Review of Week 8

DRUDGERY: We don’t have to be radiant to roll out of bed in the morning. The shine follows the discipline of arising.

DAYDREAMING: There are dreamers who never do, and doers who never dream. We need to be dreamers who do

AGAPE: Life should not be evaluated from the standpoint of “return on investment”. Abandon to God is of more value than personal holiness.

PERSEVERANCE: We’ll never be tenacious if we don’t know Him. We’ll never know Him unless we can be still. Perseverance includes assurance - that God will be exalted.

SERVE: We are to spend ourselves for others, whether we receive praise or contempt. Understanding what Christ has done empowers us to serve in the same way He served.

SURRENDER: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. To lose our fleshly desires is to become alive in the kingdom.

SPENT: Serve as Christ served - without a hook. Unconditional service, like unconditional love, doesn’t have conditions.

Feb 26 - MISGIVINGS

John.4:11 “...She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?...”

Who’s talking here? What is the context?

What does the woman need? [living water]

What does she think she needs?

Why does she think Jesus is unable to give her what she needs?

1. She doesn’t know what she needs.

2. She thinks of Jesus only in terms that she knows

Is your need too hard for the Lord?

1. Do you know what you need?

2. Do you think of Jesus only in terms that you know?

Do you have a pretty good idea what you can and can’t do?

Do you have a good idea about what Jesus can do?

How much of God’s Word do we believe? How much do we do?

How much do we expect Jesus to do? We live with more misgivings than we care to admit.

Feb 27 - LIMITING

John.4:11 “...She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?...”

Jesus comes to the well, the place where we transact our everyday business - the place where we carry on the drudgery of life - the common place ...and he offers something.

What do we expect? [help with the normal commonplace affairs]

Where do we expect him to work? [in the places with which we are familiar]

What do we expect him to use? [things we recognize and can identify]

Is there a difference between what we’re trying to do and what God is trying to do?

Was Jesus offering the woman what she was seeking?

Does what we’re seeking line up with the best intentions of the Lord of the Universe?

How can we limit God’s intentions on this earth? [by holding too tightly to our own]

We try to get the water to quench our thirst. We fail to allow Christ to draw us some living water

How hard is it to look away from our supply to his?

It may require change in patterns, habits, and the voice to which we listen!

Feb 28 - ABIDE

John 16:30-31 “...Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God. Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?...”

Context: Jesus talking about his departure from the earth, tribulation, and overcoming.

Did the disciples believe? v.32 “...You will be scattered and leave me alone...”

Proverbs 3:5-6 “...Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight...”

What is the problem with leaning on our own understanding? [it doesn’t require intimacy with God]

How can dutiful service lead to pride and arrogance? [our sense of duty becomes more important than Christ]

What does it mean to leave Jesus alone? [for the disciples, it meant not following the path he was walking - following from a distance is failure to embrace it.]

What is the resurrection life of Jesus? [Lord of Lords, Glorified body, Right hand of God]

How much do we do without even a thought of what Jesus thinks?

How is asking God to bless our common sense decisions really a failure to abide with Him?

Why are saints easily ridiculed & misunderstood? [they don’t have the multitude of reasons for their actions that walking out of duty affords. The only explanation is obedience to the Lord]

Feb 29 - RESIGNED

Luke 18:41 "...What do you want Me to do for you?" And he said, "Lord, I want to regain my sight!..."

Context: on the road near Jericho - a begging blind man that the crowd tried to quiet ...immediately received his sight

1. Was it appropriate to make a disturbance?

2. When can sitting calmly “serve only to deify our common sense”?

The answer to both questions involves the proximity of Jesus.

Is there anything in your life that won’t change without the supernatural touch of Jesus?

When is the agony we suffer a sign of shallowness of heart? [when we are resigned and unexpectant before God]

When Jesus asks “what do you want me to do for you?”, what will you say? We need to recognize, as this man did, that God does the impossible

What does it mean to get past “what Jesus says” to “who He is”?

Mar 1 - PAIN

John 21:17 “...He said* to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said* to him, "Tend My sheep...”

Context: 3 times He asked Peter - Peter who had denied him 3 times.

What was the difference between Peter’s bold statement of loyalty in Matt.26:35 “...Peter said to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You." All the disciples said the same thing too...” [It wasn’t just Peter. From their flesh, and from our flesh, come boastings that can’t be lived out] [The John passage was from inner spiritual love - agape]

Luke 12:8 “...And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God;..”

What does it mean to confess Jesus before men? [more than words - fealty]

O.C. says we need to get hurt right out of every deception about ourselves. What does this mean? [We think we’re something we’re not]

O.C. says the word of God isn’t having its way with us unless we are hurt in this way.

Does the truth hurt? Is it usually negative in its first appearance?

Why does the truth hurt more than sin?

- sin dulls our senses, the Word hurts, but awakens us.

- deception deepens with sin, but is exposed by the Word.

Why is the pain of Jesus question “Do you love Me” a good pain?

Do clichés work when Jesus is speaking truth to you? Can you say nice things? When someone speaks to you who you know knows the answers, you are exposed.

Mar 2 - UNCOVERED

John 21:17 “...He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Tend My sheep...”

Continuation of yesterday’s pain.

In the original language, O.C. asks if you hurt to the “uncovered quick”, where real sensitivity of life is lodged.

What is the quick? [underneath the fingernail]

Why do you not normally hurt there? [Its covered with an insensitive nail]

Are sensitive parts of you covered with a hardness that keeps them difficult to reach? Can Jesus get there?

Is it possible to have a love for Jesus deep in your heart that can’t get through? Can the exterior prevent the true interior from showing? Can the exterior override the interior?

Does Jesus have intentions of working on exterior and interior life?

What was Peter’s response to Jesus’ third time question? [you know]

What was really happening at this point? [Peter was coming to know]

Mar 3 - TEND

John 21:17 “...He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Tend My sheep...”

Agape is unconditional love - love without a hook.

Did God have to learn how to love you? No - he is love.

1 John 4:8 “...The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love...”

What is lacking in he who does not love? [knowing God].

Do you have to learn how to love? [you have to learn how to let God in - and through]

What did Peter find within himself? [love]

What happens when we are changed by God into His likeness? [love is in us]

When we discover that love in us, we can:

- talk about it

- spend it

What is it like to tend/feed sheep? Sheep are dumb

God’s love goes where human sympathy will not. Take any two people - is one easier to love than the other? What love are you loving with?