Psalm 25:1-15; Romans 12:1-2

How Do I Know Gods Will?

Sermon preached Feb 22, 2015
Opening
During the "rush hour" at Houston's Hobby Airport, a flight was delayed due to a
mechanical problem. Since they needed the gate for another flight, the aircraft was backed
away from the gate while the maintenance crew worked on it. The passengers were then
told the new gate number, which was some distance away. Everyone moved to the new
gate, only to find that a third gate had been designated. After some further shuffling,
everyone got on board. As they were settling in, the flight attendant made the standard
announcement, "We apologize for the inconvenience of this last-minute gate change. This
flight is going to Washington, D.C. If your destination is not Washington, D.C., then you
should 'deplane' at this time."
A very confused-looking and red-faced pilot emerged from the cockpit, carrying his bags.
"Sorry," he said, "wrong plane.
Human desire to find divine direction
I realize I talk a lot about the human condition. Our limitations and weaknesses. Maybe
thats because as I get older Im more aware of mine. But one feature of the human
condition is our desire to know the future, to know what path we should take - combined
with our complete inability to predict the future.
Its pretty strange when you think of it. We know that our future is decisively shaped by
our decisions, and sometimes in big ways - decisions like:
Should I take that job?
Should I get married, have kids?
Should I go to college, or trade school, or just start working?
Should I rent, or buy a house?
And thousands of other ones.
And yet, we cannot see even one second into the future. We are completely time-bound.
Its like were all living on a moving train, looking out a small window - we see the
present and then it recedes into the past and then we see a new scene but we cant ever
see ahead and we dont know whats coming and sometimes, it scares us to death.
The human desire to know the future, to find some guidance about what I should do, is as
old as the human species. For uncounted years weve been trying to divine the future by
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reading entrails or casting dice or reading astrological signs, by listening to prophets and
palm readers and mediums and all the rest.
God has a plan for us, and reveals it to us.
Well, there is good news for us here - God does speak to us and guide us, and Psalm 25
shows us how we can by open and receptive to hearing Gods will.
The Psalmist says in vs. 8, Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he instructs sinners in
his ways...
The first thing we learn is the great good news is that Gods stoops down to us to
communicate his intentions for us. God is not far off and unknowable - Plato once said,
The father of all things is past finding out - God is a God who reveals himself and his
plans and purposes.
And not only that, he knows were broken and flawed people - and doesnt pull away
from us in disgust like a hyper-critical parent - he reaches down to us in mercy and
compassion to guide us in the right way.
Annie Dillard relates a Hasidic legend about a rabbinical student named Moshe.
It is said that Moshe never heard his teacher, the great rabbi Maggid of Mezritch,
ever complete a class, because as soon as the great rabbi would quote scripture,
saying, And the Lord spoke..., Moshe would start shouting in wonderment,
The Lord spoke! The Lord spoke! and would continue shouting this until he
had to be carried from the room.1
But note - he instructs us in HIS ways. Bob Dylan once sang that people treat God like an
errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires... You may have come into an inheritance
and you pray, God should I buy an Audi or a Mercedes? but Gods will might be you
need to devote that windfall to opening a shelter for runaway children or something else
that you never ever dreamed of.
You become able to discern Gods will by becoming a friend of God
Another wonderful, remarkable teaching of this Psalm - vs 14 says The friendship of the
Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes his covenant known to them.
Friendship? Friendship? Thats what it says. It is said of Moses, that he was a friend of
God - but little old you and me? Yes. We are brought into Gods inner circle, so to
speak, when we put our faith and trust in God, when we give our heart to God through
Christ.

