Bible Study Notes

[CGamer]

I'll be posting any of the Bible Study notes I receive in this topic heading for those unable to attend.

=====================================================


I. Introduction
Each day we make choices and decisions that will lead us down a particular path for something as short as a few minutes and some that may impact us for the rest of our lives. As we make our decisions we are all faced with one common decision each day. That decision is this; Will I serve God’s Will for my life today or Will I serve my own desires instead?

The automatic Christian response is Yes, I’ll abide by God’s will for my life, but the reality of it is though we often do not follow God’s Will. This is where we will pick up with our Scripture this morning and hopefully by the end of this message we can find Delight or Enjoyment in doing His Will. Let’s read…

II. Scripture
Psalms 40:1-8 says:
Psa 40:1 - 8 1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. 4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. 5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. 6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

III. Trouble And Sorrow
It’s easy to serve God when things are going good, our finances are good, the children are being good, the husband or wife is being loving and kind, and the job is going smoothly.
It would be easy to serve God in those conditions and do His Will or so it would seem.

Let’s Read Genesis 3:6-7 says:
Gen 3:6 - 7 6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Adam an Eve had everything, the best food, the best husband and wife, easy living and only one rule to follow but they couldn’t even do that. Sometimes we get impatient, edgy, we just don’t want to listen, if we would, we could save a lot of heartache.

Let’s see how our psalmist dealt with turmoil;
Psalms 40:1-4 says:
Psa 40:1 - 4 1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. 4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
What is the name of that song, He plants my feet on a solid rock all other ground is sinking sand.
David wrote “I waited patiently for the Lord, and He heard my cry.” David waited on God PATIENTLY, telling some of us to be patient would be the equivalent of telling some of us to grow wings and fly.
None of us will grow wings but we can all learn patience:
James 1:3 says:
James 1:3 3Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
When our faith is tried it should work patience in us, if we’ll let it. When we let that patience develop God will bring us out of the miry clay and set us on a solid rock. That solid rock is none other then Jesus Christ Himself. When we trust God like that we can see the great and wonderful things God will do…


IV. Wonderful Works
We just finished reading in verse 4 that Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust. When we place our in God we can see what happens;
Psalms 40:5-6 says:
Psa 40:5 - 6 5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. 6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
Then again let’s read Psalms 94:19 says:
Psa 94:19 19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.
When we trust God with everything, He will bless us, and we can find comfort that delight’s our soul. God doesn’t want sacrifice or burnt offering, He wants our obedience and service to Him.
John 14:15 says:
John 14:15 15If ye love me, keep my commandments.
We say we love God, and we sing Oh How I Love Jesus but our actions show otherwise. I see it in my own life and my own actions, but Jesus said if we love Him we should keep His commandments, it goes on and says My command are not grievous, there not hard He says.

The great thing is we don’t keep His commandments on our own, in verse 16 of John 15 it says He will send the Holy Spirit, to empower, give us the strength we need to make the right choices and decisions so we can appreciate and enjoy those Wonderful Works. We’ve seen Trouble and Sorrow, but we found if we are patient, we can see His Wonderful Works. When we serve God as we should we can see and understand what it means, but what does it mean or how can we…

V. Delight In God’s Will
Psalms 40:8 says:
Psa 40:8 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
David said, I delight in Your will, O God.

To delight in God’s Will we must first have a personal relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ, without that relationship it is impossible to please God.
Once we have that relationship we must and should serve God each day, in our personal life, our relationships, our jobs, every aspect of our lives, God must be first. When He’s first we have nothing to worry about, whether it be trouble and sorrow, or the wonderful works, we can take comfort and delight in knowing God is in control.

I want to close with these two verses.

Psalms 40:16-17 says:
Psa 40:16 - 17 16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified. 17 But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
Do we rejoice daily in the salvation God has provided and magnify Him?
David said I am poor and needy, yet God looked upon me in mercy and love, and He will deliver us from harm. David was by no means financially poor or needy, but he knew the spiritual condition of himself compared to God, as being poor and needy.

If we would stop for a few minutes and just truly realize what God has done for us, We can truly Delight In Doing God’s Will.

 

[Rranyl]

Notes for February 24th Bible Study:

Luke 15:11-24 (the story of the prodigal son-it's kinda long so I won't type it here, you'll have to read it in the Bible )

First, let's look at the son's story:
The son started with access to to all the father's riches.
He made a conscious decision to leave the father.
-fellowship was lost
-provision was lost
-and protection was lost

Pretty soon the effects of being absent from the father began to mount.
He had fallen as far as he possibly could.
-He did not foresee the fall
-He did not intend to fall
-The process was gradual and continual

The son realized the need for the father. He recognized the problem was sin and he was willing to do whatever was necessary in order to restore fellowship.

