It is an honor and a privilege to be able to be with you today.
So first, my church is in Toronto, Canada.
It's actually right outside of Toronto.
It's Hamilton.
And we just call it Toronto because no one knows where Hamilton is.
But what's really neat and special to me about this service is that we started at a new location three weeks ago.
This is our first service at a public university that has 30,000 students.
And so right now, as I'm preaching here, we're also live streaming to my church in Toronto, Canada.
And so this is a combined service.
And so thank you so much for hosting us and letting us be a part of this amazing mission conference.
You know, so many people ask me the question, I was in Mississippi as a pastor for a decade.
How did I go from being a Mississippi pastor for a decade, three children, life, to all of a sudden I'm in Toronto, Canada, Hamilton area, starting a brand new church?
What happened?
And so what I wanted to do today is really just kind of show you from God's word and from my own experience to answer a question that I hope we all have.
It's the question that's, how do you find God's will?
Because it's a question that we all need to know.
It doesn't matter where you're at.
It doesn't matter what situation you're in.
It doesn't matter your age.
It doesn't matter if you're retired, if you're a grandparent.
It doesn't matter if you're young and starting out.
If you're trying to find a new job, you're constantly asking that question or should ask that question.
How do I find God's will?
And so this morning we're going to be looking at Genesis chapter 24.
Genesis chapter 24, if you have your Bibles, I'm going to read that in just a moment.
I'm going to be looking at the story of Isaac and also looking at my own story, how to find God's will.
But first I want to really give you three things about God's will because this is what I get a lot.
Three myths about God's will.
The first myth of God's will is called the missionary myth.
The missionary myth is basically that God has a plan.
He has a purpose for missionaries.
But for the normal person, maybe you're sitting there thinking,
but for the normal person, God doesn't have some amazing special plan and purpose for me.
I call that the missionary myth because God has a plan and purpose for each of you.
Every single one of you, it doesn't matter your age or your gender, God has an amazing plan for your life.
The second, not only do I hear people talk about missionaries only having it,
but then the second is the misery myth.
And this is what I get a lot too.
They'll say, well, here's the thing.
I'm scared of God's will.
Well, I'm scared of it because if I surrender to God's will, I'm going to be miserable and he'll do something crazy and just ruin my life, wreck my life.
Well, here's what God's word says about God's will.
It says that it's three things.
You ready?
Good, pleasing, and perfect.
God's will for your life is good, it's pleasing, and it's perfect.
There is no misery in God's will.
And then third is the missed it myth, the missed it myth.
That's where so many people, they'll say, you know, I hear this a lot in the seniors, the older people.
They'll say, you know what, whenever I was young, you know, God called me to fill in the blank, but I missed it.
I missed my opportunity.
I sinned too much.
I messed up too much.
I went down the wrong path, and I missed it.
I want to tell you today, God's a God of second chances, and if you're still feeling the spirit of God move in your life, if you're still breathing, God has a plan and a purpose for you.
Okay, so with that background of those myths out of the way, let's turn to God's word in Genesis chapter 24.
Genesis chapter 24 describes a man who desperately needed God's will.
And so we're going to examine this text to learn the steps for finding God's will.
Genesis chapter 24, I'm going to read verses 1 and following.
It says,
Now Abraham was old and advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way.
Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had been in charge of all that he owned,
Please place your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth,
that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live.
But you will go to my country and to my relatives and take a servant and take a wife for my son Isaac.
The servant said to him, suppose the woman's not wanting to follow me to this land.
Should I take your son back to the land from where you came?
Then Abraham said to him, beware that you do not take my son back there.
The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth,
and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, to your descendants I will give this land.
He will send his angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.
But if the woman's not willing to follow you, you'll be free from this oath.
Only do not take my son back there.
So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master,
and swore to him concerning this matter.
Will you pray with me?
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you so much that you're an unchangeable God.
Lord, that you are a God that is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow.
I thank you, Lord, that your word is living, it's active, and it applies to us today.
