Living in God’s Will

Living in God’s Will
2 Corinthians 1:1 – 10
February 9, 2025 

• Living in the will of God is central to the Christian faith. It is something we have a choice in. Choice is the primary premise of ‘free-will.’
• Those who are not saved, do not really understand this. They are angry with God because He, according to them, impose rules and repercussions if those rules are broken on them. They rebelliously say, I will do it my way.
• They don’t understand that the rules are there to keep them safe, because the “punishment” of sin is actually the natural effect of sin, which most of the time is the effect of selfishness and pride, which in the end brings pain. 

• As Christians, we choose to surrender our lives to God.

• “Lord” means someone who has influence, power, authority, and is made, by my choice, ruler of my life.
• The moment we call Him Lord, it changes everything dramatically. Then we come under His authority in which we find life, protection, hope, but also are called to walk aligned with His purpose for us.

• One of the attacks on Paul was that there were those who did not want to stand under his correction as an apostle of God. They did not support  his credentials.
• Paul then makes it very clear. God has given me this authority. He has made me an apostle to the gentiles.
• When we look at Paul’s conversion, it was a dramatic affair. Paul could never in his wildest dreams have thought that his life would have turned out the way it did.
• He was a pharisee of pharisees, a zealot for the Jewish faith. The one who has taken upon himself the goal to eradicate everyone who was a Jesus follower.
• He would go from town to town rooting them out, jailing them, executing them, being the name who would be celebrated by the Jewish leaders as the one who was the protector of the Jewish faith, revered by the Jews, and feared by anyone that would support Christianity and oppose the Jewish faith.
• He was trained at the feet of Gamaliel, and also had the privileges of a Roman citizen, giving him access to other advantages in his endeavor.
• But then, he had a radical encounter with Jesus. The real King of kings and Lord of lords.
• This is when he received his real calling. It changed how he looked at his own life. Now he wasn’t known as Pharisee by the will of Paul, or executioner by the will of Paul. Now he was Apostle by the will of God. Note that even his history was used by God and for His glory.
• This is the most wonderful station to be in. When you can say I am… by the will of God.
• Some have a radical transformation that totally changes the whole trajectory of their lives, like Paul. Others have a radical transformation and, to the glory of God, stay the course of their lives. For example, Paul said in 1 Corinthians:

• Some who came to Jesus stayed in the vocation they were in. Not everyone became pastors, teachers, and evangelists.
• What is important is who becomes Lord of your life in the situation and position you are in.
• It changes your focus. You can be Mark, the plumber by the will of God, Cindy the hairdresser, by the will of God, James, the engineer by the will of God.
• One of the greatest revelations to take hold of is that God does not say good-bye to us as we leave the sanctuary, and welcome us back the next Sunday, and in between we are left to our own devises.
• No, he is with us wherever we go. He is intimately involved in our lives. And when we start to live for the will of God, he leads, and uses us as we see what we do as part of God’s calling on our lives. 
• Then His Lordship becomes very practical. We then ask Him to work in us to will and to work for His pleasure.

• He continues his salutation and prayer with these words.

• Peace means inner calm and spiritual well-being.
• When He is Lord, this is what we can rest in. That we are in the grace, God’s unmerited favor, and peace, inner calm and spiritual well-being, that God supplies.
• That is God’s will and heart for us. Jesus came to be our prince of peace. 

• Many people think that God is hiding from them, trying to catch them out or is just waiting for them to make a misstep so that He can yank His blessing, grace, and peace away from them. Like God is working some angle.
• No, He wants us to have peace, to live with the knowing that He is now our Lord and is the one who will lead us.

• If we surrender to His leading, He has now given us His Spirit who is actively involved in our lives, teaching, leading, directing. 

• I am always amazed that God cares so much about ‘little insignificant me’, yet He does! Who am I that you are mindful of me…

• The previous point is so important to be grounded in, because Paul then touches on a very difficult subject: suffering. And if you are not grounded in who God is, His character, His grace, and His peace, you can make warped conclusions based on skewed perceptions.
• We should also note that living for Christ does not only entail suffering. Paul speaks of it here because it is relevant to the letter and it helps us understand better when there are times of suffering.
• But Paul had the experience of the full spectrum of easier times and hardship through life.  

• Some truly believe that as Christians we should live in continual suffering. Some even see it as a sign of being holy.
• This was taken to the extreme when some people in church history started living in asceticism. They would submit themselves to severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence, marriage, practice life-long sexual abstinence, isolation, silence, reduced diet etc. They would ‘suffer’ for Christ.
• This is actually just another form of legalistic works to try and be acceptable to God.
• God didn’t call us to live in self-imposed suffering.
• Others suffer because of the effect of sin and wrong choices, and think they deserve to stay in that state as punishment.
• This is also not always true, as God can turn what was evil for good as a testimony.
• Sometimes, though,  we do  go through suffering because we are still living in a fallen world, and God uses this to also grow our faith.
• Paul, however, was going through many difficulties because of his spreading of the gospel and the persecution that came from that.
• His perspective is something we can learn from and take courage from when suffering comes.

• There is an important point we should look at. Suffering as a child of God is not in vain. Our suffering can be with purpose. 

• Paul going through his difficulties could have said, wait a minute God! I don’t understand this! I have done everything you said. I am writing letters to all the churches, I am mentoring future leaders, I am spreading the ministry by sending out others to do the same, I am teaching in synagogues, I am praying for people who are getting healed, I am spreading the good news of Jesus. Why all this hardship? I almost drowned, I was bitten by a viper, I was stoned to death, I had to flee for my life! What is all this!
• But Paul had a different attitude. He understood the secret that deep maturity is brought through hardship.

• In difficulty the love of God is poured out in your heart. That comfort and encouragement that you can’t describe. When you are there alone with God, wrestling in raw truth and deep emotion with Him, and He shows up.
• That changes you profoundly, and it stirs a depth and a growth in your soul that you never would have experienced otherwise. 

• In the midst of hard times, we find the Spirit of God closer than we could ever think, being our comforter who lives inside and the one that encourages us to remember that we are not alone, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. 

• One of the results of suffering is that if we are in it or have gone through it, we then have the capacity inside of us to comfort and encourage those who are in any kind of trouble. It creates a deeper sense of empathy when you have walked the road yourself.
• When you see others who have gone through trouble and have persevered and even triumphed, it gives you hope to hold on to. 

• It is important though to keep front and center where our power and hope comes from. It is not by doing it on our own, standing in our own power, drawing from our own internal well of perseverance.
• Verse 8 – 10, Paul here subtly weaves in again our eternal hope. They were in such peril that they essentially said, ‘We don’t know if we are going to get through this one guys. But let us not be discouraged. Because even if we die today, we know that we have an eternal hope. We will live, even though we die.’
• In essence they have surrendered to the possibility that this was it. Death is here. And you know what? We are fine with it because Jesus is our eternal hope. Death has no hold on us.   
• Yet in that instance, God rescued them again, and Paul says, he will rescue us again, because our hope is in Him.
• That message speaks to us through the ages: God will rescue again. 

• These become monuments of when you have put your hope in God and he comes through. Without Him it would have been hopeless. I don’t know how people survive the stress of living without God.
• Your story  then becomes a testimony for others to hold on to their calling. God is using your life for His glory.
• Choose to live a life surrendered to God’s will. Choose to make Him Lord of your life.