God's Will Be Done

Take your Bibles if you would please and turn to the book of Ephesians, as we are going to go very quickly through the book of Ephesians.

We're going to talk about God's will being done today. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 1 — as I unravel the introduction of this book to you over a series of messages, you will get the backdrop of Ephesians as we go. Today I would like to capitalize on God's will being done, and the Apostle Paul made that clear in chapter 1, verse 1, that he was an apostle by the will of God. In the Latin, "dei voluntas fiat" — God's will be done. Here I want to share with you that not only should God's will be being done in Paul's life and through Paul, but also for you as well. So Ephesians chapter 1, verse 1 says this: "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God." Let's pause for prayer. Father, thank You for Your will being done through the Apostle Paul in the past tense, but thank You, Lord Jesus, for the fact that Your will is still being done through the Apostle Paul now and forevermore. We ask that we would comprehend today Your will being done in and through our lives, in Christ's name, amen.

And so I want to first of all start with you in sharing just how important it is for God's will to be being done in your life. Hold your place there and turn to Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21. I want you to see that this is really truly an issue of heaven or hell for you in regards to being in God's will. God's will is an issue of heaven or hell. Jesus said that, not me, so I want to read it from Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21. And He said this: "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven." So you recognize that this is an issue of the kingdom of heaven. It is a heaven or hell issue. But did you really hear the words at the end of this verse? Do you remember what He said at the end of this? He said, "But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." And let me read the whole verse again. This is important. "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord" — or Master, Master, or I believe in You, Christ, I believe in You — "not everyone who says that will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter."

God's will for your life is non-negotiable. It is an issue of heaven or hell for those who actually have repented of their sin and placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. There is both service and salvation that are inseparable. There is a will of God that is being worked in and through you. You are being sanctified. You are serving in Christ. You love Him. You love the Word. You love prayer. You love, love, love God and others — that characterizes who you are. And that is an issue of heaven and hell. So those who do the will of God. So I think I have your ears now. Let's talk about the will of God.

First of all, starting with a little bit more backdrop. Before we get into Paul's life, turn now back a little bit farther in Daniel chapter 4 verse 17. I want you to see this from the Old Testament perspective, and we'll bounce back to the New Testament as well. In Daniel chapter 4 and verse 17, later down in the verse, it says, "This, in order that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom he wishes." Now in the Hebrew here in Daniel chapter 4 verse 17, that last word, "wishes," not only does it mean desires, but it means to will without hindrance. So whatever God desires, that is what He does. He wills it without any hindrance at all. And in this He bestows it. So I want you to notice that God's will is bestowed upon you, okay? God's will is bestowed upon you. He has a will. It's from heaven and it's down to you like salvation, and through you as sanctification and service. God has bestowed a will upon you. But here Nebuchadnezzar had God bestowing a will upon him.

And now if you are in Daniel chapter 4 verse 17, this thought continues in verse 25. Just scroll down to verse 25 and it says, "You will be driven away," and then the last sentence in this verse says, "Until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes." Again, this word "bestows" means to give. And He does that upon whom He wishes. So whomever He desires to bestow His will upon, He does that without any hindrance at all.

And so there is a will of God for you and your life. There are no accidents. Every person that exists is by the will of God. This is very important. And now we also see not only is God's will something that is bestowed upon you — like the Apostle Paul had the apostleship bestowed upon him — not only is it bestowed upon you, God's will, but it is also predetermined. Turn to Acts chapter 2 verse 23 and notice with me that God's will is not only bestowed upon you, but it is something that is predetermined. God's pre-earth self-deliberation is something that happened before time and creation. And now this predetermination is going to be being worked out. And Acts 2:23 is an example of this: "This man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put to death." This is interesting because not only is there a predetermined plan, but there is guilt and disobedience.

And so God's will is not only bestowed upon you, it's not only predetermined, but I also want you to see back to Ephesians in chapter 1 verse 9 that it is according to His kindness. Back to Ephesians in chapter 1 and verse 9, see that God's will is not only a mysterious thing that is unraveling here for New Testament Christians in the church age, but also it is according to His good kindness. "He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His kind intention, which He purposed in Him." So God's will is vast. God's will is not based upon anything outside of Himself. God's will is an internal thing that He predetermined. It's not arbitrary or whimsical or random.

