This morning, we’re continuing our message series, “Align.” Throughout this series, we’re learning how to position ourselves to get back into alignment with God. This enables us to live our lives to their fullest potential and not to miss out on anything that God has for us.
So far, we learned about the first step required, which is humility. Humility: it’s all God, not me. We begin by positioning ourselves in surrender to God wholly and fully.
We then must allow Jesus, the Great Physician, to replace our calloused, hardened heart with a new, soft one and position it into alignment with His. After all, our hearts are the source from which our attitudes, thoughts, and actions flow.
These two foundational steps allow God to begin doing the miraculous work to transform our lives from the inside out. We begin to become a brand new creation!
Today is where the adventure begins.
All of us need humility and a soft, shapable heart so that our lives are like clay in the hands of the Potter. However, not all of us share the same purpose. God’s plans for each of us are just as unique as our voices or fingerprints are from one another.
Though we must do our best to maintain a softened heart, we learned last week of how God hardened pharaoh’s heart. That doesn’t seem fair, does it? Well, the apostle Paul wrote about this.
Romans 9:17-21
17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
God has a purpose for us all. We were created on purpose and for a purpose. The sooner that we begin to align our lives for that purpose, the more fulfilled and joyful and meaningful our lives will become. Paul also reminded Timothy that:
2 Timothy 2:20-22
20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. 21 Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
What made a pan used by an Israelite living out in the camp different than the pan used in the tabernacle at the altar by the priests? Only the purpose for which it was set aside for. It was sprinkled with blood to cleanse and purify it and set it apart. That’s what made one pan holy and another pan common; because one was set aside to be used for the Lord and another was not.
So it is with us when we are saved. We are the same and yet different. Outwardly, we still look the same. Inwardly, we have been transformed. Inwardly, the Spirit of the Living God has taken up His dwelling! We have been cleansed of our sins by faith in the shed blood of sinless Jesus. We still live in the same circumstances, but our attitudes and perspectives toward them have changed.
We now live for a greater purpose. We still live in this world, but we’re no longer of the world. Jesus prayed for us to the Heavenly Father and said:
John 17:13-19
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Sanctify means to set apart for a sacred purpose. Just like that pan. We the same, yet different all because of our new purpose in life that we have found in Christ. The same, yet different.
Although every day, the same sun rises and sets, the sky painted by the sunrise and sunset are different daily. The same and yet different.
Jesus is our healer. However, the way in which He healed was different nearly every time that is recorded. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). However, His love and mercy are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).
There are some things that are the same for all of us as disciples of Jesus. We all are to tell the truth, which sets us free. We all are to reach out to the lost with the good news about Jesus. How we each do that varies. We all are called to serve the needs of those around us. How we each do that varies. We are all called to disciple others. How we each do that varies.
How do we find and fulfill our unique purpose that God created us for?
Of course, humility and our heart condition are the start. Then, we can learn from the only person who ever lived in the flesh like you and I, but did it perfectly and sinlessly; Jesus! He discerned and fulfilled His life purpose fully and perfectly; the only One to ever do so!
The key to this perfect alignment? Obedience.
Of course, we will never want to obey God if we think that our will and our ways and our thoughts might be better than His; hence the need for humility.
We also will never desire to obey God if our heart is hardened against Him and can’t understand or trust Him.
It is only through humility and with a transformed heart that obedience becomes an option for us. It is only when we truly see and understand that God is our Creator and how perfect His love is and how faithful and trustworthy He is and that His plans for us are ultimately always best that we will desire obedience.
He has done so much for us and loved us so completely even while we were pretty unlovable.
We obey God not to earn anything from God.
We obey God because we have already freely received everything from Him.
We obey God because we love Him and trust Him.
Jesus said to His disciples:
John 14:23-26 (TPT)
23, “Loving me empowers you to obey my word. And my Father will love you so deeply that we will come to you and make you our dwelling place. 24 But those who don’t love me will not obey my words. The Father did not send me to speak my own revelation, but the words of my Father. 25 I am telling you this while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Spirit of Holiness, the One like me who sets you free, he will teach you all things in my name. And he will inspire you to remember every word that I’ve told you.