Lord, give us ears to hear, heart that understands.
Lord, help us to understand how we can know your will.
Lord, there's people here today who are broken, hurting, discouraged, and hopeless.
And they need to be reminded that there is a God who sees them and has something amazing for them.
Pray this now in Jesus' name.
Amen.
This particular passage, it's interesting when it starts out.
Because you basically have a situation of a dad.
So you can kind of put yourself in that situation.
He was a dad, and he was trying to find a spouse for his son.
And so I'm used to the church plant that I'm part of in the Hamilton area.
A little bit more interactive.
So help me feel like I'm back at home, okay?
So if I ask a question, it's not a rhetorical question.
I don't ask rhetorical questions.
So if I ask a question, please answer.
I don't want to be embarrassed.
Help me out.
All right.
So with that being said, I want to know who my audience is.
All right.
So if you are married, I would say happily married, but I get fewer hands.
If you are married, just raise your hand.
All right.
So we've got a lot of married folks.
Okay.
All right.
If you are widowed, raise your hand.
Okay.
All right.
If you are single, raise your hand.
All right.
So with that being said, so all of us can really understand that the realness,
of this text.
It was a dad who just wanted a godly spouse for his son, and he wanted God's will.
And it's something we should all want.
We should want God's will when we're making a big decision.
So here he was.
He was trying to make a big decision, and you've got to realize how hard it would have
been to find a good spouse back then.
So right now, I looked at this stuff last week.
The average marriage right now, 2025, somewhere between 60 and 70% of people who are married
right now meet their spouse online.
Huge percentage.
All right.
It used to be like church and work.
Now, number one is online.
And so you've got to realize, all right, so we're going back thousands of years ago.
There was no online, right?
There's no social media.
And so here, this servant had this brutal task.
Hey, go, and he's not even bringing the dude with him, right?
So he didn't even have a picture of Isaac.
It would just say, servant, you go and find a wife for my son.
We're staying here, though.
Huge job.
Huge decision.
And so maybe you're there today.
You have some decision.
You have something.
You're just trying to figure out, all right, God, what is your will in fill in the blank?
What do you do?
I'm going to give you four steps for finding God's will according to this text.
The first is this.
How do you find God's will?
Number one, God's will is found in his word.
God's will is found in his word.
Look at verse 7.
This is what Abraham said to him.
It says, the Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth, and he spoke to me and swore to me, saying, to your descendants, I'll give the land.
So he remembered.
He wanted to know God's will.
So where did he go to try to find God's will?
He remembered the word of the Lord.
God's will for your life is always found in the word of God.
I'll put it another way.
God's will never contradicts his word.
Never contradicts it.
And so there's something in your life and you're praying about and you're wondering, is it God's will?
And it goes completely against some scripture by default.
You know it's not.
You don't even have to pray about it.
There are some situations you don't even have to pray about.
Some of you are looking at me like I'm a heretic, all right?
So let me explain that.
All right, so if you have a situation, like let's say you have a young man and he's found this young woman and he's like, look, she's fine, all right?
Like I like that girl.
And like I'm going to ask her out.
But he's a young Christian and he finds out that she's not.
He doesn't even have to pray about it.
He doesn't even have to pray about it because God's word says you shall not be unequally yoked with a non-believer.
All right, so there's some things you don't even have to pray about.
If it goes against God's word, it goes against God's will.
All right, so how do you find God's will?
Well, starting out, it's just simple.
It's God's will is found in his word.
And so for me and my family, it started, I was a pastor for 10 years in Mississippi.
And then in 2019, I was pastoring at a church in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
The great church is one of our primary partnering churches, our sending church.
And I had just started a PhD program.
And I'll be honest with you, I was tired.
That's really how this whole story started.
The whole journey to Canada started because I was tired.
All right, so don't underestimate when you're tired and God's breaking you because that's when God can use you.
When you're full of pride and things are going well, you miss it.
