God's Guidance to Go Right

There are two spirits in life, two ways we can go. Before we are Christians, we have no option but to follow our own wills. But when God comes inside, He makes it possible for us to go the right way, to live in accordance with His will. And in case there is any doubt about what is the right way, He will make it abundantly clear.

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When we are examining our situation in life, we are either following God’s will or the opposite – our own will. You could say there is no neutral position. It’s either God’s will or the enemy’s.

Peter is very specific about the fact that at one time the people were like this; now they were following a completely different pathway, because they had now a totally different source. It’s clear cut.

The epistle was being written to Christian people who were under growing persecution. It would mean a lot to make a stand as a Christian. It would mean a lot for someone to put up their hand and admit to being a follower of Jesus Christ and determined to do His will. Peter wanted the people to realise that no matter what mocking or strife might come, they needed to make a stand.

1 Peter 4:1-2

There’s an alternative at the end of v2. Previously you lived in the flesh, now according to the will of God.

1 Peter 2:21-24

There’s a big difference in living a life as unto God, doing His will, determining that your choices – about career, university, partner – will be based on what He wants. 1 Pet 4:1 says that if people are being persecuted, it’s because they have become a Christian. The power of sin has been broken. They are not governed by sin.
I want to point out what the difference is between living in the flesh (non-Christian) and living in the spirit (Christian).

Romans 6:6-10

I am crucified with Christ. He took the penalty of my sins and broke the power of sin in my life, and it’s as though I were crucified with Him on the cross. I have the potential for sin, because I don’t have a glorified body yet, but I am no longer under the power of sin. The power has been broken. I now have the freedom to choose not to sin. Prior to that, you have no option, and sin leads to death. There has been a severance of the power of sin.

Romans 6:7-11

Reckon – take stock of what has happened. Don’t let sin reign in your body. It doesn’t have power over you. As a Christian we have the freedom to go God’s way. Before I am a Christian, I am under the power of sin. There is no option, and I fail God’s law. Now, Peter was saying, these people were Christians and had been set free from the power of sin. True they didn’t yet have a glorified body. Each day I am recognising the fact that God has set me free from sin. I’m dead to it. It doesn’t have power over me. I can give in to sin and temptation, but I have the power not to.

Romans 6:12-14

I can yield to sin, but I don’t want to do that. I’m free to go God’s way, and I want to do so, and I will do so. It’s His righteousness inside me. I’m identifying with Christ all that way through.

Romans 6:17-18

Inside you as a person, when you became a Christian you obeyed God’s calling inside you, which let you know the state you were in and the solution He provided. Your state was that you were fed up with sinning. There were habits which dominated. I’m not standing in judgment. But before you’re a Christian you have no option. Sin dominates, and sin leads to death eternally. Obeying from the heart means you identify with the fact that God pointed out your need of a Saviour to save you from the power of sin and the fact that you have sinned. God’s law is there. We can’t keep God’s law in our natural life. We are born in sin. A time is coming when God will judge the world. He has provided a way where you can live clean and free form the power of sin. It happened by the Word of God through the Holy Spirit, and it happens when you obey from your heart the truth.

The truth is that the cross we have here on the wall is an emblem of the fact that you can live clean. He took into Himself what you did wrong, the power of sin. He broke that power. Because of what He did on the cross, you no longer have to be dominated by sin. You have different desires and want to go God’s way.

Peter was saying there were two spirits in the world, one going God’s way and one very definitely not going that way. There is no middle ground. And these verses in Romans make it clear whether we are alive to God. You’re either a servant of sin unto death, or a servant of life unto righteousness.

1 Peter 4:1-3

That’s the way it is before you’re a Christian. It’s a dismal, lonely life. At times you think, “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could live right for longer than I do?” You try to fill up the emptiness, but you always come back to the point where you are sick of it.

If God has brought you to the position of being sick of what you are like on the inside, it is indeed the work of God, of His Spirit, because naturally we wouldn’t think the way.

1 Peter 4:4

Maybe you work in an office, and suddenly you no longer want the same things. And for some, this brings out sniping. But then one day someone will ask if they can have a chat with you because you are different. “In the past that was the way you and I walked,” says Peter. And some of the people who witnessed the change speak evil of you. But :-

1 Peter 4:5

There is a judgment coming.

Now we have been going through this letter sequentially, but the idea does recur that God is speaking to some of you here. You realise, as the choir sang, that you need to draw a line in the sand. The reason you’re able to do that is because God has brought you to that position. God has been faithful to you. He is working in your heart and drawing you to Himself. You’re in a position where God is faithfully pointing things out to you, so that in your heart, you’re saying, “Lord, I need you to sort me out, to break the power of sin in my life. I need you to come inside and change me.” He’s been faithful.

