Your Will Be Done | Ps Rachel Eaton

Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to

take hold of. So we hope this message inspires

you and build your faith, but it helps you have more of a God

perspective for your day. Enjoy.

I want to speak this morning on God's will.

What is it to have God's will? What is it to be and live in his

will. So we've all had the the message

this morning is your will be done.

So you've all heard the the passage in the Bible that says

your Kingdom come your your will be done found in Matthew 6.

So I want to speak around the biblical meaning of will.

I am a CHC student at ministry college.

Thank you Alex, a little bit teachy.

OK, so the biblical meaning of will, it is actually the Greek

word called thelema. If anyone here is Greek, just

have a giggle at my pronunciation and move on.

So the word dilemma, God's will is actually deeply centred in

what he desires and what gives him great pleasure.

When we pray your Kingdom come, your will be done, Your thelema,

we're actually praying, Lord, we pray for what's going to bring

you the most amount of pleasure. We want to pray, Lord, for your

deepest desires to be done. It's a little bit different,

isn't it? Can you hear the personal

aspect, the relational aspect in that it is Thelema.

So when we pray, it's what is the deepest, what's going to

bring you the deepest level of pleasure here, Lord, in this

moment, in this decision, or in this outcome, what will bring

you pleasure? You see, to know God's will,

it's actually to know God. Great authority and power comes

from deep intimacy with Jesus. And Jesus was the one who

demonstrated this for us time and time again.

How many times do you hear of him taking off and spending time

with the Father? Deep intimacy, knowing Him

produces great authority in your life.

So I want to speak around 3 points on what it is to know

what God's will isn't. That'll be point #1 #2 what

God's will is and #3 we're going to speak on the power of your

will be done. Feel good this morning.

So .1 what God's will is not, and I said there is not because

in CHC you're not allowed to say isn't you have to do the

extended version of is not just a heads up for those of you

considering to sign up. You're welcome because you will

get marked down on that. Let's talk about what God's will

is not, and it is not your assumptions.

God is not who you think he is. He's simply who He says He is.

Years ago, I was out to dinner with friends who I'd spent some

time with and they were all ordering dinner.

And I noticed it was decided for me that I wouldn't partake in

what they had ordered because apparently I didn't like that

food. And I, I sat there for a minute

and I went, actually the, the food that you've ordered is in

my top three favorite foods. And they went, really, we've

never seen you enjoy that kind of food before.

They had spent some time with me and so they assumed that I

didn't like this food, but I was right there.

They could have just asked, but we do this with God.

We assume that because we've spent some time with Him that we

know what he likes and what he doesn't like, but he's right in

the room and we can actually just ask.

I, I want to give you some examples of this because I think

people can flow out, throw out what they like to call fleeces

to God and taken completely out of context of what it was

originally used for in the Old Testament.

But they might throw things out and say things like if the Lord,

if the pastor wears green today, I'm going to take that as a sign

that you're totally OK for me to leave my job.

We can assume that we know what God wants, like we just we throw

these things out. Another one might be if I get

approved for that line of credit, I will take that as your

word that you want me to have that money or you want me to

have access to it even though I've completely overextended

myself. It's so hard to get a rental,

Lord. So if I get approved for that

house, then that must be you telling me that you want me to

move in with my boyfriend, that you want me to move in with my

girlfriend. Honestly, God must look at us

sometimes and go. I didn't say that.

Why do I say this? Michael?

Are you adding words to here? It's like, is Kurong ripping

you? What, did they leave pages out?

Are they trying to save money? Where do we get this stuff from?

Because I don't read it in here. God's not who you think he is.

He's simply who you he says that he is.

So what God's will is not, it's not everything that happens.

It's not everything that happens.

Have you ever heard, oh, what happened that way?

So it must have been God's will kind of thinking.

I actually see a lot in Christianity.

I didn't get a high school, I didn't get that grade, and so I

didn't get into that course. That must mean that God doesn't

want me to pursue that career, right?

We didn't get the loan. And so God must not desire us to

ever own our own home. I was late to get out of bed

this morning. So God mustn't want us to be at

this particular meeting. Come on now.

You've all said that at some point, not everything that

happens is God's will. Think about it.

If everything that happens is God's will, we can chill out.

Pastor Chris, come and take. We can just take a seat.

If everything that happens is God's will, then why bother?

Like, we don't need to do a Christmas production.

We don't need to come here every Tuesdays and all of the other

extra meetings and do it. Pastor Mill, you can chill out

with me. Come take a seat.

It's OK. There's no need for all of the

tantrums and the late nights with children.

We can just chill because I'm here to sing.

Hey Sarah, Sarah, whatever will be will be God's will.

This is actually quite comfortable and then super

annoying. But I read in God's word it says

Jesus actually asks us to please pray for God's will to be done.

Why would he ask us to please pray for God's will to be done?

