would persecute and suppress your holy Word or prevent your kingdom from coming; and grant that we may bear patiently and overcome whatever we must suffer on its account, so that our poor flesh may not yield or fall away through weakness or sloth.”[1]
You will notice that he did not address what the will of God is. You actually get a pretty good idea of God’s will in the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come”. You see, according to what Luther wrote, the will of God is to bring his kingdom to this earth; the coming of the kingdom being when people are brought to faith and then the final coming of the kingdom at the end of time. God wins.
Now that tells us what the end result is of the will of God, but does not describe the working of God’s will. Through the study of God’s Word and reading of other writings on the subject of God’s will I have come to the conclusion that for us to understand the will of God we need to look at his will in 3 different ways. First we will look at the intentional will of God, that is God’s original intent for his creation, pure trusting fellowship with him. Next we will look at the circumstantial will of God; now that his human creation sinned against him. Then we will look at the ultimate will of God; that is the purposeful will of God that cannot be defeated.
I will then close the series on the will of God, by showing you how you can better discern the will of God which will lead to a strengthening of your faith so that you can have peace in his holy will. That is my goal, I hope you will join me every Sunday in July, as we learn more about our Triune God, who is unfathomable without his Holy Word. Amen
[1]Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000). The Book of Concord : The confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (449). Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Sermon 1
7/6/2008
Ever since I was old enough to think about God, I have from time to time thought about the will of God. It usually comes to mind when I have witnessed or read about some terrible event, especially events in which there appeared to be no reason for it to have happened. There were things like the death of an apparently healthy baby or child. Things like the death, that was reported in the news this past week, of the woman in the emergency room that fell to the floor and then was ignored, for an hour, as she lay there dying. Things like watching someone catch some deadly disease that had done everything right, in taking care of themselves. The list could go on and on as you look at wars and natural disasters.
Then there are those people, the ones that plague society, the cheaters, liars, those who prey on the defenseless, those who blatantly defy God and still live a good life. That does not even count those who govern others, living in luxury they starve their citizens and generally abuse them.
Then look at the Old Testament where we see time after time that God told his chosen people to level entire cities, sprinkle salt in the fields, hamstring horses, enslave people, and yes even kill babies. What type of God does these things? Is he the God of love that we all follow? What is God’s will in all those things that are recorded?
The will of God has been the subject of my study for years as I wrestle with what is recorded in the Bible and what I see happening in the world around me. It has been probably 20 years now since I heard a beloved pastor of the church that Penny and I attended, say to the grief stricken mother of a son who just died unexpectedly, “God gives and God takes.” I thought the woman was going to come out of her chair and whack him. She was so angry. She was not angry at the pastor, but God, for how could a loving God who died for her and her son take him away from her. It just did not make sense. She left the church for some time, for how could she worship a God that did that to her son, her only son.
That incident was the catalyst that got me really involved in the study of the “Will” of God, for it was then that it became perfectly clear to me that not only a person’s faith is affected by their understanding of the “Will” of God, but their whole outlook on life is affected.
This is what I mean. Each one of you has your own opinion of the will of God. I know that more than likely most of you might never have ever set down and really thought about the specific subject of the will of God. Even though you haven’t you still have a specific view of the will of God. Some of you, when you have thought about it, see God as the powerful ruler in the sky. He is in complete control of all things including your life. You might believe, as much as you would hate to admit, that you are at his whim. Your attitude would be much like the story of Job. You just see yourself being tossed between God and Satan. You know that God wins, but your life is still a game in which the two most powerful beings are using you as their game piece.
There are probably some of you who really don’t see God as being involved in your life. He came to earth. He died and rose and because of that when you die you know you will be in heaven, but other than that God’s “Will” is pretty much out of the picture.
Then there are others, who are probably more like I am. I give credit for all the good stuff in life as being God’s “Will” while saying that the bad stuff is not his will. Oh we might say if something good comes out of a bad event that God’s will was done, but for the most part God gets credit for the good and Satan gets credit for the bad.
Do you see the problem? We are easily tossed to and fro in life’s tragedies, because we don’t know what is God’s will. We need to know, at least as much as we can for every Sunday, and I am sure for most of you every day of the week, we pray that God’s will, will be done.
As a good Lutheran I first looked up every passage in the Bible that referred to God’s will. I then looked in Luther’s Large Catechism to see what he had to say about God’s will and found this out. He wrote in his explanation of the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, that we should pray, “Dear Father, your will be done and not the will of the devil or of our enemies, nor of those who would persecute and suppress your holy Word or prevent your kingdom from coming; and grant that we may bear patiently and overcome whatever we must suffer on its account, so that our poor flesh may not yield or fall away through weakness or sloth.”[1]
You will notice that he did not address what the will of God is. You actually get a pretty good idea of God’s will in the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come”. You see, according to what Luther wrote, the will of God is to bring his kingdom to this earth; the coming of the kingdom being when people are brought to faith and then the final coming of the kingdom at the end of time. God wins.
Now that tells us what the end result is of the will of God, but does not describe the working of God’s will. Through the study of God’s Word and reading of other writings on the subject of God’s will I have come to the conclusion that for us to understand the will of God we need to look at his will in 3 different ways. First we will look at the intentional will of God, that is God’s original intent for his creation, pure trusting fellowship with him. Next we will look at the circumstantial will of God; now that his human creation sinned against him. Then we will look at the ultimate will of God; that is the purposeful will of God that cannot be defeated.
I will then close the series on the will of God, by showing you how you can better discern the will of God which will lead to a strengthening of your faith so that you can have peace in his holy will. That is my goal, I hope you will join me every Sunday in July, as we learn more about our Triune God, who is unfathomable without his Holy Word. Amen
[1]Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000). The Book of Concord : The confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (449). Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
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