and it's coming back today. Hopefully it'll make it here for an hour. To begin with, take your Bible if you wouldn't open to Ephesians 5, Ephesians chapter 5. Notice in verse 14, Paul here writing to these believers says, therefore, he says, awake you who sleep, and that's figurative, those who are asleep spiritually, arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. And so the admonishment in verse 15 is that you would walk circumspectly, walk accurately, walk thoughtfully, not like a fool, but as a wise person, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore, don't be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. You and I have been left here to do the will of God. That's really what it comes down to. When the dust settles and the smoke clears and you stand before Christ, and I stand before Christ, that's really going to be the primary thing that's going to be addressed. Because the Bible says that God has a good, acceptable, and perfect will for all of his children. And the reason I bring this up is because This is what Paul is praying about. So he doesn't want us to be unwise. Don't be foolish. Understand what the will of the Lord is. And the purpose of understanding it, obviously, is to see it fulfilled in your life. And so with that in mind, you can turn over a few pages to Colossians chapter 1. And we'll look at Paul's prayer to this particular end. We started to dissect Paul's prayer here, well, actually, shortly after we began the book. He's been thanking. He thanked the Lord because of how the gospel had impact on these saints and they had love for one another. They were focused on their hope laid up for them in heaven and he was thankful for that. He was thankful for Epiphras who taught them the word of God and But beginning in verse 9, he starts to pray for them in terms of making petitions for them. Verse 9 says, For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His, that's God's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. And so Paul here prays, he has a desire, he's asking something very specifically for these Colossians and by application you and me. The desire there, Paul and Timothy are praying together here, is that they may be filled with the knowledge of God's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And so God's prayer through the Apostle Paul for all of us is the same. And he basically prayed for two things, and then we'll expand on this in future studies, that his readers might have a full knowledge of the will of God, and as a result, they might live in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in every respect. That is a perfect prayer in a nutshell about what we're doing here, or what we are to be doing here on earth. And notice, one is the outcome. of the other. If you have a full knowledge of the will of God, and you have wisdom and spiritual understanding as a by-product, you're going to live in a manner that's worthy of the Lord, and you're going to please Him in every respect. And if you've got another objective for being here, you're missing the point. Greatest goal in life, should be like mine, is to find, follow, and finish the will of God for each of us. So that is a purpose clause. He's praying for this. Indicates purpose, so that we would please Him in every respect. Might be filled means to be controlled by or dominated by something. Paul's prayer for these believers is that they would be controlled by the knowledge of God's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And the word fill there means filled out to completion. In other words, to know it thoroughly. Not just to have a cursory knowledge of God's will, but to know it thoroughly so that it's realized in your life. This is an Aorist tense. That this would be accomplished in their lives. That they would think on things above and allow God to use them where they're at. and continue to build in them and through them so that their time here is fruitful. That's what verse 10 says, they'd be fruitful in every good work. The word fill there is in the passive voice, which means you don't fill yourself, but you allow the Spirit of God to fill you with the spiritual knowledge you need as you yield yourself to the Lord as His living sacrifice. This is how you are to think moment by moment and day by day. You know, typically we get up in the morning and usually the first thought we have is, Lord, what would you have me to do today? It's usually, well, what's on my plate? Who's annoying me? Whatever it might be. It's usually not directed immediately to God. If it is, amen. If it's not, hopefully it gets there soon. You know, the Spirit of God is going to take the Word of God and want to not only motivate you, but empower you to do the will of God. The growing and maturing believer is going to, in an increasing manner, orient his thinking that way. And so, by God's grace, hopefully that's true of you. Now the word knowledge here is not the basic word for knowledge. It's not gnosis, but epinosis. It's precise, correct, and full knowledge. And so, this is a thorough knowledge of God's will. And wisdom there, Sophia, is insight to the true nature of things, the ability to discern modes of actions with a view to the results. It's the appropriate application of the knowledge of the Word of God to the situations that you have in life. And so, this is an outstanding prayer. The word understanding there speaks of thought, thoughtfulness, so you think through what the will of God is through the Word of God. You know, Christianity is not mysticism. You know, some people get this idea that you shut your brain off and everything's just hunky-dory and it's all feeling based. No, it actually involves your noggin. You need to be thinking all the time. The Spirit of God wants to direct in your thinking as we're going to see here this evening. So the question I asked last time, where does this understanding come from? Paul's