ROM-121-150726 - length: 68:05 - taught on Jul, 26 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.
Christians suffer in Satan’s kingdom. We are aliens here. First Peter, Chapter 1, Verses 3 to 9…
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again (the spiritual birth) to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…
…(and has caused us) to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away (a secure inheritance), reserved in heaven for you (believers in Christ…at our true home)…
…(you believers in Christ) who are protected (with a garrison) by the power of God (divine omnipotence) through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (the time when we realize its significance).
In all of this you greatly rejoice, even though now, for a little while if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials (suffering)…
…so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though your faith is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ…
…and though you have not seen the Lord Jesus Christ, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory…
…obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.
The apostle Peter’s first letter addresses the subject of Christian suffering. First Peter, Chapter 4, Verse 16…
…but if anyone suffers as a Christian, and of course we do, he is not to be ashamed, but he is to glorify God the Father in the name of Christianity.
When we suffer, whether deserved or undeserved, First Peter, Chapter 5, Verses 6 to 10 suggest…
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time…
…casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
Remember… “God cares for you” means that God considers your problems to be His responsibility. Satan will attempt to scare you into losing trust in the Lord during times of suffering…but as Christians, we are to…
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
But resist him (don't listen to him), (stand) firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
Don’t listen to Satan’s ramblings that are designed to erode faith and to
inspire doubt.
After you have suffered for a little while, the God and Father of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in union with Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
Suffering is a tremendous blessing to Christians. Why? Because when you think about it, the only time God has our full attention as Christians is when
things aren’t going well for us. We seem to learn best when we are hurting. God allows suffering to train us. God allows suffering to put us in a position to help others through their suffering, because we can genuinely report to them, through our experiences, that in God’s plan, suffering is always followed by victory. God allows suffering because it reminds us of our total dependence on Him. We let the world trick us into a false sense of self-sufficiency…yet truly, our sufficiency is only because of the Lord. Suffering proves that our faith in Christ is genuine. When our faith is pure, suffering always brings us back to Him. First Peter, Chapter 2, Verse 25…
For you (believers in Christ) were continually straying like sheep stray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
When we suffer, we turn to our home…in First Peter, Chapter 2, Verse 2, Peter exhorts us to…
…like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word of God, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation…
Welcome to your home…a place where you can experience your relationship with God and where you can hear His Word.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION
Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ
Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
I CAN ONLY IMAGINE
Mercy Me
The opening song is I CAN ONLY IMAGINE by Mercy Me.
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray...
We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
Thank you Heavenly Father for allowing us to suffer…and when those that are close to us are suffering, thank you for showing us how to communicate our caring and concern for them, especially through prayer…thank you Father for being someone we can depend on when we are vulnerable…thank you for giving us an experience of You during our suffering…
Show us how to depend completely on You when all around us is encouraging self-sufficiency…explode the mythology that we have power…show us that our power only comes thorough You…
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit in Christ’s name...Amen.
TODAY’S STUDY
Who Depends on You?
As we begin the study of Romans, Chapter 8, we know so far that in this chapter we are about to be introduced to God the Holy Spirit…the One on whom we depend…our Mentor…our teacher of the Christian Way of Living…the One who was given the responsibility by God the Father and by the Lord Jesus Christ to lead us into all the truth.
I can say with all honesty that in all my years as a Christian, which spans over five decades, I have positioned God in the wrong place in my life…not placing Him out front, as someone I am following and as someone I am completely depending on for all direction. Rather, I have made Him as a genie…as someone who, when it is convenient for me, I can summon from a bottle with three rubs, and then I can make a wish and expect fully that He will deliver what I have asked for. That’s not real dependence.
This admission should be no surprise coming from a man who spent twenty-
one years in a sin-focused religion, Roman Catholicism, until I found it to be
false and completely undependable. This admission should be no surprise coming from a man who spent twenty-nine years in a legalistic discipline called Systematic Theology trying vainly to follow the letter of the law as my spiritual life, using the ten problem solving devices which caused more problems than they ever solved by shifting my focus away from the Lord Jesus Christ and His UNconditional love for me to “the doctrine.”
