Roots & Fruits – The Power of God’s Will

If God's been good to you, say praise the Lord, praise the

Lord. Thank you.

Hey, it's good to be with you. I like for you guys as your

pastor, I like for you to know me a little bit better.

I know we don't get a ton of opportunity to hang out all of

us. And so I like for you to get to

know me and my family a little bit better.

We have this game that we play in my family.

But Megan, when we have to go to the shopping, to Kroger, the

shopping center, how old am I, guys?

Come on teens, help me out here When we go to Kroger and like,

there's a lot of times where we'll be going somewhere and

Megan will say, we got to stop off and grab something, say, OK,

I'll just drop you off and you run in.

And so the boys and I have this game that as soon as Megan gets

out of the car, we all start picking times of when she's

going to come out. So hey, I got to run in and get

a gallon of milk. And so OK, well, I'll give her

about 20 minutes. Someone else.

Well, I'll give her 15, you know.

And so we pick times on the clock and there's no real prize,

but it's just, it's just kind of fun.

There are two types of shopping, Alex.

OK. There is focused shopping, Alex.

That is, if I am going to get something, I am going straight

in. I'm getting what I need and I'm

getting out. How many of you shop that way?

Praise the Lord, God is good. That's how we do it.

There is focused shopping, Alex. That Alex has a mission and I

accomplished that mission and I'm efficient and it's never 20

minutes and I know exactly what I'm doing and I get there and I

get it done as long as I know where that thing is.

So that means it's got to be something in the frozen food

section or the soft drinks or the snacks.

Outside of that, it might take me a little bit longer.

Now there's another Alex and that's when I go to the store

and I don't have a mission. Maybe I'm just going to get some

food or some snacks. Usually I'm hungry when I'm

going to the store in that scenario and that shopping.

Alex a little bit distracted walking through.

Oh, that looks good. I'll get that.

Oh, you know what, we could have that for dinner.

And I get that and and it drives Megan nuts.

The other day I called her. I said I'm going to get stuff

for hibachi. We're going to make hibachi.

She said we are not even home any night in the next two weeks.

What are you thinking? Hey, I'm going to get stuff for

a grill out. It's snowing outside, what are

you doing? But I'm just walking through

aimlessly shopping. And listen, I don't like to do

that because it costs a lot of money.

Aimless shopping Alex spends way too much money on things that we

don't have to have. The kids instantly love aimless

shopping, Alex. It's the only time we get good

snacks in the house. But there is focused shopping,

Alex, and there's aimless. And when I'm focused, I get done

what I need to get done. When I don't have a plan, when I

don't have a mission, tends to go off the rails a little bit.

You know what? I think that happens in our

lives. I think that happens in the

church sometimes. And I really believe that God

has laid on my heart that our vision as a church is that we

will bear fruit, that God wants to do a work in each and every

one of us. If you are here today and you're

a follower of Christ, I believe that God wants to work in your

heart, transform you, and that the Holy Spirit wants to work

through you and that there should be fruit that comes from

that. Scripture is very clear that if

you're following Jesus, there will be fruit, the fruit of

spiritual growth. You'll see the evidence.

You'll you'll witness the evidence of God working in your

life. But also you will be a part of

what God's doing and you will see fruit that God is working

not just in your life, but through your life.

And there will be fruit that you see.

So we're starting a series, roots and fruits.

We're studying in Colossians. Paul's letter.

This is Paul's letter to the church at Colossae.

And throughout the New Testament, Paul writes letters

to these different churches. Most of them are churches that

he started and then he's writing letters back to the churches.

But but this one's a little bit different because he didn't

start the church in Colossi. It was somebody else who

started. But he is kind of functioning as

maybe like a overseer of the church.

That's kind of Paul's role. He is overseeing what's

happening. He hears what's happening in the

different churches, and so he writes these letters back to the

churches. And so he's writing to this

church and he's worried for the church because there are all

these distractions. There are different there.

There are false gospels, there are false ideologies that are at

work in the church. And, and Paul is writing this to

try to keep the church focused in and on track.

