Dr Charles Stanley - The Best Way - Part 2

0:00Toyota's easy choice sales event is on. Whether you're looking for the performance of a camera, the versatility of Arab 4, the efficiency of a Corolla, or all electric driving in the BZ. There's a Toyota that's just right for you. And with great deals across the lineup, now's the time to find yours. But hurry, these deals won't last long. Toyota's easy choice sales event ends soon. We make it easy. Toyota, let's go places. Meet the Red Bull Dragonberry Emergeizer. It's one of the many new drinks out now. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so? Fire. Try them all only at my doubles. When you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior, God the Father sent the Holy Spirit to endure you. Why did He send the Holy Spirit to endure us? Many reasons, but primarily simply this. In order for us to be able to understand

1:01what we could not understand any other way, to be able to do perform and accomplish things we could not perform any other way, you have God living on the inside of you who is willing to reveal His ways to you and to me. Have you ever played a round of Bible trivia? It's impressive to do well at that, but it doesn't necessarily mean the winner has a life altering knowledge of God. That's because there's more to knowing him than knowing facts about him. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, we continue our series on the ways of God and we'll hear how we can rely on the Lord no matter what we face. If I should ask you to tell me about God, would you say there's only one of Him? He lives in heaven. His Son is seated at His right hand. He's sent His Son to die for us. He's created a place in heaven for us.

2:01He justifies us. He saves us. He forgives us of our sins. He said, He can be with us always. And I can tell you a few more things, doctrinally. Would you really know Him? Not really. And you see, this is the problem with many of God's people. We know about Him, but we don't know Him because you see in order to know someone you have to know them intimately. And we are rather satisfied just knowing some things about Him. And what I want you to see is this. It is the heart of God that you and I would really enter to know Him. And to know Him is to know His ways. And so many times in the Scripture, the Bible talks about the ways of God. And what I want you to do is to follow with me and begin to understand what are the ways of God? And how does God operate? Who is this God that you and I say we know? Somebody says, well, now how can I know His ways if the Scripture, for example,

3:03sometimes indicates that we can't. So let's ask ourselves the question, can we really truly know His ways? And I want you to turn if you will to Isaiah 55. Look at this Isaiah 55. And sometimes a person will come to this passage of Scripture and say, well, it's knowing God, how you don't know God when He makes it very clear here that He's really, and truly passed our finding out. So look if you will in the eighth verse of this 55th chapter of Isaiah. Notice what He says. He says, my thoughts are not your thoughts. We can understand that. Nor are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord. For is the heavens are higher than the earth. So my ways are higher than your ways. And my thoughts than your thoughts. Well, it appears, if that's true, then His ways and understanding His ways are beyond us. Notice what He doesn't say. He doesn't say that I can't know them. He simply says they are beyond me. That is, if I'm going to know the ways of God, God must reveal His ways.

4:04He's the one who must show us His ways because we can't figure them out. Turn to the 130th night Psalm for a moment and look if you will in this sixth verse, I believe. Look here for just a moment because I want you to see what He says. As He speaks about the Word of God. Here's what He says in verse six, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is too high. I cannot attain to it. You say, well, now if that's true, what are we doing talking about? Toyota's easy choice sales event is on. Whether you're looking for the performance of a camera, the versatility of a rat for, the efficiency of a Corolla or all electric driving in the BZ. There's a Toyota that's just right for you. And with great deals across the lineup, now's the time to find yours. But hurry, these deals won't last long. Toyota's easy choice sales event and soon. We make it easy. Toyota, let's go places.

5:05Meet the Red Bull Dragonberry Emergizer. It's one of the many new drinks out now. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire? Try them all only at McDonald's. About his ways, if we can't attain him. Well, what he's simply saying in these passages is this. You're not going to figure God out. In other words, that's not something that you and I can just read and say, well, this is who God is. I'll read some book, for example, and say, well, I think I know what God's like. And therefore, yes, no, you can't. Here's a good example. Look in Romans chapter 11 for a moment. And Paul is discussing something here that is beyond comprehension apart from what he tells us in Joseph. Here's what he's dealing with this 11 chapter. He says, for example, verse 33 of this 11th chapter, over depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsurczable are his judgments

