| |
Book: Acts
 Print ( PC Only )
Acts 22:14 Knowing the Will of God
Intro. Paul the apostle is recounting to the multitude who were just
trying to kill him, his conversion to Christianity. He has told
them of His encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, and
how that a devout man Ananias came to him and prayed for him to
receive his sight, for he had been blinded by the brightness of
the light of the presence of Jesus. Ananias then told him.
I. The God of our fathers has chosen you.
A. The God of our Fathers was to identify which God he was
speaking about.
1. When God called Moses to go to the Pharaoh to demand
the release of the people, Moses asked, "And when the
people ask me who sent you to deliver us, what shall I
answer them?" God said tell them the God of their
fathers, I AM that I AM has sent you.
2. It was necessary to define which God they were speaking
about, for the people of those days lived much closer
to reality than we do today, and they recognized that
men had many different gods.
3. Today many are trying to pass themselves off as
agnostics, or atheists. The man who says that he is an
atheist is ignorant and out of touch with reality,
there are no atheists. When a man says that he is an
atheist, he is usually just saying that he does not
believe in the God of the Bible, but he worships a god.
4. God is not a name, it is the title of the master
passion of a persons life. Every man is mastered by
some passion, whatever that passion may be is your god.
B. Has chosen you
1. Jesus said to His disciples, "You have not chosen Me,
but I have chosen you and ordained that you should be
My disciples, and that you should bring forth fruit,
and that your fruit might remain."
a. If any of them were having problems with self
esteem, that should have settled it right
there.
b. If you are having problems with self esteem,
you do not need to spend thousands of dollars
to have it built up just become a disciple of
Jesus and hear Him say to you, "I have chosen
you."
2. As Paul began to list the spiritual blessings that we
have in Christ Jesus, he topped the list with the fact
that we were chosen in Jesus before the foundation of
the world.
3. What a thrill it is for me to know that God has chosen
me. God loved me so much and esteemed me so highly that
he choose to spend eternity with me.
4. On what basis has God chosen us?
5. God said to the prophet Jeremiah, "Before I formed you
in your mother's womb, I knew you, and before you came
forth out of the womb, I sanctified you and ordained
you as a prophet unto the nations."
a. This means that God chose him on the basis of
His foreknowledge.
b. Paul told the Galatians that God separated him
from his mother's womb and called him by His
grace.
c. God told the nation of Israel He chose them
because He loved them.
II. God had chosen that Paul should know His will.
A. Do you know the will of God for your life?
1. This should be of great concern to you.
a. Everything that you do in life is vain and
empty if it is not according to God's will.
b. Some are living only for this present life,
they love the world. Listen to the warning of
John,
1JO 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1JO 2:16 For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father,
but is of the world.
1JO 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that
doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
c. Note, "He that doeth the will of God abideth
for ever."
d. Look back on your life, what have you
accomplished? Of the things that you have
accomplished, how many have any eternal value?
e. Only one life, twill soon be past,
And only what's done for Christ will last.
f. Someone asked the son of a wealthy man who had
just died, "How much did your dad leave?" He
answered, "Everything."
g. You have heard it said, "You can't take it with
you." very true, but you can send some ahead.
2. Some people never take into consideration what God's
will for their life might be.
a. They live as though God did not matter.
b. They bury their God given talents thinking that
it doesn't matter.
c. What a sad and tragic day when they stand
before the Lord the judge of the earth and they
hear Him say to them. "You wicked and slothful
servant." And to those standing by He will say,
"Take the unprofitable servant and cast him
into outer darkness where there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth."
B. What was the will of the Lord for Paul?
1. That he should be an apostle to the Gentiles.
a. To open their eyes.
b. To turn them from darkness to light.
c. To deliver them from the power of Satan.
d. To bring them to God.
C. What is the will of God for your life? I can help you to start.
1TH 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you.
1TH 4:3 For this is the will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye
should abstain from fornication:
1PE 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech [you] as strangers and pilgrims,
abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
1PE 2:12 Living honestly among the Gentiles: that, whereas
they speak against you as evildoers, they may by [your] good
works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of
visitation.
1PE 2:13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake:
whether it be to the king, as supreme;
1PE 2:14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the
punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
1PE 2:15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to
silence the ignorance of foolish men:
D. How can you discover the specific will of God for your life?
1. In Romans 12:1 Paul said, "I beseech you therefore
brethren by the mercies of God that you present your
bodies as living sacrifices unto God which is your
reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that
you might prove what is the good and acceptable will of
God for your life."
a. Present your body to God. Here is my body God
use it for your purposes.
b. Don't be conformed to this world. The worlds
way is to live a selfish, self centered life
getting all that you can for yourself.
c. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Paul spoke of reasonable service. Now he speaks
of the renewing of your mind. Think about it,
it makes sense to present your body to God, to
live for the eternal values. The problem with
most people is that they do not take eternity
in view. What are the eternal ramifications
or consequences of my actions.
2. You discover the will of God by actively seeking the
will of God.
a. As you offer your body to God that He might use
it as an instrument to do His work, when in
your mind you desire God's will for your life
above everything else, your life will then
become a progressive manifestation of the will
of God.
b. Grow where God has planted you. Whatever you
are doing, do it as unto the Lord. If you are
not where God wants you, He will move you.
3. God may test your resolve. Do you really want to do His
will?
a. There may be things in your heart that you do
not know.
b. God often gives tests that He might prove you.
Not to prove to Him, but to prove to you, and
to show you just what is in your heart.
c. Diogenes the philosopher lived at the same time
as Alexander the great. It is said of him that
he was content to live in a tub, whereas
Alexander the great was discontent with
conquering of the world. One day Alexander came
to Diogenes and said, I admire you above all
men and I devote myself to be your disciple.
Whereupon Diogenes handed him two dead fish and
told him to carry them in his pocket for two
weeks, and he could become his disciple.
Alexander walked away in disgust, and Diogenes
said, "Such great devotion, all dissipated over
two dead fish."
4. God showed Paul that to do his will would involve much
sacrifice and suffering, but He also showed him the
eternal rewards of being faithful.
a. Hardship now, but eternal glory.
b. He promised to stand by Paul in every hardship.
I will never leave you or forsake you.
c. The present suffering is not worthy to be
compared with the glory that shall be revealed.
d.
2CO 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for
us a far more exceeding [and] eternal weight of glory;
2CO 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal;
but the things which are not seen [are] eternal.
2CO 5:1 For we know that when our earthly house, or body [this] tent is
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house, (Jesus called it
a mansion) not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2CO 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with
our body which is from heaven:
2CO 5:3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
2CO 5:4 For we that are in [this] tent do groan, being burdened: not
for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality
might be swallowed up of life.
2CO 5:5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing [is] God, who
also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
2CO 5:6 Therefore [we are] always confident, knowing that, while we are
at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
2CO 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
2CO 5:8 We are confident, [I say], and willing rather to be absent from
the body, and to be present with the Lord.
|