Review of Week 27

PRISON: Right relationship with God and man is freedom from the prison where most of humanity is chained.

DISCIPLE: A disciple is ready and willing to follow, regardless of previous plans, possessions, or preferences.

EXPOSED: God’s intentions for our lives requires direct attention to our specific sin.

FRET NOT: Walk by faith, not by sight. He can be trusted at all times, in all circumstances.

PLAN: We need to commit to planning with God.

BATTERED: God is always working toward His good intentions, even when it feels like we're taking a beating.

NARROW: Following Christ is not for cowards. He takes us off the well trodden wide way and offers a narrow gate, which leads to life. Few find it.

July 8 - WILL

Josh.24:15 “...If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord..."

How many choices do you think you make each day?

Which choices are easy?

Which choices are difficult?

Do you like having lots of choices?

What is the basis for your choices?

- personal preference (ice cream flavor).

- personal image (clothes, car).

- personal pleasure (recreation, etc.).

How does God factor into your choices?

What are the differences between serving self, serving others, and serving God?

What does it mean to ‘will to obey’? [subjugate personal preference, and others’ preferences, to God’s preferences]

Is this natural? [not for corrupt nature, which is flesh driven]

How is it an act of the will to be Spirit led?

Is free will a risk factor in our walk with God?

What is the difference between will and desire?

Do we sometimes have to use our will against our desires?

We can desire something, have a clear conscience which alerts us to what is right, and exercise our will to prevent our desire from taking us where we should not go.

Our conscience is our friend.

Our will is our friend.

It’s our desires that need some transformation.

Did Jesus exercise His will to do the Father’s will at Gethsemane?

How important is it that we exercise our will?

Can our desires be changed to the point that our will doesn’t have to be used against them?

How active is your will?

How dangerous are your desires?

If we don’t exercise our will, are we likely to go through the narrow gate or the wide gate?

Choose for yourselves today who you will serve!

July 9 - SERVE

Josh. 24:19 “...Then Joshua said to the people, "You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins...”

Context: Joshua says choose this day whom you will serve. The people say they won’t serve any other. Joshua says ‘you cannot serve the Lord!’. The people say ‘No, but we will’

What’s going on?

Josh. 24:23 “...Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel..."

Joshua knows that you can’t serve multiple gods, that you must get rid of foreign gods.

Can you serve the Lord? Do you serve the Lord?

What is the difference between impulsive service and deliberate commitment?

- Impulse depends on feeling a certain way at a certain time. Set the stage just right and people can motivate people to serve.

- Commitment doesn’t depend on feelings. The stage can be all wrong, but a committed person will still serve.

What does it mean to serve the Lord? Do we live to do His bidding?

Are we capable of serving the Lord?

- not in our own strength and understanding.

- not as initiators and stage setters.

- only as followers.

Can God use us? Will God use us?

How can competence actually make it more difficult to serve the Lord?

- reliance on self overrides reliance on God.

- initiating replaces following.

Remember the disciples confidence that they would follow, that they would serve.

Did they? Did they with their own strength?

Did they need Jesus to lead them?

Did they need the Holy Spirit to fill them?

It is absolutely critical that we allow God to do something in and through us.

July 10 - WORK

Heb.10:24-25 “...and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near...”

1. What is a sluggard? [A person habitually lazy, idle and inactive]

What is the goal of a sluggard? [To have nothing to do].

Do you know any sluggards?

What does it take to move a sluggard to action? [Prodding - a mother nagging, a friend calling, a boss giving an ultimatum]

2. What is a spiritual sluggard? [A person whose spiritual life is lazy, idle and inactive].

What is the goal of a spiritual sluggard? [To have no responsibilities spiritually]

Do you know any spiritual sluggards?

What does it take to move a spiritual sluggard to action? [Prodding - stirring, spurring, provoking]

Can you be a spiritual sluggard even if you aren’t otherwise a sluggard? How can active work counterfeit spiritual activity?

How should meeting together help prevent spiritual sluggishness?

- we encourage one another.

- we stir, we provoke.

- we get enthused to face tomorrow

3. What is retirement? [discontinuance of something previously done with regularity]

Why do people retire?

- don’t like work anymore.

- can’t do work anymore.

- want something different.

Is there injustice, meanness, ingratitude, and turmoil in this world?

Is there something you’d rather do than face these things day after day? Would you like to retire from it all?

What is the alternative to retirement?

- continuing on with love and good deeds.

- face and embrace.

Can you see how the will vs. desire problem and the multiple god problem requires us to gather together to prod each other out of spiritual sluggishness.

July 11 - KNOW HIM

Phil.3:10 “...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;...”

Context: Phil.3:7-11 “...But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead...”

How many of you know about Billy Graham? How many of you know Billy Graham?

What’s the difference between know about and know? [information vs. relationship]

Was Paul interested in knowing about Christ?

There are two radically different approaches to life alluded to here.

My life - self realization

- I’ll gather information.

