Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, June 13th. Knowing God's will begins with a willingness to say yes. The Life Principle series continues today discussing the unreasonable will of God. The question I'm most confronted with has to do with the will of God. That is, what is the will of God? And people oftentimes ask, well, does God have a will for everybody? And secondly, does He have a will for little things, big things, major questions, those desires that we have? Or is it just up to us to decide what we ought to do? The will of God is one of the most important aspects of your life.
And He is committed to showing you His will if you're willing to seek it. Now, sometimes it isn't easy to find. Sometimes it comes easy. Sometimes it's over a prolonged period of time. Sometimes it's over a prolonged period of time. Sometimes it's over a prolonged period of time.
Sometimes it's over a prolonged period of time as you and I begin to put the pieces together and we begin to see what the will of God is. Sometimes it's very unreasonable. And when I think about that, I think about times when I've been tested and tried and realized that some things that seemed to be reasonable really weren't. Some things that seemed to be reasonable, some things that seemed to be reasonable, some things that seemed to be reasonable, only to obey it even when it doesn't make a lot of sense.
And so what I want to talk about in this message is just that. The unreasonable will of God, because all of us have faced it and we will face it. Times when the Lord requires of us something that's totally unreasonable.
We say, well, you know, that doesn't make sense. And so why should I do something till I can fully understand it? I'm obligated to give us understanding of why He wants to do whatever He wants to do.
I'm obligated to be obedient to whatever He says, even when it looks like and appears to be unreasonable. So I want you to turn to a passage of Scripture that beautifully illustrates this, and it's in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. And if you'll turn there for a moment, and I want us to read this passage, and it's an interesting passage because it's a simple incident early in the life of Jesus, but it's one that describes just what we're talking about. And that is the fact that something has been asked here that seems to be unreasonable, the unreasonable will of God. And if you're waiting for everything to sort of fit your thinking process, it's not going to happen.
So listen to what happens. Early in His ministry now in this fifth chapter in the first verse. Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to His Word, the Word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, that is the Sea of Galilee, and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked Him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.
Now all that was reasonable for Him to ask that. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered and said to Him, Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets. When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them, and they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink. So when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken. And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon, and Jesus said to Simon, Do not fear, from now on you'll be catching men.
And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him. Now, you may read this same incident similar to this in the third chapter of Matthew, in the first chapter of Mark, and there are not all this detail. And here's what you'll find.
It's much more detailed than all of his recordings of what Jesus said and the incident in his life. So that's why you'll find three different views of this because both of them just gave the tip of the iceberg. But here Luke gives us a beautiful story and a wonderful opportunity for us to realize that you and I cannot obey God when it is reasonable only. So let's look to see what's happening here. Let's look to see what's happening here. Let's look to see what's happening here. And what's happening here is that Jesus is walking along and so He begins to teach and the crowd comes and so He's standing on the edge. And what happens when you have a big crowd like that is that the people who are the furthest back, they want to see and they want to hear a little bit better.
So without even intending to do it, little by little, they just, you know, people behind them feel them and they want to hear it. And so He says, Peter, I'm going to get you a boat. I'm going to get you a boat.
And I'm going to get you a boat. And so I see Peter here cleaning his nets. And so he just goes over and gets in Peter's boat and he says, just push out a little way so I can be able to speak to all of them because the acoustics are better. If he's fifty feet out in the water or twenty-five or thirty feet, then the breeze can take his sound of his voice everywhere and everybody can hear him.
So that's what happened. And so he goes over and he says, Peter, I'm going to get you a boat. I'm going to get you a boat. I'm going to get you a boat.
I'm going to get you a boat. And so they knew what fishing was all about. And that was their livelihood. That's all they had ever done.
And that's what they intended to do. The rest of their life is to fish. And so here are these fishermen and that's their life and here comes Jesus now and He makes a big request. And His request of Peter is something that I've been teaching for a while. He said, now, I want us to head out to the deep for a big catch. And I'm sure Peter must have said, what? So when Jesus said that, I'm sure Peter must have thought several things, one of which is, now look, I've been fishing all of my life and I know and all of us know and all of my cohorts here know that you fish on the Sea of Galilee at nighttime in shallow water, not in the middle of the day in deep water. And so Peter had to deal with that.
But he dealt with it quickly. Now, I would ask you a question. Has God ever said something to you that looked totally unreasonable? How many of you? All right, hold them up now. Hold them up. Okay, hold them up. That's about everybody.
Somebody that hadn't been praying at all, but most of you have. All right, hold them up now. Hold them up. Okay, hold them up. That's about everybody.
