Used Of God
I.
Proverbs 28:13-14-When
you miss it whether you cover or confess will have a big impact
on your future
A. Not repenting of sin
(confessing and forsaking) will keep you from advancing, making progress,
breaking out (Prosper-Advance, Make Progress, Succeed, Break Out, To experience
prosperity)
1.
If you want to prosper,
to advance, to make progress, succeed, break out, and experience prosperity,
then when you are corrected/directed, when you miss it, you must confess it and
you must change
a. You can make all the right confessions, but if you don’t confess
it and change when you’re corrected/directed you won’t prosper; you can sow
seed, tithe, come to church, read your bible, but if you miss it and don’t
repent you won’t prosper
2.
This
hardening and covering and refusing to change keeps people from advancing
B. Some are missing out on
promotion and advancement because God has showed them something and instead of
changing, they harden themselves, cover it and don’t repent
1.
God
promotes on a step by step basis, not all at once-Romans 4:12
a. These little corrections
God’s gives to you, how you handle them, what you do when they come plays a big
part in what he is able to do in your life
b. If God says to you come
to church on Wednesday night and you don’t, to you it is sin and if you don’t
repent/change then you won’t advance or be promoted to the next step
c. You don’t get big steps
first you get little steps and if you don’t handle the little steps properly you
never advance to the bigger ones
2.
God’s plan for your life
is not set in stone; how you handle the correction and direction he gives you
determines how much of his plan that you experience
a. It was God’s plan that
Moses take them into the promise land, but that didn’t happen
b. If you want to experience the fullness of his plan, then you
must walk in the light you have and repent and change when he corrects you
c. Jeremiah 29:11-He does
have a plan to prosper you, but without this you don’t get to that plan
3.
Your
life that is hid in Jesus is a continual series of directions and corrections
a. God will constantly shine
the light on you bit by bit and when you see imperfection if you want to
advance and prosper then you must change
4.
We’re not just talking
about ugly sin (i.e. fornication, adultery, unforgiveness, hatred), we’re
talking about you knew in your heart to do something and you didn’t do it; And
if you cover that and hide it and don’t confess it and turn from it and change,
then you won’t advance
II.
This is so big in being
used of God; you got to be pliable, you got to be meek, you to be humble, quick
to repent, quick to change
A. Numbers 12:3-Moses was
the meekest (Meek-Yielding, Submissive, Humble) man in his generation and he
was also the most used man of God in his generation;
1.
There is a connection in
your level of humility and the degree that you are used of God
a. God’s not just picking people on a whim; he’s looking for humility
and honor
b. People who walk in higher levels of humility and value His
things the most are the ones who will be used the most
2.
The
more meek/humble you are the more grace you’ll have and the more grace you have
the greater you’ll be used of God; The more grace you have the more greatly you
can be used-James 4:6-7
a. Grace is for
assignments---More and greater assignments and grace come to the humble
3.
You
need grace to be used and the proud don’t get grace so the proud don’t get
used; The proud don’t get the assignments and they don’t get the grace
a. One of the strongest ways pride manifests itself is this
hardening of the neck, this covering of the sin, this refusal to repent and to
change-Proverbs 28:13, Proverbs 29:1
1)
This covering of sin and
hardening of the heart will keep you from being used by God
b. When you see this in people DON’T USE THEM; We’re not looking
for perfection, but we are looking for humility
4.
What
God does with the meek/humble
a. James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:6,
Matthew 23:12, Psalm 147:6-God lifts up and exalts the humble
b. Psalm 25:9-God guides the
meek and teaches them his way
c. Psalm 37:11-The meek will
delight themselves in an abundance of prosperity
d. Psalm 149:4-God
beautifies the meek with salvation
5.
When you are meek and
humble you are pliable, you are yielding, your adaptable, you are quick to
repent, quick to change, quick to obey
a. A person is inflexible,
uncooperative, inadaptable, slow to repent and slow to change when corrected by
the Lord will not be used of God in a great way
B. This pride is a big issue
to God and when it comes to choosing who he uses pride will disqualify you
1.
When
it comes to God choosing who He uses some stuff is a bigger red flag to God
than others and pride is a really big red flag
a. James 4:6-God resists the proud
b. Proverbs 6:16-17-These six things doth the LORD hate: yea,
seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look
c. Proverbs 15:25-The LORD will destroy the house of the proud
d. Proverbs 16:5-Every one that is proud in heart is an
abomination to the LORD
e. Proverbs 8:13-Pride, and arrogancy,
and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
2.
EX:
Well you know Bob is just a little proud and stubborn sometimes, but he has a
good heart so I’ll be gracious to Him anyway and use Him anyway; THIS IS NOT
GOD’S ATTITUDE; He gets no grace, he gets resisted, he does not get used
C. I’m convinced that when
God is looking for people to use that the quality he looks for most is the
humble, teachable, repentant heart; someone who is pliable, adaptable, quick to
obey
1.
John
13:8-Peter was used mightily of God and this was one of the main reasons why
2.
Matthew
21:28-32-It was doing the wrong thing and not changing that God couldn’t work
with
a. He said the wrong thing,
but afterward he repented
3.
When
God ask you to do something will you do it? When he corrects you will you
change?
a. God is gracious and he is
merciful and he will give you time to repent; That being said I don’t want to
be one who He needs to give a lot of time to; I want to be quick to repent; Be
quick to repent; Stop fussing with right; don’t argue with right; Wrong is
wrong
III.
You got people losing
their place, their grace, their assignments and anointing because of a refusal
to repent; they didn’t lose those things because of ugly sin, they lost them
because they wouldn’t repent
A. 1 Samuel 15-His pride,
His refusal to repent, His covering of sin affected his grace, his anointing,
his assignment and his usefulness to God
1.
3-Course
correction-Because usually when you defeat an enemy you spare the king and keep
the spoils
a. When you marched back in
with the opposing king captured and all the spoil of the enemy taken there
would be a great celebration and the victorious king and his army would be
acknowledged, seen, celebrated by the people (This time if they win they are
going to come back with nothing)
b. Wanting to be seen and
noticed is a manifestation of pride and Saul has a pride problem and that is
directly connected to his refusal to repent when he gets corrected
2.
8-9-He
regarded this course correction, this direction as a light thing
a. The reason so many are so slow to repent and change is
because they don’t honor or value what God says to them; to them what He said
means little or nothing; it’s no big deal
b. We’ve perfected talking about his mercy grace so that we
don’t have to talk about our not doing what he says
c. All this stuff they are sparing and keeping is more valuable
and important to him than this word God spoke to him; he values this spoil,
more than he values the word from the Lord
3.
12-HE
set up a trophy for HIS victory (He wants to be seen and noticed and
celebrated)
a. Why is Saul up early in
the morning building this trophy? Because this is most important to him
4.
13-He’s
lying and covering, he’s not confessing-Pride pretends; He’s pretending like he
did a good thing
a. Pride doesn’t want to
deal with reality and the reality is he didn’t do what God said
b. You can see pride here
too because he doesn’t need to broadcast that he did what God said even if he
had done exactly what God said
5.
14-This
was his first opportunity to repent and he covered instead of confessed
6.
15-He’s
blaming, he’s covering, he’s not confessing
a. When it came to the
sparing it was “They” but when it came to the destroying that was “We”
b. He says “They spared
them” because in his heart he knows it was wrong
c. Were they planning on
sacrificing them the Lord had Samuel not said anything about it? No
d. The rest we have
destroyed; God didn’t say the rest, he said all – You can tell what God
said to him, meant nothing to him
7.
16-He
must be getting worked up because Samuel had to tell him to calm down
a. There’s some defiance in
this “Say on” response
8.
17-Apparenlty
he’s not small in his own sight anymore
9.
