The Rocky Road to the Will of God – Dr. Charles Stanley

[Music] one of the most important subjects in the bible is the will of god and unbelievers sort of scuff at the idea and believers oftentimes ignore it but the truth is every single day you and i either living in the will of god out of the will of god it's a choice we make and it's a choice we make on the basis of the decisions we face in life and we face many of them so when you think about the will of god for your life you think about how you go about discovering his will what you do when you understand what his will is do you obey him or do you not or you just think about it do you wonder why you get yourself in trouble sometime and you think well if i'd have just thought about so-and-so very important subject so what i want to title this message messages this is i thought about the rocky road to the will of god because it's not easy and there's stumbling blocks along the way if we're not careful and what i'd like to do is to simply tell you about the obstacles and that you ask yourself the question is that why i'm not seeking the will of god for my life have i have i neglected one of the most important aspects of my life so i have a number of points and i hope you get them all down and uh so i want to begin with number one one of the rocky roads is simply this and that's self-will we want our way it's a matter of pride and selfishness on our part we don't want to ask god about a lot of things we just like to do it and then ask god to bless it but that's not his way of operating and people say well nobody's going to tell me how to live my life that's a very foolish attitude because none of us not one of us is sufficient within ourselves to live out the will of god for our life nowhere in the bible does he say it's a smooth road but it is a rocky road that think there's so many stumbling blocks to doing the will of god you face them on your job you face them at home and you look at your life and you think about how many times have you stepped out of the will of god how many times have you almost missed the will of god for your life so it's a rocky road and i simply want to mention some of those rocks and self-will as the first one a second one is the influence of other people other people are quick to tell you how you are live your life how you can make decisions what your decisions are to be how you spend your money who you marry how you raise your child they can they can tell you all kinds of reasons of how to live your life but the truth is oftentimes you're listening to the wrong voices because god is willing to show you what you need to know about any area of your life if you willing to listen they want to place their opinion above god's opinion and they say well listen when somebody says if i were you watch it they're not you to begin with they can't be you they don't know what god's plan is for your life and they don't know what god's up to in your life they may think that what's happening in your life is terrible and god thinks it's perfectly on time a third one of those obstacles is ignorance of god's principles naturally you can't walk in the will of god if you don't know the principles of god so let me just mention a few for example one of those important principles to walk in the will of god is learning listen learning to wait on god god's timing is a major issue in living the christian life and then the second one is this learning to trust god and leave all the consequences to him which is a foreign idea to the world what do you mean trust god and leave all the consequences in that's what faith's all about we walk a difficult road often times the will of god has never promised to be easy we'll face obstacles in life but we keep moving in the direction of obedience to him and then of course one of those principles is that you've got to supply all of our needs most people don't believe that they think they've got to supply them no god will supply all of our needs that when we're walking in the will of god we're going to have everything we need and then think about this walking in the will of god you only take one step at a time when you get in your automobile at nighttime and you're going to take a trip you cut on the lights and you can only go as far as those lights will shine watch this the will of god's not going to show you the whole picture of your life he's going to have all of us walking a step at a time trusting him obeying him and believing watch this believing that what i can't see around the curve god's already seen and he'll get me there at the right time very important to keep the timing of god's will in our life and then one of the other obstacles is willful known sin in our life now you may want to jot down these four things because this is what it's all about first of all sin deafens our ears to the voice of god when you choose to disobey god you no longer hear god as clearly as he desires to show you and to speak to your heart the second fact here is that it blinds their eyes to the vision of god we don't know the will of god willful sin in our life blinds our eyes to the vision of god of what he's up to in our life and that's when you're not going to be happy about your life if you don't know where you're headed then the third thing is it hardens our heart to our awareness of god disobedience to god always hardens your heart and this is why people stumble along the way because they're allowing sin in their life that's a distraction and and god's best is ahead of them and they get sidetracked because they were allowed sin in their life and then how many times i heard people say well i just don't want i just don't understand why god treats me the way he treats me no it's how you're treating him you're not listening to him you're not obeying him and things are not going to work out for you there's no promise in god's word that he's going to bless