Somebody that hadn't been praying at all, but most of you have. All right, hold them up. I mean, I'm not finished. Wait a minute.
Look at them come up. Now, how many of you, now watch this. How many of you said, I'm going to do whatever He says anyway? All of us have been in that situation where we said, now Lord, I know that sounds good, but God, I mean, and sometimes it's not easy. We said, knowing the will of God is not easy. And sometimes knowing the will of God is not easy to do whatever He says do.
But think about this. First of all, if you think about the very idea of the will of God, He has a will for every single one of us. No matter who you are, what you are, you say, I'm just a mom. There's no such thing as being just a mom. You have the responsibility of raising those children in a godly fashion.
That's a biggest opportunity and the biggest job I know a mother could have today. And so, we all have responsibilities and God has a will for your life and He has equipped you to do what He's called you to do. Now, we have to sharpen up our skills and work on our talents and abilities that He's given us, but He's equipped you to do what He's called you to do. He would never call you to do something and not equip you. So, He's equipped us to do what He wants us to do. He will show us His will in small issues and in big issues. And the small ones, listen, when you practice doing the will of God over small things, when the big ones come along, it's no big deal.
Why? You're already in the habit of being obedient to Him. You have followed Him and obeyed Him in little issues. You've watched Him work in your life and you've watched Him answer your prayer. You've watched Him give you clear guidance. And so, when the big issues come along, you think, well, He's done it here. He will do it in something even larger. So, all of us have to realize that He has a plan for our life.
He's with us in that plan. And it would be out of character for God to call you to do something and then not help you do it. He's never called us to do anything He did not get involved to help us do. That if you doubt Him and you question Him and you don't do it, then you're on your own. So, what I want us to consider here is simply this. What about this issue when God requires of something of you that is absolutely unreasonable? Well, let's go back in the Scripture. Was it not unreasonable when God said to Noah, I want you to build this big boat 450 feet long and so high and so wide and here's what I want you to do. Well, where's the water? In other words, what's this all about? And besides that, how much is it going to cost?
And besides that, where am I going to get the money? In other words, Noah would have had lots of legitimate questions to question what God said about building this big boat. Totally unreasonable.
What I want you to see is this. Did it not prove to be reasonable later on when it started raining? And Noah began to realize all these years I've been building this big old boat and wondering what in the world was going on and all my friends and everybody who comes by, this is a spectacle in town. They go by and see some guy over here is building this big boat and he said God told him to do it. What a joke, till it started raining.
And about that second, third, tenth, twentieth, thirtieth day of rain when everything was getting soaked and soft and running over and overflowing with water, it's a different story. God is going to require of you things that are not reasonable. What you have to decide is this. Am I going to follow the principle to obey God even when things don't look reasonable to me? Because remember this, that common sense is not enough. Common sense isn't enough. It takes God's sense. And remember this, common sense leaves us inadequate. When you have common sense, you have a little sense. When you have omniscience, you have all knowledge and full understanding. And that's, of course, what Jesus had.
He knew exactly what He was going to do. Sometimes we think Jesus is late. And I can tell you that a lot of times when I've thought from my perspective or my plan, I've thought, Lord, now it seems to me you're being a little bit late in this situation and so sometimes we're prone to complain and ask God to why you're waiting, what's going on here. So, ask yourself the question this morning. What is it that I've asked God about that I don't know His will about? What is it that I've asked God about that what I think I'm hearing is so unreasonable it couldn't be of God? It may be that you're about to miss an awesome opportunity.
So, let me give you a couple of examples. When I was finishing up my third year in seminary, my wife and I had volunteered to go to work on a home mission somewhere and they sent us, they were sending us to Fresno, California. So, we had to go to the school. We had to go to the school. We had to go to the school. We had to go to the school.
So, all the plans were laid. We're coming to the end of the school year excited about going and on a Saturday morning I woke up and I felt very burdened about something and I couldn't figure out what it was. Very burdened. So, I said to her, I just need to get on my knees. I just need to pray for a while this morning. So, I prayed and we prayed all during the day and I remember I was so excited about what I was going to do. I was going to go to the school. I was going to go to the school. I was going to go to the school.
And so, as I got to that point at that time, I began to realize that God was saying something to me about my plans to go to California and preach and she was going to sing and lead the music and I was going to preach and sound like a fantastic idea, sound like that's what I ought to be doing. And so, around six o'clock that evening, I just knew God was saying, you're not to go to California. And so, I came back to the school and I said, I'm not to go to California. I'm not to go to California. I'm not to go to California. I'm not to go to California.
