There were 128 runners in the field for the cross-country race at the 1993 NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships. As they set out to run a 6.2-mile run, they were following a course that had been marked for them by the race officials. Toward the end of the course, one of the runners in the middle of the group realized something was wrong. Mark DeCalvo of Western State College in Colorado saw that the main pack had missed the turn. He said, I was waving for them to follow me and yelling, this is the right way. He told the interviewer after the race, Del Calvo was right, but only four other runners followed him. The rest continued on the shortcut, which allowed them to run a shorter distance and finish the race sooner. In a widely criticized decision, race officials allowed the abbreviated route to stand as the official course, and Del Calvo finished officially 123rd. Now the world doesn't always reward us for staying on track. literally or figuratively, but the path we follow is important to God. It's exceptionally important to God. And what's great is that God is more than willing to guide us down that path of life so that we finish our course faithfully and fruitfully. so that we get that crown laid for us one day, and that we can experience God's blessing, which is the ultimate crowning. No crown that we can get on this planet is ever worth it. Maybe not everyone in the world will get that, but you and I can make the choice, as this man did, to do the right thing. In the end, God is the judge and God is the one that crowns rightfully. But, you know, in the process of that, we need some guidance, don't we? This past week, as I was reading my Bible, I came across a portion of scripture where I saw God guiding people and saw how significant that guidance was to the well-being of their lives. Here in Matthew chapter number one, we've got the story we're going to be looking at the early days around the birth of Christ. We're not going to really see his birth as much as we're going to see just some of the things that were going on, particularly with Joseph, the earthly dad, if you will, of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to look at the end of the chapter one, and we're going to look at all of chapter two here today. We'll start with a verse 18. of Matthew 1. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise when his mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophets, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted, is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, And now Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privileged, called the wise men and inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search diligently for the young child. And when ye have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. When they had departed the king, or when they had heard the king, they departed. And lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them. till he came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned of God in the dream that they should not return to Herod, they returned unto their own country another way. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt. And be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt. and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophets, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked to the wise men, was exceeding wrath, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And Rama was there a voice heard lamentation and weeping and great mourning rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they were not but when herod was dead behold an angel lord appeareth in a dream to joseph in egypt saying arise and take the young child and his mother and go into the land of israel for they are dead which sought the young child's life And he arose and took the young child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither, notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream. He turned aside into the parts of Galilee, and he came and dwelt in the city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene. Today, as we look at these different events that were taking place during the early days of Jesus Christ, we are going to see how God navigated these people through the decisions of their life, something that we need even in this state. So we talk about today are guiding God. Let's go ahead. Pray first. Father, thank you for the scriptures and thank you for the preciousness of them. Lord, we appreciate the fact that you care about our lives and you want to guide them appropriately. God, I pray you'd speak to our hearts clearly in such a way that we would understand the great significance and value it is to discover your guidance for us. