Ready, Set, Go!

What are the top 10 New Year’s Resolutions??
10. Be more spiritual
9. Get out of debt
8. Be more organized
7. Spend less time on the internet
6. spend more time with the family
5. be a better person
4. Quit drinking
3. Quit smoking
2. Exercise
1. Lose weight

Here’s the problem with resolutions…. I will. It really is about willing things into existence. Some of us good at will power for a day, a week, a month, 6 weeks – they say it takes that long to form a habit and some make it through the whole year. However, for the Christ follower, the Christ life has more to do with being than with doing. It is more about living in the mystery of the Christ life than trying to will myself to be more spiritual. Why is it that the people who are trying to force you to live by their rules always look like they’ve been sucking on a pickle? It is a constant tension for the Christ follower to learn the ‘unforced rhythms of grace’ as Eugene Peterson paraphrases in Matthew 11:28
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
The problem is that living that kind of life is hard to measure externally. We can easily tick off the boxes if we were to check whether we read our Bible for the day, prayed prayers of supplication, interceding for others, did a kind act of service. However God wants to stretch us beyond a performance based relationship where the way that we live and respond is a natural outflow of His life in us. It is for this realization that I am drawn to Colossians 3 because of the way that this passage of Scripture is set up.
Get READY! v1
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ v1
I was ‘soaking in’ a song on Friday by Hillsong on this very subject. The premise of the song was the amazing revelation that the same power that raised Christ from the dead flows through me. We talk about how we want to begin a new year, bring in a new perspective. Start on your knees and renew yourself –spirit, body and mind with this same thought that gripped Paul. I am raised with Christ! I am raised with Christ! I am raised with Christ! The place that I belong is in His fullness, being made complete in Him, not in the valley of defeat and despair. It lights my day, it renews my mind. It needs to energize me beyond belief.
So, instead of putting up a good fight with sinful habits, getting worn out in the process and finally succumbing when tired; choose to seek God’s face for a deeper revelation of what it means to be ‘raised with Christ’. Take your eyes off your weakness and put them on the exalted position of Christ.
As one writer shares:
You are not a sinner struggling to get free from the tight grip of sin but an ‘heir with Christ’, raised up together with him with sin trying to pull you down.
Learn to look down at sin not up at it.
The most important things about us are invisible. No one can really identify the things that are really affecting us by just looking at us. They cannot ascertain the critical issues that really determine us and who we are from this vantage point. The realization that you are raised with Christ is the most valuable, most important invisible truth about you as a follower of Christ….stop reading ahead, let this sink in!
We are united with Jesus Christ. We have died and have been raised with Christ and our lives are hidden with him in God. These realities cannot be proved by how you look; nothing you can measure, touch, and show other people. Your very connection with Jesus in this way is the greatest truth imaginable. However you have to choose to believe it and act on it because it can’t be seen. You want to live in freedom, believe that Jesus has set you free. Appropriate the riches of your position. Stop living like a slave to sin when God has told you that you are an instrument of righteousness! (parallel passage – Romans 6)
GET SET! v1b-4
set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.v1
The heart is the seat of affections. We need to position ourselves so that we are ready to receive. It is a matter of appetite, what am I really hungry for.
Have I come to the ‘Rolling Stones’ revelation in my own life….’I can’t get no satisfaction.’ Have I really experienced the joy of the Lord as my strength?
Or is the U2 reality…’I still haven’t found what I’m looking for’ Am I just flirting with my affections for the King or does He truly have all of me. I can’t experience all of Him until I have fully surrendered all of me. That is the only way that it works. You have as much of God as you want for they that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled!!
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. V2-4
Once you have accepted your spiritual position in Christ and your heart is Christ’s home and it is more than just a cliché , the next place to work on is your mindset. You need to understand the nature of sin with your intellect – your mind.
Know this:
You are not your habits. The goal of lust is to own you and ultimately destroy you. It will never give up until it has reached that goal. Sin will entice you, ‘just do it one more time’ and nothing is further from the truth. Sin wants to be your master and it will not give up. Only your death will satisfy the lust of sin. It is a thief and it robs you of time, community and real relationships. Sin never delivers on its promises. Sin takes real needs and pushes you to fulfill them in illegitimate ways.
Arm yourself with this mindset: If there is a death that needs to take place, it might as well be my death in Christ!
As we really take hold of the diminished power of sin in our life. Remember the knee jerk reaction between sinful attitude and sinful response has been broken. We are no longer slaves to sin, its power has been broken over us.
Awareness is huge here as we go through this list of sins, they are all designed to lure you away from your heavenly position in Christ.
It is a training process of your mind to learn to hate the consequences of sin despite the temporary pleasures it presents. Evil, wrong thinking always gives birth to evil, wrong living. If we are to live well, we have to align our thinking and keep renewing our minds, fill it with godly truth, soak its transforming power into our lives.
Renewing the mind is a journey; don’t get discouraged at the first sign of defeat.
If you happen to get knocked down by the lure of sin and we all do, never accept the lie that you are now back under its control. You are not and you never will be as long as you step back up to your ‘raised position in Christ’. Live in light of who you are, not the way that you feel after you just got beat up.
GO! Part 1 v5-11 out with the negative
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
The two major categories here relate to sex and anger. In many ways these two areas are great areas of struggle for Christians because in many ways they are invisible battles that many face in shame and defeat because they are so hard to be really open and honest with. So most go the battle alone in silence and friends can’t help because nobody knows the truth. The breakthrough often comes in most people’s lives when they can find someone who will battle with them.
The first list consists of things that have to do with sexual sin: immorality, the general word for sexual sin, impurity, evil passion, evil desire, and greed. Greed is really the word covetousness and by its placement here would be best understood as coveting someone sexually or seeking for someone out of the bounds of marriage.