And I was like, God, there's no reason why I should do it anyway. You can't go. Must not go. Trust me.
Finally, I said, okay God. I'm willing not to go. Well, then what am I going to do? We've got three months. And being a school teacher, she taught school those last couple of years there.
And they paid you for twelve months, though you taught nine. And I said, I'm not going to go to California. I'm not going to go to California. And she said, I'm not going to go to California. And I said, I'm not going to go to California. And she said, oh, God, that would be sinful.
Instead of going and preaching the gospel to go three months up on a big lake, this beautiful lake up there, and just enjoy yourself three months, can't be the will of God. It's like God said, go. So, I went.
And I'll have to admit, I went reluctantly and feeling a little guilty. And so, we were out fishing and this man came down and he said, are you Charles Stanley? I said, yes. He said, are you a seminary student?
I said, yes. He said, well, our pastor's going to be gone on vacation. And wonder if you'd come preach for us next Sunday. So, I told him I would. So, I went and preached that Sunday. And they said, well, you come back next Sunday because he's going to be gone two weeks. I said, okay.
So, I went the second Sunday. They said, we're having a little party tonight. Would you come join us at our party? I said, we will. And I said, no, no, no, no.
I said, I'll come. And I said, no, no, no, no. And he said, no, no, no, no. I said, no, no, no. He said, no, no, no, no. He said, well, we had a little meeting. And we decided we want to call you as our pastor.
Second unreasonable thing. First of all, first of all, I had another year of seminary. I said, no, no, no. I couldn't do that because I have another year of seminary and you don't want to call me to be the pastor and I have another.
No, we know you have another year of seminary. And Dr. Melton, his name was Noah Abraham Melton. And he said, I don't believe you're what we need. And he says, besides that, he lived in this little old humble house over there, he'd been teaching the Bible Institute, been there 47 years.
And he says, besides that, we're going to build you a brand new house right over here and you share where it was. And that was another unreasonable thing. And so every way I looked at it, I didn't deserve it, I didn't expect it, I couldn't figure it out, I didn't understand what God was doing. They said, we'll wait. He said, well, you have to give me a little time to pray about it. So, I prayed about three months and I finally decided that was what God wanted us to do. Well, right after that, I got a letter from the president of the Bible Institute, which was right there beside the church. And so, another unreasonable thing, and that is I was a seminary student and all the students were pastors and some of them had been pastors a long time. Men who had not gone to college or some had gone to college and hadn't gone to seminary. And so, he was asking me would I teach homiletics, which is sermon preparation, would I teach preaching, which was preaching, and I had not preached enough for anybody.
And then thirdly, evangelism. So, it took me a while to finally agree fearfully, trembling, agree to do that. So, when I look at all those things, nothing was reasonable, but it was the will of God. And so, when you and I try to figure things out, listen, if you only obey when you can figure it out, you're ahead of a trouble. Well, another thing, just an example, a gentleman wanted to give me a house on an island, which I had been to several times, and he said, I'll have the, my architect draw you up to plans and you can agree, y'all can agree on what other plans are, you don't have to worry about a thing.
And so, he drew up these plans and it was absolutely beautiful and a gorgeous spot, you could see the ocean on both sides where it was and it was just beautiful. So, got the plans all drawn and about three months before we were getting ready to start a building, I was praying one day, it's like God said to me, that house on the island, that's not my will. Well, I didn't particularly want to hear that. I didn't want to hear it, but I didn't want to hear it, but I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to hear it, but I didn't want to hear it. That's exactly what I was wanting to hear. It's not my will.
I thought, now God, what's all this about? It's not my will. You won't understand it now, but it's not my will. I had to tell Him, thank You very much, but I cannot accept it. Well, why can't You accept it?
I said, you know what? It's not my will, it's not my will. It's not my will, it's not my will, it's not my will. And here's what I want you to see. God's under no obligation to show us why. His obligation is to show us what His will is.
Our obligation is to be obedient even when it seems to be totally unreasonable. And in each of these situations, I can see naturally later why what was happening. I can see what was happening to me. I can see what was happening to me. I can see what was happening to me.
I can see what was happening to me. And God says no to you about something that you're praying about or something that you want or something you want to do. Listen carefully.
Whenever He says no, what He's doing is protecting you. I'm going to repeat that. I'll explain it away and listen, you can get all your friends to agree with you. Does that make it right?
No. And they'll say, I can't imagine. I just can't. In other words, you see, they only have common sense. It's the one who has omniscience, who knows the beginning and the end and the whys and the whereabouts. When He says no, He knows that no is the wisest thing we could do. Listen in.
