September 17, 2025 • 63 mins
Pastor Ryan and Pastor Tim dive into the "God Just Tell Me" series against the backdrop of recent national tragedies and personal loss, exploring how God's will operates even when circumstances are devastating and confusing. God's sovereignty, moral standards, and permissive will all intersect with His personal plans for our lives, creating a framework for understanding divine guidance.
• Understanding four aspects of God's will: sovereign, moral, permissive, and personal
• Exploring how God allows tragedy without causing it
• Recognizing that not everything that happens is about us personally
• Examining how God's sovereign purposes can emerge from terrible situations
• Prioritizing daily obedience over obsessing about future plans
• Learning to say "yes" to God before you even know what He's asking
• Finding freedom in knowing God is more concerned with who you're becoming than what you're doing
• Walking in God's ways to discover His will "one yes at a time"
• Realizing God's will isn't a destination but a relationship of daily faithfulness
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast broughtto you by A Fresh Wind Church.
Each week, our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined, as always,with Pastor Tim, and we have
kicked off a new series here atFresh Wind called God Just Tell
Me, and I think that's a prettycommon sentiment most of us have
felt at some point in our lifeGod just tell me.
We've got all these plans, allthese goals, all these dreams,
(00:50):
and sometimes it can feel soparalyzing.
God just tell me.
And so Tim.
I'm super excited about thisseries and you know, for those
avid midweek podcast listenersyou might have noticed we're a
week behind here.
Didn't get one out last weekand last week was a pretty rough
(01:13):
week.
It was a week and so you know ifyour head hasn't been buried in
the sand.
You know about what happenedwith Charlie Kirk and just the
devastation that's been to somany people, particularly his
family.
I mean his wife and his kidswere in attendance that day and
had to watch all that happen.
(01:34):
Just horrifying and your heartgoes out to them.
The school shooting that tookplace, I think, the same day
same day.
Um, and you look up and you'rejust like what is going on.
There was that girl who was, uh, knife down in, I think,
charlotte.
Yeah, um, you're like God, whaton earth is going on in the
(01:58):
world?
And uh, then, personally, um,my sister-in-law was 38 weeks
pregnant, was supposed to have ababy and a couple of days
before she was set to be induced, started having all this pain
and got rushed into the hospitaland ended up losing the baby.
Little Gracie didn't make it.
(02:20):
And so, as a family, we've beenstruggling and so, as a family,
we've been struggling.
And I talked to a couple peoplethis week.
Tim and I was like God's timingis never an accident.
That's true.
We had just started this seriesGod Just Tell Me and I had
talked about, you know, kind ofthe four layers or aspects of
(02:43):
God's will, god's sovereign will, the things he allows to happen
, god's moral will, kind of theway that he has determined that,
as humanity, we're to live andinteract with him and one
another.
I talked about God's permissivewill, those things that God
allows that we don't understand.
And then this week and I'm notsaying God was giving me a
(03:04):
sermon illustration, I'm notsaying God was trying to teach
us a lesson, I think.
But I do think we had anopportunity to live it out.
You know, sometimes we canpreach a sermon and it's like
well, that was good and we moveon.
This week we had to live it outand say man, is what I said on
(03:25):
Sunday?
Do I believe it on Monday whenI say God's good despite the
things that he allows?
That I don't agree with that.
I don't understand that.
I don't want that.
I would never pray for, even onmy greatest enemy, is he still
good in those moments and thisweek we had our family and our
(03:46):
country as a whole we had tostart living that thing out and
say man, even even here, god'sgood.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
It's interesting Cause I had a tragedy last week
too.
My uncle died, but he died at94 years old, with his entire
family around him, ready to gohome and be with Jesus, and I've
been thinking how those thingstrack together.
All these sudden things happen,those kids in Colorado, the
(04:23):
Charlie Kirk that are not whatwe expected.
We can accept sorrow and losswhen God does what we expect him
to do or allows things weexpect him to allow, like my
uncle dying at 94 with hisfamily around him going home to
heaven to see his Jesus and hiswife and him leaving preaching
(04:49):
the gospel.
He wrote the sermon that hisgrandson, who was the pastor,
preached.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
When I heard you say that, I was thinking golly, I
think I'm going to write my ownsermon.
I want to make sure they talkabout me good.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I think my wife's already written her sermon.
But I look at that and whathappens to us is, especially
when we're talking about, ifwe're going to segment this in
his different aspects of hiswill, especially in God's
sovereign will, we make it aboutus.
(05:26):
You know we have this.
We're selfish people and youknow and it's not wrong to say
God, how does this affect me?
What do you want me to do inthis situation?
Even though it's a tragedy,there's an earthquake, there's a
tornado, there's whatever, andsome kids or young families are
(05:48):
tragically lost.
Where am I in that?
Yeah, um, and sometimes thelord just says you're not in
this one.
Pray for the families.
I'll let you know when this isabout you, and I think we need
to be careful about that.
I think World War II is a greatexample and people say World
(06:13):
War II.
How is that a great exampleabout anything?
It was a monster war.
We went to war against monsterswho had lost their minds and
thought these horrific thingswere permissible.
And so how is God's sovereignwill him allowing Hitler to do
(06:41):
what he did?
What he allowed the well, thewhole axis of evil to do what he
did?
He allowed the whole axis ofevil to do what they did Back in
World War II.
That's what they called them,the axis and the allies.
And so we struggle with thatAll the people in the
concentration camps, all the notjust war with dignity.
(07:04):
Hey, I want your money and yourresources.
I'm going to come get them.
You know, put your dukes up,which is a weird way to be when
you think about it.
But we have a whole um laws onthe earth on how you're supposed
to fight wars, and they weredoing terrible things.
(07:26):
And how can you say that wasGod's sovereign will, that he
allowed that to happen?
And that's a struggle.
The Israelites were in war afterwar and it looked like the Lord
was zagging them on, you know.
But there are some things thatGod is setting up, and one of
(07:46):
those and this is why World WarII is a good example.
It was the establishment ofIsrael.
The Bible taught us that oneday, or prophesied that one day,
israel would be a nation again,and suddenly it is.
And I don't know how you getIsraelites from all over the
(08:12):
world, jews from all over theworld, to come and get another
country without a war, becausepeople just don't say hey, you
know what?
I got 100 million sectors orhectares, whatever they call
them, I'll just give you, andyou guys can be a nation.
That doesn't happen unlesssomething else happens.
So God allowed this to happenand suddenly Israel has a
(08:36):
country again.
Now did God say okay, I'm goingto make this guy named Adolf
and I'm going to sick him on allthese people, just so I can get
a country?
No, god didn't need to do that.
He just used what people werealready doing and his sovereign
(08:57):
will established Israel as acountry.
Now I know a lot of people aremad that they got a country.
Matter of fact, after they gota country.
Matter of fact, after they gotthe country, the United States
would not let any Jewish peoplehave visas to leave the country
because they knew Israel wasgoing to be attacked.
(09:18):
And the United States, if theydon't win, they don't win.
And so pilots from World War IIleft the country down in Mexico
, got down to Argentina to flyback over to help them fight
that six-day war, I think theycall it.
And right after they got theircountry, because they knew
(09:42):
everybody said if they get acountry, we're going to attack,
and they said, well, it's theircountry.
They knew everybody said ifthey get a country, we're going
to attack, and they said, well,it's their country, they'll have
to.
So it wasn't like the unitedstates said, hey, we're making a
country over there, and youguys know they thought they were
going to be destroyed.
And so that's history.
Guys, look it up, I know, um,you think that everybody on the
(10:04):
planet loved what was going onat that time.
No, most people on the planetthought they wouldn't make it.
But god said this is my will,yeah, I'm gonna establish this
country and uh, it's gonna comeafter you guys really screw up
the world.
And then, uh, this is what,this is what it's going to be
(10:27):
like.
And then Egypt, syria, jordanall of them got together and
attacked Israel.
God said you're not going towin.
And that's how sovereign willworks.
Sometimes he says I'm going toallow.
Sometimes he says I'm not goingto win and that's how sovereign
will works.
Sometimes he says I'm going toallow.
Sometimes he says I'm not goingto allow.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, that the sovereign will, the way I talked
about it in the sermon um, thesovereign wills the things that
God does and no one can stop it.
And this is a great example.
Here's all these people sayingwe're going to, we're going to
stop it, and God's like, no,you're not.
This is my sovereign will.
And I love what God says throughthe prophet Isaiah.
He says I declare the end fromthe beginning and from long ago,
(11:15):
what is not yet done, saying myplan will take place and I will
do all my will.
God says there are things thatI'm doing in the world and it's
going to happen, whether youlike it or not, whether you vote
for it or not, whether youfight a war over it or not.
These are the things that I'mgoing to do, because this is my
(11:39):
sovereign will, to bring thisabout, not just on the planet,
in the universe, the whole realmof what God is doing.
He says this is my will and itwill be accomplished.
And, man, we try to fightagainst it, we try to poke holes
in it, we try to do all thesethings and, truthfully, I don't
(12:01):
know that we'll understand itall.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Well, here's how I learned this truth, and it's not
very complicated.
First of all, when you'retalking about God's sovereign
will, you're not always involvedin it.
You're not always the guy youhave a drinking problem over
there.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I swallowed coffee down the wrong pipe, whew.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
We're not always the focus of what he's doing.
And I'll put it this way Ispent when I was young and
really smart.
I used to say things like whenI'd debate people at school
about different aspects ofdoctrine or whatever.
I would say this phrase and itbecame one of my catchphrases
(12:49):
God doesn't work that way, man.
You were really smart, I wassmart, and then he spent the
next 10 years of my life workingthat way, working his will
through what I said.
He wouldn't do that.
He wouldn't do that, hewouldn't allow that.
And I learned real close thatthat scripture that says my ways
(13:12):
are not your ways and my waysare past.
Finding out is truth.
And I know we think we're smart, I know we think we can go get
a PhD and whatever and you'rethe best thinker, but you'll
never outthink.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
God.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
He's got a plan and he's in control.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Well, the author of Proverbs said it right Many are
the plans in a person's heart,but it's the Lord's purpose that
prevails every time, over and,over and over again.
And I think it's good to dreamand have big plans and to have
big goals, but when it comes upagainst the will of God, you're
just a vapor that appears for alittle time and then, but a
(13:54):
moment then vanishes away,changed after four, we, we have
a we're.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
so I don't know if it's selfish, it's just humanity
, we're just human.
When something happens, howdoes that affect me?
I'm, I'm hurt, I'm, I'm sorryabout Charlie Kirk and the whole
thing.
How did we get to this positionthat you know someone who
disagrees with you you have tosilence?
(14:24):
Why?
Oh, he had a big movement.
We had to stop the movement.
What movement?
You know, you got a bunch ofkids standing up, looking at the
data, looking at the issues andsaying you know what?
I think this guy's right.
You're afraid of that.
(14:46):
How can Americans be afraid ofthat?
How can americans be afraid ofthat?
And you're like well, he'shurting and he's well, show me
one person.
he's shot in the neck, show meone person that he's hurt.
You know, if you're, if youthink someone else's ideas are
going to hurt you, you're,you're in revolutionary mode,
(15:07):
yeah, and that's uh this.
This country's supposed to bediverse enough that everybody
can have uh an opinion and Imean, that's what we, that's
what we stand for and we've gotto let people have their
opinions.
If you don't want to hear them,you don't have to listen to.
