Henry Blackaby
February 4, 1999
2:30 pm
Message Summary
God calls believers out of their religious busyness, back to a life of obedience to Him. In his second message, "Experiencing God as He fashions Your Life," Henry Blackaby explains that if Christians respond to God's call, He will set off a chain of transforming events that will conform believers to the image of Christ and prepare them for serving the Lord.
Blackaby explains that God's best tool is not human technique but absolute surrender. Only lives of complete surrender bring glory to God and can be used to accomplish His divine purposes, Blackaby says. Since Christ's willful obedience sets the absolute example of surrender, God seeks to effect such surrender in the life of His people. In this surrender, God-centered believers release their lives, pick up their crosses and follow God's will. To bring Christians to this point of absolute surrender, God uses suffering and time, Blackaby says.
God's eternal purpose is transforming the lives of believers to the image of His obedient Son, so that whatever He asks of them, their response would be: "Yes, Lord! Not my will but Your be done!"
Student Response
As a student in a Bible college, I have reduced Christ to a theological concept. I have taken control of my life. I have substituted true service with heartless religious acts. Through this sermon, I realized that until I fully surrender my life to God and allow Him to conform me to the image of His Son, I will continue struggling through life without experiencing the quickening power of God.
—Albena E. Gaydarova, Junior, Communications/Print Media major