Romans 256: Romans 8 - As the Bride of Christ, We're Being GroomedWelcome To BARAH MINISTRIES a Christian Church Rory Clark Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark. Barah Ministries teaches the Word of God from God’s perspective and not our own. We want to know what God has to say though His Word and we’re convinced He knows exactly what He’s talking about.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSONS
Here’s some wisdom from Claudia Minden Welsz…
CLAUDIA MINDEN WELSZ
I asked God to take away my pride, And God said “No.” He said it was not for Him to take away, But for me to give up.
CLAUDIA MINDEN WELSZ
I asked God to make my handicapped child whole, And God said “No.” He said her spirit is eternal, While her body is only temporary.
CLAUDIA MINDEN WELSZ
I asked God to grant me patience, And God said “No.” He said patience is a by-product of tribulation. It isn’t granted…it is earned. CLAUDIA MINDEN WELSZ
I asked God to give me happiness, And God said “No.” He said He gives blessings, Happiness is up to me.
CLAUDIA MINDEN WELSZ
I asked God to spare me pain, And God said “No.” He said, “Suffering draws you apart from Worldly cares and brings you close to Me.”
CLAUDIA MINDEN WELSZ
I asked God to make my spirit grow, And God said “No.” He said I must grow on my own, But He will prune me to make it fruitful.
CLAUDIA MINDEN WELSZ
I asked God if He loved me, And God said “Yes.” He gave me His only Son, who died for me, And I will be in heaven someday Because I believe in Him.
CLAUDIA MINDEN WELSZ
I asked God to help me love others As much as He loves me, And God said, “Ah, finally you have the idea.”
Great thoughts shared by Tony LoGrasso…very much in line with the thinking of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Matthew, Chapter 22, Verses 36 to 40… Matthew 22:36 A lawyer asked the Lord, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
Matthew 22:37 And the Lord said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”
Matthew 22:38 “This is the great and foremost commandment.”
Matthew 22:39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Matthew 22:40 “On these two commandments the whole Law and the teaching of the Prophets depend.”
Welcome to a place where you can learn how to love the way God loves through the study of His Word.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
COMPLETELY Ana Laura
The opening song for this lesson is COMPLETELY by Ana Laura.
OPENING PRAYER Let us pray...
We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
BLANK We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit in Christ’s name... Amen.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSONS
Let’s begin this lesson by taking the offering. In just a few moments we’ll welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall.
THE OFFERING Deacon Denny Goodall
BARAH MINISTRIES FINANCIAL POLICY We choose not to charge for the things we provide to help you study the Word of God. We wish to reflect God’s grace. Help yourselves to bibles, to music, to books, to pamphlets, to anything that would help you, a family member, or a friend learn about God. No price appears on any material from Barah Ministries so that anyone who wants to learn about God can do so free of charge.
BARAH MINISTRIES FINANCIAL POLICY
Even though the materials are free of charge, they are not free of cost. We appreciate the financial support you provide which allows us to share the Word of God with the hearers God brings to listen. Please be generous in your support of God’s work through this ministry.
Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall.
THE OFFERING Deacon Denny Goodall
OFFERING VERSE
Romans 8:13 …for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
OFFERING FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE Dave McClure, Instrumental
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSONS
When someone is being “groomed,” they are being prepared for a specific position or purpose. As Church Age believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are known in heaven as the Bride of Christ. The irony is that as His bride, the Lord Jesus Christ is “grooming” us. He is preparing us to live in our position as His bride for all eternity, for the purpose of revealing His glory. In reflecting on our study of the final part of the third passage in Romans, Chapter 8, this idea of being groomed comes to the fore. First Peter, Chapter 1, Verses 3 to 9…
First Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us believers in Christ to be born again (the spiritual birth) to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…
The word living is a reference to a hope that is sure and certain and real…just as sure as the hope there is a living God…
First Peter 1:4 …so that we believers in Christ might obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you…
Our inheritance is not like a banana…it will not spoil with time…it’s more like fine wine, which gets better with age…First Peter, Chapter 1, Verse 5…
First Peter 1:5 …you who are protected as if with a garrison by the power of God the Father (divine omnipotence) through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (the apocalypse…the uncovering).
First Peter 1:6 Because of this reality you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials (grooming)…
What happens when you buy a gift card from a grocery store? Let’s say it’s an Apple gift card. At the moment of purchase, the grocery store tells you that when you go to The Apple Store, the card will work. In your mind, you’re thinking, “I hope so…but I don’t know!” Of course when you go to The Apple Store, the gift card works. How much more sure should we be that our inheritance from God, protected by His divine power, will be exactly as He says when the time comes. Pulllleeeeeze! We’re being groomed. First Peter, Chapter 1, Verse 7…
First Peter 1:7 …so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ…
First Peter 1:8 …and though you have not (ever) seen Him, 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…
First Peter 1:9 …obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.
