Coronavirus Bible Study Series May 20, 2020
Recalibrate Part 1
Reassessment
Synopsis of Bible Study 05/20/20
Pastor Lee Bynum, MDiv.
Lamentations 3:40 NKJV – “Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord;”
Introduction:
§ Reassessment is looking at things differently.
Lamentations 3:40 NKJV – “Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord;”
§ Reassessment. It means to reappraise or reevaluate
§ Life now causes us to look at every decision and every situation differently. We must reassess everything in life for recalibration to take place. When you do not do this, you end up in a state of mediocrity. We need to ask questions like how can I be more efficient in my life?
§ For some, reassessment says something different must happen in your life. Even down to how we have been doing church.
§ Life should not be a business as usual process.
I. HOW DOES ONE APPROACH REASSESSMENT?
A. Search Yourself
1. Let’s look closely at our own lives. Most people don’t even realize adjustments need to be made in their lives.
B. Ask Someone You Trust
2. There is safety in the company of many counselors. In this season, you need people that will push you, counsel you, and tell you the truth.
3. You must trust that God sent these people in your life to tell you the truth. You cannot be offended by what they say when they counsel you.
C. Seek God
1. If you are obedient in your heart, God will show you. If you will turn your attention to God and ask Him to show you the areas you need to reassess, he will show you.
Galatians 5:16-17 NIV – “16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”-There is a war going on. You got to be a spiritual person, around spiritual people, talking to God, asking Him to feed your spirit, so that you do not fulfill the desires of your flesh.
1. My flesh wants to be content and it wants to harbor disfunction and abnormality, but my spirit wants us to walk in liberty and freedom and fulfill the purposes by which God placed me on the earth.
2. You have to spend time with God.
3. THREE COMMON DEFEATIST MINDSETS
A. The Delusional
1. The person that does not find value in this process. They think it is just fluff. They think they are too good to reevaluate their lives.
A. We often run from people that want to reevaluate their lives. This makes you delusional. Stay away from delusional people. All of us have areas in our lives where we need to grow.
B. The Reactive
1. I don’t have time. I can barely keep up with life as it is. This type of person is working for God, but not working with God.
2. Sometimes God will make you lie down in green pastures to make you take the time you need to reevaluate your life.
A. For some of us, this is the stillest you have been in your entire life.
B. Now you realize things that need to be fixed. For example, you find yourself throwing out stuff you never should have kept in the first place. You were just that busy.
C. The Hypertensive
1. This is the person too busy living life, doing worthwhile things. They are so focused on doing things for others, they don’t do the things necessary for them to get to the next level.
III. THE IMPORTANCE OF REASSESSMENT
A. Recognize where your time and effort are being spent.
1. It gives you the chance to figure out where you have been spending your time?
2. It gives you a sense of the importance of slowing down.
A. 365 days of the year, you have this amazing time to slow down, be still, and think through where your time has been going. It makes you really process, where have you been spending your time?
3. Where have you been spending your time, that has caused you not to be able to catch up on your favorite shows or read your favorite book. Has life gotten so hectic for you that you haven’t been living life, instead life has been living you?
A. For some, you have been spending time with your children and you have begun to notice small things about them that you like, such as how much they need you.
B. Recognize where your effort is poorly spent.
1. What did I shift my energy to that did not produce results or fruit?
2. What people did I invest in and pour into that did not bring a harvest back to me? When you reassess and think on these things, you begin to realize that you don’t have that kind of time or energy to be sitting on the phone, talking to people, wasting your time, and yielding nothing.
3. Now you have a time, to reassess, because time must be viewed as a commodity. Time is currency and you don’t have it to waste.
A. When you begin to look at it from this perspective, you begin to reevaluate, where did I poorly spend my time?
C. Recognize Indicators of Progression and Regression
1. Take an analytical look at your goals and see how you are progressing. Look at your goal and where you are at, and ask, “Why aren’t I there yet?”
A. You can never reach your goal, until you understand what is hindering you from achieving it.
2. To reach your goal, stay in your God given assignment. Like the scripture says, we forget those things which are behind us and we press towards the mark of the high calling which is in Christ Jesus.
