to reach Ephesians 5, verse 8 through 17, as we're still dealing with the series, and this is the last message on the series, the will of God, and pray that the Lord will just help us tonight to get hold of something that will just speak to our hearts, and some words, some will, some way, somehow, for God's glory, all right? Ephesians chapter 5, verse 8, through verse number 17. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 8, For ye were sometimes darkness, but now ye are light. In the Lord walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But in all things that are reproved, But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. But whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. All right, you may be seated tonight. As we said, we're dealing with the will of God as far as that series is concerned. It's God's will for us to walk in His will. Paul desired that for the Hebrew saints we talked about, or at least the professors, that they might do, which means to pursue a course of action to do the will of God. Now, sometimes it's hard to determine what the will of God is for your life as far as the unwritten will. But if we're not willing to follow the written will or at least attempt to walk in the written will, we'll probably never really fully understand the unwritten will of God for our lives. And so we mention several things involved in the written will that's written down in the Bible. This is the will of God concerning that. Now to find the unwritten will for our lives is like Romans 12, 2 where he said, Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove, that means to establish without any doubt, what is the good, the acceptable and perfect will of God. If you'll put each one of those letters, G-A-P, you've got the gap. God wants you in. That's the good, the acceptable and perfect will of God. That is the unwritten will of God for your life. And to do that, you've got to meet the prerequisites. We talked about that in Romans 12, 1 and 2. where he said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Sounds like a whole lot, doesn't it? To present holy, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, but God said that's just our reasonable sacrifice. Now, as we think about that, the prerequisites, of course, is to surrender your body. And then Romans 12, 2, I'm talking about the prerequisites for finding your gap is to render your body. And verse 2 of Romans 12 says, be not conformed, don't be in agreement with this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind. So you need to surrender your bodies, be separated from the world. I'm not talking about legalistic separation. Repentance is a turning from something, but it's a turning to someone. And therefore you surrender your bodies, separated from the world, but be spiritually minded. Set your mind on the things above, and if you'll do that, he said, you'll find your gap. You'll find your gap. So you need to meet the prerequisites. Now, still that you've got to find the unwritten will of God for your lives. And to do that, you need to prove what's the good, the acceptable. That means to establish without doubt. How do you do that? You run tests. Now, last two weeks we talked about some tests you can run on something if it's not clear cut in the Bible. What do I need to do? Is this God's will for my life? Maybe a job. It may be how you're to dress and where you're to work or what you're to do and this thing and that thing. Anything you want to do, run it by eight different tests that you can prove or find out if this is what God wants for me. The first test we said, that whatever it is that you want to find out if it's right, does this thing conflict with any clear-cut command of the word of God? If God's word goes against it, mark it off. You don't have to go any further. It's not God's will for your life, okay? Number two, does it bring or will it bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ? He said in everything we do, it ought to be to glorify the Lord. I mean, that ought to be our end. in aim and everything we do is to glorify Him. And so if what you're doing is against God's Word or it's against, it does not bring honor and glory to the Lord, then it's not God's will, it's not your gap to be in, not a gap that you even need to come close to. But yet that could pass those tests and still you not know the unwritten will of God for your life. The next one test we said to run is have I prayed about it? And I'd say, have you really prayed about it? Sometimes we pray, you know, just a little short prayer and then we don't really find, we don't stay until we find God's answer, until God nudges our heart about something. And so if I prayed, really, really prayed about it. And then number four is, have I allowed time for the Holy Spirit to work in my life about this situation? Have I really give him time? to come through. Sometimes we're so impatient in this hurry up world we think we've got to have the answer right now. And you know many times in the Bible you'll find that there were some things that was God's will for the life but yet it hadn't come to fruition yet. It wasn't, in other words, that the Holy Spirit hadn't worked it out in someone's life. And sometimes you may have a And by the way, that goes along with what number five and number six is, but number five, is there an open door, or am I kicking the door open? You see, every door that's open may not be God's open door, therefore he said, try the spirit. And sometimes we want something so bad, we twist our mind to where we think that God told us this, and we're really listening to the wrong voice, amen? And we wanna step through, or am I, is the door open, or am I kicking the door open? And number six, is what's my heartfelt desire? What is my heartfelt desire? God will put in your heart a desire to do what his will is for your life. In other words, it won't be a drudgery. It won't be, it doesn't mean you're not gonna have problems. I mean, you'll have problems when you're in God's will, because the devil's gonna fight you, your flesh is gonna fight you, the world's gonna fight