Christian husband, father of 3 and bi-vocational pastor
By ray
Preacher: Pastor Ray
We often talk about “wasting” our lives FOR Jesus. But do you know what it means to waste your life ON Jesus? Let’s take a closer look at Mary’s life as she poured out her entire life savings literally ON Jesus in a singular act of extravagant worship. Nothing captures the heart of the gospel better than what she did.
By ray
I understand doctrinally that I am dead to sin and free in Christ but I don’t live this out experientially.
– Can you identify with this?
Read Rom 6:4. There is an expectation in this verse.
– In light of the gospel, what is the expectation?
Recall the example of the adult unable to walk, strapped to a baby car seat.
– What was the point of this analogy?
Read Rom 6:11. “Consider” is based on the root word for logic. The literal translation of this verse is “in light of the evidence, you are to reach the logical conclusion that you are dead to sin and alive to God.”
– Do you believe this? If not, ask to receive this renewed mindset.
– What is the literal meaning for “dead?” What is the literal meaning for “alive?”
– How does this verse help you to walk in the newness of life?
If you don’t believe that Jesus destroyed the power of sin and death and you don’t believe you can change and you don’t believe you are free, then it’s likely that you will live out your belief system. Recall the example of Steph Curry demonstrating the power of a renewed mindset.
– If you are alive to sin and you fall into sin, how does your failure strengthen your belief system?
– From Rom 6:11, what are 2 things we are to “consider?”
Read Rom 6:12.
– How does this verse address the person who says that Romans 7 is the Christian’s reality?
Read Rom 6:13. This verse further unpacks what it means to be alive to God.
– What is the literal translation of “present?”
– What is the literal translation of “member?”
– To whom are we presenting ourselves and our members? Why is this significant? What are some wrong places/people to whom we present ourselves for evaluation?
– What is the literal translation of “instruments?”
– What is the literal translation of “unrighteousness” and “righteousness?”
– As an instrument of righteousness, sometimes we are fierce and other times we are precise and gentle. Explain.
Read Rom 6:22.
– Why does a wrong belief system (i.e. I am still a slave of sin) short-circuit the process of sanctification at the outset?
Read Rom 6:13.
– How are we to present ourselves and our members to God? With what attitude?
Application: Spend time bringing your body, soul, spirit, mind, will, emotion, your broken thought patterns (strongholds), your broken emotions (anger, bitterness, irritability), your broken actions (willful sins) before God.
By ray
Read Eph 4-6 and pay attention to the high standard for the Christian regarding personal character, purity, our role in the body of Christ, how we are to treat others (bearing with and forgiving others), marriage, family/parenting, work/vocation.
– What is your reaction as you read these chapters?
Read Eph 5:1-2.
– What is the prerequisite to imitating God and living the way Christ lived?
Read Luke 15 (parable of The Prodigal Son). The two sons never stopped ceased being sons. They were merely lost for a season.
– How does Eph 1:4 reinforce this idea that not a single day has gone by when we were not his son or daughter, but rather we were only lost temporarily until we were found?
– When did both sons become lost in a spiritual sense?
– How do we get lost spiritually?
Read John 8 about the woman caught in adultery. Notice Jesus’ approach in dealing with her and contrast His approach with how the scribes and Pharisees were treating her.
– What did Jesus see when he looked at the woman?
– What did the scribes and Pharisees see when they looked at the woman?
– When you look at the cross, do you primarily see your sin or do you see your worth?
Read Eph 4:7-11. Instead of focusing on our identity as beloved children, many fall into two traps–either chasing after the gifts or the offices.
– How might the search for a “spiritual” experience be related to the deceit of sensuality (read Eph 4:19-22)?
– What happens to the believer when he is defined by what he does (his office, title, ministry) instead of who he is?
Read Eph 4:22-24.
– What mistake do we make when we put off and put on while neglecting what it says in Eph 4:23?
– Put the phrase “the spirit of your minds” in your own words.
