JER. 18:1-6

Introduce series on 'Experiencing God' and distribute booklets.

Who here enjoys making decisions? Who gets nervous about making right decisions?

Many of us balk at making major decisions. And I think this is because we know that some decisions we make are going to have life long ramifications for us and for others.

Back in 1979 I had to make a decision. I had been accepted for an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic in Sydney. It was a busy and well-respected workshop near a busy business centre - the choice was completing my High School education in grades 11 and 12 or taking on the apprenticeship. The apprenticeship would have kept me in Sydney. I would not have worked in the bush, I would not have gone to Cornerstone - a Bible college, as I would not have met them while out bush. I would not have moved to Queensland with Cornerstone to minister in country towns. I would not have moved to Brisbane. I would not have met Julie-Ann. I would not have joined a Baptist church while in Brisbane. I would not have commenced training at Bible College and then become a pastor. Which means I would not have become your pastor some years down the track - and I guess some of you might now be saying, "oh why then didn't you become a mechanic".

I didn't know back in 1979 that the decision not to take up the apprenticeship would have such a bearing on my life, but it did. Similarly, Julie-Ann and my decision to move from Caboolture to the Burdekin was a significant decision for our lives. At Caboolture Samuel was enrolled in a Christian school with a very good reputation, we had many good friends there, we enjoyed living where we lived and yet we sensed the Lord was saying we were to move on. Now some might say, "Gee that must have been a significant sacrifice" but I don’t think it is, simply because when we follow God's will our lives are so much richer for it. In other words, I believe that greater blessing comes in following God's will then trying to make choices related to our own comfort levels. The result of our move is that we love the Burdekin area more then we did Caboolture. We have already made a considerable number of good friends, and Samuel is attending a school that we are very happy with. You see, God takes care of His children, He knows our needs, all He desires is that we love and obey Him and He takes care of the rest.

Many people ask me, "how do I come to know God's will?" "What guide is there?" "How do I know when God directs me?"

The Bible is our guide, unfortunately, Christians are becoming more and more disoriented to the Bible as a guide for faith and practice. Blackaby and King say in the book 'Experiencing God' that because Christians have become disoriented to the Bible, they turn to wordly solutions, programs, and methods that appear to be the answer to spiritual problems." Some say it is not just practical to use the Bible as a guide, simply because they just want to base truth on personal experience. So, rather than listening to and obeying God, we try to use formulas that work instead to better our lives. What do I mean by this.

Well, when it comes to knowing God's will, some Christians have a belief that when God asks us to do something or commit ourselves to something, then He lays out all the plans on the table before we make any decision. This is a false belief. When we use Scripture to discern how God calls people out, we find that often He calls just for the availability of that person - the details come as that person walks with God - as what happened for me back in 1979 and when we moved from Caboolture to Ayr.

When God called Abram to leave his homeland in Genesis 12 Abram only knew the promises God gave - not the detail. Likewise, God called out Peter, Andrew, James, John, Matthew and Paul but detail was not given. They simply had to respond to God by faith. We find in Hebrews 12 the list of people who responded to God by faith - no matter what the circumstances.

Now, there are times God gives more details in Scripture relating to the call on a person life - but many times detail is not given to the person. So the lesson here is that if God calls you to something, don’t wait around until you get all the detail - He may want you to step out in faith.

You know, when people seek to know and do the will of God, many ask the question, "What is God's will for my life?" But folks, this is not the right question. The right question is "What is God's will?" Once I know God's will, then I can adjust my life to Him. In other words, I adjust myself to that which God is purposing where I am. Once I know what God is doing, then I know what I need to do. So the focus needs to be on God, not my life.

So what kind of model is there in Scripture that teaches us how to know and do the will of God? Well, there is no better model then Jesus Himself.

During His 33 years on earth Jesus perfectly completed every assignment God gave Him to do. He never once failed to do the will of the Father. He never sinned. Let's read John 5:17, 19-20 to find out how He went about discovering the Father's will.

So what was Jesus example?

• The Father is working right up until now
• The Father had Jesus working
• Jesus did nothing on His own initiative
• Jesus watched to see what the Father was doing
• Jesus did what He saw the Father was already doing
• The Father loved Jesus
• The Father showed Jesus everything that He, Himself, was doing.

So, this model is for us personally and for our church. But don't misunderstand this to be a step-by-step approach to knowing and doing the will of God. You see, this describes a love relationship through which God accomplishes His purposes. So the message is to watch and see where God is working and join with Him where He is working.

The fact is God is always at work around us. Right now, God is working all around you and me and in our lives. Blackaby and King wrote, "One of the greatest tragedies among God's people is that, while they have a deep longing to experience God, they are experiencing God day after day but do not know how to recognize Him." And that is the objective of this 9 week series, that by the end of the 9 weeks you will have learned many ways to recognize clearly the activity of God in and around your life. The Holy Spirit and the Word of God will instruct you and help you know when and where God is working. Once you know where He is working, you need to adjust your life to join Him where He is at work. But this can only come when you enter into the kind of loving and intimate relationship with God that he desires. He desires our whole heart, not half our hearts. And part of giving our whole hearts is learning what it means to be a servant of God.

