Wednesday Night April 23rd

This week we continued in our discussion of worship. We started the night by reading James 5:17-18. In this passage it describes the great prophet Elijah as an ordinary person just like us. We looked deeper into what made Elijah so extraordinary. We discussed how his great acts of faith are directly related to his worship and his worship is described by a word that we so often don’t think of as worship. In the passage discussed it gives us the secret to Elijah’s power. It was brought about through prayer. We used this passage to discuss 4 statements about prayer as it relates to worship.

The first statement I made was that “Prayer is the avenue for worship”. If we could take the concept of worship and how it brings change and make it an object, I would like to make it a car. Think about it, a car changes our scenery; we ride from cities to pastures, from mountains to beaches. So if worship is the car then prayer is the road that worship occurs on.

This led us to a question that demanded an answer. The question was: What is prayer? I defined prayer as communication between God and us. That sounds like a simple answer but in reality it is not. When I think of prayer I think of opening prayers, closing prayers, offertory prayers, invitation starting prayers, and all types of verbal prayers but if we truly think about communication it doesn’t always involve words. I can speak words to you or type words to you and you can do the same to me but if we chose not to listen and take in what someone is saying then we truly aren’t communicating. We thought about it this way, how many times have our parents told us to do something and we openly and blatantly refused to do it. Or we have tried to tell something to our parents and they didn’t understand what we were saying. We both may be trying to communicate, but honestly we aren’t because it requires something from both of us. We also talked about how we can communicate through facial expressions, tone, and hugs. We concluded that communication between God and us is a very complex concept. We discussed that many times we “so called” pray but our prayers never really communicate anything that God wants to hear.

This led us to another passage of scripture, Romans 8:26-27. We discussed that from this passage we can learn a great deal about real prayer. We can learn specifically that prayer changes us. Why? Because from scripture we can understand that God is unchanging. So in order for us to communicate effectively with someone who doesn’t change we must change to be like that person. At this point we discussed some of the most popular prayers of all teenagers and adults too. Number one is “God please let me date him/her; please oh please let him/ her like me.” And number two is “God please let me pass or do well on this test, even thought I didn’t study. If you will let me pass I will never cuss again.” I did make lite of these prayers but if we are honest we pray everyday for something out of selfish motive. We daily ask the infinite, holy, unchanging, everlasting God of the universe to give little bitty us exactly what we want. This is foolish. Don’t get me wrong I classify myself in that category too. This led us to another question, “If my prayers of selfishness are not going to come true, then why does the Bible tell me that if I pray in faith God will give me what I want?”

This leads us to our last statement and we can truly see this if we closely examine Romans 8:26-27. Prayer is lead by the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ. If we become followers of Jesus Christ by trusting in His sacrifice on the Cross then we are promised the Holy Sprit, the One who provides comfort in times of difficulty, the One who leads us into all truth, and the One who provides the power to carry the gospel to all nations. This Spirit is the presence of God within the heart of a believer. So if this presence is a part of God then it can know what God wants. Because it knows what God wants it can guide us to pray for God to do the work that He has destined to do and we get to be a part of God’s story. Can you imagine God saying to Elijah, “Pray that it won’t rain”? Elijah is like OK! But we so often say uh …… are You sure? We closed with a challenge to live, walk, praise, and exist in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Walk Brave, Dustin

Wednesday Night April 9th

This week we continued in our discussion of worship. We continued with a study on praise. We first defined praise as an expression of admiration or approval for God through song or speech. We also discussed that praise is an act of worship. We came to an understanding of what praise is fairly quickly and then moved on to some reasons that we should praise God. We looked at Psalms 63 for our answers. In this Psalm, David is in the hot, dry desert of Judah hiding from someone (either Saul or Absalom) and in this bad time David finds several reasons to praise God.

The first reason that I suggested was that David chose to praise God for what He’s done in the past. This can be seen in verses 6-8. We discussed that the things God has done in our past is a great reason to praise Him. I reminisced of times that God had brought me through difficulty and times that I had experienced His presence in church. I shared how I could praise Him for all the great things He has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We determined that if we could truly realize how unworthy we are in comparison to who Christ is, our attitude towards church and praise would change.

The second reason that I suggested was that David chose to praise God for what He is going to do. David could praise God because he knew at the end of time God would win the battle. In verses 9-11 David refers to the victory that will be his because he is God’s. As Christians we have the same victory, because of Jesus we will spend eternity in Glory with God. We can rejoice in that and praise God for that. We can also praise Him for the impact the we will have on others because of the power of the Holy Spirit. We may not even know the work that God is going to do or the blessing that He is going to give us but we can praise Him in faith for what He is going to do.