your sin your disobedience and your indifference to him life's just not that away and then of course sin builds our conscience to the word of god when people say well i read the word of god it doesn't say a thing to me it's because you're living in disobedience to god you're not listening to him you have your own mind and heart made up and when you think about this anything that does what deafens my ears to him blinds my eyes to him hardens my heart to him and deals my conscience to him i'm in trouble and when you're out of the will of god this is what happens you begin to sense that something's not right you wonder why don't look somewhere else look within your own heart to see what's going on in my own life do i really and truly want to know and to walk in the will of god and then of course one of those obstacles along the way is doubt because living the christian life is not easy it's easy to doubt and when we doubt god what happens we make wrong decisions so if i doubt him what am i doubting i'm down let's think about this analyze it for a moment if i'm doubting god what am i doubting i'm doubting that god has a will for me personally he may have some general will but not for me personally yes he does i'm doubting that god will make his will known well why should god make his will known to me personally because he loves us then we doubt what we are hearing from god well i must not be hearing from god because that sounds too good i've had people say that so we doubt him we doubt that we can do what he requires of us and oftentimes this is where people step out of the will of god god requires something of you and because you doubt that he will enable you to do it you step out of the will of god you get ahead of him or behind him things don't work right and you say see i trusted god and it didn't work no you didn't trust god you didn't obey him you weren't on his schedule and if you think about every morning you get up every day is different but as a follower of jesus every day is different except for one thing we have him all day long the goddess the leaders to show us the way they point us to those stumbling blocks along the way it is a rocky road there are many difficulties in walking and living in the will of god for your life we doubt that we can do what he requires and you remember when god came to get in to tell him what he wanted to do he said who am i have you ever said that to god sometimes when god makes a promise because we judge him by how we see ourselves we say god i could never do that i could never preach i could never sing i could never fulfill that particular position in my job i i could never do that who are you listening to you're not listening to god you're listening you're listening to the devil's desire to cause you to doubt what is oftentimes the most beautiful part of god's will he has something for you in the future you can't figure it out you don't think you deserve it and so you give all kind of excuses for disobeying god we doubt it because we don't have the facts the facts are god loves each one of us individually he has a plan for our life he'll walk us through that plan he'll provide everything we need there'll be difficulty hardship and pain and suffering and loss and all of that god will turn for our good if i recognize the source of it all difficult in hardship and trial doesn't come from the devil god allows things in our life to do what to grow us up to mature us in areas that we're not mature you're tr you you're able to trust god today for things you couldn't trust him for 10 years ago you wouldn't have believed that god would be so personal to you is to show you exactly what you're to do and his will for your life god is willing to guide us all along the way but it's not an easy step and sometimes people trust the lord jesus christ as our savior and then great difficulty comes into their life now watch this that difficulty god allows in order to do what shape them mold us make us changes eliminate stuff in our life that shouldn't be there we take it all personal and say well god doesn't love me it doesn't really work because look what's happening look at the apostle paul look at all of the major characters of the scripture look at the difficulty they went through all of which god used to do what to accomplish his purpose and to mold and make men and women godly and remember this is always god's goal god's goal is not to please you god's goal is not to give us everything we want god's goal is to fashion us liken to the likeness of christ so when there's doubt doubt usually heads us in the wrong direction so ask yourself the question as best you know your life are you living a life of obedience to christ you have the job that he gave you you dress like a believer you spend your money like a believer in other words your goal is to follow the leadership of the lord in your life could you say as best i know my heart i'm living a life believing and trusting the lord god me every step of the way he wants to he desires to he's planned to and the outcome of our life is the result of whether we follow his will or not it's not easy because there are many obstacles and that's what i'm doing and i'm just listing him and one of them is we said feeling of unworthiness let's get in and look at moses when god came to moses and moses listened to what god's told him he wanted to do he's not me i can't speak i can't do this i can't do that and i wonder how many of god's servants stepped out of god's will early in their life because they told god they couldn't speak couldn't sing couldn't do this couldn't do that wouldn't make it in that job listen don't underestimate watch this carefully don't underestimate what he thinks you can do because he's there to help you get it done help you to become the person he wants you to be so don't make decisions based on how you think make decisions based on what has god