And there's one thing we're going to see today.

We're in first, and we're in Colossians chapter one, verse 9

through 14. And this is Paul's prayer for

the church at Colossae. And, and there's one major thing

he prays for knowing God's will stand with me and I'm all read

Colossians 19 through 14. You can follow along on the

screen. And my prayer is that God will

speak to us. I'm, I'm guessing that we all

came in here in different places, different things going

on. Maybe you came in with 1000

things on your mind. Maybe you came in with a heavy

heart. Maybe you came in and you're

just feeling great. I believe God wants to speak to

each and every one of us through His Word today, starting in

verse 9. For this reason, since the day

we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His

will through all wisdom and understanding that the Spirit

gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and

please Him in every way. Bearing fruit in every good

work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with

all power according to His glorious might, so that you may

have great endurance and patience.

And giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to

share in the inheritance of His holy people in the Kingdom of

light. For He has rescued us from the

dominion of darkness and has brought us into the Kingdom the

of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness

of sins. Praise the Lord, you can have a

seat. Paul prays for one thing.

He prays that they will know God's will.

Now this is important for us to understand.

Paul is not talking to unbelievers here.

He is talking to the church. In fact, it starts.

He says, this is Paul writing to God's holy people, writing to

the church. He goes on and he says, hey,

we've seen that good things are happening in the church.

We've seen the evidence. And so he writes to Christian

people, people that are following Jesus, people that are

a part of God's holy church. This is important for us to

acknowledge because I think Paul's first prayer for somebody

who is not a part of the church, Paul's prayer for somebody who

is not following Jesus would be first and foremost that they

would know God's love and God's salvation.

So here's the deal. Today's message is all about

God's will. If you are here today and you

have never accepted Christ as your saviour, you don't know all

about God and all about the work that Jesus did on the cross for

you. I've got good news for you.

The creator God loves you so much that he not only created

you. But see then we we're all

imperfect. We've all sinned, we've all

fallen short of the glory God, we've all messed up.

The good news of the gospel is that God sent his one and only

Son, Jesus, to die on a cross to pay the price for our sins so

that we could have salvation in life.

And then we are invited into his family.

We're not just, you know, pardoned.

We are made a part. We are adopted into the family

of God. So here's the good news.

If you are not yet a believer in Christ, I just want to say

Paul's prayer for you today would not be just knowing the

will of God. It would be knowing the love,

the grace and the salvation of God today.

I'm guessing a lot of you would fall in the category that Paul

is talking to. And he says, my prayer is that

you will know the will of God. We continually ask God to fill

you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and

understanding that the Spirit gives His number one prayer for

the church is that they will know God's will, that they will

have purpose, that they will have mission, that they will

know exactly what it is that God wants from them, not that they

would be aimlessly. See, here's the truth.

There are Christians and there are churches that are just

wandering around just trying to do their best, just like me in

the shopping store. Oh, we'll try this.

Oh, we'll try that. And listen, God has a plan and a

purpose for every single one of us as believers.

And he has a plan and a purpose for every one of his churches.

He wants us to bear fruit and bring him glory.

And so Paul says, my first thing is that you will know God's

will. The first step of faith is

knowing God's love and salvation.

The second is knowing his will. So let me ask you a question,

and you don't have to tell anyone, I'm not going to make

you share this, but what is God's plan for you?

What is God's plan for you? What is his purpose?

If we're talking about the mission I'm going in, I'm doing

my job, I'm coming out, what is God's plan?

What is God's mission for you? Let me ask you a second

question. What is God's plan for the

church? It's not just a Country Club.

We've got country clubs. It's not just a, you know, it's

not a social gathering. There are plenty of places.

You can go to any number of places and have a social

gathering. God has a plan for you and for

his church. So what is that plan?

Is it that you'll just be happy? Is God's plan for you to be

happy? That sounds good.

How many of you want to be happy?

Some people believe that God's plan for their life is for them

to be happy. Guys, that's problematic because

if God's plan for you is just that, you would be happy.

What happens is every one of us makes this about us, and it

doesn't take long for us to start fighting because what

might make me happy might not be what you think makes you happy.