If everything that happens is God's will, we need to think

things through. God's will is what brings him

great pleasure, great desire with intention.

Think of the words pleasure and desire.

When we think about pleasure and desire, it reminds me of buying

a gift for someone. Imagine you go out and to to buy

a gift for your wife. You think what brings her great

pleasure? What does she desire?

What's going to make her smile? You don't give your son 2 bucks

to go to the supermarket and go just get her whatever.

She's be stoked with that. And he comes back with chewing

gum and goes, Mom's kind of love this aces.

There's got to be thought like there's no, there's no thought

in that. There's no intention, there's no

cost, there's no sacrifice, there's no consideration.

God's will is Lord. What brings you pleasure?

What do you desire to see in this?

I'm just reading through my notes.

I got through the que. Sarah.

Just thank you, Holy Spirit. Not everything that happens is

God's will. Not everything that happens he

desires, and certainly not everything that happens gives

him great pleasure. The girl who was repeatedly

raped growing up was not God's will.

The spouse who cheated on their family was never God's will.

The young man who was felt backed into a corner and took

his own life was never God's will.

A brilliant brother in Jesus being assassinated in cold blood

in front of his family is not God's will.

There's no pleasure or desire. In that moment.

God created man in his own image, thus giving him his own

will and his own desires. And in so doing, God actually

sort of removed himself from that involvement.

He's not controlling. He didn't make us robots, which

is why people are allowed to exercise their own will, even

though sometimes it's rooted in deep wickedness and it's why we

see it in the world. Do you ever hear the saying

everything happens for a reason? Does it?

Is the reason sometimes just that someone was being allowed

to be operate in their own deep seated wicked will?

This is good right here now you might say, but I thought that

with God everything works out for good.

So here's your tension. Will and purpose are not the

same word, OK? God's will is His thelema, what

gives Him great pleasure? What is, what is his desire?

In a moment we're going to have a look at the word purpose.

And the word is prosthesis, and we find it in Romans 828.

I think because I don't have my glasses on.

Could be 26. Just read the whole thing, it's

fine. It's a good book.

Romans purpose, it's associated with the table of showbread.

OK, it's actually about looking at what's in front of you kind

of at looking what is stay with me.

God is saying here that because of His grace, because of His

mercy, because of His nature, because of His beauty, He will

look at what's on this table, what's on your showbread, and

go. I know that this wasn't my

intention. I know that this act and this

decision over here really didn't bring me great, great pleasure,

but here it is. I don't want to punish you for

that. I'm not into that.

I want to pour out my love and my mercy.

I want to pour out forgiveness. I want to cover and wash you

with my blood. So here it is.

It's on this table. So here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to take this mess of yours and I'm going to turn it

into a message. I'm going to take this

loneliness and I'm going to pour my love in.

I'm going to take this tragedy and I'm going to use it for my

glory in Jesus name. This is the beauty of the cross.

It's the great exchange, and it gives God great pleasure to do

so. He wants to pour out his

forgiveness. He wants to see you healed,

whole, restored, set free. He wants to see you in life and

life more abundantly. And do you know how I know that?

Because I know God's will, which brings me to point to what God's

will is. This is a short point, but a

long study. Romans 218.

It says you know what He wants, what He desires, you know what

is right because you have been taught His law.

You know what He wants, you know what He desires, you know what

gives Him great pleasure because it's all being written out for

you. In John 11, it says that the

Word was with God and the Word we, we have students in the

room. Well done.

When we take God's word, it's it's the literal God speaking to

us. When we bring God's word into

prayer with him, it's literally inviting the person of God into

the room. You are literally having a

conversation with the life giving God.

It's Him speaking to us. This is where deep intimacy with

Jesus is developed. This is where we find out what

He wants. He wasn't shy about it.

He wrote it all down for us. And so if you're not sure what

God's will is in any situation, just ask.

If you're not sure how to find that, go and speak to one of the

pastors or one of the leaders to help you find out what God has

to say on specific subjects, right?

Communicating through him in his Word.

It brings intimacy, but it also brings authority and power.

So .3 and this is a a longer point.

I want to talk about the power in your will be done.

OK, so we have established that God's will is not just

everything that happens. I don't get to sit on a lounge,

Neither does Pastor Mel, neither does Pastor Chris and Rich,

neither to any of you and say ka, ka, Sarah, Sarah.

Whatever will be will be God's will.

No, we are invited to partner with God in what he desires.

We get to partner with him and actively be involved in bringing

about his purpose, in bringing about his desire, what brings

him great pleasure. So in Romans 12/1 to two, I

wanted to speak on this, which is a really powerful way to see

God's will being brought about, it says.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to

give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.

Let them be a living and holy sacrifice.

This kind he will find acceptable.

Sorry. The kind he will find

acceptable. This is truly the way to

worship. Don't copy the behaviour and

customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new

person by changing the way you think.

