Good Shepherd or Easter Bunny?

       Knowing God’s will is very important for our lives as believers.  We are called to obedience and we want to obey. We are promised the abundant life and want to know how to realize it.

       In many ways, knowing God’s will seems more complex for us than it was for earlier generations. We have more options -- more choices to make.  We face an incredible diversity of choice as twenty first century believers.

       Christians of previous centuries often found that parents or custom made major life choices for them.  The eldest son of a rich man inherited his property.  The second son went into the army.  The third son was slated for the church.  Marriages were arranged by families.  Women stayed home, had babies, and managed the household.  The children of peasants were peasants -- living in the same village and tilling the same soil for generation after generation.

       But today we have a freedom of choice and opportunity that make our crucial life decisions much more complex.  Whom do I marry?  Where do I work?  Where do I go to school?  And as complexity grows, confusion over God’s will becomes increasingly likely.

       In this confusion, the simple, foolproof solutions sometimes contradict each other.  There is no shortage of advice or advice givers.  One person says: “Love God and do as you please”, while another insists: “To find God’s will, you need to deny your desires.”  One teacher says: “God’s will is normally the most logical alternative.” Another says that true faith “involves doing things that seem irrational to us; that if you can figure out a good reason, you aren’t acting from faith.”  One counselor says: “God’s will is known through your intuition”, while another argues that feelings are misleading; “God gave us minds for a reason and directs us through rational thought.”

       We are in a sermon and small group series on knowing and doing the will of God.  The first week I talked about what we mean when we say “the will of God.”  We distinguished between God’s intentional will, God’s circumstantial will, and God’s ultimate will.  Two weeks ago we looked at God’s timing and God’s priorities and how they differ from our timing and our priorities.  Last week Janet looked at the vital question, “Is God fair?” through the life and death of Moses.

       Today, to help us through the maze, I want to explore six biblical truths that will help us know God’s will for our lives and for the specific decisions we all face.   We’ve laid the groundwork.  Now we are going to move to practical application.

       The first biblical truth is that God is not playing hide and seek with us.  God is not a cosmic Easter bunny who stashes his will out of sight like eggs in the grass.  He doesn’t send us running through life trying to find His will, while He stands up there somewhere saying: “You’re getting warmer.”

       No.  God promises to guide us.  James 1:5 declares: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all people generously and without reproach.”  God gives us wisdom.  Paul writes in Ephesians 5:17: “So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”  We don’t have to stumble around.  We can know God’s will for our lives.

       The writer of Hebrews reminds us that anyone who comes to God “Must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”  This means that if we want to know God’s will for our lives, we must start by trusting God enough to believe that He wants to show us His will even more than we want to know it.

       In the tenth chapter of John, Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd -- the shepherd who takes total responsibility for His sheep. Jesus says that He takes upon Himself the responsibility for our guidance. “He knows us by name and He leads us out.”

       Now let’s face it.  Jesus’ analogy of shepherd and sheep is not an analogy tailored for our pride.  Sheep are notorious for being very stupid.  They make the same mistakes over and over again.  They lose themselves without meaning to simply by nibbling from one grassy clump to the next with the greener grass always beyond the next fence.

       That picture of our sheepness does not do much for our pride.  But it should do wonders for our peace of mind.  Jesus assures us that God knows that we have little sense of where we are going and that we experience tremendous confusion.  He tells us that God takes a phenomenal amount of initiative to guide us.  Realizing this ought to bring us tremendous security as we seek to know and do the will of God.

       The second biblical truth is that God’s guidance is not a timetable or blueprint for life handed us at birth.  Rather, it comes to us as we wrestle with concrete issues of knowledge and obedience.

        There are several reasons why God does not hand us the blueprints for our lives…even if blueprints were possible given the fact of our free will.

       First, perfect knowledge of the future would stifle our moment-to-moment obedience.  If we knew for certain what God intends to do with our lives, we would begin to feel that we had God “locked in” -- that no degree of disobedience on our part could divert the plan.  But we need to remember that God has not made us robots.  He has given us free will and the ability to influence the future -- if not the ultimate future then, at least, the immediate future.

        A blueprint could also stifle our moment-by-moment faith and trust in God.  We are called to live by faith. That is the road to being declared righteous in the sight of God.  But if we had the plan spelled out in detail, we would not have the opportunity for the kind of faith required when we are made to trust Him each moment for fresh guidance.