But when you're at a point of brokenness and hopelessness and exhaustion, that's when you will seek God more.
Okay, so I was broken.
I was tired.
I was pastoring a church, writing sermons.
And so I'm thankful for your pastor.
I'm thankful that he preaches the word of God.
Just so you know, it takes a lot of work to write sermons, a lot of heartache to study God's word and to do it faithfully.
And so I'm thankful for your pastor.
And so there I was trying to write sermons, working on my PhD program.
I'm exhausted.
So I thought, you know what I need?
I need a break.
How does a pastor get a break?
I need a break by having a Bible study.
All right?
So a little behind the scenes, what pastors do when they do a DVD Bible study.
They give themselves a break.
So I decided, all right, I want as long of a break as I can have.
So I found this Bible study that was written 30 years ago.
The name of the Bible study, the only reason I picked it is it was 12 weeks.
So that meant if we did a Bible study on Sunday night, I got 12 weeks off.
This is going to be awesome.
All right, the name of the Bible study was Experiencing God.
Now, out of curiosity, and again, raise your hand, interact with me a little bit.
How many of you have actually done the Experiencing God Bible study?
Raise your hand.
All right, you got a few of you.
All right, I do encourage you at some point, lead your church through this Bible study.
But I will tell you this, be prepared for that Bible study to wreck you.
Because that's what it did for me and my family.
It wrecked us.
I remember five weeks in, fifth week of not having to preach Sunday night.
I love preaching, but I was just tired.
I needed a break.
I was sitting over there on the left side, because apparently that's just where, I don't know.
It's a Baptist thing.
Pastors just sit over there.
You know, you have that assigned seating.
So I'm over there.
I'm with my wife.
And Henry Blackaby started preaching from a familiar text.
I've heard it.
I've preached it.
But have you ever had those moments when you read the Bible and it's just like the words just jump off?
Or you hear a sermon and it's like the pastor just speaking to you.
That's how it was.
We were just there.
We were listening, just watching this 30-year-old DVD study.
I mean, it's almost like black and white.
So dated.
But that's the thing about the Word of God is that it's fresher than tomorrow's newspaper.
It doesn't return void.
And so as he's preaching by DVD 30 years ago, this was his text, that we need to be willing to leave everything behind and follow Jesus.
Leave your mother.
Leave your father.
Leave your brother, your sister, and your farms.
I remember just sitting there on the front row.
And it's just the Word of God was just so real in that moment.
I remember my wife just reached over and just squeezed my hand because we just knew that God was about to do something.
So after the service was over, we released everyone.
And it was just me and my wife.
We were just in the sanctuary.
And she said, Charlie, have you ever considered church planting?
That's just a fancy term for starting a brand new church.
Well, I didn't know anything about church planting.
The only type of church planting I knew was church splits.
Because that's kind of how Baptists start new churches.
You split and then a group gets mad and they start a new church.
That's all I knew about church planting.
So I was like, I don't, yeah.
She said, do you feel like God is calling you to plant a church?
And I said, yeah, I do.
I said, right now, for the first time ever, it's all I can think about.
And that conversation just started.
So that in mind, that happened on a Monday night.
It just started with the Word of God.
Word of God.
Listening to the Word of God.
So how do you find God's will?
It starts with the Word of God.
Then we see this continue in Genesis chapter 24, 10 through 14.
It says,
Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master,
and he set out a variety of good things from his master's hand.
And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.
And he made the camels kneel down outside the city of the well of water at evening time,
the time when women go out to draw water.
Now, that's significant.
We'll come back to that.
And he said, he prayed this prayer.
Listened to this prayer.
He said,
Oh, Lord, the God of my master Abraham,
Please grant me success today,
and show loving kindness to my master Abraham.
Behold, I'm standing by the spring,
and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.
Now may it be that the girl to whom I say,
Please let down your jar so that I might drink.
And he answers,
Drink!
And I'll water your camels also.
May she be the one whom he's appointed for your servant Isaac.
And by this I will know that you have showed loving kindness to my master.
All right.
So, here was his strategy.
He had a good strategy.
All right.
So, he's looking for a woman.
He goes where the women are.
Right?
That's a pretty good strategy.
And we as Southern Baptists, we love our strategy.
I mean, if you've been a part of a Baptist church for any number of time,
you're going to have strategy after strategy.
You're going to go to this event and, you know, learn how to grow a church,
how to do this, and strategy, strategy, strategy.
I'm not against strategy.
I like strategy.
However, this is what I've found,
especially being in a cross-cultural place for five years,
is that culture eats strategy for breakfast.
You can have so much strategy, it will not work.
But what always works is dependence on the power and spirit of God.
And so, here was the man who had a strategy,
but he invited the spirit to come in and disrupt his strategy.
So, have a plan, but let God move in that plan.
So, his plan was to find a woman.
Where did he go?
He went where the women are.
All right.
That's a good plan.
But when he got there, he had a problem
because there was tons of women.
So, if you're a guy, you're thinking, man, that's not a problem.
Okay, but it was a problem.
Okay.
It was a problem because he only needed one.
So, he needed one woman, but there was multiple women.
And that's the problem we have in life,
is that we'll have multiple decisions.
It's like we always pray, God, close all the doors.
And sometimes he does,
but a lot of times we just have various options.
So, what do you do when you have various options
and you're trying to find God's will?
Well, notice what he does.
He prayed a specific prayer.
A big, bold, specific prayer.
This is what he said.
Lord, let the right girl be the girl
who not only offers to give me something to drink,
but also offers water to my ten camels.
All right, so how do you find God's will?
Number one, God's will is found in his word.
Number two, God's word is found
through praying specific prayers.
Specific prayers.
Now, I feel like the reason
many times we don't pray specific prayers
is because we're scared to.
We're afraid that God won't answer
or we're afraid he will.
So, for us, 2019,
we knew, we felt like God was calling us
to church planting.
The natural question became where, right?
I mean, we're in Mississippi.
We could have gone anywhere in the planet.
Where?
Why?
Why did you go to Canada?
On a Monday night,
I'm sitting in my kitchen with my wife
and she said,
all right, Charlie,
if God's calling us to church planting,
where should we go?
And I just said, honestly, I have no clue.
Like, I'm still trying to get my mind around this whole
maybe God's calling us to something type thing.
I have no clue.
And this is what she said.
She said, Charlie,
I just can't get Canada out of my mind.
Now, you gotta remember,
this was before the whole Trump thing,
51st state thing, okay?
So, this wasn't,
Canada wasn't on the news all the time,
all right?
This was just like,
no one was talking about Canada.
But she just said,
I just can't get Canada out of my mind.
And this is what I said to her.
I said, Canada?
Canada?
I said, that's missionary stuff.
That's missionary stuff.
I'm not a missionary.
I'm just a pastor in the South.
And her being a good Southern woman,
she just kind of bucked up and said,
well, that's just what I think God wants me to tell you.
And she politely stormed off.
So here I was,
just left in the kitchen
with a word from the Lord from my wife.
And so I just went into the living room
and just started praying.
And this is what I prayed.
I said, God,
I'll go wherever you want me to go.
And I'll do whatever you want me to do.
But make it clear.
If you make it clear,
I'll go,
I'll go wherever.
Or I'll stay.
Like,
I love being a pastor.
I loved being a traditional pastor.
I loved walking with people
through hardship in life.
I loved it.
Some pastors that I can't get away,
I loved being a traditional pastor.
And I said,
God,
I'll stay here or I'll go.
You just make it crystal clear.
We had that whole conversation
on a Monday
in April 2019.
Six days later,
the following Sunday,
all of a sudden,
I preached at my church.
One of my good friends,
another pastor in Mississippi,
his name is Jonathan Bryant,
he sent me a text message
after the service was over.
