The Rick & Bubba Bible Study - LIVE - May 19, 2021

two one welcome in to the wednesday bible study uh after a week off uh last week it's great to be back with you and sherry and i uh had a wonderful wonderful wonderful much needed vacation and thanks for all your prayers and and uh and and all of you that were hoping we could have some time to rest there's been a lot going on all good things but uh we needed time to go back and and uh you know spend time with each other and and feed our marriage which which we did and had a wonderful wonderful time together it could not have gone better so uh back this week and back at a couple things going on if you are uh you know either listening to this as it's happening live watching it live or listening or you're watching or listening on the same day meaning that it is a wednesday may the 19th uh tonight i'll be headed to new life chapel in madison alabama the men's discipleship strategy from the man church.com uh you know it involves gatherings of men meaning high challenge which we'll do tonight in madison alabama and then we put them in tonight into the bible study the curriculum which now is the high equipping part of what we do and that process repeats itself uh nonstop for 40 weeks out of 52 weeks every year so if you would like to be part of that your church is looking for a game plan just go to themanchurch.com we now have two 40-week curriculums we released our second one the first one is called the pursuit we take eight different characteristics that should be found in the pursuit of a christ-centered masculinity they're found in the person of jesus god who became a man the perfect example of how to be a man are the teachings of jesus and his disciples that's the first curriculum it's called the pursuit many churches are doing that right now at different stages but some churches have already finished it so they were now into the second curriculum and it's available to you now it's called real men we take eight men of the bible and we spend five weeks on each man so the first one is is a perfect example of of how to be a man the second one is we look at these men of the bible and the only thing good about them is is god and we see how we should do things but also in these men because they're flawed like all of us we also see many things we should avoid so if you're interested in our new curriculum it's available now maybe your church has finished the first one or like my home church uh we're gonna start uh with uh with the real men of the bible first uh because uh uh sherry and i are part of a church we've only been part of for a little less than a year so we're gonna start it there so you have a choice you can say i've already done the pursuit so let's go the second one or you could just say we're starting for the first time and i just picked that one first it doesn't matter which order you do the curriculums that's that's totally up to you uh so we'll be there tonight madison alabama june 3rd be at winfield baptist church in winfield alabama doing the same thing we're kicking it off and then they're going into the men's discipleship strategy and then men from all over the country will be traveling to huntsville alabama on father's day weekend i'll be with hershel walker i'll be with jonathan evans uh gary chapman ike reichert phil waldrop charles billingsley we'll all be together at the props arena in huntsville alabama for the gridiron men's conference and if you haven't gotten your tickets for that you'd love to be there you can go to gridironmen.org so let's uh let's pray uh let's pick up we're almost done uh with this series knowing god by j.i packer today uh something that that if we're honest we all have wondered about and that is uh when we're looking to do god's will how do we know if we're in god's will how do we know this i want to do what god wants me to do well how do we know exactly what god wants me to do where does this come from how do i find myself in god's perfect will for my life we'll unpack that today in session 21 i think of of knowing god so let's pray lord thank you for today uh this is this is something that if we're all just honest sometimes we don't understand sometimes we don't know how to do this uh uh am i in god's will uh i've got a decision to make which one of these decisions would god have me make uh i'm changing jobs uh what job should i go to what church should i be part of who should i marry uh you know all these things that that we want your guidance on how do we know when we're right how do we know when we're wrong uh we'll unpack that today and lord help us to understand it uh again overcome the many limitations that i have an unworthy messenger help me to uh to be able to communicate your perfect message lord to the power of the holy spirit in your holy name we pray amen all right so that's what we're going to talk about today uh thou our god thou are the god uh what what does it mean if god is our guide and we want to always be following him and doing what he wants us to do uh you hear this all the time and somebody said well they'll say hey man i'm trying to decide whether i need to leave my job i will tell you this i'm praying over some things right now in my own life that i'm seeking god's guidance on i don't completely have it yet and so i'm this this is a very timely message for me i'm sure some of you are out there saying i'm trying to decide you know if i'm i need to move i need to try and decide if i need to downsize i'm trying to decide if i need to take on a new career some of you that are single that are watching this is this the person i'm supposed to marry so uh these these are questions that have been in front of all of us and and j.i packer talks about that he said too many christians uh find that guidance being under god's guidance is a chronic problem not because that we doubt if you're truly a disciple of jesus therefore you can be called a christian you know it's not that we doubt the divine guidance we don't that we doubt that that's a fact we do need believe that god is sovereign we do believe that his way is the right way that's not really our problem but they know because we know what god can do and we know that he promised to actually guide us the problem is sometimes we don't really know how to access it we don't really know when when am i getting my answer what does the answer look like and so we're going to unpack that today so does god have a plan for every individual the answer is yes does does god have the ability to communicate his plan for us to us yes uh listen let's look uh quickly into the book of ephesians if you have your bible or something with your bible on it a couple places you'll you'll look here first of all let's look at uh ephesians chapter 1 uh verses 10 through 11. uh and you you see paul writing to ephesus and uh and and he's talking about the mystery of god's will you see this actually let's start in verse seven it says in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace so we got that which he lavished upon us in all his wisdom and insight look at nine making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him things in heaven and things on earth in him talking about jesus we have obtained an inheritance which has been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will well this is what paul's really talking about here being very specific he's saying god had the plan of redemption that was predestined through jesus christ and jesus has completely fulfilled it and god said that he was going to do this he said it was going to be done he had predestined how he was