1 / 29

Questions God Asks

Questions God Asks. Questions God Asks John 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’.

kirra
Download Presentation

Questions God Asks

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Questions God Asks

  2. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ . . .When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day, for it was about four o'clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).

  3. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ . . .When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day, for it was about four o'clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Christ). He brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John; you shall be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).

  4. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • “WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?” • “WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?” • Did you know there are 2 powerful & opposite forces looking for YOU? • They both shine a light on a real or perceived “gap” in your life • One is FOR you, one AGAINST you • They battle for your heart, mind, soul & strength • As you understand HOW they are at work and HOW to respond, you WILL find what you’re looking for

  5. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • UNDERSTANDING “ACCUSATION” • Examples? • “How could you let that happen AGAIN?” • “You didn’t know that ALREADY?” • “You want them to see you doing THAT?” • “Aren’t you just a 1st class IDIOT?” • “What if they knew who you REALLY are?” • “HA! You think you have what it TAKES?” • “HA! Who would ever fight for YOU?” • “HA! See what GOD just did to you?”

  6. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • Where does it come from? • Anyone with influence & authority in work & life -- including your closest family & friends • Circumstances past/present/future • The “negative little voices” in your subconscious & your “explanatory style” • Satan (Accuser, Adversary, Liar, Tempter, Slanderer, Destroyer, etc.) • . . .Anywhere except God • UNDERSTANDING “ACCUSATION”

  7. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • It drives a TOXIC WEDGE between you, God, your true self, & relationships • It freezes you into SELF-FOCUS under a spotlight of JUDGMENT under law • It uses FEAR/PRIDE propaganda: • To SKEW your view of self, God & others • To get you VASCILLATING between self-deprecation & self-righteousness • To get YOU accusing GOD/others –JOB 40 • UNDERSTANDING “ACCUSATION”

  8. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • It ATTACKS your core identity & gifting • It strikes strategically when you’re weak, or on the eve of spiritual impact, or right after to neutralize & discourage you • It gets you to conform & man-please -- sucking your energy & your dignity • It drives you like a mule, sterilizing your passion for life & impact on others • RESULT? Bondage, anxiety, burnout, cynicism, despair. . .deep loneliness • UNDERSTANDING “ACCUSATION”

  9. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • UNDERSTANDING “ACCUSATION” • The Impostor- 08/14/2009 - (Wild at Heart, 107–8) • “From the place of our woundedness we construct a false self. We find a few gifts that work for us, and we try to live off them. Stuart found he was good at math and science. He shut down his heart and spent all his energies perfecting his “Spock” persona. There, in the academy, he was safe; he was also recognized and rewarded. “When I was eight,” confesses Brennan Manning, “the impostor, or false self, was born as a defense against pain. The impostor within whispered, ‘Brennan, don’t ever be your real self anymore...

  10. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • UNDERSTANDING “ACCUSATION” • ...because nobody likes you as you are. Invent a new self that everybody will admire and nobody will know.’” Notice the key phrase: “as a defense against pain,” as a way of saving himself. The impostor is our plan for salvation. So God must take it all away. He thwarts our plan for salvation; he shatters the false self. Our plan for redemption is hard to let go of; it clings to our hearts like an octopus. Why would God do something so terrible as to wound us in the place of our deepest wound?

  11. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • UNDERSTANDING “ACCUSATION” • ...Jesus says that the things we do to save our psyche, our self, those plans to save and protect our inner life—those are the things that will actually destroy us. “There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death,” says Proverbs 16:25. The false self, our plan for redemption, seems so right to us. It shields us from pain and secures us a little love and admiration. But the false self is a lie; the whole plan is built on pretense. It’s a deadly trap. God loves us too much to leave us there. So he thwarts us, in many, many different ways.”

  12. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • UNDERSTANDING “CONVICTION” • THIS is the way of God “YHWH” • PROVERBS 23:26 “Give me your heart, my son, And let your eyes delight in my ways.” • ISAIAH 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

  13. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • It’s GOD’S LOVING DISCIPLINE: • He asks a question that pricks our conscience • He frustrates our attempts to find fulfillment apart from serving him • He calls us back to our part in building his “house” • It’s the HWY to what we’re looking for • UNDERSTANDING “CONVICTION” • THIS is the way of God “YHWH”

  14. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • Examples? • “Where ARE you?. . .Who TOLD you that you were naked?” - GENESIS 3 • “Do you wish to be WELL?” - JOHN 5 • “WHOM shall I send, and who will GO for us?” - ISAIAH 6 • “Are YOU able to drink the cup that I drink?” - MARK 10 • “Why do you live in paneled-houses while MY house lies in ruin?” - HAGGAI 1 • “What are you LOOKING for?” – JOHN 1 • UNDERSTANDING “CONVICTION”