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. I appreciate the fact that God is extremely interested in our lives. I trust that you do as well, that God cares about everything that goes on. God is very interested about the very minuscule details of every part of our lives. Of course, he created us all for a distinct purpose, and that purpose centers around the glorification of himself. Isaiah 43, 7 says, even everyone that is called by my name, For I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him." You know, God made you and I for a purpose, to glorify him. If we're not fulfilling that purpose in life, we will have a very broken, disheveled life that just does not make a whole lot of sense. We'll go about this world just kind of one thing to another, one pleasure to another, empty, and not finding any purpose or meaning for our existence. The meaning for our existence surrounds the fact that we are a creation of God and that we have a purpose that he wants us to fulfill with our lives. And the only way you and I will ever feel fulfilled is if we are finding that purpose and doing it. Can I ask you this question this morning before we get started? Do you know the reason why you exist? You should, because it gives your life meaning. If you don't know what that even is, your life is probably bankrupt and miserable. But that's not the way God wants it for you. God wants you to have a life worth living, a life that means something, a life that contributes to the greater good that God wants to do. And that's why your life is here. That's why you exist is for him. When we figure that out, life takes on a whole new meaning and is a whole lot more fulfilling than what it is if it's not that way. God created us for his glory. God made us, of course, loves us. And to him, our lives have great value. That's why the devil wants us to be distracted with everything else in this world. He wants us to make excuses why we shouldn't be faithful to God. He wants us to do all these things. Why? Because then we don't bring God glory and then we are not fulfilled and our lives get empty and broken. The devil likes to keep us that way. But God doesn't want us to be that way as all. He has a divine purpose for your existence in mind. And that's what I, for the last 19 years, have been trying to find and do. And I trust that as long as you've been saved here today, you've been trying to find to do that as well. Until you do, life won't have much meaning. Because I believe it's our responsibility to discover what God has left us on planet Earth to do and do it. and do it. But the thing is, in order to discover it, we're going to need God's help to find it. We're going to need God's help to figure out what he wants us to do. We need him to reveal the steps we need to take to open the doors that we need open and to close doors for us that we should not go through. We have to remember how dependent we are upon God for this because we sometimes think we know what's best, don't we? We sometimes think, well, I got to figure it out. I know what's best for me. But God would have a completely different perspective on that. God would have a tremendously different perspective on that. Jeremiah chapter 10, verse 23 is a good verse that reminds us of the great dependency we have on God. It says, Oh, Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. You know, we don't have the understanding that God does to direct the steps of life. We cannot predict the future. We cannot predict anything. We don't have control over anything. If there's anything I have been learning more and more every day is the fact that I do not control a thing. I don't control people. I don't control circumstances. I don't control events. I have no control. But I do know the one that does. And God knows what the best decisions is for me and for my family as he does for you and your family. And that's why we need to hone in on God and figure out, OK, God, what do you want me to do here? Because sometimes what we think we should do is not the right thing to do because we might be basing that decision upon just the way we feel at the moment. You know how many people have quit on things that they should not have quit on? Because in the moment of time they thought, What's the purpose of going on? If they would have just taken that next step or a few more steps or just waited a little bit longer, the blessing would have come. But some people, it's because they act on feeling more than they do on faith, on what God says in His Word. We don't want to be that way. Again, it's not in us to direct our own steps. We need God to tell us what to do. We need God to direct us. Otherwise, life will end up in places we just do not want to end up in. The minute we start trying to take the reins, we'll find that we don't have the ability to guide ourselves. Again, we aren't created with that ability. We were not created with life GPS, if you would. God's got to be the one that helps us. There's a story told about a father who was vacationing with his family and he came across a large sign that said, row closed, do not enter. The man proceeded around the sign because he was confident it would save them time. His wife was resistant to the adventure, but there was no turning back for his persistent road warrior. After a few miles of successful navigation, he began to boast about his gift of discernment. His proud smile was quickly replaced with humble sweat when the road led to a washed out bridge that he stopped. He was fortunately able to stop his vehicle from going over. He quietly turned the car around and retraced his tracks back to the main road. When they arrived at the original warning sign, he was greeted by large letters on the back of the sign that said, welcome back, stupid. Welcome back, stupid. You know, it reminds me of a proverb, Proverbs 14, 12. There's a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. A lot of people both say, I've got it all figured out. They've written books upon books. I went to some bookstores here the other day, and it just mesmerizes me how many books are written about how many different subjects, and they all disagree with each other. Man says, I've got it figured out. I know which way to go and everything like