going to do it he has accomplished this this has always been his will to provide this redemption for us and his perfect will has has been accomplished and he also makes available to us makes available to us uh the the individual plan that he also has for us so we want to find ourselves what in god's will so that what we take on today is how do i know what god's will is for my life so i one of the things he talks about that many people even in the christian faith remain anxious because we're not certain of of our own receptiveness to the guidance that god actually offers he said so the knowledge of god many times and he says and he blames some of the teachings we have at some of the modern western churches he said i think some of the problems that christians have saying i'm not sure i'm confident i'm not sure i'm confident in god's will i'm not sure i'm confident and and god's guidance in my life and some of that he says can be blamed on the fact that they don't really know god all that well it's the it's the theme of the entire book some people might have learned some concepts about god but in the church they attend or maybe of their own inadequacy or their own decisions not to dive in deeper not to grow spiritually it says a lot of times people out there if you're watching this or listening to this and i can think of this in my life says a lot of times you can't figure out god's will or you don't sense god's guidance it's simply because you don't know god and and and some of you have not learned enough about god to know because if you want to know god's will and we're going to unpack this pretty quick where's the main place to figure that out in his word i mean god has has shown us a lot a lot you know you hear this all the time there's no need to pray over decisions that the bible's already answered i mean you said well you know what i i wonder i wonder if i should have an affair with this woman at the office i'm going to pray about that well there's no need to pray about that because the bible's already said that's forbidden and that is the wrong decision and it would not be in god's will so but let's say this let's say you don't really know that you you don't know things it says it says you know so many times if you're not all that all that savvy you don't have all that much depth in your knowledge of god then you're easily deceived by the adversary because he can take things and twist them and obscure them and hide them and sprinkle a little bit of this and a little bit of that and you can't discern it so sometimes you get confused he said in effect uh a lot of our problem is an ignorance of god uh we we've twisted our thoughts about god we've we don't have the right uh vision of of of the reality of god's rule uh god's speech meaning the way god talks god's independence god's moral goodness even god's personality he said now this is not just outside the church many times we're not getting these things right inside the church because a lot of times they're not taught correctly or they're not really addressed at all so one of the things that we definitely want to look at is belief that that divine guidance is real because god does have a plan rest upon two foundation facts first and i mentioned this the reality of god's plan for us second is the ability of god to communicate with us on both these facts the bible actually has a lot to say so number one you're saying does god have a plan for me yes can god communicate this plan to me or is it just so obscure and he's just he's so god and i'm so not even if he has a plan for me there's no way i can ever really get it well yes god can communicate to it and to us and he does have it so that we need to establish right out of the gate he had a plan here's some of the examples out of scripture if you look to scripture you'll see he had a plan of redemption from his people from egyptian bondage when he guided them through the sea uh and and the desert by means of a pillar of a cloud by day and and fire by night he had a reply a plan you see in scripture for the return of his people from babylonian exile where he guided them by setting cyrus on the throne and stirring his spirit if you want to see this you can find this in ezra one that means god was was working all this out i'm going to deliver them for bondage on my time i've got a plan on how i'm going to do it i'm going to reveal that plan to them i'm going to play cyrus where he needs to be at the time all this is going to be happening and and then he sent the jews home to build their temple he had a plan in the new testament like we just said he had a plan for redemption through jesus uh if you read luke 18 31 or luke 22 20 2 and and so on it's everywhere jesus's whole business on earth was what he say told us this in our study in the gospel of john the writer of hebrews talks about this as well jesus said over and over again i am here to do what my father's will i am here to carry out my father's will so what jesus did was was god's will and it was clearly laid out for us if we know it we watch how jesus operated and and what did people say we want you to be a military leader to overthrow a rome and what did jesus say that's not who i am well that's what we thought you were supposed to be well you didn't read everything uh you saw isaiah tell you uh clearly that i would that i was going to come in a different way you're missing some of the prophecy about me so if they if they said god's will was to send messiah to overthrow the romans the first time that means that they missed god saying his plan through the prophets of the old testament that actually told them otherwise they had misinterpreted that they had that wrong and jesus said no if you knew my father and you knew my father's words you would see that the way i'm doing this is actually what my father planned all along and i'm here to do the will of my father so you see that god had a plan for paul you see this in acts 21 14 22-14 uh you see it in 26 16-19 you see paul talking about this to timothy and first timothy 1 16 and five of his letters what does paul say he announces himself as an apostle underline this by the will of god so was was was paul going to be an apostle yes did god lay out the way he wanted it done yes what did he say to ananias when ananias said you want me to go see saul i mean this guy's killing us he's he's putting us in prison he's killing us but what did god say to ananias he's ready now i i've i've met him he's blind he has scales over his eyes he's humbled he's sitting in the dark and he's waiting on you i've handled all that and i and this is that this is the plans that i have and then what did he what what did what did jesus tell paul i mean what did uh jesus tell ananias to go tell paul go tell him all the things he must suffer for me that's what he's gonna do and and you see the apostle paul saying in in five of his letters i am an apostle by the will of god god had a plan for paul god has a plan for you and i think this is it and i've been guilty of this i think where we have trouble is we think that there's something about these people of the bible that they have access to something we don't have you you realize that you and i have access to the exact same thing that paul has access to peter john anybody in scripture old and new testament i mean we have access to the same exact thing and somehow we think well i see what god did with the you know i read a very funny uh bible study last night we were doing a bible study about two of my sons are home uh and sherry and i and with uh one of them's girlfriend we were doing a bible study