Week 28 Day 1

The Daily Take 10

The Gospel of John

Week 28 Day 1

Introduction…The book of John was written between 85-90AD by John the Beloved, a close disciple of Jesus Christ. After Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension to the Father, the disciples ministered the Gospel and thousands were saved. The new believers and the disciples went into all the world with their testimony of faith and the world was coming to Christ. But this spiritual revival came with the price of great persecution. See Acts 8:1. John was exiled to a remote island of Patmos because of His faith. The persecution the early Church faced was fierce. The first century believers were threatened, tortured and martyred for their faith and yet the Church of Jesus Christ flourished because it was built upon the truth and the fact, they had seen Jesus live, die for them, rise again and ascend to the Father. Their faith was not in fables nor did they give their lives in vain.

Read John 15:18-23 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but the world hates you because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. Remember the word which I spoke to you. The servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours. But they will do these things to you because of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have no excuse for their sins. He who hates me hates the Father too.”

Bible Study

• The disciples were not stopped when threatened or surprised when persecution came because Jesus warned them clearly and repeatedly…it will happen.
  • “They will deliver you up to councils and you will be beaten in synagogues and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear testimony before them…and they will put them to death and you will be hated by all for my name sake.” See Matthew 10:17-29, Mark 13:9-13, Luke 12:2-9,51-53.
• The Roman government and society of the day, hated the Christians, in fact it became illegal to be a Christian in the first century. Why were they hated?
  • The Christians would not call Caesar, “the Lord.” That title was rightfully reserved only for the Lord Jesus Christ.
  • Christians moved to the beat of a different drum…that of God and the Word. They were not impressed by Roman rule or moved by their threats.
  • Christians were hated because they did not conform to the world around them and appeared as rebels fearlessly living out their faith.
  • Christianity’s Godly lifestyle and higher standards espoused by the believers made non believers uncomfortable and resentful.
• The world that hates the Christian can be defined as…human society organizing and establishing itself while disregarding God and His Word.
  • Be it known, the source of the hatred and disregard for God is Satan and the object of the hate and disdain is focused on the way, truth and life…our Savior Jesus Christ.
• In Matthew 10:28 Jesus offers perspective saying, “Fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Application

• Two notable ministers of the 20^th century made these true statements:
  • J.C. Ryle… “A man’s religion may well be suspected when he is content to go to heaven alone.”
  • C.H. Spurgeon…“Better for us to die than to live if souls be not saved.”
• When we pray for the Church of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven…remember those believers today who are facing persecution and pray… “God give your Church courage, great faith and put your angels about us as your Church boldly ministers your Gospel.”

Tags: Take 10

March 22, 2010 – Favor, Part 6

It has been great these last few weeks to be talking about favor at Elevate and in my blog.  Growing in favor both with God and with man but today we wrap up the topic talking about the why.  Why favor – what is the purpose in God’s favor.  In everything that He give us there is purpose, His purpose.  The talents and giftings He has given us – they are His.  The resources, the time, our life, each breath He has given – they are His.  The favor that He shows us or is shown to us by others – is from Him and it is His for his purpose.  There is purpose in the favor we receive – God’s purpose.  As we pursue God’s favor on our lives and learn how to grow in favor we have to realize that God’s favor and blessing is not just for you it is for His purpose and others as well.

God is not only looking to bless you but what he can get through you.  The quickest way to stop up blessing and favor coming into your life is missing the opportunity to use it to bless others.  Everything God brings into your life including Him showing us favor we need to be quick to ask, “God what is your purpose behind this?”  What are you wanting to do through me now that this door has opened in front of me – now that this promotion, this platform has been given to me – now that this influential relationship has been made – now that this provision has come into my life?  What are you up to because I know that it is a blessing to me but help me get my eyes off of me and onto those around me?

Last week we talked about God’s favor often times coming through the relationships we have or are yet to have – people we don’t even know yet but flip it around for a second and ask what if I am supposed to be someone’s answer to a prayer?  What if you hold the keys to someone getting the break through they’ve been looking for and praying about in their life?

When we focus on growing in God’s favor like we have been it can very quickly and easily become about us but turn it around and realize that when it comes make the first thing we wonder about – what is God’s purpose in this – what does He want to do through me – how can I be an answer to someone’s prayer – how can I be used by God through this blessing He has brought into my life.  How wonderful if God’s Kingdom acted more like that – if we were attentive to other people’s needs the moment blessing comes into our lives.

Remember we are blessed to be a blessing,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler

March 15, 2010 – Favor, Part 5

We, like Jesus in Luke 2, can grow in favor with God and with man.  Favor with God comes when we obey His word and have faith in His word.  Last week we began talking about growing in favor with man (see last week’s blog).

