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Transcript: Welcome to “5 Minutes with Pastor Lutzer.” I’m so glad that you joined us today as we begin a brand new series on the will of God. I don’t know about you but especially in college we always had discussions about God’s will.
I remember in Bible college there was a young man who said, “I’m in love with two different girls and I don’t know which one God wants me to marry. How do I discern God’s will?” Now, that was a happier situation for him than it was for the young ladies that he purported to love. Other students asked questions like this: “I don’t know what Bible school to go to. What if I go to Moody Bible Institute but the woman that God has prepared for me is going to a different school?” What is the will of God?
Well, we’re going to talk about those situations but before that time let’s talk very plainly about what God’s will is. I maintain very strongly that if we obey what God says His will is, so many of the other decisions will fall into line. So, let’s do a study on the will of God. And isn’t it wonderful that we can open the Bible and we can find out exactly what God’s will is? No mystery. Let’s begin by pointing out that God’s will begins by our willingness to do anything. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” You say, “Pastor Lutzer, I want to know God’s will.” I hope that you have pen or pencil so that you can write this down. I’ll give you explicit instructions regarding God’s will.
First of all, the apostle Paul says, “Present your body to God.” He said, “Become a living sacrifice.” The best example of that, of course, is Isaac. You know, he and his father walk up the mountain. By the way, what a story! Remember he says to his dad—he says, “Dad we have the fire and we have the wood but where’s the sacrifice?” And his father says, “God Himself will provide the sacrifice.” When they get to the top of the mountain I think that Isaac cooperated with his father in letting his dad bind him. I read it this morning—”The old man bound his son on the altar.” Why do you think he bound him on the altar? Well, when the knife was in the air it’s very probable that Isaac might have changed his mind and bolted. Well, he was bound and, of course, we know that God intervened. We know the story very very well. But Isaac is a living sacrifice.
Let me ask you today are we willing to submit ourselves to God to the same extent? Bound, as it were, on the altar, saying, “God whatever you prescribe, whatever you want me to do, without reservation, I will do it.” You know, when I was in Bible school, and I refer to that again, many of us were afraid to yield ourselves to God because I always thought that the minute you do that God is going to ask you to do something very distasteful, something you don’t want to do. But that’s not the way in which we should look at it. He may call us to something hard but he would supply the grace to do it. God is good and the first step in finding God’s will is to submit our bodies to Him. A living sacrifice.
The second thing is to give our mind to God. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This is a process. This is something that is done through scripture reading, scripture memory, shutting out all of the noise that is around us. So, many of us live cluttered lives. So the question is, do we even give time for the word of God to cleanse us and to transform us?—”…by the renewing of your mind.”
So, we have the body given to God. We have the mind that is renewed. We have the will. He says, “that we might prove what the will of God is—perfect and acceptable.” And that means that we are willing to say, “God, not my will but thine be done.” You say, “Pastor Lutzer, I want to know the will of God!” Well, here it is. And if you stay with us you’ll discover that next time we are going to find out more about what God’s will really is and then we’ll talk about some of those hard decisions.
Thank you so much for joining us and by the way, if you find these sessions to be helpful subscribe and follow us. But as for today you just go with God.