Philippians 2:1

For if there is any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded... Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bondservant... he humbled himself, and he became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name... Therefore my beloved... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, his good pleasure... among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life. (Philippians 2:1-16)

How does God lead us into His will? Not by audible voices or the flip of a coin, but by transforming the desires of our hearts.

The Most Commonly Asked Question

As this anniversary approached, I've done a lot of thinking about the last ten years, which went by frighteningly quick, and about the work God has done in this church and in my life. Before becoming pastor here ten years ago, I served nine years in youth ministry, college ministry, teaching at Bible colleges, and as an associate pastor—almost nineteen years of ministry now.

In all that time, you receive every kind of question: about faith, prayer, marriage, parenting, work, leadership, and how to read and apply the Scriptures. But I don't think it's a stretch to say that the most commonly asked question I've ever received is one many of you have wrestled with. You might be wrestling with it right now. It causes anxiety and turmoil. It causes sleepless nights. Yet it drives Christians to the Scriptures, to prayer, and to seek wise counsel—and I think only Christians really struggle with it. It's simple but hard: What is God's will for my life? What does God want me to do in this situation before me?

Your Desire Honors God's Lordship

If you're asking this question, you're actually on the right path. Point number one: your desire for God's will honors God's sovereignty and lordship in your life. In offering your will, your plan, and your desires to God, you exalt Him as Lord. So I commend you for asking.

We wrestle with this over many things. What school? What career? What person should I marry? Should I quit this job, launch a business, close a business, buy this house? We live in a culture that says you've got to have a plan and work the plan, because you're the captain of your own ship and the master of your own destiny. But when you become a Christian, you realize none of that is true. It honors God's lordship to say, "Lord, I want your input. I want to know what you want me to do."

Do you realize this was the very first question the newly converted Saul of Tarsus asked? In Acts 9, when he realized he was speaking with the risen Jesus, his first words were, "Lord, what do you have me to do?" I've wrestled with that question many times—most recently at the end of 2016, when I was offered a different, bigger church in another place. I wrestled with it for about two months. "What will you have me to do, Lord?"

Searching, Praying, and Listening

So how do we discern His will? We search the Scriptures, hoping for a personal word from God. We pray. We might even fast, setting aside our own comfort and appetites to focus and hear God's direction. We might seek counsel from believers we trust—though people often get flustered, because they don't want to stand in the place of God in your life. So they ask, "Have you prayed about it?" Yes. "Have you searched the Scriptures?" Yes. "Have you considered fasting?" Yes, I've lost fifteen pounds. I just want to know what the Lord wants me to do.

There's a beautiful verse in Isaiah 30: "You will hear in your ears a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk ye in it." I can't tell you how many times I've prayed that verse. And yet, after more than twenty years of walking with Jesus, I've never heard the audible voice of God. I'm the Christian skeptic. When friends say, "God told me this," I ask, "Did you hear an audible voice?" Invariably they say no—and then they're not sure how to explain it.

I've been tempted to just take out a coin: heads or tails, two out of three. I don't have enough faith for the flip-of-the-coin mode of following Jesus. Proverbs 16 says the lot is cast, but the decision is with the Lord, so God can even be sovereign in the flip of a coin. But I don't think He wants us to walk with Him that way. There's a better way.

God Desires My Wholehearted Trust

Proverbs 3:5-6 gives us an algorithm: "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your own understanding, and in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path." Point number two: God desires my wholehearted trust.

That's challenging. When you first follow Jesus, your trust is small. It takes time of walking with Him to become wholehearted. After more than twenty years, I cannot say I wholeheartedly trust Him in every area of my life. God knows me perfectly, but I'm still getting to know Him. The longer we walk with Him, the more we realize He is good, that He has a future and an expected end for us, and that His thoughts toward us are good, not evil.

But even in trusting God, I'm one of those people who feels I have to do something more than trust. Any "do something" Christians here? Be honest. We feel we've got to make this work. Yet the Christian life is all about getting to know God, trusting Him, acknowledging Him, and walking with Him. So how do we do that? How do we discover God's will? Philippians 2 gives us some helpful answers.

The Exhortation: Live for the Joy of Others

Philippians 2:1-16 divides perfectly into four movements: an exhortation (verses 1-4), an example (verses 5-11), an exercise (verses 12-13), and an exhibition (verses 14-16).

First, the exhortation. Paul says, "Fulfill my joy"—make me genuinely happy, church—"by being like-minded... Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself." Isn't this the prayer of every parent? Make me happy: get along.

Boiling it down, we arrive at point number three: endeavor to live your life for the joy and interests of others. That's countercultural to 21st-century American living, where we're constantly told to look out for ourselves because nobody else will. But God, through Paul, turns that around.

This selfless living is not easy. The Christian faith begins with the sacrifice of our Savior, and these are sacrificial words. The interesting thing about sacrifice is that it's an entirely future-focused endeavor—a faith-filled exchange of something of value now in hopes of something of greater value in the future. I set aside what is valuable to me now in hope of something far superior later. That's what sacrifice is.

The Example: Our Sacrificed Savior

Then Paul gives us an example. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation... he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him."

Point number four: endeavor to follow the example of our sacrificed Savior. What did He do? He stepped down from the throne, down from heaven to earth—and not as a king in royalty, but as a peasant. God became a man; the incarnation is central to the Christian faith. Then He humbled Himself further to become a bondservant—a slave by choice—and humbled Himself even to the point of death on a cross. Therefore, God highly exalted Him. He exchanged something of supreme value in the present for something of far superior value in the future.