My parents always taught me, and we all know this is true, if you look at the people you are in relationship with it will show you your future.  Who you are connected to relationally will determine where you go in life.  That applies in school with your friends and the choices that you make in those early years.  That applies in getting a job – its not what you know its often who you know and network with.  That applies on the job – who you connect with and strategically align yourself with.  That applies in life – your friends, who you do life with.  That is why we believe at Elevate relationally connecting in community is so vital to living this Christian life with authenticity and growing in your relationship with God.  God uses people to catapult you into the trajectory he is taking you.  He uses relationships, and opens doors to places and opportunities through the people He brings into your life.  He uses the people we are in relationship with to bring favor into our lives.  Countless times in the Bible we see a life changed by one encounter with someone else.  Favor with just one person changes everything – it’s a game changer.

Col. 3:22 says this, “Obey your earthly masters in everything; And do it, not only when their eye is on you to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.  23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Let me put this in modern day English – he is talking to those who have jobs – you need to win the favor of those who you work for.  Not just when they are looking but even when they are not with the same intensity, with the same integrity.  And to do that work for them as if you are working for the Lord because you should know that you are actually working in that job for the Lord.  He is the one who provided you the health, the skill and the ability to work.  He is the one who has provided the opportunity of that job.  And, the Bible is very clear about this, this is a message in itself, but He is the one who has put your boss in that position over you – every position of authority God has given.  When you work this way Colossians says you will win the favor of God and the favor of man (Prov. 22:29, Prov. 21:1).

Just remember that God uses the people in your life to bring you favor.  Many times that is the person that you are working for.  You are not working for that boss you are working for your master the King of kings and the Lord of lords who is interested in your life and working on your behalf.  In every story of the Bible where God showed someone favor they were working where God had positioned them (see the life of Joseph in Genesis 39).

Work as unto the Lord and you will win favor with man,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler

Week 20 Day 5

The Daily Take 10

The Gospel of John

Week 20 Day 5

Introduction…From our childhood or from hearing about Santa Claus, it is common thinking that if you are ‘naughty’ you get punished. We often bring that thinking into our own parenting practices. Some of us project that way of thinking onto God, assuming He deals with people favorably or unfavorably based upon behavior. We’ve heard it said after someone says or does something terrible, “Stand back or I wouldn’t be surprised if God strikes him with a lightening bolt!” But is that the way God operates?

Read John 9:1-5 “As Jesus was passing by, he saw a man who was blind from the day of his birth. ‘Rabbi, his disciples said to him, who was it who sinned that he was born blind, this man, or his parents?’ ‘It was neither he nor his parents who sinned,’ Jesus answered, ‘but it happened that in him there might be a demonstration of what God can do. We must do the works of him who sent me while day lasts, the night is coming when no man is able to work. So long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Bible Study

• Jesus makes it clear that people that are blind or have some other handicap or misfortune are not that way because God has punished their sin.
  • That kind of thinking is pagan in it roots
  • That was a common belief in Jesus’ day, but inaccurate thinking
  • Luke 13:1-5 tells us a similar situation where a tower fell killing 18 people and Jesus says it was not judgment that caused this, but tells us we must repent or we too will perish…eternally.
  • God is not about judging us…now. Hebrews 9:27 teaches us, “it is appointed unto us once to die and then the judgment.”
• Miracles are a sign of the glory and power of God.
  • Mark 1:41 and 6:34 both indicate that Jesus did miracles out of being moved with compassion. The glory of God lies in His compassion for us.
  • Miracles also show us God’s great power to do the impossible. “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
• Our suffering surfaces opportunities for God’s intervention and show His grace.
  • Psalms 50:15 says, “call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify me.”
  • God brings beauty out of ashes. See Isaiah 61:3
  • Hebrews 4:14-16 tells us that Jesus is acquainted with our grief and sorrow. That He sat where we sit.
• God is not about judgment now, He is about forgiveness and mercy.
  • God’s judgment is not slack…it will happen, but today is the day for salvation. See 2 Peter 3:9
  • God so loved the world that He gave….Jesus…that whoever believes will have everlasting life. But God did not come into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might have life. See John 3:16-17
  • God deals with us according to his mercy not according to our iniquity. See Psalms 103:9-11
• It is wrong and stinking thinking to envision God as someone who mercilessly zaps people with disease or defects due to sin. If that were the case we all would face a God sent calamity.
• The Bible teaches us the fact God knows and that is we all sinned, but God still loves us and gave himself for us. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”…but while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”

Application

• Now is the time to work in making people to know that Jesus is the Light. Why because, statistically children accept Christ as Savior from 7 years old and it increases to 16 years of age, but declines steeply after 20 and after 30 is rare.

Tags: Take 10

March 1, 2010 – Favor, Part 3

Last week we talked about how obedience to God’s word will allow you to grow in the favor of God.  Obedience brings protection, blessing and favor into our lives.  Today we talk about another way in which we can grow in favor with God and it is faith.

Hebrews 11:6 says, Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

If you want to please God (have favor with Him) than Hebrews tells us here in the “faith” chapter that we need to have faith to do it.  To truly obey God’s word, like we said last week, many times it takes faith because faith is having the confidence that what God said is actually going to happen.  It is actually the purest form of obedience because you are obeying before you know the results of obeying – faith.

