Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Stop Overcomplicating God’s Will | God, Just Tell Me: Week 2

Episode Date: August 10, 2025

When face-to-face with the unknown, it’s easy to get stuck in a loop of what-ifs. But God wants good things for you—and He wants to walk with you every step of the way. Learn how to trade overthinking for His peace and purpose in this message.NEXT STEPSHave you made the decision to follow Jesus? You might be wondering what’s next for you. We want to help! Check out these resources to ​​discover what saying yes to Jesus means: https://www.life.church/yesWe’d Love to Get to Know YouLife.Church isn’t just something you listen to—it’s a place where you can grow and connect. And we want to help you do that! Share a little about yourself and what resources would help you on your faith journey with this short survey: https://life.church/podcastconnectABOUT THIS MESSAGEBig decisions. Unclear answers. Ever wish someone would just tell you what to do? In our new series, God, Just Tell Me, we’ll learn how to find clarity, confidence, and direction—even when life feels anything but certain.Talk It Over is a weekly discussion guide to help you have meaningful conversations about the weekend message with your family, friends, and LifeGroup: https://life.church/talkitoverFeeling stuck? Check out these seven prayers to help you discover and trust in God’s will: https://go2.lc/gods-willSeek God’s wisdom, find clarity, and move forward in faith with the guidance of this Bible Plan: https://go2.lc/nextstepABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@life.churchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIG GROESCHELYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We're talking about God's will, and I wonder how many of you, those of you that are Christians, how many of you, like, sincerely want God's will for your life? Raise your hand. You can type it in the comment section, I want God's will for my life. I know you do. Because most of us as Christians, we don't struggle with wanting God's will. We struggle with waiting for God's will. Or we struggle with discerning God's will. We want it, but we just don't really know what it is. And what tends to happen, I've noticed

with three decades of pastoring, there's kind of a common thing that happens with Christians is we have a decision to make. We know, should I go there? Should I do this? Should I do that? And so, we pray about it, and then we overthink every option.

And we analyze every angle. And we do a pros and a cons, and then we pray, and we still. feel stuck because so many of us deep down we're afraid we're going to miss God's will we're going to miss the perfect moment we might make the wrong decision take the wrong job marry the wrong person and have the wrong life and that's a lot of pressure for someone who can't figure out what they're going to do for dinner and I get it and the thing is for so many of us we don't realize that while we're chasing the perfect answer for tomorrow,

we're often missing what God wants us to do today. And that's why we talked about this principle last week that one of the biggest mistakes that so many of us make when trying to discern the will of God is, the big mistake we make is we overcomplicate God's will and underestimate God's goodness. We overcomplicate His will. it gets like a dot on the map that if we hit it, we hit it, we miss it, we miss it,

but we don't know how good God is, that he guides us, he directs us, he counsels us, his loving hand is upon us. And so I want to work through God's word to continue to kind of uncomplicate God's word, and I want to show you something about his word, and I'm not making an overstatement when I say this, like literally this truth has the potential to change your life. it genuinely does. And here's what we tend to do. So many of us as Christians, we tend to think about God's will

in terms of what we do. What we do. God, what do you want me to do? God, what do you want me to do now? God, what do you want me to do next? God, what do you want me to do then? God, what do you want me to do later? God, what do you want me to do?

The challenge is this, that I was suggesting at a deeper level, God isn't thinking, do, do, do, do, do, do. That God, God's will is more about a who than it is a do. That when you look at God's word, he's more concerned with who you're becoming, are you becoming more like Jesus, than exactly what job you take or where you live. that God is more concerned with who you are, your character, the way you treat people, than he is about your profession, because before God guides your steps,

he actually wants to shape your character. He wants you to be conformed to the image of Christ. And so when you look at God's will, it's not just about, what do I major in, and what job do I take, and where do I live? But it's about your heart and your character and your relationship with Him. And that's why knowing God's will starts with knowing God's heart. And that's why the title today is, stop over-complicating God's will. Pray with me, please.

Father, we ask that you would guide us through your word, not just to do what's right to become, but to become like Jesus. And then as you're conforming us to him, the overflow, the fruits of the Spirit would lead us. Your Word would lead us. Your Spirit would lead us to do your will, but God conform us first to become like you, so when we're more like you, we'll live like you. We pray this in Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. If you agree online, type, amen. We know you're there. We love you. We're glad you're with us today. We're talking about God's will. And when we talk about God's will, many of us, what we're tempted to do is we tend to lock

on what we consider the big things in life. God, what's your will for the big things in life? Like, God, what's your will for where I work and what job I take when I work there? And God, where do I live? Do I rent or do I buy? Everybody knows you can't buy a house now. No, hopefully you can't. What do you want for me? God, should I marry this person or do you have someone better coming along? When should I get married? we have kids now? Should we have kids later? Should we have two kids? Should we have three kids? God, help us if we have four kids? God, what do you want for us? Should we put them in the school down the street? Should we try to put them in a private school? But what if God calls us to homeschool?

