Finding God's Will

I spent this week preparing my message for the MN-WI Baptist Convention's Annual Meeting.  I actually settled in on a topic a couple of months ago; I was going to preach on the need to plant new churches in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  This is a great need and it is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart because I served as a church planter in Iowa.  Since I have read a considerable amount of literature on starting churches, and I have experience, I felt I could provide a unique look at church planting.  I was excited to be able to share my enthusiasm for church planting with the pastors and church leaders at the Annual Meeting!

I had even zeroed in on the Scripture passage and a couple of good illustrations over a month ago.  After completing my commentary studies of the selected Scriptures, I sat down Saturday to begin writing the message.  With a cup of hot tea next to the keyboard, my Bible open to the Book of Acts, a couple of commentaries opened with heavy highlighting, I was ready to go!

Scanning the Scriptures, I quickly produced a 4-point outline of the message.  So far, so good!  Then I opened up a line under the first point, positioned my hands over the keyboard, focused my eyes on the screen, and started to ... think.  Nothing was coming.  Nothing.

I know you have been there.  You had an assignment to write in school and couldn't think of anything to say.  Or you had an important document to create for work and you froze.  We have all had writer's block.  Preachers get it too.

I did all I could to break the block.  I reread the commentaries.  I checked some of the words in the Scripture against my Greek dictionary.  After a couple of hours of effort, and five cups of tea, I had about 3 lines written.  This was not good.  Sunday fared no better; I was stuck and didn't have a clue what to do.  Like the time my brother got Dad's pickup stuck in a muddy cornfield, I wasn't going anywhere.

I have been listening to some John Maxwell sermons in my car as I commute to work, and Monday I was listening to a sermon on "Finding God's Will."  Suddenly it hit me - maybe my church planting sermon was not God's will for this message at this meeting.  God has done this to me before, so I should have recognized the symptoms, but I hadn't.

Mr. Youngster had a band concert at the High School Monday night, so I grabbed my Bible and took it with me to the concert.  While we were waiting forever for the concert to start, I was scanning through the New Testament to see where God would lead me.  When I hit 1 Corintheans, it was like a light lit up on my GPS telling me I have "reached my destination."

I went back to work on my message Tuesday afternoon and within a couple of hours, the first draft was done.  It's amazing how easy it is to prepare a sermon when the Holy Spirit is in the driver's seat!  Now it is Thursday and the message has been polished, my Powerpoint is completed, and I am ready to deliver God's Word at the Annual Meeting.  I am confident that I am saying what God wants me to say.

It seems this is a lesson I am continually learning.  I must stay in God's will if I am to be effective in my life - and not just in my preaching, but in every aspect of my life.  Have you ever wanted something really bad and roadblocks seemed to continually pop up that blocked you from getting it?  Maybe that wasn't bad luck; maybe God had other plans for you.  My experiences in life have proven that I am better off in God's will than chasing my own "wants" and "wishes."  It's not always easy to find God's will, but it is worth it!