(#400) Romans 12 - The Lord Doesn’t Want His Believers Thinking Lowly of Themselves

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…a church that’s thinking globally and serving locally…and locally we’re serving the Gilbert, AZ; Mesa, AZ; and Chandler, AZ communities… my name is Pastor Rory Clark.  At Barah Ministries, our God is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  John, Chapter 1, Verses 43 to 51 tell a story about our Lord as He was on the hunt for His apostles…

 

JOHN 1:43

The next day Jesus purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to Philip, “Follow Me.”

 

JOHN 1:44

Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.

 

(BETH-SAY¢-AH-DA)

 

JOHN 1:45

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found He of whom Moses wrote in the Mosaic Law and also He of whom the Old Testament Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth…the son of Joseph.”

 

Philip calling the Lord “the son of Joseph” is interesting…a reference to Jesus’ human heritage…yet we know that Jesus Christ was not fathered by a man…He was fathered through the agency of God the Holy Spirit.  Here’s Nathanael’s reaction…John, Chapter 1, Verse 46…

 

JOHN 1:46

Nathanael said to Philip, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”  Philip said to Nathanael, “Come and see.”

 

Nazareth was an obscure village in lower Galilee housing the “nothing town” called Bethlehem, the Lord’s birthplace.  Nobody thought much of the place.

 

JOHN 1:47

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of Nathaniel, “Behold…an Israelite indeed…in whom there is no deceit (in whom there is nothing false)!”

 

JOHN 1:48

Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

 

The omniscient God who knows all the knowable knows every single detail of all of our lives.

 

JOHN 1:49

Nathanael answered Jesus, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God (you are The Jewish Messiah)…You are the King of Israel.”

 

JOHN 1:50

Jesus answered and said to Nathanael, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”

 

JOHN 1:51

And Jesus said to Nathanael, “Truly, truly, I say to (all of) you, (that all of) you will see the heavens opened and you will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

 

The Lord Jesus Christ, whom we worship, is the Son of God…that’s why we call Him The Lord…He is the second member of the Trinity.  As Jesus Christ He is also the Son of Man…the Last Adam…a resurrection life giving spirit for all those who believe in Him.  This union of Sons…the Son of God and the Son of Man in one person is described by the New Testament Greek as hupostatis…the hypostatic union.  This union of 100% God and 100% man in one person forever, makes the Lord Jesus Christ the “uniquely born one” from God the Father…the One who is full of grace and full of truth.    

 

We’re happy to have you here, or to have you listening on the internet, or to have you watching on the internet as a group of believers in Christ doing the second most important thing on our list of life priorities, right after believing in Christ…knowing His mind by studying His Word.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Lord Doesn’t Want His Believers Thinking Lowly of Themselves

 

As believers in Christ, God wants us to think highly of ourselves.  He just doesn’t want us to think MORE highly of ourselves than we ought to think.  Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 3…

 

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).

 

Additionally, God doesn’t want us to think lowly of ourselves.  Do you ever get down on yourself?  In this lesson, we’ll begin to examine some of the things we do as believers in Christ, to put ourselves into a position to live a dead Christian life when we have the victory from God.  First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 56 and 57…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:56

The sting of death is sin…and the power of sin is the law…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:57

…but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Let’s prepare for our study with a song…when we are hurting the most… when we are in despair because of the trials…even when we’re just going through the regular paces of this life, seemingly accomplishing nothing…it can seem at these times that God is silent and inactive even when He isn’t, or He would never be described as “an ever present help in times of trouble.”  It can seems to us He is distant.

 

Laura Story, in her song BLESSINGS, offers a bit of perspective.  She asks, “What if our blessings come through raindrops?  What if our healing comes through tears?  What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know God’s near?  What if the trials of this life are God’s mercies in disguise?”  I say maybe we want to open our hearts and look at our lives with spiritual eyes.  Maybe we need to make it a habit to see our lives through God’s eyes.  May the eyes of your heart be enlightened as You listen to Laura Story tell the truth about BLESSINGS. 