To hear them, you don't have tolisten to them, Just walk away.
(15:27):
You don't have to go to thoserallies or whatever they're
doing.
They've been a lot of peoplehave been doing this for years,
but I never watched one.
You know it's like this is notworth my time.
It was worth Charlie's time.
This is not worth my time.
It was worth Charlie's time andI think we need to step back
(15:51):
and as we look at last week andwe say, God, how does your
sovereign will apply here?
And I think the Lord, as my dadwould say, swings a lot of
straight licks with a crookedstick now and do I think that
god wanted charlie kirk to beassassinated?
(16:14):
no, did he call that guy to makehim assassinate charlie kirk?
No, god obeys his own commands.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Thou shalt not murder , but god does direct his will
after these tragedies happenyeah, and so this is where the
sovereign will of god bumpsright up against his permissive
will you know, and it's.
It's two sides of the same coin.
You know, there is God.
(16:47):
Says I'm going to do somethings in the world, it's going
to happen, and you can't stop it.
And then his permissive willsays but I'm going to, I'm going
to allow some things to happento things that I didn't even
will um, things that I didn'tchoose, things that you chose,
things that someone else choseand you don't like it.
(17:07):
And this week that's reallywhat I've had to wrestle with.
You know, God, why would youallow little Gracie to not make
it?
We sat out there in the waitingroom praying all night long.
How could you allow that, God?
(17:28):
How could you allow this tohappen to Charlie?
How could you allow it tohappen to his wife and his kids
Dad's?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
not coming home anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
How could you allow that to happen?
How could you allow it tohappen to those parents at that
school whose kids were shot thatday?
Parents at that school whosekids were were shot that day.
God, this is the thatpermissive will of god that did
god cause it.
No, I mean, you just talkedabout it.
God god's not out here callingpeople up to come shoot charlie
(17:56):
kurt.
But we live in a sinful, fallen, broken world and that we're
responsible for.
And because God loves us.
He has given us the freedom toto choose, and he wants us to
choose to love him, to live aholy life.
The problem is, many of us wechoose evil and it's not.
(18:19):
And I don't think peopleunderstand how big the sin is,
Because it's not just like sinhurts us.
The entire universe, the entireplanet was affected by sin.
Scripture says that creationgroans because of sin.
I mean when Adam sinned.
I mean all of a sudden theground started producing thorns
(18:41):
that it never produced before.
All of the entire planetchanged when sin entered the
world, and part of that wasdeath and loss entered the world
, and so God doesn't choose it.
God's will is that none shouldperish.
He wants all to have eternallife, life abundant, full and
(19:04):
free.
That's who he is, that's hiswill.
Full and free, that's who he is.
That's his will.
But he allows these thingsbecause we chose other things
other than him, and he allows itBecause, if not, he's a robot,
we're robots.
You know you will love me.
You know that was my joke onthat first sermon I preached was
(19:26):
.
You know, if I look up joyevery morning and say you love
me now.
That's not real love.
It's love when she chooses tolove me anyways, even when I get
it wrong.
Man, I'm so grateful that shedoes over and over and over
again, and that's what God hasdone for us, over and over and
(19:47):
over again.
But in the midst of all that,there's a lot of pain, there's a
lot of sorrow that comes andand God, while he didn't choose
it, he allows it.
Um, but then to say, you know,what did Paul tell the Romans?
He's working all thingstogether for the good of those
(20:09):
who love him and are calledaccording to his purpose.
I think there's, you know,three, two or three kind of big
ideas there.
One well, what is good, youknow, and we, we think good
means our prosperity, ourhappiness.
You know, the good that God isworking in your life is that you
look more like Jesus,Absolutely, and so that means it
(20:30):
might not feel good and itmight not end good.
Yeah, look at all the disciples.
Yeah, look at Charlie.
Yeah, the end goal here, thegood that God's going to work,
is in that pain and in thatsorrow.
You're going to learn to looklike Jesus and it's going to
hurt, it's going to work is inthat pain and in that sorrow.
You're going to learn to looklike Jesus and it's going to
hurt.
It's going to feel like walkingthrough hell, but you're going
(20:54):
to look like my son.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
So we look at God's sovereign will and then that
everything's going to work outthe way he has planned.
But he gives us permissive willinside that plan.
And so it's like, why?
Why are you doing this?
(21:16):
And God is saying, look, I'vegiven you what you need for this
not to happen.
That's God's moral will.
For this not to happen, that'sGod's moral will.
This stuff doesn't have tohappen.
If you'll do my will, which isThou shalt not murder, Right?
(21:37):
Thou shalt not do all theseother things.
Don't eat the apple, and Graciewould have never died, Right?
And that's, that's the.
It gets big and these all thisthe will of God is you're
starting to see as a universalconcept, not universal as huge
(22:03):
like the universe.
This is how things happen.
And one thing I respectscientists about.
A good scientist when you askhim what is the speed of light,
he'll say 186,000 feet persecond in our solar system,
(22:23):
Because they don't know reallyhow fast light is in another
solar system with differentgravity and all that kind of
stuff.
A good scientist will say wethink that star did this this
many years ago, based on thelight in our solar system, and
we forget those.
(22:44):
There's bigger things out there.
God allowed this to happenbecause, well, I don't
understand.
Well, because you don't haveall the data, you don't know
what's going on.
You don't know what God's doing, but he wants to teach us.
(23:06):
Hey, it doesn't have to be thishard.
Here's my moral will.
If you'll do this, I will blessyou.
I will bless you in the waythat I want to bless you.
That's better for you than theway you want to bless yourself,
and those are hard concepts tograb a hold of because they all
(23:28):
go together.
You know what's your moral will.
Well, if we all live God's moralwill, it wouldn't be this tough
.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, it's, I'm trying to figure out.
It can't be a third side to thesame coin, so that doesn't work
, but these do all start to gotogether.
You know you were given thisillustration before we jumped on
the podcast is?
You and I were just kind oftalking through some ideas about
(23:59):
you know God wants, if Godneeds you to be at this park
this time, at this day, or needsomeone to be at that part, you
don't even have to be you, um,but if that's his sovereign will
I need someone to come do thisthing?
He'll.
He'll make sure someone's thereto go do the thing that he
needs to have done.
(24:19):
And all along the way you're.
You were talking about howyou'll make all kinds of choices
during that process.
Right, and, but you'll end upat that park.
You'll end up at that park atthe right time to see the right
person.
And you're, you're thinking,well, how?
How does all that make sense?
Cause I, I chose this part andI chose this, and I didn't
(24:41):
choose this.
You know, my car didn't startor whatever, or, you know, got
stuck in traffic.
I didn't choose that.
But then, you know, then God'smoral will kicks in.
Well, because you know I'm I'mgoing to live God's way.
I went the speed limit, or youknow, I, I saw someone over here
and they look like they needed,they needed help, and so I
pulled over to help that person,because that's the kind of
(25:02):
person God's called me to be.
And all this stuff starts tofactor in.
Right, I'm trying to live God'sway, or I'm choosing not to.
And then I chose this thinghere and, in my frustration and
anger over the car, I stormedand I threw a fit and it blew up
.
This whole thing.
That was a choice.
And then, in all of it, youended up at that park to talk to
(25:23):
that person that God neededsomeone to talk to, and you're
like how does it work?
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Right, because I made bad choices and I still ended
up there.
You know, and I think that'sGod gave us emotions and you
guys out there, you need to feelthese next few weeks.
You need to feel.
Look at our country.
I know everybody's accusing um,everybody who said about
(25:51):
charlie, about not caring aboutthe kids in colorado, but
nobody's mentioned the 19 peoplewho were shot in uh chicago
last weekend either and two ofthem died, and and I can go on,
nobody's mentioning the peoplein nigeria that are persecuting
for their Christianity.
Nobody's mentioning all thesedifferent things everywhere
(26:14):
that's going in the world,unless somehow it applies to
their agenda.
And there we go again, sayingthis is all about me.
If it applies to my agenda,then I care.
And then if I don't, and I getit.
I'm a student of humanity and Ihave been for most of my adult
life.
Why do people do the thingsthat they do?
(26:36):
And if you've got a connectionto someone, you're going to
notice things bad that happensto that person more than you
would from someone that youdon't know.
So I think we should stop this.
Why don't you care about thesepeople?
Because there's eight billionof us and I guarantee you our
tragedy last week little gracie,my uncle and charlie kirk there
(27:02):
was a lot of people affected bya lot of other deaths around
this world that need to be caredabout too.
So let's lay that down we're allhurting.
This is crazy On both sides ofthe political argument, which I
don't know why that's an issue,but let's face it.
(27:23):
Everybody knows that if we letthis kind of stuff go on, it's
going to be war.
Right, and we know what warslook like.
The last one was only 80 yearsago, so, and the United States
has been fighting a war, and Italk about the big war.
And they're saying, well, youdidn't mention Korea, you didn't
(27:44):
mention Vietnam, you didn'tmention, you know, the middle
east war that we've been in.
And I'll say, yeah, and Ididn't, um, mention the indian
war we're in, for we were in for60 years as we drove them all
over the map.
Uh, I didn't mention that oneeither.
Oh, and the mexican-americanwar?
And what about the war of 1812?
You, you didn't mention thatone.
(28:05):
It's like come on, guys, let'sbe thinking human beings.
We need to put our foot down,all of us, and say, hey, this
isn't right.
We have outside influences thatare trying to divide us and
destroy us.
Russia, china, they're allcommenting on this Any way that
(28:30):
they can spark something in theUnited States.
We're getting them out ofEurope.
Iran, of course we think of ourenemies, but we're getting kind
of weird bots from nations thatwe think are our friends.
And that's not even the biggestissue.
The biggest issue is that Satanis influencing us and we're
(28:54):
writing things that we nevershould have written.
You know how?
I know that's true Becausepeople's first reaction online
has been brought down Ah, thatwas crazy.
I shouldn't have said that.
And I know that's going on.
And listen, at this church weforgive you.
We forgive you because we'reangry Everybody's angry and
(29:16):
sometimes, when we're angry, wedon't do the righteous thing.
The problem is anger is God'sgift and they're like oh no,
here we go.
But it is.
It is God made us in his imageand God gets angry, but it's a
righteous anger and we get angrywhen there's senseless loss and
(29:38):
it's okay to feel that way.
But, man, I tell you, we needto watch it.
When something happens underGod's sovereign will and his
permissible will, we need towatch it when we jump in there
and get mad because someone'susing it to their advantage.
(29:58):
Back off, back off, you aremessing with a God who hears and
a God who sees and you'restepping all over that, saying
well, this was this and that wasthat.
And sometimes God says, no,that was just me, right, and
(30:21):
you're not that important.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah, we love to come up with an answer for all the
things that God does.
You know, and sometimes youknow you talked about how you
were so smart God doesn't do it.
Sometimes be smart enough tosay I don't know.
Yeah, you know, even my son,gavin.
(30:44):
He was writing a card to hopeafter everything had happened
and he had started to write thatverse.
You know, god works all thingstogether for good and he goes
Dad.
It just doesn't seem right inthe moment and I said, gavin,
it's true.
It's true.
Now we've got to talk aboutagain.
What that good is Right, butit's a hard truth to hear in
(31:09):
moments like this, yeah, and,and we, we try and sometimes
it's with the best intentions aschristians, to we try to say
encouraging things god's gonnause this in your life and
sometimes it just sucks.