  15. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • It draws you FORWARD & TOWARD God, your true self, & relationships • It shines a light under grace to EXPOSE a path in fog – PSALM 119, HEBREWS 11 • It uses the language of TRUTH & LOVE: • To CORRECT your view of self/God/others • To give you COURAGE over fear and HUMILITY over arrogant pride • To show the world God is God – JOHN 16 • UNDERSTANDING “CONVICTION”

  16. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • Today it comes through God’s Spirit • Through His Word, and teachings like this • Through anyone with influence & authority in work & life -- your closest family & friends -- ESPECIALLY those who are a Face of Grace – EPHESIANS 6 • In prayer and as nudges in times of QUIET – ROMANS 8:26 • In the midst of circumstances, guiding you to how to respond • UNDERSTANDING “CONVICTION”

  17. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • It AFFIRMS your CORE identity & gifting • It comes strategically when you’re weak, or on the eve of spiritual impact, or right after to affirm God is WITH you • It transforms your thinking and how to use your gifts to SERVE others -- giving you energy & true self-worth • It inspires you to run like a mustang, with a passion for life that’s contagious • RESULT? Freedom, peace, endurance, hope, rest, joy + friends who know you • UNDERSTANDING “CONVICTION”

  18. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • It’s why Jesus came, and it doesn’t matter how lost you’ve been • “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” - LUKE 15, 19:10 • He’s invited you to “COME & SEE” • “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” - MATTHEW 11:28-29 • SO LOOK FOR “THE FACE OF GRACE”

  19. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • BUILD your CORE understanding of: • Who GOD is –ROMANS 8:31-32 • “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? • SO LOOK FOR “THE FACE OF GRACE”

  20. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • Who YOU are –EPHESIANS 2:10 • “For we are His MASTERPIECE, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.” • SO LOOK FOR “THE FACE OF GRACE” • BUILD your CORE understanding of: • Who GOD is –ROMANS 8:31-32

  21. Questions God AsksHaggai 1 • THE PRIVILEGE OF BUILDING GOD’S HOUSE 4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house . . . 9 You are a . . . people belonging to God, that you may declare the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. -1 PETER 2:4-9

  22. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • ALIGN your heart/mind/soul/strength on Christ’s foundation -MATTHEW 7:24 • Seek FIRST his kingdom, and you’ll find the others things added in -LUKE 12:31 • SO LOOK FOR “THE FACE OF GRACE” • BUILD your CORE understanding of: • Who GOD is –ROMANS 8:31-32 • Who YOU are –EPHESIANS 2:10 • WHY you live & work –1 PETER 2:4-9

  23. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • - Learn the pattern that ACCUSATION is sure to follow on CONVICTION’s heels • Win the battle vs. ACCUSATION in your thought life through God’s Spirit: • “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God & taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” -2CORINTHIANS 10:5 • SO LOOK FOR “THE FACE OF GRACE”

  24. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • And REMEMBER it’s a process. . Simon was “sifted like wheat”, and didn’t transform into Peter all at once: • “Depart from me, Lord” – LUKE 5 • “God forbid it Lord! This shall never happen to You.” -MATTHEW 16 • “Never shall you wash my feet!” –JOHN 13 • “Even if I have to die with YOU, I will not deny you! –MATTHEW 26 • SO LOOK FOR “THE FACE OF GRACE”

  25. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • “But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned, for prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing what they’d think” - GALATIANS 2 • SO LOOK FOR “THE FACE OF GRACE” • And REMEMBER it’s a process. . Simon was “sifted like wheat”, and didn’t transform into Peter all at once!

  26. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. . .be on the alert, your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour But resist him, firm in your faith. . .” - 1PETER 5:6-9 • SO LOOK FOR “THE FACE OF GRACE” • And REMEMBER it’s a process. . Simon was “sifted like wheat”, and didn’t transform into Peter all at once!

  27. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • “Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. - 2PETER 3:15 • SO LOOK FOR “THE FACE OF GRACE” • And REMEMBER it’s a process. . Simon was “sifted like wheat”, and didn’t transform into Peter all at once!

  28. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • ..AND BUILD TOGETHER • As ALL-ONE not A-LONE • SEEK truth-tellers and Faces of Grace • TALK about ACCUSATIONS on your radar • TALK about CONVICTIONS you’re sensing • Become a “Face of Grace” • Is this what you see in the mirror? • Are you willing to be “Haggai” for others? • Are you LOOKING FOR the Simons in life? SO LOOK FOR “THE FACE OF GRACE”

  29. Questions God AsksJohn 1:35-42 ‘What are you looking for?’ • What ACCUSATIONS have you been giving into or tempted to say yes to? • What CONVICTIONS have you been saying no to? • While you have a moment of clarity, what PRODUCTIVE ACTIONS would help you take steps toward what you’re looking for? Who is your face of grace?

More Related