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

BLESSINGS

Laura Story

 

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

Almighty God and Father…thank you for giving us a heritage of victory through fellowship with Your Son, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…thank you for sending Him to a Cross to pave the way for our amazing resurrection lives…thank you for raising Your Son from the dead to make it clear that He is more unique than He already is…

 

Father, give us the vision to see the life You have planned for each of us, and invest us with the courage to overlook life’s distractions and to gravitate to our destiny…

 

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

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Lord Doesn’t Want His Believers Thinking Lowly of Themselves

I was talking to a few Pastors this week and I posed an interesting question.  “Do you remember a time when Jesus Christ got down on Himself?”  I asked them to confine their thoughts to the New Testament.  That’s not brilliant, it’s just a desire to focus on Jesus Christ during His incarnation, the thirty-three years when the Lord became flesh and tabernacled among us.  All of us Pastors could remember times when the Lord was down…the death of Lazarus in John, Chapter 11…the night before He went to the Cross in the Garden of Gethsemane from Luke, Chapter 22, Verses 39 to 46…and when Jesus was lamenting His rejection by Israel and the Jewish Race in Matthew, Chapter 23, Verses 36 to 39.  Did Jesus Christ get down?  Yes!  Did Jesus Christ ever get down on Himself?  Never.  We couldn’t recall a single instance.  So why is it that so many believers in Christ, people who have the victory over death, sin, and the law, spend so much time and energy getting down on themselves, when the Lord doesn’t want his believers thinking lowly of themselves?  We continue our study of the third passage of Romans, Chapter 12, at Verse 3…

 

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).

 

Think highly of yourself believers in Christ…but not more highly of yourselves than you ought to think.  In other words, Christians must avoid overestimating their worth.  In Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 1…the Lord asks us to PRESENT OUR BODIES AS A SACRIFICE because as believers in Christ, we are holy and acceptable to God right this minute. 

 

In Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 2…God asks us to present our thoughts so that HE CAN KEEP ON TRANSFORMING US BY THE RENEWING OF OUR MINDS with His Word through the power of God the Holy Spirit.  What is God doing in these two passages?  He is inviting us to participate in The Christian Way of Living…the resurrection life…eternal life.  Why did God give us believers in Christ the resurrection life?  John, Chapter 10, Verse 10 tells us…

 

JOHN 10:10

The thief (God’s enemy…Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy (the sheep)…I (the Lord Jesus Christ) came that believers in Christ (God’s sheep) may have the resurrection life, and have it abundantly.

 

Satan wants to rob us of our victory through Christ…God the Father gives us believers a life of abundance in union with His Son…it’s called the New Man Life…it’s called the resurrection life…the dead Old Man’s song to the believer in Christ is “Please Don’t Go!”  (The Rick Astley version J )

 

After inviting us to the resurrection life, a life of abundance, our God’s tells us…“When you finally know what you have in this resurrection life, please don’t think too highly of yourself.”  In other words, don’t overestimate your own importance. 

 

How do people overestimate their own importance?  In an earlier lesson, we suggested that racial superiority is one of the ways we overestimate our own importance.  This malady is called “supremacy” … an ideology of domination and superiority.  It states that a particular class of people is superior to others, and that this class of people should dominate, control, and subjugate others…in fact, there is the thought that this class of people is entitled to subjugate, as it is superior because of age, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, social class, or ideology.  The bible simply does not support this thinking.

 

Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 3…

 

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).

 

This third passage in Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 3 is an exhortation.  What does it mean, “to exhort?”  It means…

 

EXHORT

To urge…to advise…to warn with great urgency…

Believers in Christ are warned to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think…also, I exhort you to remember that the Lord doesn’t want you to think lowly of yourselves.  Why do we?  Unbelief.  As Christians who study God’s word, most of the time we simply don’t believe a single thing the Word the God says to us.  It’s a shame.  The Lord’s apostles were frequently down on themselves because of this same malady…unbelief… Matthew, Chapter 17, Verses 14 to 20…

 

MATTHEW 17:14

When the Lord and His disciples came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying…

 

MATTHEW 17:15

“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic (he has epilepsy) and is

very sick (he’s having an episode)…for he often falls (throws himself) into the fire and often (he throws himself) into the water.”

 

MATTHEW 17:16

“I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.”

 

MATTHEW 17:17

And Jesus answered and said (to His disciples), “You unbelieving and perverted generation…how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring your son here to Me.”

