Gene Sauls: Awesome.
Gene Sauls: Thank you, choir.
Gene Sauls: Thank you, Chris.
Gene Sauls: And I also want to thank all the ladies and the men who decorated the mall, and the kid's ministry decorated the second floor of the kids' ministry building.
Gene Sauls: If you haven't been over there to check that out, I encourage you to do so.
Gene Sauls: The Christmas trees and many of the other things that went on that are up here today were done by our chief technician and handyman, Dan Johnson, and we want to thank you, Dan.
Gene Sauls: And I want to give a special shout out to Tricia right here.
Gene Sauls: Tricia Sepco, and your daughter Brittany.
Gene Sauls: So thank you all for everything.
Gene Sauls: It just looks great! And if you haven't had a chance to go down the hall, please, I encourage you to do that today.
Gene Sauls: All right.
Gene Sauls: My name is Gene Sauls.
Gene Sauls: I have served as executive pastor for a little over two years, and it is my joy and honor to bring the word of God to us today, and we want to welcome all of those of you that are watching online.
Gene Sauls: We just pray the word of God will speak to us all today and that we will hear the voice of truth.
Gene Sauls: Let's bow together in prayer to that end, shall we.
Gene Sauls: Father, we thank you for this season of the year.
Gene Sauls: We thank you for the love of God, so loved the world that he gave the most precious thing to him, his only son, that the world might be rescued from darkness, rescued from bondage, set free, as the song said, and given light, the light of life.
Gene Sauls: And God, we thank you for that today.
Gene Sauls: So Lord, we ask you to prepare our hearts, Lord.
Gene Sauls: Open our ears.
Gene Sauls: God, may we hear and may we obey your word as it speaks to us today, to the glory of God the father, in and through the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray.
Gene Sauls: And all God's children said amen.
Gene Sauls: Open your copies of the word of God to Mark chapter 3 or your personal device that you may have there.
Gene Sauls: We are picking up and finishing chapter 3 of Mark today, and it's an interesting passage that we look at today.
Gene Sauls: We have seen the Lord Jesus do some mighty things here in chapter 3.
Gene Sauls: In the first part of the chapter, he healed the withered hand of a man.
Gene Sauls: And then also, many, many came to him, and he healed many.
Gene Sauls: Verse 10 tells us in chapter 3:"so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him." He even quieted the unclean spirits, as we see there in verse 12.
Gene Sauls: And then, he chose the twelve.
Gene Sauls: And then, as Luke Jackson preached last Sunday, he dispelled and clarified what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit's all about.
Gene Sauls: And if you didn't hear that last week, I encourage you to go online to the archive and listen to that message.
Gene Sauls: God used that.
Gene Sauls: And today we're looking at kinship and the will of God.
Gene Sauls: Kinship and the will of God.
Gene Sauls: So let's read together Mark chapter 3, verses 31 to 35:"And his mother and his brothers came and stood outside.
Gene Sauls: And standing outside, they sent to him and called him, and a crowd was sitting around him." You see, if you were to underline"crowd" or"great crowd", just in chapter 3, I think you would see that numerous times, a great crowd.
Gene Sauls: "A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him,'Your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.' And he answered them,'Who are my mother and my brothers?' And looking about at those who sat around him, he said,'Here are my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.'" First of all this morning, I want us to talk a little bit about kinship.
Gene Sauls: We're all born into a family, are we not?
Gene Sauls: We are.
Gene Sauls: And that's one of the conditions of-- if you're not born, right, I mean that goes without saying.
Gene Sauls: When we're born, we're born into a family, and sometimes, people are adopted into a family.
Gene Sauls: And sometimes, you marry into a family.
Gene Sauls: That can be joyous most of the time.
Gene Sauls: [Laughter] It can also be challenging, can't it?
Gene Sauls: Because that's the family.
Gene Sauls: Of course, we live in a culture today, in a world today, where the definition of"family" has been completely inverted and polluted, if I might honorably use that word.
Gene Sauls: The definition of"family", it's a confusing world.
Gene Sauls: As one writer described it,"We live in a culture of chaos." And you know why we're in a culture of chaos?
Gene Sauls: Because it's hard to find truth.
Gene Sauls: Amen?
Gene Sauls: We live in a post-truth world.
Gene Sauls: We used to live in a world of modernity, where it was all about man and man's capability, man's intellectuality, man's creativity, all about man.
Gene Sauls: Humanism, right?
