Colossians 1:1 - What If God’s Will Is Not Hidden?

Most of us want God’s will like a GPS: tell me the exact address, the fastest route, and the safest turn-by-turn plan. But Paul’s opening words in Colossians pull us in a different direction: he’s an apostle of Jesus Christ “by the will of God.” That phrase forces a better question than “Which option should I pick?” It asks, “Am I actually living under God’s leadership, or am I just looking for divine approval for what I already want?”

We walk through six places where the Bible flat-out says “this is the will of God” so you’re not left guessing. We talk about God’s desire that people be saved, what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and why Spirit-led living shows up in painfully practical places like your words, your gratitude, your marriage, your parenting, and your work. We also connect Ephesians 5 with Colossians 3 to show how letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly goes hand-in-hand with being led by the Spirit.

Then we hit the parts people usually skip: sanctification and putting away sin, respecting governing authorities and leadership, and the reality that suffering for doing good can be God’s will too. We end with a freeing principle from Psalm 37:4 and Proverbs 3:5-6: when you delight yourself in the Lord and trust Him with all your heart, your desires change and your path gets directed.

If this helped you rethink God’s will in a grounded, biblical way, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s facing a big decision, and leave a review. Which of the six “slam dunk” statements about God’s will do you need most right now?

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Transcript

From David To Colossians

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Here we are. Locks from chapter one. If you're concerned and you weren't here last week, that oh boy, I missed something. Um we have taken the binoculars off from the life of David, right? Looking at things broadly and from a distance. And we've we've taken the microscope, you'll find here in the book of Colossians. It's just a whole different animal. Uh, the letter here from Paul to the people in Colossae. And uh it's it's gonna be a little more detailed. When I said we might be in Colossians for the next year, that's altogether possible. And some of you actually laughed last week when I said that. And that's okay, I understand. We covered verse one and two, uh, chapter one, verse one and two, and I thought, you know what, the most logical thing is to move on to verse three. That would make good sense, it's reasonable, more than reasonable. Um, and I couldn't get it out of my head, a phrase in verse one, major theme here. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and thinking about how we should move on to verse three. I could not get by the will of God out of my head. And so that is what we are looking at. Paul and Apostle by the will of God. Uh, just

Why “By The Will Of God” Matters

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verse one. And uh this idea of the will of God, it flashed me back to youth ministry uh with all those youngsters, camp, wherever it was, saying, What's God's will for my life? As they got closer to college, what's God's will for my life? I just want to know. And I thought about it, how common that was for me. Even still, still common for me. God, what's your will for my life? I used to go in every day uh to see my friend John at Calvary Chapel Vista. He was a college pastor, and every day I'd come in with the same thing. John, what's God's will for my life? And I go, I don't know. And he'd sit and he'd talk. You'll find out, you know. And it was just a big question. And I think every single one of us is asked that as a believer. Uh, we ought to, because there's something in it that that really is a picture of a master and a servant, I think. I think that's where it comes from, right? God is our master. As Paul met Jesus there on the road to Damascus, and Jesus knocked him down, it seems. And and Paul, his first thing was, Who are you, Lord? And what would you have me to do? And and so we we get to that place rather quickly, I think. It should be instinctive in our lives. God, you've you've paid the price for my sin. You've saved me, you've brought me into a family. God, what do you want? What do you want for my life? It should just make sense. Now, I'll be honest. This point of honesty here. That's not usually why we ask, God, what's your will for my life? When I was asking the secret here, this is a secret. Tell the world. When I was asking John, what's God's will for my life? What I was really hoping for him to say was, you ought to come work at Calvary Vista. I'm honest, that's what I was thinking. I want to be in the ministry. What's not God's will? Where should I be? Here, you know? And I was looking for a little bit, I honestly was. But sometimes when we ask, we have kind of a side thought. God, if following you is leading to blessing, God, I want your will. What's the way to fame and glory, riches? I want to do that, you know. Um, and yet, all of that being said, it comes down to this fact, God, if you've bought my life, if you're my master, then I want to do the things you say, and it should be natural. Um now, what is this? In Paul's life, he understood that God had called him to be an apostle. He prepared his life as a Pharisee, uh, with background there, you know, in God's word. He took him out to Arabia in Galatians, we read. For three years, it seems, Paul was in the deserts of Arabia, just him and God, about the same time that the disciples were with Jesus. And in that time, God shared with him. This is what I have for you. Just share my truth, and you'll be my sent one. You'll be sent out to the world as an ambassador. You're an apostle, Paul. Um, but how can we know the will of God? And one thing that I've seen is that it ends up being um less of a technique and more of an art. Okay, these less of a technique and more of an art. Learning to hear God's voice, how to be led by God, it's learning to hear his voice. And I'll just throw out a little side thing for you for your own consideration. God's always speaking. Uh, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin and of righteousness and judgment to come. When you're doing something that you know you're not supposed to, God is right there saying, You're not supposed to be here right now. Run, get out of here. And and that conviction of the Holy Spirit, God speaking to us, we learn to listen and say, Right, God, I shouldn't be here right now. Doing these things, I shouldn't be doing these things right now. God, I'm gonna listen to what you're saying. And the more you listen to what God is saying, the more you recognize his voice when he says, go share with that person. Hey, I don't, you won't know why, but I want you to go on this Mexico missions trip. You go, that's what I was feeling. And and you do it, and you listen to what God says in the little things, and the big things um they become easier. Now that's kind of the art of being led by the Holy Spirit, and it's pretty exciting how God can lead sometimes in little things, but there's a more foolproof method to being led by the Spirit.