Yeah, just sucks, and we don'tknow.
We don't know what God'ssovereign will was and all that.
(31:30):
But I can trust that God isgood and I shared it in the
sermons.
I don't want to reshare itagain.
But what Troy Reed said whenthey lost their son the
problem's with me, not with GodRight, he's still good man.
(31:51):
That's been one of those things.
It marked me that when timeslike this happen, if I feel like
God's not good, if I feel likeGod's not holding up his end of
the bargain, whatever thesituation that problem's with me
, god is still God.
He is faithful.
Even when I am faithless, godis still God.
He is faithful even when I amfaithless and somehow, in his
(32:13):
sovereignty and in hispermissive will and even in his
moral will, and using how I,however imperfectly, I try to
follow him, he's going to makesure his plan gets accomplished.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
And in all that, we have to go to his personal will.
For me, what am I supposed todo?
And here's the problem.
This is what I preached abouton Sunday, so we'll just roll
right into that one.
We look at all those God'ssovereign will and we drop them
(32:48):
below God's will.
For me, right, because it'sabout me.
It's about me.
I don't know if you knew it,tim, but this is about me, right
?
And so when someone dies, we'relike God.
What are you trying to show me?
And sometimes, you know, god'sstill small voice is saying I
(33:09):
don't kill people to teach you alesson.
It's not about you.
And that's when you have to saythe just shall live by faith.
God is good, I believe it andI'm going to live by faith.
But everything that anybodysays anywhere at any time is
about me.
And because humanity is selfish, and sometimes it's, it's hard
(33:33):
to uh, get off the high horse,and and as you get older, though
I think you'll all agree thatyou realize I can't fix that.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
I remember when Ty was little and he had this eye
that started to cross, and whenwe started taking him to the
doctor, they said, man, he's alittle old for that to start
happening.
We'd like to run some othertests.
And then you're like well, whatare those tests for?
Like well, in a lot of kids, westart seeing this if there's a
(34:07):
tumor or something developing.
And, man, I, a lot of kids, westart seeing this if there's a
tumor or something developing.
And man, I remember going homestanding in my shower crying,
god, why would you do this to me?
And it was that still, what areyou talking about?
You think I would do that toyour son to teach you a lesson?
(34:29):
What kind of monster do youthink I am?
But, man, we do.
We turn it all about me and so,yeah, it's easy to do, we've
all done it.
We take God's personal will forus and we put it on top of this
pile, because it's the mostimportant thing what is your
(34:53):
plan for me?
And it's like, man, if youwouldn't, if you'd get the first
couple right.
And this is kind of, I think,where your sermon was going on
Sunday.
And man, I remember calling yousaying you had offered to take
the sermon because of everythinggoing on this week, which I
appreciate.
Thank you for doing that, bythe way.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I was like man don't screw it up.
This is my favorite sermon.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
I know, and this is your opportunity to say
everything I didn't preach.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
But, man, if we would get the first three right, this
one kind of takes care ofitself.
You know, the problem is and Isaid this the first week when I
was talking about kind of God'smoral will is we want the fruit
without the faithfulness and wewant the blessing without the
obedience.
Right, we want God's big,superseding plan for my life.
(35:46):
Who should I marry?
Where should I work?
What do I do with my kids, youknow?
What school do we send them to?
We want all of these things,but then we don't want to be
faithful right here, and sothat's what you were talking
about on Sunday.
We can lose sight of God's planand purpose for our life
because we're so focused on thefuture, we won't be the kind of
(36:09):
person God's telling us to betoday.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Didn't Andy Stanley say something about that when he
was talking about dating andmarriage?
What was it?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
He said something.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Okay, I quoted Andy Stanley.
Let me say again I don'tbelieve everything about anybody
who says anything that Imentioned.
I don't believe everythingwritten in a book that somebody
might have read as soon as yousay one name and agree with one
thing they've said.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
you've signed them up right.
Every letter sermon anyone'sever preached on that.
Yes, I'm with it.
But I think what he was sayingis are you the person that the
person you're looking for islooking for?
And the idea of being?
There's someone out there andGod, I'm praying for that person
.
God, who should I marry?
And well, hold on.
(37:00):
Are you the person Because youwant God to give you a spouse
that loves Jesus and loves youand knows how to be respectful
and treats their mom well and isgoing to be a great father for
your children and is generousand is strong, and you have all
(37:21):
these things that you want, andthen God's like well, if I gave
you that person right now, you'druin them.
Right, you would ruin it.
Are you the person that theperson you're looking for is
looking for?
And that's when God's personalwill starts to the rubber meets
(37:41):
the road here is well, are youbecoming the person that God has
called you to be, and that's somuch more important than what
you do?
Well, are you becoming theperson that God has called you
to be, and that's so much moreimportant than what you do.
You know one of my favoriteverses.
We've talked about this.
I think we did a whole podcaston our life verse before.
That was back at the oldbuilding, I think.
But one of my favorite versesis since I was little Isaiah 30,
(38:04):
21.
It says whether you turn to theright or to the left, your ears
will hear a voice behind yousaying this is the way, walk in
it.
And I love that verse becauseit talks about hearing God's
voice and his direction, havinga plan and a purpose for your
life.
God guides and directs oursteps and I love everything
about it.
I'm like, yes, that that becamemy life verse, except what was
(38:25):
so confusing.
It says, whether you turn tothe right or to the left, your
ears will hear a voice and it'slike well, hold on, wait, do.
I go right or left?
Speaker 3 (38:34):
Right, exactly.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
And it's almost as if God's saying I don't care, go
either way, just do it my way,because if you'll walk in my way
, I'll lead you in my will.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
And I used Psalm 32.8 .
I will instruct you with my eyeon you.
I know what's going on.
I'll lead you the way that youneed to go.
I'll let you make decisions,but you'll get where I'm.
If you'll obey, you'll getwhere I'm taking you.
(39:14):
And I think sometimes, well,here's a better example In the
forge, we started studying Peter, so we're in 1 Peter, peter, so
we're in.
We're in first Peter, and he'swriting a letter to the exiles,
the Christians that were drivenout of Jerusalem because,
(39:35):
remember, they were being huntedand put in prison and and they,
they were all left, they wereall having hardship.
And I know, I just want you tosee how Peter, who walked with
Jesus, denied Jesus, was unloyalto Jesus, who Jesus?
He repented and Jesus broughthim back in, and all you just
(39:59):
know who Peter is.
He's the one who heard forthree years the mind of Jesus.
Listen to what he says whenhe's writing a letter to those
exiles who are in trouble, andit's about them, but it's not
about them.
Listen to what he says, peter.
This is his greeting an apostleof Jesus Christ to those chosen
(40:23):
living as exiles dispersedabroad in a bunch of hard words
around the Mediterranean.
Okay, chosen according to theforeknowledge of God, the Father
, through the sanctifying workof the Spirit.
Okay, to be obedient?
(40:46):
Wow yeah, and to be sprinkledwith the blood of Jesus Christ.
So here we go.
What, what, oh?
This horrible thing hashappened to us.
What do we do?
What is God's will?
Well, let's start withobedience, stick with obedience.
(41:07):
Well, when I get further downthe road, you know what is God's
will To be obedient, let'sstart with that.
And I told the guys I said look, so this is what Peter's going
to say.
And it's all going to swing onone hinge Obedience, obedience.
Everything in 1 Peter that wetry to pull out and we say well,
(41:30):
this God it starts with thecontext is be obedient in your
suffering, in your exile, inyour mess.
And when we're talking aboutGod's personal will for you, for
you to get there, it's going tohinge on obedience.
He wants you to become morelike Christ.
(41:53):
So what does that look liketoday?
And if you keep saying yes tothe leadership of the Holy
Spirit, you'll end up where Godhas sent you.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Now, you know, it kind of reminds me of you know
fall's coming up and we lovethose corn mazes.
You know that farmer was cutout into a big field and you
walk in there and you never know, am I going right or left?
And everything starts to lookthe same.
It's almost as if God's got theyou know sky view cam in the
all 22 and he's looking down onthat maze and he can see exactly
(42:30):
where you need to go.
He can get you right whereyou're supposed to be.
He knows your, his plan and hispurpose for your life and
you're like well, god, do I turnright or left here?
And he goes either way.
Go either way on this one andas long as you keep doing it my
way, I'm going to get you whereyou need to go to get out of
this thing, to fulfill yourpurpose and your plan that I
(42:50):
have for you With my eye on you.
I'm going to tell you whetheryou go right or left.
This is the way.
Walk in it.
And I think here's why this isfreeing and this is why it's one
of my favorite sermons to talkabout is because we have always
at least I grew up believingGod's will was this destination,
(43:14):
this thing, this dot, and I hadto get that right.
And if I didn't get it right,then then I'm never going to be
happy, I'm never going to besatisfied in life, I'll never
experience joy or live andunderstand what it means to live
with purpose and potential,because I missed it.
You talked about marrying thewrong person.
(43:37):
And if Johnny marries the wrongperson, johnny marries Susie,
but Susie's the wrong person,well then Susie married the
wrong person and the guy thatwas supposed to marry Susie now
he married the wrong person andthe whole plan is just screwed
up.
All because one guy had a roughnight on a Saturday and woke up
in Vegas and said we should getmarried.
(43:58):
He screwed up the whole thing.
We think we minimize God's willto this minute little thing.
His will is so much bigger thanthat, and God is so much more
interested in who you'rebecoming than what you do.
(44:19):
So you could be a pastor, youcould be the next Charlie Kirk,
or you could be the greatest mom, you could be the greatest
doctor, you could be the youknow, we got tractors moving all
across our backfield here atthe church.
You could be the best backhoedriver on the planet.
(44:42):
And if you do it God's way,then you will begin to walk in
his will.
And when you get it wrong, godsay hey, man, I know you were
stepping out in faith there andI appreciate that I need you to
come back this way a little bit.
He's going to guide you.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
He's faithful to do that and I think a great example
is right after service onSunday, a guy came up to me one
of the guys back there directingthose backhoe drivers.
He said I really appreciatedyour sermon.
I'm a missionary and I've beenall over the world.
And he listed all these places.
(45:23):
The only one I can remember nowis Nigeria, where they've been
persecuting Christians so bad.
And he said this is how itlooks you look at what Jesus
wants you to do today, and thenthe next day, and then the next
day, and then the next dayyou're in Nigeria, and then the
(45:46):
next day're in Nigeria, and thenthe next day you're in South
America, and then the next dayyou're at a fresh wind church
spreading dirt on their backthing.
And the pastor greeted you lastweek and invited you to come.
And so, while you were in town,you came and you heard a sermon
about your own life.
(46:07):
And here I am because I justsaid yes to God all the way
through.
And so he said it happensexactly like that, and every
time I say I'm a missionary tosomeone, they say, well, oh man,
how do you come to thatdecision?
And he goes because I chose tolive for Jesusesus every day.
(46:28):
One yes at a time.
One yes at a time.
Um, my mom's favorite scripture.
Oh no, I can't remember thereference.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
I better look at it prove it.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
I've preached about that yesterday.
Let me, let me look it up.
Oh my gosh, how embarrassing isthis my mom's favorite verse.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
It's on her tombstone .
Yeah, you better, don't getthis one wrong.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
Anyways, it says sorrow lasts for the night, but
joy comes in the morning, andit's Psalm 35.
That's close Psalm 35.
That was close and does sorrowlast.
