Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Tell Me What to Do, God | Think Ahead | Part 5

Episode Date: March 17, 2024

It’s comforting to have a plan—a clear roadmap to get you from one place to the next. God has a plan for your life, but how do you know what it is? And how do you follow it? Let’s find out.ABOUT THIS MESSAGEOur decisions determine the direction of our lives. But when we're tired, stressed, or overwhelmed, what do those decisions really look like? Let's learn to Think Ahead so we follow God’s purposes no matter what.NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to the next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT 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://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: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LCNowCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #thinkahead Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So would somebody please just tell me what to do? I hear that question about every single day in my household because my little girl, my oldest child, Olivia, is not a little girl anymore. She's 17 years old. She's a junior in high school. She is smart. She is fun. She is beautiful. But for the first time in her life, she's experiencing adult-like decisions. So decisions like, what am I going to do after high school? What kind of career do I want to go into? How am I going to manage my time with school, extracurricular activities, a social life, a job on top of that. So at some point, almost every single day, she gets a little bit overwhelmed. She's a little uncertain of what she should do.

And she will look at her mother or she will look at me and she will say, would somebody please just tell me what to do? And I get it. Like I get it. Because how nice would it be if you woke up tomorrow morning and there was somebody in your house? Okay, that'd be creepy. But if there was somebody in your house who was there just.

to tell you what to do. Like, hey, here's what you need to wear to work based on the weather today. And here's what you should have for breakfast that's going to make you feel great all day long. Here's what time you need to leave for school taking traffic into consideration. And when you get to work, here's the emails you need to answer, and here's the ones you get to ignore. Here's what you can make for dinner in under 15 minutes, and everybody's going to love it. Because here's what I know about most of us. In life, we want to get it right. We're scared of getting it wrong, but we're just not always sure what right is. Should I take the job or should I not take the job?

Where should I go to college? And then on top of that, if you're a follower of Christ, you mix God into that. What does God want me to do? What does he not want me to do? We want to get it right. We don't want to get it wrong. We just don't always know what that is. That's why the title of today's message is,

tell me what to do, God. Tell me what to do, God. So today, as we continue our message series called Think Ahead, as we look at the decisions we can pre-decide today, instead of waiting until we're in the moment, we're going to talk about a guy in the Old Testament whose name is Abraham. And we're going to look at the fact that he pre-decided to obey God.

He decided today to obey God. Genesis chapter 20. 22, if you have your Bible or your U version with you is where we're going to be. It's not the start of the story with Abraham and God. That's Genesis chapter 12, about 40 years earlier. But Genesis chapter 22 is like the climax of Abraham's story, where he has pre-decided to obey God. And here's what it says in Genesis chapter 22, verse 1.

It says sometime later, God tested Abraham. That already makes me a little bit uneasy. Right? God tested Abraham. Testing is an event that outwardly exposes an inner reality. It shows on the outside what's going on on the inside. So God looks at Abraham and if I'm going to be a little bit crude, says this, let's squeeze him and let's see what comes out. Let's squeeze him and let's see what comes out. And I don't know if I've ever been tested by God. And you may never know that, but we do know what it feels like to be squeezed, don't we? As life begins to kind of

to close in around you. Maybe it's the medical diagnosis that you're waiting on. Or maybe it's that financially you're strapped and you go to the mailbox and you open it up and there's a tax bill you weren't expecting. Or maybe it's just a to do list that every day is longer than you can get done. Maybe you just go to Chick-fil-A and you're going through the drive-thru and you drive off to realize there's no Chick-fil-A sauce in the bag and life is just squeezing you in. So sometime later, God tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham, and Abraham replies, here I am. Here I am. Three words in English, one word in Hebrew. It's a pretty important word. It's canini. It's like Panini with a on the front. Canini shows up 17 times in the Old Testament. When God calls to Moses

from a burning bush, Moses says, Canini. When God calls to Joseph, which we're going to talk about Joseph next week, Joseph says, chenini. When God calls out to Samuel, when Samuel's a young child in the temple,

Samuel's instructed by an older prophet to reply, Canini. Here I am. But it's not just about location. Like when I was in high school, I took Spanish class. And I can only remember about one word from Spanish class. It says the teacher was going through the role.

She would say, Diego. No idea why my name was Diego in Spanish class, but it's Diego. And I would say, Aki, right? It means here. That's about all I can remember. Here, present. I'm right here physically. That's not what Abraham's saying. It's not about location. It's about availability. Because Hanini means this. God, I'm totally ready to serve. I'm completely available. What Abraham says is, God, the answer is yes. Now what's the question? We want to get it right. like when we hear Abraham say that, there's something inside of us that goes, man, I want to be able to say that. We're afraid of getting it wrong. We're just not always sure what getting it right is.

