God Is Changing You

God may be changing you instead of changing your situation.

[Watch the Video]

Outline:

• Introduction
• What Happens When God Is Silent

• Tests my priorities
• Tests my identity
• Tests my maturity
• Tests my faith
• We’re Praying to Remove the Symptoms
• You Won't Change Until You Hit Rock Bottom
• God is Disciplining You
• We’re Like a Seed

Scriptures:

• Philippians 2:12-13
• James 1:2-4
• Luke 14:26
• Hebrews 5:8
• Hebrews 12:7-11

Introduction

Hearing From God

“Don’t tell me God is silent when your bible is closed

I know that I’m far from perfect but I want to be close

Even on this broken road I know that God’s in control

I’m not where I wanna be I’m on the right road

  --Enough (Misfits Social Club)

...don’t tell me God is silent when your bible is closed

That’s a reminder that the bible is the primary way that God talks to us.

Review

God responds in 5 ways

1. Yes
2. No
3. Wait
4. Confirmation / Direction / Clarity
5. Silence

We’re continuing to examine the scenario when God is silent.

God is Changing You

You are in the wilderness 

Philippians 2:12-13

12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure

• God took Israel out of Egypt instantly, but it took 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel.

Teaches me something about myself

What Happens When God is Silent

James 1:2-4

2  Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

When God is silent it

• Tests my priorities
• Tests my identity
• Tests my maturity
• Tests my faith

Tests my priorities

What do I value?

Identifies My Idols?

Is this something you value more than God?

What do you value more than God?

• Happiness
• Other people’s opinion
• Sex
• Significance
• money
• Family
• Spouse
• Your children

Parent/Child

Many people lose faith when they have a death of a parent or a child

Luke 14:26

“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

Hate: μισέω miséō, mis-eh'-o; to detest (especially to persecute); by extension, to love less

Example: American Me

• Puppet choked his brother (Little Puppet)

Control

Is it that your mother died or is it that you couldn’t control God?

• You couldn’t manipulate Him to get your way
• You don’t want to be in a relationship where you’re not in control

The Prosperity Doctrine is popular among driven people because it proclaims to give you a method to control God

• Through faith

Test your identity

Do you see yourself as a Christian first?

• “Are you a rapper that’s a Christian or a Christian that’s a rapper?”
• “Are you a programmer that’s a Christian or a Christian that’s a programmer”
• Are you a Republican who is a Christian or Christian who is a Republican?

What do you want to be identified as?

What are you most proud of?

If you are in a social setting and you have to introduce yourself, what do you say?

Tests my maturity

Example: child throwing a tantrum because he wants his popsickle now

• Instead of waiting to get home

The inability to wait is a sign of immaturity

• Patience is a mark of maturity 

Are you going to throw a tantrum? Are you going to go and try to solve it by yourself?

Tests my faith

• Muscles are strengthened by being tested

Do I really believe God?

Do I trust God?

Many people lose their faith when God is silent 

We’re Praying to Remove the Symptoms

When we want God to remove the pain God is often more concerned with the root (the cause)

If God removed the symptom you would never address the real issue

Finances

Get Out Of Debt

Example: lottery

• Get me out of debt God
• Nearly ⅓ of US lottery winners go bankrupt in a few years
• Stop spending more money than you have
• Stop coveting… The new phone the new car

The love of money is shown by you spending more money than you have

• “The love of money” is really a love of the things that money buys
• It is not talking about loving to save money

The core problem is that you buy things to feel worthy or valued

God wants to cure the root issue

• What caused you to get into that problem
• We want God to deal with the symptoms
• God wants to deal with our character
• God wants you healed

Are you willing to have God change you instead of changing the circumstance?

Mate Selection

90% of relationships success is due to mate selection

Praying for a husband

You See A Pattern

You keep attracting the wrong type of people

• “All men are dogs”
• “All women are demanding, entitled and unappreciative”

• All my relationships have failed for the same reason.

You Are the Common Denominator

• You’re attracted to the wrong type of person
• You’re attracting the wrong type of person

Example:  Men Just Want Sex

• You meet them in nightclubs dressed like a slut
• You have sexy pictures on your dating profile
• Or you’re on IG showing your body
• What kind of bait are you fishing with

The core issue is where you are getting your validation from

• You fulfill your need for attention and validation in an unhealthy way
• Your self esteem and self worth are tied to men’s reaction to you

Example: Abusive Relationship

• Girl breaks up with her abusive ex
• Girl goes back to her abusive ex or another abuser
• Girl finds a nice guy who she can cry on his shoulder and complain to

The core issue is that your idea of love is tied to being abused

You think this is what love looks like

Example: Fixer and Taker

• The fixer blames himself for things that go wrong in a relationship. The taker is used to blaming others.  
• Fixers gives without taking. Takers takes without giving.  
• Fixers feel like they don’t have a right to say what they feel. Takers feel entitled to say whatever they feel like whenever they want.
• Fixers have too much of a conscious and are always thinking of other people in a relationship. Takers have no conscious and are always thinking of themselves.

