This is a sermon on guidance. It is a sequel to the sermon on "vocation" but is also a stand-alone talk.

Last week I said that our chief calling, our prime vocation in life, is to be Christian. To be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of our other choices in life, are dependent upon this first primary choice to submit ourselves to God's calling in Jesus Christ.

Today I'm going to talk about the related topic of guidance. Does God guide his people? Will he show us the right path to take? How will we know what his will is for us?

I've chosen Psalm 25 as our text, because here we find from God some clear answers to questions about guidance. They may not be exactly the answers we want, but they are typical of the answers that God gives, not just in the psalms, but all throughout scripture.

As we look at Psalm 25, I'm going to ask six questions about God's guidance - who; why; when; where; what and how? Let's begin with the WHO. Or, to be more gramatically correct, WHOM! Whom does God guide? Psalm 25 gives some very specific answers.

We get our first hint in verse 2, "in you I trust, O my God," and verse 3, "No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame." Then in verse 4 & 5 David asks for guidance because God is his saviour, and he says, "my HOPE is in you all day long." He says similar things at the end of the psalm also. The first characteristic of one whom God guides is that he or she puts their trust and hope in the Lord as their own personal saviour and guide. That is, to receive guidance from God, you must place your trust in him alone, and be able to say with David in verse 15, "my eyes are ever on the Lord, for ONLY HE will release my feet from the snare."

Next, we are surprised to find that the person whom God guides is not a good person, but a sinner. Verse 8 says, "Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he instructs SINNERS in his ways." The person whom God guides, is a forgiven sinner, who fears the Lord and turns back to him for mercy, submitting to his rule and Lordship. Verses 6, 7, 11, and 18, make it plain that David saw himself as a sinner, one who deserved God's judgement, but who had received mercy instead. It is not the PROUD who receive God's guidance, but the HUMBLE - those who know that they are nothing before Him. Verse 9 - "He guides the HUMBLE in what is right and teaches them his way." Verse 12 - "Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the path chosen for him." And verse 14, "The Lord confides in those WHO FEAR HIM."

Do you see the picture which this psalm is building up, of the person who receives the Lord's guidance? A person whose trust and hope is in God alone; who acknowleges their guilt, that they are sinful; who experiences the love and mercy of God; and who holds him in holy fear and reverence. That is the person whom God promises to guide and lead in His paths. Do you want God's guidance? Then first seek to be this kind of person.

Now to our second question, WHY? Why does God guide those who put their hope in Him? Is it because they earn the right to his guidance by their faith and obedience? No. Primarily it is because of who God is and what he is like. He is the Saviour, verse 5, one who rescues his people. He is merciful and loving, verse 6 and 7. He is good, verse 7. And he is supremely faithful to the covenant he has made. All of his lovingkindness is shown in the promises He has made to those whom he has chosen. Verse 10, "All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful," and verse 14, "The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them."

God is the faithful, covenant-keeping God. He promised in his covenant with Israel, and he promises through the New Covenant in Jesus, that He will be our God and we shall be His people. That's why he promises to guide us. It's all part of the deal.

But WHEN & WHERE does he promise to do so? Look at verse 3, "No one whose hope is in you will EVER be put to shame." Verses 4 to 6, "Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my saviour, and my hope is in you ALL DAY LONG. Verse 13, "he will spend his days in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land." Verse 15, "my eyes are EVER on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare." Other scriptures say similar things, such as Psalm 48:14, "For such is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us until death." In Isaiah 58, God promised Israel that if they turned back to him he would always lead them. 58:11 says "the Lord will CONTINUALLY guide you."

God will guide His people throughout their life, at all times and in all places, because he is eternal and present everywhere at every time. Jesus spells this out also in John 16, where he speaks of the Holy Spirit who will be present with his diciples even though Jesus is physically absent.

Well, now we get to where the rubber hits the road. How does God guide, and what does he say to us? What is the nature and content of the guidance he promises?

Guidance involves finding God's will for our lives. But God's will has several aspects. First, there is his hidden will for the whole creation. Some call this God's sovereign will. His plan to bring all things into conformity with his rule. God is in charge, and somehow is working out his good purposes, even through the evil things that happen. The bible clearly teaches this, that God is working out a sovereign plan for the world.

