Saturday July 26, 2014

Read: Romans 7:24-25, Philippians 3:12-14

You can hear the agony and pain in Paul’s words in verse 24. In the preceding verses Paul has been agonising over his struggle with sin. Confronted at his own sinfulness and how wretched he is before God he exclaims in desperation: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death.” We cannot simply read and study this without seeing the depth of Paul’s grief over his sin. You can imagine him on his knees, despairing of his sin and crying out to God for rescue. He imagines sin like a dead body attached to him that he is carrying around as it decays. “Who will rescue me, he cries.

This is a healthy response to our own sinfulness. It is right for us to be upset, even distraught as we realise the true horror of our depravity before God. If we truly see the depth of our sin we should be horrified by it. Our only proper response then is to cry out to God for mercy.

But this passage does not only demonstrate a proper response as we realise our battle with sin. It also gives us incredible hope for our struggle. Paul cries out: “Who will rescue me from this body of death!” but he doesn’t leave us without an answer. Notice his immediate response in the next verse: “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Although Paul is confronted with His own sinfulness and cries out to God for mercy, he knows that Christ has already won the victory and the final outcome of his struggle, which God is working out in Him, being perfect and reunited with Him forever. Because Paul knows these things He can praise God and thank Him for rescuing him from sin, even though that rescue is still being worked out in his life.

In Philippians 3 we see how this future hope drives Paul to live now. He admits that he is not already perfect, that he still battles against sin, but in knowledge of the outcome he presses on, he strains to take hold of that which Christ has accomplished for him. He adds a little more detail in the second part of verse 13: “Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” Not only does Paul strain and press on towards the life which God has accomplished for him and is working out in him, but he forgets what lies behind. Paul knows that God has forgiven him his sins and so he doesn’t need to dwell on them, he can learn from them, forget them and move forward.

In this same way we can have great hope in our struggle against sin in our lives. We know that the victory has already been won by Christ, God has rescued us from this body of death! As the effects of this rescue are being worked out in our lives we strive and strain with the help of the Holy Spirit towards holiness in our lives. We don’t have to brood and dwell on our past sins, when we confess them to God we have absolute certainty of his forgiveness (1 John 1:9) which enables us to forget what lies behind and press on towards holiness and heaven.

Prayer:

Use the Bible passage from today and the reading notes to write down your prayer points before you pray.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

¥ Praise God for His forgiveness for us through Christ. Pray that He would help you to forget what lies behind and press on towards the goal.

¥ Pray for the gathering of your church tomorrow. Pray that the word would be faithfully preached, that God’s people would worship with sincere hearts and that many lives would be changed by the work of the Holy Spirit.

 Walk Moment:

It is so easy for us to get caught up in the guilt and shame of past sins. Paul was a murderer and a violent man who killed Christians and yet because of God’s forgiveness he was able to ‘forget what lies behind’ so that he might strain for holiness. Let us surrender our guilt and shame to God and cast ourselves on His forgiveness.

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. What do you think it looks like to ‘forget what is behind and straining for what is ahead’?

2. Should we think about our sin and try to learn from it or just forget it?

 Discipleship Moment For Girls

Intro: Have you ever read the last page of a book before you read the rest? How did it change the way that you read the story?

Share: What difference does it make to know the ending of a story before we hear the rest?

Read: Romans 7:24-25. Paul knows the ending already, that God is going to totally rescue Him from sin. How do you think that would change Paul’s life? God will totally rescue you from sin too. How does it make you feel to know the ending already? How could that change what you do when you sin?

Pray Together: Thank God that He is working on you and that His will totally rescue you from sin?

 Discipleship Moment For Boys

Intro: Have you ever read the last page of a book before you read the rest? How did it change the way that you read the story?

Share: What difference does it make to know the ending of a story before we hear the rest?

Read: Romans 7:24-25. Paul knows the ending already, that God is going to totally rescue Him from sin. How do you think that would change Paul’s life? God will totally rescue you from sin too. How does it make you feel to know the ending already? How could that change what you do when you sin?

Pray Together: Thank God that He is working on you and that His will totally rescue you from sin?

