(#403) Romans 12 - Is Your Thinking in Line with the Measure of Faith God Has Given?

Class Outline:

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/Welcome To

BARAH MINISTRIES

a Christian Church

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher\

 

Good Morning!

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries…a Christian Church that makes a difference worldwide courtesy of the internet…a Christian Church that makes a difference locally in the Gilbert, Mesa, and Chandler, AZ communities.  My name is Pastor Rory Clark.  At Barah Ministries, our God is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we teach the Word of God from God’s perspective, not from man’s perspective. 

 

In what do you place your confidence?  In whom do you have faith?  It matters!  As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we place our confidence in Him.  Galatians, Chapter 3, Verse 11…

 

/GALATIANS 3:11

Now the fact that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident…for, “The righteous man shall live by faith.”\

 

At a point in our lives, we all get the opportunity to accept the true and irrevocable fact that we cannot save ourselves…we cannot get divine acceptance through human effort…we cannot be saved by keeping the law …once you sin you break the law, and you are cursed…human effort cannot justify us.  The righteous man lives by faith…by placing his confidence in the Lord…Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 7…

 

/SECOND CORINTHIANS 5:7

…for we believers in Christ walk by faith, not by sight—\

 

Believers in Christ place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation…it is a lifestyle…our confidence in Him does not require that we see Him or meet Him…we simply trust Him and we trust His Word…we believe Him… Hebrews, Chapter 11, Verse 1…

 

 

/HEBREWS 11:1

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for…the evidence of things not seen.\

 

We have faith in Him and by spending our faith on Him we KNOW, with absolute certainty that we have everything He promises.  In John, Chapter 20, Verse 29, the Lord admonishes one of His apostles concerning faith…

 

/JOHN 20:29

Jesus said to doubting Thomas, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see…and yet believed.”\

 

Welcome to a place where you can use your gift of faith to believe in the Sovereign God of the Universe, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

/TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Is Your Thinking in Line with the Measure of Faith God Has Given?\

 

God has given you a spiritual gift…what is it?  How do you use it to benefit others?  Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 3…

 

/ROMANS 12:3

For through the grace given to me by God (the grace gift of being an apostle…Paul’s spiritual gift), I (Paul) say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think…but to think so as to have sound judgment…thinking in line with the measure of faith given to you by God (your spiritual gift).\

 

In this lesson, we’ll make the transition to the spiritual gifts part of the third passage in Romans, Chapter 12, as we begin to investigate the importance of learning our spiritual gift and giving it to those around us.

 

/MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

FOREVER

Kari Jobe\

 

In addition to our regular lesson, we’ll celebrate the Lord’s Supper today...here’s Kari Jobe to remind us of the significance of the Cross with her song FOREVER.

 

/OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...\

 

Almighty God and Father…thank you for sending the Lord Jesus Christ to live for us and to die for us…and than you for resurrecting the Lord from the dead…thank you for His trustworthiness…that at any time He could have given up the task of going to the Cross to redeem us…but though Your encouragement and support and will, He didn’t…

 

Father, the bible tells us that we have a spiritual gift from You…a special and different gift from our developed talents and our acquired abilities…a supernatural gift given to us by God the Holy Spirit at the moment of spiritual birth...a gift designed to have impact in a lost and dying world…

 

Father, we pray that You use all that we are and all that You intend for us to become…we ask You to illuminate in our hearts the gifts You have seen fit in Your grace to give us… we ask You to show us how to use our spiritual gift for the benefit of the body of Christ so we can edify our brothers and sisters in Christ… we ask You to show us how to get to unbelievers as well, inviting them to a relationship with You so that You might be glorified…

 

We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...Amen.

 

/TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Is Your Thinking in Line with the Measure of Faith God Has Given?\

 

The passage that is the subject of our study is the third passage in Romans, Chapter 12, and it extends from Verses 3 to 8…let’s review it together…

 

/ROMANS 12:3

For through the grace given to me by God the Father (the grace gift of being an apostle…Paul’s spiritual gift), I (Paul) say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think…but to think so as to have sound judgment…the thinking that’s in line with the measure of faith given to you by God (your spiritual gift).\

 

/ROMANS 12:4

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function…\

 

/ROMANS 12:5

…so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.\

 

/ROMANS 12:6

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly…if he has the gift prophecy, exercise it according to the proportion of his faith…\

 

/ROMANS 12:7

…if he has the gift of service, in his serving…or he who teaches, in his teaching…\

 

/ROMANS 12:8

…or he who exhorts, in his exhortation…he who gives, with liberality…he who leads, with diligence…he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.\

 

This passage asks you a simple question…if you were accused of being a Christian in a court of law, would there be enough evidence from your life to convict you?  Do you show up in life?  Does it make a difference that you are on the planet?  Does your life make a difference to those around you?

