Last Week's Study

I'm sorry that I forgot to mention that there were no notes from last week. In light of Thanksgiving we talked about Thankfulness with Asa Julian however, and it was a refreshment to my soul! There is SO much to be thankful for, my friends! Meditate on what God has done for you and be thankful for salvation!

"I will remember the deeds of the Lord;

yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

I will ponder all your work,

and meditate on your mighty deeds.

Your way, O God, is holy.

What god is great like our God?

You are the God who works wonders;

you have made known your might among the peoples.

You with your arm redeemed your people,

the children of Jacob and Joseph." (Psalm 77:11-15)

This week's notes will be posted by tonight or tomorrow! :)

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south... Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man! For He shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron." Psalm 107:1-3&15-16

Apollos-An Example

Acts 18:25b "he (Apollos) taught accurately the things concerning Jesus though he knew only the Baptism of John."

Here are some things I felt convicted about concerning this passage:

• I ought not to judge brothers and sisters on their lack of Bible knowledge. Especially at the beginning. Apollos knew little yet he could teach accurately by the Spirit of God. Priscilla and Aquila proceed to teach him more fully the way of God, but you don't get the idea that they chided him for his lack of knowledge. Rather, it was probably done out of love and recognition of the zeal in him.
  

• We ought to be humbled concerning our own hearts. Apollos only had a baptism given by man to spur his teaching. I have the baptism of The Holy Spirit and the entire New Testament to light me on fire for Christ and yet I am often cold and unwilling to share with others.

Let us press on to have our hearts so full of the gospel that we pull along side brother and sisters with a lot of zeal but not a lot of knowledge. Let's encourage them in the whole truth. It wouldn't hurt for some of that zeal to rub off on us either. :)

Clint Leiter 11/15/11 The Demoniac's Ministry

Mark 5:18-20 “And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. And he did not permit him but said to him, 'Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.' And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.”

This is an unusual account in two ways: First, a man wants to return with Christ, but is denied the opportunity. Also, so many people received warnings from Jesus not to say anything about what was done for them, but here Jesus tells this man to go proclaim it.

The words used here are literally translated “show and tell.” That was this man's ministry! It was simple

• Of course the application we draw for ourselves is that this can be our ministry too! You don't have to be an evangelist, preacher, or a missionary. But each one of us can have a simple ministry like this one: go and report what Jesus has done in your life!

• In case it isn't fresh in your memory, what happened here to this fellow prior to these verses is he met Jesus at the shore and was possessed by a whole legion of demons. People tried to chain him and bind him, but he was supernaturally strong. It says he gashed himself with stones and cried out night and day. Jesus casts the demons out of this man into a herd of pigs, which ran off a cliff.

It was a public ministry

• The King James says he went away and “published” Jesus

• This man preached to the public in Decapolis

It was a widespread ministry

• Decapolis means “10 cities”

• He proclaimed Jesus to that entire region

It was an effective ministry

• The passage says that everyone was “amazed” or they “marveled”

His ministry was ordained by Jesus

• Jesus was the one who sent him out

• Think of the confidence he could go and start this work with!

• But Jesus has done the same with us – we are commanded to make disciples of all nations

His ministry started at home

• We have a tendency to want to be involved with all the big missions. We want to be the pastor of a church, an evangelist, or a missionary to an unreached country. But here, Jesus gave this man a simple ministry that started in his own home. We can all do that, can't we?

The Demoniac's ministry was very personal

• What was the material for this ministry?

  • The great things the Lord had done

  • The Lord's mercy shown to him

• Every Christian has this testimony!

• We don't have to be on a team to do good. Jesus sent just this one man.

What great things is he to be proclaiming?

• Deliverance from the demons

  • The man was occupied by so many demons that the leader's name was Legion

  • One of the parallel passages says that he was possessed for “a long time” - this did not happen over night. But Jesus prevailed.