God’s Will Starts With Salvation

SPEAKER_01 7:16

And I want to point out six things that God specifically says in the Word, right? In God's Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Six things where we don't even have to think it over. God says, this is the will of God. Big sign with lights around it. This is the will of God, right? And and so let's let's look at these things and what God says. We're gonna turn a lot. If you want to write it down or go back and listen to it later and you can look at it, cool, do your best, but turn to first sorry, messing up already. Second Peter chapter three, verse nine. Says this that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God is not willing that any should perish, that all should come to repentance. And it's stated as a negative here. We read something that's always true. God doesn't want, God's will is not that people go to hell. You can write that down, you can bank on that. God doesn't want anybody to go to hell. He doesn't. It then, in a positive, it's God's will that everybody be saved. I don't know what that means for your theology, but you can't get around it when you look at the Bible. God wants everybody to be saved. 1 Timothy 2, 3 and 4. I would need to try to turn there. 1 Timothy 2, 3 and 4. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Jesus says in John 6, verse 40, listen to this one. 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 on the last day. So you can't get around the fact that what God wants is for people to trust their lives to Jesus. He wants everybody to be saved. Now, this should affect how we look at our life. Every person that you work with, God wants them to be saved. He wants them to know that Jesus loves them, that there's hope, that they can be forgiven because of what Jesus did on the cross. Every single person, it's a slam dunk. But even more, more than knowing what job you need to go to or what school you need to go to, God's will for your life is that you trust Jesus. It doesn't matter if you get everything else right in life, if you lose your soul, it's worthless. What does it profit if you gain the whole world and you lose your soul? So, number one, God's will for each and every person, slam dunk, is that they be saved. Um, uh number two, God's will for your life is that you be filled with the Holy

