God's Will - 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 - Waiting Well

All right. Hey, guys, welcome across all of our campuses, whether you're at High Point or Northeast or Clifton, whether you are at Regional North today, we're excited to have you and you could take your copy of scripture out and turn with me to 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4. That's where we're going to be spending our time together this weekend as you guys are finding 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4 as we continue our study.

I've got to do this, though, man. We have some pretty cool news to celebrate. And that is I kind of cast this vision a couple of weeks ago. Guys, we had over one hundred and twenty people attend our interest meeting for the South Asia Church Plant. Can we praise God for this?

Listen, we had children all the way up to retirees. And this is just kind of the Mercy Hill way. We announced a church plant that's going to the hardest place, the farthest away to me to reach the most unreached people group. And man, we have the largest church plant interest meeting that we've ever had.

And I wouldn't I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the crazy people at our church that really think about this stuff. And man, if that's you and you're really wrestling with it, we've got mobilizers right now that are following up personally, meeting one on one with all one hundred and twenty people that will meet with them from that interest meeting. So we're serious about getting the gospel out to the nations and places like South Asia.

We would love to connect with you if you're interested in that even further. But I will say this. If you're brand new today, you've got to understand something about our church. You are stepping into a whirlwind.

All right. Because we really believe that what God is doing is going to help us. And what God is doing right now is nothing but scratching the surface of what he intends to do through our church and through the ministries that are here. We have a crazy vision. We want to see 5000 people baptized and 500 people sent out as missionaries by 2032. And we think God's going to do it. And so if you're if you're coming in and this is what the service will be today, if you're coming in and you're like, man, I'm kind of looking for a place to coast, not the place.

OK, a lot of places you can do that. But this is not one of them. We want to see you connect that to what he's doing for his global mission. So let's dive in. First Thessalonians chapter four is where we're going to be today. And I love this passage.

I've referred to it many times. Guys, we're talking about waiting well. And the thing about waiting well is you cannot wait well for the return of Christ and live out of that victory that we know is coming. If you are paralyzed in the day to day because you are fearful over decisions that need to be made in your life. Am I talking to anybody? All right. Now, we've all been there. We have all been there. I've lived my life where I know there's been many times where I was gripped by fear, by nervousness, by anxiety over a decision that needed to be made. And here's the deal. Today is not the end all be all for all of that, but it can clear up a lot of that when we understand together.

And this is going to be tough. It's going to be a paradigm shift for some of us today. I'm just going to tell you, OK, when we realize that some of us some of that fear in decision making is born from bad theology. Now you say what theology is.

I'm going to tell you what it is. Because some of us are afraid that we're going to make a wrong decision and be, quote, out of God's will for our life. And what we kind of have is this idea that God's got this path. And I'm trying to pick and choose. And I'm not sure if I'm on the path or not on the path. And if I make the wrong decision, then I'm going to be outside of His perfect will for my life.

And therefore, I'm scared. How ironic is this? That being fearful of being out of God's will actually puts you out of God's will because fear and anxiety is not His will for your life. It's kind of ironic, right?

What I want us to see today is that in non moral decision making, we have got to get rid of this paradigm of God's will that has some of us staying up till two o'clock in the morning. Are my kids going to the right school? Am I choosing the right program at my college? You know, is this job?

Should I take this job or should I take this job? And it's not a moral decision. And yet we're waiting for God to drop some sign for us that most of the time is not really in line with what the Bible would call a sign, you know, like a talking donkey or like an angel speaking to us, like the Macedonian call. I mean, God can speak to us.

He can do whatever He wants. But why don't we put it in more of those terms rather than I've got this feeling that I can't quite really figure out if it's the tacos or it's God or whatever, right? And what I'm trying to get us to see today is many of us are wrapped up because of that theology around the concept of God's will. I want you to understand today we don't have to find God's will.

It was never lost. We don't find God's will. We follow God's will. And it's revealed to us in His precious scripture that He has given to us.

Here's the big idea this weekend. God's will is for our growth. He wants us to grow.

