(Sue is Thornleigh's Church Pastor)

Walking with God (Part B)

 
Those of you who were here a fortnight ago may remember that we started a three part sermon series on walking with God. If you can remember that, you may also remember me asking if you've ever wanted to walk with God like one of the great men and women of faith? If you've ever wanted to encounter God like you might a father or a friend? If you even believe it's possible?

For those who weren't here, I went on to share something of my own walk with God over the last twenty something years (which makes me sound rather old!) and why I now live to inspire others to also surrender their all to Jesus. I spoke of my coming to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge and my hope that we might all come to this place. (Ephesians 3:19)

The big question we asked last time was, "What does it take?" What does it take to have a dynamic personal relationship with God? What does it take to move beyond static, lethargic and stuck?

From my limited experience, I suggested it takes a few things but the one thing I wanted us to focus on because it's the one thing I believe all the other things hang upon, is faith. To have an alive, full of life, vibrant and transforming relationship with God, I believe we first and foremost need faith and the first reason is to believe God truly wants to have a living relationship with us. Unless we believe God truly wants to walk and talk with us like He did the great men and women of faith, unless we believe God truly wants to interact with us, the truth is we will never know God. We may know about God from what we read or what others say, but we will never personally know God which is the very Jesus Christ tells us He came to this earth! (John 17:3)

Where my sermon ended last time was with the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman; the woman who had had five husbands and the man she was with at the time wasn't even her husband. As I said, this story illustrates the difference between 4 ways people approach their relationships with God.(1) Unlike The Impersonal Approach which sees people focusing more on the teachings of the Bible than on the One the Bible points toward; unlike The Bible and the Bible Alone Approach which says God rarely if ever needs to speak today; unlike The Experiential Approach which sees no need for the Bible; The Relational Approach that Jesus took with the Samaritan woman illustrates exactly what will happen when we enter into relationship with God. When we enter into relationship with God, it is God who personally applies His Word or the Bible to our lives and in a way that transforms us! Just like God spoke to the Samaritan woman through Jesus and changed her life forever, so too God now wants to speak to us through the Holy Spirit and change our lives forever but I need to tell you this morning that the Holy Spirit is not a given.

"Christ has promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church," it says in The Desire of Ages,(2) and the promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples. But like every other promise it is given on conditions. There are many who believe and profess to claim the Lord's promise; they talk about Christ and about the Holy Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by divine agencies. We cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit God works in His people 'to will and to do of His good pleasure.' Phil. 2:13. But many will not submit to this. They want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift. Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. The power of God awaits their demand and reception. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive."

I cannot overestimate the importance of this teaching. To receive the Holy Spirit, to have the Holy Spirit personally apply God's Word to our lives in a way that transforms us, in a way that changes us, we will need to be surrendered; to let God guide and control our lives. To have a living relationship with God, we will need to wait humbly upon Him, to watch for His guidance and grace. And that brings me to a second reason I believe we will need faith if we want to have a dynamic personal relationship with God.

2. If we want to have a dynamic personal relationship with God; if we want to have an alive, full of life, vibrant and transforming relationship with God, we will need faith to trust God because unless we can trust God, we will not obey Him, and unless we obey Him, we will not come to know Him.

Let me unpack this concept using a story from the life of Abraham (Genesis 22:1-14). As with all the great men and women of faith, I believe Abraham's dynamic relationship with God resulted from his obeying God which could only come about because he trusted Him. Take the classic story of Abraham offering Isaac as a sacrifice. Before God provided the ram for Abraham to sacrifice, we know Abraham already trusted God would provide, because that's what he told Isaac. "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son," it says in Genesis 22:8. How did Abraham know God would provide? Probably because he'd already experienced God's providence and because he'd heard stories about other times God had provided for His people, like the story of Noah and the flood for example.

