IMPACT Copenhagen 2015

Joakim Hjortland

Empower Missions

An Outworking of His Will, How?- Part 2

We've been talking about how God, we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God already had prepared that we might walk in them.

We have talked about how God has a plan in his book.

God has a plan for every year, for every week, for every day of our lives and he wants to lead us into his great glorious plan for our lives.

1 of the key quotes that we have read, I want to read it again, it's a powerful quote from the Siravides.

It's on page 260, it says here, so utterly was Christ emptied of self that he made no plans for himself.

He accepted God's plans for him and day by day, the Father unfolded his plans.

So should we depend upon God that our lives may be the simple outworking of his will?

Many times you read that Christ said, My time has not yet come.

He was so in tune with God, he knew what to say, what not to say, how to act, because God revealed to him morning by morning His plans for him, and his life became an outworking of God's will.

So we have been talking about, or yesterday, Message United is a continuation of that.

We started to talk about how, first we talked about this is God has a specific plan, God has a perfect plan for our lives, he that created us, that knows us, that knows best what will give us peace and joy and meaning in life.

But then we started to talk about how can this be?

How can this be our experience, you know, like it was for Christ?

And we're looking at some key principles.

Yesterday we looked at, just to repeat, we looked at first, you know, we must believe it's possible.

Must believe that God will show us just what course to pursue.

As the quote we looked at said, you know, that God in all thy ways acknowledging man, he will direct our paths.

He will both our ways and our paths, big decisions and small decisions.

If Peter didn't believe it was possible to walk on water, he would not have walked on water.

Another thing we looked at is a condition for this is a full and continual surrender.

Also, we talked about this experience of how God wants so much more we stop in the foyer instead of going into this great hotel room.

Many times our Christian lives we stop with something so much less of what God God is pleased when we expect large thing from him we talked a little bit about and read his quote.

So full and continual surrender is a condition.

Another thing we talked a little bit about in Reddit's quote.

Another thing we talked a little bit about yesterday is we need to live a life of unceasing prayer.

Pray without ceasing, Paul said, a life of unceasing prayer and fasting.

You know, like every step, you know, like Tinni in Finlay, right?

Pray that God may lift up our legs as we walk on our spiritual journey.

It's only in his power and we are dependent on him at every step to really live the life of a Christian.

And then we looked at 1 more thing, and that was we need to learn to know God's will, how to know God's will.

We just talked briefly about it, so Christian, my brother, will talk more about it later.

And by the way, 1 thing that I think, as we talked about this, I think it was very interesting, you know, I pray that God may maybe give us an experience that could kind of illustrate what we are talking about in this message.

And I think the experience of Reza was kind of just how he clearly believed that God led him here.

You know, never for years, he never took the wrong metro, but now it's so happened and he met us and he came here.

And he said actually, yesterday was interesting, yesterday evening down here, he was helping after he had helped cooking.

He said to Freja, it was you that saved my life, he said.

Because she was the 1 that invited him to this free food demonstration.

And he's really convinced that God led him here and I think it has been, I mean, it's like a turning point in his life.

It seemed like it has meant a lot for him to come here and that's how he, yeah, what he's communicating as I've been talking with him.

So God is working through the efforts we are doing and it's good to see how he has a plan and he leads and he is working in people's lives as he always does when we go out.

So We'll continue, we'll look at some more keys and kind of finish up this message we have been talking about.

And yeah, but let's just have a short prayer before we continue.

Dear Father, we pray again that you will lead us, help us to understand, speak to us through these things, that our life may be an outworking of your will, Lord.

We may grow from faith to faith, day by day, from glory to glory into the likeness of your son.

Okay, the next thing I want to talk a little bit about, another key for living the life of a Christian, that our life may be an outworking of the will of God, is to be still before God.

I want to read 1 more quote from Christ's Abbey lesson, a really powerful quote about Christ, which I think is a good summary of what we see when we read the Gospels of how Christ lived his life.

Christ was continually receiving from the Father that He might communicate to us.

From hours spent with God, He came forth morning by morning to bring the light of heaven to man.

Daily, he received a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit.

In the early hours of the new day, the Lord awakened him from his slumbers, and his soul and his lips were anointed with grace that he might impart to others.

His Words were given him fresh from the heavenly courts, words that he might speak in season to the weary and oppressed, quoting from Isaiah 50, verse 4, powerful verse.