Want to talk about suffering? Trying to stop sinning… trying to follow the law…that’s suffering…and especially for the Christian who is dead to sin and dead to the law…I kept trying to resurrect things, sin and the law, that I was dead to…as Solomon would say…vanity…vanity… that life is vanity. And like Dorothy of Wizard of Oz fame discovered…
DOROTHY in THE WIZARD OF OZ
“If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.”
My heart’s desire was never religion…never lasciviousness…never legalism…my heart’s desire has always been to know and to love the Lord Jesus Christ…to depend completely on Him and on His Word. Yet that has not been my experience in this life. I was looking for love in all the wrong places. Instead of depending on Him, I depended on me.
I know this…none of these revelations are new…and when faced with this fact, of course, I became a little disappointed in myself. Then I remembered Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 1…
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in union with Christ Jesus.
But the real revelation God the Holy Spirit wanted me to look at this week is not my failure in depending on Him…something He has known about for billions of years…this week, the Spirit asked me to consider this question… “Who depends on you? The answer rocked my world. We’ll look into this after a few announcements.
BARAH MINISTRIES ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRAYERS!
Larry Collins
Surgery
July 28, 2015
PRAYERS!
Tracy Bixby and Family
Father
Heart Attack
PRAYERS!
Jim and Barbara McDonough
Death of Son Noah, Age 29
July 17
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
Barah Ministries
COEUR D’ALENE CONFERENCE
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
August 7-8, 2015
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
The Next Lord’s Supper Celebration
EVENING SERVICE
August 9, 2015
6:00P-7:30P
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
No Face-to-Face Teaching
August 16, 2015
Lessons Will be Posted
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
VISIT THE VETS
August 23, 2015
1:45P
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
Next Deacon’s Meeting
August 29, 2015
7:30AM MST
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
Barah Ministries
PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK BIBLE CONFERENCE
Binghamton, NY
September 18-19, 2015
TODAY’S STUDY
Who Depends on You?
What is dependence?
DEPENDENCE
A state of relying on someone or something for aid, for support, or for sustenance
The question God the Holy Spirit asked me to consider this week is, “Who depends on you?” It is a question that God the Holy Spirit is inviting you to consider as well.
Who depends on you?
The answer to the question is sobering. And the Spirit is choosing to lead us into the truth of our dependence on Him by having us contemplate our own experience of being depended on. I don’t think it is something that we think about consciously. If we did, wouldn’t we work out more? I can remember a public service announcement in the seventies about high blood pressure medication…it said…
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ON DEPENDENCE
“If you don’t want to take the medication for yourself, do it for the loved ones in your life.”
I’m sure that has something to do with the fact that I very seldom miss a day of taking my blood pressure meds. I want to do it for me, but I also do it for the loved ones in my life.
The Holy Spirit asked, “Rory…who depends on you?” Fill in your name to the question. And then answer it. As my wife and I celebrated our second year together last night, she looked deeply into my eyes and said, “You’re an amazing husband and an amazing father.” I was thinking, “You’re blind.” Why? Because often there is self-condemnation for those who are in union with Christ.
She depends on me. I don’t want to let her down. I don’t want to betray her. I want to protect her. I want to provide for her. I want her to have everything she wants. I want to instruct her so she is better equipped to handle suffering in this life, for example, the suffering of failed relationships. I want to edify her with the Word of God. I want to be someone on whom she can depend…and I want to be someone who can be depended on, not only for her as a husband, but also, for all those whom I love. I don't want to let the people who count on me down.
I want to be depended on as a human being…as a friend…as a Pastor…as a father…as a Consultant. Who is depending on me? My wife…my daughter…my clients…my congregation…individual congregation members…friends…other Pastors…and the friends of friends. My life matters to a lot of people. It’s not something I spend a lot of time thinking about. But it is very true nonetheless. I wonder if you ever stop to think about who depends on you, and what they are depending on you for. Even God is depending on me…Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 20…
Therefore, we believers in Christ are ambassadors for Christ, as though God the Father were making an appeal through us (because He is); we beg you (all creatures, especially unbelievers) on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
If I care about who is depending on me, how will my life be different? Let’s take a short music break.