For tonight is importantbecause we're going to go
(47:16):
through sorrow, but joy comes inthe morning and we think, well,
joy will come in the future.
No, it comes in the morning thenext day God says look, I want
you to live like me and when youdo, you'll have joy in the
morning the next day.
God says look, I want you tolive like me and when you do,
you'll have joy in the morning.
You'll have joy in your sorrowand you might not always be
happy and it might be reallyrough, but you'll be like Paul
(47:41):
talking to the Philippians it'sfunny how Philippians flowed
into this next sermon series.
Like I said, it's never anaccident, right, and you're
going to have joy um, chained toa Roman guard sitting in your
house and you got all theseletters to write and you're like
Lord, how am I going to writeall these letters?
And people come in and say, hey, I'll write them and deliver
(48:02):
them and explain them toeverybody.
I mean, the Lord was justworking and he, he had joy, even
in the midst of what everybodyelse would say would be disaster
.
And so walk in his ways.
Walk in his ways.
Your personal will of God is tolive God's moral will, to live
(48:23):
a life worthy of the gospel ofJesus Christ.
And when you do, you'll end upwhere you're supposed to be, at
the right time.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
When you walk in his ways, God will lead you in his
will.
It happens every time.
It's why we start just aboutevery service by saying yes
before we even get started, andI know a lot of people probably
have heard me say that so manytimes now.
I think you've got a t-shirt,don't you?
I do, I do.
A lady made me a t-shirt for itone time that it might be easy
(48:55):
to just tune out at that point.
No, yep, that's what he alwayssays.
I say it because I believe itwith all my heart.
If we would say yes before weeven get started God, I'm not
putting any strings orconditions on this.
Whatever you have to say today,I say yes to it.
If you'll begin to live that way, god will put you in the right
(49:18):
moment to meet the right girl,and he'll teach you all the
things that you need to know tobe a great dad or to be a great
mom, and he'll teach you how youshould be a boss or how to be
an employee at this organizationand how to shine light there
and how to find purpose andsignificance in something that
you didn't even think that youwere called to.
(49:42):
God will lead you into all ofthat and, all of a sudden, doors
and opportunities begin to openand you start to sense God's
leading and calling and hey,this person's going through
something and I need you to gopray with them.
And all of a sudden you're likeis this why I'm here?
And it's one of the things Ilove about Bridget.
Bridget has worked a lot ofjobs that she hasn't necessarily
been thrilled with all the time, but she's constantly asking
(50:06):
God, why do you have me here?
What is my purpose here?
And she wants to live in that,to be the person God's called
her to be today.
And if we could get that, thenyou step away 20 years from now
and you look back and say, man,I can see his will and his
(50:29):
purpose all over my life.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
Most of us, though, when we're talking about that,
we can't get out from under thewill of God, so we take his
personal will for me, and thenwe look at his permissive will.
What do you want me to do?
So I can choose not to do thatif I don't like it.
(50:53):
That's where we're at asChristians.
If you grew up in the church, Iguarantee you this has crossed
your mind.
If I knew God's will, thenwould I choose it or would I not
choose it?
Then would I choose it or wouldI not choose it?
And sometimes the Lord saysthat's why you live for me every
day, and when we get to thosedecisions, you'll be ready to
(51:14):
follow me Right, that's man.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
this is powerful and I know Tim told everyone on
Sunday that this is a sermonthat changed my life, this idea,
and I think you know here'sanother one that a lot of people
get all upset about if youmention them.
But steven ferdick preached asermon called god's will is
whatever and we don't agree witheverything ferdick says, and we
(51:44):
don't agree of his footwear.
That idea, dude.
It changed so much for mebecause I was panicked.
I lived as a panicked Christian, thinking I'm going to miss it,
I'm going to miss it, I'm goingto miss it.
And that pressure of constantlysearching for some perfect plan
(52:11):
and all the while neglectingwho is God calling me to be
right now, because I'm sofocused on that thing and
missing it and I think a lot ofChristians are in that missing
it point.
Speaker 3 (52:26):
I think I missed it.
I'm not the person that Iexpected to be at this time.
Well, when you're living theLord, if you're going to choose
to live for the Lord day by day,moment by moment, circumstance
after circumstance, he'll showyou how to fix it.
That's right.
He'll show you which way to gofrom here.
Well, man, I'm really off thepath.
(52:48):
Matter of fact, I think Icircled back and I'm back at
camp and the Lord says that'sfine with me, live for me today,
because today you don't havetomorrow unless I allow it.
So live for me today.
What are we going to dotogether?
Speaker 2 (53:06):
today.
You know, the only time, theonly day, the only moment you
are guaranteed to live for Godis right now.
Right now, it's great to havegoals, it's great to have dreams
, and I want you, I want you toto dream big about what God
wants to do in your life.
(53:26):
I do what god could do in yourfamily if, if you'd be the
person he called.
I want you to dream about allof that and then go live for him
today we, we quote a guy um.
Speaker 3 (53:41):
His name is charles spurgeon, which he's a great
preacher great theologian and Idon't agree with everything he
ever said.
Okay, just so.
But he was fantastic.
He wanted to be a pastor, hewanted to be a preacher, he
wanted to be effective and hewas.
(54:03):
He preached.
The power of prayer he used todescribe the prayer room in the
bottom of his church was thisbasement.
You couldn't stand up, and hecalled it our power room.
This is what powers our church,and it was people that would go
in there and pray while he waspreaching.
He wasn't a great preacher andhis wife would get mad every now
(54:26):
and then and walk up the middleaisle in the church and grab
him she's a big woman, he was alittle guy and drag him out of
the church in front of everybody.
So when he thought, when he waslike I'm gonna serve god, I'm
gonna be this great pastor, Idon't think he had that in mind.
(54:46):
Right, and so um, so um, you'regoing to be what God has called
you to be today, and it mightnot be what you have in mind,
but you need to say yes beforeyou even get started, and that's
why everybody says Jesus got upin the morning.
He went off to the Lord byhimself.
He went off to say yes beforehe even got started, and that's
(55:10):
what our prayer life, ourdevotional life, should look
like For sure.
I'm afraid, sitting with you,we could talk about this for
about a month.
So I I think we coveredanything else that I didn't say.
That, uh, you really wanted,said on sunday, because I know
(55:33):
this was your sermon you knowI'm I'm planning on preaching
this sunday, so if there'sanything else, I'll get it in
there I'll just go ahead and
Speaker 2 (55:41):
re-preach his tim's tim's the right way right I I
just to say this because I don'twant you to miss this point If
you will walk in God's ways,he'll lead you in his will.
I want you to get that.
I know we've we've covered alot of ground today.
We've talked again about thosefour layers and aspects of God's
will.
Um, and I want you to walk inGod's purpose and his plan and
(56:07):
his will for your life as yourpastors.
That's what we want for you.
We want you to walk in his planand his will for you.
Speaker 3 (56:16):
And listen.
Here's the key aspect of that.
That will free you from thisburden of becoming this thing
that you think God wants you tobe.
He wants you to be like him inevery situation.
That might be tough, it mightbe easy.
(56:36):
I love my wife Well, I want youto be a guy that loves your
wife better than that.
Well, I'm all in right.
So when we say yes to God andthen we're like, okay, I've got
to make this decision, which wayam I going to end up?
We want to free you from that.
Just live for him, live a lifeworthy of the gospel, and
(56:58):
wherever you end up is where Godwanted you to be.
Speaker 2 (57:01):
Right and be free.
Yeah, be free from that.
Live free and say yes to himand trust that he'll.
He'll get you where where hewants you to go.
He is faithful Even when we'refaithless.
Even those times when you stepout in faith thinking this might
be what God wants, and you getit wrong, he is faithful to
(57:25):
bring you back.
This is the way that you shouldwalk in.
He's going to do it for you andso be encouraged in that.
I hope in all of this it setsyou free when it comes to God's
will and pursuing God's will foryour life.
Just begin to walk in his waysand God will lead you in his
(57:45):
will.
He's done it over and over andover again.
He's done it in Tim's life.
He's done it over and over andover again.
He's done it in Tim's life.
He's done it in my life, and Idon't know if this is where I
thought I'd be when I was, youknow, 13, 14 years old and God
called me to pastor.
There's nowhere else I'd ratherbe.
You know God is.
He's got me where he wants meand I'm doing it with people I
(58:06):
love and got a wife that I love,kids that we adore, you know,
and we're just trying to do itGod's way, day by day, saying
yes to him, and so I want toencourage you to do that.
Scripture doesn't say a wholelot on your future and who you
should marry and where youshould live, but it talks a
(58:28):
whole lot about how you shouldlive right now, the kind of
person you should be right now,and so I'm trying to remember
how you said this, somethingalong the lines of the best way
to find God's will for thefuture is to live faithfully for
Jesus today.
I think that's how you said itand that's true.
Live faithfully for Jesus today, and he'll lead you where he
(58:50):
wants you to go.
Will you pray for us, pastorTim?
Speaker 3 (58:53):
Father, we want to lift you up here.
I know Ryan and I circle thewagons on this and I don't even
know what he's going to preachabout next week, about this but
this is something that trips usall up.
God, I need to angle my life towhere you want me to go.
It's important to me, and Iwant to know, and God says, yes,
(59:15):
it's very important.
Live for me today and I willtake you there.
And, lord, we just that's partof living by faith is having
faith that God will get youwhere you need to be and we can
take the pressure off.
Lord, I know there's a lot ofpeople say well, I fail every
day.
I got this habit or thisaddiction, and it goes back to
(59:41):
this being obedient.
Do what I have for you today.
Worry about obeying me in thatsituation today.
You might not even be heretomorrow.
And, lord, it's hard for us,especially as we everything's
about us and we self judgeourselves.
And, man, if I was like thisperson or I was like that person
(01:00:03):
, you know I wouldn't be in thismess.
And and and, lord, I pray thatthey'll hear your voice.
Quit worrying about thosepeople.
Worry about being more like meand I can walk you out of this
mess and, father, that's a faiththat we just don't trust you to
(01:00:27):
be good to us.
We're expecting you to pound usbecause we didn't do what we
were supposed to do for the lastfive years, and now I'm useless
.
We know in our heads that that'snot true, but I pray that
you'll teach us in our heartsthat the best time to be what
(01:00:48):
God wants you to be is today.
Father, I don't know.
That's why I'm praying to you,lord.
I pray that you'll open ourhearts and minds so that we can
see that we can walk away fromour past by choosing to live.
Walk in your ways.
(01:01:08):
Today we can choose to live,walk away from our past, our
mistakes, no matter what theyare, if we choose to live for
you.
Today, father, I want to thankyou that you're in control.
Father, I want to thank youthat you're in control.
(01:01:30):
Yes, you've given us choice andsometimes we desire for you to
take it all away and just makeus.
And, lord, I know in my ownlife that if you would have
shown me what I was going to bedoing, I would probably did
everything I can to go theopposite way, and I'm sorry for
that.
I know a lot of people feel thesame way.
(01:01:52):
But I can tell you now I trustyou, father, I trust you.
So I want to become more likeyou today and let you worry
about my tomorrows.
Father, I lift up this wholechurch.
I'm sorry, church.
Tomorrow, father, I lift upthis whole church.
Sorry, church, if you'relistening to this prayer, I
(01:02:20):
started praying for myself, butthat's us right.