The second part of Heb. 11:6 is that you believe that what God has said is true.  By faith I am going to believe that who you say you are is true and what you say you are going to do you will do.  Many of the promises of God require something from us and it starts with faith, coming to God believing that He is.

And then the final part of this verse says that He rewards those you seek Him diligently.  The promises are ours when we obey His Word and believe them by faith and the reward is His favor in our lives – that He will be our shield of favor.

So, this week I am going to believe Your word is true.  That I am going to step out in faith before I see the answer.  That I am going to walk by faith and not by sight and see You do something in my life that is special.  And I will obey You by faith no matter what knowing that You are a rewarder of those that seek You.  Remember, nothing motivates God more or moves Him on your behalf more than faith in who He is and what He has said.

Lets grow in God’s favor, lets grow in our faith,

Jonathan

• If you want to grow in favor with God live a life of faith – AMEN!

Tags: Jonathan Spuler

February 22, 2010 – Favor, Part 2

There is favor that God shows to us that we don’t deserve – His irrational love and His unmerited grace that He exhibited to us by coming here as a servant to die on a cross that we could have a relationship with Him.  But there is also favor that we can grow in.  Luke 2 says that Jesus grew in favor both with God and with man.  So, the next few weeks we are going to learn how to grow in favor with God.

Duet. 6:24 and 10:12-13 talk about fearing God’s word and how that pleases Him.  The first way to grow in favor with God is to obey His word, to have a fear of it – which means to reverence it as sacred and holy.  The fear of the Lord, the reverence of Him and the gift that He has given us is our motivation for obeying His commands.

A great example of this is found in I Sam. 15.  In it, it describes and interaction between the prophet of God Samuel and Israel’s first king Saul.  Saul was given strict instruction through Samuel to completely destroy the Amalekites but Saul compromised God’s word and spared the king and the best of the sheep and oxen.  The next day Samuel said to Saul why he did not obey the command of the Lord and his response is found in vs. 20 and Samuel’s response that obedience is greater than sacrifice in vs. 22.

We can be doing good things for God obeying His word but still rationalize and compromise his commands.  In Saul’s words he was sacrificing to God his compromise.  Sacrifice is good – giving up something to God but Samuel’s correction came that obedience to God’s word is greater than us sacrificing things to God.  Compromise is just below what is right – it is still good but if we have to rationalize our actions it is not obedience.  Saul said he compromised because he feared the people and obeyed their voice but, complete obedience is better than sacrifice

Saul and many times in the OT Israel thought that by going around and doing what they only felt they had to do, the law, that they would gain favor with God.  That by doing “good,” by sacrificing, they were holy and righteous.  Sacrifice is ok, giving something to God is fine but it doesn’t end there.  It is not enough to just sacrifice, because after Jesus, what sacrifice can we make to please God – the ultimate sacrifice has already been made.  There is nothing that we can do which can equal or surpass that sacrifice.  Therefore, it is better to obey. Indeed, obedience is better than sacrifice.

If we want God’s favor radical obedience free from compromise and rationalization free from self-righteousness is the standard.  God’s favor comes into our lives when we fear the Lord and live in obedience to His word.  Protection and blessing, prosperity and growing in favor comes when we walk in complete obedience of Him greater than just sacrifice.

Lets begin to fear God’s word, to obey beyond what we think we are sacrificing to Him and we will grow in favor with God.

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler

February 15, 2010 – Favor, Part 1

God being a good God, and Father who loves his children  - wants to show favor to us.  This series is understanding what favor is and how do we get favor in our lives.  If you have been at Elevate for any length of time or have read any of these blogs you know that we talk all the time about God’s love and unmerited grace/favor that he shows us.  That there is nothing that we can do, no actions, no performance that can make God love us anymore than He does.  That there is nothing that we have done, or can do to make God love us any less. (Rom. 8:35-39)  Grace is God’s unmerited favor that he shows toward us – something again, that we don’t and can’t earn and yet is God’s posture toward us. (Rom 5:15-17)

When we accept that love and that grace by believing by faith that God did this for us we gain the favor of being adopted into His family.  That He is our Father and we are His children.  By being in God’s family there is favor – there are perks and privileges to membership (I Pet. 2:9-10).   You are somebody because you know somebody and that somebody knows you.

Lk. 2:52 says that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.  So though we have undeserved favor, and favor by accepting that undeserved favor by being in God’s family – your favor with God and with man can grow from there.  Over the next few weeks we will be looking at how we can have increases favor in our lives.

Is. 45:2-3 I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places…(but remember the source, why – God’s favor) so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. (a reference back to I Peter, you are chosen, royalty, God’s choice).  God showing you favor bring Him joy as your Father, but it also brings Him glory as your God.  Remember that He is your Lord.

Experience His favor in your life this week,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler