Speaker 1: There's no way we're getting out of this. We're going
Speaker 1: into bankruptcy. There's no way to getting out of this.
Speaker 1: We've heard the C word cancer. There's no way out
Speaker 1: of this. We're headed for a divorce court. There's no
Speaker 1: And you are exactly where God wants you to be.
Speaker 2: He wants to do a miracle.
Speaker 1: But there are five things you got to stop doing,
Speaker 1: and there are five things you got to start doing
Speaker 1: stops and starts, stops and starts, and when you do that,
Speaker 1: you get God's guidance and he shows you.
Speaker 2: A pathway that nobody knew was there.
Speaker 1: You know, life is a series of choices. We make
Speaker 1: our choices and then they make us. We make our decisions,
Speaker 1: and if we make good decisions, we become successful. If
Speaker 1: we make bad decisions, then you know we're not. And
Speaker 1: every decision has a consequence, and the potential for error
Speaker 1: is great because obviously we're human beings.
Speaker 2: We're imperfect.
Speaker 1: Some of you today are struggling with some kind of
Speaker 1: difficult decision about where do I move, what job do
Speaker 1: I take? Do I get married, do I stay in
Speaker 1: this marriage? All of these different Where do we put
Speaker 1: our kids in school? And and and indecision is one
Speaker 1: of the greatest sources of stress in your life. And
Speaker 1: yet your heavenly Father doesn't want you to be stressed
Speaker 1: out by your decisions. But when you have this tension,
Speaker 1: do I hold on or do I let go? Do
Speaker 1: I keep on doing what I'm doing?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: Try something else? Do I move on? Do I get married?
Speaker 1: The Bible tells us in the Book of James that
Speaker 1: a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Speaker 1: And that word unstable actually in Greek means staggering like
Speaker 1: a drunk. That's literally what it means that when you're
Speaker 1: pulled in different directions by a decision because you just
Speaker 1: can't figure out which way to go, it creates enormous
Speaker 1: tension in your life. And then even after a lot
Speaker 1: of times you've made a decision, you start guessing, second
Speaker 1: guessing yourself did I make the right decision? And then
Speaker 1: you just prolong the pain. Now what is the antidote. Well,
Speaker 1: the antidote is to let God guide you. And we're
Speaker 1: going to look at that as we come to our
Speaker 1: fifth message in this series on living in the goodness
Speaker 1: of God. Where we're going verse by verse tough, Psalm
Speaker 1: twenty three. And the Bible tells us that life is
Speaker 1: a journey and that God has given us a roadmap.
Speaker 1: It's this book, the Bible, this is our roadmap for life.
Speaker 1: That God has given us a compass, that's our conscience
Speaker 1: that keeps us headed in the right direction if we
Speaker 1: listen to it. And that God has even given us
Speaker 1: a personal guidance counselor, and he is the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: And a personal guide is even the best thing all
Speaker 1: that's better than a map. If you have a guide
Speaker 1: taking you through a city you've never been in, that's
Speaker 1: a whole lot better than you trying to figure it
Speaker 1: out on a map or.
Speaker 2: With a compass.
Speaker 1: Now, the Bible tells us that God wants to lead
Speaker 1: us in the paths of righteousness. That means the right paths.
Speaker 1: God done wants you to mess up your life. What
Speaker 1: we're talking about in this message is am I going
Speaker 1: to waste my life? Am I going to spend my life?
Speaker 1: Or am I going to invest my life? I don't
Speaker 1: want you to waste your life. And part of that
Speaker 1: means making right decisions. How do you get on the
Speaker 1: right path? How do the Bible says he leads me
Speaker 1: in the paths of righteousness. That means a modern translation,
Speaker 1: he keeps me on track. God wants to keep you
Speaker 1: on track in your life. Now, I know some of
Speaker 1: you say, Rick, this just doesn't work for me. I've
Speaker 1: tried to let God lead my life. I don't get it.
Speaker 2: How do you let God lead?
Speaker 1: Well, that's what we're going to look at this weekend,
Speaker 1: because there's some things you need to start doing. There's
Speaker 1: some things you need to stop doing in order to
Speaker 1: let God lead your life. But really the question comes
Speaker 1: down to why is it so difficult to figure out
Speaker 1: what God wants me to do with my life? Why
Speaker 1: is God's will? Often it seems hidden? Is God playing
Speaker 1: games with me? Is God playing cat and mouse? Is he?
Speaker 1: Is he playing hide and seek? Does God enjoy confusing me?
Speaker 1: Of course not, of course not. And then the real
Speaker 1: issue is we often look for the wrong thing from God.
Speaker 1: Now we are in this series of Psalm twenty three,
Speaker 1: and I told you we're going to memorize over ten
Speaker 1: weeks these six verses together. Now, many of you memorize
Speaker 1: us as a kid, And if you memorize it in
Speaker 1: the King James version, it's okay for you to say
Speaker 1: thee and thou and all at Elizabethan English. It's just
Speaker 1: four hundred years old. But it's okay as long as
Speaker 1: you memorize this important verse. Now, I told you a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. This is the most quoted passage
Speaker 1: in funerals, Psalm twenty three. But it's not even about death.
Speaker 1: There's only one line in it.
Speaker 2: Even though I walk.
Speaker 1: Through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
Speaker 1: fear no evil, for thou art with me, you are
Speaker 1: with me. This verse is not This chapter is not
Speaker 1: really about death. It's the most famous psalm quoted to death,
Speaker 1: but it's not about death. It's really about how God
Speaker 1: wants to guide you and leads you all the way
Speaker 1: through your life. Now, because God is a good God,
Speaker 1: and that's what we're looking at. God has good plans
Speaker 1: for your life, not bad plans, and God wants you
Speaker 1: to understand those plans. And because he's good, he has
Speaker 1: promised to guide. The good Shepherd doesn't just feed us,
Speaker 1: He leads us. He doesn't just correct us. He directs us.
Speaker 1: He guides us. And so this is part of leading,
Speaker 1: feeding and meeting our needs, which is what the good
Speaker 1: Shepherd does. Now, look at the top of your outline,
Speaker 1: and we're going to start with now the first three verses.
Speaker 1: So let's say it aloud together. Remember trying to memorize this.
Speaker 1: Let's say it aloud. By the way, it's on either
Speaker 1: side here at the Lake Forest campus, and many of
Speaker 1: our campuses have already put this on their walls. Let's
Speaker 1: threat it together. The Lord is my shepherd. I have
Speaker 1: everything I need. He makes me lie down in green pastures.
Speaker 1: He leaves me besides still waters. He restores my soul.
Speaker 1: Now here's the verse. We're gonna look at this this weekend.
Speaker 1: Read it with me. He leaves me in the right
Speaker 1: paths for his name's sake. As I said, because God
Speaker 1: is a good God, he promises to guide us. We're
Speaker 1: not left out on our loan on our own. God says,
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you my guidance. In fact, listen,
Speaker 1: if you've never felt guided by God, that's a problem
Speaker 1: because one of the proofs are one of the evidences
Speaker 1: that you do have a relationship with God, that you're
Speaker 1: in his family, is he guides you. Look at this
Speaker 1: next verse there on your outline, Romans eight, verse fourteen.
Speaker 1: Only those people who are led by God God's Spirit
Speaker 1: are God's children.
Speaker 2: Oh, let me read it again. Only those people who
Speaker 2: are led.
Speaker 1: By God's Spirit are God's children. So it is absolutely,
Speaker 1: vitally important that you learn what we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about this weekend on how do I get guidance from God?