We're always praying how it'sgoing to affect me, but, lord, I
pray for our whole church rightnow, as we go through the
suffering that we've beenthrough this last week and the
suffering that's coming, andwe'll realize that you are good,
you always have been good andyou'll be good in the future.
And that joy comes in themorning of a day lived in
obedience In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Amen.
Thanks again for joining us forthis episode of the Midweek
Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how God is usingthis resource in your life, or
send any podcast questions ortopic ideas to podcast at
afreshwindorg.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
(01:03:04):
discover more in Christ, simplytext any amount to the number
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We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast broughtto you by A Fresh Wind Church.
Each week, our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined, as always,with Pastor Tim, and we have
kicked off a new series here atFresh Wind called God Just Tell
Me, and I think that's a prettycommon sentiment most of us have
felt at some point in our lifeGod just tell me.
We've got all these plans, allthese goals, all these dreams,
(00:50):
and sometimes it can feel soparalyzing.
God just tell me.
And so Tim.
I'm super excited about thisseries and you know, for those
avid midweek podcast listenersyou might have noticed we're a
week behind here.
Didn't get one out last weekand last week was a pretty rough
(01:13):
week.
It was a week and so you know ifyour head hasn't been buried in
the sand.
You know about what happenedwith Charlie Kirk and just the
devastation that's been to somany people, particularly his
family.
I mean his wife and his kidswere in attendance that day and
had to watch all that happen.
(01:34):
Just horrifying and your heartgoes out to them.
The school shooting that tookplace, I think, the same day
same day.
Um, and you look up and you'rejust like what is going on.
There was that girl who was, uh, knife down in, I think,
charlotte.
Yeah, um, you're like God, whaton earth is going on in the
(01:58):
world?
And uh, then, personally, um,my sister-in-law was 38 weeks
pregnant, was supposed to have ababy and a couple of days
before she was set to be induced, started having all this pain
and got rushed into the hospitaland ended up losing the baby.
Little Gracie didn't make it.
(02:20):
And so, as a family, we've beenstruggling and so, as a family,
we've been struggling.
And I talked to a couple peoplethis week.
Tim and I was like God's timingis never an accident.
That's true.
We had just started this seriesGod Just Tell Me and I had
talked about, you know, kind ofthe four layers or aspects of
(02:43):
God's will, god's sovereign will, the things he allows to happen
, god's moral will, kind of theway that he has determined that,
as humanity, we're to live andinteract with him and one
another.
I talked about God's permissivewill, those things that God
allows that we don't understand.
And then this week and I'm notsaying God was giving me a
(03:04):
sermon illustration, I'm notsaying God was trying to teach
us a lesson, I think.
But I do think we had anopportunity to live it out.
You know, sometimes we canpreach a sermon and it's like
well, that was good and we moveon.
This week we had to live it outand say man, is what I said on
(03:25):
Sunday?
Do I believe it on Monday whenI say God's good despite the
things that he allows?
That I don't agree with that.
I don't understand that.
I don't want that.
I would never pray for, even onmy greatest enemy, is he still
good in those moments and thisweek we had our family and our
(03:46):
country as a whole we had tostart living that thing out and
say man, even even here, god'sgood.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
It's interesting Cause I had a tragedy last week
too.
My uncle died, but he died at94 years old, with his entire
family around him, ready to gohome and be with Jesus, and I've
been thinking how those thingstrack together.
All these sudden things happen,those kids in Colorado, the
(04:23):
Charlie Kirk that are not whatwe expected.
We can accept sorrow and losswhen God does what we expect him
to do or allows things weexpect him to allow, like my
uncle dying at 94 with hisfamily around him going home to
heaven to see his Jesus and hiswife and him leaving preaching
(04:49):
the gospel.
He wrote the sermon that hisgrandson, who was the pastor,
preached.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
When I heard you say that, I was thinking golly, I
think I'm going to write my ownsermon.
I want to make sure they talkabout me good.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I think my wife's already written her sermon.
But I look at that and whathappens to us is, especially
when we're talking about, ifwe're going to segment this in
his different aspects of hiswill, especially in God's
sovereign will, we make it aboutus.
(05:26):
You know we have this.
We're selfish people and youknow and it's not wrong to say
God, how does this affect me?
What do you want me to do inthis situation?
Even though it's a tragedy,there's an earthquake, there's a
tornado, there's whatever, andsome kids or young families are
(05:48):
tragically lost.
Where am I in that?
Yeah, um, and sometimes thelord just says you're not in
this one.
Pray for the families.
I'll let you know when this isabout you, and I think we need
to be careful about that.
I think World War II is a greatexample and people say World
(06:13):
War II.
How is that a great exampleabout anything?
It was a monster war.
We went to war against monsterswho had lost their minds and
thought these horrific thingswere permissible.
And so how is God's sovereignwill him allowing Hitler to do
(06:41):
what he did?
What he allowed the well, thewhole axis of evil to do what he
did?
He allowed the whole axis ofevil to do what they did Back in
World War II.
That's what they called them,the axis and the allies.
And so we struggle with thatAll the people in the
concentration camps, all the notjust war with dignity.
(07:04):
Hey, I want your money and yourresources.
I'm going to come get them.
You know, put your dukes up,which is a weird way to be when
you think about it.
But we have a whole um laws onthe earth on how you're supposed
to fight wars, and they weredoing terrible things.
(07:26):
And how can you say that wasGod's sovereign will, that he
allowed that to happen?
And that's a struggle.
The Israelites were in war afterwar and it looked like the Lord
was zagging them on, you know.
But there are some things thatGod is setting up, and one of
(07:46):
those and this is why World WarII is a good example.
It was the establishment ofIsrael.
The Bible taught us that oneday, or prophesied that one day,
israel would be a nation again,and suddenly it is.
And I don't know how you getIsraelites from all over the
(08:12):
world, jews from all over theworld, to come and get another
country without a war, becausepeople just don't say hey, you
know what?
I got 100 million sectors orhectares, whatever they call
them, I'll just give you, andyou guys can be a nation.
That doesn't happen unlesssomething else happens.
So God allowed this to happenand suddenly Israel has a
(08:36):
country again.
Now did God say okay, I'm goingto make this guy named Adolf
and I'm going to sick him on allthese people, just so I can get
a country?
No, god didn't need to do that.
He just used what people werealready doing and his sovereign
(08:57):
will established Israel as acountry.
Now I know a lot of people aremad that they got a country.
Matter of fact, after they gota country.
Matter of fact, after they gotthe country, the United States
would not let any Jewish peoplehave visas to leave the country
because they knew Israel wasgoing to be attacked.
(09:18):
And the United States, if theydon't win, they don't win.
And so pilots from World War IIleft the country down in Mexico
, got down to Argentina to flyback over to help them fight
that six-day war, I think theycall it.
And right after they got theircountry, because they knew
(09:42):
everybody said if they get acountry, we're going to attack,
and they said, well, it's theircountry.
They knew everybody said ifthey get a country, we're going
to attack, and they said, well,it's their country, they'll have
to.
So it wasn't like the unitedstates said, hey, we're making a
country over there, and youguys know they thought they were
going to be destroyed.
And so that's history.
Guys, look it up, I know, um,you think that everybody on the
(10:04):
planet loved what was going onat that time.
No, most people on the planetthought they wouldn't make it.
But god said this is my will,yeah, I'm gonna establish this
country and uh, it's gonna comeafter you guys really screw up
the world.
And then, uh, this is what,this is what it's going to be
(10:27):
like.
And then Egypt, syria, jordanall of them got together and
attacked Israel.
God said you're not going towin.
And that's how sovereign willworks.
Sometimes he says I'm going toallow.
Sometimes he says I'm not goingto win and that's how sovereign
will works.
Sometimes he says I'm going toallow.
Sometimes he says I'm not goingto allow.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, that the sovereign will, the way I talked
about it in the sermon um, thesovereign wills the things that
God does and no one can stop it.
And this is a great example.
Here's all these people sayingwe're going to, we're going to
stop it, and God's like, no,you're not.
This is my sovereign will.
And I love what God says throughthe prophet Isaiah.
He says I declare the end fromthe beginning and from long ago,
(11:15):
what is not yet done, saying myplan will take place and I will
do all my will.
God says there are things thatI'm doing in the world and it's
going to happen, whether youlike it or not, whether you vote
for it or not, whether youfight a war over it or not.
These are the things that I'mgoing to do, because this is my
(11:39):
sovereign will, to bring thisabout, not just on the planet,
in the universe, the whole realmof what God is doing.
He says this is my will and itwill be accomplished.
And, man, we try to fightagainst it, we try to poke holes
in it, we try to do all thesethings and, truthfully, I don't
(12:01):
know that we'll understand itall.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Well, here's how I learned this truth, and it's not
very complicated.
First of all, when you'retalking about God's sovereign
will, you're not always involvedin it.
You're not always the guy youhave a drinking problem over
there.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I swallowed coffee down the wrong pipe, whew.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
We're not always the focus of what he's doing.
And I'll put it this way Ispent when I was young and
really smart.
I used to say things like whenI'd debate people at school
about different aspects ofdoctrine or whatever.
I would say this phrase and itbecame one of my catchphrases
(12:49):
God doesn't work that way, man.
You were really smart, I wassmart, and then he spent the
next 10 years of my life workingthat way, working his will
through what I said.
He wouldn't do that.
He wouldn't do that, hewouldn't allow that.
And I learned real close thatthat scripture that says my ways
(13:12):
are not your ways and my waysare past.
Finding out is truth.
And I know we think we're smart, I know we think we can go get
a PhD and whatever and you'rethe best thinker, but you'll
never outthink.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
God.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
He's got a plan and he's in control.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Well, the author of Proverbs said it right Many are
the plans in a person's heart,but it's the Lord's purpose that
prevails every time, over and,over and over again.
And I think it's good to dreamand have big plans and to have
big goals, but when it comes upagainst the will of God, you're
just a vapor that appears for alittle time and then, but a
(13:54):
moment then vanishes away,changed after four, we, we have
a we're.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
so I don't know if it's selfish, it's just humanity
, we're just human.
When something happens, howdoes that affect me?
I'm, I'm hurt, I'm, I'm sorryabout Charlie Kirk and the whole
thing.
How did we get to this positionthat you know someone who
disagrees with you you have tosilence?
(14:24):
Why?
Oh, he had a big movement.
We had to stop the movement.
What movement?
You know, you got a bunch ofkids standing up, looking at the
data, looking at the issues andsaying you know what?
I think this guy's right.
You're afraid of that.
(14:46):
How can Americans be afraid ofthat?
How can americans be afraid ofthat?
And you're like well, he'shurting and he's well, show me
one person.
he's shot in the neck, show meone person that he's hurt.
You know, if you're, if youthink someone else's ideas are
going to hurt you, you're,you're in revolutionary mode,
(15:07):
yeah, and that's uh this.
This country's supposed to bediverse enough that everybody
can have uh an opinion and Imean, that's what we, that's
what we stand for and we've gotto let people have their
opinions.
If you don't want to hear them,you don't have to listen to.
To hear them, you don't have tolisten to them, Just walk away.
(15:27):
You don't have to go to thoserallies or whatever they're
doing.
They've been a lot of peoplehave been doing this for years,
but I never watched one.
You know it's like this is notworth my time.
It was worth Charlie's time.
This is not worth my time.
It was worth Charlie's time andI think we need to step back
(15:51):
and as we look at last week andwe say, God, how does your
sovereign will apply here?
