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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Callie Williams Weekend

Callie Williams

How to Actually Know God’s Will for Your Life

Father in heaven, we thank you for the God that you are.

We thank you that you're a compassionate God that has a will for us to live close to you, to have an abundant life.

And I thank you that you're not a God that hides good things from us, but you are just all too eager to share them.

Father, I don't know the kinds of weeks that my brothers and sisters have had, but whether it was fantastic or it was very difficult, I pray that you would take any distractions from our mind right now, Anything the devil is trying to use to take us away from this moment and tailor make these words by your Holy Spirit to each and every heart that we would leave this time not just fascinated by your word, but more in love with Jesus and more convinced of his deep love for us.

We ask these things knowing that you want to answer them because we ask in Christ's name, amen.

So before we start, I do want to ask what's on your mind.

And I ask that because usually we go to something like how to know God's will for your life, you might have something already on your mind.

You might be thinking about a decision you're making right now, you might be thinking about decision that's coming in a few months or a few years, and you might not even be thinking about yourself, you might be thinking of a loved 1, someone in your family that you're like, Lord, please help them follow your will, because they're not, or because they're trying to figure something out.

And instead of taking that part out of your mind, I want you to hold on to that.

As we go through these practical points, I want you to think how can we apply these biblical principles to whatever is on your mind.

Also I'm a high school English teacher so I'm used to interactions with teenagers so I'm used to some nodding or some you're crazy so I'm open to both.

So before we talk about the 3 principles that I wanna bring up, I wanna talk about something that we already do know.

There might be a lot about God's will that we don't know.

I don't know where you're supposed to go the rest of your life, I don't know what career path you're supposed to take, I don't know who you're supposed to marry, I don't know any of that.

But there is something I do know about all of us.

God has revealed much of his will already in the scripture.

We can talk about what we don't know, but there's so much that we already do know.

In 1 Timothy 2, 3 to 4, we know that God wants us to know the truth and be saved, amen?

He wants everyone to know the truth and be saved.

So he can never be like, Lord, do you want this person to be saved?

He wants you and everyone else to be saved.

He also wants people, he wants us to be thankful in 1 Thessalonians 5, 18.

He wants us to proclaim the excellencies of God.

He wants us to live peaceably with others as much as possible.

He wants us to live for his glory and way more than I have time for.

There are so many slides I could fill with.

So the first point here is before we focus so much on what we don't know about God's will, we can focus on what we already do know.

Lord, do you want me to start this fight with someone?

Well, he wants you to live peaceably with all men.

And while there are exceptions to that, that Christ kind of stirred up some controversy that I'm sure we can talk about too, there are some principles already in the word of God that it's not fair just to say, God, what is your will in this when God has revealed already so much?

All right, so going into these 3 points of how to know God's will more in a specific way for you and I, there are 3 things that we need to believe about God.

The first 1 is we must obey God in order to know His will.

That's confusing though, because how are you supposed to obey God if you don't know His will?

So please go with me in your Bibles, even if you know this Bible verse, please go with me anyways, to John chapter 7.

John chapter 7 on your paper Bible, your techie Bible, all Bibles are welcome here.

Jesus is talking to the Jewish leaders who just really have a hard time with Jesus for lots of reasons.

And they're basically, in verse 14 and 15, they're like, how does this guy even know what he's talking about?

We didn't teach him, so how does he know any of this?

In verse 16 he says, so Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.

Verse 17, if anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking on my own authority." Jesus himself in talking to the Jewish leader says, listen, if you even want to know if my teaching's from God, you have to be willing to do what he says.

Because when we pray to God, we're like, God, please let me know your will.

And it's implied that we will do it, right?

And it might be implied in how we speak, but the question then is, so then do you already strive to follow all the truth that you have right now?

Why would God give more truth if you don't use the truth that you already have?

And we can say that we want to follow God's will, that we want to do what he tells us to do, when there is truth laying by the wayside that we're like, thanks, but no thanks.

And really quick, notice what this does not say.

It does not say, do you perfectly follow everything that God has revealed?

It says, do you strive to follow all the truth that you have?

Or is there some part of your life where you say, God, I appreciate your input, but I'm not going to do that.

That is completely different than, Lord, I want to do this, but I'm making mistakes along the way.

Those are completely 2 different journeys.

So when we want to know God's will, we need to make sure there's nothing off limits for God.

A few months ago, I was talking to God about career transition.

I've been a high school English teacher for the past 7 years, and I'm now studying to be a full stack web developer.

So I was praying about this, about this, thank you, I appreciate that affirmation.

So I was praying about it and, you know, just asking if it's God's will, because it's really crazy, Some people think I've lost my mind, maybe I have.

So I was praying about it, and she's like, Lord, you know, I wanna know if I should do this, and what program should I take?

And this is where my prayer life is going, but while I'm praying, the Holy Spirit says that I need to forgive someone in my family.

