God Develops Change Makers| Peter Tan-Chi | Run Through

happiness has to be experienced in God's way not your way because my way is disaster my way leads to self-worship and sin and that my friend will never work [Applause] today as we continue our series I want to share with you how does God develop change makers would you like to learn how God developed change makers all right the main message today is very simple everybody let's read this together everybody God develops change makers cooperate God is at work whether you like it or not he's at work but are you willing to cooperate so four major truths I want to expand from the story of Gideon number one God uses problems to wake us up God gives us problems to call your attention many times we are too busy so God will allow problems number two God sees our potential God does not see you as you are today he sees based on what you can become in Christ next God trains us progressively God assumes responsibility also in training you and training me progressively and lastly God wants us to partner with him to partner with God simply means god is a senior partner and you're a junior partner the partnership is not 50 50. God is the big boss and you are the small boss you are not a boss he is the boss amen all right let's begin God uses problem can I tell you why any problems that you have right now may I suggest you must see it from God's perspective you see you can either become better or you can become bitter but if you cooperate with God you say Lord there must be a reason why I'm having a problem will you teach me now just because you have problems does not mean you are in sin I'm not saying that but I can assure you problems God will use to sanctify you to make you a better person so we have read from the book of Gideon what happened remember in Judges chapter 1 let me just go over quickly the Bible tells us the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and the lord gave them into the hands of media in seven years in other words God's principle in life is he will not allow God's people Christians to sin without having any consequences let me repeat God loves you so much that he will not allow you to remain as you are so God uses what problems for what purpose if you read the story of Gideon there were brought Soul law that they were being brutalized and taken advantage of by the middle Knights and that's why the Bible tells us let's read that together judges 6 verse 6 the Bible tells us Israel was brought very long because of median and the sons of Israel cried so my advice to you is how are you doing today please do not wait until God brings you very down to call on him you know what prevents us from calling on the Lord our pride you know what prevents us from calling on the Lord our self-sufficiency the older I get the more I realize I need God and my prayer is I will always be prayerful I want to seek God every day my prayer is really I want to get closer to God day by day I don't want to wait until I have one week to live before seeking after God what about you how are you doing today how many of you are having problems right now or this week or you're having problems raise your hand you're having problems higher higher well I want to pray for all of you that God will use whatever problems you have for you to become better is that possible yes you listen to this message okay so God uses problems next I want you to learn something as far as the Bible is concerned in the New Testament truth to support what I'm saying to you is simply this Hebrews chapter 12. it is very important so that you will know why you are having problems okay not always because of sin but listen to this everybody let's read this together you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to your sons my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord together nor faith when you are approved by him everybody read does whom the Lord loves he disciplines and he scored just every son whom he receives the Bible says whom the Lord loves his disciplines when you are having problems you may be thinking God has abandoned me you may be thinking God does not like me anymore on the contrary if you keep on reading the Bible I want you to read the next verse it is for discipline that you endure God this with you us with sons what son is there whom his father does not discipline if you are without discipline then you are a legitimate children and not Sons but God disciplines us for our good so that we may share his Holiness this to me is one of the best verse you can use for the security of believers what is this verse saying if you are committing sin if you are not walking right with God God will do something God the Father disciplines his children I have five wonderful children I discipline them but I don't discipline the children of Pastor Ed you know why because that is Ed's job they are not my children I don't discipline your children you know why they are not mine God is telling you the same thing if you are sinning today and nothing is happening to you you need to ask yourself is God my father you see God is our father if you are not walking with him there will surely be discipline look at the next verse all everybody all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful so it's normal it's not joyful it's painful sorrowful but everybody read to those who have been trained by it it yields peaceful fruit of righteousness now there are many ways to God will discipline us financial problems relationship problems boyfriend girlfriend problems children problem health problems but whatever it is I want you to know something turn to your neighbor tell your neighbor God loves you now say it with meaning God loves you and because God loves you he will allow problems and he will allow discipline next principle God sees our potential now what does it mean God sees our potential this is so important you see God does not see you as you are now he sees your potential in Christ we do the opposite we judge people we don't give people a chance because we see people as they are now God is different when God looks at you God says for you can become in Christ look at Gideon chapter 8 God sees our potential the angel of the Lord appeared to him the Lord is with you Valiant Warrior God took the initiative then he appeared to Gideon and he told Gideon you Valiant Warrior look at me who is Gideon Gideon was a coward Gideon was afraid he was a simple farmer Gideon never fought any butter and yet