Discovering God’s Will through Prayer

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Transcript:

We’re going to be in James chapter 1, speaking of prayer this morning. James chapter 1. And as we continue on with this look, and this will be the last day that we’ll look at this for this series, as we look through this series of lessons on how to find God’s will, we can’t ignore the aspect of prayer in all this.

As we’ve talked about the different ways, the different ingredients, if you want to put it that way, in seeking God’s will, we talk some about the attitude to begin with you know there’s got to be an attitude of obedience have you done the last thing God asked you to uh because I really I really I read through the scriptures and the way I see God operate in there I don’t see where a lot of times he’s going to give us new revelation when we haven’t listened to what he’s told us in the past and I think I shared with you. That’s why I always chuckled when I would see those tabloids in the supermarket when I worked at the supermarket. Now I just don’t pay attention.

But when I’d see them there that say new Bible predictions for 2005 or new Bible predictions for 2006, people haven’t listened to the last thing he told us in the Bible. Why would we think he’s going to write more? You know, we’ve got to go back and make sure we’ve been obedient to what God has already told us to do.

Then as we’re seeking God’s will, we’ve got to come to it from the attitude and from the mindset of God, even before you tell me what to do, I’m just going to tell you up front, I’m willing to do it because I trust you. And if we’re not in a place where we can honestly say that, then we need to pray that God will bring us to a place where we can honestly say that. And I’ve shared with you multiple times before that there have been times I’ve told God, I’m really not willing, but I’m willing to be made willing.

I’m willing to be talked into it. I’m just not there yet. And I believe that God can and will change our hearts.

And the reason I believe that is because he tells us so and because I’ve experienced that a number of times where he changes my heart about a situation. And then we talked last Sunday night about seeking his will from his word. Ladies and gentlemen, begin and end your search for God’s will about any situation by looking at and studying his word.

His word will not steer you wrong. Now, sometimes people will look at it, look at the Bible, they’ll pick out a verse here and a verse there, and they’ll get some really wrong ideas. God’s word did not tell them to go in the wrong direction.

Their misunderstanding of what God’s word was saying led them in the wrong direction. But if we do diligent study, and we know what we’re looking at, and we understand the context, and we read it, and we just don’t pick out here and there the things that we like, Folks, if we will study God’s word, it will not steer us wrong. God will also not reveal anything to us that’s contrary to what he’s already revealed in his word.

We’ll talk about that a little bit tonight when we talk about seeking his will by his spirit. But this morning, I want to talk about discovering God’s will through prayer. We can study, and we can have the right attitude, and we can be willing to do whatever God wants us to, And we can make sure we’ve done everything we’re supposed to already.

And we can study saying, God, what is your will about our own situation? God, what do you want me to do about school? God, what do you want me to do about my job?

God? What do you want me to do to fix my family or my marriage or whatever it is? God, what do you want me to do about my finances?

Any of life’s nagging, gnawing questions that we never get so old that we outgrow them. Any of life’s nagging, gnawing questions, God has to be a will for you to find. a will that would be the very best option, what God says this is going to be what’s going to be best for you, maybe not what’s going to feel the best in the short term, but this is going to be what’s best for you, there are principles in God’s word that will lead us in the direction of finding God’s will.

But with all the study and all the effort on our part, there’s still a point where we realize, or should realize, I can’t find God’s will on my own. Now, he’s made it available, but the only reason we can know God or his will to begin with is because he reveals it. And so it would only make sense that we would seek his help.

We would seek him to point it out to us, to show us. Sometimes in life, we just need some direction from somebody who sees the whole picture. Because admittedly, we don’t.

I will tell you, I don’t see the whole picture of God’s plan. You’re the preacher, you’re supposed to. .

. No, you’ve got wrong ideas about who the preacher is. if you think the preacher is supposed to understand God’s plan the way God does.

I see little glimpses here and there when he deigns to show them to me, just like the rest of you. We need guidance from somebody who sees the whole picture. I was thinking about this this morning.

