(#395) Romans 12 - It is God’s Will that You See Everything From His Perspective

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 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.  In Isaiah, Chapter 45, Verse 5 our God says…

 

ISAIAH 45:5

“I am the Lord, and there is no other…besides Me there is no God.” 

 

The Lord Jesus Christ has always existed…and there never has been a time…nor will there ever be a time…when He does not exist.  We call Him Lord because He is 100% God and we call Him Jesus Christ because He is 100% human, just like you and me.  He is the unique person of the universe…the Sovereign God of the Universe…He loves all of His creatures unconditionally, and as believers in Christ, we love Him back!

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

It is God’s Will that You See Everything From His Perspective

 

The intent of this ministry is to teach the Word of God from God’s perspective and not from human perspective.  That’s pretty significant, because God is nothing like us.  In Isaiah, Chapter 55, Verse 9 the Lord says…

 

ISAIAH 55:9

“For just as the heavens are higher than the earth…so are My ways higher than your ways…and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

 

He is the Creator…we are merely creatures…luckily we are creatures that are products of His perfect ability to create.  In no way are we similar to Him.  We don’t think like Him, we don’t talk like Him, and we don’t act like Him.  This we know for sure.  Yet through a power that God places in us…God the Holy Spirit…we can reflect His qualities.  We can see things from God’s point of view and act accordingly. 

 

To illustrate the importance of seeing things from God’s point of view, let’s take a topic from the Word of God like “the will of God” … and let’s ask ourselves a question…“What is the will of God?”

 

Looking at the question from human viewpoint, we might dig through the bible to find enough perspectives on the will of God to write books that cover ten volumes…and all of those volumes would contain intense speculation and endless categorization of the will of God.   It would also limit, complicate and pervert the truth about God’s will.

 

Looking at the will of God from God’s perspective…knowing that God is focused, unconfused and not at all confusing…knowing that God does everything in ones…we can learn the simplicity of God’s will in First Timothy, Chapter 2, Verses 3 to 6…

 

FIRST TIMOTHY 2:3

This is good and acceptable in the sight of the God who is our Savior (the Lord Jesus Christ)…

 

FIRST TIMOTHY 2:4

…who desires all men to be saved and who desires all men to come to the knowledge of the truth.

 

FIRST TIMOTHY 2:5

For there is one God the Father, and one mediator also between God the Father and men, the man Christ Jesus (God in the flesh)…

FIRST TIMOTHY 2:6

…who gave Himself as a ransom for all (He is the Redeemer…and His actions at the Cross are a clear) testimony, given just at the right time.

 

We learn more about God’s will in Second Peter, Chapter 3, Verse 9…

 

SECOND PETER 3:9

The Lord is not slow about His promise of salvation, as some accuse Him of, but instead He is patient toward you unbelievers, not wishing for any of you to perish (in the Lake of Fire) but for all of you to come to repentance (a change of mind about having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ).

 

God’s will is simple…He wants you to be saved…He wants you to learn the truth…He doesn’t want you to go to the Lake of Fire.  When we look at things from God’s perspective…when we see things as God sees them...life gets pretty uncomplicated.

 

In today’s lesson we continue our study of the second passage of Romans, Chapter 12 by taking a look at an expression from the passage… “so you may see clearly what the will of God is” … here’s Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 2…

 

ROMANS 12:2a

And do not be conformed to this world (by Satan, by his cosmic system of thought, and by the flesh resident in you)…instead, keep on being transformed by (God the Holy Spirit)…through the renewing of your mind (by studying the Word of God)…

 

ROMANS 12:2b

…so that you may see clearly…through testing…what the will of God is…and the will of God is that which is good and that which is acceptable and that which is perfect.

 

When you see things from God’s viewpoint, you’ll even see yourself in a different light.

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD

Chris Tomlin

 

Let’s ring in the New Year by reminding ourselves who is at the helm of our

lives as believers in Christ…a great God!  Here’s Christ Tomlin to sing HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD.