The question is, if you have died with Christ, have been raised with him, and are united with him, what right does impurity have to march around in your head, putting pressure on you to act in ways that are inappropriate? Or who gave that right to covetousness, wanting someone who is married to another, envying their relationship?
Paul makes it pretty clear that we are not into trying to just condition our external behaviors because they need a death blow! Even though you may feel unloved in this world, there is a lover of your soul. Even thought you may feel lonely, you are never alone
The second list has to do with the power of anger, hatred, malice or resentment of another to take over our lives. The human tendency is that we say the most hurtful things to the people closest to us and how do we hurt…by the things that we say. Paul call it filthy language and we could easily change that to ‘abusive language’. The question we need to keep asking is what right does hatred of another person have to fill my thought life? It doesn’t belong there because I’ve been raised with Christ.
Now having said all this, it is important to know that is a right place for both sex and anger in our lives. Sexual fulfillment is a gift from God within the bond of marriage and anger at the destructive nature of sin is always right.
Paul now moves on to the subject of lying and it is lying to each other about how we are really doing that usually gets us into this mess in the first place. Stop lying and start learning to be honest with someone you can trust. Start with God but then find someone with whom you can truly bear your soul.
GO! Part 2 v12-14 in with the positive
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Paul just can’t stray from the kind of person that he is. He keeps bringing us back to who we are as opposed to what you have done. He keeps calling us to live in light of who we are in Christ. It is our identity in Christ that makes us who we are.
You also can’t get away from the fact that all these virtues need to be discovered, developed and found in community. There is no place for loners in the body of Christ. There is something about worshipping and learning together that enables the truth of God to penetrate deeper and really take root in our lives.
The language is also important as we look at words like compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. We need to know that it is a process and this is not instantaneous, be patient with each other and celebrate the small victories as well. Your growth and ‘fast tracking’ on the grace of God must not lead to impatience with others because that is often what happens.
Finally love - put on love, we end with the positive… patience and forgiving grievances speaks of putting up with people; however love is the positive because it goes just bearing with others to the place of actively becoming a blessing in their lives.
The Takeaway
The secret to living out the Christian life is not to focus on 'stop sinning', but to live in the power of our resurrected life.
If our focus is always on looking out for sin, so we can avoid it, than we are only half living. If I was to tell you don’t think about a blue panda because thinking about a blue panda is sinful; so you tell yourself don’t think about a blue panda, but what would you think about… a blue panda! Exactly. In telling yourself “Don’t think about a blue panda, you have to think about a blue panda to know what you have to stay away from. All your energy becomes focussed on staying away from blue pandas. You don’t think about anything else.
In turning your attention to focusing on the power of our resurrected life and the newness that it brings has a simultaneous affect. We focus on being raised with Christ, set our hearts and mind on things above and in the process negate the negative downward pull of sin and sinful habits.
We have devotional journals here at Southside for you to take to do just that…set your mind on things above. The key to your ongoing success is to find a spiritual buddy who will keep you honest and open on the journey so in taking a journal you are committing to that as well. They don’t have to be working through the exact same devotional; however you need commit to finding someone who will track with you, share in the adventure with you.

Merry Christmas from the Ninabers!

Thank you so much Southside for the love offering that we received on Christmas Eve. WE have been richly blessed by you to be given such generous gifts that we know came from the heart. In addition to the money, we were blessed with gift certificates for some great date nights....just had one last night! Someone also gave us Leaf tickets...WOW! It is all appreciated so much so thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We know we are loved and it is an honor and privilege to serve here for over 7 years now!

Love in Jesus, Jack and Sharon

Don't Underestimate The Power Of One!

In every aspect of our lives, we are led to believe that bigger is better and it tends to easily flow over to the church. We think that more people, more money, bigger ministries, more programs will result in greater effectiveness at God’s work. We often think that God can do more when there is something going on that is grand and marvelous.

We also tend to think the same about smaller things. We act as God could not possibly be working in smaller churches or ministries, less programs or fewer ministries. So, the small complex gives us this feeling of insignificance or attitude of, ‘why bother’

The feeling of being small or insignificant trickles right down from the churches and ministries we are in to thinking it about ourselves. We may feel like, ‘man I really don’t have much to offer…I don’t have enough resources to make a significant difference’ but is bigger always better? No, not when it comes to spiritual things.

It was one year ago that I gave you a challenge to have ‘mustard seed’ faith and it is that time again except this year I want to look at the passage of Scripture in Luke’s gospel.

Luke 13:18-21

Even though the mustard seed is incredibly small, it grows to be one of the largest herbs in that part of the world. It typically grows to be about 12 feet!

The second illustration that is used here is that of God’s working is like yeast. Typically in that day they wouldn’t have dry yeast like we do today. They would take a very small lump of dough from the previous day’s making of bread and knead it into the flour mixture enough to influence the entire batch.

The most important part of the illustration is really missed in the NIV text as it states the amount of flour into which the small amount of yeast is mixed. The NIV states a large amount, but the Greek states more specifically three ‘satas’. Three satas equals 50 pounds of flour! That will feed 100 people and so we are talking about more than just daily bread. Jesus was talking about more than just a household baking situation. You see even that small original ball of yeast could have a huge influence.

So, you need some examples of how this gets played out in the Bible –

• When God wanted to create a new nation to call his own, he started with a nomadic man and a woman too old to conceive children
• When God wanted to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt, he used a man rejected by his own people and who spent most of his life tending sheep
• When God wanted someone to represent His people, His choice was a shepherd boy
• When Jesus wanted to feed 5000 people, he used a small boy’s sack lunch to do it
• When Jesus watched people give, He wasn’t impressed with the big donors, but by the widow’s penny
• When God came to earth in the form of man, he didn’t choose a rich and established family to be part of; He chose to be a baby born in a poor and seemingly unimportant family.

We tend to write things off a lot sooner than God. He uses small things to do BIG stuff. What we might think is too small or insignificant, God see as something that He wants to use for His purpose.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29

We need to remember what ministry means. In greek, the word for ministry is ‘diakonia’.

We see a couple examples of this verb usage in:

Luke 8:3 where it speaks of women who were helping the disciples to support (minister) them out of their own means.

2 Timothy 1:18 where Paul thanks those who helped (ministered) to him in Ephesus

The root word is ‘konis’ which means ‘dust’ or ‘grit’. In other words, ministry is dirty. It rolls up its sleeves and does things that look unimportant to the world. We get the word ministry in the English from the Latin root word for ‘small things’ as in miniscule. Ministry should and really does happen on an everyday basis. It is everyday service and it all adds up. Southside can grow a significant tree of service and of seemingly insignificant acts! We can do it and it is even better when we do it together. We need each other, support one another and spur each other on to greater Christlikeness. Hebrews 10:24,25!