I remember several years back when I was in college, it was before our smartphones would give us all directions wherever we needed to go. It was really before GPS became cheap enough that poor people could own it. Only the rich had it.

You just had to use maps or know where you were going. But it was recently enough that there was Google. And there were Google Maps.

Now, not on the phone, but there were Google Maps. And my dad had a job at the bank where he would travel around to the different branches and he would do training for the tellers. And he wrote their training program from scratch and went and delivered the training.

And sometimes he’d go out of state and do workshops and things. And every once in a while he’d call me and say, do you know how to get so-and-so? Do you know how to get this place?

I remember one time in particular. He was somewhere here in Oklahoma. I don’t really remember where.

But he was going someplace he’d been dozens of times. But a road was closed or a bridge was washed out or something. And he got up to it and there was all sorts of traffic.

And he’s looking for an alternate route. And it wasn’t one of those things where you could look at a state highway map and go down this state highway. And he called me, I happened to be at home working on school work in front of the computer, and he said, ÒHow do I get from such and such place?

Ó So I went into Google Maps. Because at that point he can only see what’s right around him. But I pulled up Google Maps and I can see everything.

They had the satellite views then too. I could see everything. I said, ÒOkay, where are you?

What street signs do you see? What do you see? Ó And I was able then to see the whole picture of where he was and where he needed to be.

It was really cool. Now that’s old technology. You’re going to call somebody sitting looking at a satellite picture.

But back then, hey, this was cutting edge. And I was able to say, okay, you need to turn right here. You should see a building with a big white roof.

I don’t know what it is, but there’s a building there with a big white roof. Yeah, I see it. Okay, turn right.

Okay, then there’s going to be a fork in the road. In about two miles, you’re going to go left. Now there’s something that looks like a burned out car.

And I was able to lead him where he needed to go because I saw the whole picture. He called knowing that I would be able there in front of the computer to see more than what he could just in front of him. And folks, when it comes to seeking God’s will, prayer is sort of like that.

We can only see what is right in front of our faces. We can’t see God’s whole plan. We can’t see anything more than what God’s put right in front of us.

But folks, when we pray and ask God to reveal his will to us, we are making contact with the one who sees the whole big picture and can say, okay, the next step is to go to the building with the big white roof. Okay, now that you’ve done that, the next step is to turn this way. And then the next step is to look for this landmark.

And the next step, and the next step, because he sees the whole picture, whereas we’re sitting here just kind of lost going, what’s the next step? And so we look at James chapter 1, where he talks about asking God for guidance, where he talks about asking God for direction. And it says in verse 1, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings.

So he’s writing to really Jewish background believers when he says the 12 tribes. He’s not just writing to Jewish people because he’s writing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If he’s writing to non-believers who are Jewish, that’s just going to turn them right off. He’s writing to believers of a Jewish background and he sends greetings.

And then he tells them in verse two, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Now, this is another one of those verses that I look back over my ministry and think, oh, I’ve taught this a little bit wrong a few times. Reading it again here lately, you know what?

We’re not supposed to, we read this and we think the temptation to sin, when you fall into temptation, count it all joy. Consider it a joyful thing when you fall into temptation. That is completely foreign to everything else I know that the Bible teaches.

When you fall into sin, it’s a good thing. No, that’s not what the Bible teaches. As a matter of fact, Paul dealt with people who taught that.

Hey, if we’re sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Should we then just sin as much as we can so that there’s more grace? And he says, God forbid.

So this is not saying, hey, when you mess up, when that temptation comes and you slip up and you fall into it and you sin, hey, good for you be happy about it. Now we can be happy about the grace of God, but we shouldn’t rejoice about falling into sinful temptation. We need to change our understanding of what that word means because the word, the Greek word, and I don’t remember what it is, but I looked it up again this morning just to make sure.

The Greek word there can mean temptation, but it can also mean a kind of trial or test. And the Bible does tell us that God doesn’t tempt any man with evil. When we’re tempted, When we hear that little voice saying, hey, nobody will know. Nobody will know.

