Faith, Hope, and Luck part 3

Andy Stanley – Faith, Hope, Luck Part 3

No formula of “good things” ever gets God to bend to our will
- circumstantial faith is merely a way of trying to get control over God
- faith isn’t seeing God in the details, although that happens
-- foundation of faith is a person who lived 2000 years ago
-- faith = God is who he claims to be and that he’ll do everything he promised to do
-- bridge between faith and hope are the promises of God
--- the only things that we can count on god to do is what he promised
--- hope – I really hope this happens
--- faith – God, these are your promises and I’m holding you to those

God has not promised:
- to keep bad things from happening (just look at his disciples—they were beaten, stoned, martyred, stranded on an island, etc) John 16:33 – we will have trouble
- wealth (just look at his disciples—they were all poor)
? – if there’s nothing in it for us, why believe? Because Jesus is raised and this is true
- healing (John 5 – Jesus healed only one of the multitude of sick people)
- to reverse consequences of sin (sometimes he will, but not always. These are things we hope for that sometimes God answers)

- can never get God to do anything just by doing __________

Hebrews 4:14-16
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize (empathize) with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
- Jesus is able to empathize with our weaknesses because he has experienced those things
-- Jesus spent a night dreading the events of the next day
-- Jesus knows what it’s like to be betrayed
- every time we fail, Jesus has been obedient in those situations so God credits Jesus’ righteousness to us
- because of this, let’s go to God with confidence not formality (enemy of intimacy) out of fear of offending God
-- we can go to God boldly, with extreme emotion, bare, exposed, dependant
--- so that we may receive mercy/grace
- if we come boldly, we’ll receive something from God EVERY TIME

God has promised:
1. mercy: God will take our issue seriously because they are our issues (not necessarily because they are serious)
-He takes it seriously because he loves us, just like a father takes his children’s issues seriously because he loves his kids even if the issues themselves are trivial
-- God knows what we’re struggling!
-- John 11, Jesus weeps outside of Laz’s tomb because he was empathizing with our struggle
--- Jesus isn’t too big or too great to deal with us
2. grace: strength/energy/ability to endure
-- God hasn’t promised us to deliver us from our circumstances
--- he has promised to deliver us through our circumstances
-- every time he will give us the grace to endure whatever we’re struggling through
3. his presence!

- must go boldly to him! Must rely/depend on him even when we can’t see him!

- we want a “can of intervention” from God
-- we want him to do our bidding and our will
-- we want grace and mercy to us and justice to others
- this is the age of grace and mercy to all
- the age of intervention will come
-- it will be the end of the world as we know it
-- there will be a day when we get whatever we want; it will be the end of sin/sorrow/death
-- it will be bigger than our little worries/desires
-- it will also be the end of God’s extension of mercy/grace

- when we see god’s grace, it isn’t because we had great faith but because God is good and gracious
-- our faith is in the person of Christ not our ability to get God to do what we want
-- we can pray for anything we want! And we can go straight to God!
--- lean on God! lose everything that comes between us and God!

Campaigners 10/22/08

campaigners. 2008-10-22.

john 11 - lazarus
- jesus raised laz from the dead; how have i seen it?
- raising me from the dead
- but i dont always live like it
-- what grave clothes do i still have on?

rom8:28-39
what pulls me from christ?
- fear of god not being enough
- fear of talking about it
- being busy
- relying fully on christ
- doing something wrong

what does passage say about this?
- not actually seperated
- nothing can pull us from god bc god is for us

v37 more than conquerers

bring bibles/notebooks

Resurrection and Life

Campaigner Lesson. June 9 2008.

John 11:1-45 “I am the resurrection and the life”

Passage

Key = v25-26

“Resurrection and the life”

Define resurrection: rising from the dead, life after death

- key: what has to happen? Death

End of v25-26

- believes in Jesus and will be raised, what does this correspond with?

- believes in Jesus shall never die, what does this correspond with?

- what seems odd about this?

- this must be talking about two separate, yet connected topics

- Who is around: Crowd, Marth, Mary, Lazarus, Jesus (key technique to studying scripture, list characters and ask questions about them)

Lazarus

- describe Lazarus at the beginning of the story: dead

- at the end? Living

Jesus – cares for Mary, Martha, Lazarus; upset over death, stayed two days longer

- explain Jesus emotions through the story

- how do you think he reacted when Lazarus came out?

- excited that someone came back to life

Crowd – upset, sharing in pain

- how do they see Jesus? some believed, some didn’t

Mary- upset, believes Jesus has power, same mary who anointed Christ

- how does she see Jesus? How much power does she think he have?

- What is her level of faith?

Martha – upset

- how does she see Jesus? How much power does she think he have?

- power over death but here or later?

- Read v39

- what does Martha say? What is her faith in?

- how does Jesus respond?

- they rolled away the stone; did they know if it would smell? No, did it in faith

- what happens after?

- Jesus prays (lifted up his eyes)

- Lazarus is raised (man who had died, he was literally dead then raised)

- how would Mary and Martha respond?

- eyes were opened; bigger image of who Jesus is; not just for end times, but here and now (resurrection and the life)

How is the Jesus “the resurrection and the life” in the story?

- physically: he literally raised Lazarus, gave him life

- did Lazarus call out for help? No

- What did he do to deserve this? Nothing

- why was this done? To glorify God

- how is God glorified? People believing

- who gets the credit? God even though Mary/Martha sent for Christ

- so what are we supposed to take from this story?

- works on two levels: future and now

- how does this apply to our lives in the future?

- actual physical resurrection, we know we will be raised

- how does this apply to our lives now?

- spiritual

- compare lazarus to us; how is his role in this story a metaphor for our lives?

- were dead but now alive, God alone, we did nothing to deserve it

- how do you think his life after compared to his life before?

- doesn’t really; talk about life-changing (when a life-changing event happens, everyone notices)

- Our own spiritual resurrection must be the greatest moment of our lives

-if it isn’t, doesn’t mean we aren’t saved but it means we need to see the true reality of what happened

- how do we do this?

- see God for what he did; great God, sinful people

- meditate and think on it

- he is our resurrection!

- take off the linen strips, unbind ourselves (Lazarus alive but still bound)

- leave behind the grave clothes, the things that remind us and bind us to death

- brainstorm what binds us

- these things literally bind us; the devil convinces us these things are freedom, but in reality it prevents us from living

- not convinced? Try to not do these things; they suck you in

- live alive!

- he is our life!

- brainstorm ways to live (ways to serve God and others)

- we have freedom now to choose to live this way

- focus on/trust God, act in faith (see: Martha rolling stone away)

- Why did Christ do this?

- he loved us

- to glorify God

- so that others might believe!

- They see us living! It’s unmistakable from death! That is why we take off the death clothes and things that bind us because it doesn’t make sense to wear them anymore

- like Mary and Martha, when we see others raised, we can rejoice and grow

- Challenge: Live alive in the ways we talked about above!

PRAY!

Assignment: Read 12:1-11 and we’ll discuss it next time!