Now, let's take a look at the father's story:
The father was left at home, his child had left him.
He had another son, but never stopped loving the one that left.
He never stopped hoping and looking for the son to return.
As soon as the son did return, he did four things for him:
1) He accepted him (the kiss)
2) He cleansed him (the robe)
3) He marked him as a child (the ring)
4) He marked him as a family member (sandals)

Once a son-always a son. The father never gave the son the option of returning as a slave. He had been and always would be his child and he treated him accordingly.
A robe - not work clothes
A ring - not the yoke of slavery
The sandals of a son - not the bare feet of a slave

Now let's look at Man's story:
At creation we had access to all the father could offer.
-fellowship
-provision
-protection
Through a conscious and willful act mankind gave it all up.
The effects of sin began to destroy us.
When we realize our condition (Holy Spirit conviction) it is our choice whether we return to the father or not.

Now God's story:
The father never stopped loving us - we were still his creation.
He immediately began to prepare a way for our fellowship to be restored (Calvary)
He desires for us to return.

Sin will take you farther than you want to go, cost you more than you want to pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay.

The blessings are in the father's house - The burdens and bondage are in the pig pen.

If you're in the pig pen tonight, God's waiting with open arms for you to come home.

(based on notes by Chuck Sprayberry)

 

[Levite]

Sermon March 3rd Bible Study. I Wrote this sermon because of a competition in my Church that is Nation wide called Fine Arts Fesitivle and because God laid it on my heart. Without Him i could never achieve anything at all. Please enjoy


If we are to fulfill our One life and One chance to achieve anything for the Kingdom of God, we must be ready to take a chance, take a risk. You see many of us take advantage of the Life God has given us, so we pass up our chance to reach out to others. Here are three reasons why we don’t take a risk.

One reason we don’t take risks is because we recognize it as going against the flow of life or our pride. Romans 12:2 says “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” It was 6:15 and Todd Beamer was leaving home to catch a plane. For him it was just an ordinary day, little did he know that September 11, 2001 would be one of the worst disasters America would ever face. At 9:26 a message was sent out from air traffic control saying to be on the look out for Terrorist Hijackings. 2 minutes later Flight 93 would be hijacked and at 10:10 would crash in the fields of Pennsylvania. We could end the story there but the thing that really matters is what happened during the Flight. Todd Beamer and the other passengers knew that other planes had been hijacked and flown into buildings and that many people had died. They could have despaired and said what’s the use of trying? We are all going to die anyway. Being the Americans they were they went against the flow of doubt. When the world acknowledged the Flight as being lost the Passengers acknowledged that they were still alive and they one more chance. They charged the cockpit which brought down the plane, yet that charge alone made them Heroes. You see life was running out for the passengers but in their last minutes they took a chance to save lives.

Another reason why we are afraid to make the Decision of taking a risk is because we are afraid that it will lead to failure. Micah 7:8 says “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.”You see it was September 1955, 5 missionaries started to reach out to a forgotten tribe of Auca Natives. January 3, 1956 was the day they were going to land and being preaching face to face to the Auca. Little did they know that upon arrival they would be speared to death. In the worlds eyes they saw 5 missionaries die, failing to bring the word to the Auca, but in Gods eyes he saw the beginning of righteousness. 3 years later Rachel Saint and Elisabeth Elliot would come back and save the very Indians that killed their loved ones.

Lastly, sometimes we don’t take risks because we tried before and failed and we can’t get our face out of the mud. It was 1956, and all of Hungary was taking up arms against communist oppression that held them face down in the mud with a boot on their back. October 23 they had officially beaten off the Communist out of their country. For 13 days the Hungarians were free! They could walk there streets without fear. They could sing their national anthem. They could dream. For 13 days they were free. It wouldn’t be till November 4 1956 when the communists would come back with armored personal to quell the uprising. To the world they saw this rebellion as a failure, but to Eastern Europe they saw it as hope. If Hungary can have 13 days of freedom why can’t we have an eternity of freedom? Country after country saw this and started to beat back the Communists regimen. Many of us are oppressed with fear and depression of going out in faith and taking a risk but failing. You see like the
Hungarians were, some of us are stuck face down in the mud unable to get up. But unlike the Hungarians we already have freedom through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus gave us freedom by taking the greatest risk. You see it was 2 thousand years ago and He dared to challenge a generation, He dared to challenge a way of thought, and He dared to love us. Jesus gave his One life and One chance to save a prodigal people. Isaiah 53:5 says “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Jesus describes life by a parable in Matthew 25: 14-30. A master goes away on a long trip. He entrusts 5 talents with one servant, 2 with the other and 1 with the last servant. On his return the one with 5 talents had doubled his talents. The servant with 2 had also doubled. While the servant with 1 kept his and doubled in nothing. You see God made us to take risks for him. What have you done with your talents? Have you risked them for Christ? All that matters in the end is: Who you are deep down in your heart. What you have done with your Chance and your Life. Where are you going? You see its March 4th 2006 (enter time) One life One chance.

