The will of God

Sermon notes from Sunday 10 August 2014

“And now send men to Joppa and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter”

Acts 10 verse 5

This converted fisherman is on his knees in the presence of God.  He is seeking the way of God day and daily.  We need to be seeking the presence of God in our lives.  Peter’s face was towards heaven and his heart is open to God.  We see now that he is surrendered to the will of God.  I trust we will be those seeking the way of God.  He may choose to show us a different way but we need to be surrendered to the will of God.  This is the most important aspect of Christian living – to know, to find and to do the will of God.  Not just to be saved.  Remember what Jesus said “not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”(Matthew 7 verse 21)  F B Meyer was on board a boat one day which was heading into the port of Holyhead.  It was a dark night and there were no stars in the sky.  He came up and stood beside the captain of the ship.  F B Meyer asked him “how can you be so sure you can get into the port with no light to guide you?”  The captain said “can you see 3 green lights in the distance.”  “Yes I can” Meyer said.  The captain said “once the pilot sees those 3 green lights lined up and watches them continually he knows he is on the right course.  He can sail in the harbour very easily.”  F B Meyer went back to his room and thought on those 3 lights that lit up to direct the boat into the harbour.  He thought of his own Christian experience and how he might put that in writing.  The 3 lights – one is knowing the will of God and two is doing the will of God safe in the knowledge of him.  First there has to be conviction in the heart, something God is laying on my heart to know what to do.  Next is the light of circumstances, that I am able to do the will of God.  Then comes the clarity of God’s word to my heart.  He says it with his word.  That is how we find the will of God.  May we seek God’s will for our lives.  See how Peter surrenders to the will of God.

First of all he is gaging the will of God.  In verses 11 to 16 Peter has a vision of what the Lord wanted him to do.  It was the picture of a sheet sent down from heaven and on the sheet were animals.  Peter was told to rise up and eat.  It was something he had never done before.  Leviticus tells us the laws of unclean animals the Jewish people were not allowed to eat.  God told him “don’t call them unclean, I have made them after all.”  He was giving Peter the key to go in to the Gentile nation and present the gospel to them.  Now Peter is sitting thinking of what this all meant.  We need to be clear as we seek God.  It is not God’s will that none of us perish.  It is his will that we shall all be saved.  God sent His son into the world to die on Calvary’s cross for the whole world’s sin.  He is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance and faith in Christ.  Peter needed to discern what God was teaching and the way he was leading.  We need to be careful and know where God’s will is leading us at this point in time.  We could go back hundreds of years to another man sitting in Joppa – Jonah.  God told him to go down to Nineveh and preach the gospel.  “Not so Lord.”  He gets up and runs away from the Lord.  Peter is told to go to the Gentile nation and take the gospel.  Jonah ran away, Peter surrendered.  Which will we do?  Peter no doubt had his own plans in mind. He got on his knees before God and God stood all his plans up on their end.  It is very possible to pray “Lord guide me” but to have our own agenda and goal, to never invest in the way God really wants us to go.  Paul writing to Romans said his heart was longing to go there, he was ready to go but he was hindered time and time again.  At the end of his letter he wrote “I am going into Jerusalem then on to Spain then I am coming around by you if it be the will of God.”  Paul got to Rome alright but as a prisoner not a free man.  We think of a home in Bethlehem Judah, the translation of that name means ‘house of bread’.  We see a man sitting with his head in his hands, he doesn’t know what is happening.  There was a famine in the land and he had decisions to make.  He had a wife and 2 sons.  He lived in the days of Judges, the atmosphere was heavy.  “Men did that which was right in their own eyes.”(Judges 21 verse 25)  They had no king.  Something happens down in Moab.  He realises there was food down in Moab.  We don’t read of him getting before the God of heaven and ask him what to do.  Disaster later struck the family – he and his 2 sons died in Moab.  His wife had to come back to the beginning again.  Are we prepared to go through with God?  To surrender to him totally?

Peter didn’t guess the will of God.  Verse 17 – I don’t believe he doubted but rather questioned the meaning of it and the way in which God was leading.  God doesn’t reveal all at once what the plan is.  It is revealed by degrees.  The Psalmist said “thy word is a lamp unto my feet.”  The picture is of a light just lighting one step at a time.  He doesn’t open up the whole picture.  God doesn’t show the full picture.  John said “if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”(1 John 1 verse 7)  Elimelech couldn’t wait for God to answer, he just picked up and went.  In Judges 6 we read the story of Gideon.  The enemies were coming down against the Israelite forces.  Gideon asked the question “wherewith shall I save Israel?”  The angel had come to him, told him “you are a mighty man, God will use you to deliver Israel, just through you.”  This was definite, no guessing.  If we are prepared to wait before God he will show us the way to go.  Gideon told the angel “my family is poor in Manasseh. I am the least in my father’s house. You are coming to me and asking me to do this, surely others could do it better than me.”  Verse 16 God gave him a great promise “surely I will be with thee.”  What did Gideon do?  He showed God a fleece and said – “If you are with me here’s a fleece.  Tomorrow morning if it is you speaking to me it must be wet and everywhere else around it dry.”  That wasn’t enough though – he tried it the other way around.  Both times he proved God.  Maybe God is saying to you “enough fleeces let’s get on with the work.”  There is no guessing with God’s will.  He wants you to simply surrender, take him at his word.  Peter on the little boat fished all night and never got any.  Jesus came and told him “launch out into the deep and let down your net.”  Peter replied “all night we have fished and caught nothing nevertheless at thy word I will do it.”  No guessing, simple surrender.  God wants us to do something similar – surrender to his will.  What is his will for your life?  What is his will for this church?

The guiding of God’s will.  For Peter it was a change of direction.  Peter would be the evangelist to bring the gospel to nations outside of the Jewish people.  Maybe there is someone God will lay on your heart to be used to take the gospel to.  A re-direction of your life.  Peter has to go down to the house of Cornelius.  He gaged the will of God for his life, he didn’t guess the will of God, he was gently directed down into this house following God’s guiding for his life.  Abraham’s servant went down to look for a wife for Abraham’s son.  When he met her he said “I being in the way God led me.”(Genesis 24 verse 27)  We need to get started in God’s will.  As we do so he will guide.  Don’t set aside his word saying you need to be saved instead surrender to it, come to the Lord and trust him as Saviour and Lord.  We need to seek God’s way and surrender to his will.

The guarantee of God’s will.  In verse 19 Peter was told there were 3 men coming to see him.  When he made his way down from the rooftop he found 3 men waiting on him.  F B Meyer talked about conviction then circumstances coming together and that was true for Peter – he had the company to go down to Cornelius’ house.  He also had the clarity of God’s word.  If we are going by that we will not go far wrong.