Counting The Cost

Scriptures

Luke 14:28-34

Thought

Read Luke 14:28-34

Here Jesus is asking us to count the cost before we start the project. To count the cost we have to prepare ourselves for all the trials that a Christian will face. Christ told us on many occasions that a life as a true Christian will bring many hardships. 

Questions

What would you say it cost you personally to follow Jesus?

Can you actually identify something YOU have had to give up in order to follow Jesus? How has that changed your life?

What has your family given up to follow Christ?

Challenge

Make a list of what you sacrifice daily, weekly, and yearly for your service to the Lord. Then ask yourself how you doing? 

Friendship Helps Shape Faith

Scriptures

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

1 Samuel 18:1-4

Thought

We can acknowledge it or not but we have been designed by God to need others. Our friendships that we have can have a deep impact on our faith. We have so many examples in the bible of friendship Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathan, Paul and Philemon, and many more. We need to discover for ourselves spiritual friendship, what it looks like, and how to rely on each other. 

Questions

Do you have a friend in your life that you can call out to for help when you’re in a dark place?

How important is it for us to get to know each other as a Christian family?

Acts 2:42 – The bible places importance on church family unit because of these reasons:

-          We study God’s word together

-          We worship God together

-          We find accountability in one another

-          We find support in trials

-          We gain opportunities for service

-          We learn to teach others together

Have you ever been challenged by a Christian friend and it help bring you back to God?

Challenge

Sometimes God uses a friend to transform us seemingly overnight. A friend speaks a word of challenge that, if responded to favorably, has the potential to help us grow exponentially.

Reach out to your Christian friends this week and let them know you are here for them. 

What Path Do I Take

Scriptures

Proverbs 3:5-6

Romans 12:1-2

Thought

We all know that God’s will for us as our father and creator is to ultimately be with him in heaven. He has laid out instructions for us through his word and given us an example through his son. Sometimes still it’s hard to know exactly the direction we need to go in our lives. 

Questions

How do you determine the path here on this earth to take that God has laid out for you and your family? 

How do we hear God’s voice? 

Will he make me do something I completely hate? 

How do I know it’s him and not something else?

Challenge

Take the next week and pray that God’s will be shown to you. Ask him for direction for your life and the life of your family. 

You are a Tool, What is your Job?

Many Christian people today are not living the successful lives that God intended for them because they have missed the purpose for their life.

Eph 2:10

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

If you are going to live successfully, you have to know what it is you are all about. What’s your job? What functionality do you have? You need to know the answers to those questions so that you as a tool are not used for something other than what you were created for. We all know that tools that are used for things that they were not created for run the risk of getting damaged.

The other day I was asked to hang a framed family photo on our living room wall by my wife. I of course oblige and went searching for a nail to use. Once I found the right size nail for this over sized picture frame I then started looking for a hammer. I looked for about five minutes and due to my laziness I decided that a medium size wrench would do the job for me (don’t get too self-righteous, you’ve done it too!). Sometimes being lazy causes us to use whatever is handy and not always what is right in order to get the job done.

With the wrench I knew I could get the nail in the wall, but I was not completely for sure how effective I was going to be with it. There’s a chance I could dent the wall, bend the nail, or scratch up the wrench.

Too many times Christians today are not functioning or flowing in the thing they were created for, and consequently, they are not effective. And sometime they two get hurt and damaged.

You do have a purpose. The bible tells us all that in Eph 2. This week pray that God shows you that purpose, and then develop the gifts God have given you to fulfill that purpose.

Why Church - Hebrews 10:19-25

Introduction

Why is it that the word “church” is so misunderstood?

· The world has given the definition of the word church as the building were we meet. Correct?

· Think a minute and then tell me what do you think about when you hear the word “church”.

 

How should the church be seen today?

· So many times we fail to think about what it is we are to be.

· We come together and we allow the influence of culture overcome what our natural reaction should be to what God has done.

· We don’t think about the reason we are here, or at least not as we should most of the time.

· When the idea of church becomes where we go instead of who and whose we are we have lost sight of the reason we come together

 

So, really Why Church?

· Because church is who we are.

· It is not where we are to be but who we are to be with.

· It is important that we understand that the church is not a building nor a temple that is built upon Holy Ground.

· 1 Corinthians  6:19 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own…”

· We are the church!

 

What has church meant to you ?

· Family 1 John 1:5-7

· People of a like mind Phil. 2:2

Have we missed the mark?

· How can we want to miss out on this?