Some of us right now might be in a, you're locked in this thing. God, should we buy this house or should we buy this house? And what I'm going to tell you today is maybe God don't really care. Now, make sure that our good friend Dave Ramsey, okay, make sure you can put a 20% down payment down, okay, 15-year mortgage, no more than 25% of your take-home pay.

All right, but if we've got the financial piece, you know, kind of in terms of the payment every month, you've got the financial piece university thing down, assuming that it's not an unwise decision, is it this house or is it this house? What did I tell you today? God don't care at all. What He cares about is what kind of impact are you planning on having in that neighborhood?

That's what He cares about. Who are you going to be, not where are you going to be? Who are you going to be once you are there? And that's what we need to see. And that's what the scripture is going to tell us. He's going to tell us plain as day, God's will is for our sanctification, but we've got to do a little bit of work to get there.

All right, here we go. First, that's only chapter four, starting verse one. We've already talked about this earlier in our sermon series. Walk worthy, please God, just as you are doing, listen, that you do so more and more. He's going to say that again at the end of this text.

I almost think if he was here, he'd get more and more and more and more, okay? That you would do so more and more. Listen to what I urge you, I am asking you, I'm telling you to do so, what? Walk worthy in a manner that pleases God, live your life in a worthy manner, pleasing to God, just as you were doing, and that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus Christ. Walking worthy, pleasing God, it's not a friendly suggestion. What he's saying is this is given to us by Christ. We give it to you.

This is the instruction. He's pushing the church in Thessalonica to go deeper and deeper and deeper. You ever met a Christian in your life that as they got older, they started to coast?

Maybe you're there today. It's not God's will for your life. God's will for your life is to go deeper and deeper and deeper, more and more and more. And it's like, man, that kind of sounds like, man, does it ever end?

No. And the point is that's for your joy, that we would go deeper with him more, that we would walk in greater ways as we grow up. You know, it's funny that he says this here. If you look back in verse one, what he says is we ask, we urge. He's kind of saying like this.

We beseech you. We're asking you and we're telling you. You guys ever do that with your kids? Have you ever done that? You're asking them to pick up their room, but then you're actually telling them to pick up their room, right? You're asking me right now.

You know, will you please move this stuff? And I'm like, why? She says, well, because this thing's like a locker room. I'm like, it smells like a man to me. OK, it smells awful.

The living room smells like a locker room, right? But what I'll say to Anna sometimes, I'm like, Anna, are you asking them or telling them? And the answer really is yes, right? That my asking is telling.

That's what he's kind of doing here. We ask you and we urge you. We beseech you.

We are telling you what? To walk greater, more. To please God more with your life. This is what I want you to see before we get into the God's will stuff.

God's will for your life, listen, is to go deeper and to have more relationship with Him. More intimacy that produces greater behaviors. It's more understanding of who He is that moves in our life into our everyday behaviors and into our lives. You could say it like this.

More. We really mean that no matter where you're at in this Christian life, you were made for deeper fellowship. You were made for more intimate relationships with brothers and sisters. You were made for new levels of impact in every season of your life.

That's a very accurate assessment of being here. And the reason is because we really believe that God has more for you tomorrow than He does today in every life stage for the believer. What is the joy of heaven going to be?

More intimacy, more knowledge. It's going to be greater levels of maturity. We're going to grow on into eternity.

And we get that party started now. It's awesome. It's part of the joy of Christianity. So if you're like, man, we, you know, I come to Mercy Hill, you guys are always pushing us. Man, I want you to try to make your peace with that because there's a lot of places where you can go and sit and coast.

This ain't one of them. I have met people that are late into their 30s that are still riding a wave of revival that happened on their college campus. They're looking back to the glory days that were 15 years ago. It's like, man, what's God doing in your life now? What's He doing in your kids' lives now? What's going on in your community group? Have you thought about going to the nations? I don't want to be thinking about 10 years ago when God moved.

More and more. I've met people in their 50s or 60s that in their 30s and 40s, man, they were so involved with ministry, with their kids. They were doing mission trips. They were doing the stuff.

And now it's the beach every other weekend and I don't know anybody. That's not what Paul has in store for us. That's not what he's saying here.

