How to Know God's Will for Your Life // Jimmy Evans

once again good afternoon and it is my distinct privilege to introduce our guest this weekend his name is Jimmy Evans pastors Immy is no stranger to Gateway but some of you that are new to Gateway pastor Jimmy serves is the Apostolic elder for our fellowship and as well as his capacity as senior pastor at Trinity Fellowship amarillo he has had an integral part in starting Gateway and being a part of us for the past 10 years and he along with his wife Karen serve as the hosts for marriage today which are seen in a billion homes all across the world so would you give a warm gateway welcome this weekend to pastor Jimmy Evans thank you thank you so much thank you thank you good to see take seat well it is great to see you guys and great to be here pastor Robert is in Amarillo and the North Pole pray for him how many of you are tired of winter I mean I I'm protesting I'm not participating next year I've already I don't know how I'm gonna do it yet but great to see you guys if you have your Bibles there turn to Jeremiah 29 and every time I come I see a lot of new faces and this church is growing and I know that you guys are moving into your new building and I'm just totally excited about it and just so proud of what God has done through you guys I want to talk tonight about knowing God's will for your life the most important thing in the world is knowing Jesus Christ but second to that is knowing God's will for your life knowing why you were created in your mother's womb there was a poll done years ago secular poll across America believers and non-believers and they asked people if you could only ask God one question what would you ask him and the number one response was why am I here well what's your will for my life and so I want to talk about the good news about God's will for your life this is this message will encourage you I promise it will encourage him so I'm going to talk to you about four things that are good about God's will for your life and the number one thing is this God loves you and always has a good plan for your life God's in love with you and he always has a good plan and this is Jeremiah 29 I'm sure you've seen this maybe you've memorized it Jeremiah 29:11 I know the thoughts that I think toward you says the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope and I know that you may have seen that Scripture before because it's so incredibly encouraging to all of us but that was spoken to a nation and judgment God for generations had warned Israel and they were they were a you know compromised sinful people and they were his people and God came to them and warned them over and over and over and he said to them if you don't heed this warning I'm gonna send judgement on you as a nation and they didn't heed the warning so as Jeremiah is speaking here the Babylonians have conquered them and they're taking them into captivity for 70 years and God comes in the midst of the judgment and in the midst of all that's happening and he says now I know the thoughts that I have toward you thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and hope might seem like interesting times for God to say that but there's a reason he says it I'll talk about it in just a minute but the King James Version says thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end what you're hoping for the amplified version says to give you hope in your final outcome but here's the message Bible I know what I'm doing I have it all planned out plans to take care of you and not abandon you plans to give you the future that you hope for this is these are God's Word to this nation that is coming under judgment now your concept of God is the most important thing in you being able to hear God your concept of who God is if you believe that God is a loving God it's gonna be real easy for you to hear God because God is a loving God but if you have a distortion in your concept of God then you're gonna have a hard time hearing from him because he is a loving God and his desire is always good for us it's never evil when I grew up I had a distorted concept of God I didn't know that God loved me and I didn't really believe that even knew me very well honestly didn't one time we came to church about 30 years ago I was a member of Trinity Fellowship in Amarillo before I became the pastor and we we came to church one Sunday and when we came to church it was on a Wednesday night we came to church and the pastor walked over and we were seated there's maybe 50 people and he I was seated to the back and he looked at me and he gave me a prophetic word let me tell you I don't remember what the prophetic word said but the thing that was significant about the Word was God knew me because when he spoke the word it was accurate and I left the building that night thinking God knows me you know God God must be paying attention to me because you know there are six billion people in the world and sometimes you're wondering does he really know me yes he really does know you and he really does love you a lot but understand it's the devil's full-time job to distort our concept of God and pain and failure and sin is how he does it now you've heard of the horse whisperer and the dog whisperer the devil is the hurt whisperer and any time we go through tragedy in life or any time we fail anytime we fail he's always there to interpret it and to tell us about God ourselves and others in a distorted way in Genesis chapter 3 Adam and Eve were put in paradise in the presence of God and that's what God's will was God's will is always good we started in a paradise with God we're ending in a paradise with God the beginning and end of the Bible are the same except it gets better and our failures did not shoot God away from loving us and in the Bible the devil came and began to accuse God to Adam and Eve he doesn't love you why did he tell you you couldn't eat of that fruit he must not love you he's against you his