Some would think that God responds. He doesn't respond. He's not a responder. Some think that God maybe would select those who choose Him — that He looked down through the sands of time and sees who would respond or who would repent, and then He chooses and elects them. That's not what the Bible says. God doesn't respond. He is a predetermined planner and He is working out His will. And so God's will is directive and it determines what comes to pass. Let me quote to you the book of Psalms, chapter 135 and verse 6: "Whatever the Lord pleases, He does." And so God's will will be done. Now God's will is based upon His holiness and it is in complete harmony with His divine nature.

So this is a big deal when Paul starts off in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 1 when he says, "An apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God." Now he is not shaking his finger at anybody when he says, "By the will of God." He is not arrogant at this time. He's not boasting at all. He was drafted into ministry. Paul seems here to be humbly offering a disclaimer — that I'm an apostle by the will of God. He is saying humbly, not arrogantly, that he is an apostle. So perhaps some of the Jews there in Ephesus knew of Paul's days as a Pharisee. Now Paul is saying that I did not decide to be saved by God's grace, nor did I decide to serve Jesus after persecuting Christians, but God drafted me and He made me an apostle. Acts chapter 9 is his testimony. So God drafted him. God decided to save him.

So Paul here, he's not arrogant, nor is he asserting authority — though he has the right to do that as an apostle, and he has in other places. But Paul's not arrogantly doing this. Paul viewed himself as the chief of sinners. In 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 15, he made that very clear when he said, "It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all." And so you see the humility of Paul here as he is talking to his son in the ministry, Timothy, and how he says, "I'm the chief of sinners and yet Christ chose me. He saved me and made me an apostle." This is fantastic.

And so now all of the people whom God chooses, it is because of His predetermined plan. God chose Paul to be an apostle — one chosen by Christ to represent Christ is what it means to be an apostle. Apostolos means "sent one." And so Paul is viewing himself as one who is being sent. And there is a plan for his life and he is living that out. And God has put that plan in his heart to live out. And God puts the desires in your heart — those of you who are seeking Him, those of you who are delighting in Him. The Bible says if you are delighting in Him, He puts the desires in your heart, and that is God's will. Paul knew God's will.

And so Paul only refers to his apostleship once, and then he prefers to implant in the Ephesians' minds that he is literally imprisoned. Turn with me to chapter 3 verse 1 in Ephesians: "For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus." And so this is his favored or preferred title — a prisoner of Christ, which metaphorically means slave of Christ. Not only in 3:1, but also in 4:1. Chapter 4 verse 1: "Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord." So Paul here refers to himself twice as a prisoner and only once as an apostle.

So the apostles that Jesus originally chose are listed in Luke chapter 6 verses 12–16, and they would lose one — that would be Judas — and then they would add one, that would be Matthias, in Acts chapter 1 verse 26. Now they are men whom Jesus prayed and fasted before uniquely choosing them to be the foundation for the church's establishment. The apostolic duties for an apostle include these: preach the Word, preach the gospel, 1 Corinthians 1:17; and to teach and pray, Acts 6:4; perform miracles, 2 Corinthians 12:12; to train up church leaders, Acts 14:23; and to write God's words, Ephesians 1:1. Now some of these kind of transfer over to pastors and elders and teachers, and some of them transfer to all Christians, and some of these duties are very specific for apostles.

But now I want to note to you that Paul, like Matthias being added as an apostle, was added as an apostle and he continued to do God's will. And so Paul was an apostle who was added to the list. Now the essence of this text in the first part of verse 1 is that Paul humbly is explaining that his usability is only based upon God's will. He is not pointing to himself. He is not building himself up. In fact, we studied last week — or referred to last week — how Paul refers to everything he had ever accomplished as rubbish. Okay, the skubala in the Greek is not even worth mentioning. Everything he ever accomplished, but his accomplishments were safe to say ten times the average human being. And yet he looks at that as rubbish. That is nothing. All of who Paul is now is because of Christ. Christ chose him and Christ has sent him. God's will is everything.

So Paul is humble and at the same time emphatic. There's a balance here. You can be perceived as arrogant incorrectly simply because you are emphatic and confident that God's will through me is something that I need to do. Some can misconstrue your confidence. Paul was misconstrued often. That's just part of the game of being a Christian here. But Paul in his humility is communicating that I'm an apostle by the will of God. It's God's will now for the Ephesian congregation and other churches that would receive this circulatory letter to know and to put into practice God's will, which is to start off by understanding the riches of His grace, the riches of being in Christ.

