ROM-76-150201 - length: 65:21 - taught on Feb, 1 2015
Class Outline:
Welcome To
BARAH MINISTRIES
a Christian Church
Rory Clark
Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a worldwide Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark.
God loves you unconditionally. What does unconditional love look like? You’ll know it when you see it. First Corinthians, Chapter 13, Verses 4 to 8 highlight this love…
Unconditional love is patient, unconditional love is kind and is not jealous; unconditional love does not brag and is not arrogant…
…unconditional love does not act unbecomingly; unconditional love does not seek its own, unconditional love is not provoked, unconditional love does not take into account a wrong suffered…
…unconditional love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth…
…unconditional love bears all things, unconditional love believes all things, unconditional love hopes all things, unconditional love endures all things.
…unconditional love never fails…
How does this unconditional love, a gift from God to you, show up in your life? Are you reflecting this love to the world through the power of God the Holy Spirit? Or are you reflecting the hatred of the flesh? Welcome, believers in Christ, to a place where you can get the spiritual nourishment you need to reflect God’s unconditional love to everyone you meet.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION
Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ
Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
He Remembers to Forget
One of the ways God reflects His unconditional love is through forgiveness. The opening song for this lesson is HE REMEMBERS TO FORGET.
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray...
We’re grateful Heavenly Father for the privilege of studying the absolute
truth...the Word of God…
Thank you for loving us with no conditions…thank you for not treating us like untrained animals who only get a fish when they perform…thanks for not requiring a performance from us for Your Love…help us to reflect the freedom of a lifestyle of unconditional love to everyone we meet…
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit...in Christ’s name... Amen.
TODAY’S STUDY
Your Liberty Requires a Liberator
Slaves can’t free themselves. When you are in bondage, it would be a miracle if you could get out of the predicament alone. In this lesson, we’ll see the power of our Liberator, the Lord Jesus Christ. First, a few announcements…
BARAH MINISTRIES ANNOUNCEMENTS
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
The Next Lord’s Supper Celebration
February 8, 2015
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
No Face-to-face Teaching
March 8, 2015
Deacons: We’ll record the lessons on March 6 if that works for you.
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FACEBOOK LESSONS
Recording Begins
February 15
12:00P-1:00P
TEENS LESSONS
Begin February 22
11:30A-12:30P
Read John Chapter 1
REMINDER
Check In on Facebook
Before Church Service
ASK THE PASTOR
Non-Resident Congregation
February 2
7:00PM MST
Let me know if you need a link.
NEXT DEACON’S MEETING
February 7
7:30AM MST
ALYSSA LOPEZ
Basketball Senior Night
Mesquite High School
February 3
7:00PM
THE OFFERING
Deacon Denny Goodall
Let’s take the offering. This is the time when you get to make a sacrifice on behalf of all the people around the world that can’t afford to pay to study the Word of God. Your generous contributions make it possible for them to learn about the Lord Jesus Christ free of charge by means of internet teaching or by means of face-to-face teaching.
Let’s remember to give with the motivation suggested in Scripture
Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful (grace oriented) giver.
Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall.
THE OFFERING
Deacon Denny Goodall
Barah Ministries Financial Policy
Even though we are sanctioned by God to charge for the many things we provide so you can worship God, we choose not to exercise our right. Therefore no price appears on any material from Barah Ministries so that anyone who desires biblical teaching may have it free of charge.
Barah Ministries Financial Policy
Even though the materials we provide are free of charge, they are not free of cost. We appreciate it when the Word of God motivates you to give financial support so as to provide biblical teaching, both for yourself and for others. Please be generous in your support of God’s work through this ministry.
OFFERING VERSE
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
OFFERING
Father I Adore You
TODAY’S STUDY
Your Liberty Requires a Liberator
Turn in your bibles to Galatians, Chapter 5…slaves can’t free themselves. When you are in bondage, it would be a miracle if you could get out of the predicament alone. Our Liberator from the bondage of legalism and religion is the Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 1…
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm (in the freedom) and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
Paul is encouraging Gentile believers in the Galatian region not to move from the freedom of God’s sphere of grace to the slavery of the Mosaic Law.
Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision (for salvation), Christ will be of no benefit to you.
If your righteousness is from self-righteousness by works then your righteousness is not by means of grace through faith.
And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision (for salvation), that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.
When you break the law ONCE, you are a criminal. If you want to follow the law, you can’t EVER break it. James, Chapter 2, Verse 10…
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point of law, he has become guilty of violating all of the law.
Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 4…
(If you, as a believer in Christ, go back to the law…) You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from the sphere of grace.
This is not a loss of salvation issue. Once you become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you cannot lose your salvation. John, Chapter 10, Verse 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.
If you want to be perfected, as a Christian, by the law, the indwelling Christ and the sphere of grace are of no value to you. The legalistic believer has forfeited the power that he inherited by accepting salvation. He is the child of a King and wants nothing to do with his inheritance. There are many churches selling believers in Christ on the fact that repentance, confession, baptism, and church membership are all requirements for salvation as additions to believing in Christ. What a horrible lie! What a horrible life!
<ABORTION>
Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 5…
For we believers in Christ through God the Holy Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.
The hope of righteousness is the absolute confidence that the Lord Jesus Christ will be coming a second time for His believers to deliver them to salvation. Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 6…
For those in union with Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything (of significance to the spiritual life), but what means something is the power of a believer’s faith working (expressing itself) through (the demonstration of) unconditional love (to the world).
