Guidance Part 1: How not to find a wife, and other stories

—Problems with how we seek Guidance

• Andrew Fountain – Jan 8, 2023

 
 
Click on this slide and then press the spacebar to advance slides: ➜ (or swipe on a touch screen)

Goal

To introduce the topic of guidance with some common pitfalls.

Guidance Part 1: How not to find a wife, and other stories

1. How not to find a wife, by George Whitefield
2. “Fleeces” the good, the bad & the ugly
3. Three things we can mean by “God’s will”

How not to Find a Wife

—By George Whitefield

How not to find God’s will?

—by Gideon

Guidance Part 1: How not to find a wife, and other stories

1. How not to find a wife, by George Whitefield
2. “Fleeces” the good, the bad & the ugly
3. Three things we can mean by “God’s will”

Fleeces, the good, the bad & the ugly

• The Good
  • when it is not actually a “fleece” at all
• The Bad
  • a game between you and God
• The Ugly
  • justifying what we want to do anyway

Guidance Part 1: How not to find a wife, and other stories

1. How not to find a wife, by George Whitefield
2. “Fleeces” the good, the bad & the ugly
3. Three things we can mean by “God’s will”

God’s will

1. God’s Moral Will
2. God’s Sovereign Will
3. Relating the two

1. God’s Moral Will

• How God would like us all to live
  • Love God with all your heart
  • Love one another as yourself
• The expression of God’s own character
• Fully revealed in Jesus Christ
• Sometimes called his “perfect will”

God’s Moral Will-Freedom

• There is freedom within it
• “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.” 2 Corinthians 9:7
• Not just freedom within it, but God does not compel us to give, but wants us to chose freely.

2. God’s Sovereign Will:

35. …He does what he wants with the army of heaven
          and the inhabitants of the earth.
    There is no one who can block his hand
          or say to him, “What have you done? (Daniel 4:35 CSB)
29. The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our descendants forever, so that we may obey all the words of this law. (Deut 29:29)

3. Relating the Two

• How come there is sin if God is sovereign?
• Adam & Eve were allowed to sin
• Judas was allowed to betray Jesus
• But God delights in turning evil to good
• But this does not mean we should “sin that grace may abound”

Next Time:
Four models for guidance

1. God will reveal exact guidance in every situation and if you miss it you are in trouble
2. God has never promised guidance, only wisdom
   • You have freedom to do anything as long as it is not immoral.
3. Most of the time it’s 2. unless it’s 1. (modified wisdom)
4. Having the mind of Christ (walking in the Spirit)