In the book, Resident Aliens, we read:

By being the church, that is, by being something that the world is not and can never be, lacking the gift of faith and vision, which is ours in Christ. The confessing church seeks visible church, a place, clearly visible to the world in which people are faithful to their promises, love to their enemies, tell the truth, honor the poor, suffer for righteousness and thereby testify to the amazing community-creating power of God. The confessing church has no interest in withdrawing from the world… The church knows that the most credible form of witness is the actual creation of a living, breathing, visible community of faith.

I think often we are looking for the real big breakthrough ministry that is going to put our lives and for that matter our church on the map. So, what happens? Often we might hold back from really giving our all because we just can’t see how God could work through something that is so small or insignificant. Size because a discouragement and we need not let that happen. We need to be released from BIGNESS!! If God can grow a significant tree out of an insignificant seed, He can do the same with the small acts with you and me.

Last year we were involved in the Santa Claus Parade and we wanted to make Christ’s presence known and we did with our Happy BDAY Jesus float. There was one family in particular watching the parade at that time and when they saw our float, it resonated in their heart and they knew that was what it was all about. Since then they have become a part of our church and not only that but marveled as they went from watching last year to being an active participant this year.

How can blessing a person with a hot chocolate; singing songs to seniors; prayer walking through town next Sunday make a difference. It will in God’s eyes first an foremost and we ultimately serve an audience of one. Galatians 1:10

The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money or the most awards. They are the ones who do the small things with a big heart.

It was Mother Teresa who said, ‘We can do no great things; only small things with great love.

The Takeaway:

This week focus on small acts of kindness in Jesus’ name with great love!!

Action For Movement:

1. Sign up for a service project. You will be called with details this week!

2. Sign up for ‘kettle time’ with Salvation Army

3. Pay for the coffee of the person behind you in the drive through

4. Purchase a ticket for a friend for Friday’s Christmas Banquet and invite them to join you.

5. Purchase a toy for the ‘fill the bus’ toy drive or donate money to the gifts for MD students –see Mary Martin

6. Ask God to fill in the blank for the acts of kindness He has in store for you!

In His Eyes

Do you have a vision problem?

Amblyopia – is known as a ‘lazy eye’

Color blindness – the inability to distinguish between some colors

Dry eye syndrome – the inability to produce tears

Hyperopia (farsightedness) – the inability to see near objects clearly

Myopia (nearsightedness) – the inability to to see distant objects clearly

what about spiritual vision issues…

spiritual lazy eye – the ability to see a problem and feel no compelling interest to do something about it

spiritual color blindness – the ability to not pay as much attention to the plight of those who are suffering in different parts of the world

spiritual dry eye – the lack of compassion, inability to cry for people who are hurting

spiritual farsightedness – the ability to respond to missions overseas but an unwillingness to personally get involved here

spiritual nearsightedness – the exact opposite…we are good here, but for the rest of the world in impoverished countries, out of sight, out of mind.

I pretty much squinted all through Junior High because I couldn’t stand the sight of wearing glasses. I can remember putting them on very infrequently and when I did I felt the weight of everyone looking upon me. In today’s video the main character feels the weight of seeing for the first time an inside look into the world of those around him.

Today I want us to discover an inside look through the eyes of Jesus.

Although not our text, let’s first look at Mark 8:22-25

It is an unusual passage as Jesus first spits on the man’s eyes and then touches him. He asks him if he sees and he responds by saying, “I see people, they look like trees walking around’. He could see, but he couldn’t see clearly. He couldn’t distinguish between people and trees except for movement so Jesus touches him once again and his sight was restored completely.

And really, we are like this man. Most of us have met Jesus and he has opened our eyes, but we still don’t see people clearly. We all have lens through which we see others. It is a lens that makes assumptions, responses, judgment and influences the degree of our response.

How did Jesus see people? Matthew 9:36

I Samuel 16:7 The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

OK, let’s go to today’s text – Luke 4:14.

Now you will notice that this event follows Jesus baptism here, but in reality if you had a chronological Bible or even lined up the gospels together you would see that Jesus already began showing miracles and had been healing people so that is why we see the statement about His fame spreading.

Imagine the scene. The synagogue is filled with people, the place is packed with men, women and children. In the front of the room there is a group of elders. One of them stands up, speaks briefly and then asks Yeshua Ben Yusef, Jesus, son of Joseph, to read the Scriptures.

He gets up in the middle of the room where there is a raised desk and people are excited to hear him. He is the hometown boy. Jesus unrolls the large scroll and reads from Isaiah 61:1,2

He reads it is an affirmation of self proclamation.

When he said that the today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing was a slam dunk statement. When he said that, he sent people buzzing. This passage was about the Messiah and this passage was about Jesus’ mission statement!

1. Jesus’ mission is to preach good news to the poor. The mindset back then was if you were poor that was a sign of God’s judgment and if you were rich, well then, that was God’s favor. Jesus was basically saying absolutely not! He turned the tables and said the poor were favored by God.
2. His mission is to proclaim freedom for the prisoner whether it was a literal prison or a spiritual prison, Jesus has come to set you free.
3. Jesus’ mission was to give sight to the blind. The blind were thought to be blind because of their own sin or the sin of their parents. The attitude of the religious leaders was if you are blind, you deserved to be blind. Jesus came to show mercy to those who were physically handicapped and spiritually condemned.
4. Jesus mission is to release the oppressed. He came to set wrongs right. He came to help the helpless.
5. Jesus mission is to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. It is a reference to the OT principle of the year of Jubilee which took place every 50 years and debts on the land were forgiven and slaves were freed.

Jesus mission was people focused, it was outward focused and it was driven by mercy and compassion. It was the secret to His vision. Jesus’ mission guided His vision His mission was the way that He saw everybody. People were Jesus’ mission. His lens was and is compassion.