But you see somewhere in Abraham's 40 years of following God, he's realized that his greatest ability is his availability. And if you want to be used by God, your greatest ability is your availability. Abraham pre-decided. God, I'm going to obey. Now what's the question? Why? Because obedience leads you towards God and disobedience drives you away from God.

Obedience leads you towards God. This obedience drives you away from God. So here's what the question was for Abraham. Abraham, I want you to take your son Isaac. I wanted you to go to the land of Mariah. I want you to climb the mountain. I want you to build an altar. I want you to put some wood on it, and I want you to sacrifice your son, Isaac.

Says the next day, Abraham got up. He loaded the donkey with the wood, and he and Isaac set out. They went to Mariah. They went up the mountain. He put Isaac on the altar, and then as he reached for the knife, God stopped him. And he said, don't harm the boy. You've passed the test. For now I know that you fear me more.

than anything else. Why? Because he had pre-decided to obey God. I read this passage probably 50 times the last few weeks. I went back and I counted, I wrote this message 16 times. Because every time I would get hung up, I want to do the right thing. I'm afraid of doing the wrong thing, but sometimes I'm just not sure what the right thing is. I got hung up on two things. The first is this. In this passage, God audibly speaks to Abraham and he tells him what he wants him to do. I've never had that happen.

And I like to think if God told me I would do it and I think that most of you would say that because I asked some of you. The first 40 people I encountered, I said, hey, do you want to do what God wants you to do? And guess how many people said yes? All of them. Every single person, I want to do what God wants me to do.

It makes sense. You're at church. You're joining us online. You're at YouTube watching a message. It makes sense. I want to do what God wants me to do. Follow up questions. So what is it that God wants you to do?

Number one answer, I'm not real sure. Number two answer was this, the right thing. And I said, cool, what's the right thing? I don't really know. Because God audibly speaks to Abraham, but I haven't had that experience yet. I want to do the right thing. I'm scared of doing the wrong thing, but I'm not sure what the right thing.

is. So here's what I want to do today. I want to take a little detour for a few minutes. And I want to talk about how do we, if we're a follower of Christ, how do we know what God wants us to do? How does God speak to us if we're his people? Sometimes God directs us clearly. Second Timothy in the New Testament, Chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, it says this, all scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that who? So that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. This is in the inspired word of God, is alive and active? And sometimes we open it and God makes clear what He's directing us to do. I want you to above all else, love God and love your

neighbor. I want you to forgive other people. I want you to love your enemy. I want you to seek justice. I want you to care for the people who can't care for themselves. Sometimes God directs us clearly, and when he does it, we should do it. We're not just to be hearers of the word, but doers of the word. So that we're not the people that Jesus talked about in Luke chapter 6, verse 46, where he says this, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? But that's not going to be us, because we want to do what's right. sometimes God directs us clearly.

Sometimes God guides us quietly. Romans chapter 8 verse 14 says this, for those who are led by the spirit of God are the children of God. If you are a follower of Christ, if you are a part of God's family, the Holy Spirit resides within you. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit in your life is to guide you. you. It's when you're in prayer and you hear that still small voice in your mind and you go,

that could be God. It's when you're in the moment of worship and you feel the presence of God come upon you directing you and you think that could be God. It's when you're in your life group and you're talking with somebody else and they say something that lines up with what you read in the Bible that morning. You think that could be God. How do we know if it's God? We go back to how he's directed us clearly. Does it line up with his word? If it does, it could be God. If it doesn't, it's not God. Sometimes God directs us clearly.

Sometimes God guides us quietly. And sometimes God grows us silently. About 10 years ago, this time of year, so the spring, I was the pastor of a different Life Church location. And Life Church came to myself and my wife Katie and thereby our kids, and said, hey, would you guys consider going to Wichita to start the new Life Church in Wichita? And I think my exact answer was, no, Wichita sucks. Not saying I'm proud of it, that's just what I said.