And so from a backdrop perspective, looking at Ephesians from chapter 1 to chapter 6, Paul is moving their mindset from the theological to the practical, from what to believe to how to behave, from what to know to what to do, and then how to discover God's will through knowing who God is and delighting yourself in Him, and then how to work that will out — how to do what you now believe. This is the whole spiritual growth process for which we're going to be on in the upcoming season of our life.

And so Ephesians will make you essentially a very grateful Christian because you realize it's God's will that's working through me. My merit meant nothing to God. I don't add anything to His purposes. It's such a humbling thing to have been selected to do anything for Christ. And I'm going to do it with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength because He saved me. I'm true blue. I'm just going to be all in here. So Ephesians is a letter that will make you grateful for the undeserved blessings that you have, and then useful, because you will utilize His blessings to bless others. The blessings that you have and the gifts that you have, the richness in Christ that you have, is not for you. Don't store up and can all your blessings here. If you keep what God gives you, you'll essentially lose it. It'll dry up. But if you continue to disperse God's goodness, you will be alive in Christ.

You know the illustration of the Dead Sea versus the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee receives water from all the mountains around it, and they pour the rainwater right into the Sea of Galilee. And then at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee starts the Jordan River. And so the Sea of Galilee receives water and it gives water. And the Jordan River flows south all the way to the Dead Sea. And the reason why it's called the Dead Sea is because it's dead. Nothing lives in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea doesn't have an outlet. Its salt content is so high, nothing can live in there.

And it's even eroding. The water level is decreasing. If you've been there before, you've seen a hotel that used to be on the water, but the water is now 300 feet away from the hotel and the dock. It's pretty weird to see a dock out in the middle of what looks like a desert. So if you get but don't give, you will, like the Dead Sea, erode spiritually. It's very important to recognize that the riches that you have in Christ are not for you. They're a blessing to enjoy, but they're for the disbursement of Christianity. They're for you to be a light. You must be salt and light for the community. You must be salt and light for your neighborhood. You must be salt and light for your local church and through everything. And so you do not exist in and of yourselves. You are not the goal.

The goal is Christ through you. Paul recognized — praise God — it's God's will that He selected me for a purpose. And I'm just part of His grand plan. And he wanted the church in Ephesus to realize that so does God have a will for you and your life. I want to talk about God's will today and it being done in your life. God's will, if you're to participate in it like Paul did, it's a decision. It's a decision.

Now, by writing Ephesians and 13 other books like Paul did — canonized in Scripture — and preaching the gospel in Ephesus and praying for the Ephesians and training up elders in Ephesus and doing ministry daily and meeting their needs, he was a minister. And he says in Colossians 1:23 that he was made a minister: "of which I was made a minister." And so whatever he was, he was made into that role. Paul was in fact doing God's will and it is a choice. So God has a will for your life, but it's a choice to obey. It's a choice to submit to that obedience. It's a choice to get that old achy body out of bed going. It's a choice to speak up when someone who is lost is in front of you. It's a choice to train yourself for the purpose of godliness like Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:7. It's a choice to deny the flesh and take up the cross and follow Him.

When you know what God's will is, it's a choice for you to be submissive and obedient to it. Paul was made an apostle and at the same time it was his duty to go into dangerous areas and to do what God had purposed for his life. And so we are to discipline ourselves, and specifically we must decide to do God's will, and at that point you will be being obedient.

Now what if you need to work on obedience? Well, I want you to recognize that your obedience and your submission and your service is connected to your salvation. Okay, so if you take notes you can write down: salvation and service are inseparable. Salvation and service are inseparable. God wills them both. He has predetermined not only salvation but also your service, and so however God has you serving right now, that's His prerogative. You don't get any credit for it, and however you think He's not using you well — that's His prerogative. You have no position to complain against what God is doing. You simply only need to be disciplined and dedicated to doing what you know God has for you to do. And the big umbrella is sharing the gospel and making disciples, by the way. But within that, God in His economy has all kinds of wonderful things to do.

