ROM-298-170903 - length: 68:41 - taught on Sep, 3 2017
Class Outline:
Welcome To
BARAH MINISTRIES
a Christian Church
Rory Clark
Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a Christian Church with worldwide impact based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark. At Barah Ministries, our God is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Lord proclaims His own magnificence and His own Sovereignty in Isaiah, Chapter 45, Verses 5 and 6…
ISAIAH 45:5
“I am the Lord, and there is no other lord…besides Me there is no other God. I will gird you, even though you have not known Me…”
His love for His creatures is UNconditional…
ISAIAH 45:6
“…that men may know from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me.”
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON
Present Your Bodies To Each Other
Our God is a God of unity. God makes it clear that unity is His desire for His universe and for His creatures. As the Lord chastises Job, He makes it clear that there was a time with the Creator and His creatures were in a perfect unity…Job, Chapter 38, Verses 1 to 7…
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind (a tornado, ironically similar to the one that killed all of Job’s children) and said…
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”
Job was suggesting to his friends that God is a bit unfair…and God was correcting him…the Lord is asking, “Who’s talking smack?” In other words, who is this talking from a point of view of absolute ignorance?
“Now gird up your loins, Job, like a man, and I will ask you, and you can instruct Me!”
This was God’s way of telling Job to “grow a set.” It was also God’s way of suggesting that Job doesn’t know much. Then the Lord gives Job a quiz, laced with sanctified sarcasm…
“Where were you, Job, when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding of this matter…”
Job wasn’t there when the Lord spoke the heavens and the earth into existence…so there is no way for Job to know anything about it. Job is not omnipresent. Job immediately becomes aware of his insignificance as a creature. The Lord is asking Job, as a result of this revelation, if he is in a position to advise God…or if Job is in a position to judge God.
“Who set the earth’s measurements? Since you know, tell Me! Or who stretched the measuring line on the earth?”
“On what were the earth’s bases sunk? Or who laid the earth’s cornerstone…”
“…when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God (the beneha Elohim…the angelic creatures) shouted for joy?”
God loves unity…and He despises disunity…like the disagreement that happens in the soul when man fails to understand the true intent and the true awesomeness of God. Welcome to a place where you can learn to embrace unity and to despise disunity.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION
Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ
Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
CAST MY CARES
Finding Favor
Our God is our refuge and our strength…an ever present help in times of trouble. And God considers our problems to be His responsibility. Let’s listen to the group Finding Favor make a suggestion for our relationship with God…a God on whom we can cast our cares…the song is CAST MY CARES. Father…we will cast our cares on you!
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray...
We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
Thank you for carrying our burdens…thank you for having a divine solution for every human problem…thank you for being the Source…
…make us aware of the beauty of Your plan…help us to abandon our own designs and schemes and to simply agree with Your perfect will for the Universe and for our lives…help us to see with the eyes of our souls the simplicity and purity of devotion to Your Son, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...
Amen.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON
Present Your Bodies To Each Other
We’re studying Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 1…
ROMANS 12:1
Therefore…I (Paul)…urge (beseech) you…brethren (believers in Christ)… as you keep on being persuaded because of the many mercies of God…TO PRESENT YOUR BODIES (by choice, not by command…as) A LIVING AND HOLY SACRIFICE… acceptable to God the Father… which is your spiritual service…worship.
One of the places we present our bodies is to each other…for the purpose of unity.
I’ve come to learn in the course of my decade as a Pastor, that when God has us parked at a place in Scripture…there is something He wants us to see that we are not seeing…something so obvious that it is escaping our notice.
Our God is a God of unity. His suggestion for us in Ephesians, Chapter 4, Verse 3 is to…
EPHESIANS 4:3
…be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
So often God makes suggestions that we are absolutely not able to do. We are encouraged, in this verse, as a part of walking in a manner worthy of our calling, to preserve the unity of the Spirit. It’s a funny request…and it IS a request, not a command…because as creatures, we despise unity… especially since the fall. Our mouths claim otherwise, but our actions betray us…we are quite individual and selfish in our approach to life. We don’t even have the ability to create unity. It is a gift from God. The fall of angelic creatures and the fall of mankind were caused by the same malady… disunity. Creatures a have a deep-seated desire to “do it on their own,” when they absolutely can’t.