you, but it won't be a drudgery in the sense of that I just don't want to do that. I just don't want to do that at all. If you allow the time for the Holy Spirit to work and He'll put something in your heart, if that's His will, it'll be a desire that'll come from within to do, or be, or whatever it is, to do what God says for you to do. Your gap, if you please. And then number seven, we said I've sought counsel. I'm talking about godly counsel. And that comes from a pastor, it comes from your parents, it comes from godly friends, which are few and far between. Let me say this, it's few and far between when you find a pastor to tell you the truth that you need to know according to God's word. So as a result, you need to find out what God says. In other words, mouth of two witnesses, things can be established in that sense. But you can still take, and what you're wanting to do or what you desire and for is that, and these things could all fit together. And all seven of these tests could be passed, if you please, but still, number eight is the most important thing at the end. If you come to that place and you still don't know for sure about something, let me ask you the question, and that's the question you need to put a test to it. Is the timing right? God's got a time. Joseph, you're going to wind up having your brothers and family bow down to you. but he had to spend about 13 years in pretty bad circumstances down in Egypt, and then seven years of the plenty, and then two more years of famine before they finally came and bowed to him. The timing has got to be right. In other words, you run ahead of God, you'll get in trouble. You run behind God, you'll get in trouble. And somebody says to delay is to disobey. Well, that is if you know the will of God, but if you don't cry out to him, Lord, I want to know for certain if this is right, because it'd be better for you to be in the will of God and wait for his timing, because if you get out on a limb, I tell you, the devil will saw it off for you. Amen. He'll do it every time. Well, at any rate, that's what we're talking about. You need to find the unwritten will, to find the gap in your life. You need to meet the prerequisite. Surrender your body, separated from the world, be spiritually minded. Then you need to test that passage, crosses your path to see if it's really the gap God wants you in. And to do that, you run these eight tests and then follow the Lord's leadership after that. In that, and while this is going on, you still need to acknowledge him. That would be the third part as far as finding the gap. Then meet your prerequisites, test it, prove it, in other words, and then acknowledge him. Proverbs 3, 6, he said, in all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. The word acknowledge means to understand. It means to know. It means to be built well acquainted with. It means to abide. It's equivalent to the New Testament word abide. or you've got your life, you'll have no part of your life that he doesn't have a part in. Intertwining with him in that sense, and acknowledging him, and he says, and he shall direct our paths. And then what's the fourth thing you need to do about this, the unwritten will of God for your life? First of all, what did we say? We said you need to meet the prerequisites, prove it, test it, in other words, acknowledge him, give him his rightful place, and then do. the will of God. At word do, in other words, it's a continuous action verb. The psalmist prayed in Psalm 143, verse number 10, teach me to do thy will. In other words, teach me to do it. Sometimes we need to be taught to do what we already know to do, but we're not willing to do it. And so therefore, you can find the written will of God. In the book, you can find the unwritten will of God for your life. And when you get there, then there's going to be some blessings. there's gonna be some benefits that you'll have nowhere else in this world. I mean, somebody said, I just look for a bigger job with bigger pay. If that isn't God's will, you're in trouble, amen? God can provide for you with smaller pay, and you'd be a whole lot happier if it's smaller pay, if that's where he wants you to be, you see. And so most people looking at the dollar sign, well, I want this job. I believe that's God's will for me to move on up. Hey, it's not just in the business world. Did you know a lot of preachers will move from one church to another because they're looking for bigger pay? That's what they're looking for. In other words, more money here, more money there, and that's what the whole world is. I heard the other day that some of these churches, the preacher's making over $500,000 a year. I don't want his job. Amen? Don't want his job. But what I'm saying is, a lot of people, that's all they're looking for in this world. It's money, money, money, money, money. It's not just in the ministry, it's in every facet of our lives. But there are benefits if you're in the will of God, the perfect will of God. There's some benefits if you're in His divine will. You say, what is the benefit? Your prayers are answered consistently. The prayers are answered consistently. Now, the Bible says in 1 John chapter 3 verse number 22, And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments. Now that's part of walking in his will. That's part of meeting the prerequisites that we talked about. And he says we do those things that are pleasing in his sight. Therefore, whatever we ask, We know he'll receive the hymn. You say, well, I ask a whole lot and it's not, God doesn't grant it. Well, if he granted what we ask sometimes, you see, we might be worse off than we were. And he says in James that we, he said, you have not because you ask not and yet many times you ask. and you ask for the wrong motive, you want to consume it up on your lust. You're not worried about what the will of God is. When I say, if you're in the will of God, you'll want to pray, in the gap God wants you to be, you'll want to pray, not my will be done. Now, I know that you may pray for something you're not for sure what's the will of God. What do you do? You pray for it