Quiet Times Search

• Relationship with God
• Decision to make Jesus Lord of our lives
• Basic mission - to seek and save the lost
  

• Time in the Word daily - Acts 17:11
• Daily prayer - Luke 11:1-4
• Share our faith daily - Acts 17:17
• Open with our lives daily with one another - Hebrews 3:12

• Days of excitement are for young Christians
• Mature means being dead and lifeless
• See other older Christians not doing well and assume that is our fate

• We are longer slave but sons ans daughters
• We can approach him with confidence because of Jesus

• With Jesus as the high priest,  we can confidence to enter the into the throne room of God
• Can gain a heavenly perspective
• Praise God that his resources there are limitless

• Being holy, set apart, above us
• Prayer is not just asking for something but for honoring Him

• Kingdom has not come to every nation and place nor every person
• Pray for God to open doors, speaking boldly, with wisdom
• Pray for those who server and in leading roles

• God wants us to pray about surrendering to his will
• Challenges is our life must not be avoided but have a surrendered life
• Read some command and ask yourself if you are following them
• Jesus never asked for strength to go to the cross but only that he might surrender
• Besides pride and rebellion, unbelief keeps us from doing God's will

• Bring specific needs to God
• Must depend on God daily for our spiritual and physical needs
• Pray thorough your todo list and details
• Jesus said we could do nothing apart from God - John 15:5

• Lack of confession results in a hardened heart
• We will not mature if do not do this soul searching
• Be specific; ask others for forgiveness if needed
• Extend forgiveness; can not be forgiven by God otherwise

• What are your weaknesses? Have you faced them?
• Draw on God's power before Satan strikes

• Return again to praising and glorifying God
• All power rests in his hand

We can not be close to God in prayer if we deal only in generalities
God indeed wants to answer our prayers - how will we know what God is doing if we pray in generalities?

Abraham - Genesis 18 - prayed to save the city if there were 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, even 10 righteous people

Our lack of specific praying reveals a distance in our relationship with God

• More specific in your gratitude - become more grateful
• More specific in confession - understand the sin you are commiting
• More specific in your requests for friends and family - see how God will work

A mission of Satan is undermine my relationship with our Father

Must ask all the time: How are God and I doing?

Typical doing questions:

• Am I productive?
• Have a recently had a victory?
• How do people around me feel about me?
• How long has it been since I committed a particular sin?

Relationship questions:

• Do they feel loved?
• Are we connected?
• Have I been sensitive?
• Am I listening?
• Will this activity help our relationship?

 When we drift

1. Combative - Psalms 55:20-21
2. Uncaring / Apathy (Harding of our hearts) - Psalms 36:1-4; Esphesians

Presedes sin / sensual gratification

• "I deserve this"
• "I am tired"
• "I am missing out"
• "I know what I need"

3. Hopeless - Job 3:11-13

Hopelessness is godlessness
If deeply in love with God, whispering to me promise after promise
If walking with him closely, he is meeting my needs for strength and faith

• Are Hardworking
  
• Have Persevered
• Are Intolerant of Evil
• Endured persecution

• Voice of guilt that reminds me of the past
• Voice of doubt tries to tell me about the future
• Voice that says we are weak and can not do it
• Voice that judges me of wrong doing and bad motivation
  

What shouldn't drive our life (will miss God's purposes for your life):

People are driven by guilt

Allows the past to control their future
God's purpose is not limited to our past

God turned a murder (Moses and Paul) into a leader and a coward into a hero

God specializes in giving people a fresh start

People are driven by resentment and anger - Resentment always hurts you more than it does the other person

People are driven by fear - from unrealistic expectations and high-control situations

People are driven by materialism - Your value is not determined by your valuables

People are driven by the need for approval - those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it

Living a purpose driven life, knowing your purpose:

1. Gives meaning to your life
   • I have laboed to no purpose - Isaiah 49:4
   • My life drags by - day after hopeless day - Job 7:6
   • My life makes no sense - Job 7:16
2. Simplies your life
   • You have just enough time to do God's will - too much to do means you doing things you shouldn't be doing
3. Focuses your life
4. Motivates your life
5. Prepares you for eternity

The ultimate goal is to give glory to God

God's glory = the expression of his goodness and all his other eternal qualities
Through history, God has revealed his glory
God's glory is best seen in Jesus Christ

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God - Romans 3:23
I have created them to bring me glory - Isaiah 43:7
Jesus brought glory to God by doing everthing he was told to do by God - John 17:4

1. We bring God glory by worshiping him - Use your body to the glory of God - Romans 6:13
2. We bring God glory by loving other believers - Accept others as Christ accepted you - Romans 15:7
3. We bring God glory by becoming like Christ - We become more and more like him, reflect his glory even more - 2 Corthinians 3:18
4. We bring God glory by serving others our gifts - Do it all with all that God has given you - 1 Peter 4:10-11
5. We bring God glory by telling others about him - Bringing people to Christ through his grace, God receives more and more glory - 2 Corinthians 4:14

Giving glory to God will require us to change our priorities, schedule, relationships, and everything else

• Peace
• Freedom
• Experience God's power

The truth transforms us

Spiritual growth is the process of replacing lies with truth

Everything around you exists because "God said so"
Job - I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread (Job 23:12)

Must accept the Bible's authority

• Compass to be relyed on
• Counsel to listen to
• Benchmark for evaluating

Unrealiable authorities (at the Garden of Eden as well):