– What’s the significance of the grammar of the phrase “to be renewed” (present tense, middle-passive voice)?
– What 2 things can we do to participate in the spirit of our minds being renewed (read Eph 4:15-16)?
By ray
See article written by Russell Moore below.
This opinion piece is by Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
As I write this, the Supreme Court has handed down what will be the “Roe v. Wade” of marriage, redefining marriage in all 50 states. This is a sober moment, and I am a conscientious dissenter from this ruling. The Court now has disregarded thousands of years of definition of the most foundational unit of society, and the cultural changes here will be broad and deep. So how should the church respond?
First of all, the church should not panic. The Supreme Court can do many things, but the Supreme Court cannot get Jesus back in that tomb. Jesus of Nazareth is still alive. He is still calling the universe toward his kingdom.
Moreover, while this decision will, I believe, ultimately hurt many people and families and civilization itself, the gospel doesn’t need “family values” to flourish. In fact, the church often thrives when it is in sharp contrast to the cultures around it. That was the case in Ephesus and Philippi and Corinth and Rome, which held to marriage views out of step with the Scriptures.
The church will need in the years ahead to articulate what we believe about marriage; we cannot assume that people agree with us, or even understand us. Let’s not simply talk about marriage in terms of values or culture or human flourishing. Let’s talk about marriage the way Jesus and the apostles taught us to — as bound up with the gospel itself, a picture of the union of Christ and his church (Eph. 5:32).
As we do so, we must not just articulate our views of marriage, we must embody a gospel marriage culture. We have done a poor job of that in the past. Too many of our marriages have been ravaged by divorce.
Too often we’ve neglected church discipline in the cases of those who have unrepentantly destroyed their marriages. We must repent of our failings and picture to the world what marriage is meant to be, and keep the light lit to the old paths.
This gives the church an opportunity to do what Jesus called us to do with our marriages in the first place: to serve as a light in a dark place. Permanent, stable marriages with families with both a mother and a father may well make us seem freakish in 21st-century culture.
We should not fear that. We believe stranger things than that. We believe a previously dead man is alive, and will show up in the Eastern skies on a horse. We believe that the gospel can forgive sinners like us and make us sons and daughters. Let’s embrace the sort of freakishness that saves.
Let’s also recognize that if we’re right about marriage, and I believe we are, many people will be disappointed in getting what they want. Many of our neighbors believe that a redefined concept of marriage will simply expand the institution (and, let’s be honest, many will want it to keep on expanding). This will not do so, because sexual complementarity is not ancillary to marriage. The church must prepare for the refugees from the sexual revolution.
We must prepare for those, like the sexually wayward Woman at the Well of Samaria, who will be thirsting for water of which they don’t even know.
There are two sorts of churches that will not be able to reach the sexual revolution’s refugees. A church that has given up on the truth of the Scriptures, including on marriage and sexuality, and has nothing to say to a fallen world. And a church that screams with outrage at those who disagree will have nothing to say to those who are looking for a new birth.
We must stand with conviction and with kindness, with truth and with grace. We must hold to our views and love those who hate us for them. We must not only speak Christian truths; we must speak with a Christian accent. We must say what Jesus has revealed, and we must say those things the way Jesus does — with mercy and with an invitation to new life.
Some Christians will be tempted to anger, lashing out at the world around us with a narrative of decline. That temptation is wrong. God decided when we would be born, and when we would be born again. We have the Spirit and the gospel. To think that we deserve to live in different times is to tell God that we deserve a better mission field than the one he has given us. Let’s joyfully march to Zion.
The witness to marriage will be, like the pro-life movement, a long-term strategy that is multi-pronged. This is no time for fear or outrage or politicizing. We see that we are strangers and exiles in American culture. We are on the wrong side of history, just like we started. We should have been all along.
Let’s seek the kingdom. Let’s stand with the gospel. Let’s fear our God. But let’s not fear our mission field.