And he said,
hey,
Charlie,
be praying for me and my wife.
We feel like God's doing something.
He's stirring in our hearts.
He said,
I don't want to talk about it,
but will you pray for us?
The timing was bizarre,
wasn't it?
So I just messaged him back.
I said,
I'll pray,
and I don't want to pry.
I really did want to pry.
I don't want to pry,
but does this have anything
to do with church planting?
And he said,
yes.
He wrote back,
yes.
I said,
where?
And he texted back,
Toronto,
Canada.
I remember I just looked
at that text message,
and I just showed it to my wife,
and she just started laughing.
She said,
I told you.
I told you it was Canada.
And I just went into our closet
and just started sobbing
because I knew that the life
that I had planned,
I knew the trajectory
that I was making for my life
was going to be vastly different.
That's how it all started.
How do you find God's will?
It always begins with God's word.
It's not a mystery.
It's not.
It's clear.
If you're truly seeking God,
he will make it clear.
It's found in his word.
Second,
it's found by praying
specific prayers.
I want you to continue
in this story.
Notice how the text continues
in verse 15 through 18.
How did God respond
to that big, bold prayer
that this man prayed?
Look at verse 15.
It says,
Before he had finished speaking,
behold,
Rebecca,
who is born of Bethel,
son of Michal,
the wife of Abraham's brother,
Naor,
came out with a jar
on her shoulder.
The girl was very beautiful,
a virgin,
and no man had relations with her.
And she went down
to the spring
and filled her jar
and came up.
Now the servant
ran out to meet her
and said,
please,
let me drink a little bit
of water from your jar.
And she said,
drink,
my Lord.
And she quickly
lowered her jar
in her hand
and gave him a drink.
And when she had finished
giving him a drink,
she said,
I will draw also
for your camels
until they have
finished drinking.
So she quickly
emptied her jar
through the trough
and ran back
to the well
and she drew
for all of his camels.
Meanwhile,
the man was gazing
at her in silence
to know whether
the Lord had made
his journey successful
or not.
I love the timing
of this.
I love the timing
of that text.
Notice what it says.
While he was still
speaking.
So he had a word
from God.
He prayed a specific prayer.
While he was still
speaking,
this happened.
Now,
I do want to kind of
time out.
Sometimes,
God will answer
your prayer right away.
And it's awesome
when he does that.
But most of the time,
it's not.
Most of the time,
there's a long delay.
God's delays
don't mean denials.
All right?
And so if you're praying,
keep on praying.
It might be months.
It might be years.
But prayer,
pray that specific prayer
and then watch
and see.
So that's what
this man did.
Pray that specific prayer.
Lord,
let it be the one
who offers me
something to drink
and then offers
to water my camels
as well.
He said,
well,
what was significant
about that?
What was significant
was that in that culture,
it would be common
for a woman
to give a man
something to drink.
It was not common.
It just wasn't a thing
to offer
to water all the camels.
Notice the text
tells us
how many camels he had.
It says he had
10 camels.
Now,
I looked this up.
The average camel
drank somewhere
between like 25
and 30 gallons
of water.
All right,
so a well
in that culture
would have a,
you know,
a pitcher
and that pitcher
would hold
about two to three
gallons of water.
So this woman,
after giving him
something to drink,
would have had
to go to the well,
lower the pitcher,
get two or three gallons,
pull it back up,
empty,
empty.
One commenter
said it probably
took two to three
sweaty hours
for this young girl
to water all those camels
for someone she didn't know.
And the entire time
you say,
well,
what's the servant doing?
It says that he's
just stepped back
and just examining
the circumstances
to see if God
has answered
the prayer.
So how do you find
God's will?
Number one,
God's will is found
in his word.
Number two,
God's will is found
in praying specific prayers.
Number three,
God's will is found
through examining
God-ordained circumstances.
Here's something
I learned a long time ago.
There are no coincidences
in the kingdom of God.
There are none.