praying for this and we're assuming that the prayer is answerable. which means there's a resource available for us to understand the spiritual wisdom and understanding we need. And so where does spiritual understanding come from, or how can a believer, how can believers come to know the will of God for their life? And the answer is in the Word of God. And you need to remember that the will of God is primarily a spiritual thing. It focuses on the spiritual. As you are relating to your Savior, He gives insight and direction through The Word of God to all areas of life, but it starts there with the spiritual. You can't really separate God's will for you from His Word. That's why Psalm 119.105 says, your word is a lamp to my feet, it's a light for my path. It's not your horoscope or something else you might want to consult. You know, there are those who sincerely want direction from the Lord. I believe, but I'm surprised sometimes they're not willing to go to the Word of God to find it. I mean, God has given us the written information we are to know so we can see Him and the Spirit of God, who authored the Word of God, wants to take the Word of God, transform your thinking so you know the will of God. I want to do the will of God. Well, do you study the Word of God? Well, no, but... You know, if I'm not allowing the truths of the Word of God to be my resource and to conform my thinking to this, that means by default, The value system that's going to direct my decisions is going to come from the world. And so a lot of times when we evaluate what the will of God is, instead of orchestrating or thinking toward biblical principles that are in God's word, we evaluate very similar to a way an unbeliever would evaluate. What's in it for me? How is this going to affect me? How is this going to advance my cause, whatever it might be? And God says, I don't want you to think like that. I want you to allow the Word of God to transform your thinking so you think about Him, and so that Christ has the preeminence in your thinking. Now last time we saw that there's things that God wants you to know regarding His will. This is John 7, 17. It says, if anyone wants to do His, that's God's will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it's from God or whether I speak of my own authority. And so, God has a will. It says, if anyone wants to do Again, His will. It's God's will. If you want to do His will, you should know. So, God has a will for you. It's in the Word of God. Secondly, we saw that God wants you to know it. If you want to do it, the promise is here, He shall know. That is a future indicative in the Greek. You will know. God isn't up there trying to toy with you. He's not playing hide and seek with His will. It's not a guessing game. He wants you to know it more than you want to know it. That's who God is. And God's will is an extension of His character. And it evolves for you in a number of different things. And part of the reason that people I've seen are resistant to the will of God is because they don't know what might come through it. Well, you don't know what's going to come regardless of what you do. And the reality is that they'll read verses like, if I live for Christ, I'm going to suffer. Well, you know what? If you don't live for Christ, you know what else is going to happen? You're going to suffer. Why not suffer according to the will of God? Isn't that better? You know, all these things are designed to fulfill God's objective with you as His child. His objective with you is to please Him in every respect, verse 10. And so that he would conform you into the image of Jesus Christ. And that should be your heart's desire above everything else. Paul told the Galatians, he says, I'm just into this until Christ is formed with you. He yearned, it was so much a part of him. And if you know the word of God, and you know the God of the Bible, you know that he only treats you in love. He can't treat you any other way. I mean, if you think of the price that he paid to redeem you. Jesus Christ bore the equivalent of hell for you. He gave us all for you so you could be, not only have a destiny that transfers you from the realm of death to the realm of life, but he's even provided a way for you to be free from the tyranny of sin in your life. Sin that seeks to destroy you. He wants you to bask in the joy of his fellowship because in his presence is fullness of, I don't believe it, so I'm going to look somewhere else. That's really how life sometimes goes. And so when you got saved, you received every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. You received all things that pertain to life and godliness. And it's your privilege to just walk in the light and enjoy fellowship with Him and allow Him to direct your steps. This is why the appeal Paul makes in Romans 12 is to focus on the fact that God's been unbelievably merciful with you, so you would offer your body a living sacrifice. Holy, pleasing to Him. And this is your spiritual act of worship. This is the only reasonable thing to do. And you've been left on this planet to worship Him, and you worship Him by yielding yourself to Him. And there's a negative and a positive of that, verse two. Don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but allow your thinking to be transformed, how? By the renewing of your mind. And if you're willing to go through that process, it says you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. Good, acceptable, and perfect in every way, shape, or form. You know, God has designed his will to give you opportunities to have your life count and to serve him. He gave his all for you and he's simply asking and appealing to you to yield yourself to him so your life can count. Now God's will is good, acceptable, it's complete, and yet there are no shortage of believers that would rather not do it. That's kind of a head-scratcher. They'll listen to the lies of