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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/gaius-goff/the-will-of-god/
Now you can turn your Bibles to 2nd Timothy chapter 1. What is it? Made you come to this conference. Why are you here? What are you expecting to get from this conference? Did you come with anything in your mind at all or did you come just because you do this this time here?
Are you really come here with expecting something to either hit you between the eyes or Change your feet or move your heart. What is it that brought you here? Could you write in one sentence? Your expectations for these two days.
A Challenge to me over the last several months since I knew I was going to be here Lord willing. Was the challenge to be loyal to what I know and to be convicted and convinced that what I do is right.
That brings me to this book in the Bible 2nd Timothy where that's the main theme of the book. Loyalty in chapter 1. Loyalty in spite of suffering you might be a suffering saint loyalty and devoted service that's chapter 2.
Loyalty in spite of apostasy of the age or the Dark Age, that's chapter 3. And Confidence in the Lord that he's with us in spite of desertion of his people. That's chapter 4. So we're here to challenge ourselves to learn to be again faithful to the Lord and Some will be and some won't be.
I hope you're one of those that will be and faithful to The unsaved people around us when we leave this place and so with this biblical preview of the days that we're living in now and They're similar to the days that Timothy lived in as Paul wrote this last letter.
There's instructions given and my expectation from this conference is that We all Will leave here with lighter hearts. With greater enthusiasm for who we are and what we believe. With less concern about whether health care passes or not or anything else with those things are only trivial.
They're only a drop in the bucket as far as God is concerned but with a resolve to be godly in our homes and in our workplaces and With the assurance that what we do in our assemblies is right. There's a lot of people are looking for a place of comfort.
They want to feel comfortable well. You'll never find it in an assembly. You'll find discomfort. In fact, you'll never find it anywhere Till we get to heaven. Then it's going to be great. But we can find the joy That comes even when we're full of discomfort.
In fact, I hope one of the results of this is going to be that some of us will be uncomfortable Till we make the necessary Adjustments in our lives. So I'm going to just read to you see. This is written to a young man.
I'm going to read to you just a little bit in some of this these first chapters. Verse 1 Paul An apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Now, we're going to speak to you about the things of God and This is the first one by the will of God.
According to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus to Timothy my dearly beloved son. Grace mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers With pure conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.
Greatly desiring to see thee being mindful of my tears that I may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the unfamed faith That is in thee which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Unessi and I'm persuaded in thee also.
Wherefore I Put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God. That's the second one the will of God verse 1 the gift of God here in verse 6. Which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me his prisoner. But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. According to the power of God. There's our third one the will of God the gift of God the power of God.
Now turn over a little further into the next chapter. And we will read in beginning at verse 8 of chapter 2. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead. According to my gospel where I in I suffer trouble as an evildoer Even under bonds, but the Word of God is not bound.
So there's the fourth one the Word of God. So we have we're going to drop down a little bit further in verse 18 who concerning the faith Concerning the truth have erred saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some.
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure that's the next one foundation of God. Having this seal the Lord knoweth Them that are his and that every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
Now turn over to chapter 3 for a reading verse 15. No, we're gonna read verse 14 but continue thou and the things which thou has learned and has been assured of. Knowing of whom thou has learned them that and that from a child thou has known the holy scriptures.
Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. There's a sixth one and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in Righteousness that the man of God that's the seventh one may be perfect Throughly furnished unto all good works.
And the Lord will bless the reading of his word to us here and I trust in the other places that we'll be reading, too as you read through the Epistles oftentimes you'll find the things of God mentioned in just that way for instance Timothy was living in times just like ours when they're dark and getting darker and what and we've got to expect that Grace does not mean that we're going to live in better times.
Actually, there's never been such evil times as we're living in now and so evil has Been getting worse. We've been the most in some of us have lived in the most murderous a time of human history and that called the 20th century.
And so in these dark days that are going to get darker. Don't panic. It's going to get darker. It's going to get worse. That doesn't need to ripple a pool for the believers because we don't belong here.
We're just here to shine as lights and the more dark the days the brighter the light. But there was also an assembly that was in dark days and you would find that in the book of 1st Corinthians and There's actually seven things of God in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 that he's pointing out that whenever there's dark times.