that, but man doesn't know what he's doing. Man doesn't know what he's doing. How do you know? Look out there. It's a mess. It is a mess upon a mess upon a mess. And we've got one of the better societies, if you can believe that. It's even worse than other places in the world. Why? Because what's happening here? That stuff out there is the result of mankind doing what he thinks is right in his own eyes. And it doesn't work. It doesn't work at all. marriage is failing, people committing suicide, people having to get drugged up to forget their problems, people going on spending bitches because they don't know what to do. You know, it's just like a bunch of empty, brokenhearted, disheveled people with no purpose of their existence. Can I say that is not the way God wants it, but that's the way people choose to do. You know, as a church, we're trying to beg and plead people, don't go that way. Many don't listen, I understand. But there are those that will. And that's what we pursue. As diligently and aggressively as we can. Because God's got a better way. I know that's true. I know that's true. I shudder to think where I'd be if I hadn't gotten saved. And I was following my way. I really shudder to think where I'd be today. I'm thankful I'm right here. And God's allowed me to do some things, be involved in some things. That's where it's supposed to be. I finally found purpose. And you know what? God has a purpose for every person. But for some, they go, my way's right, I got it all figured out. And then they come to realize, boy, I guess they don't have it figured out. I don't. Hey, the only way we can make sure we are not going down a path that eventually leads to places, again, that we don't want to end up, we need God's help. We really do. We need God's help. And God promises to lead us to places that ultimately bring blessing and fruitfulness. Of course, I think a lot of us have heard of the 23rd Psalm, right? It's one of the more famous Psalms. But what does it open up with? It says, the Lord is my shepherd. That means a shepherd was the leader of the flock, right? leads the sheep. We are the sheep, if you will. Again, that's not really complimentary on God's part, but it's a good description of human nature. Wandering all over the place. You know, that's what sheep do. The shepherd keeps things in line. And the God is our shepherd, isn't he? He is our leader, if you will. And it says, I shall not want. That word want means lack. Lack. I shall not be wanting in life. I shall not lack. If you follow the Lord, you will not lack. God will meet your innermost needs, God will meet your physical needs, and God will give you a reason to exist. Hey, if we get those needs met, we're doing pretty good. He says, I shall not want. And it says, it goes on in verse 2, it says, He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. Green pastures is where cattle or sheep, in this case, abundantly fed and taken care of. He leads by still waters. versus rough waters, stormy waters, difficult waters to tread. That's where God's leadership ends us up. Our leadership ends us up in a mess. But I have to say this. It doesn't always mean the pathway there is easy. When I was growing up, my grandparents on my mother's side had a pasture where they had their cattle Because occasionally when I was a young kid, I'd go down there with my grandparents, or my uncles, really, what it ended up being. Around this path, it was probably no wider than this part of the stage here, probably 10 feet or whatever it might be. But I remember walking down that path, and it was always kind of hard to walk through it. Why? Because as the cattle would go back and forth, and as the weather changed on it, You always had these big ruts and, of course, where their feet stood and everything like that. But all along that path, there was a difficult tread in it before you got to the pasture. You know, sometimes before you get to the pasture, the path in which you are following doesn't look like you're going to get to where you're hoping to get. And that can be deceiving for us. This doesn't seem like the right way to go. Whereas the other path that we think, initially, it looks pretty nice. It looks smooth sailing. It looks like everything's going to be okay. I mean, oh yeah, it looks good to me. It's always deceiving because it always lands us in places. The end result is like, well, how did I get here? It didn't look like it at the beginning. But in the end, it wasn't that way. Hey, we need God's help. because he knows the best path to take to get to these places he promises to bring us to. Now, in our passage, we see God is guiding Joseph through a maze of circumstances that are taking place. And a lot of it, of course, is to protect his son from the difficulties that were from those that wanted to take away his life. Today, like Joseph, we can get the guidance we need to. to navigate us and direct us in the places that God wants us to go. First off, let's talk about the supremacy. Now, Joseph in our story is confronted with a number of circumstances that transcend his ability to discern what to do. Of course, the first one was taking Mary as his spouse. Okay. She, at this point, as we are introduced here, she was a spouse. In other words, she was engaged to be married to Joseph. Well, she goes on this journey to see Zacharias and Elizabeth. If you, if you know Luke one, that's the parents of John the Baptist, their relatives. And she's gone for about three months. Well, she comes back and