If God calls you to homeschool as a family that did homeschool, I'll just tell you what to expect three things. Ready? Expect P.E. to be in your backyard. Expect to teach fractures. Expect to teach with chocolate chips and expect every trip to the grocery store to be a field trip. That's just what I'm telling you. Back to the message. We tend to obsess over the major life moves with very little thought to the daily choices that shape who we're actually becoming. Right? We focused on like, which college am I supposed to go to? to with little thought about how much time you're wasting mindlessly scrolling on social media. We freak out about who we're supposed to date or marry with little thought about how we treat

the person God put right in front of us at the grocery store. And when you look at God's word, and we're going to look at a lot of God's word today, it actually says very little, about your future. The Bible doesn't talk about like who you should marry in the future or where you should live in the future or about like what job you should take in the future. In fact, when Jesus talks about jobs, one of the things he says most is that people actually left their job in order to follow him. When you look at God's word, he doesn't talk a lot about the future, but he talks a lot about how you should treat people today and how you should use your money today and how you should think today and what you should do with your time today. When Jesus talks about the future, let me show you what he says.

Jesus says, so don't worry about tomorrow, Matthew chapter 6 verse 34. Don't worry about the future, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today. Don't worry about the future. When James talks about the future, this is what he says, James 413. Now, listen, you who say, I'm going to plan my future. You who say, today or tomorrow, we'll do this, go to this city, that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make money. He says, why, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. Tomorrow's not even a guarantee. He asks, what is your life?

You're a mist that. appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead of saying, I'm going to do this, and this is what my future is going to look like. Instead, you ought to say, if it's the Lord's will, we'll live and do this or that. When we're looking at God's will, he's not trying to get you to figure out the future. God wants you to seek him and know him today. He wants you to serve him today. He wants you to be led by the spirit today. He wants you to have the fruits of the spirit in your life, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, dills, faithfulness, and self-control today. And so if you want to know God's will, get to know God's heart. And the longer you get to know his heart, the more you get to

know him through his word, the more his word renews your mind, the more you can hear the voice of the spirit, the more he's prompting you, the more you learn to walk by faith instead of by sight, the more you die to your flesh and let his spirit live through you, the more his spirit produces fruit that makes a difference in the world instead of you seeking your own will, but letting him guide your steps today toward his will in the future. The more you walk with him, the more you get to know him, the more you enjoy him. Delight and the love. The more you enjoy him. Delight and Lord, he'll give me the desires of your heart. The more you enjoy him, the more you realize. The best way to find God's will for your future is to live faithfully for Jesus today.

It's a game changer. It's a game changer. God's rule is not as much about a do as it is a who. And the better you get to know him and the more faithfully you live for him today, the more confident that you can have, he's going to lead you to where he wants you to be tomorrow. Now, if you weren't here last week, I'm going to review some important principles. We talked about the four different wills of God, kind of like four different qualities of God's will. And we started with God's sovereign will. If you remember, that's the master plan. That's the overarching narrative of what God's going to do, whether you like it or not. It's his sovereign will. We talked about God's moral will. This is his revealed will in

His word for how you live. We talked about God's permissive will. There are some things because he loves us. He gave us free will. Because he gave us free will. Some people do things that are not pleasing. We live in a broken world. There are things that God allows. We may not like them, but God allows them, and then he uses them toward his sovereign will. And we talked about God's personal will. This is what he wants for each of you. And God had plans for you before you were even born that he reveals in his personal will for you. So let's talk about the moral will. This is God's revealed will for your life. What is God's moral will for you? Let me tell you what it's not. It's not that you be a graphic designer. It's not that you be a YouTuber, but that would be cool.

It's not that you'd be a stay-at-home parent. God's moral will for you is revealed in his word. God's will for you is to be what? It's to be holy. We looked at this last week. Let's build upon it. What is the Greek word for holy? It's the word, Hagios. And Hagios means to be set apart, different, sacred, dedicated to God.

What is God's moral will for you? It's to be different from the sinful, selfish world. It's to be set apart, is to be sacred, is to be dedicated to God. And this is what Paul said in Romans 12, too. He said, do not be conform to the patterns of this world. Don't be like the fallen world. Don't speak like them. Don't treat people like them.