The third reason that I suggested was that David chose to praise God because of the present. David was in a dry, hot desert and the first five verses of this Psalm describes the spiritual desire He has to be satisfied by God with the physical circumstances that he is caught in. In other words even though David is hungry, tired, and thirsty he above all desires spiritual nourishment. I challenged the students on this point. We have all we could ever need. We have never become truly thirsty and hungry physically. I had not had anything to eat since 2 pm and I would like to have had a burger, but I wasn’t truly hungry. I believe that in the great luxury we have, we have become a generation and a youth group that is playing church and playing praise music and playing games. We have neglected to truly glorify God and praise Him as He deserves to be praised.

We ended the night with that challenge. I asked them put their self aside and praise God. I provide them with about fifteen minutes of time to praise God. I would encourage you to spend time this week praising God and to also speak to you child about what it means to praise God in your life.

dustin

Wednesday Night Study on April 2nd

This week we continued in our series on worship. We asked and tried to answer a somewhat simple question: What happens when we worship? We answered this question from Romans 12:1-2. We first talked about how when we worship God gets glory. This point is pretty self explanatory. God is worshipped for His own purpose.

The second point was the main challenge of our lesson. We discovered that the second thing worship does is changes us. I believe however worship changes us in a very specific and unique way. Worship changes us from the inside out and not the outside in. I used the example of a caterpillar entering a cocoon and emerging as a butterfly. This process is called metamorphosis. This is very similar to the term Paul used to describe the transformation that occurs in the life of one who worships and encounters Christ. I used the example this way, if we pin wings on a caterpillar it is not a butterfly and if we pull off a butterfly’s wings it does not become a caterpillar. This is the challenge for all people who think they are worshipping Christ. The challenge is that if we go around plucking at a little bit of prayer, witnessing, and church, we find ourselves as an ugly little caterpillar with wings pinned all over us. Whereas because of the cross of Christ we can be a beautiful butterfly that is changing to be more and more about His mission and more about His glory.

I went on to discuss how I believe this process of change occurs in us. I believe as we begin to experience the truth of who God is we first change in the area of our will. I believe this refers to the very center of our being; deep down where faith and fear exist, deep down in the desire of our hearts. I believe after our desire is changed it then leads to a change in our mind (our way of thinking). This changes the way we see other people, our self, and Christ. Then after our desire is for Christ and our mind is like His mind then and only then are we able to do something of worth with our bodies. This that can be of worth is our outward actions. After the worship changes our want to, it then changes our how to, and finally it changes our outward actions. In this passage of scripture the author describes us as living sacrifices with our bodies surrendered to Christ. I believe this is what he is discussing in this passage: worship and its effect on us.

We closed with a simple question: “Are you changing from the inside out by God or the outside in because of you society?”

Wednesday Night Study on March 26th

This week we started a new series of talks. The series will be on worship. I hope that when we have finished this study we will have a greater understanding of what worship truly is, what it involves, and what it does to us. This week our main objective was to define worship and to ask ourselves the question, “Have I worshipped this week?” We looked at John 4:21-24; this passage is a conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. I believe in this passage Jesus tells her the future of how people will worship after He opens the door for all men to have fellowship with God. (Through the Cross).

The main scripture focus was on verse 24 when Jesus says, “God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” From this statement we defined worship. We discussed that “in truth” refers to that which we know to be unchanging and uncompromising. We discussed that “in spirit” refers to the experience, expression, and emotion of life that all humans encounter. We defined worship in a simple statement: Worship is when the truth of God we know becomes the experiences of our life.

Let me use the example that I used last night. Ok last week I told a story about my favorite caving trip. I told about the fun of sliding down mud slides and slipping and falling in mud. (For some of you this may not sound fun but to them it sounded very fun.) When I told of all this fun they took it as truth and a large majority of them signed up to go on a caving trip Friday. Those who went experienced the joys of the cave that I had talked about. We discussed that this is how worship is with God; that we can know so much information (truth) but until we experience the workings of God through that truth in our lives we truly don’t understand. I believe that our students are saturated with the truths of what God has done in the past, who God is, and all the wonderful things He has promised us. I believe that is not a bad thing but I do believe that just knowing the facts isn’t going to help them. It is going to take the truth coming to life in their lives; that is worship.

I went on to state that without worship all tasks and activities done are done in vain. I gave examples such as doing missions or witnessing just because I’m supposed to. Another example was coming to church because it is what everybody else does rather than it being a time to encounter God.

