Experiencing God II: ‘God At The Centre’
Sermon Review
18 March 2001
John 10:22-30

In the Middle Ages, a belief persisted that all the stars including our sun, rotated around the earth – it was seen as the centre of the universe. Obviously, this was eventually proven to be quite wrong. For the majority, this meant a radical change of perspective. Unfortunately, mistaking the centrality of ourselves as individuals in life also comes naturally. We seem to instinctively want life to centre on us, to accommodate us, to cater to us, to fit our own particular set of desires and whims. Then God comes into the picture and He wants to be the focus of attention, become our reference point – the one to whom we defer and organise our lives around. He wants His children to be His servants – ones that adjust their life and plans to suit him, rather than the other way round (2Cor.5:15; Eph.6:10).

This is not easy for it means seeing life from God’s point of view eg.

However, being God centred is both necessary and worth our while for it opens up the opportunity for us to experience His plans and purposes for us.

1. God Centred People Want To Listen To God:

As we look at 1Tim.3:16, and texts like 1Cor.10:6,11; Rom.15:4, we see that God provides general guidance through the Scriptures. But as we encounter passages like John.10:2-4,14 it is quite clear that there is also a personal and specific level of guidance. Christians are intended to hear the shepherd, and to follow him. Consider also Acts.8:26,29, 10:3,9, 13:2, 16:6-10 etc. What we see demonstrated in the Bible is both general and personal and specific guidance. As the Scriptures say, ‘those led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God’ Rom.8:14. God uses many means to speak to His children, but the most common means are by the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures, Prayer, the Church, and Circumstances. More on these later.

What is important is that we be willing to listen to God, know that it is Him speaking, and know what He is saying. The encouragement of the Scriptures is that those whom God spoke to knew these things. The bottom line is that if we are not able to listen to God and learn what he wants to say to us, we are in trouble at the heart of our Christian experience. For example:- what we plan to do, even for God may be quite inappropriate:

We do not always know exactly what God is planning or intending to do in our lives, or in the life of the Armidale Community. Imagine Abraham making long term plans to build an altar and establish a worship centre in Sodom and Gomorrah when God had planned judgment for those two cities. Or you planning to travel to such & such a city when you are moving into a battle zone of some description.

We need to walk daily in a relationship with God because it is so difficult to anticipate correctly what God intends to happen. Also, our way of doing God’s work is not always right – Moses: Ex.2:11-15. There probably would have been civil war if Moses did it his way, yet God’s way meant Egypt was plundered, an army was eliminated, and no Israelite was lost, as well as God became known as awesome and real!

So we need to be God-centred, listening to God, and not only using the general guidance of Scripture, but also the personal and specific, if we want to experience Him in our lives. We also need to be God centred because…

2. God-Centred People Are Willing To Respond To God When He Speaks:

God is not revealed in the Scriptures as someone who engages in conversation just for conversation’s sake. When he speaks it is because he is up to something, or has a purpose in mind. Eg. Abram – to build a nation (Gen.12); Peter – to ensure the Gentiles were included equally in the early Christian Church etc. Whenever the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Scriptures, Prayer, the Church, circumstances, or any other way, it is always with a purpose and with the intention of receiving an obedient response.

Sometimes God may factor in indecisiveness or reluctance in responding eg. Moses, Gideon, but he also may provide a wilderness experience like Moses 40 year stint in the desert, till we are both cooperative and prepared character-wise. Outriht refusal also carries some sobering consequences eg. Wilderness wanderings of Israelites till the guilty generation died!

The important idea is that when we know that it is God speaking, that is the preferable time for obedience, even if it is inconvenient eg. what you are asking clashes with my fishing trip, or Bingo, or football, or night off etc.

Conclusion:

Being God centred requires a radical change in perspective, and ongoing reshuffling of our lives so that we can remain God-centred rather than self-centred, but it is necessary if we want to experience God.

We need to know what God has on his agenda for our church, so we can adjust what we are doing to fit with what he intends, that is why we must be God-centred not self-centred. When we are God centred we will look to God for what he wants, makes adjustments, and by faith obey; when we are self centred, we will be forever looking at issues of inconvenience, discomfort, personal limitations and want God to continue adapt His plans for us at best, or reject them outright at worst.

On a very practical level, there is no use making long-range plans for our personal lives, nor for the church, if God has intentions of doing something completely different to what we expect. We need to take time to see what God has on his agenda for us – to take time to let God speak and guide; to take time to develop relationship and responsiveness; to let God be the initiator as well as the pacesetter so we don’t run ahead, lag behind, or start quite inappropriate things. We need to take time to let him reveal His thoughts to us. If we do this we can keep God at the centre of things, and be continually in a position and condition to place ourselves in God’s hands. And God’s hands are the best place to be in for when we are in God’s hands, things happen eg.

The outcome all depends on whose hands we are in. God-centredness places us in the centre of God’s hands, not our own. And that makes all the difference when it comes to experiencing God.

Blessings

 

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