Friday July 25, 2014

Read: Galatians 5:16-25

Have you ever imagined that you are a special forces solider? You know the guys who sneak alone, deep behind enemy lines in order to attack difficult to reach targets. These sorts of soldiers regularly fight in incredibly dangerous situations with little or no backup. They are the ones who can go in alone, destroy the enemy and get themselves out. I (Josh) don’t know about you but I don’t think I would have what it takes to do that sort of role.

Many Christians view their battle against sin in this way. They think that they are fighting the battle alone. They totally agree with the words of Paul in Romans 7, but they view themselves as special forces soldiers who need to go in and neutralise the problem of sin by themselves. They need to deal with their issues by themselves. It is little wonder that these kinds of Christians rarely find joy in their lives or get very far in their battle against sin.

Thankfully this is not how God intended the Christian life to be. God did not intend for there to be any lone ranger or special forces Christians, instead he supplied all the backup we need for this fight against sin. He supplied His Spirit to empower us, enable us and to work in us to grow us to be more like Him. Think of it God Himself dwells with us and in us to strengthen us and enable us in our lives. The same God who created the universe with only His word, the same God who sustains all things and the same God who rules and reigns over all things. That God dwells with us through His spirit. What more backup could we need!?

That is what Paul is talking about here in Galatians 5. We are no longer to live according to our flesh but to live by the spirit. This is a life guided by the wisdom and insight of the spirit, enabled by the power of the spirit and motivated by the work of the spirit in our hearts. Paul says that when we live this kind of life we will grow in holiness and Christlikeness. This is what he means in verse 16 when he says that if we live by the spirit we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Paul goes on to contrast the deeds of the sinful nature with the deeds of the spirit. While our sinful nature brings about all sorts of terrible deeds that ultimately lead to death (vs 19-21) the Spirit works in us to bring about His fruit (vs 22-23). He finishes with an encouragement: “since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit.”

We don’t have to fight this fight alone. While we battle against sin in this life we know that we are equipped, enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit at work in us. As we remember this we walk with the spirit, striving with all our might to keep in step with Him. We have the most powerful backup in the universe on our side but that doesn’t mean we can let Him do all the heavy lifting. Instead we walk with Him and strive together towards holiness and becoming more like Christ. Let us strive together with the Spirit.

Prayer:

Use the Bible passage from today and the reading notes to write down your prayer points before you pray.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

¥ Pray for the youth of your church. Pray that they might grow in their love for God, their love for one another and their service for God’s kingdom. Pray that they would grow in understanding of God’s word and a love for Him that would carry over into every area of their lives.

¥ Pray for the Youth group at ChristLife as they gather tonight. Pray that their time together would strengthen and encourage all the youth. Pray that the Word would be faithfully taught and explained and that it would sink deep into the hearts and minds of all the youth.

 Worship Moment:

Take a moment today to praise God that He has provided His Spirit to strengthen us and to enable us to grow in holiness. Praise Him for His incredible grace and mercy to us in providing His spirit.

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. How does it change the way you deal with sin in your life to know that the Holy Spirit is helping you?

2. What do you think Paul means when he says to live ‘by the spirit’?

3. What do you think it would look like to ‘keep in step with the spirit’? How could you do that in your life?

 Discipleship Moment For Girls

Intro: Have you ever needed help to understand something in school? Maybe you needed help from a friend, a teacher or your mum or dad.

Share: A time when you needed help. What was the problem? What did you have to do to get help? What happened?

Read: Galatians 5:16-18. Just like we need help at school everyone needs help to deal with sin in their lives. Who does God send to help us with this problem? How do you think they might be able to help? What do you need to do to get this help?

Pray Together: Thank God that He provides the Holy Spirit to help us deal with sin. Pray that He would help you to be strong and work together with Him.

 Discipleship Moment For Boys

Intro: Have you ever needed help to lift up something heavy? Has there been a time you just couldn’t do something yourself?

Share: A time when you needed help to lift something that was too heavy. What happened? Did it make it easier?

Read: Galatians 5:16-18. Even big strong men sometimes need help to move things that are too heavy. In the same way we need help to deal with sin in our lives. Thankfully God sends help. Who does God send to help us with this problem? How do you think they might be able to help?

Pray Together: Thank God that He provides the Holy Spirit to help us deal with sin. Pray that He would help you to be strong and work together with Him.

