Pre-Blog: I love speaking at school chapels because it allows me to take the gospel out of the comfort of church walls and into a student's everyday environment. Take the gospel with you when you leave church.
I was asked to speak at Heritage about how believers are told not to conform to the world. We are told very clearly in Romans 12:2 that we are to be transformed by Christ. We are to let Him be the one to shape our thoughts and actions. Not the world. Not our culture around us. Then the verse gets really interesting, "Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."
Know God's will? That's what we all want. That's what we've been asking God for all along. What job should I be at? What college should I go to? Who do you want me to marry? How are these bills going to get paid? We all want the answers. How badly do you want the answers?
There's no better story in the Bible about non-conforming than the story of Noah. The Bible says that Noah was the only righteous person left on the face of the earth. This wasn't like Job where he was the top dog, Noah was the only dog.
Incredible. The entire world has turned it's back on God. Yet Noah remains faithful. How? Most of us buckle under peer pressure real fast. Myself included. It's hard not to.
Here's how: The Bible talks about three smart moves Noah made.
Smart Move: He walked through life with God. Genesis 6:9.
He had a relationship with Him. God wasn't looking to control Noah. He was looking for a friendship with Noah because He knew that was the best thing for Him. The question that came to my mind was, how did Noah know about God? We have the Bible. Noah did not. Here's what my brain came up with: Noah would have known about God from the stories passed down from generation to generation. His great(x?)-grandfather would have been Adam. Who was perfect at one time and hung out with God like no other human being(who wasn't also God, i.e. Jesus) ever has. I can only imagine the stories Adam told about God.
"There was this one time when God and I were naming the Platypus..."
Smart Move: He listened to God. Genesis 6:13
It's easy to fly through life a million miles an hour. Especially in today's American culture. We see Noah listening to God. Nobody else in His culture was taking the time to listen to God. But because Noah took the time to have a relationship with God and because he listened, God told him His will and that saved him and his families lives(...and ours). Noah learned God's will because He was allowing God to shape his mind, not the world around him.
Smart Move: He obeyed what God said. Genesis 6:22
God asked Noah to do something that took almost 100 years of his life. Noah obeyed. What if God's will for you is to raise $10 million to free children who are enslaved in militant armies throughout the world. That would take most of your life.
What if God's will for you is to sell everything you didn't need and give that money to pay off the debt your neighbors owes to get their house out of foreclosure? That would go against what our culture values.
God's will for you is to love the Lord your God with all that you are, love others just as much as you love yourself, love your enemies, honor your father and mother, respect authority, take care of the poor, be honest, and be patient just to name a few.
I don't know what God's exact will is for you. I don't know if He'll make it crystal clear(Noah had to have faith as well). What I do know, is that when we don't conform to our culture and we allow God to transform our hearts and minds, that's when He begins to teach us what His will is for our lives and we begin to understand it more and more.
I believe you can discover God's will for your life, but how badly do you want to know?
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