Memory Verse: Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:58  

Sermon Sentence: Paul spent an awkward amount of time discussing sexual immorality to the church at Corinth, so we should consider the wisdom in doing the same thing.

Read 1 Corinthians 6:12-19
For the last three sermons, we have tried to frame this difficult passage of scripture into the logic that Paul is working through.  It is important that context is considered as a whole idea here to arrive at the place of teaching that Paul lands in.  There was a situation of extreme sexual immorality with a man and his (possibly) step-mom that was associated with the church in Corinth in a way that should have been embarrassing.  Paul busts into the middle of the situation, furious with words and declaring that the person be removed from the church.  Almost instantly, Paul begins defending his logic and explaining how he arrived at where he did in his judgement.  He explained how judgement and court considerations should be handled by Christians vs non-Christians and made sure they saw the difference.  Now in this text, he returns to what he had been saying to explain the Biblical direction of why he went so far so to declare that the person be removed.  The reader should take verse 19 as the conclusion of this argument.  

Interestingly enough, often is this verse quoted and rarely is it used in this context.  Paul made the argument that “every other sin, is outside the body,”  but sexual immorality is against the body.  Then he goes back and forth using the plural forms and the singular forms of words in the same sentence.  He is equating his logic for the individual to apply to the corporate church as well.  Therefore, sexual immorality does not work because of what our bodies are supposed to be and what it means with what we understand about who we are.  But it also doesn’t work in the Body of Christ, so therefore the distorted part of the “Body” needs to be removed.  It feels like we took a long time to get here, but in my opinion, this seems to be the best way to understand chapters 5 and 6 in the entirety.

How would you apply Paul’s logic in a modern day church setting and how does this work in light of “cancel culture”, “political land mines”, “being politically correct,” and trying to reach the unchurched people?

Do you think it would be proper to apply verse 19 to anything other than sexual immorality?  Why or why not?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Acts 15:1-35
Throughout all of time and history in the church, there have always been the cultural hot button discussions.  It has gone from things like marriage in the priesthood to discussions about alcohol.  There is not a time period in the history of the church that you won’t find a version of disagreement about a cultural topic.  In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul seems to be laying out two quotes that some believe were attributed to him, but seem to be a bit deeper than that.  One is “All things are lawful for me.”  The other is “food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.”  I think these two quotes are based off of the relevant cultural argument that was happening in the early church.  My reasoning for this is because of the appearance of the idea of food offered to idols and the call to abstain from sexual immorality in this section of scripture.  It seems that when the Gentiles started to follow Jesus, which was a largely Jewish thing to do because of the way the disciples were sent out, things started to get a bit muddy.  They had all of these teachings and the Jewish person that converted to following Jesus did not seem to have to make a big jump in practice change.  The Gentile, or the unbeliever was bringing in a lot more baggage that seemed to be further away from the ideas of the Bible.  So when the apostles began this discussion, they landed on majoring on these specific issues.  They thought they were the most difficult to reconcile if you were following Jesus.

That is not the same thing as saying this was the only thing they were to do to follow Jesus.  That is not the case.  In fact, Paul brings up the discussion of food offered to idols and seems to argue against what the Jerusalem Council decided in chapters 8 and 10 of 1 Corinthians.  It makes me think that Paul was not in agreement with what was decided at the council, but was willing to submit.  The freedom to still teach through what he thought was still there.  But he did not vary on the idea of sexual immorality!

What do you think of the process that seemed to happen here and how that decision was past around?

Do you agree that these are the best things to major on even today in our current culture or do you think that there would be different things majored on now?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 1 Corinthians 7:1-16
So we read 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 and talked about how Paul was working through that logic.  He was addressing sexual immorality and the church and covered it all quite well.  But after he made his teaching about the body being for the Lord and then the applications that came from that, there were still some lingering questions in this topic that needed to be addressed.  That is what we have here in this section, the way that I see it.  Paul is just cleaning up some specifics that he feels will arise as people in different situations are trying to figure out how far his teaching can be applied. What does this have to do with married people?  What does this all have to do with single people?  Paul is not trying to cover everything that he can, but rather a few things that may come up in light of it all.  

What do you learn about what Paul is saying in this section?

What do you think Paul was trying to do by addressing these issues on the heels of chapter 6?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read Matthew 5:17-37
Recently, I was studying the 10 Commandments and this section of Jesus Sermon on the Mount just came alive for me.  I have been raised around the teachings of the church and have my whole life, heard the discussion about the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  It was always taught to me that Jesus made things different, but the way that was explained or articulated just didn’t seem right.  This was the section they always pointed to. You see, the Old Testament was just that “old” and therefore old things are not needed things…so you can throw them out.  Especially with the new version, why keep the old around?  

If you do not know by now, I absolutely do not agree with that logic anymore.  Whether or not it was taught to me or where my mind processed it, is another discussion.  When I go back to the beginning, as I very often think is helpful, Genesis told me a story that helped set a pattern. There were two trees.  One was the tree of life and one was the knowledge of good and bad.  The classic and very much modern choice battle was set long ago.  You can either go off of any form or source of wisdom that you want to, or you can choose life.  Only one wisdom has at its heart life.  Only one wisdom leads to life.  That is the one God gives us access to.  The Law, or the line that you could cross, is not able to save us.  It is only able to show us that there was a line and that we have crossed it.  Jesus came to give us wisdom.  So he took the line, the line of things like murder, and said, I will pay the penalty of the sin so that you can live on the other side of the line and learn the life that is in the wisdom.  So don’t murder.  Then, spend time meditating on the ideas around why murder is not good and all of its cousins and siblings of anger, rage, and hatred, all things that are on the way to murder, and all things that will lead to death.  Jesus came to show us life and be the way of life.  He “filled full” the commandment of not murdering, because in the wisdom that He offers to us we not only are saved from the penalty of murder, but also walked in the wisdom that would allow something like murder to rob the fullness of our lives.  Life is more than just breath and a heartbeat.  It is the fullness that is found in the wisdom that we are freely given access to.  

How do you understand what Jesus is saying in verse 17?

I worked through the idea of murder in this devotion.  You take the time to work out the reason behind the other three examples Jesus lays out in this passage: lust, divorce, and oaths.

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Proverbs 5
Yesterday, we explored a bit of the process of wisdom and how it starts from a commandment or a law, and then expands out from there.  Wisdom is not the line that we learn we should not cross, but rather also the understanding of the journey and process to the line and how that those things that are not good for us start in many other forms, drawing us closer to our destruction.  This is part of the idea of what Jesus did when He came to “fill full” the Law, not do away with our need for it totally.  

The wisdom approach is something that is taught in the book of Proverbs.  The goal of Proverbs is not to give us the line that we shouldn’t cross (Thou shalt not…), but rather to point out to us the ideas that lead to the destruction we should avoid and why it is like that.  In this Proverb, the fatherly writer is explaining the path to destruction that is contained in the commandment “You shall not commit adultery.” The goal of the Proverb is to show how the traps and landmines around adultery draw the person in.  It is a bad place to be when you realize that you have fallen into the trap of adultery.  The wise person considers all the of the elements around the problem and therefore avoids the philosophy and journey that is on the way to the problem.  Maybe it is helpful to say it like this: Knowledge is to know that adultery is not good.  Wisdom is to understand how adultery works in our deceptive hearts and minds and draws us into its death grip.  Knowledge is good, but it, by itself, does not save us from the problem. 

In verse 12, the Proverb talks about being found in the trap of adultery and after looking back, realizing that the path to where the trap is was riddled with a “hatred of discipline and a despising of reproof.”  How are you in danger of these traps in your life?

Do you understand the difference between wisdom and knowledge?  Attempt to explain it.

What do you take away from this Proverb?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Luke 14:27  "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."

When People are Big and God is Small
Chapter 5: “Know the Fear of the Lord”

**If you group meets on Sunday, your Day 1 is Monday, and Day 6 is Saturday, Sunday is an off day.  

*If your group meets on Monday, your Day 1 is Tuesday and Day 6 is Sunday, Monday is an off day

And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Luke 10:2

When People are Big and God is Small
Chapter 4: “The World wants me to fear people”

**If you group meets on Sunday, your Day 1 is Monday, and Day 6 is Saturday, Sunday is an off day.  

*If your group meets on Monday, your Day 1 is Tuesday and Day 6 is Sunday, Monday is an off day

Memory Verse: Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:58  

Sermon Sentence: Paul believed unity in the church would be enough to fairly and justly navigate life’s difficult decisions between believers.

Read 1 Corinthians 5:9-6:11
We took, what seemed like, a long break from our series in 1 Corinthians.  In that break, I took the opportunity to spend extra time studying for what was coming next in the series, chapter 6.  It is a really tough passage to find application to the everyday believer, because the content of the beginning of the chapter seems to be not widely applicable.  For instance, I have not been in any lawsuits.  So it is tough for me to preach about them or give application to the whole church about them.  The rest of chapter 6 talks about something that becomes really uncomfortable to discuss in mixed crowds.  

But chapter breaks are not from the original text.  That is what the heart of my argument is against all of the commentaries that I have spent time with.  They section 6:1-11 off by itself.  Which has some wisdom and great learning to be gleaned, but it is not the point of what Paul is trying to say.  To get the point of what he is saying and not feel like he is running off on a tangent, you have to read the end of 5 and the rest of 6.  Paul is not trying to give a discourse on why the Christian shouldn’t suit the Christian.  He talks about it briefly, but as a sub-point, not his main point.  His main point is how the Christian should be accountable to the Christian because of the logic derived from the discussion about secular courts.  

But again, I am going against what the majority of the commentaries are saying.  That is why I include my thought process here for you to consider.  I don’t disagree with all of the commentaries that I have read, I just simply think they don’t land the discussion where Paul wanted to go.  

What do you think about my take on this text?

How important is the context of these verses to get the point of what Paul is saying?

If you were to sum up all of Paul’s point in Chapters 5-6, in two to three sentences, how would you do that?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Acts 22:1-21
In our passage for this week, we find this verse:

'And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. ' 1 Corinthians 6:11

Today, we will focus on Paul’s appeal to the idea of being washed.  We do this thing that may seem weird to the outsider, but is genuine in its teaching and application.  We baptize people.  What does that mean?  We put them under water in a symbolic representation of sins being washed away.  Water is a running theme in the Bible and the idea of water as a washing agent is connected to the idea of purifying, or making good for use.  Ritually, there are countless places that illustrate this idea in religious practices and then also in allegorical tales of water.  So when we start to draw the parallels to the symbolic display that is baptism, it is not a far jump in our minds.  If we believe that sin is connected to the ideas of dirt and staining, then we can also connect the ideas of being done with sin and the idea of washing clean.  The ritual is not the actual washing, but rather the symbolic representation of that idea.  This is why we have the same Greek word from 1 Corinthians 6 used here in Acts 22.  Paul lumps the ideas altogether here by talking about “rising”, “being baptized,” and “calling on His name.”  There are all things that should be done, but they are also all symbolically talked about.  

Have you followed in obedience to being baptized as it is discussed in the Bible?

What else do you learn from Paul’s sermon here?

What is your main takeaway from this story?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Hebrews 10
In our passage for this week, we find this verse:

'And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. ' 1 Corinthians 6:11

Today we will be focusing on the word “sanctified” from our text in 1 Corinthians.  I by no means declare that this is an easy concept or even that this chapter is an easy chapter.  Its not!  I struggle so much through it.  But I do understand that “sanctification” is the idea of being made holy.  So, sanctification is something we experience when we are saved through Jesus.  We are made holy.  We are set apart for God.  But it is also something that we are becoming.  We are becoming holy, set apart.  How can it be both?  That is the work of Jesus in our lives.  This truth is also the reason we can say that we are forgiven for our sins: past sins, present sins, and future sins.  We confess our sins, not because we need forgiveness to be in right standing with God, but because we are in right standing with our God.  Our confession is not agreeing with God that this was a sin and therefore is not a part of our lives, because we have been forgiven.  We were and are sanctified.  So therefore we can live like we are becoming sanctified.  