lo and behold, she's got a baby belly. She's pregnant. Well, what's the obvious thought pattern going on in Joseph Hart? Well, she cheated on me. She's having a baby out of wedlock. Now in this day and age, well, it doesn't matter, but you know what? Biblically speaking, that's not right. But in those days, it was really taboo. I mean, it would have been like, whoa. According to Jewish law, she could have been stoned and put to death. But Joseph was thinking about these things, and he was a just man, and he loved Mary. I'm sure he was heartbroken because it was like, I don't know what Mary told him, I mean, Mary would have probably been like, what do I say? How is he ever going to believe it? Yeah, what's in here is conceived by the Holy Ghost. Yeah, that sounds real believable, doesn't it? It says here in verse 19 that he was thinking about putting her away privately. He was actually going to be very gracious to her. He didn't want to make her a public example. So he was thinking about this whole thing. And then what happens is this. He gets guidance from God, doesn't he? God shows up and says, hey Joseph, What she's told you, or if she did or not, regardless, what happened is she's pregnant because she is carrying the Messiah. You're gonna name him Jesus, and so forth. Don't be afraid to take her as a spouse. She hasn't cheated on you. She's been faithful. She's a godly lady. There's a reason why I chose her to do this, okay? And he gives him that guidance, and Joseph takes that guidance. Okay, I've got some information now, and he marries her. and takes care of her. And of course, if you read Luke chapter two, we don't have time to get into that today, but you see the birth and the process that they went through to bring about the birth and Bethlehem and so forth. But, uh, but God had given him some guidance there. Now, a couple of years later, after the birth of Christ, God also gives him some instructions regarding them having to leave Judeo and verses 13 through 14, God tells Joseph, through a dream, that he needs to get out of Judea and go all the way down to Egypt because Herod, this person is Herod the Great, as he's known as, was going to seek to destroy his life. So, Joseph, of course, had no way of knowing Herod's intentions. They didn't have televisions back then, and Herod didn't have an opportunity to get on there and tell everyone what he was going to do. But God knew exactly what was going to happen. That Herod was going to send that militia down to Bethlehem and kill all these babies, all the children under the age of two. So he was able to steer him away. Of course, when it was time to come back, verses 19 through 23, God again gave Joseph the okay. Hey, it's okay now. You can come back. And in fact, as they came back, he discovers the son of Herod, Archelaus, was reigning in his stead there in Judea. And God redirects them again to Galilee, into Nazareth, to where they would settle down. And that's where Jesus would be raised up or would grow up. Now we see in these three instances that God's supremacy in helping Joseph make decisions that directed this path. God knew things that Joseph didn't have a clue about, but God was able to direct him. Now Joseph could have easily made a choice using his own intuition and knowledge, but only God knew the details that were instrumental in helping Joseph make the right choice in that circumstance. Only God knew that. Only God knew the truth about Mary. Only God knew the truth about Herod in both instances. Only God knew what was the best plan for this. God saw things that Joseph couldn't see. And we must remember that God has a vantage point a lot higher than ours, significantly higher than ours. He sees the end from the beginning. He sees the bigger picture. He sees all of that. Hence, He knows what's best to do in every single circumstance of life that we may come through. If you go to Psalm 147, verse 5, this is a great verse to So put to your memories as great as our Lord and of great power. Notice this last part. His understanding is infinite, infinite. In other words, there's no, no walls to his understanding. He doesn't have a limit in his knowledge. He knows absolutely everything that we could possibly need to know. And God can see the end from the beginning. He can see how all things play out. He can see where everything needs to be at the right time. And as Christian people today, if you are a born-again Christian, if you've been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, guess what? You have access to that vantage point. You have access to those things that God sees, and God is more than willing to give you some insight on what to do throughout your life. He is more than willing to give you some insight on how to make your decisions. God is more than willing to direct your path and mine. He promises that in so many places throughout the Scriptures. The question is, are we taking advantage of our advantage, if you would? Are we taking advantage of those times where I don't know what to do? Well, start looking to Him about it. Because He wants to direct you. You don't have to go through this life alone. You don't have to go through this circumstance you're dealing with alone. You can have God's hand guiding you every step of the way because He sees things that you and I just cannot see. If you've been saved any length of time, you look back a little bit and you see how God's guided you. It's pretty fascinating. It's almost a little bit humbling to think, oh boy, I'm