Good morning.  Well, the first week of regular classes began this pats week.  And after beginning, I can only look forward to the fact that there are only 104 days until my graduation.  But who’s counting?  Anyway, today I am going to look at what we need to do in order to have the perfectly planned life.  What is it that will allow us to have the best life available?

Before we begin, let’s open with a word of prayer

If I where to ask you, “Who would you like to plan your life?”  You would probably say, “Well, I want to plan my own life.”  But the bad new is, we can't really do that.  Why, because we don't know what the future holds and there's no way we can plan for all the contingencies that may come our way.  George Herbert once said, “Life is half spent before we even know what it is.”

In some cultures, the parents plan out their children's lives.  There are foreign students at school from India that when they return to their country, their parents will have selected them a wife to marry.  In communist countries and some other dictating nations, the government plans a person's life.  They really have no say in what happens to them.  But what if our all-knowing, all-good, all-loving, all-wise, and wonderful God offered to plan your life for you.  What would you do?

Well, I have some good news for us all this morning.  He does!  I want to show you some Scriptures today that use a phrase that's found 25 times in the New Testament, and that phrase is “the will of God.”  What does the will of God have to say about my life, and how does it work?

The late Dr. Wernher Von Braun once was asked what it would take for man to reach the moon, and he replied, “The will to do it.”  This answer holds good in nearly every field of human endeavor.  In medicine, determination and persistence have paid off in spectacular breakthroughs in conquering diseases.  In transportation the dream of traveling around the world in a matter of hours has become a reality because the will to do so was so strong.  “The will to do it!”  How vitally important this attitude as it comes to Christianity?  If you really want to do God's will, you can, but you must have “The will to do it.”  This is true in so many areas of our lives.

First, turn with me to Mark 3:31­35.  Here in Mark 3:31-35 it says, “1”

Now this story seems a little strange at first, doesn’t it?  Why wouldn't Jesus acknowledge His own family who had come to visit Him?  But if we look a few verses before this, we can find the answer.  The answer is found in verse 21.  In Mark 3:21 it says, “But when His own people.”  This is meaning His family, His relatives.  “When His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.””

His mother, His brothers, and His sisters had showed up because they thought He had lost His mind.  When they arrived, they were trying to lure Him out so that they could take Him away and have him committed to a hospital for the mentally ill!  Of course, they didn't have any such hospitals in that day, but you know what I mean.

They thought to themselves, “He's gone bonkers.  He's off His rocker.  He's lost His marbles.  He's not right in the head.  He doesn't have both oars in the water.  Something is wrong with His mind.”  Jesus, however, knew exactly what He was doing, and He wasn't about to be lured out.

Instead, He said something very wonderful that has a direct meaning to you and to me this morning as we look at having a God Planned Life.  According to the JAB Translation, He said, “I want to be your Brother.  I want to be your Son.  I want to be your Father.  I want to be your Best Friend.  I want you to be My family.  I want to be in an intimate, personal, daily, family relationship with you.  But there's one thing that's necessary.  In order for this you happen you must first be committed to doing the will of God in your life.”

Now in case you have not heard of that JAB Translation, let me fill you in.  It is the Joshua Allen Book translation.  You see, He’s telling us that He wants a close relationship with us, but we must first be committed to doing the will of God.

“Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother”  So in order to have a God planned life we must follow the will of God.

Now, let's take this a little bit further and look at another passage that can be found in the Gospels.  Turn with me to Luke 7:29-30.  In just these 2 verse we can get confused and wonder, “How does this go with what we are talking about this morning?”  But in Luke 7:29-30 it says, “2”

Before we go any further, I just want to let you know that I love bubbles.  I always like to see the bubbles form and then try and catch them as they fall to the ground.  But you know what, I just bought a package of bubbles, but they don’t seem to be working right.

I’m really bummed out too.  I paid a good price for them, and then they don’t even work right.  See, I can pull out this wand and see the liquid, but they don't do anything.  I just can’t understand why they wont form bubbles. 

But just the other day, Nellie in her infinite wisdom told me why they wouldn’t work.  No Nellie I’m not making fun of you, the word infinite means endless.  In her endless wisdom, she explained that in order for the bubbles to form, I have to blow through the wand.

You know that reminds me of the verse we are looking at.  In order for us to have a God planned life, we need to do our part, and that is what this verse is all about.

Here, Jesus was commenting on the role of John the Baptist.  You see, God has a plan for our lives, but He isn't going to force it upon us.  Last week we hit on this fact just briefly.  He has a will for us, but He says it's optional.  You can either accept it or reject it, but you have to make the decision to do so.

But after you make that decision, it reminds me of another verse in the Bible that is just like these bubbles.  It is Romans 6:10-11, and it says, “3”

So, we're kind of like these bubbles.  When someone adds air to them, they do what bubbles are supposed to do.  When Jesus is in our hearts, after we have accepted Him on our own free will, He adds His Spirit so that we can do what He wants us to do as well.

Turn with me now to Ephesians 5:17.  If you stayed last Sunday for our afternoon service, this verse will look very familiar to you.  We started studying last week for the Sunday night services about asking the important question.  We began to ask the best question ever.  That question is, “What is the wise thing for me to do?”  Our great need is to be wise and not unwise or foolish.  We need to have understanding, and in Ephesians 5:17 it says, “4”

Being foolish can cause problems in life and it can cause problems in sports as well.  As we are in the middle of the NFL playoffs, let me share another playoff moment with you.

