Whenever you and I face a challenge in life, we always respond in one of two ways—our way or God’s way. Although we know that God’s way is best and that He has a will and a purpose for our life, we still choose to do things our way. Dr. Stanley teaches us the best way to respond to challenges and that God’s way really is the best way. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch
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male announcer: “In Touch” with
Dr. Charles Stanley,
celebrating 45 years
of God’s faithfulness.
Next on “In Touch,”
“God’s Way Is the Best Way.”
Dr. Charles Stanley: Whenever
you and I face a challenge in
life, we always
respond in one of two ways,
and that is either
our way or God’s way.
Now, most of us know that doing
things God’s way is always best.
But in spite of that,
sometimes we don’t
always choose to do it that way.
Somehow, we have the idea that
in spite of the fact that we
know that God is
absolutely omniscient
and knows what is best.
The fact that He has a will
and a purpose and a plan for our
life, that He loves
us unconditionally,
and He would only do
what’s best for us,
we still choose to do things
our way rather than God’s way.
Well, that’s what I want to talk
about in this message entitled
“God’s Way Is the Best Way.”
And sometimes these wonderful
principles of scripture are best
declared by illustrating
them in somebody’s life.
So I want you to turn, if
you will, to the book of Exodus,
and I want you to turn to
the second chapter.
And in the book of
Exodus, of course,
we find the life of Moses,
who stands above all the other
characters in the Old Testament.
Six hundred and ninety-nine
verses in the Old Testament have
his name in it, seventy-nine
verses in the New Testament.
And here is a man whose life
is certainly characterized
by both success and failure.
And throughout the scriptures,
you find those who refuse to do
it God’s way and the kind
of trouble they caused and
experienced, those
who did it God’s way.
So, the whole purpose of
this message is simply this,
and that is to take the life of
Moses and simply say here’s the
way it happens when
you do it your way.
This is the way it happens
when you do it God’s way.
And I think when you and I weigh
the two, we will come away
knowing in our heart it’s
always the wisest, always the
best, always the most profitable
to do things God’s way.
If you’ll turn to the second
chapter and the eleventh verse.
“It came about in those
days, when Moses had grown up,
that he went out to his brethren
and looked on their hard labors;
and he saw an
Egyptian beating a
Hebrew, one of his brethren.
So he looked this way and that,
and when he saw that there was
no one around, he struck
down the Egyptian
and hid him in the sand.
And he went out the next day,
and behold, two Hebrews were
fighting with each other;
and he said to the offender,
‘Why are you striking
your companion?’
But he said, ‘Who made you
a prince or a judge over us?
Are you intending to kill me, as
you killed the Egyptian?’
Then Moses was afraid,
and said, ‘Surely the
matter has become known.’
When Pharaoh heard of this
matter, he tried to kill Moses.
But Moses fled from the presence
of Pharaoh and settled in the
land of Midian; and he
sat down by a well.”
Here is a perfect
example of doing it my way.
First of all, he
focused on an event
rather than the big picture.
The big picture was and is: How
do I free my nation of people,
my great family, these
two million Hebrews,
sons and daughters of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob?
How do I free them?
Instead of focusing
on that question,
he focused on an
incident, one event:
one Egyptian soldier,
not killing but beating
on one Hebrew brother.
So, his first mistake was that
he focused on an event rather
than the big picture,
which oftentimes we can do.
The second thing
he did was this,
that he followed his
reasoning, listen,
he followed his reasoning
rather than listening to God.
Whenever you and I begin to
reason things out ourselves
based on our ability to
reason them out and ignore God,
most of the time we’re
gonna make a wrong decision,
because God is so willing to
show us what to do in every
instance in life
if we’ll listen.
But human reason
said deal with this.
Human reason said I’m
not gonna tolerate him
beating on my brother.
And so what does he do?
He kills him,
buries him in the sand.
So, he made two mistakes.