 

MATTHEW 17:18

And Jesus rebuked the demon, and the demon came out of the man’s son, and the boy was cured at once.

 

MATTHEW 17:19

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?”

 

MATTHEW 17:20

And Jesus said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith…for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move…and nothing will be impossible to you (if it is in God’s will).”

 

Nothing is impossible with God.  The disciples had faith smaller than the tiniest of all seeds…the mustard seed.  Wow…what a pathetic expenditure of the gift of faith on the part of disciples.  Aren’t we the same?  Aren’t we, as Church Age believers in Christ, misusing our gift of faith and misusing our spiritual gift from God, by getting down on ourselves?  Aren’t we misusing God’s gifts by wanting nothing?  Aren’t we misusing God’s gifts by helping no one?  At Barah Ministries we really need to answer these questions seriously.  Do we as a congregation think more lowly of ourselves than we ought to think, so lowly that we don’t make the difference we can make?  I think we do.

 

Before you go to break…I’d like you to listen to this beautiful song…EVEN IF by MercyMe…and then we’ll give you some break time right after the song.  So stay put and listen to the words to this song before you go to break.

When we come back we’ll investigate our problem of unbelief.

 

MUSIC BREAK

EVEN IF

Mercy Me

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Lord Doesn’t Want His Believers Thinking Lowly of Themselves

 

Thank you for supporting this ministry with your financial contributions.  Through your generous support, the Lord has been able to provide the Word of God from this pulpit for over a decade.  There is no way to measure how many broken souls have been touched by your generosity, but we know God is making it happen. 

 

I want you to know that you’ll be getting your tax letters this week that detail your contributions.

 

Let’s take a few moments to give 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, so we can keep on providing the truth to those who might not otherwise be able to hear it.   Please welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with his offering message.

 

 

THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

EPHESIANS 4:25

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth…each one of you with his neighbor…for we are members of one another.

 

OFFERING

FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE

Dave McClure, Instrumental

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Lord Doesn’t Want His Believers Thinking Lowly of Themselves

 

Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 3…

 

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).

 

To become a Christian, we have to Cross a bridge.

 

BRIDGE SLIDE 1
 

We cross the bridge from spiritual death to spiritual life.  We Cross this bridge when we accept the invitation to The Christian Way of Life.  The Lord Jesus Christ and His Cross pave the way for this 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

 

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.  He does what is required to move 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.  Thinking lowly of ourselves slows down the process.

 

What is it like when a believer in Christ is thinking lowly of self?  They have conformed thoughts.  For example, as we get older, we make more references to age and health with the expectation that we will deteriorate.  After all, God has never prospered an older person.  We look at the present, sure that wherever we are now is as good as it gets.  If we thought the opposite, we’d have to acknowledge that hope was part of God’s plan.  We see the past as a predictor of our future.  If our past was filled with “failures” … and when I say failure I mean the things we consider failures because we had unrealistic expectations or because we lack the ability to assess situations accurately…we house the thought that our past is probably dooming our future.  God has never changed anyone’s mind, has He?  These lowly thoughts are among the man chronic, constantly recurring, almost haunting thoughts.

 

Satan, the enemy of God is the sponsor of the haunting thoughts believers in Christ use to get down on ourselves.  John, Chapter 12, Verse 31…

 

JOHN 12:31

Now judgment is upon this world…now the ruler of this world (Satan) will be cast out (dethroned).

 

In the future Satan will be dethroned, but right now he is the ruler of this world and the controller of its airways…Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verses 1 and 2…

 

EPHESIANS 2:1

And you believers in Christ were spiritually dead in your trespasses and sins…

 

EPHESIANS 2:2

…in which trespasses and sins you formerly walked according to the curriculum of this world…according to the prince of the power of the air (Satan…the controller of the media)…according to the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience (unbelievers).

 

Satan uses the airwaves to deceive the whole world…Revelation, Chapter 12, Verse 9…

 

REVELATION 12:9

And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, WHO DECEIVES THE WHOLE WORLD…he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

 

That’s a future event…Satan is a liar…John, Chapter 8, Verse 44…

 

JOHN 8:44

You (unbelieving Jews) are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and he is the father of lies (the one who keeps on siring lies).