6:06and unfathomable his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord, who has become his counselor. What he's saying is this. It's all beyond us within our own reach. Go back if you will to Job and look if you will in this 11th chapter of Job for a moment. And listen to what he says in this 11th chapter and a good question. Here's what he says. He says, for example, about this whole subject, verse 7, can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? No, we cannot. And what he's simply saying is that the mind of God is absolutely so far beyond us. That's why oftentimes we don't understand his ways. Is he willing to reveal him? Yes, he is. Look if you will in 1 Corinthians for a moment. And look in the 2nd chapter, 1 Corinthians. So what he says, Paul deals with this very issue in the 2nd chapter. Speaking of what we understand and what we can understand,

7:08here's what he said, for example. Verse 11, he says, Now watch this. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us of God. Which things we also speak, not in words, taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. And somebody said, what I was all about is what he's saying. You and I cannot fathom and explain and understand the thoughts of God, the mind of God, the ways of God, unless he reveals them. So as you think in terms of your relationship to him and you ask yourself the question, well, am I walking in his ways? You say, well, I don't know exactly what those ways are. And you see the reason for and the purpose for this series is to begin to understand what other ways.

8:09Now, we begin in the next message to take a single way. Why does God act this way? What is He up to? And so this is sort of a preparation for that. That God wants you and me to know His ways. He's willing for us to understand His ways. He's willing for us to be able to see, hear, observe, apply and understand them. Go back if you will to do the wrong to me again. I want to be sure not to forget this passage because in the 29th chapter of Deuteronomy, I want you to notice something here because somebody says, well, but you know what, one of these days, when I understand it all, I remember this fellow stopping me, I was out photographing out West and it didn't take me long to figure out, he just wanted a big argument. He wanted me to understand His idea of God. It was so ridiculous. Finally, he said, when I can understand God, the way that I see Him, then I will trust Him. That's like I've got news for you.

9:11I could have read in this verse, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law. There's some things you and I will never fully understand until we get to glory. So I want to say to you, if you're one of those prideful, egotistical, arrogant persons who thinks that you have to understand Him totally and completely, then you're going to serve Him. I got to tell you this. You're going to die without Him. He's willing to help you understand enough first of all to be saved. But if your idea of God is your idea and your idea doesn't match the true revelation of Almighty God, given in His Word and through His Son, Jesus Christ, your God is not God. And what you're doing is you're rebelling against the one true God because He doesn't fit your mold. Break your mold. Open the Word of God and ask,

10:12who is this God? What is He like? Because the truth is He's willing to show us. He says the Spirit of God will show us the truth. He will help us to be able to think the way God thinks. You won't happen as in peace and joy and contentment and your needs met and whatever it might be. Then you see, you must learn to walk in His ways. With that comes surprise. It's difficult to hardship pain. Here's the difference. When I think about the difference, walking in His ways does not mean there are no difficulties. It means He stabilizes you, strengthens you, builds your faith. There are so many blessings that come so I want to mention a few of them. So let's think about for just a moment. What are the benefits of walking in His ways? You think about how much suffering and pain and hardship and all the stuff and things that have come into our lives. When you and I have chosen for some reason to walk out of His will, out of His way and be disobedient as He said, rebellious like Israel. He says, I long for them to walk in my ways

11:13so that I could bless them with my best. He says the best honey out of the rock. That's what I had for them. They chose otherwise. So what are the benefits, for example, of walking in the ways of God? Well, number one, intimacy. If we want the best that God has for us, we must open our life to Him. What did He mean when He said those who seek Him find Him? When you and I seek Him, what does He do? He enlarges our capacity to understand Him. We see Him in a whole different light. We don't see Him up, you're on a sitting on a throne, necessarily though He is. But we also see Him as our companion, our brother, the one who walks with us, the one who loves us no matter what. We begin to see Him in a whole different way. One, listen, one of the blessings of learning to walk in His ways is we begin to develop this intimate relationship. And here's what happens. Naturally, the more intimate that relationship,

12:15all of a sudden, what happens? Your prayer life begins to think, wow, I'm talking to somebody who's really listening. He loves me, He's hearing what I say. He understands He's giving me direction. He's showing me what not to ask for, what to ask for, everything begins to happen. So first thing, first reward is simply this, intimate relationship. And now this is one of the most exciting ones to me. We get His viewpoint. Listen, we begin to look at things the way He sees them. Then I can look and see that this difficulty and hardship that He's allowing in my life. When I see it from His perspective, I say, oh, haven't time said, have we said, oh, now I see. Now I see. When we begin to walk in His ways, we begin to see what we would not see otherwise. Likewise, we realize we begin to walk in His ways. We are able to wait. Wait upon Him to answer our prayer. Wait upon Him to meet our need.