And so Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4 — I want you to see how it's God's prerogative and how salvation and service are inseparable. Ephesians 1:4 says, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ." Salvation, selection, predetermined. But not only salvation — I want you also to see that service is inseparable from God's will as well. Paul's conversion and consecration unto the service of Christ his King was God's will. And now Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10 talks about service and how that was something that was predetermined as well. Interestingly enough, the Bible says in verse 10 of chapter 2: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works" — okay, so you see the subject here: service unto Christ — "which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them." Beforehand — just like beforehand with salvation. All of these things that we are to be doing, God already knew.

On Wednesday night we're studying the attributes of God and what it means for the omniscience of God to be truly all-knowing. If God truly knows everything that there is to be known, then of course these things are true. Everybody agrees: God is omnipresent, He's all-knowing, He's all-powerful. Everybody believes in those things. But when it gets down to the nitty-gritty details of things, it's really interesting how God pre-determines even your small little acts of service, and it's our duty to be obedient in them.

Now I want you to turn to Romans chapter 12 and verse 2, and I want you to get this conviction in your heart. I want you now to prove what God's will is for your life. God wants you to prove it, and you might say, "I've got an idea of what God's will is for me to be doing." Now don't think of some grandiose grand goal, some self-exaltative type rich man's goal or rich woman's goal. I'm talking about what is the Lord doing in your life right now, to where you cannot go to bed without saying, "I feel I've been obedient to God today." Romans chapter 12 and verse 2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world" — well, that's first of all, keep yourself clean, right? Be holy — "do not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Okay, so it's God's will for you to be being sanctified and transformed.

You really — if you would hold your place here and think with me — you really don't know how you've been indoctrinated by the world until you really start growing in your faith. And when you start seeing just how much you have been infiltrated by the world — by reading statistics, by whatever you read or listen to — you're being indoctrinated. Whoever you're listening to, they are training you. So be careful who you are lending your ear to and opening your heart to. Be very careful.

Here we are to be being transformed, and when you are being sanctified and transformed and God is removing what I call the stinking thinking out of our minds and transforming our minds to be able to think from a biblical worldview perspective, you think to yourself, "I cannot believe I've spent so long thinking in the wrong ways." It's amazing. So God's will is going to be transforming your thinking. "But be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is." Prove it — seriously — so that you may prove what God's will is for your life. If you could sit back and say, "Preacher, I can prove to you how I used to think and how I think now," I would say, "Okay, you've got proof."

If you could say to your spouse or to your children, "Hey, the way I used to be is not the way I am now. God has been sanctifying me. He has been unwarping my mind. I was more warped than I knew." When you can say that — I truly am a changed agent for Jesus Christ — then God's will is being worked out through you. But you must submit to that. You must self-reflect, you've got to study the Scriptures, you've got to figure out what's true and then reflect upon yourself and say, "God, help me," and He will. He can rearrange those neurological pathways in your mind to be able to think biblically rather than worldly. You see, when people have a lifetime of perverse comments, their mind just goes through the perversity right away. God can change that to being able to think rightly.

That's an extreme example of how we don't even think from a biblical worldview perspective. We say it like this around here: "Chapter and verse, please" — right? Chapter and verse, please. If you've got an idea or a precept or a thought, or you're going to do something, well, chapter and verse — we want to make sure that we're in alignment with the Word of God.

Romans chapter 12 verses 1–3 makes it plain that God's will includes holiness and sacrifice and service and worship and transformation and humility. These precepts for which Paul is demonstrating in Ephesians right up front are very congruent with how he is with all of the others whom he is ministering to.

So I want to talk about the word "will" for just a moment. In the Greek it means desire or pleasure — desire or pleasure. His desire is that men would be saved, 2 Peter 3:9. God's desire is that men would be sanctified, 1 Thessalonians 4:3: "It is God's will that you be sanctified. For this is the will of God, your sanctification." Let me repeat that, because that is just so important. 1 Thessalonians 4:3: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification." You don't have to worry about that. 1 Peter 1:16 says, "Be holy, for I am holy."

God is setting before you His will to conform your mind to His thinking, and we don't do that. All you have to do is listen to what you're saying and think, "Would God say that?" Well, we've still got some work to do. All you have to do is look at what you're doing and the motives of your heart and say, "I've still got some work to do." And if you are willing and specifically working towards doing these things, then God's will is being worked out through you and you're being submissive and obedient. That's good.