word isn't true and they sent and when they sent Genesis 2:25 says they were naked without chain and the first thing that happened when they fail is they covered themselves with fig leaves and they hid from God and when God came he says why are you hiding what have you done and Adam says I was ashamed because I'm naked and God said this who told you you were naked well let me say this God never asked a question to get the answer do you know that god to ask a question so we'll get the answer because the devil comes by stealth that's why it was a serpent he doesn't reveal himself we are his perfect disguise he doesn't want us to know that it's him he speaks to us in a way that he it's camouflaged but he implants thoughts in our mind and when they fail Satan came and slithered up he had already accused God and now he came to them and said you're defective well they weren't defective he made them perfect and beautiful without any shame whatsoever but their sin was an open door for the devil to whisper a lie into their soul that caused them to not be able to relate to God or each other every tragedy every tragedy every sin every failure in our lives is an open door in the devil will always use that open door to convince us that God has finished with us he can't possibly love us that we are under judgment and that God's finished with us he always does it he oh he did it in my life he always does and so in the nation of Israel now they are going into captivity they're under judgment and they're going under K into captivity and their enemies are telling him that God has finished with them I mean the circumstances tell them that God's finished with them and God comes in that environment and he says to them I know my thoughts towards you no sir have you ever had an argument with someone and they're telling you what you're thinking maybe your wife or maybe your wife possibly maybe even your wife and I'm saying look as they do this that's what Karen does she said I know you think I look fat in these pants I know what you think you think I look at and I'm thinking are you crazy enough to think I'm gonna tell you what I'm diggin that's not what I'm thinking yes what's you you like my hair better the other way that's what you're thinking no that's not what I'm thinking I didn't like it that way either [Applause] men have died in those conversations but you ever had those arguments with someone and they're telling you what you're thinking and the phrase frustrating isn't it this is an unusual way for God to speak now listen listen what God says Jeremiah 29:11 I know the thoughts I think toward you he's arguing with a group of people telling what he's thinking you think we're no good you think that you know it's over for us we know what's going on here God you're coming and you're judging us and you're taking us out of the land and you're thinking we're done we're done and God comes back and argues his position he says I know what I'm thinking don't tell me what I'm thinking I will tell you what I'm thinking and here's what I'm thinking peace and not evil I've got a future in a hope for you that's what I'm thinking and I've got something to say to you I know you've been through problems I know you've had pain maybe you've had disaster and maybe you've failed but I've got a news for you regardless of what the devil says regardless of what circumstances say regardless of what anybody says God has a future in a hope for you that is his will and so when we come and we're gonna find God's will you have to begin with the right concept of God he doesn't throw people away that was the reason Jesus died on the cross he came to redeem us from our problems not reject us because of them he always has a good plan for your life number two good thing about God's will for our lives is God's will for our lives was established in our mother's womb and has never changed God doesn't have like plan a and Plan B judges has plan a in our mother's womb God created us and that's where he established his will Psalm 139 you formed my inward parts you covered me in my mother's womb I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth here I saw my son since being yet unformed and in your book they were all written the day's fashion for me when there was not one of them how precious also are your thoughts toward me Oh God listeners how great is the some of them if I should count them they would be more in number than the sand and when I awake I'm sure with you knows this okay the Bible says that God made us in our mothers when maybe I believe that I believe I don't believe it's a blob I believe it's a baby okay from conception that God is doing a work in our in our mother's womb and for nine months he's thinking about our life in detail the psalmist says your thoughts are so vast toward me that they cannot be numbered God has thought through every detail of your life and there isn't one day of your the Bible says all the days of my life were written down when there was yet one of them God detailed out every day of our life before we were ever born and what we would do and what we would accomplish and what his will was for us and all of those things so I'm not an afterthought you're not an afterthought and what we have a tendency to do is to compare ourselves with other people the the world the world wants to tell us what valuable is and what right is television shows and movies and magazines and and worldly standards they say well if you look this way then your significant if you don't look that way you're not if you have this much money your significant if you don't you're not and all these things but I'd say this when God created you and your mother's womb he created you right and when you go look in the mirror and when Hollywood or someone else is wanting to tell you that somehow you're defective because you don't look like this or you're not like this or whatever you understand people don't tell us what right is God tells us what right is