You don’t like you. You like the opposite of you.  

The fixers view of love is tied to trying to please someone who is hard to please

Repetition

If you don’t get healed you will continually have the same problem.  

You anchor your feelings of love to an abuse that happened to you.  

Repetition compulsion: what you don’t complete you will repeat

• Core issues that you don’t resolve you will stay stuck in for the rest of your life

Until you fix your issue any relationship you get in will fail

You Won't Change Until You Hit Rock Bottom

We are often not open to the truth that the issue is within ourselves. We often have to go through a bad situation in order to start looking inward.

Sometimes you have to be in a low state in order to accept the truth

• You can’t tell an alcoholic he’s an alcoholic when he’s on a high

Not getting a solution can drive you to deal with the real problem

You don’t have enough discipline motivation and drive to change

• The pain of your current state does not outweigh the pleasure of your current state.  
• When people hit rock bottom they are open to trying new ideas for thinking outside of the box.

Turning to God

This is when people decide to turn to God.

• Therefore God needs to keep bringing you into this state.

Many people only seek God when they don’t have the answer 

Examples

• Church
• Bible study when laid off

Jesus Learned From Suffering

Hebrews 5:8

Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

Some people have to suffer in order to grow

How to Avoid Hitting Rock Bottom

If you hear from God you can avoid the negative situation and start to turn your life because God told you to. 

You may not even know what God is working on until you notice the change.

God is Disciplining You

Hebrews 12:7-11

7It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

• Discipline isn’t just punishment
• Discipline is intended to modify your behavior
• Correction

Discipline is an act of love

Example: Good Times

• James whipped Michael’s friend

It is an act of love

The goal is that we turn to God completely

*That doesn’t mean that everything bad that happens is discipline from God

We’re Like a Seed

Sometimes we’re like a seed.  

• We got put down into the darkness into the dirt.
• We don’t know if the farmer forgot about us or not
• We haven’t seen sunlight in days
• Every now and then the dirt gets damp

Protected

• Every seed is wrapped in a hard protective coating
• Moses was in a basket when all the other Hebrew children were being killed
• Jesus went to Egypt when the babies were being killed

Provision

The seed doesn’t have the roots to get the nutrients from the soil

• The seed has its own food supply until the time that it is able to get nutrients from the soil
• The seed has provision
• The stuff that the seed needs is already in the seed

Potential

• It’s just a matter of time before the potential is released
• 
  

But one day we start to change start to feel different

• We begin to transform into something else

God is changing you for a greater purpose!



Instructor: Michael Leadon

---

References

What to Do when is seems like God Doesn’t Respond - Stephen Furtick

https://youtu.be/4_0G1-hS1QY

God May be Changing You (Persistent Prayer)

Extra

Suffering

Hebrews 2:9-10

But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

We don’t deserve it more than Jesus and we don’t learn more quickly than Jesus.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

• God takes us through to help others

Why God Doesn't Respond to Prayer

Some of the reasons that your prayers may not be getting answered.

[Watch the Video]

Scriptures:

• Philippians 2:12-13
• Ephesians 3:20
• James 4:3
• 1 John 5:14-15
• Matthew 7:11
• Proverbs 28:9
• Daniel 3:16-18
• 1 Peter 3:7
• Psalms 66:18
• ‭‭John‬ ‭9:31‬
• James 1:5-8
• Hebrews 11:6
• Isaiah 58: 6-9
• ‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭3:10-12‬
• Matthew 6:12-14

Outline:

• Introduction
• The Answer is Wait
• You Already Got an Acorn
• God is Changing You
• God Has Something Better Planned
• Wrong Motives
• Opposite of God's Will
• Disregard for the Word
• Praying to the Wrong God
• Marital Conflict
• Sin
• Doubt
• You're Not Helping Others
• Unforgiveness
• Conclusion

Introduction

Hearing From God

The greatest feeling is when prayers are answered supernaturally

—Francis Chan

• not a coincidence
• not just the answer
• someone is listening to you

makes your faith “real” to you

Example: my father didn’t exist

• I grew up with him

gives us a GPS to navigate through life

Review

God responds in 5 ways

1. Yes
2. No
3. Wait
4. Confirmation / Direction / Clarity
5. Silence

Why God Doesn’t Respond to Prayer

Cell Phone Reception

There are some places where a cell phone doesn’t work

Example: my house

• Going in garage
• Same with God

We will look at reasons why God may be silent...