When we look at what we have been studying in Romans Chapter 12, Verse 1…PRESENT YOUR BODIES AS A LIVING AND HOLY SACRIFICE… perhaps we miss the simplicity of this request. God is simply asking us to show up so He can do the work in our lives…especially the work we can’t do…like unity. Yet for the most part, we aren’t really interested in God’s help.
God wants us to use the gift of TIME effectively. We’re more interested in wasting time.
GOD wants us to make time to develop a deep, intimate, and personal relationship with Him. We’re more interested in electronic devices and other forms of sublimation…alcohol…drugs…hobbies…people…look at the amount of time we spend with distractions instead of spending focus time with God. Luke, Chapter 12, Verse 34 says…
LUKE 12:34
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Our treasure is in the things of this earth, when as spiritual beings we are encouraged by God, Colossians, Chapter 3, Verse 2 to…
COLOSSIANS 3:2
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
God wants us to take time for SELF, when we would rather self-sabotage by neglecting ourselves.
God wants us to build and to cherish a FAMILY when we seem content to allow our families to be fragmented and destroyed by the enemy of God.
God wants us to care for our HEALTH when we seem more intent on filling our body with things that hurt it.
God wants us to care for our FINANCES when we seem more intent on spending faster than we earn.
Now if these things we are doing in opposition to God’s desire for us are working, that’s one thing…but if these things aren’t working, and they aren’t, we’d at least seem like reasonable people if we considered the life God has to offer instead.
So we’ve taken a look at a series of relationships…our relationships with TIME, and with GOD, and with SELF, and with FAMILY, and with HEALTH, and with FINANCES…and when we ask ourselves how we are doing in all these areas, especially as they apply to the context of the marriage relationship…we must readily admit that we are failing miserably at any intentionally conscious approach to these areas of our lives. We are more likely being blown about by every wind in these matters, and we’re obviously concerning ourselves with things other than these.
What is apparent to me today, that was obvious in God’s mind from the beginning, is that there is a penetrating message hidden within these lessons. It is the message of unity. God wants His creatures to be in unity with their Creator…to be of one mind…and He provides a series of classrooms for this unity…our relationships with TIME, and GOD, and SELF, and FAMILY, and HEALTH, and FINANCES all have hidden within them the message of unity versus disunity…the message of effectiveness versus ineffectiveness. This simple message is easy to miss. As we transition to a look at our relationship with a COMPANION…the gift of intimacy, perhaps this malady of disunity will become loud enough that we can hear it…bright enough that we can see it…concerning enough that we choose to do something about.
God gives us the gift of a COMPANION.
The gift of a companion gives us a chance to enter the classroom of intimacy…perhaps the most wonderful gift God offers us…and perhaps the model for unity. What is unity?
UNITY
The result produced in us by God when we offer control of our soul to God the Holy Spirit.
If we are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called, the only way to do it is to let God do it for us. If we are to love unconditionally, the only way to do it is to let God do it for us. If we are to forgive, the only way to do it is to let God do it for us. If we are to GROW in the sphere of grace, the only way to do it is to let God do it for us. This is a message that is lost on Christians. Satan, the enemy of God, teaches us…his world system teaches us…the flesh teaches us…that the way to produce unity is to do it ourselves. The truth is we can’t do it ourselves, and in spite of every attempt, we fail when God the Holy Spirit isn’t doing the work. Let’s take a quick music break…and when we return from the break we’ll take a look at our relationship with a companion to see what the unity message is that is available in the classroom of intimacy. To see this message, we’ll need to come out of the dark of self into the light of God the Holy Spirit…here’s Gloria Estefan to sing about it as we go to the break.
MUSIC BREAK
COMING OUT OF THE DARK
Gloria Estefan
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON
Present Your Bodies To Each Other
Let’s begin the next portion of our lesson by giving you a chance to make an offering…we need and we value your financial support to continue the work of this ministry…please welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with the offering message.
THE OFFERING
Deacon Denny Goodall
OFFERING VERSE
EPHESIANS 4:16
…from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in unconditional love.
OFFERING
FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE
Dave McClure, Instrumental
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON
Present Your Bodies To Each Other
Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 1…
ROMANS 12:1
Therefore…I (Paul)…urge (beseech) you…brethren (believers in Christ)… as you keep on being persuaded because of the many mercies of God…TO PRESENT YOUR BODIES (by choice, not by command…as) A LIVING AND HOLY SACRIFICE…acceptable to God the Father…which is your spiritual service…worship.
God gives us the gift of a COMPANION.
