All I Want For Christmas, Week 1: Answers
Title of Message: Answers
(1 Corinthians 13:12) (NLT) Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
We spend too much time looking for the concealed part of God’s will, when God just wants us to obey the revealed parts of His ways.
3 Aspects of God:
1. His Works
2. His Ways
(Colossians 3:17) (NLT) And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
(Psalm 37:4) (NLT) Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
3. His Will
HIS WAYS:
How?
Why?
Who?
HIS WILL:
Where?
When?
What?
(Luke 1:26-27) (NLT) In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.
(Luke 1:28-29) (NLT) Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.
(Luke 1:38) (NLT) Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
We spend too much time looking for the concealed part of God’s will, when God just wants us to obey the revealed parts of His ways.
The Answers are in the Questions:
1. How am I living?
HOW I live is more important than WHERE I live.
2. Why am I doing this?
WHY I’m doing something is more important than WHEN I do it
3. Who am I becoming?
Who I’m becoming is more important that WHAT I’m becoming.
When I walk in His ways I will always be in His will.
(2 Samuel 22.31) (NLT) God’s way is perfect.
(Proverbs 3:5) (NIV) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
(Proverbs 3:6) (NIV) in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
He will reveal His will when I choose to walk in His ways.
(Ephesians 5:17) (NIV) Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
(Ephesians 5:17) (NLT) Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.
(Romans 8:28) (MSG) Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
