The Lord Willing - 1 Cor. 4:14-21

Introduction  A lot of things in history have been attributed to God's will in one way or another. Our passage today gives us the opportunity to explore the concept of the will of the Lord.  I. Paul plans to come back to Corinth, 18-19.  A. The false teachers of worldly wisdom thought and were teaching that Paul wasn't coming back to Corinth.  B. This belief emboldened the false teachers in their false teaching.  C. Paul says that nothing short of divine intervention will keep him from coming to visit them.  II. Paul's use of Lord willing shows his humility and submission to Jesus.  A. We often use the expression Lord willing thoughtlessly just because it is the Christian thing to do.  B. We often use it cowardly so that we don't have to commit to things.  C. The expression is meant to show and attitude of humility and submission to the sovereign Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ.  D. Whether we actually say the words or not, the concept behind this expression must be part of our basic beliefs concerning life and God.  III. The will of the Lord in its several definitions.  A. The will of the Lord is everything that happens, which was decreed by God from before the foundation of the world – his decreed will.  B. The will of the Lord is what he tells us he wants us to do in the Bible – his revealed will.  C. The will of the Lord more subjectively for each one of us.  IV. Two examples for application: getting a job and getting married.  A. Does this mean that we don't spend some time thinking about what we should do with our lives? No, it means that we don't spend our whole lives thinking about what to do with our lives.  B. Does it mean that God doesn't guide us?  C. Working through the example of getting a job.  D. How about getting married?  Conclusion  God has decreed all that is going to happen. He reveals to us in the Bible what he wants to do and he guides us in applying that to our daily lives.

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