January 18, 2026
• Rev. Dr. Rob Fuquay
St. Luke’s UMC
January 18, 2026
New Year Series(2)
Pursuing God’s Will Together
Basic Beliefs Impacting Discernment
1 Corinthians 2:11-12; 1 John 4:10-12; Matthew 12:50
Many years ago a man in my church, who had recently retired, had a psychotic breakdown. The first public manifestation came at a men’s gathering. He stood up in the middle of the meeting and started declaring that the leader had been engaging in very sinful behaviors. And he started naming with explicit clarity what those behaviors were. The leader just looked on dumbfounded and embarrassed. Of course, none of these things had taken place, but here he was standing before a room full of guys with a respected member of the church accusing him in a loud and angry fashion.
After a few moments I could tell something was very wrong with this man, someone I had always known as easy-going and happy. When I gently touched his shoulder and suggested we go outside. He jerked my arm off of him and said, “Look, I’m trying to help you get this church straightened out.” Several of us finally persuaded the man to go outside where he just went to his truck and drove home.
The event definitely changed the mood of the gathering, but on the positive side, it did increase attendance for several months! However during that time we watched as similar events took place at church and in the community in which this man had outbursts. It appeared that when he saw someone, deranged ideas would come to him he believed were true. More concerning though was his belief that God was giving him these insights and telling him what to do about them.
One weekday he came by the office to see me. He wanted to speak in the service coming up. I tried to talk him down and find out more about why he felt this need. All he said was, “God told me its time to sort things out!” and he left.
Probably the angriest Susan has ever been at me over a ministry matter was that day, because I went to visit him knowing he possessed quite a cache of weapons. She said, “If you leave me to raise these children on my own you’re gonna pay!” Whatever that meant.
The visit went well fortunately, but what was clear was that this man was not well. We talked his wife into having him committed, and that was my first foray into the way our society handles mental health. I was called as a witness to a trial at the state mental hospital. Lawyers grilled me with questions like, “Did he say he was bringing a weapon to the church to hurt people.” When I couldn’t confirm those actual words, they proved that he should not be treated against his will and was released.
As it turns out, I learned that because of physiological changes, particularly in men at this age, can trigger chemical reactions that contribute to a psychosis. All we could do as a church is issue a restraining order not allowing him on the property. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done in ministry. Saying to someone they can’t come to the church. But a psychological imbalance that causes a belief that God is telling you to sort out right from wrong is a scary thing.
I bring this up today because I recognize that when we talk about doing God’s will, those words quickly get tangled up with all kinds of human actions, many that are harmful and evil. Just this week we learned that Stephen Spencer Pittman, a 19 year-0ld who set fire to the oldest synagogue in Mississippi last Saturday, is a devoted Christian who felt he was somehow doing God’s will. When read his rights he declared, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”
Naturally, when we hear the words, “doing God’s will,” some warnings sound within us. What distinguishes between sound spiritual discernment and psychologically troubled thoughts?
For one, authentic spiritual discernment stands up to multiple evaluations: scripture, reflection, and affirmation by others. Even Moses who had one of the all-time significant calls of God to do something irrational, tell Pharaoh to let his people go, first had to go to the elders of Israel and share his call with them so they could affirm and support it. So when someone declares to know God’s will but it doesn’t have scriptural warrant and hasn’t been affirmed by others, there is reason to pause.
But another key distinguishing feature of knowing God’s will, and this is the focus on this sermon, is the beliefs about God that shaped our discernment. What we believe about God is critical to discerning what God tells us to do. So using some of the teaching shared by Ruth Haly Barton in her book, Pursuing God’s Will Together, I want us to consider 4 Foundational Beliefs that Impact how we understand God’s will.
1—God is Revelational. God is self-revealing and desires to be known. In the Garden of Eden, God comes seeking Adam and Eve, but, instead, they are the ones hiding from God! It isn’t God hiding from humans but the other way around. God goes on to make Himself known to Abraham, then later to Moses. God is revealed through the prophets. God is revealed in Jesus, then God reveals His plans and purposes through the apostles and the church.
Paul said in First Corinthians, “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (2:12). This means God gives us a device for hearing from God, God’s Spirit. We have that, and God’s Spirit allows us to receive God’s direction.
Susan uses this app on her phone that shows where all of the family is located. At any moment she can find where we are. Personally I find it kind of creepy, but one time several years ago, I was driving back from a conference in St. Louis and I had her dad with me. We were talking and I wasn’t paying attention so well and missed the turn for I-70. Suddenly I got a call from Susan. She asked, “Where are you going?” I said, we are on the way home. She said, “Well actually you are headed to Springfield!”
I hate to admit it. It came in handy. God’s Spirit is like “Find My People” app. As we use it, and tune into it, we receive God’s direction. Between God and Susan it becomes hard to go wrong.
