Quiet Times Search

How do we decide what to study?

• How do I need to grow?
• What is my greatest spiritual need right now?

Questions to ask yourself:

• Do I need to see Jesus? - Gospels
• Do I need to be more spiritual? - Sermon of the Mount
• Do I need more faith?
• Do I need to learn to others more? - Jesus, John, Peter, Paul examples
• Do I need to be more grateful? - Psalms/Topical study
• Do I need to become more evangelistic?
• Do I need to know God better? - Abraham or Moses
• Do I need greater assurance of salvation? Grace topical study
• Do I need to learn how to lead? - Moses, Joshua, Nehemiah, David, Timothy/Paul, and Titus
• Do I need to renew and revived as an older disciple? Hebrews
• Do I need to a greater conviction of sin? - David's sins account, acts of the sinful nature, the cross
• Do I need to repent of sin? Godly and worldly repentance, Paul's repentance, David's repentance
• Do I need a deeper prayer life? Jesus, Moses, Ahraham, Nehemiah, and Daniel
• Do I need help as a husband, wife, or parent? Ephesians 5:21-6:4; Colossians 3:18-21; 1 Peter 3:1-7
• Do I need help in dealing with suffering or persecution? Early church's persecution in Acts
• Do I need inspiration or encouragement?  Joshua, Joseph, Peter, Elijah, Elisha, and Daniel

Commit passages of scripture to memory

1 Peter 2:18

• Our first response to others must having nothing to do with how they treat us; love is unconditional
• Our response to those who mistreat us must be based on the example of Jesus
• Our response when we are hurt is to think how to extend an opportunity of repentance and forgiveness
• The more we suffer with grace and mercy toward our offender, the more they are drawn to God

1 Peter 3:8-9

• Taking up our cross means we suffer at the hands of others without retaliation and with repect
• Offenders will be melted by our gentleness and hopefully
• Even if no repetance, they at least have an opportunity to repent

Taking the way of the cross accomplishes:

• Refines our character, making us more like Jesus
• Works on those who sin against us by bringing them to repentance
• The greater the hurt forgiven, the greater the impact of the one forgiven

• Deny self daily
• Repentance - when we don't respond to God's grace - God will find a way to help us to repent
  
  • Through kindness - Romans 2:4
  • Through discipline - Hebrews 12:5-11
• Persevering though suffering - James 1:2-4

It is important to understand certain principles apply to receiving our daily bread
If we meet God's conditions, we can have confidence that He will provide

1. Need  to have a proper relationship with God - Become a Christian
2. Fellowship with Christ - authentic spiritual communion with Christ
3. Obedience and faithfulness to God's commands

Haggai 1 - we need to consider our ways

• Planted much, but harvested little
• Eat, but never have enough
• Drink, but still thirsty
• Put clothes on, but never warn
• Earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it

Because of there repentance, they were rewarded:

• I am with you - Haggai 1:13
• I will bless you - Haggai 2:19
• I will provide for you - Haggai 2:15-19

John 8:10-11 - When they were going to throw stones - Jesus just didn't say no
He said - one who is deserving of the same fate, go ahead

Jesus called what it is was - sin:

1. Not a fault
2. Not a cultural problem
3. Not a weakness

Was she being used by the Pharisees? Yes
Was she the product of a culture that oppressed women? Yes
Was she probably from a "bad" home? Yes

Sin enslaved us - John 8:31-34
Respect and love were the last things she expected
Jesus gave her freedom to change and was willing to forgive

 Sometimes we think repentance is more difficult than it is - Jesus called for immediately
We like to stall - think about it a while, talk about it

Is it hard for me to confront others in their sin?
Do I accept or resist others when they confront me with your sin?
What sin do I find difficult to leave behind me?

