The Question for Today's Church, Part 4

Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for today. It is a great day to honor your name. We thank you that you brought us together. We thank you, Lord, that we had the opportunity to open your word, study it together, and partake of the Lord's table. And we pray that today you'd open our hearts and minds to behold wonderful things out of your law, that we might be obedient to you, our King. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me ask you a question.

What is it you delight to do more than anything else in the world? What is your supreme delight? What is it that consumes your thinking? What is it that motivates you from day to day, moment to moment? What is it that's uppermost in your mind as you sit here this morning in church, as you go to work throughout the week? What is your supreme delight? The psalmist said in Psalm 40, I delight to do your will, O Lord. I wonder if that's your delight today, to do the will of the Lord. You say, well, yeah, I like to do the will of the Lord.

What is it? Well, that would be a good question to ask. But the psalmist said, I delight to do your will, O Lord. And then he said this, for your word is within my heart. Because the word of the Lord was in the heart of the psalmist, he had a supreme delight to do the will of the Lord. And so there was something that motivated him to do God's will. And that was the word of the Lord that was in his heart. Because the word would reign supreme in his heart, because the word of God was paramount in his life, the worship of God would be passionate in his life.

The will of God would then be preeminent in his life. And that's the way it should be for us. That's why we're looking at the question and the quest for today's church. What is the question for today's church? The question is this, if God was to arrive or to write a letter to Christ's community church, would he condemn the church or would he commend the church? If he's going to commend the church, the church must be commended because it delights to do the will of the Father. The church wants to be obedient to whatever the will of the Lord is.

Our delight is to do the will of the Lord. If the word of God is paramount, the worship of God will be passionate. That is, I will not transfer my affection to anyone else or anything else because God's word reigns supreme. Therefore, God's will, whatever it may be for me, will be preeminent in my thinking, and it will be my delight every single moment of every single day. That's the church that God commends and does not condemn. Are we willing to do what God says?

Is our supreme delight the will of the Lord? It was Christ who said in John chapter 4, verse number 34, my food is to do the will of him who sent me. My food, my daily nourishment, is built on doing the will of God. And then he says in John 5, verse number 30, I do not seek my will but the will of him who sent me. That's what Christ said. I'm not into seeking what I want. I'm into seeking what my Father wants. Is that you? Can you say the same thing that Christ says?

Do you want what God wants or do you want what you want? And then he said in John chapter 6, he says, for I have come down from heaven not to do my will but the will of him who sent me. That's why I'm here, Christ said. By the way, why are you here? Are you here to do the will of the one who has sent you? For Christ said, as the Father has sent me, so send I you. We must be a church where the will of God is absolutely preeminent in every one of our lives. Paul said it this way, 2 Corinthians 5 and 9, I make it my ambition to please him.

I make it my one sole desire to please him, the one who is invisible, to make sure that God is pleased with my life. Is that you? If that is, you will delight to do the will of the Lord. Turn me and your Bible to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. And let me show you what Paul's prayer was for this church, the church at Colossae, that they might be a church that's commended by God, not condemned by God.

We want to be the kind of people that God commends, because he looks down from heaven, he sees and knows what's in our hearts, he knows where we are, and he commends us because we are obedient to his word. Listen to what Paul prays for, Colossians 1 verse number 9. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. Listen, if you want to pray for somebody in your family, you want to pray for somebody in your church, you pray that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will.

Now, this is very important. Why? Because in order for you to have spiritual vision, spiritual vitality, and spiritual victory, it's essential that you are filled with the knowledge of his will. Because Paul goes on to say this, in all wisdom and understanding, that's spiritual vision, said you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, that's spiritual vitality, strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all said fastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light, that's spiritual victory.

So in order for you to have spiritual vision, to be able to see what God sees, to have spiritual vitality to make it from day to day, and have spiritual victory, you must be filled with the knowledge of his will. Now, the word filled, plerao, is a word that means to be dominated by or to be controlled by. It's the same word used over in John chapter 16, where the disciples were filled with fear, that is, fear was the dominating characteristic of their life. Over in Luke chapter 5, where the crowd was filled with fear after the lame man was healed, and over in Luke chapter 6 verse number 11, where the Jewish leaders were filled with fury against Christ because he healed the lame man on the Sabbath.