Notice in verse 10 that Jesus' sacrifice was for our sanctification “once for all.”  So it was complete in its work for our sins and universal in its offer to everyone.  Not universal in its acceptance by everyone, but certainly in the offer to all.  Verse 14 backs this up even further.  

What is sanctification?

How do you understand sanctification now and in the future in light of this?

What does this passage teach you about sanctification that you have not fully understood before?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read Romans 3
In our passage for this week, we find this verse:

'And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. ' 1 Corinthians 6:11

“Righteousness” is one of those types of words that you only hear in church.  For me personally, that has always hung me up and made it a bit of a difficult word to get in the quick processing part of my mind.  Think of it close to goodness, but maybe a bit more fuller in moral categories. It is the idea of being declared good in the standing of the judge.  The problem becomes bleak when we understand that Paul is using that very idea to talk about our standing before God.  There is none that is righteous. Not even one.  That is bleak and condemning in its isolation.  It is also not where Paul lands.

Paul goes on to talk about a hope that can be breathed into this situation of life that we all need.  “No one is righteous.”  It really is that bad.  If no one is righteous and we believe in justice, or the fact that things that are not right will be dealt with, then how can we ever expect to see justification, or the act of declaring that something is back to balance and good?  This is where Paul starts to teach about the righteousness of God in verse 21.  There is none that is righteous, but God.  That means all that is righteous must come from God.  So how can those who are the unrighteous become the righteous?  That happens in a transfer that happens “through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”  When we receive righteousness, even the righteousness of God, it comes through faith in Jesus. So work this formula out: we are unrighteous, everyone of us. God’s righteousness is the only hope of being declared righteous and that is received by faith in Jesus for all that believe.   When we receive the gift of God’s righteousness we are declared justified.  This is the idea of justification as it is expressed in our key text. 

How would you explain “justification?”

Why is it important to understand that “there is none righteous” in life?

Take a look at verse 26 and explain how it makes sense in your life.

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 1 Corinthians 6:1-11
This is one of those texts that I have had to go back to many, many times to understand.  The first pass didn’t work in my mind.  And then the next 100 passes haven’t really helped either. It is only in spending time with it and really breaking it down that I feel I have a good grasp on the point of it.  So revisit our text before we dive into the stuff that is a bit easier to apply. 

You may feel like we have talked about two different things this week: lawsuits among believers and then this explanation of “washed, sanctified, and justified”, but they do all go together if you understand the point.  Don’t leave out the third idea from this passage that is just lurking in the background and will require that we bring out to get a full understanding: it's the idea of sexual immorality in the church.

So here is my flow of thought the way that I understand it now:  Paul is livid that there is a situation of blatant and ridiculous sexual immorality in the church.  His judgement feels swift and heavy.  So he backs it up by explaining that he feels he has the authority and backing to be this strong against the sin.  Why?  Because there is a judgement place that is given to the follower of Jesus that arises out of the fact that we have all submitted ourselves to the same teachings of Jesus.  The secular law and court system is not the place that we should be judging each other, because we have a collection of ideas that we have said we will submit ourselves to.  So why would the unbeliever judge the believer?  Or why would the believer judge the unbeliever?  They don’t even have the same ideas.  Which lands him in his last point: the unbelievers shouldn’t be expected to live or think like the believers.  And that very idea is what separates you.  You once were the unbeliever.  But now you are a follower of Jesus.  So therefore, act like what you claim that you believe and stop looking more like the unbelievers. You can not mix the ideas of unbelief and then claim to be a believer. Nor can we stand for it when others do.  

How does this help you understand what is going on in this passage?

If someone were to ask you what 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 was about, how would you explain it to them?

How would you explain what 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 specifically is about?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Memory Verse:
'I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. '- John 15:5

Sermon Sentence: The Bible teaches from cover to cover that there is only one God and He exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Read John 17:1-19
It is in the very substance and the smallest of details that Jesus' most controversial statements have to be wrestled with.  To say that He was a great teacher and a great prophet alone, just will not work.  The reason it all falls apart on that is because you have to ask: “What kind of a great teacher or prophet would make that kind of a claim and it not be true?” I have listened to people make strange and bizarre claims that make me question their character or integrity or even the validity of the other things that they say, but none of those people that I begin to question are making claims this strange.  When I worked at the Rescue Mission in downtown Nashville years ago, I met a man that said that he was Jesus.  Not like had the name Jesus, but he said he was actually the Jesus and claimed to be the Messiah. I didn’t buy it.  Now, when I say I didn’t buy it, you have to get that it was such an outlandish claim, considering all of the circumstances, that I didn’t wait to have proof to not buy the claim.  I just denied it instantly.  I didn’t counter his claim with a request for a miracle to prove it as if I was only one miracle away from believing him.  I just did not even come close to believing him.  

I get that you would not believe that either.  I don’t for a second think that you could have been fooled by this drunk homeless man claiming to be Jesus in downtown Nashville.  In John 17, Jesus is praying out loud.  He is not talking to the disciples and hoping they pick up on a few things He wants to get across to them only.  He is speaking His heart and we are invited in.  It was no mystery at all what Jesus believed about Himself.  He was claiming to be God’s son.  He was claiming to have access to eternal life and willing to give it to everyone who would take it, by others knowing what He knew about Himself.  This alone is no small weird speak that can just be glossed over for the more truthful thing.  It is either true in the complete sense, or Jesus is easily to be written off based on that statement alone.  You have to face this at some point.  After Jesus said that, you are either in or you are out.

What do you see as the work that Jesus was to accomplish on earth according to his prayer here?

How did Jesus do this and why was that important?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Isaiah 63
This is not the best or most detailed set up for this chapter, but basically what we can see here is a chapter that takes some time to wrestle with the character of God.  By that I mean we get a glimpse into what God is like and how He interacts with the people of the story.  I know there is way more going on here, but our main task this week is to try and learn what the Bible teaches about the Trinity.  
One of the arguments against the Trinity that we mentioned on Sunday was the teaching of Modalism.  This is a tough teaching to nail down due to its many holes and logical missteps, but basically it is the idea that God has been in three different forms, in different times, and with different roles.  In the book of Genesis and most of the Old Testament we see Him as God in Heaven.  Then when Jesus comes, God is in the form of a man and nothing else.  Then after Jesus rises and returns to the Heavens, we get God in the form of the Holy Spirit.  

Isaiah 63 is one of the chapters that does a good job showing the real problems with this teaching that would make God not really omnipresent, or in all places at all times.  Isaiah is talking about God, here in the Old Testament, in ways where he connects the Holy Spirit to the Old Testament and also seems to be showing Jesus in the story of the Exodus, which would be the Old Testament.  This is not a far fetched idea, because it shows up in another place in the bible in the book of Jude.  
Where do you see each of the persons of the Trinity in this chapter?

Father
Son
Holy Spirit

Why do you think it is important to have an idea of the Trinity to understand the character of God?  What other things fall apart in the teaching of modalism according to God’s character?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Isaiah 53
Yesterday we read Isaiah 63 and worked through some key images in that passage. One of the things that is mentioned there is the “arm of the Lord” which seems to be addressed as a person. We get further confirmation of that idea in Isaiah 53 and it appears enough in the Bible that it seems to be something worth paying attention to.  The chapter starts out asking two questions: “Who had believed what he has heard from us?” and “To whom has the arm of the Lord been extended?”  From here, the person that is talked about is constantly referred to as a person and given the pronoun “he.”  After collecting all of the evidence and working it through what we know about the story of the crucifixion and the life of Jesus, it becomes pretty obvious that Jesus is who is being talked about here.  Therefore, Jesus, a person, is referred to as the arm of the Lord.  That is the same thing that we unfolded in Isaiah 63 yesterday.

You may not think that matters much, but it holds a lot of weight.  The reason we can not stand for a teaching that claims that Jesus was only a man that showed up in the flesh when he was born, is because that is not the teaching the Bible gives us of Jesus. It is a way that our minds have tried to process what we can understand, but when we are confronted with more scripture and understanding, we have to decide what we will do with what we now know, not just what we can understand.  Jesus shows up multiple times in the Old Testament, from the moment of Creation and He is at the end of the book for the moments of eternity.  He is without beginning and without end.  He is the first and the last.  Therefore He is fully God.  Not a version of God that was different, but fully God.  To know Jesus (John 17) is to know God.  

If you read John 3:16 in the KJV, how do you explain the idea of Jesus being eternal when the verse says that He was begotten?

In this Old Testament teaching of who Jesus was, what are the comforting things that you learn about Him?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read Matthew 3

There are a lot of different declarations of “the way.” In the popular show “The Mandalorian” you can hear the key phrase of the Mandalorians being “This is the way.”  It is a small declaration that appeals to a higher idea in this fictional world.  There is a higher idea that all other ideas are filtered through, and everything else yields to this “way.”  Jesus is not declaring “the way” like that.  In John 14:6, He is declaring that He IS the way.  Not that He knows the way.  Not that He is on the way.  He is saying that He is the way.  That is a much bigger declaration than it is given credit and it would need a lot more credentials than just an everyday good teaching on morality and good living.  In fact, for Jesus to declare He is the way would be for Him to shove morality to a second level to Himself.  

The confirmation that is seen in that declaration starts with a scene that contains Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, who preached a gospel of repentance and turning back toward God, outside the city, or in the wilderness.  His message was sealed with people being baptized as a way of symbolizing their decision to follow God in this way.  That was not bizarre in that people didn’t know what baptism was, but it was bizarre in that he was describing following God as repenting and turning toward God.  If all of the religious leaders were teaching a different version of this, how do we know that John’s is the one to go with? That is when Jesus comes along, John declares that He is the Messiah, and then Jesus asks to be baptized by John.  There seems to be no better confirmation than to actually follow in the practice.  The irony is that Jesus did not have sin to be cleansed of, so what was He doing following in the symbolic ritualistic idea of washing clean from sins and turning back to God?  He was stamping it with the most amount of approval and call to obedience that He could.  There is not wiggling out of this one…Jesus was baptized and therefore fully approved of what we understand baptism to be.  The question now becomes what will we do with His example?  Follow it, or continue to declare that we are following Him while refusing, ignoring, or glossing over what He actually did?

If you have been baptized, what do you remember of that experience?

What does baptism mean, can you explain it?

If baptism is required, what do we do with the thief on the cross that clearly was not baptized but Jesus said he would be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:43)?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Romans 6

To continue on the thoughts around baptism and as we plan to have a baptism at the church soon, let's look at this passage and try to understand the point Paul is making.  To be fair, the point that he is trying to make is not a defense of baptism, but rather that baptism is used to make the defense of something else he is trying to explain.  I like this passage because of its ability to paint the picture of what baptism is symbolizing as it is the visual lesson of the heart declaration that we have already made.  That means that we are teaching that baptism is not salvation, but rather it is the symbolic representation of salvation.  This leads so many people down the road of argument in points to arrive at the place of whether or not you need, or have to get baptized.  It is true that the Bible does not land in the place of making the argument that a person can not get into Heaven without being baptized, but that truth does not help the reality of the point that the Bible takes this idea pretty seriously and puts a lot of weight on it.  The weight is mainly from a few places: first of all, the example of Jesus.  It is really tough to declare that you are following Jesus but then refuse baptism.  Second, is the teaching contained in this text as Paul explains what it is all about and why it all matters. I challenge you to wrestle with this idea and try to understand his point. 

What does Paul seem to believe about baptism?

Why the actual mode of baptism and how would you defend immersion (completely going under the water, not just sprinkling) from this text?

Have you followed Jesus in baptism? If not, why not make that decision to do that now?

