Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Are you struggling with the will of God for your life?
We want to know whether He wants us to live in this city or that city, take this job or that job, marry this person or that person, when it's enough to be busily engaged in the central concern that the Bible has for living at the will of God.
Have you ever been faced with tough decisions like those, a big move across the country, or like me 14 years ago, a big move to the other side of the world? What about the prospect of a new job or the question of marriage? And in those moments, you might be frozen. You can't decide because you're just not sure if it's God's perfect plan for your life.
The will of God is such a practical question, and again and again, R.C. Sproul would be asked by his students and by conference attendees if it's possible to know it. That's why he recorded this series. So for the final time this week, I encourage you to request the entire series and the companion book, Can I Know God's Will?, before this offer expires tonight at midnight.
Chapter 2: How can I discern God's will for my life?
Give a donation at renewingyourmind.org today and the series and the book will be yours as our way of saying thank you for showing your support of Renewing Your Mind. Well, today on Renewing Your Mind, R.C. Sproul will remind us that the Bible has one central concern for us as followers of Christ, and it's clearly spelled out for us in Scripture.
We often forget we're in the middle of making tough decisions, but take comfort. We can know the will of God for us. Here's Dr. Sproul.
We're looking at the subject, how do I know the will of God for my life? I remember lecturing that on one occasion where I talked about the different ways in which the Bible speaks of the will of God.
And in theology, we distinguish among several nuanced ideas of the will of God because in the first place, there are two different Greek words in the New Testament, both of which can be translated by the English word will. And each of those words have several nuances of meaning.
Chapter 3: What are the different aspects of God's will according to the Bible?
So we know that the Bible speaks about the will of God in more than one way. And some of the distinctions that we make in theology, and remember that it is the prerogative of the woman to change her mind. It is the prerogative of the theologian to make fine distinctions.
is that we would distinguish between, for example, what we call first of all the sovereign efficacious will of God and the preceptive will of God. And what is meant in that distinction is simply this, that the sovereign efficacious will of God is that reference to the will of God by which God sovereignly brings to pass whatsoever He wants to bring to pass. It can't possibly be resisted.
It cannot be overthrown. When God creates the universe and says, let there be light, there's no possibility that the light won't shine because God is commanding it. He's willing it sovereignly and exercising His sovereign power and authority to make it come to pass. The precept of will of God refers to God's commandments.
Chapter 4: What is the distinction between God's sovereign and preceptive will?
Thou shall have no other gods before me is a precept that comes from God. This is His will that we not commit idolatry. Now, is it possible for us to break that will? Yes, of course. But that's not what I want to be looking at immediately. I want to go back to this business of the sovereign will of God. And when people say to me, how do I know the will of God for my life?
I want to know this, what will are they talking about? Usually what they're asking me about is what is the sovereign, efficacious will of God for my life? What is God's eternal plan for my life?
Chapter 5: How do the hidden and revealed wills of God differ?
Now, when we make further distinctions about this business of the sovereign, efficacious will of God, we make a distinction between the hidden will of God and the revealed will of God. the hidden will of God and the revealed will of God. Now, remember the Old Testament says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but that which He has revealed belongs to us and to our children forever.
So the Bible itself makes a distinction between what God has revealed and what He has left hidden. And when we talk about the hidden will of God, the usual language we employ to describe that is the language that speaks of the secret counsel of God or the hidden counsel of God. Now I think so often what people are asking when they say, how do I know the will of God for my life?
What they're asking me to help them with is how they can discern the secret counsel of the Almighty. And frankly, I get frustrated when people ask me that because there are things I want to say that I don't say, but I'll say them now because I'm speaking anonymously where I'm not any particular individual.
Two things I would say, how in the world can you expect me to know what is the secret counsel of God? If I knew what the secret counsel of God is, it wouldn't be a secret anymore. It wouldn't be hidden anymore. But yet sometimes people think, well, if you're a theologian or if you're a minister or something like that, you can pry into things.
Now, I may have understanding of things that God has revealed that people who aren't students of theology lack, but I certainly cannot include in that understanding a personal knowledge of the hidden counsel of God. I don't usually say that to people. Why do you ask me a question like that? But what I do say sometimes offends them and leaves them in no small amount of consternation.
And that's when I say to them, you know, in the final analysis, you shouldn't be worried about the hidden counsel of God because it's none of your business. We remember that Luther during the Reformation was famous for his comment, let God be God.
And there is a kind of sinful inclination that we have, like the people in the Old Testament, to try to pry into things, particularly as they relate to the future, that are none of our business. And that they reflect not so much an act of faith, but an act of unbelief.
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Chapter 6: What practical steps can I take to align my gifts with my job?
we are called to trust God for tomorrow, to walk by faith, not in darkness but in the light of His Word. That is, we are to live, as Jesus said, by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God, and it takes more than a lifetime to learn that manifestation of the will of God without trying to pry into what He hasn't revealed. And I think we can take comfort in that.
that there are reasons why God hasn't revealed everything about the plans that He has for you and for me. Those things really aren't any of our business, and reading the horoscope in the morning is an act of unbelief. We're not to be doing that. Calvin made this observation. He says, when God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from inquiry. That's a good motto.
I think we are to work as hard as we can to understand as deeply as we can everything that God has revealed. But beyond that, having done all, we stand and we are to live according to that which He has revealed. Well, what else? I say, well, when the Bible speaks about the will of God for our lives, what is the chief concern that the Bible has for our living out the will of God?