Speaker 1: Or how do I be led by God's Spirit? Only
Speaker 1: those people who were led by God's spirit, circle that
Speaker 1: led by God's Spirit are God's children, So you can
Speaker 1: see the importance of this. On Friday, I took a
Speaker 1: couple of guys from our staff and we just did
Speaker 1: a little day hike. It was such a beautiful day
Speaker 1: after all the rain we've been having, and I noticed
Speaker 1: it was we were taking this hike that a hike,
Speaker 1: or a journey or a walk is a composition of
Speaker 1: both starts and stops. And when you're on a journey,
Speaker 1: you're not always walking. You stop, you slow down, you
Speaker 1: look at things, you might pause, and there's some things
Speaker 1: on a journey of life you have to stop doing,
Speaker 1: and there's some things you have to start doing. Life
Speaker 1: is composed of starts and stops. And what I want
Speaker 1: to do is take that little metaphor today and talk
Speaker 1: to you about how do you hear God speak to you.
Speaker 1: How do you learn to get God's will in your life?
Speaker 1: How do you get God's guidance, whether it's a business
Speaker 1: decision or a relational decision, or a financial or health decision.
Speaker 1: How do I get God's guidance in my life? How
Speaker 1: do I be led by God's Spirit? Well, there are
Speaker 1: some things you need to stop doing in order to
Speaker 1: do that, and there's some things you need to start doing.
Speaker 2: So let's begin with the negative.
Speaker 1: This may not be comfortable, but it's necessary if I
Speaker 1: really want to be led by the spirit of God. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you might write these down. Number one, he's a
Speaker 1: right from God's word. If I want to be led
Speaker 1: by God's spirit. First, I can't follow a culture that
Speaker 1: doesn't follow God. I can't follow a culture that doesn't
Speaker 1: follow God if I'm trying to follow God, if I'm
Speaker 1: trying to be led by the spirit, So I've got
Speaker 1: to stop that. You can't run in two directions at
Speaker 1: the same time. You can't chase two rabbits at the
Speaker 1: same time. You can't serve God and money. You can't
Speaker 1: serve God and anything else. You got to decide what's
Speaker 1: number one in your life? You can only have one
Speaker 1: number one. In Exodus twenty three, Verse two, the Bible says,
Speaker 1: do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. Now, that's
Speaker 1: important verse today, because the whole idea is if everybody
Speaker 1: else is doing it, it must be okay.
Speaker 2: If it's legal, it must be moral.
Speaker 1: Not necessarily, if everybody else is doing it, then I
Speaker 1: should do it. You can't follow a culture that doesn't
Speaker 1: follow God. If you want to be led by the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, do not follow the crowd and doing wrong.
Speaker 1: You know, most people make decisions in their life according
Speaker 1: to what is acceptable, and I just want to fit in.
Speaker 1: And if they're doing it, then I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1: And if they're not doing it, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: do it because I don't want to stick out. I
Speaker 1: don't want to stand out. You don't want to rock
Speaker 1: the boat. When in Rome, you know, do as the Romans.
Speaker 1: And you know there are magazines that put out what's
Speaker 1: in and what's out to tell you this is now out,
Speaker 1: stop doing that, this is now in, start doing that,
Speaker 1: wear this, don't wear that, say this, don't say that.
Speaker 1: And there are great pressures to make you conform to
Speaker 1: our culture. You cannot conform to our culture and be
Speaker 1: just like everybody else and be led by the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit because he's going in a different direction. This problem
Speaker 1: was Israel's biggest problem for two thousand, three thousand, and
Speaker 1: four thousand years in the Bible, they kept trying to
Speaker 1: want to be like every other nation. God said, no, no,
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be different. I don't want you doing that.
Speaker 1: Gave them all kinds of moral laws and civil laws
Speaker 1: and ceremonial laws, and he said, this is going to
Speaker 1: just make you different from everybody else, and it's intentional.
Speaker 1: God said, because you're my people, I want you to
Speaker 1: be different, and so don't copy what everybody else is doing,
Speaker 1: what other cultures are doing, what other people are doing. Today,
Speaker 1: many believers accept many of the standards simply because they're
Speaker 1: politically correct, culturally correct. They're what everybody else is doing.
Speaker 1: Here's what the Bible says Romans twelve, verse two. Do
Speaker 1: not copy the behavior or values of this world. Instead,
Speaker 1: let God transform you. I means you're gonna be different
Speaker 1: into a new person by changing the way you think.
Speaker 1: So you're not going to think like everybody else does.
Speaker 1: Then you will know notice, then you will know what
Speaker 1: God wants you to do.
Speaker 2: Now, let me pause right here.
Speaker 1: The reason you don't know what God wants you to do,
Speaker 1: it's because you're too inculturated with this culture and you
Speaker 1: can't think like the world and think like God thinks.
Speaker 1: And so you have to decide to life, do I
Speaker 1: want to be popular with the world, or do I
Speaker 1: really want to do what God put me on this
Speaker 1: earth to do. Do I want to be who He
Speaker 1: made me to be, not try to be poor carbon
Speaker 1: copy of somebody else. Don't copy the behaviors or values
Speaker 1: of this world. Let God transform you into a new
Speaker 1: person how by changing the way you think. Then, he says,
Speaker 1: then you'll know. You want to know God's will. Then
Speaker 1: you'll know what God wants you to do, and you
Speaker 1: will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will
Speaker 1: really is. I want you to circle those three where
Speaker 1: its good, pleasing.
Speaker 2: And perfect. God's will for your life is good.
Speaker 1: It's not bad. God has good plans for your life,
Speaker 1: not bad plans. God's will for your life is good.
Speaker 1: It's pleasing. That means it's enjoyable. It's not a not
Speaker 1: a bad deal. It's not painful, can't involve pain, but
Speaker 1: it's good. It's pleasing and it's perfect. That's what God's
Speaker 1: will for your life really is. You see, one of
Speaker 1: the weaknesses of following culture is it's all temporary. Whatever
Speaker 1: is in style now, next year is going to be
Speaker 1: what yeah, out of style. So nothing is as worthless
Speaker 1: as yesterday's fashion unless you hold onto.
Speaker 2: It for thirty years.
Speaker 1: And then what goes around comes back, and ties get
Speaker 1: wide and narrow and wideness, hymn lines go up and
Speaker 1: down and all of that. But the Bible tells us
Speaker 1: in One John two seventeen, the world and all of
Speaker 1: its desires passes away, but the person who does the
Speaker 1: will of God shall live forever. Really, you don't want
Speaker 1: to care about whether I'm fitting in with culture or not.
Speaker 1: People will tell you, well, you're on the wrong side
Speaker 1: of history. For you, it's not important on whether you're
Speaker 1: on the right side of history or the wrong side
Speaker 1: of history. It's important that you just be on the
Speaker 1: right side because history is often wrong. You ever heard
Speaker 1: anything called Nazism, communism, so many other History is often wrong.
Speaker 1: It's not important to be on the right side of history.
Speaker 1: It's important to be on the right side. And if
Speaker 1: you're gonna let God guide you you can't say, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to let culture guide me what
Speaker 1: I do think can be and I'm gonna let God
Speaker 1: do that too. It doesn't work that way. Now, let's
Speaker 1: get a little more personal.
Speaker 2: That was pretty easy. This is getting a meddling in
Speaker 2: your life. Now.
Speaker 1: If I want to be led by God's spirit, I
Speaker 1: can't follow friends who aren't led by God. If my
Speaker 1: friends are going the exact opposite direction that God is going,
Speaker 1: I have to make a choice. Am I gonna go
Speaker 1: to the direction my friends are going? Or am I
Speaker 1: going to go the direction of God. It's one thing
Speaker 1: to say, well, you know, I'm going to be counterculture,
Speaker 1: but it's another thing to say I'm not gonna let
Speaker 1: my friends influence me. You got to stop letting your
Speaker 1: friends set the agenda of your life. One of the
Speaker 1: reasons you don't hear God's will is because you're always
Speaker 1: hearing what their will is. Let's do this, let's do that,
Speaker 1: Let's drink this, let's eat that, let's go here, let's
Speaker 1: talk like this. Let's watch this TV show. There's some
Speaker 1: shows you just shouldn't watch. Doesn't matter if they're the
Speaker 1: most popular shows on TV. You're filling your mind with garbage.