last night by warren weresby and he starts off in a bible study about first corinthians and he said that if jesus had turned in the 12 guys that he had picked to someone you know those services for your company that vet out people uh whether they're going to work for your company or not whether these were good hires or should be good hires and he said the company would have come back and said these guys we only got one guy these 12s that we think meets the criteria to really be an asset to your ministry and that's judas of the iscariot these other guys there's no way they can do it and and so see once again jesus always picks these unlikely people why because that shows the power of god and somehow we think that that the same god that did all these things and had all these plans for all these people that we see documented in scripture but not for us not for us he just stopped doing that i don't have access to that well that's blasphemy because jesus came and said that we did the whole study on the adoption we did the whole study on our redemption uh and how we've now been brought into the same standing as co-heirs with all these people including jesus himself so if god's not using you and god's not using me we are the ones who are missing it if we're redeemed we're the ones who are missing it because it's there and so today what we're talking about is well how do i access that well mainly number one you got to write down is knowing the word of god that that's that's where we find uh find it to the most he made god has made his will known uh to and through the old testament prophets he guided jesus and paul acts records several instances uh a detailed guidance remember philip philip was sent where to the desert to meet the ethiopian eunuch god said i had a plan for this i want you to go meet this eunuch i'm gonna set it up where you can peter being told to accept the invitation of cornelius peter didn't want any part of that but he accepted that in acts chapter 10 the church at antioch being charged to send paul and barnabas as missionaries you see that in 13 2 of acts paul and silas being called into europe in chapter 16 paul being instructed to press on with his corinthian ministry even though they were frustrating him to no end god said i want you to continue this and though guidance by dreams vision and direct verbal messages must be judged as and this is what we need as exceptional and not normal even for the apostles that wasn't normal it did happen but it wasn't the norm and their contemporaries yet these events do at least show that god has no difficulty in making his will known to his servants and that's the key that's the key one of the reasons and i say this in my own life one of the reasons i lived my life in kind of a reckless abandon not really knowing what i was supposed to do and not do and often doing the wrong thing or mostly doing the wrong thing was because i was not a servant of god i didn't have a kind of an intimate relationship with god that i could understand his prompting i didn't have any i didn't have the the holy spirit and the sensitivity of the holy spirit which we'll get into that too because we got to be careful with that too but here's here's what scripture says this is god talking i will instruct you and teach you the way you should go i will counsel you with my eyes upon you and guess who's talking to you right here king david that those are god's words write this down psalms 32 8. so so god says i'll instruct you i'll teach you the way you should go i will counsel you and my eyes are upon you look at the prophet isaiah in isaiah 58 11. it contains the assurance that if the people repent write that down and underline it if the people repent and obey the lord will guide you always not sometimes always now i've had times in my life the lord guided me and i rejected it and i went back and i said you know i knew i should have done that you know what god said i tried you know here's jesus crying over jerusalem you have killed the prophets and stoned those that my father has sent you how often i i i would have preferred to to gather you together and to protect you as a hen gathers her chicks and protects them under her wings but what did he say to jerusalem they're still suffering from it today but you were not willing that hey god could not have sent you more times he sent the prophets he sent me we're all telling you his plan of redemption and you've rejected it that was his plan that was his will and you push back so now jesus is crying because he says it's going to be a wild ride now to get you where we got to go this was this was the preferred route and we'll get to that too because the beautiful thing is even when we mess it up he'll come back and give you another shot praise his holy name for that now he we make a mess down here but he'll he'll i mean he gives up on us so so this is important so the thing we got to keep is if you want to be in god's will and you want to know god's will and you want to understand it and you want to be guided first of all you've got to have an intimate relationship with him god is the main theme in psalms 25. that's a great psalm write it down because we don't have time to go through all of it today but i'll give you a few highlights good and upright is the lord therefore he instructs sinners in his ways he guides the humble and what is right and teaches them his way so who does he teach it doesn't say perfect people he says he teaches those that are willing to repent of their sin submit to his authority and say i want you to guide me what does that sound like romans 10 9 and 10 if you believe in your heart and confess it jesus is lord i belong to you i do what you say what did we say the best definition in calhoun county c student lingo is what's a disciple of jesus one that says what jesus says to say and does what jesus says to do so most of the time i know him in god's will if i'm doing what he said to do so but but do do you acknowledge it's impossible for you and me to do what god says to do if we don't know what he said i i would find that to be a hard road and trust me i tried it that way you can't do it listen to what else the psalmist says who then is the man that fears the lord he will instruct him in the way chosen for him so so who does he instruct in the way that that's chosen for him the person who fears god does god instruct those who reject him no he doesn't so i can't know god's will if i'm in rebellion against him you sure can't you know why because you're already not in it he doesn't call us to a life of sin he'll deliver us out of a life of sin praise his holy name so and then look at proverbs 3 6 in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight so who's who's whose path does he make straight all those who acknowledge him and all in some of their ways and all their ways so in the new testament the same expectation of guidance appears in paul's prayer that the colossians might be filled with what the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding wisdom in scripture always means knowledge of the course of action that will please god and secure life so that the promise remember james in james 1 james 1 5 says what if any one of you lacks wisdom let him ask god who gives to all men generously and without reproaching and it will be given to him he says a lot of you don't know about god you don't have wisdom about god you're not asking for it you don't want it i look i will tell you this look man just total confession there were the 13 years that i spent where i rejected the church and didn't go to church and didn't