The third mistake he made
was this: he acted on impulse,
listen, he acted on impulse
rather than backing off, saying,
“God, what would
You have me to do?”
Now, think about this.
When you and I respond to
difficulties and hardships and
challenges in life on
our natural impulses,
most of the time we’re gonna
make a mistake because that’s
not the way God operates.
Because He loves
you unconditionally,
because He has a will and a
purpose and a plan for you,
and because He has already
determined and provided and
prepared to give you His
best, if you want God’s best,
you have to do it God’s way.
And God’s way’s not
always the simplest way.
It’s–sometimes it’s
a painful way.
Sometimes it just
runs against the grain.
That’s not the way we
think, that’s not the
way we want to do it.
We want to get on with it.
It isn’t always God’s way.
But His way is
always the best way.
And I believe if you and I could
just have time to give testimony
today, all of us
could stand up and say,
“Yes, God’s way’s the best way,
and here’s the way I blew it.
I did this and I had a sneaking
suspicion that wasn’t God’s way
or I knew when I did,
it wasn’t God’s way,
and here are the consequences
I’ve suffered in my life.”
Some consequences go
on for a lifetime.
Some consequences
are short-lived.
But to do it our way instead of
God’s way is always unwise and,
listen, there are
always consequences,
there’s always a penalty.
Depending upon the nature
and the size of that decision
or that action depends
upon, will determine what the
consequence is and how
long the consequence goes on.
Always best to do it God’s way.
Now, forty years on the
backside of the desert,
he’s over there
shepherding sheep,
and now, we’re
gonna do it God’s way.
So, I want you to
think about something.
Get your pencil ready now.
Want you to think
about something.
What is the first prerequisite
in doing anything God’s way?
The first prerequisite is this,
and that is to have an encounter
with God through His Son Jesus
Christ whereby you confess your
sins to Him and acknowledge that
His death at Calvary made it
possible for God the Father
to place your sins upon Him.
When He died, He
died an atoning death,
a sacrificial death, a
substitutionary death.
He died a death that made it
possible for God the Father to
accept you and me with our sins,
forgiving us of our sins because
Jesus Christ paid that
sin-debt in full at the cross.
Thereby we become the
sons and daughters of God.
First, listen, first foremost
prerequisite for walking
in the ways of God,
first prerequisite for doing
things God’s way is to have a
personal relationship with God
through His Son Jesus Christ and
to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit
who is the one who gives us
direction as to what is
God’s way and how
do we do it in God’s power?
Now, so with that in mind, let’s
think about what happens when
you and I do things God’s way?
Well, number one, we act on
divine command, not impulse.
In other words, God, what
would You have me to do?
When we do things God’s
way, we’re gonna ask Him:
God, what would
You have me to do?
We’re gonna do what
God tells us to do.
And this is why I’ve said over
and over and over again how very
important it is to
learn how to listen to God.
That’s a basic lesson
in the Christian life.
If I don’t know how
to listen to Him, how will I
know when He’s spoken?
How will I know
when He’s spoken?
Now, what happens?
He’s on the
backside of the desert,
walking along one day, and all
of a sudden he sees something he
had never seen
before in his life,
and He got his attention.
Turn to the third chapter,
if you will for a moment,
and let’s look at,
beginning in verse one,
“Now Moses was pasturing
the flock of Jethro his
father-in-law, the priest
of Midian; and he led the
flock to the west side of
the wilderness, and came to
Horeb, the mountain of God,”
which we know as Mount Sinai.
“And the angel of the LORD
appeared to him in a blazing
fire from the midst of
a bush; and he looked,
and behold, the bush
was burning with fire,
yet the bush was not consumed.
So Moses said, ‘I
must turn aside now,
and see this marvelous sight,
why the bush is not burned up.’
When the LORD saw that
he turned aside to look,
God called to him from
the midst of the bush,
and said, ‘Moses, Moses!
And he said, ‘Here I am.’