Don't let your world be shaped by the media like them. Don't waste your life doing stupid things like them. Don't be entertained by the baseless, sinful things like them. Don't use your money like them. Don't have marriages. is they ended. Divorced 50% of the times like them. Don't raise your children like them have values that honor Christ. Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The more you get to know God's heart, the more you live His will. By the renewing of your mind. Then, watch this. When you're set apart. Then when you're not transformed to this world, then when you are different.

do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed, be set apart, be holy, live a sacred life. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Before you worry about his will for the future, worry about his moral will for how you live today. Be set apart, beholding. Now, I don't like this sermon, correct. You might say that. Hopefully it's only two of you, but you might say that.

But Craig, I always thought like God was going to have this calling for my life. And he does. But you're like, isn't he calling me to be a missionary? Isn't he calling me to be an influencer? Isn't he calling me to be a pastor? Isn't he calling me to be a programmer? Isn't he calling me to marry someone rich that has a second home in Hawaii? Maybe.

But remember, God's will, God's calling for you, is more about a who than a do. Look at His word, 2 Timothy, 1-9, for God saved us and called us what? To live a holy life. It's more about, it's a who, it's what we do today. He called us to live. of a holy life, God did this, not because we deserved it. This is amazing, this is the gospel, but because that was his plan.

This was his plan for you. Before the beginning of time, to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. And that's why, when it comes to seeking God's will, you might want to change the question that you're asking. here's what most people are asking. Most people are saying, what does God want me to?

What do you want me to do? What do I do now? What do I do later? What do you want me to do? Instead of asking God, what do you want me to do? You might want to ask, who does God want me to become? Literally, that this can change how you treat people. And what you do when you wake up in the morning.

and who you become, which actually shapes what you do. God, who do you want me to become? Not where do I go to school? Who do you want me to be when I'm at that school? God, who do you want me to marry? How do you want me to treat the person I'm dating right now? And let me try to unpack it. I'm going to ask you a question about me, and I hope you're generous in your answer. Because I'm sensitive. I get my feelings so easily. How many of you would say that it's probably God's will that I preach the gospel? Raise your hand. About three quarters of you.

Okay, great. Thank you. That's a passing vote. It's about 50%. The other 25%, if you don't think that, I'd just like lovingly recommend you might find a church where you have confidence. I'm saying, there's a lot of those people out there that don't think I am. But if you think I am, okay, let's start there.

Now, raise your hands, do you think it's God's will for me to be holy? Absolutely, every hand raised there. Good. That's right. If we look at it objectively, I would say this. Preaching is a calling, but it is absolutely and completely a secondary calling. Because my primary calling is to be holy. It is a who before a do. God's will is for me to have integrity. And God's will is for me not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of my man. Then I'll be able to test and prove what his will is.

God's will is for me to die to my selfish desires and live for his glory and how I love and treat people. God's will for me is to lay down my life to love my wife as Christ loved the church. God's will for me is to live a life in front of my children that inspire them to live a life for the glory of God. Preaching is a secondary calling. Living a holy life is my primary calling. And so if you kind of unpack that,

if I'm a good preacher, but I neglect my family, I'm not in God's will. And play it out however you want to. If you're a successful whatever you are and you're unkind to people, you are not in God's will. And if I had time, I'd like kind of go crazy on Christians who think they're right and have no fruit. Come on. I mean, you're so doing right up here.

You're so busy making a point you're not making any kind of difference at all. We'll save that for another time. But you could tell I could preach it if we had time. I am convinced for my life God would rather me do anything else with my career, do anything else with integrity than to be a pastor without integrity

because his primary will is for me to be holy. So we're talking about God's will. So is there one perfect career path for you? That's God's will. Is there one perfect place to live that's God's will. Here's the big one. Is there one perfect person

for you to marry that God's will? I hate to break your romance, but I've got to tell you no, the answer's not. And I can prove it to you. How many of you know someone that obviously completely

married the wrong person? Raise your hand. Right. Your cousin Butch married Betty. And when Butch married Betty, all hell broke loose. And they're not married anymore.

So guess what they did? They messed up the whole system. Think about it. One wrong marriage messed up the whole thing. So God is not choosing one perfect person for you to marry as much as he wants to be perfecting you to become like Jesus, to treat the person that you marry like Jesus calls you to preach them. You see what we're going on this.

And so that's why God's word says this. Paul said in 1st Corinthians 1031, He said, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Whatever you do, right? Like, wherever you live, live there for the glory of God. Treats your neighbors with the love of Jesus instead of driving in your house and never talking to them. Whoever you're dating, date with integrity and purity and the fruits of the Spirit and an honorable way for the glory of God. If you're married, if you're single, be married for the glory of God, be single for the glory of God.

