ACBC Theology Exam 22 - The Holy Spirit and Guidance

00:00:00.000 | Biblical counseling and it is a great joy to be able to continue our study of God's Word.

00:00:06.640 | Thank you so much for your faithfulness and for your dedicated study to the Word of God as we've

00:00:13.760 | been working our way through these wonderful topics as outlined by the ACBC Theology exams.

00:00:20.640 | I trust that this study has been a blessing to you and it's been a blessing to me to be able to

00:00:28.080 | walk through these topics together. We had a wonderful encouragement this week to be able to

00:00:36.240 | certify one of the counselors who's been in training here at the Kindred Counseling Center.

00:00:41.520 | Denise Lopez completed her phase three of ACBC certification this week and we rejoiced in that

00:00:50.560 | and gave God thanks and gave him glory for all that he had done in her life and just to see

00:00:57.920 | Denise walk through this process of writing these essays and working her way through the 50 hours

00:01:05.600 | of supervised counseling was a great joy and it is just a joy to be part of this ministry. It's

00:01:12.880 | just a great privilege to be able to partner with many of you and to be part of the training

00:01:21.280 | up of biblical counselors who would be able to use God's Word in other people's lives and to be

00:01:28.560 | able to minister the truth of God's Word to people's hearts. So thank you again for being

00:01:35.280 | part of this class and we are working our way toward the end of the 24 theology exam questions.

00:01:44.000 | We are on theology exam number 22 tonight and we are looking at the very important and

00:01:51.920 | very practical topic of the Holy Spirit and guidance. How does the Holy Spirit guide or lead

00:02:02.240 | the believer in Christ as the believer walks through the practical issues of life? I do think

00:02:10.240 | that this topic is very important. I know I say that of every single topic in the theology exams,

00:02:17.600 | but this one is very important for the simple reason that all of us are seeking to make

00:02:28.160 | decisions about life. All of us are working through life's issues and the question of

00:02:34.160 | how does the Holy Spirit lead and guide us as we make decisions and as we deal with

00:02:41.520 | the practical course of life is one that is practical for all of us and it's also something

00:02:47.920 | that many counselees come and ask for counsel on this issue. So I pray that this will be a

00:02:56.000 | helpful hour for us as we work through this very important topic. So let me pray for us. Let's

00:03:03.200 | devote our time to the Lord and we'll dive into our study for tonight. Let me pray.

00:03:07.920 | Our Father, we thank you, Lord, tonight that you indeed have given us your Holy Spirit.

00:03:16.240 | We thank you that your Spirit lives in us. We thank you that we have been baptized into the

00:03:26.480 | person and into the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for your Spirit's work in our lives,

00:03:34.560 | that your Spirit works to show us Christ and that through the Holy Spirit's teaching ministry,

00:03:43.520 | we come to understand the truths about Jesus Christ and we come to exalt Him and to love Him,

00:03:52.320 | and indeed your Spirit is doing a work in our lives to make us more like Christ,

00:03:56.800 | that He is bearing the sweet fruit of the Spirit in us, that our character would be conformed

00:04:03.680 | to Christ's likeness. Father, we thank you for the Spirit's guiding and leading ministry.

00:04:11.680 | We pray that we might be able to understand this topic in a greater manner, greater fullness

00:04:20.960 | tonight as we look at your Word. We pray that you would help us to be teachable

00:04:26.160 | and to evaluate, Father, our own understanding of this issue in light of what your Word would

00:04:35.520 | teach to us, and so we just pray for each of our hearts that your Spirit would

00:04:41.040 | convict us and teach us and lead us, and we pray that you would be honored and glorified in our

00:04:47.760 | time together. Thank you for each of my brothers and sisters here for their faithfulness, and I

00:04:52.640 | pray that they may be encouraged as we look at your Word tonight. We pray all this in the name

00:04:56.960 | of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Amen. Well, we are looking at the issue tonight of the Holy Spirit

00:05:06.880 | and guidance or the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If you're with us in our last session,

00:05:14.320 | we looked at the truth that we have been given the Holy Spirit as believers in Christ.

00:05:20.560 | The Holy Spirit lives in us. The Holy Spirit not only comes alongside of us, but the Holy Spirit

00:05:28.960 | dwells in us so that our bodies are literally temples of the Holy Spirit, and tonight we're

00:05:37.680 | looking at one of the specific ministries of the Holy Spirit, and that is what we might call the

00:05:44.960 | leading of the Holy Spirit or, as the theology exam states, the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

00:05:55.280 | Here we're looking at a topic that is immensely practical. We're looking at the issue of how does

00:06:04.640 | God lead the believer from point A to point B? How does the Holy Spirit guide the believer

00:06:15.040 | in Christ? And if you really think about it, you and I tend to use this language to describe our

00:06:21.920 | Christian lives. You will often hear it said, you may even say to another believer in the church,

00:06:30.720 | something like the following, "God led me to this church, and I now love this church,

00:06:39.280 | and I serve at this church, and it was eight years ago that God led me to this church."

00:06:47.040 | You may even tell your testimony in a certain way by saying, "God led me to the school,"

00:06:56.160 | or, "God led me to live in this city. God led me to this job or this company."

00:07:04.240 | You may even hear pastors or missionaries say of their story that,

00:07:11.280 | "God led me to the mission field," or, "God led me into this ministry. God led me to seminary."

00:07:22.000 | These are common phrases and common statements that we often use as we describe our Christian

00:07:30.800 | lives, as we tell our story. We use this language of, "God led me," or, "God guided me here."

00:07:39.440 | But what do we mean when we say that, "God led me to a certain place," or, "to a certain vocation,"

00:07:49.680 | or, "God led me to marry my wife," or, "God led me to this school where I would have this

00:07:58.720 | opportunity to continue my education." What exactly do we mean by that language of

00:08:04.320 | leading or guiding? How does the Holy Spirit lead or guide the believer as the believer makes

00:08:15.520 | certain decisions walking through the practical issues of life?

00:08:21.920 | So, really, we are dealing with the subject of the Holy Spirit's leadership or the Holy Spirit's

00:08:30.880 | guidance, but the broader subtopic under this issue of the Holy Spirit's leadership really is

00:08:41.280 | the subject of biblical decision making. How does the Holy Spirit lead us or guide us

00:08:51.680 | as we make decisions about our life, as we make decisions about the course of our lives?

00:09:00.720 | And so, even though the essay topic deals with the issue of the Holy Spirit and guidance,

00:09:09.200 | much of the material that we're going to be looking at tonight can be categorized under the

00:09:15.680 | subtopic or heading of biblical decision making. Decision making is what we do, and we do that

00:09:28.320 | anticipating that the Holy Spirit will lead us as we make decisions about our lives. And so,

00:09:38.080 | maybe I could put it this way in terms of practicality. As we look backwards on our lives,

00:09:43.680 | we say that God led me to the school, or God led me to this church, or God led me to this ministry.