 

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

Almighty God and Father…You are the King of the Universe…thank you for creating us and thank you for sending Your Son to die for our sins so that we wouldn’t have to…thank you for making Your will clear to us…thank you for waking us up this morning…for giving us another year…for managing so many things we take for granted…things as simple as  breathing…and thank you for making our paths straight…

 

As we begin another year in service to You, make it clear to us what Your will is for each of us personally, and give us the brains, and the heart, and the courage to identify and to pursue a ministry in service to You…a ministry that reflects your character and nature to a lost and dying world…

 

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

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

It is God’s Will that You See Everything From His Perspective

 

We’re studying the second passage of Romans, Chapter 12…and the entire passage is a single verse…Verse 2…

 

ROMANS 12:2a

And do not be conformed to this world (by Satan, by his cosmic system of thought, and by the flesh)…instead, keep on being transformed by (God the Holy Spirit)…through the renewing of your mind (by studying the Word of God)…

 

ROMANS 12:2b

…so that you may see clearly…through testing…what the will of God is…and the will of God is that which is good and that which is acceptable and that which is perfect.

 

Happy New Year!

My 2018 New Year’s wish for you is that you expose yourself daily to the Word of God so that you can see everything in your life from God’s perspective and so that you can solve every problem in your life from God’s perspective.

 

It is God’s will that you think His perspective and that you voluntarily live His perspective.  In His final hours on the earth, during the Upper Room Discourse, the Lord tells His apostles how they can demonstrate their love for Him…John, Chapter 14, Verse 21…

 

JOHN 14:21

“He who has My commandments (mandates) and keeps them is the one who loves Me… and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father…and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

 

It is God’s will that we demonstrate our love for Him…first by believing in Him…and then by obeying Him…in John, Chapter 15, Verse 10, the Lord says…

 

JOHN 15:10

“If you keep My commandments (mandates), you will abide in My unconditional love…just as I have kept My Father’s commandments (mandates) and abide in His unconditional love.”

 

If you want to be God’s favorite you will live His mandates.  And since God is not a God of partiality, He has plenty of room in His heart for a lot of favorites!

 

Reflecting on seeing things from God’s perspective this week, I realized that the only way to have any chance to change another person is to love them unconditionally.  Imagine what that looks like.  It looks exactly like dealing with a teenager.  You’re calm, and they’re insane.  You wish they were mature but they are not.  You wish they were reasonable but they are not.  To have any chance to change them, you have to love them unconditionally.

 

To enlighten you on the teenager phenomenon, let me remind you that the soul has five components…

 

VOLITION

The I CHOOSE Component

Your ability to choose

 

MENTALITY

The I THINK Component

Your ability to think

 

CONSCIENCE

The I SHOULD Component

Your knowledge of right and wrong

 

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

The I AM Component

An awareness of your own existence

 

EMOTION

The I FEEL Component

Your ability to feel

 

At age thirteen, aliens abduct your child’s mentality and their conscience… in other words, their thinking and their standards…their knowledge of right and wrong…disappear, almost as if you’ve never taught them a thing.  Imagine what it is like to be around a person who is all self-consciousness and all emotion!  They shift from adoring you to despising you (either overtly or covertly) overnight…they shift their focus away from you to their peer group…they start taking direction from other idiot teenagers who have also had their mentality and their conscience abducted.  As a parent, you want to continue to influence them…you want to change them…and the only way to do it is with unconditional love.  You have to love them when they are throwing a fit. 

 

The funny thing about teen-agers is they notice everything, including noticing when their fits are getting to you.  They keep throwing fits if they are working.  Force seldom works with teen-agers.  Removal of privileges works really well, especially if they are THE privileges…like the phone and video games.  There is nothing worse for a teenager than watching peers using privileges they have lost.  Rewarding teenagers for being psychotic is a parenting disaster.