You’ll get away with it. Nobody’s going to say, it’s fine. Just this one time.

When we hear that little voice, that is never, ever, ever God. God doesn’t lead us into temptation. So talking about temptation, talking about this Greek word as a joyful thing, we read on and in context, he’s talking about more of a trial. He’s talking about more of a testing experience.

Hey, these are the times, no specifics come to mind, but I’m sure you have, just like I have had, I’m sure you have had those times in your life as a believer where you think, okay, this is a do or die moment. These are the moments that show what we’re made of. These are the moments that show what our relationship with God is really like.

These are the moments. This is one of those moments that’s going to drive me closer to God or further away from God. This is a moment of truth.

And I would suspect that if you’ve been a believer for any amount of time, any significant amount of time, you had at least one of those experiences, okay, where you realize that there’s a choice to be made here. Is this going to drive me closer to God, or is it going to drive me further away? Because I’m not going to stand still here.

And so what he’s talking about is those difficult moments. James says, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. When you come to those moments of trial, when you come to those moments of decision, where you think, what on earth am I going to do?

How am I going to get through this? Where do I go from here? Which option do I take?

Because none of them seem like a good option. What am I supposed to do here? Now, we would look at those moments of struggle and of trial and of testing.

We would look at those in our human nature and say, that’s not anything to rejoice in. It’s a horrible situation. I talked with a lady Tuesday night at Southgate, who, my goodness, just has had a rough year.

Her husband, some of y’all may know them, the Boatmans. I think he’s preached here a couple times. Her husband months ago was in a car wreck.

They weren’t even sure he was going to make it. Shattered his vertebrae. Somebody cut him off and rolled his car.

Terrible wreck. He’s up walking around now with a back brace. Praise the Lord.

Another son is, one of her sons, excuse me, has had leukemia, now has some other kind of sickness. I think they said it was mono. He was in a car wreck on Tuesday. Then she goes home, and I think a tree came in their back door because of the ice.

Just all sorts of things she was telling me that were going on or I see on Facebook. And I just, it’s one of those times I just look at somebody and say, I really wish I knew what to say in this situation. I’m a preacher.

I’m supposed to know what to say to make you feel better, but I really don’t. And all I can tell her is, we’ve had times like that in our family too. We’ve had years that I look back on and thought at the time, what else could possibly happen?

Every time I say that, my mother says, don’t say that. I’m not superstitious. I don’t think God is just waiting for me to ask that so he can get me.

But you just think, what else could possibly happen? And you know, those are the kinds of moments or seasons of life that you know this is horrible. I don’t want to be going through this.

I don’t feel thankful for this, but I know that it’s either going to make my relationship with God stronger or it’s going to reveal the weakness that was already there. I’ve been through those. I’m sure you’ve been through those.

We can all name people who’ve been through those times. And James has the audacity here to say, count it all joy. Be joyful when you go through those times.

What kind of sense does that make to our human nature? None. But he’s not talking about our human nature.

He’s talking about being spiritually minded. He’s talking about looking at things from a spiritual perspective of trying to grow to be more like Jesus Christ and says in verse three, knowing this, that the trying of your faith, the testing of your faith works patience. As you are tried, as you are tested, God builds up patience in you.

And you will hear people say, never pray for patience, because God will give it to you the hard way. We don’t want to go through that, but I still think it’s a good idea sometimes to pray for patience. If you need patience, if you need God to build patience in you to be more like Jesus Christ, then it really doesn’t matter what you’ve got to go through to get there.

And I’ve made the mistake of asking for patience. I remember about 12 years or so ago, 10, 12 years ago, Brother Doug at Southgate was preaching a message on faith on Sunday morning and living by faith. And I thought at the time, it really bothered me that morning, I thought, I’ve really never been through anything that bad in my life.

My parents were still married. They took care of us. We weren’t rich, but they took care of us.