Speaker 1: We all worry about air pollution, water pollution. Have you
Speaker 1: ever worried about mind pollution? Some people are so open
Speaker 1: minded their brains fall out, and you're just letting a
Speaker 1: freeway go through your mind of all kinds. None of
Speaker 1: that stuff's forgotten. That's why you've had some of those
Speaker 1: weird dreams over the years. It's all everything you've seen,
Speaker 1: every rape, every murder, every violent act, every cuss word,
Speaker 1: it's all in there.
Speaker 2: It's all there.
Speaker 1: I can't follow friends who aren't led by God.
Speaker 2: Why am I making a big deal about this?
Speaker 1: Because one of the things that causes people to miss
Speaker 1: God's will for their life, God's plan, God's perfect, good
Speaker 1: and pleasing plant is peer pressure.
Speaker 2: You can get it in school.
Speaker 1: You all know what that was like in school when
Speaker 1: you felt pressured by the kids in your class. But
Speaker 1: you also get it at work. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: peer pressure today, and you have to say, am I
Speaker 1: going to listen to my friends, my co workers, my teammates,
Speaker 1: or am I going to listen to what God says?
Speaker 2: First?
Speaker 1: John three seven says this, Do not let anyone that
Speaker 1: includes friends leads you in the wrong way.
Speaker 2: Christ is righteous.
Speaker 1: That means he does what's right, so be like So
Speaker 1: to be like Christ, you must do what is right,
Speaker 1: not what's necessarily popular. And anyone who keeps on sinning
Speaker 1: is being led by the devil. So if I've got
Speaker 1: a friend who is habitually sinning, I mean they're having
Speaker 1: one affair after another there, and they're bragging about it
Speaker 1: at work, and I'm you know, I'm listening to them.
Speaker 1: I'm then I'm just following them. Who are they following?
Speaker 2: The devil? The devil, he says, don't let anybody lead
Speaker 2: you in the wrong direction. What do you do?
Speaker 1: You got to be tender without surrender. Now, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of bad advice floating around the world.
Speaker 2: Everybody agree with that?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, anybody could be a blogger today. Anybody
Speaker 1: can write a column today. I'm not making this up.
Speaker 1: Yesterday read an article called why Everybody should have an affair.
Speaker 1: Oh that's the best advice I've ever heard, right there, boy,
Speaker 1: that's let me just tell you how man, how much
Speaker 1: destructiveness that creates in the lives of kids. Let me
Speaker 1: talk to the men for just a minute here, guys.
Speaker 1: You know what's the number one need that you have,
Speaker 1: you may have never even noticed it. If you're a daddy.
Speaker 1: If you're a husband and a dad, one of the
Speaker 1: biggest needs you have in your life is you want
Speaker 1: your grown adult children to respect you. I don't know
Speaker 1: a man who doesn't want that. You want your grown
Speaker 1: adult children to respect you. That should have a hamper
Speaker 1: on the decisions you make now and a lot of
Speaker 1: other areas. Notice how quiet it got when I said
Speaker 1: that I had every attention of every man in the
Speaker 1: house for one second.
Speaker 2: All right, go back to your ballgame. All right?
Speaker 1: Okay, I had a lot of bad advice out there.
Speaker 1: Proverbs thirteen, verse twenty look up here says this, keep
Speaker 1: company with wise friends, and you'll become wise. But if
Speaker 1: you associate with fools, your life will suffer great hurt.
Speaker 1: You can't soar with the eagles if you're running with
Speaker 1: the turkeys. Okay, so you know who you hang out with.
Speaker 1: You need to choose your friends wisely. Keep company with
Speaker 1: wise friends, you're gonna become wise.
Speaker 2: If I want to follow.
Speaker 1: God's direction, okay, I can't let culture get me off track,
Speaker 1: and I can't even let friends get me off track.
Speaker 1: Make sure your advice is from the right source, you know. Now,
Speaker 1: it bothers me when people like get counseling. I've met
Speaker 1: believers who are going to non believers to get counseling
Speaker 1: for their life. I'm going to really, they have no
Speaker 1: spiritual insight on that. The Bible tells us in First
Speaker 1: John three seven, it says, don't just let anybody lead
Speaker 1: you astray, because you'll miss God's will. Go ahead and
Speaker 1: get counseled, but get it from a mature believer. Now
Speaker 1: that may be really clear. When I talk to this
Speaker 1: about friends, means I can't follow friends. You mean I'm
Speaker 1: saying I have to give up all my non Christian friends.
Speaker 2: Of course not.
Speaker 1: In fact, you shouldn't do that. Listen to me loud
Speaker 1: and clear. God wants you to have friends who are unbelievers.
Speaker 1: First place, you're commanded to love everybody. You're not allowed
Speaker 1: to not love anybody. If you're a believer Christ, you
Speaker 1: are to love everybody. In fact, I'm even commanded to
Speaker 1: love my enemies. I'm commanded to love the people who
Speaker 1: hate me, criticize me, attack me. I don't get a choice.
Speaker 1: If I call myself a believer, follower of Christ, I
Speaker 1: am to love everybody, and God wants to use you
Speaker 1: to bring them to Christ. But here's the difference. Look
Speaker 1: up here in the screen. Jeremiah fifteen nineteen says, you
Speaker 1: will be my spokesman to these non believing friends. You
Speaker 1: are to influence them, but do not let them influence you.
Speaker 1: Every day when you go to work, you're deciding, am
Speaker 1: I going to be a thermostat or a thermometer. A
Speaker 1: thermometer just reflects what the temperature is of the environment.
Speaker 1: They're being talking dirty, I'm going to talk dirty, they're
Speaker 1: doing this, I'm going to do that. A thermometer just
Speaker 1: reveals what the call, just like a thermostat turns the
Speaker 1: heat up or down.
Speaker 2: God wants you to be in a thermistat.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want you to influence them, to influence you,
Speaker 1: but you to influence them. Now, as I said, God
Speaker 1: commands you to love everybody. Let me show you something
Speaker 1: that a lot of Christians and believers don't get. Let's
Speaker 1: show you two verses that look totally opposite of each
Speaker 1: other up here on the screen. One John two fifteen.
Speaker 1: By the way, they're written by the same guy. John
Speaker 1: wrote the book John, and he wrote first, second, and
Speaker 1: third John letters, and in First John, chapter two, he
Speaker 1: says this, do not love the world or anything that
Speaker 1: belongs to the world. If you love the world, you
Speaker 1: cannot love the Father.
Speaker 2: WHOA, that's pretty clear now.
Speaker 1: That same guy who wrote that also wrote this the
Speaker 1: most famous verse in the Bible, God so.
Speaker 2: Loved the world. Well, what is it? I mean? Huh?
Speaker 2: That looks like a big contradiction right there, God so
Speaker 2: loved the world.
Speaker 1: And then he says, but you, you're not to love
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 2: And if you love the world, the.
Speaker 1: Love of the Father is not in you. Well, which
Speaker 1: is it? You need to understand the meaning of the
Speaker 1: word world. The world is used two different ways in
Speaker 1: the scripture. It refers to the world's value system and
Speaker 1: it refers to the world's people. We are to love
Speaker 1: the people and not.
Speaker 2: Love the value systems. That makes sense.
Speaker 1: We are to love the people no matter what kind
Speaker 1: of lifestyle they live, but we are to not love.