The word for compassion is only applied to two people, the fictional ‘Good Samaritan’ and the real Jesus. We see how in Scripture that Jesus felt compassion when he encountered the sick (Matt. 14:14), the blind (Matt 20:34), the demon possessed (Mk. 9:22) those who lost loved ones (Luke 7:13), the hungry (Matt. 15:32), the lonely (Mk. 1:41)

It guided His actions, His reaction and interaction with everyone He met.

Let’s look at another example in Luke 7:36-48 – the story of the woman who wiped Jesus feet with her very own tears and poured expensive perfume on them.

The religious bystanders just stood in judgment and thought 'if he really was a prophet He would know what time of woman she was…' Jesus knew their thoughts and challenged them on the real expression of love.

We all have lens through which we look at people. How often are we guilty of looking at people through the lens of judgment as the Pharisees did as opposed to the lens of compassion that Jesus showed us?

For example, if you were to bump into Stacey and Clinton off ‘What Not To Wear’ – how would they judge you?

If you were to bump into Prime Minister Stephen Harper how would he judge you. I know because in April as I was pushed aside into a hall to make way for his entourage, he took the time to acknowledge me.

If someone were to bump into the back of your car?

What question would cross your mind when you saw them?

What we believe about our mission in the world affects how we see our world? When you look at your world, do you see a world in need?...a world worth saving? A world worth serving?

When you see people, ask the same questions that Jesus would ask, “How can I help you? How can I show you God’s love? How can I touch you with God’s grace? How can I right a wrong in your life? How can I bring healing to your world?

Ask Jesus to touch your eyes so that you see people the way He did

-with insight, mercy and compassion

Let’s first start with INSIGHT

If the Earth’s population was shrunk to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the

existing human ratios remaining the same:

• six people would possess 59 percent of the entire world’s wealth and all six would be

from America

• 80 people would live in substandard housing

• 70 would be unable to read

• one person would own a computer

• If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to

sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of this world.

• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in your back pocket, you are among the top eight percent of the world’s wealthy.

Basic education for all would cost $6 billion a year

• $8 billion is spent annually on cosmetics in the US alone

• Installation of water and sanitation for all would cost $9 billion

• $11 billion is spent annually on ice-cream in Europe

• Basic healthcare and nutrition worldwide would cost $13 billion

• $35 billion is spent each year on business entertainment in Japan

• The total cost of eradicating poverty worldwide is estimated at around $80 billion

• The world spends $800 billion a year on military alone. That’s 10 times the needed

Coffee is produced in Latin America, the Caribbean, in Asia and in Africa. The main

producer is Brazil, which supplies about a quarter of the world’s coffee.

Since the early 1950s, these countries have been persuaded by buyers to give up farming

traditional crops in favour of producing more coffee.

This has led to over-production, plummeting market prices, and sweatshop working conditions.

Coffee prices last year were at an all time low.

Buy fair trade!

As a consumer, you have a choice. You can either buy free trade coffee, which contributes,

or you can pay a little more and buy fair trade coffee.

Fair trade coffee allows farmers to receive enough money from their crops to survive and

not fall into poverty.

So next time you decide to grab a quick coffee, think of those poverty-stricken farmers and buy fair trade coffee!

MERCY

The richest 20 percent of the world’s population now consume 86 percent of its resources. For the vast majority of people, however, even the most basic necessities of life – clean water, food, shelter – are scarce. And this uneven spread of wealth is growing. But poverty is not inevitable. It CAN be overcome. The question is, what are YOU prepared to do?

Understand their world this week

COMPASSION

We are just as much ‘church’ when we are sent as when we gather together. Jesus made us more about being than doing church - Luke 10:17…the joy

The Diet challenge - For this upcoming week, I will be asking all of us to live on a diet consisting of rice, beans, flour tortilla shells. It has often been said that unless you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes that you really don’t understand what they go through.

It is a challenge to live like most of the world that is in poverty and what they have to survive on. It is a challenge for us to abstain from discretionary purchases this upcoming week. The money that you would normally spend on going out what groceries for a normal week would consist of, the money spent on going out to dinner, clothes, buying a coffee, …we are asking you to give sacrificially above and beyond your tithe on November 30^th towards a Partners gift of shelter, water and health that I will share more on Sunday about.

We understand that some of you do have health related issues and no, we don’t expect your kids to live on the same diet although they may decide to do one meal like that with you.

Love Takes A Detour!

I’ll never forget the time I was a program director at a summer camp. We had problems with some of the campers who took it upon themselves to sleep in and drag down the morale of the camp. So, one morning I decided to grab these guys in their sleeping bags and along with their counselors we threw them into the pool in their pajamas to the delight of their cabin mates. The thing I remember most was not the splash, but the words of those sleepy campers….”What about my needs!’

Well this series is about getting thrown into pool of service and we will discover how our greatest needs for fulfillment and meaning get met when we reach out and serve others.

Today we will look at a very familiar passage, the story of the Good Samaritan.

Have you ever been on your way to a destination and you are faced with the dreaded detour? Now if you saw two sign, one which said take your usual route and another that said ‘Detour Ahead’ which would you take? Most of us would probably take our usual route especially if the detour cost us time, money and personal frustration

We are talking about detours today and not necessarily the ones that you encounter while driving, but the ones that you discover on the highway of life. There are some detours that come at you and you can’t choose to go your normal way. They are possibly an illness, the loss of a job, a spouse that walks out on you. There are also detours that we can choose to help someone. We will rediscover the story of the Good Samaritan this morning.

In Luke 10:25-28, the question is asked of Jesus, “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus…”What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Experts in the law were respected as lawyers in His time, they were the ones who were professional interpreters of the law. Their three areas of duty included explaining the law as we see in the Pentateuch, to keep alive the memories of past prophets and train
others in the knowledge of the law.

Did you catch the motive in his question – He called him a teacher because he wanted to put him to the test

Jesus responds to a question with a question! What is written in the law? He challenges the man to actually do it…just don’t give me lip service

He then tries to narrow his field of service by asking the question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ In typical lawyer fashion, this guy wants a definition of neighbour and gets more than he bargained for. To the Jews at that time lowing your neighbour meant loving someone who is near in terms of race and religion. Jesus was going to change all that.

Ultimately this guy wasn’t look for an opportunity to love on someone, he just wanted to justify his current status quo….The word justify here in v29 means to ‘excuse himself’ He wanted an excuse to do the bare minimum and come out looking good.