So Christ took time, communion with his father, communion being still before God.

There is another really powerful quote talking about this, it's in the service, I don't have it up there, but it says, we must individually hear him speaking to the heart.

Listen to this, when every other voice is hushed and in quietness we wait before him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God.

He bids us be still and know that I am God.

Here alone can true rest be found and this is the effectual preparation for all who labor for God.

So it says you know in the quietness when we are quiet before God you know when we close out all the sound, all the noise of our society, that's when the voice of God is more, most distinctly heard.

That's when we most clearly can hear the voice of God.

I don't have it here, but it's this illustration of, it's like a picture, drawn picture of someone with so much noise, so much things, so much around him.

I don't almost remember, but basically it's illustrating, yeah, he's kind of wondering why he doesn't hear God or something like this.

And he sees so much noise around him, so how could he?

It's like so many times, You know, God wants to speak to us, but the problem is that we don't come before him and wait before him to listen.

It's kind of like imagine a couple driving down the road with a car and you know the window is open, the radio is on, and you know, the husband is driving and he has all these thoughts, he's thinking about what he needs to do for his work and whatever.

And even though his wife is sitting beside him trying to speak to him with her, you know, soft and tender voice, he don't get it because he saw so many things there, you know, and it's not that she doesn't want to speak or try to speak to him, but he's just not in the mood open, you know, to listen and give her the attention she would need.

I think many times that's how it is with us and God.

God, you know, it's a powerful quote in Steps to Christ.

It says that, oh sorry, it's in Book of Prayer.

It says, Christ is ever sending messages to those who listen for his voice.

Christ is ever sending messages for those who listen for his voice.

He wants to give us, impress our thoughts, lead our thoughts with his spirit, but we need to be still and wait before him in the quietness, in prayer, in, and you know, it was, and this is really a key, this is how Christ lived his life, and in order for our lives to be an outworking of his will, this is a very important point.

You know, many times we pray, but many times when we pray, we just talk and talk and talk, and that's it, and then we go.

You know, we don't have time to understand what God wants to teach us and what he wants to try to impress our thoughts and as we pray or as we study the Bible as well sometimes we have to read them we don't really stop them you know.

You know but it was when Moses was it was when he was communing with God on Mount Sinai, when he was still before God, that's when he received the 10 Commandments.

That's when he received the instruction to build the sanctuary and many different things.

God instructed him, he led him as he was still before him communing with him.

Elijah, the prophet Elijah, it was when he was on Mount Horeb, you know, waiting before God that he heard a still small voice And that he was instructed to anoint Hazal to be king over Syria, Jeho, Jeho or however you say it in English, to be king over Israel and Elisha to be prophet in his place.

It was when he was communing with God that God gave him these thoughts.

And it was as Christ was communing with his Father morning by morning that God gave him the tongue of the learners, his essence in Isaiah, and words to speak in season.

And I've experienced many times as I've been praying and waiting before God, that he gives me thoughts and ideas And I've seen that he leads in a way that, you know, when I take time for this, and for instance, it was as I was spending time out in the forest in Sweden to recharge the batteries and commune with God.

That was actually when I got the idea to write the book I've been writing the past year.

And so many times, you know, sometimes we miss these things.

We miss, we don't get what God wants us to do because we don't stop, we don't wait before God.

An Outworking of His Will, How?

The message tonight that I want to share is, or before I tell you a little bit about that, I just want to have a very short repetition from yesterday.

The key verse we talked about yesterday, we talked about the title was, was an outworking of his will.

And the key verse was Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, which says, for you are his workmanships, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

Already prepared that you may walk in them.

I don't know it, I know it better in the reading by heart, but that's the essence of what it says.

Powerful verse, God has a specific plan for us.

And a key quote that we read which kind of I think quite well summarized, I shared many testimony stories of how I've seen God lead in my life and we had a living example of something already yesterday I think fitted well to the message.

But this quote, powerful quote, we kind of continue the thought where we left it yesterday so it's nice to recap it shortly.

Powerful quote from Desirators, verse 206 here it says, so utterly was Christ emptied of self that he made no plans for himself.

He accepted God's plans for him and day by day the Father unfolded his plans.

So should we depend upon God that our lives may be the simple outworking of his will.