Their fury dominated their life, that emotion controlled them. The same thing is true about this word plerao when it comes to being filled with the knowledge of God. You are absolutely controlled, you are dominated by one factor, that is, the will of the Lord, the knowledge of his will. Now, we talk about the knowledge of his will, we're talking about something that is experiential in nature. We're not talking about gaining information about the will of God. We're not talking about being more intellectual about the will of God.

We're talking about being transformed by the will of God. In other words, when you know God, it's not because you know that he exists. When you know God, it's not because you know of his attributes. When you know God, you know you know him because he rubs off on you. He rubs off on your attitude, he rubs off on your actions, he rubs off on your behavior, he rubs off on you so much that you look like God, you smell like God, you talk like God. That's how you know you know God. So if you are filled with the knowledge of God, that is, that will of God has rubbed off on you in such a way that it dominates every aspect of your life.

So you can say, as a psalmist did, I delight to do thy will for your word is within my heart. My desire for you this morning is to delight in knowing and doing the will of God. That's what I want for you. I want to show you something that I've shown you probably many times over the last 22 years that we've been together. But I want to show it to you because I want the knowledge of his will to fill you, to control you, to dominate you. I want the knowledge of his will to be something that you delight in every single moment of the day.

Because we want the will of to be preeminent in our lives. If that's the case, God commends his church because they are obedient to his word. So how will I know what the will of the Lord is? It's not that difficult. Because when you talk about being filled with the knowledge of his will, you're being, you're talking about being filled with the knowledge of what God desires for you. Okay? When you talk about the will of God, you're talking about in two aspects, his desires and his decrees. So you yearn for his desire, but you yield to his decrees.

His desire is a part of his decreed plan. But just because God desires something doesn't mean that's necessarily decreed by God. This is what God desires of you. This is what God wants from you. So if God wants it from you, you want to fulfill that for him because his law is written on my heart. His law controls my life. The word of God is paramount. Therefore, the will of God then becomes preeminent in my life. So what is the will of God for you so that you can delight to do his will? Okay? Very simple.

I've given them to you before. There's nothing new here, but maybe you haven't been with us, so you've missed them. Very simple. God's will is that you be saved, right? That's God's desire. Now, is it God's decree that everybody be saved? No, because not everybody's going to be saved. But it is God's desire that all men be saved. How do we know that? The Bible tells me, 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse number 3, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

God desires, God wills all men to be saved. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God wants man to believe in him. God wants man to acknowledge not just his existence, but acknowledge his kingship and lordship in their lives. God's desire is that all men be saved. That's why Peter said it this way in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse number 9, the Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing or willing for any of you to perish, but to all that come to repentance.

Do you know that there are 1,189 chapters in the Bible? And only four of them don't deal with God's redemptive purposes. Genesis 1, Genesis 2, Revelation 21, Revelation 22. Because in Eden and in eternity, everything was perfect. But when sin came, Genesis chapter 3, everything from there on out dealt with God's redemptive purposes all the way to Revelation chapter 20. But in Revelation 21 and 22, you're in eternity. So in Eden and in eternity, you're not talking about redemptive purposes because everything's perfect.

But in between there, the other verses or other chapters deal with God's redemptive purposes, because God wants man to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. If you delight to do the will of God, you delight in your salvation. You delight that you've been saved. You want to be saved. You want to give your life to Christ. You want to be saved from your sin. You want to be saved from the enslavement of Satan's bondage over your life. You want to be set free from your sin. Is that you today?

A lot of people never know the will of God because a lot of people have never been saved. That's the first question you got to ask people.

You want to know the will of God? Are you saved? That's God's will for your life. Number two, not only are you saved, are you spirit filled?

Are you spirit filled? Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5 verse number 15 says this, Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will, the desire of the Lord is. This is his desire. This is his will. Okay? And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. Be controlled, payroll, same word used in Colossians 1 verse number 9.

Be dominated, be controlled by the spirit of God. God wants you to be spirit filled, not just saved. Once you're saved, listen, you're indwelt by the spirit. Okay? Because you've been baptized by the spirit into the body of Christ. The spirit of God dwells in you already, because if you don't have the spirit, you're not saved. Romans 9 tells us that. So we know that we are born again because the spirit of God's in us, but we must be dominated by the spirit. We must be controlled by the spirit. That's why Paul says in Galatians 5 that we are to walk in the spirit, so we don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

That is, every step you take is to be a step taken, dominated by the control of the spirit of God in your life, so you don't fall into any kind of sin. We are to be the kind of people that are totally dominated and controlled by the spirit of God. And that happens when the word of Christ, Colossians chapter 3 verse 16, dwells in us richly. When God's word is dwelling in us, we are controlled by God's spirit. God wants you spirit controlled. He wants you spirit filled. He wants you dependent upon the spirit every moment of every day.