 

Obviously teenagers are an easy source of example, but there are many adults who are teenagers in adult bodies…people in an arrested stage of development.  They are stuck on some developmental issue of the past and their conduct manifests just as if they were teenagers.  The only solution for them is unconditional love.  The Lord gives us a glimpse of this unconditional love in Matthew, Chapter 5, Verses 43 to 48…

 

MATTHEW 5:43

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’”

 

MATTHEW 5:44

“But I (the Lord Jesus Christ) say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”

 

MATTHEW 5:45

“…so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven…for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

 

MATTHEW 5: 46

“For if you love those who love you, and of course you do, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”

 

MATTHEW 5:47

“If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles (unbelievers) do the same?”

 

MATTHEW 5:48

“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

 

By exposing yourself daily to the Word of God, the eyes of your soul are enlightened…you’ll begin to see everything in your life from God’s perspective and it puts you in a position to solve every problem in your life from God’s perspective….even the problem of teenagers.

 

Take any situation in your life…how is it going?  Is it going well or is it going poorly?  Now make an assessment…who are you taking direction from when you think about solving the problem?  Are you doing things from God’s perspective or are you doing things from your own perspective?

 

 

My New Year’s wish for you is that you uncomplicate your life by adopting God’s perspective on your problems.

 

MUSIC BREAK

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

Chris Rice

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

It is God’s Will that You See Everything From His Perspective

 

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

 

PROVERBS 14:23

In all labor there is profit…but mere talk leads only to poverty.

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

MATTHEW 5:16

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

 

OFFERING

FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE

Dave McClure, Instrumental

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

It is God’s Will that You See Everything From His Perspective

 

My 2018 New Year’s wish for you is that you expose yourself daily to the Word of God so that you can see everything in your life from God’s perspective and so that you can solve every problem in your life from God’s perspective.

 

When you do…

 

You show up and you grow up when you obey the Word of God.

 

God takes us through a journey in the Christian Way of Life…it’s the same journey that The Jewish Race went on…it starts in slavery…it contains an invitation to salvation…it goes through the desert of trials and tribulations… and it ends in The Promised Land for those who accept the Lord’s invitation to salvation.

 

This week I reflected on my own journey…I was saved at age eight by two men on an ice cream truck…I traversed through the struggle with sin as a twenty-one year Roman Catholic, and I learned that in spite of my best efforts to “be good” I could not defeat the flesh in me…I escaped Roman Catholicism only to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire of Systematic Theology, a twenty-nine year trek through the through the desert of legalism.  IN spite of my best effort to follow the rules…I couldn’t.  From the slavery of physical birth, to a so great salvation, to the desert of lasciviousness and legalism…which is sin and the law…only to have a faithful God land me in the Graceland of real Christianity…I can only wonder what would have happened had I just understood one verse… Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 14…

 

ROMANS 6:14

For sin shall not be (the sovereign) master over you…for you believers in Christ are not under the law…but you are under grace.

 

It is God’s will that believers in Christ obey Him in the face of an intense battle.  Galatians, Chapter 5, Verses 17 and 18…

 

GALATIANS 5:17

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit…and the Spirit sets its desire against the flesh…for these are in opposition to one another…so that you may not do the things that you please.

 

GALATIANS 5:18

But if you believers in Christ are led by God the Holy Spirit, and you are, you are not under the Mosaic Law.

 

When you take in the Word of God and when you begin to obey the Word of God you are transformed…not conformed.

 

Weakness is the acknowledgement by a believer in Christ that human power cannot do what God’s divine power can do in us.  Life is not mastered by the intellect, nor by reason, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.  Here is an observation by one of my favorite evangelist and authors… T. Austin Sparks…

 

T. AUSTIN SPARKS

I tell you, friends, that as I read certain theological magazines I find DEATH. They are wearisome to the spirit.

 

T. AUSTIN SPARKS

All this terrific effort to solve the problems of Christianity by the human intellect…the research, the argument, the discussion, the debate, and the theses…philosophical Christianity trying to solve spiritual problems…

 

T. AUSTIN SPARKS

What a weariness it is! I have to put these papers down sometimes! I cannot finish them…for they are so dead, so utterly lifeless.