You were running well (in your spiritual life); who hindered you from obeying the truth?
In this analogy, Paul asks, as if he were talking to track stars, “Who cut into your lane causing you to stumble?” When we let legalists and religious people “spy out our liberty,” we are letting them cause us to stumble…we are letting them lure us away from the simplicity and the purity of devotion to Christ. What a crime when we move from the sphere of grace to the sphere of do-it-yourself salvation and do-it yourself Christianity, which is exactly what the law is. Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 8…
This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.
Take a five-minute break.
BREAK
When I Think of Home
Welcome back! Legalistic believers may ask Paul “What’s the big deal?” He answers…
A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.
Ask an alcoholic if one drink is okay. Ask them if it is a big deal. Ask crack addicts if one hit is okay. For those of you who are not bakers, when you use yeast (leaven) it spreads throughout the whole lump of dough pretty quickly. Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 10…
I have confidence in those of you in union with the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you (the leader of the Judaizers) will bear his judgment, whoever he is.
There is always a leader stirring the pot of legalism. Everyone defers to his will and his personality. When one member gets sour in a congregation, it always seems to spread like wildfire. Next Paul deals with attacks from the Judaizers.
But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision (like I did when I was a Pharisee), why am I still persecuted (by the Judaizers)? Then (if I am preaching circumcision) the stumbling block of the Cross has been abolished.
Yet Paul is still preaching the Cross, so he wouldn’t preach circumcision simultaneously. Then Paul gets personal…
I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate (castrate) themselves.
“Why stop at circumcision,” Paul asks. Wow! Now…another reminder to the believer to protect liberty…
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through (unconditional) love serve one another (as slaves).
The flesh…the stumbling block for many Christians…the flesh…no one with the flesh as part of themselves can call themselves a “good person.” Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 14…
For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”
If you want to know what a “good person” really is in this life, it is a person who in spite of having “the flesh” in his body is “other focused” … a person who thinks of others before he thinks of himself. It’s a person who is guided by God the Holy Spirit in the use of unconditional love.
But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
That verse can be summarized in one word. Unity. Those who are free use their liberty for unity. <EUROPE AND ASIA…automatic unbelief>
But I say (to you believers in Christ), (keep on) walk(ing) by (means of) the Spirit, and you will not (be able) carry out the desire of the flesh.
A believer in Christ has no option. Our lifestyle is guided and led by means of God the Holy Spirit. He is waiting for us to depend on Him. We must ask Him to help. When we live a lifestyle other than this, we are forfeiting a perfect lifestyle in favor of a counterfeit one.
For the flesh sets its desire against (God) the (Holy) Spirit, and (God) the (Holy) 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.
You have a battle raging inside between the flesh and the Spirit. Don’t be confused by this. Give up the thought that you can fight the flesh. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to fight the flesh. Go to Him and ask Him to intervene on your behalf. God the Holy Spirit is the one who manages the cravings of the flesh’s lust.
But if you are led by the Spirit (and all believers in Christ are), you are not under the Law (you are under grace).
Freedom is not a set of rules…the law is a set of rules…freedom is a sphere of unlimited thinking led by God the Holy Spirit. Now Paul offers a contrast between the production of the flesh and the production of the Spirit. We did not become “good people” when we became believers in Christ.
Now the deeds of the flesh (which is what believers are able to do) are evident (obvious), which are: immorality (sexual sins), impurity (sinful thoughts and deeds), sensuality (shameless sinfulness)…
…idolatry (taking on new gods), sorcery (witchcraft), enmities (divisions), strife (fighting and acrimony), jealousy, outbursts of anger (like ‘road rage’), disputes (nitpicking), dissensions, factions…
…envying, drunkenness (a dependency on alcohol), carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the (benefits of the) kingdom of God.
This is not a salvation issue.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (of mind), patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…
…gentleness, self-control; against such things (virtues) there is no law (to indict those who practice these things).
This fruit (singular) is not produced by a branch (a believer in Christ)…it is produced by the vinedresser and the vine and the sap…its a state of mind…its a reaching out to others…its a relationship with Christ.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
There is no need for a believer in Christ to answer the phone when the flesh calls.
If we believers in Christ live by means of God the Holy Spirit (and all believers do), let us also walk (in lifestyle) by means of God the Holy Spirit.
Let’s not walk by means of the flesh, which has its own “fruit” …
Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
We are not good people. We are trapped in a powerless, helpless, hopeless body. Were it not for the Lord, we would be nothing. Paul captures it well in Romans, Chapter 7, Verses 24 and 25…
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord!
The Promises of the Lord Jesus Christ
When God makes a promise…
it’s a guarantee!
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”
Jesus said to doubting Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through believing in Me.
He who believes in the Son has eternal life (the ZOE life); but he who does not obey the (command to believe in the) Son will not see (the Zoe) life, but instead the wrath of God the Father abides on him.”
CLOSING SONG
God is Faithful
CLOSING PRAYER
Let us pray...
THANKS
INTERCESSION
PETITION
And we pray that You continue to shape the messages from this pulpit that are an accurate reflection of Your unconditional love, Your person, Your thinking, Your work, and Your essence...we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s name, Amen.
Thanks for coming!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for listening!
www.barahministries.com
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1220 S. Alma School Rd. Suite 201 Mesa, AZ 85210 |
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(480) 237-9903 |
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info@barahministries.com |