Listen, you cannot be the husband or wife you need to be unless you're dominated by the spirit of God. You can't be the employer or the employee you need to be unless you're dominated by the spirit of God. You can't be the coach or the player you need to be unless dominated by the spirit of God. God's spirit needs to control our life, dominate our life, infuse us with the life, His life, that we might live according to His will. So, God wants you saved. That's His will. That's His desire. God wants you spirit filled.

And then number three, God wants you sexually pure. First Thessalonians chapter 4, verse number 1. Finally, then brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk and that you excel still more.

For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God. This is the desire of God. This is what God wants for you. Your sanctification that is that you abstain from sexual immorality. That each of you know how to possess his own vessel and sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. And that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, just as we also told you before, and solemnly warned you.

For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, He rejects this, is not rejecting man, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Listen, you want to know the will of God, you must be sexually pure. The one thing that will hinder you knowing and understanding God's desire for your life, God's call upon your life, is to engage in sexual immorality in any form whatsoever. We know Hebrews 13 verse 4 says that the marriage bed is undefiled, that fornicators and adulterers God will judge, but the marriage bed is clean, it's undefiled and pure before our God.

If at any time you engage in any kind of sexual behavior outside of marriage, you will be hindered from knowing God's call and desire for your life, because you'll be living in sin. And one of the biggest hindrances our young people, high school and college, have in knowing God's will for their life, is that they engage in sexual sin. There are reasons why families have difficulty knowing God's will for their lives, because husbands engage in sexual sin. We got to be careful about that, because God has spoken out against that, and we need to make sure that we are sexually pure.

Job said, I've made a covenant with my eyes never to look lustfully upon a woman. Christ said in Matthew chapter 5, listen, it's not the lustful eyes that cause a man to lust after a woman in the heart, it's the lustful heart that causes a man to look lustfully upon the woman and commit adultery in his heart, because he has an evil heart. We need to be spirit-filled, we need to be saved, we must be sexually pure. Let me tell you something.

The church at Pergamum was not a spirit-filled church. They weren't, and they were condemned by God. How do we know that? Because they had given in to the lust of the flesh. They had allowed the teaching of the Nicolaitans to control and dominate people in their church, and did not deal with it. And therefore, they were not walking by the spirit, they were walking according to the flesh. And therefore, God would condemn them because they did not do his will. The church at Thyatira was a church that engaged in sexual immorality because they had given in to the teachings of this woman called Jezebel, and they had given in to immorality.

And God would condemn that church and not commend that church because of what they did in terms of their sexual behavior outside of marriage. It is imperative that we understand that if God's going to commend us as individuals, as people, as his church, that we be number one, saved, number two, spirit-filled, number three, sexually pure, and number four, saying thanks continually.

And this is going to be a real convictor, so hold on. First Thessalonians 5, here's how it says in verse number 16, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing in everything, give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

This is God's desire for you. This is what he wants you to do. He wants you to continually say thanks to him. To give him thanks. Have you noticed that we are some of the most ungrateful people in the world? We are so inconsiderate, and we, all you got to do is just ask yourself, how often you complained today? Did you complain when you got up this morning? Maybe you complained because you didn't have hot water fast enough. Maybe you complained because your meal wasn't warm quick enough. Maybe you complained because it was too far to come to church.

Maybe you complained because your hair didn't come out right on the way to church. Or maybe you complained because your car didn't ride as smoothly as you thought it should on the way to church. We begin to murmur, and we begin to complain about everything. Have you noticed that? Look back on your week. Ask your wife, fellas, how much you complained this week about the condition of your house, the condition of your clothes, maybe the condition of the meals, maybe because of whatever it is you're going through.

Ask your wife how much you complained. And ladies, ask your husbands how much you complained this week. How overtired you were, or how bad things were at home. Ask your husband how much you murmured, you belly ached, and complained, and didn't give thanks to God. And then sit down with your children and say, you know what? Sometimes you can be very ungrateful for all the things we do for you. And let me give you a couple illustrations on how ungrateful you are.

