Text: Luke 6:12-16 Title: Ask God First

Text: Luke 6:12-16 Title: Ask God First SERMON VIDEO BUMPER Can you look back on a time when you made a decision without first asking God what He wanted you to do? Maybe you went out and bought a car without asking God first. Maybe you borrowed some money without asking God first. Maybe you started dating someone or even married them without ever asking God what His will was for you. Maybe you made a career move without asking God first. Maybe you sent a critical email to someone before really praying about it. Or maybe you went through the motions of praying about something, but you know that you had already made up your mind what you were going to do, no matter what. Well, today I want to show you why it s so important to ask God before you make important decisions. Let s open our Bibles to Luke 6:12. We re in our 40 Days of Prayer focus. We want you to UPGRADE to a greater of experience of intimacy with God in your own personal prayer life and in praying with others in small groups. And in our worship services we re tracing the prayer life of Jesus through the Gospel of Luke. Luke makes a real point of showing how Jesus was not only fully God, but also fully human. And being fully human He longed for intimacy with His heavenly Father which He experienced in prayer. Now Jesus popularity is growing but there s also a growing hatred toward Him among the Jewish leaders. They were looking for ways to get rid of Him. On one occasion Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. The religious leaders were furious because to them rules and traditions were more important than mercy and compassion. So after that confrontation here s what Jesus did. Read Luke 6:12-16. Jesus knew He was on a collision course with the Cross and He is faced with one of the most important decisions of His life. He must choose twelve apostles who would carry on His work after He died, rose again and went back to heaven. They would become the spiritual foundation of the church that Jesus was forming. Jesus would teach these men, and then they would become the human instruments God used to give us the NT. They would perform miracles that would attest to the authority of the Gospel of Jesus. They would be eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So this is huge. The word apostle means one who is sent. So out of the hundreds of followers Jesus how would He choose the twelve to send? Well, Jesus spent an entire night seeking the Father in prayer for the wisdom He needed to make this important decision. He knew He needed to ask God first. And

so do we. Because our real purpose in life as followers of Jesus is to glorify God, we better make sure that every part of our lives is in the center of His will. If we really want do what is best for those we love our spouse, our kids, our fellow believers we have to make sure that the choices we make are guided by God. You see, our understanding is limited. We can t always see the outcome from our choices but God knows. So we bring God into the process of our decision-making by seeking Him in prayer like Jesus did. Later on in His ministry Jesus was praying for these twelve apostles He chose and this is what He said to the Father in His prayer: John 17:6 - I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me Notice that Jesus referred to the Twelve as those you gave me you gave them to me. Jesus prayed before He chose them. The Father showed Him which ones to choose. So Jesus could look back in confidence and say, Father, You gave them to Me. You see, when you ask God first before making decisions and you do what He tells you to do, no matter what happens, no matter how it turns out, you can live in the confidence that you did God s will. The other option is to just leave God out of the equation altogether. We can arrogantly think that we know as much as God does so we don t have to ask Him first. Again, most of us can look back on situations where we didn t ask God first we left Him out of the decision and the consequences were disastrous. So from the example of Jesus we learn how to make important decisions through intimacy with the Father in prayer. 1. COMMIT YOURSELF COMPLETELY TO GOD S WILL. It has to start here. We can t come before God with our minds already made up just wanting God to bless our plans. We have to empty ourselves of sin and self to where we are completely abandoned to God s will for our lives. Whatever you say, Lord, the answer is yes. The writer of Hebrews gives us some insight into the prayer life of Jesus:

Hebrews 5:7 - During the days of Jesus life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. He was heard because of His reverent submission. The Father knew that His Son was completely yielded to God s will, whatever it was. It has to start there. QUOTE Rick Warren in the 40 Days small group video last week said, God responds to humility. That s so true. The Bible says in James 4:6 that God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Maybe today you realize that you are far from God and your life is way out of line with His will. The most important prayer any of us ever prays is to turn from our sin and put our trust in Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior to surrender completely to God. If you ve never done that, do it today. Don t live another day outside of God s will for your life. Completely and humbly commit yourself to God s will, then 2. ALLOW TIME TO HEAR FROM GOD. It tells us in Luke 6:12 that Jesus spent the whole night praying. Why? So He could make sure He knew what the Father wanted Him to do. You see, the more important the decision the more time and intensity we need to put into praying about it. In this case Jesus pulled an all-nighter, like a college student studying for a final exam. Are you praying long enough? I m not saying that you necessarily have to pray all night, but pray about it long enough that you ve given God time to show you His will before you make your decision? How many times have we made poor choices because someone pressured us into making a decision right now rather than taking time to pray it through? Here s the next thing we learn from Jesus about asking God first. 3. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS OF SCRIPTURE. Not every decision we make has a direct biblical instruction. For example, if you need to decide where to invest your retirement savings you won t find the stock fund listed in the Bible. If you need to know who God wants you to marry you won t find their name in the Bible (unless they happen to have a biblical name like

