January 27, 2013

Sunday School

Who We Are In Christ - Conclusion

• Matthew 5:13 - "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? If is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."
• 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 - Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.  He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
• 1 John 3:1 - How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is  that it did not know Him.
• Matthew 5:14 - "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16 -  Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you!
• Romans 6:18 - You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
• 1 John 5:18 - We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; te one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.
• 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.  And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
• 1 Peter 2:5 - you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a hold priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
• Ephesians 2:6 - And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

Notes: Who the Son sets free, we are free indeed (John 8:36); Therefore I am well content with weakness, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for then I am weak, then I am Strong (2 Corinthians 12:10)

Sermon

Psalm 1:1-6

Subject: This Is Your Season

1. How blessed is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the assembly of scoffers!
2. Instead he finds pleasure in obeying the Lord's commands; he meditates on his commands day and night.
3. He is like a tree planted by flowing streams; it yields its fruit at the proper time, and its leaves never fall off.  He succeeds in everything he attempts.
4. Not so with the wicked!  Instead they are like wind-driven chaff.
5. For this reason the wicked cannot withstand judgment, not can sinners join the assembly of the godly.
6. Certainly the Lord guards the way of the godly, but the way of the wicked ends in destruction.

God created the seasons Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and metaphorically speaking, the seasons of your lives.
To every thing there is a season and a time for every thing under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
Take delight in the Lord, and Hi will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4)
Therefore, my brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

We cannot pray the seasons away
We cannot run from the seasons
We cannot force the season to change before its time

Good seasons come and go
The length of the season may be tied to the lesson that needs to be learned (a trial)
Our choices lead to the length of a season (think before you act)

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not be faint.   Isaiah 40:31