Folks, let me tell you something. By nature, we are ungrateful people. We are not grateful people. We are not thankful people. We are unthankful people. And that needs to be reversed. We complain too much. And we should never complain at all. God's will is for you to give thanks in everything because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Ephesians 5 says we're to give thanks not just in all things, but for all things. So whatever comes your way, you're to give thanks for. And while you're in whatever comes your way, you're to give thanks for.

Now ask yourself, is that the way you are? Because most of us aren't. So let me share an illustration with you just so that we can kind of drive it home.

Paul says these words, 1 Corinthians 10, for I do not want you to be unaware, brethren. I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren. I don't want you to be uninformed, brethren. You need to be informed that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. Remember how our fathers, the nation of Israel was under the cloud by day and lit by the fire by night, all passed through the Red Sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they were drinking from a spiritual rock, which followed them.

And the rock was Christ. I mean, our forefathers followed Christ. They drank from living water, the Christ. And then he says this, nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well pleased. God did not commend. Most of them, God did not commend for they were laid low in the wilderness. That's a nice way of saying God killed them in the wilderness. And that's nice of Paul to say it that way, but let's be honest, God killed them in the wilderness because God wasn't pleased with them. Could you imagine if there would be anybody here today if God wasn't pleased with us and He killed us?

I wonder if there would be anybody here today. I wonder if I would be here today. And then he says this, now these things happen as examples for us. These are examples, Paul says, said, we would not crave evil things as they also crave. Do not be idolaters. And we say, oh, we're not idolaters. We're not worshiping other gods. What kind of people do you think we are, pastor? Verse eight, nor let us act immorally. Oh no, we don't act immorally. We act with purity and holiness. Nor let us try the Lord as some of them did.

Oh, we don't try the Lord. We don't do that. Then he says, nor grumble, nor grumble because grumbling in the eyes of God is on the same level as idolatry and immorality and infidelity. Same level. Why is it we're so quick to condemn those who have sex outside of marriage and are so unwilling to condemn those who grumble and complain every moment of every day? For in the eyes of God, it's all the same. And Paul puts it on the same plane because he says this, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.

Wouldn't it be great if God sent the destroyer to destroy all those who complained? I don't hear an amen about that because we fall in that category, right? And think about Israel. Israel complained the moment they left Egypt and found themselves at the foot of the Red Sea. They began to complain, oh, that we were back in Egypt. Oh, things were so much better there. What did God do? Part of the Red Sea. They walked through on dry land and Pharaoh and his army were killed. And you'd think that that would cure them from complaining, right?

You'd think God delivered us miraculously twice from Egypt and then through the Red Sea. God is so good to us. But you know what? As soon as they were in Moriah, a place of bitter water, they complained. The water was too bitter. Didn't taste like we think it should taste. And they began to complain in Exodus 15 because of bitter water. And then in Exodus 16, they complained at the wilderness of Zin because they were hungry. And then they complained in Exodus chapter 17 and feed them because there was no water.

And then they complained in Numbers 11 because all they had was manna and they wanted flesh to eat. And then they complained in Numbers 14 because 10 spies came back with a negative report. All they did, the history of Israel was complain, complain, grumble, mumble, murmur, complain over every event that came their way. So in Numbers chapter 16, when Korah, Dathom and Abiram were ungrateful for the leader God put over them, Moses, and they began to complain, God called them out and their families and the earth swallowed them up and they died.

And then the next day, the people of Israel complained because of what God did. So God set a plague and killed 14,000 of them. You think God's not serious about this? The destroyer who destroyed is the same angel that destroyed the firstborn in Egypt, the Assyrians when they came against Judah. That's the destroyer who destroyed, the angel that destroyed. And so God sent that same angel to destroy his people because they murmured and complained and were not thankful and grateful for the things that God provided for them.

My friends, we need to wake up, smell the coffee, and we need to flip it over and say, you know what? I need to wake up greeting God today with a thankful spirit, with a heart that says, Lord, thank you for a chance to breathe. Thank you for a chance to walk, to talk. Thank you for a chance just to live this life. Thank you for a new day instead of complaining about things that just don't go our way. Because my friends, for the most part, we are chronic complainers. And then we wonder why we never know God's will for my family.

