Knowing God (Part 2)

Pastor Rocklyn E. Clarke - Sunday February 4, 2007

© 2007 Life Church Ministries, Inc.

http://www.LifeChurchMinistries.org/

Introduction

Bible Reading 1/28 - 2/3: Ex 5:22 - 19:15; Mat 18:23 - 23:12; Psalm 23 - 27; Prov 5:22 - 6:35

OT Timeline:

OT Contemporary Books:

Review

Take Up The Yoke

Introduction - Mat 11:1-30

Mat 11:1-15 - What Did You Go Into The Desert To See?

Mat 11:16-19 - God's Kingdom Defies Human Expectations

Mat 11:20-24 - Woe

Mat 11:25-27 - Little Children

Mat 11:28-30 - Take My Yoke

What Did You Go Into The Desert To See? - Mat 11:1-15

Why did you start coming to church in the first place?

God's Kingdom Defies Human Expectations - Mat 11:16-19

Don't conform to the world's patterns

Illustrate children's singing and dirges with Astroboy, Mickey Mouse, Wizard of Oz

Am I here for unworthy / inadequate reasons?

respectability

safety

any reason other than building God's Kingdom

Three Dollars Worth

The Kingdom makes a difference

Not talk, but power - 1Cor 4:18-20

Not eating and drinking but righteousness, peace, joy - Rom 14:13-21

Not traditional church but a conquering church - Mat 16:18;

Woe - Mat 11:20-24

Warning

Don't ignore the miracles

Don't ignore the words of the miracle worker!

Don't ignore the testimony of transformed lives!

Destined for judgment:

the cowardly - Rev 21:8

the complacent - Luke 18:9-14; John 5:36-47

Revealed To Little Children - Mat 1:25-27

Know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. - 1Cor 1:18 - 2:10

The discipline of diligent seeking. - Heb 11:6

Present active - seeking as a lifestyle

The "learned" are content; children seek

My relationship with God is a relationship that I can only partially control.

Take My Yoke

Description

Do the Father's will and finish his work - John 4:34

Bring God's Kingdom to the earth - Mat 6:10

Involves prayer and action

Who are the weary and burdened?

those of you who are trying to be successful (career, business, etc.)

those of you looking desperately for respect, status, etc.

those of you looking for relationships, fulfillment, etc.

Some of you are going through great hardship because the Lord is calling you to become prayer warriors.

Take the yoke in prayer

Prayers of the saints being offered up with incense Rev 8:1-5

Incense - our prayers are assisted and completed by:

Jesus' intercession - Rom 8:31-39; Heb 7:23-25

The Holy Spirit's intercession - Rom 8:26-27

Censer

Our intercession brings judgment on the earth

Not primarily on those who won't receive us - Luke 9:51-55

Judgment on those who hinder others - Acts 13:6-12

We must keep on praying - Luke 18:1-8

Leave God voicemail (he screens his calls).

God is building our capacity to see ourselves and follow principles.

Pray for someone systematically and consistently

Take the yoke in action

Connect other people to God's Kingdom

Are you sitting around doing nothing?

Are you assisting someone else in ministry?

Are you leading in ministry?

Do you want spiritual growth?

Put your hand to the plow!

Find someone else who is doing Kingdom work and assist him/her

Ministry is not about

waiting until you achieve expert knowledge

reciting scriptures

theological arguments

Ministry is about

openness and commitment

demonstrating God’s love

Remember the scarecrow, tin man, and lion from “The Wizard of Oz”.

They each seek an instantaneous impartation

They each get what they want through a process

They have to be told what they've already acquired

They can't be told until the man behind the curtain is revealed

Dorothy has always had the ability to go home

Knowing God

Preliminary Ideas

Issues to emphasize: Can an ancient book be relevant to us today?

What’s the difference between a Christian and a mere church goer?

Put God's Word into practice - Mat 7:24-27

Do and finish God's work.

Our food must be to do God's will and finish his work - John 4:31-38

We glorify God by finishing the work he sent us to do - John 17:1-4

Contractors sometimes fail to finish the work they were hired to do.

What kind of soil are you? - Mat 13:1-23

Prioritize God

With your attention

God rewards those who earnestly seek him - Heb 11:1-6

Enoch pleased God by walking with him (not merely contemplating him) - Gen 5:18-24; Amos 3:3

Your boss expects you to make him/her you priority.

With your resources

Others may applaud you for giving God anything - Mat 6:1-6, 16-18

God demands our best - Ex 23:19; Ex 34:26; Num 18:26-32; Prov 3:9-10; Ezek 44:30; Mal 1:6-14

The IRS takes its cut first.

With your thoughts

God is more than just “your friend”.

God isn’t in your life just to make you feel good.

Christianity is more than God rescuing you from bad things that happen to you.

Christianity is also about you working as a team with other believers to do bad things to Satan's kingdom that he can't be rescued from.

Put God first and give him your best.

New Material

Answer some of last week's discussion questions

Preparation

Main Passage

NIV

Hebrew Study Bible

KJV

The Message

NASB

RSV

Exegetical Idea

Subject

Tools: How, Who, What, When, Where, Why

Complement

Developmental Questions

Explain It: What does this mean?

Prove It: Is it True? Do I believe it?

Apply It: What difference does it make? So What?

