How Do I Know What's Best?

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Let's do it together, okay? Start this week just a verse at a time that's not that long. Yeah, 39 is for... But it's not really that long. You can do it. One whole chapter over the next six weeks. Just work on it and just let it simmer in this chapter. Just simmer in this chapter over the next six weeks. Let's do that all together. Romans 8, There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is the first verse. And it gets even better after that. So consider doing it. We're going to go through six weeks on this. And take our time going through every verse of it. And really learning the beauty, the joy, the wonder, the amazement, the shock, the mind-blowing, blow-out-all-category-ness. Whatever that... I know. Making up new words. But of this. And so that's going to be fun. But back to today. Okay? And I maybe have done this before in a sermon. You know, you kind of forget your sermons. Have any of you ever? You don't have. You don't remember my sermons. I'm sure you don't. Not all of them. True, right? I don't remember all the good meals I've eaten in my life. But they still give you nutrition when you have them, right? And that's true, I think, with messages. So I don't mind you forgetting some of this. So I might have used this actually before here. But I want you to answer this or finish this sentence in your mind. If you want to, shout out some answers. You can be humorous. This. In five years from now, I would like to be... In heaven? Okay. It's very spiritual of you. Anybody else? Alive. Retired? Anybody? Married? Anybody? Single? Anybody? Pregnant? So often, we'll answer that question. Successful. I want to be... What does that mean? I don't even know. Rich. I want to be famous. You ask college students. You ask teenagers. I want to be in the dream job. I want this. I want that. I want this. I want that. It's fascinating how our answers to that question come and how they betray what we believe the good life is. Kind of the default of what we're really aiming for in life. Did anybody, outside of Helen, say heaven? But did anybody say, in five years from now, I'd like to be more loving? More patient? More kind? I know. I'm touching a button here. I'd like to be a little more Christ-like than I am now. Okay? So often, that's not what I'm thinking about. And yet, that's what Paul's thinking about in his prayers. I don't know if you've seen that in prayers in the past, but the one today, he asked for the church at Colossae, is a prayer that he's looking for them to become more Christ-like. Let's read that again. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, for he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. You know, when I think about my future, often I think about the things I want to change around me. When Paul thinks about my future, he thinks about how I am going to be changed. Isn't that a fascinating difference? The illuminating aspect of this prayer that you see up here, it's really all hinging on this first part of the petition, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Paul is praying for the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God's will. And everything else flows out of that. Everything. And I think you might go like, oh great, yeah, I want to know what God's will is too. But I think this is where a lot of Christians get kind of confused about God's will. Do you think it's some type of a treasure map? Where it's like, okay, now where do I have to go next? And what do I have to do next? And if I do this, and if I do that, and if I go, what class should I take in college right now? What major should I have? What career path should I have? Should we live here? What house should I buy? Should I buy this or not? What jeans, what I should wear today, you know? Who I should marry, what I should do. And we think in terms of those things about God's will as if your life depends on those external type things and those decisions. And on one level, I'm going to be blunt. Those are minor issues in God's mind. Those are minor. Those come after the fact. First and foremost, I said this a few weeks ago. This is the quote I used from Chad Bird. He said, God's resolution is simply this, to get us out of ourselv...