Discerning the will of God

Discerning the will of God | Acts 21:1-14 | Ian Goodman
- We come to a passage that is difficult to preach on.
- Details seem insignificant (travel plans, ship routes).
- Luke loves details that are worth mentioning, helps the narrative to escape the rhythm of myth.
- The next eight chapters are like this, and these travel narratives are more relevant than they may seem to be.
- Lessons, instructions, and encouragements from here are applicable to everybody who is on a journey with God.
- Different voices were telling Paul to go in different directions.
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How did God guide Paul? How did God guide the early church? How does God guide us today?

I. How to discern the will of God
- It is plain that one of the issues that this text is dealing with is the difficulty in discerning the will of God.
- (Pastor Ian had a comment in passing about the role of women in ministry (in relation to the unmarried daughters of Philip who prophesied). According to him, there is definitely encouragement for women to partake in ministry but not to the point of becoming pastors/elders).
- Agabus gave a prophecy about Paul going to experience hardships in Jerusalem.
- We need to harmonise what the Holy Spirit is saying, if it seems to be conflicting.
- The Holy Spirit was actually preparing Paul for the persecution he would encounter in Jerusalem, rather than telling Paul not to go.
- Bias and personal feelings/desire play a significant role in our wanting to believe what God wants us to do.
- Today we don't have prophets, but we have revelation through the Scriptures.
- We have to read very carefully, listen with a great deal of humility, and set aside our biases.

II. How to stand firm in the will of God
- Paul was not at all uncertain about what the Spirit was saying. He had been led by the Spirit many times before.
- Paul also knew what would happen to him.
- Nothing that Agabus said changed his mind.
- He knew the reason the people were telling him not to go was biased because of their love for him.
- We are to be reminded that it is not actually the voice of others, or even our own voice, that matters, but God's.
- We are to stand on God's will even to the point of death.
- When standing on the Word, don't stop reading carefully and listening humbly.

III. How to submit to the will of God
- Since Paul, in spite of knowing all the hardships he would encounter, could not be persuaded, in verse 14 they said, "Let the will of the Lord be done"
- They all knew that the will of the Lord was not second best. Accepting the will of the Lord is the most optimistic thing we will ever do.
How can we genuinely pray "Let Your will be done," and not see it as a second-best thing to be resigned to?
First, we need to change our view of who God is. (God is sovereign, faithful and good to His people.)
Second, we need to have a right view of ourselves. (How valuable we are to our God)
Then, we will be free to hand it all over to Him.

Matthew 6:25-27: "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?