Satan, believe that satisfaction in life is actually found outside the will of God. Boy, what a slap in the face to God to say, you know what, if I serve God, I'm going to be miserable. What kind of God do you have? It's not the God of the Bible that I'm familiar with. You know, if I don't want to do the will of God as a believer, and I have a volition, that's an indication of how self-absorbed I am. I'm only concerned about how life treats me and how I contain my own personal selfish desires. And I miss out the satisfaction and joy of walking in truth and pleasing my Savior. You know, John said, I have no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth. And there is no greater joy than to walk in truth. Again, in his presence is fullness of joy. And a carnal-minded believer fails to recognize the vanity of life. Things can turn on a dime. All your selfish dreams can come crashing down. I mean, how humbling to hear that Pete and Vicky's daughter-in-law has cancer. That could happen to us tomorrow. You get the phone call. And if I'm not living for the Savior, everything I've done up until that point in time is, I think it's technically a waste. Because everything I'm, I'm going all in on something that I'm hoping is really going to satisfy me, and it's a big swing and a miss. It's a big swing and a miss anyway. It just brings it into perspective, doesn't it? You know, and some people just view God as He's there to help them get what they want, and if He doesn't, at times they shake their fist at Him and say, why doesn't God love me? Well, God does love you. See, fundamentally, all of us have to ask ourselves, is my life about me or is it about Christ? It's a fundamental question. If my life is about me, then the appeals to do the will of God aren't just, they're just not going to mean all that much to me. It's just going to be something that's going to kind of just nag at me and get in the way and bark at my heels and annoy me. God says, if you want to do his will, you'll know, you will know it. You will know it. And so what Paul is praying for here, as we think of these Colossians and by application us, is that the will of God is knowable and doable. Otherwise, why would he pray it? Right? God has a plan for you in Christ and he's given you all the resources through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to come to understand it and fulfill it. But this next principle is an important one. God's will is revealed in his word. See, this verse says, he shall know concerning the doctrine. It starts with teaching, understanding what the word of God says. It's revealed in his word. When Paul prayed for wisdom and spiritual understanding, he had the word of God in mind. It's not discerned through human viewpoint thinking. Because human viewpoint thinking ignores or fails to grasp the principles of God's work. As I mentioned last time, this is the very thing that got Eve in a world of hurt. When Satan tempted her, instead of evaluating things from a divine perspective, it says, no, God said this. God says if we eat this, we're going to die and stay right there. She opened up her mind to the lies of Satan. Satan promised her something he didn't deliver. He said, hey, you eat that, man, you're going to be like God, knowing good and evil. Really? I guess God's a liar, then. And she, of course, took the bait. You know, she lost sight at that moment of the greater purpose to honor her God and her Creator. She ignored the Word of God. You know, you can't deliberately ignore what God's Word says and hope things go well for you. I mean, I'm sure Eve thought, hey, this is going to go well for me. What a rude awakening. It can't. You know, God calls sin, sin because it's bad for you, not because he's trying to rain on your parade. You mess with the bull, you get the horns. It says in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7 that if you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap corruption. It's a fixed principle. I beat my head against the wall, I'm going to come out worse off than if I didn't do it. I mean, my head's hard, but the wall's harder. I hate to say it. I'm going to lose that deal. And so she didn't think through that her decision to disobey God would not only ruin her relationship with God and affect her relationship with her husband, and she didn't think through the consequences that would come to her children and to her children's children, to all of us, and so forth. No. Every time you get in trouble, you get in trouble because you think you have a better idea than God. It's no different from me. And so, God wants you to know the Word of God. In fact, we started here last time. We're going to finish. Go to 2 Timothy. Turn a few pages to your right. Chapter 3. And this underscores the importance of the Word of God. The importance of the Word of God to do the will of God. Verse 14 of 2 Timothy 3 says, but you must continue in the things that you have learned, that's the Word of God, and been assured of, that's the Word of God, known from whom you've learned them. That from childhood you have known the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. What are they able to do? They're able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. If we didn't have the Word of God, we wouldn't know about God, we wouldn't know about sin, we wouldn't know about salvation, we wouldn't know about Jesus Christ. And through all these things, We learn about the very things that God has provided for us. We need the Word of God. I mean, a simple assumption tells us that if God has a will for us, this will is going to be found in His Word. We'd expect Him to communicate it to us in the most obvious way. And the most obvious way is through the written Word of God. And so if you're going to know the will of God, You're going to have to understand the word of God through scriptures. Timothy knew the scriptures. And so if the scriptures contain