Gene Sauls: We moved into postmodernism, which became an age of situation ethics, where anything you want to do, as long as you think it is right for you, that you do, and I didn't mean to rhyme with that, but it works.
Gene Sauls: Situation ethics.
Gene Sauls: Today, ladies and gentlemen, we live in a post-truth world.
Gene Sauls: Now, what do we mean by that?
Gene Sauls: We go back to the Old Testament and we find the prophets, time and again, tell the people of God, who have heard and heard over and over again the truth, and they've rejected it.
Gene Sauls: They resisted it.
Gene Sauls: And as a result of that, they created for themselves a society where truth was dead in the streets.
Gene Sauls: That's what Isaiah the prophet called it.
Gene Sauls: Also, that which has always been known to be good and always been acclaimed and sought after as good has been twisted, and now that has become evil.
Gene Sauls: And then that that we always have known in our entire life, that which was evil-- and we had no problem calling it evil-- has all of a sudden become good.
Gene Sauls: Ours is a culture of confusion.
Gene Sauls: A world, a world where no truth exists.
Gene Sauls: Now I'll make that last statement, but you and I know better, right?
Gene Sauls: We have truth, and it's right here in the inscripted[sic] word of God.
Gene Sauls: And as we celebrate this Christmas season, we celebrate, we honor, we sing about, we talk about the incarnated Word, the Lord Jesus, who came, and he came to make a family.
Gene Sauls: Now, he was born into a family.
Gene Sauls: Of course, Mary was his mother.
Gene Sauls: Jesus had a biological family.
Gene Sauls: Chapter 3, verse 21 tells us, if you look back at that, that in this particular part of the story, his family came, or at least, maybe, some family and some friends.
Gene Sauls: The Greek word there is very vague.
Gene Sauls: It could be friends, it could be family, or maybe it's a combination of both.
Gene Sauls: When they heard that Jesus was just going and going and going and busy and busy and busy, they were concerned about him.
Gene Sauls: So they went, because they had heard, as Luke preached, that he was out of his mind.
Gene Sauls: Somebody said,"He's gone nuts!" So his family went to see him.
Gene Sauls: And then, in verse 31, his mother and his brothers came to the house that he was in, and they sent a messenger in and said,"Hey, we want to see Jesus.
Gene Sauls: Tell him we're outside." So Jesus had a biological family.
Gene Sauls: Now let me make something very, very clear.
Gene Sauls: The New Testament is clear that Jesus had a biological family.
Gene Sauls: He was not an only child.
Gene Sauls: All right?
Gene Sauls: Okay.
Gene Sauls: Where can we find that out?
Gene Sauls: Look at Mark chapter 6, verse 3.
Gene Sauls: Mark 6, verse 3, the people are asking about this man that's speaking with such wisdom and authority and power,"Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And as often times as it does happen, when truth comes out, these folks took an offense at Jesus, even his own family took an offense at Jesus, because he was saying,"Hey, I love you.
Gene Sauls: Yes, yes, you're my biological family.
Gene Sauls: Yes, but let me tell you, there is a greater family.
Gene Sauls: It's a spiritual family.
Gene Sauls: The spiritual family." We talk about kinship.
Gene Sauls: We see true kinship here in verses 33 and 34 of this passage.
Gene Sauls: Jesus said in verse 33,"'Who are my mother and my brothers?' And looking about at those who sat around him, he said,'Here, here are my mother and my brothers.'" And so Jesus is talking here about a spiritual kinship.
Gene Sauls: True kinship is the family of God, and that's the Church.
Gene Sauls: Aren't you thankful that God had the Church in mind?
Gene Sauls: You know, Jesus said,"I will build my Church.
Gene Sauls: The gates of hell will not prevail.
Gene Sauls: I will build my Church, the family of God." Jesus will not allow the Church to disappear from the face of the earth.
Gene Sauls: He will build it.
Gene Sauls: He will sustain it.
Gene Sauls: He will carry it forth, and he has done that since the Church was founded on the day of Pentecost.
Gene Sauls: The Church will not die.
Gene Sauls: Now, we know what the conditions are, being in a biological family.
Gene Sauls: We've talked about that.
Gene Sauls: What are the conditions for being a part of a church family?
Gene Sauls: I want to give you four, right quickly.
Gene Sauls: True kinship, the family of God, lies in a common experience.
Gene Sauls: In a biological family, you have all kinds of common experiences.
