On the Move: ENGAGE

Activity:

BIG IDEA: As a follower of Christ, we need to have a character that is always on

the move, making progress, and always stepping to the next level by being
equipped, engaged, and elevated.
 Equipped with the things that will strengthen our faith.
 Engaged with God who will guide and empower us.
 Elevated to a higher and more impressive level of our faith.

Engage: to participate or become involved in.

to commit oneself to do something.
establish a meaningful contact or connection with.
nakikipag-ugnayan, makisali, kasangkutin, makibahagi

Verse: 2 Chronicles 16:9a

“For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose
hearts are fully committed to him…” (ESV)
o fully committed to him (NLT)
o is blameless toward him (ESV)
o is perfect toward him (KJV)
o is loyal to Him (NKJV)
o is completely His (NASV)

Background:
1In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified
Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah. 2So Asa
withdrew the silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and
he sent it with this message to Ben-hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus: 3“Let there be
a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and
gold. Now go and break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

4And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of
Israel, conquering Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali.
 5When Baasha learned of this, he stopped fortifying Ramah and abandoned his work. 6Then King
Asa brought all the men of Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers
Baasha had used for building. And with these materials he built up Geba and Mizpah.

Hanani’s Message to Asa

7At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah and told him, “Because you have relied on
the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your
hand. 8Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? Yet
because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand. 9For the eyes of the LORD roam
to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully
devoted to Him. You have acted foolishly in this matter. From now on, therefore, you will be at war.”

10Asa was angry with the seer and became so enraged over this matter that he put the man in
prison. And at the same time Asa oppressed some of the people.

fully committed to him: this is a synonym for ‘full engagement’ or “fully engaged.”

The Bible tells us that God is looking for people who are fully engaged or fully committed. And
did you notice what God will do? God will strengthen us.
Fully engaged with God means … God will be the primary source of power in our lives.
And, truth be told, some of us are missing out on God’s power in our life. Am I right?

 But when you are fully engaged with God, it means when you go through problems in life,
God will be there at your side and God will empower you through those problems.

 It means when we face disappointments, God’s strength and power will come into our
lives and lift us up just when we need it the most.

 It means when we are uncertain about our future, worried or afraid, God’s power will
come into our lives and give us peace…

That is a description of a committed life. That’s the power of full engagement.

And as we begin to talk more about that life today, you’ll see from your outline we’re going to
begin with a KEY TRUTH. That’ll be the foundation; we’ll start there. Then, we’ll be asking
ourselves a KEY QUESTION. Then we’re going to wrap up today with a KEY DECISION—a
decision about our engagement with God.

So, let’s look at this KEY TRUTH, shall we? Here it is…

KEY TRUTH: GOD IS FULLY ENGAGED WITH ME. 

If we’re going to talk about full engagement, we have to begin here—with the foundational truth
that God’s engagement with me is 100%!

God is one who is 100% committed to us! As a matter of fact God has invested so much in
our lives. God’s engagement (or investment) in your life is no less than 100%!
And unlike our tendencies, God’s engagement with us is not up one day…and down the next.
Sometimes we feel that. I hear people talk about how far they feel from God … or how they feel
close to God. Well, I want you to understand this today; at times like this, when we’re feeling
either up or down in our relationship to God, it isn’t God who’s moved! God’s engagement in my
life and in your life … never wavers! God remains fully engaged in our lives at all times…

There’s a scripture that speaks to this and I want to share this with you now. It’s Psalm 139.
And in this psalm, written by King David, he was talking about how God is engaged in our life.
Follow along with me, would you (Psalm 139:1-6, NLT)?

O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. 2 You know
when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. 3 You see
me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. 4 You know what I
am going to say even before I say it, LORD. 5 You go before me and follow me. You
place your hand of blessing on my head. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too
great for me to understand!

Did you catch that? There’s nowhere you can go that God’s not engaged with you. You
can go to the highest mountain; God’s there. You can go to the deepest part of the ocean;
God’s there. God knows your thoughts before you think them. God knows what words you’re
going to say before you say them (and, if that’s the case, I sure wish he’d stop me sometimes).
But folks, this is FULL ENGAGEMENT at its highest level…

Psalm 139 goes on to talk about more ways that God’s fully engaged in our lives—knowing us
even in our mother’s womb, knowing our personalities, and our weaknesses … and still
wanting to be engaged in our lives.

Isn’t that amazing? And then at the end of the psalm, it says this (vv. 23-24): “Search me, O
God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything
in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

So, David ends this psalm with an examination where he basically says, ‘You know, the
issue is not if God is engaged with me; the issue here is am I engaged with God?’ That’s the
real question…

Let me remind you that we can see God’s engagement in our lives through the sending of his
Son. It’s as if God’s saying, ‘Look, if you don’t believe my words, then look at history. Look at
what I did for you. Look at my very best I sent you, my Son.’ Jesus Christ is the ultimate
demonstration of God’s engagement in our lives.

Do you want to know how much God loves you? Look at Jesus. Do you want to know how
much God desires to be involved in your life? Look at Jesus. Do you want to know how
engaged God is with each and every one of us? Look at Jesus…

One of the most popular verses in all of scripture speaks to this–John 3:16 (NLT): “For God
loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

God gave the life of his one and only Son! That’s how much God loves us. So, there’s no
question of God’s engagement with us—no uncertainty about that at all! But, the question is:
How engaged are we? And how do we show our engagement with God? And that leads us to
the KEY QUESTION for today…

KEY QUESTION: AM I FULLY ENGAGED WITH GOD? 

Again, there is no uncertainty about God’s engagement with us; the question is: Am I fully
engaged with God?

Now, I wish I had time to sit down with every single one of you and ask you (as John Wesley
used to do),

“How is it with your soul today?” In other words, ‘What is your engagement level with God?’