Then He said, ‘Do not come near
here; remove your sandals from
your feet, for the place
on which you are
standing is holy ground.’
He said also, ‘I am the
God of your father,
the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.’
Then Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look at God.”
Now, it was this
encounter with God,
after forty years
isolated, hopelessly,
helplessly, could do
nothing to liberate his nation.
Forty years on the
backside of the desert
and now God comes to him.
Why does God wait so long?
You ever ask that question?
God, let’s get with the plan.
God, according to my watch,
my calendar, my clock,
my feelings, my wants,
my desires, my this, my that.
Let’s get with it, God.
Do you know how many times I’ve
been able to persuade God to
move ahead?
[chuckling]
The same number
of times you have.
Not one single time!
You can’t hurry Him.
You can’t rush Him.
You can’t irritate Him.
You can’t get Him
frustrated because He
already has a schedule.
And He knew that it, listen, it
took forty years to strip Moses
of all of this manly
confidence, this “I-can-do-it,
I’m-gonna-handle-it,
I’ll-take-care-of-it.”
Forty years on the
backside of the desert.
Now he’s eighty years of
age, and God comes to him.
And what happens?
I love this passage of scripture
because I think there are so
many truths wrapped
up in simple verses.
Look, if you will for a moment,
back in that third chapter now.
He says he saw this
blazing fire and the Lord,
angel of the Lord, the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking to him.
He looked and behold
the bush was burning.
Now listen to what he said.
“So Moses said, ‘I must turn
aside now and see this marvelous
sight, why the bush
isn’t burned up!'”
Are you listening?
How many times has God wanted to
say something to you and me and
we didn’t turn aside
and we just kept going?
Our schedule was busy.
We had something
we wanted to do,
something we
wanted to accomplish.
And so instead of turning aside
and letting God speak to us,
we just keep moving
on, doing our own thing.
Look at this next verse.
So Moses said, “I must turn
aside now and see the marvelous
sight, why the bush
is not burned up.”
Look at this, “When the Lord saw
that he turned aside to look,
then God called to him
from the midst of the bush
and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’
And he said, ‘Here I am.'”
How many times has
God wanted to speak to us,
couldn’t get our attention?
Isn’t this the most
ridiculous thing you ever heard?
Too busy to listen to God.
Too busy to listen to God.
My schedule, my plans,
things I want to accomplish,
things I want to achieve.
Too busy to listen to God.
How foolish, how absolutely
foolish to be so busy
we can’t listen to God.
How many times has God wanted to
say something but is not going
to speak to the air?
He’s gonna speak to our heart.
And when we don’t want to listen
and we don’t want to give Him
our attention, then God
isn’t gonna force
His way most of the time.
Once in a while He will,
most of the time He won’t.
So now watch what happens.
You think about this.
He acted first of all on
the basis of a divine
command, not his impulse.
A second thing is
this: he proceed–listen,
he proceeded on God’s
timing and not his own.
This was God’s timing.
God had it all worked out.
Now, once in a while,
somebody’s–you’ll hear some
theologian or some
liberal say, “Well you know,
the Red Sea experience,
that was not a miracle of God.
It just so happened that
when they got down there,
this wind began to blow and
all these things happened and
therefore that’s how
they marched across.”
Well, you know what,
when I think about it,
I think about poor soul.
It doesn’t make any difference
whether the wind blew or God put
a literal hand down there
and held the water back.
Isn’t it strange that it
happened perfectly on time?
Perfectly on time.
It was a miracle of God.
So what was going on?
Listen, this time he was
doing it on God’s
time, not his own time.
So here’s what I want you to
see now as we go through these.
When we do it God’s
way, when we
do it God’s way, what happens?
We’re gonna act on
command, not by impulse.
We’re gonna wait
for God’s timing
and not do it on our timing.
What does he say?
“Wait upon the Lord,
be of good strength.”
He says, “Be of good courage.”