God's desire — His will — is that we would be grateful. Not ungrateful. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 it says, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God." That will haunt you on a day when everything's going wrong. Right? "In everything give thanks." So not even Jesus, in regards to God's will, pursued His own will. In John chapter 5 and verse 30 it says this: "I do not seek my own will but God's will." In Luke 22:42 it says this: "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done."

So Jesus knew God's will and He sacrificially pursued it, and Paul knew God's will and he purposely pursued it. You see Jesus, you see Paul, as examples in how they sacrificially pursue God's will.

Now in regards to Paul and God's will — you know what Paul's name means? Well, God does much with little — aren't you glad for that? Paul, whose name means "small" or "little" — his Hebrew name was Saul. He was born at Tarsus in Cilicia, and people knew him as Saul of Tarsus. Acts 9:11 testifies to that. He became known as Paul in Acts 13:9. He had Jewish parents, Philippians 3:5, and his father was a Pharisee, Acts 23:6. He was indoctrinated by the famous Pharisee Gamaliel, Acts 22:3, and he had Roman citizen credentials. If any man had the grounds to be arrogant, it would have been the Apostle Paul, and he was — as Saul, before he became Paul — most arrogant. He was most legalistic. He was most intellectually prideful. He was most passionate for Judaism, and he was eliminating those of the way. He was persecuting and approving the killing of Christians, yet God had a pre-planned will for him. God's desire for Paul overrode all of that. This was God's will.

Paul, the most famous of all of the apostles, fiercely used to attack Christians, and perhaps his guilt for persecuting Christians was something that prodded him forward to sacrificially serve Christ. Perhaps that was the thorn that Christ wouldn't remove, though Paul prayed three times for it to be removed. Perhaps God saw fit to leave the guilt for whom he used to be on top of his heart a little bit, to remind him: be humble and keep serving. And so the things sometimes that go wrong in our lives work for us, because they keep us humble before God. Do you need that? Oftentimes we need people in our lives or things in our lives to remind us to be humble, lest we are humbled. That's God's way. He will humble you if you're not humble. So it's best just to be humble so that you're not humbled. But perhaps this is what happened. Who knows?

Perhaps his freedom from the Mosaic law and all of its bondage caused him to desire that freedom for the Jews so much that he was willing to take their punishment. Perhaps this freedom was causing such a passionate pursuit to share the gospel that he became so faithful that we now look to him as one of the best Christians to put on display daily for our lives. Paul's passionate clarification of sound doctrine that the Jews hated caused him to be imprisoned at Caesarea and then at Rome, and then martyred. This was God's will for his life. He even told Timothy that that was coming. He knew it. God gave him that insight and he embraced it and he went down that road.

Some of you may know of something difficult that you feel like the Lord wants you to do and you're reluctant. Yeah, I'm sure Paul was a little bit reluctant too. But it's our due diligence to say, "You know what? God is going to equip me to accomplish His will despite me. All I need to do is walk by faith and not by sight." The Bible says, "Whatever the Lord pleases He does," in Psalm 135:6. In the Hebrew the word "pleases" means desire and will. God's will be done.

God's will will be done despite our reluctance. Despite our sin, despite our shame and guilt from the things of the past, despite whom we are now. God's will will be done. We need simply to embrace it and pursue it. Now it was God's will to convert a religious reprobate into an apostle who would start a church in Ephesus and teach them about the immensities and the abilities of Yahweh in and through them. Ephesians teaches them how to learn of Yahweh's salvation.

Paul would be speaking from his Old Testament Hebrew background sometimes, and he would also say to learn of God's grace by faith through repentance, and God's grace will take over. He would teach them how to be holy. He would teach them how to identify themselves as slaves of Christ. And you think the word "slavery" is a no-no subject to discuss, perhaps within the context of American history? Think of slavery within his context and how rampant it was and how awful it was then as well. They say a third of the people in Rome were slaves. This was like an employee-master relationship, and he's saying to be a slave of Christ. This is controversial, and yet he is leading with this and he's teaching the Ephesians the true meaningfulness of what it is to be not only adopted but owned by God. He's explaining these things in Ephesians, and he says that he wants them to learn of our unity with Christ and how to grow in Christ. I'm just simply walking through some of the main themes in chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4. And now in chapter 5, not only is it to learn as a Christian, but in chapter 6 it's to learn how to war and win spiritual battles.