He could answer the question correctly with his lips, but what about the heart? There are many people who are good at talking the talk. I understand that in the Netherlands you can actually be become a professional student. God isn’t looking for professional students…its an apprenticeship and he wants you to learn on the job!

He meant the same thing that W.C. Fields meant when he was found reading the Bible on his deathbed and was asked why…He responded, “I’m looking for loopholes.”

So in understanding Jesus’ response it is important to note that this message is more than just knowing that we need to help people in need. It stretches us to realize just how far, how wide and how deep that level of compassion should reach. It is a story to teach us about excuses and self justification. You love your neighbor…really? how much?

All too easily we let ourselves ‘off the hook’ so to speak from not helping others. We often tell ourselves, ‘well, I can’t help them, it’s too dangerous, it’s too involved, it’s too time consuming, I don’t have the money…


read Luke 10:30-37

Let’s look at the cast of characters in this story:

A priest – a position of supreme importance, he represented the people before God
A Levite – a privileged group of people, responsible for liturgy and protecting the temple.

Now his listeners were expecting Jesus to mention an ordinary Jew next, but Jesus states it is a Samaritan…That is like saying ‘there was papa bear, brother bear and a skunk.

Once again remember who Samaritans are: they are the half Jews, the ½ committed, they were the ones who intermarried with the Assyrians when they were living in exile and the racial and religious contempt between these two groups was intense and very violent. In their worship services, they would publically curse Samaritans! They wouldn’t eat anything if they knew it came from a Samaritan


The Good Samaritan teaches us how to look past our excuses and get involved. He teaches us about divine detours which I really like to look at as divine appointments. So how do we move from our dayplanner to giving it to the one who we want to be our Dayrunner!

Divine detours Take Risks.

10v30 The 28km road between Jerusalem and Jericho had an infamous name. It was known as ‘The Way of Blood’. The road descends 3300 feet through desert and rocky country that could easily hide thieves. The fact that he stopped involved great risk because he made himself vulnerable as well.

How do you feel about picking up hitchhikers? I remember doing it as a youth until my parents made me read one of those stories in Reader’s Digest.

Our problem today isn’t that we take too many risks…the question is when is the last time you took a risk, rolled up your sleeves, got involved, invited a friend to church…

Divine Detours Take Personal Involvement

v33,34

When the Samaritan saw the wounded man, he has sincere compassion and bandages the man’s wounds. Possibly he may have used parts of his own clothing and tore strips. Olive oil was used to keep the cut skin supple and the wine was used to clean the wound.

He didn’t wait for someone else to come along, he didn’t pass off the assignment. He got in the ditch with the man and took it upon himself to make a difference. He probably came out of their looking dirty and bloody too.

It was a much different experience for Clive Collins. Here was a 65 year old man in Boscombe, England who while opening his car trunk in a parking lot fell into a five-foot hole after a manhole cover tipped. He shared with the BBC news that about 15-20 people walked by. The more he called out, the less people acknowledged him. Some didn’t even make eye contact. One woman actually parked right beside him and he asked her to call for an ambulance. She refused to even notice him. He waved to one guy who waved back and kept going on his way. He finally managed to get his cell phone out and dial for help. It turned out he needed 47 stitches and treatment for two broken ribs, a chipped tooth and a strained groin!

We need to step up and take notice.


Divine Detours Take Time!

In v34 we see the extent of his care. He took the time to care, to place the man on his donkey and he took it upon himself to find an inn….talk about emergency roadside assistance!
Often we use our schedules to justify not helping people out in need. It is probably the most common excuse of them all.

An experiment was done at Princeton Theological Seminary. The students were asked to prepare a talk on a given biblical theme and then present it in a nearby building on campus. Along the way to the presentation, each student ran into a man slumped in an alley, head down, eyes closed, coughing and groaning. The question was, who would stop and help. Before the stage was even set for this experiment, the students were asked in a questionnaire their reason for studying for the ministry. Did they see as a means for spiritual and personal fulfillment or see it as a practical tool for everyday life. Some were asked to give a talk on the relevance of being a pastor and others were given the parable of the Good Samaritan. They also decided to tell some of the students that they were running late for their talk and with others, they told them they had a few minutes to spare.

So what happened?

Only 10% of the students who were in a rush stopped as compared to 63% of those who knew they had some time to spare.

What is the lesson for us?

The words, ‘you’re late’ had the effect of turning an ordinarily compassionate person into someone who was indifferent to suffering


We live, run and are driven by the clock.

The greatest needs are often the ones that no one sees. They take time to see, to peel away the layers of ‘I’m fine’ They are the needs that often stay in the darkness because we fail to draw them out.

I remember learning this early in my ministry. A student came to meet with me and began by asking me questions about how to have a personal quiet time. I thought I did a pretty good job with that conversation only to learn later that the question that was posed was only with the hope to move to a deeper level on a very troubling relationship they were in. I missed it because I didn’t take the time to uncover it.

People out there are asking questions and those questions if answered with sensitivity and care may lead us to more meaningful conversations and greater levels of transparency if we can stop looking at our watches…

Divine Detours Take Money

V35 The next day he took tow silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper….

If you read between the lines, it looks like this Samaritan knew the Innkeeper and had developed a relationship with him. He probably had stayed at this very inn himself from time to time. Then he promises to reimburse him for any additional expenses that he may incur. He didn’t use money as an excuse to not act.

The two silver coins represented about two days wages. He made financial sacrifices to help the man in need. He even said whatever other expenses, I’ll pick up the tab… Think about that, you know how expensive some of those mini bar items might be!

You may not have heard about John Michael Jasset. He was a teenager who a few years ago was hit by a car. He was thrown from his bike and had scrapes on his knee, arm and hands. He staggered into a fast food restaurant and asked for ice to put on his wounds. He was asked to pay for it! The charge was .99 + tax….the cost of a small pop…are you kidding me. It reminds me of the lady who worked at a Tim Hortons in London and was fired for giving a timbit to a mother of a distressed child!

Margaret Thatcher once said, “No one would have remembered the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well.