How does this become your prayer today?

'And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  '

Luke 9:23

When People Are Big And God Is Small
Chapter: 3- People Will Physically Hurt Me

**If you group meets on Sunday, your Day 1 is Monday, and Day 6 is Saturday, Sunday is an off day.  

*If your group meets on Monday, your Day 1 is Tuesday and Day 6 is Sunday, Monday is an off day

'And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.   '

Luke 6:31 

When People Are Big And God Is Small
Chapter: 2

**If you group meets on Sunday, your Day 1 is Monday, and Day 6 is Saturday, Sunday is an off day.  

*If your group meets on Monday, your Day 1 is Tuesday and Day 6 is Sunday, Monday is an off day

Memory Verse:
'I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. '- John 15:5

Sermon Sentence: The Bible is without error and cannot fail in its presentation of truth and therefore must only be accepted in its entirety.  

Read John 17:1-19
If you are fair and open to a good discussion, you can concede that John 17 is a really odd chapter displaying a really odd thing.  Many people have gone to this chapter to disprove the Trinity and the reliability of the Bible, but I think it actually is a set of nails in the coffin that are those two arguments.  

This is where the dilemma comes in: Jesus, who we claim to be God…is praying to God.  So is He talking to Himself or what in the world is going on here?!  That’s a fair question and I think we will spend some time unpacking that in the next sermon in this series, but for now, we need  to ask a bigger question.  Doesn’t Jesus clearly make the connection between what He teaches to the disciples and what God’s words are, and that we have the truth even today in its complete and uncorrupted totality?  That is a BIG question!  If you believe there is a truth, you also surely have to believe there is a way to get to that truth.  How absurd would it be to require a truth with which we will all be guided and judged by but then land in a place of thinking there is no access to that truth anymore?  How discouraging to believe that there is a way that is perfect and good for all people at all times, but at this time we do not have an ability to know it?  

I believe that if Truth is powerful enough to be true, then it is also powerful enough to be preserved and kept.  It is not hidden, but rather accessible and ready to be understood.  This is what Jesus was praying for in John 17:17.  God is the keeper of Truth.  Truth is still accessible and has not been corrupted.  Jesus is the key to that Truth. 

Do you think a god that declared life to be what it is, then allowed the truth in that life to be hidden or corrupted, would be a good god?  Why or why not?

Why is truth more important than a distortion of truth, half truth, or a lie?

How is the Bible Truth?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Psalm 119:1-16
Two of the greatest things that happen in reading the Bible as the Truth, is that it reveals to us first and foremost, who God is, and then after that, who we are.  If you understand how those two ideas correlate, you would realize that is not two different things so much as it is one motion.  The reason that we do not accept another set of books as truth the way that we accept the Bible is because if we believe that God can be known, wants to be known, and invites us to know Him, then we surely get that He would also very much be interested in protecting who He is.  

Have you ever watched those movies where a guy falls in love with a girl and the guy has been lying about something about who he really is and the whole conflict of the movie is the struggle between the dishonesty and the result of the love?  Even though most of those movies are terrible stories, the point is illustrated for our thought here.  If God is interested in being known, because He is the source and giver of life, surely we get why it would be incredibly important to be specific and direct about who He actually is.  We would also see the power that one could steal by declaring to have a new or different version of a revelation about who God is.  

In this Psalm, I see the idea presented of the Psalmists seeking God, storing up His words, delighting in his teachings, meditating on them, declaring them, and not turning away from them.  There are a lot of lessons in that for me to pay attention to.

How do you see yourself as a reader and studier of the words of God as illustrated in the 6 ways above?

What do you think it looks like to become more like the Psalmists with God’s word for you personally?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Psalm 119:33-48
When I was preparing these devotions, I had this section picked out.  My plan was to write here about the idea of the text and share something about all of the verses.  I got stuck on verse 36.  I have never put those two thoughts together properly.  Have you?  Break down the two parts here:

• Incline my heart to your testimonies.
• And not to selfish gain.

The whole story of the Bible wraps up in that comparison!  It’s the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad all over again.  You can have the wisdom that comes from the world, or you can suspend that and have in its place the wisdom that God desires to give you.  If I take of the wisdom from the world, I will notice the good that it is to look at and the mass amounts of benefits that I could convince myself of, because I am full of desires!  But my one and only true desire, which God is fully aware of, is fulfilled only in the wisdom that is from God. 
To wrap it together for our study here, if there is a Truth that is greater and grander and more true than all of the other versions, and if this world was created for me, and if I have a purpose and a belonging in this whole thing, then surely I can see that my desires that keep getting in the way of a life that is flourishing are not what are worth spending all of my time, money, and efforts on.  To quote a song: I was made for more.

Spend some time with verse 37 and look at its two parts and how they apply to you.

Verse 42 talks of the writer being taunted and God’s word being the answer to deal with that.  When is a time in your life that verse would be applicable and how does it help you?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read Psalm 119:49-64
If you are self aware, there is a moment you come to where you will find yourself protecting yourself from those that you have thought were dangerous.  Maybe they are dangerous.  But there are also times when we just feel attacked or challenged in a way that is not easy to explain, but is certainly real in the sense that it is taking your attention and focus and causing you to turn in.  When I am expecting to be hurt or hit, I have a quicker tendency to flinch.  Emotionally this looks like me reacting out of anger faster than I would normally do and avoiding people that I would expect to be hit or hurt by.  To be clear, this thought should be approached in a much different way to the person that is actually being hit or hurt, but I am not referring to that in this moment.  I am referring to those times that my mind lies to me.  Or maybe lying to me is too strong of an idea for this, but it surely gets hyper focused on a someone that is making me feel threatened.  
In our example here, I have started to believe the lies.  Not all lies are the opposite of truth, some of them just anticipate a reality that is not on the horizon.  You may not call that a lie, and I understand what you mean.  My point here is simply that I felt all of this was a good thought to travel down when I was reading this passage.  He talked of affliction and needing comfort.  He talked of the insolent deriding him. Then he concluded on the truth of the words of God as opposed to the stirrings brought up in those thoughts and feelings we just looked at.  I could certainly see the help in meditating on these words.

How have you experienced the perceived danger or the expectation of hurt around other people lately?

How have you handled the feelings and the tendency to retract emotionally or to hide personally?

How does God’s words help with this in your life right now?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Psalm 119:65-80
I can remember coming home from school and thinking about how much of my life and time is spent in that stupid place!  That is what every single kid thinks, right?  It is part of the reason that I am blown away at people my age thinking about returning to school and giving it a different go.  I did well enough in school, but I never enjoyed it. The way I viewed it was to do my time and then it would be behind me.  That was a pretty significant section of my life.  It was pretty consuming from that time and age, but now, in consideration of the many, many years out of school, it seems like I was overreacting!  I have actually been out of school longer than I was in school at this age!  Oddly enough, I would also tend to say that I have learned more outside of school than I did in school.  Whether or not that is true or feelings, I guess can’t really be measured.  They say you never stop learning and I have certainly experienced that.  I also am totally pro-school for my kids, even at this stage of life!
Have you ever approached the word of God with this idea as your prayer?  Verse 66 is what brought all of these thoughts to my mind. Even at this stage in my life, with all of the book learning and all of the real life experience, I pray for “good judgement and knowledge” from God.  Never will I not need those things.  I have not learned enough from God’s word.  I am incapable of coasting on the judgement that I have collected thus far. I need to go back to the well that is God’s word.  I don’t graduate.  I won’t reach the end.  I shouldn’t stop learning.

How have you grown in knowledge and good judgement from God’s word lately?

What do you need to do this week to continue growing and understanding?

How does this become your prayer today?

'For nothing will be impossible with God.” '

Luke 1:37
 

When People Are Big And God Is Small
Chapter: 1

**If you group meets on Sunday, your Day 1 is Monday, and Day 6 is Saturday, Sunday is an off day.  

*If your group meets on Monday, your Day 1 is Tuesday and Day 6 is Sunday, Monday is an off day

Memory Verse:
'I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. '- John 15:5

Sermon Sentence: Paul’s guidance and encouragement to Titus as he led his church in ancient Greece is directly applicable to us today.

Read Romans 13:1-14

Our key text for the week was Titus 3:1-9.  Paul, writing to Titus, gives him specific instructions that he is to remind the church of.  In the devotions this week, we will work through some of these things and see what we need to learn as well.  So be sure to follow along by revisiting that text as well.

Paul told Titus to remind the church to be submissive to rulers and authorities in Titus 3:1.  I wonder if that doesn’t strike you as a strange thing for a church to be paying attention to?  When you consider it from the world they lived in, it may seem even more strange.  The government was not exactly their friend and it certainly did not represent their values and concerns.  Therefore, it may seem strange to tell people to be submissive to the very entity that seems to want to do as much as kill them.  In the book of Romans, Paul returns to this idea again. 

I think the value of the lesson is not in the ability to obey the government, but rather in the posture of being a person that knows how to humble themselves to a place of submission.  Oftentimes we teach that when a child becomes an adult, they will then be able to make their own decisions or guide their own life.  While the basic premise is true, the reality is that the moment we become unwilling or uninterested in placing ourselves under someone, is the moment that we find real danger.  All of the Christian life is one of submission.  Not forced submission, but certainly willing submission.  The bulk of the point is in the practice that we learn as we are doing it. 

There seems to be two halves to this chapter: one on ruling authorities and one on fulfilling the law in love.  How could these two ideas actually be tied together rather than two separate points?

Assume the government were to ask the reader of this passage to do something against the Bible, how does this passage still apply and how would you work through the wisdom of considering everything here?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Ephesians 2:1-10

 Paul is making his appeal to Titus in Titus 3:1-9, for the church, by calling out the truth of their past.  For the church, that idea should be different from the view of their current lives.  They were not following Jesus; but now they are following Jesus.  There should be a difference there.  Paul does not spend a small amount of time in his ministry on this point.  Over and over again he keeps going back to that idea in most all of his letters to the churches.  

Is it something that really needs to be said?  Think about it.  If I have been changed from being a sinner to now living like a follower of Jesus, I can get hung up on the change that has made me a better person.  I can come out of this whole thing just thankful that I am not like I was, if I am convinced that how I was was not a good way to be.  But Paul is appealing to the next level here.  We were saved, changed and then called to good works.  Not to just be a good work.  Sure!  We should show off the good work in us and be thankful and let everyone know it was God working in us, but if it all stopped there, we would be missing the point.  For if God has worked a good work in us, then we are His workmanship and God’s workmanship is for the good works He is doing.  I am that work.  And therefore I am to look for the good works that I can be a part of because that is what God did in me.  

Why is it important to understand that is was God that saved us to fully understand the idea that we are to be looking for the good works He has saved us for?

What does it mean to be saved “by grace through faith?”


How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Ephesians 4:17-32

In Titus 3:2, Paul challenges Titus to remind the people “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward people.”  It seems like those would all be good practices for people that follow Jesus, but it also stands to reason that if we need to be told to do this, there is a breakdown somewhere! In the letter to Ephesus, Paul was right back at talking these same things over. The reason that is given to approach all people with these attitudes in place, is because we were once the type of people that would provoke a reaction that is opposite these things.  Again, as Pastor Pat taught about on Sunday, it was the grace of God that has changed us only.  For Paul, the formula seems to be obvious: lost, hurting people treat people out of lost, hurting ways.  Saved, changed people treat others out of that reality.  Maybe it is not that much different but it is like saying “I treat people like I do because of who I am.” Not “I treat people like I do because they are who they are.”  

Many times, the values of Ephesians 4:29-32 seem to be the things that are not really elevated as a higher way of living in the world today.  But for us to understand what it means to follow Jesus, in part takes a mind that also realizes how Jesus saw other people and ministered to them.  He was certainly careful in his speech and kind in His approach.  The arguments that we make against that truth feel more like us trying to justify what we want to do, rather than how we are supposed to be.  