and say, God, your will be done. I don't have enough sense to know what's right about this. Amen? And I don't believe anybody knows all of it. Amen? On this side, don't know it all, but he said you've got consistent, answered prayers as a benefit of being in the will of God. 1 John 5, 14 and 15, he said this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the partitions that we desired of Him. In other words, he said, according to his will. In other words, we ask according to his will. When we ask, he heareth us and we'll have that because it'll be his will in our life. John 15, 7, he said, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. In other words, abide is the word, as I said in the New Testament, is a similar or synonym to the Old Testament word translated, acknowledge. In other words, acknowledge him. In all thy ways, acknowledge him. Abide, that's part of meeting the prerequisites, if you please. Now, if you're in his will, you're meeting the prerequisites, especially in the area of being spiritually minded, or having a single mind, and that's set on doing the will of God, and finding that, and in doing that, if you'll get that in your life, then you can have consistently answered prayers. will be answered consistently. Now let me say, let me say this. I know we're living in a day whenever people say, well, I, that's one of the ways to know whether you're saved or not. Folks, I want to tell you what, if you're depending on answered prayer to, to, for your assurance for salvation, you, you could be in big trouble. Amen? you could be in heat, big trouble. You say, what do you mean? Well, I know in the book of Acts chapter number 10, verse number 1 through 4, there's a man called Cornelius. And the Bible says this, let me read Acts 10, 1 through 4. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius. a sinned hearing of the band called the Italian band, a devout man and one that feared God with all of his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always. Here's a man who's a Gentile. Here's a man who's a lost man. Later on, we'll find that when the gospel came, he was saved, but he prayed always. And what happened was, he saw in a vision, evidently about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming in to him and saying unto him, Cornelius, In other words, God's angel spoke to him in that condition, and when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, and that word Lord there is just a title of respect. He didn't even know what it was or who it was, but it was an angel. And he said unto him, This angel said thy prayers, and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. In other words, this man was not saved, and yet his prayers came up as a memorial before God. And you've got a lot of people today, and I grew up under this doctrine, and it's been prevalent, and you've been around it earlier, and I hope all of you have already realized it's not that way, because we grew up, if God, if you've got an answered prayer, that's one of the ways you know that you're saved. Folks, I'm going to tell you, if you're not saved and you've made a false profession, you're deceived and you're blinded and you don't know what's what. You don't know anything about the answer that a prayer may have come. This man, here he prayed. Now I know what they use for Scripture to say we know They use a scripture where it says in John chapter number 9 where it talks about the boy in John chapter 9 verse number 31. Let me just go over there and read that. But this is that man that was born blind and God came by and healed him. The Lord came by and healed him. And he said, I don't know much. Whereas I was blind, now I see. All it was was physical healing. He didn't have any spiritual healing at that time. He didn't even know who Jesus was, but the people in the synagogue called him on the carpet and called Jesus a sinner, and he said this. He said, whether he's a sinner or not, I know not. We know that God heareth not sinners. Who said that? A lost man. Who did he say it to? Pharisees and Sadducees who are full of tradition. And this man was full of tradition just like they were. In other words, even though this is God's Word, you've got to take it in context and realize Acts 10 goes against what many people use. chapter 9 of John, verse 31, as a proof to know if you've got answered prayer, you're saved. And John 10 goes against that. Is it contradiction? No, it's not contradiction. But the Bible says about that man at Cornelius, whenever Peter came over there and preached the gospel to him, he was telling, no, before he preached the gospel, he was telling, Cornelius was telling Peter what happened. When the angel came and he said, the angel came and said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard. Thy prayer is heard. And God told him what to do through the angel, told him what to do, go get the man of God, the human instrument he needed that he might hear the gospel and be saved, and he was. But his prayer was heard. He had answered prayer as a lost man. And see, in John chapter 9, after this man here made that statement, he was kicked out of the synagogue, but Jesus came by. In verse number 35 of John chapter 9, Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And when he had found him, he said unto him, dost thou believe on the Son of God? Listen to what the man said. He said, he answered and said, who is he, Lord? Now that's a title of respect. He didn't even know who he was, that I might believe on him. And Jesus said unto him, thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. Jesus revealed himself to this man, and he said, Lord, I believe. And that word believe there is a continuous action verb. That was a saving faith granted to him, and he worshiped him. at that point in time. You realize when he came by, he didn't even know it was Jesus, because the first time he came by, he hadn't seen him. He didn't know who he was, amen? And he just quoted what tradition says, and tradition gets us in trouble. And so that's what many people say today, and I know I heard a preacher years ago, and I was able to