And then all of a sudden we're at odds with each other.

God's plan is God does want you to have happiness and joy.

You'll see that later. But that's not God's ultimate

plan for you. It's God's plan for you to stop

doing bad things. How many of you want to stop

doing bad things? OK, that's a good thing.

Don't do bad things. But God's ultimate plan is not

just for you to stop doing bad things.

Yes, God wants you to honour Him and live in a way that brings

Him glory, but that's not his ultimate plan for you.

It's not just that you will stop doing bad things.

God wants to invite you into what He's doing in the world

around you. To love Him, to worship Him, to

bring Him glory, to bring others into His family, to share the

love of Christ with other people, to be a part of His work

in this world. How many of you know that God

has called you to be a part of what He's doing?

We're not. The church is not meant to just

sit here and watch what God is doing.

We are meant to be an active part of it.

He wants to work through US. God's plan to transform the

world is to work through His holy people and His holy church

and to share His love with others.

So, so Paul says the number one thing that you need as a

follower of Christ is to know God's will.

That's assuming you know his love.

That's assuming you have his salvation.

Now you need to know the plan. You need to know your purpose.

You need to know God's will will.

Well, how can we know God's will?

That's a that's a tough thing. I hear this question all the

time. Well, how do I know what to do

in this circumstance? How do I know whether to take

this job or that job? How do I how do I know what God

wants me to do? Here, I got good news for you.

God wants you to know his will. In college we had, you probably

had this too, if you went to college or maybe even high

school. Syllabus.

How many of you remember syllabus or syllabi?

That's fancy next level stuff there.

You can tell I'm an educated man, right that way, All right,

Syllabus wasn't my thing. Every class, the beginning,

they'd give you the syllabus. It told you what you were going

to study. It told you what you were going

to have to turn in. It told you what they were going

to grade on. It was a it was a plan for the

teaching, right? Were you guys good with the

syllabus? I usually lost mine the first

day, put it somewhere in my room, and then when I messed up

or I knew, I thought, oh, I know there's a paper coming up.

I'd go find the syllabus and realize that it was due in a

couple hours. But we have the syllabus in in

school, we have the syllabus and it shows us exactly what the

plan is for the class, exactly what the plan is for us to learn

and grow in that area. God has given us His Word.

He's given us a guide. This God's word is meant to help

us know Him and walk with Him in fullness.

And so we have the guide. But I've got good news.

God doesn't just give you God's word and say good luck.

See, the beautiful thing is I wasn't the best with the

syllabus, but we also had teachers.

How many of you had a teacher that loved and guided you and

helped you through? And so occasionally you'd have

to go and you'd have to ask questions to the teacher.

Hey, I don't understand this. Hey, I don't know how to do

this. And the teacher would help you.

Hopefully your teachers helped you.

I got good news. Not only do we have a guide

book, not only do we have God's word that's meant to teach us

who he is and how we can walk with him, but we also have a

teacher, We have the Holy Spirit.

God has given us his Spirit to lead us and teach us just as we

have teachers. God's Spirit wants to teach you

to know his will and walk in as well.

So knowing God's will requires wisdom and understanding and we

gain those through listening to his Spirit.

See it. It says right here that that I

continually, we continually ask that you will be filled with the

knowledge of his will. How through all wisdom and

understanding that the Spirit gives.

How do we know His will? Well, we've got the guidebook,

we've got His word written to us, and we've got a teacher, the

Holy Spirit, to lead and guide us.

I'm no handyman. If you've listened to me speak

for a while, you probably know that I can't fix things.

How many of you men are handymen?

Come on, don't be shy. Go ahead, raise your hand.

Don't be shy. I don't know where Eli got it.

How many of you women are handy Women?

I don't. I didn't know the word for it.

Sorry. How many of you women are handy?

When I'm not handy? I don't know how to fix things.

But every once in a while I come into a situation where I have to

work on something. A few years ago, we went to

Africa, and in Africa they put us in this room and they said

you're going to build a closet and then that closets going to

become a dark room for the photo lab.