Speaker 1: In fact, the Bible says we are to hate the
Speaker 1: value system of prejudice and racism and injustice and sexism,
Speaker 1: and people hurting each other and war. We are to
Speaker 1: hate the things that hurt people in the world. Love
Speaker 1: the people, hate the value system. You know what the
Speaker 1: problem is, we got it reversed. We love the value
Speaker 1: system and hate the people. Christians do this all the time.
Speaker 1: They're no different. They're just as materialistic, they're just as hedonistic,
Speaker 1: they're just as involved in everything in culture. They love
Speaker 1: the culture and hate the people that says, no, no,
Speaker 1: you got that all wrong, you got it backwards. Love
Speaker 1: the world. People don't love the world's value system. Okay,
Speaker 1: Five things I have to stop doing.
Speaker 2: One.
Speaker 1: I can't follow a culture that doesn't follow God. To you,
Speaker 1: I can't follow friends who aren't led by God. Number three.
Speaker 1: Third thing why I often miss God's will is this,
Speaker 1: I can't look to other sources besides God. If I'm
Speaker 1: looking for direction for my life, the best place to
Speaker 1: look is not on a TV talk show. The best
Speaker 1: place to look is to read the Owner's Manuel, that's
Speaker 1: the Bible, and talk to the creator who made you.
Speaker 1: And that's where you're going to find out about your life.
Speaker 1: I can't look to other sources besides God. Now, there
Speaker 1: are many other sources that want to tell you how
Speaker 1: to run your life, many other replacements. There are many
Speaker 1: other substitutes for God, A lot of substitutes for God
Speaker 1: in the world.
Speaker 2: They're actually called idols. I mean, for.
Speaker 1: Instance, when you're looking for what am I supposed to
Speaker 1: do with my life? I've actually met some believers who
Speaker 1: think they can pray to God and read a horoscope.
Speaker 2: Really, that's like.
Speaker 1: Saying I believe in reincarnation and heaven at the same time.
Speaker 1: They're mutually exclusive. You either believe in one or the other.
Speaker 1: You can't believe in both. That's illogical, irrational, and it
Speaker 1: makes no sense at all. And so God says, I
Speaker 1: want you to look to Me and don't look to
Speaker 1: other things for your guidance. Now, when people look to
Speaker 1: anything else besides God for guidance for their life, do
Speaker 1: you know what that's called. When they're looking for divine guidance,
Speaker 1: they're not actually praying or reading the Bible. It's called divination.
Speaker 1: Divination you heard this word divination means to try to
Speaker 1: find about your future without going to your creator.
Speaker 2: That's called divination. And they're countless kinds of ways.
Speaker 1: To define the future, fortune telling and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: predictions and prognosies and things like that. Do you know
Speaker 1: in ancient times, what was the most common way that
Speaker 1: people discerned the future?
Speaker 2: Anybody know what this is. It was called consulting the liver.
Speaker 1: They would actually sacrifice animals. They'd cut out a liver
Speaker 1: because the liver was supposed to be the heaviest organ
Speaker 1: in the body. And then somebody would look at it
Speaker 1: and goes, mm, yeah, go to war, go to battle.
Speaker 1: You'll win this one. Now, I mean, this is not
Speaker 1: some little minor thing. The Roman Empire was built on
Speaker 1: defining the liver. No Roman soldier would go into battle
Speaker 1: without looking.
Speaker 2: At the livery.
Speaker 1: The Babylonians looked at the liver. The Etruscans looked at
Speaker 1: the liver. This was the most commonly used form of
Speaker 1: predicting the future, and in fact, it's actually even mentioned
Speaker 1: in the Bible.
Speaker 2: Look at this verse here on the screen.
Speaker 1: The Bible says in Ezekiel twenty one, the king of
Speaker 1: Babylon now stands at a crossroad, uncertain of whether or
Speaker 1: not to attack. He was going to attack Jerusalem, didn't know,
Speaker 1: So his advisors will cast lots by shaking arrows from
Speaker 1: the quiver.
Speaker 2: That was another popular way. You take arrows in a
Speaker 2: quiver and you throw them out on the ground, and
Speaker 2: you go, mm, don't go to battle.
Speaker 1: Okay, and that was one and the other end they
Speaker 1: will inspect the livers of sacrificed animals. Fifty ways to
Speaker 1: lose your liver right there, or love your liver or whatever.
Speaker 1: So that was it called the divination. Does that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff that will happen today?
Speaker 2: Hello?
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen a palm reading shop or tea
Speaker 1: leading or reading shop or.
Speaker 2: Crystal ball?
Speaker 1: And Madam so and so, and I mean that stuff'll
Speaker 1: still around, Tarot cards, horoscopes. These are called divination looking
Speaker 1: to the future without looking to God. And God says no, no,
Speaker 1: don't do any of that kind of stuff. Don't go
Speaker 1: call the psychic hotline. By the way, here's a little tip.
Speaker 1: If the psychic hotline says, what's your credit card number?
Speaker 2: Hang up? They should know that. And I want to.
Speaker 1: Say, you tell me, if you're so smart, you tell me.
Speaker 1: If he can't tell me my credit card, he can't
Speaker 1: tell me anything else that's valuable because he has no
Speaker 1: ability at all. I actually did a little research on
Speaker 1: this just for fun this week, looking at the modern
Speaker 1: things divination, and there's some crazy bizarre things out there.
Speaker 1: For instance, in Russia, they throw beans on the floor
Speaker 1: and then look at the pattern, and I'm going, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of beans.
Speaker 2: Right there, So okay, you know that's a pile of
Speaker 2: beans or whatever.
Speaker 1: There's a thing called parrot mancy where you let a
Speaker 1: parrot out of its cage and it goes over and
Speaker 1: picks up a card, and then you know who you're
Speaker 1: supposed to marry. And why do they people go to
Speaker 1: these others Because they don't want a boss in their life.
Speaker 1: They want the future, but they don't want God, they
Speaker 1: don't want a lord, they don't want somebody that they
Speaker 1: have to serve. And so the ridiculousness of looking to
Speaker 1: other sources besides God. The Bible warns this, look at
Speaker 1: this verse. Deuteronomy eighteen says this, never look to psychics
Speaker 1: or seances, or fortune telling, or the stars, or people
Speaker 1: who claim to be in contact with the dead. People
Speaker 1: who do these things are doing evil, and God hates
Speaker 1: it with a passion. Now I doubt any of you
Speaker 1: are doing this, but I will tell you this, you
Speaker 1: believer who's doing this, politely, gently, lovingly tell them you're
Speaker 1: heading down the wrong track. You're never gonna know God's
Speaker 1: will through a seance, through a medium, through a horoscope,
Speaker 1: through astrology. If you are following the stars, you're not
Speaker 1: following the sun.
Speaker 2: S n.
Speaker 1: You're not following the sun, you're not following God. These
Speaker 1: are counterfeits you know today, years ago Gideon used that
Speaker 1: fleece to discern God's will.
Speaker 2: People get fleeced all the time.
Speaker 1: Today, cults and fad therapies and scientology and all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff. The Bible tells us secur Indians eleventh Satan
Speaker 1: masquerades as an angel of light. So we just got
Speaker 1: to avoid that. And the Bible tells us in first
Speaker 1: John four, verse one, don't believe everything here. That's a
Speaker 1: good thing to do on to read on the internet. Actually,
Speaker 1: I read a quote the other day on the internet.
Speaker 1: Don't believe everything you read on the internet. Abraham Lincoln.
Speaker 2: That guy was way ahead of his time.