Fortunately, Life Church was more gracious in response and said, hey, why don't you guys just go up and check it out for the weekend? And I was like, that's cool. So Katie and I hop in the car, we're driving the few hours. up to Wichita. We'd never really spent any time in Wichita. And here was our prayer. God, if we're going to move our family, just make it clear. Like, here I am, God. I want to do what you want me to do, but just make it clear. Well, we'd never been to Wichita. We didn't know where to go, but we knew where Life Church was looking to purchase property. And I said, what if we go there first? And my wife said, makes sense. So we put it in our phone and it's directing,

us and I'll never forget, we were coming around the last corner to get to where the property is that's present day Life Church, East Wichita. And it was this beautiful spring day. And the most vivid rainbow I've ever seen in my life appeared. And it terminated like right in the middle of that property. And we get out of the car and the birds start singing and I promise you it sounded like oceans by Hillsong because it was 10 years ago. And we're walking around and then we come to the middle of the property and there's these two coffee mugs and they say Jeremiah 29-11 on them. We have plans to prosper you. And then I look and there's like two Life Church t-shirts in those coffee mugs that are already our size. I thought I would have you until the coffee mugs.

I thought that's where I would lose you. So obviously that's not exactly what happened. we walked around and it seemed like a good place for a church and we prayed and we didn't get a clear yes and we didn't get a clear no some of you may be thinking then maybe you're just not good at praying maybe so but i think if you ever find yourself being grown silently by god you find yourself in good company. Psalm 13, the psalmist says this, how long, oh Lord, will you hide your face from me? Like, here I am, God, I'm looking, I want to do what you want me to do, I'm scared I'm going to get it wrong, I'm just not sure what it is. Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 had been following God for 40 years. Pastor Craig says in his book, think ahead that the average human being makes

35,000 decisions a day times 365 days in a year, times 40 years since he started following God, Abraham made 511 million decisions. Do you know how many times God spoke to Abraham that's recorded in scripture? Seven. Out of 511 million. And you go, Tim, well, I'm sure that God guided Abraham at times. I'm sure that God did. And I'm sure that there were still hundreds of millions of millions. millions of decisions that God grew him silently. Why? Because God had a bigger plan for Abraham. Let's take Jesus. Jesus was asked 183 questions in the Bible. Do you know how many out of 183 he answered directly? Three. Pretty important three. But he answered three directly. 180 times he answered with questions of his own.

He answered with stories, sometimes clear, sometimes less clear, and sometimes Jesus didn't answer at all. Was he being unkind? Was he being coy? Was he playing a game? Or was he doing something bigger? Because I don't know that God's ultimate goal

is always to give us every single answer. And sometimes I get so hung up, with good intentions of, man, I want to be a person that makes Christ-like decisions, and that is good, but ultimately God wants me to be a Christ-like person who's making decisions. Because at the end of the day, God's ultimate goal is not about information. It's about transformation of me to become more like Christ. Sometimes God directs us clearly in His word. Sometimes God guides us quietly, and sometimes God grows us silently. So my wife looked at me, and she said, So what are we going to do? Like we're up here in Wichita. It's not a clear yes. It's not a clear no.

And I said, you know what? Wherever we are, we're going to love God and we're going to serve his people. We're going to do what he's told us to do clearly. And so maybe it's just that God trust us enough to let us choose. And that is a frightening thought sometimes. Because here's what blows me away about Abraham's story. Abraham's held up in Hebrews in the New Testament chapter 11 as someone who had great faith in God, and he did, and he demonstrated it. But God also had faith in Abraham, because he looked over the whole earth, and he could have chosen anybody to start his people, and who did he choose? He chose Abraham. He said, I want that one, because I've put inside of him what I need to use to do what I want to do in his world, the same way that he looked at you, teacher,

and he said, I could have put anybody in that classroom, but I put inside of you what I want to, for those kids, to experience when you walk into the classroom the same way he looked at you parent when he could have made those children's parent anybody but he said what he said i want you to be why because god has faith in us and we're called to have faith in him i want to get it right i'm scared of getting it wrong but i don't always know what right is the good news is that god does speak to us I mentioned that I wrote this 16 times because the real thing that I kept getting hung up on is the story itself. Genesis chapter 22 is a troubling story. It's a story where God asked a father

to sacrifice his son and I tried to dance around it. I tried to ignore it. I tried to make it not seem that big of a deal, but it's a troubling story. And I think sometimes, maybe if you grew up in church, or if you've heard the story before, it loses a little bit of its rawness, a little bit of the emotion. And so what I'm going to do today is going to be difficult, but I'm going to ask something of you. I'm going to retell the story in Genesis chapter 22. And I want you to try to listen to it like you've never heard it before. I want you to try to feel what Abraham must have felt. Genesis chapter 22, then God tested Abraham. Let's see what's inside of him. Let's shake him to the core and see who he really is. So God called to Abraham and Abraham said,

Hanini. God, here I am. God, I'm completely available. God, my answer is yes. Now, what's the question? So God said to Abraham, I want you to take your son, Isaac. Your only son.