and right is what he did in our mother's womb he made you right and we've got to battle this comparison thing and causing someone else to tell us what right is listen this listen something will never be right between you and God until you thinking for who you are and how he made you something will never be right there will always be a lack of intimacy there will always be a dictionary can wake up in the morning and say to God God thank you for who you made me to be because you created me and my mother as one and you detailed out my life number three significant thing about God's will for our life our mistakes and the devil's attacks don't cancel out God's will for our lives and I know that that some of us here you know you would say Jimmy I'm sure that God made me in my mother's womb but when God made me in my mother's womb you know I was a little innocent baby but I've had a lot a lot of hardship since then and I've done a lot of things wrong since then and I'm sure that even though God loved me then I mean I've gotten off the path and I've spent a lot of time off the path Romans 11:29 and this is one of the things that we need to remember it says the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable the gifts in calling up gifts plural but you only have one calling your and everyone is called not a few preachers are called every single person is called and he says here the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable and every time that we go through a problem in life the devil is always there saying well God can't use you now you've done that too many times you failed too many times and God has finished with you now he can't forgive you for that one the devil is always chanting that in our ears and here here is what God says in Jeremiah 29 14 I will be found by you says the Lord and I will bring you back from your captivity I will gather you from all the nations in all the places where I have driven you says the Lord and I will bring you to the place from which I caused you to be carried away tempted see when they were taken into captivity it looked as though that God was finished with them but what God said to them is I'm bringing you back as surely as you're leaving I'm gonna bring you back now I want you listen to me in the car maybe you have a car that has one of these navigation systems in it you know the thing that tells you where to go and the TomTom or the whatever the brands are and I've got one in my car and when I get in there sometimes I don't know where I'm going you know you you push the address in there and the lady talks to you the whole way and I like her a lot I really like I like her too much and I'll tell you why she's so pleasant all the time and when you make a wrong turn she doesn't nag and I'm not saying anybody else does but I'm just saying sometimes I have a female passenger in my car and she has a tendency to nag anyway but she'd get in the car and the thing I love about it is you type your you're dealing there you know is she so pleasant and she says you know in a mile in a mile turn right and she's always I love her too much really I do I'm in love with a woman lives in the - my car anyway she sometimes I just want to pull over and talk to her about other stuff too anyway I I'm just telling you well anyway so so you put the address in there and she talks to you and and so sometimes I've made a wrong turn and or haven't turned and so you're going in you know and it Dean's and says turn here and you don't turn and then what happens on the screen is is you see this little word recalculating no nagging recalculating and then in a very pleasant tone no condemnation in a very pleasant tone in just a little while it says turn right in a quarter of a mile turn right in a quarter mile here's an interesting verse Romans 8:28 we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose God works all things together for good not for everyone there are a lot of people that all things don't work together for their good there are a lot of people a world right now that things are bad for them and they'll always be bad because the Bible says God works all things together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose and here's what that means Israel was called by God for a purpose and as they were leaving to go into captivity God said to them recalculating I haven't rejected you I'm not finished with you I'm recalculating and I'm gonna get you back to the same place to do the same thing it will just have to be in a different way and some of us in here we have made mistakes the Apostle Paul made mistakes Peter made mistakes Mary Magdalene made mistakes King David made mistakes and you never see God in the Bible coming to his people and taking their mistakes and throwing those people away and saying I revoke the call that is on your life the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable and irrevocable means irrevocable I'm not taking you out of the game I'm not taking the giftings away from you now you can see people who use their giftings for something other than God this is my personal opinion I really do believe that this is a personal opinion I believe that Elvis Presley was created in his mother's womb to sing gospel songs along with Billy Graham when Billy Graham preached can you imagine what would have happened if Elvis would have used his gift for God and see he had a fondness for the Lord but he never served Lord really but he had one of the most anointed voices that has ever been created on the earth and I believe it was created for God the problem was he never surrendered it to God I believe that Elton John was created by God to rat worship songs many people have a gifting in a calling that was there in their mother's womb and God says I will not revoke the gift and I will not revoke the call but it only works out together for good when you're called according to my purpose so you might say well do you mean I've I know that God created me and