1 Peter 4:6

There are those who have passed on. They made a stand for Christ. And despite the fact that men were making judgments of them, they were living their lives unto God.
God seems to have a way of picking things up where He left them last time, when He speaks to you. It’s His love which knows where you were the last time ... and here we are again.

1 Peter 4:7

“Be of sound mind, therefore, and be calm and collected in spirit, with a view to giving yourselves to prayer.” There’s a peace inside an individual who is a Christian – the peace of God. You can’t replicate that in this world. There is peace, and the power of sin is broken. It’s a peace which this world cannot reproduce.

I’ve been talking with people who are facing decisions that they want to get right. I want to encourage you, with some verses which point out how careful God is that you do get things right :-

This is a principle as to how someone in tune with God will be guided :-

Isaiah 30:21

This is a person – a Christian – who is trying to go the right way. You aren’t static. The voice will speak when you turn the wrong way. If you’re trying to establish God’s will, try different avenues. He’ll make it clear if you take the wrong way. You don’t have to go wrong to go right. But it’s easier to be steered if you’re moving. Don’t be static if you want to know God’s will for your life.

Ephesians 2:10

There is a pathway for my life already prepared, and if I am open before God and ask His Holy Spirit to come inside and sort me out, there’s a way prepared for me. I want to fulfil your purposes as long as I am on this earth. He listens and answers. He doesn’t make things difficult for you. He’s prepared the things for you to walk into.

Philippians 2:13

When I am asking for guidance, I can have confidence that my thinking process will be affected by God wanting me to go the right way and do what pleases Him. I need to make sure that when I ask for guidance, I want His will, and am not trying to lay down restrictions. He’s faithful and will answer.

Hebrews 13:20-21

If you are open before God and want His will, He’ll make it apparent. We each have different personalities and God works in different ways with us. How will God guide you particularly? He will guide you so that you will know for sure what He wants you to do. And there will be peace inside, because it is the God of peace who will make us perfect in every good work. There will be a peace inside.

Can’t the enemy mimic peace? No – not in the way I’m talking about. Not in the way when an individual is completely open, and realises that because Jesus was crucified and rose, I am free to go the right way. God will make it clear. There’s nothing mystical about finding out what God wants for your life.

1 Peter 4:7

That’s for everyone in this room.

Now is the time for you to be obedient the faithful word that God has brought to you.

New Year’s Eve Service

As we stand at the brink of a new year, Deuteronomy reminds us that the Lord cares for us, and that His eyes are upon us from the beginning of the year even to the end of it.

This is an occasion when there is a new beginning. We also need to be aware of what we can thank God for. When we had the series on prayer, it was possible to think ... if I were to make a list of say three things I’d like to thank God for, what would be on that list? People began to think about that.I’d like you to share with people what you’re going to thank God for. It’s a good time to think about what we can thank God for.

It’s quite an episode when you look at the preparations for the departure for the Promised Land. Joshua was there with Moses. He was ready. The Lord spoke to the children of Israel about the land they were to go in to possess.

Deuteronomy 11:10-12

The complete opposite of Egypt – a land which drinketh water.

Revelations 22:16-18

God has been faithful to us as a group of people, part of the church worldwide, and He has been faithful to you.

Deuteronomy 11:12

There is no way that God doesn’t care for you.

Psalms 37:4-6

His eyes are always on you from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

As we gather together now at the end of this year, and as we flip to the next year on the calendar, and I know God has been faithful to us jointly and to you. There is no way that God will fail to make provision, will fail to guide you. He will make provision and guide each one of us according to what He wants. It doesn’t matter what sounds there are offstage. It doesn’t matter what efforts there are, overt or covert, to derail what God wants in this place. He is a faithful God.

It’s a wonderful thing that we can join together and partake of the bread and wine.

Deuteronomy 11:13-15

It talks there about the next generation. I was talking to some people earlier about their children. I want us to join together and pray for each member of each family.

1 Corinthians 11:23-30

The Good Shepherd

There is a huge contrast between those shepherds who are concerned only for their own interests, and the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. Whatever our needs in life, if we hear His voice, we will find that He has already prepared the way.

Jesus was talking to the Pharisees after healing the man who was born blind. When the man returned after being healed Jesus had moved on, but later Jesus came and found the man again.

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John 9:36 - 41

Jesus told the Pharisees that if they were blind, they would have no sin, but because they claimed to see, their sin was still inside them. The Pharisees were kidding themselves. They didn’t see. The man born blind could now see and wanted to know the person who healed him.