 

We live in a world that surrounds us with influences.  These influences are invitations for us to think things, to say things, and to do things.  Some of these invitations, when we accept them, are positive and transforming.  However, most of these invitations are negative and conforming.  The invitations from would be friends…invitations to conversations…invitations to engage in relationships…invitation to eat certain foods or to try fad diets…invitations to choose certain workout programs…invitations to use our time in certain ways…invitations concerning how to treat people…even invitations to worship gods instead of the One and Only Living God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

If you’re being truthful, most of these invitations come from Satan and his world system of thinking…WCON…the “con” network.  The invitations are intricately and insidiously designed to suck us into using our time, talent and treasure on them… and when we have fully invested in their schemes, they dump us on the side of the road and leave us with an invoice of futility.

 

Once the futility of ineffective choice after ineffective choice sets in…once we lose our confidence and feel like we are wandering aimlessly in this life…along comes another invitation…a scheme that invites us to engage in morbid speculation about our lives…a grim look at the past…with a voice of condemnation…“You should try to make sense of your feelings…you should trace the lines of your thinking…you should find the center of your innermost beliefs and make sure they’re really yours…you should make lists of the things you do and don’t value…you should ask yourself what you most feel you are lacking… then you should look at how little time you’re giving to the things you want.  It’s all about you.” 

 

We want to make sense of our lives. 

 

Yet often, we’re trying to make sense of something we think controls us, instead of understanding that our choices greatly influence our lives and our happiness and our results.  Often, we ignore the life we have, and try to fix the life that was…the life that has already passed, like water, under life’s bridge…we spend incessant time wondering how life got the way it is today.  Why? 

 

Our introspection may be seeking answers that do not exist. If we find answers, they may just create more questions.  In truth, solutions to our life’s problems comes from living things out, seeing them through, and evaluating the results before moving on to the next challenge.  As you take on new challenges, the best things in this life may not make a bit of sense to you, at least not initially…in fact, usually that is the case.

 

One lifestyle, the Christian lifestyle, encourages us to begin embracing life right now. It asks us to stop avoiding the things we really want to do. It encourages us to have dreams, and to live the life that our innermost self begs us to live. It asks us to follow the deep drive within us and to fully express ourselves in every aspect.  The Christian lifestyle feeds our desire to live a life that is meaningful. 

To become a Christian, we cross a bridge from spiritual death to spiritual life.

 

/BRIDGE SLIDE 1\
 

We cross this bridge when we accept the truth of the gospel message, God’s invitation to The Christian Way of Life.  The Lord Jesus Christ and His Cross pave the way for this eternal life opportunity.

 

Once we cross the bridge of salvation, we have another bridge to cross…it’s the bridge called The Christian Way of Living. 

 

/BRIDGE SLIDE 2\

 

Once we are believers in Christ, God the Holy Spirit is responsible to “conform us to the image of God the Son” and to deliver us complete as we stand before God the Father in the future.  God the Holy Spirit has never failed to do His job with any Christian, and you aren’t going to be the first.  The Spirit does what is required to transform you from a carnal believer…a Christian described as not able to take in the solid food of the Word of God…to a spiritual believer…a believer who is mature. 

 

We are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice…we are to keep on being transformed by God through the renewing of our minds…and we are to

think so as to have sound judgment…listening only to the invitations of the Word of God as it comes from God the Holy Spirit, while absolutely resisting every prompting that comes from Satan, from the world, and from the flesh.

 

As we continue our study of the third passage of Romans, Chapter 12 next week, we’ll take on the idea of your spiritual gifts…because life without contributing to others is meaningless.

 

Let’s take a music break…when we come back we’ll take the offering and we’ll celebrate The Lord’s Supper….here is Gloria Estefan proclaiming the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light…with her song…COMING OUT OF THE DARK.

