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1)
Knowledge without application is useless.
One might
even say it is counterproductive.
The more we know what is best for us and the less we
put it into practice, the more conflicted we become and we can build
a habit of ignoring truth.
2. What areas of your life are you not applying truth?
___
9.
What
are specific things you can do to improve?
___
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2)
THE foundation for our life is God's love and God's power.
All of our problems stem from our not trusting in these two
attributes.
Nothing in this world has both. People can love others, but without
power it is useless.
We do not have perfect peace because we are not trusting in a perfect God.
"What more do I expect
God to do in order for me to trust that He loves me enough to take
care of me?"
So when you think everything's going to
pieces, no; Christ
has got it, just not the way we want it.
if it's happened to you,
He's allowed to
happen to you.
Most of
our hits in life come from us having unrealistic expectations.
9.
List times of painful emotions (fear, worry,
anger, feeling disrespected, unappreciated, etc.) in your
life.
___
10.
Were you trusting that God had those situations handled?
___
11.
If not, write out how your reaction would have been
different if you fully trusted God.
___
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3)
THE pathways Jesus gave us for our life are to love God and to
love others.
Although difficult, it is simple. This word "love" is
Agape love, which is doing what is best for the other person no
matter how we feel.
Our action of love is a natural
response to the love we have been given.
"Whoever does not love
does not know God, because God is love."
But what you have is
you have your call
you’re called children of God
you've been given a purpose to love
God and love others.
How
many of you went through the day yesterday not thinking, "Those are
the two things I should be doing."
Do
what's best for the other person, no matter how you feel.
You
look up to the Lord. What's best? What's best for this person right
now?
Considering these three aspects of obedience.
Saying no to ungodliness.
o
What do you find yourself giving into either out of
choice or habit that doesn’t please God?
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o
Confess
it
o
What do you gain long term by continuing in sin?
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LOVING OTHERS
Read
James 1:27 What do you do to take care of the truly
needy either with time or money?
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4)
EVERYTHING in our lives is a gift
including what we have worked for. Thankfulness,
therefore, should be our primary response. As we embrace this truth,
the result is humility. The most important gift anyone can receive
is Salvation.
We typically take for granted our position in the
world
all that happens to us are gifts whether we see them that way or not
We set a bar, a bar of expectations. Above that bar,
we are happy.
Almost everything that makes us unhappy would be
difficult to describe to a person in a primitive society.
“What more do I expect out of God than what he has
already done for me?”
we forget our spiritual blessings.
One of the reasons we don't appreciate spiritual
gifts is that we don't understand the futility of life.
“What do you have
that you have not been given?
And
if you have been given it, why do you boast?”
God's given each of you gifts and abilities, and he wants
you to use them.
when truth is passed on from any one person to
another, and that person receives that, it,
that's like a battle that's been won.
when we go and we touch somebody else's life, we're
touching with God's love.
the God of the universe is glorifying himself through
us.
we set this
bar, life is supposed to be this way. And when life is less than
"that good," then we get upset.
And it's
the opposite of Christianity because there is no entitlement.
"And if
you did receive it,"
"why do
you boast as though you did not?"
And there's
gifts everywhere. And if we just stop, and rest in that, and think
about it, there's just a peace that comes over us.
3.
Do you see yourself as better than people who don’t have your
qualities or accomplishments? Be honest.
___
11. Make a list of the main categories of any physical
possessions you own. What did you do to deserve them? ___
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VIEW OF OURSELVES AND GOD |
5)
ALL good and all love is from God.
ALL that we receive and all that we give is God's love passed
through people.
The result of living in these truths is that we are humbled, knowing
that all the good we do for others, and all of our good
accomplishments are a result of God using us as His vessel.
"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us..."
"No one is good--except God alone."
We need to first look up and know how much we're loved by God
Instead of looking for who's messing up and who's not loving me. Look for the little bit that you get.
it's
just us and God. And we interact with different people as we're
going through.
He went to
the cross, he did all this stuff. And I'm supposed to expect an
easier life?
4.
How does it change your view of God loving you through so many
people throughout your life? ___
7.
Consider that the good, the love, didn’t come from you, but came
from God and through you. How does that change your view of
yourself? ___
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6)
It is God's will that you get to know Him.
J.I. Packer in Knowing God states: "Disregard the study of God...
sentence yourself... no sense of direction and no understanding of
what surrounds you."
"Those who really know God... never brood on might- have- beens; they
never think of the things they have missed, only of what they have
gained. A little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal
of knowledge about Him."
"Once you become aware that
the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of
life's problems fall into place.”
When we read the Bible without looking, trying to get to know God, we can be learning a lot about God without getting to know Him.