Which thing called out in these verses could use some attention in your life this week?

Why does the gospel change the way you treat people that annoy, frustrate, or anger you?

How far should you take Ephesians 4:29 in what you are facing today?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read Titus 3:1-9

The Gospel message is vital for the local church. I don’t want you to take that statement lightly.  I want you to understand that I mean it in the fullest and most obvious way that it could be meant.  The very idea that God loved us so much that He sent our Savior, out of mercy, and for the purpose and goal of saving us from our sins, is the centerpiece of why we gather week after week.  If we do not have that, we lose the very reason to show up each week.  We lose the very reason to worship like we do.  We lose the very reason to go out and spread the message to the world.  How foolish would it be to present to the world a solution to its problems that we only kind of think could work?  This is the very argument that Paul is making to Titus.  He is encouraging this pastor to hang on to the very pieces of the Gospel and put them before the people all of the time.  Why?  Because it is excellent…or of high value.  It is excellent because it is profitable for all of the people.  The reason we proclaim it to all people is because all people need to hear it. 
Therefore, today, devote yourself to good works.  The “good” is those things of the Gospel.  There is no other thing that is considered good.  Some things have an appearance of good or even a flavor of a bit of good, but it is the Gospel that is good!  It is work because it is undoing something that needs undone.  It is bringing back to life that which has died.  It is reviving that which is not moving and therefore it is a work.  So find a good work to devote yourself to today, because a good work has been done in you!

What is a good work you should devote yourself to today?

What do you think Paul was specifically referring to in verse 9?


How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Acts 4:23-31

The story that has happened before this section is where Peter and John found themselves in trouble with the law for preaching the Gospel of Jesus.  Well, it was the religious leaders that actually came after them, but they were interested in invoking the laws to punish them.  While in the trial, they preached the Gospel to the courts.  So they were arrested for preaching the Gospel, then they took the opportunity to preach the Gospel while they were on trial. It would be like being in court for a trial about stealing something from  a store and then while the trial is going on, sticking things in your pocket to steal! It was a pretty open and shut case, but they had trouble applying a punishment for the crime they made up and so they were sent away with a reprimand.  They did not take that too well either and left declaring they would be listening to God. 

This is where we picked up the story.  It is here that they make a decision about what just happened to them.  They could lay low and take it easy, let the fires burn out and then try a relaunch later.  But that is not what they decided.  It was taken to God in prayer and found in that moment that this declaring the Gospel was not just a small thing or a sometimes thing, but it was THE THING!  So they doubled down on their mission and calling and stepped out to get to work….the same work they had just been tried for.   

I really like that image for the work of the followers of Jesus.  May we do that.


How does this become your prayer today?

'Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. '

1 Timothy 6:12

The Master Plan of Evangelism
Final Chapter : Epilogue

**If you group meets on Sunday, your Day 1 is Monday, and Day 6 is Saturday, Sunday is an off day.  

*If your group meets on Monday, your Day 1 is Tuesday and Day 6 is Sunday, Monday is an off day

Memory Verse:

 'I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. '

John 10:9

Sermon Sentence: The disciples of Jesus share the heart and urgency of the work that Jesus did.

Read Matthew 9:35-38

Today’s devotion written by Pastor Len Scott.

Jesus Felt.
I write this while sitting at the airport. Airline can be wonderful or a nightmare, and I've experienced both. When Jesus saw the multitudes He noticed they were “weary”. That word means “to be tired from a long journey”. Many times I've thought to myself “I just want to be home” when a trip isn't going as planned.

When Jesus saw the crowds He was moved with compassion for them. He entered into their pain and He did something about it.

But there's another, underlying and unspoken emotion that Jesus expresses. It's a combination of anger, frustration, bewilderment, sadness, and so much more. With a broken heart Jesus says that the problem is not the size of the task. It's not that the hurts and pains are too great. The problem is that there are not enough workers.

A Christian song from decades ago lamented that “I'm so tired of being stirred but not being changed.” Make no mistake, feelings are right and good, but if they don't lead to change then they are worthless.

Get out of your comfort zone, go to the places where people are hurting. See what Jesus sees, feel what Jesus feels…..but don't stop there. Do something about the problems you see. Far too many Christians shed some tears and feel like they've done something. True followers of Jesus feel the emotions and do something. And when the emotions are gone, they still show up and do what Jesus would do. 

Lord, stir us and change us.

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Matthew 9:35-38

Today’s devotion written by Pastor Len Scott.

Jesus Felt.
I write this while sitting at the airport. Airline can be wonderful or a nightmare, and I've experienced both. When Jesus saw the multitudes He noticed they were “weary”. That word means “to be tired from a long journey”. Many times I've thought to myself “I just want to be home” when a trip isn't going as planned.

When Jesus saw the crowds He was moved with compassion for them. He entered into their pain and He did something about it.

But there's another, underlying and unspoken emotion that Jesus expresses. It's a combination of anger, frustration, bewilderment, sadness, and so much more. With a broken heart Jesus says that the problem is not the size of the task. It's not that the hurts and pains are too great. The problem is that there are not enough workers.

A Christian song from decades ago lamented that “I'm so tired of being stirred but not being changed.” Make no mistake, feelings are right and good, but if they don't lead to change then they are worthless.

Get out of your comfort zone, go to the places where people are hurting. See what Jesus sees, feel what Jesus feels…..but don't stop there. Do something about the problems you see. Far too many Christians shed some tears and feel like they've done something. True followers of Jesus feel the emotions and do something. And when the emotions are gone, they still show up and do what Jesus would do. 

Lord, stir us and change us.

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Matthew 9:35-38

Today’s devotion written by Michael Brittenham.

Jesus Spoke.
If you've ever been hurt by someone's words, you know how powerful words can be.  The children's rhyme about "sticks and stones" couldn't be more untrue.  Our words can do more harm and be more destructive than any physical blow.  One of the greatest examples is that Jesus is himself called "The Word" as one of His many names.  This seems unusual to us but John 1:14 says "The Word became flesh".  He is the same Word that created everything that was then called by God, "very good".  In Matthew 9 when Jesus sees the crowd we know He has the power to feed them, to heal them, and even raise the dead.  Instead, he invites His disciples into the moment and tells them to pray.  To use their words to access the very Power of God so that he would send laborers to the harvest.  We are familiar with prayer, and many of us have seen the power of prayer firsthand.  I think though, that we often underestimate the power that prayer commands and at the same time look for answers from the outside.  When Jesus told the disciples to prey, they probably didn't realize that many of them would also be the answer to that prayer.  There is a lesson here about the power of prayer to change lives, about having faith in the Lord of the harvest to hear us, but also about looking for answers in unexpected places.  

Have you had compassion like Jesus that drove you to your knees in prayer for others?

When you pray, what are you expecting to happen?

Are you prepared to be the answer to the prayer you pray?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read John 17:1-22

Jesus went.
While reading along with the D-Groups through the book of John, I was hung up for a little while on Jesus’ words in verse 6.  Clearly, Jesus is seen unanimously as a successful life.  I do not really think there would be too much argument there. If you did argue against a point such as that, you would probably not find yourself reading this devotion, therefore we can assume the room is on the same page.  Back at our point though, in the grand scheme of time and the world, Jesus did not really move around too much.  I am certain back then it seemed like it was quite a bit, but technology has added to the perspective.  The world feels really big and those feelings seem to be backed up by the fact that the world is really big.  There also seems to be a lot of people.  Which is why the Great Commission can feel like a daunting task to be given.  

John 17:6 gives me a perspective of Jesus’ success in light of these realizations.  He claims that he has manifested, or made known, God’s name to all of those that were entrusted to Him.  I am under the impression that Jesus came to save the world, and it seems like the same weight given to us in the Great Commission rests on that reality. That leaves a lot to do.  But Jesus' assessment at the end of His life was that He was successful in what He accomplished. He made God known to the ones that God placed on His specific plate and therefore He was successful in reaching out to the world with the Gospel as well.  I want that as a testimony when it is all said and done.  I want to be able to say that I was faithful with the very task that I was given to reach the world with the Gospel.  That is why my success will not be measured on how large the church is, how big my following on social media or anything like that, was, or how famous I got.  My success will be measured in the specific sphere that I was given to be faithful to the relationships by sharing the Gospel to those in front of me this moment.

How are you doing with making God known to those that He has entrusted you with?

What do you notice in Jesus' prayer about this very thing in our text?

How do you make today your best attempt at making God known to those around you?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read John 16:1-15

Jesus Worked.
In the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, the promise that Jesus ends with is that He is with us to the end of the ages.  Then He leaves.  That is a tough way to say it, but it is also a true way to say it.  It does not represent all of the pieces that are going on here, but, once again, it is true.  As tough as it is for us to process this, we should also consider the perspective of the disciples as they were processing it. 

To get the rest of the story, John 16 is a great place to rest our worries and concerns.  Jesus was sending the Helper, the Holy Spirit.  The work of the Holy Spirit would be the guarantee that we would not have to sort through it all on our own, but rather, in our call to study and learn this complicated and higher set of ideas, there would be someone walking right with us through the whole thing, teaching us to understand and giving us the words to teach.  Jesus’ life showed this pattern daily and so the promise coming from Him was surely a helpful and comforting thought.  

Do you feel that you understand the work of the Holy Spirit, or is this still something that you are figuring out in learning the Bible?

What else do you see as the work of the Holy Spirit in your life?

What is a time that you are certain the Holy Spirit was working in your life?

How does this become your prayer today?

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

The Master Plan of Evangelism
Chapter 8: Reproduction

**If you group meets on Sunday, your Day 1 is Monday, and Day 6 is Saturday, Sunday is an off day.  

*If your group meets on Monday, your Day 1 is Tuesday and Day 6 is Sunday, Monday is an off day

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.

John 20:21-22

The Master Plan of Evangelism
Chapter 7: Supervision

**If you group meets on Sunday, your Day 1 is Monday, and Day 6 is Saturday, Sunday is an off day.  

*If your group meets on Monday, your Day 1 is Tuesday and Day 6 is Sunday, Monday is an off day

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.  You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

John 16:20

The Master Plan of Evangelism
Chapter 6: Delegation

**If you group meets on Sunday, your Day 1 is Monday, and Day 6 is Saturday, Sunday is an off day.  

*If your group meets on Monday, your Day 1 is Tuesday and Day 6 is Sunday, Monday is an off day

Memory Verse: 'I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. '

John 10:9

Sermon Sentence:  The reason that accountability can work in the church is because we have all placed ourselves under the same Bible.

Read 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

The fact that verses are divided in our modern day versions of the Bible is so helpful.  It makes it so much easier to navigate the whole Bible and keep everyone on the same page.  I would say that it has to be one of the most beneficial and helpful inventions in Bible study.  With that being said, it has also created some problems in our modern, lazy approaches to the Bible.  We want to cut off thoughts with verses to make them easier to know or understand or even quicker to process.  That can be good.  But it can also create some real problems.  For instance, we want to talk about who should the follower of Jesus spend time with.  Therefore, we take verses from our section today and chop them out of the context and try to create a formula that works all the time.  But, formulas rarely work all the time.  

Matthew 9:10-17 tells the story of Jesus spending time with the tax collectors and sinners and getting flack for that from the religious leaders.  In our quick edits and carry over ideas, we might struggle with the contradictions that seem to exist in Paul telling us not to associate with such people in 1 Corinthians 5, while Jesus demonstrated spending time in meals with them.  This is the work that context brings as a fight against chopping out verses.  The context of 1 Corinthians 5 is vital for the thoughts at the end of the chapter.  I would even argue that the chapters around this section are vital as well.  Paul was not sporadic in his thoughts and commands, he was thoughtful and careful in his approach. I would encourage us to be the same with these delicate topics as we process through what the Bible is saying.  