· How can attending worship be something we consider only if nothing else is going on?

· Look at what this day, today, cost.

· It took the life of the only perfect man who ever walked this earth.

· How are we doing with church folks?

 

Things to know about Church

· Church is a family

· We are the church

· Once we know of it Church is not a option

Why Ask Why?

Introduction

The question of why is always one that seems to come at some of the most inopportune times.

· No one usually wants to answer that question when its asked for the simple reason, we as humans do not like having to explain why things are what they are.

· Over the next several weeks we will be looking at answering the questions of why certain things are the way that they are.

· We will be taking a Biblical view of these and I need you all to be praying about this study. There may be a time when you feel like someone is stepping on your toes but we all need to agree to work through this together.

 

Goals

1. To give biblical belief as to why we live our lives the way we do.

2. To give biblical belief as to why we serve God the way we do.

3. To grow in biblical understanding

4. To be able to share with others what we have learned

 

I know that in my life I have asked questions and have been asked questions that have stretched my faith and my mind. Is that true for you?

 

Jesus understood the importance of asking people questions concerning their faith.

· In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is recorded to have asked 89 questions; in Matthew 85; and in Mark, 47.  When reading through the Gospels, you will encounter one question after another. Many of these questions were questions in response to questions.

· Many times Jesus answered questions by asking questions. Its obvious Jesus communicated with people like no one else.

What would a marriage be like if we stopped asking questions? Get people’s answers in the room.

Story of the man and wife…wife eats the heel of the loaf to save her husband from having to eat it. 

Finally after thirty years of marriage and being empty nesters he goes to make a sandwich and there are only heels left. He apologizes for eating the heels that his wife apparently loves because she always ate them. She tells him that she really doesn’t like heals but only ate them because she didn’t think he liked them. Turns out the heels were his favorite slice and she was eating it because she didn’t think he liked it.

· Questions of why in a relationship are normal and a must to create a stronger relationship.

· We ask “Why” when dealing with our faith and understanding and God gives us the answers in His word. Never ask Why and you’ll never get a answer.

 

We need to be seeking answers so that we may understand what it is that we are to be about as Children of God.

 

· We should never be afraid to ask why about anything we do.

· I have heard people say that if someone is asking why about something then there must be something wrong with their faith.

· I truly believe that most of us at some time or another  have stopped asking why.

· People ask why and challenge our answers and we become defensive and upset because we have to give and answer for what we believe, even sometimes to people who we think should already know.

· But Peter wrote: “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…” 1 Peter 3:15

· This means to even those we think should already know.

 

Conclusion

· Why ask why?

· The reason is so that we will grow and mature in our faith

· So we may be able to help around us strengthen their faith

· You will either learn from your questions or teach someone else.

God Given Blessings

When we think about the blessings in our lives we think of all the good things that God has given us. We talk about our families, our friends, our church, our jobs, our homes, etc. I want to talk about two blessings that God has given us that we might not necessarily talk about that often.

FIRST – BLESSED WITH A NEED

When people speak of being blessed often they are saying they are blessed on a certain area. Someone might say that they are financially blessed, or they might say they have been blessed with their job, their family, their church.

The first thing God has blessed you with a need for others. As much as we might resist it, God created you to be dependent on Him, and on other believers.

1.      Have you grown in your Christian walk to notice the need for other Christians? In what way

2.      Why do you think God designed us to need each other?

3.      Jesus once said “It is more blessed to give then to receive (Acts 20:35) Do you agree and why?

4.      Have you ever been blessed by your need for others? Share an example of when you have been blessed by your spiritual family.

5.       Read Gal 6:1-5. 

How does this passage apply to you?  What are our Godly responsibilities toward one another?

Financially

SECOND – BLESSED WITH A BURDEN

The Second thing God has blessed you with a burden. A hurt intended to spur you into action.

1.      Name some individuals in the bible who were given burdens. How did God use them to make a difference even though they might have been ruined by it?

a.      A divine burden might…

b.      Make you angry (Moses, exodus 2:11-15)

c.       Break your heart (Nehemiah 1:1-12)

2.      Finish this sentence… My divine burden is…. In other words. What makes your heart ache? What are you most passionate about concerning God’s will and kingdom?

3.      Some people never feel burden from God because they do not expose themselves to his needs. They have hidden themselves, side stepped open doors, and/or bow out of any ministries. Have you seen people practice Christianity like this?

4.      How can you expose yourself more to God’s burdens?