Gods Positioning System Part 1

Editor's Notes

• #2: I have this tendency to presume I know where I am going and then sometimes I end up in completely the wrong place. My excuse to myself is that I have many appointments and don’t always have the time to properly check where I am supposed to be. A couple of years ago we had a Elder planning retreat and I drove completely to the wrong place all because I only heard the name of the place we had to go to and thought I knew where it was, I was provided a map and directions but never even looked at it or even took it with me because I knew where I was going. In this situation it resulted in embarrassment and being late for the meeting so the result wasn’t so bad, but this kind of presumption in life could be much more detrimental, especially if you completely miss the will of God.Arriving at the right place at the right time has become so easy nowadays all because of GPS. How many of you can remember driving with Maps. I remember years ago trying to visit everybody in Centurion and had to take this fold out map book with me as I had up to three visits a night and had to find my way to places I’ve never been. The worst was going into these Duplex complexes that had no clear markings or numbering. My map would get me to the gate but then I would get completely lost, knowing I was right there and the people were waiting at the door but like some deranged maniac I was driving around in circles. Needless to say by the time I found the place I wasn’t always the most loving Pastor anymore. How GPS has changed our lives. Far less driving around with frustration, I’ve even driven around in quite a few other countries even places that drive on the other side of the road and that have signage in other languages but with a GPS I found it easy to get around. It is not God’s desire for us to go through life looking for our destination but never finding it. He does not want us to end up in the wrong places or even to get close to the right place but never quite finding it. But he wants us to know our destination and to have the best root to get to it, He wants us to know and find his will even if this world is foreign and strange with no familiar landmarks. That is why He has provided us with a GPS – Gods Positioning System. This GPS however works on its own software that may be difficult to understand at first. How many of you had bought a GPS but then found it to be very non user friendly. God’s GPS is very user friendly once you understand how it was designed. Sometimes we find it frustrating because we approach it with a worldly, instant solution, no sacrifice required mind-set. We must remember that He is God and to find His will we must adapt to His ways, if we don’t we will get horribly lost.(Show Video)
• #5: Our first purpose is to know God. In knowing Him we can know everything else, everything begins and ends with him. He is the cause, the why and the how. We may through science discover and know much but without Him we cannot fully understand. Like professor Lennox of Oxford said to understand a Ford motor car one cannot just think of the science of internal combustion engines, one must also think of Henry Ford.
• #6: Knowing God and committing oneself to Him opens up ones life to countless possibilities. It is like a small business owner coming into partnership with the wealthiest, most experienced business person, someone of the magnitude of Bill Gates (just much more benevolent). Suddenly a global market opens up and the greatest R&D department is available to be used.
• #7: But not only must we know God but in knowing Him we get to know His ways, the way He does things. When we begin to think like God, we begin to receive His will. When we think like the world we act like the world, when we think like God we act like God
• #8: To be renewed in our thinking we must be filled with the word.
• #9: To be renewed we must be filled with the Spirit. The word was inspired and breathed by the Spirit, we cannot know it fully without the Spirit, He aids us in understanding the spirit of the word so that we may apply it correctly. Great legal systems and good laws does not bring freedom if one does not understand and follow the spirit of the law also.
• #10: So the first and primary, most salient point we need in our lives in order to have direction is God. He is our fixed reference, from Him everything else finds its place. Over the following two weeks we will talk about the two minor points of People and Self.Challenge:How much priority do you put on knowing God and understanding His ways? Do you understand your GPS, is your mind renewed to think like it does? Will you follow it wherever it may lead, do you trust your GPS?