the appropriate information you need to discern to understand salvation. Why would you look for the will of God in a Christian life somewhere else? I mean, that sounds kind of silly, doesn't it? If you think it through. This is why we need to know that the Word of God comes from, or the will of God comes from the Word of God. And what did we learn about the Word of God in verse 16? All scripture, it's all profitable, but first of all, it's given by inspiration. That means literally God breathed. This is God's Word recorded for us. And notice it's profitable. It's beneficial to you. And the first thing on the list is doctrine. It's doctrine, teaching. This sets forth the mind of God. It provides the foundation and framework by which we can discern truth from error. Without doctrine, you wouldn't know what to believe about the Trinity, angels, man, sin, sanctification, the church, future events. You'd be wandering aimlessly through life, looking for an anchor for your soul. And yet we have the anchor given to us right here. And so, this is why we're admonished by Peter, at the end of his second epistle, grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's to be an ongoing progression in all of our lives. None of us has arrived, it's not where you get to a point where you say, you know, I got it all figured out, thank you very much. I'm gonna go on to the next thing. For you to grow in grace, how are you going to do that? Well, we're told by Peter as well, as a newborn babe, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And so if you're going to grow in grace and knowledge of the Savior, you need to be meditating, thinking, and incorporating into your life the truths from the word of God. I mean, we know in the physical realm, empirically, that if you don't feed a child the nourishment that they need, they're not going to grow. And the illustration Paul uses here, Peter uses rather, he's comparing our need for the milk of the word to a baby's need for his or her mother's milk. And so to think that you can do the will of God and grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior apart from taking the word of God is to be totally hoodwinked. Secondly, it says right here, and it's profitable for doctrine for reproof. Proof speaks of conviction. It speaks of pointing out something that's wrong in your thinking. You know, as you read the Bible and as you hear it taught, it speaks to you oftentimes, very pointedly, concerning these things in your life which might be a little off. How an adjustment needs to be made in your thinking. It shows you where you're thinking wrong. And taking reproof is critical for knowing and doing the will of God. This is why Proverbs 6.23 says, for the commandment is a lamp and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. It's one of the verses I had my children memorize, because one of the things I did often time was correct their thinking. This is a way of life. Life for all of us is the same. It's about having my thinking corrected repeatedly as I learn the word of God and grow in the grace and knowledge of God. That's what he wants to do is continually Change my thinking. And that's why the next thing in verse 16 says what? For correction. It's one thing to be pointed out where you're thinking wrong. The next step, logically, is to have that thinking corrected. And that's what the Word of God does. In fact, here's a classic example of where they're both together in Ephesians 4.28. Let him that stole, steal no more. Does God want you to steal? No. Well, what does He want me to do? Well, He wants you to work. He wants you to labor, working with His hands, the thing which is good. You may have to give, the word means share, to him that has a need. And so, instead of stealing for a living, like you might have done prior to salvation, The Spirit of God says, no, that's wrong. Instead, I want you to do His work as out of the Lord and be responsible for yourself so that God can use you to minister to someone else who needs it. That's an example of reproof and correction right there. And that's why the next thing it says at the end of verse 16, it says, for instruction and righteousness. The idea of instruction there means training. God trains you in the righteous ways of Himself through the Word of God. The grace of God teaches us to live godly lives, and yet the Word of God traces out in detail the things which make up a godly life. And this is why I need to take that in. You know, God's righteous standards haven't slipped. They haven't changed. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But the means by which the righteousness that God desires is only realized in your life as you walk by faith in the Word of God and allow the Spirit of God to enable you. This is why Romans 8.4 says, in order that the righteous requirements of the law, in other words, to love God and love others, that sums up the whole law, might be fully meted in us. or through us, how? When we live not according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit. So if I'm walking by means of the Spirit, and I'm allowing the Word of God to transform me, the righteousness that God wants demonstrated in my life, the Spirit of God produces in me and through me. Because that's one of the reasons I've been left here. It's not a matter of me cranking this baby out and working on not stealing. It's about having a love affair with Christ, recognizing He doesn't want me to steal, but as I love Him, the Spirit of God works in me and through me to not only steal, but to actually work hard and maybe minister to someone else. Cool. This is how God designed this thing to do. But you know, your need in this regard, and my need in this regard, is to constantly expose my mind to divine viewpoint. Choosing to apply it by faith. You know, I was told by some teachers in Iwana here that the majority of the kids in the older Iwana class don't do