Then we wonder why God doesn't allow us to get married. And then we wonder why God never allows me to get a new job or a better job. Then we wonder why God never opens the door in this area. God doesn't open the door because you don't do what he asks you to do. You don't fulfill his will. You don't do his desire. God says, you want me to bless you when all you do is gripe and complain?

You want me to open doors for you when you can't even be thankful for the little door that I've given you? You think I'm going to honor you when you dishonor me? That's not going to happen. And we sit back and say, well, God must not love me. God must not care about me. God does not care about my life. Oh, he cares enough to say, look, I'm going to give you my word. I'm going to spell my will out for you. I'm going to make it so plain you can't miss it. I want you saved. I want you spirit-filled.

I want you sexually pure. And I want you saying thanks to me in everything and for everything without reservation continually every single day. And if you don't do that, don't even bother asking me where you want to be or where you want to go because I ain't telling you. Simple as that. You say, wow, Pastor, that's kind of hard. I know. But better be hard than have the destroyer come and destroy you because you complained, right? Come on. Let's be honest here, folks. Let's look at it for what it really is.

There needs to be a wake-up call, a clarion call in the church to wake up and realize what God has said and stop playing at Christianity and stop playing with God and stop fooling around with our with our families and with church and really get serious about the truth of God's holy word. And we need to be people who say thanks to God all the time. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, in everything and for everything, because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. This is the desire of God in Christ Jesus for you today.

Told you to be convicting. I'm convicted. I was convicted just even thinking about the sermon for today, realizing that I tend to complain too. I tend to be a grumbler as well. And when I read 1 Corinthians 10, Paul will go on to say in verse 11, now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. This is written for your instruction. You need to know this, digest it, grasp it, get it, because this is what God wants for you.

Number five, God wants you submissive. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse number 13, submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right, for such is the will of God. This is the desire of God that you submit yourself to every human institution. And then he goes on and talks about how wives are to submit themselves to their husbands and husbands are to submit themselves to their wives and how we are all to live in harmoniously one toward another.

Submission is what rules in the church. Submission is what rules in our families, learning to relinquish our rights and say, yes, I'm going to lift you up, put myself under you, allow you to succeed. But we don't want to submit. And you know that one of the biggest deterrents in our families are wives who are unwilling to submit to their husband's leadership. And that affects your children, listen, more than any one thing ladies you ever do. I've told you over the years that the one thing you fathers need to do that affects your children more than anything else is lead them to church.

Not a big, big deal, not a big brainer. Didn't take a five minute cap to figure that one out. Take them to a good Bible believing church. If that's the one thing you do for your family, that's a great thing. But ladies, the one thing you do to destroy your family is to be unsubmissive to your husband's leadership that will undergird his authority that will raise in the minds of your children, their questioning of authority, and they will learn not to be submissive to God's ordained authority. And you have developed a rebellious child.

Be very careful ladies, how you follow your husband's leadership. It is crucial because your marriage is a picture of Christ's love to the church, Christ's love for his church. And the church is to willingly submit to the head's leadership. And the woman is representative of the head in the family, a representative of the church in the family, and the husband is the head in the family. So it's imperative that you understand that. But submission is crucial. We live in a society that questions authority.

We live in a society that doesn't submit to anybody. Look what's happening in our police structure in our country. There's complete rebellion against authority. Nobody wants to follow authority anymore. That begins in the home. It doesn't begin at the police station. It doesn't begin in your school. It begins in your home. Because where your children learn to submit to authority is mother and father and they honoring them and living under their guidelines and their direction. And as you demonstrate to your children the authority and the love of Christ to them, and they submitting to that, they learn the most basic principle to living in this life.

That is, you must submit to authority. Everybody submits to authority. You have to, or there's consequences. There's consequences. And God says, this is my will for you, that you fulfill my desire because I ordain government.

I ordain presidents, kings, princesses. I am the one who puts him in the office. I'm the one who takes him down. And I'm telling you, you submit to every human institution because I designed that institution. And when you submit to them, you really are submitting to me as your God and your king. And you're taking my word at face value and you're obeying me. You live in submission to me. So therefore, that's God's will, that you be submissive, that you say thanks, that you be sexually pure, that you be spirit filled, that you be saved.

And then God's will is that you, listen, suffer. Because when you submit, sometimes you're going to suffer for righteousness sake. That's also in first Peter, first Peter chapter four.

Peter says this, therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. And then he goes on and says in verse number 12, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation.