We don't quit or we don't give up but we recognize that God has brought us to this time for a specific reason so. The will of God that's the call to serve the gift of God. That's the ability to serve.
The power of God that's the power to serve. The Word of God gives us the knowledge to serve. The foundation of God is the message that we serve. The inspiration of God is the source of our service and the man of God is the servant who serves.
Now, I know we're not going to get through all that in this conference because that's a sign of senior citizens. We all talk too long. But I am going to speak to you a little bit about the will of God right now.
You having a good time being a Christian. Are you finding it all that you expected to happen? When you signed up, well, I don't mean it like that, but you understand when you became a Christian are your expectations now what you thought they would be when you got saved and Hopefully they are.
But sometimes we've got to be honest, right? And we had hoped that would been easier wouldn't have been so uphill and we'd have been able to see more souls saved and more Gospel activity flourishing. But God didn't promise that.
He promised that what he would do would be with us until the end of the age if we fulfill the mandate. That is God's will that we go and make disciples and teach them or baptize them and teach them to observe all things he's commanded and This begins with the will of God.
That's the call to service and You all have been called to service and I'm looking at some young people here who are saved. When do you start serving God 16. Well, you know when they you when I wanted to get after I got saved.
I was in high school in the early year of high school, and I wanted to come into fellowship. I Wanted to be baptized and then I wanted to come into the fellowship of the assembly. And so I'm sitting in this room with six Old some of them are old men and some nearly old men and and they're all there like, you know looking at me.
What do you want? Boy I almost you know, it's a real nerve-wracking thing to sit in one of those interview meetings. And so I'm sitting in this interview meeting and tell us how you got saved. Well, I was glad to do that.
Tell us why you want to be baptized. Well, it's a command of the Lord. Why do you suppose he commanded that. Now the pressure is coming on and and what does it mean? Whoa, the pressure is really on. I'm still working on that and and I'm thinking to myself and and You want to be in assembly?
Why and I thought all these why questions really gave me a bit of a panic. I'm still getting a tingling in the back of my legs when I talk about it because they all looked at each other and They asked me to step outside for a bit and they talked and by and by they called me and they said We don't think we'll baptize you and You know what it's like you kind of look for a place to go a hole to go on the ground.
And he said no. No, we're not saying you're not saved but you're pretty young and You're talking about pulling the rug out but I thought this is the will of God. This is what God wants. And I can't do what God wants.
But I also didn't realize then that it isn't just me that's involved in the will of God. Every Christian is involved in the will of God. The elders of an assembly Have to act under the will of God the same as the their wives or the Sunday school teachers.
We're committed to the will of God whatever our call is and they had to be true to God's will even when they told me No, we won't baptize you. So I could have got snarky and you know a teenager, you know, that's when you have one-word sentences.
I got a grandson a while back and whenever you talk to him, how's things going? Fine? Everything? Okay. Yep. You know, you can't have a conversation but the day came. When I was allowed I asked Again, and they said we would like to just speak to you briefly.
And they said, you know. You took it, right. We believe you have learned and we believe it's God's will. That you be part of this assembly. I I'm confident that the will of God is clear to me in the Bible.
I'm thinking briefly because I I know I have a tendency to be long-winded. I'm thinking briefly about the Apostle Paul the man who wrote to Timothy and Said that he was an apostle by the will of God.
He knew who he was and he knew what he was supposed to do and he went about and did it and it took him 15 years to get started publicly, but he did what God wanted. Are you prepared to do that? So he writes this as a last Sentence or last letter to his son in the faith Timothy and he says I'm an apostle by the will of God.
He knew who he was now. You need to keep that in your mind. Paul Gives us a few little leads on guidance. If you wanted to read it in the book of Romans chapter 1, which I was would have read but are Moving along here I just want to mention a number of things that you can find about guidance in the will of God in Romans 1 in verse 13.
It is appropriate to make plans. To do the will of God it is appropriate to make plans. Paul had no specific guidance to Rome, but he had made plans to go there. It is appropriate to make plans. It may not all work out just the way you do plan.
But it is appropriate to do it. God hadn't commanded him to go or not go. But it's right. Don't wait for things just to fall on you make plans secondly from verse 8 through verse 10. Pray about your plans.