 

[CGamer]

God On The Mountain


I. Introduction
As we go through life we all enjoy that pat on the back for a job well done or a little praise because we’ve done something. There’s nothing wrong with a little encouragement. The problem comes when we begin to list our own accomplishments and what we’ve done or how we’ve served God or did this and this for God. It begins to be about me, myself, and I, and a lot less about God. If we would get I out of the situation, we could do so much more. Our message this evening comes from 1 Kings 19…

II. Scripture
1 Kings 19:9-10 says:
1 Kin 19:9 - 10 9And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? 10And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

III. Background
Elijah at this point has just experienced a great victory in the Lord. God has done a great thing at Mount Carmel(1 Kings 18). Elijah was on the mountain top everything was smooth sailing. He had defeated and slain the prophets of Baal. Then Elijah outruns a chariot to town to beat the rain. Elijah’s feeling pretty good I imagine at this point. You can’t tell him anything, he must be on cloud nine. He’s got God on his side everything is going right. Then the storm hits, old Ahab runs back to his little queenie and cries to her.

This next part has always baffled me, Elijah has seen God do two great miracles, fire from Heaven and then rain after a long drought. Elijah should be unstoppable, but Jezebel makes one threat against him(to take his life) and he’s quivering in his sandals.

Let’s recap, he’s defeated the prophets of Baal, slain them, outrun a chariot, watched the rain fall after a long drought, and some Jezebel threatens him and he’s ready to die.

IV. The Small Storms
Sometimes it’s the smallest storms that cause the most damage. For whatever reason we a lot of the times are just like Elijah. We’ve been on the mountain with God living high on the hog. Then BAM!!! The wind blows a little and we roll down the hill, similar to Jack & Jill. We all know the nursery rhyme. There is a song called “He’s God on the mountain.” It goes “He’s God on the mountain and He’s still God in the valley, when things go wrong He’ll make them right.” No matter the circumstance or trial God is still there.

It’s the small storms that disturb us the most it seems. I’ve had a small storm of my own this week, though it’s seemed quite large to me. When we get it the valley, all we can see sometimes it I. I’m all alone, I’m hurt, I’m scared, I, I, I, and we forget all about God.
That’s where we pick back up with our text…

V. When I Am Alone
Elijah felt like he was the only person in the world going through this situation. You know what, he really was the only one. No matter how similar our situations may be, they are never identical.

Let’s read the last part of verse 10 again; I even I Only, am left, and they want to kill me. Elijah felt alone an uncared for. Sometimes we feel like we are the only ones in the world and no one cares about us. The truth is though we are never alone as the children of God we have been promised by God Himself, “I’ll never leave thee or forsake thee.” If we have God on are side what do we have to fear. Paul said in the Book of Romans; “If God be for you who can stand against us.”

There is nothing to great for God, He is able and capable of bringing us through the storm. Which brings me to my last point, I said this one was called When I Am Alone, well this point is called…

VI. When I Am Not Alone
Let’s read verse 18.
1 Kings 19:18 says:
1 Kin 19:18 18Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
Even though we may feel all alone in our valley, God has never left us. God told Elijah: I have me 7000 people who have never bowed to Baal, so Elijah you’re not alone. When God says I, it’s all about us.
John 3:16 says:
John 3:16 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
God didn’t leave nor will He leave any of us to perish but only if we trust in Him.

There is no other name given in Heaven why which ye must be saved. The Small Storms we may face in this life are just that, small.

Tonight as we close, you may be facing a storm in your life right now or you may soon be facing one, but no matter where you are right now, on the mountain or in the valley God is there. If you’re in that valley right now remember, we are sheltered from it in the Arms of a Mighty God who is able to meet our every need.