00:09:50.560 | We can say that in hindsight as we look at our lives from the perspective of the present looking

00:09:58.800 | into the past, but as we as believers are moving to the future from the present, we make decisions.

00:10:09.840 | We have to make decisions about the very same issues, about what job we should take, or what

00:10:18.480 | church we should attend. We make decisions about should we date, or should we marry,

00:10:26.240 | or whom shall we marry. We make decisions about what car do I drive, or what car do I buy,

00:10:34.960 | or what home do I purchase, if I should purchase a home, or what investment should we make.

00:10:40.880 | We make decisions about what ministry should I engage in, or which location or setting should

00:10:49.120 | I serve in. We make decisions moving forward, and then looking backwards from the vantage point of

00:10:56.720 | time, we can say God led me to this place, or to this vocation, or to this mission field,

00:11:06.240 | or to this ministry. So, we're really talking about the category of the guidance of the Holy

00:11:15.600 | Spirit, but underneath that, we're looking at the subject of how do we make decisions,

00:11:21.200 | anticipating that the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us as we make those decisions about

00:11:29.760 | our lives. Now, if we frame the topic in this way, I hope you will immediately see that

00:11:40.000 | this is an immensely practical topic for each of our lives, and it will have very immediate

00:11:47.920 | application to each of our lives, because the truth is that all of us are making decisions

00:11:56.560 | about our lives. All of us are making minor decisions, such as where should I eat today,

00:12:07.120 | or what shall I eat tonight for dinner, or what outfit should I wear, or what time shall I wake

00:12:16.160 | up tomorrow. All of us are making minor decisions, small decisions as we walk through the course of

00:12:23.440 | our lives from Monday to Sunday, but then at the same time, many of us are in the midst of making

00:12:31.600 | major decisions, major life decisions, such as should I marry, whom shall I marry,

00:12:41.280 | where shall we live, should I move, should I stay, should I purchase a home, should I buy a car,

00:12:52.080 | should I continue to rent, where should I put my children for schooling, should I public school,

00:13:00.800 | private school, homeschool, should I see this doctor and pursue this course of medical treatment,

00:13:09.360 | or should I pursue another doctor and pursue an alternate course of medical treatment.

00:13:15.680 | All of us are making decisions, but some of us, even tonight, are making

00:13:24.480 | major life decisions that are going to affect the course of our lives for years to come.

00:13:30.640 | And the question would be, how do we make these life decisions seeking the Holy Spirit's guidance,

00:13:41.520 | seeking the Holy Spirit's leadership? How can we be sure that we are making these decisions

00:13:49.360 | under the guidance and the leadership of the Holy Spirit? Because I think all of you would

00:13:54.560 | agree that none of us just want to make these decisions on our own. None of us just want to

00:14:00.400 | make these major life decisions in our own wisdom, in our own strength, and have to work these things

00:14:07.920 | out in our own power. We all want the Holy Spirit to lead us and to guide us as we work through

00:14:18.080 | these very practical issues of life. And so this is a very, very practical subject. And I'm just

00:14:27.200 | going to steal my own thunder tonight and just give you the main point before we back up a little

00:14:32.960 | bit and talk through the importance of decision-making. I just want to give you the main

00:14:37.760 | point and what I think ACBC wants you to write in this essay, at least the main point of what I've

00:14:45.600 | written in my essay, and it passed, so I'm assuming that this is what they want to hear.

00:14:52.400 | What really the crux of the issue when it comes to this subject is simply this.

00:14:59.360 | Many people believe that the Holy Spirit will guide me and lead me as I seek His direction

00:15:10.560 | in these issues of where should I go to school or who should I marry or where should I live.

00:15:16.960 | Many people believe that we should be seeking an extra biblical revelation,

00:15:24.960 | some kind of direct word from the Lord, or even some kind of impression or personal experience

00:15:37.360 | that would confirm the Holy Spirit's leading. Or to put it real bluntly, many people believe that

00:15:46.400 | what we should be seeking is what Pastor Dave Doyle here at Kindred calls the woo-woo,

00:15:53.920 | that in order for me to know what school I should go to or what job I should take or what ministry

00:16:03.520 | I should serve in, that I need to seek and I need to receive the woo-woo, some kind of spiritual

00:16:13.520 | zap, some kind of extra biblical revelation, some kind of direct word from the Lord, or at least

00:16:22.000 | some kind of impression or some kind of personal experience that would directly give me guidance

00:16:34.480 | in this area apart from the study and the application of the written Word of God.

00:16:44.160 | And oftentimes, people explain their decisions in this way by saying I was led to a certain ministry

00:16:54.000 | and I felt the woo-woo, I felt the zap or whatever they would describe it to be, some kind of

00:17:04.480 | dramatic spiritual experience that directly confirmed that this was indeed the Holy Spirit's

00:17:11.200 | leading and guidance. Other people would even say that I was led in a certain direction and I even

00:17:19.120 | saw or felt words that told me that this was indeed the right course of action to take.

00:17:28.800 | And so you'll hear some, maybe some men even say that, you know, I met my wife and when I first

00:17:37.840 | met her, you know, the Holy Spirit zapped me and I received the woo-woo, and that was probably just

00:17:45.520 | romantic feelings, or you could just probably just say you liked her, but some people would

00:17:51.600 | even say, you know, God just confirmed in my heart in a direct way that this was the one.

00:17:57.840 | And while I'm sympathetic on a personal experiential level to some of those experiences,

00:18:07.440 | we need to discern what exactly the Bible says about the Holy Spirit and guidance.

00:18:15.920 | How does the Holy Spirit lead us? Does he lead us through extra-biblical revelations?

00:18:23.520 | Does he lead us through zapping us directly with certain experiences? Does he lead us through

00:18:32.400 | mystical experiences or dreams or visions where we directly receive certain leadership or guidance

00:18:42.400 | from God? You will even hear some people say that God told me to take this job, or God told me to

00:18:52.880 | marry this woman, or God told me to go to this city, and we just want to evaluate that

00:19:00.880 | biblically and be discerning about what the Word of God teaches. It really is my thesis tonight,

00:19:07.920 | and it's my main point tonight that I want to encourage you with, that the Holy Spirit

00:19:14.480 | guides us through his Word. The Holy Spirit guides us through his written Word, that the way that we

00:19:25.520 | receive the Holy Spirit's guidance or leadership as we make decisions about our lives and about

00:19:33.520 | our families is we study the Word of God, we understand the Word of God, and then we make

00:19:42.880 | application of the Word of God to the situations that are before us, and it is through the ministry

00:19:50.400 | of the written Word of God, not apart from the ministry of the Word of God, that we receive the

00:19:57.120 | Holy Spirit's leadership and guidance as we make these types of decisions about our lives.

