Rick Warren - 5 Things You Must STOP Doing to Finally Hear God's Voice

There's no way we're getting out of this. We're going

into bankruptcy. There's no way to getting out of this.

We've heard the C word cancer. There's no way out

of this. We're headed for a divorce court. There's no

And you are exactly where God wants you to be.

He wants to do a miracle.

But there are five things you got to stop doing,

and there are five things you got to start doing

stops and starts, stops and starts, and when you do that,

you get God's guidance and he shows you.

A pathway that nobody knew was there.

You know, life is a series of choices. We make

our choices and then they make us. We make our decisions,

and if we make good decisions, we become successful. If

we make bad decisions, then you know we're not. And

every decision has a consequence, and the potential for error

is great because obviously we're human beings.

We're imperfect.

Some of you today are struggling with some kind of

difficult decision about where do I move, what job do

I take? Do I get married, do I stay in

this marriage? All of these different Where do we put

our kids in school? And and and indecision is one

of the greatest sources of stress in your life. And

yet your heavenly Father doesn't want you to be stressed

out by your decisions. But when you have this tension,

do I hold on or do I let go? Do

I keep on doing what I'm doing?

All right?

Try something else? Do I move on? Do I get married?

The Bible tells us in the Book of James that

a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

And that word unstable actually in Greek means staggering like

a drunk. That's literally what it means that when you're

pulled in different directions by a decision because you just

can't figure out which way to go, it creates enormous

tension in your life. And then even after a lot

of times you've made a decision, you start guessing, second

guessing yourself did I make the right decision? And then

you just prolong the pain. Now what is the antidote. Well,

the antidote is to let God guide you. And we're

going to look at that as we come to our

fifth message in this series on living in the goodness

of God. Where we're going verse by verse tough, Psalm

twenty three. And the Bible tells us that life is

a journey and that God has given us a roadmap.

It's this book, the Bible, this is our roadmap for life.

That God has given us a compass, that's our conscience

that keeps us headed in the right direction if we

listen to it. And that God has even given us

a personal guidance counselor, and he is the Holy Spirit.

And a personal guide is even the best thing all

that's better than a map. If you have a guide

taking you through a city you've never been in, that's

a whole lot better than you trying to figure it

out on a map or.

With a compass.

Now, the Bible tells us that God wants to lead

us in the paths of righteousness. That means the right paths.

God done wants you to mess up your life. What

we're talking about in this message is am I going

to waste my life? Am I going to spend my life?

Or am I going to invest my life? I don't

want you to waste your life. And part of that

means making right decisions. How do you get on the

right path? How do the Bible says he leads me

in the paths of righteousness. That means a modern translation,

he keeps me on track. God wants to keep you

on track in your life. Now, I know some of

you say, Rick, this just doesn't work for me. I've

tried to let God lead my life. I don't get it.

How do you let God lead?

Well, that's what we're going to look at this weekend,

because there's some things you need to start doing. There's

some things you need to stop doing in order to

let God lead your life. But really the question comes

down to why is it so difficult to figure out

what God wants me to do with my life? Why

is God's will? Often it seems hidden? Is God playing

games with me? Is God playing cat and mouse? Is he?

Is he playing hide and seek? Does God enjoy confusing me?

Of course not, of course not. And then the real

issue is we often look for the wrong thing from God.

Now we are in this series of Psalm twenty three,

and I told you we're going to memorize over ten

weeks these six verses together. Now, many of you memorize

us as a kid, And if you memorize it in

the King James version, it's okay for you to say

thee and thou and all at Elizabethan English. It's just

four hundred years old. But it's okay as long as

you memorize this important verse. Now, I told you a

couple of weeks ago. This is the most quoted passage

in funerals, Psalm twenty three. But it's not even about death.

There's only one line in it.

Even though I walk.

Through the valley of the shadow of death, I will

fear no evil, for thou art with me, you are

with me. This verse is not This chapter is not

really about death. It's the most famous psalm quoted to death,

but it's not about death. It's really about how God

wants to guide you and leads you all the way

through your life. Now, because God is a good God,

and that's what we're looking at. God has good plans

for your life, not bad plans, and God wants you

to understand those plans. And because he's good, he has

promised to guide. The good Shepherd doesn't just feed us,

He leads us. He doesn't just correct us. He directs us.

He guides us. And so this is part of leading,

feeding and meeting our needs, which is what the good

Shepherd does. Now, look at the top of your outline,

and we're going to start with now the first three verses.

So let's say it aloud together. Remember trying to memorize this.

Let's say it aloud. By the way, it's on either

side here at the Lake Forest campus, and many of

our campuses have already put this on their walls. Let's

threat it together. The Lord is my shepherd. I have

everything I need. He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leaves me besides still waters. He restores my soul.

Now here's the verse. We're gonna look at this this weekend.

Read it with me. He leaves me in the right

paths for his name's sake. As I said, because God

is a good God, he promises to guide us. We're

not left out on our loan on our own. God says,

I'm going to give you my guidance. In fact, listen,

if you've never felt guided by God, that's a problem

because one of the proofs are one of the evidences

that you do have a relationship with God, that you're

in his family, is he guides you. Look at this

next verse there on your outline, Romans eight, verse fourteen.

Only those people who are led by God God's Spirit

are God's children.

Oh, let me read it again. Only those people who

are led.

By God's Spirit are God's children. So it is absolutely,

vitally important that you learn what we're going to talk

about this weekend on how do I get guidance from God?