MUSIC BREAK
ROCK OF AGES
Chris Rice
TODAY’S STUDY
Who Depends on You?
Thinking about who depends on me is overwhelming enough…thinking about what they depend on me for is even more daunting. I know, for example, that you depend on me to do the work God has asked me to do in Ephesians, Chapter 4, Verses 11 to 13…
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers…
…for the equipping of the saints (believers in Christ) for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ…
…until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
You count on me to study and teach the Word of God. But you are also counting on me to stay healthy, as far as my own health is within my own control. You’re counting on me not to drink, or to smoke, or to overindulge in sugar so that I can be healthy enough to do the work I have to do on your behalf. But I never really spent much time thinking about the fact that you were counting on me to eat right and to exercise. But you are.
Here’s where the idea of dichotomy comes into play. What is a dichotomy?
DICHOTOMY
Two completely opposed and totally contradictory viewpoints being offered for your consideration at the point of decision.
I can honestly tell you that I rarely think about who is depending on me at the point of decision. Do you? Have you ever gotten up in the morning and asked yourself who is going to be depending on you on this day, and for what?
I think the people in my life depend on me for clarity, for direction, for inspiration, for my presence, for compassion, for understanding, for encouragement, for correction, for reproof, for instruction, for exhortation, and for example. I just do these things. I don’t think much about the impact. I don’t think much about the cost. I am on automatic pilot for choices I made long ago, as far back as high school.
When I was fourteen years old, I remember reading Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” a book on “other focus,” and deciding that I wanted to live my life that way…focused on others and not on myself. I selected the prayer of Ignatius Loyola as a guide for me…
PRAYER OF IGNATIUS LOYOLA
Teach us, our Lord,
to serve you as you deserve,
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for any reward,
save that reward of knowing that we do your will.
I have always wanted to be a person others can count on. I want to be depended on. I don't want to let you down. And I am depended on. So are you. Whether you want to be depended on or not, people are depending on you.
People you don’t even know are depending on you not to get behind the wheel of an automobile drunk.
People are depending on you to pay your bills on time.
People are depending on you to tell the truth.
People are depending on you to make great decisions at the point of decision, when you face the dichotomy of decision.
People are depending on you to tell them how you really feel about things without holding back.
People are depending on you not to lie.
People are depending on you to stay healthy as far as your health is in your control.
People are depending on you to love them…to care for them.
So the question is not just, “Who depends on you?” which is a daunting enough question…the other question is, “What do the people who depend on you depend on you for?”
I know we like to think we are free agents. I know we like to believe that we do things on our own…self-deception is in the fiber of “the flesh.”
If we truly begin to think about who depends on us and what they depend on us for, maybe that knowledge can be the beginning of shedding light on the importance of putting God in the proper place in our lives…out front…so that when we are at the point of decision on the issues of our lives…we will realize that we don’t really have a choice, except the one God would want us to choose…the choice that always works.
More importantly, when we think about who depends on us and what they depend on us for, it turns our attention to God the Holy Spirit. We are depending on Him. For what? For everything. And it is certain He will never let us down. He wants us to imitate Him.
So the next time you are faced with a dichotomy…don’t just think about yourself…think about the loved ones in your life. It might change your decision to the only decision, the one God would have us do.
When the Lord Jesus Christ
Promises Salvation, It’s a Guarantee!
…as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one”
But God the Father demonstrates His own unconditional love toward all mankind, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
For God the Father did not send the Son (the Lord Jesus Christ) into the world to condemn the world, but the Father sent His Son into the world that the world might be saved through believing in Him.
But as many as received the Lord (taking advantage of the free gift of salvation), to them He gave the right (once and for all time) to become children of God…to those who believe in Christ’s name…
CLOSING SONG
HE REMEMBERS TO FORGET
June Murphy
CLOSING PRAYER
Let us pray...
THANKS- INTERCESSION- PETITION
And we pray that You continue to shape messages from this pulpit that accurately reflect Your unconditional love, Your glorious Person, Your lucid thinking, Your impeccable work, and Your magnificent 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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