And I think the Lord, as my dadwould say, swings a lot of
straight licks with a crookedstick now and do I think that
god wanted charlie kirk to beassassinated?
(16:14):
no, did he call that guy to makehim assassinate charlie kirk?
No, god obeys his own commands.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Thou shalt not murder , but god does direct his will
after these tragedies happenyeah, and so this is where the
sovereign will of god bumpsright up against his permissive
will you know, and it's.
It's two sides of the same coin.
You know, there is God.
(16:47):
Says I'm going to do somethings in the world, it's going
to happen, and you can't stop it.
And then his permissive willsays but I'm going to, I'm going
to allow some things to happento things that I didn't even
will um, things that I didn'tchoose, things that you chose,
things that someone else choseand you don't like it.
(17:07):
And this week that's reallywhat I've had to wrestle with.
You know, God, why would youallow little Gracie to not make
it?
We sat out there in the waitingroom praying all night long.
How could you allow that, God?
(17:28):
How could you allow this tohappen to Charlie?
How could you allow it tohappen to his wife and his kids
Dad's?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
not coming home anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
How could you allow that to happen?
How could you allow it tohappen to those parents at that
school whose kids were shot thatday?
Parents at that school whosekids were were shot that day.
God, this is the thatpermissive will of god that did
god cause it.
No, I mean, you just talkedabout it.
God god's not out here callingpeople up to come shoot charlie
(17:56):
kurt.
But we live in a sinful, fallen, broken world and that we're
responsible for.
And because God loves us.
He has given us the freedom toto choose, and he wants us to
choose to love him, to live aholy life.
The problem is, many of us wechoose evil and it's not.
(18:19):
And I don't think peopleunderstand how big the sin is,
Because it's not just like sinhurts us.
The entire universe, the entireplanet was affected by sin.
Scripture says that creationgroans because of sin.
I mean when Adam sinned.
I mean all of a sudden theground started producing thorns
(18:41):
that it never produced before.
All of the entire planetchanged when sin entered the
world, and part of that wasdeath and loss entered the world
, and so God doesn't choose it.
God's will is that none shouldperish.
He wants all to have eternallife, life abundant, full and
(19:04):
free.
That's who he is, that's hiswill.
Full and free, that's who he is.
That's his will.
But he allows these thingsbecause we chose other things
other than him, and he allows itBecause, if not, he's a robot,
we're robots.
You know you will love me.
You know that was my joke onthat first sermon I preached was
(19:26):
.
You know, if I look up joyevery morning and say you love
me now.
That's not real love.
It's love when she chooses tolove me anyways, even when I get
it wrong.
Man, I'm so grateful that shedoes over and over and over
again, and that's what God hasdone for us, over and over and
(19:47):
over again.
But in the midst of all that,there's a lot of pain, there's a
lot of sorrow that comes andand God, while he didn't choose
it, he allows it.
Um, but then to say, you know,what did Paul tell the Romans?
He's working all thingstogether for the good of those
(20:09):
who love him and are calledaccording to his purpose.
I think there's, you know,three, two or three kind of big
ideas there.
One well, what is good, youknow, and we, we think good
means our prosperity, ourhappiness.
You know, the good that God isworking in your life is that you
look more like Jesus,Absolutely, and so that means it
(20:30):
might not feel good and itmight not end good.
Yeah, look at all the disciples.
Yeah, look at Charlie.
Yeah, the end goal here, thegood that God's going to work,
is in that pain and in thatsorrow.
You're going to learn to looklike Jesus and it's going to
hurt, it's going to work is inthat pain and in that sorrow.
You're going to learn to looklike Jesus and it's going to
hurt.
It's going to feel like walkingthrough hell, but you're going
(20:54):
to look like my son.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
So we look at God's sovereign will and then that
everything's going to work outthe way he has planned.
But he gives us permissive willinside that plan.
And so it's like, why?
Why are you doing this?
(21:16):
And God is saying, look, I'vegiven you what you need for this
not to happen.
That's God's moral will.
For this not to happen, that'sGod's moral will.
This stuff doesn't have tohappen.
If you'll do my will, which isThou shalt not murder, Right?
(21:37):
Thou shalt not do all theseother things.
Don't eat the apple, and Graciewould have never died, Right?
And that's, that's the.
It gets big and these all thisthe will of God is you're
starting to see as a universalconcept, not universal as huge
(22:03):
like the universe.
This is how things happen.
And one thing I respectscientists about.
A good scientist when you askhim what is the speed of light,
he'll say 186,000 feet persecond in our solar system,
(22:23):
Because they don't know reallyhow fast light is in another
solar system with differentgravity and all that kind of
stuff.
A good scientist will say wethink that star did this this
many years ago, based on thelight in our solar system, and
we forget those.
(22:44):
There's bigger things out there.
God allowed this to happenbecause, well, I don't
understand.
Well, because you don't haveall the data, you don't know
what's going on.
You don't know what God's doing, but he wants to teach us.
(23:06):
Hey, it doesn't have to be thishard.
Here's my moral will.
If you'll do this, I will blessyou.
I will bless you in the waythat I want to bless you.
That's better for you than theway you want to bless yourself,
and those are hard concepts tograb a hold of because they all
(23:28):
go together.
You know what's your moral will.
Well, if we all live God's moralwill, it wouldn't be this tough
.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, it's, I'm trying to figure out.
It can't be a third side to thesame coin, so that doesn't work
, but these do all start to gotogether.
You know you were given thisillustration before we jumped on
the podcast is?
You and I were just kind oftalking through some ideas about
(23:59):
you know God wants, if Godneeds you to be at this park
this time, at this day, or needsomeone to be at that part, you
don't even have to be you, um,but if that's his sovereign will
I need someone to come do thisthing?
He'll.
He'll make sure someone's thereto go do the thing that he
needs to have done.
(24:19):
And all along the way you're.
You were talking about howyou'll make all kinds of choices
during that process.
Right, and, but you'll end upat that park.
You'll end up at that park atthe right time to see the right
person.
And you're, you're thinking,well, how?
How does all that make sense?
Cause I, I chose this part andI chose this, and I didn't
(24:41):
choose this.
You know, my car didn't startor whatever, or, you know, got
stuck in traffic.
I didn't choose that.
But then, you know, then God'smoral will kicks in.
Well, because you know I'm I'mgoing to live God's way.
I went the speed limit, or youknow, I, I saw someone over here
and they look like they needed,they needed help, and so I
pulled over to help that person,because that's the kind of
(25:02):
person God's called me to be.
And all this stuff starts tofactor in.
Right, I'm trying to live God'sway, or I'm choosing not to.
And then I chose this thinghere and, in my frustration and
anger over the car, I stormedand I threw a fit and it blew up
.
This whole thing.
That was a choice.
And then, in all of it, youended up at that park to talk to
(25:23):
that person that God neededsomeone to talk to, and you're
like how does it work?
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Right, because I made bad choices and I still ended
up there.
You know, and I think that'sGod gave us emotions and you
guys out there, you need to feelthese next few weeks.
You need to feel.
Look at our country.
I know everybody's accusing um,everybody who said about
(25:51):
charlie, about not caring aboutthe kids in colorado, but
nobody's mentioned the 19 peoplewho were shot in uh chicago
last weekend either and two ofthem died, and and I can go on,
nobody's mentioning the peoplein nigeria that are persecuting
for their Christianity.
Nobody's mentioning all thesedifferent things everywhere
(26:14):
that's going in the world,unless somehow it applies to
their agenda.
And there we go again, sayingthis is all about me.
If it applies to my agenda,then I care.
And then if I don't, and I getit.
I'm a student of humanity and Ihave been for most of my adult
life.
Why do people do the thingsthat they do?
(26:36):
And if you've got a connectionto someone, you're going to
notice things bad that happensto that person more than you
would from someone that youdon't know.
So I think we should stop this.
Why don't you care about thesepeople?
Because there's eight billionof us and I guarantee you our
tragedy last week little gracie,my uncle and charlie kirk there
(27:02):
was a lot of people affected bya lot of other deaths around
this world that need to be caredabout too.
So let's lay that down we're allhurting.
This is crazy On both sides ofthe political argument, which I
don't know why that's an issue,but let's face it.
(27:23):
Everybody knows that if we letthis kind of stuff go on, it's
going to be war.
Right, and we know what warslook like.
The last one was only 80 yearsago, so, and the United States
has been fighting a war, and Italk about the big war.
And they're saying, well, youdidn't mention Korea, you didn't
(27:44):
mention Vietnam, you didn'tmention, you know, the middle
east war that we've been in.
And I'll say, yeah, and Ididn't, um, mention the indian
war we're in, for we were in for60 years as we drove them all
over the map.
Uh, I didn't mention that oneeither.
Oh, and the mexican-americanwar?
And what about the war of 1812?
You, you didn't mention thatone.
(28:05):
It's like come on, guys, let'sbe thinking human beings.
We need to put our foot down,all of us, and say, hey, this
isn't right.
We have outside influences thatare trying to divide us and
destroy us.
Russia, china, they're allcommenting on this Any way that
(28:30):
they can spark something in theUnited States.
We're getting them out ofEurope.
Iran, of course we think of ourenemies, but we're getting kind
of weird bots from nations thatwe think are our friends.
And that's not even the biggestissue.
The biggest issue is that Satanis influencing us and we're
(28:54):
writing things that we nevershould have written.
You know how?
I know that's true Becausepeople's first reaction online
has been brought down Ah, thatwas crazy.
I shouldn't have said that.
And I know that's going on.
And listen, at this church weforgive you.
We forgive you because we'reangry Everybody's angry and
(29:16):
sometimes, when we're angry, wedon't do the righteous thing.
The problem is anger is God'sgift and they're like oh no,
here we go.
But it is.
It is God made us in his imageand God gets angry, but it's a
righteous anger and we get angrywhen there's senseless loss and
(29:38):
it's okay to feel that way.
But, man, I tell you, we needto watch it.
When something happens underGod's sovereign will and his
permissible will, we need towatch it when we jump in there
and get mad because someone'susing it to their advantage.
(29:58):
Back off, back off, you aremessing with a God who hears and
a God who sees and you'restepping all over that, saying
well, this was this and that wasthat.
And sometimes God says, no,that was just me, right, and
(30:21):
you're not that important.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah, we love to come up with an answer for all the
things that God does.
You know, and sometimes youknow you talked about how you
were so smart God doesn't do it.
Sometimes be smart enough tosay I don't know.
Yeah, you know, even my son,gavin.
(30:44):
He was writing a card to hopeafter everything had happened
and he had started to write thatverse.
You know, god works all thingstogether for good and he goes
Dad.
It just doesn't seem right inthe moment and I said, gavin,
it's true.
It's true.
Now we've got to talk aboutagain.
What that good is Right, butit's a hard truth to hear in
(31:09):
moments like this, yeah, and,and we, we try and sometimes
it's with the best intentions aschristians, to we try to say
encouraging things god's gonnause this in your life and
sometimes it just sucks.
Yeah, just sucks, and we don'tknow.
We don't know what God'ssovereign will was and all that.
(31:30):
But I can trust that God isgood and I shared it in the
sermons.
I don't want to reshare itagain.
But what Troy Reed said whenthey lost their son the
problem's with me, not with GodRight, he's still good man.
(31:51):
That's been one of those things.
It marked me that when timeslike this happen, if I feel like
God's not good, if I feel likeGod's not holding up his end of
the bargain, whatever thesituation that problem's with me
, god is still God.
