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Hey, good people, this is Torre Roberts. Blessings to you and welcome to the ONE Podcast. I'm excited that you're here. ONE is a community of dynamic and vibrant thought leaders, preachers, teachers, and just a community of wonderful people all together. And we're excited to bring you this weekly podcast from our services from ONE in la. If you haven't been to one, I encourage you to check it out. You can go to One the Word one O N E online and find out all about the service times and all about the teachers and all the philanthropic things that we have going. I believe you're going to be blessed to be a part of it. And speaking of being blessed, we're getting ready to get into a teaching right now that I believe is going to bless you. So tune in, enjoy, and I'll be back with you at the end.
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John, chapter six. Starting in verse 38, this is Jesus speaking. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. How many people know it mattered for Jesus to do the will of God? Ah, this is the will of the Father who sent me. Now he's gonna tell you what his the will is for his life, that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day. Amen. Grab your seats. So powerful. Jesus is stating the will of the Father for his life, and he does it as juxtaposed to any will that might be his. And so it's powerful to recognize in this moment that Jesus is acknowledging that he could have a will that isn't the same as the will of his Father, which is a pretty big deal because Jesus is God. And we got God, Father, Son, Word, Holy Ghost, all together as one. So how could they ever be separate? But Jesus explicitly states, not my will. I came for his will. And we hear him say that again, more familiar, familiarly, in a way we're more familiar with in Luke chapter 22, verse 42, where he says, father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And so not only is Jesus acknowledged that he can have a will that is different from his Father's, but in the Garden of Gethsemane, he asked for some negotiation, if possible, with these wills. And so that means there's something, as humans, that we need to learn about what happens when we encounter the will of God. And since Jesus had he made a request, we definitely sometimes have questions too. I want to go and show you that in the Book of Judges. We're gonna dive into the story of Gideon, and then we'll head back to Gethsemane in a little bit. Gideon was a judge in Israel. I talked about a few judges last year, including Deborah, one of my faves. Well, Gideon was also a judge in Israel. And at that time, Israel was in trouble, as they often were, right? Because God would deliver them, and then they would, like, do crazy stuff and not listen to God and build idols, and then they would get in trouble again, and then God would deliver them. Well, this is a trouble phase. And Gideon is in the tribe of Manasseh, and he is out in the wilderness, so to speak, trying to hide out from those who are ruling Israel. And it starts at verse one. It says, now, the angel of the Lord came and sat underneath the terebinth tree, which was in Orphah, which belonged to Joash, not Joash from last week. If y' all were here last week, this is a different Joash, the Abiezurite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress and in order to hide it from the Midianites. So I want you to look at the very weak position that Gideon is in. He's hiding with the wheat to try and get some flour together to make some bread, because whoever they're being ruled by is so cruel that they can't even keep food. Verse 12. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. Now, there's something here that is similar to what we just saw with Jesus. When Jesus said, I am here to bring everlasting life. I am here to not lose any. I am here to overthrow death. This is the will of my Father. So Jesus declared the will of his Father in identity terms, who it is he made me and what he sent me here to get done. He declared the will of God in terms of a mission and who he was. And here we hear a similar thing in that the angel says to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. He shows up and first tells him who he is, because it doesn't look anything how he's living. But God saw him for who he was. Next verse, verse 13. Gideon said to him, o my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles, which our fathers told us about, saying, did not the Lord bring us from Egypt, but now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Gideon, Matt. And as my mom would say, he twisted his mouth to say to God, if you with us, I can't tell. And so here we have this moment, and I don't know if any of you could identify where maybe you've been under a pressure in your life where things haven't been going the way that you would like them to go. Maybe you asked God to show up, maybe you've said a prayer, maybe you heard that God does things like that. And then when God shows up, you barely recognize him because you've been ruminating on your questions and your bob. Things that have bothered you more than you have been staying in expectation for God to show up. Because we can get to thinking when things aren't going well. And so Gideon's first resp. His first response. If you had. If you were with us, why are these bad things happening? We'll get back to that. Then in verse 14, it says, then the Lord turned to him and said, the Lord doesn't respond to his questions. He says, go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you? So he shows up. He calls him a mighty man. The mighty man starts mumbling and complaining. He doesn't change his mind. He again tells him that he has might. And now he tells him what he's called to do. So for all of us who think that if God would finally just show up and tell us his exact will, everything would be okay. Because how much louder can it get than this? And he's still fussing. Verse 15. So he said to him, oh, Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. I'm the weakest member of the weakest family. And the Lord said to him, surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man. The first lesson I want you to learn today about the will of God is that the will of God becoming clear to you will not automatically make you brave. See, very often we're asking God what His will is because we're scared to get something wrong. Well, God, am I doing it right? Because things are not going well. I've applied for all of these jobs and none of them have come through. Should I be on A different job site. Should I be talking to somebody else? I'm not feeling well. And I've been praying for healing. It hasn't happened. Is it not your will to heal me? I want this thing to move over here. I want this relationship. It hasn't happened. Is it not your will? Maybe it's not your will. And because these are always things that scare us, sadden us, or anger us. And when we find ourselves unable to get out of it, when we're feeling powerless, we'll start being like God. What's your will? What's yous will? And we feel if God would just tell us, super clear, God, if I just knew what your will was, I will do it. Gideon has proven that as not true because he got a whole angel sent from God to speak on behalf of God. So much so that sometimes it says the angel, sometimes it says the Lord. Because it's the Lord's voice speaking, and all he can do is fuss. The first thing out his mouth is why you let all this happen in the first place? Child, let me tell you something. Faulty wiring will burn your whole house down. Let's move on. Verse 17. Then he said to him, this is Gideon. If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk to me. How? How you gonna say, show me a sign? It's you that's talking to me. To you. Pastor Eb. Show me a sign that it is Pastor EB talking to me. I'm looking at Pastor eb. I hear Pastor Eb's voice. He's admitting he knows. He says, show me a sign that it's you. It's right there. But what he has been working on the inside, what he has been meditating on in his heart, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So for why you didn't do it right, the first came out first. And so we can't only be asking God to give us a revelation of his will. What are we doing? What are we meditating on? What are we thinking about? What are we seeing in our mind's eye about who God is? Because Gideon had an attitude, and so now he wants proof that you are who you say you are. So he tells him, look, don't leave, don't leave, don't leave. In verse 18. Is that 18? Yes. In verse 18, it says, do not depart from here. I pray till I come back and bring you my offering and set it before you. So let me go do a religious thing thing. Because we always Put out the offering. So let me go. Let me go do this proof thing. I'm gonna go get this offering for you and bring it back. Did the. Did God ask for offering? No, but he trying to prove something. So he ran out. And in verse 19, so Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an F. Half of flour. He put the meat in a basket, broth in a pot. He brought the whole meal back. He put it under the tree and presented it to the messenger of the Lord. And it says, the angel of God said to him, take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock and pour out the broth. So he puts the meat there, he pours liquid all over. So everything is soaking wet. And then the angel put out the end of the staff that was in his hand, touched the meat and the bread, and fire rose up out of the rock, consumed the meat and the bread, and the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. So now you got the big flash. I put the stuff here. It's soaking wet. I shouldn't be able to light no fire on something that's soaking wet on a rock. There's no wood, there's nothing flammable. Here the rock comes, fire comes about. The rock burns everything out. The. The angel, poof, he disappeared. Child, you would be like. You should be like, that's it. That's it. Israel about to be delivered. A word came to me. It's God's will. I'm a mighty man. I'm about to deliver Israel. But that's not what happened. That's not what happened. That's not what happened. It did not actually help. Isn't that crazy? Going to verse 22. Now Gideon. Now Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. Well, good, I think. I hope so. So Gideon said, alas, O Lord God, for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. He should have said, forgive me for the way I was running off at the mouth earlier. But he. Okay, he didn't do that. But he's convinced. So then he said. Then the Lord said to him, peace be with you. Do not fear. You shall not die. Did Gideon ever say, I'm scared we might die? He never said. That was mouth. He came out his mouth asking God why he hadn't done the things that people said that he could do, why he had left him in this situation for so long. He was actually afraid and he was mouthing off instead. Anybody ever do that? Because, see, anger is sometimes a shield for fear. The only difference between anger and fear is whether I feel like I got some power. If a wild dog is running at me, I'm scared. I'm running. If a wild dog is running at me and I have a shotgun, I get an attitude. Oh, I know you didn't. Now everything's different because I feel like I have power in the situation. So that's how I get to anger, from fear. And a lot of times we don't like to be afraid, so we try to come up with a little anger to make us feel like we in charge here. And so he got loud, he got a little attitude to feel like he's like, well, God, if you. If you weren't with us, then why aren't you doing the miracles that our forefathers said you could do? But really, he was just scared. And isn't God kind? He just spoke right to the real issue. He didn't even wrestle with him. He said, peace be with you. Do not fear. You shall not die. So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord. He likes to do religious things and called it the Lord is Peace. To this day, it is still standing in his hometown of Orphah of the Abyssrites. But let's keep going and see what happens next, because now Gideon got it. He got it right. He's convinced that it's an angel of the Lord. He's convinced that he has been told that he's a mighty man. He is convinced that he is supposed to be the one that delivers Israel. He has made an offering and everything's fine. Right? No. So now he gets his first actual instruction. Judges 6, verse 23, no, 25. Now it came to pass the same night. No time has passed he should be hyped up. The same night the Lord said to him, take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of BAAL that your father has and cut down the wooden image that is beside it. We got a problem. His father is worshiping another God. And then he told them to build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock. In the proper arrangement, take the second bull, offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down. I love that God said, not only do I want you to go the God that your father built the wooden idol, but I want you to chop that thing up in pieces and use it for firewood to make a sacrifice to me. I love it. Not that God could be petty, but that's That's a little something. That's gonna be firewood, honey. What the enemy tried. That's just gonna be spark. Firewood. I'm about to cook up something that the Lord gave me on the ashes and the mess that you anyway. And so it's important for you to recognize that nothing that the devil does can actually endure. This about to be firewood. Sorry, that's personal. It's about to be firewood. I'm about to chop this up and light something up with the fire of God, with what the devil tried to get me to believe. But see, this matters because this is a generational rebellion. He had to go and tear down the idol of his father. And I believe that that was part of the problem. And it's part of our problem that when the will of God is made clear to us, we do not automatically respond the way that we think we would. Because we are so busy not seeing God as who he really is. Because we have nursed our questions and we have nursed our pain. And we have inherited stories about God that are not congruent with who God actually is. Oh, they told you at the funeral, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. The Lord did not shoot that teenager down in the street. But that's what they told you at the funeral. So you were like, well, if that's who God is and all, no, I'm sorry, but that's not who he is. Well, you're like, well, God, I prayed for somebody to get healed. They didn't get healed. I didn't want my mother, my father, my uncle, my best friend to pass away. And they did. And you did that. I got questions. And every time something goes wrong, you go straight to Jonah. I'm not sorry. Not Jonah. Job. Well, you know Job. Okay, let me help you. First of all, the Bible says that Job was perfect and upright. So if you're gonna start claiming that what's going wrong in your life is because of Job, you, Job. Are you perfect and upright? Are you so bad that God wants to use you to show how bad he is? Are you saying you living that good? Slow down, slow down. But let's say that's the case. Jonah said, job, Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. But guess what? Job is rebuked later for saying that he was trying to find a way to explain what was happening to him. But that didn't mean he was