1. A sound concept of repentance - God's kindness leads to repentance - Romans 2:4
   
2. Understanding of the purposes of God's gifts - point of the blessing is the blessing themselves but the ultimate outcome of our lives
   
3. Understanding of God's timetable - God's goal is always our repentance - 2 Peter 3:9

• To please him
• To change
• To serve him better

1. God's promises and faithfulness should inspire repentance
2. We need to rely on the promises even as we commit to repentance
3. Truly become repentant
4. We refrain from taking personal credit because we understand we are being recused

• Sermons are boring
• Members are unfriendly to visitors
• Wonder about the quality of the nursery care
• Church seems to more concerned about my wallet
• Music isn’t very upbeat

1. Have you made a recent decision to change something in your life?
2. Why is it more comfortable to make changes on your own terms? What changes do you seek to make?
3. How well do you respond to reproof – from the Bible and from fellow Christians?
4. Have you ever changed a fellowship, that is, church membership, to avoid a call to repentance?

• meta = after, change, implies there was a before
• noia = denotes the faculty of physical and intellectual perception, then also the power to arrive at moral judgments

• from French word, repentir – to feel regret for sins or crimes
• from Latin word, penitire – to regret

• “Change your life” – The message
• “Change your hearts and lives” – New Century Version
• “Turn away from your sins” – Good News Translation
• “Turn from your sins and turn to God” – New Living Translation
• “Reform…” – Young’s Literal Translation

• a complete change of attitude, spiritual and moral, toward God
• a change of mind
• to change one’s way of life
• to change one’s mind or purpose

• How did both John and Jesus begin their public ministry of preaching?
• What does the prefix meta- (from metanoia) mean? What other English words do you know that have meta- as a prefix?
• What does the root nous (from metanoia) mean? What other English words do you know that contain –noia?
• Have you ever considered your worldview? How has the Bible shaped it?
• Why is metanoia necessary for us to grasp the kingdom of God?
• How has the Latin idea of paenitentia influenced your understanding of repentance?
• Why is the author concerned with “repentance” as our English translation for metanoia?

• Should we expect a man so deep in repentance to spend a better part of the morning grieving for his transgressions?
• Scrooge facing in the right direction, forward

• German word for “the big picture”, seeing something differently even though all it parts remain the same
• Like repentance – don’t repent of a list of sins, we repent of the whole rather than the parts
• Tends to happen all at once, not in a series of small steps

1. Must admit to being sinful
2. Must admit to being selfish
3. Must admit to being wrong

1. How does Scrooge illustrate metanoia?
2. Have you ever experienced a gestalt switch while studying in school? How would your life change if you experienced this phenomenon in a way that helped you better understand your relationship with God?
3. What are the rules by which you play the “game of life” within an egocentric paradigm …and a deocentric paradigm?
4. How does changing the rules of a game change the strategy by which you play the game? What can learn from applying that principle to your life with God?

• Repent and turn from your transgressions – Ezekiel 18:30
• Bear fruit with keeping with repentance – Luke 3:8

• Unless you repent, you will perish – Luke 13:3
• If you don’t wake up, I will come like a thief – Revelation 3:3

• He commands all people everywhere to repent – Acts 17:30
• Repent and turn to God – Acts 26:20

• The great love for surveys and polls
• We can not repent if we do not know that we have drifted – It takes a prophet of God
• See how different the prophets in your life live.

• Metanoia happens internally, fruit happens externally
• Sometimes we say, “You need to repent” – which may have meant “get it together” (a heart bypass)
• Becomes “need to” instead of “want to”
• It is easier to disciple the behavior than it is to address the mind and heart
• Consider things above – instead of considering behavior, consider the kingdom of God
• Metanoia is no technique; it’s an inside-out transformation

1. How have you broken your covenant with God?
2. Are scriptures sufficient for your repentance?
3. Do you agree with the author’s assertions that repentance isn’t something we do in order to return to God, it is our return to Him? Why or Why not?
4. How does fear play a positive role in our repentance?
5. Do your standards for morality reflect a biblical standard or simply a modern one?
6. Why do prophets go after the leaders of a society?
7. How does metanoia differ from the fruit of metanoia? How does this distinction help you repent?

• We can not change what we can not see
• When was the last time you said the words, “I am wrong”?
• Ask someone close, “Am I blinded in any way by pride?”
• It was through pride, that the devil became the devil
• It is the complete anti-God state of mind.
• Why is Jesus so tough on Spiritual Blindness? It prevents us from seeing the good news.