Wherever you work, work there for the glory of God. If you work at Life Search as an intern, work for the glory of God. If you apply for the internship and you want the internship, but you don't get the internship because God didn't allow you to get the internship, or because some person didn't see how amazing you are, and then you go to grad school, go to grad school for the glory of God and don't be mad that he shut one door because he's going to open up another one. If you work at the front desk at a bank, do it for the glory of God.

If you mow yards on the weekend, make the best straight God honoring grass lines possible and treat people well, exceed their expectations for the glory of God. If you own a business, treat people well and add value and be generous and believe in others for the glory of God. If you're changing diapers, wipe that butt clean for the glory of God. If you're taking your kids to Costco and your homeschooling, create the best. environment for a field trip to Costco. These are pickles. God made them.

God made the thing that made the pickles. I don't know. I just went off script and I got in trouble. Whatever you do, stay on the plan. Stay on the plan. Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Because we all want God's will for the future. But tomorrow's not guaranteed.

Tomorrow's not guaranteed. In fact, when you think about it, the only time you can serve Jesus for certain is today. It's today. So I say, okay, I make sense. It's more about a who than a do and God's will for me be holy. And what I want you to do in your life group this week is I want you just to slow it down. I want you to ask God, where is it that you want me to conform me to be like Jesus?

Pride, anger, lust, greed, insecurity, fear, doubt, whatever. whatever it is, like, let's just, in our life, let's just open up and say, where do you want me to conform me to be like Jesus? Let God speak to you. I'm doing that right now, and oh my gosh, if you're telling me all the things wrong with me, your list is way too short because God has shown me a lot of things that he wants to do and me.

Open up. Confess your sins to one another and pray for each other that you may be healed. Just like I do a work in you. Not like, what's your will for the future, like, who do you want me to be today? Now, you say, but hey, I got really big plans for the future. I think you should. Where there is no vision, that people perish.

I want to make a bigger difference. I want to be successful for the glory of God. I want to be able to give more in the future. I want to do big things in the future. So let me tell you how to do big things in the future. Do small things for the glory of God today. I promise you. do small things today.

Because if you're faithful in the small things, he'll trust you with more. Now, let me say, okay, Craig, easy for you to say, because you and Amy are doing big things, Mr. Big Boy. Okay, that's debatable, whatever you say. But if we are doing big things,

let me tell you what the pathway was here. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of small things. Years and years and years of small things. In fact, I'm so emotional about Amy. It's crazy. How have I lived there so long and love her even more? I don't even know. But I want to just walk over here for a minute,

and I'm going to have her stand up, if she will. And me, you can just kind of turn this way. So if you look at Amy, she's doing big things. She really is. Like, she's raised six kids. They're all married, and all faithfully serving. Jesus with their spouses in our church today. And she is a very godly wife.

And she writes Bible studies that are really, really good. She mentor women. She speaks at events. She leads the sister's ministry, which is the ministry for women in the church. And I think there's an event coming up on maybe September the 23rd. of this year for the women of the church

that everybody's gonna wanna be at. And she's gonna preach to a lot of people and it's gonna be a great God-honoring message because it always is. And she started a nonprofit called Branch 15, which has ministry homes across the state of Oklahoma and she can take a salary, donates all of her time, and ministers to women coming out

a really complicated situation, because that's a lot of big things and they are. But what I want you to know is the small things led to the big things, meaning like the things that no one sees bring about the things that everyone wants. And what no one sees is her up early seeking God every single day. On her face, Bible open, praying for like a long period of time. I feel guilty because Pastor Craig doesn't pray like this girl. And she seeks God. And yes, she speaks to a lot of women, ministries a lot of women, but she's led small groups of women for our whole adult life. And she's my mic going out.

Can you give me a handheld? Let me just turn it, stand this way. She's mentored, it's good. She's mentored middle school and high school girls in small groups for like 15 years. And Branch 15, when you see the big impact, what you don't see is it started with nothing but a dream. And a first house and a lot of generosity and a lot of prayers and a lot of miracles from God. And then when it comes to our marriage, we're very, very blessed with a very, very good marriage. And once you know right now, she puts up with a lot.

And you do too. It comes at a high price. And she stood by my side for three and a half decades and gives almost no public credit, but endures all the pain and pays the whole price. and so I honor you and cherish you for the small things in life. It's the small things that leave you. So if you want to do big things in the future, do small things today. You ready for a little secret? You ready for this?