Happy family. Never really had that many struggles. so I’m not sure I completely understand what it means to live by faith and I remember asking God I went for a drive sometimes I do my best time of prayer in the car I tell my family I’ll be back in a little bit Jesus and I are going to sonic and we’re going to talk for a little bit and they know I’m going to get a sonic drink and go pray I remember driving around that Sunday afternoon and saying God teach me what it means to live by faith I should not have said that because he taught me the next several years.

Seems like one struggle after another. But you know what? It was needed to build up the faith and the patience to make me more like Jesus.

And I’m still not just like Jesus. They’re still growing to do. But God uses those times of struggle.

God uses those times of trial to build patience, to build all the characteristics in us that are needed to be more like Jesus, which is his goal for us. God desires us to be conformed to the image of his son. And so he says in verse 4, but let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

He says, you need to go through these trials. You need to go through these struggles. You need to go through these trials and struggles.

And you need to find reason for joy in it, knowing that God is building you. And you need to let this run its course. You don’t need to jump out early.

You don’t need to say, I’m done with this. You stay in there. You struggle.

You serve God. Let patience have her perfect work. He says that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing, that God will bring you to completion.

And in the midst of this, because these struggles are so difficult and because we don’t know how to handle them, because we don’t know what decision to make, because there is a need for wisdom from somebody who sees the whole picture. He tells us in verse 5, If any of you lack wisdom, anybody else in here lack wisdom or is it just me? Okay, I see another hand.

Okay, two hands. Everybody else has got this all figured out. It’s just the three of us.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given to him. There’s a promise in there. If you lack wisdom, he says, ask God for the wisdom.

Because God gives to all men liberally. I’ll admit that this word liberally is a scary word for me. Amen, brother?

It’s a scary word for me, but it just means he’s generous. He’s loose with it. He just, he heaps it on us.

He’s not stingy about it. We ask God for wisdom and he doesn’t just open his little bag of wisdom and give us a pinch here and a pinch there. I saw photos online last night where they went and dumped water on Coach Stoops after the Bedlam game.

He should have just kicked them all off the team right there because it was cold. And that’s sort of the image I get. God gives wisdom to us liberally.

He takes it and he dumps it over our head. He just gives us all the wisdom that we could need for that particular moment. I’m not saying that we understand everything in the universe at that point, but all the wisdom we need for that moment, he just pours it over us and says upbraideth not.

That word upbraid is not a word we use very much anymore. I watched a video, I won’t recommend it to you because there was language in it that I didn’t appreciate, but I watched a video, a little short thing online this week, where they were talking about northerners trying to guess southern slang. And one of the slang terms was tan my hide, and the people could not figure out, they were way off on what tan my hide means.

But if you want to know what the word upbraid means? Sort of like when somebody’s going to tan your hide, they’re going to whoop you and it’s not going to be pretty. What this is saying, he gives to all men liberally and upbraideth not.

God is not going to tear you to pieces for having the audacity to ask him for wisdom. We don’t have to be afraid to go to God and say, God, what do you want me to do here? And God says, well, that’s a stupid question.

What are you thinking? And just wears us out. He says, He gives liberally to all men and upbraids not.

God is gracious and generous with this. If we can humble ourselves enough to admit that we need God’s wisdom, that we’re lacking in it, and come to him and say, would you please direct me in this? God is not going to be angry.

He’s not going to be mean about it. He’s going to give us the wisdom we need. Verse 6 says, Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.

When you ask this, don’t go to God saying, would you give me wisdom? I know you’re not going to, but I’m going to ask because it says to ask. Have you ever done that?

Probably. Even not with God. Benjamin at four years old already says, I think I know what you’re going to say, but could I have some candy?

I’m in the middle of cooking dinner. What is it you think I’m going to say? No, there’s your answer.

He’s asking, not in faith, not believing that I’m going to give him candy. Don’t do that with God. I already know you’re going to say no. I already know you’re too busy to hear me.

