ROM-150-151122 - length: 74:39 - taught on Nov, 22 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. Let’s begin the lesson with a few announcements…
BARAH MINISTRIES ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Tracy Bixby
November 25
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December 20, 2015
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EVENING SERVICE
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December 27, 2015
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January 10, 2016
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LESSON INTRODUCTION
What is your spiritual capacity?
You’ve probably heard me say, many times, that you would be wise to “dig a well before you are thirsty.” What exactly does that mean? It means that if you wait until you are thirsty to begin digging a well, you will likely die of thirst before you get the water you need. Said another way, you must prepare for things ahead of time, before the need for them arises.
We have other expressions in our language that echo this sentiment…like the expression… “save it for a rainy day” … which encourages us to put funds aside for a future need.
We have stories that echo this sentiment…like the story of The Three Little Pigs, one of my lifelong favorites. We learn an important lesson from the first two pigs. Don’t take shortcuts! The pigs that chose to build their homes of straw and of sticks were not equipped to protect themselves from the danger of the Big Bad Wolf. They made fun of the pig that took the time and spent the effort in building a brick home, but they sure knew where to run when trouble came knocking on their doors.
In the spiritual life, we would do well to use these stories to encourage us to increase our spiritual capacity in advance of need. When the storms of life hit, that’s not the time to be running to the bible for help. The bible works in those times, of course, but it’s better to prepare your soul for trials in advance of need. We are encouraged by the apostle Paul in Second Corinthians, Chapter 13, Verse 5…
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is indwelling you—unless indeed you fail the test?
The bible encourages us to examine regularly whether or not we are living the holy life, the marvelous resurrection life that our Lord has provided for us since the moment of salvation. We do well when we remember that the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, brings forth from our innermost being a river of living water.
The Lord Jesus Christ assessed the spiritual capacity of his apostles in John, Chapter 16, Verse 12…
“I (the Lord Jesus Christ) have many more things to say to you (my apostles), but you cannot bear them right now.
The apostles were pretty self-focused on the night before the Lord was to be crucified…they were in deep and dark despair, knowing that the Lord’s hour had come…and they were wondering what they were going to do with themselves without him around. The Lord knew that they did not have the spiritual capacity to take in more teaching at that time.
The apostle Paul felt the same way about the believers in Christ at Corinth… First Corinthians, Chapter 3, Verses 1 to 3…
And I (Paul), brethren (believers in Christ), could not speak to you as I would speak to spiritual men, but I must speak to you as I speak to men of flesh (carnal men), as if I were speaking to infants in Christ.
Carnal men are those without spiritual capacity.
I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive solid food. Indeed, even now you are not yet able to receive solid food…
…for you are still fleshly (under the guidance of the flesh). For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly (under the guidance of the flesh), and are you not walking (in lifestyle) like mere men (like self-centered unbelievers)?
There is never going to be a time when the flesh is going to shut up…when
it is going to stop trying to guide us, as believers in Christ. Do you have the spiritual capacity to handle the temptations of the flesh?
Often we don’t. Hebrews, Chapter 5, Verses 11 and 12…
Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles (the A-B-C’s) of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
We are dull of hearing when we stop growing…when we think we know it all…and a teacher will tell you that students who think they know it all have forgotten the basics.
Welcome to a place where you can get either milk or solid food based on your ability to take it in. Welcome to a place where you can increase your spiritual capacity in advance of need. Welcome to a place where you can study the Word of God.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION
Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ
Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
CAST MY CARES
Finding Favor
The opening song is CAST MY CARES sung by Finding Favor.
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 giving us Your Holy Spirit…to lead us…to make us aware of our position as adopted adult sons of God…as heirs…in union with Christ… as Your free, born again ones…
Help us Father, to not be guided by the flesh and its emotional and
passionate and intellectual approach to knowing You…help us to get beyond the shallow and the superficial in our spiritual life…help us to put ourselves in such a receptive position that You and the Spirit and our teachers do not have to hold knowledge in reserve because we can’t take it in…instead teach us to drink up spiritual capacity as we study Your Word…
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit in Christ’s name... Amen.