19-God
is giving him time and another opportunity to repent – This is the mercy
of God
a. It’s time to repent, to
own it, to humble yourself and to be a man and not try to justify it and cover
it
b. He did evil in the sight
of the Lord --- He didn’t walk in the light that he had (and now it’s time to
repent, but he won’t)
10.
20-21-He’s
defiant and blaming an defensive and trying to justify his wrong behavior
a. This is covering and hiding
and justifying and blaming; this is pride not humility
11.
22-The
Lord wants you to do what he says; not disobey him and then try to cover it
with “religious” works
12.
23-The
rebellion was bad enough, but he added stubbornness to it (pushing, pressing,
arrogance, presumption, to be insolent)
a. 23-Rebellion insinuates
you knew what was right and did wrong anyway
1)
This
whole time he knows what was right and that he did wrong
2)
20-21-He
knows something wasn’t done right because he blames the people for the wrong
and says some stuff, SHOULD HAVE BEEN destroyed
b. 23-Stuborness-Push,
Insolent, Arrogance, Presumption
1)
Never push back on the
correction of the Lord
2)
Some
when they get corrected they get brash and arrogant and push back and Saul did
this
3)
It
wasn’t just the rebellion that got him in trouble, it was the stubbornness
added to it
c. It’s not the disobedience
that is the big thing here; it’s that he won’t repent
1)
This
was not the plan of God for his life; The problem was not just that he took the
spoil and spared the king, the problem was he would not repent; he’s covering
and can’t prosper
13.
23-He
despised the Word from the Lord; not just the first word of direction, but the
second word of correction and he lost his place
a. He lost his place, his
grace, his assignment; He’s not going to be used of God in that way anymore
14.
24-He
didn’t want to repent, until it cost him something (until he got caught)
a. It wasn’t important
enough to him, until HE was going to lose something
1)
He’s
ready to repent after he knows he’s going to lose his kingdom, but he wasn’t
ready before
2)
He
was sorry he lost his kingdom, but he never truly repented
3)
His
wasn’t ready to change his heart, he just didn’t want to lose his Kingdom
b. 30-He still wants to be
acknowledge and recognized in front of the people
15.
2
Samuel 12, 1 Samuel 15-The issue here is that David didn’t cover it and hide
it, while Saul tried to and that was why David continue to be used of the Lord
and Saul lost is anointing
a. 9-David didn’t walk in
the light he had and now it’s time to repent
b. 13-David didn’t cover it,
he acknowledge it and that’s why he continued to be used of God
B. Numbers 20:1-20-A failure
to repent will eventually lead to a removal of your place and can keep you from
fulfilling the plan of God for your life
1.
There’s
dishonor, there’s pride, there’s lack of faith
a. Sanctify-To treat has
hallowed or sacred
b. Their was an utter
disregard for the words that God has spoke to them; the instructions he gave
them meant nothing to them – Dishonor
c. Must WE fetch you water
out of this rock – Pride
2.
Deuteronomy
3:24-26-There was an unwillingness to repent
a. He’s blaming the people
from God being wroth (passing over) with Him
b. The people didn’t hit the
rock, the people didn’t rebel against the Lord
3.
Luke
12:48-Much was required of him, because much was given to him
C. Acts 5:1-In their pride
they covered and didn’t confess and their pride caused them to perish
1.
A
powerful move of God is happening where people are liquidating their things and
giving it to the Kingdom and people who are doing it are being recognized and
talked about and in their pride Ananias and Sapphira want to be seen
2.
There
was time for them to repent & when Peter starts talking to them like this
it’s time to do it-3,8,9
a. 3-Peter asked Ananias a
question, but he didn’t answer
b. The both stood there
tight lipped, stiff-necked, hard hearted
3.
They
didn’t perish because they lied, they perished because they wouldn’t repent and
it was not the will of God for their lives-1 Peter 3:9 --- Did they have to perish?
a. They wanted to be seen
for doing something good and how embarrassing it would be for them to be seen
for doing something bad
D. Genesis 3:10-Adam covered
and didn’t confess, Eve covered and didn’t confess