00:20:05.120 | Now, I understand that it's a lot more glamorous, and it's a lot more spectacular for me to tell you

00:20:12.640 | that God told me directly 24 years ago that I should marry my wife Mina, and that might get a

00:20:21.840 | lot more attention, and it might seem a little more spectacular than if I said that I studied

00:20:29.120 | the Scripture, and the Bible says that he who finds a good wife finds a good thing,

00:20:36.080 | and I studied the Scripture and learned that I should marry a believer. You know, that was a

00:20:44.800 | biblical principle that I should most likely find a believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit,

00:20:53.360 | and as I apply these principles to the situation that was before me, which is that my wife was a

00:21:02.080 | godly woman who was teachable to the Word of God, and as I applied those principles to the situation,

00:21:08.960 | the Holy Spirit led me to pursue marriage with my wife. Now, that may not sound as glamorous as

00:21:17.200 | saying, you know, I saw my wife, and then the Holy Spirit zapped me, and I knew all of a sudden that,

00:21:22.800 | you know, I should marry her, or I heard an audible voice that said, "Marry this woman."

00:21:28.640 | That might sound a little more dramatic or exciting, but the truth is that the Holy Spirit

00:21:35.440 | guides us as we study and apply His Word. The Holy Spirit will lead us as we take the written Word

00:21:45.440 | that He has inspired, and as we study it, learn it, apply it, and then learn to discern life's

00:21:55.520 | issues according to what the Word of God would teach and apply the Word of God to the situations

00:22:03.280 | before us. That is how the Holy Spirit leads and guides us. He leads us through His written Word,

00:22:10.800 | not apart from His written Word. Now, all of that is to say something very practical.

00:22:18.480 | If you and I are not spending time in God's Word, in the written Word of God,

00:22:25.840 | if we are not bathing our thoughts in the written Word of God, if we are not bathing our souls in

00:22:33.520 | the truth of God's Word, then the simple fact is this. We will not be making good decisions

00:22:40.880 | about our lives. We will not be making good decisions about those very same issues that I

00:22:48.640 | talked about, of should I purchase this property, or should I rent here, or should I public school,

00:22:58.320 | private school, homeschool my children. Those are all decisions that are before us, and

00:23:02.320 | we will not be making very good decisions unless we are bathing our lives and our minds in the

00:23:09.920 | Word of God, because the one way that the Holy Spirit leads and guides us as we make those types

00:23:17.760 | of decisions is He leads us through His Word and not apart from His Word. With that said, I've kind

00:23:29.280 | of given you the main point of tonight's teaching, but with that said, let me walk you through some

00:23:35.040 | of this material and lay some foundation and then see if some of this will make sense. This is a

00:23:42.000 | study that I think we could spend a number of hours looking at the subject of biblical decision

00:23:49.040 | making and the Holy Spirit and guidance, but we'll have to content ourselves with a one-hour

00:23:54.720 | introduction tonight, and I hope it'll whet your appetite for further study. Let me read the

00:24:01.920 | question and then give you some resources. Theology exam number 22 is provide your understanding of

00:24:08.640 | how the Holy Spirit guides Christians, so just a simple answer here. If you state anything else

00:24:20.000 | other than the Holy Spirit guides Christians through His written Word, the 66 books of the

00:24:28.000 | Bible, then your answer is going to be wrong, and so ACBC does have a grading template of pass,

00:24:36.960 | and then there is not pass, and then there's a third category called fatal error. My goal in

00:24:43.360 | this class has been to keep each of my students out of that category of fatal error. It would be,

00:24:51.520 | I'm not sure how ACBC would grade this, but I'm thinking it would probably be

00:24:57.840 | nearing the line of fatal error if you say anything else other than the Holy Spirit guides us

00:25:05.360 | through the Scriptures. Holy Spirit guides us through our understanding of the written

00:25:12.640 | Word of God, but this exam is asking you to provide your understanding

00:25:18.800 | of how the Holy Spirit guides Christians. Now, you have there on the first page of your handout

00:25:24.560 | a number of good resources that I would encourage you to take advantage of

00:25:31.600 | under the category of biblical decision making. We have John MacArthur's Found God's Will, which is

00:25:39.920 | an excellent little book that will help you sort out this whole idea of we need to find God's will.

00:25:48.800 | MacArthur's statement in that book is that God's will is not mysterious. It is not confusing.

00:26:00.160 | It does not so much need to be found. The Scripture does not so much call us to find

00:26:07.440 | God's will as to obey God's will or to do God's will. So, he's addressing this whole idea of

00:26:15.040 | somehow you need to find God's will as if it is something that is mysterious or hidden,

00:26:20.240 | and it's just a really good read. I would commend that to you.

00:26:25.280 | And then you have Gary Friesian's Decision Making and the Will of God. That is really

00:26:31.200 | a foundational work that is referenced in many other biblical counseling

00:26:36.240 | works. They seem to always go back to Gary Friesian, and Friesian really laid out this thesis

00:26:45.520 | that we need to make decisions as we apply the Word of God to the situations that we face,

00:26:55.280 | not look for an extra biblical woo-woo or spiritual zap that would instantly give us

00:27:02.640 | an answer to the options that are before us. We need to do the hard work of studying

00:27:10.080 | God's Word and applying God's Word to our lives. You would think that wouldn't be

00:27:16.880 | controversial or confusing, but in our day, it is something that needs to be stated and restated.

00:27:24.560 | Then a recent published work is Kevin DeYoung's Just Do Something, a liberating approach to

00:27:32.560 | finding God's will. As with everything Kevin DeYoung has written, this is a very readable,

00:27:39.760 | clear articulation of the issues that arise in decision making.

00:27:47.520 | One of the things that DeYoung writes in that book is the whole idea that many of us are

00:27:57.840 | really engaged in this whole, what we call paralysis of analysis, that there are so many

00:28:04.240 | options that are before us that in some cases we become passive because we overthink or we

00:28:12.080 | are paralyzed by all of the different pros and cons of the options that are before us.

00:28:18.560 | And so he titles this work Just Do Something. What he means by that is not just do anything.

00:28:26.080 | What he means by that is within the will of God, within the moral prescriptions of God,

00:28:33.840 | you have freedom to move forward with your life and be confident that God is going to

00:28:38.880 | lead and guide you. And so just a good encouraging work that I would encourage

00:28:44.800 | you to have on your bookshelf and be acquainted with. I have used that with

00:28:53.120 | that book in counseling just to help with counselees who are just very paralyzed in

00:29:00.480 | life's decisions, who don't seem to be moving forward with life and just to encourage them to

00:29:06.400 | move forward in life and to make the tough decisions that are before them.

00:29:13.520 | And then two other works is Dave Swayze's Decisions, Decisions and then Jim Perry's Step

00:29:21.280 | by Step. I would also commend to you the three supplemental handouts that I sent to you via

00:29:27.360 | Dropbox. You have Stuart Scott's Biblical Decision-Making. You have Dave Doyle's Message

00:29:34.800 | from Kindred. He preached this in main service. It's called Wisdom or the Woo-Woo, a Theology of

00:29:41.120 | Guidance. And the audio and the video for that sermon is also available on our Kindred Church

00:29:48.560 | website and also on YouTube. If you want one sermon that's just kind of clarify the issues

00:29:55.520 | regarding biblical decision-making, I would encourage you to get Dave Doyle's Wisdom or

00:30:02.720 | the Woo-Woo. And then Jim Neuhauser's Knowing God's Will. Most of my material will be summarized from

00:30:10.960 | these other resources. And so I wanted to put those supplemental notes in your hands.

00:30:17.200 | So let's move to the next page. And with that said, let's look at the subject of the Holy Spirit

00:30:24.320 | and guidance. And I'm going to skip some of this material that's on the top of your handout. You

00:30:31.360 | can read that on your own. But move to the observations in the middle of page 2. Just some

00:30:41.040 | observations about decision-making. And this is from counseling practice and also from observations

00:30:49.040 | of the wider church. The first bullet point is that many believers do not know how to make good

00:30:55.440 | decisions. Many times you'll hear people say, "I made this decision because it felt right or it

00:31:07.600 | felt good." Some people will explain their decisions by, as I said, using the language of

00:31:15.040 | "God told me to" or "I just had a feeling." Some people tend to appeal to personal intuition.

00:31:24.240 | "I just knew that this was right." But what we're looking for in the issue of decision-making is

00:31:32.960 | this idea of here are the scriptures or here are the verses that the Holy Spirit brought to bear

00:31:43.760 | upon my thinking as I considered the course that was before me. We want to help people take the

00:31:53.680 | Word of God and apply them to the situations that they face in life. And so what we're looking for

00:32:04.320 | in an explanation of how a person makes a decision is the language of these are the scriptures or the

00:32:12.240 | verses that I was working through and seeking to apply as I chose this school or pursued this job

00:32:22.960 | or pursued this relationship and so forth and so on. Another observation we would make is that many

00:32:30.960 | believers live in regret from past decisions. And you'll find this in counseling ministry, just this

00:32:38.960 | prominent theme of regret, regret over if I had only chosen a different career or if I had only

00:32:49.280 | made a different business decision, if I had only had different priorities when I raised my children,

00:32:55.440 | the theme of regret usually surrounding some decision that the believer was a part of. And

00:33:04.240 | we want to be very sympathetic with that and show compassion. I have regrets over decisions that I've

00:33:12.080 | made in my life, in the past. I'm sure that all of us have decisions that we believe from this

00:33:21.120 | vantage point should have been made differently if we could only do it over. And so we all

00:33:27.520 | wrestle with this issue of regret. But I hope you will find that as we look at the issue of God's

00:33:36.480 | sovereign will in relation to his moral will, that we can, even as we look back and see that

00:33:46.000 | some decisions should have been made differently, understand that all of that is part of the

00:33:51.440 | sovereign will of God for our lives, that God is working out for his glory. And so we need to help

00:33:59.440 | people see that God is sovereign over their lives, that he uses even bad decisions as part of his

00:34:07.520 | perfect plan for their lives. A third bullet point would be that passivity and paralysis can result

00:34:16.720 | from an unbiblical view of guidance. This really is something that we do see in counseling ministry.

00:34:30.240 | Dr. Stuart Scott was my advisor in seminary, as I mentioned, and Dr. Scott did his own doctoral

00:34:38.800 | work on the subject of biblical decision-making. And he uses the story of ordering a hamburger

00:34:47.280 | in Los Angeles as an illustration of the analysis of paralysis that can result by having too many

00:34:57.200 | options. And I don't know which hamburger joint he went to. I actually would like to know. I'd

00:35:04.960 | like to visit this hamburger joint, but he says that he went to this hamburger place in Los Angeles

00:35:12.320 | and he was asked the following questions. Do you want turkey or beef?

00:35:18.240 | Do you want a third of a pound, two thirds of a pound, or full pound of meat?

00:35:25.440 | Do you want cheese? And there were 10 different varieties of cheese to choose from.

00:35:34.400 | Do you want toppings? And on this particular hamburger, you could choose

00:35:39.200 | up to four toppings on your hamburger. And then there were 18 different choices of toppings that

00:35:46.480 | you could choose from. So four out of the 18, you can imagine the paralysis of analysis that happens

00:35:53.280 | as you look at this menu. And then he says there were another 10 premium toppings. And if

00:36:03.760 | you get out of that one and finally decide which toppings you want on your hamburger, he says

00:36:08.640 | that the next question was, do you want sauce? And there were 18 different kinds of sauces.

00:36:17.840 | And finally, when you think you're done, you're finally going to get a hamburger, you have to make

00:36:23.520 | a decision on what kind of bun would you like all of this on. And there was English muffin,

00:36:30.880 | honey wheat, and so forth, and so on. Now, as I said, I would actually like to go to this hamburger

00:36:37.520 | joint because you can make an entire evening of this hamburger. But Dr. Scott, looking at all of

00:36:47.840 | the options for eating a hamburger says, I developed the paralysis of analysis and I understand what

00:36:57.760 | he's saying there. And that's an illustration that can be compared to life. Sometimes there's just so

00:37:03.520 | many options. There are just so many different ways to go that the believer becomes passive

00:37:10.960 | as he or she looks at all of these different options. And there can be fear and anxiety

00:37:19.520 | attached to that passivity. What if I make a wrong choice? What if I ruin my life? What if I go down

00:37:25.360 | this road and it turns out to be not God's plan for my life? And there is this idea, this false

00:37:33.760 | theological idea that somehow God has this perfect plan for your life. It's plan A, and it includes

00:37:43.200 | exactly the right school, exactly the right job, exactly the right spouse, exactly the right

00:37:48.720 | children. And your job, your responsibility as a believer is you have to find out what that plan A

00:37:56.480 | is. And some believers wrestle with this idea of what if I make a wrong decision and I miss out on

00:38:07.280 | plan A for my life and I go down the wrong path, I choose the wrong school, which leads me to the

00:38:13.680 | wrong spouse, which leads me to the wrong job, which leads me to the wrong plan for my life,

00:38:20.080 | and I end up on plan B instead of plan A, and I miss God's best for my life.

00:38:28.000 | That's the sort of thinking that goes into this paralysis. You can imagine trying to make a choice

00:38:36.240 | on what school to go to, and you're just paralyzed because you're saying, "What if I miss

00:38:40.880 | the plan that God had for my life and make a wrong decision here?" And so you do find believers can

00:38:49.280 | be paralyzed when they come to certain decisions that they make. And then a practical point on

00:38:57.280 | counseling ministry, that many counselees do come for counseling wanting to know what God's will

00:39:06.960 | is for their lives. So let me ask you as counselors in training, if a counselee were to come to you

00:39:14.720 | and say this, "I'm trying to find God's will for my career or for my schooling or for my job

00:39:23.200 | or for my dating relationship," how would you help that counselee find God's will?