• His desire for Jesus – a love and devotion

  • That does not happen without God's intervention, so it is a great thing when the Lord puts a love in a man's heart for Him

• His sanity was returned

  • It is a great thing for any man to get his mind back. He was a lunatic, but now here he is sitting at the feet of Jesus

  • Oftentimes a distressed mind is worse than physical impairment and pain

  • It says he screamed night and day in the tombs.Where is rest for a man like that?

• He got a real revelation of who Jesus is

• He got to go home instead of live in the tombs

  • It was a dark life, he lived in a graveyard! But he got to go back to his house and lay in his own bed.

• He got to go back to his family/friends

  • Luke's parallel tells us that he was from the city. He had a life before he became oppressed. The Lord told him to go back to his family/friends.

• He was given a zeal for Christ

• He was able to serve the Lord without fear

  • He was willing to be distant from the Lord, indicating he wasn't overwhelmed with fear that they would come back

• He was no longer a threat to himself

• He was no longer a threat to society

  • The people could not pass by him because he was so fierce

• He was no longer naked

What was the mercy that God had?

• He was sought out by Christ

  • He was a lost, hopeless case who did not seek Jesus, but Christ came to him.

  • The entire trip was for this one man. After this one encounter he was sent away!

• He was kept by the power of God from destroying himself before he ever met Christ

The Demoniac's ministry had a beginning

• Some of you may feel that for whatever reason you have not been very used yet, but that can change

• There can be a beginning of a new day of usefulness for you in the Kingdom as simple and effective as this one

• Go home and tell about the great things God has done for you and the mercy that he has had on you!

What makes your heart beat faster?

"Let nothing ever set your heart beating so mightily as love for Him. Let this ambition fire your soul. May this be the foundation of every enterprise on which you enter and your sustaining motive whenever your zeal would grow cold. Make God your only object. Depend on it. Where self begins, sorrow begins."

~Charles Spurgeon

Nathan Rages 11/8/11 Weakness

2 Corinthians 12:1-10 “I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses—though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

1-6

• Paul is a humble man who does not want to boast about himself, but he is being forced to defend himself as an Apostle to people who should be loyal to him. He preached at Corinth for over a year and kept in contact. At this point in time there is some sort of revolt under way

• He is clearly talking about himself being caught up in the third heaven (vs. 7), and saw things he would not even talk about!

• But he will talk about one thing – his weaknesses

  • Nobody likes being a weakling – we don't like to think of ourselves as needy or unable to handle things. We tend to despise weak things, and like things that are strong. But Paul wants to talk about his weaknesses; Being a hurting, struggling, deficient person.

  • This is a really important and practical issue. And it is an area where Christianity is completely different from the whole direction of the world with our natural inclinations.

How do we deal with the pains and problems with this life?

vs. 7-10

• “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations...”

  • This is where Paul refers to the revelations in the preceding verses. But he also had other miraculous experiences with God – not many of us had incredible conversion experiences like his (being struck blind, regaining sight, a vision of Christ...)

  • God also revealed a lot of truth to Paul – much of the New Testament is comprised of his letters!

  • There is a great honor in all of this, but also the great danger of pride. We tend to think of Paul as some kind of superhero who never gets tempted with the same things we do. But he confesses that he was tempted with pride

• Are we susceptible to this, or is it just people who have visions?

  • It doesn't take some big vision for any of us to have pride problems

• What does the Bible say about pride?

  • James 4:6 “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”

  • (Speaking of becoming an elder) 1 Timothy 3:6 “He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.”

  • Proverbs 6:16-17 “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: Haughty eyes...”

• Paul was given something to protect him against the danger of pride

  • He was made weak by the thorn in his flesh, and a messenger of Satan

  • This word “thorn” is actually indicative of a large sharpened stick, not a tiny rose bush thorn

  • Some suspect the thorn is a physical ailment

  • The other part, “a messenger of Satan,” is referring to demons

    • They can cause physical problems – Job was covered with boils

• But I think the thorn has been kept especially vague by the Holy Spirit so we can apply this to ourselves

  • God gives us problems so we will be weakened and needy and helpless

  • We have physical problems, health problems, family problems, church problems, work problems

• Where did Paul's problem come from?