On Friday night I watched the incredible generosity of many of our people who supported the ministry of The Deck, the YFC drop in youth center. It was awesome to see the response with 240 people present and many of our people leading the way with generosity paying way too much for Leaf tickets and restaurant gift certificates.

As a pastor I was also blessed to see the incredible response to one of the ladies coming out of the shelter as one of you just blessed her with $200- on the spot to help her with a fresh start. Once again the Good For Nothing store is open and buzzing with people. It is such a ministry of blessing to see the winter coats come in for families in need. Keep BEING the Church Southside!!

Now let’s look at the passage as a whole again

Did Jesus answer the question, Who is our neighbour? Yes, he did. Your neighbour is necessarily someone who lives next to you. Your neighbour is anyone in need, anyone you can help. But notice that Jesus did more than answer the question. He asked the expert in the OT, ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert replied, “the one who had mercy on him” to which Jesus replied, ‘go and do likewise’

In other words, Jesus changed the focus of the question from who is my neighbour to what kind of neighbour are you?

What is the takeaway this morning?

Are you willing and ready to take a divine detour this week?

Who would you want as a neighbour? Who would you want to show up on the scene? The Good Samaritan disadvantaged himself to advantage someone else. Our spiritual journey calls us beyond managing our to-do lists and into a Faith In Action lifestyle that welcomes divine detours to demonstrate God’s love to people in need.
He may even interrupt your devotions…watch out. I remember a year ago when God interrupted our home and taught our family to take someone in. I never got past the title of my devotional that morning. It read, ‘Operation Rescue’ and I knew what we needed to do as a family.

No Questions for this series, no questions for discussion.

Action For Movement

I challenge you to get off your normal beaten path of life.

Volunteer to babysit for a single mom
Write a letter to a soldier overseas…find out more by either going to http://www.nhop.ca/ or talking to one of those involved with SOS
Provide a meal for a family in need.
Sign up for the food drive with Salvation Army
Sign up for one of the service projects listed for December 7th.

I want to talk about a special challenge that you will be given next week…

It has often been said that unless you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes that you really don’t understand what they go through. I have read about ministries in the inner city that encourage their people to sleep on the street for one night and ask for money. Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to go on the street…I am going to ask that you prepare to live on a subsistence diet from Monday November 24th – November 28th. Don’t worry we are not the first church to do this. It has been done by others, most notably Willow Creek in Chicago under Bill Hybels who has inspired in taking up this challenge.

It is a challenge to live like most of the world that is in poverty and what they have to survive on. For them and for us that week, it means rice, water, bean and tortillas. It is a challenge for us to give and not to make any ‘splurg’ purchases that week. The money that you would normally spend on going out what groceries for a normal week would consist of, the money spent on going out to dinner, clothes, buying a coffee, …we are asking you to bring it in to the storehouse and then to give sacrificially above and beyond your tithe on November 30th towards a Partners gift of shelter, water and health.

We understand that some of you do have health related issues and no we don’t expect your kids to live on the same diet although they may decide to do one meal like that with you.

*This message is compiled with credit to Brian Mavis, pastor, Lifebridge Church as part of the Faith In Action series.

Is Anything Too Hard For The Lord

Jeremiah 30 -33

Is anything too hard for the Lord? That is the question Jeremiah posed to his people in the midst of incredible destruction and devastation. That question is a good one because the first time it was presented was when God had just told Abraham, 100 years young that his wife, Sarah, a mere 90 years old would give birth to a son. Genesis 18:14

Is there a situation in your life that you feel is too hard for you to bear or impossible to solve? Is there something that has caused a great deal of pain for you that clouds your vision of hope? It is so hard at times not to get fixated on the here and now, but Jeremiah had the presence of mind to look beyond what was visible to what was invisible, the future presence of the righteous Branch!

Jeremiah had been through five different reigns from the time of Josiah to Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and finally Zedekiah. He is 57 years old and has been a prophet for 35 years. He has worn yokes, broken clay pots, worn a linen belt and let it rot out among the rocks, seen the significance of bad and very good figs. He watched his fellow prophet killed with a sword for preaching the same message of judgment, heard that his messages were torched with fire and he was left for dead in an empty well! Thanks for coming out Jeremiah.

Zedekiah did not listen to Jeremiah and compromised himself by entering negotiations with Pharaoh Hophra in 589 BC. At one point in the battle between the nations, the Egyptians were succeeding against the Babylonians and they withdrew but only temporarily and the siege immediately resumed. We walked with Jeremiah through his lowest point in his ministry as he was left for dead in the disused cistern

He didn’t have anything really to show for all his faithfulness and effort. He was looking to God for a miracle and so too was Zedekiah. We read in 21:2, “Inquire now of the Lord for us because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the Lord will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us.”

21v3,4 give the answer that there would be no miracle on this day, there would be no deliverance. The section closes with no mercy, no pity or compassion. If only he could deliver a different message and then - his reward for faithfulness, he gets thrown into the hole and then brought up mercifully to be placed in another prison, the court of the guard.

Jeremiah 30:12-17; 31:3,9 The Lord doesn’t justify the past, He redeems it! He doesn’t justify the tragedies nor does He need to orchestrate them in order to accomplish his purposes.

It was a huge act of faith for Jeremiah and it is at this time around 587BC that he gives his greatest prophecy of a time of restoration.

v12 your wound is incurable, your injury beyond healing

There is no way out of the hole that you have dug for yourself. There is no human way possible to escape the consequences of this disease called sin. We have walked away from the Redeemer and tried to medicate our own souls. We stumble in the darkness of trying to satisfy our own insatiable desires. The wear and tear on our souls has left us spiritually exhausted.

v17 but I will restore you to health and heal your wounds

In spite of ourselves, He is the one who is faithful when we are not. He is the one who awaits us with open arms at the end of a long road called, ‘the way home’. Get a right vision of God.

One writer shares how often we think of Jesus as the forgiving and grace filled One and God as the stern One, the judge and yet Jesus was sent to show us the very heart and touch of God.

31v3 the Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: I have loved your with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with lovingkindness. I will build you up again.

Jeremiah found God’s irresistible grace. I have loved you with an everlasting love

v9 They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble.