Gene Sauls: In the church family, the family of God, you also have a common experience, and that common experience is the new birth.
Gene Sauls: You see, when you were born, you know, you're born once, you die twice, they said, somebody said.
Gene Sauls: But in the family of God, you must've had the spiritual birth.
Gene Sauls: Jesus, talking to Nicodemus, said what?
Gene Sauls: "You must be born again." That's the first condition of being in the family of God.
Gene Sauls: Have you been born again today?
Gene Sauls: Do you know for sure that you've been born again?
Gene Sauls: If you know for a fact that you have never acknowledged Jesus and your need of him to forgive you of your sins and asked him to forgive you of your sins and to come and change your heart and your life, I'm sorry.
Gene Sauls: We love you and we're glad you're here, but according to scripture, you're not part of the family and we want you to be part of the family.
Gene Sauls: Amen?
Gene Sauls: Amen.
Gene Sauls: We want you to be part of the family, so don't leave here today without taking that first step, the first requirement, the first and greatest step you will ever make as an individual.
Gene Sauls: Joining the family of God.
Gene Sauls: Hey, the church isn't perfect, is it?
Gene Sauls: For those of you that are visiting today, we're so glad you're here.
Gene Sauls: If you're watching online, and you live close, and you're looking for a church home, we'd love to have you sit in our sanctuary, but please know we're just a bunch of fallen people, fallen people that are just making it by the grace of God.
Gene Sauls: We are sinners saved by grace.
Gene Sauls: Amen?
Gene Sauls: And our king is victorious.
Gene Sauls: And he says we can overcome the world through him.
Gene Sauls: So the first true kinship step is common experience.
Gene Sauls: Now, how do you know that?
Gene Sauls: My wife and I were in Chicago, if I could take a minute to share this quick story and not step off the platform doing it.
Gene Sauls: We were in Chicago back in August.
Gene Sauls: My wife's a certified association executive, so I go with her, you know, I kind of tag along, you know, be the luggage bagger and all that stuff.
Gene Sauls: We went up to Chicago for the American Society of Associations Executives Convention, and they have a huge exhibit hall.
Gene Sauls: I mean, it's massive.
Gene Sauls: All kinds of stuff there, and every city that has any kind of size has a booth there, because they want these associations to come to their city.
Gene Sauls: And countries have gotten involved in it.
Gene Sauls: And so, we were in this one section of the exhibit hall, and there was this beautifully decorated booth, large booth: Korea.
Gene Sauls: I said,"Wow, okay, let's go check that out." And right out front of a booth was a table, and behind the table was a very small Korean lady, and she had these little fans, you know what I'm talking about?
Gene Sauls: The fold-out fans.
Gene Sauls: And she was stamping all kinds of beautiful designs on them and giving them to people.
Gene Sauls: And as she did, she was smiling, she was beaming, you know, bright eyes.
Gene Sauls: And so Amy and I were watching her, and it was our turn, so we got to sit down in front of her.
Gene Sauls: She's just doing her thing, and I said,"Hey, let me ask you a question.
Gene Sauls: Do you know our Creator?" And she just beamed again.
Gene Sauls: You know, she knew the Lord Jesus as her Lord and Savior.
Gene Sauls: You see, there is a-- if you're a genuine, born-again, you know, there's just something different about you.
Gene Sauls: It can be seen.
Gene Sauls: The joy of the Lord.
Gene Sauls: The light of his life is in us, and that's the way it was with this Korean woman.
Gene Sauls: Now, she didn't live in Korea.
Gene Sauls: I found out she lived in Chicago, but she knew Jesus.
Gene Sauls: She was a family of God.
Gene Sauls: I don't even know her name, but I know one day I'm going to see her again, right?
Gene Sauls: Amen.
Gene Sauls: All right, so secondly, then-- firstly, there's a common experience, and then there is a common interest: belonging and acceptance.
Gene Sauls: Everybody wants to feel belonged and to have a sense of acceptance.
Gene Sauls: And no better place exists than a strong traditional family, except a strong, healthy church family.
Gene Sauls: Probably the worst thing that could happen to anyone is to be wounded by church, of all places.
Gene Sauls: That's where people should be helped and healed and made stronger.
Gene Sauls: Not hurt.
Gene Sauls: But we all desire that family because we want to feel like we belong to something.
Gene Sauls: Why do we have so many young men joining gangs across the city of Memphis?
Gene Sauls: They don't have family.