But what happens when Abraham now binds up his son and lays him on the altar, on top of the wood, and reaches out his hand and takes the knife? (Genesis 22:9-10) Abraham experiences God's providence afresh, right? He has yet another encounter with God. Why? Because he is obeying God. And how? Because He trusts God. Can you see how it is as Abraham's obeys God that he moves from knowing God will provide to experiencing God as his Provider. Can you see how it is as Abraham trusts and obeys God that he moves from knowing about God to personally knowing Him?

Of course we are talking about the faith of a man here, who has been walking with God for 137 years! The faith of a man who was promised at 75 that he would father a great nation and who miraculously saw the fulfillment of that promise when he was "as good as dead," Hebrews 11:12 tells us. Let me assure you that this story is not meant to illustrate the kind of things God will ask us to do when we initially put our trust in Him. It simply illustrates that it is as we trust and obey God that we come to know Him. It is as we trust and obey God that our relationship comes to life!

This is what the story of Moses, another great man of faith, also teaches us. When God called Moses into leadership from the burning bush, he was already an older man, we are told; about 80 years of age. (Acts 7:23, 30) We can presume Moses was a man of God at this time, and we could even speculate that he was on his way to Mt Horeb to worship God when God called him,(3) but Moses' reaction to God's calling that day was the same as ours might be today:

Exodus 3:11, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

Exodus 3:13, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?"

Exodus 4:1, "But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, 'The Lord did not appear to you.'"

Exodus 4:10, "Oh my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

Exodus 4:13, "Oh my Lord, please send someone else."

When God called Moses from the burning bush, Moses has a crisis of faith and we can expect that. (4) When God calls us to obey Him, I believe we can expect to have a crisis of faith because I believe God calls us to do things we know we can't do on our own, just so we have to depend on Him, so we can get to know Him.

What Moses had to decide at this point was what He truly believed about God and this is what we will have to decide every time God calls us to obey Him.(5) Do we really believe God is all powerful? That He can and will do whatever He's telling us He wants to do in and through us? Do we really believe God is all knowing/all wise? That He can see the future and that He does know what's best for us? Do we really believe God is all loving? That by His very nature God is love which means it's impossible for Him to ask us to do anything that isn't an expression of His incredible love for us?

As Moses offered his objections to God one by one, God responded to each objection until Moses was finally convinced that God is all powerful, that He is all knowing and all loving. And Moses was so convinced that he was willing to leave behind everything he had to follow Him. "Go back to Egypt," God said. So Moses went home, packed up his wife and kids, put them on a donkey and set out for Egypt. (Exodus 4:19)

That was step number one. And Moses did it without a hiccup. In fact he also completed step number two which was to meet with the Israelites and step number three which was to meet with Pharaoh, all without any recorded hitches. Where things get sticky again is when Pharaoh responds harshly to God's request to let His people go and the Israelites become distressed. "O Lord," Moses cries out to God, "why have you mistreated this people? Why did you ever send me?" (Exodus 5:22).

God's response is gracious. Yet again we find Him patiently convincing Moses of His power, knowledge and love. "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh," He said, "Indeed by a mighty hand he will let them go; by a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land . . . Say therefore to the Israelites, 'I am the Lord, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (Exodus 6:1-8).

Unfortunately the Israelites weren't as easily convinced as Moses was this time and because they wouldn't listen to Moses, Moses objected to the next step in God's plan which was to go back to Pharaoh. "The Israelites have not listened to me," he said, "how then shall Pharaoh listen to me, poor speaker that I am?"

As the story continues we find that Moses goes from strength to strength and sometimes not J as Israel's leader. Many passages throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy all reveal examples of Moses' obedience and His growing confidence in God which could never have happened had he not put His trust in God at the burning bush and obeyed Him. (6) Had Moses never decided to trust God enough to leave his job and his in-laws, he would never have been involved in delivering the children of Israel from Pharaoh's army, helping them cross the Red Sea on dry land, providing water for them from a rock or giving them bread and meat. For Moses to have the kind of walk with God that we might now want to have, he had to start by surrendering what he had at that point and this is what we will also have to do.