talk with him. He used one of the ways you know you're saved if you've got an answered prayer. and I mentioned it to him the next day as he was close by in a meeting and he came over and copied some things here and I said to him, and he's an evangelist, a big time evangelist in some people's eyes, and I said, it's a dangerous thing for you to say that because I know how I propped on one answered prayer. And I thought I was saved because I had one answered prayer. And he said, well, how do you know the devil didn't do it? I said, that's exactly why I'm saying you can't use it for assurance. You can't do it for that reason because the devil can answer prayers. To make you think it's God, he'll lie. And he'll make you think it is just to keep you locked into some false profession somewhere, if that's what you're using for your assurance, you see. And let me say this, how do you know somebody else wasn't praying for it at the same time you were? And God answered their prayer. You see, it's not something you can prop on. Let me say this, you know, it's also, God, does not the Bible say it rains on the just and the unjust? Something's just gonna happen. whether you pray or not, amen. I'll be like one man one time, the deacon over at the church where I was at, we went to talk to him one night and I never asked him about where he was saved and I finally just called him by name and I said, I've never really heard you tell me where you got saved. I said, I'd like to hear where you got saved. You know what he told me? Ain't none of your business. Well, I knew right then what it was, but then he told me how he knew you were saved. He said, I was wondering one time whether I was really saved or not, and I looked up in the clouds and I asked God to move that cloud, and he did. I thought, my soul. I mean, it's clouds going to move whether you ask it or not. It's going to rain on the just and the unjust, you understand? I mean, people are depending on so much. Listen, if you've got answered prayer, you ought to thank God for it. And by the way, God answered Cornelius' prayer as a lost man. And can y'all, some of you say, God's answered my prayer? He has, amen, as a lost person. You see, God's been good to us, to lead us to repentance is what it's all about. But yet, if you're in the will of God, in the gap that God wants you to be in the unwritten will of God for your life, He said you can have a benefit. You can have a benefit, in essence, of having a consistently answered prayer because you're going to pray according to the will of God. But now if you're not saved, you see, you're deceived and blinded and you don't know what's what, and you can get don't prop on answered prayer, amen? The devil will give you, somebody else said, well, the only prayers God answered for lost men is what has to do with salvation. Well, I don't know, but what that might not be right, because after all, Hebrews 11, six says this, he said, in Hebrews 11, six, he said, to find it, but without faith it's impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is." In other words, before you'll ever come to God, you're going to have to believe God exists, and that He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. And you see, God uses that in your life, to let you have answered prayer, to let you know God is. that God exists, you see. The main thing is don't prop unanswered prayer for assurance because you're deceived and blinded if you're not saved. And some men may come in and preachers will say it. You'll hear them sometime. They'll come in and they may preach from this pulpit sometime that God doesn't hear a sinner's prayer. Well, we've heard that before. We even heard that God don't even love a sinner. Well, we know that's not so, amen. Lord help us, we're in a mess across this country. But if you're in the will of God, you see, don't let the devil sidetrack you by what anybody says, and don't, in other words, and don't let him give you assurance if you're not saved when you don't really have any on some little something like answered prayer, because God does hear sinners, amen? And if he didn't, that'd be limited him and say he's not God, but he hears. He may not answer all of them, amen, but if you're in the will of God, He said, if you're saved and meet the prerequisites, in other words, and test and acknowledge God, acknowledge Him and do the will of God, in other words, He said you can have consistent answered prayers because really your prayer will not be for anything but what is His will in your life if you really get to that place, amen. Well, Lord help us. That's the benefit. The benefit of being in the divine will of God or in the gap. Another thing you can have a benefit of is knowing his doctrine. Knowing his doctrine, and that means his teachings. John 7, 17, Jesus said this, if any man will, do his will, talking about the Lord's will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. The first will in that verse, it means a desire or to have a mind to. In other words, if any man has a desire, in other words, to do his will, His will, and of course, His will means, and what this means, it's a willingness to obey. Willingness to obey, and that's the secret of learning God's truth, or knowing Him, is have a willingness to obey. Yes, sir. Aye, aye, Captain, amen. Neck reigning horse, in other words, is what it kind of looks like in that sense. The Bible said in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse number 8, he says, Therefore if these things be in you and abound, and they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. In these things Peter's talking about, he said, add to your foundation of faith. As you've been saved, he said, add the foundation virtue. knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. Now, if these things be in you, that means a sign that I'm wanting to meet the prerequisites to find the will of God, the unwritten will of God for my life. And if they're in there, he says, then you'll have what? In verse 8, these things be in you and abound. That means to overflow like a Pepsi-Cola on a hot day. Open it up, it's going to get out on you. And when they're in you and overflow, and he says, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, if you're walking in his will, the benefit is that you're going to know his doctrine, you're going to know his teaching, you see. Another benefit is that you're going to receive a full reward. Bible warns us not to lose what we've wrought. In 2 John, don't lose what you've wrought, but you'll receive a full reward. Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 36, he said, for you have need of patience, that after you've done the will of God, you might receive the promise. And the promise it's talking about is recompense of reward. In other words, but he said you gotta have patience. Now patience, we're impatient people. I've got just as much impatience as y'all have, amen. But patience is the quality of the individual who's got a goal in mind. He doesn't surrender to the circumstances or succumb to the trials. But he keeps on keeping on. It's akin to the word wait, in a sense. He said, I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined unto me. He came where I was. And I believe that's David's salvation experience. But there's times, the timing is not always right, a certain thing. And what are you going to do is stay put, is wait, is wait. You ever deer hunted? That's on behalf. I'm impatient. I don't like to sit there and when I go to getting cold, I'm ready to go home. That's why I quit deer hunting, amen. I mean, you know, you're going to have to have some patience to sit there for that deer to come by, especially back in the time when we hunted, there wasn't any. There wasn't one in four counties, I don't think. At that time, you just had to sit there and sit there. That's why you'd look at them twigs and they'd begin to look like antlers. They'd go to moving on you. Y'all know what I'm talking about. You've been there. If we'd had more deer back when I was a boy, I might be a deer hunter today, but there wasn't none out there. and didn't have no luck at it, all right? Almost got run over one time. But I didn't have patience to sit there of a morning and freeze myself to death. Y'all know what I'm talking about? Doug knows. He froze himself to death a few times, all right? That's about what it is. But you got the deer because you had patience to sit there, go back again and again. Listen, he said here, and I'm talking about reward, in other words, he said, in other words, for you have need of patience that after you've done the will of God, in other words, done the will of God, that means to continue, to keep on keeping on, you might receive the promise, the recompense of reward. But I'm saying that you'll receive a full reward if you are walking in God's will. In other words, doing his will of God. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 58, he said, You ever feel like, what's the use? Sure we do. All right, I'll answer for you. What's the use to come to another Wednesday night? What's the use to get out in the cold? I mean, what's the use? What's the use? Well, listen, it's the will of God to forsake, not to assemble yourself together. It's what the Bible, if we'll practice and meet the prerequisites and find God's gap for us, even though you may not be in it yet, but you're striving to do that, it's gonna take just some grit and some determination A steadfast, immovable, always doing what's right. In other words, moving toward that, and you're guaranteed not to lose your reward. You'll receive a full reward. You see, a full reward, I mean, after all, isn't that why you go to work? You're looking for a reward on Friday night. That right? You're looking for a paycheck. You know if you're not steadfast all week, you're going to get a smaller paycheck. He said you're going to get a full reward if you'll continue. Yeah, sometimes that may speak to us more than anything, talking now where we live, you know. But we continue, in other words, be steadfast. And he said, your labor is not in vain. It's not in vain. Now listen, David, the Bible says this, and it's recorded in Acts chapter 13, verse number 22, talking about God when he'd removed Saul, when he'd removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. In other words, he said, he's a man after my heart, he'll fulfill all of my will. And then he goes on to say in verse 36, for David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep and was laid up unto his fathers and saw corruption. But he said he served his generation by the will of God. Now, sometimes you think, well boy, if you're preaching about the will of God, if we're going to receive a full reward, we're going to have to be perfect. Was David perfect? He wasn't perfect, but he confessed, see. Repentance came in his life. I remember one time somebody talking about a church down in Mississippi, Myrtle Baptist Church, and they made a statement about, they knew Myrtle Baptist Church, said they're great sinners. But they said they're great repenters. Well, I don't know about all that in some ways, but I don't think some of them's ever repented the first time after being around them a while. But the thing about it is, David wasn't perfect. See, the devil tried to make you think if you're going to receive a full reward, you're going to have to be in God's will every minute of every day, every hour. I've got news for you. You've got this old flesh to contend with. You're going to make some wrong choices and decisions. Brother Percy Ray, I love Brother Percy Ray, all right? But I stood there with him in the middle of that new auditorium he was building. When he was about half done, he had a stroke probably as a result of building that. And he stood there and he said, would to God I hadn't started this. He the same has said, it wasn't God's will for me to build it. But you know what? God let him finish it. and crown him before he died, let him get it finished, even though it wasn't totally God's will for it to happen, according to what he basically said. He got how the will of God, and yet they got on his tombstone, he's finished his course, he's kept the faith. Well, he wasn't perfect, okay? You're