Experiencing God

Lesson 11 Part 1 

Reality 6 

Joining God Requires Adjustments

 

Memory Verse

Luke 14:33 (NLT) — 33 So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.

 

  1. Critical Turning Points 
    1. Crisis of Belief 
      • A crisis of belief is not a calamity in your life but a turning point where you must make a decision.”
      • Faith is required 
      • You will be forced to say what you believe about God. 
      • Matthew 17:20 (NLT) — 20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
      • You must believe God is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do.
    2. Major Adjustments 
      • Adjusting your life to God is the second critical turning point in your knowing and doing the will of God.
      • If you choose to make an adjust your life to God’s will… 
        1. You then move on to obedience 
      • However, if you refuse to make the adjustment… 
        1. You will miss what God has is store for your life. 
      • Believing and having faith in God will require action and that action is often an “adjustment”. 
  2. Adjustments to God 
    1. Faith is demonstrated by actions. 
      • Faith is needed (crisis of belief) 
        1. God speaks 
        2. There is a need for a singles bible study. 
      • This faith leads to an action. 
        1. (God is calling you to lead a bible study) 
      • An adjustment needs to take place. 
        1. What kind of study, when, time, preparing, etc.
      • That adjustment leads to obedience. 
        1. You begin the bible study. 
      • God will use that bible study to accomplish his purposes through that bible study. 
      • “You cannot continue life as usual or stay where you are and go with God at the same time.”
        1. He repeats this several times. 
  3. The biblical example 
    1. There are several 
      • Peter, Andrew, James and John leave their fishing business to follow Jesus.
      • What is the major adjustment? 
      • Matthew 4:18–22 (NLT) — 18 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 19 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 20 And they left their nets at once and followed him. 21 A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. 22 They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.
      • They left behind their business while James and Johns father Zebedee was mending nets. 
      • This would have been a major adjustment for the business and their father. 
  4. A Hard Thing
    1. I did not fully understand this. 
      • After reading this statement I was like what??? 
      • “You must leave where you are to follow Him. You must make major alterations in your life to follow God. Until you are ready to make any change necessary to follow and obey what God has said, you will be of little use to God. Your greatest single difficulty in following God may come at this point of full surrender.” 
      • “You can’t begin to imagine all God is able to accomplish through one solitary life that is wholly yielded, adjusted, and obedient to Him!”
    2. Looking at day 2 it makes more sense. 
  5. Kinds of Adjustments
    1. The list could be endless.
      • In your circumstances—job, home, finances, and others
      • In your relationships—family, friends, business associates, and others
      • In your thinking—prejudices, methods, your potential, about your past, and others
      • In your commitments—to family, church, job, plans, tradition, and others 
      • In your actions—how you pray, give, serve, and others
      • In your beliefs—about God, His purposes, His ways, your relationship with Him, and others 
    2. We can mentally believe in God. 
      • Putting that faith to action is much harder. 
      • You may be called to attempt things only God can do. 
        1. Whereas before you may have attempted only what you knew you could accomplish.
      • From that list which do you struggle with? 
      • We don’t necessarily have to name it but understand that it’s an adjustment. 
    3. My personal thoughts on this. 
      • At first, it seemed like he was saying that anytime God was speaking to us that required a “major” adjustment. 
      • That we had to quit our job or sell our home start a church etc. 
      • Yes sometimes that is what God is doing. 
      • But not always. 
      • Sometimes it’s the way we think. (God would never call me to do a bible study) 
        1. God sees your potential 
      • This list is endless. 
      • This is where most people will trip up. 
      • They have the “faith” but not the adjustment. 
      • The study asked this question: Write at least one adjustment you have made in your thinking. 
      • For me it’s the difference is between “Self-centered living vs God-centered living”
      • This has been a major adjustment for me.