He–wait upon the Lord.
Why?
Because it takes a whole lot of
courage oftentimes to sit and
wait for God’s timing.
It takes a lot of strength
sometimes to do nothing until
God says it’s time to operate.
The third thing is this: God
will provide everything we need
when we’re doing it His way.
He’ll provide
everything you
and I need when we’re
doing it His way.
What did he need?
He needed somebody who could
talk better than he could.
And so, what did God do?
He said, “I’ll send
your brother with you.
He’ll do the talking, and you
just do what I tell you to do.”
God, listen, it would be
absolutely incompatible with the
nature of God, the
attributes of God,
to ask you and me to do
something that He did not
provide everything we
needed to get it done.
And so, as we’ve said
over and over again,
that is, God takes full
responsibility for the life
fully committed to Him.
God is responsible for the
consequences of our obedience.
And therefore, if
we say, “All right,
I’m gonna do what You say, God.”
God assumes responsibility in
that moment to provide every
single thing we need
to get the job done.
And so therefore, God
certainly provided that.
He did not provide a brother,
but He provided the most
awesome, listen, the
most awesome array
of natural phenomenon.
All the things that
happened naturally,
from the river turning to blood
and as if fire and brimstone
came down from heaven, God,
listen, He provided everything
necessary to accomplish
His purpose and His will.
When you and I hesitate to do
what God tells us to do because
we can’t see the
ultimate results,
well, suppose this
and suppose that.
Remember this, if you,
listen, are you listening?
Say amen.
If you’re, listen, if
you are obeying God,
if you’re obeying God,
you don’t have to worry about
the consequences.
He’s already thought
through the end
result of what’s gonna happen.
He has already declared,
and by His own omnipotence,
He has already
fore-done in His mind
the end result of our action.
When we obey Him,
we don’t have to worry about
what’s going to happen.
He’s already taken care of that.
And so, what we see here
when he does it God’s way,
waiting upon the Lord,
trusting in His clear direction,
and waiting for God
and believing in God,
that He is going to be able to
provide everything He needs,
he doesn’t have to
worry about that.
You see, what we do is we think,
“Well, Lord, suppose this?”
There are no
supposings with God.
God has never
made this statement.
Oh, I thought!
God doesn’t “I thought.”
There’s no
after-thinking with God,
it’s always
fore-thinking, fore-ordination,
predestination, whatever,
it’s all forehand with God.
He knows what’s gonna happen.
Fourth thing I want
you to notice is this,
that when we do it God’s way, He
banishes the fear in our life.
Now, sometimes we may have a
slight little trepidation about
something if we are not, if–in
other words, just our own–
we know in our heart
it’s gonna work out.
We know God’s gonna do it, but
because it’s a new experience
for us, we may have a
little bit of fear,
but the truth is,
it’s not real fear.
It’s just that little emotional
stuff that runs through and back
and forth, but God
will banish the fear.
And here’s what happens.
Remember this, when you take
the first couple of steps in the
will of God that
seem to be challenging,
you may feel some fear, but
here’s what you’ll discover.
As you keep moving in the
direction that God has told you
to go, the longer you walk,
the less fear you’re gonna have
until the fear is absolutely
banished and you’re gonna know
that you’re walking
in the will of God,
under the protection of God,
listen, the resource of God,
the power of God,
the love of God,
the purpose of God,
the will of God,
the plan of God, you can’t
lose doing it God’s way.
He says, “I’ve not given
you the spirit of fear,
but of power and of
love and of a sound mind.”
And I probably, my favorite
passage of scripture in all the
Bible when it comes to
this whole idea of fear is
found in Isaiah forty-one.
Listen to this, I love this.
“Do not fear, for
I am with you.’
That settles it right there,
but that’s not all.
Look at this, “Do not
anxiously look about you,
for I am your God, I
will strengthen you,
surely I will help you, surely,
I will uphold you with My
righteous right hand.”
