Sermon series on "God's Will" sermon 2 7/13/08

Sermon series on God’s will # 2
07/13/08
My dear fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, today we will look at the intentional will of God. The will of God is not three different wills but one that I and many theologians before me, have broken down into three wills as a way to help us grasp the will of God.
The reason I am doing this series, as I mentioned last week is that I believe most Christians including myself do not have a clear understanding of God’s will in our lives. A good example of that is found in how we give God credit for all the good things in life, even though in the long run they might not be good, while giving Satan credit for all the bad things in life unless they turn out for our good, then we give God credit for it. We live a life, for the most part, feeling like Job who was like a game piece in the game of life. This is not a good feeling and more importantly it is not the way it is, as you will see by the time I am through with the sermon series on the “will of God”.
So let us jump right in. We see in Genesis chapter one, the creation story that all God made was good. That was his intentional will. He created human beings and placed them in the Garden so that they could live peaceful lives in fellowship with him. God’s intentional will then is that we are to be in fellowship with him and do good.
So, what about his intentional will after the fall, the time we live in? God’s Word tells us about his intentional will. To make it easier for you to follow along I have included in your service folder some of the main references found in the Bible that refer to the intentional will of God. We will not have time to go through them all this morning. I have highlighted certain words in each verse so that it is easier to discern the will of God.
For example in the verse first reference you will notice that whoever does the will of God is his. In other words you need to do what God wants to be his. So what is it that he desires? The next verse shows us that discerning what is good, acceptable, and perfect is the will of God. The rest of the verses are basically saying the same thing, except for 2 Corinthians 1:1 where we see the will of God is to call apostles. Today we could say that the will of God is call pastors.
The last two verses, 1 John 2:17 and Hebrews 10:36 tell us what happens when we do the will of God, that is we will abide with him in eternity and receive what he promised, which is salvation and eternal life with God.
These verses that you have before you this morning and others, especially those found in Genesis show us the intentional will of God. Notice, none of the verses we just looked show that the intentional will of God has anything to do with evil or bad, like hurricanes, earthquakes, and such.
I need to stop here for a moment and tell you that ultimately since God created and sustains all things, it is only by his will that evil and other bad things exist. The problem is that we by nature want to say that because of that he must then will evil. That thought will not stand up under God’s Word, for God cannot will evil or anything bad, for to do so would be to go against who God is, that is good.

So what happened to God’s intentional will today? It is still here, just as it will continue to be here until Jesus comes back, but it has been seriously hampered, and in some places stopped, not permanently stopped, for God’s will can never be permanently stopped. This is what I mean. In Genesis 3 we read of the fall of man. In that one action God’s intentional will of his human creation walking in fellowship with him and each other was stopped; not permanently, but hampered, never the less. You could say that God had to make a new plan.
Let’s look at some real life examples so that we might better understand the intentional will of God, thus helping us to understand, as best we can, the will of God. Leslie Wheatherhead wrote in his book, “The Will of God” that we cannot say that when a person dies from some disease that it is the will of God, for it was never the intentional will of God that any of his creation should die or for that matter get sick or hurt.
On the other hand we can say when a person is healed of a disease that it is the will of God, for in that act of healing the intentional will of God is carried out; life is preserved.
We cannot say when a hurricane causes unbelievable damage to property and human life, giving people an opportunity to do good that it was God’s intentional will so that good deeds could be done.
We can say that the good that is done after the storm is the intentional will of God, for his intentional will is that his human creation, as the Bible tells us, are to help each other.
We cannot say that any of the terrors humans inflict on each other fall within the realm of God’s intentional will, for those type of things always go against the intentional will of God.
The problem with our saying that these terrible tragedies of life, whether they are personal or involve huge numbers of people is that we, in our sinful nature, have the natural inclination to throw up our hands in surrender and say, “God’s will is being done” when actually the very opposite of God’s will is being done. Good examples of this type of thinking show up in the oppression of women and slavery in America where it was taught in way too many pulpits that it was the will of God that certain people should be slaves.
If when evil breaks out, whatever its circumstances in our lives and good comes from it, we cannot say that the evil must have been caused by God’s intentional will since good came from it. To do so would be saying that God needs evil to produce good.
We have to discard that faulty thinking. We must think more clearly of such matters, for to not do so is to retreat and do nothing, thus defeating God’s intentional will which is doing good for others.

Today we have covered the intentional will of God where we learned that the intentional will of God is that all people are to walk in fellowship with him for eternity. We learned that that intentional will has been hampered and in some instances temporally stopped because of the fall of Adam and Eve into sin.
We learned that only good is the intentional will of God, thus we cannot say that even though good came out of an evil that the evil was the intentional will of God. God cannot cause evil, for it goes against who he is; good.
We also learned that our doing good is the intentional will of God. This doing good can be all sorts of things from telling others of Jesus salvation to helping the downtrodden, to offering a drink of water to the thirst. All of those things are in the realm of God’s intentional will.
God’s intentional will was and still is that his human creation walk in a trusting relationship with him. After the fall that intentional will was seriously hampered and in some cases stopped. This does not mean his will, will not be done. It just means that his will works in a different way considering the circumstances of the world. Thus, next week we will look at the circumstantial will of God, the plan he has for us, for all his creation under the circumstances. Amen.

Please remember that the sermons on the “Will of God” both oral and written are posted on the church’s web site by Sunday evening. Any further questions, clarifications and such are welcome.

Mark 3:35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother."
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 8:27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
2 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:
2 Corinthians 8:1-5 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints-- 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
Ephesians 6:5-7 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,
Colossians 4:12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
1 Thessalonians 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Peter 2:15-17 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
1 John 2:17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Hebrews 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.