13:15Wait upon Him to heal our body. One of the most awesome lessons we learn in life is to learn to wait. And when you and I begin to look at the ways of God, oftentimes, many times, He's going to require us to wait. We don't like to wait. But is it not true that every time you and I have stepped ahead of Him, we had to say, oh, if I'd just waited. Oh, God, forgive me. If I'd just listened and if I'd just waited. When you learn to walk in His ways, what happens? Waiting is no longer a problem. Somehow, we seem to have the patience to wait because we know that this all-wise God has me waiting for a verse specific reason that's going to turn out for my good. And you see, when we get ahead of Him, what we do, we step out of His will. We're no longer in His way, but now we're having it our way because we have to have it now. Most of what we have to have now is probably not the will of God. One of those benefits, for example, is this. We begin to live by His guiding principles. Listen, not by our preferences.

14:17Well, here's what I want. And here's what I desire. Living by principle means I live by God's commands and rules. Listen, that are written for my benefit, for my good. If I live by preference, I can choose this today and one choose it tomorrow. If I live by His principles, there's just certain things we just avoid because if you know they're destructive. And so what happens? Likewise, here's what happens. When we learn His ways, His ways act as an anchor in the storm, in the difficulties, in the hardships, and the winds of adversity are just blowing against us. When you learn to walk in His ways, here's what happens. You just stable, solid, steadfast. They don't blow you off course. Sometimes you feel the heat, sometimes you feel the winds, and sometimes the flood waters look like that, just coming out upon you, but some have always stopped just in time. The ways of God are these awesome, exciting, listen. They involve these awesome, exciting works

15:19and thoughts of God in our life that transform everything about us. When you and I are walking in His ways, we can say, Lord, I don't like it, but since you're in control, I'm going to see what you do. Listen to me. You and I do not know, and we'll never know for eternity. How many things that blocked us in our plans that saved our life? We'll never know till we get on the other side, we get disappointed by somebody that hurts us so very, very, very deeply. And then we say, oh, oh God, now I see. Now I see what you're up to. Do you think we're going to laugh in heaven? Listen, we're going to really laugh in heaven. We look back and see, oh my goodness, Lord, how could I have missed that? Now I don't know what they need, that's the truth or not. But think about this. You're certainly not going to walk around with a frown on your face in heaven, amen?

16:19So what you're going to be doing? Smiling, laughing, rejoicing, and praising God you got there and at times you wondered about it. Why? Because you learned to walk in His ways. And the awesome love and devotion that God begins to pour into your life when you say, Lord, teach me your ways that I may walk in them. And I thought about this a lot of times. And I thought about this before I would say it and I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it. You can stack all the gold in the silver that there is in the earth, all of it, right then a pile. And then somebody says you can have that or you can understand the ways of God I'm here to tell you. I wouldn't even look in that direction. Because you know what? That's passing. That's passing. You know how wealthy you are? You know how rich you are when you begin to understand the ways of God and you're walking hand in hand, listen, heart into heart

17:19with the sovereign God of this universe and you're walking with Him. Can't buy it? On any condition, you just have to receive it as a gift. And when I think about all the benefits of walking in His ways, we wouldn't even have time to even begin to think about it, but I will say this. Your life begins to make a strong impact on the people around you. When they watch you walk in the ways of God and you go through suffering, they watch you walk in the ways of God when you go through persecution, they watch you walk in the ways of God when you have great needs that don't seem to be met. They watch you walk in the ways of God when your husband, your wife, walk away and lead you with two children to raise by yourself. And there's that strong, stalwart, strength, confidence, faith, assurance, dependence, relying upon the Holy Spirit of God to guide you awesome impact.