This aspect of God's will is usually hidden from us. God doesn't usually reveal beforehand what he has decided will happen. And even in hindsight we cannot always work it out. When some event happens, unless God Himself reveals its meaning to us, we can only guess where it might fit in with his sovereign plan. We can only know that it is somehow within his purposes that it happened.

But there is another aspect of God's will that he HAS revealed to us. This is his theological and moral will for us. That is, what God wants us to believe and to do as we exercise faith in him in our daily lives. The guidance which God gives allows us always to know God's theological and moral will for our lives at any given point. This is the guidance that Psalm 25 promises.

In the New Testament book of Hebrews, God tells us that his word is used by Christians to make them wise. He says in Hebrews 5:14 that by constantly using it, mature Christians have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. If you can do that, then you have an objective tool to help in making decisions at any point in life when you face a moral dilemma. God's moral will for us is clearly known.

Let me illustrate. You don't need to wonder whether it is God's will for you to leave your spouse for someone else. It isn't, because God clearly says in His word what he thinks about faithfulness in marriage. If you are driving down the road under normal circumstances and you see a speed sign saying 60, you don't need to ask, "I wonder if God wants me to keep going 80?" Romans 13 makes it plain that we are to obey the secular government in all things that are not against the gospel. If you are a Christian believer and are wondering whether God wants you to marry someone who is not a believer, let me tell right now, He doesn't. 1 Corinthians 7:39 and 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 leave no doubt about that.

Those are moral decisions. There are also even more basic, theological decisions. Is it God's will for me to follow what this person is teaching, or not? Again, God gives clear guidelines. Someone says to you, "I think God is really the earth and everything in it. He is an impersonal force that emanates from every living thing." You have to choose whether to believe or reject that. But the choice is easy, because we have the objective standard of God's Word, the bible, to judge such ideas by.

But what about guidance in non-moral, non-theological questions and decisions? Doesn't God promise guidance there too? Well, yes...and no. It all depends what you're looking for, and what you mean when you talk about God's will for your life.

Let me put it in more concrete terms. How do I know whom God wants me to marry? How do I know IF he wants me to marry? What subjects at school does He wish me to study? Which university is it His will for me to attend? Should I go to South America as a missionary? Does He want me to buy a new car? If so, which one?

All of these questions about non-moral decisions assume that God has what is often called an individual will for each of our lives. A specific hidden will for us that we must discover. Usually it is said that the way to discover it, is by a sort of inner compulsion or impression. We will just KNOW that this is God's will. Advice from friends, circumstances, and other factors may back up that feeling, but ultimately, it boils down to this subjective impression within the heart. I FEEL that I am called to this ministry. I feel that God wants me to sell my car. God has told me to do this by an inner conviction. And so on.

Furthermore, if it is true that God has a specific car in mind that it is his will for me to buy, what if I go and buy another one? What if God is calling me to Africa and I go to Asia instead? What if I marry Natasha when I should have married Georgina? Questions like this have troubled Christians no end in the past century or two.

But something is fishy here. Why has it only been a problem for Western Christians in the past century or so? Why do we find nothing in the writings of the great reformers like Martin Luther, about this issue? Why do none of the great Roman Catholic or Greek theologians before them wrestle with it? And most importantly, why is it not in Scripture? Because try as hard as you like, you will not find in the bible the idea that God promises to guide us in the ordinary decisions of life by an inner compulsion or feeling.

Could it be, that there is no such thing as God's individual, non-moral will for our lives? Could it be that some of the decisions we make are not so important as we think? I believe so. Please don't misunderstand me. God does guide, and he does give us guidance in the individual decisions we make. But he does not promise to use such a subjective, introverted, unverifiable method as inner feelings.

How then, does God guide us? Well, first he guides us by giving us faith to understand his moral will for us in the bible. That cuts down the choices. But it still does leave us with choices. What then? To deal with these choices, God gives us wisdom, and the responsibility to choose for ourselves between morally neutral alternatives. God will bless whatever choice we make if we make it in faith.

The important and primary choice is for faith, integrity, and uprightness. Proverbs 11:3 says, "the integrity of the upright will guide them." If you choose that path, walking with God, then any other path leading from that main highway of faith, will be a good path. You CANNOT choose wrongly if you choose in faith. There is no such thing as God's second best, with regard to choices in indifferent areas, that is, in areas where God has given us freedom to choose.