      Knowledge of the future would also stunt the growth of the intellectual faculties God gives us for decision-making.  Being spiritually “spoon fed”, we would remain intellectual and spiritual children -- not growing to the maturity in Christ, which is God’s desire for us.

        And finally, a blueprint for our lives would be flat-out boring. Knowing the future would cause us to lose the curiosity and wonder which lend anticipation to our existence.

       Our Christian life is often like nighttime walks in the deep woods with the aid of a small flashlight -- just enough to light up the next few steps.  Sometimes it goes out altogether and we have to stand still and shake it until it comes on to light the next few steps.  At other times, there is a flash of lightning that briefly illuminates the woods for yards in every direction.

       Even Jesus, in experiencing what it means to be human, did not have the detailed plan for his life and ministry.  He experienced what it means to walk holding the flashlight.  It wasn’t until meeting with Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration that Jesus had the light to go to Jerusalem to face death.  This does not mean that Jesus is not God. It does mean that he limited Himself -- emptied himself as Philippians 2 states it --to experience human life from our perspective.  To be “tempted in all things just like we are” as Hebrews says Jesus was, includes living with the flashlight and not the blueprint.

       God takes upon Himself the responsibility for our guidance.  He is not playing hide and seek.  But that guidance does not include giving us a perfect knowledge of the future.

       The third biblical truth is that God is not playing Easter bunny with us and He’s not playing any other kind of game either.  God does not play mousetrap.  He doesn’t say, “Ha ha, you thought this was the right way but it wasn’t.  Return to go.  Better luck next time.”  We must get rid of these distorted concepts of God’s character.  We must trust God enough to believe that He rewards those who seek Him. He doesn’t punch them in the face.  He doesn’t leave them high and dry.

       Paul Little writes in his excellent book, TheWill of God, “I have known people who have been paralyzed and couldn’t act because they did not have some kind of electrifying liver quiver about some course of action.  If you are facing a specific decision in which God has not given you specific guidance, postpone the decision if you can, until the way seems clear.  But if you must decide by next Saturday and next Saturday comes and you still don’t have clear guidance, then you must trust that God will guide you in the decision.  After assessing the factors, launch out in faith saying, “Lord, as I see it, there are four equally valid possibilities in front of me.  I see no particular advantage or disadvantage in any of these options. So I am going to go down route three unless You close the door.  I am trusting that You won’t let me make a crucial mistake.”

       “If we do that,” Little continues, “We can act joyfully believing that God has guided us.  Because he has promised to guide us.  We don’t have to spend the next twenty-four years second-guessing ourselves as to whether or not we are in the will of God.  The God who loved us enough to die for us is not going to play games with our lives.  We mean too much to Him.  Rather, we can claim His promise, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct your paths.” And even if we should fall, we fall into the arms of our heavenly Father.

       The fourth biblical truth is that while we are called to pray and while prayer does change things, God is not going to automatically grant every request.  God is not a cosmic vending machine.  As former President Jimmy Carter observed, God answers prayers three different ways: “No, yes, and you’ve got to be kidding.”

       One of the worst things that could happen to us would be for God to grant every prayer we offer – even our “you’ve got to be kidding” prayers. It would mean that we are in charge.  The world would be at the mercy of any one who chose to bend his knee.  The farmers would pray for rain, the balloonists would pray for light winds, and the picnickers would pray for sun.  The weather would be a mess.  Fortunately, we aren’t in charge.  God is.

       Sometimes our prayers resemble the behavior of a two year old who sees what she believes to be a cookie beside her mother’s mixing bowl.  She sees the cookie, she wants the cookie and she asks for the cookie.  The mother, however, knows that the object is not a cookie but a dog biscuit for the family pet’s bedtime snack.  She goes to the cupboard, gets a cookie, and hands it to her daughter.  The daughter throws the cookie on the floor because it is not the cookie she wanted.

       Well God will not let us chew on a dog biscuit even if we throw a tantrum. The prayers He says yes to are the prayers for our good and our growth.  He answers out of his perfect knowledge of our needs – even if we don’t ask with these things in mind. 

       The fifth biblical truth is that we should not think that the immediate guidance we get from God is a revelation of His future plans for our lives.