He prayed that they might be accomplished. He had planned it before and he was hopeful it would happen. And so he prayed about he made the plans and then he prayed about it that's consistent with the will of God and Then down in verse 10 he submitted himself and his plans to the sovereign will of God.
He knew that God was in control. If he made it to Rome it would be by God's will and up until then he had been prevented from going to Rome. His his delay was accepted without being frustrated. But he knew that was the will of God and then verse 11 his plan was based on spiritual goals.
So he made appropriate plans. He prayed about his plans. He submitted those plans to God's sovereign will and he his plan was based on Spiritual goals. He had established his priorities and carrying out the will of God.
I'm looking here today at the people of God and we're going to be more tested as the years go by as to our loyalty to the Lord as To what we're going to stand for and what we're not going to what we're going to yield to and what we're going to commit ourselves to the people of God.
We're one time not a people at all. But now the people of God and God has committed us to serve him. We have been called by his will To serve. I'm going to just take a little time here and I want you to turn a few pages with me because I want you to see something what the will of God is is Is like when he wants us in this dark world that we live in.
He's expecting us To be like him. That's his will and he has us here to Fulfill his will in our generation and to our generation. So I'm going to give you a few verses of Scripture that let us know What he wants us to be like when we carry out his will if we're doing the will of God.
1st Peter chapter 1 verse 15 and 16 as He which hath called you is holy. So be ye Holy it is the will of God. That you be distinctive in holiness. That I be distinctive in holiness. God wants us to be like him and in a dark world.
Even though we pray for the powers that be and that we might live quiet and peace. I had made a mistake a few years ago. You ever make them when you're Christian make mistakes and praying even I prayed a long time that we would live quiet and peaceable lives and all godliness and honesty and I stopped.
Until there was a president came in that I really didn't like very well and It must have been the Spirit of God that moved me to read the next part of the verse or the next comes right after. To pray for kings and those that are an authority that we might live quiet and peaceable lives and all godliness and honesty for this is the will of God.
Who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth? And I realized that I'd been praying that I'd have a quiet and peaceable life and my wife. We do we had it all off 47 48 years.
We're having a good time being married too, but. But but you know, that's that's a wonderful thing. To have a quiet and peaceable life but I forgot that those who lead us have souls that are going to be in heaven and hell just like our children and your children and It made me stop and consider That God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
So what have I got to offer? I Don't think Dennis would mind. Dennis Walker has a thing called scriptures unlimited. And a few years back when President Reagan was in power or was not in power, but in our leader Dennis made a beautiful text about this long out of redwood and and he had that text on it and he covered it all with that epoxy that made it look right shiny and nice and it was just a beautiful piece of work and he Packed that up and Sent it to the White House to President Reagan.
While later he gets this call. Would you please come to Washington DC and make a presentation of that text of the president and he did. He went into the White House and here they had an easel made out of bronze that looked like gold.
Brass easel and on it with light shining on it was John 316. Beautiful. President Reagan came out. It's quite a bit taller than mr. Walker and he came out and shook his hand and pictures going off. He said thank you very much, brother.
That verse is what God used to show me the way of salvation. This is the will of God. We have these responsibilities to be holy and holiness involves being different no matter what other people are like.
Commit to being holy. It's the will of God. Not only that first John chapter 3 verse 7 Whoso doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous. So there we are again like God. Holy as he's holy.
Righteous as he is righteous. So what is righteous mean? It simply means he wants us to be like him and doing what is right always. And that's not always easy in the university or at least wasn't when I went 50 60 long time ago but Not always easy that by the way, if you're in university, that is your job.
Don't fool away at it. Put your nose down study. Don't mess with all the things. The other students are doing. You're there because God wants you there to do something special for him in that time and place and do a good job of it.
Because you're God's representative in that place. When I went First I was 17 when I went in that dormitory about 900 men and most of them were veterans came back from Korea. It shot and killed people over there.
They were tough men. They were back going through in the GI Bill. Now what's a 17 year old Christian who's kind of shaky in his knees? Anyway, what's he gonna do with this crowd? Keep it quiet. Don't let anybody suspect a thing or I went into the room and here's the room I'm gonna share with a man and a little desk there.