Again, we want to know whether He wants us to live in this city or that city, take this job or that job, marry this person or that person, when it's enough to be busily engaged in the central concern that the Bible has for living out the will of God. And if somebody says to me, R.C., what is the will of God for my life? I said, let me just quote some Scripture to you.
This is the will of God, even your sanctification. What I do know about God's will for you is that God has called you to seek righteousness and to be obedient. And as Jesus Himself said to people who were anxious about tomorrow and about the future, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.
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Chapter 7: How can I evaluate my motivated abilities for career choices?
And so if I leave you with any thought in this brief series on the will of God, it's Or if you want to know the sovereign will of God, don't worry about it. Put your investment in the preceptive will of God. If you're studying what God has revealed, the unrevealed part will take care of itself. It's in the best hands possible. It's in the hands of God Himself. So why worry about it?
I'm not going to change the secret counsel of God. I'm not going to influence the secret counsel of God. God in His own mind knows what that is, and what He calls me to do in my chief vocation is to be obedient to the precepts that He has revealed. Okay.
I promised in our last session that I would continue a discussion on this business of fitting our own gifts and talents with the job descriptions that we have open to us in terms of our career path or our employment and so on. And I said I'd speak very practically about that. Now, to look at that,
What we're doing is trying to obey the revealed will of God where one of the precepts of God is that we make a sober analysis of our gifts and talents and not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought and to try to see the function we have in the economy of the kingdom of God. Now, I'm going to use my blackboard here, and I know that most of you who are hearing my voice at this moment
can't see me, and so you're going to have to use a little bit of imagination, but this isn't rocket science. This is pretty simple. I'm going to draw on this blackboard two circles. Now, you all know what a circle looks like, and I'm going to put one circle on the left-hand side of the board, and to the right of it,
I'm going to write a second circle that is completely apart from and distinct from the first circle. The two do not touch. They do not intermesh or intersect at any point. They're completely different circles. You understand that? Now, the circle on the left, I'm going to label job description. I work at a department store, and I'm responsible for the sale of certain garments or so.
And so my job description spells out what my role is, what my duties are, and what I'm expected to do in my performance on that thing. On the other side, in the second circle, I am going to write three letters that are followed by periods because these are abbreviations. M period, A period, P period. If you take away the periods, you have the word map, which we'll use as an acrostic.
And those three words that are represented by these initials M-A-P are the words motivated ability pattern. Motivated ability pattern. Now, let's look at what are we talking about here. Well, we know what patterns are. We know what abilities are. and we know what motives are or motivation.
Now the theory here in this system is that everybody has certain patterns in their life and certain abilities. Everybody has ability to do something if it's only tie your shoes. We also have abilities that we are not motivated to use. That is that we can do things well, the problem is we hate doing them. even though we have the ability to do them.
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Chapter 8: What final thoughts does R.C. Sproul offer on finding a fulfilling job?
I played tournament ping pong. I played tennis. You know, did all that stuff. And there was somebody who asked me, R.C., what was your favorite sport when you were growing up as a kid? I said, that's easy. The sport I loved more than any other sport was ice hockey.
I mean, I used to get up every morning and go out and look at the thermometer outside our door to see how cold it was, praying that it would stay cold as long as possible so that the rink would be frozen after school and I could go play hockey. I love to play hockey. It's my favorite sport.
Now, if you ask me the second question, R.C., of all the sports that you played, which one would you judge to be the one in which you were least proficient? That's a no-brainer. Hockey. I was not a very good hockey player. I could skate and I could pass, but every time I shoot, I'd fall down face first.
And more than once, I went into the net on my belly, you know, messing up the net and everything. I was not a good hockey player. But I had a motivation to play hockey. I could have gone to one of the professional teams and said, I want to be on your hockey team. And they say, are you motivated? Oh, yeah, I love it. You know, I have a great work ethic. I'll work as hard as this as anybody.
Great, we're looking for guys like you. What are your credentials as a player? Oh, I said I can't play. They're not going to ask me to be part of their team. And I would be hurting them and hurting myself if I tried to make my living doing what I was motivated to do but had no ability to do. A lot of people get into that.
And then the other side of the coin where you have those abilities without any motivation. Yes, I can do that. In fact, I've acquired an ability to do it because somebody beat it into me and forced me to learn how to do it. I once was playing golf and came up to the tee box in the 18th hole of this golf course and there was this girl there who wasn't even five feet tall.
And it was a par five hole and she was playing by herself and I was playing by myself. She invited me to play through. I said, well, it's the last hole. Go ahead, we'll play in together. So I teed off down the fairway, and she steps up on the men's tee. And I said, no, that's okay, honey. You can go down there and tee off on the ladies' tee. She says, no, I've been playing the men's tees today.
And this little girl, she's 15 years old and not even five feet tall. And I said, okay. So she knocks the ball 30 yards past my drive down the middle of the drive. I said, what is this, Superwoman? Well, I'm happy to tell you I made a birdie on that hole. And I made that birdie. with one putt on this par five. The little girl birdied the hole with two putts.
She was on a green and two on the par five. And of course I asked her, who are you? And she told me her name and she was the current reigning junior women's champion in America. Her coach was Deacon Palmer, Arnold Palmer's father. And so having had that serendipitous experience with this little girl, I was just completely amazed at her ability and talent. I followed her career.
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