Participants:
Series Code: PME
Program Code: PME230923S
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00:13 >> Hi. I'm Shane Anderson and I'm the new lead pastor here 00:17 at Pioneer Memorial Church. I'm delighted to take up 00:20 the work left by Pastor Dwight Nelson at this pulpit. 00:23 He ended his tenure here this past summer. Pastor Dwight had an incredible 00:28 40-year journey here. His ministry touched the lives of thousands around the globe, 00:33 including my own. I can remember, as a young seminarian, coming here 00:38 to Pioneer and being blessed by his spirit-filled sermons, and it is an honor for me to now 00:43 take up that mantle. Though mine is a different face, I can assure you that 00:48 the same passion for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with all who are willing to hear 00:53 will continue at Pioneer. 00:56 To make sure you stay connected to the work we're doing here 00:59 at Pioneer Media, please visit pmchurch.org/media 01:04 and follow the links to subscribe to our social-media 01:06 channels. Thank you for your continued 01:09 prayers and financial support. 01:15 ♪♪ 04:22 >> Amen. Our king is exalted. This next song that we're going 04:26 to sing talks about the love of God for each of us. 04:29 For some, it may be unknown, but many of you, 04:33 I know, have heard it before. We're going to teach it to you, 04:35 you're gonna sing along with us. ♪♪ 04:43 Just listen to the melody of the violin. 05:18 Let's sing it together. "Oh, how He loves." 06:09 Let's try it one more time now, harmonies. 07:01 Only you guys now. "Oh, how He loves." 08:06 Amen. Praise God. 08:12 ♪♪ 08:31 >> ♪ In heavenly love abiding ♪ No change my heart shall fear ♪ 08:41 ♪ And safe is such confiding ♪ For nothing changes here ♪ The storm may roar around me 08:56 ♪ My heart may low be laid ♪ But God is 'round about me ♪ And can I be dismayed? 09:20 >> ♪ Wherever He may guide me ♪ No want shall turn me back ♪ My shepherd is beside me 09:33 ♪ And nothing can I lack ♪ His wisdom is forever ♪ His sight is never dim 09:47 ♪ His will forms each endeavor ♪ And I will walk with Him ♪ All the way my Savior leads 10:05 me ♪ ♪ What have I to ask beside? ♪ Can I doubt His tender mercy 10:15 ♪ Who through life has been my guide? ♪ ♪ Heavenly peace, 10:22 divinest comfort ♪ ♪ Here by faith in Him to dwell ♪ 10:32 ♪ For I know whatever befall me ♪ ♪ Jesus doeth all things well 10:42 >> ♪ For I know whatever befall me ♪ ♪ Jesus doeth all things well 11:02 ♪ Green pastures are before me, ♪ Which yet I have not seen ♪ Bright skies will soon be o'er 11:15 me ♪ ♪ Where darker clouds have been ♪ 11:20 ♪ My life I cannot measure ♪ The path of life is free ♪ My Savior has my treasure 11:38 ♪ And he will walk with me 11:54 ♪ My Savior has my treasure ♪ And he will walk with me ♪ 12:23 ♪♪ 13:23 >> Let's try that one more time. "Show me your ways." 15:41 Amen. Amen. Praise God. Praise God. 15:45 ♪♪ 15:51 It goes like this -- "The Lord..." 20:28 >> Amen. Amen. Praise God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. 20:38 >> Before I begin, I want to call attention to the banner on the side 20:42 of the sanctuary here. "Together in spirit and in truth." 20:46 Many thanks to Brittany, our graphic designer, and to William, our head of 20:51 maintenance here, and their crews for putting this together. 20:55 Putting these things together is not a small task, 20:57 and I'm very grateful to them. I want to encourage you, 21:00 we finish the service today, if you want to come on by 21:03 and find your signature. That's why 21:05 we put these on the wall -- to be a reminder of what it is 21:08 that we are committing to before the Lord this year, 21:10 what we have committed to with our signatures here. 21:12 "Together in spirit and in truth," 21:14 God's Holy Spirit binding us together in God's truth 21:19 as found in His Word. Speaking of, 21:25 this is Part 2 of our very brief series entitled 21:28 "How to Know God's Will." 21:30 In Part 1, if you missed it -- just a very brief overview -- we said that the number-one way 21:36 that God reveals His will for our lives is through the Bible. 21:40 In fact, we put it this way. If you want to learn how to live this life, read 21:45 the Manufacturer's instructions. This book, the Bible, is the owner's manual. 21:50 God created us. He knows how life works best. He puts instructions in here 21:54 that we might live life to its fullest in Him. This is the manual. 21:59 It's the number-one way that God reveals His will for our lives. So if you're stuck, if you don't 22:04 know where to go in life, start here. This is where it begins. 22:09 Now, I also gave, in that Part 1, seven lines of evidence that I believe establish 22:16 the Bible as a different type of book than any other book on the planet. 22:20 I'm not going to go through all of those lines of evidence. If you missed Part 1, I would 22:24 strongly encourage you to watch it. You can go to pmchurch.org, 22:27 click on the "Sermons" tab, and you can go to our archive and you can find Part 1 there. 