       Before I entered seminary, I worked as a substitute teacher, a shoe salesman, a door-to-door salesman, and even spent one whole night as a short-order cook at Jack in the Box.  Those jobs were stepping-stones.  But they weren’t God’s final place for me to serve.

       God brought Moses out of Egypt to the land of Midian .  But Moses would have been mistaken to assume that it was therefore God’s will that he tend sheep for his father-in-law Jethro for the rest of his life.  Midian was just a stop…the place where Moses learned to tend sheep so he would later be able to shepherd God’s people and not slaughter them in the dessert when they got so very annoying.  God often brings us to one place in order to prepare us to go to another place.  We should never assume that any junction is the final goal.

        The sixth and final truth is that the goal of our Christian life is to “Will one will with God” …to pray with all our hearts, “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.”

       This brings us to our call to worship for this morning.  “Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

       You may remember the Janis Joplin song: “O Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz. My friends all drive Porsches and I must make amends.”

       This verse has nothing to do with such a prayer.  It does not mean, “Delight in the Lord and he will give you a Beemer, a house in Malibu and a Phi Beta Kappa Key.”  But it does mean that as we delight ourselves in God, our wills will begin to coincide with His will.  Our greatest joy in life then is to do the will of God and to know that we are doing it.  When was the last time you made a pivotal decision based on humility, self-sacrifice, servanthood, selflessness, or the interests of proclaiming the Gospel?

       God’s greatest will for us is the kind of people we become.  God’s is much less concerned with who you marry than with what kind of husband or wife you are.  God is less concerned with which job you take than He is with what kind of worker you are. God is less concerned about where you live than He is with what kind of neighbor you are.  He is less concerned with what ministry you’re in, than is with whether of not you serve faithfully.

       Ultimately, God’s will is you!  God’s ultimate will for you is that you become conformed to the image of His Son.”  That’s what Romans 8 tells us. 

       Those are six truths.  God has taken upon Himself the responsibility to guide us. That guidance is step by step, not a blueprint. God is not playing games with us or trying to trick us but continues always in His purpose of love.  The will of God does not include granting prayers that would harm us.  The immediate guidance we get from God is not necessarily a revelation of His long-term plan.  The goal of Christian maturity is for our will to increasingly coincide with God’s will under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

       However, there is one more very important thing that needs to be said.

       There is no point in trying to know the will of God for your life unless you have taken a vital first step.  That step is to be a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

       In John 6, some people came to Jesus and ask: “What must we do that we may be doing the works of God?” Jesus answers very specifically and clearly: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”  People must come to Jesus in a commitment of faith to Him as Savior and Lord.  Then, as God’s children, God can guide them as a father.

       George MacDonald wrote: “Obedience is the opener of eyes.”  This is simply another way of saying what Jesus said in John 7:17: “If any one chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own.”  Your decision of obedience comes in advance of your spiritual knowledge.  Do you want to know the will of God? Ask yourself first; are you willing to do it once you know it?  Why would God give more light to a person who is not making use of the light he or she has already been given in Jesus Christ?

        The first work of God is to believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord.  Without that first irreplaceable step, all other attempts to know and do the will of God are futile.

       But as Christians, we know God’s fatherly concern for us.  We can put away the suspicion that God will not give us the information we need to decide within His will.

       It is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that God is too busy or too far removed to be concerned with our guidance. We might feel that God would certainly give ample guidance to the spiritual superstars of the church; and to the Old Testament heroes – people He uses to make an obvious mark on the course of history, but that it is somehow presumptuous for us to expect the same decree of leading for our lives.  But that guidance is promised to us.

       So there is a word I would like to banish from the church.  That word is “really.”  “Really” is a word used by those who want to practice spiritual one-upmanship.  Are you really saved? Are your really sanctified?  Are your really born again?  “Do you really know the will of God?  You think you know God’s will but do you, really?  That “really” treats knowing God’s will as something reserved for a spiritual elite instead of a promise for some very ordinary sheep like us.  Let’s not use it, not this way – really.

        For to understand Jesus’ words in John 10 is to realize that God’s guidance is not something reserved for self-designated Christian “heroes.”  It is a precious gift to each and every believer.  The picture of a sheep certainly doesn’t depict a spiritual superstar but an ordinary believer.  And Jesus talks about giving guidance to all His sheep.  He makes an explicit promise in verse 9: “I am the door.  If any one enters by me, they will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”