What he's saying here is more and more and more that we would go deeper. And it's like, listen, man, if you don't like it, I don't know what to do. This may not be the place. I'll give you the theologian, Richard Flair, also known as the nature boy Rick Flair.

Here's what he said. Whether you like it or you don't like it, learn to love it. Learn to love the push that you get from pastors who love you, from group leaders who love you, because what are we trying to do? Man, we don't want to be in a place where 10 years ago God moved in my life. Now, I want to see what God has tomorrow.

It's a brighter day. He has to scratch the surface of what he wants to do in our church and through you. For this is the will of God.

All right. This is the part that I love. This is the verse. Your sanctification. Now, we're going to get into this other part here in just a minute that you abstain from sexual immorality.

But I want to camp for a minute on just the words. We've got to do some theology here because some of us are wrapped up in fear because of bad theology. So we've got to correct that with good theology.

OK, so here's what it says. This is the will of God, your sanctification. It don't seem like you need a decoder ring after all for the will of God, does it? Does God want me to do this or does God want me to do that?

Well, let me give you a verse, OK? This is the will of God, your sanctification. There are two aspects of the will of God.

Sometimes we equivocate on these things and it makes it confusing, especially if you're brand new. So let me try to make sure we all understand. There are really two aspects to the will of God.

The first one is this. God's will of decree. God's will of decree is His sovereignty over all things.

Don't you understand today? There is nothing that happens outside of God's will in this aspect of it. He is the end from the beginning. I mean, He knows what will happen, when it will happen, how it will happen. Some kind of way, and this blows the human mind, every single thing that has ever transpired in His universe eventually culminates in His glory.

There are no mistakes. There is nothing that falls outside of His purview. I mean, you think about Ephesians 1 says it like this.

We know all these things. This is God's, I mean, being God. It's part of the human brain that we're never going to be able. This is God's sovereign will, OK? But there's an aspect of God's will that we do understand. It's His revealed will. You could call it His will of desire. God's will of desire is how He wants people to live.

This is His plans for us. You think about it like this, OK? You think about a will. The first thing that comes to my mind is, a will, right? You have a will, you write down.

What are you writing down? This is what I want to happen with my resources, with my children, with my whatever, right? It's my will.

It's what I want to see happen. Well, this is God's will of desire. Certainly there are things that will never fall outside of His will of decree, but they certainly might fall outside of His will of desire. Every single one of us have experienced that because every single one of us have sinned.

That's for us. It breaks His heart. It doesn't fall outside of His will of decree, but it certainly goes against His will of desire. What's His will of desire for your life? Think about Matthew 22. God says love Him, love your neighbor as yourself. I mean, these are good examples of what God wants for us. Now, let's go back and read again, verse 3, now that we understand something of the will of God.

What He wants for your life is your growth. It says it right here. It's your sanctification. Now, some of us might be new here today, or one of our campuses here are new, and you're like, oh, they use these big, fancy theological words.

No, I'm not. This is a Bible word. This isn't a word that somebody made up in a theology class, okay? So, we've got two Bible words that we've got to wrestle with here. One is salvation, one is sanctification.

They are not the same thing, although they're obviously related to one another. All right, what is salvation? Salvation is when we are given a new identity because we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ.

We put our faith in Him. We have commemorated this across all of our church, thousands of people. If you are a believer, you took communion.

Okay, what are you doing? You are claiming the body broken, the blood spread, new covenant covers my sin, and I take it in, and you're proclaiming that the Lord has saved you. That's salvation. Now, salvation bleeds into sanctification.

Sanctification is this. I've been given a new identity. And so, I want to live into that identity.

We've got to make sure we understand this. We don't live into the identity in order to be called a son of God, or a daughter of God. It's not like if I live a certain way, if I can fake it, you know, and act a certain way, and do my works, and all that. No, no, no. It's born from the inside.

It's inside out. Because anybody can fake works. God wants your heart that leads to your hands. He wants a love that overflows into, and that only comes through salvation. We've been given the Spirit, us being so overwhelmed by what God has done for us that we want to live for Him. And then we do start to live for Him in greater ways.