22:31 Truly, this book is different and above any other book's claim to divinity. 22:38 There's just nothing like it. We finished Part 1 with a question. 22:45 If, after you have read the specifics of the Bible and you've taken also 22:51 the principles of the Bible and you've tried to apply them to whatever part of your life 22:57 you're looking for God's will in and you still don't have an answer, what do you do? 23:06 Well, good news. God has additional ways that he can help us 23:12 to know His will, and this morning, I want to share with you three of them. 23:17 There are more, but we only have time for three this morning. And let's begin with this. 23:22 If you have a Bible, take a look at James Chapter 1, please, Verse 5. 23:26 James 1:5. In James 1, we find some very famous counsels. 23:35 Some of you may have memorized this text. It is a fairly famous one. 23:39 Martin Luther famously said that James had a gospel of straw. He didn't have much love 23:43 for the Book of James. I have a lot of love for the Book of James, and most 23:46 of Christianity does, too. That's why it's still here. It has some excellent things 23:50 to say if you are looking for God's will, you've read the Bible, 23:53 you've applied its principles, you're still not sure, what should you do? 23:57 James 1:5. "If any of you lacks --" What's the next word? Wisdom. 24:04 Stop right there. Isn't that what we're looking for 24:06 if we are looking for God's will in our life? >> Yes. 24:09 >> Yeah, it's wisdom, isn't it? We want to know, Lord, what are the next steps? 24:13 What should I do with this decision or that decision? We want wisdom. 24:18 So we're in the right spot here. "If any of you," the text says, "lacks wisdom, he should --" 24:24 What's the next word? Ask. "He should ask God, who gives generously to all 24:30 without finding fault, and it will be given to him." Verse 5 again. 24:33 "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all 24:38 without finding fault, and it will be given to him." A second way to know God's will 24:44 for your life is through prayer. Start with the Bible and continue with prayer. 24:51 Now, we have talked quite a bit about prayer in the last few weeks, 24:55 and this is not a topic that I want to wear out with you. We're going to revisit it 24:58 later on. Let me just be brief this morning by saying this. 25:02 No search for God's will is complete without prayer. Even Bible study is not 25:09 to be done without prayer, for we are to study it only as we ask 25:12 for God's Holy Spirit to lead and to guide us in doing so. 25:15 And when we've read the Bible, and, yet, we are still uncertain 25:19 as to God's will for us in a specific situation, 25:21 prayer can and must continue. For it is in prayer that 25:25 God's spirit can speak to us. It is in prayer 25:29 that God can whisper the answer to the problems that plague us. 25:32 It is in prayer that God can remind us of things 25:36 we once knew but have forgotten, of resources we once treasured 25:39 but have now fallen into disuse. Prayer is one of God's 25:43 greatest agencies for placing the mind of heaven 25:47 into the minds of humanity here on Earth. 25:51 One of my favorite quotations on prayer, outside of Scripture, 25:55 was first printed in a religious publication 25:57 called the Daily Word. This was back 25:59 in June 18 of 1952. 26:01 It's often mistaken as a quotation from Ellen White, and, indeed, portions of it 26:06 kind of sound like Sister White. But this is actually not from her. 26:09 People also mistake it for a quote from Ellen White because it was printed not once, 26:13 but twice in the Advent Review and Herald magazine -- 1953 and 1965. 26:20 So good was the quote, they had to print it twice. Here, in part, is what it says. 27:11 If you want answers to life's questions, then study your Bible and pray. 27:18 It may be that God will reveal His will clearly to you in that way. 27:23 That's method number two. There is a third method. And while methods one and two 27:32 are at the top of the list for a very good reason, this third method also has proven 27:37 to be phenomenally effective. A story. When I was in fifth grade, 27:47 there was a girl in my class that picked on me. Now, she wasn't pulling me out 27:53 behind the school and beating me up. I was bigger than anyone else 27:56 in the class. I never had a growth spurt. I just kind of kept going. 27:59 So it wasn't that kind of a thing. But I'd be sitting in class, 28:03 and she would get a spit wad in a straw, and...in the back of my neck. 28:08 "What is that?" She would get rubber bands and fold over card stock 28:12 like this and go like that, hit me in the back of the head in class. 28:15 She would find my softball glove. You know, they have cubbies 28:19 in many classrooms, right? So in my, cubby I kept my softball glove. 