00:39:32.160 | And the purpose of writing this essay is we want to affirm and train counselors

00:39:37.360 | who, when sitting with a counselee asking that question, would not be trying to find the woo-woo,

00:39:45.920 | or they would not be counseling the believer, the counselee, to seek the woo-woo.

00:39:53.680 | But we want counselors who would be able to sit with a counselee and say, "Look, you're dealing

00:40:00.400 | with this very difficult issue, and you're trying to make a good decision on a very practical topic,

00:40:08.560 | and I want to help you apply the principles of God's word to your situation

00:40:16.960 | so that we can be assured that the Holy Spirit is leading you through His word as you consider

00:40:27.680 | the options that are before you." So we don't want counselors to say

00:40:33.280 | to counselees, "Seek the woo-woo," and we especially don't want counselors to say,

00:40:39.600 | "I will seek the woo-woo for you." You do see that in church life where some people will

00:40:47.680 | actually take it upon themselves to seek the woo-woo on behalf of someone else,

00:40:53.360 | that this person is trying to decide, you know, which person should I date? And someone in the

00:41:00.000 | church says, "Well, I've received the confirmation from the Lord on your behalf that you should date

00:41:08.160 | this person or that person." And all of that is not really what we want our counselors to do.

00:41:15.200 | We want our counselors to sit with other people and open their Bibles and take the principles

00:41:21.920 | of God's word and apply them to the situation, recognize that the word of God does not directly,

00:41:29.120 | specifically address every situation in life. The word of God does not tell me to

00:41:37.920 | buy a Honda instead of a Mazda. The word of God does not tell me directly to homeschool or to

00:41:45.840 | private school or to public school, but we want counselors to sit with our counselees, open the

00:41:51.760 | Bible, and bring out general principles that can be applied to the situation, and then entrust that

00:41:59.680 | the Holy Spirit will use the word to guide that believer as that believer makes decisions in life.

00:42:06.800 | So this is a very practical counseling issue that you will want to be equipped for as you

00:42:14.080 | enter into counseling ministry. So let me move to the foundations of this study, and I'm going to

00:42:22.640 | move fairly briefly here, but I hope you get the overview of what we are teaching on this subject.

00:42:30.480 | Some key definitions, and the first definition is God's sovereign will, God's sovereign will,

00:42:41.200 | and we're going to distinguish this from God's moral will. God's sovereign will is God's universe

00:42:49.120 | embracing plan, which always comes to pass, and you can circle that word always. God's sovereign will

00:42:57.120 | always comes to pass and embraces every event in all of human history. A number of passages

00:43:07.760 | on your handout. I'm going to jump down to Ephesians 1 verse 11, which says that in him,

00:43:15.120 | that is in Christ, we have obtained inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose

00:43:24.320 | of him. That word purpose means a plan or a program. It refers to the purpose that God

00:43:34.400 | determined in eternity past, which embraces all of human history and the history of the universe.

00:43:43.440 | It is God's great and grand purpose, his program for the created order. Paul says we have been

00:43:52.480 | predestined according to that purpose of him who works. The Greek word is energeo, who energetically

00:44:02.720 | actively works all things according to the counsel of his will. So this idea of God's purpose

00:44:14.640 | determined in eternity past, which God is working out through the course of human history, refers to

00:44:22.160 | his universe embracing plan, which always comes to pass. Nothing will thwart God's purpose being

00:44:31.040 | fulfilled in the course of human history and in our lives. This is what we refer to as God's

00:44:36.480 | sovereign will. God's sovereign will. Some theologians refer to this as God's decretive

00:44:45.360 | will, referring to the decree that God has made in eternity past. This is the confidence of the

00:44:54.400 | believer. Romans 8 verse 28 says we know that for those who love God, all things, all of human

00:45:01.600 | history, every circumstance in our lives, every trial, every heartache, every detail of our lives,

00:45:08.880 | all things, Paul says, work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose.

00:45:17.440 | So the idea here is that this universe embracing plan, which always comes to pass because it is

00:45:23.840 | rooted in God's eternal decree in eternity past, always works for the good of those who love God

00:45:33.040 | and those who are called according to his purpose. As believers, we rejoice in God's sovereign will.

00:45:42.880 | Now just some observations about God's sovereign will. Bullet point is that God's sovereign will

00:45:53.680 | includes violations of his moral will. God's sovereign will includes violations of his

00:46:01.600 | moral will. God's moral will is essentially his commandments, the principles that God has

00:46:09.520 | revealed in his word. You can disobey God's commandments and be outside of his moral will,

00:46:19.200 | but you will never be outside of God's sovereign will. So let me give you an illustration of this,

00:46:27.040 | and hopefully this will make sense. I think you can kind of picture this as God's sovereign will

00:46:34.240 | being a larger circle or a larger oval, and then God's moral will being inside of God's sovereign

00:46:42.720 | will. God's moral will refers to his commandments or his precepts, what God has commanded for us

00:46:51.440 | to obey as a reflection of his holiness and righteousness. And God's sovereign will,

00:46:59.040 | you recognize, is God's universe embracing plan, which includes every event in all of human

00:47:05.680 | history. And so you can be outside of God's moral will. You can disobey God. You can disobey his

00:47:16.960 | commandments. But even when you disobey God, you will never be outside of God's sovereign will.

00:47:24.800 | So maybe we could point it this way, that you can sin. Being outside of God's moral will is simply

00:47:33.760 | sin. But even when you sin, you are still inside of God's sovereign will. Disobeying God's

00:47:43.280 | commandments does not mean that you have thwarted God's plan. It does not mean that you in any way

00:47:49.920 | have made his plan unworkable, that God is saying in heaven, "Oh no, Dan sinned, and so I don't know

00:47:57.840 | what to do. I don't know how I'm going to work out my sovereign will that I determined in eternity

00:48:02.480 | past." It does not thwart God's sovereign will or his plan from taking place. Even when you and I

00:48:11.680 | are outside of God's moral will, God's sovereign will is still on track and being worked out in

00:48:19.120 | human history. An illustration of this would be in the life of Joseph, and I'll place this on

00:48:25.920 | the screen here. Genesis 50 verse 20, "Joseph said to his brothers, 'As for you, you meant evil

00:48:36.160 | against me.'" So let me ask you a question. Was Joseph's brothers outside or inside of God's

00:48:45.120 | moral will when they threw Joseph into a pit and sold him into slavery? I think you would all agree

00:48:54.480 | that Joseph's brothers were outside of his moral will. They disobeyed God. They committed evil

00:49:00.800 | against Joseph, and so in that way they sinned. They were not inside God's moral will, and yet

00:49:08.800 | Joseph says that even though you were outside of God's moral will, you meant evil against me.

