Nashville First Church of the Nazarene - Sermon and Devotional Outlines

First Church of the Nazarene
Pastor Henecke's Sermon Outlines

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Pastor Henecke's PM Sermon Outline
FIRST CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE

BELIEVERS HOUR

June 11, 2003 7:00 P.M.
Knowing the Will of God

Session 3

Let’s begin this third session by reminding ourselves in brief form of what we have already covered. Thus far we have said:

1. God has a purpose and a will that we may know.

2. He created the world decisively and placed laws for its operation.

3. Good intentions are not enough. We may ignorantly serve God.

Romans 10:2 I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened.

4. Every action and every decision has consequences.

5. The world operates under the universal law of sowing and reaping.

Nothing just happens. Everything is under the principle of cause and effect. Every time we meet someone new we may be meeting someone who will play a significant role in our lives. Others may be making decisions right now that will impact us. The consequences of life events are both minor and major. Some accumulate very slowly. Life addictions, such as poor eating habits or use of illicit drugs and alcohol, may have a slow affect in ramification, but they have an effect nonetheless.

Many a young crusading Christian, with the very holiest of intentions, may adopt children who have already lived in severe conflict and may believe that they can redeem the children into the peace of their own lives – only to discover the hostility in the child will bring hostility into their home and that, to some degree, both will be affected. The son of a house marries a young woman whose life is full of the scars of brutality and abuse. With the highest of intentions, he hopes to give her a life of peace. Every member of his house may be affected because of defense mechanisms and personality traits that have been deeply woven into the young bride. The decisions of a lifetime are brought together in a marriage, and all homes connected will be impacted.
Three Dead Ends

1. Supposing that life ought to be fair

2. Supposing that people know in advance

3. Believing that all people can reason and negotiate neutrally

**We Americans believe that we can help Israel and the Arabs negotiate a treaty whereby they will live together across a borderline in well-thought-out peace. Their conflict, however, has been developed across thousands of years. Both lay claim to exactly the same piece of earth as the center of their faith. The Israelites have no other place on earth for their homeland. They possessed it for a thousand years. The Arabs, however, have possessed it for the last one and a half thousand years. They have equal claim, and theirs is the recent one. The conflict is the result of countless decisions and complex belief structures that defy compromise. The original Jews were able to gain this land by slaughtering all previous inhabitants in the name of their God. That would be very unacceptable in the 21st century. Little could our evening news tolerate the decision by the Israeli parliament to go into the Arab villages and slaughter every man, woman, and child. That was the order given through Joshua. The problem is deeper than simply good will.

The real issue of God’s will is, "How much does God control of our life and its destiny?" You can find scriptural verses to defend both positions. No matter what the theological name we may give it, its roots are in paganism. It may be called fate, destiny, predestination, luck, divine decree, or by any other label of theology. Its basis is that forces above and beyond us control our lives. Many theologians, beginning with Luther and Calvin, believed that we were helpless in our fallen estate. This thinking is prevalent in America today. Usually using a passage like Romans 7, they will defend that we are incapable of overcoming the forces of evil that lurk within our own being. This brings us to the distasteful position of God’s either causing evil or at least permitting it. If God controls everything that happens, even the evil, we are left with some ultimate questions about responsibility. To this modern Christians usually add, "This does not exclude responsibility." The two, however, are in conflict.

So we ask these questions:

1. Does God actively cause evil?

2. Does he, by demanding our holiness, demand the impossible?

3. Does God permit or wink at evil?

4. How free are we to make decisions - and are we responsible?

Without going further, I will give you some concrete truths that I believe. God is sovereign! He is absolutely able and capable of doing anything that he wishes – whatsoever. He is active in all daily life. In his vast supernatural capability, he is ever present and all knowing. He is capable of handling the most minute detail of his creation. The God who created the galaxies of the universe created the sub-atomic particles we will never see. He knows the hairs of our body. He knows every DNA minor detail of our particular uniqueness. He knows the exact chain of heredity and circumstances that created our individual lives. We are safe with our God.

He has created a world in freedom. His ultimate goal is to create a world that loves him. This love cannot be gained by dictation but by response. His working nature is to exercise control to the extent that an individual believer permits. When Jesus was asked if he did good through demons, he responded, "If Satan casts out Satan, then the kingdom is divided against itself. Any kingdom divided against itself will not stand." He was laying the clear principle that evil cannot produce good. WAR CANNOT PRODUCE PEACE – IT CAN ONLY END THE POWER OF EVIL. Those who live by the sword die by the sword. Only goodness and love can produce peace and harmony.

God does not cause evil. When freedom and responsibility became the tools of how the universe functions, it allowed for human beings to act contrary to God’s will. Evil comes from an evil heart. Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. Every evil act has its origin in the selfish heart. Evil acts create destructive forces. As one thinks poisonously within oneself, he/she creates the seedbed of evil.

God has granted to us the power of decision and the responsibility for the consequences that occur and the circumstances they create. If God controls everything, then we in fact worship Adolf Hitler. If the evil that befalls us is from God, we may fear him but we will not love him. This is not the God of Christ, but the god of pagans. God has created us as his people who live in the midst of an evil world with evil hearts. His will is for his people to be exceptions. He seeks a people who love him with their whole heart. God does not promise to us prosperity and health. He promises to bless us.

If you are the descendant of a family that has a predisposition for diabetes, you may live a very restricted life in order to live. It is not because of God’s will but because of your heritage. You must learn to control your diet and your weight to affect the inherited tendency. As you are wise in your decisions, then nature that God has created will work on your behalf. You will live a better life through God. The life of trusting and prayer is a life of serenity. It overcomes the destructive forces that produce depression, breakdown, and all manner of disease. We are not exempted from disease by being God’s people, but we live better in the midst of our circumstances.

God has a will for our lives. His will is in harmony with how he created us. He seeks our good and not our harm. As we make decisions, he will bless us. For example: A man is converted to Christ at age twenty from a life that has already been damaged by drugs and alcohol and infected by impurity sexually. He may be saved, but he will begin physically and mentally in the condition of his damaged life. His decisions have caused the conditions through which he must serve the Lord. We all serve in the state from which we begin.

1 Peter 1:3-9 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith-- being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire-- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.