And so that thing
you've been praying about
that all of a sudden,
oh, it just happened
to be that way.
No.
It was God interrupting
your life.
God interrupts
our lives.
So here we were,
2019.
Word of God,
we felt like
he was calling us.
All of a sudden,
we feel like maybe
God's calling us to Canada.
So we did as
Southern Baptists.
We have an amazing
denomination here.
It's called
Southern Baptists
here in the States
in America.
The Canadian branch
is called
the Canadian National
Baptist Convention.
They changed the name
just a couple of years ago
because when you're
in Canada
and you say
you're Southern Baptist
and they call themselves
the True North,
it's a little bit confusing.
So they just changed the name,
but it's the same.
We're all connected.
All right?
So if you're interested
in starting a church,
you go through the,
it's called the Sin Network,
North American Mission Board.
You do an assessment,
and the purpose
of that assessment
is to see if they believe
that you and your family
are qualified
and called
and will survive
starting a new church.
So in 2019,
I'm there with my wife.
At that point,
we had three children.
Our youngest daughter
was 18 months,
had a five-year-old
and had a seven-year-old.
And Mississippi pastors
in a non-multicultural church,
and we said,
we feel like God's calling us
to Canada
to reach the nations
in a multicultural place.
And so we had this long video chat,
and basically what they told us
is, look,
we sensed your calling,
but the question is this,
not if you're called.
The question is,
are you called now?
Are you called now?
Because you have young children.
Because,
and I didn't know this,
you have to raise
all your own funds.
They said, look,
this is going to be
the hardest thing
you've ever done.
And to be honest with you,
many people go through
this process,
and it will wreck
their marriage.
It'll wreck
their children.
It'll ruin everything
if God's not in it.
So make sure God's in it.
They said,
take the weekend
just to pray
and make sure
God is in this
so you don't ruin your lives.
So we got off
on Thursday night
of that meeting
honestly frustrated
and discouraged.
but after being in Canada
for five years,
I get it.
It's hard.
It's hard soil.
So,
what do you do?
All of a sudden
we needed to know
God's will
and we needed to know it now.
We needed clarity.
And this text,
the idea of this text,
just praying specific prayers
came to mind.
We'd already seen God
answer one prayer request
about Canada,
so it's,
all right,
let's pray again.
And while we were praying
and while we were seeking God,
Leslie mentioned that
one of the men
that was interviewing us,
he said this,
he said,
Charlie,
sometimes God needs to
just hit you in the head
with a two by four.
It's an odd thing to say,
but he said it.
So,
we're praying
about what to pray
because we needed to know
specifically in four days.
And so on that,
last point,
it's Friday morning
or Thursday
right before Good Friday.
I'm praying
about what I need to pray.
She mentioned the two by four
and I said,
all right,
honey,
let's do this.
And let me just first say
kind of a note.
It's not that I don't recommend this,
it's just going to sound strange.
All right?
And so,
trust the word of God.
Let me just say that
before I share this story.
So,
we were desperate.
And here's the thing,
when you read stories
of men in scripture
right before God
just does something amazing,
it's desperate people.
It's broken people,
it's hopeless people.
And that's where we were,
broken,
hopeless,
felt called,
but felt like
there was just no way
we would actually be able to go.
And so,
whenever she mentioned,
hey,
sometimes God needs to just
hit you in the head
with a two by four,
I just had this idea,
two by four.
I said,
all right,
honey,
this is what we're going to do.
We're going to pray
that between now and Monday,
God will give us
a literal,
a real two by four board.
And she just kind of
looked at me,
kind of like,
y'all are looking at me like,
what?
Like,
what are you talking about?
I said,
all right,
all right.
I said,
hear me out.
All right,
hear me out.
I said,
this is what we're going to pray.
We're going to pray that
between now and Monday,
if God wants us to go to Canada,
he will give us a two by four board.
If he does not give us
a two by four board by Monday,
we will not go to Canada.
I said,
but we got to have
some parameters around this.