Speaker 1: All I say, okay, all right, I got I know
Speaker 1: I'm taking a long time on this, But if you
Speaker 1: want to be led by the spirit of God, there's
Speaker 1: some things you have to stop doing before you start
Speaker 1: doing the other can't follow culture, can't follow friends who
Speaker 1: are not following God. Can't look to other sources besides God,
Speaker 1: like all those divination things. Number four, This is a
Speaker 1: one that would apply to a lot of us. I
Speaker 1: must stop being led by my circumstances. Now, the other
Speaker 1: ones may have not been relatable to you, but this
Speaker 1: one is certainly. I must stop being led by my circumstance.
Speaker 1: I'm amazed how many believers the number one way they
Speaker 1: try to determine God's will is, well, what's my circumstance?
Speaker 1: You know I missed the plane, It must be God's will.
Speaker 1: The heavy traffic, it must be God's will. The offering
Speaker 1: plate skipped my road, that was God's will. I've had
Speaker 1: people you know who. You know I bumped into him
Speaker 1: in a cart, and it must be God's will.
Speaker 2: We bumped into each other. I won't say anything about that,
Speaker 2: but you know, you know I overslept today. It is
Speaker 2: God's will.
Speaker 1: I don't go to church. You're skating on thin ice, shallow,
Speaker 1: shaky ground. When you build your life around your circumstances.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of examples in the Bible where
Speaker 1: the circumstances were the exact opposite.
Speaker 2: Of God's will.
Speaker 1: When I think about the story of Jonah, God said
Speaker 1: to Jonah, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineva,
Speaker 1: and I want you to preach to it, and they
Speaker 1: were the hated enemies of the Israelites because they had
Speaker 1: oppressed them for years. And Jonah said, I'm not going.
Speaker 1: It was literally racial prejudice, and I'm not going. Instead
Speaker 1: of going east to Ninevah, he gets on board a
Speaker 1: ship headed for Tarsis, which is a seaport on the
Speaker 1: coast of Spain. He's going as far east as he can.
Speaker 1: God said go west, and he goes east. But the
Speaker 1: circumstances there was a ship waiting there headed for Tarsius.
Speaker 1: He had the money for a ticket. They had face
Speaker 1: on board. He gets on board, they take him on.
Speaker 1: It must be God's will. I've seen circumstances ruin a
Speaker 1: lot of businesses and business opportunities because it looked like
Speaker 1: a good deal. Let me give you another example from Paul.
Speaker 1: I wrote the scripture down there on your outline. You
Speaker 1: might want to read Acts twenty seven. It's about another
Speaker 1: Mediterranean cruise about two thousand years later, and Paul is
Speaker 1: being taken to Rome as a prisoner, and the night
Speaker 1: before the ship is leaving, God says to him in
Speaker 1: his prayer time, tell him not to go tomorrow because
Speaker 1: they're going to head straight.
Speaker 2: Into a storm.
Speaker 1: And Paul says to the sailors and the captainship, guys,
Speaker 1: if we leave today, we're going to go straight into
Speaker 1: a storm. But they didn't listen to them. And here's
Speaker 1: what the Bible says up here on the screen. Paul said,
Speaker 1: men stalking to the sailors, if we sail now, this
Speaker 1: voyage will be a disaster. We'll lose the ship, the cargo,
Speaker 1: and maybe even our own lives. But when a gentle
Speaker 1: breeze came up, they thought, this is exactly what we wanted.
Speaker 1: Have you ever had a gentle breeze come up in
Speaker 1: your life and think this is exactly what I wanted,
Speaker 1: And you were heading straight into a storm. When a
Speaker 1: gentle brief came up, they thought this is exactly.
Speaker 2: What we wanted.
Speaker 1: So they launched out, thinking it would be smooth sailing.
Speaker 1: Sound familiar that new business venture. Thinking it would be
Speaker 1: smooth sailing. But at see a violent typhoon storm arose,
Speaker 1: which made it impossible to control the direction of the ship.
Speaker 2: So we gave up and just let her drift.
Speaker 1: That is the epitaph of many a believer who trusted
Speaker 1: in circumstances. We just finally gave up and let her
Speaker 1: drift because we thought it was right. The circumstances look good.
Speaker 1: But that was a disastrous business deal or marriage or whatever.
Speaker 1: How about you, how many times have you ever thought
Speaker 1: of something circumstantial was an open door and you later
Speaker 1: found out it was a trapdoor. You can't just trust circumstances.
Speaker 1: I could give you example example in the Bible about
Speaker 1: this where David he had sent his army to war
Speaker 1: in spring, and he's at home, lollygagging around in his pj's,
Speaker 1: and he's upstairs and he looks out and he sees
Speaker 1: a beautiful woman taking a bath on a roof.
Speaker 2: What's she taking a bath on a roof for?
Speaker 1: And he looks down from his palace to seeze there,
Speaker 1: and he goes, very pretty. Her husband's at war, I'm
Speaker 1: home alone. She's attractive, and he falls into affair. Circumstances
Speaker 1: can lead you the wrong way. The fact that Satan
Speaker 1: can manipulate circumstances. You need to be aware of that,
Speaker 1: and so you always check your circumstances against God's word.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is that you don't
Speaker 1: use circumstances to discern God's will, but you use it
Speaker 1: to confirm God's will. Now, let me give you one
Speaker 1: more stop. If I want to be led by God's spirit,
Speaker 1: I cannot be led by my feelings. If I want
Speaker 1: to be led by God's spirit, I cannot be.
Speaker 2: Led by my feelings.
Speaker 1: Because your feelings lie to you all the time. Now,
Speaker 1: every emotion is temporary, whether it's a good one or
Speaker 1: a bad one. You can be elated at your wedding
Speaker 1: and it will not last. You can be elated at Disneyland,
Speaker 1: it will not last. You can be elated at winning
Speaker 1: a game for a team that you were rooting for.
Speaker 1: It will not last. And the same is true if
Speaker 1: you're depressed, if you're discouraged, it will not last. No
Speaker 1: emotion can stay at the same level of intensity. If
Speaker 1: you have a panic attack, one thing you need to
Speaker 1: know it can't last. You cannot stay in a perpetual
Speaker 1: state of panic. This too will pass. And so you
Speaker 1: can't be led by your feelings because they're not.
Speaker 2: Permanent. They're just temporary.
Speaker 1: And the most common mistake, and I even hear Christians
Speaker 1: saying this today is well, just let your conscience be
Speaker 1: your guide.
Speaker 2: I had to tell you this. Your conscience is often wrong.
Speaker 2: So is mine.
Speaker 1: The Bible says the heart is deceitful. Now, I've told
Speaker 1: you this many times that you lie to yourself more
Speaker 1: than you lie to anybody else. Just because you think
Speaker 1: it doesn't make it true. Just because somebody else thought
Speaker 1: it doesn't make it true. Just because it it's popular
Speaker 1: doesn't make it true. Something is true because it's true.
Speaker 1: Not what you think is true is true, not what
Speaker 1: you hope is true. Not fake news says it's true,
Speaker 1: not whatever, all these other things. Truth is simply truth.
Speaker 1: It's either right or it's not right. Now, most people
Speaker 1: base their decisions on how they feel. And I can't
Speaker 1: tell you how many times. And it sounds like a
Speaker 1: spiritual thing. Say, why did you do that? Well, I
Speaker 1: just had a piece about it. That's not enough, friend,
Speaker 1: to make a decision on. Well, I had a piece
Speaker 1: about it. Piece is a good thing. But you better
Speaker 1: have more basis for your decision than just a peaceful feeling,
Speaker 1: because you could have a peaceful, easy feeling, and I.
Speaker 2: Know it won't let you go. So you were really
Speaker 2: old people. If you know those lyrics, you are really
Speaker 2: really old. I just.
Speaker 1: Ride at home here right now. Okay, you can't just
Speaker 1: go buy your feelings. Feelings lie. It may be the
Speaker 1: result of some burrito you ate or something you know.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that story of Joe and I told you, Hey,
Speaker 1: here's a ship.