In the 1987 NFL Playoffs, the New York Jets paid the price for an unwise, and easily avoidable penalty.  Despite the poor offensive performance, the Jets led the Cleveland Browns 20-10 with just over 4 minutes remaining in the game.

The situation appeared hopeless for the Browns.  Cleveland quarterback Bernie Kosar faced a second and 24 at their own 18 yard line.  A strong pass rush forced an incompletion.  But Jests defensive  lineman Mark Gastineau blasted Kosar after he had released the ball.  As a result, the referee penalized the Jets for roughing the passer.

Given new life, the Browns completed 6 of 9 passes and marched down the field and scored a touchdown with just under 2 minutes to play.  At this point the score was 20-17.

Less than a minute later, the Browns forced New York to punt the ball and they took over on the 33 yard line.  A penalty and a 37 yard completion took the Browns to the New York 15 yard line, and Mark Moseley kicked a 22 yard field goal with 7 ticks on the clock, tying the score at 20-20.

Both teams struggled to score in the first overtime.  In the second overtime, the Cleveland Browns worked their ground game and moved the ball to the Jets 9 yard line.  The Browns called on Moseley once again, and he booted a 26 yard field goal to gain the victory after 4 hours and 5 minutes.

Television commentators pointed to the penalty that was the turning point in the game.  Early in their football careers, all defensive lineman are taught not to hit the quarterback after he gets rid of the ball.  Had Gastinuea followed the rules and his coach’s instructions, his team would likely have won this playoff game.

In the Bible, Paul encourages believers in Jesus not to act foolishly.  Instead, we should understand what God wants us to do, and then do it.  Foolishness almost always has negative consequences.  Following God’s will for your life also has consequences, but they are pretty good ones.  Like peace, and joy, and eternal life.

So as we look at that verse, in other words, we learn that there are 2 ways to live.  We have already looked at this last Sunday night.  We can either live wisely or we can live foolishly.  There are 2 kinds of people as well.  There are the wise and the foolish.  So let me ask you, “What is the difference?”

Well, we all know that the foolish reject the will of God.  And the wise understand what the will of the Lord is.  And that implies that the will of the Lord is understandable.  The truth is that we can find it for our lives if we want to.  God will reveal it to us if we meet certain conditions.  So, what are these conditions you may ask.

Well, that brings us to our last passage.  We looked at this passage last week, but I want to hit it just one last time, and we are going to do it real quick.  Turn with me to Romans 12:1­2.  Once again, this passage in Romans 12:1-2 says, “5”

These 2 verses give us 3 ways of finding God's will.  First, we must offer our bodies as living sacrifices; then we must make a break from the world around us; and finally, we must get the Bible into our minds and be transformed by God's Word.

Some people may find themselves asking this question this morning.  “What does God want from my life?”  The answer is that He wants our whole lives.  He wants our entire life--not 50%, not 85%, not even 99%.  The truth is, He wants all there is of you.  When you play a sport, coaches will always tell players to give 110%.  Well when it comes to God, He wants all there is of us.  We can’t leave anything on the field.  We have to give 110% to God and to His will.

Now as we wrap things up this morning, Luke 9:59-62 records an encounter Jesus had with a would-be disciple.  In Luke 9:59-62 it says, “6”

Do you see the problem here?  It was “Lord, me first.”  That's a contradiction.  You can't say, “Lord, me first.”  If Jesus is Lord, then He must be first.  He has got to be first in our lives; our bodies must be living sacrifices to Him; our lives must be divorced from this world; and our minds must be renewed by the Scriptures.

In conclusion, in his autobiography, the great Christian composer John W. Peterson wrote that he grew up in church; then at a certain point in his life, he invited Jesus to be his Savior.  He says that as a young man, someone gave him a copy of a book about John and Betty Stam.

It was about their lives as missionaries to China and how they were martyred for their faith.  Their story of dedication and sacrifice had a profound effect on Peterson.  He couldn't put the book down, and he couldn't get the idea out of his heard or his heart.  He knew that Christ was commanding him to offer his life fully in devotion to God--no matter the cost.

Hours passed, and John struggled with the decision.  Finally the last wall of his resistance crumbled, and he cried out, “Here I am, Lord.  I don't know what You want of me, but even if it's China and martyrdom, I'm willing.”  That became the defining moment of his life.  He later explained that there were 3 phases of his understanding of Christianity.

The first stage was as a child, when Christianity was little more than stained glass windows, going to Sunday School, and being a good little boy.  The second was his conversion when he began to understand the Christian life.  But then he saw that Christianity was something more: Jesus Christ was to be Lord of all his life.

So what about you?  Are you at the stained glass stage this morning?  Have you had a real encounter with God through Jesus Christ?  Or maybe you are at the Lordship stage when you're beginning to understand that God wants to be the Lord of all there is of you.  It's at this stage that we begin to understand and to follow the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The Bible says in Proverbs 3:5-6 to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”  Now this does take a lot more discipline and more commitment on our part.  But the good news is that it is all worth it.  Because in the end, it leads to living a God Planned Life.

Let’s Pray