God called him you are a valiant Warrior can you imagine that said you are a valiant Warrior what is the principle God sees you not as you are but what you can become in him can you attend your neighbor be your neighbor you are a valiant Warrior and Hindi okay you are not a coward you are a valiant Warrior no of course Gideon being very sincere replied look Gideon said oh my Lord if the Lord is with us why then has all this happened to us where are all of his miracles which our fathers told us about did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt now the Lord has abandoned us handed over us to median can you see how erroneous we are we judge God based on our circumstances God has not abandoned them but God wants to wake them up God wants them to know the real problem you see you cannot find real peace real Joy apart from God let me repeat if you are looking for happiness and you think you can find happiness apart from Jesus sooner or later you will Discover it is not possible disguise the Israelites were disobeying God and God is saying you got a problem and that's why God wanted to use Gideon but Gideon is so insecure look at the next verse look at how Gideon look at himself well look at how God look at Gideon first the Lord looked at him and said go in this strength of yours and save Israel have I not sent you now God is trying to tell Gideon something I am going to use you you are going to be victorious let's read the next verse Gideon said oh Lord how can I save Israel you see his problem my family is the least in Manasseh Manasseh is one of the tribe of Israel okay to add tribes and I am the youngest you see when you look at yourself that's the truth who am I so Gideon said in in Tagalog how many of you right now feel you are not qualified you are not able or you feel inadequate raise your hands wow you see that's a good start once you realize you are inadequate you are ready for God to use you you know what scares me when somebody comes to me and he tells me Peter you better get me to be your pastor I say why well I'm so educated I have a PhD degree I can speak you better use me that person will scare me if somebody comes and tell me you know I don't think I can do this I'm not adequate and I will ask him are you willing to be used by God you see God loves humble people God promised us he gives grace to the humble but he opposes the proud so if you feel you're inadequate today I have good news for you humble yourselves before God and God will use you so this is Gideon that's his background how can I be a valiant Warrior I cannot all right read the next verse God as your Gideon look at God's Assurance everybody read the Lord said to him surely louder I will be with you so our sufficiency is always God so God bless you is greater than everything else including your opponents including your enemies including your problems God bless you question is god with you louder but are you with God Ah that's a big difference are you with God during the American Civil War somebody was telling President Lincoln God on our side one of the bloodiest civil war in history was the U.S Civil War the North and the South and you know what Abraham Lincoln said that's not the right question is God With Us the right question are we on God's side or not that is the right question are you on God's side how come God uses people who are really nothing really qualified well here's a Divine principle First Corinthians chapter one here's the amazing principle everybody read consider your calling Brethren that there were not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty not many noble but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong the best things of the world and the despise God has chosen the things that are not so that he may nullify the things that are everybody so that no man May boast before God uses Ordinary People Noah Noah got drunk Abraham lied about his wife Jacob was a schemer Elijah's recited Moses had temper problem David murderer adulterer rehab prostitute Jonah run away from God Paul murderer Peter denied Jesus can God use Ordinary People yes or no you know God used flawed people but he transformed them that will transform you now number three God trains progressively God trains us progressively I've seen how they train people step by step you don't train people overnight and expect them to swim 10 kilometers on the First Swim okay first you swim I teach you stream laps after so many laps you swim one kilometer a day after that two kilometers a day it takes time the same thing with God God trains us step by step here is the New Testament principle Philippians chapter 1 verse 8. step by step everybody read I am confident of this very thing he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus do you know the meaning of this God began a good work in you that day you respond to the call of Christ you surrender your life to him God is saying he is continuing at work up to today he who began a good work in you has God begun a good work in your life I believe God is working in your life that's why you are here today he will perfect the word perfect it is he will complete it God's going to complete his project in your life and I'm going to tell you God is very efficient and God will use it he uses what problems God sees your potential but you got to do it step by step what do I mean by step by step well let's find out right step by step let's read judges 6 25 26. Progressive training on the same night the Lord said to Gideon remember step by step before you fight the middle Knights you learn to obey me first okay step by step take your father's bull second Bull seven years old tear down the altar of bear which belongs to your father cut down the asherah asera is a goddess that they worship they are is a male God that they worship asera female goddess that that is beside it and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this stronghold in an orderly way and take a second Bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asura which you shall cut down what's the principle to be used by God you got to remove the beas in your life you have to remove idols before you can build an altar to worship God you first get rid of the Bears in your life I call this idols now all of us have idols but you may not have recognized it part of the training of God in your life in the Progressive training of God he wants you to learn to get rid of Idols what do I mean how do you define an idol well I like the