Sermon: "Receiving and Following God's Directions"
How many of you have a G.P.S. system for your car or truck. Aren’t they both helpful and amazing?
For those of you who don’t know what they are, they are a small object, not much bigger than a pack of cards, which can give you step-by-step voice directions to any address in the United States – and they are fairly accurate. For instance, if you are sitting in your driveway and punch in a street address in Cleveland, Ohio, it will give you step-by-step directions on how to get there. As you are driving it will tell you when to turn and many of them will have a map on the screen showing your location. If you mess up and make a wrong turn, it will give you new directions to get you back on track.
Don’t you wish that God would have installed a G.P.S. system in you that would enable you to receive and follow his directions? In a way he has. He has given us both his written word and his indwelling Holy Spirit, but sometimes we don’t use what he has given us and can miss out on his purposes for our lives.
This is the fourth and final lesson in a series of lessons called – Embracing God’s Purposes for your Life. So far we have looked at three things we must do if we are going to live as God would have us live.
First – We Must Walk the High Road of Faith.
That simply means we trust him completely. Here again is the statement we have been using. You take everything connected with your life – your family, your career, your health, your dreams, your fears, everyone you love or dislike, and say, “God, make of this what you will, I trust you!”
Second – You Must Surrender Your Will and Body to God.
Here is the prayer of surrender we have been suggesting that each of us pray.
Lord, break me … break my soul, so that none of my self remains. Fill me only with yourself, my Father … fill me with your Spirit. … Let my life be nothing but a reflection of your being … and your character … and your goodness. Cleanse me from all wrong motives ... make me like Jesus … let me become the person you desire me to be. … Show me, Father, what you want me to do … open my eyes to your purpose … your will … let me do nothing … say nothing … and think nothing that is contrary to your purpose. … Help me, Lord … guide my steps in your way.
And then last week we looked at ….
Third – Sitting in the Presence of God.
We offered three suggestions to help you learn to “sit in God’s presence.” – Meditate on a scripture – Take a walk in nature – Be involved in scheduled prayer.
We summed up the lesson with these words. Developing the discipline to sit in the presence of God takes perseverance. Your physical body will resist. You will find all kinds of reasons not to take the time to sit in the presence of God. There are things to do. Your body will itch, ache and suddenly realize it is hungry. But if you will sit in God’s presence he will honor your desire to know and hear him. However, don’t be discouraged if you sometimes don’t hear anything or don’t sense his presence. Just be still and know he is God.
That brings us to this morning’s lesson.
You can embrace God’s purposes for your life as you learn to receive and follow God’s directions.
We will begin by looking at what makes it so difficult for us to receive and follow God’s guidance. The problem is …
I. THE POLLUTION IN THE HUMAN HEART
In our scripture lesson James shows us …
A. THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
JAMES 4:1 – What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
James rips away all their excuses with those few simple words. They are acting in ways that are the very opposite of the way God would have them act because of the battle that takes place in the heart of every true Christian.
They might say they were fighting and quarreling for God’s honor or for a zeal for their country, but James took them to the heart of the matter – the desires that battled within them. That’s what Paul was referring to when he wrote …
GALATIANS 5:17 – For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
After James reveals the root of the problem – the conflicting desires within each believer – he then shows them what happens when they yield to the wrong desires. Let’s call this …
B. THE FRUIT OF THE PROBLEM
First there is …
1. Constant fighting and quarreling
JAMES 4:1-2a – 1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2aYou want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight.
God is not pleased and does not want us to be fighting and bickering with one another. Yet it happens when we don’t allow his word and Holy Spirit to direct our lives. James was writing to Jews scattered throughout the world and he said some were actually killing other people. The human heart is truly polluted.
Next James says the desires that war in us can cause a …
2. Total breakdown in prayer
JAMES 4:2b-3 – 2bYou do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
It appears they were not praying to God and seeking his guidance. They were instead following their own inclinations, and therefore, were continually disappointed with life.
Those who did take the time to pray their prayers were self-centered and focused on the pleasures they desired.
Most of us understand how easy it is to have our prayers become focused on our personal wants.
James says another result of a polluted heart is …
3. A love for the things of this world
JAMES 4:4 – You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Listen to what the Apostle Paul had to say on this subject.
COLOSSIANS 3:2 – Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
That sounds so easy, but it is not. We know we should be more concerned about laying up treasures in heaven than laying up treasures on earth, but much of our energy goes into getting earthly treasures. We can go days or even weeks without even thinking about laying up treasures in heaven.
Are you starting to see why it can be difficult to receive and follow God’s instructions? Our polluted hearts try to block out God’s guidance.
James goes on to give us some additional outcomes of a polluted heart. It can cause us to …
4. Bring pain to the Holy Spirit
James wrote …
JAMES 4:5 – Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely.
When God’s Spirit, who lives within, sees us putting so much time and energy into the things of this world, it causes him to envy intensely. Why? Because he would like to see us put that energy into loving God and laying up treasurers in heaven.