not going to be perfect, but he says if we'll meet the prerequisites, we'll acknowledge him, and we'll come to the place to where we do, we'll find that gap and get in it, then he says we will receive a full reward. When we do wrong, what do we do? We confess. We confess, done wrong. I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar. In other words, it'd be good if some of these politicians would say that, wouldn't it? Just do that. I got caught, you know? And really, what they do sometimes when they say that, if I hadn't got caught, I wouldn't have confessed it now. If we'll just confess, we'll receive a full reward. Paul was a man, in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse number 6 through 8, Paul said this, as he's, of course, 2 Timothy, written while he's in prison, about ready for his head to roll. And he said this in verse 6 through 8, he said, For I am now ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand. I've fought a good fight. I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. Henceforth there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, not to me only, but to all them also, that love is appearing. You see, in other words, there's a time coming, but he's got to stay faithful. In other words, he's not going to receive it. Somebody said, well, he died and went on to his reward. No, no. The reward's not even given to Paul yet because his planning and his sowing and his putting in the ministry of people is still drawing dividends. You see, and at the judgment seat of Christ, there'll be those rewards at his coming when he comes, because right after that's the judgment seat of Christ. But you see, he received a full reward by being in the will of God. Did he suffer? Did he hurt? You better believe he hurt. You better believe, I mean, he was left for dead out at Lystra and all kind of things. He went through a lot of things on this old earth, but he said, I've got a reward waiting for me because I walked as best I could. in the will of God, in essence, in the will of God, finding the will of God. Now, that's the benefits. That's some of the benefits. There's more. You'll receive a full reward. You'll have answered prayers consistently. You'll know His doctrine and you'll know also His other wills as you go on through life. But there's also some losses. for not being in the will of God. In other words, the losses I'm talking about. Now, some people says, well, if you're not in God's will, there's a divine will and there's a permissive will of God. That's really not scripture, okay? There's a divine will, and then what people call permissive will of God, that means God permits you to have your own will. because he's got a divine will, and that's where it's at. You realize something. In other words, so there's a difference. I don't believe, but we ought to call it the permissive will of God. God permits you to have your will. Like Balaam, when Balaam went back the second time and said, God, I want to curse your people. Can you imagine such? God had already told him no, and you can't do it. But he went back, and God said, all right, I'll let you have your will, and I'll let you know you're going to be riding a smarter donkey than you are. He hadn't been here to die, all right? You might not be riding that smarter donkey, okay? There might be a loss of life, but the thing about it, loss is, in other words, and so therefore you take the children of Israel, when they come to Kadesh Barnea, God's will for us, when they left out of Egypt, His will was for them to do two years of wandering, because during that time they had the tabernacle instructions, had the tabernacle completed, had the law, the word of God, all the social, civil, and whatnot laws, and yet, and they were come to Cadiz, Barnea after two years, and were to enter into the land of Canaan, a land that flowed with milk and honey, which means it was a land of plenty, is all that means. And yet, what happened? They sent out the spies. Twelve came, went out. Ten come back and said, we can't do it. There's two big people over there and they'll kill us. Two said it can't be done because God said we can do it, Joshua and Caleb. But you realize something? They lost something because they wasn't in the will of God. God brought them out to bring them in, but they wouldn't do that. What did they do? Well, Numbers chapter 14, verse number 1 and 2. Listen to what they said after the spies came back. They voted, in essence, majority won, democratic rule. Well, Lord help us, he said, and all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night, and all the people of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said unto them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in the wilderness? In other words, why do they want us to go in into these giants? Why is it God, we'd rather die out there with manna and quail coming out of our teeth or back down by the flesh pots in Egypt? Why in the world would God want us to go in there? In essence, they wouldn't go in there. In other words, they requested something. Would God let us just die in the wilderness? And you know what God did? They was out of the will of God to even want it. But God let them have their requests, but they lost what they could have had. Sometime you're liable to pray for something and God give it to you, and you'd have been better off just to went and done what God wants you to, how he wants you to do it, because you can lose what you could have had. They got their request, but they lost what they could have had. In other words, verse 40 and 42, it says, the next morning, now, after they'd thought about it one night, they got up and, listen to what they said, verse 40, they rose up early in the morning and get them up to the top of the mountain, saying, lo, we be here, and we'll go in unto the place which the Lord hath promised, For we have sinned. They even seemingly, you say, well, they repented. Yeah, but it was too late. They'd already made a choice. And verse 41, And Moses said, Wherefore now do you transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper. You're