Discovering the Handprint of God, Part 5:  Guided

Pastor Bill (8/24/03)

(Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 8:26-40; 16:6-10; 2 Corinthians 8:1-5)

This morning we finish our series on “Discovering the Handprint of God”. I want to do a short review quiz with you to begin with, just to make sure we’ve all learned the material. I thought about giving each of you a quiz as a bulletin insert, having you hand them in, and then posting the scores next Sunday in the foyer, but…I think I’ll just put the review questions on the screen. Tell me the fingerprint that each of the following phrases describes:

    “Psalm 18 talks about God reaching down and taking hold of us.”  (Grasped)

   “Our worship of God is in response to His extended hand to us.”  (Greeted)

   “Like salt, God brings us together with a few others for greater impact.” (Grouped)

   “God touches our lives, through the Holy Spirit, with gifts.”  (Graced)

   “God’s hand takes us in a certain direction, not all directions.” (Guided)

These five fingerprints are five ways God shapes us and touches our lives. They are really the core values of who we are as a church.

We finish with the fingerprint of “guided”. So the question is, "How are you guided”? Three weeks ago when we were looking at how God extends His hand in greeting to us and we respond in worship of Him, we put a few worship research findings on the screen. One of them was this finding:

    “50% of regular adult church attenders have not experienced the presence of God at any time in the past year.”

     I have to go back to that, because if you haven’t experienced the presence of God it’s pretty difficult to be guided by Him. A number of years ago there was a film entitled Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, starring Matthew Broderick. One of the things that stood out in the film was the non-presence of Ferris Bueller’s parents. You only heard their voices on the house intercom system every once in a while. You never saw them. And it was obvious that their lack of presence meant they really had no effect on how Ferris lived his life.

    Guiding begins with a relationship.  

    How did the disciples of Jesus become world-changers? They spent time with Jesus.

    Matthew 4:19-20 tells us of Jesus call to them. It says:

     “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

For the next three years or so they stayed with Jesus. They lived together, they traveled together, they ate together. They stayed with Jesus. Three years later Jesus said to them,

     “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”   (Matthew 28:19-20)

It was their relationships with Jesus that brought them to the point in their spiritual maturity of being guided. If you’re trying to figure out where God is guiding you, start with the relationship.  

(SHANNON ERNST shared her mission trip to Sudan.)

Let me close by sharing a few guiding principles with you. Maybe you’re not at the point where Shannon is. Perhaps you can’t imagine doing what she did. I think in terms of God’s fingerprint of “Guided”, many of us have a certain question rolling around in our head, and it’s “How do you get to the point where you recognize the guiding hand of God in your life?”

Here’s the first principle. Guiding begins with a relationship, but continues out of a habit of obedient response. Listen to these verses in Acts 8.

     Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road- the desert road- that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot…”  (Acts 8:26-30)

When God’s hand guides you, what He requires is an obedient response. It’s not a time for negotiating. The angel of the Lord tells Philip to go and he goes. The Spirit tells Philip to go to the chariot and he runs. Seeking guidance is not the same thing as being passive. When you have a close relationship with Jesus, God is going to share of His ways with you. But when He shares His ways and His direction, He’s looking for action. Sometimes we say, “I just wish God would let me know what He wants me to do.” And so God reveals His way, and we say, “No, that’s not the one I wanted.” Or, if we’re real spiritual, we say, “I’d better pray about it a little more.” Or, if we’re really spiritual, we say, “I’d better fast today as I pray about it.” Thank God that Philip’s response wasn’t to have a prayer vigil. He ran!

     When we’re guided it’s not a multiple choice situation. Listen to Paul’s situation as it appears in Acts 16.

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him. “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.   (Acts 16:6-10)

It’s not that there was a brick wall at the border of Mysia, but there was the whispering of “no” in Paul’s spirit. He knew God’s hand was holding him back. But, as a result of the vision he had, he also knew God was guiding him to Macedonia. His habit of  obedient responses resulted in some incredible things happening in Macedonia. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 8:1-5. What Paul talks about the believers in Macedonia doing in these verses is directly related to his obedient response in going there.

   VERSES

Here’s the second principle. To be guided means giving up the oars, and surrendering to the sail.

That fifth verse hits me. “…But they gave themselves first to the Lord…”  There was a surrendering to the Lord, and that surrendering resulted in God guiding them to a very significant ministry- generosity.

     If you had to identify your openness to God’s leading with a water vessel, would it be a rowboat or a sailboat? A rowboat is a lot of work, but you get to dictate how fast and where you’re going. A sailboat has the element of trusting in the wind, and surrendering yourself to the wind. It’s not as clear which direction you’re going to go. To be guided by the hand of God means giving up the oars. That is so hard for the church to do, because we like to know how things are going to be. Quite often we’ve got a lot of oars in the water, and we’re going nowhere. “…But they gave themselves first to the Lord…” What a way to have your life and ministry summed up.

Finally, guided usually flows from how you’ve been “graced”. That goes back to last week and talking about how God has graced you, how he’s gifted you. The way He guides you is usually connected to how He’s gifted you. Notice how Paul begins that 8^th chapter talking about the Macedonians.

    “And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.”

    God guides you according to how He’s wired you. Now there are some exceptions to that, but a lot of times when people operate outside of their giftedness it leads to frustration or ineffectiveness. The Kingdom isn’t advanced. In fact, it’s stifled.

     Where is the hand of God guiding you?