His Will in Your Surroundings
The sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding and following the will of God in our surroundings, which leads to a life of freedom, peace, and love.
Mary Wilder Tileston, through the words of Harriet McEwen Kimball and Handley C. G. Moule, emphasizes the importance of being bond-servants of Christ and doing the will of God from the heart. She encourages believers to turn away from worldly distractions and find true peace, rest, and release from sin in Jesus. Tileston challenges listeners to consider if they are allowing God to enable them to live out His will in their daily lives, even in challenging and painful circumstances, reminding them that every pain is met with God's sympathy and that a life hidden with Christ in God can be full of love, peace, and blessing.
Text
As bond-servants [margin] of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. EPHESIANS 6:6 (R. V.)
LORD Jesus, turn us from the noise
Of endless strivings and empty joys,
To find forever Thy one true peace,
Rest from sorrow, from sin release!
HARRIET MCEWEN KIMBALL
CAN He not enable you to do that will from your heart, in your surroundings? Are you sorely tried by those surroundings? Are they, in themselves, humiliating to you, or exasperating to you? Are they full of acute heart-pangs, or heavy with a chronic heartache? Not one of these things is forgotten before your Lord. Your slightest pain finds response in His sympathy. But let that thought be but the steppingstone to this, that for you as for the slave-saint of Ephesus there lies open in that same Lord the blessed secret of a life which shall move amidst these same unwelcome surroundings as a life free, and at leisure, and at peace, full of love and rest, blessed and blessing; a life hid with Christ in God; a life in which everything, from your rising up to your lying down, the smallest cross and the largest, is seen in the light of the holy, the beloved, will of God, and so is met not with a sigh, or a murmur, but "from the soul."
HANDLEY C. G. MOULE
Sermon Outline
- The Will of God in Our Surroundings
- Understanding the Will of God
- The Importance of Sympathy and Understanding
- Finding Peace and Rest in the Will of God
Key Quotes
“Not one of these things is forgotten before your Lord. Your slightest pain finds response in His sympathy.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“for you as for the slave-saint of Ephesus there lies open in that same Lord the blessed secret of a life which shall move amidst these same unwelcome surroundings as a life free, and at leisure, and at peace, full of love and rest, blessed and blessing;” — Mary Wilder Tileston
Application Points
- We can find peace and rest in the will of God, even in difficult surroundings.
- The will of God is the key to a life of freedom and peace, and it is the foundation for a life that is blessed and blessing.
- We can overcome our struggles and find rest by turning to the Lord and allowing Him to guide us.