TODAY’S STUDY
We are Children of the Living God
We are studying Romans, Chapter 8, Verses 12 to 17, two verses at a time…let’s look at the passage and listen to it together…
So then, brethren, we believers in Christ are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to guidance from the flesh—
…for if you are living according to guidance from the flesh, you must die; but if you are living by the agency of God the Holy Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, and you will live the resurrection life.
For all who are being led by the Holy Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
For you believers in Christ have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
The Holy Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God…
…and if we believers in Christ are children of God, and we are, we are heirs also, heirs of God the Father and fellow heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
If you are a believer in Christ you are a Child of the Living God. We now look into the detail of the final two verses of this passage…beginning with Romans, Chapter 8, Verses 16…
The Holy Spirit Himself testifies with our human spirit that we are children of God…
In justification, God the Father is announcing our names in heaven every day as saved ones…born again ones…our family members who have gone before into heaven are excited every day to know that one day we will be joining them in heaven for all eternity. The Holy Spirit does a similar thing…together with our human spirit he testifies, as if he were on the witness stand in court, that we are children of the Living God.
God the Holy Spirit is the One who gives us wisdom. He helps us understand our wonderful position in Christ. In Job, Chapter 38…the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to Job out of a tornado, gave Job a lecture…with the Lord offering Job His resume in most of the chapter, which includes this question in Job, Chapter 38, Verse 36…
“Who has put wisdom in the innermost being or given understanding to the mind?
The Lord could have easily finished this verse with sarcasm as He did earlier in Job 38…“tell Me Job, if you’re so smart! Who?” We know the answer to the Lord’s question, and we know where such wisdom comes from. We get wisdom in our innermost being from God the Holy Spirit, the One who leads us into all the truth…the One who is testifying with our spirit about our magnificent position in Christ.
He keeps on reminding us that we are the children of God…the adopted, adult sons of God…sons who have the same privileges as natural born sons…the sons who have come of age…who are old enough to make their own decisions…we are the ones with a spirit of freedom and not a spirit of slavery…not the ones led by the guidance of the flesh…but the ones led by the testimony of the Spirit.
God gives human children to the care of parents for twenty-one years… parents have more than two decades to get a program into us. Much of the time children resist. Parents should never feel bad when their kids don’t adopt their parenting program. Just think about how long it takes for us, as believers in Christ, to adopt God the Holy Spirit’s parenting program…the program of the Omnipotent One…the perfect program of a perfect God. It takes a lifetime!
Another translation of Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 16…
The Holy Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we the “born again ones” of God…
We make the futile search for certainty here in Satan’s kingdom…we look for love in all the wrong places…we forget that a perfect God loves us with a perfect love. We seek UNconditional love from human beings when it is not available. God has planted the desire for His love in our hearts. Human beings can’t give it to us. But God seeks to give it to us in abundance. (The thing that always amuses me about human beings who EXPECT UNconditional love from other human beings is that most of them just aren’t lovable!)
As we seek to understand ourselves as children of the Living God…as His “born again ones,” we have to understand that “the world” can’t explain to believers in Christ who they are. Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 2…
And do not be conformed to this world, but keep on being transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Let’s take a quick music break, and I’ll tell you what I mean.
MUSIC BREAK
HAVE EVERYTHING
David Dunn
TODAY’S STUDY
We are Children of the Living God
Welcome back! As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are children of the Living God!
Psychology does not know God the Holy Spirit, nor does it understand His “born again ones.” So psychology can’t explain us to ourselves. Psychology develops hypotheses in an attempt to explain human behavior. They fail miserably.
Science does not know God the Holy Spirit, nor does it understand His “born again ones.” Our kids are being taught the Theory of Evolution, and our kids are buying it. Let me remind you of this ridiculous and evil idea. Here’s one explanation…
THEORY OF EVOLUTION - Charles Darwin
Darwin’s general theory presumes the development of life from non-life and stresses a purely naturalistic, undirected, “descent with modification.” That is, complex creatures evolve from more simplistic ancestors naturally over time.