Be Filled With The Holy Spirit

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Spirit. And you can turn to Ephesians chapter five, verse 17. I think we can make it there. Ephesians chapter five, and this one's kind of important that you look at it, it's close to Colossians, really. Ephesians 5, starting in verse 17. We'll be here for a couple minutes, so you can you can really let Colossians go. We're not kind of back to that part, so just know that. Um Ephesians 5:17. It says this. Paul again here says, Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. What's the will of the Lord, Paul? Well, do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation. So Paul here says, This is God's will. Don't be drunk, right? I mean, that's true. That's not really what he's getting at. That's not why he's saying it right here. But don't be drunk with wine, but notice um verse 18, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, the reason why Paul puts these two things together, being drunk with wine and being filled with the Holy Spirit, is because in some way they're kind of like the same. They're kind of the same. When you're under the influence of alcohol and you're filled with too much alcohol, you do certain things, you lose control. We've seen it, right? Not good. And Paul says, Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. And that idea of being filled with the Holy Spirit can be kind of, ooh, what does that mean? I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, right? And um, but it's the same idea, it's to be under the control of the Holy Spirit. Um, pointed out that at certain times in the Bible, people were filled with wrath and they plotted to kill Jesus, right? Filled with wrath, filled with rage, and they wanted to kill someone, right? Under the influence of rage, filled with fear, and they went and hid themselves. And it's that same idea here. Well, Paul says what you need in life, and this is the will of God for you, is that you're under the control of the Holy Spirit. Now, you could we could camp on that for months. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit? That would be a good study. But here, Paul gives us some very practical things. Look at verse 19, of what that's going to look like in your life. If you are under the control of the Holy Spirit, you're gonna speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. I don't really know what that is, really. I mean, I can't imagine a conversation where you're just like singing to each other, you know, hereafter church. But it sounds sweet, right? What if everything that came out of your house, uh your mouth was worship? Other times in my life, that's not what comes out of my mouth, right? You know what I mean? But what comes out of your mouth is worship. Oh, it's so sweet, and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, that'll be part of your life if you're under the influence of the Holy Spirit. You'll just see it. Notice verse 20, giving thanks, not complaining, but giving thanks for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. You'll put yourself under one another's, you know, leadership and just what can I do to help you? Loving one another. It's beautiful. Now, notice though, where Paul goes, and make sure you're looking at it, verse 22. This is all connected, right? Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church and savior of the body. Therefore, as a church is subject to Christ, even let wives be to their own husbands and everything. Husbands, love your wives. This is Christ loved the church, he gave himself for her that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word. He might present her to himself a glorious church, not having uh spot or wrinkle or any such thing. She'll be holy without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife, loves himself. And and and he goes on, talking about marriage, talking about family, fathers. Don't provoke your children to wrath, but build them up. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, uh, bondservants, employees, honor those that are over you as masters. Masters, be just, take care of your employees. And you look at this and it's like really practical, right? It's family and marriage and work and and all these things. And Paul says, if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, now listen, if you're in control, controlled by the Holy Spirit, your life will look different. You'll be able to do the things that God's called you to do. Now, practical, if you're gonna do the will of God, it's gonna start in these simple things, right? In your family, in your marriage, the things we all struggle with. God's gonna lead you to his will in these things that we're told point blank to do. There's no guessing what this is about. Wives, submit to your own husbands. That could be a hard thing. I don't have to deal with it. But but you know what I mean? That doesn't come naturally, right? Put yourself and trust your husband. Maybe if if if if they're like I am, I don't want to leave. Honestly, it's easier just to watch TV and play video games, honestly. But perhaps as a wife, you need to say, what do you think? What should we do as a family? As a husband, love your wife. And notice, he says, sanctifying her with the washing of the water of the word. As opportunities come to represent, we need spiritual answers. And go, I don't know what that is. We have to learn, we have to find out what God says about life. And so it's these things, it's like here's a project for you, God says. This is the will of God. Be a husband, be a wife, be a child who honors father and mother. Now, obeying, that's pretty obvious in life when you're younger. But honoring, that's a whole life thing. I still have to honor my parent. And honestly, I don't always do it. I'm rotten. But but that's what God wants us to do: being led by the Spirit, fathers, bringing your children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. You know, some real spiritual input. That's the will of God. So we've got a list of things here that's pretty big, but it's gonna take us being in uh being controlled by the Holy Spirit. We ask, God, fill my life in your work, in your friendships, with your mouth. God, fill my life in my words. I don't want to be the same person that I was. This is the will of God. Easy, right? Well, sort of. All right, well, let's oh, I want to show you one more thing. Um, turn. See, it's gonna be like a two-part, one verse thing. Um, let's turn to Colossians.