called you to do he's going to do whatever he knows is best for us provide everything we need to accomplish his will and purpose for our life didn't say it was an easy road and many people backslide now what i mean by that is they just get back into sin they slip back into sin and it's not so much of slipping it's a matter of choosing to make a decision to do what you used to do that god delivered you from because you don't think you can be the person god wants you to be but remember this there's no place in the bible where god says is his word that if one of his children sins that's it finished no why did he say if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and they cleanse us from all unrighteousness all along the christian way we're going to make mistakes and we'll sin at times and god has given us the assurance that he he doesn't make us an outcast because we disobey him because we falter somewhere along the way we're not all as strong as the other person maybe at times and so we make mistakes choose to disobey god we pay the consequences what do we do walk away no ask god to forgive us sincerely and honestly and look to him to give us wisdom and guidance and direction and a warning in our heart to avoid that sin god is on our side to enable us to become the persons god wants us to be and now watch this you say well suppose i sin badly i don't know what you mean by badly i can think of a few things but let me just say this you can't sin so badly god won't retrieve you but you can sin so bad you'll wish you hadn't because god has a chastising hand watch this but you know what he's doing he's loving us back unto his will he's not going to cast you out because you fall to somewhere along the way and then of course one of those excuses we give is business you know i've just been so busy i don't have time to go to church well i'm so busy i don't have time to read the bible i'm so busy i whisper right before i go to sleep i whisper a prayer busyness is a tool of the devil we can all claim busyness as an excuse for our sin because watch this we live in a world watch this we live in a world that's in opposition to who we are and the kind of life we live in we have a world that's in opposition to who we are and i meet people every sunday i would say every sunday from some other country in the world and it's interesting the things that they go through suffering that they face at times that they're willing to share difficulty and hardship that's true everywhere but because it's true doesn't mean i give up doesn't mean that i say well you know i i i just i just don't know what i'm going to make or not yes you will you can make it if you simply rely upon the lord the christian life's not easy but one thing for certain it has an awesome eternal end god's going to take us home to heaven and he's going to bless us for all eternity for our faithfulness for our loyalty for our devotion because every single one of us is a living light a witness of who he is and so naturally we're going to make mistakes naturally to be times in our life we do what we know is not the wisest thing to do but there's a price to pay and so one of the most important things we do is spend time with him it may be a short period of time or long period of time but all of us need that relationship you're married you know that if you never talk to your spouse but once a week that marriage won't last long or even if it's just once a day it won't last long it takes watch this it takes time to be a godly person it takes time to walk with the lord it takes time to know his will but it's a rocky road and if you're looking for it to get easy i can tell you this it doesn't get easy some things may not be quite as difficult as others but there'll never come a time in your life when living a godly life is easy and you can just relax next thing you know you're being disobedient to god god has given us a life he's given us an awesome life he's given us the holy spirit to live within us to walk with us every single day and to face every circumstance we face remember this you may feel like you're alone but you're not alone you may feel lonely but you're not alone and when you look at your life for example and you think well what am i missing ask yourself the question are you missing that precious time he desires to spend with you to give you comfort strength wisdom guidance direction support help warnings in your life that's who he is the christian life's not easy it's a rocky road but having the holy spirit to enable us the presence of god in that life and all the promises of the word of god and this handbook the word of god itself makes living the christian life life at its best no matter what's going on around us where would you place yourself in the christian life would you say that you are living in the will of god that you genuinely honestly attempt to walk in his will for your life each day or you find yourself complaining and moaning and groaning and thinking well you know what what's what's missing in the christian life nothing's missing in the christian life usually you can trace it all back ultimately to when is the last time you sat down and read the word of god ask god to speak to your heart show you his will for your life you say i don't even know what to turn it's amazing when you don't know what to turn and you turn someplace you look dancing looks like it's got your name on it god knows what you need to read he knows when you need to read it and he knows exactly what it takes to encourage your heart so ask yourself the question are you satisfied with your christian life i don't mean that you think everything's just perfect but do you feel like you're growing then i think of three things that i think people fear that they'll miss it in their christian life number one they fear of what god may require of them and so they think well you know god god may call me