Squares in Squares, Triangles in Triangles: Finding God's Will

Dr. David Fraze: You would think by this point in life I had mastered the Fisher-Price shapes in the bucket game.
I probably shouldn't do this with visitors in the audience, but I am going to brag.
I'm pretty good at this. Okay, come up here.
Put your hands out.
Feel confident you can hold those things?
They've been touched by my granddaughter. They're blessed.
Do you have a watch with a timer on it?
Oh my word.
Come on.
Do you have it?
Get ready to go.
Get ready to go.
You do have a phone.
Who doesn't have a phone?
All right.
You got a cool alarm?
Okay.
I'm going to get ready.
Do you think I can do this?
I bet you can.
I bet you can.
Are you ready?
Yes, I need a stopwatch.
I'm timing.
Sorry if you're visiting with us.
Sometimes I yell at my students.
develops character not really okay just turn and go
time
what do you got 11.28 seconds that is an Olympic record okay you ready you ready
Okay, we're gonna hold on.
Hold that.
You're gonna do it now.
You have no idea what I'm gonna do.
This is fun. I said, "Hey, you're gonna volunteer."
He goes, "Okay."
Can I be on stage? Okay.
[clears throat]
Are you ready? - I'm ready.
Ready? Whenever you're ready, she'll start timing you.
Okay. Go.
Triangle! Triangle, triangle, triangle.
Star! Star! Star!
Star! Triangle, square!
Square, square, square, star, star, straw.
Straw, straw, yes, yes, strong, strong, strong, strong,
strong, strong, no, not that one, not this square.
14, I beat him.
(audience laughing)
Don't go anywhere beatbox boy.
Alright, here we go.
(audience laughing)
Are you good?
I'm good.
medical release when you came to school?
Yes.
Alright, good deal.
Don't touch me inappropriately.
Title IX people all over the place, man.
Alright, here we go.
Are you ready?
Are you holding the...
No, I'm not holding the deal, but I have all the...
Look, here.
That's what I was asking.
And here. Here.
That's what I was asking.
Here.
Whenever you're ready.
Got it. Alright, go.
You're awful at this game.
Look at the hat!
I got one.
I'm so proud.
Way to go.
That is a triangle and you have a circle in your hand.
Bottom, bottom corner.
There we go.
That's a plus mark.
Plus mark.
My word, chapel time has been taken by this.
You're doing a pretty good job.
Ooh, square.
That's a good one.
That is still a triangle.
That's still a triangle.
There we go.
Very nice. That is a star. That is a circle star. Star plus. Right. No. You're sitting on the star.
You're staying right there. Oh, there we go. All right. This is like a really bad... Anyway,
I'm not gonna say it. Right there. I was gonna make a basketball joke. There we go. You ready?
Not about our team, but another one. Okay, go ahead. Right there. Right here. Good. Nice triangle.
That is still a plus mark. There we go. And what do you got?
That's it! You got one in your hand.
That's a square.
[applause]
Well, how long was that?
You wasted all my time.
Okay, here we go. Hey, you're awesome.
You can sit down. You want to hold these for me? You're doing a great job.
Give Malachi a hand. That's awesome.
[applause]
Points pretty easy. I want you to listen to Romans chapter 12
Written to people like us Christian people been walking with Christ for a while and he says this
Therefore big fancy word to say all this salvation has come for Jew and Gentile
Everyone is underneath the grace of God and he goes, okay right here. Therefore big transition
He's gonna tell us something we all need to do
I urge you brothers and sisters in view of all that mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice
Holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship now
Yeah, we've heard that before be good kids be a good commercial for God. I
Get this do not conform to the pattern of this world
But be transformed by the renewing of your minds
Then you will be able
Let me say that again
Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is his good pleasing and perfect
Will if I had a dollar every time somebody asked you this question my school debt would be paid off
Not now because we have great discount students, but way back in the day. I
Don't know what God's plan is for my life
If God would just tell me what he wants out of my life if he could just come down say what it what am I?
supposed to do sometimes it's because we are not putting the right pieces in the
box. I mean it's something you learn as a kid you you put squares and squares
plus and plus circle and circle star and star triangle and triangle but there's
things that begin to happen that cause our minds to be confused it's all over
scripture that we have flesh and we have spirit and this is after you give your
life to God and you're like okay what do I do now? You listen to spirit, you listen
to that. We're gonna talk about how to do that in a moment but what happens is
the world just like I did to Malachi, they start to yell things at you. Just
like I did to him I'm like that's a square, it's a square. He's holding a
triangle but I yelled that it's a square. It gives him that much hesitation so
that he's off just a little bit from the world-class record of shapes in the box
record. Or worse, we don't even look at this stuff. We come and we realize, okay
well I know everything I need to know about religion and stuff. I have a
cell phone. And so we just go through life blindfolded and we expect to know
what God's will is for our life. God has given us something, a few somethings. He's
He's given us all kinds of senses so we can know God in nature. We can know him through music
We can know him through the arts all of these things draws closer to God
But we are filled with distractions
and
I get it
There's always other things yelling at us when things seem to be a triangle we try to put it in a square
It doesn't work that way
There is a way to live now the the proverb writer says at least three times in the Proverbs
way that seems right in demand but the end leads to death.
You may be sitting here going,
I know exactly what I want out for my life.
Eventually, that will that you have
will be tested against an eternal will
and to see if it's in compliance.
Now let me say this,
God doesn't have one single plan for your life.
He wants you to do whatever you do
to the greatest advantage for you and the kingdom of God.
Jesus said, I come to give you life and life abundant.
Here Paul says, if you want to have abundant life
and say what is God's will for my life is,
You got to put squares and squares,
triangles and triangles, pluses and pluses and so on.
Well, Dave, what does that look like?
Just keep reading.
I mean, here's my challenge to you.
All you got to do is just keep reading through Romans
and you will get some very specific things.
For by the grace you've given me, that's verse three,
do not think yourself more highly than you ought,
but rather think of yourself with sober judgment
in accordance with faith that God has distributed.
He goes on to talk about how we treat each other,
how we talk to each other,
how our attitude should be, all of this
is all over the Bible.
And if we concentrate on that,
the next thing you know, our minds begin to shift.
We began to understand, our mind is renewed,
and we start to realize, okay, this is my next step today.
This is my next step tomorrow.
So my challenge to you is very simple.
If you got your blindfold on, take it off.
If the world is yelling at you,
turn some of those things down.
Spend some time in quiet.
Actually read your Bible.
Spend time with godly friends.
Talk about godly things.
All of these are some disciplines
that'll help us understand what God's will is for our life.
If you don't have those things,
you're putting squares and triangles
and triangles and squares.
Everybody understand?
So just spend some time listening,
renewing your mind,
and see if you can figure out what God's will is.
You're dismissed.