Okay, Jesus, we'll talk about that later.

The point is, which program should I take in school?

Like, which program will help me be the best full stack developer ever?

But it comes back, you should really talk to me about forgiving this person.

Jesus, I don't have time for that thought.

And so it continued until I finally got the hint, because I'm slow to learn things.

Like, oh, wait, I need to talk to God about that.

Because isn't it God's will for me to forgive people?

It's God's will for me to heal past hurt and to not live a life of bitterness.

And even though God is still willing to guide me in my programs for school, he wants to talk to me about forgiveness right then.

So even though I saw that as a distraction, that's a part of God's will.

And that's the point though, is that sometimes we want God's decisions, we want God's will in these grand schemes of life.

But Lord, my friendships, I mean my friends, that's my business.

When They Don’t Believe

Father in heaven, we thank you for bringing us and for being with us and for guiding us all throughout this Sabbath.

Lord, you have spoken to us through messages, maybe that I've presented, but you've also spoken to us through conversations, through music, through the influence of your Holy Spirit and through your word.

And we just thank you for your infinite wisdom and setting aside this day that we can commune with you, that we can slow down a little bit and maybe hear you a little bit better.

Father, I don't know what's on my brothers and sisters' minds.

But Lord, I pray that you take any distractions from us.

And whatever little piece that you want to teach us today in this afternoon, I pray that we'd be open to it.

And I pray that it would stick with us and we would take it in our journey with you.

We love you Lord and we thank you for delighting in answering prayers like this because we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

The title of this afternoon's message is When They Don't Believe and you know when I'm gonna tell you a quick funny story.

A few years ago I was preaching a sermon and I started out with what comes to your mind when I say the word pilot?

And everyone was talking about airplanes and flights and I meant the pilot from the Bible.

And so we were in completely different wavelengths.

So I know sometimes as a preacher, my mind is going this way, and I think it's so obvious what I'm gonna talk about when people are thinking it's completely different.

So when I'm talking about when they don't believe, I'm not so much talking about when they don't believe in Jesus, when other people don't believe in the gospel.

I'm talking about when other people don't believe in you.

And you know, as Christians, right, we care most what Jesus thinks, of course, amen.

And we'll say things like, I don't care what anybody thinks, I don't care.

And we say that, put on bumper stickers and things like that.

But often our lives betray that we're liars, and we do care what people think.

And so the question then is, is that what your life shows?

And as most of my sermons are, it's really just things that I've learned the hard way that I'm hoping someone else doesn't have to learn the hard way so I'm just sharing these lessons.

And I think we know that we shouldn't care what people think.

I was actually here about a year ago and I preached about Moses being terrified to go and do what God had called him to do.

He was scared people wouldn't believe him.

He was scared that he was gonna look foolish.

But then sometimes people's disbelief or unbelief in us makes things scary.

So I want to talk about 3 different ways that this happens, what it looks like, and how God can help us through it.

Wow, okay, people are quieter in this room.

All right, the first is when they don't recognize your efforts and sacrifices.

Now first I want to talk about the evidence and that we struggle with this.

When we wear our overwork and trials as badges.

And when we need that kind of affirmation that we did something difficult, It looks kind of like this.

Let's say I'm talking to my friend Michelle again.

Michelle, you're my eternal example, I'm sorry.

Michelle's like, oh, I was up till like midnight doing work last night.

And The other person's like, yeah, well, I was up to at least like 145.

Like, well, my work was way harder, so I was really exhausted, but yeah, I'm sorry you're tired.

And those kind of conversations happen of who studied the longest or who did the hardest thing.

And we can do it kind of in a jokey way, but sometimes we're like, no, really, like, I worked harder.

And we need some kind of affirmation for something we did that was difficult.

Now this reveals a lot of things, but 1 thing that reveals is it shows us that we we're doing hard work for the wrong reason.

We're doing hard work to wear it as a badge or to say that I worked harder than someone else.

And sometimes maybe you're not like this, but for those of you maybe who are like me, you gather all these things to do because you can do them and You wanna serve people, you wanna serve Christ, but then you have all these things that are way too heavy for you, but people never say good job.

And people never say, wow, that looks really hard.

Some would appreciate my efforts and sacrifice.

And when people don't, they're like, oh, it's not that hard.

You're like, I must prove to you that this is.

A few weeks ago, I was still at the school that I worked at, and it was just a completely innocent conversation.

I was talking with my friend Katie, and we're both teachers.

I'm a high school, I was a high school English teacher, and she was a pre-k teacher.

We had a teaching meeting and she said something about how she was up late preparing lessons.

I'm like, I mean it's pre-k lessons, right?

But I for such he said a bit being up late and I said something to the extent of like oh yeah I was up too and I said some time later than her and she's like okay.

I'm like why did I feel the need to say that?

But it just comes out of my heart where I just want to be known as the person who works harder than other people.

I want to be known as a person who accomplishes more and I want that affirmation.

