Quiet Times Search

• Psalms 8, 24, 29, 47, 92, 93, 95, 96, 98, 100, 104, 113, 135, 147, 148

Jesus went to God early in the morning
If Jesus needed to do this, how much more should we?

Excuses:

• I'm not a moring person
• I have to leave for work early
• I have to get the kids off to school
• I don't want to be legalistic

How does spending the early morning with God help build a closer relationship with him?

• Show the priority of this relationship
• Our waking thoughts determine the tone and course of our day
• Quietest times of the day
• Emotion have had time to recover
• Able to clear our consciences of guilt
• Cast our burdens upon the Lord
• Able to draw from his power for the day ahead (Psalms 5:1-3)

Hard time getting our of bed?

• Go to bed at a decent hour
• Set a definite wake up time
• Be responsible for getting out of bed - your responsibility
• Do whatever it takes to wake up
• Take an early morning shower
• Two clocks, far from bed

• If you start too fast, you can die
• The most important thing is finishing
• Cannot compare myself to anyone else or I will get thrown off
• I think about walking when I think no one is looking
• Envy people standing on the sidelines
• Finish line seems to literally pull me along

• Peace
• Freedom
• Experience God's power

• Love for enemies and pray for them - Luke 6:27-28
• Sacrifice of sleep for someone
• Be flexible and inconvenienced for others

Literally - Deliverance from the evil or the evil one - Matthew 6:13

First law of spiritual warfare - Satan hates you and has a diabolical plan for your life

Jesus has given us the authority in prayer for overcoming the schemes and attacks

One of the greatest privileges and responcablities we have

Jesus took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them - Mark 10:15-16

Jesus could have blessed the children from afar
His way was closeness and affection

Unaffectionate families are cool, aloof and distant
Children raised in such an atmosphere develop into hard, nasty edge of anger and meanness

Examples:

Prodigal son - Luke 15:20
Greeted with a holy kiss - Romans 16:16
Paul and church leaders in Ephesus embraced and kissed - Acts 20:37

Kids who are showered with love must be taught to give it away
Otherwise they will become selfish, aloof, and arrogant
God commands us to love hime in return

Love and concern for others should be talked about often
Children learn to love by helping - capable of so much more than we think

We can do far too much for them - creates self-centeredness
They way we treat others is the way we treat Jesus - Matthew 25:34-40

The whole family is an instrument of God - God will use in us is a dark and lost world

How can we tell if our oldrer chidlren are disrepectful?

• Slamming doors
• Rolling eyes
• Muttering
• List is endless

Our children honoring us is to show honor to God and his plan
As our children come to respect our authority, they learn to respect God himself

Claim your authority! Expect to respected!
If you not expect it, you will not get it

Children really want deep down inside - the confidence from knowing their limits
They want to know how far they can go

What does the Bible say about spanking?

He who spares the rod hates his son - Proverbs 13:24
The rod of discipline will drive folly far away - Proverbs 22:15
If you punish with the rod, they will not die - Proverbs 23:13-14

Message is clear - Spanking is vaild, employed with wisdom and love

1. Spanking should be an event
2. Explain beforehand the reason for the spanking
3. Cool off before spanking a child - must be complete self-control and not retaliatory
4. Use a designate paddle - do not hand spank - too personal
5. Spanking must result in change, contrite heart
6. Bring things to resolution
7. Do not spank for every offence - children in elementary years, spanking is less appropriate
8. Spank on the safe backside or thigh
9. Start as soon as the child begins to understand the word no; about 14 months

1. Caused by our own bad behavior - the wicked have their fill - Proverbs 12:21
2. Comes from doing what is right - Persecution because of the Word - Matthew 13:21
3. Trouble that we all face because we live in this world
   • Each day will be trouble - Matthew 6:34
   • In this world you will have trouble - John 16:33

• Abraham's desert wanderings
• Moses' shameful flight to Midian
• Jacob's marital woes
• Hannah's years of barrenness
  
• Ruth's widowness and loneliness
• David's years as a fugitive

• Relationship with is at the center of the target
• The second is like it - not far behind
• Jesus connected relationship with God to relationship with each other
• All the law and prophets hang on these two commands
• For the Jews, Law and Prophets encompassed all of God's will

Gentleness

Mark 1:29-34

• At times we need to raise our voices and push in order to get things done.
• At the same time using gentle tone and pitching in to help will accomplish far more good.

Fueling

Mark 1:35-39

• People who love sleep don’t usually change the world
• Jesus slept when he had the time
• Jesus was extremely eager to pray
• Most of us live with only a vague idea of purpose
• Our personal ministries – can be tempted to lose the fire, to settle down, and get comfortable
• We laugh and patronize at younger friends who are “idealist, zealots, and radicals

Compassion

Mark 1:40-45

• He did not minister from a safe distance.
• We can have a powerful and lasting impact on someone else if we willing to go deep.
• There was no room left in Jesus for fear, disgust, or apprehension.
• His emotional state was righteous because he did not hesitate to reachout and touch the diseased man.
• How many of us reach out and pull back abruptly because of fear of personal rejection?

Humility

• Jesus foresaw His popular curtailing His ability to spread His word.
• People interested in personal glory don’t usually get very far in enlisting others in their cause.

Shepherding

Mark 6:30-44

• Employees must have a reason to look forward to a completion of a project.
• Must pause to experience the thrill of victory otherwise we will squeeze the joy right our of lives
• We will get burned if we do not remind ourselves to rest
• When we are exhausted our performance in all areas of our lives suffer. (point of diminishing returns)

Work Ethic

• Important causes are worthy of extreme levels of effort
• We are to go the extra mile - Matthew 5:41

Crowd Appeal

• Jesus displayed urgency and charisma when he spoke.
• People did not want to miss out on anything he might say or do.

Visible Sincerity

• Meet the crowd’s need for physical and spiritual food - needs of the whole person
• Meet other’s need without asking anything in return
• Concerned with how people fared after this life and not just in this life
• If we are concern more with what we will get ourselves we probably won’t have much of an impact

Prudence

Mark 8:11-13

• Sometimes Jesus simply did not bother to deal with his adversaries – he just up and left.
• Sometimes we need to be able to determine when the best thing to do is walk away.
• Sometimes arguing is just a waste of time – shake the dust off your feet.

Moving On

• Farmer – plants across the fields not just around the farmhouse
• If we focus all our attention on one problem one goal, or one person’s needs - lose sight of the field
• Jesus kept moving on in order to keep his and work fresh vibrant and spontaneous.
• Momentum is an invisible yet critical element in any type of movement

Discernment

Mark 12:41-44

• We must be able to discern the relative merits of people’s deeds.
• We often fail to notice the hidden glory of those who deny themselves

Snoopiness

• It is a mistake to think that we can effectively help people when we don’t know the details of what is going on in their lives
• “Mind your own business” – society is not favor of this idea
• We must demonstrate a genuine concern for the welfare of others. – not gossip

• We do not know how to initiate boys into men
• We are not sure we really want to

• slavery stopped
• Nazis were stopped
• Who gave up their seats on the Titanic?