my mother's woman has a will for my life but unfortunately I've made a lot of mistakes every time you make a mistake God recalculates way to get you back and it's never too late and you say well why shouldn't I just keep making mistakes because your best life is in God's will not making mistakes I made a mistake in marriage early in my life I made a big mistake Karen and I were married at 19 didn't know anything about marriage and I was a dominant verbally abusive husband very very neglectful and for years I made mistakes in our marriage and I did not surrender my life to God but one day I did surrender my life to God after years of mistreating my wife and neglecting her I repented it was one night we'd had a fight and I told her get out of here I'm sick of you I'm sick of your you know your attitude and everything and Karen went to the bedroom crying and I just sat in the living room and I'd read a scripture that morning in John 16 and Jesus says when the Holy Spirit comes he will lead you into all truth and I sat in the living room that night and I knew that I was about to lose my wife and I sit in the living room that night and I said Holy Spirit teach me how to be a husband I don't know how to be a husband I'm about to lose my wife and lose my marriage and literally at that moment it was like scales fell from my eyes it was like before I was blind but then I could see and I could see what a jerk I had been in the marriage ministry that we have today was not birthed out of a great marriage it was birthed out of the a failure it was birthed out of sin on my part and I continued to to do the wrong thing but when I came and did the right thing God forgave me and he worked all things together for good in my life and what the devil meant for evil he actually turned it around for good no one she listened to me no one can minister to a drug addict like someone who's been there no one can minister to an alcoholic like somebody's been there no one can minister to a woman thinking about having an abortion or has had one like someone who's been there no one can minister to a person who's struggling relationship or someone who's gone bankrupt or someone who's been depressed or someone who's been suicidal like someone who's been there and I'm not saying that you have to be messed up to be used by God but what I'm saying is this God will turn your messes and turn them into a ministry and you sit there with the devil's help because he's always whispering into our souls when we're going through trouble and you sit there and think because of all the things that I've done wrong how could God ever use me read your Bible everyone in there did wrong stuff God never chose a perfect person to serve Him then one of the things I like about the Bible is it tells dirt on everybody I love that David Abraham Abraham was a liar David was immoral and a murderer Peter was a coward Paul was a legalist in a murderer the Bible tells the whole story on everyone reads your Bible some of the people who did the greatest stuff did the worst stuff and God didn't throw them away and God didn't reject them because his gifts and callings are irrevocable but what God did was he came and this is number four God releases the knowledge of his will and activates us into it as we surrender to him God doesn't reject us God doesn't throw us away this is jeremiah 29:13 you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart your you will find me when you're ready to get serious about this I love proverbs 16:3 commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established commit your works to the Lord part of the reason that we wander away is because we're not serious about our relationship with God we're not including God in on our lives and because we're half-hearted in our relationship with God we begin to wander and we begin to drift and that's when the devil begins to tempt us and we begin to to get involved in bad things and here's what God says to the nation of Israel they're under judgment they're going into Babylonian captivity and here's what God says to the nation of Israel now when you're ready I'm ready but you're gonna have to get serious about this thing when you're ready I'm ready in marriage been married for 36 years to a beautiful wonderful woman and four years Karen protested to me because she just simply says my heart was not turned toward her and she was right my heart was not turned toward her and I remember one of the main things that I did that demonstrated that to her was making decisions without her or trying to force her into honoring decisions that she was not a part of and I'm marriage was never right until I included her on every decision and today in our marriage we don't make any significant decisions without making him together I come to her she comes to me and we sit down and we pray we don't bully each other we don't we don't manipulate each other we come and we talked things out and we allow each other to talk until we're in absolute unity I say this it'll never be right between us and God until he's included in every issue in our lives and we're not fighting and we're not resisting but we come to God and we say Lord what is your will for my life I'll do whatever it is now once you listen to me I'm going to close here I want you to listen to me because I'm a say some things that you won't believe but I hope you'll think about him this week he loves you more than you love yourself he'll bless you more than you'll ever bless yourself his will for your life is much better than yours and part of the reason that we struggle with God is because we don't believe that we believe we love ourselves more we believe that our will is better and we believe that it will bless ourselves more and because we believe that these are implanted lies that the devil always implants within us early in our lives or wherever we've been where we've had hardship or tragedy somewhere along the line he comes in stealth and whispers this