their workbooks. And I thought, well, that's too bad. But then I thought, you know, the parents should be working with their kids to make sure that they're doing it, that they're interacting with it, discussing it with them. Then I found out later in the youngest class, a lot of the kids have no idea what the memory work is. He asked the parents, do they know what the memory work is? No. This is a breakdown. And it's a costly breakdown. You should be taking time as a parent to discuss biblical truths with your children. You're to bring them up in the nurture and adoration of the Lord. You're to find out and help them interact and work through things in the Bible. And you're showing them as you take interest in this, that this is important to you and it should be important to them. If you blow the whole thing off, they think the whole thing's a joke. They don't learn it. It doesn't mean all that much. And they don't care if they come here and they haven't done any work. Are you taking time to fill your mind with biblical principles so you can explain a biblical worldview to your children? So they can recognize that as they're exposed and bombarded with the complete opposite philosophy in every other realm of life, that they can discern it for what it is and see it, how it flies in the face in so many cases of what God's Word says, so they can rise above the fray? Otherwise, they're going to come home and think that It's okay if I'm a boy next week as a girl or vice versa. I can be a unicorn today because my teacher said I can be a unicorn. No, God created male and female. God wants you to think like this. Our goal is to honor God. But I was just disappointed to hear that parents aren't taking time to interact with their kids about the very thing that's going to make a difference in their life. It's supposed to make a difference in life for all eternity. What are you saving yourself for? This is the only thing, ultimately, worthy investing yourself in. Imparting precious truths from the word of God, so they learn to think biblically and principally, so that as they grow, they can, again, recognize what honors the Lord, what is true, what's false, and they can make concrete decisions based on biblical principles and honor the Lord instead of getting kicked around like a soccer ball. You know, if a parent doesn't stop and honor the Lord in their own thinking through the word of God, they typically ask reverence for things that God says is important. They don't have a humble and thankful heart and they teach their children, again, through their own actions and their own attitudes towards certain things that this is what Christianity is. And this is why, in so many cases, the second generation bombs. because the parents didn't take time to either teach it to them or they didn't make it their own. I mean, I can't tell you how important this is. In 20 years, this church is gonna be completely turned over. I'm not gonna be here. Someone else is gonna be here. And what are we leaving them? Like I've said many times, typical church doesn't last to the third generation. because the ball has dropped. You know, it's your responsibility as a parent, like it was mine, to show them where the truths of the word of God fit their new life, so they can understand what the will of God is, and by God's grace, do it. You know, it's not like people are down with God. But if they don't take time to actively think through and then transfer to your children biblical principles, so that it doesn't affect your decisions or their decisions, the ball is ultimately dropped. What's the fourth principle? And this is critical. It says if anyone wants, notice, notice this word do here. He must decide to do the will of God in order to know it. It doesn't say if anyone wants to know his will, Because if anyone wants to do his will, then you will know. So important. You know, it's easy to have the attitude, you know, it's kind of like, do I want to go swimming in the pool? Well, let me stick my big toe in it first, right? Oh, I don't think I want to do that. And a lot of times when it comes to the will of God, believers have the same mindset. Well, I don't know if I want to do the will of God because what does God really have for me? And so why doesn't He just lay it out on the table so I can say, Nah, I don't think so. Or, Nah, alright. You want to be God. When you're thinking like that, you want to be God and you want God to serve you by showing you what you want to see and then give you the decision to say yea or nay. That's kind of arrogant, isn't it? Right? I mean, the mindset is that God's like this divine genie that comes out of a lamp, you rub it a few times, and poof. Because this mindset is that God exists for me. And though people would never say it, but their mindset might very well be, you know what, if God's going to not deliver the goods, I'm going to blow him off and go look for someone who will help me deliver the goods, as I've defined what the goods are. You know, Paul told this to Timothy, and this is to be our mindset. Take heed to yourself. Stop and say, you know what, Lord, who am I? Thank you for loving me even though I'm a A1 screw-up. He says you take heed to yourself and notice to the doctrine. In fact, I want you to continue in them. I want you to repeatedly expose your mind to the truth. For in doing this, you will both deliver yourself from the power of sin, this is second tense salvation, and those who hear you as he was a teacher of the word of God. If I'm not taking time to allow the word of God to transfer my thinking, what have I got to share with anybody else? I gotta take heed to myself all the time. In fact, isn't this what James told us? Turn over a couple pages to James. We're heading to the right here. James chapter 1. Similar admonishment is given by James to the saints. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. I'm looking at verse 21, sorry. Verse 21. Because God has done all these things for you, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. That's a A phrase that expresses the need for us to humbly admit our sin before the Lord. And we're doing that to do something else. To receive with meekness or humility the implanted Word. Notice the emphasis on the Word of God. Implanted means that it's got inherent strength to deliver you, which is able to save your souls. And so the mindset, if I'm thinking straight all the time, is, you know what, Lord, what do you have for me today in your Word? What do you have for me today? You know, it's funny, I spent some time with the Lord this morning, and I went over a verse that I've known for decades. And I stopped and thought about it, and it just ministered to my soul, and it's a very simple verse. Cast your burden on the Lord. He shall sustain you. He'll never suffer the righteous in the world. You know, I tell people that all the time. And then this morning, you know what I did? I actually casted my burdens on the Lord. I said, hey, what is this? And I left him there. Usually it's, you know, it's the wrong kind of cast. The word cast means to throw down like a wrestler throws down another person. My cast is usually, and I take it back. It's the wrong kind of cast. And I casted all these birds on the Lord and I said, wow, the weight's gone. And I actually left him there for a while. And I just said, you know what? He's so concerned about me. as a human being and his very own child that he says, will you please cast your burden upon me? Thank you very much. And I casted it because it's so easy to let these things that I got to do on my plate and other things going on and people's other people's problems to just overwhelm me. And I sit there like, you know, drooling going, what am I going to do? And I just casted it. And I said, wow, you know, I've had just these pain in the neck health problems lately. It's really annoying. And it's like, Lord, I don't want this. He said, too bad. Do I know what's best for you? Well, yeah. All right. So I started to cast the stuff on the Lord and cast other people's problems on the Lord. It was great. And I've known the verse for years. But I allowed the implanted word here to deliver my soul. That's what we're supposed to do. You know, receive there is the word that means receive with open arms. But I'm receiving it to what? To transform my thinking because in verse 22 he says, don't stop with merely receiving it. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, otherwise you're self-deceived. It's so easy to be self-deceived because what happens is you take in the Word of God and you understand the principle. Oh, I see what the Word of God says in that regard. But that's as far as it goes. And you think you're doing it because you understand it. There's a next step here, if I can put it that way. The reason I'm taking this in is so I'm allowing it to work in me and through my thinking and transform me. I'm to apply by faith, for example, casting my burden on the Lord. Just instead of having a nice verse on my refrigerator that says, cast your burden on the Lord, I can actually do it. I can apply it by faith. And he expands on this illustration in verse 23. If anyone is to hear the word and look a door, it's like a man observes his natural face in the mirror. He verbs himself and he goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. In other words, you look in the mirror and you see, I've got some issues here. And the whole purpose of looking in the mirror isn't it to make adjustments, right? I mean, isn't the purpose that ladies look in the mirror to put mascara on? Am I right or am I wrong? You're looking in the mirror to put mascara on. You're not looking at it to see that you don't have mascara on. I mean, that's where it starts, but it doesn't end there. I'm just going to dig myself a hole here. But I mean, the whole point is to make an adjustment of some kind, right? And he says here, I hear, instead of allowing the Word of God to make an adjustment in their life, he says, wow, you know, I got a lump on my head, what do you know? And that's as far as it goes. So the positive in verse 25 is that if you look into the perfect law of liberty, that's a synonym for the word of God, you continue in it. And the word look there is the idea of staring at something, truly staring it to study it. And you're not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. In other words, you're allowing the Spirit of God to take it, to work in you and through you, to show you how it fits, and then you're applying it by faith. You're going to be blessed in what you do. That's how God designed this thing to work. But it starts with me taking heed to myself. You know, Pastor Raj, you say that the Word of God is not designed to satisfy your curiosity. It's designed to transform your life. But that doesn't mean you always understand what's going on. That doesn't mean that you're not perplexed at times. You know, you're in the trust in the Lord with all your heart. And negatively, you're not to lean on your own understanding in all the ways you acknowledge to him and he'll direct your paths. See, one of the reasons we don't trust in the Lord with all our heart and learn of him through the word of God is we've got a false view of who God is. You know, what happens is believers somehow allow Satan to convince them that God isn't all that good, just like he did with Eve. And so if I start thinking on how I think God should act in my life, that's why, you know, these people that like to pick out their own religion, they always pick out a God that's just like them, without fail. Everyone's God is an extension of themselves. They want God to be just like them so they can take care of them the way that they think they should be taken care of. And when I pick up my own God, or I don't believe that God's got it covered, I'll make my