Then you will learn to know God's will, God's dilemma, God's

desire for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Did you hear it in there? It was to present your body as a

living sacrifice, allowing yourself to be transformed.

When you place something on an altar, it doesn't actually

belong to you anymore. It belongs to God.

And there's a a picture of this. Can you give me my fire stick,

please? This would have been so much

more fun if Pastor Mel would have let me do a live

demonstration. I wasn't allowed to.

It's called submission. Anyway, we're going to come and

have a look at these two pictures up here.

It wasn't just a random pretty picture.

There was purpose here. So here we have.

Oh, no. I've touched it.

I'm going to get all my clothes wet.

Have you got a baby wipe? Yeah.

All right. Here is the altar of sacrifice.

This was a daily sacrifice. Did you hear in that verse

before that the God's will was about being a living sacrifice?

It's not a one moment. It's not a one moment where you

give your life to Jesus and go, Jesus, I invite you into my

heart. Thanks so much that you live

there, walk out of the doors and never come back.

It's not a single occurrence. It's a daily sacrifice.

So here we've got the daily sacrifice and over here this is

what's called the altar of incense.

Now when you hear about incense in God's word, what does it

remind you of? Incense aroma.

Call it out prayer. I heard prayer.

So at the incense, the altar of incense is daily prayer.

The reason I've got a fire stick.

So in the Bible it talks about this was actually lit by God

himself. That's called holy fire.

The holy fire was then to be taken from the daily sacrifice.

Daily sacrifice, right? And used to light the altar of

incense. Here's what I want to pull from

this. I'm going to do an exchange

here. Baby wipes, Baby wipes.

They're so great. Thanks friend.

If you need to find those scriptures as well, they're in

Leviticus 1612 to 13, Exodus 37 to 10, and Leviticus 924.

So what I want to pull from this daily sacrifice combined with

intimate prayer, it carries holy fire.

Your daily sacrifice combined with daily prayer carries holy

fire. Holy fire is power.

Holy fire is the power that sees people set free, sees people

delivered, that brings salvation, that sees legs grow,

and it's carried through daily sacrifice and daily prayer.

It positions you in power and the enemy does not want you to

understand the power that you have in laying things down.

It's laying down your will and picking up God's will, what

brings him pleasure, what he desires.

It's a, it's laying down what we want and aligning it with what

God wants. I, I just want to bring up a

story in the Bible. It's in Numbers 22 and it's a

man named Balaam, deeply wicked man.

I'd say I'd have a conversation within heaven, but I don't think

we're going to see this man in heaven.

He was, he was not a nice guy. So we had the children of Israel

and you had the King Balak and he was terrified that they were

coming like, Oh no, the Israelites are coming.

We've heard about this God and what he does.

So he goes and he hires Balaam. He's basically the big fat witch

doctor of the day. And he's got all of his, you

know, he's wearing his things and his blood on his, on his

chest. He's, he's got all of the powers

of, of darkness and evil. And so the king, he's known

amongst all of the kings of the region as being the guy that if

he blesses someone there, if he curses someone, they're cursed.

So what comes Balaam and, and the kings are like, right, curse

Israel and Balaam, who's actually heard from God.

Just because you hear from God doesn't make you a prophet of

God. It actually made him a very

disobedient and rebellious man. But he, he heard, he actually

knew that he wasn't going to be able to curse.

And it was very frustrating for him.

And so whenever he opened out his mouth, out would come

blessing instead of cursing. And so the king was like, come

on, you know, like, try it here, do it here.

And he's so irritated and frustrated because he's the guy

hired to bring a curse. And with all of his powers of

darkness and with every methodology that is accessed to,

he can't get through. Let's pick up the story numbers

3115 to 16. This is what happened after.

Have you allowed all of the women to live?

They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and enticed

Israel to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident so

that a plague struck the Lord's people.

Now this is interesting. Balaam lived in this deeply

spiritual, volatile environment, but was unable to curse Israel.

He was blocked, couldn't get through.

So, frustrated at his inability to invoke a curse, he looked to

one of the most powerful thing to walk planet Earth.

He looked to God's people. He looked to God's people.

He enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord through

the Moabite woman and then brought a court, brought a curse

on them that way. What was impossible to curse

through extremely volatile spiritual means was brought

about through a compromise of God's People understand that

this is actually a negative story.

But church, do you understand who you are?

Do you understand the power that you actually possess?

Because I promise you, the enemy does.

And the enemy loves it when we are passive and unaware of the

power that we carry every day. But we don't always recognize it

because you know what it looks like for us.

It's mundane. It's a daily sacrifice combined

with daily prayer. It's mundane, but it carries

power. If you could just imagine with

me for a moment. Now look there, there is no

condemnation in Christ. Whatever's on that table of

showbread for you, God's mercy is at work in there.