This is how God wants us to live, that our lives may be as outworking of his will.

So basically what I am going to talk about tonight is how can our lives be an outworking of His will.

How can our lives be an outworking of His will?

And it's late, we have had a long day, so I will not, it will be shorter than yesterday what I will share, I will promise you that.

Though usually, or many times actually, if I say this will be the last text or this or that, it always have a tendency to come something more.

But I think maybe I said something yesterday and then it ended up sharing a little bit more than planned.

I guess 1 reason for that is You have this saying that I like, I think it's a good way.

You have this saying that we should, when it comes to preaching, we should prepare as though there is no Holy Spirit.

I partly agree with that, but the saying in total kind of makes a point that I like.

We should prepare as though there were no Holy Spirit and we should preach as though we have not prepared.

Where the words we should do everything we can in preparation, it's not like we shouldn't prepare and stand up and just say what comes into our mind.

But still, I think it's important to also be open for the Spirit's guidance as we share something, as we preach, as we witness, whatever.

So I try to follow that as I'm serving and preaching and sharing the Word.

But still, I think it will be shorter tonight.

We've had a long day, so I think it's important we rest.

So, basically, it will be shorter tonight.

And I plan what we will do actually is I will kind of start, I will share part of the message I have prepared tonight And then we'll kind of look on the last part of it tomorrow.

I have 1 more meeting tomorrow, so we'll kind of continue by then.

So I think that's a better way to do it and try to put everything in 1 message.

And it's actually quite interesting how it happened, how I got to prepare this message.

That's when I prepared most of the message.

And the thing was, this week I've had many meetings here.

Yeah, I'll have 1 tonight and 1 tomorrow.

And then I go straight up to Living Water summer camp, which is where I will share 5 messages the next few days.

And then I will be home for a week where I will work for days from my apprenticeship as well as move out from my apartment and prepare for Impact Norway the week after where I will share like 10 messages and pretty much all of the messages are different And so it's very busy weeks right now.

And the easy thing for me to do here would have been to choose another message than what I'm sharing tonight.

Many messages, you know, someone would present next week and whatever in the next few days that I think are powerful and important messages, but I don't know, I asked, when I teach or preach, I don't just want to share a sermon.

I don't just want to share a good sermon, a powerful sermon.

I want to share what God wants me to share.

So I was thinking and praying about what to share and I felt impressed though I in a way didn't really have the time to still prepare this message instead of taking another message.

So actually what happened was last week, was it, I think it was Wednesday, I actually woke up very, I prayed, I was thinking about this, I said, hey man, I don't have time to prepare all this, but I kind of sensed that God wanted me to share something along these lines, but I wasn't sure how I would manage to prepare it.

But I prayed, you know, that God would lead me, whatever, help me to prepare whatever He wants me to share.

I prayed, I like to pray sometimes in the night, whatever God may make me up.

Next morning, it's not like usually I have an alarm, but if He wants me to maybe go up a little earlier, He can maybe wake me up.

Next morning, it can be a little scary prayer to pray Next morning.

Actually, I woke up around 02:00 and That's usually usually I go I go to bed early and I usually go up like quarter to 5.

I start working pretty early so I have to start early but still not that early.

So I woke up at this time, not only that, I felt inspired to...

Sometimes in the morning I really sense that God lead my thoughts and put things together.

So basically the whole message, basically most of the message in that morning before I went to work, most of the message I prepared in that time and I felt that God was leading and So I trust that he has something that he wants us to take from this message that can draw us closer to him and his plan for our lives.

Let's have a short prayer before we get into the message, the first part of the message tonight.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for we can come together.

Thank you that you are a God that wants to speak to us.

And we ask pray that you may lead with your spirit, impress our hearts, speak to us, help us to understand and receive what you have in store for us, the blessing you have in store for us tonight and tomorrow.

There was this couple, they were getting married and as they were getting married they had some friends that came together and decided to give them a nice wedding gift.

They decided to pay for this very nice, to call it suite, this very nice room in a hotel that they could spend their wedding nights together.

So they paid for this luxurious suite, this luxurious place, hotel room.

And so this couple, they were told about this beforehand, you know, and they looked forward to this nice place, this nice time they would have in this hotel right after getting married.

And what happened was that they came to the hotel, the wedding was over, you know, and they went there and they came to the right floor, to the right door, and they looked forward to go in, you know, they had their expectations, They looked forward to see this great, expensive, luxurious place.