Ruth or Matthew). But what you will find in the Bible are principles that will guide you in the process of making a decision. The Bible does give wisdom about investing money. The Bible does give wisdom for the kind of person you should marry or not marry. Proverbs 2:6 - For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth (His Word) come knowledge and understanding. If you go back a few pages to Luke 4 you see Jesus praying and fasting in the wilderness for forty days and nights. Satan comes to Jesus to tempt Him to get out of the will of God turn rocks into bread, bow down and worship Satan or jump off of the top of the Temple to show off. And each time Jesus answered with a clear command of Scripture. Again we need to pray with our minds loaded with truth from the Bible because that s the main way God reveals His will to us. Commit yourself to God s will no matter what. Take the time to hear from God. Follow the clear instructions of Scripture. Also 4. CAREFULLY CONSIDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES. When we have to make decisions God doesn t tell us to put our brains in neutral. You can sure that Jesus knew He was about to make this important decision about who His apostles would be so He watched them carefully. Only twelve of them would make the cut so He was watching and praying. The book of Proverbs has so many great verses about making decisions. Proverbs 16:25 - There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. There are choices that at first may seem right to us, but they are not. So we consider, Can I afford this expenditure? God probably doesn t want you to spend money you don t have. We weigh the possible consequences. If I accept this job offer how will it affect the time I have to spend with my family? Carefully consider the circumstances and possible consequences. Next 5. SEEK GODLY COUNSEL FROM OTHERS.

Now Jesus was in the unique position to make a decision purely with the counsel of His heavenly Father. But we as sinners don t have that capacity all by ourselves. We benefit from the counsel of others who know how to listen to God and discern how God might be moving in our lives. ILLUSTRATION Last week a few of us agreed that we would pray and fast for a brother who is going through tremendous suffering. He is seeking God and wanted us to come alongside him as he did. We tried to be sensitive to how God might be speaking from His Word. We met for lunch after the day of fasting and prayer and shared how we sensed God had spoken through His Word into our friend s situation. I tell you, it was powerful! That s part of the reason Jesus chose twelve apostles. There s great benefit in the abundance of counselors. They would have to make important decisions for the church and they would need their collective wisdom to discern how God was leading. Next 6. LISTEN FOR GOD S WHISPERS. Sometimes this is called the still, small voice of God. I ve discovered that if I want to hear from God on something I have to quiet my heart. His voice is rarely the loudest. And this is where intimacy with God comes in the kind that Jesus experienced with the Father when He said in John 5:19-20a - The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. There was a heart connection between the Father and Jesus. Jesus was so attune with the Father that He could easily sense what the Father s will was in any situation and Jesus just did what He saw His Father doing and said what He heard His Father saying. Get quiet enough to hear the whisper of God and then when you know what His will is 7. STEP OUT IN OBEDIENT FAITH.

There s a time to pray and then there s a time to act. After spending all night in prayer Jesus had the answer from His Father and in v.13 it says that when morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them Now this involves faith because even when we ve gone through all these steps of asking God first and seeking His will we might still have some doubts. But God honors our faith when we say, Father, you know I m weak and have trouble making decisions, but you also know my heart. I m trusting in You. Hebrews 11:6b (God) rewards those who earnestly seek him. Now just because God shows you what to do and you obey Him doesn t mean it will be all smooth sailing after that. And it may seem at times that you made the wrong decision. Jesus chose twelve men who were not perfect and they would cause Him a lot of heartache. Just look at the list of the apostles. Simon Peter is on the list. In the darkest hour of Jesus life three times Peter denied even knowing Jesus. Judas Iscariot s name is on that list. Judas would later betray Jesus to the Romans who would crucify Him. It could appear that Jesus missed it somewhere. But no! Maybe you really prayed hard about a decision. You asked God and you thought you heard from Him, but things haven t turned out the way you thought. Leave the outcome in God s hands. The important thing is to ask God first. Now let me give you a couple of things to do right now as we close our worship. As we begin to sing in just a moment if you have a special need you d like our church to pray over tonight in our Evening of Prayer and Praise, write it on the Guest/Prayer Request Card in the pew rack in front of you. Specifically if you are facing a big decision and you d like for us to pray for you right now, would you just come and stand here at the altar as we sing? We ll pause in a moment and pray for you. If you need to take the next step with the truth you've heard this morning... pray with someone, receive Christ, find out about becoming a member or any other matter... we have Next Step guides at the tables over on this (west) side of the stage ready to talk with you.