want anything to do with scripture can i tell you deep down what most of that was is i did know what god was going to say about some things and i don't want to hear it i knew that he was going to let me do whatever i wanted to do because i knew enough being raised by by by strong christians as a child my grandmother i mean i mean i could i could try not to know about jesus and my grandmother wouldn't they would no way to do it i mean so so i knew everything about it my mother and father uh they they made sure that i was in church so i knew enough of the concepts of god the basics to know that if i went and listened to scripture and i went to his church and listened to someone who had the holy spirit the things that they were going to say i didn't want to hear i didn't want to hear it so sometimes we claim ignorance and that's true but many times we know enough to know that what god's will is and we say well i just don't know whether i can find god's will and we use that as an excuse i did that i'm pointing to me if you can't see me on the youtube if you're listening i did that because it was easier to say that i didn't understand god's will i didn't understand these things and that was an excuse what i really should have said which was honest i don't want to know because i don't think what you want me to do is what i'd rather be doing i don't want to go make disciples i don't want to live a holy life i want to have fun i want to i want it now my how how crazy is it because i got news for you and we see this over and over and over and over and over and over and over again eventually you become dissatisfied with the flesh and you become dissatisfied with the world and how many more people have got to ask is there more than this solomon himself in his book of repentance and ecclesiastes you know what he's trying to say hey i've been uniquely given the opportunity to try anything and everything and i have found it's like chasing the wind but for some reason we just have to learn that lesson we won't just take god's word for it we got to go learn it but thank you for a gracious god we end up disillusioned lost and unfulfilled and he basically comes back like you would do with a child and go you done yet are you are you ready to go my way now my way's not going to be easy and it will be difficult and it will cause the world to hate you but you're going to find yourself at a place you can't find right now and that's a place of peace because sitting in my perfect will no matter how bad it gets around you if you're sitting in the perfect will of god let me tell you something i've said it on my worst day it's a better place to be in the middle of god's will on my worst day than to be outside of god's will on my best day and somebody say amen to that i'm just telling you i love him so much and i just love being right where he wants me to be no matter how bad things are getting around me if i'm in his will then everything's going to be all right i'd rather be there so that's what that's and i haven't always been there and then right now i i it's a constant pursuit to be in it sometimes i find myself getting out of it and he's got to put me back in there because you know what because that flesh is still trying to fight for its life and in effect a promise of guidance is there because here's what here's what god says what let your minds be remade and your whole nature thus transformed this is what paul tells us in romans 12 uh verse two then you will be able to discern the will of god well we can't miss that so wait a minute so if i'm not able to discern the will of god what's one of the problems paul i'll tell you one of the problems your mind has not been remade your whole nature has not been transformed once your mind has been remade born again once your nature has been transformed now you're feeding the spirit not the not the flesh then you'll be able to discern the will of god and to know what is good acceptable and perfect that's when you know when you get your relation when you get right with god until here's the way i look at it have you ever and i'm having this happen a lot as i'm getting older and years of headphones banging on my ears and the years i spent playing in bands and stuff like that my hearing is not it's not doing great you know i can feel it's being compromised and and it and and i notice now that if i get into a noisy room where a lot of voices are talking i can't really hear what anybody's saying it all kind of runs together into a loud noise and so any kind of noise in the room now for me it makes it harder for me to hear what somebody's saying to me unless the room is quiet that's the way i see this when we're not in a proper relationship with god it's like there's a bunch of garbage between us and him and we can't we can't hear clearly what he's saying to us and we can't the spirit is is in conflict because we're we haven't decided whether we want the the we had we hadn't decided whether we completely denied ourselves so the flesh keeps getting in there and it keeps talking at us and then we over here and we try to feed the spirit a little bit but not fully and now the spirit's trying to talk to us and the flesh is trying to talk to us and we just hear a bunch of noise you got to decide you got to decide where you are if you want to hear god clearly then you're going to have to get rid of everything that tries to speak and get in his way these things got to be removed and that's really what paul is trying to tell us so let's look at what what what is beautiful if you've got your bible look at second timothy here second timothy 3 16 and 17 because we see that paul is telling timothy he says scripture is god's word which we got to know if you're going to discern god's will you got to know who he is and what he says about himself and what he says about us he says first of all it's profitable if we read for what for teaching for reproof for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of god may be complete equipped for every good work so if i want to be able to be ready to do whatever god wants me to do then i've got to be in the scripture enough because it's going to teach me it's going it's going to reprove me it's going to correct me and it's going to train me in righteousness so let's break that down a little bit and j.i packard does a good job of that what is what does this english word here teaching mean in this scripture it means comprehensive instruction and doctrine it's real straightforward you need the word of god's good for one thing to teach you what god has said to teach you what he's inspired people to write which ultimately is all about him and the bible from beginning to end ultimately is about jesus so to comprehensively instruct us that's the teaching and the ethics and the work and also we learn about the will of god we we see like we see um in in first thessalonians chapter four uh let's think about that because you we know that jesus said what in in matthew 7 these convicting words that we talk about a lot that a lot of people say his name and they claim that that his name is attached to all kinds of things but if you see things that are confusing or in conflict with his father then that's not real that's fake that's a false teacher that's a a false claim that's a false organization no matter how much they talk about me he says only those that do the will of my father are the real deal when in 1st thessalonians chapter 4 we see that paul says to the thessalonians uh in thessalonica he says that i am calling you to sanctification you need to grow spiritually because your sanctification