definition of Martin Lloyd Jones let's read this together what is an idol together an idol is anything in our lives that occupies the place that should be occupied by God alone you know Bill Gothard explained this years ago about idolatry what is idolatry everybody real it is together trusting people possessions or positions to do for me what only God can do now look at yourself the worst sin in the Old Testament is idolatry today in the 21st century I submit to you if it is still idolatry except our Idols has moved our Idols have changed from wooden idols from Golden Idols silver Idols the idols today have changed it can be money it can be relationship do you know the most dangerous Idol in your life which is hard to detect is yourself centeredness self-sufficiency when people tell my wife God loves me he wants me to be happy so what's wrong with divorcing my husband what's wrong God wants me to be happy you see look at that statement God wants me to be happy is that a correct statement yes or no I'm testing your theology does God want you to be happy yes or no louder you need theology God is a wonderful God wants you to experience happiness and joy however it cannot be experienced apart from when you deny yourself and you follow God let me repeat happiness has to be experienced in God's way not your way because my way is disaster my way leads to self-worship and sin and that my friend will never work so does God want you to be happy louder The Secret Of Happiness is holiness let me repeat Holiness is you set apart your life for God and happiness becomes a byproduct if you pursue happiness that becomes your idol and that is a problem don't pursue happiness you pursue God until you identify your own Idol and surrender that to God you are not going to move forward and many many of us have idols lastly God wants us to partner with him what do we mean by partnership with God you are committed to God's will you want to do it in God's way and you want to do it God's time and you want to do it God's power that's partnership judges 6 36 this is what happened said to God if you are going to save Israel through me no this is a grammar you are going to save Israel through me partnership but you want to use me partnership as you have spoken behold I am putting a fleece of wool on the threshing floor if there is you on the fleece only it is dry and then I will know you are gonna use me I will know that you will save Israel through me it's called the famous test the fleece have you heard of that expression please what just was saying to prove to let me know that you really want to use me and you have called me let's put this place at out at night in the morning when the surrounding area is dry and the fleece is wet then I know you're calling me do you understand scientifically impossible how can the surrounding area surrounding area be dry and then the fleece is wet is it wrong to ask God for confirmation yes or no you see Gideon was not testing God Gideon wanted to be sure if I were you I do this in my own life I asked for confirmation because sometimes we can be presumptuous let's talk about marriage I remember years ago when I was courting my wife okay you heard of my love story you want to hear it again what is a confirmation I never proposed to my wife but I went to the states she did not know as I was going to court her parents because confirmation means what you must have the approval of the parents But first you must make sure that the person you are marrying will say yes to you right I mean that's confirmation number two you must have their parents approval which I got I got my parental approval which I got but then there's one more confirmation she belongs to an amazing organization called campus Crusade for Christ it's just a contract with them and we decided you got to honor a contract the contract says she cannot live until there's a replacement you see my wife is so beautiful it's hard to find a replacement and the replacement must be able to sing because it's in a musical theme and third the replacement massive money to travel all over Asia because they raise their own support now technically I could have just said you know what you are getting out of Campus crucial for Christ you're going to marry me I'll take care of you adios goodbye but that's not how we were trained we were trained to do God's will God's way God's time in God's power I have good news for you almost 50 years ago all of this happened praise God you can now see my friend [Applause] God wants us to be his partner to be his partner you have to trust God's way God's time and God's power Judges chapter 6 verse 34. you know what it says the spirit of the Lord Came Upon Gideon and he blew the trumpet and that's why God is our partner he wants you to know you cannot do this on your own you need the holy spirit in your life do you have the Holy Spirit in your life when you have the Holy Spirit you have Supernatural power in your life he changes your heart he changes your desire you will no longer be serving God in your own strength and that my friend is the secret of sustaining your ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit now the problem is this Gideon was able to mobilize 32 000 men remember the story after 32 000 men what did God tell Gideon sorry sorry too many now listen to me if you are the general and you are fighting 135 000 people okay that's the number of your enemy what do you want to have how many soldiers do you need those of you who have many people in the military what's the ratio do you want to have more soldiers yes or no well God said you have too many so what did God do lots of you are scared you live so how many left twenty thousand twenty two thousand left so how many was left with Gideon ten thousand ten thousand against hundred thirty five thousand now if he will give you will you be excited or they start getting nervous everybody read this the Lord said to Gideon the people are still what are still too many excuse me ten thousand too many now do you know why God wanted to bring down the people do you know why you read the previous verse why did God want to reduce the number of people look at verse two everybody read Israel would become proud my own power has saved me you begin to understand the ways of God God wants you to recognize it is him not you not me but we are partners Partners means what you do your part let God do his part your part is to listen and obey you know what shocked me ten thousand was still too