Making Right Decision According to God's Will (part 1)

Speaker: Rev. Kenneth Lee
Date: 12 Oct 2008

All of us have to make important decisions in life. It is something that everyone will have the go through. Minor decisions such as what to eat, drink, when to sleep, or Major decisions such as who to marry, what to study, what car to buy are examples of decisions that we need to make.

It is very important for us to make a right decision, because wrong decisions can cost us dearly. AND we believe that God is our shepherd, the leader and guide, in our decision making process. Good decisions comes when we do what God wants us to do. However, we will still have dilemma in our decision making process. So..


HOW DO WE KNOW GOD'S WILL IN OUR LIFE? How do we make right/hard/good decisions?

Let's look at these few verses:

Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

2 Corinthians 5:9
So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

Colossians 1:9-10
For this reason, since we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

To live a life worthy of the Lord, to live a life that please God, to live a life all according to God's will is one of the greatest thing one can do in their life. This is because we're doing the will of the Creator, and not the created. Because we're doing the will of an awesome King and God that is capable of making us fully and deeply satisfied in Him.

So does God have a specific individual will?

Ways of looking at God's will:

a) Through inward experience

• Prompting of Holy Spirit, Personal Desires, reasoning, and praying

b) Through outward experience

• Bible reading, advices from friends/elders/pastors/parents, signs or circumstances, personal spiritual revelation
  

Aspects of God's will:
God speaking through:

a)revelation

18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thes 5:18

15For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.

1 Peter 2:15

b)through written words/commandments/law

8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful

Josh 1:8

c) through His Son

2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

Hebrews 1:2

d) through His Spirit

12"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

John 16:12-13

e) Through the Bible

36Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? 37If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command.

1 Cor 14:36-37

16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Tim 3:16-17

f) God's providential will

10in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God's will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

Romans 1:10

32so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed.

Romans 15:32

13Now 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." 14Why, 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. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

James 4:13-25

g) God's permisive will

God also allows things to happen sometimes, things that may seem bad temporary but for the better in the future.

There are a few things that we need to take note of when we look at God's will.

1. God gave us a free will yet He is still sovereign and has control over it. He gave us the freedom to choose what we want to do. Just like how Adam and Eve had a choice to obey God or to disobey God. When we want to do God's will, we have His moral will and Sovereign Will. We know of some truths like we cannot kill, steal, commit sexual immorality and so on but sometimes when we do the opposit, God sovereignly allow that to happen(though He did not will it to happen) yet making something good comes out from it in the end.
2. We often set what we want before we even ask God what He wants. Instead of setting what we want first, we should always seek His will first. Even if we have our own personal desires, we should always pray like how Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, saying let Your will be done.
3. God does give clear and specific will sometimes though it is very rare. Like the wedding of Issac and Rebakah.
4. Open doors might not be God's will. in 2 Corinthians 2:12-13, the door was open for Paul to preach in Troas but he found no peace, so he went on to Macedonia.
5. God gives us wisdom to choose. We can make choices base on our priorities. Sometimes we need to make sacrifices for greater things

Serving the Lord requires sacrifices too. However, these sacrifices are small compare to what we will gain. Paul finds his successes and all he had ever lived rubbish compare to the surparssing worth of knowing Christ. When we know Christ and do His will, it is far better than doing what we want.
Let us make doing God's will our mission in our life.

Lifestyle Missions and Evangelism - Matthew 5:13-16

Speaker: Daniel Loo
Date: July 27, 2008

Matthew 5:13-16

13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Effect of Salt

1. Salt preserves: Christians are to preserve the world from moral decay
2. Salt flavors: Christians are to bring true happiness and hope to the world

Effect of Light

1. Light Reveals and gives direction to the truth-Christians are to lead others to the true light which is Christ

How to lead others to the Light?

1. By sharing God's word with them - God's Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path(Ps 119;105)
2. By our good works - True religion is to look after orphans and widows in their distress (James 1:19), I was hungry and you gave me(Jesus) something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink...(Matthew 25:31ff)

The Conversion of Cornelius(Acts 10-11), 04/05/2008

The Conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10-11)
Speaker : Pastor Kenneth Lee
Date : 04/05/2008

We've been studying on

• Acts 8(The Conversion of the Eunuch) & (The martyrdom of Stephen)

• Acts 9(Conversion of Saul)

These conversions and martyrdom are related to the Jews only and not to the gentiles.
Jews(Israelites, a race that God set apart for Himself)
Gentiles(Non-Jew)

But today we're gonna talk on the conversion of a gentile in the book of Acts, a God fearing man called Cornelius. His Character, Challenges of Peter as God uses him to preach the good news to him, and His conversion.

Click on the following link to read the passage:
Acts 10
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2010&version=31
Acts 11
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=51&chapter=11&version=31

THREE LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE

1. Character of Cornelius (Acts 10:1-8)

• A Good man
• A God fearing devout man (heard of the God of Israel but not Jesus)
• A generous man (helps the needy people and gives to charity)
• A very firm and discipline man (A Roman Centurion)
• A prayerful man(v3-4)
• A vision seeing man(v3-8)

2. Challenges of Peter

• Peter's Vision

9About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. 13Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."14"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.15The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

• To breakdown the walls between the Jews and the Gentiles. To receive the gentiles. To share the Gospel with them, as God told him not to call anything unclean that God has made clean, for Jesus died for the gentiles too.
• Many people left their comfort zones and crossed oceans and breakdown their walls to preach the Gospel. And through that, many people and nations are saved because of it.

3. Conversion of Cornelius
When was Cornelius saved? When he was praying? while he saw the vision? when peter came to preach? when the Holy Spirit came upon him? When he first heard the good news? Cornelius was saved when he obeyed God.

How was Cornelius saved?

NOT by:

• Good moral values
• Prayers
• His own faith
• Angelic Appearances

BUT by:

• Preaching of the Word of God
• Faith in Christ
• Repentance of sins
• Grace of God
• Conviction of the Holy Spirit.

There are some questions that we will often ask as we read through these passages. Such as:
1) Will a person that is God fearing yet never heard of the gospel be saved?
A person that is God fearing yet never heard of the gospel will not be saved. A person can only be saved when he have faith in Jesus and accepts Him as Lord and Saviour. This is because no matter how God fearing we are and how holy we think we are, we are still sinners blinded by the works of the evil one to see how bad we really are. The only way we can be saved is through Jesus. Even Jesus said himself that He is the only way to the Father.

2) Must the gift of tongues come with the gift of the Holy Spirit?
The gift of tongues are actually just signs for the unbelievers on the day of the Pentacoast. They are meant to reach out to the unbelievers. Just like any other gifts that God choses to give to His people to build one another up. Not a gift to confirm that we are saved or not. It is not a must and neither is it a confirmation that we are saved too.

3? Do we need to be baptized to be saved?
Baptism is said to be the outward expression of an inward experience. IF we really believe in Jesus why wouldn't we take the step of faith and be baptized? Baptism is like a way to tell other people that we trust in Jesus too. So just as we really believe in our hearts, our actions should show it too. However, we don't need to be baptized to be saved. If we are baptized yet do not have faith in our hearts, it is plainly useless too.