is the will of god all right so am i in am i in the will of god well let me ask you this are you being sanctified because paul says that one of the things that's absolutely the will of god is that we be growing spiritually so do you take the time if you're listening to this or watching this there's some effort there because this is a bible study so that's good but so what what what paul is saying is it is the will of god that you be growing spiritually so if your decision is to remain a spiritual infant you're already not in the will of god you're not in it because one of the things that we know is the will of god is that we'd be growing spiritually that's in scripture so that's one of the things that that means scripture is good for teaching what what's next it's also good for reproof correction training in righteousness now these signify that we now take what we've learned and we apply it we do it it says so it shows us what we should do and then then then it we get reproved what does that mean hey you know this you read this in scripture why aren't you doing it we get corrected what you just did is what scripture says not to do okay and then training in righteousness we're we're now being trained by what scripture says to do you see how this works and this this signifies the applying of the uh instruction to our disordered lives what what do we say about the man church.com and when this word hit i remember the first time that andy blanks who's part of our team said it to me and here it is is that we are looking to not just challenge men that's the reproof and the correction and the training we're looking to equip we're looking to equip the men it's high challenge that also takes you into high equipping because if all i do is ever challenge you and i never equip you you don't know what to do all i've told you is what the standard is but i've never told you how you go about it remember what i said wouldn't you be frustrated if you looked in scripture and or you heard some guy talking all the time and he said that it's god's will that you being a mechanic and i'm like where do i learn to fix a car well nowhere we're not going to show you that well well this is going to be very frustrating all you've done is screamed i need to be a mechanic at me but you haven't shown me how to do it well scripture doesn't just say this is god fear of god he is holy you must be redeemed it says here's how that happens and here's what you do after here's what disciples do here's what i said to do here's what i said not to do here's the power for you to understand the discernment and the power of the holy spirit so if you want to be equipped and ready for every good work as paul told timothy the word of god will get you ready that is a life that is already set to go god's way to be guided by god to be in his will so i got news for you you might as well take this thing and shut it down right now and don't go any further if you haven't taken that first step you're never going to be in god's will if you don't have any concept of scripture if you if you have not taken the word of god for it to teach you reprove you correct you and train you then the pursuit of god's will in your life cannot even begin can't even begin so go ahead and finish what we're talking about today because that's gonna be part of of training but you're gonna have to correct that in your life you can sit there all day long waiting for some fuzzy feeling from the holy spirit and say i'm waiting for the holy spirit to guide me well that holy spirit's not guiding you because you're not in the proper relationship with god and you don't know his word and if you don't know his word the pursuit of his will is going to be extremely difficult if not impossible so that's the first thing so so then let's get into the holy spirit because i i've done this i've heard this talked about a lot just wait for the goddess of the holy spirit and that's that that's not false but remember we talked about this before and i know some people out there they're all into signs and wonders and all these miraculous moments when you know when the holy spirit clarified this and and those things do happen but that can't be the only thing that you're relying on for god's will like you're sitting there saying i don't know if i'm supposed to make this vocation change or not and he talks about in this chapter that people who are followers of jesus trying to find god's will for their vocation for who they're supposed to marry that's probably where sometimes the most confusion comes in because you're like why i mean what is god telling me what are some things i need to be looking for in that so let's talk about the instructor that we've been given the holy spirit you have been anointed by the holy one the anointed which you received from him abides in you this is all about the holy spirit his anointing teaches you about everything and it is true and is no lie this is first john 2 verse 20 and 27 doubt as to the availability of guidance would be a slur on the faithfulness of the holy spirit so we're not going to deny that the holy spirit doesn't prompt us doesn't teach us doesn't help us because to deny that is a slur of course of course the holy spirit does this of course but you need to look if you look it is notable that in the book of acts and and i'm going to talk about it in the actually go to the verse and the jerusalem council but if you look in acts 8 29 you see this about the holy spirit 10 19 13 2 16 6 all talks about how the holy spirit has been given to us to guide us but when you look into the jerusalem council you kind of see how this is applied in a pretty clear way so if you have your bible let's go to chapter 15 of the book of acts i really enjoyed learning when we did our study on the book of acts if you missed that we went verse by verse on the book on the book of acts you can find that in our archives of former bible studies but at the jerusalem council we're trying to we're trying to get this church to work with with jews and gentiles and there's a lot of problems with that the jews are saying these gentiles must be physically circumcised not just spiritually circumcised and then over here the the the uh the greeks are saying and and the gentiles saying we don't think we have to do that but oh by the way we're clinging to some of our pagan rituals which which you know and the jewish people are saying that that's got to go uh this is that so so they they try with with peter they try with paul they try with john and they can't get it under control and they sent for james and when james shows up it says no one opposed him and that tells me a lot about james because they had already opposed paul and they had opposed john they'd opposed peter but james shows up and everybody said everybody be quiet james is here and and so james lays out what we're going to do what we're not going to do okay no these gentiles don't have to be physically circumcised so i'm shooting that down and yes you gentiles have got to stop some of these pagan practices that's not going to be part of the church and then listen to what he says in verse 28. so he goes through and he he take now is he just doing this of his own opinion no look look at this in acts 15 verse 28 for it has seemed good to the holy spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements and then he lays out the requirements so what did he say first i'm not coming here to lay down anything requirements not of god all i'm going to do is lay down the requirements and so what does he say i'm not going to overburden you meaning i'm not going to