What Happens When You Choose to do God's Will?

What Happens When You Choose to do God’s Will?
John 7:14-44

1. Dwight L. Moody was a cobbler when God placed a mandate on his heart and life.
(1) It didn’t come as a bolt out of the blue.
(2) It was not revealed to him while he was speaking in tongues or praying.
(3) It came as he considered the history of Christianity in the world.
(4) He said something like this, The world has yet to see what God can do with one person who completely surrenders his life to Him!
a. Moody became the most effective evangelist of his day.
b. He was responsible for the beginning and sustaining of Moody Bible Institute.
c. He became one of the guiding lights for Billy Graham and many, many other ministers of the Gospel.
3. I have a question to ask.
(1) I ask it whether you are a Christian or not.
(2) Open up your minds and your hearts and consider this:
3. What happens when you choose to do God’s will?
4. Have you ever thought about that? Think about it right now.
5. The best example of what can happen is Jesus. Let’s look at what He has to say in this Scripture.

I. He had the ability to determine the false and the true.

1. So many people are so concerned because they can’t tell what is right from what is wrong.
2. The reason they can’t is usually the same.
3. They aren’t sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, so He is not present in their lives to tell them what is right and what is wrong. (“Correct” and “false” are better terms for what most people call “right” and “wrong.”
4. What we are actually talking about is what is Godly and what is Satanic!
5. Jesus knew because He was, and is, the Son of God.
(1) V 15, The people accused him of not having the rabbinic seal of approval. He wasn’t trained by one of the prominent Rabbis.
(2) In v 16, Jesus told the people His teaching came from God! (That’s a much higher source than rabbinic tradition could ever reach!)
(3) In v 17, Jesus told them that anyone who chooses to do God’s will know where His teachings come from!
(4) V 18, Any speaker, minister or otherwise, who speaks on his own only seeks to honor himself!
(5) V 18, A speaker, a minister, or anyone else who seeks to honor the one who sent him is a “man of truth,” and “there is nothing false about him.”
6. Listen, people, when you choose to do God’s will, one of the things that Jewish leaders furious!
2. It may seem strange to us that Jesus would do that deliberately.
3. They were the spiritual icons of their day! And He denounced them as false leaders!!!
4. Paul wasn’t there, but he belonged to that same group!
(1) Paul’s Rabbinic teachers misled him.
a. Paul’s heart was fervent for the Lord.
b. What a wonderful thing it is to know that God knows all of our hearts.
(2) What better person to lead people to Christ than their persecutor, one who was changed by Jesus?
a. Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees,
b. He was God’s choice for establishing churches!
c. He was God’s choice for spreading the Gospel among the Gentiles.
(3) It took a sledgehammer blow from Jesus to convince Paul that he was going the wrong way! Jesus let him have it on the road to Damascus!
a. Before Christ intervened in his life, Paul could see, but he was spiritually blind.
b. When Jesus intervened, Paul became physically blind, but almost immediately his spiritual vision became clear and strong.
4. From that time on, Paul told the truth regardless of the consequences.
(1) He was beaten and jailed.
(2) He was shipwrecked.
(3) He was imprisoned and chained to his jailor.
(4) In spite of the cost, he always spoke the truth to everyone he met!
5. When you choose to do God’s will, you will be like Paul, and you will speak the truth regardless of what it costs you!

III. 7:24, You will learn to judge people in the right way.

1. Jesus told the Jews to stop judging by mere appearances. That is not the right way to judge. (We know judging is wrong, but this is a matter of deciding on a person’s trustworthiness and value. It is not a matter of condemnation!
(1) They knew Jesus’ mother, and Joseph.
(2) They knew His half-brothers and sisters.
(3) They knew He had never been schooled under a rabbinic teacher.
(4) They decided His value on those things, mere appearances.
2. We tend to do the same thing ourselves, don’t we?
3. The right way to judge a teacher or preacher is complex.
(1) We ask God’s guidance.
(2) We look to the person’s source. Is it really God?
(3) We decide whether his teaching is Biblical, or not.
(4) We look at the fruit of that person’s life.
4. Even when we have done all four things, we must depend on God’s Holy Spirit because we ourselves are so flawed! But we can judge correctly when we do it God’s way!

IV. When you seek to do God’s will, you recognize His calling.

1. I think pastors and other teachers have misled us on God’s calling.
2. I believe He calls everyone, not just preachers, teachers and missionaries.
3. Each call is very, very special. It is tailored to fit the individual.
4. Just as there are no unimportant parts in our bodies, there are no unimportant parts in the Body of Christ.
5. A certain lady told me she did not like her job, but now she says she sees that it enables her to minister for God. God let her see that her having that job was no accident! It was His call, and that is as it should be.
6. You will never be unhappy doing God’s will!
7. The reason that we are misled about God’s calling to us is that we usually don’t even consider it possible that God could, or would, use us!
8. Just the opposite is true. We are saved to serve! And we do it in partnership with God, and we are empowered by His Holy Spirit.

Conclusion:

1. I hear so many people say, “It doesn’t make any difference how I vote.”
2. Spiritually we tend to have that same defeated attitude, but believe me, we can know certain things will happen when we decide to do God’s will.
3. We have no power within ourselves, but God has all of the power we need, and He supplies it.
4. You discover you can tell the truth even if it hurts you!
5. God gives us the mind of Christ, and we discover we can judge people in the right way, without condemnation and with the intent of helping them know God.
5. You may have wandered around looking for purpose in your life, but the moment you seek God’s will, you will trust Jesus, and you will experience God’s calling for your life. It will be filled with His purposes, and His calling will fill you with personal satisfaction that will last forever.
6. Have you sought to do God’s will? Start where He wants you to start. Give yourself to Jesus, and all of these other things will happen in your life.

Emmanuel 7/17/2005