17 "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working …. Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. 20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and greater works than these will He show Him, that you may marvel." NASB

The Father has been working since before creation. Jesus began His visible work in His incarnate ministry on earth.
The statements of these verses tell us that God is at work. God is at work all around us.
Jesus watched and watches the Father work and then copied and copies His example. We are to watch them and copy their example. We are to observe the Father working around us and to join Him in what He is doing.
Read Text: II Kings 6:14-18 (PP)
2 Ki 6:14-18
14 And he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.
15 Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" 16 So he answered, " Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, " O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." (PP) And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 18 And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, "Strike this people with blindness, I pray." So He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. NASB
I. It is possible for God to be working around you
and you not see it. (PP)
Elisha and his servant were in the city of Dothan surrounded by an army. The servant was terrified, but Elisha was calm.

Elisha prayed. "O Lord open his eyes so he may see." (PP) Only when the Lord opened the servant’s eyes did he see God’s activity all around him.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem and its leaders as He prophesied the destruction that would take place in A.D. 70. He said, "If you even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes." (Lk. 19:42)
Here was God incarnate in the midst of the people performing wonderful signs and miracles, and they did not recognize Him. They were blind to the ways and works of God.
That is so hard for us to imagine isn’t it? I mean, how could Jesus be right there working the miracles of God and the people not recognize Him? What was their problem? (Answers- Mic) (Why were they blind? What kept them from seeing?)

Are we blind to the ways and works of God around us? (PP)
TWO FACTORS
Two factors are important for us to recognize the activity of God around us: (PP) (REPEAT)
I must be living in an intimate love relationship with God.
(How? - Expound – Message last week – Dt. 10:12-13)




(REPEAT) 2. God must and will take the initiative to open my spiritual eyes, so I can see what He is doing.
Right now God is working all around you and me. Do you believe that? Do you see His work?
He is working in our lives. One of the greatest tragedies among God’s people is that, while they have a deep longing to experience God, they do not understand that they are experiencing God day after day but do not know how to recognize Him.
It is my hope that through this message today, we can begin to open our eyes to the works of God around us. (PP) We want to clearly recognize the activity of God in and around our lives. The Holy Spirit and the Word of God will instruct you and help you know when and where God is working. Once we know where God is working we can adjust our lives to join Him in what He is doing. (PP)
When you enter into an intimate love relationship with God, you will know and do the will of God and experience Him in ways you have never know Him before. I, Mike Padgett, cannot accomplish that goal in your life. Only God can bring you into that kind of relationship with Himself.

II. We are a doing people.
We always want to be doing something. Once in a while someone will say, "Don’t just stand there, do something."

I think God is crying out and shouting to us… and especially to me, "Don’t just do something. Stand there!" (PP)

He wants us to enter into a love relationship with Him. He wants us to get to know Him. He is telling us, "Adjust you life to Me. Let Me love you and reveal Myself to you as I work through you."

A time will come when doing will be called for, but we cannot skip the relationship. The relationship with God must come first.
Jesus said, "I am the vine; your are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (Jn. 15:5)
We must have a relationship to the vine. We must abide in the vine. We are not simply connected to the vine, we are to receive all of our strength and direction from the vine.
We must realize that we are only a limb on the tree, a small twig in the whole scheme of things, and it is God that must work in us and through us to accomplish His will and His work.


III. God likes to use ordinary people.
Paul said God deliberately seeks out the weak things and the despised things because it is from them that He can receive the greatest glory (I Cor. 1:26-31).
When the unlikely is used of God to perform signs and wonders to His glory, then God gets all the glory. If you feel weak, limited, or ordinary, you are the best material through which God can work as you remain in the vine.
When you believe that nothing significant can happen through you, you have said more about your belief in God than you have said about yourself. (PP) You have said that God is not capable of doing anything significant through you.
The truth is, He is able to do anything He pleases with one ordinary person fully consecrated to Him.
Remember the TWO FACTORS: (PP)
1. I must be living in an intimate love relationship with God.
2. God must and will take the initiative to open my spiritual eyes, so I can see what He is doing.
To live a God-centered life, we must focus our life on God’s purposes not our own plans. We must seek to see from God’s perspective rather than from our own distorted human perspective.
When God starts to do something in the world, He takes the initiative to come and talk to somebody. For some divine reason, He has chosen to involve His people in accomplishing His purposes.
"Open my eyes Lord, let me see your wonderful works around me!"
(PP - Repeat)


Understanding what God is about to do where you are is more important than telling God what you want to do for Him.


We need to know what God has on His agenda for our church, our community, and our nation at this time in history. We then must adjust our lives to God, so that He can move us into the mainstream of His activity before it is too late.
Though God is not likely to give us a detailed schedule, He will let us know one step at a time how as individuals and as a church we need to respond to what He is doing.
All the way through the Scripture, God takes the initiative. When He comes to a person, He always reveals Himself and His activity. That revelation is always an invitation for the individual to adjust his life to God.
None of the people God ever encountered could remain the same after the encounter. They had to make major adjustments in their lives in order to walk obediently with God.

God’s revelation of His activity is an invitation for you to join Him. (PP)
When we are in the middle of the activity of God and God opens our eyes to let us see where He is working, we should always assume that God wants us to join Him at that point in what He is doing.


"Open my eyes Lord, let me see your wonderful works around me!"
(PP - Repeat)

Things Only God Can Do (PP)
God draws people to Himself.
God causes people to seek after Him.
God reveals spiritual truth.
God convicts the world of guilt regarding sin.
God convicts the world of righteousness.
God convicts the world of judgment.