much so God says we do some more so how many were left 300. that's the famous 300. did you watch Spartans that's not the real thing this is the real thing okay 300 300 now if you think that's enough no you know what was the strategy of God the strategy of God if you read the Bible it's very simple God says You must 300 what's your weapon everybody what is this okay this is not the real thing okay I don't know how to do it what else do you need I want to I want to bring a soldier here right so this is what you are supposed to do okay now I want to imagine now you have 300 men what's their weapon one hand trumpet on the other hand a jar with torch now how many hands do you have two where is the sword where on the bed but you're gonna fight with trumpet and torch now be honest with me if you're the general we set a good strategy fighting hundred thirty five thousand men not only that look at the verse about God's timing okay can you read the next verse about God's timing you know God you know what did God tell Gideon well this is what God Said Gideon I tell you the time okay here is the time well let's start with verse 15. verse 15. God is so nice so patient with Gideon he took the initiative he told Gideon in Tagalog this is now the PTC version [Music] in English so that you will not be afraid you go down to the camp and you hear what they are talking about the guys were dreaming you know what was their dream a barley bread the cheapest kind of bread barley not with this is for the poor The Barley bread came down and destroyed the tent and the people interpreted the dream by themselves this is Gideon God is giving us to Gideon he's going to defeat us when Gideon heard the dream look at God's timing went back he worshiped the Lord and he said this is the butter plant what is the butter plant you divide the 300 soldiers into three company company a company B company C and what is the weapon drama okay now don't drama yet and then what must you do look at me he's now Brave look at me and do likewise that is a leader do as I do when I blow the trumpets around the entire camp you must do the same and Gideon in the hundred men who were with him 300 men went to the outskirts of the camp in the middle of the night do you know what time that is God even specified the time 10 pm at night you attack them 10 pm at night when they had just posted the watch and then you must blow the trumpets everybody smash the pictures that were in the hands when the three companies blew the trumpets broke the pictures had the Torches in their hands and the trumpets in their right hand they start blowing guess what happened or demo how do you break the jar Italian drama okay okay drama stand up so you have done torch and uh trumpet what must you do keep blowing three companies no yes very good very good now what happened to the 135 000 middle nights God's partnership Trust God's way the Bible tells us they fought among themselves and the rest is history friends is God amazing yes or no now let me ask you a question can you be like Gideon yes or no it's a process but you cannot be a Gideon until you learn to realize God is your senior partner are you willing to trust him you cannot trust God if you don't know him my heart goes out for many of us many of you have heard people trust God trust God trust God but you cannot trust God can I tell you why even if you like to you know why you don't know him you cannot trust somebody you don't know the older I get the more I realize who God is the more I obey the more I know him and the more I know him the more I realize God loves me and the more I know him the more I realize God is faithful and the more I know him I realize God keeps his promises question do you have that encounter with God have you invited Jesus as your lord and savior that is Step number one until you have Jesus in your heart how will you get to know God number two after knowing Jesus slowly but surely remove the idols from your heart if God has spoken to you and you feel like where do I begin I suggest you begin by surrendering your idols to the Lord whatever it is in your life whatever is holding you back from surrendering your life why don't you do it right now wherever you are I will pray for you if you have Idols in your life I want to pray for you and you want to surrender it the conditions you want to surrender that will you raise your hands yes you have eyebrows in your heart and you want to surrender that either raise your hand higher I want to pray for you I want to pray for those people who you are identifying the idol of your life and you want to surrender them to the Lord praise God anybody else all right Keep Your Hands Up I'm going to pray for you Lord Jesus I pray for this group of men and women who are identifying admitting dead Idols in their lives and now they are surrendering them they are surrendering their Idols to you Lord are they as they surrender the idols to you will you honor their honest prayer it is so hard for us to give up our Idols Lord it is our security it is our source of happiness but Lord you are telling us today we need to surrender that to you and today Lord as they surrender the idols to you I pray you make yourself real you make yourself so real in their lives that they will fall in love with you that they will come to know you more and more to those of you who have never invited Jesus to be your Lord and Savior by faith okay I want you to pray this prayer with me now pray Wherever You Are you pray this prayer if you are not yet sure that Christ is in your heart you want to begin the first step you pray this prayer Lord Jesus I come before you as I am I need you I invite you today as my Lord and my savior be my master I Surrender my all to you you are my senior partner I will do things I will do your will I will do it your way and I'll do it in your time in a Bible I'll do it in your power help me to live this kind of a life a life of surrender to you A life of peace and joy knowing that you are in absolute control in Jesus name we all pray amen amen God bless you [Music] [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Christ’s Commission Fellowship

Views: 98,286

Keywords: CCF, Christ's, Commission, Fellowship, Sunday, Service, Sermon, Speaker, Message, Personal Growth, Problems, Weakness, God's perspective, God sees our potential, God changes people, God's victory and glory, Obedience

Id: OqU_fFDkrcQ

Length: 39min 2sec (2342 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 18 2023