He had one aside and I had the other a little single-handed cot for him one for me. He'd been there before me and he'd put something on the walls. That he wanted to see. See again and again. I thought oh boy.
Oh, I think I'm in trouble. When I saw what he had hung and hanging there. So, what am I gonna do nobody else in the room yet? So I thought well, I better do it right away and I put my Bible on the desk.
My side not on his side on my side. Had a little John 3 16 text, but that's right. He had a picture of his full-life sigh anyway, I had this little John 3 16 text and hung it on the wall and I was just putting my things away and the door opens and in comes this great big ex-soldier from Korea.
And he looked at me and then he looked at that wall and that Bible. He says oh, oh, I think I'm in trouble. He figured he was in more trouble than me. I kind of let him keep that I didn't bug him. But I knew that I had to be righteous and so do you that's one of the things we need to take away from this Conference the resolve not just to be holy but to be righteous when you have choices to make make them righteously.
Sorry, make them righteously. First John chapter 3 verse 3. He that purifies himself is pure even as he is pure. So we're to be in to be in God's will we have to be holy. To be in God's will we have to be righteous to be in God.
To be in God's will we have to be pure. I'm kind of a practical guy. But I'm kind of stunned when it comes to computers and that but I use one and I have enough sense to know. That when that screen comes up in front of you, there's things that you do not open.
You've got the drift there's more problems on a computer than there is on a television and it opens up the Most ungodly part of this age is that the darkest things of this age. Where we live can be seen on a computer screen.
And if you're not careful that will tip you over and knock you calm down flat. You watch your purity. There's a cost to being pure that means That you dress. Girls, I gotta say it. Don't entice men. Do it for God look like you could talk to Jesus in a moment, even if you met him on the street and you men.
This is the best part of a lady to watch. Look at her eyes her face. Make sure you're pure. That's God's will for you. A little bit further first Ephesians chapter 5. We're not only in holiness as he's holy and Righteousness even as he's righteous and pure even as he is pure but Ephesians 5 wanted to walk in love as Christ also hath loved us.
I think this is one of the most powerful testimonies that we have in a dark age is that Christians have the Authority and the power of God's love in us. Let the love of God be shed abroad in our hearts.
Not only to our own believers when we come together to hall. But by this shall all men know you're my disciples indeed if you have loved one to another that's the will of God. I'll just give you these and then I'll stop.
I won't speak about him too much. But also Colossians 3 verse 3 as Christ forgave you so also do ye. It's God's will that you be a person who's willing to forgive. I Hope nobody here carries a load of bitterness because that defiles a lot of people not only that in Luke chapter 6 and verse 36 be ye merciful as your father is merciful.
I Only had two children. They're girls. You know. Us men we kind of melt when we see our daughters, I don't know what are you ladies understand that but Ours was born in both of them in the middle of the night and the first one that came out.
Those years men didn't go in when this all happened. But this nurse brought this baby out in her arms and and she hadn't even cleaned up and she was just there. I says that baby got she said I said I'd like to hold it.
She gave me the baby and she opened one eye. Boy, she had me nailed from then till now. She's in her 40s. She still got me. How come? Well, there's something called compassion. There's something that that's God like The Lord had it.
He looked on sinners as sheep without a shepherd. He had compassion. That's the will of God. In endurance let us run. With patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
He endured the cross. Then in submission Christ suffered for us first. Peter. Leaving us an example. To be like him in our submission to the Father's will in humility. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.
Same way and obedience and humility and kindness. See God is not. There's lots of other things, but God is not concerned simply with what? We do. He's concerned with why we do it and how we do it and we got to do it according to his will.
So God's will is that you be holy you be righteous. You be pure. You be a person that demonstrates love you be a forgiving person. You be one of compassion one who doesn't quit. One who endures the pressures of this life with vigor and enthusiasm.
One who lives with humility and grace one who's kind and one who's generous you know if We left here the way God intends us. We'd walk out of here. Maybe I don't know when the last meeting is if it's dark or not.
But we'd walk out of here and there'd be lights going all over Iowa and maybe across even to Wisconsin or wherever. Lights of people that have committed to doing the will of God in a dark day and the darker it gets.
The lighter will shine.