glad I didn't get my way in that circumstance. I could testify to that today. There are things that I want and I thought was right and everything. And God said, no, God redirected me and all that. And I look back now, I'm like, thank you, Lord. Thank you. Because I would have made a mess. Be grateful that God's looking to direct your life and mine. Let's talk about, secondly, the struggle. If God is so interested in helping us down the path of life, why do we struggle to find it sometimes? Why is it such a struggle? Well, can I say this? If there is a problem with communication, it's not on God's part. It is never on God's part. If there's a problem, it's linked with us somehow. It's linked with us. Now notice in another story that's within our story, it's the story of the wise men showing up there from the East, most likely from the ancient area of Babylon and so forth. They show up on the scene here a couple of years after the birth of Christ looking for that promised Messiah. In verses 3 through 11, we see the We see this take place. I'll read this again. It says when Herod the king had heard these things, of course, this is upon the arrival of the wise men. He was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. They said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea, for this is written by the prophet. And now Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search diligently for the young child. When ye have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. they had heard the king they departed and lo the star which they saw in the east went before them till he came and stood over where the young child was when they saw the star they rejoiced in exceeding great joy and when they were come into the house they saw the young child with mary his mother and fell down and worshiped him and when they had opened their treasures they presented unto him golds or gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh Sometimes in the quote unquote Christmas story that's given, people portray the wise men coming the night of his birth. And actually it was about two years later is when it, when it took place. And this is that event that happened. And you see here, the wise men, when they came, what were they coming for? They were looking for God, weren't they? They had a sincere heart that they were looking for God. They came a long ways. I'm guessing they maybe probably had had some kind of a scripture. Maybe it was the book of Daniel, because the book of Daniel talks about the arrival of the Messiah. Particularly, I believe it's Daniel 9, if I remember correctly. And they came looking for God. And guess what? God enabled them to find him, didn't he? He brought that star. What was really interesting was this. Herod said he wanted to find God too. But he couldn't find God. He couldn't find God at all. He even sent that militia into Bethlehem seeking to destroy God in so many words. But he couldn't even find God there either. It's very interesting to note that some people find God and some people don't. So why the struggle? Well, Number one, wrong motives. Wrong motives. Again, the Magi, as it were, wanted God. They wanted to come and worship him. They wanted to come and honor him. They wanted to, to respond to God. Herod didn't. He told them, He, Herod told these wise men, Hey, look, you find him, you let me know. I want to go worship him too. But that was, was that the true motive of his heart? Absolutely not. it was not the true motive of his heart, despite what he outwardly said. See, God will not give us direction if our motives are not aligned with his. He will not give us an ounce of direction if our motive is not aligned with his at all. Sometimes people say, oh, I want to do this for the glory of God, but it's really, I want to do this for me. And God knows that. God knows what's on the inside. It says very plainly in Hebrews 4.13, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." God knows every motive of our heart. He knows what really drives us, whether it's Him or not. Sometimes people, again, self-deceive themselves into thinking their motives are pure, but God knows the real truth. And we will never get direction if we're doing things out of a purely self-centered motive. We will not get the direction we need. We have to have a sincere heart of, God, what do you want me to do that makes a difference for you and honors you and glorifies you in an array of circumstances throughout life? God will show you that if that's what you really want to do. If it's just to escape the problem or get something for yourself, that will not be found. It won't be found. Number two, an unwillingness to obey. The reason we struggle sometimes getting God's direction is simply we're not willing to obey it. Oh yeah, God, I want to know what you want me to do. But in essence, unless it's what we want to do, we're not going to do it. Oh, only if only if it aligns with what I think should be done. And we kind of tell God, God, this is what I think we should be done. And God disagrees with us. And then we decide, oh, we're smarter than God. See, Joseph, in our circumstance here, was willing to obey despite what might be perceived by others as a wrong choice. Think about that whole thing with Mary. I wonder if he got criticized for taking Mary under his wing and marrying her. I mean, I couldn't imagine the different things that maybe Mary was called and the kind of treatment they may have received, not knowing the full truth. Joseph and Mary