Or how do I be led by God's Spirit? Only

those people who were led by God's spirit, circle that

led by God's Spirit are God's children, So you can

see the importance of this. On Friday, I took a

couple of guys from our staff and we just did

a little day hike. It was such a beautiful day

after all the rain we've been having, and I noticed

it was we were taking this hike that a hike,

or a journey or a walk is a composition of

both starts and stops. And when you're on a journey,

you're not always walking. You stop, you slow down, you

look at things, you might pause, and there's some things

on a journey of life you have to stop doing,

and there's some things you have to start doing. Life

is composed of starts and stops. And what I want

to do is take that little metaphor today and talk

to you about how do you hear God speak to you.

How do you learn to get God's will in your life?

How do you get God's guidance, whether it's a business

decision or a relational decision, or a financial or health decision.

How do I get God's guidance in my life? How

do I be led by God's Spirit? Well, there are

some things you need to stop doing in order to

do that, and there's some things you need to start doing.

So let's begin with the negative.

This may not be comfortable, but it's necessary if I

really want to be led by the spirit of God. Okay,

so you might write these down. Number one, he's a

right from God's word. If I want to be led

by God's spirit. First, I can't follow a culture that

doesn't follow God. I can't follow a culture that doesn't

follow God if I'm trying to follow God, if I'm

trying to be led by the spirit, So I've got

to stop that. You can't run in two directions at

the same time. You can't chase two rabbits at the

same time. You can't serve God and money. You can't

serve God and anything else. You got to decide what's

number one in your life? You can only have one

number one. In Exodus twenty three, Verse two, the Bible says,

do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. Now, that's

important verse today, because the whole idea is if everybody

else is doing it, it must be okay.

If it's legal, it must be moral.

Not necessarily, if everybody else is doing it, then I

should do it. You can't follow a culture that doesn't

follow God. If you want to be led by the

Holy Spirit, do not follow the crowd and doing wrong.

You know, most people make decisions in their life according

to what is acceptable, and I just want to fit in.

And if they're doing it, then I'm going to do it.

And if they're not doing it, I'm not going to

do it because I don't want to stick out. I

don't want to stand out. You don't want to rock

the boat. When in Rome, you know, do as the Romans.

And you know there are magazines that put out what's

in and what's out to tell you this is now out,

stop doing that, this is now in, start doing that,

wear this, don't wear that, say this, don't say that.

And there are great pressures to make you conform to

our culture. You cannot conform to our culture and be

just like everybody else and be led by the Holy

Spirit because he's going in a different direction. This problem

was Israel's biggest problem for two thousand, three thousand, and

four thousand years in the Bible, they kept trying to

want to be like every other nation. God said, no, no,

you're supposed to be different. I don't want you doing that.

Gave them all kinds of moral laws and civil laws

and ceremonial laws, and he said, this is going to

just make you different from everybody else, and it's intentional.

God said, because you're my people, I want you to

be different, and so don't copy what everybody else is doing,

what other cultures are doing, what other people are doing. Today,

many believers accept many of the standards simply because they're

politically correct, culturally correct. They're what everybody else is doing.

Here's what the Bible says Romans twelve, verse two. Do

not copy the behavior or values of this world. Instead,

let God transform you. I means you're gonna be different

into a new person by changing the way you think.

So you're not going to think like everybody else does.

Then you will know notice, then you will know what

God wants you to do.

Now, let me pause right here.

The reason you don't know what God wants you to do,

it's because you're too inculturated with this culture and you

can't think like the world and think like God thinks.

And so you have to decide to life, do I

want to be popular with the world, or do I

really want to do what God put me on this

earth to do. Do I want to be who He

made me to be, not try to be poor carbon

copy of somebody else. Don't copy the behaviors or values

of this world. Let God transform you into a new

person how by changing the way you think. Then, he says,

then you'll know. You want to know God's will. Then

you'll know what God wants you to do, and you

will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will

really is. I want you to circle those three where

its good, pleasing.

And perfect. God's will for your life is good.

It's not bad. God has good plans for your life,

not bad plans. God's will for your life is good.

It's pleasing. That means it's enjoyable. It's not a not

a bad deal. It's not painful, can't involve pain, but

it's good. It's pleasing and it's perfect. That's what God's

will for your life really is. You see, one of

the weaknesses of following culture is it's all temporary. Whatever

is in style now, next year is going to be

what yeah, out of style. So nothing is as worthless

as yesterday's fashion unless you hold onto.

It for thirty years.

And then what goes around comes back, and ties get

wide and narrow and wideness, hymn lines go up and

down and all of that. But the Bible tells us

in One John two seventeen, the world and all of

its desires passes away, but the person who does the

will of God shall live forever. Really, you don't want

to care about whether I'm fitting in with culture or not.

People will tell you, well, you're on the wrong side

of history. For you, it's not important on whether you're

on the right side of history or the wrong side

of history. It's important that you just be on the

right side because history is often wrong. You ever heard

anything called Nazism, communism, so many other History is often wrong.

It's not important to be on the right side of history.

It's important to be on the right side. And if

you're gonna let God guide you you can't say, well,

I'm going to try to let culture guide me what

I do think can be and I'm gonna let God

do that too. It doesn't work that way. Now, let's

get a little more personal.

That was pretty easy. This is getting a meddling in

your life. Now.