This is a brilliant letter and the spiritual progress through the chapters is hardly something that you can comprehend right away. I encourage you to read this letter repetitiously with us as we go through this wonderful epistle. So Paul, whose name means "small" or "little" — little old Paul, the most unlikely candidate — is who God used in a big way, even though his name means "little." So Paul knows his usability is unmerited. It's all because of God, and that is producing within him a humility. Perhaps Paul's perception will help you achieve God's will in your life and through your life. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 1 talks about how we are imprisoned: "For this reason I, Paul, prisoner of Christ for the sake of you Gentiles."

God's will for Paul's life was not for Paul. It was through Paul for the Gentiles, and the same for you and me. So many times here in our nation, American Christianity would creep into your thought, and you would center everything that you do around making your life better, your life more comfortable. "Well, I will serve God when I get my life a little bit better. I will be fully devoted as a Christian once I get my life a little bit more secure. I will serve God. I will decide when God's will will work through me when I get my life the way I want it." Who's God?

Hey, just a warning. Paul comes right out of the gates and he says that he is an apostle by the will of God. And might you as well completely submit to the will of God? No matter whether you're like Paul, living in a tent, traveling around serving unreservedly — you should go where God wants you to go when He opens the door for you to go. Go.

Don't be reluctant in this. Truly embrace God's will and go where He wants you to go. You know that God opens doors for ministry, right? We talk about this superficially, but I want you to turn to Colossians and see it for yourself. And I want you to have confidence that God opens doors, and you know what God's will is when He opens a door for your life, and when He closes a door, you know. In Colossians chapter 4 verse 2 it says, "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving." Verse 3: "Praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the Word." Now you pray for God to open a door, He's going to open doors for you to share Christ.

I told you last Sunday, I believe, that a good way — a good end in conversating with someone whom you haven't seen before — is, "Where are you from?" right? We all talk about where you're from. And then you can segue right into saying, "Well, where I'm from is nowhere near as where I'm going in eternity. Do you believe in an afterlife?" That's a good segue. I did that in the elevator last week, and I did that with a group of people — found out they were from the villages, and I was able to share the gospel with them.

I pray that that gospel seed is planted in their hearts and minds, and God would sprout that gospel — that it would cause them to repent and place their faith and trust in Christ. We were looking up at the stars, Jupiter was in the air, and they said, "Do you want to see Jupiter off of the app that I've downloaded on the phone?" I said, "Sure." We looked at Jupiter and I said, "Was that a random cause for its existence, or was it created?" The wife slapped him and said, "You know the answer is created." It was good. We were able to talk about God.

You know, when God opens a door — I bring that story up simply to say, if I would have walked away from that conversation, I would have felt guilt. I know that that was God's will for me to open up the subject of God and the gospel with them at that moment, because I was there and it was on my heart to do it. If I would have missed that, I would have felt guilty. The Bible says in James 4:17, "To the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin."

You know what God's will is for your life. Today's message is to prod you to put passionate effort, sacrificial effort, into being about God's will in and through your life. You're going to be a slave for Christ and you're going to be becoming more and more passionate about this. I want to give you four take-home points that I think are important for us to take home in reflection of God's will.

Four take-home points. Number one is to be humble before people. Paul comes out of the gates here as one who would have every reason to be arrogant. He has the highest position in the land. He has the highest authority, and yet he is saying, "I am what I am by the will of God." Be humble before people. No reason to toot your own horn. People can spot that really fast. Paul humbly said he is what he is because of the will of God in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 1.

Point number two: do what God has called you to do, or to simply state, do God's will. Do it. Do God's will. Sometimes it's difficult, sometimes it's easy. You cannot discern what God's will is for your life based upon whether it's easy or whether it's hard. Most likely it's going to be very difficult. You're going to cause all kinds of backlash in your life, and people are going to be against you and they're going to say, "That's a terrible thing to do." When God called me into the ministry, everybody except my parents thought it was a bad idea.