THEORY OF EVOLUTION - Charles Darwin
In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism’s genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival -- a process known as “natural selection.”
THEORY OF EVOLUTION - Charles Darwin
These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different organism (not just a variation of the original, but an entirely different creature).
Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 17…
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, and all believers are, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
What our kids miss as they learn about evolution is the first word… THEORY. What is theory? The dictionary describes a theory as…
THEORY
General propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for certain phenomena.
Science tries to explain how we got here absent a Creator. But they can’t. And it’s funny…their explanations have biblical truth running throughout. They just miss the truth with the “left turn” into theory.
Philosophy does not know God the Holy Spirit, nor does it understand His “born again ones.” Philosophy…the study of life…studies life through reason and the human intellect. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle…all learned Greek scholars…brilliant men…yet through reason they could never really understand God.
Who does understand God? First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 17…
But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
The “born again ones” understand God! The world guesses about God…we know God…intimately! We rest in God the Father’s plan. We rest in the Cross. We rest in union with Christ. We rest in Christ’s shed blood. We rest in His resurrection from the dead. We rest in our union with the Christ and our union with His indwelling Spirit. Hebrews, Chapter 4, Verse 1…
Therefore, (if we fear) let us believers in Christ fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 17…
…and if we believers in Christ are the born again ones of God, and we are, we are heirs also, heirs of God the Father and fellow (joint) heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are heirs. What is an heir?
HEIR
A person who inherits all the property of a person who has died!
Oh glory!
Our Lord has died at the Cross…and we “born again ones” inherit everything He has, through our union with Him. We don't have to work for it. We don’t deserve it. We can’t earn it. Our inheritance is a free gift. The world does not understand such a gift. Let’s look at Mark, Chapter 10, Verses 17 to 31…
As the Lord Jesus Christ was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, WHAT SHALL I DO to inherit eternal life?”
Oops! The world does not understand God. The world thinks the resurrection life is an achievement to be earned. Ignorance. But at least this young, wealthy, and influential man did understand that in talking to Jesus, he was talking to a spiritual guide.
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.”
In other words, the Lord is asking the young man…do you think I am God?
The Lord continues…
“You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”
And the young man said to Jesus, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.”
The man was indicating that he was raised in a religious family.
Looking at him, Jesus felt (an unconditional) love for the young man and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
As always…the Lord gets right to the point…this man’s god was his wealth. The Lord was telling the young man that true wealth is comes when we live on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
But at these words the young man was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.
It’s not that rich unbelievers will have a problem getting to heaven…they simply have to believe in Christ as we did. Rich unbelievers have trouble because instead of making the Living God their God, they make wealth their god, and it interferes with hearing the invitation to salvation of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Mark, Chapter 10, Verse 23…
And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!”
The disciples were amazed (stunned) at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!”
We are not to trust wealth as our god…we are to trust God for salvation.
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
The disciples were even more astonished and said to Jesus, “Then who can be saved?”
Many of the disciples were wealthy.
Looking at them, Jesus said, “With people salvation is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”
Only God has the power to save…human achievement and wealth does not have the power to save.
Peter began to say to Jesus, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.”
True for all of us. We must break the old ties with the world and make new ties with God.
Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake…”
“…but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.”
“But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.”
We are the born again ones of God…we are one of His heirs…this was never said about angels, neither seraph nor cherub. This was not said about Old Testament saints. You are an heir of God the Father and fellow (joint) heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. You are children of the Living God. What a glorious position to enjoy, especially here in Satan’s kingdom.
When the Lord Jesus Christ
Promises Salvation, It’s a Guarantee!
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given to mankind by which we must be saved (except the name of the Lord Jesus Christ).”
“For the Son of Man (the Lord Jesus Christ) has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
CLOSING SONG
IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL
June Murphy
CLOSING PRAYER
Let us pray...
THANKS- INTERCESSION- PETITION
And we pray that You protect our steps as we go out into the world, Father…and that you keep us on the narrow way, completely dependent on You and Your Guiding, Mentoring Spirit…we ask this in Christ’s name, Amen.
Thanks for coming!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for listening!
www.barahministries.com
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