So they said go ahead, build the closet.

Yeah, give me a drill and some screws and some metal and stuff

like that. It's not going to turn into a

closet. It's going to turn into a mess.

Listen, I'm not handy. Give it up for all the handy men

and women in the room. Way to go.

We need you guys and girls and girls.

I always get in trouble with you.

I'm not a handyman. If you give me, you know, an

instruction manual and some tools, maybe it works out.

Probably not. I like to have a guide.

See, the good news was they put us in this room in Africa and

they said build this closet. The good news was they put me

with Andy Brenner. Now, Andy has moved to Xenia

now, but he was a part of our church.

And so Andy was right there with me.

And I'd be like, Andy, help me out because I don't want to do

this whole thing wrong. And he would come over and he

would show me, no, you're doing it wrong.

You got to do it this way. It's easier if you do this.

And I, I not only knew what I was supposed to do.

See, see, we're, we're to be filled with the knowledge of his

will, but we're also to be filled with wisdom and

understanding to understand how to accomplish it.

It's one thing to say, go in a room and build a closet, but to

have someone that leads you and guides you.

Here's the easiest way. Here's what you need to do here.

I need that. We need that.

See, God's Spirit wants to lead us to give us wisdom, not just

to tell us. I think we could all say, OK, we

know that we're supposed to be following God's will.

We know we're supposed to bring him glory and worship him.

But how does that happen? The Spirit wants to lead us and

guide us, give us wisdom. See, some things are easy.

Last week we talked about one of the commandments.

Thou shalt not murder. That was one of the things we

said in the sermon last week. How many of you have not

murdered someone this week? If you have murdered someone, it

might be a good idea not to confess that today.

Please tell me none of you murdered anyone this week.

That's easy. Some of the commands are easy.

They're easy. We, we know what we're supposed

to do. But let's be honest, some of

them are hard. What am I supposed to do in this

situation? How do I react to this?

How do we how do I react when someone over here is is talking

to me about something and and someone over here is being

talked about? How do I handle that?

You guys ever find yourself in a tough spot that you just need

some wisdom and direction? Sometimes we need the Holy

Spirit to guide us. And here's the deal.

God wants us to not just know His will, but has wisdom and

understanding. So He's given us his word and

he's given us his Spirit to lead us and guide us in all of that.

And so here's the good news. The more we listen to God's

Spirit, the more we grow in knowledge of His will, the more

we understand how to listen to Him, the more we follow Him at

the easier it is. The more we listen, the easier

it is to follow His will. Good news, God wants you to know

his will. Good news, God has given you his

Spirit to listen to, to walk with him.

So that's the first part. Number one, knowing his will,

say, knowing his will. All right, now let's go to verse

10. This is why this is the, this is

the result. This is the reason we need to

know Paul's prayer is that the church will know his will.

Why? Here it is so that there are 7

things here. By the way, we got 7 points

today and we're 2/3 of the way through the sermon.

How many of you are excited about that?

All right, not many of you, so that you may live a life worthy

of the Lord, that you may please Him in every way, bearing fruit

in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being

strengthened with all power according to His glorious might.

So that you may have great endurance and patience.

And giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to

share in the inheritance of his holy people in the Kingdom of

light. Praise the Lord. 7 things.

We're going to work through them really quick.

Here we go. Number one, that we will knowing

God's will, Paul's prayers, that you will know God's will, that

you have wisdom and understanding so that you can

live right, that you can live a life worthy of the Lord.

I talked about this with the teens a few weeks ago.

We we were talking about Ephesians, Paul's letter of the

church in Ephesus and he says the same thing.

He says that you may live a life worthy of the calling put on

your life that you may live a life worthy.

So we talked about it. By the way, if you ever want to

feel old, go talk to the teens makes you feel old really quick

that you may live a life worthy. I talked to them and I told

them, I said, look at the youth room around you.

A lot of money was invested into this youth room.

Look at the children's area. A lot of money was invested into

this children's area. Think of the teachers that have

poured into your life. Think of your parents and the

energy and the effort and the time that they've given.