Sacrifice doesn't sound fun in the moment, until you realize there is a great salvation and reward on the other side. That's what compels us to lay our lives down. And our culture needs to see followers of Jesus laying their lives down—it's totally foreign to us. If you desire to know God's good will, this is the path.

The Exercise: Work Out Your Salvation

Now the exercise—Philippians 2:12-13. Of the 31,102 verses in the Bible, I'm convinced these are my two favorite. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to do his good pleasure."

If you've wrestled with the great question of God's sovereignty and man's free will—an issue debated in the church for 500 years—these verses are vital. The whole question of God's will is really the meeting of God's sovereignty with my free will. We live as though we have free will because I believe God, who is sovereign, sovereignly created us to have free will. So there's no conflict. It is not sovereignty versus free will; throughout Scripture these work in concert. "Work out your own salvation"—human responsibility. "For it is God who works in you"—God's sovereignty.

This is the great surrender, the sacrifice of my will for His will. It's what Jesus shows us in Gethsemane: "Not my will, but yours be done." Point number five: we must work out the saving grace that God has worked into us. Christ saved us by grace through faith, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). When you trust in Jesus, God does a work in you by His grace and His Holy Spirit. He puts a new heart in you—the born-again experience of Ezekiel 36:26: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you."

But that work is invisible on the outside. So He says, work it out so people can see it. God built us with muscles under the skin—invisible until you work them out. So He has worked salvation into us and wants us to work it out so others can see it.

Led by New Desires

But while I'm working it out, how do I know what God wants me to do? Look again at verse 13: "It is God who works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure." Another translation reads, "to desire and to do those things that please him." After more than twenty years of walking with Jesus, I've discovered that God leads me into His will, first and foremost, by desire.

Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he shall give to you the desires of your heart." Some Christians read that as if God simply hands you whatever desire pops up. But that doesn't pass the theological smell test, and I haven't experienced it—I'm delighting in the Lord and still don't have a Tesla Model S in my garage. It's not a genie-in-a-bottle button, like adding "in Jesus' name" to the end of everything.

So what does it mean? You delight yourself in the Lord—you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, following His example—and He gives you new desires in your heart. That's what I see in Scripture and in experience. He changes our desires. You experienced this almost the instant you became a Christian: within a day or two, there were desires you never had before—to read God's word, like newborn babes desiring the pure milk of the word (1 Peter 2:2), and to share your faith with others. You didn't manufacture those. God worked them in you.

Discerning Right Desires

A lot of Christians have a hard time with the concept of desire, as if whatever I desire must be in conflict with God. I don't think that's valid. Yes, there are bad desires—but if you're a Christian, you have a conscience and the indwelling Holy Spirit, and you can identify wrong-motivated desires with near certainty. We're like desire factories, pumping out "I want this, I want that" all day long, but carnal desires that don't line up with God's revealed nature aren't hard to spot.

So God gives us new desires and begins to lead us into His will through them. And His good pleasure for you will be your greatest satisfaction—I've found that in my own life. Augustine said centuries ago, "Love God and do whatever you please," for "the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the one who is beloved." Delight in the Lord, love God, follow His example, commit by His grace and indwelling Spirit to put others' joy and interests above your own—and as you do, He gives you new desires, and you find you are walking in His will. Point number six: God's will manifests as my new desires.

Desire, Doors, and Preparation

In December 2007, I sat in Pastor Pat Kenny's living room with a group of pastors. He asked, "Do you believe God wants you to take over this church?" I said yes. "Why?" "Because I've wanted to since 2002." I wasn't ready then—a 22-year-old wasn't ready to pastor this church in 2002, and the church wasn't ready either. Why did I marry Andrea? Because I wanted to—and the miracle is she wanted to marry me.

Years ago at the Bible college, a student in my Isaiah class came to me in tears. She had wanted to serve at an orphanage in the Philippines since junior high. "That sounds like a really carnal desire," I joked—leaving Southern California's comfort and beauty to serve kids in a third-world country. She'd received an email inviting her to serve at an orphanage in Bacolod, but she didn't know if it was God's will. She'd prayed, sought counsel, read Scripture, and heard nothing. I told her, "I think you should go through the door, because He gave you a desire and now the opportunity is here." And she did. God works in you to desire and to do.

If you have a desire but no door, prepare for the day the door opens. That's what I did. In August 2002, I had a strong sense I'd pastor this church, so I prepared. When the door opened, I didn't say, "Let me pray about it." I said yes. Why didn't I go to Santa Barbara when invited—a great opportunity with a good friend? Because I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay here. God's will manifests as our new desires.

The Exhibition: Shine as Lights

For what purpose? The exhibition, Philippians 2:14-16: "Do all things without complaining and disputing"—that's easy—"that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life."

God wants to shine brightly through your life, lived according to His will for His good pleasure, in a world that needs to see His glory. Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Your good works will be the works that align with His will as you walk out His good pleasure, as He plants new desires into your heart. So walk in it—for His glory.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank you that you make it rather simple, although it can be challenging—that you direct our steps by transforming our desires. Lord, I pray for this church, your church, and for me, that you would help us by your Spirit and grace and power to live in a way that exalts the interests and joy of others and follows your example, delighting in you, stepping into the things we desire to do for your glory, so that you would shine brightly through your church.

I pray for anyone today wrestling with a decision—maybe they don't even know what they want. In a quiet moment this evening or tomorrow morning, would you speak by desire in their heart and transform our desires. Help us to walk by faith in you, not in anxiety or turmoil. It is your desire that we would walk in your will; you don't hide it from us. Help us to walk in these things for your glory and your good pleasure in this world. Shine brightly through your church, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.