We have been in a series titled “Knowing and Experiencing God” because, truth be told, many times in our Christian life we are just going through the motions. Perhaps we go to church on Sunday, maybe we do our daily devotions (reading the Bible & praying), generally we try to be a good person, do the right thing. But if I were to ask if our Christian life is characterized by personal experiences with God, in other words tangible evidence of God’s work and presence in our life, what would we say? Are we experiencing God on a personal level? It’s like the talking with someone from Haiti about snow, they may believe in snow, they may have seen it in a picture or on a television, but never have actually experienced this kind of abundance of snow. They can understand it with their head, but they really don’t know what it is like to actually experience it. I think a lot of us face a similar dilemma, we believe in God but we’re not regularly experiencing him.
During the series I’ve been focusing on three possible obstacles that might be interfering with our ability to experience God working in our life: 1) We might have a relationship problem with God, we may not know God. Like Saul in the passage this morning he thought he knew God and was doing his will by persecuting Christians because he followed the traditions of his ancestors. But Paul didn’t really know God personally until Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. We were created for a loving friendship with God. This isn’t knowing about God, it is real and it is personal relationship with our heavenly Father. Would you say Jesus is like a best friend, or more like a distant cousin twice removed? We won’t experience God with a distant relationship like this.
2) We could have a hearing problem. Perhaps we don’t know how to listen to God’s voice, or God communicating his truth to us, or we aren’t spending the time we need to listen and be attentive to God’s work in our life or around us. If we are in relationship with God he is trying to tell us things he is trying to reveal the truth about himself and his ways, what he wants us to do.
God primarily “speaks” to us through our reading his Word, the Bible, prayer, circumstances (like coincidences and open and closed doors), and other Christian believers. God doesn’t communicate with us just to give us warm fuzzies. The purpose of sharing these truths is so that we will grow in our relationship with him (get to know God better), and follow his plan. In fact, when God reveals something to us, that is typically his invitation for us to join him in his work to get on board with God.
Lastly, which we’ve been looking at most recently is 3) we could have an obedience problem. When God speaks to our heart and shares with us what he wants us to do it is going to be a challenge and we are going to face a crisis. We have to decide, will I follow God or will I continue to do what I want to do? Choosing to follow God will require a step of faith because whatever God is directing me to do will generally be something so big I cannot do it on my own strength. It is something large enough that it requires God’s help. Obedience requires us to walk out in faith, trusting God even though we cannot imagine how God could make it work. Without the action, actually doing it there isn’t . As the Bible says, “Faith without action is dead (James 2:17.”
We Need to Obey God 100% to Experience His Powerful Work
When we do step out in faith, we need to make sure we are obeying God 100%. Our temptation is to only do what we think we can do on our own. God asks us to do what seems impossible to test our faith so we will experience his power working through our life. If we are only obedient to what we think we can do, in other words if we do the part we think we can do, we will not experience God’s hand at work.
Two weeks ago we looked at the story of Gideon and how God told Gideon to gather an army to defeat an invading army of 135,000. Gideon gathered 35,000 men, but God felt that was too many so he whittled Gideon’s army down to only 300 men, against over 135,000. Why? So they would experience God as their Deliverer and not think they did it themselves. What would have happened if Gideon was only obedient enough to raise an army of 35,000 and then go into battle because he didn’t have faith that God would allow only 300 to win the battle? They probably would have lost the battle, but even if they won, they would not have personally experienced God working in their situation. They would have thought they did it themselves.
How might this work in our life? Let’s say God speaks to your heart that you need to forgive someone, but you are still mad at that person and it seems impossible to forgive them. Because of your strong negative feelings toward that person, rather than forgive them you decide to compromise with God and just avoid them so as to reduce any conflict between the two of you. That’s a good first step but it isn’t what God asked you to do. He asked you to forgive. Or perhaps God convicts your heart that he wants you to tithe back to him 10% of your income, but you look in your checkbook, your bills, and your spending patterns and you know that it’s impossible. So instead you decide to move up from giving 2% to 4% because it might be a stretch but it should be doable. Again this is good progress, but it isn’t what God told you to do.