If you watched the movie Ray, about Ray Charles, you might remember this scene…
I like how she’s in a posture of prayer in that scene. Discernment is like that, having to shut off our usual way of perceiving things, to perceive something deeper, but the key is believing the hummingbird is there.
In the next couple weeks we will look closer at the practices that help us hear from God, but for now, let’s understand that believing God is there, God is speaking, God is revealing, is foundational to discernment.
Another important belief is that God is Good; that goodness defines the character of God. But that is not an easy belief. Ruth Haley Barton says in her book Pursuing God’s Will Together, “Many of us don’t believe in God’s goodness enough to trust God with the things that are most important to us. We may have suffered things for which we subtly blame God. Perhaps God disappointed us when we trusted Him with something important…How can we give ourselves to someone we’re not sure will be good to us?” (p55)
I think of the man I mentioned in the start of the sermon. I learned when during that time of his psychosis, that years before, he had a seven year old daughter who became ill and died. I wondered if that experience formed something in his subconscious that came out all those years later. Something that questioned the goodness of God, something that with physiological changes, came out as a belief that God was directing him to do something that wasn’t good.
But I also know other people, people who have faced similar tragedies for whom their faith gave them strength. People who believe that even in the face of tragedy God is still good. I think of Adolf and Naomi Hansen in our church. Years ago they suffered the death of a daughter who was hit by a bus in downtown Indianapolis. It was terrible, but them the belief in the goodness of God was not just something Adolf taught in seminaries. He and Naomi believed this and held onto it. At my installation service after coming to St. Luke’s as pastor Adolf gave me this framed picture. He gave similar ones to all other pastors at St. Luke’s. It is Romans 8:28, translated in the truest way which Adolf knows from his Greek:
There’s no way to do adequately address right now the question of why God allows suffering and evil, but what we know is a consistent message in scripture that pain and the belief in God’s goodness can coexist. Jeremiah, speaking to Israelites being led away as prisoners of war, shared what he believed was God’s message to them,“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Believing in the goodness of God means believing God has something good to show us..
A third belief: Love is Our Ultimate Call. Sometimes we treat God’s will like a treasure map; that there is some ultimate outline of steps and decisions that lead to a trove of answers we need, and we forget that the way we live is as much a part of God’s will as the objectives we complete.
Again, Ruth Haley Barton observes,
“Many aspects of God’s will are already clear to us: we are to love one another, to seek unity with one another, tell each other the truth, value each other’s gifts and contributions, be kind and treat each other with honor and respect…If in a discernment process, we come to a decision on an important issue but have disregarded the mind and heart of Christ regarding how we treat one another, have we truly discerned the will of God? On any day, before we ask for further revelation, our commitment is to the basic will of God as it has already been revealed. Given the divisions and factions we see in churches and Christian organizations today, this aspect of the will of God cannot be emphasized enough.”
When wrestling with what God’s will in a situation, especially ones that involve or affect other people, we can never go wrong in the discernment process by asking, What does love look like in this situation?
One last belief: As we do God’s will, we experience God’s presence. Believing that is important. At the end of the day, discernment is not just for receiving God’s insight. It’s for more than just a decision that will benefit us. It comes down to understanding what it is God wants us to do. And the doing nearly always has a connection to people we can help. And sometimes the confirmation we seek that we discerned something correctly happens as we obey.
Robin Chaddock attends St. Luke’s. After the first week of this series when we talked about Perception, she shared a story with me. Following her retirement from Ivy Tech, she was asked to teach in a program supported by Ivy Tech, the Hamilton County Jail and organization called Invest Hamilton County, non-profit that helps people in jail prepare be able to find employment when they are released. Robin says she felt a sense of call about doing this, but also some trepidation.
Nonetheless, she followed her call instinct. There are numerous teachers in the program. Many of the classes deal with life skills like literacy, parenting, finance, so on. Robin’s class was on soft skills, developing emotional intelligence, understanding yourself, being able to rewrite the script of your life.
She said in her first four weeks, there was one man who clearly was unhappy. Angry. You could see it on his face. He didn’t want to be there. But on the 5th week he shows up smiling. That caught Robin’s attention. When the class ended she gathered her things and walked toward the security door for the guard to buzz her through. This man followed her. He said, “I just want to tell you that the guys all agree that your class is our favorite.” She said, “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that. That means a lot.”
Then he said, “The reason we feel that way is that you look at us when you teach. You see us.” She walked to the car with a rush of gratitude that she had obeyed that leading. And then when she got in the car, as if she needed any further confirmation she started laughing, recalling that his name is Jesus.” As if she needed any further confirmation.
So let’s rehearse them again. Four foundational beliefs that are important to spiritual discernment:
· God is Revelational
· God is Good
· Love is Our Ultimate Call
· We Experience God’s Presence as We Do God’s Will
Let us pray…