28:23 And she would, shall we say, reorder things and then put my glove in some other place, 28:29 and I couldn't find it. Well, after a couple weeks of this, I'm getting frustrated, 28:33 like, "Why is this girl doing this? I come home from school 28:36 and I tell my mom about it. I say, "Mom, there's this girl in my class, 28:41 and she's spitting spit wads at me and flicking me with paper and rubber bands 28:45 and she's stealing my glove. What am I supposed to do?" And she said, 28:53 "I think she likes you." [ Laughter ] Now, I thought that was 29:00 the dumbest thing in the world. What do you mean she likes me? No, no, she hates my guts. 29:04 That's why she's doing all this stuff, right? Who knows what's going to be 29:07 next, you know? I don't remember exactly how long it was -- 29:12 maybe a week or two later. I'm sitting in class. Little tap on my shoulder. 29:16 It's one of her female friends that passes me a note. The note has the one who's been 29:23 picking on me, her name on it. I open it up, and there are three words on it. 29:28 Any guesses what they were? 29:33 "I like you." I was astonished! Not that she liked me. 29:41 I mean, I'm not much to look at right now, but in fifth grade, I was, you know... 29:48 I mean, ladies falling at my feet there in the fifth- and sixth-grade classroom, right? 29:52 So I was not surprised by that at all. What astonished me 29:56 is, how did my mother know? I mean, I spent like 30 seconds telling her about this. 30:05 She had not been in the classroom ever when this stuff was happening to me. 30:09 And within 30 seconds, she says, "I think she likes you." I was astonished that anyone 30:16 at her extreme age could know such things. I mean, she was in her 30s. 30:21 She had one foot in the grave and the other in a pool of WD-40, right? 30:24 I mean, this is -- And, yet, she knew these things. It was amazing 30:30 to my fifth-grade mind... 30:35 and a very good illustration of how God reveals His will to us. 30:44 A third method that God uses to reveal His will for our lives is the counsel of older, 30:50 wiser Christians. The counsel of older and wiser Christians. 30:58 Now, this is not just my opinion. It's actually 31:01 the opinion of the Bible. Let me put this up here on the screen. 31:03 Job 12:12-13. 31:17 Now, notice carefully what God is doing here and inspiring these words to be written. 31:21 The second verse here -- "To God belong wisdom and power, counsel and understanding." 31:25 So, who owns wisdom and understanding? >> God. 31:28 >> Okay, God does, right? He is the source of our being. You know, Paul says, 31:32 "In Him, we live and move and have our being." If something is true, 31:35 it's because God is, right? So he owns these things. But notice who holds 31:41 them for him. Who is it who holds on to His wisdom and understanding? 31:48 It's the aged and those with long life. Translation -- 31:57 if you are paying attention and the years begin to add up, God will entrust you with His 32:03 wisdom and understanding. 32:09 And those of you that are younger right now may not be sure that this is 32:13 such a good idea. Like me in fifth grade wondering about how in the world 32:19 would I even pay attention to the advice of this? Stunned to find out that it was 32:22 absolutely right. As it turns out, we need the young 32:30 and we need the old. Because the experience that those that are older can bring 32:36 to those that are younger can be transformative. And let me even note 32:42 this -- history tells us that if for some reason the young disregard 32:49 the genuine wisdom of the old, that the results can be catastrophic. 32:55 Take your Bible, please, and look at 1 Kings 12. 1 Kings 12, 33:02 beginning with Verse 1. A little history here. If we were 33:07 to read earlier, in 1 Kings 11, we would find that King Solomon has died. 33:14 Now, even if you're not a Christian and you're listening right now, you probably have 33:17 heard the term "King Solomon." He was a very famous king, one of the two most famous kings 33:21 of Israel -- King David, of course, and King Solomon, his son. 33:24 Solomon was known because of the great, incredible things that he built 33:28 and other things, the wisest man who ever lived. He has died now, and his son 33:33 Rehoboam is being considered for the throne. He's next in line 33:37 for the throne. If we were to read in Chapter 11, we would find 33:41 that a man by the name of Jeroboam -- So, Jeroboam and Rehoboam, no relation. 33:46 Jeroboam receives a message from God through a Ahijah the Prophet 33:51 that Rehoboam will not inherit all of Israel, that he will inherit only a portion of it, 33:57 that the kingdom will be divided. How and why would that come 34:02 about? 