Speaker 2: Hey, I got the money. Hey, they take me on board.
Speaker 1: And he goes down, and he goes into the bottom
Speaker 1: ship and he falls into a nice, peaceful sleep. He's
Speaker 1: totally out of the will of God and he's at peace.
Speaker 2: So that's not enough.
Speaker 1: Piece is a good thing, but it's not enough to
Speaker 1: base your life on simply emotions. Because he was totally
Speaker 1: disobeying God. Satan can give you a false peace. Proverbs fourteen,
Speaker 1: verse twelve. You may feel circle the word feel. You
Speaker 1: may feel you're on the right path, the right road,
Speaker 1: and still end up dead. Okay, and the result of
Speaker 1: being manipulated my moods. Look at the next verse. We've
Speaker 1: all straight away like sheep. We have left God's path
Speaker 1: to follow our own. And why do we leave God's
Speaker 1: path to follow on because we felt like it. Those
Speaker 1: are things you have to stop doing if you want
Speaker 1: to be led by the spirit. What are the five
Speaker 1: things you start doing? Very easy to understand. Number one,
Speaker 1: If I want to get goddance from God, I want
Speaker 1: divine direction. Number one, I must want to be led.
Speaker 1: I got to desire it first. I must want to
Speaker 1: be led. It starts with desire, it starts with longing,
Speaker 1: it starts with craving. Have you ever had anybody hold
Speaker 1: your head under the water so long that you go,
Speaker 1: I have got to get air.
Speaker 2: When you get that desperate and when you.
Speaker 1: Cry out to God, say God, I have got to know.
Speaker 1: I've got to know what you want me to do.
Speaker 1: It's not like I kind of would like to know.
Speaker 1: It would be helpful to know if you don't have
Speaker 1: any intensity of your passion and your prayer, life life
Speaker 1: about knowing God's will. God's going, well, I guess it's
Speaker 1: not that important to you. But when you say I've
Speaker 1: got to have it, it's like I'm hungry. I've got
Speaker 1: to have food. I'm out of breath. I've got to
Speaker 1: have oxygen. I don't know which way to go in life. God,
Speaker 1: I've got to know your will. I must want to
Speaker 1: be led by the spirit. So I'm forty verse eight,
Speaker 1: My God, I want to do what you want, and
Speaker 1: your teachings are in my heart. The reason why he
Speaker 1: wants it is because he's reading the Bible, your teachings
Speaker 1: are in my heart. Number two, I must be willing
Speaker 1: to do what God says. I must not only want
Speaker 1: God's will, I've got to be willing to do what
Speaker 1: God says. I'm willing to obey in advance. In other words, God,
Speaker 1: before you even tell me what you want me to do,
Speaker 1: my answer in advance is already yes. God doesn't tell
Speaker 1: you his will, and then you get to decide whether
Speaker 1: you do it or not. You have to decide an
Speaker 1: event you prequalify. God's not going to show you what
Speaker 1: he wants to do with your life, and then you
Speaker 1: get to decide about it. You say, God, I surrender
Speaker 1: my life to you completely. I don't just want your will.
Speaker 1: I'm willing whatever it is. I don't even understand it.
Speaker 1: I don't even know it, but whatever it is, I'm
Speaker 1: willing in advance John seven seventeen, Jesus said this, whoever
Speaker 1: is willing to do what God wants and chooses it.
Speaker 1: It's a choice. You choose God's will. Will know if
Speaker 1: what I teach comes from God. So he says, trust
Speaker 1: me in advance. I want to be led, and I'm
Speaker 1: willing to do what you want. Me to do even
Speaker 1: before you've even told me. Number three, If I want
Speaker 1: to be led by God's spirit, I must look to
Speaker 1: God's word. I must look to God's word. God's will
Speaker 1: is found in God's word. So I'm one nineteen one
Speaker 1: oh five. Your word is lamp to guide me and
Speaker 1: a light for my path. If you're not in the
Speaker 1: Bible every day, you're in the dark. You're walking through
Speaker 1: life without a flashlight. Your word is a lamp to
Speaker 1: guide me and a light for my path. Proverbs one
Speaker 1: nineteen sawm one nineteen is what that's supposed to be.
Speaker 1: So I'm one nineteen one thirty three says this, Guide
Speaker 1: my steps by your word, so I will not be
Speaker 1: overcome by any evil. It's up here on the screen.
Speaker 1: Guide my steps by your word, so I won't be
Speaker 1: overcome by any evil. Now, I want to give you
Speaker 1: a couple of statements real quickly. I could go into
Speaker 1: this in detail, but I won't. About the word of God,
Speaker 1: write these down. Number one, God's will is found in
Speaker 1: God's word. God's will is found in God's word. Most
Speaker 1: of God's will is already revealed. No, the name of
Speaker 1: your spouse is not there, but that's not what misunderstanding
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. The principles are there on how to
Speaker 1: find the right kind of man or the right kind
Speaker 1: of woman that would be God's choice. And as you
Speaker 1: read God's word, he speaks to you. When you open
Speaker 1: your bible, God opens his mouth and he starts talking
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 2: And when you when.
Speaker 1: You close your Bible, God closes his mouth. He shuts
Speaker 1: his mouth. We discover the will of God in the
Speaker 1: Word of God. So let me just say it this way.
Speaker 1: Stop listening for a voice and start looking for a verse.
Speaker 1: Some of you want God to write it in the sky.
Speaker 1: Why would he to write it in the sky. He's
Speaker 1: already written it in a book, but you won't even
Speaker 1: open it on a daily basis. Stop looking for a voice.
Speaker 1: Write it in the sky, give me a word. Start
Speaker 1: looking for a verse, and God will teach you the principles.
Speaker 1: And by the way, God expects me to bay what
Speaker 1: I already know before he shows me something new. So
Speaker 1: if God's already shown you something, I want you to
Speaker 1: do this and you haven't done it yet, why is
Speaker 1: he going to show you step two until you've done
Speaker 1: step one. It's already there, he said, I God I
Speaker 1: need to know if you want me to change jobs.
Speaker 1: And God says that, well, are you following what I've
Speaker 1: already told you? Are you already doing that? The key
Speaker 1: if you want to be led by the spirit, start
Speaker 1: doing what you already know is God's will. Just start
Speaker 1: doing what you already know is God's will. God's will
Speaker 1: is found in God's word. And the other thing I
Speaker 1: want you to write down is this, God's will never
Speaker 1: contradicts God's word. If you get an idea and you
Speaker 1: can't find the basis for us in the Bible, it's
Speaker 1: wrong because God has already given us his word.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: He said, well, I had this impression. People tell me
Speaker 1: all the time, Pastor Rick, I had this impression. Well,
Speaker 1: what does the Bible say?
Speaker 2: You know? This is how cults get started. I got
Speaker 2: this idea.
Speaker 1: The Bible tells us in Galatians chapter one, verse eight
Speaker 1: that even if an angel up and tells you something like,
Speaker 1: here's some new books to add to the Bible, he says,
Speaker 1: you don't even trust that because if it's not in
Speaker 1: the Bible. He says, you don't. God's will will never
Speaker 1: contradict God's word. Most of what God's already wanted us
Speaker 1: to know is found in this book, and if you
Speaker 1: read it, God will guide you. Now he said, well,
Speaker 1: if I act on what God's already told me, then
Speaker 1: you're telling me He's going to tell me more.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what I'm saying, all right.
Speaker 1: Number four, If I want to be led by God's Spirit,
Speaker 1: I must ask the Holy Spirit to be my guide.
Speaker 1: Do you remember in high school they had a position
Speaker 1: on the faculty called the school guidance counselor. And I
Speaker 1: remember that the school they were supposed to help you
Speaker 1: decide if you're going to go to college or get job,
Speaker 1: or get in the military or whatever. And they were
Speaker 1: the guidance counselor. You have a guidance counselor for life.
