Review of Week 9

MISGIVINGS: Like the Samaritan woman at the well, we don’t know what we really need, and we don’t have a clue how Jesus can provide it.

LIMITING: 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 us something we truly need.

ABIDE: We leave Jesus alone when we don’t follow where he is walking - when we follow from a distance - when we fail to embrace him completely.

RESIGNED: When Jesus asks “what do you want me to do for you?”, what will you answer him? Do you believe He can do the impossible?

PAIN: The truth hurts. It is usually negative in its first appearance.

UNCOVERED: Allow it to hurt you to the uncovered quick and you’ll find the life of God working in you.

TEND: Given any two people, if one is easier for you to love than the other, the love you’re loving with isn’t God’s agape. You don’t have to learn to love, you have to learn how to let God reside in you.

Mar 4 - HOLD DEAR

Acts 20:24 “...But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God...”

Context: Paul reflecting on the chains and tribulations that await him as he proclaims the gospel

What is common sense? Does this change as culture changes?

What is Christian emotion. What is the difference between having our senses stimulated and having our spirit touched?

What is the call of God?

Is it possible to serve God without a vision or a call? Is it easy? Is it fruitful?

Without a vision or call, what guides us? [common sense - we aren’t bothered by what God expects or requires]

What do we count dear? What grips us?

How can “ordinary and reasonable service” actually “compete against our total surrender? [we make our own judgments as to how we can be of the most use]

When is “being useful” a problem? [when it deviates from “being used by God”]

1 Cor. 7:21-24 “...Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord's freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ's slave. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called...”

We should consider that we are not our own

Mar 5 - FINISH

Acts 20:24 “...But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God...”

What is the difference between pleasure and joy?

Pleasure is normally a short term, little picture, experience.

Steve Green’s song: “Guard your heart ...don’t trade it for treasure ...as payment for PLEASURE it’s a high price to pay.

Joy is an overall satisfaction, a big picture experience.

James 1:2 “...Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,...”

Matt.25:21 “...His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master...”

Psalms 16:11 “...You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever...” [lasting, vs. fleeting pleasure]

What we classify as trials should be counted as joy. Being faithful and good leads to entering the joy of the Lord. Fullness of joy is found in His presence.

Who will hear the words “well done”? [the good and faithful slave (servant)]

How does “the need” differ from “the call”?

The need is always around us, and is far more than we can meet.

The call directs us to live in a way that will meet certain need, but not all.

Is it difficult to ignore demands for service? [for doers, yes]

Is it difficult to meet needs continually? [for dreamers, yes]

Loyalty to finish the race, faithfulness with a few things, allows us to enter into the joy of the Lord. In His presence is fullness of joy.

Mar 6 - NEXT STEP

2 Cor. 6:4,5 “...but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger,...”

Context: Paul, talking to the Corinthians about being ministers of God.

When are you a minister of God? When you teach a SS class? When you visit someone in the hospital? When you fix a meal for a funeral dinner? When you lead a small group? [ALWAYS!!]

What situation will you face this week where you aren’t a minister of God? [NONE. If you are born into the kingdom, you are His representative, ALWAYS! At church, at home, in the grocery store, when someone mistreats you, etc. ]

Why does O.C. say it takes more drawing on God to take the next step than to preach the Gospel? [You can preach from rote, from a filing cabinet, from a CD-ROM, but the next step is to take you beyond where you are. And in reality, good preaching requires just as much drawing on God]

Life is easy when we have:

- vision from God.

- enthusiasm for life.

- encouragement

What happens when these are absent?

- drudgery.

- depression.

- despair.

Which of these things can we control?

- we can read our Bibles, pray, and look for God, but vision is under His control.

- we can participate in things that pump us up (acquire the fire, etc.), but Webster’s definition of enthusiasm is “to infuse a divine spirit from God”. So true enthusiasm (non-hype) is also under His control.

- we can sometimes choose our companions, but can we control their input into our lives?

Will we take the right step when life is hard?

To “live an undefiled life” we must have more than the spurring, stirring, and provoking of people around us. We even need more than fixing our eyes on Jesus. We need God on the inside?

Will me take the next step with God in mind?

Mar 7 - CONQUER

Rom. 8:37-39 “...But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord...”

How do tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, etc. affect us?

- disrupt

- distract

- discourage

How do these things affect God? [the Kingdom is not shaken]

What is the underlying foundation of the Christian faith [agape - if God is for us, who can be against us?]

Is God for you?

What drives our lives? Is it God’s love?

- If so, we aren’t shaken - we are more than conquerors - we are part of God’s eternal plans

- If not, we are less than conquerors - we are conquered

Was Jesus driven by God’s love? Was He more than a conqueror? Did He live to a ripe old age? How can He then be called a conqueror?

God’s ways vs. Our ways

God’s sight vs. Our sight

God’s plans vs. Our plans

Its only through Him who loved us - through His sight, His plans, His ways, that we are conquerors.

Can we, like a surfer in a raging sea, face our challenges with enthusiasm, not fear? Can we conquer? Can we overcome?

Mar 8 - SURRENDER

Gal 2:20 “...I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me...”

Context: Paul explaining how to live - specifically to not get bogged down in self effort.

What does it mean to be crucified with Christ?

- not physically hanging on the cross.

- identify with the truth that our sin put Him there.

- the death in us of the things for which He died.

What does it mean to become one with Christ?

- give up sin.

- give up improper world view.

- surrender all.

Is surrender positive or negative? [usually considered defeat]

What must be surrendered?

- our rights to ourselves.

- our ownership of possessions and desires.

- our very lives.

How do pretense and deceit interfere with surrender?

What follows surrender? [either assimilation or rebellion]

O.C. says to be united with Christ is to relinquish our whole way of looking at things. What is he saying? We must let go before we can lay hold. Again think of what we’re holding - we can’t grab on if we have our hands full of something else - opportunity comes - what will we do?

Mar 9 - FOLLOW

John 6:67 “...As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?..."

Context: The point in Jesus ministry when excitement turned to challenge. Only a few are willing to continue walking with Him at this point.

6:63 "...It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life...”

6:64 "...But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him...”

6:65 “...And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father..."

6:66 “...As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore...”

Is our adventurous attitude toward Him, toward another, or non existent?

Notice the 666 (John 6:66)? The mark of the beast is to follow another.

Who are we following?

What does it mean to set up camp on yesterday’s events?

What is the difference between working for Jesus and walking with Jesus?

Which is easier?

How can we become fellow laborers with Christ? [don’t walk away when it gets challenging]

Mar 10 - MESSAGE

2 Tim.4:2 “...preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction...”

Context: Instructions to Timothy after reminding him that God and the Lord Jesus will judge the living and the dead. The kingdom is coming but people want to hear what people want to hear.

What’s the difference between a spiritual agent and spiritual messenger? [we’re not to be hired hands, but to be the message]

Do you have a message to share? Are you the message? What’s the difference?

When is an Ambassador a traitor? [when he embraces the world to which he’s sent rather than representing the world from which he was sent]

What are the steps to becoming a faithful and effective spiritual messenger?

- Repentance [conviction of sin leading to turning from sin].

- Symbolic Death [baptism by water - representing death to old ways and rising to new life]

- Real Death [baptism by the Spirit - violent death of our own selfish ambitions and desires so we might embrace His purposes]

How good were the disciples at convincing, rebuking, exhorting, teaching before Pentecost?

What was the problem? They weren’t spiritual messengers.

What happened at Pentecost?

- not a teaching event that changed their intellect so they could better debate.

- an empowering event, filled with the Holy Spirit, becoming true witnesses.

- being the message is different than discussing the message.