THE CHURCH THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD
Let’s read 1 Tim. 3:15, and we will expound on it later in the lesson. The the saints, the children of the Heavenly Father, Paul wrote, “but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15.
There are blessings available only to those who are members of the household of God. Blessings that cannot be claimed by those outside the family of God. As a member of God’s family, a Christian enjoys these benefits 1. An Heir of God – Rom. 8:15-17, 2. Access to God as Father – Matt. 6:9.
Notice that Paul used the terms “church of the living God” and the “house of God”: The word “oikos”, “house” can mean “house, the material building, household, family, lineage, nation”. Paul used it, not as a physical house, rather here referring to the spiritual family of God. Translated as “household” in Hebrews 11:7 referring to the family of Noah. There are a number of lessons about the church which can be learned from this comparison.
1. An Heir of God – Rom. 8:15-17
2. Access to God as Father – Matt. 6:9 (Matt. 5:45, 7:8; Eph. 1:3)
3. God’s Fatherly Correction – 2 Cor. 12:9-10
4. God’s Fatherly Protection – Psalm 121
5. God’s Fatherly Love – Rom. 8:35, 38-39
STRENGTHENED WITH MIGHT
In our lesson today we begin with seeking understanding of the apostle Paul’s prayer for Strengthening
Thus the title today is strengthened with might which comes from verse 16. . .
That God would grant these saints be, “strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man”.
The prayer is a continuation from chapter 1 verses 16 and 17 where Paul said…
I, “do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,”.
But here in chapter 3 verses 14 and 15 we see Paul’s prayer is for the entire family of God.
The word Paul uses for “family” is derived from [πατήρ] meaning father.
The family in heaven and on earth is of the Father.
That is a family made because of the great love the Father has for His creation.
Remember, we are all named after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Who is seated at God’s right hand…
His name is above “every name that is named” ( 1:21)
a name “above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth” ( 2:9-10).
In fact, Paul proclaims that the day is coming when “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (11).
So, whether you are saved or not saved – you will bow, you will confess Christ as Lord.
Now let’s turn to chapter 3 and not a few things beginning at verse 16…
MIND OF CHRIST – PART 4
WHY JESUS
Ever consider how powerful the little word Come is?
My House – Movie – Walk – Visit my Church
Jesus:
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” – Matt. 16:24
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden” – Matt. 11:28
Jesus said to Peter “Come…out of the boat, walk on the water and walk to Me” – Matt 14:29
“…come to Me and drink…out of YOUR heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37-38
Jesus invites all to come to Him, come live as I lived, come raise your children right, come and follow me to heaven where I Am!
IT IS THE INVITATION OF GOD
Therefore, for a little while today we’re going to talk about why Jesus.
IDENTITY OF THE CHURCH YOU ARE SAVED – PART 7
As we now move from chapter one to chapter two, we must note the first word of this second chapter is the word, “and”. Significant because that word then tells us that even though there is a chapter break, the thought and context are a continuation from the second half of previous chapter.
Where Paul wrote, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph. 1:17). Paul prays they will have spiritual discernment. To know the hope of His calling, the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe (1:18-19). This immeasurable greatness of the Father’s power is seen first in the resurrection of Jesus (1:20-21).
Here in chapter 2 of Ephesians Paul describes the immeasurable greatness of His power in another way.
It is through this power that we will understand another aspect of who we are in Christ.
He accomplishes this by comparing what we were before Christ saved us with what we are now that we are saved.
First Paul speaks to our old condition: “dead in trespasses and sins” (2:1-3)…
MIND OF CHRIST PART 6
WILDERNESS ENCOUNTER
In this our sixth lesson we continue seeking to know the mind of Christ. As God’s dear children, we want to learn how to deal with all of life’s trials and temptations.
And the best way is to learn from the master’s mind, the mind of Christ
Paul wrote, “we have the mind of Christ” (1Cor. 2:16)
Powerfully, that eliminates “divisions”
Allowing us to be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1Cor. 1:10)
“with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27)
The clear result is that we with, “one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15:6)
So, as we live and breathe, before God Our Father, let’s, “gird up the loins of our mind, be sober, and rest our hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1Pet. 1:13)
We receive the mind of Christ by seeing, through the word of God, how Jesus, and His apostles dealt with, error, difficult people, and life situations and the devil himself. You may have guessed from our scripture reading that today we want to learn from Jesus how he dealt with temptation and then apply the same principals to our lives. We will not be led up into the wilderness by the devil as was our Lord, but we all must face temptations in our lifetime. We all must make decisions, and live with the outcomes of those choices, whether good, or bad.