right. If you read the whole book of Job, you will find that at the end, one comes to speak on behalf of God. He rebukes Job and all his friends. Because y' all are explaining God in a way that makes you feel better instead of explaining who God really is. And this is where we fail. We spend our lives trying to write a story that works for us. Instead of reading the story of who he actually is, you have to let go of all of the stories that you've inherited about who God is and get in that Bible and read who he actually is. Because we have misunderstood what it means to walk in the will of God. Oh, my goodness. So anyway, Gideon had to go and tear down his father's altars. So it says in verse 27. So Gideon took 10 men from among his servants and did as the Lord said to him. But because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night. So now Gideon has all this reinforcement from God, and he was still too scared to just walk up and do what God said. He snuck and did it at night and wouldn't go by himself. I need you to believe me when I say that the area in your life where you are begging God to let you know his will when you hear it, if it is actually an issue of his will, that doesn't mean you're going to feel better. That doesn't mean your anxiety is going to go away. That doesn't mean your fear is going to go away. That doesn't mean that you don't need to renew your mind and your heart about who God is. Because it didn't change Gideon. It got him to do something, but it didn't change him. Let's keep reading. Let's see what happens to him next. All right, so Gideon gets that. So now the next day, Gideon's freaking out because he's thinking his dad is going to wake up and be like, I know you did not come up in my house and tear my stuff. Who do you think you are? He was very worried about that. But that doesn't happen. His dad actually wakes up, and he is actually happy that his old God had been torn down. His attention is back to the God of Israel. And so when the people in the city come and they're ready to get on Gideon's tail about tearing this God down, he said, whoa, whoa, whoa, back up. That's my son. And he did the right thing. He said, if you want to fight with him, fight with baal. Let BAAL defend himself. He actually stood up for Gideon, which Gideon never expected. That if he did the right thing, that they would stand up. But he did. But he was willing to keep going with the story of his expectations instead of believing that if God says, this is his will and he wants you to do something, that he's going to take care of the rest of the world. And so his Father protected him. And so now he has that assurance. So now he hasn't only gotten a word from God, now he has done more than obey God, but now he actually has a testimony. He's had an experience with God around this moment in his life, his faith should be hundred percent rock solid, right? No. What does Gideon do next? So after all of that, Gideon comes back to God and says so. So, God, verse 36, if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, ain't you glad we're not God? Because that would have been a lightning bolt. You know what? Now I got to resurrect you and start again. But I'm gonna burn you. Why are you still. I'm so glad I'm not God, and I'm so glad that y' all are not God to me. So Gideon said to God, if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only and it is dry on the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said. So he want to test God again. So he's taking the fleece that's wool, and he's like, I'm going to leave this on the ground. You know, dew comes in the mornings. So he's like, I'm gonna come back. Basically, he's coming back in the morning to see if the fleece is wet from the dew, but somehow the ground around it is dry. That's his test to God. And you know what? God is so gracious. God was like, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. I'll do that for you. And so it was. So when he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. The wool was soaking wet, but the ground around it was dry. And then Gideon said to God, do not be angry with me. How much more will of God you want? I done let you test me like three different times. And here we go again. Don't be mad, don't be mad, but let me speak just one more time. Let me test. I pray just once more with the fleece one more time. Let it now be dry, only the fleece and but on all the ground there be dew. So yesterday we wanted the fleece to be wet, but the ground to be dry. Today you're like, oh, okay, let me try this one more time. Can you let the fleece be dry, but the ground be wet? Last time I promised. Can you imagine? Oh, my goodness. And God did. Said and God did. So that night it was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground. So finally Gideon decides to go and do what God told him to do. I'm not even. We're not going to do the second half of Gideon's story that's coming. But this was enough foolishness by itself. I need you to check on what you think might happen if the will that you are asking God to clarify came, what might still scare you to death? What? Hey, what questions might you still be asking God? Because knowing the will of God does not transform you. And so the same anxiousness with which you are awaiting the will of God is the same anxiousness will you with which you will respond to God. God showed up and gave him a new identity. And see, that was the problem. He called him a mighty man, but he didn't believe he was a mighty man. And it was way too much for him to try and shift his mind and accept that God was giving him a new identity. And the reason why was because he didn't trust him, because he had a whole bunch of faulty wiring. He had a lot of wise that he was carrying. Not wise, W I S E W H y S He completely misunderstood it. And here's the sad ending. I'm hopped to the end of Gideon's story that after Israel was delivered by him. Let's go to Judges 8, verse 22. Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, rule over us. They tried to make him their king. That's how good this went. Second point on the will of God, God's will gets done. This kind of will, it gets done. When he says, I want to deliver a the people are going to get those. Like when he says something this specific, it gets done. It doesn't matter if you act it right all the time or not, because Gideon did not. Okay, rule over us both you and your son, and your grandson also, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian. But Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. So it sounds like he's getting got Himself together. Then Gideon said to them, I would like to make a request to you. His requests are always dangerous. That each of you would give me the earrings from his plunder. All the gold they took in the war. For they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites. So they answered, we will gladly give them. And they spread out a garment, and each man threw into it the earrings from his plunder. So then Gideon goes on, he takes these earrings, melts down the gold, and he creates a gold ephod. An ephod was a garment that the priest would wear, so he creates a gold one. And. And the scholars of scripture believe that he was trying to create something to honor God. But God didn't tell him to do that. The ephod had very strict instructions on what it was like. But he decided, I'm gonna make a gold one, and then I'm gonna set it up here in my town. And then people began to come to it, and they began to worship. But that's not the place where they were supposed to go worship. So he caught himself doing something for God. He trying to move religiously. He's doing what he's seen other people do. And what happens in verse 27, it says, then Gideon made it in ephod and set it up in his city Orpha. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and his house. So he built something, trying to be religiously in leadership, But God didn't tell him to do it. And it wasn't done where it should have been done. And people began to worship the thing that they saw. And in that way, they did go after another God. Even though. Because let me tell you, even when you are worshiping the God of scripture, if you're not worshiping the God of Scripture. You with me? You can say, I'm worshiping the Lord. I'm a Christian. I'm doing these things. But if you have not come to know the character of that God, you will be worshiping a different God. You'll be worshiping a God who's out to get you. You'll be worshiping a God who's always trying to kill you. You'll be worshiping the God that didn't show up when you needed him. And that's not really worshiping this God. And so the first, most important lesson about us discerning the will of God is to actually know God. Who is this God that we serve, because it is in relationship to him that his will is revealed. But we struggle with the word will. And there's something very specifically Western about this. In American English, we have a lot of sayings with the word will. I want to read some of them to you. Where there's a will, there's a way. What does that mean? If I want something to happen, I will force it. Free will. I can do whatever I want at will, employment. I can fire you whenever I want against one's will. Which means there's some kind of battle, some kind of power struggle. Bend someone to your will, force your will on someone, impose your will. Have an iron will, strong willed, weak willed, a battle of wills, the will to live. Sheer force of will. They succeeded by sheer force of will. When we use the word will in our cultural space, it is almost always linked to domination and to force and to authority being used or overpowering someone else. And so because of that cultural misunderstanding, when we talk about the will, will of God, it paints a picture inside of us of this God whose will is going to be forced, his sheer will is going to overwhelm you, overtake you, crush you. It's something to fight against and lose. But that's not how Jesus explained it. He said it was his will for me to come so that we can have everlasting life. We have misunderstood what will means. This is a cultural moment. And so this is. I want you to look at your history, your family, the communities you're from. What have you learned about God? Look at your personality. What thing matters to you more than other things? Because that's when you'll get an attitude with God's will, when something pops off. Maybe for you it's relationships, and maybe for you it's achievement. But when something goes wrong in that area, then you start to have questions about what's happening with God. Is it our language? Is it our cultural context? Because very often. Right. I am not saying that it's not legitimate for people to have questions, but a lot of times we will hop from our questions to deconstructing our faith. But before you deconstruct your faith, I need you to deconstruct yourself. I need to deconstruct me. What is it in me? What lenses am I wearing? What stories from my parents about how God killed everybody? What am I looking? What scriptures have I misused? What?
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Questions are open. What have I not? What about me? Me and my personality and my desires have made me see the Word this way. What if I deconstruct me and go back to the pages of Scripture and stop taking other people's word for what it says in there and actually get in here and read this word for myself. Let me meet the God who loves me. Because not every person is having the same response. Response. Y' all know I love to read lots of versions of the Bible. I checked three versions yesterday. A Spanish language Bible, a Zulu Bible and a Korean Bible. And in every one of them, the word overwhelmingly used for will, as in will of God, had to do with pleasure, desire, wish for, hope. For not one of them was translated with a word that meant for force or demand. We have missed this entirely because that is not God's first interaction with us. And so we need to lay down our misunderstanding of what the will of God is. We've got it so tiny. Should I make a left with this light or a right? Should I buy this car or that car? God, what's your will? I don't want to do the wrong thing. Should I get the apartment on the third floor or the second floor? God, which one of these apartments? Because I don't know, it might be a spirit in one of them. It ain't spirit in the other one. And God led me too. Y' all be so spooky down on these little tiny things where really you're just scared to make a decision. You're scared to make a decision. Cause you think if you get it wrong, everything else is gonna go wrong. If I don't do God's will in this one conversation, this one decision, then all these dominoes are gonna fall. Because now I'm out of the. The will of God and I've missed everything. What. That is not what we see in the Word, but it is the story we've been told and we have absorbed it. And in this way, we are missing the most powerful revelation of his will, which is, who am I and why did you put me here? That was Jesus's explanation. He didn't say it was. He didn't even say it was his will for me to come and be crucified. That was some. That was. That was mechanics necessary to the will, which was that he would come to connect us to everlasting life. You're down here in the weeds, but you got to get the 30,000 foot view about what God has you doing. Because if you know about the 30,000 foot view, then the things down here that you have to do that are painful won't throw you off so bad because you'll be able to balance the difficulty against the payoff. But for the joy that was set before Jesus, he was able to endure the cross because where he was going meant more to him than what he had to go through. But because you don't know where you're going, you're more concerned about what you're going through. Where are you going? I have had the privilege of preaching messages that have reached millions of people. I'm blown away. I looked at a message, I went back to look at a message from a few years ago because I wanted to remember something I said. And that thing had 600,000 something views. I was like, my God, I'm looking. And say, God, thank you so much. But guess what? I know where I'm going, baby. I'm just getting started. I'm just getting started. There's 8 billion people on this planet. Let the Lord bless me. To have a billion of them hear the word. I'm just getting started. So, yeah, I'm walking through some stuff, but I know where I'm going. So no wonder the devil wants to fight with me, okay? Because I know it is high. I know what his will is. We press toward the mark for the prize of the. You got to know what it is. The enemy is trying to distract it. And you're distracting yourself worrying about these little. Every little. Look, your steps are ordered. He got you. Please. You are not powerful enough to destroy God's will for your life because you turn left when you're supposed to make a right. If your heart is sincere for the Lord, even if you make a mistake, even if you stumble, the Bible says he will not utterly let you fall. If he will not let you dash your foot against a stone, he will catch you when your heart is right. I need you to realize this is a God who loves you. He's not out here to try to make you perform. He's not out here for you to earn it. By proving that you can tell all these things about that's too. His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. His