Making the point

Acts 19:1-10,14-16,23-28
John 1:15,19-27
-We need to know there are some areas of our faith that need work
-There are places God is looking to go in our lives, and he takes the humble way to get there
-Even hearing a sermon, there is a overtaking that has to go on that God has to do to prevail upon our hearts.
-Our confidence in everything contrary to God has to be broken down (vain imaginations)
-Sometimes we've made the point and we're still spending our time trying to get extra credit
-John the baptist said "this is he... of whom"
-Rome couldn't handle what was inside what they conquered
-The slave girl mad the point to Naaman the leper

• speak to the rock
• speak to the devil
• speak to the challenge

1. highlight the significance of the area and even the epistle
2. Place it in the context of Paul's missionary journeys
3. When we speak we want to make the point
4. The anointing the Paul had to make the point is available for you today

Characters:
-Paul
-John
-Naaman
-Joshua

Love & Food

John 6:48-5
-Again John gives many great "I AM" statements as a way to describe Jesus.
-we have gone from feeding the multitude bread and fish, to feeding them human flesh and blood. But ultimately this is our communion with God and eachother
-your diet is your strength, not your natural diet... but what you watch, listen too and talk about.

This is why I couldn't bring you yet

This is why I couldn't bring you along
John 20:1-2,8-9,11-17,19-23,26-31
Judges 6:12-16
Judges 8:4-7,14-16
Genesis 18:9-15
Genesis 17:15-17
Acts 11:1-5
-our faith is only ready to handle so much
-One disciple did outrun the other in faith
-Jesus is and has exposed himself and he was unappreciated
-Heman became obsessed with why mordicai didn't appreciate him and it cost him

1. John 20:1-4
-God has things for us to do by faith and we try to bring others along
-Jesus has moved on and now has to show the disciples how far behind they are in faith
-Focusing on Peter and John running together and then separating
2. John 20:5-8
-To believe we sometimes get the attitude that we must see, but God knows what will inspire more faith in us.
-When we do see, it can set us back or highlight how far we have to go.
-All John had to see was the empty tomb to believe that Jesus was alive.
3. John 20:11-17
-Mary was struggling to believe, but she stayed there studying, still wrestling with the thought that somebody had taken Jesus' body.
-two speaks of witness
-Jesus can ask us, what's the matter? How come you're so far behind.
-Our lack of faith can blind us from recognizing all the evidence affirming faith.
-Here we see there is a penalty for not believing and that penalty slows us down.
-Slowness of faith can mean 40 years in the wilderness, it can mean being dumb until the child is born.
4. Judges 6:11-17
-we think we lack what it takes to move ahead
-But God is saying you are going to move ahead by yourself and then others will come.
-Its not that I'm competing with you, its that what I've got to do will bless us both.
5. Judges 6:22-24
-Our fears are what slow us down. And we're not talking about a healthy respect for dangerous situations, we're talking about oppositional doubt.
6. Judges 6:33-35
-The annointing on Gideon was so great that it resonated with a nation of impoverished people to follow an impoverished small man. This is God getting the glory.
-God would like you to take him on hearing faith so that he gets the glory and it doesn't necessarily have to stand in the wisdom of men.
-God then takes this army of men and reduces it to 300 men. again, Gideon had to do this alone.
7. Judges 8:4-9
-You are doing good. don't stop to hate your brother
-Just know that not everybody's mind is where yours is for God.
-Haman stopped to hate mordecai
8. Judges 8:14-15
-Once the fight is over, then Gideon had to teach the unbelievers without starting a civil war.
-See, look here they are... do you believe me now!?
9. John 20:19-23
-Jesus appears in the midst of the disciples and says. see, here I am, I told you so.
-Verse 23 says, I could retain resentment for how you didn't believe me, but I will remit it.
10. John 20:26-29
-This is a faith race and the very thing you think is going to speed you up, can slow you down.

John 12:1-50 Scheduled Tasks/Commands

John 12:1,3,7,8,10-15,20-23,27-30,32,35,37-38,49-50
Acts 10:13-15
Daniel 6:8-18

-God has determined what he would like to have done in your life long before you do it.
-There are many reasons God has given you a task
-Once God has given you a command, he cannot reverse it.
-When God gives us a task, he gives us the ability to do it.
-Sometimes we'd like to hurry up and do a command, but it is scheduled
-We of ourselves will not obey God's commandments.
-He has to drive us, so we must ask God to drive us to do his will, it is not that it intellectually will make sense.
-when we issue commands, we need to be assured there are good reasons to do what we have said
-some things are trying to command us that we need to resist (go steal, then you'll be rich)

John 12:1-50
-Mary was under command to anoint Jesus, it was for his burial that was coming up
-The fragrance of Jesus' resurrection drew admirers from Israel and Greece. the met him with palm branches. He sits on an ass according to scripture which we fulfill by following God's command and schedule.
-Jesus asked the crowd if he should ask the Father to spare him going through the crucifixion.But he said no, the crucifixion is why I was born.
-The a voice from heaven came to show others that Jesus was real and his mission real.
-Jesus marvels that many still don't believe but even that was fulfilment of scripture found in Isaiah.
-At the end of the Chapter, Jesus gives credit for his ministry and mission to the Father, alerting people to the fact they are really rejecting God when they reject him. He finishes by stating that what the Father commands leads to eternal life (thus comforting Jesus concerning his death.

*the Daniel scripture is to highlight how God's commands cannot be reversed, but God can still help us with the commandment.
*The Acts sripture is to highlight how God's commands can be distasteful to us, and that even so they a timed perfectly to save people.