start adding things to this that the holy spirit is not saying but i'm also not going to dumb it down to a level lower than what is required i'm going to lay out the restrictions and the requirements exactly the way the holy spirit has prompted me to do so so there there was james under the authority of the holy spirit so that that's important so how do we receive this guidance and i know for some of this it can it can get kind of um uh difficult for us on on what we're doing and what we're not doing and how we make this happen so let's talk a little bit about this because to honor the holy spirit as our guide is first of all to honor the holy scriptures through which he guides us okay so back to that again understand that the first place we go to be guided properly is scripture and i don't know about you that's not a slight against the holy spirit because i didn't fully understand the scriptures when i didn't have the holy spirit it was the holy spirit that allowed me to understand things about god that i couldn't understand before i had him so that's not a slight that's the holy spirit doing its job so but but look at in romans chapter 8 14 and j.i packer says be it noted that the reference to being led by the spirit in romans 8 14 relates not to some inward voice or some kind of experience and listen to this but to mortifying the known sin and not living after the flesh he's saying that he's being guided by the spirit once he had mortified his body once he completely denied self and came under the authority of christ came under the authority of the holy spirit and and so what we have to understand is never at any time do we look for just some feeling from the holy spirit that is outside the word of god now this is important i've seen this before i've seen people who proclaim to be christians they claim the holy spirit has told them to do something that isn't biblical and there's examples of this in the chapter that we don't have time for here here today but you can look at it i'll give you some examples out of my own life i mean i've known people that have decided after hearing a message about the way marriage should be or whatever that they think the holy spirit led them to divorce their spouse because their marriage is not under the authority of god they're not they're not behaving right and they and this person needs to get their act together and start a new life and do a whole do-over and say you know i just feel like the holy spirit has led me to divorce my spouse well that's not of god that can't be because you know in the particular marriage if there's no if there's only two situations that you look at a marriage to be dissolved that wouldn't be sinful one of them is an unfaithful spouse that will not repent that does not want to be reconciled and continues to live in sin or the person can't get past that insult jesus said i allow for that to be a very very unique and and hopefully not very often but sometimes a sexual sin is coming into a marriage and it can't be overcome it may not survive the other is what did paul tell us back to the corinthians again he says if you have if you are married to a non-believer really what happened a lot in those times and peter talked about it too all these pagans sometimes one spouse would become a follower of jesus the other spouse wouldn't and so and with women it was really difficult because they were supposed to follow the god of whoever their husband was and so what paul said if you're in a situation where you are unequally yoked spiritually you've got a non-believer as a spouse however you got there if that spouse decides to leave you let them go now if the spouse doesn't leave you stay there and keep living out the faith in front of them because it might bring them to faith so you see that there's very few times that divorce is not sin but so how in the world could someone say the holy spirit's called me to do something that is in conflict with scripture that would never happen so if you say yeah but i've really got this really neat feeling and i think i hear voices that are telling me like to go take this job uh you know that that is in las vegas and is in the middle of all this and i feel like i've been called to go work a casino i mean some of these things you got to go wait a minute is that does that sound like god so yes the holy spirit prompts us but the holy spirit will prompt us to do nothing that is in conflict with what's already written that will not happen so you you have to keep that in mind only within the limits of this guidance the scriptures does god prompt us inwardly to the matters of vocational decisions never expect to be aided to marry an unbeliever never expect the holy spirit to tell you to elope with a married person uh as long as first corinthians 7 39 and the seventh commandment stand that means you cannot do that it's clear and the spirit leads within the limits of the word and that's that's it period it listen what the the psalmist says in 23 3 he says he guides me in paths of righteousness but not anywhere else so if you think the holy spirit's leading you outside of scripture that is not the holy spirit okay and so let's look at there's six common pitfalls that happen when we're seeking god's will and i'll run them quickly they're not all that complicated they're not all that long but they're important so the first pitfall that usually stands in the way of us properly following the guidance and the will of god is an unwillingness to think and we just hit some of this i thought this was funny he said if you're looking for some false piety some super supernaturalism of some sort that demands some inward impression that has no rationale there's no rational base it declines to heed the constant biblical summons to consider you know the scripture tells us consider consider this decision you're about to make and what he means by that is you need to measure it against scripture god made us thinking beings and he guides our minds as in his presence we think things out not otherwise oh that they were wise uh moses says in deuteronomy that they would consider so one of the things that stands in the way of us getting it right when god's prompted us doing this one of the pitfalls it's just an unwillingness to consider think it out use your god-given common sense use your logic is this really something that god would have me do and and i will tell you this all the stuff that we're going through with the launch of the man church.com and and all that you know i'm constantly having to work out this balance because let me tell you what the men's ministry doesn't need it doesn't need a man that has gone doing men's ministry so much that now he's become a terrible husband to his wife god wouldn't call me to be a bad husband so if if that's happening i may be i may be listening to the wrong voice have i been called to go out and make disciples yes but i also been called to be the spiritual leader and wash my wife in the word of god yes so if i'm neglecting either one of these and i don't have that improper balance i can't be saying well i mean it's what god's called me to do no not if not if not if you're looking you're saying this is this is causing an issue spiritually at your home then something's wrong so so that's what he's talking about just i mean you know right now i mean we're looking at a way to balance some of the demands on this so that the balance is proper because i've got to do all the things that god's called me to not just some of them i got to get them all balanced under his authority the second pitfall of not being in god's will is an