That is, He says, “Do
not be afraid, I’m with you.”
Well, listen, if you
got omnipotence
with you, do you
need anything else?
Not really.
I love this phrase.
He says, “Don’t
anxiously look about you.”
That’s what gets
our mind off God.
In other words, when we
anxiously look about us,
we forget what He
says when He says,
“I’ll be with you.”
God wants us to focus on Him.
In the midst of difficulties and
trials and big challenges in our
life, we’re to focus our
attention upon Almighty God.
If my attention’s on
Him, I’m not going to
be looking at the circumstances.
That’s why He said
in that passage,
“Don’t look about–don’t
anxiously look about you.”
Keep your focus on Almighty God.
And this is exactly
what’s beginning
to happen here in his life.
And so, all of a sudden, that
fear of facing pharaoh is gone.
He marches in with his stick and
his brother and says, “Here’s
what I AM says, and
we’re trusting God
to free the nation of Israel.
Well, then what I want
you to notice is this,
that God gives
specific directions.
When we do it His way, He
gives specific directions.
God does not speak in
terms of generalities.
As we’ve said, He
doesn’t say, “Be good.”
He doesn’t say,
“Well, just go to school.”
If you ask God to
show you what to do,
He’ll show you
what school to go to.
He’ll show you how to
settle that financial situation.
He’ll tell you what to do as
an employer about employees.
He’ll tell you how to
do whatever you
need to do in the family.
God is specific.
God doesn’t throw out a
bunch of general directions.
When you and I are walking
in His will and His way,
and we’re doing it
His way,
we’re gonna have
very clear direction.
What does He say?
“Trust in the Lord
with all your heart,
lean not to your
own understanding,
in all your ways acknowledge
Him and He’ll,” do what?
“Direct your path.”
He said, “I will teach you
in the way you should go.
I will guide you with My eye.”
That is, we can trust God to
give us very clear direction.
Now, if we’re in too
big a hurry to
get the direction, we
get in trouble.
That’s our way.
We do it God’s way,
we wait until God
tells us what’s the next step.
And remember we said
the first step or two
may seem to be very fearful,
or the third step
or the fourth step.
Or we get out here trusting
God, and then God may say,
“Now, I want you to take a left
turn, take a right turn.”
God doesn’t send us out to
do His will and leave the
decision-making process to us.
Don’t forget that.
He says, “I will teach you in
the way which you should go.
I will direct you with My eye.”
What is He saying?
“I have My eye upon you.”
What did He say in Isaiah?
He said, “You don’t need
to be afraid, I am with you.
Don’t be anxious and
looking about you.
Keep your focus on Me.”
Not only that, one of the things
that happens is we begin
to learn God’s ways.
What did he know about God?
Not much.
But then he began to
see how God could use,
listen, watch this now, he
had to face up to the fact that
forty years ago, tried to
do it his way, didn’t work.
And now, look at this.
God, You mean to tell me You’re
gonna give me another chance?
How many of you have
had a second chance?
If you’re saved, you better put
them up because you’ve
had more than one chance.
We’ve all had a second chance.
Haven’t we all failed at things
in our life and God, in His
grace and mercy and love, has
given us a second chance?
God’s goodness, listen, God’s
goodness and love and mercy,
we learn the ways of God.
He learned that God
could use him a second time.
He learned that God
could take simple
things and make a difference.
He learned what would happen
when God got into a stick.
He learned what would
happen when God
rained down fire and judgment.
He learned what God would do.
He learned the ways of God.
How many times have
I said this to you?
The one thing I want to learn
in life above everything else,
what are the ways of
God, how does He think?
What motivates Him?
What makes Him tick?
Why does God do the
things that He does?
Why does He allow the
things that He does?
We want to learn
the ways of God.
The greatest wisdom there is the
wisdom to know the ways of God.
And he was
learning the ways of God.