1 Kings 12:1. "Rehoboam," Solomon's son, 34:09 "went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king." 34:13 When Jeroboam, son of Nebat, heard this, he was still in Egypt, 34:16 where he had fled from King Solomon. He returned from Egypt, 34:19 so they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam 34:24 and said to him, 'Your father put a heavy yoke on us, 34:28 but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.'" 34:37 Now pause there, please. Some history here is helpful. King Solomon, because of all 34:42 the grand public-works projects that he did, taxed the people mercilessly 34:50 and he forced them into labor. It was not a full-blown slavery where everybody was just -- 34:56 they never went home, they all lived there on-site, et cetera. 34:58 But, yes, it was forced labor. They went in rotations. And the people were sick 35:03 and tired of it. So they make this request. Verse 5, Rehoboam answered, 35:11 "'Go away for three days and then come back to me.' So the people went away. 35:17 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders." Who did he consult? 35:21 Okay, the elders. "He consulted the elders who had served his father, 35:26 Solomon, during his lifetime. 'How would you advise me to answer these people?', 35:31 he asked." Ah! This is very important. Not only is Rehoboam 35:37 hearkening back, trying to show some continuity with his father, Solomon, but he is attempting, 35:42 at least for the moment, to draw on the collective wisdom of these elders. 35:46 Now, the text doesn't tell us this, so this is just the Gospel according to Shane here. 35:50 I suspect that these elders were well aware of the pain and suffering that Solomon 35:56 had inflicted on his people. You know, Solomon -- smartest man who ever lived, 36:01 but he overstepped. And by the end of his life, he had turned away -- His heart 36:05 was not fully God's. He did not end his reign in a way that was pleasing to God. 36:10 And somewhere along the line, he became very insensitive to the suffering of his people. 36:13 These elders undoubtedly know this, and so they thought, "Okay, great. 36:16 We can turn the page now. This is the king's son. It's not the king. 36:19 Maybe he will listen and remove this yoke of servitude." 36:29 Verse 8. Excuse me, Verse 7. "They replied, 36:36 'If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable 36:43 answer, they will always be your servants.'" Now, ladies and gentlemen, 36:50 that is wisdom that's actually far ahead of its time. I say "far ahead of its time." 36:56 How many times does that phrase get repeated in political circles today? 37:00 Probably not very often, okay? And, really, we don't have it too many times in the 37:03 Old Testament. But these elders were showing extraordinary wisdom, because 37:07 they were actually foreshadowing what Jesus would say hundreds of years later in 37:11 Matthew 20:25-28. Jesus said, "'You know that the rulers of 37:15 the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 37:19 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great 37:24 among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, 37:28 just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give 37:34 his life as a ransom for many.'" These elders hundreds of years prior to Christ saying this. 37:40 I mean, the wisdom that is being offered here. 37:48 What does Rehoboam, the young, do with the wisdom of the old? Verse 8. 38:02 "But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men 38:11 who had grown up with him and were serving him. He asked them, 38:14 'What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, 38:18 "Lighten the yoke your father put on us?'" The young men who had grown up 38:22 with him replied, 'Tell these people who have said to you, "Your father 38:26 put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter" -- tell them, "My little finger is 38:31 thicker than my father's waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke. 38:35 I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips. 38:40 I will scourge you with scorpions.'"" And the result -- Verse 16. 38:48 "When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, 38:50 they answered the king, 'What share do we have in David? What part Jesse's son? 38:57 To your tents, O Israel. Look after your own house, O David.' 39:02 So the Israelites went home." And they not only went home, this, instead, was 39:10 the official beginning of the divided kingdom. Israel was no longer one. 39:15 It separated officially that day. The seeds of it 39:17 had been brewing, but this was the final straw. Israel became 39:22 the northern kingdom. Judah became the southern kingdom. 39:24 And both kingdoms eventually fell deeper and deeper into idolatry. 39:29 Generations of evil came that day, in part spurred on 39:36 by Rehoboam's fateful decision to ignore the experience of the older in favor 39:43 of the devastating counsel of the younger. 