THE WORD

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THE WORD

Al

The Preaching Ministry of Ashley River Baptist Church

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Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God Reality 5: God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action. Crisis: “decision” or “judgment”. Crisis of belief is a turning point or a fork in the road that demands that you make a decision. You must decide what you believe about God. How you respond when you reach this turning point is KEY and will determine whether you go on to be involved with God in something God-sized that only He can do or whether you will continue to go your own way and miss what God has purposed for your life. ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD REQUIRE FAITH: God is interested in your walking with Him by faith. (Hebrews 11:1, 2 Corinthians 5:7, John 14:12, Matthew 17:20, 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, Isaiah 7:9). Faith is confidence that what God has promised or said will come to pass. Sight is an opposite of faith. Faith must be in a Person—God. SOMETHING ONLY GOD CAN DO: When God lets you know what He wants to do through you, it will be something only God can do. OBEDIENCE SHOWS FAITH: Obedience indicates faith in God. Disobedience often indicates a lack of faith. Without faith, a person cannot please God. (Mark 10:27) ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD ARE GOD-SIZED: Whenever God involves you in His activity, the assignment will have God-like dimensions to it. If the assignment you sense God is giving you is something that you know you can handle, you may conclude it probably is NOT from God. When the world sees something that only God can do, they come to know God. PEOPLE COME TO KNOW GOD: God wants people to come to know Him. That is why He chooses to work through us. People know us and what we can do. When they see things happen that can only be explained by God’s involvement, they will come to know Him. What our world often sees are devoted, committed Christians serving God. But they are not seeing God. They do not see anything happening that can only be explained in terms of the activity of God. Why? We are not attempting anything that only God can do. Let the world see God at work, and He will attract people to Himself.

The world comes to know God when they see God’s nature expressed through His activity. God is far more interested in your having an experience with Him than He is interested in getting a job done. You can complete a job and never experience God at all. WHAT YOU DO TELLS WHAT YOU BELIEVE: When God speaks to a person, revealing His plans and purposes it will always cause a crisis of belief. What you believe about God will determine what you do and how you live. What you do reveals what you believe about God, regardless of what you say. ACTIONS SPEAK: Your actions speak louder than your words. (Matt 8:5-13, 9:27-31). What you do, rather than what you say you believe, reveals what you really believe about God. TRUE FAITH REQUIRES ACTION: When you face a crisis of belief, what you do demonstrates what you believe. (James 2:26) RESULTS: Faith is not always measured by the apparent results. A faithful life does not always yield the same results. (Hebrews 11:33-40) The outward appearance of success does not always indicate the presence of faith, and the outward appearance of failure does not always indicate the absence of faith. A faithful servant is one who does what his Master tells him, whatever the outcome may be. Do not grow weary in being faithful. A reward is awaiting faithful servants. SUMMARY When God invites you to be involved with Him, He is wanting to reveal Himself to you and to a watching world. Therefore, He will ask you to be involved with Him in a Godsized assignment. When you are confronted with such a great assignment, you will face a crisis of belief. You will have to decide what you really believe about the God who called you. How you respond to God will reveal what you believe regardless of what you say. Following God will require faith and action. Without faith, you will not be able to please God. When you act in faith, God is pleased. MY SURRENDER AMIDST A CRISIS OF BELIEF Dear Jesus, Each day brings another crisis of belief. I must make decisions that show whether I trust myself or whether I depend absolutely on You. I must act on your purposes that You have revealed to me. You have provided the chance for me to participate in God-sized tasks. Keep me from the temptation of looking for me-sized tasks. God, I want the world to see You at work in Your world, in Your church, in my life. The only way this will happen is for me to trust You, follow You, and obey You. Help me do this today. Lord, show me Your way. I will follow it today, no matter what the reaction the world has and no matter what result comes in my life.