Think of all of this stuff that's been put.

Now think of God and what God has done.

Let me, let me do this with you guys.

I'll do the same thing. Think of the beauty of the

building that we're in, the that God's holy temple that we are a

part of and we are being built into His temple.

Think of the investment that people have made in your life.

Maybe you had a teacher, maybe you had a parent or a

grandparent or a faithful follower of Christ that showed

you the way that brought you to Jesus.

Think of the investment people have made.

Think of the teachers, the leaders, the pastors.

Think of all the stuff that's been poured into you.

Now, beyond all that, greater than all that, think of the fact

that God loves you, that he sent his one and only Son to die on a

cross so you can have salvation in life.

Think of everything that's been poured into you so that you may

live a life worthy of the Lord. Does that sound challenging to

you? It's challenging to me.

I got good news. We talk about this all the time.

Nothing you could do would save you from your sins.

There's nothing you could do to make yourself worthy enough that

you could be saved. Without the work of Jesus Christ

on the cross, there's nothing you could do.

We've all sinned. We've all fallen short.

There's nothing we could do. No amount of prayers or Hail

Marys or gifts or service. There's no amount of it that can

pay that price. Good news, Jesus paid the price.

And here's the better news that we can now be transformed and we

can live a life worthy, not on our own, but through the filling

of the Holy Spirit, through the power of the Spirit at work in

us, we can live a life worthy. We can actually be transformed,

redeemed, and we can live worthy of the Lord.

Second, it says and pleasing to God.

OK, you guys know there are some people in your lives that you

have to walk on egg shells around, right?

Anyone have any of those? Just nod, don't raise your hand,

don't be too vocal. We don't want to be mean, but

you got some people in your life you got to walk on egg shells

around. A lot of people live their faith

that way. They feel like they have to walk

on egg shells because they don't want to offend God.

They don't want God to be mad at them.

So they're just walking, trying their best.

Let's let's not, let's not get him mad at me, Paul says.

I hope you know the will of God so you can live a life worthy

and you can live a life that actually pleases God.

You don't have to walk on egg shells.

It's no fun walking on egg shells, is it?

No, I guarantee you the people you like being around most are

not people you have to walk on egg shells around, but people

that want to serve and give life and please others.

Those are the people you enjoy being around it, Paul says.

I want you to know his will because then you can live worthy

and you can live a life that pleases God.

We don't have to walk through life worrying about is he going

to strike me down with lightning?

Am I going to be good enough? Am I going to?

Is he going to get mad at me? We can live a life where we

actually give value. We please Him, we glorify Him,

we worship Him with the way we live.

He says my prayer is that you would know His will so you can

live a life worthy, so you could please God #3 that you would

bear fruit. This is the key here.

How do we bring glory to God? We allow the Spirit to bear

fruit in US. We live a life worthy.

How do we live a life worthy? Through the power of the Spirit.

We live a life worthy through bearing fruit.

How do we please God through bearing fruit?

And so the third thing is we bear fruit.

This is the key to all of it. Scripture is incredibly clear.

If you are a follower of Christ, there should be fruit from your

relationship with Jesus. You should be growing and you

should be a part of what God's doing and you should see the

evidence. We just sang the song.

I've witnessed it. You should be able to say I've

witnessed God working in my heart and my life and through my

heart and through my life. You should be able to say I've

witnessed it. That you will bear fruit in

every good work. I know it's been a while since

I've talked about this, but you know, I play an instrument.

Guess which instrument I play? Go ahead and say it out loud.

Guess which instrument I play. 123-GO.

How many of you said violin? Then you've heard me preach

before because you never would have guessed violin without

that. When I was in like 4th grade, I

started playing the violin. Super cool, super cool.

Felt really cool. When I was a 10th grade, you

know, high school basketball player, being in the orchestra

felt really cool. I will tell you this, I wasn't

very good at the violin, but one of my favorite things was to be

a part of the orchestra. When you're playing the great

symphonies and the great things, there are a few things better

than being a part of something so incredible.

Now, I I didn't always add to it.