39:50 Now, I want to be clear about something. The point of Scripture here 39:56 and elsewhere is not that all of those that are younger have no wisdom, 40:01 nor that all of those who are older are necessarily wise. I have met 40:07 a number of 80-year-olds who did not make very good use of their eight decades, right? 40:12 Nor is the Bible saying that just because someone is older than we are 40:16 that we should take their advice. But for those of you 40:19 that are younger, don't let those admissions fool you. 40:23 When you engage with older people and they bring you godly wisdom, 40:28 take it, take it, apply it to your life. You would be foolish 40:33 to ignore it. You know, so much of life's wisdom from God 40:36 comes through our mistakes. Why try to make all the mistakes yourselves when you can learn 40:40 from the manifold mistakes of others? >> Amen. 40:43 >> Those of you that are younger, not as many amens from the older folk, but they know 40:48 exactly what I'm talking about, alright? Because, often, it's in 40:51 those contexts when we mess up, when we make mistakes, that we learn the wisdom 40:55 from God, right? You don't have to make all those mistakes yourself. 40:58 Learn from those who have gone before you. You see, here's the thing. 41:04 When the Bible speaks about spiritual gifts, it says that God gives 41:08 spiritual gifts to the church just as He sees fit. I tend to think that when 41:12 God looks at the age range of a church, He often does the same thing. 41:16 In other words, younger people -- and I'll let you decide where the cutoff 41:19 is between younger and older, alright? I'm not going to get into that. 41:22 If you are younger and you're sitting right here in this congregation right now, 41:26 I want you to know you are surrounded by some very wise people. 41:31 There are older people here that care about you. They long for you 41:35 to be in the kingdom. They are so glad that you are here this morning. 41:38 And God has put you within their sphere of influence. You may not have 41:42 even met them formally yet, but they're sitting nearby to you, and God 41:46 has put them here to be of help and assistance to you. They love you. 41:50 They care about you. They're paying for this place. Some of them are even paying 41:54 for your tuition. They long for you to know Jesus Christ as your personal 41:57 friend and savior. And if you have a need, if you are not understanding 42:02 what God's will is for your life, ask them. Ask them. 42:11 You know, I'm very glad that we have individual ministries for certain ages. 42:16 I'm glad we have a class for our 5-year-olds and a class for the early teen 42:19 and Sabbath School class for collegiates and adults. All of these now, 42:23 I'm glad for that. And it is so important that we never, ever forget 42:28 that one of God's dreams for His church is that we do cross-generational ministry 42:33 as much as we possibly can. The old need the young, the young need the old, 42:37 everybody in between. We need each other. This is one of the reasons 42:42 I'm so excited about Belong Ministry, our new outreach ministry 42:45 to our university students. It's a golden opportunity for those of you 42:48 that are older to become engaged with our university students, to build relationships, 42:52 to give them good food, to send them cash and loaves of bread, 42:56 and, along the way, to build relationships where someday, they may ask you, 43:00 "Help me understand about this," and you can share the wisdom and the knowledge 43:04 and the understanding that God has given to you with your years. 43:13 So, God reveals His will to us for our lives through his word, the Bible, number one, 43:21 through prayer, through the wisdom of older and wiser Christians, 43:27 and a fourth method. If you have your Bible, please again look at Acts 16:6. 43:34 Acts, the 16th chapter, Verse 6. You know, Acts is, of course, short for Acts of the Apostles. 43:43 Probably should be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. That may be more accurate. 43:46 It's the story of the Holy Spirit filling the Apostles and the early believers 43:50 in the Christian church and how the beginnings of the Christian church came to be. 43:55 The church-planting movement that Christianity would become in the 1st century A.D. -- 43:59 it starts here in the Book of Acts. It blossoms out there. 44:02 The Apostle Paul was kind of at the head of that church-planting ministry train. 44:07 The Apostle Paul -- he wrote more than half of the 27 books in the New Testament. 44:10 And here, we're going to read a short, little snippet of how Paul discerned the will of God. 44:18 Acts 16, beginning with verse 6. It says, "Paul and his companions traveled throughout 44:23 the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit 44:28 from preaching the word in the province of Asia." Now, time-out for just a moment. 44:34 Don't we normally talk about the Holy Spirit empowering people to preach in certain places? 