- I’ll find what works for me.

- I’ll plan my life for what seems appropriate, what feels good and right.

- I may even decide to do something noble - I feel good when people praise me.

Christ’s life - knowing Him

- I live because of the breath of the creator.

- All of life is to be released into His creative and redemptive purposes.

- Following Him isn’t a search for feeling good.

What is the reason for our school system? [to teach]

Why is teaching necessary? [can’t function well without knowing]

Who started public education in America? What was their focus?

- The first public school in America was established by Puritan settlers in 1635.

- The religious and moral education of youth was paramount in early American schools. The first book in the classroom was the Bible

What is the focus of our public education now?

- Self realization.

- What is missing from our school system, and public life, now? [knowing God]

- How has that been working for us?

How can we ‘know Him’ in every situation?

- not by taking Him out of our public life.

      - constant confession and profession.

July 12 - BODY

Ephesians 4:11-16 “...And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love...”

What are your goals in life? What are God’s goals for you? Do they agree?

Why do you come to Sunday School? Why do you want to learn? What’s the goal?

What was accomplished by Christ?

- payment for sin at Calvary.

- liberation of people trapped in less than God intended for them.

- teaching on Kingdom Living.

What is expected of us? [all of these, including laying down our lives for others].

How does developing an individual spiritual life, or enjoying spiritual retirement miss the mark? How does developing and maintaining a church organization miss the mark?

- It’s not about self. It’s not about self realization. It isn’t about you as an individual.

- It’s about the body. Its about finding our place. Its about being put in our place.

- The proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body.

Preach the Kingdom and the Body of Christ becomes healthy and grows.

Preach self-realization or church growth, and the Body of Christ is weakened.

What does Paul’s “that I might know Him” lead to?

- Knowing what He’s doing.

- Reconciling the human race to the Father.

- Restoring the intentions of God.

Do we have any interest in this? Any part in it?

What happens if we don’t take our place?

What happens if part of your physical body doesn’t do its part? [The whole body suffers]

He certainly builds us as individuals, but His intention is to build us corporately.

If we’re usable, we’ll be built together.

July 13 - BEYOND WOE

Is.6:1 “...In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple...”

This is the beginning of the passage we talked about when Isaiah stood in the presence of God and said “Woe is me, for I am undone!” And God touched what needed touching to cleanse Isaiah for service.

The sequence - Someone dies, woe is me, cleansing, send me

Have you seen everything there is to see?

What prevents you from seeing something new? [habitually looking at the same things]

What does it mean “to see along the line of my prejudices only”?

- expectations determine our view.

- we expect to see what we’ve seen before.

- we tend to reject anything that is inconsistent with our adopted normals.

If our great wall of prejudice has blinded us to things beyond our small domain, what must occur before we can move into God’s bigger Kingdom? [removal of the wall]

What does wall removal feel like? [not good]

- loss of people that are a normal part of our life.

- loss of things that are a normal part of our life.

- loss of ideas that are a normal part of our life.

O.C. says God removes our friends in order to bring Himself in their place.

- Do you think He would do that?

- Does that mean God won’t let us have good friends?

Do you think there’s more spiritual growth at a funeral or a festival? Which is more fun? Which is more valuable?

Do you think there’s more spiritual growth in a class that agrees with your adopted beliefs, or a class that challenges your adopted beliefs?

If mourning turns to fainting, falling, and getting discouraged, we’re missing an opportunity.

When people want what people want they never can be free.

Prejudices that can’t take the shaking must fall.

The formation of God’s life and character in us allows us to see Him.

See Him. Woe is me. Cleansing. Usable.

Accomplish in us Lord, that which you intend.

We’ll embrace the woe to get to the commissioning.

July 14 - RIGHTS

Matt. 5:38-48 “...You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye , and a tooth for a tooth .' "But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. "If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. "Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. "Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? "If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect...”

Are these difficult concepts for us? Is it natural to strike back when struck? Is it natural to defend yourself against slander and misrepresentation?

What does the world think of someone who doesn’t strike back? [coward, patsy]

Did Jesus strike back or defend Himself? Was Jesus cowardly?

Does Jesus expect us to endure insult and actual harm to our person or property?

Why are “rights” so important in this world?

- we’re a selfish people.

- we think more highly of ourselves than others.

- we live in eros.

1 Cor. 6:7 “...Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?...”

Why is it wrong to insist on our rights? Why is it right to ‘rather be wronged’?

- it’s agape.

- it’s the nature of the God.

Micah 6:8 “...He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?...”

Can ‘flesh’ do what Jesus proposed, and did!

- it’s not natural. (Story of Scott Christian Fellowship)

- it’s beyond natural.

Can you fake this attitude? [Not for long. You will do what by nature you are]

Explain the concept of going the second mile! Is there a difference between doing what you must do, with or without grumbling, and doing more that you must?

Do you pray for those who spitefully use you, or against them?

Are you treated fairly? Are you treating fairly? Which do you have control of?