own decisions about what I think is right and what's wrong for me. You know, true freedom for the believer actually comes when he's willing to put himself under the authority of God's Word. That's the safest place in the world to be. Safest place in the world to be. You know the psalmist said this about God in Psalm 119 verse 68. You are good and do good. It doesn't say you're sometimes good and you do good once in a while. Our is a be verb. It explains the condition or the present state of God and God is always good. God is good all the time and all the time. God is good. That's just not a phrase that hangs on the fridge. It's a reality. And so the mindset should be, teach me your statutes. But if I don't believe that, I'm going to take matters into my own hands because I have this mindset that God really can't be trusted. You know, God knows from the beginning to the end. You know, when my children were little, I think they knew fundamentally that as their father, I loved them. But they were short-sighted and immature. And so sometimes they'd want something and I'd say no. Now they had two options. They could say, well, Dad is a real piece of work. You know, I can't believe it. He doesn't like us. He wants us to be miserable. Only later to see that Dad is, I'll still forget Allison, 18 months old. We lived on Superior Street in Duluth, which is a busy street. And we loaded up our kids in the front on Superior Street. And when you got kids, you gotta, you know, Well, you know how it is, it's several trips. So I'd say, you've got to stay on the porch while Dad loads up. Why? I want to go with you. No, you've got to stay on the porch. Crying, because Dad's such a brute beast. Making her stay on the porch while I load up. From her tiny little perspective, her perception of Dad was a real chump. Not with anything but a perfect father, but we have a perfect heavenly father and sometimes he says no. We don't have all the facts and we say, God, why don't you give me this? Why can't I have this? You big meanie or whatever. Excuse me. And our perception is skewed. And so instead of trusting the Lord with all my heart, I take the bull by the horns and I want to run my own life on my terms. And I end up in a place I never dreamed because God won't be mocked and he says, whatever man sows, he's going to reap. And I thought I could come out on top. And God says, I can't let you do that because I'm not going to be made a fool of. And in love, he's doing all those things. You know, this is why if you want to do God's will, you can appreciate personal failure. Most of the things I've learned is through personal failure and God's mercy. I just love it. He's been so merciful. This is why the psalmist who had the proper view of God, who just said three verses earlier that God is good all the time and all the time God is good, he said, it's good for me that I've been afflicted. Because he just said in verse 68, teach me your statutes. And God says, good, I'll teach you. Here, have an affliction. Yeah, but no, that's not how I want to learn it. No, that's the only way you're going to learn it. And so he gives, it's good for me because I asked, didn't I ask three verses earlier for him to teach me his statutes? I've changed my mind. Right? In fact, verse 67, before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now I kept that word. Why? Because I stuck my finger in a mouse trap and it hurt. And I realized that's a dumb idea. A verse I learned as a young man in my Christian life. is never far from my heart. I know, Lord, that your judgments are right, and in faithfulness you've afflicted me. You know, either all things are working together for good or they're not. Either Jesus does all things well or he doesn't, and I'm a bonehead, I make bonehead decisions, and yet he's faithful to work in me and through me and love to give me exactly what I need so that I could grow in the grace and knowledge of him and learn. Not only his statutes, but my own depravity in a deeper way. You know, this is why James 4 says, God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. If you're humble, you're going to say, you know, Lord, thanks for going out of your way to give me this affliction because I need it. Because left to myself, I'm just my own worst enemy. That's why a correctable, teachable attitude is so important. You know, people don't get saved because you can't tell them anything. They've got their minds made up. They're not willing to listen. And, you know, there's no end, literally, to the decisions we face in life. Now, some decisions are trivial when compared to others. I mean, you flip a coin, should I get, you know, cookie, fudge, ice cream, or peppermint bonbon. Ooh, big deal. You know? It's not a real big decision. But sometimes the stakes are high. And sometimes the decisions are complex. And all kinds of people are affected by it. And so it's easy to be anxious because you don't know what to do. There's heart-wrenching decisions. Life throws you a curveball. Children get sick. I remember a guy who worked for a law firm, and one of the senior partners was making unethical decisions, and he said, if you don't sign off on this, you're going to lose your job. What would you do? It's easy to say, well, I wouldn't sign off on that. Oh, wait, you've got a wife and kids at home that you've got to feed. You've got this, this, this, this. What are you going to do? See, life can get difficult. Life can get difficult. And your life can change forever by one decision. And so all of us on paper would say, you know, I know God's will is best because that's who He is. And yet, when it comes to decisions, oftentimes I'll choose my own path. And I hope that God doesn't make it hurt as bad as it could. Ever been there? You know, the Bible doesn't always give a clear answer to every question, but one thing is sure, if I'm doing my own plan on my own terms, I'm going to be frustrated, I'm