But I want to, I want to invite you into a moment of imagination

for our region. Can you imagine if every family

in our region, maybe for three generations, did these few

things, got up in the morning and fed their kids, sent them to

school, gave them a hug and told them that they loved them and

stayed? If every family just went, I

really don't like my spouse right now, but I'm just, I'm

going to work through it. If every family in our region

had done that for three generations, what would it?

What would it look like? We don't understand the power in

the mundane, in the everyday daily sacrifice, daily prayer.

It carries holy fire, but we don't always recognize it

because it's so mundane. And the thing about sacrifice is

it's a sacrifice. It's usually the very opposite

of what we want to do, right? It's the opposite of what we

want to do, and it hurts. It's often the very thing that

we're like, no, like study. Studied for 20 years.

Lord, Are you sure? You said you wanted me to study.

Yes, Rachel, I said I wanted you to study.

But don't you understand? They make you reference.

Where's the holy fire in that daily sacrifice?

Laying it down with daily prayer.

It positions you in power. It carries holy fire.

Sometimes we want the the sparklers and the fireworks in

in ministry. Let me Adam, God, show me the

multitudes. I'm ready to see legs grow and

God's like I'm so with you. Could you just maybe forgive

your parents? Hang on a second.

What? Daily laying it down.

Have you said sorry to your spouse yet?

No, I was right. I am right, ladies.

I am a lady. So I'm going to just pick on you

for a moment. Do you know how to say sorry?

Does it come out of your mouth? Is it a normal part of your

vocabulary? Is it a daily sacrifice?

The words that you don't want to say, the words that are the

struggle? I will say anything else, just

not that word. It's the opposite often of the

very thing that you want to do, but it positions you in power.

Think of Daniel for a moment. Daniel was a man who was known

for daily sacrifice and daily prayer.

It says that he prayed 3 times a day.

His life was a life of daily sacrifice.

It was nothing for him to fast for years.

All of the King's delicacies. It was nothing for him to show

up to work again. But he was positioned in power.

Those light mouths of the lion were closed.

Dave. Sorry, Daniel.

Did I say David? It's Daniel.

Lived nearly 85 years. There's a lot of mundane in that

story. Think about it.

He served a wicked king. He probably got home from the

lion's den and they're like, well, you've had a day off in

the lion's den. Now you've got twice as much

paperwork to do. It's mundane, daily showing up,

doing I, I love to pray, right? I love to pray.

I don't always feel like showing up and teaching people how to

pray on a Monday night after working all day.

Sometimes it's the very opposite of what I feel like doing.

It's a daily decision to keep showing up, to keep laying down,

to keep allowing Holy Spirit to press on those areas of your

heart, to keep checking your attitudes, to keep aligning

yourself back in submission, which is often the opposite of

what you feel like doing. Just putting this out there.

Submission isn't true submission until you're disagreeing with

someone. Otherwise you're just going

along with the flow. It's that moment where you hit,

oh, I don't actually really like what you're.

I don't even think I really believe what you're saying here.

And then there's an aligning anyway.

It's the opposite of what you want to do.

It's laying it down. Daily sacrifice combined with

daily prayer carries holy fire. It positions you for power.

I will end with this with Stephen was a man full of the

Holy Spirit, chosen and anointed to be apostle.

To do what? Work with the dishes.

He was anointed full of Holy Spirit because they needed

someone to help distribute the food.

He showed up daily, daily sacrifice, daily prayer.

And as he was being a martyr and stones were being thrown at him

and he was giving his literal life as a sacrifice, he comes

out with this prayer and says Lord, don't hold this against

them. Sacrifice, prayer, holy fire.

Guess who was in the audience? Soul, it's where we get our

great apostle Paul. God went OK Stephen, sometimes

we miss the power and the authority that we walk in

because it looks mundane. Pray only Lord, I need to read

some more. I need to keep showing.

You want me to go to work. You want me to love my children

and my spouse? You want me to be that good

friend? You want me to serve dishes?

Really, Lord? Whatever he's pressing on, lay

it down. It positions you in power.

Your rights, your hurt, your attitudes, your control.

What brings you pleasure, Lord? What is your will?

What is your deep desire in this moment?

Decision, outcome. Jesus.

Jesus was the ultimate example, the ultimate example of

sacrifice. It says in Galatians 1/4 that he

gave himself to die for our sins.

He did this so that we could be saved from the sinful world.

And this is what God wanted to do.

It's what God wanted to do. You might be here this morning

and have heard this message. Some of you might have just come

back. Like Alex was saying this

morning. He wrestled with the with the

sacrifice. So he left because it was easy.

Some of you might have walked back in here this morning and

going, no, I need to get my relationship with Jesus back.

He was the one who first gave, he sacrificed everything.

It's why we have free will, because the most important thing

in the world to God is when we choose Him back.