And when you and I obey
Him, we do it His way,
we’re gonna learn His ways.
The next thing I want you to
notice is this: we learn that
God can use us in our
weakness and in our frailties.
He can do mighty things
through weakness and frailty.
Now, I’ve said that in
a different way before,
but I want to make that point.
He can use us in our
frailties and our weakness.
We don’t have to be strong.
We don’t have to be educated.
We don’t have to be this,
we don’t have to be that.
He uses us in our
weaknesses and our frailties.
Listen, he went before Pharaoh
a very weak man: couldn’t talk,
stick in his
hand, and requiring,
demanding of the strongest man
on the planet at that time no
doubt, and the most advanced
civilization in the world,
and he’s saying,
“Here’s what you must do.”
Notice this, if you will.
Next thing, God can accomplish
more in a brief period of time
than you and I can in a
lifetime when we do it our way.
Think about what happened.
How long would it have taken
Moses to liberate the nation of
Israel, the Hebrew
children, if he did it his way?
If he’d a started a
revolution, for
example, among the Hebrews.
First of all, they
weren’t skilled in warfare.
They had no weapons.
But let’s just say they
had a big revolution.
So they all had a stick.
And you’ve got
javelins, swords, spears,
shield, charioteers, cut
’em up, just cut ’em asunder.
Do it God’s way, don’t
even have to have a sword.
Do it God’s way, don’t
even have to lift a hand.
Do it God’s way,
watch God do it.
Remember what we said?
He assumes full
responsibility when you and I
surrender our life to Him.
And so what we see happening
here, we see God blessing them
more than they could ever
assume to be blessed.
We see God doing it His way,
accomplishing things that they
would never have been
able to accomplish.
And what we see is this:
when we do it God’s way,
God gets maximum
honor and glory.
Take no credit, no glory.
When we do it God’s way, He gets
the credit and the glory for it.
Now, let’s think about it.
Since God has a will for your
life and a plan for your life
and a purpose for your life, and
since He has the best that even
He, God, could store up for you,
and since He desires the very
best for you and has planned
it, are you willing to surrender
your life to the Lord Jesus
Christ and let Him have His way
in your life so that you
can live your life God’s way?
It’s just that simple.
It doesn’t make any
difference who you are,
how much you’ve
sinned in the past.
It doesn’t make any difference
what’s going on in your life,
what your circumstance,
what you have to face,
the ultimate question is this:
am I gonna be wise enough
to do it God’s way?
I’m gonna listen to Him.
I’m gonna wait upon Him.
I’m gonna trust Him.
I’m gonna follow Him.
I’m gonna believe He
has the best for me.
I know He’ll provide
every single thing I need.
There are blessings out
there beyond my fondest dreams.
I’m gonna trust in His
power to work these things out.
I know He’ll be honored
and glorified when I walk
in obedience to Him.
My friend, here’s what
you and I will never be
able to see in this life.
How many times we, in
very simple little things,
obey God, for which He is
reserving in heaven for us a
reward over things that we
never even thought about,
but they were the
will of the Father.
It’s something God
wanted us to do.
He led us and we did it
because it’s our lifestyle,
didn’t even think about it.
There is no way to lose,
listen, no way to lose
doing it God’s way.
There’s no way to
win doing it our way.
I trust that you’ll be wise
enough to trust Jesus Christ as
your Savior, ask Him to
forgive you of your sins,
receive Him into your life,
surrender your life to Him and,
beginning from
this moment on, say,
“God, by Your power, the
power of the Holy Spirit,
I choose to do it Your way.”
Father, how grateful we are.
Oh, You’re so patient, so
forgiving, so loving, so kind.
Just etch the truth of
this simple message
into every one of our hearts.
Let it ring and
echo in our soul.
Let it ricochet in our spirit so
that we’re ever conscious of the
fact we have a choice and
we’ve chosen to do it God’s way.
In Jesus’s name, amen.
♪♪♪