No. Ask in faith. Ask knowing that this is a promise of God that he says, I will give you the wisdom.

If any of you lack wisdom, come to me. I’ve got it. I’ve got it in droves.

I’ll give it to you if you’ll just ask. He says, come and ask in faith, nothing wavering. He says, don’t even let a part of yourself doubt that God will answer this prayer.

He says, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. There’s no stability in the waves of the sea. Try building something on a wave.

It’s not going to stay there very long. He says, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. We know that to be true.

Have you ever been in a situation where you can’t make up your mind? There’s no stability there. well, I don’t know what I’m going to do about this.

Are we going to go to this or are we not? Are we going to do this or are we not? Should I go here or here?

And sometimes it messes up everybody. Holidays and new family members. Well, are we going to go?

We’ve got to decide what we’re going to do so they can decide whether they’re coming at this time and it’s just a domino effect. And that’s just really a little thing. Something big like whether or not you can trust God.

You don’t want to be double-minded. You don’t want to be unstable in that. He says, ask in faith, nothing wavering.

Be convinced. There are a lot of things in Scripture that we claim as promises that really are just principles. And it’s hard to know the difference sometimes.

You know, Disciple Guide a few years ago started putting out their Disciple Way training program. And I started using that at the church in Arkansas. And one of the things we were doing with the Bible study, you read a passage, you talk about it, you ask these questions and go through and discuss these questions, and they’re designed to help you really dig into the meat of the scripture.

And one of the questions in that Bible study is, is there a promise to claim? Is there a promise to claim? And there were so many times that we’d be discussing a passage, and somebody in the group would say, oh, that’s a promise.

And I would say, wait a minute, is that a promise to us? Or is that a promise to Israel? Or is that a promise to the church at Jerusalem or is that a promise to Paul?

We’ve got to make sure it’s a promise. I mean, it might be a promise in there, but it might not be a promise to us. So we’ve got to be careful about claiming, for example, Israel’s promises as our own or claiming promises to, for example, you wouldn’t want to read the end of, you wouldn’t want to read the end of one of the gospels where he says, if he survives, I’m paraphrasing here, the exact wording has just left me.

But Jesus is talking to Peter about John and says, what is it to you? What business is it of yours if I allow John to continue living until I return? Well, some people in their day might have looked at that as a promise that John was going to live until Jesus came back again.

We’ve got to be careful not to interpret that as a promise and certainly as a promise to us. We wouldn’t want to look at it and say, we’re going to live until, see, he promised you’ll live until, no, that’s not for us. We’ve got to be careful with some of these promises.

The reason I bring that up is this is a promise to us. This is not a promise to James. This is not a promise to a particular church.

This is not a promise to the Jewish believers in the first century. This is a promise to us where he says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally. Believers, if you will ask God, this is a promise.

that he will give to you liberally and upbraid not. And so we’ve got to on that basis, not because we’re so smart and can figure it out, not because we’re so spiritual that God just likes us more and will tell us what we want to know, but because he has said, I will give you wisdom. I’ll give you the wisdom that you need.

We need to come to God in total faith and total confidence that if we ask him for what he’s already promised, that he will keep his promises. God is a God who keeps his promises. Now, I will caution you here that this doesn’t mean that, hey, I pray today, God, would you help me know what to do about this situation?

And immediately, God says, okay, here’s what you need to do. Oh, great, perfect, fast turnaround right there. No, you might have to pray about it today and later today and tomorrow and the next day.

It’s not a promise that God will immediately just smack you in the head and say, here’s the answer. But it is a promise that He will give you an answer. It’s not a promise that He may give you the answer that you want.

It is a promise that He will give you in His time the wisdom that you need. Okay, so three things I want to share with you briefly on this passage about how we can pray, how we can talk to God. And you may be thinking, what does this have to do with prayer?

God is telling us to ask Him for wisdom. Talking to God, making a request, if that’s not prayer, I don’t know what is. First of all, God encourages us to ask him for spiritual matters.