not going to gain it. And they went up and tried to go on in and a bunch of them got killed. Why? Because God said, all of you 20-year-old and up is going to die because you didn't go in while the door was open. The door closed the next day for them. They could not go in. And the Bible said in Psalms 106 verse number 15, He said, He gave them their request but sent leanness into their soul. He gave the request. Would to God we died in the wilderness, or would to God we died out back in Egypt, and God let them die in the wilderness, but he sent leanness into their soul, and they died. All of them 20 years old and up. In other words, and you know what? That didn't stop there. It influenced their children. You go and follow them and study. You see, they didn't want to go in. They were out of the divine will of God. And what happened? There was two and a half tribes that when they came up to Heshbon, Elieh, and Baan, Sheon, Baon, and all those names, okay, they come up there and they looked over, they saw the grass, and they made this statement in Numbers 32, verse number one. Now, when the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a great, very great multitude of cattle, And when they saw the land of Jazar and the land of Gilead, behold the place was a place for cattle. They were materialistic minded because their daddies didn't go in at Cadiz Barnea 38 years before. Now they are influenced by their daddies' decision and as a result they're more concerned about the cattle than they are the children. They had children too, but they said, we've got cattle. And you know what? He also, Moses said this in Numbers 32 verse number seven, he said, and wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given him. In another place he talked about how you'll do like your fathers did. You'll discourage them if you stay here. In other words, and you'll discourage others. That's a loss because it's going to affect your children. It's going to affect your grandchildren. And you know what they wound up doing? They worshiped wrong. I'm talking about that two and a half tribes that stayed on the wrong side. After they went in and crossed the Jordan River, Jordan was flooded, but they went over and they fought the battles. Now Joshua said, it's time you can go back to your families over there that God allowed you to have your will to stay out of the, really out of the divine will of God, stay on the wrong side of Jordan. And what happened was, But he said, worship the Lord God. You know what they did on the way back? They picked up a bunch of rocks, they built an altar at the edge of the river, and that's called the Schismatic Altar of Reuben and Gad. And the half-tribe of Manasseh was involved in that. But that word schismatic, it means, in fact, the business of, well, let me just read that. Joshua 22, 5, this is what he told them to do. He said, but take diligent heed to the commandments and the law which Moses, the servant of the Lord, charged you. you to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways and keep his commandments and to cleave unto him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul and what happened though it says when they came to the borders of Jordan they are that are in the land of Canaan the children of Reuben the children of Gad and a half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by Jordan a great altar to see to. Now, they tried to claim it wasn't nothing, wasn't anything there, but really the altar's label is schismatic, the altar of Reuben and Gad, which means trying to cause schism, trying to have a difference of opinion. In other words, even though they weaseled their way out of it and wasn't killed by the rest of the children of Israel, they still wanted to do what they wanted to do. Why? Because they got their will. back over there on the wrong side of Georgia. At losses if you're not in the gap, the will of God, the unwritten will of God for your life. Now, you follow along and see something about, they were the first to go into captivity when Assyria finally came down upon Israel, the northern kingdom, before actually they took over the whole thing. The Bible said in 1 Chronicles 5, verse 25 and 26, he said this, he said, And they trespassed, transgressed against God of their fathers, all Israel did that, and went a-whoring after the gods of the people of the land whom God destroyed before them. And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Paul, king of Assyria, and the spirit of Telgal, Pilser, king of Egypt, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, And the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh brought them into Hala and Hora and Hara and to the river Goshen unto this day, the day this book was written. In other words, Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh went into bondage before the rest of them did. They went into captivity. Why? Because they got their own will. Losses of being out of the divine will of God. And that's what happened to them there. And by the way, if you'll realize something, actually went into captivity about 10 years, I'll use that figure because we don't know the exact amount, before all the rest of the Northern Kingdom went into captivity. Now, the Southern Kingdom were following close behind the Northern Kingdom, had dibbled and dabbled in idolatry, and yet, it was over 100 years before they went into captivity, the Southern Kingdom, the Babylonian captivity, and that's the one we usually read about and think about, the Babylonian captivity. But Reuben, Gad, and half-tribal Nasser lost severely because they went into captivity even 10 years before the rest of the northern kingdom, and over 100 years before the southern kingdom went into captivity. All my losses I'm talking about for being out of the divine will of God. Didn't stop there. You follow them down through the pages of time, 1,500 years about, there come a ship across the Sea of Galilee to the land of Gad, what was that? Gaddera? Gaddera? land of Gadara, and what happened was he got off the ship and there was a man who was out in the tombs in the mountains cutting