 

 

/MUSIC BREAK                             

COMING OUT OF THE DARK

Gloria Estefan\

 

/THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION

Is Your Thinking in Line with the Measure of Faith God Has Given?\

 

Let’s begin the next portion of our lesson by giving you a chance to make an offering.  If you are benefiting from the work of this ministry, then we ask you to contribute to the continuation of the ministry with any gift, large or small, helping us to keep on providing the truth to those who might not otherwise be able to hear it.   Please welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall for another one of his excellent offering messages.

 

/THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall\

 

/OFFERING VERSE

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.\

 

/OFFERING

FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE

Dave McClure, Instrumental\

 

/THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION

The Way to Trustworthiness is the Cross\

 

Today…just as we do every month…we celebrate the Lord’s Supper…a meal of remembrance.  In this celebration we obey the Lord as outlined in First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verse 26…

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:26

For as often as you believers in Christ eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim (to the whole world) the significance of the Lord’s death until He comes again.\

 

The Lord’s Supper is a way for Christians to show our love for the Lord Jesus Christ, as it is the most intimate thing we do in the Christian Way of Living.  Our Lord wants a deep, intimate and personal relationship with each of His believers, and He shows us His own intimacy by sharing His body and His blood with us at this celebration. As we break the bread we share His body…as we drink the cup, we share His blood…and as we look back for a moment to the Cross to remember all the Lord accomplished for us there. 

 

I hope those of you in the non-resident congregation are joining us by getting your own bread and your own cup, so that you can enjoy the communion elements with those of us in the resident congregation. 

 

As believers in Christ we ask ourselves…what did the Lord Jesus Christ accomplish at the Cross?  Perhaps more importantly, what do the Lord’s accomplishments at the Cross mean to each of us personally?

 

At the Cross, the Lord Jesus Christ proved to us that He can be trusted.  He is trustworthy.  Can you be trusted?

 

Think about it…if the Lord Jesus Christ had made a single mistake during His incarnation…during His time here on earth…it would have cost all of us our salvation.  Our trustworthy Lord was not about to let that happen.  Luke, Chapter 22, Verses 40 to 44…

 

/LUKE 22:40

When Jesus arrived at the Mount of Olives at the Garden of Gethsemane, He said to His disciples, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”\

 

The first Adam fell into temptation in a garden…the Garden of Eden…and the last Adam…the Lord Jesus Christ…was tempted in a garden as well… yet He chose not to sin. 

 

/LUKE 22:41

And Jesus withdrew from the disciples about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray…\

 

/LUKE 22:42

…saying, “Father, inasmuch as You are willing, remove this cup from

 Me…yet not My will…but Yours be done.”\

 

Satan and the Kingdom of Death was tempting Jesus to forsake His Father’s plan to send Him to the Cross, buffeting the Lord with pressure on all sides.  Think of a time when you have wanted to avoid giving in to a temptation… when you promised yourself to stop whatever it is you didn’t want to do…and then you felt the temptation get stronger.  What did you do?  Maybe initially you were able to resist…and then you did exactly what you didn’t want to do anyway.  Not Jesus.  He kept on following the will of His Father…He kept His eye on the Cross.  Following God’s will is something the first Adam failed to do.

 

/LUKE 22:43

Now an angel from heaven appeared to Jesus, strengthening Him.\

 

/LUKE 22:44

And being in agony He was praying very fervently…and His sweat became like drops of blood…falling down upon the ground.\

 

The pressure of the temptation made Jesus bleed…He was under a thousand times more pressure than we have ever experienced.  Yet Jesus was trustworthy through the trial.  Are you trustworthy though your trials?  Can you take the pressure?  Are you willing to do your Father’s will when you are under maximum tribulation?

 

What did the Lord Jesus Christ do for us at the Cross?  He proved to us that He can be trusted.  He is trustworthy.  What is it about the Lord that can be trusted?  Only EVERYTHING!  EVERYTHING the Lord thinks… EVERYTHING the Lord says…and EVERYTHING the Lord does is trustworthy.  The Lord is trustworthy. Jesus Christ is trustworthy.  The Bible is trustworthy.  The Gospel message is trustworthy.  The Word of God is trustworthy.  Revelation, Chapter 21, Verses 9 to 11…

 

/REVELATION 21:9

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me (John), saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”\

 

 

/REVELATION 21:10

And the angel carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…\

 

/REVELATION 21:11

…having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.\

 