ways are not my ways. How could I ever truly comprehend all that is his will? If I stay on my face, if my heart is towards the Lord, if I continue to take good care of myself, get to therapy, get to the support group, get through your trauma work so that you don't have to hear distortions in your mind. But even still, he loves you so much. He judges the heart, not the outer man. And so if my heart is stayed on him, he gonna get me there. Oh, she made a left. She's supposed to make a right. Okay, well, I just paved a jug handle. Now she Gonna come around here and she gonna end up back where she was. We lose so much time trying to hammer out the whys of his will. Well, maybe this wasn't supposed to be this, and maybe that wasn't supposed to be this. Child, I don't know. You know, it's the same. I was married for 27 years. I ended up divorced. People are like, well, maybe you wasn't never meant to. Maybe it wasn't God's will. Child, I don't know. I don't know. What difference is it gonna make? Is it gonna change my moment? My present moment? Absolutely not. And I tell you what. I'm not gonna be laying somewhere calculating and wrestling over, trying to figure out if maybe it was God's will 20, 30 years ago or not. Honey, I'm too busy letting him send me my. I got to get it together so I can be found. What am I over here wrestling back and forth? Is it plan A? Is it plan B? Is it plan C? It's God's plan. Call Jesus. Well, God, baby, I didn't supposed to take that job, and that's why I lost it. Or maybe I wasn't supposed to be in that house and that's why I called on is. You are obsessed with getting it right because you're obsessed with never being in pain. And that's a real issue. That's the real issue. And listen, I'm no fan, but in this life, you will have trouble. Not even trials, tribulations and tests. You'll have those. Just trouble. Just regular old trouble. They don't have to be a massive story because something went wrong, you caught a cold. Oh, the devil's trying to take me down.
- [35:41]
B
Child,
- [35:45]
A
Save your energy for the big stuff. And could you take some vitamins and sleep more than five hours a night? Your immune system might be stronger. Oh, if we could really get our hands on the will of God, My God. In the Spanish language Bible, the word will is voluntad, which is the same as, like, volunteer. This is a. This is a free thing. This is a desire. In the Zulu Bible, it's in Tando. Tando is also the word for love in their language. So how are they going to translate will to love? What if every time you say, God, I'm looking for your will, you say, I was looking for your love? Where is your love? Pleasure? Where's the place where I feel your love the most? Where's the place where I feel the desire of your heart is present with me? What if I was letting peace lead Me there His will. His will. In the Korean Bible that word translates to like purpose. What is your reason for this? Your purpose? What is your purpose for me? Your reason for me? That's not to get down into every single tiny little thing because you can say, well, nothing happens. That's not his will. I beg to differ. Oh, somebody messed somebody up. Second Peter, chapter three, verse nine. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but is long suffering for us not willing that any should perish, but people perish. It is not God's desire that anyone perish, but people do. So don't tell me that every single thing that happens is what God desired for us. But you had to let go of that idea that will and control are the same word. They're not. See, we love that God is in control. First of all, that's not in the Bible either. Oh, he has dominion. But dominion and control are not the same thing. We want them to be in control. You know, I've said this before. People could do something to you. Somebody stab you in the back, steal your money, betray you, cheat, lie to you, God, why did you let them do that? But when you do something to somebody, you never say God, why'd you let me do that? So you want him to control everybody else's behavior so they don't hurt you. But when you was on your way where you didn't need to be at 2 o' clock this morning, you didn't ask him not to let your car start. You didn't ask him to let you get lost. You didn't ask him to let the weed man be out of weed. When you got there, you didn't have to let for no help. So don't tell me, Uh huh. You gotta pay attention to where you want him to be in control at because that'll tell us more about deconstructing you. Ah, my God, my God, I'm sorry. I love y', all, you know I do. But man, this wall between us and our understanding of the will of God is causing us to who fall short in what we could be doing in the kingdom because we're wrestling with these tiny things. First John, chapter three. Let me add that one. I know I got it in here somewhere. I know I got in here somewhere. First John, chapter three, verse eight. Hallelujah. It says, he who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. Here's my favorite, one of my favorite sentences in the whole Bible. For this purpose, the son of God was Manifested that he might destroy the works of who? The devil. So that means the devil has works. But we have often come from places, generations, cultures that say that every single thing that happens is the work of God. But the Bible says the devil has work. And for this purpose was the son of God manifested to destroy the works of the devil. You will misunderstand the concept of the word will of God when you begin to believe that there's only two characters in the story of your life, you and God. But there are at least three. You, God, and the enemy who roams to and fro, seeking whom he may devour, who comes to steal from you, to kill things in your life and to destroy. And every time he pulls something off, if you turn and say, well, I guess that was God's will, he has pulled it off because now he don't even have you looking at him. So he can still kill and destroy more things. Because you're attributing the works of the devil as the works of God, then you're saying that's the will of God. And now you're serving a God we don't know. Because God does not sexually abuse children. God is not shooting people down in the street. God doesn't need more singers in his choir or players on his basketball team. God didn't need to make you broke to learn this and that. You got to stop. Because you have this terror of any kind of pain. You say it's all. Pain is not evil. Some of it's uncomfortable. But we have to recognize that. Because when I talk about emotion, I don't say positive and negative emotions. I say pleasurable and painful emotions. Because not every painful emotion is also bad. But we have to stop having pleasure. Pain as good, bad. That dichotomy is human. It's fallen, it's self focused. And it's just a part of how our bodies are made. And this is why Jesus was able to recognize that there was a will that he had that was different than his Father's. Because he was wearing. He was wearing flesh. He was wearing an earth suit. And once this body got on him. I'm so grateful to God. I thank Jesus for being willing to come and feel all of the craziness that we feel. And he felt everything we felt. Hebrews 4:15 says that. And he was tempted in every way and he never sinned. I believe he felt everything. He knew what it felt like to be suicidal. He knew what it felt like to be betrayed. He knew what it felt like to be angry. He knew what it felt like to be lied on. He knew what it felt like to be threatened. He knew what it felt like to be beaten up, stabbed, whipped, killed. He knew it. He knows everything that we felt. What an incredible sacrifice. Why would anyone sign up for that? But Jesus did.