So when people say things to me that they indicate that, oh that looks easy, like I have to prove to you in chronological and alphabetical order why you're wrong.

But that betrays that my heart is in the wrong place.

It's a pretend martyr's attitude without a martyr's sacrifice and certainly without a martyr's joy.

True martyrs didn't go to the stake saying, hey everyone notice I'm about to be burned, please bow down to my holiness.

Or look how hard my life is about to be crucified.

Jesus wasn't on his way to the cross saying, please notice how difficult this is, everyone.

Please notice how hard I'm working for you all.

The point of the sacrifice was the reward of our salvation at the end.

And Jesus was willing to do that even though people were literally making fun of him as he did it.

Go with me in your Bibles please to Matthew chapter 6.

As I've said before, in any form that you take your Bible, please open that 1.

And I'm gonna jump around a little bit, as you can see on the screen, so you can follow along with me there.

So Matthew chapter 6, let's start in verse 1.

Jesus is speaking, And he says, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.

How to be Offensive Like Jesus

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your Sabbath and we thank you for bringing us to this place at this time.

Father, you know very well that I have no words of life to share with my brothers and sisters here, for those words come straight from you.

And so I ask that by the power of your Holy Spirit you transform this sermon into whatever we need to hear.

That you would take any distractions, good or bad, and help us to hear from you in a practical way.

That we would leave this time more in love with you and more deeply convinced of your everlasting love for us.

Give us clarity, Lord, and may we see the truth with perfect clarity.

We ask these things knowing that you delight to answer because we ask in Christ's name, amen.

When I was 17 and a half, because I'm a precise person, I became a Christian.

I was raised in a Seventh-day Adventist home by wonderful parents, but up until that point, I was good because I didn't like to be punished.

So I was like, you know, I don't want to have that happen, so I'll just be good.

I had a wonderful encounter with Christ, and I decided, I remember actually, it was, you know, I was more of those, like a gradual kind of a gradient conversion.

It wasn't quite a moment, but I remember my final decision was, Jesus, I have no idea what I'm doing, but you can have all of me.

And you can take me wherever you want, just please be with me, because it's scary out there.

And as I came into the church in a more official sense, I, you know, was immediately, immediately encountered this idea of evangelism, right?

So sharing the gospel, sharing the truth of God's other people.

But as I spent more time, I kind of noticed there was these 2 different sides of evangelism.

Now, this can be true in many different senses, but there's 1 sense in my case, and there was a pendulum, as it were.

And I think that you and I, all of us, please don't take this, no offense, right, no offense, but I think all of us naturally swing 1 way or another in this pendulum.

The first side is overly passive Christianity.

And to the extreme is, I'm a Christian, but you don't need to know that.

Or I'm a Christian, and I will share Jesus with you, but in the really subtle, you never knew it's me way.

On the other side of this pendulum is overly aggressive Christianity.

This is where I'd put megaphones on campuses.

Or where I'd put, hello, you have no idea who I am, but these are my judgments about you right now.

Now, as you might be able to tell already, I personally, my struggle is the overly passive Christianity.

I'm a millennial, so that's kind of like built into my DNA.

So when I need to tell someone something, I really don't want to.

So the idea of overly aggressive Christianity, I'm like, they need to be converted.

But honestly, it's a problem on both sides because we need to love people enough to be truthful with them, Amen?

But you know what's fascinating about these problems?

Is both sides can use scripture to defend themselves.

I've heard things like Jesus always was direct.

I mean, he called people whitewashed shepherders.

Little direct, kind of insulting, I wouldn't do that.

But Jesus did that and he's Jesus so you know he was right.

But then other people will say well Jesus was always indirect.

He never blasted Judas outright, not once.

The closest he came to it was whoever dips his bread with me is 1 who betrayed me, then he did it, no 1 is paying attention because the disciples were always distracted, and then he said to Judas, what you do, do quickly.

That's still very indirect though, he didn't say you're gonna betray me Judas, It still wasn't direct.

So I would say yes, Jesus was always indirect.

I love that about Jesus, but he was also direct.

Other people say Jesus always prioritized Ministry over family.

I mean when his mother and brothers came to visit and someone told him, he said, who are my brother and brothers?

These are my mother and brothers, those who do the will of God.

So clearly ministry, family, very obvious.

But then also when he was on the cross, he very much prioritized his family.

Mother behold thy son, son behold thy mother.

Okay well he did also, he always nipped disrespect right in the butt, always.

I mean people were exchanging money in the tabernacle, he flipped tables, he had a whip and stuff, very intense, very scary Jesus.

So clearly when he sees disrespect he's like no!

But then there was that 1 time in John 8 that the Jewish leaders said that he was an illegitimate child.

Very rude, very disrespectful, and he didn't even respond.

Because see, the interesting thing is Jesus doesn't even walk the line of balance.

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Callie Williams Weekend

How to Actually Know God’s Will for Your Life

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