00:49:16.800 | You were still inside of God's sovereign will, he says, but God meant it for good

00:49:23.120 | to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. And so even as

00:49:32.800 | Joseph's brothers committed evil against Joseph, God was sovereignly working through their evil

00:49:41.760 | to bring about good for many people. Now that is the mystery of God's sovereign will. God is

00:49:48.560 | not the author of sin. God does not tempt anyone to sin, and yet somehow in the mystery of his

00:49:54.800 | providence, God sovereignly uses even the evil and the sin of man in order to accomplish his

00:50:02.800 | good and holy purposes, which Romans 8 28 emphasizes to us are always good for God's people.

00:50:13.120 | We see that in the life of Joseph. They committed evil, and yet God sovereignly

00:50:20.960 | worked that out for good. We see this also in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:50:28.320 | In Acts 2 verse 23, Peter declares to the Jews, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite

00:50:35.840 | plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified. So you sinned, you committed great evil. You were not

00:50:45.280 | within the moral will of God when you nailed Jesus to the cross. And yet in the mystery of God's

00:50:55.120 | providence, God sovereignly used the evil of the Jews in order to accomplish his good and holy

00:51:04.400 | purposes, which were to bring about salvation for sinners and grace upon grace to all the nations.

00:51:18.160 | Amazing just how God's sovereign will includes violations of his moral will. God does not sin.

00:51:26.880 | God does not tempt anyone to sin. God cannot be charged with sin. And yet God sovereignly

00:51:33.520 | uses even the sin of man to accomplish his good and holy purposes. Let me move quickly to

00:51:41.600 | the next observation is God's sovereign will is never frustrated. God is on his throne.

00:51:48.960 | God is not wringing his hands in heaven, wondering how your life and my life

00:51:54.480 | are going to turn out. God is never surprised. God is never worried. God has made a plan

00:52:04.880 | and everything is exactly on track for his plan to be completed. And it always works out for

00:52:14.400 | the good of his people. Never frustrated. Romans 9 verse 19, "For who can resist his will?"

00:52:22.480 | The answer is no one, nothing. That is why Paul can say in Romans 8 that nothing shall separate

00:52:30.880 | us from the love of God in Christ, because God's sovereign will can never be thwarted.

00:52:40.080 | So his sovereign will is never frustrated. A good word for

00:52:46.800 | those of us who may be worried about the political scene or worried about human government.

00:52:57.360 | God knows what to do with evil rulers. God knows what to do with transitions in government.

00:53:04.160 | He's not worried. He is sovereignly working all things out for our good and for his glory.

00:53:14.640 | And then number three, I think to the point of the counseling issue, is that you are never

00:53:20.240 | outside of God's sovereign will. There is no plan B for your life. So this whole idea of God has a

00:53:29.600 | plan for your life. He has a plan A. Your job is to find it. So the burden is on you to know what

00:53:36.560 | the entire plan is. And if you make a wrong decision, then you're going to mess up his plan

00:53:40.960 | for your life. Simply does not square with the teaching of scripture. There is no plan B.

00:53:48.720 | It really is a powerful thought, and one I want you to think about tonight, that your life and

00:53:54.720 | my life, exactly the way that it is today, with each trial, each situation, each circumstance,

00:54:05.280 | each relationship, is exactly what God has sovereignly ordained it to be. As you look at

00:54:16.320 | your past and you look at the course of your life, you see the unfolding of God's

00:54:22.400 | sovereign plan for your life. There is no plan B. The sovereign purpose of God is being completed

00:54:31.280 | in our day and in our time. That does not lead us to a type of determinism which says, "Well,

00:54:37.360 | God is going to accomplish his plan, so we might as well just not obey and not do anything." But

00:54:43.200 | it does give us the assurance that God has a plan and he is working it out for our good and for his

00:54:52.640 | glory. Even when you made that wrong decision, someone might say to me, a husband might say to

00:54:58.160 | me, "I made a wrong decision in marrying my wife. She was an unbeliever or she was an immature

00:55:04.560 | Christian, and I had spiritual leaders in my life who told me that I shouldn't marry her, and I did.

00:55:11.440 | I went against counsel, and I married her, and now our marriage is difficult, and it's a very

00:55:18.080 | heartbreaking situation." And that husband might look back and say,

00:55:22.800 | "This was not God's plan for my life. This was not the woman that I should have married."

00:55:30.480 | And in the sense of, your choice to marry this woman may not have been consistent with God's

00:55:38.320 | moral will for your life. But at the same time, I can say to that husband, it was part of God's

00:55:46.880 | sovereign will for your life. And even the wrong decisions, even the misguided decisions are part

00:55:55.120 | of God's sovereign will for your life that he's working out for our good and for his glory.

00:56:02.880 | And so, this understanding of God's sovereign will really addresses that

00:56:06.880 | issue. Moving quickly to God's moral will, as I stated already, if you look at the next page

00:56:16.080 | there, I think that's page four, God's moral will is found in the commands and principles which God

00:56:22.480 | has revealed in the written scriptures. Deuteronomy 29 verse 19 says, "The secret things belong to the

00:56:30.720 | Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever,

00:56:35.280 | that we may do all the words of this law." Meaning that we will not always understand

00:56:45.200 | God's sovereign will for our lives, but we have been given God's moral will. The moral will of

00:56:54.480 | God has been given to us. We understand it. It's not mysterious. It's not confusing. God's moral

00:57:02.320 | will is clear to us. And so, if you move to this whole idea of God's moral will, we're looking at

00:57:12.480 | the commands and principles which God has revealed in the written scriptures. Now, let me explain

00:57:20.240 | this as we look at the moral will of God. I need to move you to a very important concept here.

00:57:28.400 | If you look at this diagram, and you're going to get tired of looking at this diagram,

00:57:36.400 | but I do want to show you how decision-making fits into this framework and this theological

00:57:42.320 | understanding that helps us understand the decision-making process.

00:57:51.760 | We do see that God's moral will addresses every aspect of life.

00:57:57.120 | God doesn't exactly tell us what to do in each and every given situation,

00:58:07.280 | yet God's word does apply to every given situation in life. For example, God does not tell me

00:58:14.880 | in his word, "Go home and help your wife do the dishes." That's not a verse that you're going to

00:58:22.000 | find in scripture. But what God does say in his word is, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ

00:58:29.040 | loved the church." And so, if I love my wife as Christ loves the church, then surely I will be

00:58:35.520 | willing to help her do the dishes. The idea here is that God does not specifically tell me what to

00:58:40.880 | do, but God's word does address every aspect of life. As Stuart Scott has well said, sometimes

00:58:48.880 | God's word is a roadmap specific, sometimes it is a compass general. The emphasis in scripture

00:58:59.920 | is on doing God's will, not finding God's will. As I stated previously, Matthew 12,

00:59:07.120 | Ephesians 5, 1st Colossians chapter 1, all of those passages speak of doing God's will,

00:59:14.320 | understanding God's will, but you won't find in scripture this idea of God's will is this hidden,

00:59:21.520 | mysterious, confusing concept that somehow we need to strive to uncover. God's will for us

00:59:29.920 | is clear because his moral will is found in the commands of scripture.