The problem with these examples is that we are not really stepping out in faith and obeying God 100%. We are only doing what we think we can do, rather than trusting God to do the impossible. And because we don’t obey completely, we don’t experience God’s power. We don’t experience his miraculous love overshadow us and allow us to forgive an enemy, we don’t experience God miraculously providing for our needs. And then we wonder, why we don’t experience God, and it’s simply a matter of obedience and faith.
It is equally true with the church as it is with individuals. When we don’t listen to God and/or step out in faith and do what seems impossible, we don’t experience God’s power. It’s just business as usual, no faith required. We do what we think we can do. Rather than praying and asking what God wants us to do, we look at our budget and say this must be all God wants us to do because it is all we can afford. We shouldn’t wonder why people in the community are not drawn here, it’s because they don’t see God at work, they don’t see or hear of things which can only be explained by God’s miraculous work. They just see people who are busy being faithful to their religious beliefs, rather than seeing and being drawn by the power of God.
Obedience Requires Us to Make Major Adjustments
If we choose to step out in faith and obedience it will also require us to make major adjustments in our life. Henry Blackaby writes, “Every time God spoke to people in the Scripture about something he wanted to do through them, major adjustments were necessary.”
The Bible gives numerous examples of people having to make adjustments to join God in his work. In our Scripture passage this morning a man named Saul had been persecuting Christians, “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” Saul thought he was doing God a favor by persecuting Christians because in his mind they were working against God. However as Saul was on the road to Damascus to throw more Christians into prison, Jesus appeared to him in a bright light and said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul had a decision to make, was he willing to readjust his thinking, in fact his entire life mission at that point and believe Jesus really was the divine Son of God, that he truly had risen from the dead? Was he going to admit he was wrong about Jesus? (We all know how hard it is for some men to admit they were wrong.) Would Saul repent of his work in persecuting Christians? Saul had to make major adjustments in his life if he was going to get on board with God.
When God spoke to Abram (later to be named Abraham), he invited him to come to a land he would show him, and if he did he promised to make him into a great nation. Abram had to make major adjustments to follow God. He had to leave his extended family and his home to go wherever God directed. When God spoke to Moses from a burning bush asking him to deliver his people from Egypt, Moses couldn’t stay in the desert and go save his people from slavery in Egypt at the same time. He needed to make a major adjustment in his life. When Jesus invited Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow him, they had a choice to make, would they leave their fishing profession and their families to follow Jesus? The gospel accounts tell us, “At once they left their nets and followed him (Matthew 4:20).” We have to realize the adjustments they made to follow Jesus weren’t just a one time this, they were ongoing.
We can see that enormous adjustments which had to be made by people in the Bible when God spoke to them! “Some had to leave family and country. Others had to drop prejudices, and change preferences. Others had to leave behind life goals, ideals, and desires. Everything had to be yielded to God and their entire life adjusted to Him.” The truth is we all have “nets” to drop and leave behind if we are going to follow Jesus where he is leading us. We have to lay them down and let God make the adjustments.
Adjustments are difficult because adjustments mean change and nobody likes to change, yet God needs for us to be willing to make adjustments in order to join him in what he is doing, or what he is about to do. We cannot remain the same person we are now and accomplish God’s next assignment at the same time. Doing what God reveals will cost you something. However what we gain will always outweigh whatever we lose.
Kinds of Adjustments
What kinds of adjustments are we talking about that we may need to make to join God [have them write these down]? They could be an adjustment in our…
• Beliefs (about God, his promises, his ways, our relationship to Him)
• Relationships (how we view a relationship, time we spend in a relationship - family, friends, coworkers, business associates)
• Thinking (how we think, or what we think about such as a prejudice, worry-anxiety, anger, bitterness, jealousy )
• Behavior (lying, gossip, cheating, )
• Priorities and Commitments (with respect to family, church, job, leisure activities such as hobbies or sports,)
“I have known some people who wouldn’t interrupt a fishing trip or a football game for anything in the world. In their mind they say they want to serve God, but they keep eliminating from their life anything that is going to interfere with their own plans.”
Henry Blackaby
• Financial (the way we earn, give, save, or spend money)
• Change of location (my own move to Kentucky)
• Goals, desires, or dreams
Conclusion:
What adjustments might you need to make in order to be obedient to God? Or perhaps another way of saying it, is there a net(s) you need to drop? The Good News is that if we are willing to step out in faith and make those adjustments God will honor that and bless that decision.