knew the full truth. They were one of just a few people that did. But Joseph had to be willing to obey God despite what may have been perceived as a wrong choice in his circumstance. You know, when God told him to rise and go to Egypt because of Herod coming to to slay the child, says he went out by night. In other words, they evidently got up in the middle of the night sometime and they took off. They didn't waste time getting out of Judea. I'm sure, what would have happened if he didn't feel like getting up in the middle of the night? What would have happened if he just didn't feel like doing something? How often have we been dictated by our feelings? I don't want to go to this. I don't want to be part of that. I don't want to show up to this. I don't want to do that because of how we feel that day. I just wake up and I feel kind of crabby today. Well, congratulations. I'm cranky. The other day I felt a little cranky. I'm glad nobody else was around me. My wife knows what I'm talking about. But does that give me an excuse to do wrong and to skip things that I have responsibility for? No. No, it doesn't. I had to apologize to God for my crankiness. I actually kind of felt embarrassed. There's no reason for it. That's not how you get that way. But we can't be dictated how we feel all the time either. Hey, if we were honest, sometimes our struggle isn't so much, I don't know what God wants me to do as much as it is, I don't really want to do what God wants me to do. Let's be honest. I just don't really want to do what God wants me to do. I don't want to go to that church service. I don't want to go to, I don't want to pray. I don't want to give my tithe. I don't want to witness. I don't want to whatever. Let's just be honest. Let's, let's, let's be real with God. And we struggle a little bit. I just don't know what God wants me. God's been telling us and telling us and telling us and telling us. And we come to God, God, what do you want me to do? And God's like, I've already told you over and over and over again. You know, it's interesting. God repeats himself a lot in the scriptures. And God's very patient with us, gratefully. But a lot of our struggle is the fact that we just don't simply want to obey the things that God clearly shows us. And we tell God why we can't do something. I don't feel like it. There's a lot of it. Oh, I'm up too late. I'm too hungry or I'm too thirsty or whatever it is. You know what? God sees the motive and God's told us what to do and he's not going to change. God doesn't need to change. Because he's God and he's perfect and he knows the best route. It's just an unwillingness to obey. And there's reasons, again, that vary. Again, maybe it's not convenient for us to do. One thing I've learned very much in pastoring, and even before that, but more so pastoring, everything's not convenient. Serving the Lord isn't convenient. It never is. But sometimes we use that as it's too hard. Or that doesn't seem right to me. Sometimes it's, I don't want to change. My circumstance needs to change. I don't need to change. No, we need to change before God changes the circumstance. I know that that's true. So often, God, you know, people are praying, Oh God, change my circumstance, change this person, change all this, change, change, change, change, change. And God's saying, you change first. People get frustrated and disheveled with God, but God's trying to say, hey, you change first. There's a reason I brought this in, because I'm trying to conform your image to me. And this thing that I brought into your life is there to do that. But the problem is sometimes we don't want to obey and change. We just don't want to obey. Oh, I'm comfortable. Well, God knows how to make things uncomfortable. No, that's true. I know that's very true. Maybe something's too humbling. I could never apologize. Well, you'll never survive in marriage if you can't learn how to apologize. You'll break up every relationship you'll ever have because every relationship has conflict if you can't apologize. By the way, if you can't apologize to God, you're not going to have access to him. If God has touched your heart about something, and you can't say, Lord, please forgive me, try to hide it, there's no access to the throne. Zero, zilch, none. Maybe the attitude, again, is I just don't want to do that. There are things that God has led me to do, and I have just, at least initially, I don't want to do that. But the thing is, it's my fault, then, if I don't get any guidance. See, the list could go on and on. But the Bible says in Isaiah 55, 8 and 9, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts are your thoughts. We've got to remember, God sees a greater perspective. Sometimes we disagree with what he thinks, what he tells us to do, but we have to remember, we aren't always going to understand God. Romans 11.33, Oh, death of the rich is both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. I know that's true. Sometimes I do not understand why God's doing what he's doing. And sometimes what he's doing hurts. It hurts watching certain things transpire. but I can't figure out God any more than you and I can." You know, when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, the Bible says in Hebrews 11.8, "...by faith, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whether he went." He didn't even know where he was going. God just said, take off, and I'll tell you as you go. That's faith, folks. Just believing what God says, even if you can't even