Speaker 1: He's called the Holy Spirit. And you don't just have
Speaker 1: this book. It's nice to have this book, but what's
Speaker 1: even nicer is to have the author speaking in your ear, going,
Speaker 1: this is what this means, and he is your guidance counselor.
Speaker 1: But where I say, I must ask the Holy Spirit
Speaker 1: circle that word ask. One of the reasons you don't
Speaker 1: know God's will is you don't ask for it, And
Speaker 1: in James four, verse two, the Bible says you do
Speaker 1: not have because you do not ask God for it.
Speaker 1: You just need to understand God's interested in every detail
Speaker 1: of your life. He has the hairs on your head
Speaker 1: numbered and he knows everything about you. He knows your
Speaker 1: details more than you do. He knows the health problems
Speaker 1: you've got that you don't even know you've got.
Speaker 2: God knows them.
Speaker 1: And one of the best ways to engage your guidance
Speaker 1: counselor is ask a specific question prayer. So I'm twenty
Speaker 1: seven verse eleven. Teach me Lord what you want me
Speaker 1: to do and lead me down the right path. Now
Speaker 1: how does he do that? How does God lead me
Speaker 1: down the right path? Well, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways, but let me just mention a couple. One
Speaker 1: of them is the primary way the Holy Spirit guides
Speaker 1: us is by reminding us what we've read in this book.
Speaker 1: Because you read stuff in here, and if you memorize it,
Speaker 1: then it's stored in the back of your mind, and
Speaker 1: at the right moment when you're in that conflict at work,
Speaker 1: God can bring that verse to mind, and Holy Spirit
Speaker 1: reminds us the problem is we are not good at retention.
Speaker 1: We have good forgetters. But unfortunately a part of the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit's job is help you. Remember have you ever
Speaker 1: been talking to somebody and you go, I don't know
Speaker 1: what to say, and then all of a sudden the
Speaker 1: idea pops in your mind. The Holy Spirit just reminded
Speaker 1: you of that. And the more this book you get
Speaker 1: in your mind, the more he can bring back. If
Speaker 1: there's nothing of this book in your mind, what's he
Speaker 1: going to bring out?
Speaker 2: Nothing? So you got to get in the book.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times I've walked into
Speaker 1: a meeting or a phone conversation, or an interview or
Speaker 1: a skeptic on the street or anything and I hadn't
Speaker 1: the slightest idea what I was going to say. And
Speaker 1: I just shoot up a quick prayer, guidance counselor what
Speaker 1: do you want me to say?
Speaker 2: Here?
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, what do you want me to say? And
Speaker 1: he'll bring something some of you've never had that happen,
Speaker 1: as I said, because you don't have anything stuck there
Speaker 1: in your mind. So God gives us ideas through his word.
Speaker 1: And the other way is he puts ideas in your mind. Yes,
Speaker 1: he does put impressions in your mind. When God gives
Speaker 1: you an idea, that's called inspiration. When the devil gives
Speaker 1: you an idea, that's called temptation. When you get an
Speaker 1: idea that's called dumb.
Speaker 2: It's just teasing. God gave you your brain. He wants
Speaker 2: you to use it.
Speaker 1: Satan cannot control you accept suggest thoughts. If you accept them,
Speaker 1: then he's controlling you. God will not control you because
Speaker 1: he's given you that free will. But when he puts
Speaker 1: an idea in your mind, you respond to it, then
Speaker 1: he enlightens it. Now, is there any way I can
Speaker 1: speed up that process that I get God's ideas quicker? Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you how you can feed up
Speaker 1: the process of getting ideas quicker. Like I need a
Speaker 1: new product, I need a new solution. Two things, write
Speaker 1: these down. Number one, ask humbly. Ask humbly. That'll speed
Speaker 1: up the process. Proverbs twenty five, Psalm twenty five, verse nine.
Speaker 1: God guides the humble in what is right, and he
Speaker 1: teaches them his way. The more humble you are in
Speaker 1: coming to God, the quicker God gives you the information
Speaker 1: you need. Pride goes for a destruction a haughty spirit
Speaker 1: before a fall. God says, if you just be humble
Speaker 1: and say, God, I need you. I got to know this,
Speaker 1: he said, I'll give it to you. The Lord is
Speaker 1: my shepherd. So we're just talking about he leads me
Speaker 1: in the paths in the right past for his namesake,
Speaker 1: and I just be humble about it. Another way is
Speaker 1: asking faith. I ask humbly, and then I ask in faith,
Speaker 1: and I say, God.
Speaker 2: I need to know what you want me to do
Speaker 2: in this.
Speaker 1: Situation, and I'm expecting you to give me the answer.
Speaker 1: Thank you in advance, Thank you in advance. You got
Speaker 1: to have faith, James, Chapter one. If you want to
Speaker 1: know what God really wants you to do, and I
Speaker 1: hope that's what it is for you. If you want
Speaker 1: to know what God wants you to do, ask him
Speaker 1: and you'll gladly tell you, for He is already ready
Speaker 1: to give a bountiful supply of.
Speaker 2: Wisdom to all who ask.
Speaker 1: Remember, ask humble, asking faith, but be sure that you
Speaker 1: really expect them to tell you. If you don't ask
Speaker 1: in faith, don't expect the Lord to give you any
Speaker 1: solid answers. That's why you don't Often don't know what
Speaker 1: God wants you to do, you're not asking in faith.
Speaker 2: I remember years ago, we were driving down the road.
Speaker 1: I think we're going up to Presdo or something like.
Speaker 1: Kay Kay was looking down. She was driving and she
Speaker 1: looked down and the gas tank was on empty, and
Speaker 1: I said, where's the nearest gas tank?
Speaker 2: Where's the nearest gas station?
Speaker 1: And we'd seen a sign about a mile back said
Speaker 1: the next one is like thirty miles up. I think
Speaker 1: we're going up on five, thirty miles down the freeway.
Speaker 1: So then I put it into one of these little
Speaker 1: apps and it said get off the freeway, go ten
Speaker 1: miles down that little road and there'll be a gas station.
Speaker 1: Now the question is am I going to believe the
Speaker 1: sign or the app thirty miles down that road or
Speaker 1: ten miles on the app and go down a little road.
Speaker 1: This is a test of faith, and sometimes that's going
Speaker 1: to happen in your life because you'll say God, what
Speaker 1: should I do here? And God will tell you to
Speaker 1: do the exact opposite of what you think you ought
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 2: One time.
Speaker 1: If you want to know God's will, just figure out
Speaker 1: what you naturally do and do the opposite because you're
Speaker 1: off and wrong. So that would be a good thing
Speaker 1: to do. But you can always trust God's guidance system.
Speaker 1: He's never wrong. You do have to believe him all right.
Speaker 2: Number five.
Speaker 1: The fifth thing if I want to be led by
Speaker 1: God's spirit, I must listen for God's response. And this
Speaker 1: is really a big reason why we don't hear God
Speaker 1: is because we ask and then we immediately run off.
Speaker 1: We don't wait, we don't be quiet, we don't listen,
Speaker 1: we don't pause. We say God, I need to know this,
Speaker 1: and then take off and then turn on the radio
Speaker 1: or start listening to your iPhone or answering calls or
Speaker 1: reading texts, or you know, watch the TV, and all
Speaker 1: the circuits are jams and God can't get through to
Speaker 1: you for the answer. I cannot overemphasize the importance of
Speaker 1: you taking some private time alone every day just to
Speaker 1: sit quietly. I do this all the time. And I
Speaker 1: sit down and say, God, is there anything you want
Speaker 1: to say to me right now? I just shut up,
Speaker 1: I just listen. I've read your word. I've talked to
Speaker 1: you all throughout the day. Job thirty three, Verse fourteen.