If I want to be led by God's spirit, I

can't follow friends who aren't led by God. If my

friends are going the exact opposite direction that God is going,

I have to make a choice. Am I gonna go

to the direction my friends are going? Or am I

going to go the direction of God. It's one thing

to say, well, you know, I'm going to be counterculture,

but it's another thing to say I'm not gonna let

my friends influence me. You got to stop letting your

friends set the agenda of your life. One of the

reasons you don't hear God's will is because you're always

hearing what their will is. Let's do this, let's do that,

Let's drink this, let's eat that, let's go here, let's

talk like this. Let's watch this TV show. There's some

shows you just shouldn't watch. Doesn't matter if they're the

most popular shows on TV. You're filling your mind with garbage.

We all worry about air pollution, water pollution. Have you

ever worried about mind pollution? Some people are so open

minded their brains fall out, and you're just letting a

freeway go through your mind of all kinds. None of

that stuff's forgotten. That's why you've had some of those

weird dreams over the years. It's all everything you've seen,

every rape, every murder, every violent act, every cuss word,

it's all in there.

It's all there.

I can't follow friends who aren't led by God.

Why am I making a big deal about this?

Because one of the things that causes people to miss

God's will for their life, God's plan, God's perfect, good

and pleasing plant is peer pressure.

You can get it in school.

You all know what that was like in school when

you felt pressured by the kids in your class. But

you also get it at work. There's a lot of

peer pressure today, and you have to say, am I

going to listen to my friends, my co workers, my teammates,

or am I going to listen to what God says?

First?

John three seven says this, Do not let anyone that

includes friends leads you in the wrong way.

Christ is righteous.

That means he does what's right, so be like So

to be like Christ, you must do what is right,

not what's necessarily popular. And anyone who keeps on sinning

is being led by the devil. So if I've got

a friend who is habitually sinning, I mean they're having

one affair after another there, and they're bragging about it

at work, and I'm you know, I'm listening to them.

I'm then I'm just following them. Who are they following?

The devil? The devil, he says, don't let anybody lead

you in the wrong direction. What do you do?

You got to be tender without surrender. Now, there's a

lot of bad advice floating around the world.

Everybody agree with that?

Well, I mean, anybody could be a blogger today. Anybody

can write a column today. I'm not making this up.

Yesterday read an article called why Everybody should have an affair.

Oh that's the best advice I've ever heard, right there, boy,

that's let me just tell you how man, how much

destructiveness that creates in the lives of kids. Let me

talk to the men for just a minute here, guys.

You know what's the number one need that you have,

you may have never even noticed it. If you're a daddy.

If you're a husband and a dad, one of the

biggest needs you have in your life is you want

your grown adult children to respect you. I don't know

a man who doesn't want that. You want your grown

adult children to respect you. That should have a hamper

on the decisions you make now and a lot of

other areas. Notice how quiet it got when I said

that I had every attention of every man in the

house for one second.

All right, go back to your ballgame. All right?

Okay, I had a lot of bad advice out there.

Proverbs thirteen, verse twenty look up here says this, keep

company with wise friends, and you'll become wise. But if

you associate with fools, your life will suffer great hurt.

You can't soar with the eagles if you're running with

the turkeys. Okay, so you know who you hang out with.

You need to choose your friends wisely. Keep company with

wise friends, you're gonna become wise.

If I want to follow.

God's direction, okay, I can't let culture get me off track,

and I can't even let friends get me off track.

Make sure your advice is from the right source, you know. Now,

it bothers me when people like get counseling. I've met

believers who are going to non believers to get counseling

for their life. I'm going to really, they have no

spiritual insight on that. The Bible tells us in First

John three seven, it says, don't just let anybody lead

you astray, because you'll miss God's will. Go ahead and

get counseled, but get it from a mature believer. Now

that may be really clear. When I talk to this

about friends, means I can't follow friends. You mean I'm

saying I have to give up all my non Christian friends.

Of course not.

In fact, you shouldn't do that. Listen to me loud

and clear. God wants you to have friends who are unbelievers.

First place, you're commanded to love everybody. You're not allowed

to not love anybody. If you're a believer Christ, you

are to love everybody. In fact, I'm even commanded to

love my enemies. I'm commanded to love the people who

hate me, criticize me, attack me. I don't get a choice.

If I call myself a believer, follower of Christ, I

am to love everybody, and God wants to use you

to bring them to Christ. But here's the difference. Look

up here in the screen. Jeremiah fifteen nineteen says, you

will be my spokesman to these non believing friends. You

are to influence them, but do not let them influence you.

Every day when you go to work, you're deciding, am

I going to be a thermostat or a thermometer. A

thermometer just reflects what the temperature is of the environment.

They're being talking dirty, I'm going to talk dirty, they're

doing this, I'm going to do that. A thermometer just

reveals what the call, just like a thermostat turns the

heat up or down.

God wants you to be in a thermistat.

He doesn't want you to influence them, to influence you,

but you to influence them. Now, as I said, God

commands you to love everybody. Let me show you something

that a lot of Christians and believers don't get. Let's

show you two verses that look totally opposite of each

other up here on the screen. One John two fifteen.

By the way, they're written by the same guy. John

wrote the book John, and he wrote first, second, and

third John letters, and in First John, chapter two, he

says this, do not love the world or anything that

belongs to the world. If you love the world, you

cannot love the Father.

WHOA, that's pretty clear now.

That same guy who wrote that also wrote this the

most famous verse in the Bible, God so.

Loved the world. Well, what is it? I mean? Huh?

That looks like a big contradiction right there, God so

loved the world.

And then he says, but you, you're not to love

the world.

And if you love the world, the.

Love of the Father is not in you. Well, which

is it? You need to understand the meaning of the

word world. The world is used two different ways in

the scripture. It refers to the world's value system and

it refers to the world's people. We are to love

the people and not.

Love the value systems. That makes sense.