The Pharisees were in positions of importance, linked to the Temple, teachers of the law, and they lorded it over other people. When Jesus spoke about shepherds, the Pharisees would have known what the Old Testament taught on the subject.

Ezekiel 34:1 - 4

The prophets – the shepherds – were only out for themselves.

Ezekiel 34:5 - 16

Ezekiel 34:23 - 24

Verse 23 prefigures the verses we will now look at, where Jesus said “I am the good shepherd.” There is one shepherd, the bishop of your souls. When He said that, the Pharisees and the others knew the background. There were shepherds who only lived for themselves. Their lifestyle was paramount; the people were not. Everything was geared to them, not to the people. God said, “I will seek them, will feed them, will provide for them.”

John 10 shows that what Jesus said resonated with His hearers.

John 9:41 – 10:5

Remember the context. He has just told the Pharisees that they were fooling themselves, convinced that they knew what they were doing and how to preserve their lifestyle. They said they saw, and therefore their sin remained, because they didn’t admit their need, they didn’t admit what was inside. The sheepfold - four walls with one door – anyone who doesn’t come in by the door is a thief. This would have hit the Pharisees between the eyes.

Jesus is far more interested in you than you know. He knows each of you by name, and He wants you to be aware that He is the Good Shepherd, that He does provide and has made every provision for your well-being.

John 10:6 - 7

Before it was a case that you had to go in through the door. Now He is saying He is the door.

John 10:8 - 9

This was a revolutionary thought to the people who were listening. Jesus was ascribing to Himself who He was. He was describing Himself. From our perspective, we can look back and see how things worked.

It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter if you’ve written yourself off, thinking you’re not good enough, thinking that your problems are too difficult to solve. He’s saying He is the door. You are safe – safe from the consequences of your sin, safe from retribution, safe because you have Christ’s life in you. Some of you have written yourselves off, but I want to confirm God is saying to you, “I am aware of you more than you know.” He loves you. Some of you have have wondered but He has heard your prayers and does hold your future in His hands.

The freedom will be there to go in and out to find the pasture. The sheep will be cared for. It even goes to the point where if the sheep were in danger, the shepherd would give his life to care for the sheep.

John 10:10

In verse 9, a man will be saved, go in and out and find pasture. By contrast, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. What a revolutionary thing Jesus was saying! And the Pharisees were listening.

John 10:11-16

There’s a direct link back to Ezekiel. And Jesus now extends this to include both the Jews and the Gentiles.

John 10:17-18

You’ll be saved, go in and out, find pasture. Sometimes, people ask about God’s guidance, and what is the right way for a person’s life. God is interested in you. And He’s so careful to get it right for you. He’s so careful that He’s sorted things out in advance for the best – the best way to fulfil the destiny He has for your life.

Isaiah 30:18 - 21

You’ll hear His voice. His sheep know His voice. You may think “But I’m not important. God won’t speak to me like that.” Why not? We’re talking about anyone here, you don’t have to be something special. He knows what you’re facing, and He knows that if you keep going forward, you’ll hear a voice saying ‘This is the way’.

In 1978 I went for a financial job in London. An agency sent me to see a Mr Low at National Mutual. They said the agency had sent me to the wrong company by mistake. I said, “Well, do you have a job?” And that’s how I got the job. God wanted me in National Mutual. If you’re moving, the rudder of a ship can be effective. If you’re stuck in dry dock, it won’t. You have to go forward, and you can trust God to sort it out. He specialises in providing for you because He loves you.

Psalm 37:4 - 5

Delight yourself in the Lord. “But my heart’s wicked”. How does that stack up? You’re a Christian. You’re delighting yourself in God. So He’ll create in your heart that desire which He will then meet. Everything will tie in. You have abilities and skills. Delight yourself in Him and He will give thee the desires of thy heart.

Psalm 37:5

Ephesians 2:10

He knows the future. Your times are in His hands. And your voyage of discovery in life is to rejoice in the provision of God for you in ways you never expected. He loves you. If any man hear His voice, he will find pasture.

1 Peter 5:6 - 7

Humble yourselves. Don’t make out that you see if you don’t. Be honest. Realise God is listening to you on the inside, and He has the answer already.

John 10:27 - 28

He’s talking to the Pharisees here as well. No matter what anyone says, no man will pluck you out of Jesus’ hand.

John 10:29

God is greater than all. There is no way He’s not in control and making provision for you.

John 10:30

I don’t know how you got here today or what you were thinking. Possibly you were wondering about your future. Jesus says to you today, “I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture.”

He gives eternal life, which you experience now.