So, let’s learn from the master’s “Wilderness Encounter”…
IDENTITY OF THE CHURCH
THAT YOU MAY KNOW
In the previous 5 lessons from Paul’s letter to the saints at Ephesus Paul is telling them, and us, who we are in Christ. Describing the many spiritual blessings that are found in Christ Paul says we are the saints, chosen, predestined, adopted, redeemed, and sealed. Let me describe two ways we can practice our faith.
Vertical Christianity: Godly Love – Service, Sacrifice, and Obedience. Faithfulness – To God’s Word till Death. Horizontal Christianity: Genine Fellowship within the Family of God that extends love toward all the saints.
Genuine Love for the Lost that Develops a need for sharing the good news. Vertical Christianity practicing the faith once delivered in hope of the return of Jesus, by pressing “toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14), by serving the Lord and Master Jesus. While Horizontal Christianity is reaching out to others, being, …rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for ourselves a good foundation for the time to come, that we may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:18-19). Truth is, we cannot be faithful and love the things of this world (1 John 2:15). We cannot be faithful and not practice love toward our brothers and sisters (1 Pet. 2:17), nor can we be faithful and not desire to help seek and save lost souls as our Lord did for us (Luke 19:10).
Our Christianity hangs on these two principles from Jesus: “37…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37-39).
Truth demands that we live beyond ourselves. As God’s children, we cannot live for self, we must live for Jesus.
We are called to live according to will of God (Matt. 7:21) thus we live to “serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Heb. 12:28), we live to “serve one another” (Gal. 5:13), and we “walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8) exposing the works of darkness (Eph. 5:11).
In our lesson we will learn from Paul two things: What God Wants You To Have (1:15-17) and What God Wants You To Know (1:18-23)…
HANNAH THE POWER OF PRAYER
1 SAMUEL
Our God is the true and living God that is the God of compassion and the God of Glory!
When we go back and look into the Old Testament history and we see God being glorified in the work that He did to bring the children of Israel out of the Egyption bondage they suffered. He heard their cry and brought them out with a mighty arm. We learn from the children of Israel as He brought them out that they were not as trusting as they should be. There was a very dark period in their history recorded in the Book of Judges. When you go throught that you see the wickedness and it’s just appalling. It’s terrible to think about all the things that happened back then.
But, as we are thankful for the sunrise and the light of the day on the horizon, certainly that is the time in the history of God’s people that we are going to talk about tonight. A time in which the Spirit of the judges was about to end and a godly faithful woman was instrumental in bringing this about. So, let’s open our bibles to the book of 1 Samuel and let’s read together about this godly woman named Hannah.
SPIRITUAL OR CARNAL
the Old Testament was writting for our learning that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope (Rom. 15:4). Certainly Joshua was a leader who had hope in the Lord and he trusted in the great commander who went before him and the conquest was successfull to the point of were the people could dwell in that land of milk and honey, and they had to continue to fight, to resist the temptations that were before them and the nations that were driven out.
So in Joshua 24:14-15 we read, “14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
As we’ve read afore, Joshua made it clear, there is a choice to make, and we can express that simple choice, certainly we must say it is a black and white choice, whether of not we will serve the true and living God or whether the god of this world.
In this lesson we are going to express the choice in a little different manor. We’re going to ask each of us to consider this, for we have a choice that each of us have to make. Will we be spritual or will we be carnal?
IDENTITY OF THE CHURCH – PART 5 YOU ARE HEIRS
You are Heirs
Because we have been redeemed by the applied blood of Christ, our sin debt has been paid, and being restored we are now heirs – God’s inheritance. At verse 11 we read…
“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,” (Eph. 1:11)
The first point that needs to be explored is this.
We must not make the mistake of connecting “obtaining an inheritance” to the promise of a home in heaven Jesus made us (John 14:1-3, 6).
The “inheritance” means you are now one of the people of God, God’s child, not the home in heaven, but that God is now your Father, and you are His precious child.
Consider the promises of God to His chosen people Israel…
THE MIND OF CHRIST – CONNECT THE DOTS
We are continuing our evening series on the mind of Christ
Our goal is to know more about Jesus
To learn from His thoughts to try as best we can to make them our thoughts
To see how Jesus handles day to day dealings with people who both love Him and even those who hated Him
Today, turn with me to the book of John, and chapter John 6:59-69…