We are to love the people no matter what kind

of lifestyle they live, but we are to not love.

In fact, the Bible says we are to hate the

value system of prejudice and racism and injustice and sexism,

and people hurting each other and war. We are to

hate the things that hurt people in the world. Love

the people, hate the value system. You know what the

problem is, we got it reversed. We love the value

system and hate the people. Christians do this all the time.

They're no different. They're just as materialistic, they're just as hedonistic,

they're just as involved in everything in culture. They love

the culture and hate the people that says, no, no,

you got that all wrong, you got it backwards. Love

the world. People don't love the world's value system. Okay,

Five things I have to stop doing.

One.

I can't follow a culture that doesn't follow God. To you,

I can't follow friends who aren't led by God. Number three.

Third thing why I often miss God's will is this,

I can't look to other sources besides God. If I'm

looking for direction for my life, the best place to

look is not on a TV talk show. The best

place to look is to read the Owner's Manuel, that's

the Bible, and talk to the creator who made you.

And that's where you're going to find out about your life.

I can't look to other sources besides God. Now, there

are many other sources that want to tell you how

to run your life, many other replacements. There are many

other substitutes for God, A lot of substitutes for God

in the world.

They're actually called idols. I mean, for.

Instance, when you're looking for what am I supposed to

do with my life? I've actually met some believers who

think they can pray to God and read a horoscope.

Really, that's like.

Saying I believe in reincarnation and heaven at the same time.

They're mutually exclusive. You either believe in one or the other.

You can't believe in both. That's illogical, irrational, and it

makes no sense at all. And so God says, I

want you to look to Me and don't look to

other things for your guidance. Now, when people look to

anything else besides God for guidance for their life, do

you know what that's called. When they're looking for divine guidance,

they're not actually praying or reading the Bible. It's called divination.

Divination you heard this word divination means to try to

find about your future without going to your creator.

That's called divination. And they're countless kinds of ways.

To define the future, fortune telling and stuff like that,

predictions and prognosies and things like that. Do you know

in ancient times, what was the most common way that

people discerned the future?

Anybody know what this is. It was called consulting the liver.

They would actually sacrifice animals. They'd cut out a liver

because the liver was supposed to be the heaviest organ

in the body. And then somebody would look at it

and goes, mm, yeah, go to war, go to battle.

You'll win this one. Now, I mean, this is not

some little minor thing. The Roman Empire was built on

defining the liver. No Roman soldier would go into battle

without looking.

At the livery.

The Babylonians looked at the liver. The Etruscans looked at

the liver. This was the most commonly used form of

predicting the future, and in fact, it's actually even mentioned

in the Bible.

Look at this verse here on the screen.

The Bible says in Ezekiel twenty one, the king of

Babylon now stands at a crossroad, uncertain of whether or

not to attack. He was going to attack Jerusalem, didn't know,

So his advisors will cast lots by shaking arrows from

the quiver.

That was another popular way. You take arrows in a

quiver and you throw them out on the ground, and

you go, mm, don't go to battle.

Okay, and that was one and the other end they

will inspect the livers of sacrificed animals. Fifty ways to

lose your liver right there, or love your liver or whatever.

So that was it called the divination. Does that kind

of stuff that will happen today?

Hello?

Have you ever seen a palm reading shop or tea

leading or reading shop or.

Crystal ball?

And Madam so and so, and I mean that stuff'll

still around, Tarot cards, horoscopes. These are called divination looking

to the future without looking to God. And God says no, no,

don't do any of that kind of stuff. Don't go

call the psychic hotline. By the way, here's a little tip.

If the psychic hotline says, what's your credit card number?

Hang up? They should know that. And I want to.

Say, you tell me, if you're so smart, you tell me.

If he can't tell me my credit card, he can't

tell me anything else that's valuable because he has no

ability at all. I actually did a little research on

this just for fun this week, looking at the modern

things divination, and there's some crazy bizarre things out there.

For instance, in Russia, they throw beans on the floor

and then look at the pattern, and I'm going, yeah,

that's a lot of beans.

Right there, So okay, you know that's a pile of

beans or whatever.

There's a thing called parrot mancy where you let a

parrot out of its cage and it goes over and

picks up a card, and then you know who you're

supposed to marry. And why do they people go to

these others Because they don't want a boss in their life.

They want the future, but they don't want God, they

don't want a lord, they don't want somebody that they

have to serve. And so the ridiculousness of looking to

other sources besides God. The Bible warns this, look at

this verse. Deuteronomy eighteen says this, never look to psychics

or seances, or fortune telling, or the stars, or people

who claim to be in contact with the dead. People

who do these things are doing evil, and God hates

it with a passion. Now I doubt any of you

are doing this, but I will tell you this, you

believer who's doing this, politely, gently, lovingly tell them you're

heading down the wrong track. You're never gonna know God's

will through a seance, through a medium, through a horoscope,

through astrology. If you are following the stars, you're not

following the sun.

S n.

You're not following the sun, you're not following God. These

are counterfeits you know today, years ago Gideon used that

fleece to discern God's will.

People get fleeced all the time.

Today, cults and fad therapies and scientology and all kinds

of stuff. The Bible tells us secur Indians eleventh Satan

masquerades as an angel of light. So we just got

to avoid that. And the Bible tells us in first

John four, verse one, don't believe everything here. That's a

good thing to do on to read on the internet. Actually,

I read a quote the other day on the internet.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet. Abraham Lincoln.

That guy was way ahead of his time.