 

That’s a perfect description of what happens when we apply psychology…  and human thinking…to divine problems.  All of us, as Christians, are at various points on this journey of getting to know God…moving from confusion to clarity to confidence.  As we progress through life, we gather pieces of knowledge.  When we have a lot of knowledge and a lot of experiences to validate the knowledge, hopefully the knowledge becomes wisdom.  When we begin to look at things through God’s perspective and we obey His perspective, we are wise, and life becomes amazing.

We are wise when we allow God the Holy Spirit to control us and to direct us.  Here is what God the Holy Spirit is up to in our lives…He’s leading the blood bought… Spirit taught…transformation of our lives…from the inside out…Second Corinthians, Chapter 3, Verse 4…

 

SECOND CORINTHIANS 3:4

Such confidence we have through Jesus Christ toward God the Father.

 

SECOND CORINTHIANS 3:5

NOT THAT WE ARE ADEQUATE IN OURSELVES TO CONSIDER ANYTHING AS COMING FROM OURSELVES, but our adequacy is from God the Father…

 

SECOND CORINTHIANS 3:6

…who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant…not of the letter of the Law but of the Spirit of the law…for the letter of the Law kills…but the Spirit gives life.

 

As believers in Christ, when our confidence comes from The Source… when we are aware of The Source of our resources…we are truly free.  In Galatians, Chapter 5, Verses 22 and 23, we learn what the Spirit is producing in believers in Christ…

 

GALATIANS 5:22

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (in ourselves)…patience, kindness, goodness (toward others)…faithfulness…

 

GALATIANS 5:23

…gentleness, self-control (in our relationship with God)…against such virtues there is no law.

 

It’s not the fruit of us…we don’t produce it…the fruit is produced by The Source…God the Holy Spirit.  Titus, Chapter 3, Verse 5…

 

TITUS 3:5

The Lord Jesus Christ saved us…not on the basis of deeds which we have done in self-righteousness…but according to His mercy…by the washing of regeneration and through the renewing by God the Holy Spirit…

 

Our transformation is not something we do…it’s something God does for us…NOT from the to-do list of the flesh (sin…lasciviousness) to the to-do-list of the law (legalism).  Our transformation comes from Gods to-do-list of grace.  When we are transformed, we love to obey God and we love to let Him do His works in us.  Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verse 10…

 

EPHESIANS 2:10

For we believers in Christ are God the Father’s workmanship…created in union with Christ Jesus for good works…which God the Father prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

 

When you are obedient and when God transforms you, you are able to reflect God’s light to everyone you meet.

 

One of my favorite verses is Romans, Chapter 1, Verse 20…

 

ROMANS 1:20

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes (His essence), His eternal power (omnipotence) and His divine nature (His Deity), have been clearly seen, being understood even through what has been made (through nature), so that all mankind are without excuse before the justice of God.

 

I think often about the people in the middle of Africa.  Through nature they are taught the Plan of God.  They see the sun, and soon they learn that the sun is at the center of the universe.  Then when they are taught spiritual things, they learn that the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ is the still point in a turning world…that the Son is the center of the universe.

 

At night the people in the middle of Africa see the moon, and they wonder how it is lit.  They wonder why sometimes it is fully lit and sometimes it is fully dark.  In school they learn that the moon gets its light from the sun.  Sometimes the light is blocked by planet earth, and sometimes it is not.  When the earth is completely out of the way, the moon is fully lit.  When the earth is fully in the way, the moon is dark.

 

In the analogy, the sun in the Lord Jesus Christ…First John, Chapter 1, Verse 5…

 

FIRST JOHN 1:5

This is the message we apostles have heard from Jesus Christ and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

 

In the analogy, the moon is us.  We have no light of our own, but we can reflect God’s light.  The key for us is to put ourselves in a position to always get the light.  The Word of God is light, and the Word of God is enlightening. 

 

Yet we know God has an enemy.  In the analogy, the earth is Satan.  He is the ruler of this world and he is always looking to block the light, and to keep us in the dark.  When we are not in the dark, we can see God’s light and everyone can see His light reflected through us.

 

My 2018 New Year’s wish for you is that you expose yourself daily to the Word of God so that you can see everything in your life from God’s perspective and so that you can solve every problem in your life from God’s perspective.