My goal with the violin was just to try to make the least

distraction from what was happening as they're playing

this beautiful music. I just wanted to play the

closest thing I could so that people didn't realize didn't

ruin it. Here's the deal.

We're created not just to not ruin it, not just to sit in the

back and just do the best we can to come close and not not cause

a scene or not mess things up. We're called to be a part of it,

to bear fruit, to be a part of what God's doing and to allow

God's Spirit to work in us so that we're actually

contributing. We're a part of it.

We are called to add to it #4 and as we bear fruit, it says

growing deeper, that we will grow deeper in our knowledge and

in our faith. Guys, if you, if you've walked

with Jesus for very long, you know this, that as you follow

him, as you know His will, as your obedient, not only do you

live a life worthy, not only, not only do you please God, not

only do you bear fruit, but you actually grow more and more.

I think about teaching the kids to swim.

They just want to stay in the shallow end, right?

And I'm trying to teach them guys, you don't understand.

If you will just learn to swim, you're going to enjoy swimming

so much more. Standing is boring.

Now, the older I get, the better I think it is.

But I tell the kids, come on, you got to you got to get out of

your comfort zone because the more you get out of your comfort

zone, you'll learn and the more you learn, the more you're going

to enjoy it. You can go out in the ocean, You

can swim in the waves, you can go in the deep end.

You can play games and, and for the longest time now we want to

hold onto the wall. We want to stay where we can

touch. No, no, no, no, get out of your

comfort zone. Follow his will.

Trust Him. You will bear fruit and you will

continue to grow deeper and deeper and it gets better and

better. God is good if we trust Him.

If we get out of our comfort zone, if we allow Him to lead

us, we grow deeper and deeper and it's great.

Then it goes on, it says, being strengthened by His glorious

might. Now this is incredible.

This is good stuff, guys. Not only does God want our sins

to be forgiven, not only does He want us to come be a part of His

family, not only does He want to transform us so that we can add

value, but He wants to fill us with His Spirit and give us His

power and His might to work within us.

When we know His will, when we're obedient to his will, we

bear fruit through the work of the Holy Spirit and we are

actually strengthened by the power of God.

Does that sound good to any of you?

It's not just, hey, you can go today and you can, you can add

whatever value you can add. Use the all those great gifts

that God has given you. Play in the violin.

No, no. You're given the strength and

the power of God. The Spirit of God works within

you, and things happen that could never happen outside of

the work of God. And it's incredible how many of

you have witnessed it before that.

God works in incredible ways. He wants to fill you with His

spirit, and He wants you to be strengthened.

The Bible is full. We've been talking about judges

with the teens. The judges are stories of

imperfect people who are filled with the Spirit of God and God

does incredible things. Even past that the Bible is full

of stories of imperfect people, limited people, filled by the

Spirit of God that do incredible things.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples.

He said now go and make disciples.

Build the church was the command.

Now, these are the same disciples that ran and hid when

he was arrested. These are the same disciples

that denied him. These are the same disciples

that doubted him. They're the same disciples that

panicked in the storm. They're the same disciples that

failed over and over again. But they were filled with the

Spirit and they were filled with the power of God.

And think about this today. The disciples were the start of

it. And look how many people are

gathered just in this room and think about how many churches

there are in in the Cincinnati area and think about how many

even more across the world. There are people all over the

world that are worshipping God today because not because 12

disciples were really incredible, but because the

power and the might of God was working in them to accomplish

great things. Know his will.

My prayer is that you will know His will so that you can live a

life worthy, so you can please Him, so you can bear fruit, so

you can grow deeper and you can be strengthened.

And then the next one that you can gain endurance and patience.

This is good stuff, guys. You guys need a little more

endurance and patience. Anybody need a little bit more

of that? I do.

Paul is a testament to this. By the way, guys, he's writing

this from jail. Think about that.

Paul is sitting in a jail cell writing to a church saying, hey

guys, if you'll trust him and if you'll know his will, and if

you'll be obedient. Not only will you live a life

worthy, will you please God? Will you bear fruit?

Will you grow deeper? Will you be strengthened?