Just like the holy city that will one day be coming down from God... Jerusalem…Church Age believers are the bride of the Lord and we are vessels containing the glory of God.  The Lord wants His trustworthiness reflected by His vessels…His Church Age believers.  Are we trustworthy?  The Lord didn’t think so.  John, Chapter 2, Verses 23 and 24… 

 

/JOHN 2:23

Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover…during the feast, many believed in His name…observing His signs which He was doing.\

 

/JOHN 2:24

But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men…\

 

/JOHN 2:25

…and because He did not need anyone (any human help) to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.\

 

What is in man?  Jeremiah, Chapter 17, Verse 9…

 

/JEREMIAH 17:9

“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick…who can comprehend the heart of man?”\

 

God is the One who sees the heart…God is the One who can evaluate the thoughts and intents of the heart.  The Lord wants truth emanating from us…

so He is making us trustworthy and strong from the inside out…Psalm 51, Verse 6…

 

 

/PSALM 51:6

Behold, You (Lord) desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.\

 

When people look at Church Age believers, what the Lord wants them to see is His glory indwelling us.  Yet we are not trustworthy.  Consider the apostle Peter…Luke, Chapter 22, Verse 33…

 

/LUKE 22:33

But Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!”\

 

In what will be forever known in Barah Ministries as the “cock a doddle doo” incident, Peter proved himself untrustworthy by betraying the Lord.  Yet what did the Lord predict for Peter?  Luke, Chapter 22, Verse 32…

 

/LUKE 22:32

“…but I (the Lord Jesus Christ) have prayed for you (Peter), that your faith may not fail…and you, when once you have turned again (which you will), (that you) strengthen your brothers (the other disciples).”\

 

The Lord knew what He could do with the broken one…Peter.

 

Consider King David who stole the wife of his best friend and his best general Uriah.  As Nathan described the incident to David in a parable, here was King David’s response in Second Samuel, Chapter 12, Verses 5 to 7…

 

/SECOND SAMUEL 12:5

Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man (Nathan was describing), and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die.”\

 

/SECOND SAMUEL 12:6

“He must make restitution for the lamb (Bathsheba) fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion.”\

 

/SECOND SAMUEL 12:7

Nathan then said to David, “You are the man!\

 

David proved himself untrustworthy as a King, as a friend, and as a leader of an army, and as a leader of men.  Yet what did the Lord say about David in Acts, Chapter 13, Verse 22?

 

/ACTS 13:22

After the Lord had removed Saul as king, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom the Lord also testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, (the kind of man) who will do all My will.’”\

 

By giving believers in Christ His righteousness for safekeeping at the moment of salvation, God has placed His trust in us…even though we are untrustworthy.  What the Lord trusts is His ability to make “somethings” from us “nothings.”

 

Trust.

 

The Lord is committed to making us trustworthy.  The Lord has erected walls around His believers to protect us as He grows us…Psalm 37, Verses 23 to 25…

 

/PSALM 37:23

The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and the Lord delights in his way.\

 

/PSALM 37:24

When a man falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.\

 

/PSALM 37:25

I (King David) have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor have I seen his descendants begging bread.\

 

The Lord wants us to be trustworthy as He is…He wants us to be people who can be counted on…and He is building that trustworthiness into us, His Church Age believers, the ones who will be ruling with Him in the Millennial Reign of Christ.

 

Tribulation is the spiritual gymnasium…God wants us to be spiritually fit so

He allows adversity to pummel us…we encounter opposition, contradiction, slander, lies, misrepresentation, very few believing in us…all forms of vicious attacks.  He allows prosperity as well…money and fame and cheap success.  God gets to know us through how we handle the tribulation of adversity and the tribulation of prosperity.  The Lord wants to know that we are not for sale.

 

Abraham was a prime example of what the Lord is doing with His believers to make us trustworthy.  The Lord asked Abraham to come in faith without knowing anything the Lord had for him…Hebrews, Chapter 11, Verse 8…

 

/HEBREWS 11:8

By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed God by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance…and he went out, not knowing where he was going.\

 

Then the Lord promised Abraham a son.  Abraham believed, even though it was hard to believe.  Romans, Chapter 4, Verses 19 to 21…

 

/ROMANS 4:19

Without becoming weak in faith Abraham contemplated his own body, now as good as sexually dead since he was about a hundred years old, and he contemplated the deadness of Sarah’s womb…\

 

/ROMANS 4:20

…yet, with respect to the promise of God, Abraham did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God…\

 

/ROMANS 4:21

…and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.\

 

Abraham’s wife Sarah laughed at the thought of having a son in her advanced age…and why wouldn’t she…there was reasonable doubt that an impotent one hundred year old man and a barren sixty year old woman could conceive a child.  Yet nothing is impossible with God!