Remember, more and more and more. Walk in a worthy manner, more, please God, more in terms of His will of desire, what He wants for your life. This is sanctification. Sanctification is this. God's will for you is sanctification.

God's will for you is to become in practice what God has declared you to be in truth. Somebody in here right now, somebody at our campuses are like, man, you're starting to get it, but then you're like, yeah, but which house does he want me to buy? Nope. Not what we're doing.

That's not it. What we're talking about here is, it's about who you are, not where you are. It's about who you are, not when. Yeah, should we go this, here, there, where? Those are not the questions. The questions are, who is God calling you to be out of His will of this world?

God's will for you is your sanctification and your growth. I'm telling you, this is all over the place. You're going to walk out and somebody's going to be like, man, I think I understand it, but then you're going to start wrestling again with, should I marry this person? Well, should I get married? Are they the one? I always hear that.

Okay. Are they the one? You know, are they the one that God specially has picked out for me? And it's like, well, are they a believer? Yeah.

Do they love Jesus? Yeah. Well, maybe they're the one. Okay. I mean, there could be another one. Okay.

Maybe they are the one. I mean, this is not, this is, what do you think if you don't marry them and you do marry somebody, is it a sin? We'd be like, well, no. Okay, then what are we talking about? We're not talking about God's will.

Okay. Think about something else. It's like, man, some of us are agonizing over maybe a job decision. You're like, man, should I take this job or should I take, God, if you just give me a sign. Like, what is your, and we say it if you've been in church. If you're brand new, you're not infected by all this stuff, okay?

But if you've been in churchy world your whole life, you're infected by it. God, which is your will? This one or this one? It's like, well, is one of them like, you know, run by the mafia or something? No. Okay. Well, are they both pretty above board? Yeah.

Okay. Well, I mean, it's like, well, do you talk to your community group about it? You thought, you know, have you sought the Lord in terms of wisdom and just, man, I, you know, you're looking in your Cheerios.

I look at my Cheerios a lot. All that comes out is, ooh. It's like, God, spell it out for me.

Well, I never got it spelled out. And we're looking for a sign all of the time. And it's like, man, you don't need that sign. Maybe what we need to do is stop sitting on our hands and step into the next phase of our life. Maybe we need to stop praying, God, show me the path and start praying, God, bless the path, make the path straight. Whether I got it right or got it wrong, God, you are the one that makes the path straight.

That's kind of more of the idea. I'm telling you, I see this with our college students all the time. It's like, man, which college should I go to? And I'm asking God, which college, which grad program? And I, you know, I know some of you are like, surely you're not going to tell the college students that God don't care where they go to college. Let me be super clear. God does not care where they go to college. Okay. It's not about where.

It's about who they are and what type of impact they're going to have when they get there. Now, you know, here's the deal. I know, I know where some of you are going to say, man, are you saying that God never speaks outside the Bible? I'm actually not saying that. There are some that say that, and maybe you, maybe you're even one of those. I don't know, depending on your theological provider. I'm actually not saying that. What I am saying is, and you can check me on this. I cannot find anywhere in the New Testament where a believer is called to sit on their hands and wring their hands and wait for God to give them a sign for something.

I'm not even sure that we're called to ask God about his secret will, about what it should be or shouldn't be. It's not a moral thing. Okay.

I think the examples that we have of some of this stuff is like, man, when you look back, some of them aren't even that positive. We always talk about them putting out a fleece. Well, go back and read that story.

Well, I had a piece about it. Well, so did Jonah at the bottom of the ship. He was sitting there sleeping. He had a lot of peace and he was exactly outside of God's will.

My point is this. Am I saying that God could never speak to you? I don't make it a habit to say God can't anything.

Okay. Have I had God speak to me outside of the scripture? I absolutely feel like I have.

I don't put on par with the scripture, but I don't know that I need to ask him for that because when I ask him for that, even the act of asking him sort of is saying, like, man, I'm not totally sure that your revealed word and my wisdom is enough, that what you've given me is enough. Man, I was driving down. I was driving to meet Anna and the kids at the circus before it got terrible with no elephants. Okay. I was driving to the circus, whatever.