All I say, okay, all right, I got I know

I'm taking a long time on this, But if you

want to be led by the spirit of God, there's

some things you have to stop doing before you start

doing the other can't follow culture, can't follow friends who

are not following God. Can't look to other sources besides God,

like all those divination things. Number four, This is a

one that would apply to a lot of us. I

must stop being led by my circumstances. Now, the other

ones may have not been relatable to you, but this

one is certainly. I must stop being led by my circumstance.

I'm amazed how many believers the number one way they

try to determine God's will is, well, what's my circumstance?

You know I missed the plane, It must be God's will.

The heavy traffic, it must be God's will. The offering

plate skipped my road, that was God's will. I've had

people you know who. You know I bumped into him

in a cart, and it must be God's will.

We bumped into each other. I won't say anything about that,

but you know, you know I overslept today. It is

God's will.

I don't go to church. You're skating on thin ice, shallow,

shaky ground. When you build your life around your circumstances.

There are a lot of examples in the Bible where

the circumstances were the exact opposite.

Of God's will.

When I think about the story of Jonah, God said

to Jonah, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineva,

and I want you to preach to it, and they

were the hated enemies of the Israelites because they had

oppressed them for years. And Jonah said, I'm not going.

It was literally racial prejudice, and I'm not going. Instead

of going east to Ninevah, he gets on board a

ship headed for Tarsis, which is a seaport on the

coast of Spain. He's going as far east as he can.

God said go west, and he goes east. But the

circumstances there was a ship waiting there headed for Tarsius.

He had the money for a ticket. They had face

on board. He gets on board, they take him on.

It must be God's will. I've seen circumstances ruin a

lot of businesses and business opportunities because it looked like

a good deal. Let me give you another example from Paul.

I wrote the scripture down there on your outline. You

might want to read Acts twenty seven. It's about another

Mediterranean cruise about two thousand years later, and Paul is

being taken to Rome as a prisoner, and the night

before the ship is leaving, God says to him in

his prayer time, tell him not to go tomorrow because

they're going to head straight.

Into a storm.

And Paul says to the sailors and the captainship, guys,

if we leave today, we're going to go straight into

a storm. But they didn't listen to them. And here's

what the Bible says up here on the screen. Paul said,

men stalking to the sailors, if we sail now, this

voyage will be a disaster. We'll lose the ship, the cargo,

and maybe even our own lives. But when a gentle

breeze came up, they thought, this is exactly what we wanted.

Have you ever had a gentle breeze come up in

your life and think this is exactly what I wanted,

And you were heading straight into a storm. When a

gentle brief came up, they thought this is exactly.

What we wanted.

So they launched out, thinking it would be smooth sailing.

Sound familiar that new business venture. Thinking it would be

smooth sailing. But at see a violent typhoon storm arose,

which made it impossible to control the direction of the ship.

So we gave up and just let her drift.

That is the epitaph of many a believer who trusted

in circumstances. We just finally gave up and let her

drift because we thought it was right. The circumstances look good.

But that was a disastrous business deal or marriage or whatever.

How about you, how many times have you ever thought

of something circumstantial was an open door and you later

found out it was a trapdoor. You can't just trust circumstances.

I could give you example example in the Bible about

this where David he had sent his army to war

in spring, and he's at home, lollygagging around in his pj's,

and he's upstairs and he looks out and he sees

a beautiful woman taking a bath on a roof.

What's she taking a bath on a roof for?

And he looks down from his palace to seeze there,

and he goes, very pretty. Her husband's at war, I'm

home alone. She's attractive, and he falls into affair. Circumstances

can lead you the wrong way. The fact that Satan

can manipulate circumstances. You need to be aware of that,

and so you always check your circumstances against God's word.

And what I mean by that is that you don't

use circumstances to discern God's will, but you use it

to confirm God's will. Now, let me give you one

more stop. If I want to be led by God's spirit,

I cannot be led by my feelings. If I want

to be led by God's spirit, I cannot be.

Led by my feelings.

Because your feelings lie to you all the time. Now,

every emotion is temporary, whether it's a good one or

a bad one. You can be elated at your wedding

and it will not last. You can be elated at Disneyland,

it will not last. You can be elated at winning

a game for a team that you were rooting for.

It will not last. And the same is true if

you're depressed, if you're discouraged, it will not last. No

emotion can stay at the same level of intensity. If

you have a panic attack, one thing you need to

know it can't last. You cannot stay in a perpetual

state of panic. This too will pass. And so you

can't be led by your feelings because they're not.

Permanent. They're just temporary.

And the most common mistake, and I even hear Christians

saying this today is well, just let your conscience be

your guide.

I had to tell you this. Your conscience is often wrong.

So is mine.

The Bible says the heart is deceitful. Now, I've told

you this many times that you lie to yourself more

than you lie to anybody else. Just because you think

it doesn't make it true. Just because somebody else thought

it doesn't make it true. Just because it it's popular

doesn't make it true. Something is true because it's true.

Not what you think is true is true, not what

you hope is true. Not fake news says it's true,

not whatever, all these other things. Truth is simply truth.

It's either right or it's not right. Now, most people

base their decisions on how they feel. And I can't

tell you how many times. And it sounds like a

spiritual thing. Say, why did you do that? Well, I

just had a piece about it. That's not enough, friend,

to make a decision on. Well, I had a piece

about it. Piece is a good thing. But you better

have more basis for your decision than just a peaceful feeling,

because you could have a peaceful, easy feeling, and I.

Know it won't let you go. So you were really

old people. If you know those lyrics, you are really

really old. I just.

Ride at home here right now. Okay, you can't just

go buy your feelings. Feelings lie. It may be the

result of some burrito you ate or something you know.