I said,
three rules for this specific prayer.
Number one,
we can't go looking for a two by four.
Right?
So you can't just like
go to Home Depot,
walk down the wood aisle
and be like,
ta-da,
like hundreds of two by fours
God answered.
Right?
We can't go looking
for the two by fours.
Number two,
they can't be attached
to anything.
You can't just be driving
down the road and,
hey,
look,
there's a deck
right over there.
Decks are made
by two by fours.
Like,
it's God.
No,
it can't be attached
to anything.
And then three,
it has to be somewhere
it's not supposed to be.
That's the parameters.
So,
okay.
Because here's the thing,
and I'm more convinced
of this than ever before,
that God is an unchangeable God.
He's characteristic.
He's unchanging.
He's the same yesterday,
today,
and tomorrow.
So the stories
that we read about God
in Scripture,
He's still alive.
He's still moving
through His people
today,
in 2025,
the same way
that He was then.
All right,
so we prayed that prayer.
But here's where people
go wrong
when they're seeking
God's will.
They don't tell anyone.
So they say,
okay,
God,
I'll do this,
I'll do that,
I'll go there,
but you don't tell anyone
and then you have
no accountability.
And so what I did
just,
me and Leslie
prayed Thursday morning.
I get in my truck.
My truck to the church
that I pastored
was about a five-minute drive.
And so I called up
my friend,
Jonathan,
the other pastor
in Mississippi,
for accountability.
I called him,
I said,
hey,
Jonathan,
do you believe in prayer?
And he said,
yeah,
I believe,
you know,
Baptist pastor,
what is he supposed
to say?
Yeah,
I believe in prayer.
I said,
pray for a two-by-four.
And once again,
he had that silence
on the phone,
like,
what are you talking about?
Explain the whole thing.
All right,
God,
this is what we're praying for.
You can't be attached
to anything,
you know.
And while I'm talking
to him on the way
to church,
right before Good Friday,
getting ready
for our big Easter service,
I see a board
on the side of the road,
right on the yellow line,
about 100,
200 feet
from the church.
And I said,
hold on a second.
I said,
I'm pulling off right now,
I see a board.
And he's still,
he's like,
a board,
what are you talking about?
He's like,
just,
get out.
And I said,
look,
if this board's not
a two-by-four,
it means nothing.
I got out,
and I picked it up,
and it was a six-foot
two-by-four board.
And so I'm holding
that two-by-four board,
and I'm on the phone
with him.
And I said,
man,
I'm holding a two-by-four
board right now.
And he said,
remind me what that means again.
And I said,
brother,
it means that we're
going to Canada,
and we're going right now.
And you see,
that's the picture.
So I was in a
old pickup truck that day,
driving to my church,
and there's the board
that God used.
Now,
I'll tell you that,
and it still feels weird
telling that story.
And so here's what I don't
want you to take away.
I don't want you to take
from that,
that you need to be praying
for all these signs
and wonders.
Okay?
Jesus said,
you know,
that the Gentiles
pray for signs.
Okay?
But,
God
is a God
who hears
our prayers
and our cries.
And so in those moments
of desperation,
and the Bible also
tells us that
the Holy Spirit
will intercede
intercede for us
when we don't know
what to pray.
And so this isn't a
prayer of,
hey,
pray for signs and wonders.
It's just,
God answers prayer.
That particular day,
I just happened to pray
for a two-by-four board.
And so in your life,
in your situation
that's unique to you,
and you're seeking
God's will,
and you're wondering,
how do I find God's will?
Start with God's word.
What is God's heart?
God's the creator
of the universe,
and this is his instruction
manual for your life.
What is God's will
for your life?
It's in his word.
Pray specific prayers.
Examine the circumstances.
Then I want you
to notice last,
notice how this man
responded.
Verse 26.
It says,
And the man bowed low,
and he worshiped the Lord.
And he said,
Blessed be the Lord,
the God of my master Abraham,
who has not forsaken
his love and kindness,
and his truth
towards my master.