Thursday July 24, 2014

Read: Romans 7:14-24

Every Christian feels the burden of sin in their lives. No matter how hard we strive, how much we grit our teeth, how earnestly we desire to be totally rid of sin in our lives we are continually confronted by our own sinfulness. We are confronted when that horrifying, sinful thought flashes through our mind. We are confronted when we hear harsh and angry words come out of our mouth. We are confronted when we catch ourselves full of jealousy towards another person. So often we are confronted with our own sinfulness and we are reminded just how far we fall short of God’s perfect standards.

Paul’s words here in Romans 7 provide great comfort when all of us are confronted by our own sinfulness. This isn’t a problem limited to half-hearted Christians or even to unbelievers. Even the Apostle Paul a mature, holy-spirit enabled, totally committed (just read 1 Corinthians 11:23-29) believer who was used by God to share the gospel with thousands of people and even write a large portion of the Bible struggled against sin in His life. That is what Paul is talking about throughout this section. When he says that what he hates he does he is talking about struggling against sin. When he talks about keeping on doing evil he is talking about his struggle with sin. Paul is struggling and fighting against sin in his life. Like us he is confronted by how terrible it truly is.

But how is this possible? If we are dead to sin in Christ (ch 6) why do we still battle against sin? Although the battle has been decisively won by Christ at the cross and sin no longer has power over us the effects of this are still being worked out in our lives. The effects of this sin nature linger and we battle with sin in our lives despite the fact that the sin nature itself has been totally defeated.

Here’s a practical although somewhat gross illustration. Have you ever had a wart frozen off? You go to the doctor and they use the can of liquid nitrogen to freeze the wart all the way to the core. At the moment that the doctor freezes the wart it is absolutely and totally dead. The blood vessels that supply it have been killed and its tissue has been destroyed. There is no coming back from such a killing blow. Even so you normally still need to wait a few weeks for the wart to fall off, the skin to heal and the wart to be gone. For a few weeks you still need to live with the wart and all its effects, even though it is dead.

In the same way God has dealt the killing blow to our sinful nature in Christ. The job isn’t half done, its finished, our sin has been totally destroyed and we have been freed to live with Christ. This is what Paul talked about in Chapter 6 when he said that we had been totally freed from sin and that the body of death had been done away with. Even so we still need to live with the lingering effects of sin during this life. Like waiting for the wart to fall off we are waiting for the day when it and its effects will be gone forever.

This is a great encouragement when we are confronted by our sin and battle against it. Although all of us battle against sin, even the Apostle Paul, we know that the victory has been won once and for all by Christ. What hope it gives us to know that our battles have already been decisively won on our behalf. Praise God!

Prayer:

Use the Bible passage from today and the reading notes to write down your prayer points before you pray.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

¥ Pray for those in your congregation who are discouraged and downcast in their struggle against sin. Pray that God would encourage them and strengthen them in the knowledge that He has won the victory. Pray that they might be empowered by the Holy Spirit that they might stand up under temptation. Pray that God would help you encourage and serve them also.

 Walk Moment:

Every time you struggle with sin you can remember that the victory has been decisively and fully won by Christ. Find a way to encourage yourself with this each time you struggle with sin.

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. What would you say to a believer who is feeling downbeat, discouraged and anxious about their sin?

2. How could you remind yourself of this when you sin?

 Discipleship Moment For Girls

Intro: Every person struggles with sin. Sometimes it’s really hard to do the right thing instead of the wrong thing.
Share: A time when you found it really hard to do the right thing. What happened? What did you do?
Read: 1 John 2:1-2. Every Christians struggles with sin. Sometimes we end up giving in and doing the wrong thing. This battle can be really hard. What does John say will happen if we do sin? What does it mean that He is the sacrifice for our sins? It’s okay to ask mum or dad for help with this one. Does this mean we should sin? What does John say at the start?

Pray Together: Thank God that He forgives us and helps us when we sin.

 Discipleship Moment For Boys

Intro: Every person struggles with sin. Sometimes it’s really hard to do the right thing instead of the wrong thing.
Share: A time when you found it really hard to do the right thing. What happened? What did you do?
Read: 1 John 2:1-2. Every Christians struggles with sin. Sometimes we end up giving in and doing the wrong thing. This battle can be really hard. What does John say will happen if we do sin? What does it mean that He is the sacrifice for our sins? It’s okay to ask mum or dad for help with this one. Does this mean we should sin? What does John say at the start?