If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or a thief or evil doer or a troublemeddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but it's to glorify God in this name for it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner? Therefore, those also who suffer according to, here it is, the will or the desire of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right. Do you know it is God's desire for some to suffer for the sake of Christ? Church of Smyrna, the Church of Smyrna, they suffered. They were the crushed church. Remember them? They suffered mercilessly under the hand of Roman rule. And yet, this was God's will for them that they would live for the glory of the king.

And for some in the realm of their submission will suffer for the sake of Christ. And that will be God's desire for you. And what are you supposed to do? Keep entrusting yourself to a faithful creator in doing what is right, doing the right thing. What's the right thing? Doing the will of the Lord. What's the will of the Lord? To say thanks in all things, to be spiritually controlled, spiritually dominated every single day by the Spirit of God, to be sexually pure and holy before God, to make sure I'm born again, saved from my sin, and that I'm giving thanks to God on a regular basis.

And then God's will, Psalm 103 verse 21, Bless the Lord, all you whose hosts who serve him doing his will. Service. Serving the king is the desire of God. Serving the king is the will of God. God says, I want to bless your life.

Are you serving me? This is what I want you to do. I want you to serve me. I want you to serve me in the church. I want you to serve me in your church, serve me in your family, serve me in your workplace. I want you serving me. And I'm going to bless you if you serve me. But I want you serving only me because I bought you with a price. I gave my life for you. And when you serve me, I will bless you because you're doing my will. You're fulfilling my desire. God says, I want you to serve me.

Just serve me. Are you serving Christ? Are you serving your husband or your wife? You can do that, but you've got to serve Christ first.

Are you serving your employer? You need to do that, but you need to serve Christ first. You need to serve Christ most importantly. He is preeminent in your life. This is where the will of God is preeminent. See, I'm saved. God desires that. I'm spirit filled. God desires that. I'm sexually pure. God desires that. I say thanks to him every day about everything because God desires that. And I am submissive to the human institutions that are over me and in my family because submission rules my life.

On top of that, I am willing to suffer for the name of Christ because that's his desire, and I will serve him doing his will. That's what it means to do the will of God. But there's one more, and that's over in Romans chapter 12 where Paul says these words. He says, therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is.

What is the will of God for your life that you put your life on the altar as a living sacrifice? God wants everything, not just certain things. He wants it all. He wants your family. He wants your finances. He wants your home. He wants your health. He wants your life. He wants everything you have. He wants it all. He wants you to be a living sacrifice for his glory. Are you that way? That's the will of God. Listen, if you fulfill those eight aspects in your life, you'll never have a question about your next job, your next house, next car to buy, where your kids go to school.

You never have a question about it. He's got to show you. If you don't know how to do what God desires, you'll never understand his decrees. You never will. You'll never get them. But when you do what God says he wants you to do, God commends you.

God's well pleased with you. You're filled with the knowledge of his will. That is the will of God has rubbed off on you. Has the will of God rubbed off on you? Has it rubbed off in such a way that you, yes, are a thankful person, a grateful person, that you are a sexually pure person, that you submit to the authorities over you, that you're willing to offer your life as sacrifice. Do you do that? Do you really sacrifice for the Lord, or you just give one-tenth to God? One-tenth to Jesus, I surrender.

One-tenth to him, I freely give. Well, who wouldn't freely give one-tenth? What does that mean, I give one-tenth to God? Is that a living sacrifice? Let's be honest. I give an hour and 20 minutes to God on Sunday. Wow, good for you. Pat yourself on the back. You gave an hour and 20 minutes to God on Sunday. That's a real sacrifice, isn't it? What are you sacrificing for Christ? Where is your life on the altar saying, Lord, here I am, take me, I'm yours. Whatever you want to do, Lord, however you want to do it, just go ahead and do it.

You want to slay me, slay me. You want to take me, take me. You want to take my kids, take my kids. You want to take my family, take whatever it is I have, Lord, it's all yours anyway. It's all yours anyway. I'm here for you, Lord. Whatever you ask, whatever you say I will do, I'm here for you. I'm here for you, Lord. That's what Jesus modeled. He gave his life away. He was a total sacrifice. And because of that, we're saved. We're saved. Let me pray with you.

Father, thank you for today, the things you teach us, how you work in our lives. Our prayer, Father, is that we would do your will and we would delight in doing it more than anything else, because your law is within our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.