Homiletical Idea

Purpose of the Sermon

Make it plain

Use accessible language and modern parables

Make sure people do something with the word God gives you for them.

Misc

General

Group 1

Teach every believer to stand a post

Phase Change - group cohesion

solid, liquid, gas, plasma

Why do innocent people suffer?

Victims react to their experiences in different ways

Some with bitterness and anger, others with graciousness and forgiveness

When unbelievers demonstrate forgiveness they demonstrate that God's righteous requirements are written on their hearts - Rom 2:12-16

We want people to know how wonderful God is and what he can do for them.

If you could have a face to face conversation with God right now, what would you ask him?

What area of your life are you working on right now?

How are you working on it?

I want to help people become what God wants them to be!

My mission to be a teacher of the gospel is about to be highlighted

Group 2

God loves fatherless Black men and fatherless Black boys.

If you do not stand firm in your faith you won't stand at all - Isa 7:1-

Agreement

God is always communicating, but we aren't always receiving.

It's God's nature to reveal himself.

God wants to fully reveal himself in you

God wants to prosper us but he doesn't want to stimulate and/or feed our carnal desires for wealth, power, fame, etc.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift - 1Cor 9:15

Prayer releases revelation; giving releases resources (Tudor Bismarck). Service releases leadership.

Knowing God (continued)

New Covenant

a God wants us to know him - Jer 31:31-34

Walk in maturity / perfection

Jesus was perfected - Heb 5:7-10; Heb 12:2

Constant use of their discernment - Heb 5:11-14

Persevere - Heb 6:1-12

Know The Lord

“I never knew you” - Mat 7:23; Mat 25:12; Luke 13:22-30

Know the Lord - John 17:3; 1Cor 8:1-3; 1John 2:3; 1John 4:7-8;

Love the Lord - 1Cor 8:1-3

Love your brothers and sisters - 1John 4:7-8;

Obey the Lord - 1John 2:1-6

Boast in the Lord. - Jer 9:23-24; 1Cor 1:31; 2Cor 10:17

Partner with him in exercising kindness, justice, and righteousness

Know him in action (walking with him) - doing the work of his Kingdom.

Gen 5:18-24; Amos 3:3; Heb 11:1-6

You can’t know without doing.

Knowing your ministry

Don't wait for a complete outline of your future ministry.

You'll discover your ministry as you start using your gifts.

Discuss the way I figured out what my ministry was.

Join the Work

Your Kingdom come, your will be done - Mat 6:9-15

Workers in the vineyard - Mat 20:1-16

Expect results

Whoever has will be given more . . . Mat 25:24-30

God wants to operate supernaturally through you

Just like you expect money when you visit some of your relatives

Believe you receive - Mark 11:20-25

Give your life away

Keep what you have by giving it away

Give and it will be given to you - Luke 6:38

Whoever wants to save his life . . . - Luke 9:23-25

We must multiply ourselves and teach others to do the same.

Identify areas where you have gained victory and pull others into it.

“Judge not lest you be judged” - Mat 7:1-6; Luke 6:37

Discipleship - 2Tim 2:2

Ministry Systems Dynamics

Reinforcing Feedback

Vicious Cycles

Backsliding

Virtuous Cycles

Sanctification

overflow of giving - 2Cor 9:6-15

sowing seed

Balancing Processes

faucet/eye/hand system filling a glass of water

Balancing Processes With Delay

thermostat

shower temperature control

Limits To Growth

Church grows to point where intimacy is lost

Shifting The Burden

Drug addiction

Sexual addictions

Television addictions

Escalation

arguments

arms race

Tragedy Of The Commons

multiple flocks on a singlle field

environmental pollution

Success To The Successful

Growth and Underinvestment

attendance falls off due to crowding before new space is achieved

Accidental Adversaries

Employee / Company example

employees are rewarded for political gamesmanship

company is rewarded for pursuit of growth rather than development

Traditional Church and the Arts

Traditional Church and other Areas of Gifting

Fixes That Fail

EGC Questions

Question 1

We don't ask:"How will WE get a building in the South End?"

We ask: How can OUR COMMUNITY provide a BUILDING for us?"

Question 2

We don't ask: "How do WE plant CHURCHES?"

We ask: "How does THE CITY plant CHURCHES?"

Question 3

We don't ask: "How do WE stop CRIME?"

We ask" "How does the CITY stop its OWN CRIME?"

Question 4

We don't ask: "How does EGC do EVANGELISM?"

We ask: "How does the CITY do EVANGELISM?"

Question 5

We don't ask: "How do WE set up an urban training school for uban ethnic ministry leaders?"

We ask: "How do urban ethnic ministry LEADERS work with a seminary to SET UP their OWN urban training school?"

Question 6

We don't ask: "How can WE get more urban ethnic students into Christian schools?"

We ask: "How can urban ethnic STUDENTS recruit their OWN PEOPLE to Christian schools?"

Question 7

We don't ask questions THAT PRODUCE: short-term, counterproductive ends

We ask QUESTIONS THAT PRODUCE: long-term multiply-productive ends

Question 8

We don't ask QUESTIONS that: make us design OUR organization to DO a task

We ask QUESTIONS that: force us to find how the SOCIAL REALITY we are working in will become the PRIMARY DOER of the task

Twelve Steps

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.