Pray Together: Thank God that He forgives us and helps us when we sin.

Wednesday July 23, 2014

Read: Romans 7:7-13

We have seen that the main thrust of Paul’s argument about the law in this passage is how the law stirred up sinful desires in him and revealed the true extent of sin. In making this point Paul describes the role of the law in mostly a negative fashion. This is an important point to the argument Paul is making here in Romans. Paul is very clear that man cannot be saved by keeping the law, it is only by the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ. But even as Paul makes this argument about the role of the law he goes to painstaking effort to make it clear that the law itself is not evil but good.

As a reaction against legalism and works righteousness, Christians often have a tendency to give little attention to the law, to ignore the law or even to blatantly disregard the law. Often they tend to react with suspicion and even anger when Christians talk about the role of the law for believers today. It is right to react against abuses of the law but we must be very careful that our view of God’s law is accurate and faithful to God’s word.

Notice how careful Paul is to avoid this kind of attack against the law. In verse 7 when Paul responds against the charge that the law is sin he exclaims: “certainly not!” In the original language this is an absolute emphatic statement. Paul is jumping up and down and saying “NO WAY!”

Paul continues in verse 10. Even as he argues about the way that the law provided an opportunity for sin which brought about death in him he defends the law: “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.” God’s laws and commandments were not given to destroy mankind or to bring death. God did not bring about the wickedness that occurred as a result of the law. It is the sinful and broken nature of man that brought about these wicked things. The law was intended to bring life to those who heard it and perfectly obeyed it, both richness and fullness of life now and eternal life with God later. But because of mankind’s wickedness we disobeyed God’s law and it instead brought us condemnation and wrath. Paul does not blame the law for this, it is entirely our fault.

Perhaps the greatest positive statement about the law that Paul makes in this section is found in verse 12. Paul does not speak badly about the law, far from it, instead he declares that the law and its commands are holy, righteous and good. It is hard to imagine a greater statement about the good nature of the law in itself. God did not give mankind something evil or defective, he gave something that was intended to bring life, something that was holy, righteous and good.

So how should we view the law? Rather than react with suspicion and hostility we can remember that salvation comes through Christ alone and that the law is good and plays an important role in the life of the Christian. Instead of treating others poorly we can encourage them and seek to be encouraged as we discuss the law. Instead of viewing it badly we can view it as Paul does: holy, righteous and good.

Prayer:

Use the Bible passage from today and the reading notes to write down your prayer points before you pray.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

¥ Pray for the Committee of Management in your church. Pray that God would give them wisdom and insight in their role in the church. Pray that they might be passionate about the growth of God’s Kingdom and that they would make wise decisions out of that passion. Pray that they would serve God and His church cheerfully and with joy.

 Word Moment:

How does having this kind of view of the law change the way you read the Old Testament?  Take some time to sit down and read some of God’s law with this view in mind. Pray that God would help you to understand and to apply what you read.

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. What are some of the negative things that you have heard Christians say about the Law?

2. What would you say to those people based on Paul’s words here in Romans 7?

3. How have Paul’s words confronted some of your own negative attitudes about the law?

 Discipleship Moment For Girls

Intro: Everyone finds some parts of the Bible harder to understand than others. That’s because the Bible is such an amazing book that it takes time to understand.

Share: If you can, some parts of the Bible that you have found hard to understand? What made them hard?

Read: 2 Timothy 3:16-17. It would seem easy to ignore the parts of the Bible that seem hard to us. The Bible tells us that the whole thing is helpful for us. What does this passage say the Bible is helpful for? What do you think you should do when you find a hard to understand part?

Pray Together:  Thank God that He has provided the Bible to help us.

 Discipleship Moment For Boys

Intro: Everyone finds some parts of the Bible harder to understand than others. That’s because the Bible is such an amazing book that it takes time to understand.

Share: If you can, some parts of the Bible that you have found hard to understand? What made them hard?

Read: 2 Timothy 3:16-17. It would seem easy to ignore the parts of the Bible that seem hard to us. The Bible tells us that the whole thing is helpful for us. What does this passage say the Bible is helpful for? What do you think you should do when you find a hard to understand part?

Pray Together:  Thank God that He has provided the Bible to help us.