Living God's Will

Transcript

Rob McFarlane: 0:59

I'm going to be talking about how to live to please God in our everyday lives. Let's look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 16 to 18, and I would like to read it to us from two different versions of the Bible. First, listen to the New International Version. Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Listen to these verses in the Passion translation. Let joy be your continual feast. Make your life a prayer, and in the midst of everything, be always giving thanks. For this is God's perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus. We saw in verse 18 in the New International Version, this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. And I love the way the Passion Translation puts it. This is God's perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus. These verses teach us how to live in God's will or His perfect plan for our everyday lives. And that's what I desire, and I know that you want that too. The way we live every day is as important as what we do with our whole life. So often we become focused on trying to get answers to the question, what is my life purpose? Or what has God called me to do with my life? And these big things are important, but they are no more important than discovering how to live the life that God intends for us seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Today we're going to look at how we can live in God's perfect plan for everyday life as a follower of Jesus. I think you'll discover that this way of living will change ordinary everyday life into an extraordinary life and an adventure of faith. I'd like to quote Warren Wearsby, who is an American Bible teacher and author. Warren Wearsby said, The Christian who walks with the Lord and keeps constant communion with him will see many reasons for rejoicing and thanksgiving all day long. We're going to look at three keys in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 16 to 18 to living God's will. These three keys are God's perfect plan for you and me every day. Key number one is rejoice always. We see in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 16 it says rejoice always, or as the Passion translation puts it, let joy be your continual feast. How do we rejoice or live joyfully every day? Well, I'd like to look at four things that will help us to live joyfully. And joy is the result of four things that all start with the letter P. The first is promises. When we focus on God's promises, we will have his joy in our lives. Let's look at two verses together. The first is Jeremiah 15 and verse 16. When your words came, I ate them. The more we feed ourselves on God's promises, the more joy we will experience in our lives. I have found that when I take a promise from the Bible and chew on it, think about it, ponder on it, it produces joy and delight in my heart. The second P is presence. We experience joy when we spend time in God's presence. Let's look at Psalm 16 and verse 11. You make known to me the path of life. Now I like to spend time every day in worship and prayer. And the way I often do this is by listening and singing along to worship music. I also take time out to pray, which is simply talking and listening to God. I find this is particularly helpful when I feel frustrated by life's challenges, perhaps feel hemmed in, or feel like I've been giving out more than I've been taking in. We must remember that there are needs that we all have that can only be met by spending time with Jesus. Psalm 16 verse 11 says, You fill me with joy in your presence. Number three, perspective. Let's look at James chapter 1, verse 2 to 4, which says, Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters. Whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. We can consider it joy when we face tests and trials because we know. Right there in those verses we see a key phrase, because we know. Because we know what? Because we know that God is using these tests and trials that we're going through to develop His character and spiritual maturity in us. Whatever test or trial you're facing today, I encourage you to take a step back and ask God, how are you using this for your glory and for my good? Number four, priorities. We will live a joyful life when we get our priorities right. An acronym for joy is Jesus, others, yourself. Now we live in a self-centered, selfie generation. And what's the fruit of that been in so many lives? Well, not positive fruit. Many people struggle with depression or mental health issues, which abound in our society. And I want to suggest that if we put Jesus first, others next, and ourselves last, we will live a much more joyful life. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 16 says, Rejoice always. Let joy be your continual feast. Key number two is to pray continually. We see in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 17, pray continually, or as the Passion translation says, make your life a prayer. Prayer is a conversation with God. It should not just be something we do at certain times of the week, like Sundays, but something that is a continual, ongoing, interactive conversation with God. Prayer at its heart is talking and listening to God. Let's look at Philippians 4 verse 6. And I'm going to read this to us out of the New King James Version of the Bible. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. We see two words in this verse, nothing and everything. Think about those words for a second. They both refer to things. Nothing is nothing, and everything is everything. We have two choices. We can be anxious or we can pray. And this verse tells us to be anxious about nothing. It also tells us to pray about everything. What are you doing with the things in your life? How about we stop something and we start something? Stop being anxious. Start praying. So how do we pray? Let me share an acronym for pray to help you. P is for praise. Start your prayer by thanking him for his blessing in your life. R is for repent or taking responsibility for your mistakes and failures before God. A is for ask. Bring your prayer requests and concerns to God. And Y is for yield, giving Him your day and asking Him to speak to you and through you. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 17 encourages us to pray continually or to make your life a prayer. Key number three is to give thanks. We see this in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 18. It says, give thanks in all circumstances, or as the Passion translation puts it, and in the midst of everything, be always giving thanks. Now there's two words that we all need to say more often, and they are the words thank you. Yes, I agree. We need to say thank you to other people and not take them for granted. But more importantly, we need to say thank you to God. We teach our children in relationship with others to say please and thank you. But with God as his children, we should say thank you before we say please. I think it's important that we don't go to our heavenly father and treat him like their heavenly butler with just a list of our needs. Let's come to him and let's spend time with him as a father and as a friend. It's interesting that 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18 says, give thanks in all circumstances. Not only when our circumstances are good, all circumstances. I think you'll agree that it's easy to give thanks when everything is going well in our lives. But what about when things do not go according to our plans or expectations? It's been said that there are two times that we should praise God, when we feel like it and when we don't. So, in conclusion, we've seen that 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 16 to 18 gives us three keys to living God's will. If we do this, the Bible says that we're living God's perfect plan for our lives. That's what God wants us to do each and every day. Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. In fact, let me, as I start to wrap up, read Warren Wesby's quote once again. The Christian who walks with the Lord and keeps constant communion with him will see many reasons for rejoicing and thanksgiving all day long. That's what God wants us to do each and every day. Rejoice always. Pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. Let's now pray in response to today's sermon. Father God, thank you that you tell us how we can live according to your will and perfect plan every day. We make a choice today to walk with you and keep constant communion with you so that we will have many reasons for rejoicing and thanksgiving all day long. Help us to rejoice always, to pray continually, and to give thanks in all circumstances. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.