But God can give you endurance and patience to walk faithfully

through the difficulty of life. Guys, life is not going to be

easy. It's not all going to be handed

to you. It's going to be difficult at

times. The good news is when we follow

His will, we gain not just His power and His might, but we gain

endurance and patience. Yesterday we had a basketball

game and and a few basketball games in the second game was a

tough game. There were a lot of fouls and

the rest weren't calling him. And after the game, Charlie was

pretty upset and he's like I said, what's going on?

He said, wow, they were just fouled me.

And oh, you know, I said, Charlie, let it make you better.

Let it make you better. If you just learn that that's

going to happen, you can whine about it all you want, but if

you learn that it's happening and if you allow it to make you

better, you will learn to endure and you will learn to figure it

out. The same thing is true in our

walk of faith. There are going to be things

that happened to us. If we will follow His will and

we will trust Him, He will teach us and He will give us endurance

and patience. And then the last thing that you

may live joyfully, it says in giving joyful thanks to the

Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His

holy people in the Kingdom of light.

Guys, we're called to be joyful. And when we follow his will and

his plan, not only do we live with his power and his endurance

and his patience, when we go through difficult things, we

don't just make it through. We can live joyfully.

I want to be joyful. I don't want to be the kind of

person that brings others down. I don't want you to see me on a

Sunday and think, man, being a Christian might must be really

rough. Being a pastor must be terrible.

I want you to see me and think man, his God is good and his God

has given him a joy that's beyond anything else.

Even in the worst parts of life, God will give you a joy because

you know your inheritance in Christ.

So worship team, come on up. Paul's main prayer for the

church, and this is where we're going to end week 1, is that we

will know God's will, that we will follow God's will.

Guys, as followers of Christ, we are, we're, we're not supposed

to just be aimlessly wandering through life.

We're not supposed to be just just walking along wondering

what's supposed to happen, just seeing what each day brings.

We're supposed to be on a mission.

We're supposed to have a purpose.

That God wants us to join him in the work that he's doing in the

world. That God wants to call us and

lead us and guide us through his Spirit to bear fruit, to live a

life worthy to be filled, to have endurance and patience, and

to be joyful. God wants you to follow His will

today. So Paul says, my number one

prayer for you. So you will know God's will,

sure that you will know His love and His salvation.

But when you know that, that you will know His will, what does He

want for your life? How can you follow Him

faithfully? Stand with me.

Maybe there's some of you here today and you've never accepted

God. You've never accepted Jesus as

your Lord and Savior. You've never accepted his free

grace that's offered to you today.

There is nothing you can do to save yourself or make yourself

better. We've all sinned and fallen

short. The good news is Jesus came and

died on the cross to pay for your sins.

And because of that you are invited into the family of God.

And today all it takes is a simple decision to say, I want

to live for God, I want to be forgiven and I want to walk with

him. Maybe today that's it's knowing

his love and his salvation. If that's you, I want to invite

you to respond. But for a lot of us, we know his

love and salvation. And the big question today is

what is his will? What does he want you to do?

How does he want you to live? How does he want you to respond?

How can you deal with that situation?

So we're going to respond to God's word.

We're going to sing about the good plans that God has for us.

And I want to invite you to respond.

You can respond in different ways.

You can sing, you can proclaim it, you can praise Him, but

maybe God's dealing with you about something.

Maybe there's something you need some help with.

The altars are a good place to come and pray.

Not a place of defeat or shame, a place of victory, and a place

of hearing from Him and being transformed by Him.

If you feel like you need to respond by coming and praying,

you can come to an altar. You can sit where you are, you

can find someone to pray with you.

You can worship. Let's respond to God's word.

Father, I thank you that you love us.

Thank you that you don't leave us on our own, but you want us

to know your will. You give us your Spirit.

You want us to have life and life to the fullest.

You want us to join you and what you're doing here on this earth.

So transform us, speak to us, help us to be obedient to you

now. Help us to respond to your word.

We want to be obedient to you now.

In Jesus name, Amen. Respond to God's Word as He

leads you.