00:59:35.680 | And then here is the very important concept that I need to emphasize. Number three is

00:59:44.560 | the principle of freedom where there is no command, God gives us freedom.

00:59:52.720 | So, within the moral will of God, there is freedom. There is freedom to make choices regarding the

01:00:04.160 | specific issues of life while staying in the moral will of God. Now, let me give you a really silly

01:00:12.400 | example, but it's actually a very practical example that I face on a regular basis. The

01:00:20.400 | question is this, the great theological question is this, should I eat at Burger King or should I

01:00:27.680 | eat at McDonald's? Now, some of you may have some biblical verses and arguments why you should eat

01:00:36.240 | at Burger King or McDonald's. I was on the East Coast last week and my host was asking this very

01:00:46.160 | important question after we got off the plane late at night, what kind of hamburger do you want?

01:00:54.640 | And I had my wife and my daughters in the car and we had to make a decision.

01:01:02.480 | What kind of hamburger do you want? He said, there's Burger King, there's McDonald's,

01:01:06.320 | and there was this place on the East Coast called Checkers, which had the tagline,

01:01:11.840 | it's crazy good. And so, we couldn't help that. I don't know if that's the woo-woo or that's,

01:01:17.600 | I'm not going to say that's the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We just saw the tagline,

01:01:21.120 | it's crazy good. And so, we said to my host, we want Checkers. But here's the decision,

01:01:31.360 | should I eat at Burger King or McDonald's? Now, would you just agree with that statement that

01:01:36.640 | within that question of what burger do you want or what hamburger should we eat,

01:01:43.840 | that there is freedom? You can eat McDonald's to the glory of God, you can eat Burger King

01:01:52.240 | to the glory of God, and you can eat Checkers to the glory of God, which we did that night

01:01:57.760 | on the East Coast. And I will say that it was crazy good, or maybe we were just hungry because

01:02:04.720 | we hadn't eaten all day after flying all day to the East Coast. But there is freedom. There is

01:02:11.760 | no Bible verse that says thou shalt eat McDonald's, thou shalt eat Burger King, thou shalt eat

01:02:16.800 | Checkers. You can stay within the moral will of God as long as you eat with thanksgiving,

01:02:24.160 | as long as you eat to the glory of God. You can stay within the moral will of God and eat Burger

01:02:30.240 | King or McDonald's or Checkers. And you get the point. Within the moral will of God, there is

01:02:39.120 | freedom to make specific decisions. Should I homeschool my children or public school my children?

01:02:45.840 | As a parent who's done both, I would say there is freedom. There is no command that says you shall

01:02:54.080 | homeschool your children. There is no command that says you shall public school your children.

01:02:59.920 | You can do both and stay within the moral will of God. Should you buy a Honda or should you buy

01:03:07.920 | a Mazda? Once again, you have freedom to make specific choices as long as you are submitting

01:03:17.360 | to the general principles of scripture. And there are many passages there that speak to this issue.

01:03:25.520 | Genesis 2, verse 16, "The Lord God commanded the man saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of

01:03:31.600 | the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.'" And people say

01:03:38.640 | God is so restrictive because he said, "You shall not eat of this particular tree." But did you get

01:03:45.840 | the other statement that God said to Adam and Eve? He said, "You may surely eat of every tree

01:03:52.880 | of the garden." So as long as you are obeying this command not to eat of one particular tree,

01:03:59.280 | you have freedom. You can eat of every tree of the garden. Now that's the principle of freedom.

01:04:08.400 | You can stay within the moral will of God and you can eat of many different kinds of trees.

01:04:15.600 | There is freedom. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 23, "All things are lawful,

01:04:21.440 | but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up." Paul means

01:04:28.880 | there that all things are lawful, which have not been declared unlawful by the word of God.

01:04:38.240 | Paul acknowledges that there is this realm of Christian freedom, and yet he says that we are

01:04:46.240 | to use our freedom to build other believers up. You don't just say, "Well, I'm free, so I'm going

01:04:51.840 | to do whatever I want," Paul says. Even though you understand that all things are lawful,

01:04:58.320 | you also have to understand that not all things build up. And so use your freedom to serve one

01:05:06.000 | another and to build one another up. And that is a very important concept. Okay, so with that

01:05:15.520 | concept in place, and you can review the notes and also look at this diagram. If you understand

01:05:20.880 | the conceptual idea of this diagram that you have God's sovereign will, which you're always in,

01:05:26.160 | you have God's moral will, which is the commands of God in scripture. And then within the moral

01:05:31.920 | will of God, you have freedom to make certain specific choices and decisions in life. The

01:05:38.880 | question is this, "How does the Holy Spirit guide believers in Christ?" And I'm going to make a

01:05:45.840 | couple points here and draw this to a close. As I said, the thesis of this teaching is that the

01:05:52.880 | Holy Spirit guides believers through His all-sufficient word. The Holy Spirit guides

01:06:00.800 | believers through, not apart from, His written word. In other words, you and I will experience

01:06:09.040 | the guiding ministry of the Holy Spirit as we study and apply the principles of His word to

01:06:16.880 | the specific issues we face in everyday life. The question is, "Should I eat at McDonald's or

01:06:25.440 | should I eat at Burger King?" And in general, you have the principle of freedom, except I'm married

01:06:36.080 | to a wife who happens to not like Burger King as much as she likes McDonald's, even though I like

01:06:43.920 | Burger King. She has a preference toward McDonald's. I also have a daughter who really happens to love

01:06:52.960 | the Chicken McNuggets at McDonald's. So when I'm faced in that situation with a car, with my wife

01:07:01.520 | and my daughter in my car, I have to apply scripture. And I have to apply the biblical

01:07:08.720 | principles of love and servanthood and preferring one another above myself in Philippians 2 verses

01:07:16.640 | 1-4, considering the issues of others more important than yourself. And those principles

01:07:24.480 | of scripture will guide me to make a decision, most likely in that setting, to drive my daughter

01:07:33.680 | and my wife to McDonald's and not to Burger King. That's a simple example, but I hope you will see

01:07:40.640 | that biblical principles do apply even to the smaller decisions that we make.

01:07:48.320 | This is not the Holy Spirit giving me a woo-woo. This is not the Holy Spirit giving me a direct

01:07:56.320 | zap. This is not me waking up in a night saying, "I saw the golden arches, and I know that it's

01:08:02.320 | God's will for me to take my daughter to McDonald's and not Burger King." This is me thinking through

01:08:09.760 | the biblical principles. Serve one another. Prefer one another. If my wife and my daughter

01:08:16.960 | like a certain preference, then I should seek to serve them. It is as I consider

01:08:24.560 | what the Word of God teaches that the Holy Spirit guides me to make decisions in life.

01:08:33.120 | And I'm just taking scripture and applying God's Word to the decisions that I face. And I'm sure

01:08:42.880 | most of you would be much more impressed if I told you that I received direct word from the Lord,

01:08:50.320 | that I should eat this hamburger instead of the other, but that never happens to me.