When you see one of these things happening you can know God is at work. God is at work when you see someone coming to Christ, asking about spiritual matters, coming to understand spiritual truth, experiencing conviction of sin, being convinced of the righteousness of Christ, being convinced of judgment.
When a person experiences a heart for God’s desires, God is at work in the life of that individual.

IV. As a church, I want us to be conditioned to see things that only God can do.
When He lets us see where He is working, we can immediately take this as His invitation to join Him in what He is doing. (PP)
As a church I want us to not look for how God is going to bless us. I want us to look for how God is going to reveal Himself by working through us and out beyond us to accomplish His purposes in the world.
The working of God in and through our church will bring a blessing. The blessing is a by-product of our obedience and the experience of God at work in our midst.
Our plans and our purposes must be God’s plans and God’s purposes or we will not experience God working through us. God wants us to follow Him daily, not just to follow a plan. We are in danger of setting out to accomplish our plans and forgetting the relationship God wants us to have with Him continually.
Where is God at work? What is He doing around you?

Testimonies?

I believe there are five basic ongoing ministries God is working in and through here in Glasgow Bible Church. They are (in no order of priority or importance): (PP)

The AWANA Program
The Youth Ministry
The Faith Promise Missions Program
The Praise and Worship Ministry Team
The Pulpit Ministry of Preaching and Teaching the Word

Where do you fit into these five areas? Where could you join God in His work He is doing here? Is there some hands-on service God would have you to do in one or more of these areas?
Do you see what God is doing? Are you aware of His blessings upon us? Are your eyes open and are you tuned in on what He wants you to do?

"Open my eyes Lord, let me see your wonderful works around me!"
(PP - Repeat)
V. My main purpose as your Pastor.
My main purpose as your Pastor is to move you to God’s agenda for your personal life. My goal is for us all to have an intimate personal relationship with God. (PP)
In God’s spiritual economy, we do not measure results as the world does. Note the standard set forth clearly for the church and its leaders in Ephesians 4:11-16. (READ - PP)
Eph 4:11-16
11 And He gave some as apostles , and some as prophets , and some as evangelists , and some as pastors and teachers ,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service , to the building up of the body of Christ ;
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith , and of the knowledge of the Son of God , to a mature man , to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ .
14 As a result , we are no longer to be children , tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine , by the trickery of men , by craftiness in deceitful scheming ;
15 but speaking the truth in love , we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head , even Christ ,
16 from whom the whole body , being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies , according to the proper working of each individual part , causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love . NASB95



(PP) Paul’s focus under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was the developing of people. *He sought to take them from their spiritual immaturity and to bring them to spiritual maturity. *He led them from disobedience to obedience. *He brought them from faithlessness to fruitfulness. *His joy was in seeing those he led blossom into the people God wanted them to become.

The primary goal of spiritual leadership is not excellence, in the sense of doing things perfectly. Rather, it is taking people from where they are to where God wants them to be. (PP) The goal is an intimate personal relationship with God.
Remember the TWO FACTORS to EXPERIENCE GOD: (PP)
1. I must be living in an intimate love relationship with God.
2. God must and will take the initiative to open my spiritual eyes, so I can see what He is doing.

The spiritual leader cannot produce the fruit in the life of the believer. This is between the believer and God. I cannot make anyone mature in the Lord. All I can do is facilitate that maturing process.

Think of the shepherd and the sheep. Think of the parent and the child. What is the relationship there? What is it that the shepherd does and what is it that the parent does, that the Pastor/Teacher must also do so people will mature in the Lord?





Back to Ephesians 4:11-16.
Eph 4:11-16 (Amplified)
11 And His gifts were [varied; He Himself appointed and gave men to us] some to be apostles (special messengers), some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some evangelists (preachers of the Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and teachers. (We have had all of these through these five years that I have been pastor here.)
12 His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church),
(God is at work perfecting the saints here at Glasgow Bible Church.)
13 [That it {the church} might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [ full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.
14 So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead.
15 Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).




16 For because of Him the whole body (the church, in all its various parts), closely joined and firmly knit together by the joints and ligaments with which it is supplied, when each part [with power adapted to its need] is working properly [in all its functions], grows to full maturity, building itself up in love. Amplified New Testament

"Open my eyes Lord, let me see your wonderful works around me!"
(PP)


Will you ask God to open your eyes today
so you can see where He is at work and so you can join Him?

GOD IS AT WORK
AWANA by Collin Quenzer
After another interesting night in AWANA, a question comes to mind. Are "we" having an impact on the children that come and go every Sunday Night in AWANA. The answer quickly comes back to the fact that it isn't the "we" that is suppose to work on the kids. It is the Holy Spirit's job to work on the kids. It is our job to show them that we love them and serve faithfully with that in mind.

We are suppose to be faithful to the calling of the Lord. We are suppose to joyfully work with the Lord doing whatever necessary to accomplish what God would want in the children's hearts and minds. Answering the question of where is God working at Glasgow Bible Church, the easiest answer for me has always been in AWANA.

Think about it, when is a person's heart most inclined to be open to the Holy Spirit? When they are young and haven't had a lifetime to rationalize God out of their life. When does our church see the most people come through the doors who are unsaved and hurting? On AWANA nights.

After a stressful night working in AWANA it is really easy to have thoughts of discouragement. But that is when you need to take a moment and think about the discouragement that some of the children face in their home lives day every single day. We have children that see abuse, are abused, and don't often get the love they desire and need.

It is easy to see that God is working in AWANA. It is sometimes harder to see how God is working. It is my prayer that God would strengthen the workers. That our church would continue to recognize the importance of AWANA. That we would join God in really desiring to see the working of the Holy Spirit within the hearts and minds of the children that choose to come. It is my prayer that I would learn to love the children like Jesus would, without any conditions.