Do you remember that story of Joe and I told you, Hey,

here's a ship.

Hey, I got the money. Hey, they take me on board.

And he goes down, and he goes into the bottom

ship and he falls into a nice, peaceful sleep. He's

totally out of the will of God and he's at peace.

So that's not enough.

Piece is a good thing, but it's not enough to

base your life on simply emotions. Because he was totally

disobeying God. Satan can give you a false peace. Proverbs fourteen,

verse twelve. You may feel circle the word feel. You

may feel you're on the right path, the right road,

and still end up dead. Okay, and the result of

being manipulated my moods. Look at the next verse. We've

all straight away like sheep. We have left God's path

to follow our own. And why do we leave God's

path to follow on because we felt like it. Those

are things you have to stop doing if you want

to be led by the spirit. What are the five

things you start doing? Very easy to understand. Number one,

If I want to get goddance from God, I want

divine direction. Number one, I must want to be led.

I got to desire it first. I must want to

be led. It starts with desire, it starts with longing,

it starts with craving. Have you ever had anybody hold

your head under the water so long that you go,

I have got to get air.

When you get that desperate and when you.

Cry out to God, say God, I have got to know.

I've got to know what you want me to do.

It's not like I kind of would like to know.

It would be helpful to know if you don't have

any intensity of your passion and your prayer, life life

about knowing God's will. God's going, well, I guess it's

not that important to you. But when you say I've

got to have it, it's like I'm hungry. I've got

to have food. I'm out of breath. I've got to

have oxygen. I don't know which way to go in life. God,

I've got to know your will. I must want to

be led by the spirit. So I'm forty verse eight,

My God, I want to do what you want, and

your teachings are in my heart. The reason why he

wants it is because he's reading the Bible, your teachings

are in my heart. Number two, I must be willing

to do what God says. I must not only want

God's will, I've got to be willing to do what

God says. I'm willing to obey in advance. In other words, God,

before you even tell me what you want me to do,

my answer in advance is already yes. God doesn't tell

you his will, and then you get to decide whether

you do it or not. You have to decide an

event you prequalify. God's not going to show you what

he wants to do with your life, and then you

get to decide about it. You say, God, I surrender

my life to you completely. I don't just want your will.

I'm willing whatever it is. I don't even understand it.

I don't even know it, but whatever it is, I'm

willing in advance John seven seventeen, Jesus said this, whoever

is willing to do what God wants and chooses it.

It's a choice. You choose God's will. Will know if

what I teach comes from God. So he says, trust

me in advance. I want to be led, and I'm

willing to do what you want. Me to do even

before you've even told me. Number three, If I want

to be led by God's spirit, I must look to

God's word. I must look to God's word. God's will

is found in God's word. So I'm one nineteen one

oh five. Your word is lamp to guide me and

a light for my path. If you're not in the

Bible every day, you're in the dark. You're walking through

life without a flashlight. Your word is a lamp to

guide me and a light for my path. Proverbs one

nineteen sawm one nineteen is what that's supposed to be.

So I'm one nineteen one thirty three says this, Guide

my steps by your word, so I will not be

overcome by any evil. It's up here on the screen.

Guide my steps by your word, so I won't be

overcome by any evil. Now, I want to give you

a couple of statements real quickly. I could go into

this in detail, but I won't. About the word of God,

write these down. Number one, God's will is found in

God's word. God's will is found in God's word. Most

of God's will is already revealed. No, the name of

your spouse is not there, but that's not what misunderstanding

what I'm saying. The principles are there on how to

find the right kind of man or the right kind

of woman that would be God's choice. And as you

read God's word, he speaks to you. When you open

your bible, God opens his mouth and he starts talking

to you.

And when you when.

You close your Bible, God closes his mouth. He shuts

his mouth. We discover the will of God in the

Word of God. So let me just say it this way.

Stop listening for a voice and start looking for a verse.

Some of you want God to write it in the sky.

Why would he to write it in the sky. He's

already written it in a book, but you won't even

open it on a daily basis. Stop looking for a voice.

Write it in the sky, give me a word. Start

looking for a verse, and God will teach you the principles.

And by the way, God expects me to bay what

I already know before he shows me something new. So

if God's already shown you something, I want you to

do this and you haven't done it yet, why is

he going to show you step two until you've done

step one. It's already there, he said, I God I

need to know if you want me to change jobs.

And God says that, well, are you following what I've

already told you? Are you already doing that? The key

if you want to be led by the spirit, start

doing what you already know is God's will. Just start

doing what you already know is God's will. God's will

is found in God's word. And the other thing I

want you to write down is this, God's will never

contradicts God's word. If you get an idea and you

can't find the basis for us in the Bible, it's

wrong because God has already given us his word.

You know.

He said, well, I had this impression. People tell me

all the time, Pastor Rick, I had this impression. Well,

what does the Bible say?

You know? This is how cults get started. I got

this idea.

The Bible tells us in Galatians chapter one, verse eight

that even if an angel up and tells you something like,

here's some new books to add to the Bible, he says,

you don't even trust that because if it's not in

the Bible. He says, you don't. God's will will never

contradict God's word. Most of what God's already wanted us

to know is found in this book, and if you

read it, God will guide you. Now he said, well,

if I act on what God's already told me, then

you're telling me He's going to tell me more.

That's exactly what I'm saying, all right.

Number four, If I want to be led by God's Spirit,

I must ask the Holy Spirit to be my guide.

I must ask the Holy Spirit to be my guide.