If I could do that, some of you’d tell me that

 you’re more engaged with God now than you’ve ever been.
 Some of you are on the fast track to becoming Christ-like, which is the point of discipleship.
 Others of you might say you’ve been pretty static lately.
 You feel like your relationship with God has been a bit flat.

Unfortunately, those who feel this way many times do the very thing that causes their
relationship with God to go flat—they start falling away from God, stop reading their Bible, stop
going to church—stop all the things that would help them grow in their relationship with God.

 And yet others might be in a place where you’d say, ‘Pas Mike, I don’t even know if God
exists.’

If any of these describe you, I’m glad you’re here today. But, it’s a good time to ask yourself
where you are when it comes to engagement with God.

If you don’t have a starting point, you’ll never go anywhere, especially toward God… So,
we need to examine ourselves and ask: Are we fully engaged with God?

One scripture that calls us to do this is Psalm 26:2 (NIV), which says, “Test me, O LORD, and
try me, examine my heart and my mind.” And I think today’s as good a day as any to do just
that.

I want us to take just a few minutes right now to test our heart and our minds. So on your
notebook answer this short test, would you?

This is a survey from the Gallup organization, which studied tens of thousands of Jesus
followers, and determined that those who answered TRUE to these statements are those most
fully engaged with God. Let’s look at them briefly together…

10 Pillars of a Fully Engaged Walk with God

_____ My faith is involved in every aspect of my life
_____ Because of my faith, I have meaning and purpose in my life
_____ My faith gives me an inner peace
_____ I am a person who is spiritually committed
_____ I spend time in worship every day
_____ Because of my faith, I have forgiven people who have hurt me deeply
_____ My faith has called me to develop my given gifts and talents
_____ I will take unpopular stands to defend my faith
_____ I speak words of kindness to those in need of encouragement
_____ I talk about my faith with those who are not yet Christians

So, that’s the survey we’re going to do today. That’s the examination of our level of
engagement with God.

Now, I’m going to give you about 2 minutes … and I want you to go back over this and I want
you to write down the first number that comes to mind—from 1 to 10. 1 = lousy … and 10 = fully
engaged.

Alright, I’m going to give you two minutes on the clock. Here we go…

OK, if you’re all done … I need you to now add up the numbers on the left-hand side, and put a
total score at the bottom. It’ll be a number between 0 and 100. Do not copy off your neighbor’s
paper! Tally up your score, if you would, then I want you to put that number on your notebook --
on the top—and circle it, if you’re willing to share your number with me (and only me).

Now, I’ve been hesitant to do this, but let me share my number with you: 89. What’s going on?
I’m a pastor. Shouldn’t mine have been 100? Folks, it doesn’t matter what your number is today
… 89 or 29. Whatever it is, here’s the most important thing, as it applies to our engagement
with God … and this is our KEY DECISION for today…

KEY DECISION: TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MY ENGAGEMENT. 

Those two words that you just filled in are SO KEY! Why? Because I want you to own that
score—whatever it is! Maybe you got an 89, like I did; if so, own that … but know you still have
things to work on… Maybe you got a 29; if so, that’s O.K.; own it … and then keep moving
ahead in your relationship with God—your engagement with God…

The #1 problem I see when people have been Christians over a long period of time is …
they refuse to take responsibility for their spiritual growth!

Yes, I’m talking about mature Christians now; sometimes we get way too comfortable and feel
like ‘we’ve arrived’ … and then we become complacent! Or, even worse, instead of taking
responsibility for their spiritual growth, they begin to blame others for where they’re at with
God—people around them, people at school, the way they were raised (parents), the
circumstances of their lives, or even the Church!

And so it becomes everyone’s responsibility to feed them, because they refuse to take this
responsibility themselves… As someone would say: They’ve chosen to take off their aprons
(servant), and put their bibs back on! And when they do, they fall back into old habits, old
unhealthy patterns, and feel distanced from God… But, folks, it’s not because God’s not
engaged; that’s for sure! And so I’m calling you today to take responsibility; no matter
where you’ve ended up on the ‘engagement scale’, do not be satisfied!

As we finish up today, I want you to do one more thing. In your notebooks—write at the bottom,
‘my engagement measurement’ and put a scale from 0 to 100 there. Take a moment and
place an “x” where you are today. Just record where you are, no matter what your number is.
This is the number you came up with on the ‘Pillars’ insert, the one you marked on your
notebook, and now I want you to make a mark on this line … between 0 and 100—wherever
you are…

My Engagement Measurement
0—————————————————————————————————————100

Then, I want you to ask yourself this: What is God commanding me about right now—one
action step that I can take in the coming week to be more engaged with God?

 Maybe it’s to forgive someone…

 Maybe it’s to get back on track with your daily quiet time (Bible, prayer, etc.)…
 Maybe it’s to start giving like God has asked you to give, generously and without
constraint…
 Maybe it’s sharing your faith with someone who you know needs to hear about God, but
you’ve been afraid to approach the subject with them…

JGen, James 4:8a tell us this: “Come close to God and God will come close to you….”

Who has the responsibility? YOU DO!

God’s closeness is not up for debate; God’s engagement in your life is not up for debate. God’s
fully engaged with you. And in pulling God toward you, instead of pushing God away, what
you’ll experience is God’s closeness. And then James says (James 4:8b), “…Wash your
hands, you sinners [pretty strong language]; purify your hearts [and then get this], for
your loyalty is divided between God and the world.”

You can’t live a divided life and experience full engagement with God! It’s only when you
bring everything together, and focus all your life on one thing, that you can experience the
power of a committed life.

That focus is … becoming more and more like God’s Son, Jesus. Let’s take that step together
today…