Gene Sauls: They don't have a daddy.
Gene Sauls: So they come together for acceptance, to get a sense of identity and belonging, and they do bad things.
Gene Sauls: Everyone wants and needs a family.
Gene Sauls: So we have a common experience: the new birth, born again.
Gene Sauls: We have a common interest: the Word of God, the God of the Word, and the people of God.
Gene Sauls: That's our common interest.
Gene Sauls: We may disagree on many things, but there's much we have to agree on, amen?
Gene Sauls: Amen.
Gene Sauls: Number three, true kinship lies in a common obedience.
Gene Sauls: Hm.
Gene Sauls: How about the traditional family?
Gene Sauls: Where there is disobedience and rebellion in the home, there is all kinds of turmoil, all kinds of trouble.
Gene Sauls: And a lot of it has to do with the unwillingness of kids to obey.
Gene Sauls: Now, I know there are times where we as parents and grandparents, we mess up.
Gene Sauls: You know, we don't do and respond and act in appropriate manners, and we hurt and wound.
Gene Sauls: And what do we have to do?
Gene Sauls: We have to say-- hey, I did that to my grandson here not too long ago.
Gene Sauls: I said,"Buddy, I'm sorry.
Gene Sauls: I was harsh to you.
Gene Sauls: I said things to you that I shouldn't have said." I was scared.
Gene Sauls: I won't tell you the whole situation.
Gene Sauls: I was concerned for him and his little sister, who was two at the time.
Gene Sauls: And uh, you know, the old grandfather/father got into me, and I said,"Hey, you listen to me.
Gene Sauls: Okay?
Gene Sauls: I'm trying to protect you.
Gene Sauls: So you listen to me." So there has to be submission to the One(capital"O"), submission to the Lord Jesus our Savior, and submission to authority in the families we talked about in the church, in the civil arena.
Gene Sauls: Yes, there are times for civil protest, there are ways to have a civil protest in an orderly fashion, right?
Gene Sauls: There is a place for civil disobedience.
Gene Sauls: I mean, look at Acts chapter, I think it's chapter 4, when Peter and John, they said,"Hey, the religious leaders said you don't go around sharing that Jesus stuff." And what'd they say?
Gene Sauls: "We must obey God rather than man." There are times when we have to disobey the civil law and obey God's law.
Gene Sauls: You see?
Gene Sauls: That's what you have to hang everything on.
Gene Sauls: If you're disobeying civil law because you don't like that law, then you're coming at it in the wrong way.
Gene Sauls: If you're disobeying a civil law because it violates God's law, then you're on the right track.
Gene Sauls: So a common experience, a common interests, a common obedience.
Gene Sauls: Ephesians 5:21, and this is not on the screen, Ephesians 5:21 is a very interesting passage or verse.
Gene Sauls: It says,"Submit, therefore, to one another." So how you do that when you've got a rebellious teenager?
Gene Sauls: How you do that when you and your spouse are having a nice little discussion?
Gene Sauls: How you do that when you've got a relative or a coworker or a neighbor you're in conflict with?
Gene Sauls: How do you submit?
Gene Sauls: You have to go back to the first step of obedience.
Gene Sauls: The first step of obedience is submission and surrender to your Lord and your Savior, Jesus Christ.
Gene Sauls: You better make sure you've got that right first.
Gene Sauls: Okay?
Gene Sauls: You get that right.
Gene Sauls: Then you make sure you're following the policy and the governance of the church.
Gene Sauls: Make sure you got that right.
Gene Sauls: And then, make sure you are right with your brother or your sister.
Gene Sauls: Get that right.
Gene Sauls: Then you've done it.
Gene Sauls: That's obedience.
Gene Sauls: Number four, true kinship lies in a common goal.
Gene Sauls: Now remember, we're talking about the conditions for being a part of God's family.
Gene Sauls: As Jesus said,"Here are my mother and my brothers.""Here they are." And we all want to be a part of God's family.
Gene Sauls: So true kinship lies in a common goal.
Gene Sauls: What is our goal?
Gene Sauls: Each one of us should have a personal goal of growing in our knowledge and understanding of God's word, God's work, and God's will.
Gene Sauls: And we're going to talk about God's will here in a minute.
Gene Sauls: God's word, God's work.
Gene Sauls: You might could throw another"W" in there if you're taking notes: God's way, and then God's will.
Gene Sauls: We need to be mindful every day of winning others to Christ, sharing our faith.