D. Re-enjoy Your Best Moments.
1. Be intentional about living. Have some do overs. You have to live. You can’t be sitting around moping. Everybody is going through this Pandemic.
A. Take time to sit down, pop popcorn, put on a funny movie, and laugh. Life gets so serious, but sometimes we’ve got to just sit back and laugh.
E. Retain Life’s Lessons
1. This a great time to say, what did I learn by going through going through what I had to go through?
A. Confucius Quotes. By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
1 John 2:27 (NKJV) 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you [a]will abide in Him. – There are some things the Holy Spirit will teach you. They are lessons you should learn about who to trust and who not to trust, what to do with your money, and what’s really important?
IV. HOW SHOULD I ASSESS MY LIFE?
A. Re-Examine Your Why
1. Before you start back up, go back to your “why”. Look at your mission and your life goals and ask what is your motive?
2. As you grow and change, your priorities will change too. Your goals will have to be adjusted accordingly and so will your priorities.
Luke 22:27 NIV – “For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” – Go back an examine your original goals. What was the thing you were passionate about? What was your why. What was your motive?
3. Colossians 3:23 NIV – “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,” – Do it from your heart. Don’t be a people pleaser. You have to do it for the glory of God.
Philippians 3:13-14 NIV – “13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. – In moments like this, to lead through this type of season, your motive has to be right.
4. You can’t let other people’s circumstances (or what they are doing) cause you to lose your why. Don’t let their what, cause you to miss your why.
5. When you know the why, you don’t worry about the what. God handles the why, the what, and the when.
Colossians 3:23-25 (NKJV) 23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for[a] you serve the Lord Christ. 25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. – You cannot please people, because people will change on you.
1. Is your why having everyone to like you.
Philippians 3:13-14 (NKJV) 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have [a]apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.- The goal is my why. You must examine your why? Is your why in what God asked you to do.
B. Re-Establish Your Priorities
1. Examine your priorities. Do not let your life try to match somebody else’s. This sets you up for failure.
Luke 12:29-31 NIV – “29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” – Don’t worry about what you are going to eat. Do not have an anxious mind.
1. This is what the people that are not in the body of Christ do. They don’t have the coping mechanism that you do.
2. Just focus on God. If He’s been taking care of you all this time, why wouldn’t He now. God’s got you.
C. Re-Assess Your Commitments
1. Don’t push away your new normal. If there anything we are learning in this season, from the church to the world, we are learning what is essential.
Colossians 1:10 NIV – “so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,”- I don’t want to do anything that is not going to produce fruit.
2. If it doesn’t produce fruit or bless somebody else, why are we doing it?
V. THREE SIGNS IT’S TIME TO CHANGE DIRECTION
A. You are Forcing and Nothing is Happening.
1. If you are pushing something and its not working, then you need to step back and ask the Lord why.
2. If it is not happening, it may be a sign from God that it’s not supposed to happen.
Isaiah 48:17 NIV – “This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”- God is not going to lead you to something that will be a dead end or endless rotation.
3. Isaiah 58:11 NIV – “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”- When I get up, my son gets up. In the same manner, we as a child of God, ought to want to go where God goes. We want to be where our Daddy is going.
4. If you need help knowing where to go, see the next scripture:
James 1:5-6 NIV – “5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
1. Things are falling apart around you.
2. When things are falling apart around you, this is probably a sign that you need to reassess. God is not going to bless your mess. You have to ask the Lord to show you what’s wrong.
3. We are re-calibrating because we are trying to get things back in proper order.
4. Continual Signs From God.
5. When you keep hearing the same word from different sources and it keeps piercing your heart, God is trying to talk to you. Everyone needs to reassess your life.
6. This is a season where we need to reassess our way.
Lamentations 3:40 (NKJV) 40 Let us search out and examine our ways and turn back to the Lord; – Don’t waste this crisis thinking you will go back to the way things have always been.
3. Its time to reevaluate the things around you, so that you can recalibrate. You starting to reassess, then you start putting value on things that matter. It’s not about the things that money can buy, it’s instead about the things money can’t buy. Now you know what a good night sleep feels like.
Stay Informed.
Stay Safe.
Be Encouraged!