Sometimes the small things are the big things. Sometimes raising your babies, those are big things. And loving a small group of people are the big things. the big things. And in during what can be a difficult husband is a big thing. And so if you want to do big things in the future, do small things today. And you may realize the small things are actually the big things. So what are you going to do? What's God calling you to do? He's calling you to be holy, to be set apart, to not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you can test and approve what his will is as good and perfect

and pleasing will. And you could be confident that your job doesn't matter as much as your heart. And where you live doesn't matter as much as who you're becoming. And while the world may applaud what you do, our father celebrates who you are. And so we start with the who before the do. Best way to find God's will for the future is to live faithfully for Jesus today. So Father, help us do that as a church. God, every single one of us.

Help us to live faithfully for you today to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then everything else will be added unto us. Today as you're praying online or at our churches, nobody looking around, let me just ask you, for those of you that are followers of Jesus, not all of you are, but you are your follower of Jesus, how many of you genuinely want to be faithful in the small things,

Raise your hand right now. Raise them up. Raise them up. Leave them up for a second online. Just type in the comment section. I want to be faithful to God and the small things. Leave your hands up, if you will. You can just kind of make this like an act of worship. The Bible tells us to lift up holy hands to God. Maybe just worship in your heart as we're praying. God, with hands lifted to you, we worship you, God.

We thank you. That you called us to live a holy life. Not because we deserved it, but you displayed your grace for us through Jesus. forgave our sins and now call us to be set apart different from this world foreigners of this world strangers in this world ambassadors of a message from heaven so god before we freak out about tomorrow god help us to live for you today just say this with me if you will your hands lifted up just say whatever i do i'll do for the glory of god god just empower us whatever we do to do for the glory of God. We pray this in Jesus' name. You can put your hands down. Keep praying,

if you will, without looking around. What I want to do is I want to talk to those of you that you know you're not following Jesus. And I want to just challenge you to be honest about this because some of you grew up around the church and the church believing in God, but objectively, you're not following Jesus. I want you just call it what it is. Because you've got to be the church. You can have a head knowledge but not have a heart relationship. I want you to be honest and call it what it is. You're not set apart. You're not letting the Holy Spirit purify you so that you live in a holy life. You're not living for Jesus today. What do you do? Let me tell you right now, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So this isn't a time to make you feel

guilty. This is the time just to bring awareness that if you're living outside of the will of God, you are missing the goodness of a God who loves you and created you to know him and to live for him and to experience his personal will for your life. So what do you do? Well, you recognize. Actually, I have sinned. I'm not living according to what he calls me to do. And what do you do? You just confess your sins. And what's amazing is the Bible says, if you confess your sins to God, he's faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all in righteousness. That's how good he is. Why does he do that? He is a righteous God. He's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a just God. And he sent his son Jesus who was without sin to pay the penalty, the price for our sins.

Jesus died in our place and God and his love raised him from the death so that anyone, and when I tell you anyone, this includes you. Anyone who calls on the name of Jesus, you'd be saved. It doesn't matter what you've done, doesn't matter how bad you've been, doesn't matter how dark your life is. There are those of you right now you recognize you're not living for him, you don't know him, you're not in his will.

What are we going to do? We're going to step away from our sinful life and we're going to step into the grace of God and say, Jesus, forgive my sins, take my life. When you do, he'll hear your prayer, he'll forgive your sins, he'll make you brand new.

Today at all of our churches, those of you online who recognize you're not living for Jesus. What do we do? We step away from our sin. We step into his presence. We confess our sins. He forgives our sins,

and you become brand new. today at all of our church as those who say, that's me. I need that. I want to give my life to him. God, forgive my sins. Make me new. When you call on him, he forgives your prayers. He makes you new if that's you today and you need a relationship with him. You want the freedom and the forgiveness of sins. You're ready to live for him. Would you lift your hand high and say yes, that's me right here. God bless you right here and here right there. God bless you guys. Others today, right up there. Lift it high and let me just acknowledge you today and say yes. Jesus be the Lord of my life right back up there. Others today saying yes. Jesus, I surrender right back up here. Say,

Yes, Jesus be the Lord of my life. Oh, church. On the online, just type in the comment section. I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. And now in this holy moment together as the family of God, would you just pray with those around you? Just pray, Heavenly Father. I give you my life.

Jesus save me from my sins. Make me brand new. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. So I can, your voice, so I can do your will, so I can show your love. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Can the church give God some praise today?

Can the church give God some praise today? Can the church give God? Hey, come on, church. Come on. Don't just sit there and be quiet. Give God some praise. 100 people baptized last week. Hey, we're not praying for revival.

We're living in the middle of the one. Somebody give God some praise today.