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Phil Mills, Sr.

Phil Mills

The Will of the Father

Last Sabbath I got into my car and I smelled this very nice fragrance.

And I suddenly realized that 2 weeks before we had been going down to Florida to check out some job opportunities and I had a lecture to give to the residents there in the program.

Because it was a long way and it would be difficult to brush our teeth, I bought some gum, some sugarless gum.

The fragrance of that, even though it was gone 2 weeks before, the fragrance still persisted.

And I think God wants us to have a lingering migrants, when we touch people's lives.

I want to be like the gum, not causing people allergy problems like Fran here, but a pleasant afterglow.

I read a quotation I've been studying for a series I'm giving this weekend on how to have happy homes and it really made me think because we don't have to wait until heaven to find out about heaven and we don't have to have visions, like Ellen White, like a prophet, to really find out about heaven and see it.

But listen to this quotation I read just this last week.

The sweetest type of heaven is a home where the Spirit of the Lord presides.

We don't have to wait for the sweet by and by.

And the quotation continues, "...if the will of God is fulfilled, the husband and wife will respect each other and cultivate love and confidence." So here we have the Holy Spirit presides and the will of God fulfilled, the will of God.

There's respect, cultivation, love of confidence, and it doesn't get any better than that in Heaven.

The sweetest type of heaven is connected with the will of God.

So I would like us to look at what is the will of God and how can we do it.

If you'll turn in your Bibles to Matthew 7, verse 21, and I have it here in the New King James.

It says, Not everyone, it's a very familiar text, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does what?

Now always before when I've studied this verse, I've thought in terms of the future, when Jesus comes.

Only those who are doing the will of God enter the kingdom of heaven right now.

They enter the kingdom of heaven right now, and then they enjoy the sweetest kind of heaven where the Holy Spirit presides and where they're doing the will of God.

I'll just read it here because there's going to be a text that I want us to really focus on.

The world passes away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." Heaven, the sweetest kind of heaven, begins now with doing the will of God, and it is those that do the will of God that he acknowledges as part of his family here on this earth and his family in heaven.

It started with Matthew 7.21 and now Matthew 12.50.

Notice how it starts, For whosoever, who does that include?

For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother." Can I ask again, what is the will of the Father, and how can I know what it is, how can I do it?" Ephesians 5, verse 17, "...wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." So wisdom is understanding what the will of the Lord is?

Now, Jesus explained what the will of the Father was in a story problem.

I remember growing up, we would have a lot of story problems in school, science problems, particularly math problems.

You'd have a story and you'd have to figure out the solution.

This is a familiar story we'll be looking at, but I want us to look at some frequently overlooked details.

It helps us to understand what the will of the Father is and how we can do it.

It's the story of a family-run viticulture business.

Before a week ago, I'd never even heard that there was such a word as viticulture.

But you can tell viticulture, you think of the word agriculture, culture means growing.

And agriculture is the plants, Vita is vines.

So viticulture is growing grapes, vineyards.

Let's look at this story in its associated question.

I'll give you time to turn to that because that's where we're going to study tonight.

Verse 28 of Matthew 21, and I have the new King James.

And Notice how Jesus begins the story problem with, but what do you think?

When you hear Jesus asking that, what do you know is coming next?

He came to the first and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard.

Then he came to the second and said likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir.

Which of the 2 did the will of his father?

Jesus said to them, Assuredly I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you, for John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but tax collectors and harlots believed him, and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him." Now let's look at this word problem more closely.

If you're going to answer a word problem correctly, what do you have to do in a word problem?

So, how many people are in this word problem?

When the story begins, who is the father in this?

When the story begins, we see a problem immediately.

Well, we're not told, but what are they not doing?

Perhaps they're still in bed, or maybe they were playing, or maybe they were working on a pet hobby or project.

But at the start of the story, neither son is doing the will of the Father.

The story should have said, a certain man had 2 sons and when the son peaked up and they got up, they ran to their father And they said, Dad, what can we do to help you today?

That's the first thing they should have done.

But in the story, the father had to go to the sons.

How unworthy both boys were to be in this Father's family.

Ere you left your room this morning, What's the first thing that you did when you opened your eyes?

Did you say before you did anything else, thank you Lord for the night and What would you have me do for you this morning?

Or did God have to chase you down and give you an assignment?

He doesn't call attention to the fact that he's having to get them.

Son, he acknowledges a relationship to them and then he lets them know his will.

Now we know that the Father represents God.

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The Will of the Father

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