 

After the promise of a son, the Lord sent Abraham to the waiting room…a period of silence where it appeared nothing was happening.  It gave Abraham a chance to let his faith percolate.  Abraham became impatient and took matters into his own hands, slept with Sarah’s maid Hagar, and produced Ishmael and the line of Arabs.  It was an untrustworthy and faithless move. 

 

The Lord wants to know…can we be trusted or will we bail?  Whom will we trust…the wisdom of the world or the wisdom of God?  Abraham bailed.

 

A trustworthy God did not bail on Abraham, though.  The Lord kept His promise.  Abraham was given a son…Isaac.  And just when Abraham thought it was safe to go outside…Genesis, Chapter 22, Verse 2…

 

/GENESIS 22:2

The Lord said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”\

 

Oh boy! 

 

Well Abraham had faith.  He did as the Lord suggested.  He took the boy up to offer him up.  Genesis, Chapter 22, Verses 15 to 18…

 

/GENESIS 22:15

Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven…\

 

/GENESIS 22:16

…and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son…\

 

/GENESIS 22:17

…indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore…and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.\

 

/GENESIS 22:18

In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”\

 

Abraham proved trustworthy…James, Chapter 2, Verse 23…

 

/JAMES 2:23

…and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.\

 

Just as Abraham, an Old Testament believer is a friend of God, so are you Church Age believers friends of God.  God has big plans for you…plans to make you trustworthy…what is God going to do for you?  First Corinthians, Chapter 2, Verse 9…

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 2:9

...just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.”\

 

You may not know what God can turn you into, but He knows what He can do with you.  Will you trust Him to make you trustworthy?  Can you be content regardless of circumstances…whether God is giving you no resources or lots of resources…in adversity or prosperity will you trust the Lord?

 

What is the way of adversity?  THE CROSS!  What is the way of prosperity?  THE CROSS!  What is the way of glory?  THE CROSS!  What is the way of trustworthiness?  THE CROSS! 

 

What did the Lord Jesus Christ do for us at the Cross?

 

He proved to us that He can be trusted.  He is trustworthy.  He is using His power to make His believers trustworthy.  It’s a pleasure to celebrate the Lord’s Supper and to honor Him in our look back at the Cross.

 

/THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION:

Enjoying the Elements\

 

Obeying God’s command, we keep on celebrating CHRIST and His Cross on a regular basis…we eat to remember who He is as a PERSON…we drink to remember His WORK on the Cross…the voluntary sacrifice He made at on our behalf as our sin substitute.  We are grateful for what God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ have done for us.  First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verses 23 and 24 say…

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:23

For I, Paul, received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you…that the Lord Jesus Christ on the night in which He was betrayed took bread…\

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:24

…and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is, and keeps

 on being My body, which is broken for you…keep on doing this celebration

 for the purpose of remembering Me.”\

 

When we eat the bread during the Lord’s Supper Celebration, we remember the Lord Jesus Christ AS A PERSON. 

 

When we drink the cup, we remember THE WORK the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the Cross.  First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verses 25 and 26 say…

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:25

In the same way the Lord Jesus Christ took the cup after supper,

representing His death on the Cross, saying, “This cup is a new testament… forged with My blood…keep on doing this celebration…and as often as you drink it…do so for the purpose of remembering Me.”\

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:26

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup (as part of the Lord’s Supper Celebration), you proclaim (as a reality and you announce the significance of) the Lord Jesus Christ’s death (on the Cross and His resurrection from the dead) until He comes (again in the second coming).\

 

As you enjoy the bread and the cup, enjoy the memory of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as well. Now and always, let us keep on giving thanks that we are loved unconditionally and accepted fully by THE LORD WHO IS ALWAYS THERE…the One we can depend on…and let’s keep on being transformed by His life and His death and His resurrection and His Word… and let’s enjoy His unconditional love Day by Day…and that’s the name of our Lord’s Supper song.

