What exactly is the Will of God and how does it impact my life? This sermon begins with a special annointing service for Linda, who has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer. The will of God is something we all struggle with. When I was a young man of 11, my next door neighbors, the Magyars, had a cute baby boy named Joey. I remember playing with him when he was about 2. One day I learned that he was dying of Leukemia. In fact he died rather suddenly, before he turned 3. What was really strange was that the Magyars and their daughter I was friends with, never spoke of Joey again. When I went to their house I would walk by Joey’s bedroom door, and it was shut, never open. I found out later they never went into his room after the funeral. They kept it exactly as it was the day he died. This was probably the first time I had encountered death, and it raised a lot of questions? Was God behind this? Did God plan for Joey to die? Why did the Magyars, who were Jewish, get mad at their God? Did they think God had made a mistake? As a young teen I had no answers for them. I had no idea of God or His involvement in our every day lives. As I grew older and became exposed to God’s Word, my concept of God started to change. As a free thinking, free will young man I found myself thinking that God has an overall will or plan in mind. However, He leaves the details to us; after all we have a free choice. So much of what happens in this world depends upon us-our faith, our prayers, our evangelistic efforts. In fact, God must rely upon us in His overall battle with Satan. Now Satan will lose in the end, but He is constantly trying to mess things up, to get people to hate or doubt or turn away from God. I know longer think this based upon how God reveals himself in His Word, but I fear this sort of thinking is held by more “Christians” than you realize. I thought this way one time, and I am still tempted to think this way. I would wager that many of you have thought this way about the Will of God. In Bible College I became exposed to traditional teaching on God. I learned of His: Immutability: God cannot change in any way and is not able to change. Impassibility: God is without emotion. God does not experience pain or pleasure. God is not subject to temptation or sin at all. Omnipotence: God has all power, which includes complete sovereignty over all things. Omnipresence: God is everywhere and in fact God transcends space and time. Omniscience: God has all knowledge, including of all past, present, and future events. These attributes were backed up by verses like these: Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Num 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? 1Sa 15:29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent. Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: God's Will and "Open Theism" Back to the way I think many Christians view God. It is actually taking form as a modern day theology called "Open Theism". It began in the Pentecostal, Assembly of God schools and has spread to Evangelical churches and Seminaries. It makes sense in light of the "me-focused" spirituality many Christians practice. Practically, open theism makes the case for a personal God who is open to influence through the prayers, decisions, and actions of people. Although many specific outcomes of the future are unknowable, God's foreknowledge of the future includes that which is determined as time progresses often in light of free decisions that have been made and what has been sociologically determined. So God knows everything that has been determined as well as what has not yet been determined but remains open. As such, he is able to anticipate the future, yet remains fluid to respond and react to prayer and decisions made either contrary or advantageous to His plan or presuppositions. They give several Scripture passages to make their case: • Genesis 6:6-7 (KJV) God repents of his decision to make man and destroys mankind with a flood. • Exodus 13:17 (KJV) And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: • Exodus 32:7-14 (RSV) And the LORD said to Moses, "Go down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves; they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the