My third statement was that worship involves all of us. It involves our problems, our hurts, our victories, and our failures. We should give and respond to God with all areas of our life. We so often go before God as if we are perfect and feel perfectly fine but we are not.

We closed with me reviewing our definition of worship and asking a simple question “Have you worshipped this week?”

walk brave, dustin

Wednesday Night Study on March 19th

This week we looked at a passage of scripture that is very familiar to Easter and to most Christians. We read just briefly a few statements made by Peter and a few statements made by Jesus during the Last Supper. This was the last meal that the disciples would eat with Jesus before His death on the cross. I believe the statements Jesus made and the statements Peter made in this passage (John 13:8-9) were a foreshadowing of what Jesus’ death on the cross does for Peter and us.

The first statement Peter makes is simply “Jesus you shall never wash my feet.” I believe this statement is a staring point for Peter and for us regardless if we are a Christian or not. Peter understood how humbling, how lowly, and how filthy it was for a man to wash another’s feet. I believe Peter more importantly understood that Jesus was much more that a man, He was God. Peter had spent the past three years with a man who had raised men from the dead, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and made the lame walk. He had fed five thousand men with just one boy’s lunch, He had made a spectacle of the religious leaders of that time, and He had declared salvation for the weakest of people. And now He, God in flesh, sought to wash the calloused, dung covered feet of Peter. Peter had the guts to say NO! This statement tells us this: Peter understood how great, holy, and perfect God was and he also understood how filthy and unworthy he and his sin was. That was our first point; in order to accept the salvation and life that Jesus gives we first must understand how filthy we are, and we all are!

The next statement made in this conversation is Jesus’ statement. He says to Peter, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” I believe this is incredible foreshadowing of the work that God does in a sinner’s heart. He says to Peter and to us, “I know you’re filthy and I know I am not, but through me is the only way you can be clean.” Clean to be set free from the bondage, guilt, and destructiveness of our sin. We all come to church and act like sin is not destroying our families, our loved ones, or even ourselves but it is. I would dare say that each of us know someone who is feeling the effects of divorce, alcoholism, adultery, murder, theft, selfishness, or lies. The world around us is falling down and if we are a part of this world we too shall fall, but Jesus’ death on the cross sets us apart, raises us up, and changes everything.

The third statement is Peter’s reply to Jesus’ promise. Peter says, “Then wash all of me!” We bathe regularly but Peter didn’t. I believe he is saying what every person who has ever trusted in Jesus says in their own language. He’s saying Jesus have all of me, everything I was, everything I am, and everything I will be. Peter doesn’t care that it may be awkward for one grown man to bathe another man. Peter says it doesn’t matter what you want just wash me clean. I believe that is what God moves us to do as we trust in Him as Savior and Lord and receive the blessing of eternity in Heaven not Hell. I also believe that this is the process that we as Christians should continue in until we die.

We closed with and invitation to the lost and undone. We invited them and I invite you now to trust in Jesus as Your Lord and Savior. We also closed with a challenge to the Christian to surrender a current struggle to the will of the Father. I encouraged them that there is freedom and confidence in the change that worship brings.

walk brave, dustin

Wednesday Night Study on March 5th

This week we had a very clear starting point. The question was “What is God’s name?”  I believe that in learning the name that God gave Himself we find a great deal of information and explanation of who He is and also who we are. We found the answer to this question in Exodus 3:13-14. In this passage Moses asks God what he should call Him. God says, call me I AM. This is God’s name. As we look further into the name of God we find the name Yahweh, which is defined “The Great I AM”. In this name we find some very interesting information. “I am” is the present tense from of “to be”. In other words God’s name screams “I am the being that exist supremely, the one who exist eternal, the one who exist above all”. In the terms of a story He is what the story is about. We on the other hand have a name ourselves. We are not the being that exists above all. We are not what the story is about. Therefore we should be called the i am nots. I believe this is a principle that our society as a whole and most of the human race refuse to believe. If we are honest, we ourselves at times don’t even believe it.

After learning this truth we moved on to look at a very familiar scripture with this truth in mind. This scripture is John 14:6 – Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me”. This scripture is often used to explain that Jesus is the only way that we can get to heaven. I believe that to be true, but I also believe through this scripture Jesus is revealing the gospel. I believe Jesus is answering three separately asked questions.

The first statement Jesus makes is “I am the way”. He is suggesting to us that He is the only path that leads to the Father in Heaven. So often we try to make our own way by being better than someone else or by just being the best we can be.