- [41:51]
B
Why?
- [41:52]
A
Because the desire. He was one in desire, up there in heaven with his Father. And it was the big picture. And so the things in between, they didn't. They paled in comparison. Hallelujah. Let's go to Hebrews, chapter I believe. There we go. Chapter five, verse seven. It says the speaking of Jesus, who in the days of his what? Flesh. And when we talk about flesh, we always talk about somebody saying, you in the flesh. I don't know if any of y' all churchy enough to know what that means. Misused. It says, Jesus was in the flesh who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications and vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear. Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him. There's something really important here because we see Jesus in Gethsemane saying, father, if it be your will, let this cup pass for me. But not my will, but yours be done. He's asking for the cup to pass. But when God answers his prayer, it says that he was heard and that he feared. Jesus never said, I'm scared. He said, can this cup pass? But God responded to the issue. We see him do the same thing with Gideon. God didn't answer Gideon's questions and he said, don't be afraid. So we see the same pattern here. We're talking about how we want to solve the problem. God's going to the heart of the matter. He's addressing the emotions underneath. And that's where we need to get so our hearts can be changed. But the difference between Jesus and Gideon is Jesus had spent his life to that point getting this body in line. He had been being obedient. It says he don't tell us, they don't tell us. The Word doesn't tell us all of the things that he learned obedience through. But it says he learned obedience by the things he suffered. So we know he went through some stuff, which means he must have done some disobedience stuff in order to suffer. I don't know. But he did some stuff. I don't know. What to tell you. But he never sinned, so we don't know. But he suffered, and it taught him to be obedient. That's what we know. Suffering has taught me to be obedient. I'll be like, you know what? I'm not even messing with God on that. I ain't even messing with God on that. And not because half the time it's not because God punished me so bad because I did something wrong. I. I dealt with the natural consequences of the thing he told me not to do. See, you then got everything again. He's punishing you. Oh, well, I shouldn't have been in that relationship. And then when we broke up, my heart was so broken. And God just let me feel that pain. So I. No, no, baby. He said not to date that crazy person who don't even believe in Jesus because being unequally yoked is not healthy. Then you did it, and you found out why it wasn't healthy. It's just a natural consequence. Stop blaming. He's not trying to kill you all the time. He's actually trying to rescue you. He's trying to protect you. But we confuse his will with his commandments. It's the ten Commandments, not the ten wills. And so when you say God, what is your wills? You're often asking me, what's the rule? What do you want me to do? What do I have to do in order to stay out of trouble? Those are commandments. Those are decrees. Those are laws. His will is not that. So, yes, let's be obedient to his commandments because we love him. If you love me, you obey my commandments. But his will is not. So I need you to stop with that. Well, it wasn't God's will for me to. That's a commandment. No, it's not his will for you to sin. Did it. Anyway. Again, some things do happen that are not the will of God. But I don't want it to be in my life. I don't want it to be in my life. Last thing, not almost last thing. What does the word actually mean? The words that are being translated as will. Wednesday night, Bible study. Be here. We're gonna be diving into a word study on the will of God. Because there are so many Hebrew and Greek words being translated as will, and we don't recognize what all of them mean. But in the New Testament, the word most often translated as will actually means his desire for us. Isn't that beautiful? His desire for us. And don't you go switching the word desire to still mean tell me exactly what to do. We're talking about his big picture, his desire for your life, what he called you to. If you don't know Jesus, let me tell you, it's worth knowing him. Because when you put on the mind of Jesus, when you look, look through the lens of life with Jesus, you will find out what you were really created for. That word repent also means change your purpose.
- [46:24]
B
Why?
