LIFE IS A MAZE(ing) | Guidelines and Guardrails | Ephesians 5:1-21 | Week 2

Last week we started a series we're calling "Life is A Maze....ing."  We're talking about discovering God's will.  It's these questions we all have ---- What job should I take?  What city should I live in?  What relationship should I pursue?  We all have these questions, don't we?  God, what do you want me to do with my life?  If you're God, and I believe that you are, and you have a plan, and I believe that you do, how do I align myself with it?  We spend a lot of time, and we might lose a lot of sleep asking that question?  At times it can be laborious and at times it can be a little bit annoying to go God, I just don't know.  That feeling of 'I don't know' is also the very feeling that makes us feel like we're alive.  If we did away with that, if we knew exactly what to do at every moment and time and we were just robots being controlled, life wouldn't be nearly as amazing as it is.  The reality is that God has given us choice.  He's given us freedom.  If you came last week, that's why you're back today, because you believe that your choices matter.  You have the ability to choose between a myriad of different options and what you do with your life.  If you didn't believe that, you wouldn't be here today.  If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be giving this sermon!  

We'll talk about this each week because we want to give a little bit of framework.  Last week, we said that if you were to read through the Scriptures, you're going to find three different types of wills of God.  You can't go through a single passage and find these, you need to sort of dig and mine a little bit.  Let me give you the first one:  It's God's sovereign will.  That's the 'thus saith the Lord,' this is going to happen.  God is in heaven and he does whatever pleases him, the psalmist says.  But that's different than saying 'everything that happens is God's will' or 'that God wills everything that happens.'  Within his sovereign will, God says to some things, I'm going to give you freedom.  You're going to have to use your brain.  It's not a decoration.  It's not a hood ornament for your life.  You should actually use it.  We're going to talk about that today.  Within God's sovereign will there's a lot of freedom.  We said last week:  God gets everything he wills, but he doesn't get everything he wants.  There are some moments that God says to us, I've given you free choice and you've chosen to go one direction, but I wish you would have done something else...