lied down into our hearts that says you're defective God can't use you anymore and he doesn't love you that much you're an afterthought his will for your life is just for you to stay out of the way come to church keep your nose clean somehow get to heaven and stay out of his way because he's already ticked and he's just about to nuke you and you've got to admit you got to admit sometimes we think those thoughts right but here's the truth you're adorable to God there's no there's not a way in the world that you can possibly understand how much you love he loves you way more than you love you his will for your life will blow you away he will bless you when the Bible says here in Jeremiah 29:11 I know the thoughts that I have toward you thoughts of peace and not of evil the word is Shalom to us peace means the lack of conflict Shalom means to be overwhelmingly blessed in every area of your life when you say Shalom to each other it means peace prosperity blessing favor opportunity health protection I'm speaking every blessing over your life and God comes to the nation of Israel says I know my thoughts towards you my thoughts towards you are Shalom if you let me have my way in your life you will live your life in overwhelming abundance and blessing and I have a plan for you and it has not been revoked you've made wrong terms but I've recalculated and I'm not mad I'm gonna bring you back and I'm gonna beat the devil and I'm gonna get the glory out of it anybody believe what I'm saying tonight I want you to bow your heads if you would and I want to minister to a few areas and I want to begin with the wrong concept of God the wrong concept of God is just simply a concept of God that is not what the Bible says and the Bible says that God is loving and gracious and merciful full of compassion he's a God of redemption God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son God so loved you holy spirit of the name of Jesus I pray that you would come right now and that you would minister the love of Jesus to us for many of us God it's easy for us to believe that you don't love us and it's hard for us to believe that you do we love you but I pray this week Lord as we go our way as we wake up and pray as we think thoughts that you would heal a distorted image of God in our hearts so that we could truly believe and live like we're loved of God and that your will for us is better than our will for ourselves keep your head bowed therefore this minute I want to minister to condemnation some of you feel condemned when we do wrong things conviction is of the Holy Spirit conviction sweet specific and the Holy Spirit shows us the way out and helps us out the condemnation is a label it's a final judgment and condemnation says God's finished with you and Romans 8:1 says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation his gift and calling in your life is irrevocable he'll never take it away and in the midst of all your failures and mistakes every single time you've made a wrong turn God has recalculated and he's recalculated here tonight I'm getting a word of knowledge right now about divorce I want you to keep your head bowed there someone here you feel as though that you just can't go forward because of a previous marriage situation and the mistakes that you made may have been multiple divorces or adultery or but the Lord says to you tonight that you're blessed of God that if you'll surrender your life to him he'll make that work together for good and he'll turn that into a minister he'll turn it into a testimonial bankruptcy addiction crime failure repeated failure in the name of Jesus we come against a spirit of condemnation and Satan we declared to you tonight that there is no sin in this room that is stronger than the blood of Jesus and we declare tonight that the blood of Jesus has washed away our sins and as far as the East is from the West God has removed our sins from us tonight and we confess our sins and we ask you to forgive us God there's one more thing I want to minister to before we leave and it's compromise its compromise we stay on our heels we stay kind of in the shadows from God and one of the main reasons we do it is because we think he's mad and we just don't really know that he has it all worked out for us if you understood how much he loves you you would jump in his lap and never get out if you knew how much he loves you that his throne is a throne of grace and mercy you would never ever be condemned again or compromise yourself again god says you'll find me when you seek with me seek me with your whole heart god we come tonight and we just admit that we have not been a zealous as we should be in seeking you your word says that we should love you with all of our heart soul mind and strength and God we just admit that there have been compromised areas of our lives and we recommit ourselves tonight to seek you and to love you and to serve you god I pray your blessing over these precious people here tonight I pray that you'd open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing this week that they could not receive I pray God that you'd give them favor and opportunity I pray that you give them supernatural Health and blessing and all of their relationships I pray God that they would have sweet sleep at night in thoughts of God and that they would wake up in the morning rested and feeling close to you I pray father tonight your your blessing in Jesus name Amen could be with you guys tonight god bless you

Channel: Revived Life

Views: 330,703

Rating: 4.8160715 out of 5

Keywords: Knowing, God's, Will, for, Your, Life, Jimmy, Evans, Brady, Boyd, Jesus, Christianity, Faith, Sermon, Religion, Biblical, Trinity, Fellowship, Gateway, People, Robert, Morris, Teaching, Holy, Gospel, Drama, Lord, Truth, Word, Sacred, Prophecy, Salvation, Study, Spirit, Grace, Preaching, Days, Prophet, Messiah

Id: ney3cliFTlg

Length: 34min 43sec (2083 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 18 2012