unwillingness to think ahead and to weigh the long-term consequences of alternative courses of action think ahead is part of the divine rule of life no less than of the human rule of the road often we can see what is wise and right and we also can see what is foolish and wrong only as we dwell on the long-term issues again deuteronomy oh that they were wise that they would consider their their ladder in one of the reasons a lot of times people don't think things through is they'll say things all right uh i think that god has called me to go to this new job in europe where i won't see my spouse for for eight months let's look at the long-term effect of that i mean is that i don't know i mean well i just really think this is what because see what happens to us a lot of time we'll get this a lot of times we claim that god's calling us to something we just want to do anyway and that didn't necessarily mean that god's in it so you got to start thinking about the long-term effects of this i mean think about this i mean i've had people say that hey i took this job because it pays me a lot more money but i'm going to be gone a lot more well you might want to think that out uh is you out there on the road all this time even though you're making more money but you never get to your kids ball game you're never there for the school play uh you're never at home with your wife praying with her every night uh you're out there in hotel rooms is that really a is that is that a life that god's called you to are you just trying to make more money i mean that you got you got to think those things out and that's what it's saying so one of the things we mess up on a lot is we don't think about the end result what is this going to look like long term hey i think god's caught me to buy this big old giant house why do you think god called you that and he may have but all of a sudden you start thinking can i keep this level income up for a long period of time can i pay this house down is this going to cause me to not to be able to advance god's kingdom financially you know i'm not talking about the basic you know commandment of a tithe you know somebody walks up to you and says man i tell you right now the church needs this or hey this this this time to interpret these bibles into this unknown language man could you could we get 1500 from you to do that gosh if i had bought that big house i'd have it i'm not i don't i have no i i've pushed myself to the financial limits that i got no income laying around to to to answer a call from god to advance his kingdom it's all tied up in this house nothing with the long-term stuff so did god really call you to that okay so that's what you got to think he said here's here's another one boy you ever been through this one the third pitfall unwillingness to take advice you ever had people bring you in and say man i want you to i really want you to pray about this and you come back and say man i've really prayed about it i thought about it i don't think you need to do this. and they do it anyway have you ever had that happen and i think i try to take that personally but i'm just kind of like well i don't even know why you asked me to why did i spend this time on this i honestly think this is what i'm supposed to tell you you know i've i've looked at some of the things we just talked about a lot of times somebody will tell you i don't think god's in this and you'll just be and but you know what so are you really looking for advice and i've been guilty of this or are you just looking for people to tell you what you wanted to hear a lot of times that's a problem that a lot of times we're not in god's will because we won't take advice that he sent us and scripture talks about this in proverbs 12 15 it says the way of a fool seems right to him but a wise man listens to what advice god i just wish you'd give me a sign uh hey everybody i sent you to tell you not to do this you did it anyway i sent you these people uh the the fourth pitfall an unwillingness to suspect oneself a lot of times we are delusional about ourselves wow let me tell you something i think people are more delusional about themselves now than we've ever been i mean we're all delusional to some extent but i mean it's just all how how delusional are you uh a lot of times we we we don't understand that depending on ourselves is he uses an example i really feel called that this is gonna be my spouse i mean i just think this is the one and he says but really deep down if you look at it you're delusional you just really want to have sex with this person you're lusting for this person you don't really love this person and this person isn't the kind of person that's going to help you spiritually the bottom line is you just want to bed this person and and you're you're really just delusional about your own intentions you're not being honest about what you're really doing so that's another one uh that is a misconception then when the marriage turns out to be a disaster everybody wonders why while we feel a particular course may be right and and we may give ourselves reasons we need to go to god and say what the psalmist said search me o god and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me leading me in the way of everlasting we can never i love this line underline this a thousand times because this is so counter culture to the world underline it we can never distrust ourselves enough i pray it every day god protect me from my biggest enemy myself i am an idiot i am delusional i don't need to listen to me i need to listen to you do not follow your heart do not if you're watching this you're a young person and you're living in this world that says follow your heart are you just an adult that acts like a child don't follow your heart follow jesus follow the lord follow scripture the fifth problem an unwillingness to discount personal magnetism let's be honest let's just get real sometimes we take advice from people that we're enamored with and we think we when we're really ju we're not really listening to what they're telling us to do we're going to do what they tell us to do because we're enamored with them there's some personality they've got some kind of a well-known ministry they have some sort of celebrity they're important and so what we do is we we're really listening not for god and all this we just like being around them we can't believe they've taken the time to give us some advice and whatever they're saying must be it outstanding people are not indeed necessarily wrong all the time but you got to remember outstanding people are important people are not always right just because they're important or they have some kind of standing or you're enamored with them or i'm enamored with them so test everything and hold on to the good first thessalonians 5 21. the the last one the last one that usually messes messes us up and boy this you you're looking at a man that struggles being patient our unwillingness to wait god i want it now where's my answer hey what are we going to do let's go you know we're in that microwave society god i asked you about this today and it's already lunch uh where where's my guidance boy the lord does not work that way i got news for you wait on the lord it's a constant refrain in the psalms the psalms talks about this all the time it is a necessary word for god often keeps us waiting he is in not such a hurry as we are and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for the action in the present or to guide us more than one step at a time underline this one too you just underlined you can never distrust yourself enough