Those of you who came to my Commissioning Service in February already know that I never chose to be a pastor. I was only about 14 years old when I first sensed God was calling me to some form of ministry and at that point, I'd never even heard of, let alone known a woman in pastoral ministry. As the shyest little kid and teenager, I not only had little to no encouragement because of my gender, I also had little to no encouragement because of my temperament. In fact, my dad was pretty much the only person who ever encouraged me to pursue ministry and not because he believed that was actually what God was calling me to but simply because he wanted to encourage me to do whatever I believed God was calling me to.

Needless to say it took me a long time to warm up to the idea of being a pastor but after four years in team ministry I thought I'd finally worked out where I could fit in pastoral ministry when God called me to be the sole church pastor of Chatswood. I think I told you in my very first sermon here this year that I would never have accepted that call had not God directly convicted me. I'd already been asked if I was interested in the position at Chatswood Church and I wasn't but a few days later God impressed me that I would still be called to Chatswood Church but I needn't be afraid because He would be my Senior Pastor and I, His assistant.

At that point I had to decide what I believed about God. Did I believe He was all powerful? Did I believe He was all knowing. Did I believe He was all loving? That I could trust Him?!

Had I not obeyed God 6 ½ years ago and moved from my ocean views apartment in Kingscliff to suburban life in Sydney, I would not have come to know God as my Senior Pastor. I would not have the kind of stories to share like the one I shared a fortnight ago about the pews at Chatswood Church. I would not have experienced God's profound guidance and protection and love in the way I have. Sure I would know God guides and protects and loves because that's what I read in the Bible every day, but I would not have come to know God personally as my Guide, my Protector and the Lover of my soul.

Want to have a dynamic personal relationship with God? Want to walk with God like Abraham or Moses, Mary or Paul? The answer isn't in a technique or in a formula. It's in 1. Believing God truly wants to walk and talk with us, and 2. Trusting that He is able and will do whatever He calls us to do so we can obey Him.

I want to read you another quote from The Desire of Ages. (7) This quote not only affirms that God wants to walk and talk with us, that He wants to interact with us. It also tells us what will happen if we choose to surrender our all and obey Him and what happens is we will receive His strength to obey . . .

". . . we are not to place the place the responsibility of our duty upon others, and wait for them to tell us what to do. We cannot depend for counsel upon humanity. The Lord will teach us our duty just as willingly as He will teach somebody else. If we come to him in faith, He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Our hearts will burn within us as One draws nigh to commune with us as He did with Enoch. Those who decide to do nothing in any line that will displease God, will know, after presenting their case before Him, just what course to pursue. And they will receive not only wisdom, but strength. Power for obedience, for service will be imparted to them, as Christ has promised. Whatever was given to Christ - the "all things" to supply the need of fallen man - was given to Him as the head and representative of humanity . . ."

Those who decide to do nothing in any line that will displease God "will receive not only wisdom, but strength. Power for obedience . . . as Christ has promised."

Want to walk with God like the great men and women of faith? Start with me today by faithfully obeying God in the little things. It is as we obey God in the little things, the parable of the talents teaches us, that God calls us to obey Him in bigger things. Surrender your fears to Jesus today; your pride, greed, worldly distractions, success. Come to Jesus and receive His forgiveness, mercy and grace.

My prayer this morning is that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses and Aaron, the God of the woman at the well, will speak to us through His Holy Spirit and will transform our lives in such a way that not only us but also those around us will come to believe that the very reason Jesus came to this earth is so we can be in a living relationship with Him!

References

(1)  Blackaby, Henry and Richard. Hearing God's Voice, (Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2002).
(2)  White, Ellen G. The Desire of Ages, (Pacific Press, 1898).
(3)  Blackaby, Henry and King, Claude V. Experiencing God, (Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1994).
(4)  Ibid.
(5)  Ibid.
(6)  Ibid.
(7)  White, Ellen G. The Desire of Ages, (Pacific Press, 1898).

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