Your son that you waited for 15 years for. Your son that you prayed for 15 years for. The son through whom I'm going to bless you and make you the father of a new nation. I want you to take your son, Isaac. And I want you to go to the land of Mariah, and I want you to climb the mountain that you've climbed before. But this time, I want you to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.

So early the next morning, Abraham gets up, and he loads his donkey, and he cuts the wood for the altar. He loads it onto the donkey, and he and Isaac and two of his servants, begin to do what he's done for 40 years. They begin to walk. They begin to go where God has asked them to go.

For three days, they walk. It's not a three-day walk. He was giving God every opportunity to intervene. But God didn't. And after three days, they get to the bottom of the mountain. And Isaac and Abraham go ahead, leaving the donkey and the servants behind. Isaac is literally carrying the wood for the sacrifice on his back.

They're walking up the mountain and Isaac looks at Abraham and he says the one word that Abraham does not want to hear. He said, Father. And Abraham said, Hanini, here I am. Because Abraham was not only fully available to God, he was fully available to the people around him. here I am. I'm completely with you, my son. And Isaac says, dad, I see the fire for the offering. I see the wood for the offering, but I don't see the lamb. What do you tell them? The Lord will provide. They get to the top of the mountain. And it says that Abraham arranged the stones for the sacrifice. He laid out the wood for the fire. And then he bound. what most people would say

it would have been his 12 or 13 year old son. How do you do that? And he lays him on the altar. And he reaches for the knife. And God calls out to him and he says, Abraham. Abraham. And Abraham for the third time says,

Hanini. Like God, I'm fully here. Everything I have is yours. What do you want me to do? And God said, don't lay a hand on the boy. I've shaken you to the core and I've seen who you are.

How does Abraham obey a God who ask him to sacrifice his son? How do we obey a God who allows so many troubling things to happen in our world? How do we obey a God who sometimes will ask us things to do that we don't want to do. So I have an older brother. His name's Chris. Growing up, Chris and I are two years apart,

which meant that he was always a gross spurt ahead of me. He was several inches taller, 20 pounds heavier, and we did what brothers who are two years apart did. We fought a lot. Usually I started it, and he ended it. Here's how he liked to end the fight. He would pin me to the floor, he would pin my arms down, and then he would kneel on him. And then he would do one of three things. It was user's choice. He would thump my nose until I was just irate. Or he would smack my forehead until I would just lose it. Or if he was feeling extra playful, he would hawk up the biggest loogie he could. And he would try to spit it partway. and then suck it back up into his mouth.

And he would continue to do this until he failed and it would fall on my face. To this day, that's how I view my brother. When he was 22, he joined the military. He became an infantry officer. And shortly thereafter, he was deployed into combat. To say that my family was scared would be an understatement. not only was he going into combat, he was responsible for 40 other men, most of whom were older than him, and almost all of whom were more experienced than him. Fortunately, there was a family in our church

that the dad was one of my brother's commanding officers. And so we began to hear updates over his year-long deployment of how Chris was doing. And you can imagine my surprise as a younger brother when we begin to hear updates like this. Chris is doing great. Really? Chris is a fantastic leader. We sure we're talking about the right Chris here? Chris's men refused to go out on patrol until he prays over them. Chris's men went to his commanding officer when it was time for him to rotate to a new unit to ask if he could stay with them. And honestly, I didn't get it. Like I didn't get it. When he came home, one day we were sitting around the kitchen table, and we were talking about his experience. And I began to ask him some questions. What did you do? What were your jobs?

He said, sometimes that they were asked to go and search a house. And so I said, okay, like who would go? And he said, well, my unit would go. And I said, okay. And he said, we would pull up and then we would search the house. And I said, so everybody goes in the house? And he said, no, not everybody goes in the house. He said four people would go in the house. Everybody else would be around the perimeter. And I said, you're in charge. He said, yeah, I was in charge. And I said, so, like, you're in the perimeter.

Right? Because you need to be able to observe and you need to be able to give directions. It seems like where you should be. And he looked at me like I was crazy and he kind of cocked his head to the side. And he said, no, I went into the house. And I said, well, like, how'd you go in?