- [46:25]
A
Because then I come into what God's purpose is for me, and his purpose is much more than just that. I don't sin, but we've reduced it to that. And so when you recognize that the will of God, that Jesus was talking about the desire of God's heart for why he sent him, then he really was saying, I'm having a different desire right now. Why? Because my body is responding to the reality of being murdered. And that's terrifying. It's hard to want to volunteer for that. So his body was reacting in a natural way with the emotion of fear against being destroyed. That blood sweating was his body working overtime because it was responding to the threat of death till it popped blood vessels in his forehead and let blood run down his face. That was his body's response in the days of his flesh. But he was still able to say, I desire. I don't want my desire to be bigger than your desire. And why? Because he was in such close relationship with God, not because he was scared of him. Just before he goes to Gethsemane, he prays for the disciples, he prays for us. And in that prayer, he said, God, you and me are one. I'm in you and you're in me. And I love you and you love me. And I want them to know that I love them like you've loved me. That whole prayer was about how close they were, how much God meant to him, how much love he had. So when he said, father, it's not my desire to do this, but I love you so much that your desire matters more than me not, I'm scared of you, so I know I'll do was coming out of relational closeness with a God he knew. So the questions are, who do you think God is? And once you find out who he really is, how close are you with that God? Because it was a love relationship, Jesus was safe. I love the safety here that he could even say that to God. Listen, I know this is your desire, but I'm just wondering. I don't. I'm not. I'm. I'm not feeling this right now, but I'll do it. Because the fact that he even said that, I feel like the traditions I grew up in would have made it seem like that was rebelling right there for me to say, God, there's a part of me that doesn't really want to do what you want me to do. And I'm sorry, but just wanted to let you know he was completely safe being honest about where he was. And then he went on and he cried and snotted loud. The Bible says with strong crying and tears, he cried out to God. And God sent an angel to strengthen him. And until he was strengthened, nothing happened. But when he was strong, he stood up, he walked down out of Gethsemane, and as I preached last week, told those soldiers, I am he. And he was so powerful in his voice, it knocked him to the ground after he went through this thing with God. Do you see what I'm saying? So I need you not to keep looking at these emotionally painful or weak moments as you are not also spiritually powerful. I just need you to be honest with God and stay in his presence. And let's work that out. Stay in the presence of your father who adores you, not some dangerous, on high, murderous universe representative who, if you make a mistake, that's it for you. That perfectionism is yours. It doesn't belong to God and it doesn't come from God. So my goal to today is to free you from the shackles of a misconception of what the will of God is by telling you what is not. And what it's not is something hanging over your head like a guillotine, waiting for you to make a wrong move and cut everything off to anger God. The will of God for your life is first about who you are, not what you do. And I need you to feel like you can articulate that for yourself. Amen. Stand to your feet. I'm done.
- [50:26]
B
I'm done.
- [50:27]
A
I'm done for this week. But we're gonna dig in the will of God all month long. And I tell you I'm excited about who we are gonna be with this revelation. Somebody in this room is gonna have their mind jump up this week and be like, God, is that your will? And then you're gonna be like, oh, wait a minute, that's not a will issue. That's a me worrying about everything issue. And then give your anxieties to God. Know that he loves you. Check every exchange, conversation, experience that you have with God against the barometer of how much he loves you. Does this Match the story of a God who adores me. Yeah, we know that there's boundaries in our relationship with God. If you follow Jesus, there are some boundaries. The Word has some boundaries. They start on the Ten Commandments. Every relationship has boundaries. Every relationship has things you're not supposed to do in that relationship to keep the relationship healthy. And our relationship with God has boundaries too. And those boundaries keep the relationship safe. They keep the relationship intact. They keep us connected. And sometimes we break a boundary. We say, God, I'm so sorry I broke a boundary in this relationship. And God's like, good, come on back. He's better than we are because some of us be like, when someone shows who you are, believe them the first time. Cut. I'm glad y' all are not God. God is so merciful because he wants to be in relationship with us. And so, yeah, we try not to sin against the relationship, but we can be forgiven. That is separate, like. But his will. Let it first be about knowing who he made you to be. That he's calling you mighty when you feel weak, that he's calling you brilliant when you feel dumb. That he's calling you powerful when you feel like you have no agency. Let him call you who you are and believe him. Because why would a God who loves you that much lie to you? He's a truth telling God. Amen. Two altar calls I want to make. First. If you're in here and you are not in the kind of relationship with Jesus that I've been talking about, maybe you've heard about Jesus, maybe even believe in Jesus, but it's just not like that. Maybe it's been a scary God that you've been in relationship with. I'm introducing to a different Jesus. I want you to be in relationship with this Jesus. If you want to give your life to Jesus today, just slip your hand up. I never want to not ask that question. Do I see a hand? Slip it high. I can't tell if you're waving at me or are you saying hallelujah. Okay, I'll just make sure. Did I miss somebody? Wave at me. It's a little dark up here. Hey, hey, hey. We love it. Can I pray for you? Can you come and pray for you? This is it. I want you to have an anniversary date. I want you to be able to be like, on July 5, 2026, I locked in with Jesus and I wasn't perfect all the rest of my life, but I never walked in. I want you to have a date. Some of you may have grown up in church and you just kind of always believed in Jesus. But I want you to say, I'm giving my life to him. Is there anybody else who I can pray for today to come give their life to Jesus? All right, Well, I am excited to have these here sisters. Hello. This is a really good choice. I promise you that. I was 19 years old when I gave my life to Jesus. 