Many passages of Scripture describe Jesus as God's servant. He came as a servant to accomplish God's will in bringing humanity back into a relationship with Him again.

Paul wrote in Phil. 2:5-8

Jesus' instructions to His disciples described His own role of service in Matt. 20:26-28

Jesus also told us about our relationship to Him in John 20:21, "As the father has sent me, I am sending you."

So based on these passages how would you define what a servant is?

Let's look at Jer. 18:1-6 to find out.

From this passage, how much can a servant do by him or her self? Nothing

When God works through a servant, how much can that servant do? Anthing

What are two things a servant must do to be used by God?

• Be moldable
• Remain in God's hands by obedience

So a servant is a person who is moldable and who remains in the Master's hands. It is then that the Master alone can use that instrument as He chooses. So the servant can not do anything of Kingdom value by his or her own strength, abilities or know-how. Jesus Himself said "Apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). But with God working through the servant, he or she can do anything with God. You see, the focus isn't what the servant does, but it is what God does with the servant.

Now, the world's definition of a servant is "one who finds out what his master wants him to do, and then does it." But God's definition has everything to do with relationship. That a servant is moldable and usable and God works with them to accomplish His will. Our Lord is about relationships, about partnerships in the Gospel - not one who just gives instructions expecting us to bend. But He can only work with a heart that is like the clay in the potters hand where the potter is entrusted to form that clay, that heart, as seems best to Him - not us. You see, God desires to work through His servants.

Moses is a great example of a servant of God whom God did his work through. And again, like Jesus, there is a certain pattern we can learn from as to how God works and reveals His will. On the back of your books you will see that pattern called the seven realities of Experiencing God. They go like this:

1. God is always at work around you.
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.
4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
5. God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.
7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you.

Now let's see how these seven realities worked in Moses' life.

1. God already was a t work around Moses.

Ex. 2:23-25

During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

 

2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with Moses that was real and personal.

God took the initiative to establish a love relationship with Moses at the burning bush. He promised Moses He would go with him to Egypt, and we find many examples throughout the second to fourth books of the Bible on how God pursued this love relationship with Moses. One example is in Exodus 24:12 , 15-16, 18 which says,

The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction." When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

3. God invited Moses to become involved with him in His work.

Exodus 3:8, 10

So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

4. God spoke to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways.

Exodus 3:2-8

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up." When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."

"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

 

5. God's invitation for Moses to work with him led to a crisis of belief that required faith and action.

Crisis of Belief:

Exodus 3:11, 13; 4:1, 10, 13

But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'?"

Moses said to the Lord, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."

But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

Faith and Action

Hebrews 11:24-29

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

 

6. Moses had to make major adjustments in his life to join God in what He was doing.

Exodus 4:19-20

Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead." So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

 

7. Moses came to know God by experience as he obeyed God and God accomplished His work through Moses.

There are many passages though out Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy that illustrate how God revealed Himself to Moses. It was as Moses obeyed, that God was then able to accomplish thorough Moses what Moses couldn’t do Himself.

I identify with this. It was Moses call that the Lord called me into pastoral ministry. I was no different to Moses with all the excuses as to why I was not the right person to do accomplish the tasks ahead. I told God that there was no possibility of me being a pastor, that I wasn't well educated, that I couldn't speak publicly, that I wouldn't be able to cope. But the point He was getting across to me was not me needing all the natural abilities and talents - it was simply obedience to God's will. The lesson I have learned is that it is not what I can or can't do for God, but it is what God wants to do through me to accomplish His will.

You see, the Lord calls out ordinary people like you and me. Peter and John were just fishermen, DL Moody, one of the great evangelist of last century was poorly educated, unordained, a shoe salesman who felt the call of God to preach the gospel. What God used to call Moody were the words of a preacher who said, "The world has yet to see what God can do with and f or and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to him." The rest is history.

Now, you might say to me, "Yes, but Scott, I'm not DL Moody" or "I'm not Peter or John or Paul". You miss the point. God doesn't want you to be any of them, he wants you to be who He created you to be, and to let Him do through you whatever He chooses. When you say you believe nothing significant can happen through you, you actually have said more about your belief in God than you have said about yourself. You have said that God is not capable of doing anything significant through you. The truth is He can do anything He wants to with an ordinary person who is fully consecrated to Him.

This sermon has been created and adapted from the book 'Experiencing God' by H.T.Blackaby and C.V.King by Pastor Scott Douglas for teaching in the Burdekin Baptist Church on 18^th April, 1999.