He is faithful.
Even when I am faithless, godis still God.
He is faithful even when I amfaithless and somehow, in his
(32:13):
sovereignty and in hispermissive will and even in his
moral will, and using how I,however imperfectly, I try to
follow him, he's going to makesure his plan gets accomplished.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
And in all that, we have to go to his personal will.
For me, what am I supposed todo?
And here's the problem.
This is what I preached abouton Sunday, so we'll just roll
right into that one.
We look at all those God'ssovereign will and we drop them
(32:48):
below God's will.
For me, right, because it'sabout me.
It's about me.
I don't know if you knew it,tim, but this is about me, right
?
And so when someone dies, we'relike God.
What are you trying to show me?
And sometimes, you know, god'sstill small voice is saying I
(33:09):
don't kill people to teach you alesson.
It's not about you.
And that's when you have to saythe just shall live by faith.
God is good, I believe it andI'm going to live by faith.
But everything that anybodysays anywhere at any time is
about me.
And because humanity is selfish, and sometimes it's, it's hard
(33:33):
to uh, get off the high horse,and and as you get older, though
I think you'll all agree thatyou realize I can't fix that.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
I remember when Ty was little and he had this eye
that started to cross, and whenwe started taking him to the
doctor, they said, man, he's alittle old for that to start
happening.
We'd like to run some othertests.
And then you're like well, whatare those tests for?
Like well, in a lot of kids, westart seeing this if there's a
(34:07):
tumor or something developing.
And, man, I, a lot of kids, westart seeing this if there's a
tumor or something developing.
And man, I remember going homestanding in my shower crying,
god, why would you do this to me?
And it was that still, what areyou talking about?
You think I would do that toyour son to teach you a lesson?
(34:29):
What kind of monster do youthink I am?
But, man, we do.
We turn it all about me and so,yeah, it's easy to do, we've
all done it.
We take God's personal will forus and we put it on top of this
pile, because it's the mostimportant thing what is your
(34:53):
plan for me?
And it's like, man, if youwouldn't, if you'd get the first
couple right.
And this is kind of, I think,where your sermon was going on
Sunday.
And man, I remember calling yousaying you had offered to take
the sermon because of everythinggoing on this week, which I
appreciate.
Thank you for doing that, bythe way.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I was like man don't screw it up.
This is my favorite sermon.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
I know, and this is your opportunity to say
everything I didn't preach.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
But, man, if we would get the first three right, this
one kind of takes care ofitself.
You know, the problem is and Isaid this the first week when I
was talking about kind of God'smoral will is we want the fruit
without the faithfulness and wewant the blessing without the
obedience.
Right, we want God's big,superseding plan for my life.
(35:46):
Who should I marry?
Where should I work?
What do I do with my kids, youknow?
What school do we send them to?
We want all of these things,but then we don't want to be
faithful right here, and sothat's what you were talking
about on Sunday.
We can lose sight of God's planand purpose for our life
because we're so focused on thefuture, we won't be the kind of
(36:09):
person God's telling us to betoday.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Didn't Andy Stanley say something about that when he
was talking about dating andmarriage?
What was it?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
He said something.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Okay, I quoted Andy Stanley.
Let me say again I don'tbelieve everything about anybody
who says anything that Imentioned.
I don't believe everythingwritten in a book that somebody
might have read as soon as yousay one name and agree with one
thing they've said.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
you've signed them up right.
Every letter sermon anyone'sever preached on that.
Yes, I'm with it.
But I think what he was sayingis are you the person that the
person you're looking for islooking for?
And the idea of being?
There's someone out there andGod, I'm praying for that person
.
God, who should I marry?
And well, hold on.
(37:00):
Are you the person Because youwant God to give you a spouse
that loves Jesus and loves youand knows how to be respectful
and treats their mom well and isgoing to be a great father for
your children and is generousand is strong, and you have all
(37:21):
these things that you want, andthen God's like well, if I gave
you that person right now, you'druin them.
Right, you would ruin it.
Are you the person that theperson you're looking for is
looking for?
And that's when God's personalwill starts to the rubber meets
(37:41):
the road here is well, are youbecoming the person that God has
called you to be, and that's somuch more important than what
you do?
Well, are you becoming theperson that God has called you
to be, and that's so much moreimportant than what you do.
You know one of my favoriteverses.
We've talked about this.
I think we did a whole podcaston our life verse before.
That was back at the oldbuilding, I think.
But one of my favorite versesis since I was little Isaiah 30,
(38:04):
21.
It says whether you turn to theright or to the left, your ears
will hear a voice behind yousaying this is the way, walk in
it.
And I love that verse becauseit talks about hearing God's
voice and his direction, havinga plan and a purpose for your
life.
God guides and directs oursteps and I love everything
about it.
I'm like, yes, that that becamemy life verse, except what was
(38:25):
so confusing.
It says, whether you turn tothe right or to the left, your
ears will hear a voice and it'slike well, hold on, wait, do.
I go right or left?
Speaker 3 (38:34):
Right, exactly.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
And it's almost as if God's saying I don't care, go
either way, just do it my way,because if you'll walk in my way
, I'll lead you in my will.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
And I used Psalm 32.8 .
I will instruct you with my eyeon you.
I know what's going on.
I'll lead you the way that youneed to go.
I'll let you make decisions,but you'll get where I'm.
If you'll obey, you'll getwhere I'm taking you.
(39:14):
And I think sometimes, well,here's a better example In the
forge, we started studying Peter, so we're in 1 Peter, peter, so
we're in.
We're in first Peter, and he'swriting a letter to the exiles,
the Christians that were drivenout of Jerusalem because,
(39:35):
remember, they were being huntedand put in prison and and they,
they were all left, they wereall having hardship.
And I know, I just want you tosee how Peter, who walked with
Jesus, denied Jesus, was unloyalto Jesus, who Jesus?
He repented and Jesus broughthim back in, and all you just
(39:59):
know who Peter is.
He's the one who heard forthree years the mind of Jesus.
Listen to what he says whenhe's writing a letter to those
exiles who are in trouble, andit's about them, but it's not
about them.
Listen to what he says, peter.
This is his greeting an apostleof Jesus Christ to those chosen
(40:23):
living as exiles dispersedabroad in a bunch of hard words
around the Mediterranean.
Okay, chosen according to theforeknowledge of God, the Father
, through the sanctifying workof the Spirit.
Okay, to be obedient?
(40:46):
Wow yeah, and to be sprinkledwith the blood of Jesus Christ.
So here we go.
What, what, oh?
This horrible thing hashappened to us.
What do we do?
What is God's will?
Well, let's start withobedience, stick with obedience.
(41:07):
Well, when I get further downthe road, you know what is God's
will To be obedient, let'sstart with that.
And I told the guys I said look, so this is what Peter's going
to say.
And it's all going to swing onone hinge Obedience, obedience.
Everything in 1 Peter that wetry to pull out and we say well,
(41:30):
this God it starts with thecontext is be obedient in your
suffering, in your exile, inyour mess.
And when we're talking aboutGod's personal will for you, for
you to get there, it's going tohinge on obedience.
He wants you to become morelike Christ.
(41:53):
So what does that look liketoday?
And if you keep saying yes tothe leadership of the Holy
Spirit, you'll end up where Godhas sent you.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Now, you know, it kind of reminds me of you know
fall's coming up and we lovethose corn mazes.
You know that farmer was cutout into a big field and you
walk in there and you never know, am I going right or left?
And everything starts to lookthe same.
It's almost as if God's got theyou know sky view cam in the
all 22 and he's looking down onthat maze and he can see exactly
(42:30):
where you need to go.
He can get you right whereyou're supposed to be.
He knows your, his plan and hispurpose for your life and
you're like well, god, do I turnright or left here?
And he goes either way.
Go either way on this one andas long as you keep doing it my
way, I'm going to get you whereyou need to go to get out of
this thing, to fulfill yourpurpose and your plan that I
(42:50):
have for you With my eye on you.
I'm going to tell you whetheryou go right or left.
This is the way.
Walk in it.
And I think here's why this isfreeing and this is why it's one
of my favorite sermons to talkabout is because we have always
at least I grew up believingGod's will was this destination,
(43:14):
this thing, this dot, and I hadto get that right.
And if I didn't get it right,then then I'm never going to be
happy, I'm never going to besatisfied in life, I'll never
experience joy or live andunderstand what it means to live
with purpose and potential,because I missed it.
You talked about marrying thewrong person.
(43:37):
And if Johnny marries the wrongperson, johnny marries Susie,
but Susie's the wrong person,well then Susie married the
wrong person and the guy thatwas supposed to marry Susie now
he married the wrong person andthe whole plan is just screwed
up.
All because one guy had a roughnight on a Saturday and woke up
in Vegas and said we should getmarried.
(43:58):
He screwed up the whole thing.
We think we minimize God's willto this minute little thing.
His will is so much bigger thanthat, and God is so much more
interested in who you'rebecoming than what you do.
(44:19):
So you could be a pastor, youcould be the next Charlie Kirk,
or you could be the greatest mom, you could be the greatest
doctor, you could be the youknow, we got tractors moving all
across our backfield here atthe church.
You could be the best backhoedriver on the planet.
(44:42):
And if you do it God's way,then you will begin to walk in
his will.
And when you get it wrong, godsay hey, man, I know you were
stepping out in faith there andI appreciate that I need you to
come back this way a little bit.
He's going to guide you.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
He's faithful to do that and I think a great example
is right after service onSunday, a guy came up to me one
of the guys back there directingthose backhoe drivers.
He said I really appreciatedyour sermon.
I'm a missionary and I've beenall over the world.
And he listed all these places.
(45:23):
The only one I can remember nowis Nigeria, where they've been
persecuting Christians so bad.
And he said this is how itlooks you look at what Jesus
wants you to do today, and thenthe next day, and then the next
day, and then the next dayyou're in Nigeria, and then the
(45:46):
next day're in Nigeria, and thenthe next day you're in South
America, and then the next dayyou're at a fresh wind church
spreading dirt on their backthing.
And the pastor greeted you lastweek and invited you to come.
And so, while you were in town,you came and you heard a sermon
about your own life.
(46:07):
And here I am because I justsaid yes to God all the way
through.
And so he said it happensexactly like that, and every
time I say I'm a missionary tosomeone, they say, well, oh man,
how do you come to thatdecision?
And he goes because I chose tolive for Jesusesus every day.
(46:28):
One yes at a time.
One yes at a time.
Um, my mom's favorite scripture.
Oh no, I can't remember thereference.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
I better look at it prove it.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
I've preached about that yesterday.
Let me, let me look it up.
Oh my gosh, how embarrassing isthis my mom's favorite verse.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
It's on her tombstone .
Yeah, you better, don't getthis one wrong.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
Anyways, it says sorrow lasts for the night, but
joy comes in the morning, andit's Psalm 35.
That's close Psalm 35.
That was close and does sorrowlast.
For tonight is importantbecause we're going to go
(47:16):
through sorrow, but joy comes inthe morning and we think, well,
joy will come in the future.
No, it comes in the morning thenext day God says look, I want
you to live like me and when youdo, you'll have joy in the
morning the next day.
God says look, I want you tolive like me and when you do,
you'll have joy in the morning.
You'll have joy in your sorrowand you might not always be
happy and it might be reallyrough, but you'll be like Paul
(47:41):
talking to the Philippians it'sfunny how Philippians flowed
into this next sermon series.