19 years old. It's been a minute. I'm only 29. I'm just kidding. It's been a minute. I'm not 29. But it was the best thing that I ever did. A week after I gave my life to the Lord, someone tried to kill me. Someone who had been stalking me. But because I could hear God, God told me how to move. And that person just missed me. Because I gave my life to Jesus. I'm trying to tell you this decision is big. It will alter the course of your future. And I'm so happy that you're making it. And it's really easy. We just need to agree on a few things. Do you believe that Jesus was the son of God? Do you believe he died for you because he loved you? Do you believe he rose from the dead? This is a big one, because we really believe this. Then he is sitting in heaven with his Father now, praying for you. Welcome to the kingdom of God. That is it. We receive Jesus. I'm so excited. Family, can you let them know you're excited to have some new sisters in the kingdom? Oh, praise God. This sister here is going to get some information from you. But I want to make one more altar call. If you have been being dragged down by faulty wiring, if you're carrying wise from wounds and you want to come and bring that to the Lord, I want to open the altar for that. If there's a why that has your heart heavy, well, God, but why? Why did that happen? Why did I lose that person? Why did you let this thing go wrong? Why? Why the abuse? Why the lies? Why the betrayal? That thing is real. And it's okay. God's not afraid. But it will make it harder for you. When the will of God walks right up in your face like Gideon, you can miss it because the why is so loud in your ear. And so I just want to be able to pray with you today. I understand. I've had them over the years. I remember a time I got some news that was so upsetting to me. I actually went outside of my house at night into the dark, so that I could say directly to the sky, why would you let this happen. So I get it. It broke my heart. But I want you to know it's not the whole story. It's not the whole story. And that it is the work of the enemy. Because even if God. Even when God allows some difficulties in our lives, he would never allow something that would crush us. He's a good trainer. So he's not going to put more weight on the bar than you can lift. He's not put so much weight on the bar that it's going to break your neck if you drop it or throw your back out or pop out your shoulder. Then it's not God. He's not destructive. So as we grow in our walk with him, yes, sometimes we'll get a little extra weight on the bar. I want to be stronger. But this thing that came and broke you, that's the devil. The works of the devil. But for this purpose was the son of God manifest to destroy the world works of the devil. And can I remind you something? Even Jesus had a why moment. Jesus came out of Gethsemane. He said, I am he. Soldiers knocked out. He was trucking. He stood up to pilot. Are you the king of the Jews? He said, you say, I am. He was doing good. But right down there at the end on the cross, he had a moment that felt like too much. And he said, father, why have you forsaken me? He had a question. Question too. But he did something after that that was even more powerful. He said, but into your hands I commit my spirit. And that's what I'm asking you to do today. And. And the Bible says that his spirit is truth. So what I'm saying is I want you to. You can ask your why, but then also into your hands, I give you my truth. I give you what I've decided is true so that you can give me the actual truth. I had a truth that said you let me down. I had a truth that said you abused me, you didn't protect me, you didn't cover me. I'm putting my truth in your hands. And I just won't have no truth until you give me the truth. I promise he will heal those things that the enemy has done to hurt you. But the first thing the devil wants to do is convince you that God did it to you when it was him. But for this purpose was the son of God manifested to destroy the works of the devil. And today is destruction day on the works of the devil in your life. Hallelujah, y'.
- [58:24]
B
All.
- [58:24]
A
Reach your hands towards your brothers and Sisters. Father, God, in the name of Jesus, thank you for your love that has drawn your children to this altar today. Because it was your love in the words that you gave me, it was your love during worship. It was your love in the presence in this room that let them know that it was safe to even come here. And now, Father, we ask that you let your love do all its work. That you would heal broken hearts and tormented minds in the name of Jesus. That there would be a disturbance in them when the enemy tries to bring up lies about who you are and what you've done, that it will come up in their spirit. No, that wasn't God. That was you. But he's healing me. God, order their steps to all the ways you are healing them. I thank you for the right therapist. I thank you for support groups. I thank you for doctors, if there's medication. I thank you for friendships. I thank you for healing in their families. And if that is your will, Father, I thank you for ordering their steps through their entire journey that after things didn't go like they wanted, it will go better than they ever dreamed. Thank you, God, for showing them the big picture of who you are and what your desire, your good pleasure, your love purpose for their life is. So that they do not overestimate the value of the pain based on knowledge of where you are taking them. Thank you, Father, for opening their eyes to where their destination is in the kingdom. Protect them. I plead the blood of Jesus over them and I rebuke every plan of the enemy. I stand in spiritual authority over these and I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. They are covered. They are protected by the blood of Jesus and the fire of the Holy Ghost. Father, cover them. That the enemy's works would be rendered null and void in their lives. In Jesus name, Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I'm so happy for you to connect with this God. You are loved. You are so loved. And I want to say some of you have been wounded by people who have stood in my position who said they spoke for God. I'm sorry. I want to give you the apology you might never get from them. I'm sorry. But Jesus, Jesus loves you. I promise you that. And if you don't have a church that you call your church, your family, a person you look at, say, that's my pastor, please let it be me. Because I promise you, nothing matters more to me than behaving like Jesus to you. Pastor EP feels the same way. We want you to know who God is. And we want you to have an experience with his love. So would you please let us do that? But I am sorry, so sorry for the wounds you took. God does love you and some of us are trying hard to get it right. Amen. I just felt led to say that to you today. I love you so much. I love all y' all so much. I love my global family so much.
- [61:53]
B
Hey, family. Well, I pray that you were just as blessed by this teaching as I was. I'm just so grateful again to be a part of a church dynamic community full of love, full of revelation and wisdom. One has been a movement that's been blessing people for over two decades and I'm so glad that you got an opportunity to experience it. I also have a podcast called the called it's right here on wherever you're listening to this Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening to this podcast. You can just look up the call T H E C A L L E D with myself, Terry Roberts. This is designed for entrepreneurs, leaders and business people. It's a weekly podcast and it will bless you. But hey, I enjoyed having you here. Meet us here next week. Check out the call. Much blessings to you. We'll catch you next time.