He wants to take everything
that we face horizontally here and go vertical.
1.
Read through I John 1. Even if you don’t learn anything new,
write out what can be learned about
a.
God ___
b.
your relationship with Him and
___
c.
what He expects out of you.
___
7.
Think through at least one other life event. write out what can
be learned about
a.
God
___
b.
your relationship with Him and
___
c.
what He expects out of you.
___
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7)
Learn from the past, Glorify God in the present and Trust God for
the Future.
God is pleased with our direction in this moment
rather than after we've accomplished a goal or completed a future
task.
there's
only one thing we do with the past.
Learn from
it. And you must learn from it.
You learn
from the past, you glorify God, and live in the present right now.
And you trust God for the future.
each
moment you say, Lord, what do you have for me today? What do you
have for me this moment?
Consider the past.
7.
Why do you think you repeat some mistakes or make the same ones
you see others making?
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8.
If you spend time in regret or reminiscing on might-have-beens,
what benefit do you receive?
___
Consider the future:
1.
See James 4:14. On a scale from 1-10, how much would you say you
worry about the future? ___
2.
What benefit do you receive worrying about it?
___
Consider the present:
3.
On a scale from 1-10, how much of your time do you spend seeking
God in the moment? ___
4.
What could you change so you would think more about God in the
moment you are in?
___
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8)
It is not about us, and our desired way; it is about God.
Jesus IS the way. It is not about our desired way. It is about God
getting the glory through our lives.
The futility of life apart from God is a significant truth for
one to embrace
one sees a "God time" and a "me time." The other sees
all one's time as belonging to God.
Everything in the world, in the horizontal plane,
is drawing our attention to ourselves.
test whether or not you are living as one
who serves an
unimaginable God.
Think about the ultimate futility of serving
yourself.
It is God who gives
purpose, and that purpose is to give Him Glory by the way we live
our lives.
"show me
how I can love others with your love today."
When we stop pursuing that which will not
last and focus on living each moment for God, we become as close as
we can to be who we were created to be.
when God says,
this is your lane and you're here to do live for me
How
could you be disrespected if you're living for God?
You can't use other people as an excuse for
your behavior.
It's all about what God's
going to do in you. You can't, you can't think you're all that
and you can't limit yourself
don't expect an easy life.
but you are going to be stronger
the power of God is going to be manifest in
you
You can't keep a marriage together.
You have a job.
You be the best husband you can be.
it's my job to do my best at what
God's called me to do.
There's 8 billion people in the world
and you're going to go blame it on one of them? You're having trouble
because you're not trusting God.
The only peace comes from God.
It doesn't come from having your
situation improved or changing who you're around.
Consider
the following, and write out what has conflicted with God's will.
1)
The overall focus of your life in the past few years.
(Example: getting rich).
___
2)
The focus of your life now.
___
3)
Recent decisions. (Example: lying)
___
4)
What do
you hope to gain by fulfilling your own will if it is in conflict
with God's?
___
16)
Think about a day that you'd typically
have. Visualize this day being given entirely to God's glory, and
living each moment for Him. Write down 10 or 15 things that you
might do throughout that day.
___
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9)
Difficulty in our lives comes from the fall.
Adam's sin resulted in our sinfulness, others sinning, and the
corruption of the physical world. We should not have an
expectation for an easy life.
We have an expectation that we're supposed to be able to go through
this life and not be negatively impacted by other people's sins.
Did Jesus deal with it? Yeah. How much?
All the time. In every way. Yeah. But, but I shouldn't have to.
And you go from
your pity party about yourself and feeling all bad about the way
you're being treated, to realizing how much you were loved.
you don't need to take the hit when you have a realistic
expectation that other people are going to fail you.
it's my job to do my best at what
God's called me to do.
The only peace comes from God.
It doesn't come from having your
situation improved or changing who you're around.
Physical Corruption
Make a list of things in your life that have broken,
rotten, or worn out causing you to have to work either to fix
them or to earn money to replace them.
___
Other People’s Sin
Make a list of the sins of others that have negatively impacted
your life. It could be anything from their selfishness keeping
you from doing what you would have enjoyed to outright meanness
directed toward you.
___
Your sin
Make a list of how your sins have caused difficulty in your life
or the lives of others.
___
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10) God
often uses the consequences from the fall, to discipline us, to teach us about
Him
We must at that point remind ourselves that God is all loving and
powerful so we can trust in His purpose. Knowing this changes our
reaction to every difficult thing that comes into our lives.
It is easy for the lack of significant trials to lull people
into a false sense of security.
If we
believe we can affect our outcomes,
we are believing that we have
the power of God
If a person
spends most of their day thinking about earthly things,
it is
difficult when a trial comes about
to quickly have a Heavenly
perspective.