Do you remember in high school they had a position

on the faculty called the school guidance counselor. And I

remember that the school they were supposed to help you

decide if you're going to go to college or get job,

or get in the military or whatever. And they were

the guidance counselor. You have a guidance counselor for life.

He's called the Holy Spirit. And you don't just have

this book. It's nice to have this book, but what's

even nicer is to have the author speaking in your ear, going,

this is what this means, and he is your guidance counselor.

But where I say, I must ask the Holy Spirit

circle that word ask. One of the reasons you don't

know God's will is you don't ask for it, And

in James four, verse two, the Bible says you do

not have because you do not ask God for it.

You just need to understand God's interested in every detail

of your life. He has the hairs on your head

numbered and he knows everything about you. He knows your

details more than you do. He knows the health problems

you've got that you don't even know you've got.

God knows them.

And one of the best ways to engage your guidance

counselor is ask a specific question prayer. So I'm twenty

seven verse eleven. Teach me Lord what you want me

to do and lead me down the right path. Now

how does he do that? How does God lead me

down the right path? Well, there are a lot of

different ways, but let me just mention a couple. One

of them is the primary way the Holy Spirit guides

us is by reminding us what we've read in this book.

Because you read stuff in here, and if you memorize it,

then it's stored in the back of your mind, and

at the right moment when you're in that conflict at work,

God can bring that verse to mind, and Holy Spirit

reminds us the problem is we are not good at retention.

We have good forgetters. But unfortunately a part of the

Holy Spirit's job is help you. Remember have you ever

been talking to somebody and you go, I don't know

what to say, and then all of a sudden the

idea pops in your mind. The Holy Spirit just reminded

you of that. And the more this book you get

in your mind, the more he can bring back. If

there's nothing of this book in your mind, what's he

going to bring out?

Nothing? So you got to get in the book.

I can't tell you how many times I've walked into

a meeting or a phone conversation, or an interview or

a skeptic on the street or anything and I hadn't

the slightest idea what I was going to say. And

I just shoot up a quick prayer, guidance counselor what

do you want me to say?

Here?

Holy Spirit, what do you want me to say? And

he'll bring something some of you've never had that happen,

as I said, because you don't have anything stuck there

in your mind. So God gives us ideas through his word.

And the other way is he puts ideas in your mind. Yes,

he does put impressions in your mind. When God gives

you an idea, that's called inspiration. When the devil gives

you an idea, that's called temptation. When you get an

idea that's called dumb.

It's just teasing. God gave you your brain. He wants

you to use it.

Satan cannot control you accept suggest thoughts. If you accept them,

then he's controlling you. God will not control you because

he's given you that free will. But when he puts

an idea in your mind, you respond to it, then

he enlightens it. Now, is there any way I can

speed up that process that I get God's ideas quicker? Yes,

I'm going to tell you how you can feed up

the process of getting ideas quicker. Like I need a

new product, I need a new solution. Two things, write

these down. Number one, ask humbly. Ask humbly. That'll speed

up the process. Proverbs twenty five, Psalm twenty five, verse nine.

God guides the humble in what is right, and he

teaches them his way. The more humble you are in

coming to God, the quicker God gives you the information

you need. Pride goes for a destruction a haughty spirit

before a fall. God says, if you just be humble

and say, God, I need you. I got to know this,

he said, I'll give it to you. The Lord is

my shepherd. So we're just talking about he leads me

in the paths in the right past for his namesake,

and I just be humble about it. Another way is

asking faith. I ask humbly, and then I ask in faith,

and I say, God.

I need to know what you want me to do

in this.

Situation, and I'm expecting you to give me the answer.

Thank you in advance, Thank you in advance. You got

to have faith, James, Chapter one. If you want to

know what God really wants you to do, and I

hope that's what it is for you. If you want

to know what God wants you to do, ask him

and you'll gladly tell you, for He is already ready

to give a bountiful supply of.

Wisdom to all who ask.

Remember, ask humble, asking faith, but be sure that you

really expect them to tell you. If you don't ask

in faith, don't expect the Lord to give you any

solid answers. That's why you don't Often don't know what

God wants you to do, you're not asking in faith.

I remember years ago, we were driving down the road.

I think we're going up to Presdo or something like.

Kay Kay was looking down. She was driving and she

looked down and the gas tank was on empty, and

I said, where's the nearest gas tank?

Where's the nearest gas station?

And we'd seen a sign about a mile back said

the next one is like thirty miles up. I think

we're going up on five, thirty miles down the freeway.

So then I put it into one of these little

apps and it said get off the freeway, go ten

miles down that little road and there'll be a gas station.

Now the question is am I going to believe the

sign or the app thirty miles down that road or

ten miles on the app and go down a little road.

This is a test of faith, and sometimes that's going

to happen in your life because you'll say God, what

should I do here? And God will tell you to

do the exact opposite of what you think you ought

to do.

One time.

If you want to know God's will, just figure out

what you naturally do and do the opposite because you're

off and wrong. So that would be a good thing

to do. But you can always trust God's guidance system.

He's never wrong. You do have to believe him all right.

Number five.

The fifth thing if I want to be led by

God's spirit, I must listen for God's response. And this

is really a big reason why we don't hear God

is because we ask and then we immediately run off.

We don't wait, we don't be quiet, we don't listen,

we don't pause. We say God, I need to know this,

and then take off and then turn on the radio

or start listening to your iPhone or answering calls or

reading texts, or you know, watch the TV, and all

the circuits are jams and God can't get through to

you for the answer. I cannot overemphasize the importance of

you taking some private time alone every day just to

sit quietly. I do this all the time. And I

sit down and say, God, is there anything you want

to say to me right now? I just shut up,

I just listen. I've read your word. I've talked to

you all throughout the day. Job thirty three, Verse fourteen.