Paul says in verse 6, “Your boating is not good.  Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” What is the idea that Paul seems to be communicating here?

Explain verse 12 with an equivalent example, the way that you understand it.

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Matthew 9:9-17
I was raised up in ministry through an era of time where the visitor was considered the most considered person for the work and movement of the church.  If you read that and are not understanding what I mean, but rather screaming back at this devotion “Well of course it should be!  We have to reach the lost!”  Then I would venture to bet that you have been steeped in the same poor teaching.  So therefore, I must be anti-reaching lost people and therefore there is a huge issue here, right? No.  I think there is another way to process through all of this that I would love to walk out.  I believe that we should preach the gospel and attempt to reach every person we can.  I think that would be a good practice for today, tomorrow, and all of the other days.  I think it should rise to the place of consideration of importance above most everything else.  I even think that we should consider all aspects of our service on Sunday to view it from the way the lost person may see it and they may be compelled to come follow Jesus. But I don’t think that is the only or even main purpose of the local church as it meets together for a Sunday morning worship.  I think that is one of the main purposes of the individual follower of Jesus.  

This passage helps to illustrate my point.  Jesus was willing to walk, talk, eat, and share in some aspects of life with the sinners and tax collectors.  But notice how He approached the tax collector called Matthew.  He approached him as a tax collector, but He also called him away from that.  He told him to follow Him.  And that is a story captured in a book by the name of “Matthew”, because the tax collector stopped being what he was and followed Jesus.  

I tried to make a point of highlighting a difference in approach.  I may not have done a good job here.  So what was I trying to communicate and what is the difference?

Do you agree or disagree with what I was saying?  Why?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
The most famous use of 6:14 when I was growing up was for the Christian and why they should not date or marry a non-Christian.  And by “most famous” I mean the literal only time I ever heard it talked about was in that context.  I grew up thinking this verse was only about dating and marriage!  Imagine my surprise when I read it and discovered that the context has absolutely no mention or leaning toward dating or marriage. 
Now that you have read that much, you should challenge what I just said.  Does it have anything to do with that or not?  If you just took another look at the passage, I bet you are able to see the value in that approach. Well, I guess that depends on what lens you view relationships through.  This passage is about the idea of considering that if we live in the presence of God, because that is what our Theology leads us to believe, that God is everywhere and in us, then we have to consider every single aspect of our life from that perspective.  Now we ask things like “Should I bring that into the presence of God? Or does it belong in a place that is considered holy?”  

What are some other ways you see that this section of verses could be properly applied?

Why do you think this idea was important enough for Paul to write about, especially considering that it was to the church at Corinth?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read Matthew 18:15-20
I really wonder what it would have been like to hang out with Jesus in real life?  To watch His demeanor as He got frustrated and see how He actually interacted with those friends and family members that just did regular friend and family member stuff.  It is easy to imagine that Jesus was conflict free and easy going with everyone, but what was it like when things got really raw?  

This passage makes me realize that Jesus surely was not a pushover.  Even though most of the images and ideas that I hear presented of Him make me want to think that.  So many people want this to be a formula with the goal of figuring out how to get someone out of our lives.  It helps us answer the question of when is enough enough and how do we deal with the real bottom dwelling problems.  But I do not really think that was the point here.  I think Jesus is just acknowledging what we all deal with in relationships and certainly He did too: conflict. If someone sins against you, you don’t have to be walked all over.  You also shouldn’t retaliate.  Jesus has a much better way.  It is a way that digs at getting to the heart of the wrong done against you.  It is not comfortable and most of the time we want to avoid everything about it all and just harbor a grudge or shoot back with a temper, but neither of those ends of the spectrum are good or worth considering.

In the context of this teaching, explain what Jesus meant by saying “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them?”

When you are faced with being wronged by someone, do you tend to lash out in anger, or harbor the hurt and avoid confrontation?

Why is that response not the best according to what you learn here?


How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Psalm 67
This Psalm is a blessing that was to be spoken over the listener in hopes that something good and gracious is spoken into their lives.  I enjoyed reading it last week with my family and encourage you to read it as well.  Spend time thinking about what it is saying and what it means.  I pray this over your family and your week!

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:6

The Master Plan of Evangelism
Chapter 5: Demonstration

**If you group meets on Sunday, your Day 1 is Monday, and Day 6 is Saturday, Sunday is an off day.  

*If your group meets on Monday, your Day 1 is Tuesday and Day 6 is Sunday, Monday is an off day

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand."

John 10:27-28

The Master Plan of Evangelism
Chapter 4: Impartation

Memory Verse: 'I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. '

John 10:9

Sermon Sentence: As followers of Jesus, we must be extremely careful with God’s word, using it to bring people to God, not hoping to push them away from Him.

Read 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

This chapter makes me think of a lot of the scandals that we have seen played out in the news.  Someone is caught in an affair of some sort and news articles all point out that everyone is shocked that this person was doing this.  Then we start to hear the rumors of how everyone in their circles knew it was all going on and just didn’t say anything.  From our place of disconnect, we wonder how in the world that could be something that is happening in real life and why people don’t seem to speak up too often.  This story reads like that news story to me.  

How could this be happening in a church?  Why would no one really even say anything at all?  Those are questions that we don’t get the answer to here, but there are certainly answers that could have been given.  This story is not told with those blanks filled in and so we can’t get lost in those details.  The details we are supposed to get lost in are the ones that we are given.  This story was not recorded in the collection of the Bible so that we are aware that it happened one day, a long time ago.  There is something to be learned here.  It is the job of the reader to meditate on that and try to work through the part that God intended for us to get here.  Make sure you study the principles: the Bible’s view of sin and the church’s response to that.  Make sure you see Paul’s adamant stance for the Holiness of God’s people in light of the culture that is opposite that.  Notice Paul’s strong line between the way the world is supposed to be and the way the church is supposed to be.  Because when we focus on those things, we can start to see the lessons that apply to those sins that we have given a lesser place to and are dealing with in our own lives. 

What does Paul mean by “a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”

What good does removing this situation from the church do for the church and the person that is at fault?

How can you know the line of how far you can apply this idea to all the other sins not listed here?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Romans 1:18-32
The wrath of God is not something that is talked about much.  I wonder if it is something that you have given much thought to.  If God loves as intensely as we say, or as John 3:16 says, then He must also have a wrath of an opposite passion as well.  I don’t know how you process what it means that God has wrath, but notice what this section of scripture says.  The wrath of God is not flippantly or meaninglessly unloaded when He just feels like letting off some steam.  It is against the unrighteousness of man.  Against all ungodliness. Unrighteousness has to be the absence of righteousness.  So the complete emptiness of that which God contains and gives.  God is righteous and He makes us righteous in Him.  It is not that we are just not making the mark that He expects of us, but that we reject that very thing He gives us.  It is one thing to not be able to make it to the mark, it is another thing totally to just choose not to even take what is offered to us freely. There is no way then to be unrighteous than to reject and despise God.  Those things that can be known about God, are plain to us.

So the rest of this passage becomes an explanation of what ungodliness is like in practical terms.  The end of this section explains to us the ultimate wrath of God.  When God finally backs off and gives us exactly what it is that we wanted…ungodliness.  The problem with ungodliness is that God gives life and therefore the less godliness we have, the less life we experience.  

How would you explain the wrath of God to a person that is not familiar with the Bible?

Do you think that the idea of a loving God could exist without the idea of wrath?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-20
I want to leave most of this passage for us to meditate on.  For me, the key is verse 11 for the follower of Jesus.  What is being described and explained here is not a part of the follower of Jesus life.  So many times I have heard of people reading verses like 9-10 and wondering how we could declare that God is loving, because what about the people that struggle with these things?  Verse 11 gives the answer to this puzzle.  To follow Jesus means to repent from sin.  So it doesn’t matter what the list is, the point is the same.  Does a liar go to Heaven?  Well no.  Because a liar is still a liar.  It is not the lie they told that day that would send them to Hell, it is their refusal to admit that they are liars and need to be followers of Jesus, people of truth.  Does that mean the saved liar will never lie again?  That is not what Paul is trying to argue here.   He is simply explaining that repentance and following Jesus means that we have left the old behind and are moving toward the new.

What is something that you learned from reading this passage carefully?

How would an understanding of this passage have helped you in the past?

What does it mean that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit within you?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read Genesis 19:1-22

If you are new to the Bible, you are probably pretty concerned about what you just read!  If you have been here before, you probably are STILL pretty concerned with what you just read!  What an awful story!  I hate it every time I read it and I think that is a really good response to it.  You may even be thinking that maybe some of those words you just read mean something else in the Bible language, and they do not.  This story is sick.  Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and his family, had found themselves in a really dark and terrible place.  The moral fabric of the society was about as disgusting and low as it could get, highlighted by this story.  God was done with them and was ready to bring judgement against them.  But in light of God’s promise to Abraham and how Lot had become wrapped up in that promise as well, God was going to save Lot and his family.  We will read the second half of the story tomorrow, but you should see this part of the story as an illustration of the sin’s final result.  It is not good.  It is destructive and spirals to an end.  God does not want or hope for life in this way, because it only spreads.  You may wonder where I get that part of the story from in this much, but we will see it tomorrow.  Lot was not living in a good spot and God’s compassion was to absolutely deal with the sin, but also absolutely offer compassion to His people that are caught in the middle of it.  That does not mean that Lot has no responsibility for where he has found himself.  A careful reading of the story before this proves that out.  But Lot’s poor choices are still overshadowed by God’s compassion for keeping His word while also being Good and Just.  

The story is a great metaphor.  In it we see how God wants us out of the place of sin and brought to the place of real life.  And even when it is too late (spoiler alert for tomorrow!) God’s grace goes even further than our chances.  So don’t live in the place of sin.  Get out and flee from it.  God has not called you to that, He doesn’t want you there, and there is no life where you think you may be trying to make a life.

Why do you think Lot is living here?

Do you see God’s approach as compassionate as it is seen in this story alone?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Genesis 19:23-38
After many years of ministry and sitting with people, there is rarely a thing that I hear that surprises me.  What I have learned over the years is that there is a story that is way more complicated than every headline seems to declare.  What I mean by that, is that when you spend time sitting with people in their chaos and lives they are struggling through, there is rarely a time that you can’t find a place to be at least somewhat empathetic with how they ended up where they are and why they are acting like they are.  

But this story I still struggle with.  Is there more to the story?  Surely…but I have enough too.  It is the Bible, so surely nothing is misrepresented! So the destruction comes.  And it stinks, but it makes some sense too.  The rest of the story has to be considered with those thoughts as well.  The thought in light of the destruction that God is bringing is: maybe if we get people that shouldn’t really be there out, then they will be saved.  So after the story of Lot leaving town is told, we see the hesitation from his wife, and then the tragedy. From here our minds can speculate that maybe she didn’t really want to leave.  When the dramatic music slows down and it feels like they are far enough out of town, the reader will begin to speculate that they made it out and are safe for the rest of the story.  But remember, the destruction was coming because of the perversion that was in the town.  So the chapter ends like a horror movie where we thought the villain had died and in the closing scene something dramatic unfolds to give the idea that there is more to the story.  Such is our story here.  The closing scene tells a disgusting story of incest that leaves the reader wondering what in the world just happened.  

I am sure you are disturbed.  I am sure you are confused.  The takeaways are not too difficult to unpack, but clearly there is a consideration of Lot’s wife that we are supposed to meditate on.  We can’t look back.  We can’t second guess if what we are being saved from is really worth giving up.  It is.  It was bad back there and it will always be. So don’t go back.  Don’t entertain the thoughts.  

But then, just know that the problem is in our hearts.  It was not the “town” or the “circumstances” or “those people.”  We were part of the problem.  We can be the problem here if we allow the sins or the logic that those people “over there” allowed to make the decisions they made.  And there is so much more in this story. 