Like I said, it's never anaccident, right, and you're
going to have joy um, chained toa Roman guard sitting in your
house and you got all theseletters to write and you're like
Lord, how am I going to writeall these letters?
And people come in and say, hey, I'll write them and deliver
(48:02):
them and explain them toeverybody.
I mean, the Lord was justworking and he, he had joy, even
in the midst of what everybodyelse would say would be disaster
.
And so walk in his ways.
Walk in his ways.
Your personal will of God is tolive God's moral will, to live
(48:23):
a life worthy of the gospel ofJesus Christ.
And when you do, you'll end upwhere you're supposed to be, at
the right time.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
When you walk in his ways, God will lead you in his
will.
It happens every time.
It's why we start just aboutevery service by saying yes
before we even get started, andI know a lot of people probably
have heard me say that so manytimes now.
I think you've got a t-shirt,don't you?
I do, I do.
A lady made me a t-shirt for itone time that it might be easy
(48:55):
to just tune out at that point.
No, yep, that's what he alwayssays.
I say it because I believe itwith all my heart.
If we would say yes before weeven get started God, I'm not
putting any strings orconditions on this.
Whatever you have to say today,I say yes to it.
If you'll begin to live that way, god will put you in the right
(49:18):
moment to meet the right girl,and he'll teach you all the
things that you need to know tobe a great dad or to be a great
mom, and he'll teach you how youshould be a boss or how to be
an employee at this organizationand how to shine light there
and how to find purpose andsignificance in something that
you didn't even think that youwere called to.
(49:42):
God will lead you into all ofthat and, all of a sudden, doors
and opportunities begin to openand you start to sense God's
leading and calling and hey,this person's going through
something and I need you to gopray with them.
And all of a sudden you're likeis this why I'm here?
And it's one of the things Ilove about Bridget.
Bridget has worked a lot ofjobs that she hasn't necessarily
been thrilled with all the time, but she's constantly asking
(50:06):
God, why do you have me here?
What is my purpose here?
And she wants to live in that,to be the person God's called
her to be today.
And if we could get that, thenyou step away 20 years from now
and you look back and say, man,I can see his will and his
(50:29):
purpose all over my life.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
Most of us, though, when we're talking about that,
we can't get out from under thewill of God, so we take his
personal will for me, and thenwe look at his permissive will.
What do you want me to do?
So I can choose not to do thatif I don't like it.
(50:53):
That's where we're at asChristians.
If you grew up in the church, Iguarantee you this has crossed
your mind.
If I knew God's will, thenwould I choose it or would I not
choose it?
Then would I choose it or wouldI not choose it?
And sometimes the Lord saysthat's why you live for me every
day, and when we get to thosedecisions, you'll be ready to
(51:14):
follow me Right, that's man.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
this is powerful and I know Tim told everyone on
Sunday that this is a sermonthat changed my life, this idea,
and I think you know here'sanother one that a lot of people
get all upset about if youmention them.
But steven ferdick preached asermon called god's will is
whatever and we don't agree witheverything ferdick says, and we
(51:44):
don't agree of his footwear.
That idea, dude.
It changed so much for mebecause I was panicked.
I lived as a panicked Christian, thinking I'm going to miss it,
I'm going to miss it, I'm goingto miss it.
And that pressure of constantlysearching for some perfect plan
(52:11):
and all the while neglectingwho is God calling me to be
right now, because I'm sofocused on that thing and
missing it and I think a lot ofChristians are in that missing
it point.
Speaker 3 (52:26):
I think I missed it.
I'm not the person that Iexpected to be at this time.
Well, when you're living theLord, if you're going to choose
to live for the Lord day by day,moment by moment, circumstance
after circumstance, he'll showyou how to fix it.
That's right.
He'll show you which way to gofrom here.
Well, man, I'm really off thepath.
(52:48):
Matter of fact, I think Icircled back and I'm back at
camp and the Lord says that'sfine with me, live for me today,
because today you don't havetomorrow unless I allow it.
So live for me today.
What are we going to dotogether?
Speaker 2 (53:06):
today.
You know, the only time, theonly day, the only moment you
are guaranteed to live for Godis right now.
Right now, it's great to havegoals, it's great to have dreams
, and I want you, I want you toto dream big about what God
wants to do in your life.
(53:26):
I do what god could do in yourfamily if, if you'd be the
person he called.
I want you to dream about allof that and then go live for him
today we, we quote a guy um.
Speaker 3 (53:41):
His name is charles spurgeon, which he's a great
preacher great theologian and Idon't agree with everything he
ever said.
Okay, just so.
But he was fantastic.
He wanted to be a pastor, hewanted to be a preacher, he
wanted to be effective and hewas.
(54:03):
He preached.
The power of prayer he used todescribe the prayer room in the
bottom of his church was thisbasement.
You couldn't stand up, and hecalled it our power room.
This is what powers our church,and it was people that would go
in there and pray while he waspreaching.
He wasn't a great preacher andhis wife would get mad every now
(54:26):
and then and walk up the middleaisle in the church and grab
him she's a big woman, he was alittle guy and drag him out of
the church in front of everybody.
So when he thought, when he waslike I'm gonna serve god, I'm
gonna be this great pastor, Idon't think he had that in mind.
(54:46):
Right, and so um, so um, you'regoing to be what God has called
you to be today, and it mightnot be what you have in mind,
but you need to say yes beforeyou even get started, and that's
why everybody says Jesus got upin the morning.
He went off to the Lord byhimself.
He went off to say yes beforehe even got started, and that's
(55:10):
what our prayer life, ourdevotional life, should look
like For sure.
I'm afraid, sitting with you,we could talk about this for
about a month.
So I I think we coveredanything else that I didn't say.
That, uh, you really wanted,said on sunday, because I know
(55:33):
this was your sermon you knowI'm I'm planning on preaching
this sunday, so if there'sanything else, I'll get it in
there I'll just go ahead and
Speaker 2 (55:41):
re-preach his tim's tim's the right way right I I
just to say this because I don'twant you to miss this point If
you will walk in God's ways,he'll lead you in his will.
I want you to get that.
I know we've we've covered alot of ground today.
We've talked again about thosefour layers and aspects of God's
will.
Um, and I want you to walk inGod's purpose and his plan and
(56:07):
his will for your life as yourpastors.
That's what we want for you.
We want you to walk in his planand his will for you.
Speaker 3 (56:16):
And listen.
Here's the key aspect of that.
That will free you from thisburden of becoming this thing
that you think God wants you tobe.
He wants you to be like him inevery situation.
That might be tough, it mightbe easy.
(56:36):
I love my wife Well, I want youto be a guy that loves your
wife better than that.
Well, I'm all in right.
So when we say yes to God andthen we're like, okay, I've got
to make this decision, which wayam I going to end up?
We want to free you from that.
Just live for him, live a lifeworthy of the gospel, and
(56:58):
wherever you end up is where Godwanted you to be.
Speaker 2 (57:01):
Right and be free.
Yeah, be free from that.
Live free and say yes to himand trust that he'll.
He'll get you where where hewants you to go.
He is faithful Even when we'refaithless.
Even those times when you stepout in faith thinking this might
be what God wants, and you getit wrong, he is faithful to
(57:25):
bring you back.
This is the way that you shouldwalk in.
He's going to do it for you andso be encouraged in that.
I hope in all of this it setsyou free when it comes to God's
will and pursuing God's will foryour life.
Just begin to walk in his waysand God will lead you in his
(57:45):
will.
He's done it over and over andover again.
He's done it in Tim's life.
He's done it over and over andover again.
He's done it in Tim's life.
He's done it in my life, and Idon't know if this is where I
thought I'd be when I was, youknow, 13, 14 years old and God
called me to pastor.
There's nowhere else I'd ratherbe.
You know God is.
He's got me where he wants meand I'm doing it with people I
(58:06):
love and got a wife that I love,kids that we adore, you know,
and we're just trying to do itGod's way, day by day, saying
yes to him, and so I want toencourage you to do that.
Scripture doesn't say a wholelot on your future and who you
should marry and where youshould live, but it talks a
(58:28):
whole lot about how you shouldlive right now, the kind of
person you should be right now,and so I'm trying to remember
how you said this, somethingalong the lines of the best way
to find God's will for thefuture is to live faithfully for
Jesus today.
I think that's how you said itand that's true.
Live faithfully for Jesus today, and he'll lead you where he
(58:50):
wants you to go.
Will you pray for us, pastorTim?
Speaker 3 (58:53):
Father, we want to lift you up here.
I know Ryan and I circle thewagons on this and I don't even
know what he's going to preachabout next week, about this but
this is something that trips usall up.
God, I need to angle my life towhere you want me to go.
It's important to me, and Iwant to know, and God says, yes,
(59:15):
it's very important.
Live for me today and I willtake you there.
And, lord, we just that's partof living by faith is having
faith that God will get youwhere you need to be and we can
take the pressure off.
Lord, I know there's a lot ofpeople say well, I fail every
day.
I got this habit or thisaddiction, and it goes back to
(59:41):
this being obedient.
Do what I have for you today.
Worry about obeying me in thatsituation today.
You might not even be heretomorrow.
And, lord, it's hard for us,especially as we everything's
about us and we self judgeourselves.
And, man, if I was like thisperson or I was like that person
(01:00:03):
, you know I wouldn't be in thismess.
And and and, lord, I pray thatthey'll hear your voice.
Quit worrying about thosepeople.
Worry about being more like meand I can walk you out of this
mess and, father, that's a faiththat we just don't trust you to
(01:00:27):
be good to us.
We're expecting you to pound usbecause we didn't do what we
were supposed to do for the lastfive years, and now I'm useless
.
We know in our heads that that'snot true, but I pray that
you'll teach us in our heartsthat the best time to be what
(01:00:48):
God wants you to be is today.
Father, I don't know.
That's why I'm praying to you,lord.
I pray that you'll open ourhearts and minds so that we can
see that we can walk away fromour past by choosing to live.
Walk in your ways.
(01:01:08):
Today we can choose to live,walk away from our past, our
mistakes, no matter what theyare, if we choose to live for
you.
Today, father, I want to thankyou that you're in control.
Father, I want to thank youthat you're in control.
(01:01:30):
Yes, you've given us choice andsometimes we desire for you to
take it all away and just makeus.
And, lord, I know in my ownlife that if you would have
shown me what I was going to bedoing, I would probably did
everything I can to go theopposite way, and I'm sorry for
that.
I know a lot of people feel thesame way.
(01:01:52):
But I can tell you now I trustyou, father, I trust you.
So I want to become more likeyou today and let you worry
about my tomorrows.
Father, I lift up this wholechurch.
I'm sorry, church.
Tomorrow, father, I lift upthis whole church.
Sorry, church, if you'relistening to this prayer, I
(01:02:20):
started praying for myself, butthat's us right.
We're always praying how it'sgoing to affect me, but, lord, I
pray for our whole church rightnow, as we go through the
suffering that we've beenthrough this last week and the
suffering that's coming, andwe'll realize that you are good,
you always have been good andyou'll be good in the future.
And that joy comes in themorning of a day lived in
obedience In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Amen.
Thanks again for joining us forthis episode of the Midweek
Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how God is usingthis resource in your life, or
send any podcast questions ortopic ideas to podcast at
afreshwindorg.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
(01:03:04):
discover more in Christ, simplytext any amount to the number
84321.
We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
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