The promises of redemption. Jeremiah 32:1,2,6

Now, we find Jeremiah doing something unthinkable during the last stages of the siege on Jerusalem. He buys land belonging to his cousin Anathoth. It would be likened to some one today buying stocks in a company going bankrupt. What was the method in his madness. Well he envisioned a time when the fields would be purchased again. God is far from done here. The promise of redemption was not just wishful thinking, it was a reality for Jeremiah. When others when selling out on hope, Jeremiah was full of hope! Just when we think it can’t get any worse for Jeremiah and we expect the worst of his feelings and bitterness to flow, He delivers His greatest inspiration!

In spite of the invasion that was in full flight, Jeremiah could imagine a day when the temple would be destroyed. He could anticipate a time when the ark of the covenant would be dispensed with and God would write those laws on our heart instead of tablets of stone. The prophecies of Jeremiah closed with hope! It is hope in the Lord that doesn’t disappoint.

Jeremiah could foresee a new covenant:

What will make it stand apart? 31v33,34

1. It will be on His people’s minds and written on their hearts
2. It will be personal
3. It will be memorable
4. It will be complete and total forgiveness

Qualities of the new covenant continued in 32:39-41

5. It will be focused and clear v39
6. It will be an everlasting covenant
7. It will inspire godly fear v40a
8. It will bring wholehearted devotion v40b
9. It will bring rejoicing and firmly plant His people in the land

v44 This is why Jeremiah purchased land. It was his last object lesson and act of faith. He knew the day was coming when the land and more importantly the people would be redeemed.

Jeremiah didn’t have the NT but he had all the elements of it. He knew it would be no more about ‘Thou shalt’ and ‘Thou shalt not’. He knew it was impossible for people to live up to that. It would be based on God’s ‘I will’s’ It was going to be written on their hearts, not their hands or merely just rote memorized in their heads. He finally realized it was always something that would come about internally and not conformed to by mere externals. It was always at the heart of God…sacrifices and offerings you did not desire, but a broken and contrite heart… Some commentators have called this passage the Gospel before the Gospel!! The revelation came to Jeremiah in the midst of the incredible destruction he witnessed firsthand. He saw everything he ever treasured apart from His relationship with God completely wiped out.

As far as redemption goes…

Jesus doesn’t ask you to live up to it, He expects you to live in it

Jeremiah 33:3,6-8,15-17; 23:5,6

The beginning of a new covenant which would ultimately be fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord! Turn all those statements around and place Jesus there.

We will be motivated by love not by expectations. The new covenant is something that is placed within us. We respond out of what He has already done for us! No longer is it, “I am trying to do something for God” but look what God is creating in me, what He is doing through me…its ridiculously great!

Many of the prophets understood and knew the holiness of God. Isaiah knew it. Many of the prophets knew of the power of God, Daniel knew it. Many of them knew the justice of God, Amos knew it. But also revealed to Jeremiah was the love of God.

In His holiness, God hates sin and in His justice, He must punish it. However it that is all we knew of God, where would be the hope, the grace, the mercy? God cannot violate His character. So with the strength of justice and His power, He must be true His character. He is a God of holiness and justice, but you now bring His love. His love is made manifest in His Son Jesus who takes upon Himself our sin, He who knew no sin. He becomes our righteousness and brings life and light to our utter hopeless situation.

As His children, we not only receive God’s righteousness applied to our lives, but we have a new heart and God’s promises engraved on them. The Holy Spirit takes residence and makes it a living reality in us.

Jeremiah is still in prison, but gone is the prison of the soul. No situation could hold him back now. He held on to the hope of His Redeemer, a new day is dawning, a New Covenant will come!

The takeaway is for the believer is this -

Circumstances are often hard to justify, but God always redeems the situation. It doesn’t stop there. He has called us to a ministry of restoration.

This is where we must rest our confidence and hope. He is the God who heals, brings restoration and delivers hope.

Questions For Discussion and Small Groups

1. Is there a situation in your life that you have to remind yourself of the truth, “is anything too hard for the Lord’?
2. Have you experienced His ‘irresistible grace’? If so, how?
3. What truth about the new covenant gives you the greatest amount of hope in your life?

A True False Test

We will begin with a true/false test.

I have used the KJV to make them all sound official

1 Whosover is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of judgment.

2 Help thou thy brother’s boat across, and lo, thine own has reached the shore.

3 The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

4And thou shalt have goats' milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.

5 'If a man says, I love God, and yet hates his brother, he is a liar.

6 'Whoever degrades a brother degrades me, and whatever is done or said returns to me

7 'A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city

8 'Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.

9 'He who blesses most is blest

10 'Behold, how good it is for brethren to dwell together in Zion

How well do you know God’s Word and whether you are receiving a message from the Lord? This goes beyond a simple trivia test. It is the question of discernment and ultimately it comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jeremiah’s day, he came up against another prophet, Hananiah, who in the name of the Lord, was completely painting a different picture of the immediate future for the nation. We will learn to discern this morning as we see how Jeremiah handled this true false test!

How To Swallow A Tough Pill From The Lord… ch27
Jeremiah once again was asked by the Lord to be an object lesson. He was asked to place a yoke on his shoulders and it would also go around the neck. It was like the type you might see in an old movie or third world country used on oxen to plow the land. He wore this around his neck for months at a time! It was a yoke not so easy and a burden not so light. The message was to accept the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar and live under the invading nation, Babylon. It sounded like defeat and that is what God wanted the nation to realize. They were defeated in every way and it was time to enter a rebuilding process.
It is really hard to understand how God can use a godless nation to serve his purposes especially in the treatment of believers. We would never wish this upon anyone, but time and time again it often serves to make the church stronger and more resilient. The key is to remember that God is in control.
However, it was very hard to accept and no one really wants to go down with a fight and knowing their hearts full well, God’s challenge was clear. Don’t fight this, accept this message. You absolutely need these growing pains in your life.


