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.

rebuild and form a life of sustaining faith and intimacy with God. Begin your journey today. Mm hmm. In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley celebrating 45 years of God’s faithfulness. Next on in touch, God’s way is the best way 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 the will and the 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. 699 verses in the old testament have his name in it 79 verses in the new testament. And here is the 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 hearts 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 in the 11th verse, it came about in those days and 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’s. 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 to Hebrews were fighting with each other. And he said to the offender while 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 dollars 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 show 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. When whenever you and I began 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 listen. But human reason said deal with this. Human reason said, I’m not gonna tolerate him beating on my brother and so what did you 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. Rather listen, 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. 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 is not always the simplest way. It’s it’s sometimes it’s a painful way. Sometimes it it just runs against the grain. That’s not the way we think. That’s not the way we want to do it. We 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 is 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 the consequences I’ve suffered in my life. Some consequences going 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 consequences and how long the consequence goes on. Always best to do it. God’s way. Now, 40 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 don’t you think about something? What is the first prerequisite in doing anything? God’s way? The first pre record is this and that is to have an encounter with God through his son, jesus christ, whereby you confess your sins to him and acknowledged 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 substitution airy death. He, he died of 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 in dwelt 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. Now 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 is to learn how to listen to God. That’s a basic lesson 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 turned to the third chapter. If you will for a moment. And let’s look at the 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 is 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 wasn’t 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 in which you’re 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. But he was afraid to look at God. Now it was this encounter with God after 40 years isolated, hopelessly helplessly could do nothing to liberate his nation. 40 years on the backside of the desert. And now God comes to him. Why does God wait so long. Have you ever asked 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 The same number of times. You have not one single time. You can’t hurt him. You can’t rush him. You can’t irritate him. You can’t get him frustrated because he already has his schedule. And he knew that it listen, it took 40 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. 40 years in the backside of the desert now. He’s 80 years of age and God comes to him. And what happens? I love this passage of scripture because I think there’s so many truths wrapped up in simple verses. Look if you will for a moment back to the third chapter. Now he says he saw this, he saw this blazing fire and the Lord angel the Lord the Lord, jesus christ speaking to him. He looked and behold the bush was burning and this is 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, 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! Absolutely foolish to be so busy. We can’t listen to God. How many times has God wanted to say something, but he’s 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 going to force his way most of the time. Once in a while he will most of the time he wants. So now watch what happens when you think about this? He acted, first of all, on the basis of a divine command, not his impulse. The second thing is this, He proceed listened. 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 you hear some theologian or some liberals 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 I think about, poor soul, it doesn’t make any difference whether the wind blew or God put a liberal hand down that 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 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 a 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? 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 his, I’ll send your brother with you. He will 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 sell 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 only provide a brother, but he provided the most awesome Listen to the most awesome array of natural phenomenon. All the things that happened naturally from the river turned into blood. And as if fire and brimstone came down from heaven, God listened. 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, you listen say amen. If you 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 going to happen. He has already, he has already declared. And by his own omnipotence, he has already for done in his mind, the end result of our actions when we obey him, we don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen. He’s taking 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 supposing 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 for thinking full ordination, a predestination, whatever. It’s all forehand with God, he knows what’s gonna happen. Four 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 if we’re not, if it’s just our own we we know in our heart it’s gonna work out, we know God’s going to 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. And 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 and the protection of Godless and the resources. 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’m not giving you the spirit of Fear but the power 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 41. 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 don’t don’t anxiously look about you. That’s 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 have to focus our attention upon Almighty God, If my attention is on him, I’m not gonna be looking at the circumstances. That’s why he’s setting that passage. Don’t 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 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, we’ll just go to school. If you ask God to show you what the hell, 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 in his way and we’re doing it his way. We were going to 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 eyes. 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 of two may seem to be very fearful. On the 3rd step of the 4th step. Or we get out here trusting God and then God may say now I want 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 does he say? I have my eye upon you. What do you say in Isaiah, he said, You don’t need to be afraid. I am with you. Don’t be anxious to 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 40 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 are saved, you better put them up because you’ve had more than you’ve had More than one chance. Mhm. 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 and listen God’s goodness and love and mercy. We learned 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 what happened when God got into a stick? He learned what would happen when God rained down foreign judgment. He he learned what God would do. He he learned the ways of God. How many times have I said this to you? The 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 we want to learn? The ways of God? The greatest wisdom there is is the wisdom to know the ways of God and he was learning the ways of God. And when you know, I obey him, we do it his way. We’re gonna we’re gonna learn his ways. The next thing I want 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. I’ve said that in a different way before, but I want to make that point, he can use us and 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 there. He uses us and our weaknesses and our frailties. Listen, he went before pharaoh, a very weak man. I couldn’t talk stick in his hand and requiring demanding are the strongest man on the planet at that time, no doubt, and the most 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? How long would it have taken moses to liberate the nation of Israel, the hebrew Children If he did it his way. If he just 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, sword, spear, shield, cherry tears cut them up. Just cut them 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. Can take no credit, no Gloria when we do it, God’s way he gets the credit and the glory for now let’s think about it since God has a will for your life and a plan for your life and the purpose of 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 a difference who you are, how much you’ve sent in the past, It doesn’t make any sense. What’s going on in your life? What’s your circumstance what you have to face? The ultimate question is this, am I going to be wise enough to do it? God’s way? I’m gonna listen to him. I’m gonna wait upon him. I’m going to 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 their 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 wants 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, to 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 stretch 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.