The Answer is Wait

• It’s coming

God gave you a seed

• A dream
• A desire
• A hope for healing
• A hope for provision

Faith can be like planting a seed

• Sowing
• Reaping
• Waiting

Sowing a seed means releasing it

• It’s out of my hands
• I need to let go of my agenda
• Let God lead

You Already Got an Acorn

You asked for an oak tree and God gave you an acorn

God already answered you

• It just doesn’t look the way you were expected

God gave you the seed of the dream

• But He expects you to water it
• He expects you to prune the bush
• He expects you to fertilize it

Example: layoff -> diabetes

• time

God is Changing You

Philippians 2:12-13

12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure

• The seed sprouts and grows because of the work of the soil
• If the soil isn’t right the seed won’t grow
• The soil is our heart
• God can change the soil after the seed has been planted

You Weren’t Ready Yet

You might not be ready for it when you ask

Exhaust your options

The Seed is Growing Underground

Just like the seed

The struggle could be changing your perspective or your priorities

You know God is working in you not because you don’t sin but because you struggle to sin

• The fact that you have a desire to do good means God is working in you

God Has Something Better Planned

Ephesians 3:20

 20Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us

• He has more than we asked for awaiting

It was technically a “no” 

Example: Jesus and the teddy bear

Because He is good and knows what’s eternally best for us, and doesn’t want us to settle, God sometimes says no or closes a door because He has something better for us that we haven’t even thought to ask for. He is One who can do “immeasurably more” than all we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Trust His timing. Trust His “no.” And trust His idea of what is eternally best for you. He really is a good father.

Example: when job hunting

• Start to creatively interpret the job description
• Couldn’t get a job in my expertise so why do I think I can in another area?
• God said to stop

But I eventually got a call from a friend

Example: dating

• Same
• “She travels a lot for work so she always near bibles”

** stories **

Wrong Motives

James 4:3

You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Example: You want a spouse

• Treated like a queen
• Vs help meet

Genesis 2:20 “for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him”

Should be:

• Help fulfil God’s purpose - strengthen the church
• “Building the Kingdom”

Opposite of God’s Will

1 John 5:14-15

14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

Example:  asking for promotion or boss treat you better

• Should be a missionary 

How to Know God’s Will

• You find His will in His word
• Hearing from God

God’s idea of a “good thing” might be different than yours

Matthew 7:11

11“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

Example: giving a little buy a BB gun

• He will shoot his eye out

You might be praying for a husband, a job you’ve been hoping for, or to win the lottery. Why would God not give you any or all of the three? Because even though you might feel it’s good for you to be married, or to be working in a job you like, or to have more money, God’s opinion might differ.

Just because we think something will make us happy doesn’t mean it’s good for us in God’s eyes. 

• You might be asking for a job that will distract you from your mate
• You might be asking for a mate that will distract you from your calling

You may be incorrectly prioritizing your desires

You priorities your desires

• You want a short commute, but you want a house
• You want to save money, but you want to look cool
• You want to tithe 10%, but you don’t want a roommate
• You want more sleep, but you want to see what happens on your tv show
• You want a 6 pack, but you have a sweet tooth
• You want a good marriage but you have a sweet tooth
• You want a good husband but sometimes you get lonely

God's  Priorities

God answers prayer according to His will.  But just like us, the desires are not all equal.

God has a will too, but not all aspects of His will are of equal priority. For example:

1. Keep His Word
2. Free Will
3. God’s glory
4. Your Desires

Your desires don’t necessarily trump of God’s other priorities

You Chose Wrong Path

Your desires could be out of synch with your free will

• What you’re doing won’t get you what you want

Disregard for the Word

Proverbs 28:9

He who turns away his ear from listening to the law,

Even his prayer is an abomination.

• Not just sinning, but you won’t listen

You have created a stronghold that is against God’s word

• ideology
• paradigm

Example:

• The bible is outdated

• That was a different culture
• Same sex abomination thing is discrimination (love is love)
• That stuff about women being submissive doesn’t apply now

• There are multiple paths to Heaven
• Political ideologies

Praying to the Wrong God

Daniel 3:16-18

16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.