As for me,
the Lord has guided me
in the way to his house
of my master's brother.
All of a sudden,
this man,
after examining everything,
after praying this big,
bold, specific prayer,
he just had this peace of God
that led him to worship.
So four,
how do you find God's will?
God's will is found
through the Spirit's peace.
God's will is found
through the Spirit's peace.
You go through that process,
and if it's of God,
you'll just feel the Spirit
just saying,
this is right.
This is the way of the Lord.
Walk in it.
But if you have a check
in your spirit,
just don't live forward.
Just hold up.
Just keep on praying.
Henry Blackaby,
who went to be with the Lord
a couple years ago,
whenever he was writing
that Bible study,
over 30 years,
I think it's,
man,
it's probably closer
to 35, 40 years ago now.
When he was writing
that Bible study,
he had the whole Bible study
written,
but he hadn't picked out
a name yet.
You know,
he didn't know
what to name this Bible study,
this book that he had written.
And so he came to Lifeway,
and he presented
the Bible study,
and he said,
what should we call this study?
And he said,
oh, we know.
You should call it
Knowing God,
because you learn so much
about God
in this study.
And here's what Henry said.
He said,
I don't want people
to know God,
because that's just
head knowledge.
We as Southern Baptists,
we know God.
We do.
Our problem is that
we're educated
beyond our obedience level.
This is what he said.
He said,
we want to have people
experience God.
In the same way
that people experience God
in the Bible,
I want people
to experience God now,
because he's unchanging.
Name it,
Experiencing God.
These last five years
have been incredibly difficult
for me and my family,
but it has been amazing.
And I can tell you
we have experienced God
in amazing ways.
The will of God,
it's good,
it's pleasing,
and it's perfect.
And when I look out
and I see you,
I just see a group
of men and women
and children and youth
of people who aren't perfect,
are fallen,
broken,
hurting,
struggling,
and that tells me
that's exactly
who God wants.
That's you.
Because if you're sitting there
and you're saying,
oh man,
I'm amazing,
I'm awesome,
I'm exactly who God wants,
he doesn't want you.
He uses the most unlikely people
so that he gets the glory.
And so I don't know
where God's calling you,
I don't know your story,
I don't know what God's will
is for your life,
but he's good.
He's good.
People need the gospel
here in Mississippi,
people need the gospel
in Canada,
people need the gospel
to the ends of the earth.
People need the Lord.
I invite you to come
and just surrender your life
to the Lord
and say,
Lord,
I'm in.
Whatever,
wherever,
I'm all in
and you'll experience God
in amazing,
amazing ways.
Will you pray with me?
Dear Heavenly Father,
I thank you so much,
Lord,
that you are unchanging.
I thank you, Lord,
that we can read these stories
with excitement
knowing that you haven't changed.
Lord,
people try to convince us
that you've changed,
that society has changed,
that, oh,
well,
that's how it used to be,
but your word says
that hasn't.
Help us to have bold faith
to take your promises
and stand on them
so that we can truly see
a movement of God.
Lord,
be with those who heard today
who are wrestling right now
with what they've just heard.
Some of them,
Lord,
you are reminding them
of a promise
that they made to you
maybe yesterday,
maybe last week,
maybe 50 years ago.
And they're sitting there
thinking,
no,
that's,
I've missed it,
not me,
it's all wrong.
But let them feel the spirit,
let them hear the voice
of you calling out.
People need the Lord.
The harvest is plentiful,
the weak,
the workers are few.
But this church,
First Baptist,
Lord,
help it to be
ascending field
so that people
from every nation,
every tongue,
every tribe
can hear the gospel.
From Mississippi
to Toronto
to the ends of the earth.
Thank you for letting us
be a part of that.
Praise you for using
ordinary,
broken,
hopeless,
sinful people
for your good.
Lord,
we love you
and we praise you.
I pray this now
in Jesus' name.
Amen.