God's will is not limited to just certain areas of the Christian life. He has a plan that includes everything that we do. That is why Proverbs 3 tells us to seek Him in ALL our ways. One of those areas in which we are to seek Him is music. While most Christians would embrace Proverbs 3-5-7 in theory, relatively few practice it when it comes to music. We instead build the music repertoire of our lives around what -naturally- appeals to us, or what we have developed an appetite for. However, personal preference and experience are not the criteria for choosing good music. The same principles of God's truth that form the foundation for every other area of life should be applied to music as well. When we begin this journey of evaluating the music in our lives according to God's standard, we would do well to remember three foundational truths about music- 1- Music is very personal- 2- Music IS communication- 3- Music is NOT amoral.

In Ephesians 5, Paul admonishes believers to -redeem the time, because the days are evil.- Understanding that to mean that we are not to waste opportunities on earth to invest in things of eternal value, both for ourselves and for others, then we must apply the redeeming of our time based on the principles of loving God first and foremost, and then loving others as God loves them. Part 1 of this message addressed how we can demonstrate love for God in the use of our time. This message focuses on how we love others with our time. There are three main applications of loving others with our time- 1- Using our time to serve others in love- 2- Using our time to teach others in truth- 3- Using our time to share the gospel with the unsaved. The challenge is not in knowing how to correctly redeem our time--the challenge is in avoiding all of the distractions that cause us to miss opportunities. Parents, especially, should be learning to do all three of these DILIGENTLY so that they can raise a generation of believers who go on to continue the legacy of redeeming our time for God.

Time is like money, except that you can never replace it or recover it once it is spent. Ephesians 5 admonishes us as believers to -redeem the time because the days are evil.- This command does apply to our minutes, hours and days, but the Greek word Paul chose to use for time here speaks more toward making use of the one great opportunity we have been given called life. You get one chance to redeem your life--to save it from being wasted on things that hold no eternal value. From the time of your salvation until your physical death, we have an opportunity to invest our life into both our own eternity and the eternity of others. Unfortunately, too many of us miss the smaller opportunities as we get distracted by things that do not matter.

Clothes are something that many Christians don't think much about when it comes to God's will for our lives But, in fact, the Bible has more to say on this topic than most would think. God was the original creator of clothing after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, and what He created and the purpose for which He made it should be important for us to understand if we are truly concerned about God's will for us in every area of our lives. God's -dress code- for Adam and Eve became the standard of being -clothed- for almost every civilized culture from that point throughout all of history. In addition to the standard for being -covered- that God set, we should also be concerned about how our clothing demonstrates our love for God and our love for each other. And, YES, we ARE responsible for the temptation that we put in front of others with our mode of dress if we invite them to look, and that look leads them to lust or worse.

Legalism is a problem that has plagued the church from the very beginning of its existence. But while the charges of legalism are many and frequent, the term itself is often misunderstood and misapplied. Legalism at its core is basically an attempt to earn the favor of God or man through outward performance without regard to the condition of the heart. But it is most often the basis of the judgmentalism that defines much of the church today. Those who regularly accuse others of legalism, whether the charge is valid or not, make themselves guilty of the same thing they are charging others with, since they have taken it upon themselves to be the judge of another person's motives and standards. In Romans 14, Paul is very clear as he echoes Jesus' command that we not judge one another. The problem is that we have made ourselves both the standard and the judge, a manifestation of the pride that lies behind the judgment, and a violation of God's command to love one another.

Our speech says a lot about us. James 3-2 says that the man who is able to control his tongue, that is the perfect man. James 3 also says that the tongue can no man tame. So the only way for our tongue to be under control is through the work of the Holy Spirit. God has given us several principles in His Word that define what He wants our speech to be as part of His will for us. 1- Face-to-face communication is best and preferred. 2- Our speech should be limited to what is necessary, and sometimes silence is required. 3- How we speak is just as important as what we say. 4- Speak only the truth - preferably God's Truth-- and do it in love.

The Christian life is about living out the principles of God's truth as the Holy Spirit guides us and empowers us. Jesus said that all the law is summed up in loving God and loving our neighbor. So those two principles become the foundation of living in God's will. In loving our neighbor, or Christian brother, Romans 14 teaches that we must first and foremost choose things in our own lives that edify others and make sure that we do not provide a -stumbling block- in their lives that would cause them to sin against their own conscience. That means our love for each other brings about a willingness to give up even what is not wrong for us in order that we may build up our fellow believers in the faith and point them to Jesus. In addition, the apostle Paul emphasizes that judging others should be non-existent as we encourage each other to live out the principles of God's truth.

-God's will- is a generic phrase that nearly all Christians would agree is important to consider when evaluating our Christian life. But, the Bible provides specific principles that, when applied, drastically emphasize the difference between how a non-believer lives and how a believer should live. These principles define God's will for us. All of these Biblical principles are derived from the -greatest commandment,- namely to love God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Again, we run into the issue of the generic nature of what it means to love God and to love others. But loving God with all our hearts creates a foundational paradigm from which other principles emerge- glorifying God in everything we do, our desire for holiness, and even the principle of stewardship. As we more specifically define these terms and ideas from a Biblical perspective, living as a believer takes on a whole new meaning.

In our previous message, we saw how our own skewed perspective can be an obstacle that keeps us from understanding God's will for our lives as believers, because of our lack of Scriptural understanding of His principles. Two other obstacles to understanding God's will include our own policies, which prevent us from practicing God's principles, and what we believe is PERMITTED because of a lack of direct commands from God in certain areas. In both of these cases, we are making our own decisions about what the standard is, or whether there shouldl even be a standard based on a lack of direct commandment from the Lord. Until we learn to live by God's principles as the foundation of wisdom that guides every decision of our lives, not only will we miss God's will for us, but we will also miss God's blessing,

One of the biggest questions for followers of Christ is -What is God's will for my life--- But many who ask that question are only concerned about God's direction in big areas of life - college, occupation, marriage, purchasing a home, etc. When it comes to the -small- decisions of everyday living, we often neglect seeking God for direction. Proverbs 3-5-6 tells us to -acknowledge God in all our ways.- In other words, we are to seek His will in EVERYTHING, no matter how big or small. God has already given us much about His will for us in the principles taught throughout Scripture. But the battle begins when we let obstacles keep us from living by God's principles. The first of those obstacles is living by our own perspectives and perception, rather than by God's principles.