 

/LORD’S SUPPER SONG

DAY BY DAY

Godspell\

 

/GOD WANTS YOU!

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life\

 

The closing moments of our study are dedicated to anyone listening or reading or watching who does not have a personal relationship with the Sovereign God of the Universe, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We want you to know that GOD WANTS YOU. 

 

All of us are born with a problem…in God’s eyes we are SINNERS at the moment of physical birth because Adam’s sin is imputed to us…Romans, Chapter 3, Verse 23 says…

 

/ROMANS 3:23

…all creatures have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…\

 

Romans, Chapter 3, Verse 10 says…

 

/ROMANS 3:10

…it is written “There is no creature who is righteous, not even one…”\

 

God deals only one way with sin…Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 23…

 

/ROMANS 6:23a

For the wages of sin is spiritual death…\

 

Sin and its resulting spiritual death would make it impossible to have a relationship with a perfect God if He had not stepped in to handle the problem.  Fortunately for us creatures, it is not God’s will that any of us remain SINNERS in a state of spiritual death.  God wants to make you a SAINT who is spiritually alive.

 

This is the gospel message… the “good news” … it is a message of forgiveness for sin through the atoning work of Jesus Christ at the Cross.  The gospel message announces God the Father’s rescue plan of redemption for those who will trust in His divine Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.   Through His work on the Cross, the Lord reconciled us to God the Father by tearing down the barrier between God an His creatures.  Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verses 14 and 15…

 

/EPHESIANS 2:14-15a

For the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is our peace…who…broke down the barrier of the dividing wall//by abolishing in His flesh the enmity between God and all mankind…\

 

What is the essence of the gospel message…this good news for SINNERS?  Paul captures it perfectly in First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 1 to 8…

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:1

Now I (Paul) make known to you, brethren, the gospel message which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand…\

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:2

…by which also you are saved…if you hold fast the word which I preached

to you (about the Lord’s resurrection from the dead), unless you believed in

vain.\

 

If the Lord Jesus Christ wasn’t raised from the dead, He is no different than anyone else who came to the earth, and our faith in Him is pointless.

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:3

For I (Paul) delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…\

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:4

…and that He was buried, and that He was resurrected from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures…\

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:5

…and that Jesus appeared to Cephas (Simon Peter), then to the twelve.\

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:6

After that Jesus appeared to more than five hundred believers in Christ at one time…most of whom remain alive until now…but some have fallen asleep (they have died physically)…\

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:7

…then He appeared to James (his half brother), then to all the apostles…\

 

/FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:8

…and last of all, as if to one untimely born, He appeared to me (Paul) also.\

 

The Lord Jesus Christ not only died for our sin, but also He was resurrected from the dead, and a great cloud of witnesses verified both of these absolutely true historical facts.  God does not expect us to take anything on “blind faith.”  Instead we place our faith in absolutely true events and in an absolutely real and living Person, the Lord Jesus Christ.  His resurrection from the dead proved that He is God.  Colossians, Chapter 2, Verse 9…

 

/COLOSSIANS 2:9

For in Jesus Christ all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form…\

 

Death could not contain the Lord.

 

As a result of the Lord Jesus Christ solving the sin problem, right where you

sit, right now, you can have eternal life…the resurrection life.  John, Chapter

1, Verse 12 says…

 

/JOHN 1:12

…as many as received Him, to them Jesus gave the right to become children of God the Father, even to those who believe in His name…\

 

Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verses 8 and 9…

 

/EPHESIANS 2:8

For by God’s grace you have been saved through faith (in Christ for salvation)…and that grace and that faith and that salvation are not from the source of yourselves…it is the gift of God….\

 

/EPHESIANS 2:9

…therefore, being saved is not as a result of works (deeds you have done in self-righteousness)…so that no one may boast (about saving himself).\

 

You cannot save yourself.  You cannot work for your salvation.  Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 31…

 

/ACTS 16:31

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”\

 

Heed the warning in John, Chapter 3, Verse 36…

 

/JOHN 3:36

“He who believes in the Son has the resurrection life right at that moment… but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life…instead the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.”\

 

We welcome WHOSOEVER into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ…a relationship in the Light…Here’s June Murphy to sing about it.

 

/CLOSING SONG

WALK IN THE LIGHT

June Murphy\

 

/CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...\

 

         THANKS - INTERCESSION - PETITION

 

/Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

www.barahministries.com\