underline this one when in doubt do nothing if if you're doubting that this is god's will and you're doubting that he's answered your your prayer then do nothing do not act if you're not sure it's better to wait and not act than to act in the wrong way okay the bottom line is it's also if you decide to be in god's will one indicator that you need to look for i know sometimes you think man i must be in god's will why well everything seems to be going smoothly i guess i'm not in god's will everything's going bad no that that's not an indicator at all i will tell you this happened to me when on with the man church.com themanchurch.com was running so smoothly i was doubting that i'd really been called to do this and finally we started getting some opposition and we had some problems and things started getting kind of you know difficult and some relationships went bad and some people that shouldn't have been in it got removed and got revealed to not be what i thought they were and and all this kind of stuff and i'm sitting there and i'm talking to scott dawson and he loves us because we talk about this all the time and i'm smiling and he said well how's everything going with the man church i said disasters i said we really have had a setback this is going to set us back probably six months and he said so he said man i'm so sorry i said no no i'm celebrating i said this thing was going so smoothly i thought god wasn't in it i said so now that there's been some opposition and an attempt to destroy it by the adversary i'm actually excited i said i now know that god's in it why do i know that because i look throughout scripture and i see person after person after person who's right in the middle of god's will and all they got is trouble but they're not in trouble god they're just at odds with the with the world trouble should always be treated as a call to consider one's way but trouble is not necessarily a sign of being off track at all for the bible declares in general that many are the afflictions of the righteous psalms 34 19. so it teaches in particular that following god's guidance regularly leads to upsets distresses which one otherwise would have escaped example god guided israel by means of fiery and cloudy pillar that went out before them but remember this god took them by a way that led them being involved in nerve shredding cliffhangers of the red sea crossing long days without water no meat in the vast dreadful desert bloody battles with all kinds of people uh then then then we understand too jesus disciples were twice caught by by night in bad weather with him on the boat on the sea of galilee both times the reasons why they were there was the command of jesus himself omar the apostle paul he crosses it to greece concluding from his dream of the man of macedonia that god had called him to preach the gospel to them acts 16 10 you remember all this trouble and before long he was in jail at philippi later he got stoned several times he was resolved in the spirit to go to jerusalem you remember when he decided to go back to jerusalem and they said they wanted to kill him and he told the the ephesians and they're like don't go to jerusalem there's nothing but trouble waiting on you in jerusalem but you know what paul said but that's where god's calling me did he meet trouble in jerusalem yes so that wasn't a sign that he was in the wrong place so and then of course remember this look listen what paul said this i love this i love this right here we're getting close he said i'm going to jerusalem bound in the spirit not knowing what shall befall me there except that the holy spirit testifies to me in every city that the imprisonment and the afflictions await me the holy spirit told me i got problems coming but this is exactly where he told me to go is there there's no better place to be than in god's will bottom line and you know what another example of how sometimes meeting difficulty doesn't mean you're not in in god's will look to the lord jesus himself i'm here to do the will of my father what's the will of his father take him to the cross and we think that as followers of jesus that somehow we're going to be exempted from difficulty by being in god's will no all right in closing if you miss the road and i'll be quick thank god that if we miss his calling we mess up and go the wrong way i've done it right here raise my hand he not only can restore us but he takes upon our mistakes and follies and puts those now into his plan for us and brings the good out of that what is romans 8 28 he's working together all things for good for those who love him if you belong to god you went the wrong way you did the wrong thing you suffered from it he says this what does he say cling to this and the prophet of joel i will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten you have plenty to eat until you are full and you will praise the name of the lord your god who has worked wonders for you jesus to the restored peter after his denial and corrected his course more than once after that how about this jesus kept telling peter what we're good try it again next time you won't deny me and he didn't did he so so even if you go the wrong way even if you miss it and you get out of god's will or you make a decision that he didn't want you to make and i've done it and you mess up if you come back and repent and fix that relationship with him he'll take the messes of your life and he'll start a get you back on the track that he has for you and he'll even take the things that you brought on yourself and find some way to even use them in the will that he's got for your life so are you in god's will well what is step one if you're not in the right relationship with him i promise you you're not and maybe that's what needs to be fixed today let's pray lord thank you for uh for this lesson thank you for the uh the clarity and for us to understand that really that one of the the main ways for us to be in your will and to be guided by you is to know who you are to know your word so much of the decisions we have to make are already there and we simply don't make decisions they're in conflict with you to go that way is always the wrong way and then looking for those specific details that's much more difficult but lord ultimately we submit to you maybe right now you just need to say lord jesus i repent of my sins i i confess you as my lord i want to be under your authority and i want to obey you but in order to obey you i've got to first know you and i don't know you so today lord i ask you to to to receive me i ask you to come to me lord draw me to you forgive me of my sins give me the power of the holy spirit to give me the clarity to learn your word and thus learning your word and learning everything i can about you i start finding myself in the middle of your will for my life not my own in your holy name we pray amen thank you for this time if i can help you in any way reach out to me rick rick and bubba dot com you

Channel: Rick & Bubba

Views: 4,948

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: rick, bubba, rick and bubba, rick & bubba, rick bubba live, rick and bubba live, rick & bubba live, rick and bubba show, rick & bubba show, rick bubba show, burgess, bussey, radio, alabama, bible study, bible study for men, men's bible study, biden, we be big, mens bible study, kamala, harris, joe biden, bible, jesus, rick burgess bible study, the man church, man church, saban, conservative, rush, shapiro, rogan, aliens, bigfoot, aoc, auburn, roll tide, football

Id: irnAhp9GLqg

Length: 63min 8sec (3788 seconds)

Published: Wed May 19 2021