Let The Word Dwell Richly

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Oh boy, we are in Colossians uh chapter three, verse 16. Colossians 3, 16. Now check it out. Colossians and Ephesians are written at the same time in Paul's life. He's in prison, which we'll see later. He's in prison, house arrest, and he writes this. And see if you can find the parallels here. Verse 16, chapter 3, Colossians. Let the word of Christ dwell in your hearts richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs. You get it? Singing with grace in your hearts the Lord. Whatever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Wives, submit to your own husbands as is fitting to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, do not be bitter towards them. Children, obey your parents in all things. This is all pleasing, pleasing to the Lord. So check it out. It's the same stuff. I mean, he's plagiarizing himself here, right? It's the same thing, a little shorter, a little bit here and there, and whatever. But he says this in verse 16 Let the Word of God dwell in you richly. And you put that up against this, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit's not the word, and the word's not the Holy Spirit. But guess what? They're gonna say the exact same thing because all scripture is given by inspiration by the Holy Spirit. God wrote it by his Holy Spirit, and so check it out. You look at this and go, if I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, I could just as easily, well, same kind of way, let God's word dwell in me richly, and I'll know what to do in my relationships, I'll know what to do in my attitudes, because God tells us straight out. So these things go together well. We gotta move on. Crazy. Um let me catch up. Okay.

Sanctification And Leaving Sin

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Uh 1 Thessalonians 4, 3. Lots of turning today, but it's not far, right? First Thessalonians 4, verse 3. Did I get it right? Yeah, there it wait, there it is. Aha. All right. I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those. That's not it. 4 3. Oh, 4-3, that's 13. I'm so bad with numbers. For this is the will of God. Yay, easy. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. So we're told here, Paul says, You want to know what the will of God is? Your sanctification. Now, sanctification means to be separate from the world, means holiness, right? It's the same thing. So Paul says, God's will for your life is that you be separated from sin. Now he goes on to say specific sins. And it's sexual immoralities. Notice that you abstain from sexual immorality. Each one of you should know how to possess his own vessel, his own body in sanctification and holiness and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God. That no one should take advantage or defraud, defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of such, as we also forewarned and testify. So Paul here brings up sexual immorality and he says, shouldn't have a place in your life. But the idea here is really broad because he says, Don't live in the passion of your lust. You could probably put that with just about every sin. It's when our flesh comes in and we're just passionate. It's a flame of passion in our life. And we go, you know what I want right now? I want to lie. I want to lie because that's what I want to do. What I want to do right now is I want to gossip. My flesh wants to put somebody down so I can feel better about myself. All of sin starts in the flesh. So it doesn't matter that this is sexual sin necessarily, but he says, this is the way the Gentiles live in the passion of their flesh. They just, what do I want to do today? That sounds good. I'll do that. And he says, that's not what your life is all about. It's God's will that you be holy. So you can look at your life and go, God wants me to be holy today. He wants me to put away things that I'm looking at that are not holy. He wants me to take words out of my mouth that are not holy. And we got a lot we can work on, right? And that's the will of God. You know it. Slam dunk. Number four, you don't have to turn that because we're way out of

Submitting To Authorities In Life

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time. But 1 Peter 2, 13 says, Therefore, submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether the king is supreme or governors, those are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, the praise of those who do good. Verse 15 for this is the will of God, right? So we're hitting this because it specifically says, God's will for your life, do what the government says. What? Yeah, and Peter was under Roman Empire, a godless Roman Empire. And he says, This is God's will that you respect the government that's in place. And we won't talk as much about this, but God establishes leadership in our life. If you work at a job, it's your boss, right? If you're at school, it's your teacher, uh, it's your parents, right? In family, it's set up. God says this is leadership ordained by God. And and Peter just says, this is the will of God that you observe the leadership that God's put in your life. Good one. Now, number five, 1 Peter 3:17.