17 “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

18 “But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

• Faith says: “God can” not “God has to”

Doctrines / paradigm

• If I have faith God will give me whatever I want
• If I do good, bad things won’t happen to me
• If I’m good, God owes me a reward

Some of the problems we have with prayer arise out of a wrong understanding of God. The better we know the God in the Scriptures, the better we will understand how to pray—and why God responds to prayer as He does.

Marital Conflict

1 Peter 3:7

You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

Biblical Relationship Wisdom

• Men love your wife
• Women respect your husband

Oxytocin

• Lowers women’s stress
• Increases their happiness

Talking about issues raises men’s stress

• Testosterone turns to estrogen

Sin

Sinful Plans

Psalms 66:18-19

18 If I regard wickedness in my heart,

The Lord will not hear;

19 But certainly God has heard;

He has given heed to the voice of my prayer.

• Imagine it
• ^think it’s ok

Regard (ra'ah)

• to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider

Thought -> feeling -> act -> habit -> lifestyle-> destiny

Guilt and Shame

• Planned sin
• Guilt
• Doubt that God hears you

Committing Sin

‭‭John‬ ‭9:31‬

“We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.”

Sin no longer completely separates us from God

• We can’t have the type of relationship Adam had

• God is a trinity
• No sin will remove the Holy Spirit from within us

Impacts Your Relationship

It affects your relationship

Example: kid breaking the window

• Don’t get punished (grace)
• Ask for a new bike
• Didn’t even acknowledge the broken window
• Still a son, but relationship is strained

Doubt

James 1:5-8

5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Wisdom

• You need wisdom to make decisions
• You need wisdom when you don’t hear from God

Doubt

• If you doubt you won’t receive anything

 Hebrews 11:6

6And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

1. Faith that God exists
2. Faith that God rewards those who seek Him

waiting to punish you 

How do you know God exists

1. Faith - belief
2. Rational / logical
3. Experience

• Hear from God
• Supernatural experience
• Testimony

Testimony

• Angels
• why you believe in God
• Conversion experience

Story: Chinese Hindu

• Raising kids Christian

You’re Not Helping Others

Isaiah 58: 6-9

      6“Is this not the fast which I choose,

            To loosen the bonds of wickedness,

            To undo the bands of the yoke,

            And to let the oppressed go free

            And break every yoke?

      7“Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry

            And bring the homeless poor into the house;

            When you see the naked, to cover him;

            And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

      8“Then your light will break out like the dawn,

            And your recovery will speedily spring forth;

            And your righteousness will go before you;

            The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

      9“Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;

            You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

            If you remove the yoke from your midst,

            The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,

He is asking us to be the hands and feet of Jesus

This is the ultimate test of our Christianity

• Loving your neighbor as yourself

You’re an unbeliever

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭3:10-12‬

10 For,

“THE ONE WHO DESIRES LIFE, TO LOVE AND SEE GOOD DAYS,

MUST KEEP HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL AND HIS LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT.

11 “HE MUST TURN AWAY FROM EVIL AND DO GOOD;

HE MUST SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT.

12 “FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE TOWARD THE RIGHTEOUS,

AND HIS EARS ATTEND TO THEIR PRAYER,

BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL.”

The only prayer an unbeliever may be assured God will answer—and answer immediately—is a prayer of faith and acceptance of His Son, who died on the cross and rose again, as the basis for the forgiveness of your sins.

‭‭

Unforgiveness

Matthew 6:12-14

12 And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass

 against us.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

• If you don’t forgive then your sins are forgiven
• That push you in the same category as an unbeliever

Conclusion

You Don’t Always Know Why

African Burrito Girl Story

You may not have a testimony, but...

You are a testimony

Instructor: Michael Leadon

References 

Why isn’t God answering my prayers

https://youtu.be/RLfc5Mbn7kY

Can You Hear me Now

https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/women/5-reasons-why-god-isn-t-answering-your-prayers.html

5 REASONS GOD DOESN’T ANSWER YOUR PRAYERS

https://waynestiles.com/5-reasons-god-doesnt-answer-your-prayers/

When God Doesn't Listen by Francis Chan

https://youtu.be/TLuVeQVwZUA

What to Do when is seems like God Doesn’t Respond

https://youtu.be/4_0G1-hS1QY

5 Reasons God Doesn't Answer Your Prayers

https://waynestiles.com/5-reasons-god-doesnt-answer-your-prayers/

Extra

You’re An Unbeliever

Proverbs‬ ‭15:8-9‬ ‭NASB‬‬

“The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But the prayer of the upright is His delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But He loves one who pursues righteousness.”