The gift of a companion gives us a chance to PRESENT OUR BODIES AS A LIVING AND HOLY SACRIFICE in the classroom of intimacy. Intimacy is, perhaps, the most wonderful gift God offers us…and perhaps intimacy is the model for unity. Genesis, Chapter 2, Verse 18 says…
GENESIS 2:18
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone…I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
It was always God’s intent that we would be in unity. God has always known that 1+1=1. Unity is the result produced when we give control of our lives to the indwelling God the Holy Spirit.
Life is an invitation from God to unity. God created unity. He is the master of unity. There are many biblical analogies that teach unity…for example… the Head and the body analogy. God the Holy Spirit is the nervous system…the control center that runs every other part of the body from the head. When the nervous system malfunctions the body is in big trouble.
The Shepherd and the sheep analogy…the Vine and the Branches analogy…
the initiator and the responder analogy…the soul and the body…the giver and the receiver analogy…the second member of each analogy is nothing without the first.
The receivers are to be a reflection of unity with the giver…the reflection of an unbroken correspondence between the two entities…an expression of the unity that is present.
Great receivers surrender to control and direction of the giver…as us surrendering our will to God the Holy Spirit. Only in this surrender is there love…only in this surrender is there success.
Unity is spiritual…thus it is not a human creation nor is it a human desire…in fact, so that we don’t just blame humans, unity is not a creature desire…not since the fall. God desires unity, and God creates unity for us when we align our will with His.
In Matthew, Chapter 10, Verse 34, the Lord says…
MATTHEW 10:34
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth…I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
Within the relationship classroom, God illuminates disunity in all its forms so that we can see exactly what He doesn’t want for us.
Satan, the world, and the flesh are the enemies of unity.
The Lord waits for us to see the power of unity.
Marriage is a commitment to something that neither person wants…to something neither person can create…unity. A house divided against itself will fall.
In the marriage relationship, there are factions evident…
Marriage versus Divorce
Sex versus Abstinence
Intimacy Versus Distance
Unity versus Disunity
Agreement versus Disagreement
Collaboration versus Solo Effort
Warmth versus Coldness
Love versus Enmity
Communication versus Silence
First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verse 19 says…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:19
For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.
Unity is evident…but so is disunity. Thank God for factions.
Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 17…
GALATIANS 5:17
For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit sets His desire against the flesh…for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
The new creation…the new man…is only interested in unity…yet we have the flesh (the dead old man) that is interested only in discord.
Since everything with God is one, there are never two…there is never disunity…with God, 1+1=1. At the moment of faith in Christ we are placed, through the baptism of the Spirit…IN CHRIST…and thus we are…IN THE SPIRIT…we are in a state of unity…God created this unity so we are never alone…we can’t be alone…ALONENESS IS NOT USEFUL…God doesn’t want us to be alone. Genesis, Chapter 2, Verse 18 says…
GENESIS 2:18
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone…I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
God wants His creatures to find a companion and to be in unity with their companions…on one page…together…not alone.
The sexual relationship within marriage is a great indicator of intimacy. Sexuality is a reflection of intimacy. When you are intimate with your spouse it is reflected by the sexual relationship. No intimacy? No sexuality. That is not God’s intention for us.
Pornography…masturbation…the do it yourself approach to intimacy…is a farce. It does not produce the intended affect.
If we are to have intimacy in human relationships, a mandatory prerequisite is to invite God the Holy Spirit into the relationship to produce the intimacy…because we are not able to it alone.
But then…it is not good for man to be alone…so present your bodies to each other in sacrifice, and watch the magic of our God work its wonders.
GOD WANTS YOU!
Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life
ROMANS 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God the Father…divine omnipotence…to provide salvation to everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ…to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Gentiles).
MATTHEW 7:13
“Enter salvation through the narrow gate (the Lord Jesus Christ)…for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction…and there are many who enter through the wide gate.”
MATTHEW 7:14
“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to the resurrection life, and there are few who find the narrow way.”
JOHN 10:9
“I (the Lord Jesus Christ) am the door to salvation…if anyone enters through believing in Me…he will be saved…and then he will go in and out and find pasture.”
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:22
For all in union with Adam are set to die the second death in the Lake of Fire…but all those in union with Christ will live the resurrection life.
ACTS 16:31
And Paul and Silas said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”
CLOSING SONG
ESSENCE OF GOD
June Murphy
CLOSING PRAYER
Let us pray...
THANKS - INTERCESSION - PETITION
Thanks for coming!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for listening!
www.barahministries.com
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