Experiencing God LS 3

Experiencing God LS 3

Week 1, Day 3

Open with prayer  

Begin keeping a prayer journal

Bible study prayer

Housekeeping

Questions

How have your daily devotions been going?

Memory verse?

Last week’s video is up on the website.

Review the Seven Realties

God is always at work around you.

God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.

God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.

God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.

God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.

You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.

You come to know God by experience as you obey Him, and He accomplishes His work through you.

LEARNING TO BE A SERVANT OF GOD

Jesus as servant

Philippians 2:5–8 (NLT) — 5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave (servant) and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

If we follow Christ’s example:

We take on his attitude/way of thinking.

Humbled himself even to a servant

Humbled himself in obedience

Remember Jesus said He does nothing by himself. He does only what the Father is doing. John 5:19-20.

What do you need to do to cultivate this type kind of attitude?

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Jesus teaches the disciples.

Matthew 20:26–28 (NLT) — 26 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. 28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Again, we see Jesus with an emphasis on being a servant.

What is a servant?

A server in a restaurant.

We are taught to serve each other.

The NLT uses the slave.

The ESB uses servant

The Greek word “slave” means = a person who is legally owned by someone else and whose entire livelihood and purpose was determined by their master.

What a powerful definition.

Our book defines it: = “A servant finds out what his master wants him to do and does it”.

A servant of a human master works for his master.

God, however, works throughHis servants.

Potters Clay

Beautiful picture

Jeremiah go to the potter’s house.

The potter is not happy about the outcome. So he crushes the clay and starts over.

Israel is like a clay in the potter’s hand.

We are the same.

Jeremiah 18:6 (NLT) — 6 “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.

The clay must two things.

The clay must be molded.

The clay must remain in the potter’s hand.

This is powerful

“To be God’s servant, you must be moldable and remain in the hand of the Master.”

With God working through a servant, however, he or she can do anything God can do.

Imagine the unlimited potential we have.

If you have been working from the human approach to being a servant, this concept should change your approach to serving God. You do not get your orders and then go out to accomplish them on your own. You relate to God, respond to Him, and adjust your life to Him so that out of your relationship with Him, He does what He wants to do through your life.

The example of Elijah

The show down on Mt Carmel.

Elijah was outnumbered 850 to 1.

If Elijah had failed he would have been dead.

I want to live my life in such a way that I rely completely on God, knowing I would fail without His intervention.

But a whole nation changed as a result of being God’s servant.

Don’t Just Do Something

Sometimes God’s cry out to us.

Don’t just do something!

We have the desire to be doing and going.

But there are times when God says just stand there.

Love Me! Get to know me! Adjust your life! Be the clay in my hands.

A time will come when doing will be called for, but we can’t skip the relationship.

John 15:5 (NLT) — 5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

God wants to accomplish his purposes through you.

Reality 2: God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.

Love me know me. I’ll show you wonder beyond your imagination