to be a missionary don't don't don't be concerned about that god may require me to do this that haven't though watch this a loving father will only require watch this what he knows you're capable of doing with his help his strength and his wisdom never require more than he's willing to enable you to do secondly a fear of failure say well i can't live the christian life and none of us can live the christian life ourselves and we all fail at times we ask god to forgive us and move on but we don't take it for granted and we don't do it foolishly or haphazardly if he says if we confess our sin that means if we agree with him about it if we confess our sins he's faithful and just and forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness pick us up on the road of the christian life and move us on you know you don't live in the muck in my of disobedience and sin in your life you ask god to forgive you and you keep moving no such thing as a sinless saint we're all contaminated because listen the road to living the will of god is a difficult road and we will stumble unless we lean heavily upon our lord listen to him depend upon the holy spirit and so we say well i'm afraid of what god may require of me and uh well listen many things he'll require of you can't do without him but the holy spirit came into your life and sealed you as a child of god when you were saved therefore watch this this is god's indwelling spirit within you to enable you to do any and everything god will require of you that's god's godly assurance so if we fail in his heart and he knows when we do fail he's there to forgive us and so we fear for example of what god may require us we fear failure and then one of the things we fear is criticism how many times have you disobeyed god because you were afraid of what somebody may say to you about your life it's amazing how christians can become afraid of other people's criticism watch this you live a godly life you're going to be criticized you live a godly life and obey god and attempt to walk in his way in his will you're going to be blessed no matter what god is on your side living within you and listen god is all about helping you enabling you equipping you entrusting to you the strength and wisdom and guidance you need to live a godly life because all of us shine brighter when we're living godly so let me ask you a simple question as you look at your life it is nobody's business but yours nobody else can read your mind this morning would you say that you are walking in the will of god for your life now i didn't say that you never sinned i didn't say that you never fault i didn't say that you never make mistakes i didn't say you had to con in other words do you believe as best you know your life you're walking in the will of god not not the past not what you're going to do but do you believe that best as you know your life you're walking in his will that you can say i am living an obedient christian life i didn't say perfect i didn't say that you never fault and didn't say that you never sinned but you're walking in his will we will stumble at some point but could you say as best you know your heart i am attempting to walk in the will of god for my life i'm i'm attempting to be obedient to god where he's placed me in my life in my family on my job where i live what i have to deal with with my finances i'm walking in the will of god if we had to be perfect we would all have to say no watch this carefully is that what i want do i want to be obedient to god the sickness that was god looks at your heart he knows whether you genuinely want to obey him and follow him and there'll be times in your life and it'll be easier to be obedient than other times there'll be times when it'll be very difficult for you to be obedient to god because of the circumstances in which you're in that maybe you didn't create somebody else did the safest place to be is in the center of the will of god nobody else can put you there but you you say how do i get that you ask god to forgive you for your sin and you tell him that as best you know your heart lord i want you to govern my life guide my life show me the way and lord with your help and strength in the power of the holy spirit i'll do my best to follow you you can't ever promise him you don't have a sin again you can't promise him perfection you can't promise him you'll always do right but you can't say lord here's my life that's my heart's desire and i'm gonna trust the holy spirit that you placed within me and promised me the power and the strength to be obedient to you is that your prayer father thank you thank you thank you for grace thank you that you understand who we are where we are why we are where we are thank you for your willingness to step into our lives at any point forgive us our sin cleanse us stand us up again and move us on in the center of your will i pray that you have spoken to every single one of us this morning and i pray for that person who came today who doesn't even know anything about your will who never thought about that you have any real personal interest in their life that they would surrender their life to you today thank you for loving us father thank you that you never never never give up on us and thank you that to the very moment we pass on from this life to the next you'll be there because you said i will never and no one else could promise this i will never leave you nor forsake you so we say hallelujah this morning in jesus name [Music] amen you

Channel: In Touch Ministries

Views: 409,224

Keywords: The Rocky Road to the Will of God, Charles F. Stanley, InTouch, In Touch, Ministries, God, Prayer, Sermon, Bible, Preaching, Dr Stanley, Pastor, Church, Sunday, Christian, Faith, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Charles Stanley

Id: NcxeV9bN4xY

Length: 27min 23sec (1643 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 24 2020