John then went on to later write:
1 John 2:3-6
3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
How do we follow Jesus’ example in obedience?
First, Jesus lived a life of prayer.
Luke 5:16
Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Sure, Jesus prayed publicly. However, it was alone in prayer that He re-aligned His positioning with the Heavenly Father and with Holy Spirit in order to find and fulfill His purpose. It was in those isolated, private places that He was empowered and equipped to minister in such power and perform such miracles.
All that we receive from God, we receive in God’s Presence from Him directly through relationship. Prayer is simply talking with God. Not sending up requests to God, but conversing with Him. It’s sharing with Him what is on our heart and mind and also listening to what is on His.
After all, how can we obey if we cannot hear?
How can we hear if we are not listening?
1 Thessalonians 5:17
TPT – Make your life a prayer.
NIV – Pray continually.
KJV – Pray without ceasing.
NLT – Never stop praying.
AMP – Be unceasing in prayer [praying perseveringly].
Jesus lived a life of prayer – in constant communication with the Heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit. We would be wise to follow His example. If God in the flesh needed this type of prayer life to find and fulfill His purpose, then how much more do we need to be in constant prayer?
In fact, the goal of Jesus’ ministry throughout His earthly existence was do simply to cooperate with the Heavenly Father and to physically do whatever He saw the Father spiritually doing.
John 5:16-20
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.
That doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t ever struggle to do what the Father was leading Him to do, either. He was tempted and tried and wrapped in the weakness of flesh just as you and I are.
Knowing that that the torture of the cross was soon in His future, Jesus prayed.
Matthew 26:36-44
36 Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
Jesus struggled as we often do with trusting that pain and suffering is a part of God’s plans and purpose for our lives. Jesus’ flesh didn’t want to go through it. He knew what awaited Him on the other side of it, but He still did not want to endure it. However, He laid down His will and His life in surrender to the Father’s will.
First, we live a life of prayer in constant communication with God. Second, we simply do what He leads us to do.
Obedience!
Jesus was perfectly obedient in surrendering His life both throughout His earthly existence serving those around Him as well as when He chose to give it away in death. As a result, the Father promoted Him!
Philippians 2:3-14
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. 14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing
Obedience. As we do our part, God faithfully does His part acting in order to fulfill His good purpose. As we lay down our lives, it enables God to lift them up and truly give us life and life to its full!
1 Peter 5:6
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
1 Peter 5:6 (TPT)
If you bow low in God’s awesome presence, he will eventually exalt you as you leave the timing in his hands.
As we live a life of obedience, in constant prayer and doing whatever He leads us to do, we must remember to be patient.
A huge part of positioning our lives to be in alignment with God’s will is trusting His timing.
As the angel told Zechariah as he revealed the coming birth of John the Baptist:
Luke 1:20
And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.
And then he later told Mary about the coming birth of Jesus:
Luke 1:37
For no word from God will ever fail.
Discerning times and seasons is important and requires patience on our part. Jesus didn’t begin His ministry until He was about 30 years old although He was in the temple learning and being trained and even at 12 years of age was amazing the teachers and being about His Father’s business.
His mother was growing impatient and at a wedding feast tried to get Him to perform His first miracle turning water into wine. He honored His mother, but not before first saying:
John 2:4
“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His brothers tried to get Him to push His timing as well.
John 7:2-8
2 When the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”
As we follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, it is important to remember that a fruit of following the Holy Spirit is patience. Wait patiently on the Lord and trust His perfect timing. There may be seasons of opposition and struggle and pain and suffering, but it is only a season! It will end in the goodness of God flowing in and through our lives!
Follow the example of Jesus and don’t be surprised when opposition comes your way; even from those closest to you! If Jesus’ own mother and brothers pressed and pushed Him to conform to their timing and their will, we shouldn’t be surprised when it happens to us as well.
Look to the Heavenly Father and place your trust fully in Him. Obediently follow His guidance.
A soft, humble heart gives us a desire for obedience to God which aligns us into a positional correct life ready to receive all that God promises us and to become all that He has purposed us to be!