The grief of suffering…especially when it is instigated by “the world forces of this darkness” … is designed by them to distract us, to cause doubts and to challenge our faith. But as it says in First John, Chapter 5, Verse 4…
First John 5:4 For whatever is born of God (and all believers in Christ are) overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
The use of the gift of faith, a gift given to us by God, is what allows us to take advantage of our grooming. Now to the passage…Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 20…
ROM 8:20 For the creation was subjected by God to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, with a provision of hope…
We are subjected to vanity and futility by God as a result of the judgment of Adam’s sin fell to the whole human race…it’s not your fault but it is your circumstance…Genesis, Chapter 3, Verses 17 to 19…
GEN 3:17 Then to Adam the Lord said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’ … cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.”
GEN 3:18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field…”
GEN 3:19 “By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, until you return to the ground, because from the ground you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Vanity and futility are lessons from God designed to give us perspective… and if we take advantage of the perspective God gives us, as creatures we learn where our hope comes from…like King David recognized as he Solomon prepared to build a Temple in First Chronicles, Chapter 29, Verses 10 to 16…
First Chronicles 29:10 So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly; and David said, “Blessed are You, O Lord God of Israel our Father, forever and ever.”
First Chronicles 29:11 “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth… Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all.”
First Chronicles 29:12 “Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.”
First Chronicles 29:13 “Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name.”
First Chronicles 29: 14 “But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You.”
First Chronicles 29:15 For we are sojourners before You, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.”
First Chronicles 29:16 “O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours.”
The Lord restored us to a position better that the one mankind had in the garden before the fall…The Lord Jesus Christ made provision for us and He alone is the One who gives us hope…He provides things we don’t see…and we know He will keep His promise to reveal all of these things at the proper time…He is grooming His bride…and we count on His character…and not on our own. What is His character?
<JR SOOO LIVE>
Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 21…
ROM 8:21 …because the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Here, God highlights for us both where we are today and where we are going. Today, we are in bodies of corruption. One day we will be free from these bodies and our salvation will be complete. Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verses 1 to 10…
Second Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent (our physical body) which is our house is torn down (in physical death), and it will be, we have a building (an eternal house…the resurrection body) from God, a house not made with human hands (not from mom and dad), (a house) eternal in the heavens.
Second Corinthians 5:2 For indeed in this house (our physical body) we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven (our resurrection body)…
Second Corinthians 5:3 …inasmuch as we, having put our resurrection body on, will not be found naked.
Second Corinthians 5:4 For indeed while we are in this tent (our physical body), we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed (naked, as with Adam and Eve in the garden) but we want to be clothed, so that what is mortal (our physical body) will be swallowed up by the resurrection life.
Second Corinthians 5:5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God the Father, who gave to us God the Holy Spirit as a pledge.
Second Corinthians 5:6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—
Second Corinthians 5:7 …for we walk by faith, not by sight—
Second Corinthians 5:8 …we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home face-to-face with the Lord.
Second Corinthians 5:9 Therefore we believers in Christ also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
Second Corinthians 5:10 For we believers in Christ must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed (compensated) for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
As children of the loving and living God, He starts us off in the sphere of the freedom of grace…Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 1…
Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
The Lord Jesus Christ is grooming us for a move into the freedom of glory at His second coming. Revelation, Chapter 19, Verses 7 to 9…
Revelation 19:7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to the Lord, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”
Revelation 19:8 “It was given to her (the bride) by God to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”
Revelation 19:9 Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”
Revelation, Chapter 19, Verses 11 to 16…
Revelation 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it (the Lord Jesus Christ) is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.
Revelation 19:12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.
Revelation 19:13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
Revelation 19:14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.
Revelation 19:15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
Revelation 19:16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
The groom is coming back in wrath to avenge…and we…His bride…we Church Age believers…will be with Him. Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 22…
ROM 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
As the big event Christ’s millennial reign on earth gets closer we feel the contractions. And we have hope. Hope is like a wrapped present…it’s yours but you can’t open it yet…God opens it for you at a future time. In perseverance, we eagerly wait to SEE all of the gifts the Groom has for His bride.
And when we see all these things…when we see the result of our “so great” salvation…it will be another Happy Day!
When the Lord Jesus Christ Promises Salvation, It’s a Guarantee!
ROM 3:10 …as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one”
ROM 5:8 But God the Father demonstrates His own unconditional love toward all mankind, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
JOH 3:17 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.
JOH 1:12 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 OH HAPPY DAY 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!
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