18:23In fact, listen carefully. All the words you would ever say to anyone about Jesus Christ and about God cannot match the impact of your life when everything around you is caved in and it just looks like nothing's going to happen. And on your face there's a smile. In your step, it's light. In your conversation there's a confidence. And in your heart there's a joy. Indescribable, the world can't, they don't know how to handle that. Here's what they always ask, how? Why? Two good questions because you see if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you get thrown off course. You don't have an anchor in your life. Let me ask you, sir, if you're not a believer, what is the anchor in your life? What keeps you steady?

19:23Strong, confident, assured, bold, but humble in spirit, trusting and secure. When everything around you falls apart, you don't have anything. And I simply want to say this, if you want to walk in the ways of God, here's the first step. You ask God to forgive you of your sins on this basis. That His Son, Jesus whom He sent, went to the cross, paid your sin that in full once and for all, and if you ask Him to forgive you of your sins, and trust Him as your personal Savior, accepting Him as your Savior, surrendering your life to Him. Here's what happens. It changes your eternal destiny, comes to live on the inside of you, and then you can begin this awesome, exciting, extravagant walk with Him,

20:24learning to walk in His ways. Listen carefully. Here's one of His simple ways that's to keep alive. Obey God, leave all the consequences to Him. Now you can't beat that. There's no offer by anyone to match that. Obey God, leave all the consequences to Him. The sovereign of the universe assumes full responsibility for your life. The moment you make a full surrender to Him, walking in His ways is the best way, the wisest way, the most profitable way. Therefore, they're worth learning, and that's my prayer for you that you will learn them, and walk in them. Father, how grateful we are. Your grace and love and mercy and forgiveness are beyond us, but we experience it, we understand. Thank you for reminding us in your word. You've arted plotted out the way.

21:24And as you say it, you see this most awesome path that you've laid out for each of us, that fits who we are, and how you've equipped us, and where you want us to go, what you want us to achieve in life. I pray the Spirit of God will draw each of us, deep in each of us, place a hunger in each of us, the yearning to know your ways, and to walk in them. Is my prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thanks for joining us on Entouch, the Teaching Ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. There are countless benefits to knowing God well. If your interest is peaked, you'll appreciate the upcoming programs in this series as we will continue hearing that the Lord is thoroughly reliable and completely trustworthy. You can study more about who God is, and what he's like at Entouch.org.

22:25And to listen again, click on the link to Today on Radio. If you'd like to order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, the best way, visit our online store. It's also included in his teaching set, the ways of God. Again, log on to Entouch.org, or call or text 1-800-Entouch. To write to us, address your letter to Entouch, post office box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Are you trying to live up to the world's standard of success? Reboot your mindset just ahead in today's moment with Charles Stanley. Trusting God each day can be a challenge, but working to grow that trust brings greater joy and peace than we could ever find on our own. Interesting God with today, the 365-day devotional from the teachings of Dr. Charles Stanley, we are encouraged to believe in God's love and rest in his purpose for us.

23:26Available now at Entouch.org slash today. Dr. Stanley devoted his entire life to help in us. Get closer to Jesus as we all want to do. And also discover all that he has for us. Help us to be fully prepared for God's purpose in our lives. So are you ready for the next step in your journey? It begins at the new Charles Stanley Institute. Bible-based, Christ-centered, Holy Spirit-filled instruction. So you can know God. You can learn how a Charles Stanley Institute.org. You're listening to Entouch. Popular media just might have more effect on you than you think. With a reminder for believers, here's a moment with Charles Stanley. When you and I learned the ways of God, we began to learn the way to succeed in life, no matter what's happening. And so when you look to say, well, in light of the Holy Scripture, what is success?

24:27And you look at God's Word and you find one thing, you look around. If you listen to the commercials, for example, if you read the biographies, or you read the articles about people who are so successful, isn't interesting how the world promotes these people. And then out there before too long, their life is a total disaster. Because you see, watch this. Believers can fall in the trap of believing that success is what the world says success is when the world has no comprehension of what true genuine success is all about from God's viewpoint. Living godly, walking in the ways of God, that's what success is all about because in the process of doing so, God has all kinds of ways of blessing us if we will just listen to him and walk in his ways. You can learn more about the ways of God at ntouch.org. And if you have a story about what you've learned through this program, please share it with us.

25:27Tomorrow on ntouch, has anyone ever broken a promise they made to you? You don't have to worry about that with God. Wednesday's program reminds us that God always keeps his word. I hope you'll join us then for ntouch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of ntouch ministries at Lanta, Georgia and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.