Full sermon notes - How to find Guidance
Summary:
- If you were driving to my home, I could
- Draw you a map (good)
- and, give you my cell number (better)
- and, have Luke travel in the car with you (best)
- We have the Son in the car with us
- Having the Son in the car is the presence of Jesus through the Holy Spirit
- Through the Spirit we are a new creation in Christ Jesus
- We have a new heart that automatically will do God’s will
- (of course we still have the flesh that wars against it)
- Our new hearts will move us towards mercy, compassion, and love
- and move us towards making the choices that Jesus would make
- because the new heart is nothing less than the life of Jesus within us
1 Cor & Romans
- Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God.
- For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.
- For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.
- So fundamentally we have been given the resources to make Christ-like choices and follow him.
Wisdom or Guidance?
- Can anyone think of a verse where we are
- commanded to pray for guidance?
- commanded to pray for wisdom?
- James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
- Often we want Guidance, but God wants to give us Wisdom
- We want writing in the sky (wouldn’t that be nice!)
- I had to make a career decision in my early 20’s
- Was working for IBM at the time—it was my dream job
- Should I give up the job at IBM and take up a very poorly paid position as a research assistant at the University?
- Advice from a young pastor-friend
- but time went on...
- Advice from my Dad
Jesus is Wisdom personified
- but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1 Cor 1:23-24
- And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 1Co 1:30
- I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. Eph 1:17
- I want to tell you the story of a world-famous landscape architect
- He had dozens of employees, and he would walk around giving them directions
- put this tree here,
- raised bed of shrubs over there (O.T.)
- Then he starts employing his children
- He treats them very differently
- He explains many of his reasons, because he wants them to learn and grow
- He tries to impart to them his own artistic heart
- So that they can feel what is happening, and not just blindly do it
- He encourages them to make choices, and releases them into freedom as they understand more of his heart
- I am going to talk about Three parts to guidance, and this is the first
- The “Son” in the car, the wisdom of the archect in our hearts
- Jesus, who is wisdom personified, living in us through the Spirit
- The Bible is full of telling us the value of Wisdom
Proverbs 2
- My child, if you receive my words,
and store up my commands within you,
- by making your ear attentive to wisdom,
and by turning your heart to understanding,
- indeed, if you call out for discernment —
raise your voice for understanding —
- if you seek it like silver,
and search for it like hidden treasure,
- then you will understand how to fear the Lord,
and you will discover knowledge about God.
- For the Lord gives wisdom,
and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 8
- Does not wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
- I love those who love me,
and those who seek me find me.
- In these verses, Wisdom is pictured as a person, calling out for people to come to her.
Colossians 1
- And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
- so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
So how do we get Wisdom?
- The Spirit indwelling
- What the Spirit wrote to us in the Scriptures
- Prayer and relationship with God
- The Spirit’s wisdom in others
Joshua 1
- Make sure you are very strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do.
- This law scroll must not leave your lips! You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper and be successful.
- I repeat, be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.”
Deuteronomy 10
- Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him, to obey all his commandments, to love him, to serve him with all your mind and being,
- and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving you today for your own good?
The inner witness of the Spirit
- we “know” it is the right thing to do (like a reflex)
- It is “us”, the person God has made us (watch this is not merely your comfort zone)
- Distinguish from the voice of the flesh
Paul in 1 Thessalonians
- So when we could bear it no longer, we decided to stay on in Athens alone.
- We sent Timothy, our brother and fellow worker for God in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen you and encourage you about your faith
- Paul could “bear it no longer”
Paul in 1 Cor 16 & 2 Cor 9
- Then, when I arrive, I will send those whom you approve… to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
- And if it seems advisable that I should go also, they will go with me.
- My point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.
- Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.
- If our hearts are new creations, then deciding in our hearts will be the right thing
Getting Wisdom
- The Spirit indwelling
- What the Spirit wrote to us in the Scriptures
- Prayer and relationship with God
- The Spirit’s wisdom in others
- Honour the other stakeholders
- 5. We talked to Luke & Jessica before deciding to move to Canada, even though they were very young
- But there is a second level of guidance
- Goes beyond wisdom into Spiritual discerment
- both are in this passage:
Philippians 2
- So I hope to send him Timothy as soon as I know more about my situation,
- though I am confident in the Lord that I too will be coming to see you soon.
- But for now I have considered it necessary to send Epaphroditus to you. For he is my brother, coworker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to me in my need.
- Going back to the landscape architect example
- This like the man giving his children access to special resources, unavailable to the other workers
- A soil analysis kit, websites containing rainfall maps, temperature charts
- and other things that would let them understand much more of the situation than they could see simply with their own eyes
- We access this in the same way as the first, but God will reveal it as we pray to him
Spiritual Discernment
- insights that come while praying, reading, worshipping
- insights that just come (Rosalind Goforth story)
- burdens
- peace, or unease in our spirit
- take care it is not the flesh!
- e.g feeling I should call a guy, and him answering the phone and saying “how did you know?... I was just on the point of taking my life!
The third level of Guidance
- dreams
- visions
- prophetic words to us
- prophetic words to others
- The landscape architect tells his children there is a change of plan and a lake is to be put in
- Take care if this does not match up with other things
- we must judge it
- usually for confirmation of what God is already doing
- but sometimes to radically change our thinking
- e.g. Peter and the vision about Cornelius
Paul’s second missionary Journey
- After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s return and visit the brothers in every town where we proclaimed the word of the Lord to see how they are doing.”
- So the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number every day.
- Good wise planning from Paul, with a heart of love
Acts 16
- They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in the province of Asia.
- When they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this,
- so they passed through Mysia and went down to Troas.
- A vision appeared to Paul during the night: A Macedonian man was standing there urging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”
- After Paul saw the vision, we attempted immediately to go over to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
- Moves into second level
- And then into third
What about Providence?
- All events are ordered by God
- Even throwing a dice
- So why not throw dice?
- “Drawing Lots” in the Old Testament
- Urim & Tammim, David at Ziklag
- Acts 1: chosing a successor to Judas
- Old-Covenant model
- Greek: Tuche & Roman Fortuna
Guidance from Events
- This can be an importance source of guidance
- God often seems to open doors, and we push them to see if it him
- Sometimes things happen that are very unlikely to be a co-incidence
- e.g. we pray about something and the exact amount of money is provided
- Philip finds himself in the desert, and there is a man reading the Scriptures
- The exact same Petecost gifts were given to the Gentiles (Cornelius) as the Jews.
- Peter uses this as proof (Acts 11:17) that the gospel was to go to the Gentiles
- My asking God, in 2002, that if prophecy is for today...
- Problems with Providence
- the “blue van” effect
- problems if God does not answer clearly
- roller-coaster of measuring relationship
- ultimately I can’t teach you—you have to walk in a relationship
Guidance
- The Spirit indwelling
- What the Spirit wrote to us in the Scriptures
- Prayer and relationship with God
- The Spirit’s wisdom in others
- Honour the other stakeholders
- Supernatural direction
- Providential events (with care)
Updated on 2011-11-22 by Andrew Fountain