44:39 I mean, we -- As a Christian church in general, we often -- we don't 44:44 often suffer from preaching the gospel too much. We have the opposite problem. 44:50 And, yet, here, the Spirit is explicitly stopping the preaching of the Gospel. 44:55 What is that about? Verse 7. "When they came 44:58 to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus 45:03 would not allow them to." Strike 2. Verse 8. 45:06 "So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night, Paul had 45:10 a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia 45:16 and help us.' After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave 45:21 for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to 45:26 them." That is one of the more bizarre passages in the Book of Acts, 45:34 and I find it to be fascinating. Follow me carefully here. Had God asked Paul to preach, 45:40 for instance, in Bithynia? Yes or no? 45:47 [ Laughter ] Do I need to read the text again? 45:52 Okay, the answer is "no." The answer is "no." We're gonna do CliffsNotes here, 45:56 right? There was a story. He went, "No." 45:58 Okay, got it. God had not asked Paul to preach in Bithynia. 46:02 But notice carefully, there's also no record that, at first, God forbade 46:07 going to Bithynia either. In other words, Paul and his group -- 46:11 they start going to Bithynia. In other words, Paul did not have 46:19 specific instructions from God as to where to preach next. But that did not stop Paul 46:26 from trying to go there, because God had already given the general instruction -- 46:31 Matthew 28 -- "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." So Paul, 46:38 not knowing God's specific will, used the best wisdom he had and chose a place to go, 46:47 and on that journey, God revealed His specific will to Paul. 46:55 Hmm. A fourth method that God uses to reveal His will for our lives 47:02 to us is this. Do what you know to do, and God will reveal His specific 47:10 will along the journey. In other words, experiment. 47:19 Well, not a single amen on that, and I'm not surprised, alright? Because experiment -- that 47:24 makes us nervous, doesn't it? I mean, surely -- Hold on, Pastor Shane. 47:26 That sounds a little dangerous there. Are you sure 47:29 you want to say that? Yes. Yes, I am. Yes, I am. Follow me carefully here. 47:33 Too often, many well-intended, committed Christians say, in essence, when faced 47:39 with a decision in their life -- They're searching for God's will. 47:41 They say, in essence, "I'm not moving a muscle until God appears in a vision 47:47 and tells me specifically what I should do." 47:57 And you know what? Sometimes, that's the right thing to do. 48:05 You know, in my decades of pastoral ministry, I've sat on a lot of committees. 48:10 You know, conference committees, executive committees, school boards, academy board. 48:16 And there have been some of those meetings where, given the gravity of the 48:20 decision that we needed to make and given the consequences if we got it wrong, 48:25 indeed, we essentially said, "We will not make a decision until we have a clear 48:30 'thus sayeth the Lord.'" Sometimes, there are situations that calls for that response. 48:40 For the other 99.5% of times in life, for the vast majority 48:48 of life's questions -- "How do I schedule my time this week, should we make 48:52 this purchase or not, should I attend that seminar or class next semester or not?", 48:56 et cetera, et cetera -- these are questions that, more often than not, 49:00 God longs for us to know His Word sufficiently and to be people of prayer sufficiently 49:08 and to have learned the counsel of generations before us sufficiently that we 49:12 become -- key word here -- mature, wise, that we become trusted, mature, 49:19 wise, free moral agents in the world, faithfully knowing and doing God's 49:23 will to the best of our ability. C.S. Lewis, in a book called "The World's Last Night," 49:30 at the end of a chapter called "The Efficacy of Prayer," he wrote this. 49:34 He said... 50:09 In other words, thinking we are somehow God's favorites. 50:28 In other words, sometimes God's silence is a vote in your favor. And could it be that one of 50:35 the reasons that we're still on this planet right now is because there are 50:39 too many of us that wanted to be treated by God as though we were 3 years 50:43 old rather than 30? God is looking for people to take these posts of great 50:49 danger and great impact. But he will not send someone who is not sufficiently mature 50:55 to take it. Let us be clear. God is not looking for us 51:02 to become disconnected from Him. That is not the definition of maturity. 51:06 A thousand times, no, no, no. But He most certainly is looking for us to become more like Him, 51:13 to have His image restored in us in mature, biblical fashion. You know, Sister White 51:19 is explicit about this. January 27 of 1890, in an article from Signs of the Times 51:24 entitled "The Most Effective Agent for God." I'd like to know what that is, 51:27 the most effective agent for God. Here's what she says, in part. 51:31 "Let the people go to work --" This is people in a church, in a congregation. 