Key Life Network

Steve Brown: How do I know God's will for my life? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.

Guest (Male): This is Key Life, dedicated to the message that the only people who get any better are those who know that if they don't get any better, God will still love them anyway. That teaching raises a lot of questions. So here's author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from Forge Truth, with answers from the Bible that will make you free.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hey, Pete.

Pete Alwinson: Hey, happy Friday.

Steve Brown: Happy Friday to you.

Pete Alwinson: Good to see you.

Steve Brown: There was a day when Friday was never happy.

Pete Alwinson: Well.

Steve Brown: Because Saturday, well, you did them way in advance. I ran by the seat of my pants. I never wrote a sermon until Saturday for Sunday, and I was a nervous wreck.

Pete Alwinson: I don't know how you did that. Friday noon was when I wanted to get it done and I was always, I felt great. Friday.

Steve Brown: I know you did. Well, I, I work better scared. I think faster scared. That's Pete Alwinson and you ought to be familiar with Forge Truth and you can do that by going to forgettruth.com.

And if you ever, if you haven't read the book, Like Father Like Son, that's a life-changing experience and you can get it at Amazon or Key Life or bookstore'll order it for you. Great book. Pete, as you know, comes in and we answer questions and we honestly love to do this. And we love your questions, and we take them seriously.

You can ask a question by picking up the phone and calling 1-800 Key Life. That's 1-800-539-5433 or ask your question. Or you can send your question to Key Life Network, Post Office Box 5000, Maitland, Florida, 32794. If you live in Canada, it's Key Life Canada, Post Office Box 2860, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 6J8. Or you can send your question to Steve at keylife.org.

And if you can help us financially, please do. We're a member of ECFA in the states and Forcies in Canada. And both of those organizations oversee ministries to make sure that they're ethical. Now, we've been around longer than both of those organizations and we were ethical before they were formed, but it's nice to have somebody say so. So if you can help us, I promise we'll be faithful with your gift. If you can't, say a prayer for this ministry.

Pete, speaking of prayer, lead us in prayer and we'll get to these questions.

Pete Alwinson: That's a good idea. Our great God, we come to you today at the end of this week and are privileged to be your children. Our Holy God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we praise you for your wisdom and your power, your goodness and your mercy, and your patience and your faithfulness.

And all that you are in every way, shape and form. Thank you for your works. Thank you for your nature. And thank you that you created us in your image and then recreated us in Christ. And Lord Jesus, what a joy it is to be your disciples.

And so, Lord, at the end of this week, we come to you and ask that your Holy Spirit would fill us, refresh us, and lead us into your presence as we move into worship. We need that time with the people of God, their our people. And with you. And we ask that you would be with our leaders in such a way that as they proclaim the word to us, we hear you in a fresh way. Touch them, touch us, and be honored and glorified.

Father, we thank you for Key Life. Thank you for those that do so much behind the scenes, names that we may never know. Thank you for Steve's leadership. Thank you for the ministry of this of this great ministry and and and the doctrine of grace that Key Life puts forth. So we commit our time to you of Q&A. Pray that your grace would fill our hearts during this time. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Steve Brown: Amen. Peter, this first question is an email that we get a lot and we've answered two or three times. How do I know God's will for my life?

Pete Alwinson: Yeah, well, you know, if I if I want to know God's will for my life, I just call up you and say speak to me. That's dumb.

Steve Brown: You know, Jesus said, if any man's will is to do his will, he will know. So we start off with this. God's not in the business of keeping his will from you.

Pete Alwinson: Right. No, that that's an excellent point. God is the great communicator.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: And people say he's silent. No, he's not. He had prophets. He speaks to us through creation, and he speaks to us through his word. So we have many sources already, but the word written down, what a privilege.

Steve Brown: Oh, yeah.

Pete Alwinson: That we have the Bible.

Steve Brown: Oh, it is. It's the source.

Pete Alwinson: And and it's an and it's the answer to a lot of our questions about his will.

Steve Brown: That's right. You know, I had a guy ask me, "I'm trying to determine God's will for my mistress." And I said, "What?" And he said, "I'm trying to determine God's will about my mistress." And I said, "You're crazy." He's already told you his will. Whether you do it or not, that's another thing, but don't say that God hasn't told you.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. And and here here's what I got a few weeks ago. A guy said to me, he goes, "Okay, my ex-wife wants me back, but I'm remarried, and so should I go back?" I said, I said, "No." I said, I said it pretty diplomatically, but we but when you understand the Old Testament, scriptures clear.

Steve Brown: Sure, it's true.

Pete Alwinson: I say, first of all, so I don't know what percentage, Steve, we'd say. Somebody said 99% of God's will for our life is in the Bible, and that's true in one sense.

Steve Brown: Yeah, and I'm sure this person's asking about specifics.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah, so it's in the gray area. So where do we not know God's will? Does he want me to work? Yes. Where should I work?