• Survey of modern sermons would be salvation
• Jesus’ preaching was about the kingdom of God

• Matrix – do you know what this is, Neo?
• Feeling we have all had – there is something wrong with the world
• Blue Pill – You wake up and you believe what you wan to the believe (Jewish leaders chose this one)
• Red Pill – you are only offered truth
• Without repentance, we will remain blinded
  • How could a kingdom transcend geographic boundaries?
  • How could a kingdom be within us?
  • What sort of kingdom has no capital, no government, no army, and no temple?
• Longed for a tangible kingdom rather than a spiritual kingdom

• Many Christians the kingdom of God as something the future holds
• Some wish to avoid the kingdom commitment here on earth
• Kingdom expect allegiance ahead of all others
• Any real government expects this type of loyalty

• King exerted seasonal influence
• Three levels of subjects:
  • Disciples – treated him a Lord
  • Christians – little bit naughty, gave mainly to friends and family, on rear occasions to the poor
  • Unbelievers – little bit naughty, did not believe, not Hitler or other really bad people
• Most indirectly believe in this theory of the world
• If I abandon this paradigm, I would have to admit I am wrong.

• Parables offers an opportunity to slip a message past the defenses and filters
• Kingdom parables
  • Parable of the Sower
    • watch out for Satan, he will try to rob you of the true and understanding of the kingdom
    • church needs to honest with how worldly cares (wealth, etc)
  • Parable of the Weeds
• Repentance parables
  • Parable of the Lost Sheep
  • Parable of the Lost Coin
  • Prodical Son
    • Vivid picture of meanoia (when he came to his senses)
    • Data did not change, his thinking did
    • Younger son objectivity saw where he was with his father
    • Reoriented heart returns a reoriented life
    • Proves his repentance by his deeds

• Alternative to repentance is rejection of God
• If we don’t repent, we will perish
• We are not asked to analyze our mental orientation but to see fruit from our repentance

1. What causes spiritual blindness? Why is it so hard to see our own pride?
2. Why is Jesus so tough on spiritual blindness?
3. Earlier we discussed worldviews, how does a Kingdom view compare and contrast with your current worldview?
4. Why is the arrival of the Kingdom cause for metanoia?
5. What is Jesus’ purpose for teaching via parables?
6. What can we learn about metanoia from Jesus’ description of the Prodigal Son?
7. Why – according to Jesus’ teaching - will we perish if we don’t repent?
8. How can we be sure of our repentance?

• Students – pass/fail
• Employees – promotions\get fired
• Calories – lose/gain weight

• None of delight in a highlight reel of our personal sinfulness (especially avoid reference to specific sins)
• Whenever we expose our sins in the light of fellowship – able to see our sin more clearly

1. How can grace compel repentance?
2. How can you assess your debt to Jesus?
3. How can you be assured of the forgiveness of that debt?
4. Who is to blame for Christ’s death on the Cross?
5. How does one’s good confession - “Jesus is Lord!” - express one’s repentance?
6. Why is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ a clear indication of one’s repentance?

• flirtation to a pure friendship
• gossip to a righteous conversation
• alcohol to a friendly gathering
• pornography to a web search
• shoplifting to a normal shopping trip

• Must set mind on things above
• Not - Just read and pray more
• Not - Accountability partners
• Not - making it a habit

• Many call press conferences to get there side of the story our first
• Once guilt is found, party than give a “heart-felt” apology – sorrow for getting caught
• Sin is destructive. It ruins relationships, reputation, peace of mind and personal integrity

• Some believe the abundance of tears is repentance
  • Forgiven women (forgiven)
  • Peter, Paul vs Cain (became angry)
  • Esau (wailed loudly)
  • Judas (deeply regretted)
• All three shed tear but not one repented
• Claiming to be a victim doesn’t make one a victim
• Tears can be self-affirming to one with self-pity (can become more sinful)
• Ones mostly likely to enable and least likely to help you