  • The verse mentions a messenger of Satan, but he also says it is given to him. It ultimately came from God.

• So is this a good thing or a bad thing?

  • The thing in itself was not good, but the results of it were really good. The results were so good that Paul's whole attitude towards them changed. When he first had this problem, his immediate reaction was to ask God to take it away, but over time we see he eventually comes to embrace it and rejoice because of it.

• If you have a thorn in your life, you should follow Paul's example and pray earnestly about it. It may be something given to you to learn that God's grace is sufficient, like Paul – or He could take it away.

• Right there we have a lesson in our prayer life – we may think that we know what we need, but God knew that it was better for Paul to have the thorn. God does not ignore our prayers, He does answer. But sometimes He answers in a very different way than we expect.

• vs. 9

  • This is a wonderful promise from God. We can apply this easily to ourselves in our problems.

  • What does He mean by His “grace” in this situation?

    • God's help given to cope with a problem

• As we have need, God will pour out His sufficiency to make up for our deficiencies.

  • How irrational is it to say that when you have a little problem, you can go to God – but with big ones you need to go to the “human expert”?

• Whatever our trouble is, if God will not remove the trouble, we can hold on to this promise. God can give us the grace to handle every problem.

• What does it mean that His power is perfected in weakness?

  • A weak person who is able to thrive magnifies the power of God to accomplish results. It makes it clear that victory is from God

• If we never have need, we are never able to experience the power of God in this way

• Paul says he is able to rejoice in his suffering, not in spite of. He is happy about the weakness.

• “That the power of Christ may dwell in me”

  • This is where Christians want to be – near to and used by Christ.

  • This is found in our weakness, not in our greatness. It is not the picture of a mighty man effortlessly doing amazing things for God. The disciples were not impressive people!

• “Well content with...” King James says “take pleasure in...”

  • Paul probably suffered more problems than any Christian, but he embraced these trials as friends

• We must be empty of ourselves to be filled with God

• “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”

• This reaction does not happen automatically

  • Job worshiped God, his wife cursed God. We have to remind ourselves and each other of these things so that we respond to trials in faith.

Dick Ochs 11/1/11 Verbal Communication

One of the main things we should get out of Genesis 1-3 is that we are made in God's image. It is such a massive truth as it applies to all facets of life – when we deny it, our humanity falls. Conversely when we really believe this, it impacts the way we treat others and view ourselves. Our ability to have a relationship with God is because we are made in God's image. One important characteristic of being made in God's image involves our unique use of language. Many of the thoughts and ideas in this study come from The War of Words by Paul David Tripp.

Our ability to communicate with words distinguishes us from the animal kingdom

• No animal is capable of speaking in a manner in which humans can understand

• From Language Instinct, (not a Christian author) “As you are reading these words, you are taking apart of one of the wonders of the natural world, for you and I to belong to a species with a remarkable abilities....simply by making noises with our mouths, we can reliably cause precise new combinations of ideas to arise in each other's minds. The ability occurs so naturally that we forget what a miracle it is.”

Before creating us, God was already a speaking God. The reality of language existed before He created humans

• Genesis 1:3 “Then God said, let there be light. And there was light.”

  • God brought the universe into existence by speaking

• Genesis 1:26 “Let us make man...”

• Genesis 2:23 “And the man said...”

  • God is speaking, and later on man speaks.

• Genesis 1:5&8&10 “Called the light day, expanse heaven, earth, seas...”

  • He is speaking things into existence

  • He is then naming the things He speaks into existence

• Isaiah 40:26

  • He calls all of these billions and trillions of stars by name!