Steve Brown: Yeah, that's different.

Pete Alwinson: It's different. And so I think a lot of that comes down to how does God the Father? How is he leading me? How do I find that out? To know where he wants me to invest in the work world? Or who to marry?

Steve Brown: And that has to do with circumstances, of course. Has to do with our family, the family of God. You know, if you don't have Christian brothers and sisters who are honest with you about what they think and what they feel, you're missing out on a means of grace that is really important.

Pete Alwinson: So the body of Christ is one way. And so should I become a pastor? Well, I heard you lead a Bible study once and it didn't seem like it.

Steve Brown: No, shouldn't go there.

Pete Alwinson: Don't go there. You know, I mean, that's that's the honest honest love. So the body of Christ can help us. That's true. Good good solid growing Christians can help us. Yeah. Um, trial and error can help us determine the will of God.

Steve Brown: Yeah. Try to walk that road if you want to. And if it really is messy and doesn't work.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah.

Steve Brown: Then you're not called. We're not called to die on every cross.

Pete Alwinson: No. No, and and you know, like and also in internal proclivities and desires. I knew right away at one point in my life that I was never going to go into the medical field. I I.

Steve Brown: What are you faint at the sight of blood?

Pete Alwinson: I I didn't want to I didn't want to touch those fluids or blood or all that. I just realized that's not me. I don't want to do that.

Steve Brown: Well, and God didn't call me to sing as a soloist in the church either.

Pete Alwinson: Well, you're in the choir. You sing better than me.

Steve Brown: Well, that was different. They had to work at teaching me. You know, people listen to my voice and say, "You have a beautiful you must sing." And I go, "No, I preach."

Pete Alwinson: Yeah, that's right. So go ahead and sing, but don't quit your day job.

Steve Brown: I don't get the same. Yeah, that's right.

Pete Alwinson: So there's a lot of means to do that. And and use biblical wisdom in in in that. Talk to several again, growing Christians that can help you out in certain things. Should I get married? Yeah, generally speaking, that's the case unless you have.

Steve Brown: Marriage is a good thing.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah. Young men. I say to young men these days. I say, look, you're you're being way too passive. You need to go date.

Steve Brown: Yeah. I agree.

Pete Alwinson: And get out there and find a good godly wife. And.

Steve Brown: And I think all that we're saying about this is don't get so uptight about it. I mean, God loves you. And and he will create circumstances, open doors and shut doors. Our friend, one of the voices of Key Life, Jerry Perry says, "His problem isn't that he doesn't believe God opens doors when he shuts one, it's having to hang out in the hallway that's the problem."

Pete Alwinson: That's good. That's a good one. That's a good line.

Steve Brown: That's a good statement. So don't be so uptight about it. If ask that question that Jesus posed. If any man's will is to do his will, he will know. And you will.

Pete Alwinson: That's great. That's great.

Steve Brown: Why do you ask forgiveness for your sins? It's my. What are you crazy? This is an email. Why do you ask for forgiveness for your sins? It's my understanding that Christ died for my sins, present, past and future. Let me tell you something.

Repentance is not for God's sake. It's for ours. And confession is a part of repentance. And if and the reason God calls me to repentance and confession, if we confess our sins, that's clearly taught in first John.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: If we if we confess if if we confess, I feel better.

Pete Alwinson: Isn't that something?

Steve Brown: I mean, there's some things I've never told anybody but God, but boy, it was good to get it off my chest.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. Yeah, yeah, it's and it's it's just gets the relationship reestablished. Homologeo is the Greek word, right? To say the same thing. That's what confession is. You're just saying the same thing that your father knows anyway, that the Lord knows anyway.

Steve Brown: So we're not doing it for him.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah, that's right. And and we're doing it to admit, "Oh, yeah, that's an area." Okay. And then and then it gives us the opportunity to invite him in to to actually address that.

Steve Brown: Oh, it really is. That's how we that's how we get better because after the confession, we're loved by a father. Not just God, but God, our Father.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: And and once we see that, it's not just confession, it's father. I'm going to work on that. But you got to work in me cause I'm I'm a hard case. And he does.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. And he does.

Steve Brown: Repentance is given and called for by God that we might grow and be sanctified in Christ.

Pete Alwinson: Oh, yeah. And and that's the joy and it's and it's grace that motivates all that. It just energizes us when we confess because we get his grace. And that's the energizing, "Okay, now work in me."

Steve Brown: That's so true. It's awesome. Yeah, that's what keeps us from being antinomian.

Pete Alwinson: Oh, what's that mean?

Steve Brown: Well, look it up. It means against the law. We're not against the law at all. That's a gift that God has given his people. That's how we measure ourselves. So we know what to confess and where to repent. Hey, Key Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.