1. False - Fight or Flight. This will end in the sword, famine or plague.
The challenge was not to get caught up in a false message of false prophets who preached lies and preached easy street. The message sounds convincing enough…’You will not serve the king of Babylon!’ v9 They were all getting together for a Summit like conference on the state of the nation and the message was clear. It is time to stand up and fight for what you believe in, fight for what is truly yours. However, it was futile and is good as it sounded, it wasn’t from God.
It was really convincing because at the time it was logical. The people could see that King Nebuchadnezzar’s hold on his own nation was breaking up and they were facing attack from the outside. Syria in the north was planning an insurrection and hey, if the other nations were going to do the same, this may be our time.
.
Don’t try to save the temple furniture, the pillars, the moveable stands,v19 ie: the symbols of your faith. Don’t try to cling to these things. All they really were to you were good luck charms. You treated them as idols…It is time to start clinging to me


2. True - Form
Stay put in the land and you will be able to live. Submit to the authority over you, accept it with humility v11

How To Correctly Identify The Voice of the Lord ch 28
So, five months later and Hananiah enters the scene. He has been watching Jeremiah for quite some time with this yoke that he was wearing around town. He is tired of Jerry’s unpatriotic message….sellout and succumb to the invading nation. So, he claims in the name of the Lord Almighty, that the yoke of the king of Babylon will be broke in 2 years….not 70! Well think how easily the people would gravitate towards that message…
So, who is right, who is speaking for God now is the challenge of the day.
Jeremiah’s response was incredible and full of grace. He responds by affirming, ‘Amen! May the Lord do so! May the Lord fulfill the words you have prophesied. He goes on to say that the one who prophesies peace is truly sent by the Lord.
Jeremiah is amazing to me. I really love how he responds in this situation. It is clear that he wants the best for the nation and he has learned long ago that this isn’t about him. God can speak through others as well
Boy, it feels good to not have this yoke on anymore. I definitely need massage therapy
28v10,11
However, once again God clearly speaks to Jeremiah and reveals to him that the yoke of wood will now be placed with a yoke of iron and Hananiah has spoken falsely. Its not a pretty message and two months later Hananiah dies. It was sudden, shocking and just as Jeremiah predicted.

How To Bloom Where You Are Planted! ch 29
The message that Jeremiah now gives to God’s children in exile is not welcomed in the least and there is always one in the crowd who takes considerable exception. Shemaiah all too quickly speaks in the name of the Lord as well and contrary to Jeremiah. He calls him a madman and really misses the beautiful essence of his message. He just gets totally fixated on the idea that the nation is to just accept their position. Maybe if he was living today, he might be thinking, ‘we are not Switzerland and we will not put up with this overbearing, overweight tyrant Nebber!’
The message is to make the country they are living in better. Be agents of transformation and seek peace. Pray for these people and for this nation, pray that this nation will prosper.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. Jeremiah 29:11-14
I think more often than not the message for us as God’s children is to remain faithful especially in a situation where we just want to give up. God is looking for his children to bloom where they are planted. So, often and all too easy our human nature tells us to say, “God take me out of the situation, I need a new job, new work environment…God you don’t know the people I work with.
We tend to get energized by a new possibility, new opportunity. All too easily we allow ourselves to get stuck and God says, stay faithful my child, lean on me even more than you knew possible.
You want to prosper spiritually - call, come, pray and listen
You want to have hope – call, come, pray and listen
You want to have an inside track on your future – call, come, pray and listen
By the way, this is not a half hearted exercise, He wants you to seek with all of your heart. Get serious, get intent, go all in and pursue Him like a madman, like Jeremiah.

We can learn about God ways and His will from three different places:
1. Through history. There is nothing new, it has all happened in some way, shape or form and history repeats itself. We can see all the same mistakes and errors being made and learn before going down the same road again.
2. Through current events. There is always truth out there and we can learn so much from what is happening now and the incredible fluctuation of the markets about the volatility of the world.
3. Through Scripture – God has spoken and we can learn so much from His voice in area of our life.
What voice will be the most predominant in your life, in your decision making? There is a famine of hearing the words of the Lord in the land… Amos 8:11 Be the one like Joseph who had the vision and who stored up the wheat. He was ready, don’t go through the famine without the Word of the Lord in your heart….Psalm 119:11
The Takeaway:
God will never speak to you in a way that contradicts His Word.

How To Discern Truth from Error.
1. Humble yourself. It was AW Tozer who said, “There is a close relation between humility and the perception of truth. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. Psalm 25:9
2. Trust God. Remember in Ephesians 6:16 God gives us the shield of faith to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one and many of those flaming arrows come in the form of lies and deceit.
3. Check the Word. God never contradicts the testimony of His Word. Most people often go astray when they lift a text out of its context or get so focused on one verse to the exclusion of all others that speak to the same subject in other places in the Bible.
4. Pray! God gives wisdom generously to all who ask as James 1:5 states. Fear of the Lord is also the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. Remember to allow God to speak to you, do not try to force it and wait patiently for Him to respond. It is amazing how clearly He speaks to us when we read His Word on a daily basis.
5. Think it through - If it is too good to be true, it usually is. Especially when someone is trying to sell you a completely new revelation of God or some type of inner circle…
6. Cover the whole matter though the Holy Spirit. It is the HS that brings the enlightenment to the Scriptures and turns the foolishness of man into the wisdom of God.

Questions For Discussion and Small Groups:
1. What has been a tough pill from the Lord that you have had to swallow?
2. What were the assurances that God gave you to enable you to see your way through your own personal exile?
3. What are your ‘checks and balances’ that keep your relationship with God honest?
4. What was a recent lie or false truth that you were able to expose about God in your life?

Answers to the test!

1 Whosover is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of judgment. True
Matthew 5:22

2 Help thou thy brother’s boat across, and lo, thine own has reached the shore. False This is actually from the Hindu religion

3 The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. True Proverbs 27:7

4 And thou shalt have goats' milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens. True Proverbs 27:27

5 'If a man says, I love God, and yet hates his brother, he is a liar. True '1 John 4:20

6 'Whoever degrades a brother degrades me, and whatever is done or said returns to me - This is from a poem by Walt Witman

7 'A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city – true Proverbs 18:19

8 'Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. – True – Deuteronomy 28:5 This is part of the charge Moses and the Elders gave to the people of Israel as they prepeared to cross over into the Promised Land.

9 'He who blesses most is blest – False - John Whittier

10 'Behold, how good it is for brethren to dwell together in Zion – False – Psalm 133:1 dwell together in unity