01:08:55.520 | We don't need any additional words or revelations apart from scripture. We need to apply what God

01:09:03.840 | has already given. So what I've given you on your handout there, and I would encourage you to get

01:09:09.520 | Stuart Scott's material on this, are just some inadequate means of obtaining guidance, just ways

01:09:17.680 | that people tend to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit apart from simply reading, studying, and

01:09:26.640 | applying the written Word of God. And that can be an entire session on its own, but I want to just

01:09:34.960 | put that in your hands and ask you to think through that. Just very briefly, when people

01:09:40.880 | talk about, "Well, the Holy Spirit led me or guided me," I would just note here that the two

01:09:47.680 | clear examples of the Holy Spirit's leading in scripture, just to bring some balance to

01:09:53.200 | understanding, is Romans 8, which talks about the Holy Spirit leading us to see our adopted status

01:10:00.720 | as sons of God in Christ, and Galatians chapter 5, which talks about the Holy Spirit

01:10:07.920 | leading us to bear the fruit of the Spirit. And so a person who is saying that the Spirit

01:10:15.040 | is leading me ought to be able to say that I am praying to the Father as a child comes to

01:10:22.320 | a father whom he knows, loves the child, and embraces the child, and the Holy Spirit is

01:10:29.760 | leading me to greater sanctification. So that's the basic principle. The Holy Spirit guides

01:10:36.080 | believers through his Word. So I know you might be saying then, "What about that one little circle

01:10:43.520 | called freedom? What about those decisions that we make that are really within the confines of

01:10:50.800 | Christian freedom, and yet we do need to make those decisions? We do need to decide what school

01:10:57.760 | should I go to, or what person should I date, or who should I marry?" And there may be, you know,

01:11:05.280 | three different schools that are all within the moral will of God, and there's freedom, and yet

01:11:10.800 | you and I know that can be agonizing to decide those types of issues. And with teenagers in my

01:11:19.440 | home who are making those types of life decisions, I know that that can be very agonizing. Which

01:11:24.800 | school should I go to? All of them are lawful in the sense that they're permissible by the Lord,

01:11:31.040 | and yet still that is an agonizing decision. And so in that realm, letter B, the Holy Spirit gives

01:11:39.200 | wisdom to apply God's Word to life situation. He is called the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding.

01:11:48.480 | The proto-deacons in Acts 6, verse 3, were full of the Spirit and of wisdom. Wisdom is the ability

01:12:00.320 | to recognize what is spiritually profitable in a given situation, and sometimes we come alongside

01:12:06.480 | counselees and we say, "You have freedom to choose this job or that job," and yet I'm going to pray

01:12:16.160 | along with the prayer in James 1, verse 5, I'm going to pray that God gives you wisdom to apply

01:12:22.560 | these principles of God's Word to your situation so that you would make the most spiritually

01:12:28.400 | advantageous decision out of all the possible options, even though all of the options are

01:12:35.840 | within God's moral will. And so some decisions have multiple options, and all of those options

01:12:49.440 | are within God's moral will. So wisdom is the ability to apply the truth of God's Word to

01:12:56.800 | a given situation. Now, my last point is this, and as you can see, I'm rushing here a little

01:13:05.040 | bit because there's so much we could say on this topic, but really I need to draw this to a close.

01:13:11.440 | The Holy Spirit leads us as we study and apply the Word of God.

01:13:21.760 | The Holy Spirit gives us wisdom to apply God's Word to life situations and within the realm of

01:13:28.000 | freedom to make decisions that would be most spiritually advantageous in a given situation.

01:13:35.200 | And then the last thing we would say is that the Holy Spirit, at the bottom of page 6 of

01:13:41.600 | your handout, gives us courage to make hard decisions. So I think the final thing that I

01:13:50.160 | would say on this topic is that understanding this whole topic of guidance and biblical decision

01:13:55.360 | making, someone might say, "Wow, I can't make a decision until I grow more in the Lord," or,

01:14:05.600 | "I can't make a decision until I've read Gary Friesian's book," or, "I can't make a decision

01:14:10.320 | until I've listened to Dave Doyle and Jim Uheiser on this topic. And before I get a PhD in decision

01:14:18.720 | making, I can't make decisions." And I would say that this topic and this session hopefully will

01:14:28.960 | equip you to see that you can make decisions and you should make decisions. And the Holy Spirit will

01:14:38.720 | give you His wisdom that you will make even the hard decisions, that you will search God's Word,

01:14:48.080 | that you will apply to the best of your ability, the principles of Scripture, to the decision

01:14:55.200 | that faces you, that you will obtain wise counsel. And hopefully this counsel will point you to the

01:15:00.800 | Word and not give you counsel that is apart from God's Word. And you will pray for wisdom,

01:15:07.920 | and then you will make decisions. That is to say that God guides us as we move forward in life,

01:15:17.840 | as we make decisions, and as we trust that God will sovereignly work through our decisions to

01:15:26.080 | accomplish His good and perfect plan. Even if our decisions are flawed or if they are not perfect,

01:15:32.240 | we will still trust that God will use even those decisions to accomplish His good and holy

01:15:39.760 | purposes. And the Holy Spirit gives us courage to make those hard decisions. After everything is

01:15:49.920 | said and done, after we've applied Scripture, and if we prayed, and as we sought the best ability to

01:15:56.560 | seek counsel, we will tell our counselees, "Make a decision and then entrust your life to God.

01:16:04.720 | Make a decision and trust that God will even steer you as you make another decision after

01:16:11.440 | that decision. And then you will look back on your life and you will be able to say,

01:16:16.800 | 'God led me and that the Holy Spirit led me as I studied and applied His precious Word.'"

01:16:25.360 | So I trust this session was an encouragement to you. Once again, pick up Stuart Scott's

01:16:34.240 | handout on this and Jim Neuheiser's teaching on this. If you need a teaching that is one hour

01:16:39.840 | that's going to encapsulate a lot of this, get Dave Doyle's message off the Kindred website.

01:16:45.760 | And I trust that you will both be guided and led by the Holy Spirit in the practical areas of life

01:16:53.200 | and that you will be equipped to help others to seek that same guidance as well. Let me pray for

01:16:59.840 | us and we'll close our session for tonight. Father, we just thank you so much for your

01:17:06.480 | precious Word. And we thank you that the Holy Spirit leads us as we study and apply the Word

01:17:12.640 | of God. We thank you that we don't need any additional words outside of Scripture. You've

01:17:19.040 | given to us everything that we need for life and godliness. And so help us to be guided by the Holy

01:17:27.760 | Spirit as we carefully apply the principles of Scripture to the situations that are before us.

01:17:35.360 | And we pray that as we make those tough decisions,

01:17:39.840 | that we would trust that you would sovereignly work in our lives.

ACBC Theology Exam 22 - The Holy Spirit and Guidance

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