And he said, we just lined up. One, two, three, four. And you just go through the front. door. And I said, well, like, where in the line would you be? And he said, second. And I thought that's pretty smart. Right? It's like a safety sandwich. You got somebody in front of you. You got somebody behind you. The person in charge needs to be safe. And he said, well, well, not exactly. And he said, Tim, because whoever goes to that door first surprises whoever's on the inside. And he said, if somebody's going to get shot, it's going to be the second person. And so he looked at the look

at me and he said, so I went second every time. And I saw something that I'd never seen before. I saw what his men saw. Let me ask you a couple of questions. If you had to go into battle, would you follow him in the battle? Because I'd follow him in the battle. If he, as your commanding officer, gave you an order, would you obey his order? Because I would obey his order. And I don't even know what it is. And then he looked at me and he kind of pounded his finger on the table and he said something that I'll never forget. He said this. He said, Tim, I will not ask my people to do something that I'm unwilling to do myself. How can we obey a God who ask a father to sacrifice his son? You see, the story in Genesis chapter 22, it's about who Abraham is as a person. He's the type of

person that when God speaks, he says, Hanani, here I am. But the story in Genesis chapter chapter 22 is just as much about who our God is. Because he's not asking us to do something he's unwilling to do himself. Isaiah chapter 58, verse 6. It says, our verse 9 says this, then you will call, the Lord will answer. You will cry for help and he will say, here I am. He will say to his people, Hanini, I'm fully available. He's not just looking for people who are fully available.

he's a God who's fully available to us. Why? Because the story in Genesis chapter 22 doesn't just show us who Abraham is. It shows us who our God is. Because it foreshadows what God did on the cross with Jesus. Because here's what it says.

It says that is Abraham and Isaac climbed that mountain that Isaac carried the wood? In Hebrew, the same word for the bush, the branches, the tree on his back. Just as our God allowed his son Jesus to have a tree strapped to his back as he carried the cross. And then they got to the top and Abraham bound his son, just as God the father allowed Jesus to be bound to the cross by the nails. But then it says as Abraham grabbed the knife and God stopped him that he looked up, and he saw a ram in the thicket.

And it said, because God had provided a substitute. But no substitute would be provided for Jesus. Why? Because he's the substitute for you and me. That he took our place on the cross. I want to do what's right. I'm scared of getting it wrong. But sometimes I don't know what right is.

But here's what I do know. I do know who's asking me to follow that. That even when we can't see good in our circumstance, our God is good. That even when we can't see where he's taken us, we can see who he is. A loving, merciful father. The question for us is, are we available? Will we start our day by saying, God,

Geneni, here I am. My answer is yes. Now what's your question? If you'll bow your heads and close your eyes with me, God, thank you so much that you are a God who loves us as merciful, as gracious. As we continue in an attitude and a spirit of prayer, if you're a follower of Jesus and you're here today and you're willing to pre-decide to obey God, here's what I'm going to ask. are you willing to commit for the next seven days that you start your day by saying cheney god here i am my answer is yes now what's the question if you are if you'll just raise your hand up high mine's up with you let me pray for us god thank you so much that you're a god that we can place our trust and our faith in help us to obey when you speak as we continue in an

and a spirit of prayer, maybe you're here today and you're not yet a follower of Jesus. Well, I have good news for you is that Jesus has an offer for you. And it's to come and to follow him, to become a part of his family, to be made right with God. You see, because the reality is this, that because of our disobedience, we've been separated from a holy and just God. But God and his goodness looked upon us and said, I'm not okay with that. so he sent his son Jesus to live a sinless life, to die on the cross in my place and your place, to pay our payment for our sins.

So that we may be made right with God. So if you're here today and you're not a follower of Christ, but you're ready to surrender your life to following Jesus, if you're ready to say, God, here I am, my answer is yes, I'm ready to follow you, I'm ready to surrender my life to you, I'm ready to receive your grace, your forgiveness, and your mercy, and you're ready to make that decision. I'm going to ask that you raise your hand right now. Just go ahead and raise that hand up high, saying I'm ready to make that decision to follow Christ. In the back, there's a hand going up over on my left.

Somebody else, praise God, for that. Online, you can just type in the chat. I'm ready to follow Jesus. Life Church, if you'll pray out loud with me as we pray alongside people making that decision to follow Christ. Every voice together pray with me. Heavenly Father, I'm ready to trust you with my life because I believe that Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the grave. so that I can be saved.

So thank you, Lord, for your forgiveness and your mercy as I follow you. And it's in Jesus' name that everybody said, amen, Life Church, why don't we celebrate big, celebrate those who came into God's kingdom.