Live Free with Josh Howerton - How to Determine the Will of God • Pastor Steve Stroope | Ep. 133 | Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Episode Date: August 9, 2023

Will this help or hurt me, will this help or hurt someone else, and will this help or hurt the cause of Christ? In this episode, Pastor Steve Stroope shares the two types of God's will: the moral will and the non-moral will. The moral will consists of things that are always right or wrong. Pastor Steve introduces three questions to discern God's moral will that will help you discern the path God wants you to choose. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hi, this is Pastor Steve, and it's great to be with you today on the Daily Drive. You know, when I was a youth minister for many years during my college days, I would ask the teenagers what they would like to hear a Bible study on,

and I would give them a list of choices. And every year, the number one choice was the same. They wanted to know how to determine the will of God. Later on, as I became a pastor of Lake Point Church, I asked the same question for the people who attended Lake Point. And again, the number one topic that people wanted to hear me teach on was, how do I determine the will of God? Now, I knew what they meant.

Basically, they were saying, you know, where do I go to college or what do I major in? And do I take this course or do I take this job or do I quit this other job? Who do I marry? But the Bible tells us that there are two types of the will of God. There is the moral will of God and then there is the non-moral will of God. Now let me explain. The moral will of God are those things that are always right or they're always wrong. We have the Ten Commandments that tell us not to murder and it tells us not to tell a lie and not to steal.

That's a part of God's moral law. In addition to those absolutes, we also have many passages, especially in the New Testament, that are principles for us that tell us that we can apply those principles to determine if something is right and wrong that's not mentioned specifically in the Bible. You may have noticed that there's nothing about the Internet in the Bible. There's nothing about television in the Bible. But there's some things that you could look at on the Internet, and there's some things that you could watch on television

that probably wouldn't be God's will for your life. And so how do we determine that? Well, that's what the principles are there for, for all the things that are not nailed down specifically. And really all those principles in the Bible that talk about what's right and what's wrong, they can really be summed up in three tests, and three questions. The test are these.

First of all, the test of secrecy. That asks the question. This thing that I'm thinking about doing, would I want everyone to know that I was doing it? Okay, the Bible says that men are lovers of their darkness because their deeds are evil. And if you think, well, I wouldn't want my preacher to know this, or I wouldn't want my husband or my wife to know this,

or I wouldn't want my kids to know I was involved in this, it's probably a red flag, if not just a yellow flag. that's the test of secrecy. The second is the test of universality. And the test of universality asked this question. It says, what would this world be like if everyone did this? Or another way to put it is, would I be disappointed if somebody else I knew and respected did this? Would I want my kids to be involved in this activity? Would I want my pastor to be involved in this activity? You know, what would the world be like if everyone did this thing that I'm thinking about doing? And the last test is the test of prayer. Remember one of the things that Jesus told his disciples, he said,

watch and pray when you're tempted. Watch and pray. Watch be on alert because Satan is trying to destroy your life and those that you love. But he says, pray. And if you can't pray about it, if you can't say, God, this thing that I'm about to do, I'm going to ask you to bless it for your glory. Good chance is that there's a principle in the Bible that says that we ought to least question being involved in that activity. And so then there are three questions that you'll find in most of those principles. The first question is, will this help or hurt me? You know, very few things in this life are neutral. They either edify or they don't edify. They tear down. So would this help or hurt me? And then the second question that I find is very helpful in many situations is would this help or

hurt someone else? There are things that wouldn't necessarily be wrong for me to do, but it causes pain for someone else and that ought to be enough for me to say that's not a part of my life and then the last question that we can ask as we look at those biblical principles is will this help or hurt the cause of Christ again not very many things that are neutral in this life and so the moral will of God are those things that are right or those things are wrong always or those things that are right or wrong in my particular situation in my particular life that a principle can be applied to but then the other side of it is the non-moral will of God. Now, it's not that God doesn't care about the non-moral will, but let me just say this. Don't miss this. There's no decision you will ever make in your life

in a non-moral way that will have a greater impact on your life than one single decision on God's moral will for your life. So I think we worry too many times about what college do I go to, and then we get to that college, and we don't go to class and we don't study or we lie and we cheat on test and we rob ourselves of the knowledge. And we were so worried about the non-moral will, what college to go to, but not the moral will that whatever you do, do to the glory of God and be honest about it, that we basically forfeited any kind of wise decision we may have made in the non-moral will. And again, it's not that God doesn't care about the non- moral will. It's just that it's less important. Now, the Bible does say that when we're making a decision in the non-moral

side of that equation, that one of the things it says in Proverbs that we're to do is that we're to seek a multiplicity of counselors. Now, why does it say a multiplicity of counselors? Because we don't want any single person to be our Holy Spirit. We don't want someone we respect to be making decisions for us about our life, but we do want to hear different perspectives. But you and I are responsible for all of our moral decisions, and you and I are responsible for all of our non-moral decision. So a multiplicity of counselors. And then another thing, you and I are responsible for all of our moral decisions. And then another principle that helps you in the non-moral will is just to do your homework to check the facts. One of the my favorite verses is a verse that says,

a man does not go out and build a tower unless he knows he has enough money to finish it. And he doesn't declare war on the enemy unless he knows he has enough soldiers to win the war. And so if you're thinking about going into business or you're thinking about starting a particular course of study, you ought to ask the question, how did God made me and what are my strengths and what are my weaknesses. In other words, pay more attention to the facts than some arbitrary exercise where you say, God, if you want me to go to this school,

make the tree to blow to the right, and if you want me to go to this other school, make it blow to the left. That's crazy, because that can't be tested. But you can seek counsel, and you can pay attention to the facts. But the important thing to remember today is pay attention to the realm of life

called God's moral will, because you can make 100 wrong decisions and the non-moral will of your life that you can't make very many mistakes in terms of God's moral will. God has a will for your life. His will is for you to follow and to obey him. And when we do, that obedience will cover a multitude of mistakes

in the non-moral decision-making of our life. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.comte.combe.combe.