How does this story apply to your life today?

What are the things that you are taking away as lessons in this story?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Memory Verse: 'The last enemy to be destroyed is death. '

1 Corinthians 15:26

Sermon Sentence: A Jesus-following leader will ask how they can be changed to lead those entrusted to them.

Read 1 Corinthians 4:1-21
When I was preparing everything for this week, it really hit me how many ideas and thoughts about what a pastor is or could be that are floating around out there.  There is a YouTuber that is currently releasing hours and hours of explanations of abuse in ministry leaders that are known as some of the most popular pastors out there.  I know that there are some people here at Keystone that are influenced by these leaders and I have wondered how much of what they are saying is good and how much is bad.  It is easy to spot a bad leader in the midst of failure, but it is not as easy to spot one while they are still successful.  That takes a skill and knowledge that is important. 

Think about it: if there are so many opinions and bad ideas out there, how do you know what is a good expectation for a pastor or ministry leader?  You may think it doesn’t matter because you just go with the flow until you see something bad, but that approach leaves holes as well.  Why is this important?  Because Keystone Church is a self governed church.  That means the church body makes the decisions for the church.  What happens when the day comes that it is time for a new pastor?  How do we find them?  Where would we look?  What should be that process and what should be expected?  Ask five people today and they will give you 5 different answers.  That is why I thought it an important journey this week to go through what a pastor should be like.  The Bible gives us plenty to look at.  Let’s look at some of it this week and see what we learn.

If you were to list Paul’s main points of what a minister should be, from this passage, what would that list be?

What do you think the main reason Paul went into this tirade was the way you have understood 1 Corinthians thus far?

Do you think it is a fair biblical interpretation practice, to take these things Paul talks about and apply them to all leadership?  Why or why not?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 1 Timothy 2:1-15
We only get five days for these devotions, so we can’t really read all of the chapters in 1 Timothy.  It is a pretty relevant book for what we have been looking at in 1 Corinthians.  One reason is because at the end of the chapter we are focusing on this week, chapter 4, Paul mentions a Timothy that is a ministry partner with him, that he was sending out to the church at Corinth.  Paul wrote the letter of 1 Timothy to this young man.  So in this letter, Paul is talking to a young pastor he hopes to train and encourage in the ministry.  Our goal will be to read some of this letter and see what we can learn on our path to learn what a pastor or ministry leader should be like.  The application can be used in all areas of those following Jesus, but it is written specifically to a young pastor.

The first thing that we will look at here is Paul’s focus on prayer and basic decency in the church.  That is brought up in Acts when the deacons were selected and Peter and the other leaders mentioned they need to focus on teaching and prayer.  A good trait for someone that is leading others to Jesus is certainly a good, solid prayer life. The point has to be that they are clearly aware of their shortcomings and also clearly aware of the success and life that only comes from God, so therefore they pray more often and more fervently.  It is a tough thing to measure, obviously, but it is certainly something that should be considered.  

Why do you think prayer is important in ministry leadership?

Why does Paul specifically encourage Timothy to pray for the government here and why would that be important in our day as well?

What are the differences between “supplications, intercessions, and thanksgiving?”

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 1 Timothy 3:1-16
We have looked at this passage before.  I want to encourage you to go through each thing that is listed in verses 2-7 and think about why each of these are important for the role of the pastor/overseer most of all:

• Above reproach
• Husband of one wife
• Sober-minded
• Self controlled
• Respectable
• Hospitable 
• Able to teach
• Not a drunkard
• Not violent
• Not quarrelsome
• Not a lover of money
• Manage his own house well
• Not a recent convert
• Well thought of by outsiders.

How does this become your prayer today?

Read 1 Timothy 4:1-16
When you get to this part of the letter, you should picture Paul really intensely looking into the eyes of Timothy (I know it's a letter, hang with me here!) and being very direct and serious in what he is saying.  I just feel this chapter could have started with “Look me in the eyes!”  This warning is important and Paul is telling the young man that he can get lost in all of the tasks and goals and everything else that happens and there will be a slow fade that happens when he is not expecting it.  

Think about that for a little bit.  Isn’t it a bit strange that this is the job of the young pastor?  I mean, tell the church to get it together, tell the people spreading the false doctrine to knock it off, whatever you go to do, but doesn’t the pastor have enough things to consider than to be on the watch for this slipping in unannounced?  Not according to the way that Paul sees it and the role of the pastor.  Remember in 1 Corinthians 4:1 Paul said that he was to be regarded as a steward of the mysteries of God.  A “steward” can be like a “manager.”  The best solution to bad doctrine is really good teaching.  The pastor was already called to be a good teacher in the previous chapter.  Paul seems to be playing the balance of bold teaching, direct conflict engagement, and humble approach in dealing with difficult things.  That is a tough line to walk when you are talking to people about the teachings of Jesus!

What do you think verse 10 means in the context of the rest of the chapter? Why did Paul feel the need to say that?

Why does Paul encourage Timothy to not be despised for his youth?  What would be the problem in being a young pastor?

Do you think it is too much pressure that young Timothy is commended to be the example before everyone with the way his life is?  Is he not allowed to make mistakes and how could that be handled if it did happen?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 1 Timothy 5:1-25
You have to consider the constant references in this letter to the youth Timothy.  He is not a seasoned veteran. I remember starting out in ministry and trying to talk to people about wisdom and life in view of the Bible when many of them were going through experiences that I had never dealt with.  It is so intimidating to be the young man without kids talking to someone about the problems they are having with their kids, or some other variation of that problem.  

Now consider that reality in light of what Paul is addressing here!  He is telling Timothy how to create a culture and proper way that exists in the church for those that are more seasoned and advanced in life and experiences. Timothy would have learned a lot of this by falling on his face, but the instructions are priceless coming from a guy that could say “been there, done that!”  Paul seems to sway back and forth here between being strong and bold and being kind and gentle.  Which one is it?  That is the goal of experience and wisdom!  There is a skill in leading people without it feeling like you are the whipper snapper that is just telling them what to do!  

Why does Paul see these things listed in this chapter as landmines for Timothy’s ministry?

Which area would you struggle with the most from this chapter?

What can you learn about culture and the way that culture is going in light of this chapter?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Memory Verse: 'The last enemy to be destroyed is death. '

1 Corinthians 15:26

Sermon Sentence: In order to make the building last a really long time we have to build it with eternal things and aim at eternity.

Read 1 Corinthians 3:10-15
I love to watch what God does around me.  To hear a good story of change and salvation is one of those things that never seems to get old.  When you see a life that is broken beyond repair or beaten up in a way that it doesn’t look like it could recover, and then to see God orchestrate relationships and events in a way that defies the ordinary, all while He is writing a story that brings joy and happiness to so many people that even just hear of it, that is amazing!  

But the fact that I am personally invited into that whole process is even more amazing to imagine.  God has a lot of really important and grand work, but it is not so important and grand that He doesn’t care or have time for me. Rather, His perspective is that He doesn’t need me, but yet invites me in to be a part of it. He brings me to the work and gives me a role.  That is how I hear Paul starting out in this passage.  “According to the grace given to me…”  That is the ultimate way to realize where I am in this process.  I was “graced” into it all.  I didn’t earn a spot….deserve a spot….or qualify for a spot.  I was given grace.  Therefore, I can work like a “Master builder.”  You could read that and think that Paul is a bit full of himself…but he started where he started for clarity.  “I was given grace…therefore I operated like a master builder.”  It is that very position that determines what it is that you do.  Why would Paul do anything other than what he was invited to do?  How dare him to hijack the situation, plans, or efforts for a selfish and distorted motive?  He was there to lay the foundation.  It has to be built off of Jesus.  Anything else sets up failure for all of the efforts that come after it.

The idea of starting with a foundation of Jesus is important. Whether it is a family, a marriage, a relationship, or even building a church,  how do you start with Jesus as the foundation?

How is it harder to set Jesus as the foundation later as opposed to in the beginning?

What area of your life could this idea apply to right now?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 1 Corinthians 3:16-23
This is why we don’t smoke cigarettes.  That is what I was always taught growing up.  The absolute best application of verse 16 is that cigarettes are morally bad and you need a verse, so therefore here it is.  That is not a good application, in the least bit, for this verse.  So should you smoke cigarettes? That is not what Paul is addressing here, so I recommend reading the warning on the back of the box rather than 1 Corinthians.  You won’t find a Bible verse about cigarettes.  

Verse 16 is about the church.  It is about the collection of people that have gathered together with the foundation of Jesus as the starting place.  The language is for you all. In English, we read “you” as referring to “me.”  Like Paul was writing to the individual person and wanted them to know that they are the temple of God.  There are places this argument could be made…well, a version of it, but this is not the place.  Paul is saying to the church that they are the place of God’s Spirit dwelling.  Yes, it still works individually, but that is not the point here.  Paul is worried about the ideas and wisdom of other places coming into the ears of the collection of people that make up the church and beginning to tear down what was built on Jesus. If anyone does that…if anyone tries to bring in a wisdom that is not Jesus, and it begins to tear down the church, let it be known, God will come at them in wrath and destroy them.  What does that mean?  I don’t want to find out!  

Why is it important to understand this verse the way it is written, as about the church as a collective people versus how it is traditionally presented?

When you think of the wisdoms and ideas that could come into the church and change the foundation as that of Jesus, what do you imagine could be closest for our modern day settings?

How do we fight against these things?


How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Galatians 5:16-26
I wish I would have worked through these verses as a teenager.  I don’t really have a complete thought here, I just feel I could have best learned the practice of these verses at that stage of my life.  I can’t say that I understood it like I do now, but it would have been a good practice to meditate on then.  I was always taught “if you talk the talk, then walk the walk.”  For some reason, that is where my mind goes in thinking about these verses.  The difference between that popular saying and what the Bible says, is that in the popular saying, it seems that my words are guiding my steps.  I get that it is more about accountability, but in the verses here, the emphasis is on the Spirit. For the Jesus follower, this is the main source of difference in our walk, we have a Guide!

If we are following our hearts, it will be really easy to have missteps and slips.  But if we are following the Spirit that is always guiding us, then there is a different dynamic in our lives that will be obvious.  In other words, you can’t have faith in God without it changing your life. Paul’s words here are very direct and seem to worry so many people.  He says very bluntly that you can’t inherit the kingdom of God and do the list of things he lays out here.  So many people are bothered by that and want to create categories of those going to Heaven and those not going to Heaven.  But Paul’s point is way more simple than that!  He is simply saying you can’t follow God and do these things.  If you are truly following God, then you are not doing these things…not that these things are keeping you out of Heaven.  The Spirit leads to life and good, if you are following something or someone to death and bad, then it must not be that you are following God.  That is as simple as the old saying “You must walk the walk if you are going to talk the talk.”

How could Paul be so bold to say that these are the people that will not inherit the kingdom of God?

One of my all-time favorite verses is Galatians 5:25.  How does this verse help you in your life today?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read Matthew 25:14-30
I love to read the parables that Jesus told.  Parables are a tricky teaching to work out.  They are meant to display a teaching in a story, but the story has a hidden meaning in it that you have to meditate and roll around to get the point.  The problem becomes the more that you spend time rolling it around the more the details start to hang you up.  Like this one: Jesus is telling them about the Kingdom of God and what it is like.  That is what he has been doing for a few stories now, and by the time we arrive at this one, the point is the same.  So by that understanding, the servants are all “followers” of the master.  They are all given a version of responsibility and we don’t know why they were given the quantities that they were given.  Which makes that a fun point to get hung up on and speculate on, but the story is not meant to reveal that.  The master entrusts them with his own property while he is away.  We do get that the master is representing God in this story and therefore it seems, that the entrusting is given in the span of a life.  The far off country is the Kingdom of God and the idea that the master is returning is understood from the very beginning.  The behavior of the servants is assumed to be expected to reflect that reality.  