 

[CGamer]

I. Introduction

Everyday, as Christians, we take on the responsibility of showing Christ to the world. And the way we show Christ is through our actions.. When we come into contact with someone in our day, we might be the only piece of Jesus that they see… So it is our responsibility to show them the love of Jesus, and it is our responsibility to treat our Christian brothers and sisters with love… Let’s look at the scripture… The message today comes from John 13:34...
Now at this point in the scripture Jesus is telling his disciples he is leaving soon… Of course we know that he is going to be crucified, but the disciples don’t know that yet… So Jesus wants to leave the disciples with something very important, and Jesus tells them:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

II. New Love

When we look at this verse there are a couple of things that stand out…First of all Jesus says to his disciples that this is a new command, but in a since it was an old one (Lev 19:18)…But the reason Jesus calls it a new command is because it was new for the disciples. For the disciples the command was a mark of a special bond, created by Christ’s great love for them…Jesus called it a new command because the love he was calling for was a new love that was revealed by Christ on the cross! No one knew of a love that great until Christ died for us!

III. God’s Love

In Romans 5:8 its says “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We sinned a million times over again against God, yet he still forgave us… That is true love! And when Jesus said in John, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” he sets a very high standard for us! We must love each other as Christ loved us, and that is with total UNDESERVING love! That means if someone sins against you, you forgive them, like He forgave us! We often feel like we shouldn’t love people who don’t deserve it… Or we feel like we shouldn’t treat people good that have treated us bad, but that is not what Christ taught. We are forgiven so that we can forgive, and we are loved so that we can love!

IV. Actions of Love

Sometimes it is hard to know what the action of love is, as far as applying to your lives…Because the world often says that love is something you feel, but in fact the bible shows that life is an act, and Paul really shows what love is when he says:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
The act of love is our greatest commandment, and these are our guideline…All these actions are Love, and this is how we should treat everyone... With all the things Paul said…If unbelievers see us Christians treating each other with this love, they will see Jesus in us… And as Christ said they will know that we are His disciples…As we close tonight, I ask that you really look at 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and truly apply it to your life in how you treat everyone… And also take Christ life and use it as a guideline for your life.

 

[Amaziah]

Bible study notes for April 7th

Here are the Bible Study notes for April 7th for everyone that couldn't make it..

I. Intro.
When I was in middle school and high school I used to be a big time follower. I would follow every thing my friends did… I would wear and buy cloths to look like a “cool kid”…I changed my style all the time to look like my friends, so I could go around looking exactly like them. I’m sure everyone in here has done something like that. It’s a proven fact, just look back at your pictures from 10 to 15 years ago. You probably look at your self and think “why did I choose to look like that??”… It’s because everyone else was doing it, and you wanted to impress everyone else.
II. Looking Righteous
We all do this. But the funny thing is even when we become Christians we continue to do the same things, just in a different way. We walk around trying to look all righteous; we say all the right “Churchy” things, and we love to say prayers, and to show our knowledge of the bible, so everyone will think that we are soooo godly… But the truth is, we become the furthest from God when we try to impress people with our spirituality… In Matthew 6 Jesus says “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
When I first became a Christian this was really an issue with me, because I was still in high school, and I was so used to impressing everyone…So when I became a Christian that didn’t change… Instead of trying to be cool and popular I just tried to look really “godly” in front of all my Christian friends… And finally my relationship with God basically turned into what my friends thought…
III. Being Righteous
What God wants for us is so much more than that… He wants us to impress Him, and show that we love Him by the things we do. Jesus said in Matthew 23:26:

“First clean the inside of the cup and dish and then the outside also will be clean.”

Inside our cup is our personal relationship with God; could be our secret personal thoughts, or our secret personal actions...If we focus on our personal actions and thoughts that God always sees, he will make people see us as righteous... If we turn to God and ask him to control our lives He will make us Godly, but if we try to become Godly by trying to look ‘righteous’ from the outside we will hurt ourselves and God…Why do you think it is so much easier to sin when no one will find out about it??? Because we often care only about what people think…But God will find out about everything we do… He sees all of our deepest thoughts, and that can be very scary…So when Jesus said to clean the inside of our cup, he meant to impress God with things that no person will ever see…
Tonight as we close I want to encourage all of us here to clean the inside of our cup, and to focus on our personal relationship with God…If the inside of your cup is dirty tonight, focusing on cleaning it….Focusing on making God happy, instead of people only…Because if we impress God, and focus on our personal relationship with Him, our reward will be much greater.