When Suffering Is God’s Will

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Listen to this. For it's better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than doing evil. So here we read God's will for your life to suffer, right? And that doesn't sell very well. Like, people aren't like, yeah, that's why I go to church, because I want to suffer by the will of God. You know, God has plans for my life. And but listen, if you live righteously in this dark world, you will suffer persecution. That's a promise from Jesus. You will suffer tribulation and difficulty. And so, in some ways, we can look at our life. If we're doing all the right things, man, God will bless. I think He will. Now, I look at my life, I'm like, what blessing for doing the things that God wants. I just can't believe it. But at the same time, sometimes the blessing is in the form of suffering that we get to stand with Jesus. And Paul, the longer he went on in life, the more he's like, that's what I want. I want to suffer. I want the fellowship of his suffering. It's weird, Paul. But he's like, I know I'm in the right place. If I'm doing the things that God wants me to do and life isn't easy, it's the will of God. Now, one more you can look up later.

Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks Always

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1 Thessalonians 5, 16 and uh through 18. It's like rapid fire. Paul says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks. For the this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So it's this whole attitude of rejoicing always, praying, God, what do you have for me? God, here's my life, you take it, committing it to God, and in everything give thanks. And these things come out of our life, and we go, This is God's will for my life. Now, those are the things, at least some of them, if not most of them, that God says specifically, this is the will of God. That's enough to live your whole life on, that list of things. This is what I can do every single day, and you cannot go wrong. It is God's perfect will for your life. But that's not what we wanted.

Freedom After Obedience

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We wanted to know whether we should live in such a house, or have such a job, or if you're at the front side of things, you know, what I should major in at college, or where I should go to school, who I should marry. That's a that's a biggie. Now, what does God say about that? There are principles for all those things in the Bible. You gotta know what God's word says about those things. Um, but how do we know what to do in those little things? Well, I think, and I don't mean to be flippant about this, but if you find yourself checking off, not that we're gonna check marks, but checking off every single one of those things that we just talked about, the will of God, uh being saved, will of God, the Holy Spirit controlling your life, the will of God, letting God's word dwell in you richly, the will of God, um sanctified from sin in the flesh, the will of God. Um, if if all those things are true in your life, now listen, if all those things are true in your life, do whatever you want. Now, I think God leads in the little things too. I mean, he does whisper to our hearts, and that's what we talked about at the beginning, being led by what he says, go here, do this, here's your day. You know, do this, say this. But if you live in all those things that he said, this is my will for your life, you can do whatever you want, and you won't go wrong. Here's a verse, let's turn there.

Delight In God, Desires Reshaped

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Last one, Psalm 37, verse 4. A psalm many times taken out of context, I think. A verse taken out of context, and it can be super dangerous, but it can also be super good. Psalm 37, verse 4. Psalm 37, verse 4. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart. So the delight yourself in the Lord, that's everything that we've been talking about. Putting God first, letting God control your life in the little things and in the big things, being separate from sin. God, I don't want to go there and do that. I don't want that to be part of my life because God, you've done so much to save me. I want to be different. If we delight ourselves in the Lord, if we say, God, you're all I want, then He'll give us the desires of our heart. Now, the problem is that a lot of times we read that verse and we go, you do this, and God will give you whatever you want. Sweet. And you make your list of what you want. But we forget about the delight yourself in the Lord, because a lot of fleshly things just kind of fall to the ground when you delight yourself in the Lord. You go, that stuff, not that important. That thing, oh, it's sinful, isn't it? Oh, it's selfish. Oh my goodness, I didn't even realize that. But if we put our heart and trust in the Lord with all our heart, Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart, every bit of it. Lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge Him. God, I'm putting you first, I'm acknowledging you in everything. He'll direct your path. And he can't go wrong. So, God, uh, I know we don't need a checklist because those can be kind of dangerous.

Closing Prayer And Weekly Practice

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But God, we want to do the things that you have for us. Not because they're good. They're not always easy, but they're good and they're right. But God, um, we also want to do what you have for us because you've been so good to us. God, you purchased us. You bought us when we were so lost. You've loved us, and there was nothing lovable about us. God, you've done so much for us. The very least we could do is live our lives for you. God help us to do what you have for us this week. We pray for my friends, for myself, that we take these things to heart. We let you control our life. Let the world lead us. God, we put away sin and selfishness in our lives. God, you would just give us the real desires of our hearts. How we love you. Thank you that you are so amazingly good to us. We pray all these things in Jesus' name.