figure it out, and letting Him figure out the rest. That's the kind of faith that pleases God. We are really out of our league trying to second-guess God, aren't we? You ever second-guess God what He's doing? Well, we're out of our league. Psalm 131, verse 1 says, We've got to remember that God knows exactly what He's doing. even though we may not see it. You know, what if Joseph second-guessed God and decided to do his own thing? God is not obligated to honor our plan B. Realize? God is not obligated to honor our plan B. Number three, another reason we struggle, I'm going to have to hurry here, is because we're impatient. We're impatient. Joseph was told to go to Egypt and wait on the Lord, right? Verse 13, go to Egypt until I bring thee word. In other words, you go there and you wait. you wait, you wait. One of the reasons for our struggle stems from the fact that we have a hard time waiting for God to give us direction or we're in a circumstance we want to get out and God's just told us to wait. And we run the temptation of jumping ahead of God then and discover why It is so important that we wait, because timing is always critical with the Lord. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3.11, He hath made everything beautiful in His time. Also, He hath set the world in their hearts, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. God makes everything beautiful in His time. He understands the timing that needs to take place. He knows when certain things are supposed to happen. But if we get impatient, we jump the gun, we go doing our thing, we go ramboing it, if you would, guess what happens? We find out why. We find out that we missed. and we fail to get what God is trying to do. You know how many people have done that through moving out of the will of God, marrying out of the will of God, making big costly purchases out of the will of God, just jumping at things that come at them. Oh, this looks good, I'm going to do this. This looks promising, I'm going to do this. And you've got to sit there and think to yourself, wait a minute here. Is this really what God wants me to do? Well, it seems better than my current situation. Well, if the situation you're in right now is the will of God, stay put until you get further instruction. Stay put. Stay put. We're already committed to something. If you can get out of it, get out of it. But stay put where God's put you. Because there's a reason for it. If he had gone back any earlier, before the death of Herod, Jesus could have been killed, if you would. But he says, stay put until I give you word. And then it came. Then the word came, didn't it? It came. You can go back. You can go back. Timing is everything. Don't do what just feels best at the time or what quote-unquote looks promising because you can't judge a current circumstance by what's going on currently. You can't do that. How many stories I've read of different preachers, even just people out in the world that certain things looked a certain way, didn't look promising at all, and all of a sudden just something happened. because God is a God that's doing something. But you've got to be willing to wait it out. You've got to be willing to go through that time. You've got to be willing to go down that pathway for a while, because God has a way of doing things that we've just got to let Him do. If we don't do that, we'll discover that the wheels are going to fall off our plans and unexpected consequences hit, because we've just gotten hasty. Proverbs 14.29 says, He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalts to folly. Look, I know just as well as anybody else here today, that how it is, sometimes you're going down this path and it doesn't look very promising, but God says, hey, just wait a little bit, just play it out, be faithful, do what I've told you to do, do what I've revealed to you at this point in time, And at the right time, the things will happen as they need to. And I will give you the right guidance. But too often, we are so impatient, we just gotta jump at everything that comes our way because, hey, it looks promising, it looks big, and it looks exciting. It looks better than what it is now, but you know what? God's got something better. God's got something a lot better. He's got something a lot better. The reason we struggle sometimes to get the will of God is because we are so stinking impatient. I am one like that. And I'm trying to learn by the grace of God to just wait. Just wait. Hey, if God's wisdom is so important, and it is, it's worth waiting for. I like Isaiah 49, 23, Thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. They shall not be ashamed. What a great promise. Are we struggling today to get God's guidance? It would be good to check within our hearts what's inside them that may be hindering the guidance that God wants to give. Amen. Well, thirdly, and I'll try to get through this very quickly. Let's talk about the stipulations. You know, in our story, those that were guided by God received direction from angelic messages and dreams. So why can't God just visit an angel with me and so forth? Well, we don't need that anymore. Back in those days, they needed because they didn't have the completed Word of God. We do today. We do. And God uses this tool to help us. Now, what are some stipulations in getting God's guidance, though? What are some things that God uses if he doesn't use angelic messengers or dreams anymore like he did in those days? Well, I think the first and foremost is very obvious is that we need to ask for direction. Ask for direction. Maybe you're one of those that when you get lost, you don't like to ask for directions. Well, when it comes to the things of life, you need to start asking directions from the God that holds the world map in his hand. Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6 says, trust in the Lord with all thy heart, lead not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. He knows the perfect route to go. And the Lord promises to respond in regards to that. James 1.5 says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him look, ask of God, that give it to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. Now, when you ask him, he might not respond with the thunderclap in the sky, but wait for his response. He will respond if you truly want to know what he wants you to do and will obey what he tells us to do. He'll give it. You'll give it. Wait for the answer. Number two, in God's word. He uses his word to direct our path. Psalm 119, 105, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. A lot of things that we need to do on a day-to-day basis are just revealed in the clear commands and promises of the scripture. I mean, a vast majority of them are. I think we aren't as confused as we sometimes think we are. Again, a lot of it sometimes is we just don't want to obey those clear-cut commands. But the Holy Spirit as well will illuminate passages to our conscience in regards to God's direction for us. Maybe things that aren't necessarily spelled out in Scripture. Do I buy this house? Do I marry this person? All those types of things. What do I do? How do I handle this circumstance? God will give that to you and the Holy Spirit will illuminate. This week, as I was reading my Bible, I take notes and I've gone through that. all that stuff before in the past. You know what the Lord illuminated to me was this message today. As I read these two chapters, I mean, it just screamed what I'm talking about here today. And that's how God leads, led me on that. He's done that a number of times on other messages and other things that he wants us to do. Hey, we need direction on something. Spend time with God and his word and God's spirit will speak to you through it. He will speak through when the Word of God is preached as well. He will speak. Don't dismiss the service. Oh, that's a different time. I don't want to go. Hey, don't dismiss those. God speaks to every one of those messages, despite the messenger. If you come with an attitude, God, I want to hear from you. God will speak to you about some things. You know, somebody once said this. The message you miss is often the message you needed the most. Amen, Pastor Wortner. I don't need that sermon. I don't need that message. Oh, probably do. Probably do. You want God's wisdom? Go to it. We don't have time to go there, but there was a man that missed a service, didn't he? His name was Thomas. Doubting Thomas, remember there? In John 20. Jesus came that evening. And the disciples came and said, Hey, Thomas, you missed it. Jesus showed up and Jesus had a message for us. And we were so energized. Well, it was Thomas. Only if I believed to see his hands with the nails. Well, I don't believe. And it went eight days. Thomas was pouting for eight days longer than he had to because why? He missed the service that he was supposed to be at. I wonder how much God would have had for us if we didn't miss something. Oh, well, I'd be surprised. The message that we needed, the guidance that we needed, the promise we needed, the encouragement we needed. Because we just didn't feel like doing something. There is a reason it says forsaken, not the assembling of yourself together. There is a reason for that, because God wants to wants to speak to you. And he will do that. As you read his word, as you hear the word of God preached, it makes a difference. Plus, God will never lead you contrary to it. That's what's really nice. Number three, we need to seek godly counsel. Proverbs 11, 14 says, Where no counsel is, the people fall, but in the mouth of the counselors there is safety. Hey, we need to seek the wisdom of those who can give you godly advice and not just tell you what you want to hear. Don't go to those people just to tell you what you want to hear. Go to those people that will tell you what God will say. I encourage folks to start with those who are the authority over you. God has placed them in your life to watch for your souls. That's what the Bible teaches. God's method is to work through that authority chain. Whenever we usurp the authority chain, things just don't go well. It just doesn't go well. I know that's true. Start with the authority and go from there. And number four, wait on God to move any obstacles. Obstacles come in the path sometimes. And they are there to do one of three things. Number one, stop us. Number two, redirect us. Or number three, slow us down. Slow us down. Hey, if God is leading, the obstacles will be removed or a path around them will be illuminated. It will be. And God will guide you. Hey, do we desire to be guided by God tonight? That is one of the greatest things and the greatest advantages a born again Christian has. Are we taking advantage of when God can speak to us? Are we just kind of throwing it aside, saying, ah, forget about it. I'm just gonna, I can figure it out on my own. You and I will find out very soon that we cannot figure it out on our own and we need his help. May God bless our time today.