 

I hope you show up…I hope you grow up…I hope you obey the Word of God…I hope you are transformed…not conformed…and I hope you reflect God’s light to everyone you meet.  Most of all, I hope that when you see things from God’s viewpoint, you begin to see yourselves in a different light…exactly as God sees you believers in Christ…holy…blameless… righteous… beyond reproof.

 

Happy New Year!

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

 

The closing moments of our study are for anyone who does not have a personal relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We want you to know that GOD WANTS YOU. 

 

At the center of what we call “human love” there is selfishness.  In human love we expect reciprocity…we treat human love as a “this for that.”  It’s the idea that “if I give my love to you, you need to do something for me in return.”  What I love about the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is that His love for all creatures is not at all tainted by such selfishness…His love is night and day different from human love.  So when we say God wants you, He really does…with no conditions and no selfishness attached!

 

In John, Chapter 15, Verse 13…the Lord Jesus Christ gets comparative…He points out the difference between human love and divine love… unconditional love…

 

JOHN 15:13

Greater unconditional love has no one than this…that one lay down his life for his friends.

 

The Lord Jesus Christ didn’t die for us because we deserve it.  He didn’t die for us because there was anything in it for Him to do so.  He died for us because He loves us…UNconditionally. 

 

At physical birth you had the malady that plagues all creatures…Romans, Chapter 3, Verse 23…

 

ROMANS 3:23

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

 

Romans, Chapter 3, Verse 10…

 

ROMANS 3:10

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

 

The problem of Adam’s sin, credited to all of us at human birth, makes it impossible to have a relationship with a perfect God.  There is no way to get yourself out of this predicament.  There is no way to save yourself.  In  Romans, Chapter 3, Verse 21, we learn what God is willing to do for us when we were at our worst…

 

ROMANS 3:21

BUT NOW…apart from the Mosaic Law…the righteousness from God the Father has been manifested (made clearly visible in Christ)…

 

God the Father showed creatures how He loves us…UNconditionally… Romans, Chapter 5, Verse 8…

ROMANS 5:8

But God the Father demonstrates His own unconditional love toward all creatures, in that while we were yet sinners (as ungodly, unrighteous unbelievers), Christ died for us.

 

Unselfishly, God the Father sacrificed His Son when you were a sinner in His eyes…the worst possible thing you could be in His eyes…one who has not had the sovereignty of Adam’s sin washed away.  So God the Father sent His Son to a cruel and unusual death for you…First Peter, Chapter 2, Verse 24…

 

FIRST PETER 2:24

…and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself bore our sins in His own body on the Cross, so that we might die to the sovereignty of Adam’s sin and so that we might live to absolute righteousness…for by His wounds you were healed.

 

Philippians, Chapter 2, Verse 8…

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:8

Being found in appearance as a man, Jesus Christ humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross.

 

The Lord died for us on the Cross…the Lord was buried for us…Luke, Chapter 23, Verses 50 to 53…

 

LUKE 23:50

And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council (The Sanhedrin), a good and righteous man (a believer in Christ)…

 

LUKE 23:51

…(he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God (as a believer in Christ)…

 

LUKE 23:52

…this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

 

LUKE 23:53

And Joseph took the body down from the Cross and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Jesus in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.

 

Then the Lord was resurrected from the dead to prove that He is God…Acts, Chapter 5, Verse 30…

ACTS 5:30

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus (resurrecting Him from the dead), (the One) whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a Cross.

 

And so now, for anyone who wants salvation…for anyone who wants to be saved…the sin problem is solved…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.”

 

So today, we invite you to take advantage of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you…He died for you, taking the wrath of His Father for all your sins…He was buried for you…he was resurrected from the dead for you… He ascended into heaven for you…and now He stretches out His arms toward you inviting you into a relationship with Him.  John, Chapter 3, Verse 36 says…

 

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.”

 

CLOSING SONG

HOW GREAT THOU ART

June Murphy

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

          THANKS - INTERCESSION - PETITION

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

www.barahministries.com