If a morally neutral decision is taken in a spirit of prayer and humble trust, asking that God will work his sovereign purposes out in what we choose, then you cannot lose. You cannot make a wrong decision that way. Inner impressions; desires; feelings; circumstances; and advice from Christian friends may all figure in your decision making process. But none of those things will be binding on you, and you won't miss out on the individual will of God for you at some point by deciding the wrong thing. That can be a very liberating truth to grasp.

Just because you have an inner desire to do something, doesn't mean that God is saying that you must do it. Just because there is an open door of circumstances in front of you, doesn't mean you have to walk through it. The apostle Paul didn't always go through the open doors that God provided, because there was something more urgent to do. An opportunity is just that, and no more than that. It is not a command from God, like the moral and theological commands we find in the bible.

Let me give you a very recent example from my own life. Occasionally I write software reviews in my spare time, for the entertainment section of a computer magazine. Last Monday my friend Phil Campbell, who is the editor of the entertainment section, rang to say that the magazine had been restructured and he was out of a job. The publishers are going to run it on a more "in-house" basis, so there is no guarantee of more writing opportunities for me. That was Monday.

On Tuesday, I received a letter from a rival computer magazine which is based in New Zealand. I spoke to them at a computer show last July about the possibility of doing some writing for them. Last week they found my details, which they misplaced, and wrote asking if I was interested in doing reviews for them. Amazing timing isn't it? Hadn't heard from them in six months. Then I receive a letter the day after I find out that writing opportunities for the first magazine have stopped.

What am I going to do? I have a choice. I can say, "no thanks, I'm not interested." Or I can take up their offer and do some work for them. It is, as far as I am aware, a morally neutral decision. The Kiwi magazine doesn't promote pornography, is against software piracy, is not involved in illegal activities. Good family mag! To write for them would not I think, be against God's moral will as revealed in the bible.

Now if I were to follow the traditional evangelical view of guidance, I might say something like, "well it's obvious that God is telling me I ought to write for the Kiwi magazine. I feel that God is leading me in that way, and now these amazing circumstances have happened that point in that direction. It must be his individual will for my life at this point."

But must it? Why? Show me in here <Bible> where it says that it's God's will for Greg Munro in 1994 to write for this computer magazine. Circumstantial opportunity and inner feeling or desire do not mean that I have to do it. There could be wise reasons not to. It may be that I think I don't have time, and that it would distract me from better things. It may be that the sole purpose for it happening was to use it as a sermon illustration! But I am not bound. I am free to decide what I will do, as long as I do it prayerfully, acknowleging God's sovereignty, and thanking him for the opportunity of choice.

As Psalm 25 says, "ALL the ways of the Lord," that is, all his paths, "are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant." Or, as Proverbs 3, verse 6 says, "In all your ways acknowlege him and he will make your paths straight." That is, whichever path you take in life, God will make it a straight one, if you acknowlege him.

You can't be outside of God's SOVEREIGN will for you. What he purposes will happen. If you are not outside of his moral will for you, that is, if the decision you make is not sinful, then it really doesn't matter what you decide. In morally neutral decisions, the choice is yours and God will honour the path you choose if you choose in faith, humbly and prayerfully trusting him. If the theological and moral aspect is covered, then you can't choose against God's will. If you make your choices within God's reveled will in the bible, it doesn't matter what car you drive, what work you do, whom you marry, where you serve him, or what you have for breakfast.

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[9:30 only] Now I'm sure that what I've said so far will make you want to ask some questions. So I'll give you opportunity now to do so, before I sum up.

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God does promise to guide us. Psalm 32:8 says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you." Jesus promises in that wonderful passage from John 16, that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all the truth. God gives us in His Word, the bible, everything we need to be able to know God's moral and theological will for our lives at any point. And if its not in the bible, then we don't need to know it. God gives us common sense, friends, circumstances and wisdom to decide on non-moral questions. In these questions, it is not what, but how, you choose, that God cares about. Make your decision in faith, with the wisdom God gives, thanking him, and asking him to work out his sovereign purposes in whatever you choose,

[9:30 only] and make the words of our next hymn your prayer, "Lead us heavenly Father lead us through the world's tempestous sea, guards us, guide us, keep us, feed us, now and to eternity: here possessing every blessing, if our God our Father be."