But as they went in there, in this room, they did so only to be terrible, terribly disappointed.

And they had some things there, they had a sofa there, they had some things.

But it was nothing like they had imagined.

They thought, man, is this a luxurious, most best room in this hotel?

They couldn't really understand it and they were really irritated and disappointed.

But they said, okay, well, it wasn't like we expected, but I guess we just have to do the best out of it.

And they had a sofa or something, they had something somewhere they could sleep and whatever, so They just did the best out of it.

And, but the next morning they came down to the reception of the hotel and, and, you know, they got to talk with some of the workers there and they came to share that they were not very happy.

They were very unhappy with this luxurious room in the hotel.

But the owner, the leader of the hotel, he couldn't understand, he like, what, weren't you happy with this room?

You know, like, for him it didn't make sense, you know?

So what was it that you wasn't happy with?

So Maybe we can go up together and you can show me what you didn't like or so they say sure and they went back to the room and they went into the room and they opened up and he said hey see is this a luxury?

You know This is nothing like we had expected.

But then the leader of this hotel, this manager, he went over to the other side of the room.

And there he opened this door that had the same color like the car, you know, what you have, the wallpaper or whatever.

And he opened this store into this big, luxurious, really nice hotel suite, this really nice room.

They had spent their night in the foyer, in the hall of this nice room.

And I think this, in a way, is a good illustration.

I think many times, many Christians, we stop in the fire when God really has so much more in store for us.

In our prayer life, many times we stop in the fire, but God wants so much more.

In our Bible studies, we stop in the fire, but God has so much more.

In our Christian experience as a church, too many times we stop in the fire, but God has something so much better that he longs to give us, that he longs to pour out His blessings, His Spirit on us.

An Outworking of His Will

Before we get into the message tonight, which is entitled, Outworking of His Will, which is kind of what I was talking about in the evening meetings, especially tonight and tomorrow night, I just want to have a little short recap of what we talked about yesterday night.

We talked about the 2 greats, the great invitation and the great commission.

Great invitation is, you know, Jesus invites us to come to him, just as we are, to spend time with him, to get to know him, to be his friend, to spend time in his word, in prayer.

The great commission is to go, to tell others about Jesus, to tell others about the greatest message this world has ever known about the everlasting gospel, great invitation, the great commission.

We talked about how these 2 things should be the priority of our lives, these 2 things, how they should be the all-absorbing aim of our lives.

When you think about it, when Jesus soon comes back, the only thing that really matters, it doesn't matter how much money we have in the bank, a nice car we have, a nice clothes we have, or whatever.

The only thing that really matters is our relationship to Jesus Christ.

The only 2 things we talked about we can bring to heaven is what, you remember?

Our character and converts, people will lead to Jesus.

So we talked about how these things, the only things that really matter is when Jesus soon comes back, how they should be the priority right now.

What we would have prioritized if we had 1 month to live, if we have 30 minutes to live, that we make those things a priority today, that we should watch and work and pray as though this were the last day that would be granted us.

So that's a short recap of the message yesterday.

I want to invite you before we start or as we get into the message tonight to turn with me to Luke, Gospel of Luke, chapter 11.

Some interesting verses, some powerful promise really when we think about it.

Luke, chapter 11, and I want us to read from Luke chapter 11 from verse 10.

Here it says, for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be open.

I think Vanessa has this verse on her phone cover.

He asked, he who seeks will find, he who asks will receive.

And then it says in verse 11, and here Knox, it will be open, verse 11, if a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?

Or if he asks for a fish, if you know, son asks his father for a fish, will his father give him a serpent instead?

Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

Verse 13, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him?

You know God longs to give His Spirit to us.

He longs to come close to us and live close to us.

And He wants to do that tonight and this week if we ask Him to.

So before I start, before we get into the message tonight, I just want us to invite him to speak to us.

To tell us, to help us understand what he wants to tell us through this message.

What individually, you know, it's different things he might want to tell us through his spirit and he wants us to understand and take with us from this message.

So before I pray I just want to have a short moment of silence where each of us, you and also myself, can silently pray in our hearts and pray that God may speak to us tonight and give him permission to speak to us through his spirit.

Let's bow our heads and invite God to speak to us.

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