• Culture - "everyone is doing it"
• Tradition - "we' ve always done it"
• Reason - "it seems logical"
• Emotion - "it just feels right"

Must assimilate its truth

Allow yourself to be transformed by the truth

1. Receive God's Word - Consider carefully how you listen - Luke 8:18
2. Read God's Word - Read it as long as we live - Deuteronomy 17:19
3. Research God's Word  - Write down insights, ask questions
4. Remebering God's Word - Remember what is important to you; memorize; resist tempation
5. Reflect on God's Word  - Meditate, focused thinking

Must apply it principles

• We can fool ourselves that studying is doing
• Applying the Word is hard work
• Alway good to write down an action step from the result of your studying
  • Personal (involves you)
  • Practical (can be done)
  • Provable (deadline)

• Average person possesses from 500 to 700 different skills and abilities
• Brain can store 100 trillion facts
• Can handle 15,000 decisions a second
  

Begin by assessing your gifts and talents

Take a long honest look at what you are good at
Try to have a sane estimate of your abilities - Romans 12:3
Make a list and ask other people

Experiment with different areas of service
When it doesn't not work out, call it an "experiment", not a failure

Consider your heart and personality
Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given - Galatians 6:4

Examine your experiences and extract lessons you have learned

Remember today what you have learned about the Lord - Deuteronomy 11:2
Forgotten experiences are worthless
Paul - "Were all your experiences wasted? I hope not! - Galatians 3:4

Were rarely see God's good purpose - John 13:7

Run with patience the particular race that God has set before us - Hebrews 12:1

Satan can steal our joy by:

1. Compare your ministry with others - others doing a better job
2. Conform your ministry to the expectations of others - you are doing better and you full of pride

Avoid comparisons, resist exaggerations, and seek only God's commendations - 1 Corinthians 10:12-18

Servants think about their work, not what others are doing

They do not compare, criticize, or compete with other servants; same goal and same team
When you are busy serving, you don't have time to be critical
Our job is not to evaluate - Lord will determine the sucessfulness  of his servant - Romans 14:4

If you serve like Jesus, expect to be criticized
The service of the sinful (pouring perfume on Jesus) was though to be a waste but just though of it as significant - Matthew 26:10

Servants base their identity in Christ

They are loved and accepted by grace, servants don't have to prove their worth
Jesus washing feet - Jesus understood his worth and the task did not threathen his self-image - John 13:3-4

Insecure people are always worrying about how they appear; want others to serve them instead
Only God's approval counts - 2 Corinthians 10:18

Servants think of ministry as an opportunity, not an obligation

Serve the Lord with gladness - Psalms 100:2
The Father rewards anyone who serves him - John 12:26
He will not forget how hard you have worked - Hebrews 6:10

The only really happy people are those who have learned to serve

Passover - it meant freedom for the Jews (from Egypt)
Jesus choose Passover to bring freedom to all through his death

It was a new relationship with God and man
God loved mankind but man hurt God with his sin

Jesus: with my life and death, you have a new relationship, now remember this
It will be forgotten in our lives if we don't make plans to remember

In the midst of our activities and pressure of life, we forget:

• How much he went through for us
• That we can be forgiven and start over again and again
• Why we are doing things we are doing

He took bread and gave thanks for this very reason - Luke 22:19

Give thanks and examine yourself - 1 Corinthians 11:28
Don't forget that in Christ there is no condemnation - Romans 8:1

• We don't like it
• Trouble figuring it out
• Try hard to avoid it
  

• Why is God doing this to me?
• Is this from God or Satan?
• Why does he allow me to suffer like this?

• Jesus, through suffering, was made perfect - Matthew 26:36-46
• Our Lord sympathizes with our weakness - Hebrews 2:18
• He was without sin during his sufferings- Hebrews 4:15
• He forgave during his sufferings - Luke 23:34
• Accepted God's will for His life

• Consider it a pure joy - James 1:2
• Know it is for our maturity - James 1:3-4
• Know it is an opportunity to prove our faith - 1 Peter 1:6

• the lost
• the people he met and healed
• his disciples to stay faithful
• his family who thought he was crazy
• the children

4. Temporary loss of possions or privileges

Talk about it with your spouse and come up with a deprivation of activity or possession plan
Most important aspect of this is thinking clearly through it and talking to your spouse before opening your mouth
Don't take away item on every offense - this diminishes the impact

5. Extra work or jobs to do

Clean up their mess, doing extra work to pay off something - creates a deeper sense of responsibility
Punishment is actually a form of restitution

Jesus had compassion and healed the man with leprosy - Luke 5:12-18
Jesus is filled with compassion - Mark 1:41

Jesus was different:

• He hurt for those whose lives were devastated by illness
• He went to great lengths to be with them
• Helped and encouraged them
• Made himself available to them and spent many hours with them - Mark 1:32-34

What Jesus did we can also do (beside healing):

• Include those who are sick when you can
• Find ways to serve
• Help and encourage

Society shrinks back - hospitals are not our favorite place
Jesus reached out his hand and touched
The sick need real involvement in their lives

Somehow, we think that the person is responsible for his or her condition
In some cases yes, but we can not oversimplify God's working in our world

Job "friends" did not understand what God was doing
How unsearchale his judgement and his paths beyond tracing out - Romans 11:33

How can I imitate Jesus by "reaching out" in compassion to the sick?