It’s not just something that he says, okay, I’ll do that. He says, no, please come to me. I want to give you this wisdom.

Hey, if any of you are lacking wisdom, hey, you know where to get it. Come on, he says. So prayer is one of the means by which we discern God’s will.

When we come to a situation we don’t understand, when we come to a circumstance where we think, what am I going to do here? When we can’t discern the correct direction to take, the correct choice to make. Folks, we have the privilege of being able to come to God and ask him for wisdom so that then we can act in accordance with his will.

God’s willing to give us wisdom because he wants us to do his will. He wants us to follow him. An example of this would be when we have difficulty figuring out what his word says, what his word is teaching about his will.

You know what? He’ll grant us wisdom. If you’re searching for God’s will in his word and you come to a passage, I know this deals with, I know there’s something I’m supposed to see here, but what is it?

Or God, what does this mean? I don’t understand this. One of the best things you can do is stop in that moment and pray that God will reveal to you the answer.

Doesn’t mean that he’ll immediately, again, just slap you in the head with the answer, but he’ll give you an answer. As you continue to study, he’ll reveal it to you somehow or another. But you stop and you ask him for wisdom.

Folks, I want to emphasize this. This is not just something that God throws up his hands and says, okay, I guess you need wisdom. That’s fine.

I’ll give it to you. God encourages this. God wants us to come to him and seek his wisdom.

God wants you to pray and ask him for wisdom in what you should do in seeking his will and following his direction. He encourages us to ask him for wisdom in spiritual matters. So you don’t know what this passage means for what you’re supposed to do.

You don’t know what decision you’re supposed to make with your job or your school or your marriage or whatever. Pray and ask him. God, would you show me?

Would you give me some wisdom here of what I’m supposed to do? He promises he’ll give you the wisdom. Second of all, God promises to give us wisdom and to give it liberally.

Guys, I already hit on this a little bit, but it is a guarantee. It is a guarantee, a promise. Whichever of those words you’re more comfortable with using, It’s a guarantee from God that if we ask for wisdom and spiritual things, he’s going to give it to us.

And he promises not only to give us wisdom, but again, to give it an abundance, not a pinch here and a pinch there. He will dump it on us. God is a God who keeps his promises.

And this one’s no exception. This one’s no exception. And when you think about it, when you think about it, think of some of the other promises he’s kept.

He raised Jesus Christ from the dead. God raised the son from the dead. How hard is it to tell you which choice to make?

He can do it. And he promises that he will do it. It says in verse 5, He gives to all men liberally and upbraideth not.

So he encourages us to ask him for wisdom. He promises to give us wisdom and to give it liberally. And third of all, we need to make sure we get this one.

God requires that we believe his promise. Again, don’t go into this saying, I already know you’re not going to hear me. I already know you’re not going to answer.

But God, I need wisdom. No, folks, go into it with confidence, knowing that He will answer you. Even this morning, on the way down here, I was thinking, what do I say starting this one out?

The very beginning of the message, I’ll let you in on a little preacher secret, at least for me here. The beginning of the message and the ending of the message are the hardest part for me to figure out. How do I start it to where they’re not already thinking, okay, I’m just going to go to sleep now.

This has nothing to do with me. How do I end it where I’m not just saying, okay, that’s all I have. Close the Bible.

Musicians come up. I’ve done that before. But how do I begin it and end it so it flows?

And so I was saying, God, would you please give me some idea of what to. . .

And then I remembered what I was talking about. I thought, okay, do I really believe he’s going to answer this and give me wisdom on how to start this? Okay, I really believe he will.

And I prayed and just a couple minutes later, I remembered the story about my dad calling and needing directions from the map. If you’re going to pray and ask God for wisdom, you’ve got to believe that He’s going to give you wisdom. He requires, He says, if you’re going to do this, but let Him ask in faith, He says in verse 6.

Let Him ask in faith. Make sure you believe it. Make sure you believe it.

Nothing wavering. Make sure all of yo

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