God does speak sometimes one way and sometimes another, even

though people may not understand it. He uses the Bible,

he uses teachers like what I'm doing right now. He

uses impressions, he can use circumstances, he can use pain,

he can do all these different things. But the key

is to test it.

By the word.

And I want to close with this song seventy seven

because sometimes you say, God, I want to know your will,

and you look at and you go, that.

Doesn't make sense at all. This is a test.

Psalm seventy seven, verse nineteen is actually a verse about Moses.

You remember the story of the Ten Commandments, when Charlton Heston,

you know, stood up there and he put this thing

in the water and the nile turned red, and all

of the different miracles and things like that, and when

finally Pharaoh said, after ten miracles, and all those miracles

were making fun of false gods. Pharaoh finally says, okay,

you can go. And so a million Jews are leaving

and they're heading across to go across the Sinai Peninsula,

and all of a sudden they come up to a

little cul de sac and they're standing with mountains on

either side, the Red sea in front of them, which

looks impassable, and Pharaoh has changed his mind. And the

army's coming after him and back, so they're him didn't

and they go, we're gonna be slaughtered. We got mountains

on either side. We've got an ocean in front of us,

and we've got Pharaoh's armies and they're.

Armed and we have no arms. And they're coming after us.

And they were in.

God's little cul de sac, and it looks like it's

a goner.

They're gonna be dead.

The name of that place was called Bales of Fawn,

which means God's hidden treasure. God had him exactly where

he wanted him to be. He was going to do

a miracle, and suddenly the ocean splits, you know the story,

and they start walking through on dry ground. And imagine

how in shock everybody had to be walking through that area.

And when they get through the other side, it closes up,

and you know the whole story. This verse in Psalms

talks about it, and that says, your road lord led

by a pathway through the sea, a pathway no one

knew was there.

I love that verse.

There have been so many times in my life I

have come up against enormous barriers, financial barriers, approval barriers,

physical barriers, energy barriers, and I'm looking at this and

I go God, there's mountains on each side and an

impassable barrier in front of me, and the enemy's caving in,

closing in very quickly. And I'm in Baleesepon. I'm in

God's hidden treasure. And God says, I've got you exactly

exactly I want you to be. Watch this, and you

made a pathway through the sea, a pathway no one

knew was there. Bam, some of you are in bale

Zephon right now. There's no way we're getting out this.

We're going into bankruptcy. There's no way getting now of this.

It's we've heard the sea word cancer. There's no way

out of this. We're headed for a divorce court. There's

no And you are exactly where God wants you to be.

He wants to do a miracle. But there are five

things you got to stop doing, and there are five

things you got to start doing stops and starts, stops

and starts, And when you do that, you get God's

guidance and he shows you.

A pathway that nobody knew was there. It's powerheads.

God can make when it seems there is no way

now we've just gone only into three verses of this

incredible passage Psal I'm twenty three. But out of that

we know that because God is good, when I'm worried,

he will meet my needs. The Lord is my shepherd.

I have everything I need, And when I'm stressed, He'll

teach me to relax, makes me lie down in green pastures,

and leads me beside still waters. When I'm empty, he

will replenish my strength. He restores my soul. And when

I don't know what to do, he will guide me.

He leads me in the right paths for His namesake?

Would you pray right now? Talk to God?

Why don't you say something like this, Dear God, I

will I want to be led by your spirit. I

don't want to go through life on my own ingenuity

and power. I've had too many dead ends. I know

that's not the solution.

You have said.

Only those people who are led by God's spirit are

God's children. Because you are a good God, you guide

us in your goodness.

Lord.

Starting today, there's some stuff I want to stop doing.

Help me to remember that I cannot follow a culture

that doesn't follow you. Do not copy the behavior and

values of the world to love everybody, but do not

love the value system. The Lord, help me to remember

that I can't follow friends who aren't led by you.

I don't want anybody leading me in the wrong way.

I want to love people, but I don't want to

lead me. I want to be an influence, not.

Be in influenced.

I want to be a thermostat, not a thermometer. Help

me to remember that I can't look to other sources

besides you and come to you with a clear conscience.

It's not horoscopes and prayer. It's not self help books

and the Bible. They're not on the same level. I

want to stop being led by my circumstances, and most

of all, Lord, I want to stop being mastered and

manipulated by my moods. I cannot be led by the

spirit if I'm led by my feelings. I'm sorry for

the times that I've made feelings my God, and I

did what I felt like doing, not necessarily what you

wanted me to do.

Lord.

Today I'm telling you I want to be led by

your spirit. I want to be led. I've got to

be led that I'm willing to do whatever you tell

me to do. I don't have to understand it. I'm

telling you yes in advance. Help me to look to

your word every day. Guide my steps by your word

so I will not be overcome by any evil. Your

word is a lamp to guide me in a light

for my path. Be my flashlight. Help me to remember

that your will is found in your word, that your

will will never contradict your word. And so today I

asked you, Holy Spirit, to be my guidance counselor for

the rest of my life. I'm asking you humbly, and

I'm asking you in faith and help me to not

be so impatient that I can't stop and just listen

for your response. Help me to learn to wait on you,

to be still and know you are God. Thank you,

good Shepherd. If you've never invited Christ in your life,

just say, Jesus Christ, come into my life right now.

I want to get to know you. I want to

learn to trust you. I want to have a relationship

and a friendship with you. And I pray this humbly

in your name.

Amen.