himself. They couldn't contain him because he was possessed with demons, but he ran and fell down and worshiped the Lord Jesus, and the Lord cast the demons out into 2,000 head of hogs, and they committed suicide, okay? And you'll get that in a minute, all right? But they went down that hill, and somebody said, what happened to those hogs when they come out the other side preaching baptism essential to salvation, okay? But they say, you get full of the devil, first place you want to go is the beach, okay? Well, we better go on. There's a lot of truth in there. But the thing about it is, what happened was that they saw Legion sitting and clothed in his right mind at the feet of Jesus. And you know what the people wanted to do? Run Jesus off. descendants of the tribe of Gad. They were raising hogs, by the way. They shouldn't even have been doing that because that was against the law. But they were raising hogs and wanted to run Jesus off. And you see what happened, losses for being out of the divine will of God. Not only will you not receive him, you just don't want him around. Let him go on, in other words. And so therefore, and yet, here's this crowd of this two and a half tribes, and really all the children of Israel, Cadiz, Barneil, out of the will of God, and you know something? For 38 years, they wandered around and around and around. Was it just going on their own? No, God was leading them. That's hard to understand, isn't it? God led them, even though they was out of the divine will of God. You see the goodness of God to lead you to repentance? You make mistakes, you've chose wrong, you've done this, and God shows up and said, I'm here. I've been here all the time, and then you'll cry out, and he'll say, here I am. But here, he said in Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse number two, and thou shalt remember all the ways which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or not. But God led them for that other 38 years. He led them every step of the way. He provided for them. Their shoes didn't even wear out. Their clothes didn't wear out. The hand-me-downs, I don't know how they did it, but they didn't have to have new clothes. They just kept on wearing them and handing them down, handing them down. I don't know exactly all about what I'm saying is God provided them at that time. But you see, it's much better to have benefits than it is the losses, you see. If we have our own way, have our own will, we're going to wind up with some losses. Now Ephesians 5, 17 in our text verse. He goes back and he talks about light and light, the only thing that reproves or exposes anything is light, truth, it's what it amounts to. But verse 17, he said, wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. The word unwise means mindless. Don't be mindless, don't be senseless is what the word means, but understanding. The understanding means to put it all together. like a puzzle, to make sense out of it. It also means moral reflection. It also means pondering or laying it to heart. What? The written will of God and the unwritten will of God. Understanding, let God put it together and if you'll run those tests, if you'll meet those prerequisites, run those tests, acknowledge God and do the will of God as much as you can and you'll find that you'll put together, you'll have some understanding of those things. In other words, prove it. What did he say, Romans 12, to be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good, the acceptable, and perfect will of God. And then acknowledge him and do it. Which Psalmist said, in all thy ways acknowledge him. He shall direct thy path. Proverbs said that, but Psalmist said, teach me to do thy will. Psalm 143.10. And you know what? If you'll do that, If you'll strive to find that in your life, then you can experience the blessings of God. You don't have to be perfect, but as more you strive for it, the more blessings you're gonna receive. In fact, you can already testify that even though you may not even be saved, you can testify to that if you would. God's been good to us. God's been good to us. God's been good to us all the time, amen. May God help us to find the will of God for our lives. And you can rest there and expect great blessings, benefits, and a full reward, and consistent answered prayer. And he'll give you that full reward, in other words. But if you fail to do that, you're going to receive losses. You're gonna lose. You're gonna lose. Which did you rather have, benefits or losses? Well, anybody say, I know what I want, but are we willing to pay the price on this side? It'll be worth a whole lot more on the other side. If you don't pay it on this side, you pay it on the other side. And that's a bad place to be. May God help us to do the will of God. Prove what is the good, the acceptable and perfect will of God. Find our gap and get in it and let God get the glory and we'll get the blessings. My, my, think about that. Father's good. Father, I pray for help tonight, strength, pray leadership, I pray you'd help us to walk in your will as best we know how and do that that's right in accordance to your will, finding our gap, the good and acceptable and perfect will of God for our lives. and we'll thank you for it. Just do something in the midst of these. Every person's not saved and help them to walk as close as they can. Help them not to rebel against truth, but help them to be willing just to yield and yield. And it's such a blessing to see those who just want to yield and just hear something and want to do it. And hear something and want to do it because it's in the word of God. Lord, there's some benefits for that. Sure, there'll be some opposition and persecution and tribulation here, but oh, there'll be a full reward out yonder, and that'll be worth it all. So I pray you'd help us tonight to find our gap, and that's the will of God, the unwritten will of God for our lives, and then just do it. Do it. Continue to do it for your glory. We'll thank you for we ask it all in Jesus' name. For his sake we do pray. Heads bowed, eyes closed, altars open. Will you mind the Lord as she plays?