We lose
sight of the fact that we were made so that our temporary mortal
lives will be swallowed up by life; that life is Jesus.
For our light
and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that
far outweighs them all.
That which will last forever has already overcome that
which cannot last.
Even when we do not want the best for ourselves, He wants the best
for us.
Original: List thoughts and feelings you remember having at
the time. Look at them perhaps through different eyes, as
God’s discipline in directing your focus toward Him, to
learn to trust Him more, to understand His heart more.
___
New: What different thoughts and feelings do you have?
___
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11) Motives
Matter.
The houses built on rock and sand look the same. When we do what we
do for God, living our lives for Him, we have built our lives on
rock. When we live for ourselves or to please others, we have built
on sand.
The house built on sand WILL ultimately fail.
"Be
careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be
seen by them.
"The service I'm providing to this or that person is for the Lord,
to please Him."
5)
List tasks here that you do the poorest job of doing for
God. Write next to them what needs to change for you to
be doing them for God. Col 3:23
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6)
What benefit do you get from doing things for yourself?
___ Visualize all of that as building on sand.
7)
Write out some of the times you have done your "acts of
righteousness" to have some personal reward or thanks.
___
8)
Now, visualize doing that act out of obedience for God.
What different thoughts or feelings do you have?
___
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12)
Our only
source for guaranteed truth is the Bible.
Nothing and nobody in the world are fully trustworthy. Our only source for guaranteed truth is the Bible.
Who or what then can we trust? Is there a group of
very smart people who know the truth?
The
Bible is the most published, most read book in the world.
What
better way is there for God to communicate with mankind?
When you get something that's outside of the word of God, you test
the spirits.
The only way you learn to discern truth is by knowing the word of
God,
3)
Make a list of who you have trusted in the past (family,
friends, politicians) that you have found out later were
flawed or deceptive or that disappointed you in some
way.
___
4)
Make a list of some man-made things that you thought
were trustworthy like a car or something you purchased
that ended up disappointing you.
___
11)
What do you think gets you to trust in man’s wisdom
rather than the Bible?
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12)
How has that not worked well in your life?
___
13)
What change in your thinking process might change how
you can in the future put more trust in the Bible, in
the truth presented to you by God rather than the
intelligence of the world?
___
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13)
The deception in our lives most often comes from worldly thinking.
God wants our primary focus to be on heaven, not this earth.
This takes continual energy as virtually all of our experiences are
related to this life. God provides us with many earthly parallels to
teach us that long-term thinking is profitable.
God wants us to have eternal thinking.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly
things.”
Everything we “have” does not belong to us.
People who are
poor typically spend a great deal of time thinking about money.
making the most of every opportunity, because the days
are evil.”
we believe that we are in control of our future.
"If it is the
Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag.
We should do our best and leave the results in
God’s hands.
People who are
poor typically spend a great deal of time thinking about money.
Our time on this Earth and for eternity is all about
God and his glory.
it takes work to keep our focus vertically.
Where is the deception?
It is
in every sense that gives us pleasure or gives us pain.
we’re deceived into believing that a person has the power to reduce the value of our life.
We have an identity as “a chosen people.”
The amount of peace you have will be in proportion to the amount
you're trusting God.
You can take care
of your body and go to pieces. But when you're trusting God, you're
going to have peace.
we fight against the things that are actually making us stronger.
we have this lie from the devil saying, "Your life should be easy."
He's ordaining our life for His glory and for the purpose of us
growing in Him.
we go to the Father vertically with Jesus. And this is where, when
our hearts and our minds are set here, nothing touches us.
And so where is the meaning? And the meaning is in our relationship
with God and the love relationship with Him.
If
you keep looking in other places for it, you're going to
continuously be disappointed.
5)
Read Colossians 3:1 on a scale from 1 to 10 assess where
you think your heart is on any given day, what is
important to you with heavenly things being a 10?
___
7)
Go through each of the 6 assessments above and write out
specific changes you believe God wants you to make.
___
12)
Look at those events with the lens of your real
treasure, your eternal life, being in heaven. Take each
event and write out what you are thinking and feeling
would be if you were thinking of your life as eternal.
___
17)
How can you take time each day, throughout the day to be
thinking about Heaven more?
___
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14)
We naturally forget. We forget both people's unfaithfulness and
God's faithfulness.
We must put ongoing
effort into remembering both God's attributes (like His love and
power), and God's faithfulness in our lives.
4)
Based on your life experience, what would be a realistic
(not preferred) expectation from others?
___
8)
What is your identity as a Christian? In other words,
how does God see you?
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9)
Why is it important to keep that in mind?
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10)
What would help you keep that in mind?
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