Number three: salvation and service are inseparable. Listen to me. If you are a born-again believer, then God's will being worked out in your life has to be done. It is inseparable to be a servant of Christ, not just being saved by Christ. This whole easy believism is a plague in our nation, to where an entire southeastern region of our country would have grown up "as a Christian." That's just what we do. That's what we call ourselves. "I'm a Christian because I've always gone to church. I'm a Christian because I grew up in a Christian family." That's not a Christian. Remember, you've got to be transformed here in how you are thinking and get a biblical worldview and not a worldly worldview or a United States worldview of salvation. And so salvation and service are, in fact, inseparable.

Number four: God does much with little. No more excuses. You might say to yourself a million excuses every single day to excuse yourself from doing what you know that God wants you to do. No more excuses. Paul's name was Saul and it meant "little." Paul knows how unusable he was, and yet God made him usable. Listen to me. It brings God glory to use the insignificant to do significant things. It brings God glory to use the things that are not to make something of them. Because you simply know, "I used to be scared to death, frightened stiff to speak in front of people," so to say, "but now I'm teaching every week." You might say, "That might be your testimony." You might be saying to yourself, "I never thought in a million years that the Lord would want me to do this, this, this, or this, and now He's got me — the least likely candidate." That's what Paul is trying to convey here, by the will of God. That's the essence of the text. It's God's will. I have no merit in myself. This is not me. This is God through me. It's God on display. I'm just being a light. I'm just being obedient. So that means that God does much with little.

So today's sermon in a sentence would be this: we need to work God's will. We need to work God's will. Need to work it. Fathers, are you a father? It's God's will for you to work at that. Work at becoming an amazing biblical father. Learn and do that. Are you a mother? Work God's will. Obviously God has willed you to be a mother. You might say, "I don't have any children." Yes, you do. Look at all the kids in this congregation. Are you not put in a position to be mothering? Did Paul not adopt Timothy, and do we not have one who was adopted spiritually as one who was a phenomenal example — and how he had to be told not to let others think little of him? "Don't let anybody despise your youth, little boy. Come on, get up and preach. Pastor at Ephesus." We need to be like this. We need to work God's will. Are you a teacher? Are you a disciple maker? What has God made you to do? Work at that. Do not let up until you go up.

In conclusion, I say this. Humbly do your part in ministry, realizing that even though you may be little and unusable in your own eyes, it is God who decided long ago what is to be of you and me. And so may we simply walk in Christ and worship God and work for others to fulfill His will. May God's will be done.

Let's pray together.

Lord, thank You for the subject of Your will being spoken of by the Apostle Paul here to start off the book of Ephesians, when he said that it is by the will of God that he is what he is. Lord, perhaps on the other hand, there are some here who think too much of themselves and they think of their usability every single day and yet You're not using them. Maybe they think that they're good and yet You have not opened doors for them. Lord, perhaps there are some here who think that they are holy but they have no idea what it is to truly know of Your holiness. Perhaps, Lord, there are some here who must engage in a little bit of humility and repentance to be right with You. God, I pray that You would grant them true sight into what the Scriptures say about holiness, about having a mind that's transformed, a new heart. God, I pray that if one here is stuck on themselves — they look in the mirror too much and too long and they think little of others and much of themselves — God, I pray that You would grant them true insight into who they really are before You, and that who they are before others makes no difference at all. God, You choose to do and to act out Your will based upon what Your standards are, not based upon what we think should be. God, I pray that if anyone here is arrogant, if anyone is prideful, Lord, I pray that You would help them to approach You in humility before You have to humble them. God, I pray that we would be humble servants like the Apostle Paul was before Ephesus, in that he was used by You because You chose to work through him, not because he chose Ephesus and he decided to be an Apostle, but because You opened the door.

And Lord, for us, may we just simply walk through the doors that You have opened in humility, in faithfulness, and work that will out and give You all the glory. Father, if Your Holy Spirit is tugging on anyone's heart today and You have perhaps brought them under conviction, may they know that the first step in being truly saved, or submitting to Your will if they are already saved, is sorrow. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 7:10 that godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation. And so may they, God, not deflect the sorrowfulness that perhaps Your Holy Spirit is laying on their heart, but embrace it, and may they repent of it and feel bad about it.

And Father, You're so good that when we engage in that, Your Word says that if we would confess our sin, You are faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God, I pray that You would help us to be a holy people, cleansed of our unrighteousness, usable by Your good hand, and that You would continue to multiply Your grace in and through the saints here at Beulah Baptist Church. God, we give You due praise and honor and glory and we thank You. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.