Now the unpacking starts to happen in your mind!  Clearly we are being taught that we have been given responsibilities and the expectation is that our lives will reflect that we have been given responsibilities.  The outcome of whatever the end of this story looks like, needs to reflect the reality that one day we will answer for what we have been doing with what we have been given.  That is a different way of living than spending my whole life trying to get stuff for me and live for me.  One day, I will have to answer for how and what I built while I was here.  The outcome of what my life means will be determined by who or what I have to answer for in the end.  I believe that is the God of the Bible.  Therefore, I have been given “talents” and there are obvious “expectations” for what life should consist of. 

How is this perspective different from how the world lives?

If it is true that all of the servants were given something, why do we struggle with not having as much or enough or thinking we can’t accomplish much because of how much we have been given?

Does the Bible answer any of these thoughts in other places?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Romans 14:7-23
Remember the other day when we were talking about cigarettes and whether they were good or bad?  Let’s return to that idea.  Once again, not that this passage or the one we have been studying in 1 Corinthians 3 is anything about cigarettes, because it's not.  But the Bible does teach us principles that can be applied to things like holy days, food offered to idols, cigarettes and all of those other things.  Let me start out by saying that cigarettes can’t be bad morally.  So have you just stumbled upon a pro-cigarette devotion that is funded by Big Tobacco and now Keystone ads will be featuring the long ago cancelled Joe Camel?  Nah.  I am just simply saying that things can’t be inherently good or bad if they are not meant to have a moral standing.  The good and the bad comes in how and why they are used.  
So let’s go a step further and remember the old days, when you would walk into a restaurant and they would ask you if you wanted the smoking side or the non-smoking side.  If cigarettes are not inherently bad, then would it be ok for you to light up a cigarette during service next week and smoke it?  This dumb analogy that is totally meant as a joke and is just funny more than anything, hides a point that is being made in this text that recalls the point in 1 Corinthians 3.  It would be improper because I have asthma.  And others don’t want to smell smoke.  And it is not considerate of those things.  So don’t smoke in the church.  Why?  Because your “body is a temple” and that is messing up the health of the temple?  No.  Because your decisions can and should be considered from more than just a perspective of your selfishness and what you think or feel or experience.  Because WE are the temple.  Not just you and your body, but us as a collection.  Therefore my life actions are considered from the perspective of the body of believers that I am a part of and my decisions are not just my own. That should open the doors for a lot of discussion and meditation on life!

Paul was talking about the issues of his day, what are the issues of our day this principle could be applied to?

What is Paul’s motivating factor that he states in this text for considering other people this much?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Memory Verse: 'The last enemy to be destroyed is death. '

1 Corinthians 15:26

Sermon Sentence: To discover what you are called to do in following Jesus, you should consider the local church and its work around you.  

Read 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
When you read this passage, you can get offended at what Paul is trying to say.  It all depends on how you hear it.  No one likes to be called immature.  This could easily become a situation of an outsider that is writing something offensive to a group of people that do not have any room for what is being said.  Paul is relying on his reputation with the church at Corinth to give him room to make his point.  

Paul’s point is that actions tend to illustrate where someone is really at in life.  If you want to know what is really going on inside a person, you have only to watch how they live.  Therefore, Paul’s point is not just to call out the church and call them immature for no reason, but he states that their immaturity is showing through in that they are acting jealous and are full of strife.  Paul is stating this to explain why he can’t spend too much time digging deep into the philosophical wisdom unfoldings because they need to be told to just knock it off.  Why go deeper when you have not received the part that you were presented in the first place?  

I wonder how much we tend to miss the easy parts because we are expecting the more deep and difficult teachings?  As we function in ways that are clearly not what reflects the gospel’s heart, it shows that we are needing to think through the basics of the Gospel.  For me personally, I often find myself wanting to unpack the deepest and “new” thing in God’s word, and tend to skip over and ignore the basic easy part.  Most of the time as I am skipping over it, the truth is I am avoiding what I have been convicted about for quite a while.

How do you see versions of jealousy and strife in your life?

What is it about  the gospel of Jesus that gives an answer to those struggles?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 2 Corinthians 5
As a group of us were studying through 1 Corinthians and talking about the ideas for this particular sermon.  Someone pointed out 2 Corinthians 5 and the fact that it talks about God’s building just like 1 Corinthians 3 does.  The same dude that wrote that letter wrote 2 Corinthians, I know you that you know that.   Also it was written, obviously, to the same people at a later time.  So I think it is safe to connect the ideas together here.  

The Gospel of John starts by declaring that God’s word has come to “tabernacle” among us.  I heard an author recently talk about how you could change one word of the sequence of John 1 and you would have the thesis statement that could easily apply to Exodus.  The whole point of Exodus is that God is telling his people how to live life in community with Him, to “tabernacle” or dwell with them.  The point of John’s opening is that Jesus was the fulfillment of those rules that made that possible.  So Jesus was the “Law” in flesh.  Jesus was God “tabernacling” among us.  Now Paul has this analogy going a bit further as he explains that the church is the “tabernacling” of God’s people among themselves with God.  This is why the plural of “you” is to be considered important in the passages that we are looking at.  That is why the destruction of this “tent” which is the word Paul uses to talk about the human body, we are not “homeless” at the moment we are absent from our “tents” because even in that moment we are swallowed up in “life.” That is a lot of really deep stuff worth thinking about!

How do you connect the ideas of the building of God as it refers to the church in 1 Corinthians 3:9 and here as it refers to the individual here?

What does Paul mean when he says that the “mortal will be swallowed up in life?”


How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 2 Corinthians 6
I love to read what Paul thinks about what he is doing in ministry throughout his letters.  Part of me reads it in the context of the Bible and thinks it is really cool to see how bold and direct he was in what he was saying.  The other part of me wants to know what it would be like to be around someone like this in real life that talked this way!  Could you imagine?!  Could you listen to a guy that was this bold and particular in what he was saying about what he was doing?  It surely would feel like it came across as arrogant if you did not know him that well.  When I was reading this chapter, that is what hit me.  Paul starts out talking about how his work is a work with the Lord.  I know that in our sermon from Sunday we talked about how we are God’s fellow workers, so after dealing with the initial recoil at the idea of how bold that is, I know I need to consider that, but how many times have we heard someone use God as a cloak for a selfish or nefarious ending?  That makes me feel the need to hit that pause button on Paul as he is talking like this.

But that is not always the case.  That is not the only thing that happens.  If God is doing what He says He is doing so many times in his Word, and we are invited into that work, then surely we can be this level of bold on some things we are saying?  When I start to process and think through that truth, that is when I am invited into the picture in this passage.  We are being built into a temple of God, a dwelling place of His.  How incredible is that?!  We….as individuals, but then also as a collection of believers together.  This is a different way of thinking about who I am and who you are and how we relate to each other and what our work in the world is!

What parts of this chapter surprise you?

How would you explain the ideas and teachings to someone that is new to following God?

What do you need to learn from this chapter today?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read 1 Peter 2:1-12

In order to build a building, you need a lot of different types of materials.  The materials that are used and where they are used all depend on the plans for the building, and even on the functions for that part of the building.  We all know this and get it, but the point of bringing it up in light of our text in 1 Corinthians 3 is to illustrate the point Paul wanted to make.  God is building a building.  Don’t forget that the specific language in 1 Corinthians 3:9 is about the plural, or better to be read “all of you.”  Individually, I think the analogy works that we are being built as a God-building…but better in the context here is the idea that all of us are being made into a God-building.  This is very much local church language.  The church, the people of God, are to be considered the building of God that is being built up.  The construction work is for the purpose of function and worship.  

Peter picks up this idea in this passage also.  He says, “You all are the living stones that are being used to build the spiritual house.”  That is why the idea of a follower of Jesus without other people doesn’t seem to make much sense.  We, the church, are being built up to be churches among each other, but also with each other.  The goal and purpose of the church is to worship God and offer sacrifices and that is done through living the life that we are called to live through and by Jesus Christ, the first cornerstone of the building that everything else should be built off.  

How does this analogy of what God is doing differ from the way you have traditionally, or maybe even the culture around you has traditionally, seen the work of the church?

Based on what you have seen here, what is the reason that you need a local church that you do more than just attend on Sunday worship?

What does this text reveal to you in and about your life today?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Genesis 2:4-25

I would recommend a really long walk and a deep dive into learning from these verses.  There are a lot of things to understand about how life works, why we are here, and so much more, in this one section.  I am not saying it is laid out in question answer format, but there is something incredibly beautiful in the picture that it paints.  To get there, you can’t just read it and expect to see a movie that shows everything and there is no need to meditate on it and think about it.  It is way more full than that!  

For instance, notice the order of things.  There was no growth of any plants or anything. So am I supposed to be picturing a desert?  Sure.  But the point is that there was no life, no flourishing, nothing moving towards life.  Why was there nothing?  The text says because God had not started His work and there were no humans to do their work.  The text starts with an emptiness that is for the purpose of housing the work of God and humans.  God starts by planting a Garden.  Then he places humans in that Garden to work it and keep it.  There was no Garden until God planted it.  After the Garden was planted, God brought the human into the Garden and tasked them with the work.  God started it, and then humans were given the responsibility to continue what God started.  That is a valuable and important perspective to have on life.  Without the work of God, there is nothingness and barrenness.  When God starts working, there is flourishing and life.  It is from there that we are invited into what God is already doing to manage and maintain the work that God gets the glory from.  What a great way to process life!

How is this thought process different than the one culture presents?

What parts of this order are important to consider in light of what it teaches?

What happens when you get this order and process out of order?  Describe why it matters for it  to be in this order.

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Memory Verse: 'The last enemy to be destroyed is death. '

1 Corinthians 15:26

Sermon Sentence: The resurrection is not something that can be right for some people and wrong for others.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-34

A good point in a discussion needs to have some weight behind it.  In this chapter, Paul’s approach takes on some weight to it.  He moves away from his traditional way of just teaching a point and then expecting them to just learn from it, to a way of discussing something that looks like he is on the defensive and shutting down some sort of argument against the idea.  We understand that Paul has been questioned about the validity of the resurrection.  So his goal here is to defend that teaching, but then show how it is a core teaching that can’t be compromised.  There is way too much at stake for that!

He starts with explaining to them that this is the gospel.  It is not part of the gospel…this IS the gospel.  If you take this part of the teaching away, you lose too much!  He reminds them that this is the very thing he preached to them.  After he preached it, they received it.  They agreed with him in this way of teaching.  Notice that he does not allow room for them to be a part of this whole church thing without this piece. Maybe it is easier said this way: there is no following Jesus with the resurrection.  He also tells them the resurrection determines where they stand currently.  If you have been saved, then you are saved right now.  But you have to accept the resurrection part for right now.  The last thing he states is that the resurrection is what will be saving them in the future.  To sum it all up, Paul makes the argument that if you are saved, are being saved, and will be saved in the future, you have to believe in the resurrection.

Why do you think this is a core part of the teaching of the Gospel?

Based on what you are seeing here, how would life be more difficult without the belief that the dead can rise?

How do these verses comfort you today?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 1 Corinthians 15:35-58

As spring approaches, you should really try growing something this year.  It doesn’t have to have a purpose or a point to it, just do it for the joy of life.  There are few things better than just starting each day caring for and searching for new life.  I think it is so fulfilling just to bury a seed and wait and watch for it to poke through the soil and start to turn into some sort of plant.  As you are waiting to see that first sprout, your mind wonders what in the world is happening under the soil.  It is something that is worth the time and effort it takes as you meditate on the incredible way that God has designed life.