Gene Sauls: How long has it been since you said anything to anybody about Jesus?
Gene Sauls: We want people to come to Christ.
Gene Sauls: We want to help them to become disciple makers themselves.
Gene Sauls: See, that's what it's all about.
Gene Sauls: You be a disciple, and you help someone else be a disciple, and part of being a disciple is that disciples helps someone else be a disciple, and then before you know it, we've got a whole heap of disciples, right?
Gene Sauls: So those are the conditions for being a part of God's family.
Gene Sauls: Common experience, a common interest, a common obedience, and a common goal.
Gene Sauls: And then Jesus lays out, listen to this, he lays out the primary condition for being a part of God's family.
Gene Sauls: There is a primary condition.
Gene Sauls: I want to talk about that.
Gene Sauls: Look what verse 35 says: after Jesus has said,"Hey, who are my mother and brothers?" He looks around the room and says,"Here are my mother and my brothers." And then he says in verse 35,"Whoever does the will of God is my mother and my brother.""Whoever does the will of God is my mother and my brother and my sisters." He throws that in.
Gene Sauls: What is the will of God?
Gene Sauls: J.I.
Gene Sauls: Packer in his book, God's Will, says,"The will of God is the course of action that each of us have in each situation that God sees as good, pleasing, and complete," and that's Romans chapter 2, verse 2.
Gene Sauls: I'm sorry, Romans 12, verse 2.
Gene Sauls: "It is pleasing to God, it's good, and it's complete.
Gene Sauls: And then the most truly and fully God-glorifying response to each set of needs and possibilities." The will of God is complicated.
Gene Sauls: That's basically what he's saying here.
Gene Sauls: "The most biblical, faithful, and reverent option open to us each time the servants of God and of his son Jesus Christ.
Gene Sauls: It is this that God wants and helps us to discern and carry out." J.I.
Gene Sauls: Packer.
Gene Sauls: John Piper describes the will of God as two-dimensional.
Gene Sauls: We'll take a minute to talk about that.
Gene Sauls: What is the will of God?
Gene Sauls: We'll take a quick look at two possible dimensions of the will of God.
Gene Sauls: First of all, it's God's will of decree or his sovereign will.
Gene Sauls: God's sovereign will is his sovereign control of all that has come to pass, that is now coming to pass, and what will come to pass.
Gene Sauls: That's God's sovereign control.
Gene Sauls: And we see in Daniel, chapter 4, verse 35 that God does according to his will, among the host of heaven, that's the spiritual, angelic realm.
Gene Sauls: And among the inhabitants of the earth, that's the Church and those that are not part of the Church, the human realm, and none can stay his hand or say to him,"What have you done?" God is sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere present.
Gene Sauls: Do you hesitate to put your trust in a being of that magnitude?, Do you dare put your trust in a human organization or a human ideology or a president or a government?
Gene Sauls: Do you dare do that now?
Gene Sauls: Now, the word of God is clear.
Gene Sauls: Those who rule over you, those who are in offices of leadership are there by the hand and will of God, did you know that?
Gene Sauls: That's scripture.
Gene Sauls: And we're commanded, we're charged, we're admonished to pray for those who rule over us.
Gene Sauls: But God, it's his will, and none can stay his hand or say to him,"What are you doing?", Is basically what that means.
Gene Sauls: James 1:18-- this is not on the screen-- James 1:18 says,"Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth." James 1:18:"Of his own will." You're sitting in that pew.
Gene Sauls: You're sitting at Central Church.
Gene Sauls: You were born who you were born, how you were born, and where you were born.
Gene Sauls: Psalm 1:39:"He knew me." He knew you in your mother's womb.
Gene Sauls: Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth.
Gene Sauls: Revelation 4:11:"'Worthy are you,' the elders cried out to God,'our God and Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.
Gene Sauls: For you created all things'"-- and listen--'"by your will, they existed and were created.'" See?
Gene Sauls: Nothing exists apart from the will of God.
Gene Sauls: There's a lot more to that that we don't have time to get into today.
Gene Sauls: The will of God is complex, but I want to make it simple today, and I believe we can do that.
Gene Sauls: But first of all, God is sovereign.
Gene Sauls: It is his will and his sovereignty, his authority, that keeps the world together.
Gene Sauls: Well, you look around and say,"God's not on the job.
Gene Sauls: The world's a mess." Well, yes it is.
Gene Sauls: And you know why?
Gene Sauls: Because we want to do it our way.