The second statement Jesus makes is “I am the truth”. I also believe that this is a singular statement in which Jesus is saying I am the one absolute, the real thing. I am unchanging and unwavering and all that is unchanging comes from me. So often our generation tells us that what we feel to be right is right. They tell us that what is true for you is not always true for me, depending on my problem and circumstances. However this is not true according to Jesus being the one real truth. He goes on in verses 7-17 to tell us that because He is truth what He says is truth, and that as Christians He will give us a Spirit of Truth. Jesus is speaking against logic. It is not logical to trust in something that you cannot see to hold all that is right and also to hold your eternal destination. We must trust in Jesus to receive that which He has promised.

The third statement is “I am the life”. Theologians believe that Jesus is speaking to Peter’s question and statements. Peter says that he will do all he can, even die for Jesus. Jesus is correcting Peter’s statement. He further explains in verses 18-20 that we must live in Him to live the life we are supposed to live. This is awesome, the Great I AM pours strength and ability into us as we turn our lives over to Him. Then that pours out of us onto the people that are around us.

The problem with all these statements is that so often we miss God’s name. We begin to consider ourselves to be God. We try to make our own way, we try to say how we feel is what is true, and we try to live our life as best we know how. This however is exactly the opposite of what Jesus came and died to set into motion. We closed with a challenging question, Are you I AM or I am not?

 

                                                              dustin

Wednesday Night Study on February 27th

This Wednesday we took a look at Romans 8:28-39. This passage of scripture is probably one of the more popular quoted passages of scripture today. It seems in any movie we see that when someone faces great opposition they turn and say this “If God is for us who can be against us?” Though that question is asked in this passage the main focus of our talk was verse 28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

This scripture can be very encouraging but I believe it can often be very misunderstood and the misunderstanding can create a sense of friction between those that bad things are happening to and God. I believe that as we read this scripture in its context and think about the rest of the gospel we find that good doesn’t always mean 3 cars, a big house, lots of friends, and lots of money. I believe it rather means this; that God is working to carry out His purpose and will and this is good. We used the example of Jesus on the cross. Jesus’ friends and family at the time probably were not feeling too great about Him being unjustly (by human standards) tried and killed. The situation of our friend who never hurt anyone being killed because someone did not like Him doesn’t seem fair. I believe that was the way that all His friends saw the situation. We however have the ability to see it from a very positive perspective because his payment for our sin is the only way that we can get into Heaven. We come to the conclusion that even through evil and bad things God has the ability to work for His good. On a personal level we receive Heaven as Christians; that is pretty good.

The second point we made is on an individual level He works for the good of those who love Him. How do we know we love Him? I believe that answer is also in this passage. After the author writes about those who love Him, he then describes them. He tells us this if we love Him we will be about His purpose and business.

Thirdly we described His purpose. I believe all Bible stories from Adam and Eve to the Revelations reveal to us His purpose. In every miracle God does or doesn’t do, He does what He does so that His glory might be known in all the earth and that He might receive glory from all nations. In other words we should be about spreading what He’s done in us with everyone else so that they may give Him glory also.

I believe the author of this passage is telling us and the readers a simple truth. As we live our lives to glorify Him, He pours Himself out of us and into others. Through this time we will be faced with hardship, difficulty, and maybe even death, but scripture goes on to give us an incredible promise: Nothing will separate us from the love of Christ!

We closed with a challenge to trust in the love of Christ and give our total life to Him and we also challenged those who are Christians to live their life without regret of not sharing Christ.

Wednesday Night Study on February 20th

This week we talked about the story of Gideon. We looked at the time when Gideon was initially called by God to defeat the Midianites. We probably all know the story of Gideon. He took 300 men and defeated an army of around 100,000. We however, looked in a little closer. We looked to Gideon’s call. God called Gideon out of hiding and fear. I feel that most every time God calls me it seems I always have to deal with a fear. Immediately Gideon began to ask God why? God didn’t have to answer Gideon’s questions. Likewise God doesn’t have to answer our questions because He is God and because He already has. We made note that John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world.” Jesus gave this warning and promise for a reason. If we spend all our time asking the question “Why did this happen?”, we fail to receive the peace that comes in Him overcoming the world. The second response Gideon gave was “I’m not strong enough”. We all can relate to that because Christ living in us is the only way we will ever have the strength to overcome and do the things that He has called us to do. We closed with a challenge to trust Jesus with our fear, questions, and weakness. I hope this has informed you and hopefully encouraged you.

walk brave, dustin

 

 

 

First Baptist Church Glencoe

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