going to feel guilty, I'm going to not have peace in my life, and I'm rolling the dice. But again, God's will primarily has to do with the spiritual, and so if you align your thinking correctly with the spiritual, he gives light and insight and wisdom to make the other decisions. We gotta have the mindset of David here. Leave me, Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before me. You ever prayed something like that? Lord, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do here. Make your way straight before me. But notice he said, lead me in your righteousness. It's not, Lord, work this baby out, give me the Powerball numbers or the board numbers or whatever it might be. It's not some kind of selfish ambition here he's chasing. He says, lead me in your righteousness. And he gave a reason. We don't certainly have to pray this in particular, because this was, again, for his time period. But the mindset of making your path straight before me is very critical. That's the posture he took. This is why in Psalm 23 he said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack. He leads me. This is what it means to acknowledge the Lord in all your ways. I mean, how many times have we frustrated about certain things because they're not falling out in you? We've never even stopped to check in with the Lord and said, Lord, is this even what you want me to do? I mean, how did I end up here? Well, for the last three years, I've been making nothing but selfish decisions about this, this, this, and this, and this. And now things are haywire. And so acknowledging him means to have a humble posture that says, Lord, what would you have here? What scriptures should I understand here? It's about submitting to the revealed will of God and not leaning on my own natural understanding, but seeing a biblical principle that I've come to understand and taking that principle by faith. Which means if you're not growing the grace and knowledge of the Savior, you're not going to come to an understanding of that principle. So you're not going to be able to do it. You know, a typical three-year-old doesn't understand how wise his parents are. He thinks he can operate the kitchen stove. How many here would let their three-year-old to, you know, operate the kitchen stove? Well, some of you might. But, you know, a parent's wisdom says, you know what, you're not ready for that, so I can't let you go there. Same thing with that Allison thing. And as a child grows up, he starts to recognize that dad knows what's going on. Dad's worthy of his trust. It's the same thing with you and me. And we can either take it by faith or learn it the hard way. And so do you want to do the will of God? See, if I want to do the will of God, it's going to express itself in a willingness to apply by faith what I know to be true. That's always where it starts. Everyone wants to know the answer to the unknown will of God. You know? And it starts with understanding and applying by faith what I know to be true. Putting myself under God's authority. That's why the words humble and reverent and fearful describe the attitude we should have. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. It's this mindset that says, Lord, I want to see you honored in my life. Do you start there? Is that a thought that enters into your brain as God's child? Psalm 2589, remember these verses well? When I was a young man looking for direction in my life. Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he will teach sinners in the way. I qualify. The meek or the humble he will guide in judgment, and the meek or the humble he will teach his way. Do you believe that? Yeah, He'll do it. If I'm willing to be taught, and my goal in life is to please Him, then I'm gonna know what the will of God is. That's what this is designed to do. I gotta have a teachable and a correctable attitude. Louis Sperry Schaefer said this, His, God's, leading is only for those who are already committed to do as He may choose. He being God. That's John 7, 17 right there. Now God has a specific will for you. And I was actually thinking about going through that tonight. I don't know what I was thinking, but I think what we'll have to do is probably do that next time. This is a logical place to stop. But it starts, if you're gonna do it, the unknown will of God, it starts with the known will of God. You always go from the known to the unknown. You always go from the clear to the not so clear. That's true in every realm, it's especially true when it comes to spiritual principles and discerning the will of God. And so, I guess it's 7.58, we're almost out of time anyway, so why don't we pause for a word of prayer and we'll call it a night. Father, we're humbled again as we consider who you are, we consider the fact that you love us supremely, and that nothing can separate us from that love, and that you've got a good and acceptable and perfect will for all of us. I pray that we'd see that that's the only reasonable thing to want in our hearts, and that we'd wanna honor you with our lives, and that we wanna see your will done, because we know when the dust settles and the smoke clears, that's what's gonna matter. I pray, Father, we'd have a very high reverence for our Savior. We'd have a very high reverence for the word of God. I pray for the parents of our church, that they'd be willing to take time to not only learn the Word of God themselves and have an intimate fellowship with you, but they'd pass it on to their children. They'd teach their children what it means to have an intimate walk with you as well. And they'd teach them principles of the Word of God and that the children can make it their own and benefit from the truth that can set them free. So we thank you for these things that we went over tonight. We pray the Spirit of God can use them for your glory. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. With that, you're dismissed.