Gene Sauls: We want to define what's good and evil.
Gene Sauls: I was reading recently.
Gene Sauls: There was another take on the fruit in the garden of Eden I want to take a second to share with you.
Gene Sauls: We all know that story.
Gene Sauls: God told Adam,"You can eat of any tree in the garden, any tree, but that tree right there, that tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat." Well, we know the story, don't we?
Gene Sauls: Adam said,"It was that woman!" And the woman said,"It was that serpent!" We love to pass blame, don't we?
Gene Sauls: And I've thought for most of my life that Adam and Eve, all of a sudden, realized what was good and what was evil, and you know, that's partly true.
Gene Sauls: In their finite mind and what they understood, as our kids grow up and learn what's good and bad as they are taught and corrected and guided, but here's a thought that this writer put forth.
Gene Sauls: Not only did they begin to see and know what was good and what was evil; they took it a giant leap forward, and they said,"I'm going to determine what's evil and what's good." That's a dangerous place.
Gene Sauls: That makes the fall in the garden of Eden even greater, because man, because of his sin, falters away from his creator, and says in his heart,"I know what's evil and I know what's good.
Gene Sauls: I'll do it my way." You know, and one writer, or one scholar said it this way, one preacher:"There are two kinds of people in the world: one that humbly acknowledges a desperate need of God, and they'd say, as Jesus did in the garden,'Oh God, thy will be done.' And then there's another place, where God looks down, and he says to a man or a woman and says,"Your will be done.'" I know which place I want to be in: over here.
Gene Sauls: That's God's sovereign will.
Gene Sauls: How about God's will of command?
Gene Sauls: The will of God is what he commands us to do.
Gene Sauls: And we're going to go through some verses right quick, so just hang tight.
Gene Sauls: In the book of Ezra, chapter 10, verse 11.
Gene Sauls: Ezra has, along with Nehemiah, they've gone back to the city of Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity, and they've rebuilt the city walls, they're rebuilding the city, they've rebuilt the temple, and then people are continuing to come back from Babylonia, from the 70 years of captivity.
Gene Sauls: And what they've done-- while they were there in captivity, they married across ethnic barriers that God had set for them.
Gene Sauls: And so Ezra the priest stood up before the people and says,"Now, therefore, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers, and do his will.
Gene Sauls: Separate yourself from the peoples of the land and from the pagan wives." How does that apply to us today?
Gene Sauls: Obeying God's will.
Gene Sauls: It's doing what God wants us to do in every situation that we're in.
Gene Sauls: And when we willfully-- the writer of James says,"He that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is a sin.
Gene Sauls: When you know to do good and you don't, when I know to do good and I don't, I'm standing against my God, my Lord and Savior, Jesus.
Gene Sauls: Forgive me.
Gene Sauls: It helped me to know when I do that.
Gene Sauls: 1 Thessalonians 4:3.
Gene Sauls: Now here, three passages that are going to help you to kind of get your hand around the will of God.
Gene Sauls: 1 Thessalonians 4:3, Paul writes,"For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immortality." Then he goes into a long depiction of what sexual immorality is.
Gene Sauls: Well, let me say something.
Gene Sauls: Nobody questions the fact that we're saved by grace.
Gene Sauls: Faith.
Gene Sauls: By grace, you are saved through faith.
Gene Sauls: Okay?
Gene Sauls: Yeah, and that's-- I believe that.
Gene Sauls: I believe that with all my heart, but when it comes to sanctification, you're not sanctified by grace.
Gene Sauls: Yes, grace is behind it.
Gene Sauls: And sanctification is an act of God, but sanctification, God can only sanctify the willing heart.
Gene Sauls: If you're not willing, if I'm not willing to be sanctified, if I don't want to be sanctified, if I want to continue to do what I've been doing because I like it, God says,"Gene, you've got to straighten up, boy." I say,"Lord, hey, I like it." And God said,"Okay.
Gene Sauls: Just go on, son.
Gene Sauls: Payday's coming.
Gene Sauls: Judgment's coming." The will of God is your sanctification.
Gene Sauls: You're saved by grace.
Gene Sauls: You are sanctified by your obedience to God.
Gene Sauls: God does the sanctifying, again, to the heart that's willing, to the heart that's open.
Gene Sauls: 1 Thessalonians 5:18:"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God." Just got bad news from the doctor.
Gene Sauls: Just got a call from work.