The word for friendship also has the sense of confiding - one friend confiding in
another, leaning over and giving you a good word of instruction or help or guidance or
warning - and what God confides to us, is his will for our lives.
I hope you are a little bit flabbergasted by this - can you be just a little flabbergasted?- but
the claim of the Word here is that if you love God, he views you as his friend and
confides to you his purposes for your life.
Let me push this out a bit and contrast it with:
Astrology - you read the patterns of the stars and you supposedly get some
impersonal direction - like be careful in love today that applies to everyone with
the same astrological sign.
And let me contrast this with the classical idea of fate - the gods above have set
the course of your life and you cannot avoid it, you may have gotten a word about
your fate when you were young and you try to avoid it but fate keeps steering you
and you end up in the middle of the tragedy predicted and arranged for you.
Instead, with the Lord we get personal direction from the God who made those
stars and who knows us inside and out and knows what is good for us and how
much were capable of, a God who knows how to lead us to a life that when were
old and wrinkled well look back on it with satisfaction, a life that when we are
welcomed into heaven well hear God say, Well done, my good and faithful
servant.
Our task is to become a guidable friend of God
Heres the thing - knowing Gods will isnt about learning some techniques. Its first and
foremost becoming the kind of person God can speak to, the kind of person who can hear
Gods voice and respond. Its about becoming a guidable friend of God.
And there are no quick ways to do this - this isnt fortune telling where we go in and pay
our $20 and get an answer - there is a process of becoming the kind of person who can
hear and respond to Gods direction.
What does this mean, specifically?
1. Becoming a person who fears the Lord (vs 14).
If there were a top ten list of the most misunderstood concepts in the Bible - this would be
on it. Fearing the Lord doesnt mean cringing, crawling, grabbing God by the ankles,
please pay attention to me but dont hurt me - its kind of the opposite of fear - its a quiet
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confidence of being a person who is immersed in God and who lives from the joy and
strength of knowing God and following Gods ways.
To fear the Lord means that you know the awesomeness and beauty of the Lord, and
respond with love and devotion. If you want to recognize Gods voice and discern Gods
will, you have to know what God is like and what kind of things he might ask of you.
How do you do that? An example I heard in a sermon on this topic.
Id really like to learn to speak Spanish. Susan speaks Spanish. My daughter
Amy and my son-in-law speak Spanish. Two of my grandchildren speak Spanish.
We like going to Cozumel where the people speak Spanish.
So I decide Im going to learn Spanish and my plan is to get ahold of a Spanish
dictionary and spend five minutes a day learning new Spanish words. And I think
with that plan, Ill learn to speak and understand Spanish.
Think that will work? No way. You want to learn a language, you have to
immerse yourself in it, converse with other people who know it, hear it spoken.
Its kind of telling that people expect to know God when they give him the same
kind of time commitment in my hypothetical example. God has revealed himself
in Jesus Christ and in the Bible - you want to know God, you start by diving
deeply into studying the life and ministry of our Lord, into studying the Bible. No
shortcuts here. As with anything that matters.
2. Learning humility - vs 9 - He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble
his way.
This is also on the top ten list of the most misunderstood concepts of the Bible. Humility
is not being a weak wallflower, a little mouse that lets people walk over you. The biblical
idea is that you are a guidable person. You listen. You admit you dont have all the
answers. Youre open to doing something you never would have thought of on your own.
You accept correction. You are willing to accept it when God says no. And youre
willing to do something God wants you to do, when you dont.
An example. Years ago, before seminary, when Susan and I and family were
living out in Kansas City, there was a man named Tim who attended our church.
Tim was one of the most obnoxious people Ive ever met. He was born blind,
lived by himself - quite an achievement - came to church with a guide dog and
was incredibly demanding. And prickly, quick to take offense, rude, coarse. I
didnt like Tim.

So one Sunday Susan and I and our then two kids are leaving church and I see
Tim standing on the street with his dog, doing this rock back and forth thing he
did, waiting for his bus to take him back to his apartment. Except he was on the
wrong street, he missed the bus stop by a block and no bus was going to go
anywhere near him.
I figure this out after weve already passed him and I confidently tell Susan that
surely someone else from church will see him and guide him to the bus stop and
she just looks at me and as I drive I feel the weight of Gods hand on me and the
Spirit of God nudging, insisting that I go back there, so I kind of go Fine! and
drop off Susan and the children and head back down there and Tims still there
rocking back and forth and I stop the car and tell him hes on the wrong street and
I invite him to get in the car and he does and I drive him home and hes obnoxious
the whole way but God wanted the guy to get home so he called on me and I
went...muttering the whole way down there...but on the way home I knew Id done
the right thing.
Humility means accepting a hard truth - that Gods will for you, isnt all about you.
Gods will for you, is often about you living for others. About self-forgetfulness, about
putting to death the greedy little voices inside our hearts that always want me first, always
want more. God seeks to break us out of our natural selfishness because until he does,
were imprisoned in the narrow, cramped confines of the self and there is a bigger and
better world out there for us.
This is an absolute pre-requisite for discerning Gods will - that you are willing to accept
it even if you dont at first like it - we learn this from Jesus - in the book of Hebrews says
of our Lord Jesus During the days of Jesus life on earth, he offered up prayers and
petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he
was heard because of his reverent submission (Heb. 5:7). But he still went to the cross.
3. Trusting God. In vs. 2 the Psalmist says O my God, in you I trust; in vs. 8 he says,
For you I wait all day long.
One thing is guaranteed in a life devoted to the Lord Jesus. At times, you will sense him
asking you to do something, to go somewhere and youre going to think, thats crazy, or
thats scary. Or youll be in the middle of something you felt so sure God was calling you
to do, and youll think, this is too much for me to handle, or youll be confused or
disappointed - what I mean to tell you, is that even when you nail it and youre following
the will of Christ, it may at times be dangerous and demanding and scary and youll be
asking the Lord, Really? REALLY??
Full disclosure about this will of God thing - the Lord WILL call you to sacrifice, to give
of yourself, to do things you dont think you can do. And those things will be the will of
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God for you.

Nothing really worth doing is easy, is it?
Marriage, is not easy.
Becoming good at golf, is not easy
Learning to play an instrument well, is not easy.
Neither is following the Lord Jesus Christ.
What you have to do is take a deep breath and tell God, ok Im moving forward in faith
and trust here, you better hold on to me tight!
Conclusion
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire
in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything
apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore I will trust you always
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will not leave me to face my perils alone.
Endnotes
1. Andrew Chignell, He Is Not Silent, in Books and Culture, May/June 1997, p. 32.