7 Checkpoints: Wise Choices - God's Will

Sarah sat on the couch with her Bible in her lap. She randomly opened the Bible and dropped her finger on a word. Sarah was about to graduate from high school, and was really scared about her future. What was next for her? Where would she go to college? Should she go to college? The first question she had to answer was, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Sarah’s little sister, Heather, walked up and sat down beside her.

H – What are you doing?
S – I’m trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be when I grow up?
H – Do you think that the Bible will tell you that?
S – I was kind of hoping…
H – What about a dentist?
S – The office smells, and people’s mouths are gross.
H – How about a lawyer?
S – They work too much.
H – You know my friend’s mom is an administrative assistant, and I think that she likes her job.
S – I don’t know. Does anyone really ever start out in life saying, “I want to be an administrative assistant or I want to be middle management?” Most jobs are just where people end up, and not really what they really want.
H – Sarah, I really don’t care what you decide to be. I look up to you because you are my big sister. I’m more interested in you, than in what you do with your life.
S – Thanks, Heather. You’re the best sister ever!!!

Heather got off the couch, and went into the kitchen to help her mom get dinner ready. Sarah looked down at her Bible to see what verse she had landed on. Maybe it would answer all of her questions.

S – Isaiah 26:3 You, Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in You.

Somehow Sarah understood that God would take care of her, and that was enough. She closed her Bible and went into the kitchen for dinner.
First things first –
Your future is out there, and I don’t think that it’s a stretch to say that thinking about the future can be a frightening thing. You make decisions every day. Every decision that you make has the potential to change something about your life or the lives of others. Sometimes that change can be very drastic and sometimes not so much.
A man I work with told me that his son is going to head off to the Navy after he graduates which will be in about a month. I said, “That’s neat, but you’re going to have a very sad mother on your hands.” This is her first son leaving the house, and not only is he leaving, there is very real potential that he could be heading into a life that could be very dangerous and life-threatening. Then he told me that his other son is going to start studying to be a lawyer. I told him that his son should make very very sure that he wants to be a lawyer, because he may not like the life that comes with it. Lawyers work excruciating long hours. Those hours are all very detailed, and to my mind, they are stressful. He’ll have to go to very expensive school for several years. At the end of which, he will have school loans in the 100,000’s that will have to be paid off, and the only way to pay bills like that off is to be a lawyer or a doctor. He’ll be stuck.

My neighbor and I work at the same company. When we see each other outside, one of the first questions that we ask is, “How’s work?” He made an interesting comment to me the other day. He said, “My brother in law is starting the interview process to become a policeman this week. I’m really happy for him, because he has wanted to be a policeman for as long as he can remember. Very few people end up doing what they really want to do. Look at me, I consult clients on their companies insurance plans. Doing this for a living never even crossed my mind growing up. I didn’t even know that a job like this existed, but here I am. At least I’m getting paid.”

We all have dreams and goals. Sometimes they come true, and sometimes they don’t. Life happens. You get married. You need money. You have to work to get money. You find a job, and there you are. You are a carpenter’s apprentice. You are a stockboy at Dominick’s. You are working in a bank. For most people these are not dream jobs, but it’s what they do. Then every once in a while someone gets their dream job.

We spend a lot of time wondering what we’re going to be when we grow up. Usually we are really asking ourselves, “What am I going to DO when I grow up? The question we should really be concerned with is “WHO am I going to be, and what does God want me to do for Him?

God’s will for your life is to be like Him, perfect.
Philippians 1:6
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

God calls everyone who believes in him to be in the ministry.
Mathew 28:18-20
And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

God calls some to be in the ministry AS their job.

God calls some to be in the ministry AT their job.

Ephesians 4:11&12
And God gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors, and some as teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.

God has chosen to call me to be a pastor, more specifically a youth pastor. I wish I had some magical story about how that happened, but I don’t.

All I know is that when I was graduating from high school, I was on one track, and that was to be a pastor. I sat in my friends car on day after church with her mother, and they asked me where I was going to go to college and what I would major in. I said, “I’m going to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to be a pastor.” They said, “Really. You’re too spastic to be a pastor. You should be a youth pastor.” So I said, “OK”. So that’s what I did.

Sometimes, I still wake up wondering, “Am I doing what God wants me to do?” I spoke to a woman 2 days ago who confessed to me, “I’m 50 years old, and I still ask the question, What does God want me to do with my life?”

1. Start a relationship with Christ
2. Pray
3. Read your Bible
4. Talk to people about it who can give you good counsel
5. Be alert to what God is doing in your life
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Breakout Session Guide B.S.L. stands for Breakout Session Leader -
1. Spend some time talking about what they want to be when they grow up. Celebrate their decisions with them. Encourage them on towards their goals.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Why?
BSL – Many of our dreams and aspirations are self-centered. They are what we want.
What God wants has never entered out minds. What is going to bring me pleasure in
This life? When our perspective is that true joy and contentment comes with pleasing
God, then we can begin to really answer that question, and trust that we will be happy
With that pursuit.

2. Encourage them further that their focus needs to be on who they will be as opposed to what they will do. What we do is a direct response to who we are. As adults we know that our career paths hardly characterize us as people.

3. If the group is willing, take some time praying for one another and that we will become what God wants us to become.