51:48 "We must all be educated to be --" What's that next word? >> Independent. 51:51 >> Ah! Look at that. 52:10 Now, those of you that have had experience with the spirit of prophecy, 52:13 you recognize that last phrase, don't you? You know, when the character of 52:16 Christ is perfectly reproduced in His people, then you know the end will come. 52:20 Jesus will return. We see this repeatedly in various forms 52:24 in Sister White's writings. And I think, too often, when we have read this phrase, 52:31 we have seen it as -- how could I put it? -- character sitting still. 52:37 "I'll just sit here and be good," right? That's what she means by this 52:42 phrase. I would gently suggest to you that this call to have 52:45 Christ's image reflected in His followers, that we need to cease thinking 52:50 of it in stagnant terms and, instead, realize that what she's pointing out here 52:55 is totally biblically solid, that character and action are intimately intertwined. 53:00 In fact, you cannot separate them. God is looking for mature 53:04 followers that are mature and able to both know His will and carry it out, 53:10 even in the absence of new, specific revelation from God. It's dangerous being a committed 53:20 Christian, isn't it? God never intended it to be 100% safe, did he? 53:27 You see, we're always safe in His arms, He will always take care of us, 53:30 but when it comes to ministry, God asks us to take risks. He asks us to do the best 53:35 with what we have. Let me just sum this up here. If you have studied the Bible, 53:40 if you have spent extensive time in prayer, if you have consulted older, 53:43 wiser Christians, and, yet, you still do not have the answers that you need, 53:46 then I think the Bible is clear. Do what you know to do. In full harmony 53:53 with biblical principles, not being reckless or random, but in keeping with the best 53:56 you know of God's general will, do what you know. In essence, experiment. 54:00 Use divine experimentation, take some risks if necessary, and along the journey, if we are 54:06 listening, God will reveal His will. He will stop us 54:10 if we need stopping, He will redirect us if we need redirecting, and we can go 54:14 forward in full confidence that God will guide and bless us when and how He wishes. 54:19 His providence will open the way. All of which brings us 54:26 to a very important point. What if we do all four of these methods 54:34 and we still don't know what God's will is in a specific situation 54:37 that we need to have -- we feel we need to have an answer to? 54:42 What if we go on not just for weeks or months, but years without hearing the answer 54:48 that we're looking for? What about the stories that we've heard of some people 54:53 who went to the grave not getting the answers to their questions? 55:01 What then? 55:06 You're not going to like my answer. The answer is, 55:12 that's another sermon. [ Laughter ] Yeah. That is too important 55:18 of a question to try to answer in the brief moments that we have left here now. 55:21 So we will get to that. Sometime in the future, we will get to that. 55:24 So keep coming back. We'll get to that good question, good answers. 55:30 But for now, I will say this. Generally speaking, God does want to answer our requests for 55:37 a knowledge of His will for us. By far, He does. And, again, 55:41 by far, the cause for us not knowing God's will just generally does not lie in God. 55:46 It lies in us. How often have we wished to know God's will for thus and such, 55:51 but because we have not accessed these simple methods for gaining that knowledge, 55:55 we do not know what God wants? So my appeal to all of us is this -- take full advantage 56:02 of the journey that God has provided for us. Let's use these simple tools 56:07 that God generally utilizes to make His will known in our lives. 56:11 Study your Bible, learn and live what it says, pray daily, both 56:15 speaking to God's ear and listening for God's voice, seek the counsel of older, 56:20 wiser Christians -- there is a treasure trove of wisdom waiting for you 56:23 there -- and seek always to grow, to grow in Christ, to learn His ways, 56:28 to become mature, and to act as He would act. Even in the absence 56:32 of a fresh revelation, we can know God's will. May we be satisfied 56:40 with nothing less. >> Amen! [ Applause ] 56:54 >> Hi. I'm Shane Anderson, lead pastor at 56:56 Pioneer Memorial Church. It's no news flash to say 57:00 that social media has become an integral part 57:02 of our daily lives, and here at Pioneer, 57:05 we want to use it to enrich our lives. 57:08 I invite you to connect with us online by visiting the links 57:11 that are shown on the screen. 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Revised 2023-10-18