Coordinated Salvation, serving scattered sheep

-Your salvation is coordinated, the spirit has come on you in unlikely circumstances to show you its not you coordinating you salvation.
-Jesus is mostly dealing with Moses and Abraham in John as it applies to his identity but here it is hailing back to David

John 10:1-18,25-33,39-42
1 Kings 1:11-16
Ezekiel 34:23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.

-I don't want to give off that this is the definitive view on this text, it is only what God has impressed me with this time around reading it.
-The shepherd has all sorts of things to do to keep the sheep and he needs coordination rather than gainsaying
-with every I statement, Jesus is trying to form and identify a relationship instead of promoting himself
-We must understand the shepherd as it applies to the role of a king especially as we see it in David
-coming before Jesus doesn't refer to the prophets, it refers to those that did not point people to his coming.
-John the baptist appears to be the porter (v. 41)
-Door: a hinged, sliding, or revolving barrier at the entrance to a building, room, or vehicle, or in the framework of a cupboard
-Is Jesus your barrier or your way in 
-Yes, we have a cloak and dagger way of functioning and therefore we are not coordinated
-John was the remission of sins, Jesus was eternal life
-Many people Believed on Jesus by tracing the life of John, but also in that they got away from those that were in stubborn disbelief. Many times we would believe God if we just got away from stubborn folks.
-when we are uncoordinated, we are off and start making poor decisions.
-But God can reconcile our poor decisions back to himself and coordinate us again
-What has God given you to keep, you must be coordinated if you'll keep it
-As a good shepherd you will lay your life down for the sheep. that is the price of good leadership.
-how low can you go.
-He is looking for you to bring it to life... full term... bring forth
-the woman didn't ask for a son... but God gave it to her to bring to life

Labor to believe

Pre-message
-Jacob wrestled with the angel
-its the struggle that often embitters us and causes us to make it even harder for ourselves to believe and others
-Jacob is going to usher in the multiplication of belief
-but when you believe, you can work and when you work you can get paid
-we put in half a day of work and start asking, when am I going to get paid, because we are astonished with the effort the work is getting out of us... and our own effort is a bigger god in our minds than believing in God. 

John 4:7-10,25-27,31-36,46-48,51-54
Matthew 20:1-7
John 6:27-29
Psalms 112
Lead up
-Jesus in this chapter is trying to draw us out of conventions to change how we view him
-He often will contrast against things he is not
-He needs us to come out for the work he has for us to do and the reward he has for us to get

Main Point
-We labor and eat, but is it to increase our confidence in God?
-When he says the battle is not yours, that's because your battle is to believe 
-the struggle produces multiplication
-How an these things be seeing I know not a man
-when you believe, somebody else is going to believe
-When you want to believe God he will meet you like the nobleman and Jacob at night

Altar Call
-this is for those who have been struggling, but struggling for the wrong thing, and you've come up empty
-repentance from dead works


Book idea:
We all struggle with, labor with, push, and press at some some sort of goal in life. The majority of what it takes to accomplish a thing is in believing that it is possible and worth it. When it comes to believing God it is no different, and this is the only goal that will produce eternal satisfaction and proliferation.

Probably the most readily understood example of struggling that pays off in the Bible is Jacob wrestling with God. This scene and character of Jacob should be revisited throughout the book as an example of how believing God is often a mental grappling with him as to what God is calling us to and what God has brought us from. Many of us will not progress in belief in these moments because it is a challenge and a test, and the ideology of many is to get to a place in life where we are no longer challenged or tested.

The book would basically outline several modern day easily grasped examples of how we struggle to believe God and how we fall short of full belief in God which results large-scale failure. The book would interlace scriptural references that would highlight the issues and the resolution.

1. Marriage and child rearing in modern times
2. Recovering from tragedies and trauma
3. School and education

Also a section on anger and rage and bitterness should be added to the book (maybe in the beginning). In this section we would cover how struggling often hints at frustration and irritation which often spins us off into perpetual anger (or being malcontent). In modern popular culture violent action movies are the most successful. An appetite for this material is emerging globally. If this were a way of venting and releasing this anger, it would be ok. But instead it re-enforces our fantasies of violent engagement with society. But this is borne of a frustration that either to get where we need to go we need to be violent, or since we can't get where we want to go we resort to violence as self-expression.

Cruelty and Disharmony. The Price of Unity.

Genesis 49:8-11
 2 Samuel 7:8-11
John 10:7-19

Terms:
Cruel - Willfully causing suffering without affection or sympathy

Relevance:
-Sin has a scattering effect
-We are taught to be cruel early on. kids bully.
-Cruelty comes from anger and fear, and has been associated with Jealousy and covetousness.
-This causes scattering in our homes and efforts. we are overwhelmed with sub-plots
-we look for things to unify ourselves.
-We have to come to church

Context:
-Judah is prophesied to be the unifying force of Israel. whereas Levi and Simeon brought on Cruelty.
-Jesus is ultimate Sheppard, who gathers his sheep

Talking points:
-Unity has a price... you must give up your opinion for the crowds
-The punishment for cruelty is scattering
-We can be scattered in our thinking, or movements, or speaking
-The only way for people to truly come together is in Jesus
-It makes sense that God chose the poor because then everybody can get in
-Rome was scattered, so then started Catholicism
-Servitude brings unity, David was a servant
-Fear scatters
-Babel had to be scattered
-We can join ourselves with cruel people
-Because you're the servant, people have to come through you.
Your servitude isn't going to ruin you. this requires faith.
-John the baptist told the soldiers to not do violence

2 Samuel 7
God here is telling David to keep serving, its not time for the temple to be built. and in serving David is bringing on unity.