08.24.2008 Expect Barriers when Responding to God's Will

Expect Barriers When Responding to God

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08.24.2008 - Grace Summit Community Church Worship from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

Prepare our hearts for what you will do in us – may our lives be changed as a result of today. May Your word be lifted up and honored and spoken this morning.

Last week we talked about How God’s will can work in our lives. There are patterns in which God works. He is the same today, yesterday, and forever. When you look at how God worked in the past you can see how He can work in your life.

Last week I mentioned in passing that God still speaks today. That brings a number of questions – and I would like to answer and address how God still speaks today – but not today.

I have an assignment for each of you - over the next couple of weeks – write out a paragraph or two, max – and email gracesummit@sbcglobal.net – in how God has spoken to you. I’d really appreciate that – and it will help down the road.

I’d like to look at – when we respond to God’s work in our lives – what we find, you can expect to run into barriers in life. You can expect to be tested when you step out for God. We will look again at Abraham – and two areas in which we can expect to be tested.

That experience of getting all charged up – God working in us, the mountaintop – then, when we go out to accomplish that, we face the hard reality of what it is to fulfill God’s word. We are not ready for the barriers. We forget the mountaintop and move on.

That is what happened to Abraham. God said, Go to the land I will show you – and he got up and left everything – except Lot – and left.

Gen 12: 10 Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

The test of scarcity. When God tells us to do something, and we launch into it, we find we may have a lack of resources to accomplish what God calls us to do. You will discover that you don’t have the resources to accomplish what God wants you to accomplish.

We sing about Jehovah-Jireh – whatever that means. When you look at the characters in Scripture, they are always lacking something. With Abraham – who lived in Ur – what a city – like, they forgot letters – and Herron – it was along the Euphrates. It was very fertile. My parents live near a fertile valley – a very fertile area with great produce – when you get produce from California – with Salmonella – it comes from there… Just kidding.

Abraham lived in a very fertile area.

For us – you may have the talents and gifts – or the people, or the support and encouragement that you may end up lacking. I had been a Christian for 3 weeks when God called me to be a pastor and a preacher. There were a couple of problems – I was shy and timid and did not like standing in front of people! I had a complete lack of resources! I think God LOVES doing this! At first glance, it would look like – Wrong person for the job.

This church – we felt there was something we were lacking – we kept losing places to meet. We lacked the financial resources in which we could be in a stable location. When you meet 3 weeks in 3 different buildings – it is hard to keep the momentum going. We prayed and fasted and God provided a building – this church. It was a great miracle and we can look back on those times.

“God guides by what He DOESN’T provide”

We don’t think about that too often. We think when we don’t have something – that God would be closing things – but God is trying to show something through the lack of resources in our lives.

For our church right now – Space and accessibility is a limitation in our church. It is hard to know how to change this – it is not a simple solution. You can’t just put up a ramp – there are laws! But, you know, God guides by what He doesn’t provide- What is God trying to show us?

I want to give you an update – the church mortgage has been greatly reduced – and we’d really like to pay off when it comes up in November – it will free up a lot of things – if God lays it on your heart – Now would be a good time to consider giving to that.

Now. Abraham – gets a call, there is a famine – He runs into his first test – his response is not the best. He runs off to Egypt – what was missing? He didn’t pray. He didn’t seek God – he just acted. He left his home because God spoke to him. But then, instead of turning to God, he takes control of the situation himself. Just nine verses earlier, he left everything – and now, instead of acting in faith, he acts in fear. He takes matters into his own hands and takes control of what God wants to control in his life. He is like many of us – he has a control issue. Many of us have control issues in life. It counts with people and in our relationship with God.

There is the importance of letting God control in our lives – you have heard the phrase – Let go and let God. That does not mean to not be proactive or to act – but to leave to Him those things He wants to take responsibility for. We need to leave these things in God’s hands. He needs to surrender his will to God’s will. He does not want us to be passive – but to surrender.

Let’s look at Psalm 37 - Do not fret because of evildoers, - Fret – speaks of anxiety and fear. Fret – a habit of one’s life to be anxious and afraid.

Do not be envious because of wrongdoers – having a focus on others and the way that they live.

, Be not envious toward wrongdoers. 2 For they will wither quickly like the grass, And fade like the green herb. 3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. 6 And He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your judgment as the noonday. 7 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.

Wait patiently – Abraham did not do that – he acted immediately.

8. Cease from anger –

8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret, [it leads] only to evildoing

Eventually, we do the wrong thing. For Abraham, it was leaving.

“I lose control to get control!” When things get tough, we lose control, so we can control things. In this same passage, there are some positive things

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

Trust. Do good. Do what God has called you to do – then you learn to experience God’s faithfulness to you in that circumstance. There is a growing in our trust of God – we lack resources and move in the direction He wants us to move –and then after that – it causes our confidence to go up. If you never lack resources and try to do it in your own strength, that confidence can never grow.

Whenever we take control of what God wants to control, we lose an opportunity to experience God and grow in trust of Him.

This is what Abraham needed to hear – trust – commit – wait. From a practical sense – 6 things that suggest you have control issues –

1) Too rigid – find yourself unable to bend in life. Unable to change. Things have to be just so – in your faith, in your religious aspects of your life – That is an issue – that is not faithfulness, it is an issue. You find this in marriage – I was brought up one way and she was brought up another – and I think – this is how you do it – and she thinks – THAT – these are control issues – I’ve gotten over mine. (Laughter).

2) Demanding. Just demanding. We do that with God and with people. All of us have some control issues. We demand that God be a certain way in our lives, but then when He isn’t – Who are we to tell God how to be.

3) Perfectionism – there is a difference between this and working hard to do things well. But, when things are never right or good enough, there is a problem – especially when it is OTHERS don’t do things good enough.

4) Critical Spirit – Watching the Olympics and the announcers! Lay off a little bit! But we are that way, looking for things wrong with people or God. If you find something in every circumstance – guess who has the problem.

5) Over involved - Being involved in everything. Psalm 37 “I do not involve myself in matters that are too difficult for me” – I quiet my soul. We need to just quiet our souls.

Gen. 12: 11 And it came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; 12 and it will come about when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, 'This is his wife'; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 "Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you." 14 And it came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

What a nice husband – He takes his wife from her comfortable life – has no idea where he is going – then crafts this lie – and she becomes part of Pharaoh’s harem. When we take control of the things God wants to control – it snowballs. When, out of fear, we take control from God, fear takes control of us. He starts doing things we would never fathom doing!

16 Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels. 17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

What God is doing – even though Abraham was unfaithful, God was still faithful. We will all have times when we are not faithful, but God remains faithful to what He wants to do in our lives. He preserves and protects Abraham from his own mistakes. God still wants to accomplish His purpose in us. True – Abraham suffered the consequences of his actions. I won’t say what just came in to my mind. But it was really funny.

Gen 13:1 So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him; and Lot with him. 2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. 3 And he went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place of the altar, which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

When we take control where God wants to take control, we circle around back to where we started. We make no progress. The children of Israel – got to the Jordan river – God said Go, they said no, and they circled around for 40 years. We cannot set the issues aside. We must address them now. It is not going to change over time – the issue will remain – and God will bring you back to that issue.

For me – I’ve had to deal with conflict avoidance - God is continually running me into conflict people so I can learn to deal with my issue. I need to address it. The longer you wait, the more you’ll regret it. If your roof leaks – it doesn’t stop on its own – it just destroys more and more of the house. That is how life issues are – we understand it in the material world, but it is the same with our character and our following of God.

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