 

Satan blinds the mind…Second Corinthians, Chapter 4, Verses 3 and 4…

 

SECOND CORINTHIANS 4:3

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing (unbelievers)…

 

SECOND CORINTHIANS 4:4

…in whose case the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

 

Satan certainly blinds the minds of the unbelieving…but he blinds believer’s minds as well when it comes to obscuring our victory in union with Christ.  He gets us to take our minds off of our victory by encouraging us to feel defeated.  Satan is always on the prowl…First Peter, Chapter 5, Verse 8…

 

FIRST PETER 5:8

Be of sober spirit…be on the alert…your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

 

When we are thinking lowly of ourselves…we believe every message Satan is sending us about ourselves…

         

SATAN’S MESSAGES

 

You will never…

God is disappointed with you

You can’t…

You’re not good enough

 

SATAN’S MESSAGES

 

You’ll never do anything right

Nobody likes you

You’re going to be alone forever

You can never overcome your past

 

I think these are some of the thoughts that block our growth as people and as a ministry.  We see ourselves as lowly and we see ourselves as not worthy of blessings. 

 

In what ways do you think lowly of yourself?

 

There is a lot more to say about this topic and well continue this lesson next time.

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

 

The closing moments of our study are for the benefit of anyone 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. 

 

What is going to happen to you when you close your eyes in this life?  In other words, how can you get to heaven?

 

Many people believe that religious rituals are their ticket into heaven. They embrace religious beliefs that tell them how to live a spiritual life. The religion claims there is a God, or there are many gods…but the religion does not tell you how to have a personal relationship with God.  And, despite following all the religious rituals, the religion still may not guarantee that following these rituals will get you into heaven.  What kind of religion is that?

 

In John, Chapter 4, Verses 13 and 14, the Lord Jesus Christ is talking to a woman at a well…a Samaritan woman whom the Jews of His day wanted nothing to do with.  After a brief conversation, the Lord says to her…

 

JOHN 4:13

“Everyone who drinks of the water in this well will thirst again…”

 

JOHN 4:14

“…but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst… but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life (the resurrection life).”

 

It is the Lord’s will for each of us to live with Him in heaven when we close our eyes in this life.  Second Peter, Chapter 3, Verse 9 says…

 

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).

First Timothy, Chapter 2, Verses 3 and 4…

 

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 for all men to come to the knowledge of the truth.

 

The truth of how to get to heaven is this simple…it’s a nine-word conversation…Luke, Chapter 23, Verses 42 and 43…

 

LUKE 23:42

And a thief being crucified next to Jesus was saying, “JESUS, REMEMBER ME WHEN YOU COME INTO YOUR KINGDOM!”

 

Nine little words…

 

LUKE 23:43

And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

 

Or if you prefer…it’s a five word conversation with God the Father… “Father…I believe in Christ.”  Simply believe…with no other requirements added…and that is the moment of eternal life for you.  Once the Lord saves you, no matter how hard you try…no matter what you do…you cannot lose the salvation give to you by a God who never changes His mind…in John, Chapter 10, Verse 28, the Lord Himself says…

 

JOHN 10:28

“…and I (the Lord Jesus Christ) give eternal life to believers in Christ, and they will never perish…and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

 

Romans, Chapter 8, Verses 38 and 39 say…

 

ROMANS 8:38

For I am convinced that neither death nor life…nor angels nor principalities…nor things present nor things to come…nor powers…

ROMANS 8:39

…nor height nor depth…nor any other created thing…will be able to separate us from the unconditional love of God the Father, which is in those of us in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

On the other hand, if you reject the relationship offer of this Lord who does not want you to perish, He will honor your refusal…Matthew, Chapter 13, Verses 49 and 50…

 

MATTHEW 13:49

So it will be at the end of the age…the angels will come forth and take out the wicked (unbelievers) from among the righteous (believers in Christ)...

 

MATTHEW 13:50

…and will throw the wicked (unbelievers) into the furnace of fire…in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

 

Here’s June Murphy to sing about our Faithful God…

 

CLOSING SONG

HE’S BEEN FAITHFUL

June Murphy

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

          THANKS - INTERCESSION - PETITION

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

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