Gene Sauls: Come in, we'll talk to you.
Gene Sauls: And you lost your job.
Gene Sauls: Whatever it is, the will of God is everything.
Gene Sauls: Give thanks.
Gene Sauls: "Lord, I don't understand.
Gene Sauls: I don't get it, but Lord, I know you're sovereign.
Gene Sauls: You have a plan.
Gene Sauls: You are a good God, and that plan is good.
Gene Sauls: I surrender to you." 1 Peter 2:15,"For this is the will of God--" here you go again!"For this is the will of God: that by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." Someone said,"For evil to abound, let good men do nothing." And throughout the pages of scripture, God is crying out to his people,"Do good! Do good! Because if you don't do good, and you don't do anything, evil will abound." And it will abound even in your own heart, as a member of the family of God.
Gene Sauls: The will of God is synonymous with the purpose of God, and the will of God is synonymous with the will of my father.
Gene Sauls: In Matthew 7:21, Jesus says,"Not everyone who says to me,'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my father in Heaven." Matthew 12:50, which is a companion passage to Mark 3:35:"For whoever does the will of my father in Heaven is my brother and sister and mother." John Piper says, talking about these two dimensions of the sovereign will of God and the commanded will of God, where man is called to obey.
Gene Sauls: "His sovereign will is invincible because he is invincible, and his will of command can be grievously broken." We need both of these truths, both of these understandings of the will of God, not only to make sense of his word, but to hold fast to him in times of suffering.
Gene Sauls: So how do we learn to know God's will?
Gene Sauls: Over in Romans chapter 12, verse 2, this is not going to be on the scree.
Gene Sauls: In Romans 12, verse 2, the Apostle says,"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind," and here's the charge:"that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." The word"perfect" there means"complete" or"adequate".
Gene Sauls: "By testing." We have any scientists in here?
Gene Sauls: [Laughter] What does a scientist do?
Gene Sauls: Tries one thing, it fails.
Gene Sauls: Tries another thing, fails.
Gene Sauls: On and on and on.
Gene Sauls: He tries, he tries, he tries, until it works.
Gene Sauls: And that's how it is with our understanding the will of God.
Gene Sauls: We have to go through the testing to know his will, but oh my friend, when you get to that point where the revelation is made and the lights come on and you know,"Oh yes, yes, I was obedient and I was faithful.
Gene Sauls: I didn't understand and know the will of God at that time, but now I know." And you can know, as we come to a close today, in our reflection and response time, we would just like for you to bow your heads for a minute if you would.
Gene Sauls: We come to the Christmas season, the most wonderful time of the year and also the most stressful and dreaded time of the year.
Gene Sauls: I want to remind us all, as we look at the lights, as we look at the trees, to be reminded that Jesus is our kinsman redeemer.
Gene Sauls: He didn't come to bask in royalty or to sit in an ivory palace; he came to do the work of his father, so that you and I might be made righteous and a part of God's great, grand plan, the family of God, the church.
Gene Sauls: So with this, hopefully, a little better understanding of kinship and God's will, how is the Holy Spirit right this moment talking to you?
Gene Sauls: How do you need to respond?
Gene Sauls: In a minute, as Chris comes and leads us in a song, I want you to think about this.
Gene Sauls: What have I-- what would God charge against me today?
Gene Sauls: Where have I failed in not doing the will of God?
Gene Sauls: And I would say to you that not knowing, that's something you ask God to forgive you for, because you should know.
Gene Sauls: You should know.
Gene Sauls: Ask God to forgive you for not knowing.
Gene Sauls: For some of us, we need to ask God,"Lord, forgive me for not desiring to know the will of God for my life." And then for some of us, we need to ask God to forgive us for not obeying that that we know and doing his will as it has been made known to us.
Gene Sauls: But then, some of us need to ask God to forgive us for trumping his sovereign, commanded will.
Gene Sauls: By wanting it our way.
Gene Sauls: Wanting it our way.
Gene Sauls: Our God, Father, we thank you for the word of God.
Gene Sauls: It is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, and I pray that what we have heard today is not my words, but your words.
Gene Sauls: And as the spirit of God moves across this room, I'm going to ask everybody.
Gene Sauls: I know you've got a post to volunteer, I know you've got this and that to do.
Gene Sauls: That can wait.
Gene Sauls: Let's let God move.
Gene Sauls: As Chris sings, the altar is open.
Gene Sauls: What do you need to talk to God about this morning?