James points out two more possible outcomes of a polluted heart. The first one is …
5. Slandering and judging others
JAMES 4:11-12 – 11Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbor?
We should not speak evil of one another. Our lips should be guided by the law of kindness. We must not take pleasure in making known the faults of others – but even more than this, we should not be judging others. Jesus said ….
MATTHEW 7:1-2 – 1Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
It is amazing how Believers today sit in judgment on one another. Today you can go online and find articles attacking almost every well known Christian author, pastor or evangelist. James says we should allow God to be the judge – “But you – who are you to judge your neighbor.”
Finally, James says our polluted hearts can cause us to …
6. Boast about the future
JAMES 4:13 – Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”
All of us must guard against this type of thinking. We need to keep reminding ourselves that each breath we take comes from God and we do not know how soon that last breath will come.
Here is what James wants us to remember.
JAMES 4:14 – Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Life is fragile. God is in control. And so James tells us how we should think and speak.
JAMES 4:15 – Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
If we would think and speak like that more often, it would help us stay focused on God. When we make plans without considering how much we are dependent on God, James says we are being evil.
JAMES 4:16 – As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
Now that we have looked at how our polluted hearts can keep us from both receiving and following God’s directions, directions given in his word, and directions the Holy Spirit would have us follow, let’s look at …
II. THE SOLUTION FOR THE HUMAN HEART
Of course the beginning point is to ….
A. BE BORN AGAIN
Jesus said …
JOHN 3:3 – In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Being born again means you receive Jesus as your Lord. When you do that, God’s Spirit comes to live within and that begins the battle. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul that we read earlier.
GALATIANS 5:16-17 – 16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
The key is living by the Spirit. James is going to give us some practical ways to do that. First he says ….
B. HUMBLE YOURSELF
He writes …
JAMES 4:6 – But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
That is a quote from Proverbs …
PROVERBS 3:34 – He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.
And then he goes on to say …
JAMES 4:10 – Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Our pride often keeps us from receiving and/or following God’s directions. It prevents some people from receiving Jesus as their Lord and it keeps others from doing what they know God wants them to do.
Many people hold on to their grudges and bitterness and as a result miss out on God’s purposes for their lives.
Others put earthly pleasures ahead of pleasing God and walk down wrong paths.
And at the root of their choices you often find pride. They refuse to humble themselves before God and do right.
James says when you humble yourself before God he will give you grace and lift you up.
Right along with humbling ourselves before God comes …
C. SUBMIT TO GOD
JAMES 4:7a – Submit yourselves, then, to God.
That simply means that we do what God wants us to do. That is the surrendering that we studied several weeks ago.
James goes on to tell us to …
D. RESIST THE DEVIL
JAMES 4:7b – Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
We are going to be tempted, even Jesus was tempted, but we don’t need to yield to the temptation. When we resist the devil and his temptations he will flee from us … at least for a period of time.
Are you starting to see that receiving and following God’s directions for your life is not hearing a mysterious voice or seeing a hand writing instructions on the wall.
If you want to receive God’s instructions you need to do what he has already clearly revealed and that means that sometimes we need to …
E. REPENT
JAMES 4:7-8 – 7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
That is what I call speaking bluntly. James says if you want to hear from God than draw near to him. Of course, to come near to God we need to put off our sinful ways. Instead of being joyful over our sinful actions we need to be mourning over our unfaithfulness. We need to change how we are living. That is repentance.
CONCLUSION
If we are going to embrace God’s purposes for our life we need to receive and follow God’s directions.
He has given us clear directions in his word and has given us the Holy Spirit living in us to enlighten and guide us.
Receiving and following God’s instructions means that we must …
- Be born again
- Humble ourselves … before God
- Submit to God
- Resist the Devil
and
- Repent of any wrong doing.
When we do those things God’s word becomes alive to us. We start understanding it more and more. Through the power of God’s Holy Spirit it sets us on the path which God wants us to walk.
Let’s close by reading responsively a passage of scripture that talks about God’s word and the directions it provides for our life. A passage that clearly shows the value of his word.
PSALM 19:7-11
PASTOR – The law of the Lord is perfect,
CONGREGATION – reviving the soul.
PASTOR – The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
C0NGREGATION – making wise the simple.
PASTOR – The precepts of the Lord are right,
CONGREGATION – giving joy to the heart.
PASTOR – The commands of the Lord are radiant,
CONGREGATION – giving light to the eyes.
PASTOR – The fear of the Lord is pure,
CONGREGATION – enduring forever.
PASTOR – The ordinances of the Lord are sure
CONGREGATION – and altogether righteous.
PASTOR – They are more precious than gold,
CONGREGATION – than much pure gold;
PASTOR – they are sweeter than honey,
CONGREGATION – than honey from the comb.
PASTOR – By them is your servant warned;
CONGREGATION – in keeping them there is great reward.