Speaker 1: God does speak sometimes one way and sometimes another, even
Speaker 1: though people may not understand it. He uses the Bible,
Speaker 1: he uses teachers like what I'm doing right now. He
Speaker 1: uses impressions, he can use circumstances, he can use pain,
Speaker 1: he can do all these different things. But the key
Speaker 1: is to test it.
Speaker 2: By the word.
Speaker 1: And I want to close with this song seventy seven
Speaker 1: because sometimes you say, God, I want to know your will,
Speaker 1: and you look at and you go, that.
Speaker 2: Doesn't make sense at all. This is a test.
Speaker 1: Psalm seventy seven, verse nineteen is actually a verse about Moses.
Speaker 1: You remember the story of the Ten Commandments, when Charlton Heston,
Speaker 1: you know, stood up there and he put this thing
Speaker 1: in the water and the nile turned red, and all
Speaker 1: of the different miracles and things like that, and when
Speaker 1: finally Pharaoh said, after ten miracles, and all those miracles
Speaker 1: were making fun of false gods. Pharaoh finally says, okay,
Speaker 1: you can go. And so a million Jews are leaving
Speaker 1: and they're heading across to go across the Sinai Peninsula,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden they come up to a
Speaker 1: little cul de sac and they're standing with mountains on
Speaker 1: either side, the Red sea in front of them, which
Speaker 1: looks impassable, and Pharaoh has changed his mind. And the
Speaker 1: army's coming after him and back, so they're him didn't
Speaker 1: and they go, we're gonna be slaughtered. We got mountains
Speaker 1: on either side. We've got an ocean in front of us,
Speaker 1: and we've got Pharaoh's armies and they're.
Speaker 2: Armed and we have no arms. And they're coming after us.
Speaker 2: And they were in.
Speaker 1: God's little cul de sac, and it looks like it's
Speaker 1: a goner.
Speaker 2: They're gonna be dead.
Speaker 1: The name of that place was called Bales of Fawn,
Speaker 1: which means God's hidden treasure. God had him exactly where
Speaker 1: he wanted him to be. He was going to do
Speaker 1: a miracle, and suddenly the ocean splits, you know the story,
Speaker 1: and they start walking through on dry ground. And imagine
Speaker 1: how in shock everybody had to be walking through that area.
Speaker 1: And when they get through the other side, it closes up,
Speaker 1: and you know the whole story. This verse in Psalms
Speaker 1: talks about it, and that says, your road lord led
Speaker 1: by a pathway through the sea, a pathway no one
Speaker 1: knew was there.
Speaker 2: I love that verse.
Speaker 1: There have been so many times in my life I
Speaker 1: have come up against enormous barriers, financial barriers, approval barriers,
Speaker 1: physical barriers, energy barriers, and I'm looking at this and
Speaker 1: I go God, there's mountains on each side and an
Speaker 1: impassable barrier in front of me, and the enemy's caving in,
Speaker 1: closing in very quickly. And I'm in Baleesepon. I'm in
Speaker 1: God's hidden treasure. And God says, I've got you exactly
Speaker 1: exactly I want you to be. Watch this, and you
Speaker 1: made a pathway through the sea, a pathway no one
Speaker 1: knew was there. Bam, some of you are in bale
Speaker 1: Zephon right now. There's no way we're getting out this.
Speaker 1: We're going into bankruptcy. There's no way getting now of this.
Speaker 1: It's we've heard the sea word cancer. There's no way
Speaker 1: out of this. We're headed for a divorce court. There's
Speaker 1: no And you are exactly where God wants you to be.
Speaker 1: He wants to do a miracle. But there are five
Speaker 1: things you got to stop doing, and there are five
Speaker 1: things you got to start doing stops and starts, stops
Speaker 1: and starts, And when you do that, you get God's
Speaker 1: guidance and he shows you.
Speaker 2: A pathway that nobody knew was there. It's powerheads.
Speaker 1: God can make when it seems there is no way
Speaker 1: now we've just gone only into three verses of this
Speaker 1: incredible passage Psal I'm twenty three. But out of that
Speaker 1: we know that because God is good, when I'm worried,
Speaker 1: he will meet my needs. The Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker 1: I have everything I need, And when I'm stressed, He'll
Speaker 1: teach me to relax, makes me lie down in green pastures,
Speaker 1: and leads me beside still waters. When I'm empty, he
Speaker 1: will replenish my strength. He restores my soul. And when
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do, he will guide me.
Speaker 1: He leads me in the right paths for His namesake?
Speaker 2: Would you pray right now? Talk to God?
Speaker 1: Why don't you say something like this, Dear God, I
Speaker 1: will I want to be led by your spirit. I
Speaker 1: don't want to go through life on my own ingenuity
Speaker 1: and power. I've had too many dead ends. I know
Speaker 1: that's not the solution.
Speaker 2: You have said.
Speaker 1: Only those people who are led by God's spirit are
Speaker 1: God's children. Because you are a good God, you guide
Speaker 1: us in your goodness.
Speaker 2: Lord.
Speaker 1: Starting today, there's some stuff I want to stop doing.
Speaker 1: Help me to remember that I cannot follow a culture
Speaker 1: that doesn't follow you. Do not copy the behavior and
Speaker 1: values of the world to love everybody, but do not
Speaker 1: love the value system. The Lord, help me to remember
Speaker 1: that I can't follow friends who aren't led by you.
Speaker 1: I don't want anybody leading me in the wrong way.
Speaker 1: I want to love people, but I don't want to
Speaker 1: lead me. I want to be an influence, not.
Speaker 2: Be in influenced.
Speaker 1: I want to be a thermostat, not a thermometer. Help
Speaker 1: me to remember that I can't look to other sources
Speaker 1: besides you and come to you with a clear conscience.
Speaker 1: It's not horoscopes and prayer. It's not self help books
Speaker 1: and the Bible. They're not on the same level. I
Speaker 1: want to stop being led by my circumstances, and most
Speaker 1: of all, Lord, I want to stop being mastered and
Speaker 1: manipulated by my moods. I cannot be led by the
Speaker 1: spirit if I'm led by my feelings. I'm sorry for
Speaker 1: the times that I've made feelings my God, and I
Speaker 1: did what I felt like doing, not necessarily what you
Speaker 1: wanted me to do.
Speaker 2: Lord.
Speaker 1: Today I'm telling you I want to be led by
Speaker 1: your spirit. I want to be led. I've got to
Speaker 1: be led that I'm willing to do whatever you tell
Speaker 1: me to do. I don't have to understand it. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you yes in advance. Help me to look to
Speaker 1: your word every day. Guide my steps by your word
Speaker 1: so I will not be overcome by any evil. Your
Speaker 1: word is a lamp to guide me in a light
Speaker 1: for my path. Be my flashlight. Help me to remember
Speaker 1: that your will is found in your word, that your
Speaker 1: will will never contradict your word. And so today I
Speaker 1: asked you, Holy Spirit, to be my guidance counselor for
Speaker 1: the rest of my life. I'm asking you humbly, and
Speaker 1: I'm asking you in faith and help me to not
Speaker 1: be so impatient that I can't stop and just listen
Speaker 1: for your response. Help me to learn to wait on you,
Speaker 1: to be still and know you are God. Thank you,
Speaker 1: good Shepherd. If you've never invited Christ in your life,
Speaker 1: just say, Jesus Christ, come into my life right now.
Speaker 1: I want to get to know you. I want to
Speaker 1: learn to trust you. I want to have a relationship
Speaker 1: and a friendship with you. And I pray this humbly
Speaker 1: in your name.
Speaker 2: Amen.