That is the analogy that Paul filters everything about life and death through here.  He talks about the death of a seed as it is buried in the ground and the miracle of what we don’t understand begins to happen in a way that we could not explain.  The reason that I think that you should do this as a practice for yourself is because of the incredible chance to spend time meditating on this truth and discovering what it means about you and your life.  There is certainly a mystery that we fear called death and the fear is rooted in the fact that we do not understand or know what we feel we should know and understand.  The thought goes like this: the resurrection would be easier to believe in if we just understood how it works. Give me the blueprint so that I know what to expect.  This is the beginnings of the struggle of faith.  Faith is the belief in something that you have can’t fully know with facts, but you trust with all of your weight.  Think about that for a while, all of this good living and right doing really matters nothing if this is all that there is in life.  Sure, it is good for humanity, but if humanity is temporary and you are temporary, then who really cares?  Get what you deserve and gather all you can!  But that is not the promise of the life that we live.  We have faith in something far greater than this life and what happens right now. 

How do you think that you would live differently if you believed this world was all that there was?

Imagine someone asked you the question that Paul seems to be answering in this passage: How would you explain the life after death thing to them?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Ezekiel 37:1-14

If you have reached a time for a midlife crisis, then you will probably remember when Blockbuster went out of business.  There was a day that we had to drive to the video store and there would be this large wall of newly released movies, which is why we were there most of the time.  We wanted to catch a copy of the new movie being released.  The wall always had movie covers so that you could see the graphics and descriptions of the movies, and then back behind these were the clear, plastic, blank cases that would contain a copy available to be rented.  If there was no copy behind the original case, that meant the movie was not available to rent.  Sometimes you could get lucky and ask if anyone had dropped off a rented copy at the front desk and they just had not had time to set it out.  

When Blockbuster went out, I remember wondering how in the world we would be able to see movies now.  It seemed that the era of movies was over and gone.  Looking back on that now, it seems pretty silly to imagine that as an idea that we needed, in light of how many different ways there are to watch a movie now, but then also how that was even a viable idea considering all things from today’s perspective.  

Ezekiel is seeing a lot of dead, dry bones in this passage.  Although he may have known some of the people that had passed on, that is not what he seems to be struggling with in this passage.  Ezekiel is struggling with the death of the whole “house of Israel’ or an entire people group.  It didn’t seem there was a way something like that could end, and then when it did, it didn’t seem there was any hope at all.  But God had a plan and an idea…therefore giving a hope.  It was the word of God that was going to go forward and bring back life.  Death and defeat could not stop the words of God.  There was a proclaimer left and his name was Ezekiel.  And since death had not and could not end what God was about to say, then Ezekiel delivering the message of God was going to work a pretty crazy miracle!

Many popular Christians songs have referenced this story in the last five years.  Does this story apply to you and if so, how?

In verse 14, the Hebrew word for “Spirit” is “ruah”.  It is the same word we saw in Genesis 1 when God breathed on the formed human and he became animated.  As you understand the work of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 2 from last week, how does this idea carry over to what we experience now with the Holy Spirit?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read Daniel 12

We know about the passages in the New Testament that point to the resurrection of Jesus.  This gives way to some teachings that then use that truth to tell us of our own resurrection from the dead through the work of Jesus.  But many people are not aware of the references in the Old Testament that Jesus points to in Matthew, Mark, and other places.  Also, John uses a few references from the Old Testament in Revelation as well. The passage you just read can be found in Revelation 12:4 and other places in the book as well.  When you think about it, it makes sense that references are made to the Messiah raising from the dead, even though we probably could not call those from memory.  But like this passage in Daniel, the Old Testament followers of God would have also had a belief in the idea of resurrection of the followers of God.  It may not have been as obvious, but think about the incredible faith it would take to believe in this and not have the testimony of Jesus own death, burial and resurrection like we do now.  

What do you think the original readers would have thought about what Daniel was saying when they did not have anything to expound on this teaching other than this text?

Do you think it would have been harder to believe in a resurrection of the believers in Daniel’s day, without Jesus' example?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read John 11:1-45

This is a great story.  I could spend a lot of time writing about this story and the application of it.  But I encourage you to sit and spend some time with these truths.  Easter is over.  That was last week.  And it would be foolish to leave it as “last week" and think about things that we associate with mattering today at the expense of moving past the idea of the resurrection.  Here is my suggestion:

After reading this passage, go to Youtube and look up the song “Come Out Lazarus” by Steven McWhirter. Maybe listen to it a few times.  Then spend some time in prayer.

https://youtu.be/hw5T2NvbSnI?si=k0nHTE7dkGfsknOO

How does this become your prayer today?

Memory Verse:  ' Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. '

Psalm 51:10

Sermon Sentence: One of the most incredible truths about God is that He desires to reveal everything to us and does not long to keep anything from us.

Read 1 Corinthians 1:10-31
The people in Corinth had been trained a certain way by the culture they lived in.  There is no way to really get around this, there is only hope to minimize it as much as possible.  The problems that it creates looks different in each of the places that you see it.  For Paul and the church at Corinth, it looked somewhat similar to hero worship.  Everyone had a favorite teacher or preacher.  Apollos was known for his ability to meticulously and intelligently lay out the lesson in front of a crowd.  He shows up for the first time in Acts 18:24 and it mentions his intelligence and gift with the word of God.  That is a really fantastic gift to have in a church.

The problem is not the gift, it is what people turned it into.  Paul did not see himself in that way or with that gift.  He was pretty clear about what he thought his mission in ministry should be.  The problem is that Paul is respected as Paul and Apollos is respected as Apollos, until people start to discuss their preferences. For Paul (and we don’t get Apollos’ view on this), the goal was simple, preaching and teaching the gospel.  For the people at Corinth, they had turned it into a version of entertainment making it about themselves more than about the gospel.  When preferences take the place of goals, there will always be the result of divisions.  Don’t be fooled into thinking it is as easy to navigate as that formula lays out.  Because there will always be flowery language that will be good at hiding the true intentions.  The argument in Corinth was not Paul or Apollos, it was way more complicated than that, but when it was boiled down to its root, that’s all that was at the heart of it.  

How do you see other versions of this show up in the church in America?  (preferences over goal)

What exactly do you see Paul as thinking his role in the church is?

How can you know specifically what your call in the body of Christ is?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Ephesians 1
I know that Paul makes the argument against his ability to wow a crowd with words in 1 Corinthians, but this chapter is pretty amazing when you spend some time thinking about it!  Again in this letter, he starts out with declaring his calling and his confidence in that.  I appreciate that Paul was a guy that knew who he was.  When he arrived at that idea, it was not a generic, cookie-cutter answer that the rest of culture would give, he was very clear about his specific call and purpose.  From my perspective, again, I would say that I struggle understanding what Paul is saying as a good way to minister to people, but I certainly do think that he has an overwhelming amount of proof on his side!

Notice how he shifts from his purpose and call to, starting in verse 15, declaring that this is why he wants the church at Corinth to know and understand their purpose and call.  Paul is using his assurance and gifts to lead others to seeing their value and place in the body of Christ.  Did you notice what the greatest part of that revelation is to Paul?  It’s the gift of the Spirit to be able to understand that call and your place in the body of Christ.  

How have you seen the gift of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in your life over the last year?

What do you think it looks like to have the “eyes of your heart enlightened?”

What is Paul talking about when he mentions the “riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints?”

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read 1 Corinthians 2:1-16
I was watching a video on Youtube the other day about something that I was interested in.  I have always been interested in this topic and I have spent a bit of time researching and learning the topic.  This video featured two people.  One was a tour guide that had the job of taking someone through the prepared ideas that were learned in their training.  The other person was an engineer that was involved in building the place that was being toured.  The tour guide was helpful and had a great presentation, but the engineer knew a lot more and was way more interested, invested, and passionate about what was being presented.  Have you ever spent time with an expert and tried to learn from them? 

That is what this passage makes me think about.  I watched another video of a Universalist Unitarian that “pastored” a church of that certain belief.  If you don’t know, they basically believe that everyone gets to a heaven or a place that is like that through all the religions.  So they basically take all of the good parts of the different ideas and spend time talking about that in their “worship” service.  That sounds dumb.  That sounds shallow.  There has to be more of an answer than just “Everyone is right!”  Paul describes a wisdom that can reveal to us the mind of God!  And you and I have access to this understanding.  This wisdom has access to God’s thoughts and desires to share those thoughts with us.  Paul is describing the work of the Holy Spirit, who reveals to us the mind of God.  Can you process that!? God doesn’t want to hide His thoughts, will, and plans from you…but wants them to be known.  So much so that He gave us access to His thoughts in the work of the Holy Spirit.  

Why do you think that churches do not talk about this work of the Holy Spirit very much?

How have you experienced being shown the mind of God recently?

What does it look like to share this wisdom with other people in your life according to verse 13?

How does this become your prayer today?

Read Philippians 2:1-11
This week we are talking about our access to the mind of God through the work of the Holy Spirit.  That’s a really incredible thought.  I hope you have enjoyed spending time even thinking about that.  But when it comes to real life application, that thought needs another step.  Most of us are not wrestling with what the Creator of the world is thinking about, but rather how in the world we can deal with the situation right in front of us.  It would be really nice if we had some access to how to live out the very thing facing us in this moment.  

If we go back to our expert idea for yesterday, I have another example to think through this.  Recently, I was doing a side job.  This side job had some dangerous aspects to it and I had learned by watching a video and reading a document explaining the job.  It was great information and certainly helpful with all of the videos and pictures that were provided to go along with the words.  It was even helpful to know that these instructions were written by someone that was considered an expert in the field.  But I was still a bit concerned about safety issues when it came to me actually gambling my life on the line.  So I called an expert of my own and asked him to meet me at a site and walk me through the dangerous parts, showing me in person what was actually dangerous and what wasn’t.  It was way more reassuring and comforting to experience that with someone than just reading something or watching someone.  

That’s a great example of what it means to follow Jesus.  God does not just write us how to do it, or even tell us a story about someone else that did it, but rather Jesus lived like we did, tempted in all ways as we are, and yet without sin.  He is the expert with all of the knowledge, understanding, and best of all, example.

How does it help you to know that Jesus had this mind and lived the example of what it looks like to have this mind?

When you explain this upside down way of approaching life, it doesn’t appear to make since in the world’s logic.  How do you argue against that logic to share the real benefit in living like this?

How does this become part of your prayer today?

Read Psalm 139

One of the points from the sermon on Sunday was “that the Spirit searches everything.”  Included in the “everything” idea is the inclusion of everyone.  I don’t necessarily need to continue the math formula as if you don’t already get it, but included in everyone is me.  One of the works of the Spirit is a searching of the innermost being of my thoughts and intents.  That is a scary thought for some people.  But I think it does better as a comforting thought.  

Have you ever heard an opinion of someone that you didn’t really agree with?  What I mean is that someone that doesn’t really know a person shares a thought about that person, but you happen to know them better and you are aware that what is being told to you in that moment is not entirely accurate.  That person is misunderstood or the situation is more nuanced than it was just presented.  This is the part that I glean from the idea of the Spirit being able to search the very thoughts and intents of my heart.  I know that many times those thoughts and intents go astray and get out of focus, but there is a layer in there somewhere that is at least needing to be considered in the context of everything.  

This is a helpful truth.  God knows you.  Not just kind of knows you and not just sometimes gets you, I mean He truly and more fully than anyone else, knows you.  He searches the very depths and intricate parts of who you are and understands you.  This means He won’t get it wrong, as if anything has surprised Him or changed His understanding of you.  God, through the work of the Spirit in you, truly KNOWS you.

Why do you think this idea frightens some people?

How would you tell someone who feared this idea how it could be encouraging?

Look at verse 5 and spend some time meditating/thinking about what this means.

How does this become your prayer today?

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12 

The Master Plan of Evangelism
Chapter 3: Consecration

In what ways did God speak you this week?

Was there anything in these chapters that stood out to you or you struggled with?

What did you take away from Chapter 3 of The Master Plan of Evangelism?