• John 17:24

  • We also know that there was a love relationship with fellowship and communion between the persons of the Trinity before the foundation of the earth

• John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word...”

  • The second person of the Trinity is called the Word

“The Eternal Word” -Faber

The first words a human being ever heard were not from another human, but from God

• Genesis 1:28 “God said 'Be fruitful...'”

• The first words to men were instructions from God

• Adam and Eve understood

  • This shows that the first humans were programmed with language learning abilities. This is a characteristic that animals do not have – it is innate in our makeup because we were made in the image of God.

  • This was not just people grunting like cavemen, but it was language understood by Adam and Eve, and they could respond.

  • Their ability to respond was programmed, but their actual responses were not. They were not little recorders in little puppets because God made us to be relational beings

• Try thinking without using words!

The vital importance of language in having a relationship with God

• If we are going to understand much about God, it will be through language because He has chosen to reveal Himself that way

• God right off the bat begins to teach man through words, through language

• He can be known because He is a God who speaks

His words not only give us understanding about who He is, but about who we are

• What if God created us, put us here on earth, and said nothing?

  • We would have question upon question. Adam would ask “What is going on? What is all this? Why am I here?”

  • He could not understand his existence without God speaking

• This is the dilemma of modern man – if you reject God, you end up with meaninglessness or absurdity and no true meaning of life

• You cannot make sense out of life unless you hear what God has to say about it

One of the first uses of language by man was in accordance to God's words to him

• In ancient times, to name something was to have authority over it

• God allowed Adam to name the animals because He delegated authority over these things to Adam

• Adam named Eve because he was in a position of headship in their relationship

  • This is not derogatory or demeaning

  • Genesis 2:23

    • I think this can be taken as a love song, or love poem. I think it was addressed to both God and Eve – he was thanking God and adoring Eve.

    • It is the use of language as it should be – expressing thankfulness and love

• Until the fall, words were only used to glorify God

• There were no arguments, hate, lies, yelling, cursing, condemning, manipulated words, selfish words... there were only true words spoken in love

The purpose of language is to communicate truth in love from God to us, us to God, and us to each other

...But into that Paradise came another speaker

• For the first time words were spoken on earth in order to plant doubt about God's word

• Satan's lie was spoken in complete opposition to God's plan for language

• Human speech has since become “a world of iniquity”

  • James 3:6

  • What evil, what corruption, what terrible results have come through the tongue!

God is not done with the tongue yet – He is working to bring communication back to what it is meant to be

• He will sanctify our speech through what He has done through Christ

• In Heaven, all our communication will be for the glory of God and the good of others

• It will all be used for its original intentions

• Right now as we are being conformed to the image of Christ, this area of our lives is improving and changing

• We need to daily offer our lips to Him to be used the way He intended

  • James No one can tame the tongue, no person – only God can

  • Our desire should the same as the psalmist “Let the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart be acceptable...”

Made in God's Image

Do you know that you are made in God's image - or are you making a god in your own image? If you decide who God is simply by your own opinion of what you think is right, or how He "should be" over who He says He is in scripture, you have made yourself the creator... Can you see the problem there?

Prayer

Fill me with zeal unyielding, unbending;
Fill me with love undying, unending.
Burn in my soul Thy convictions O Lord!
Cut at my sin with Your Holy Word!

Tis' mystery and mercy that you chose to save any,
but yea, much more- you vow to save many.
It is not a new theme, it has been planned since forever,
that we would gain Christ as our eternal treasure.

Oh God, with fervor reign down on my soul,
white-hot fire from heaven and revive these dead coals.
Bring reality upon me with such weight and pressure,
that my pride and my will are lesser and lesser.

You sit in power enthroned in truth!
I sin in doubt and live cold--aloof.
But Oh, God of Heaven, this earth you have made,
and from your presence no man has found shade.

So crush me Lord Jesus, who paid all our debt!
Mold me and form me lest I should forget,
who owns this life and demands my all.
Morning, each morning to answer your call!