Sunday Night January 15, 2006

Notes and Scriptures from Jan. 15

This is rough, guys, but bear with, and read the scripture references! Don't take my word for it...


• Matt. 25
o Urgency (Rick)
• Urgency speaks of consequences
 Activity
• If we “buy oil”/get ready/filled with Spirit
• We enter the wedding
 Inactivity
• Not ready/filled w/Spirit
• We are left out.
Self-Preservation (Matt 25, Matt 10, Acts 2:40)
• Legitimate motivation!
• Acts 2 “Save Yourselves from this perverse generation”
• Matthew 10 “be afraid”
o Gehenna/trash heap
• Who wants to be thrown on Gods trash heap?
 What will you find there?
• The demons?
• The damned?
o And it is burning
o Valley of Ben Hinnom was where they burned their sons and daughters in the fire. That’s what gehenna, the place, was in the day of Jesus.
• I said they burned bones there. Not true. But in the days of Josiah, it had become a place of infant sacrifice.
• King Josiah desecrated it…
• It was a symbol of demons
• I don’t want to be one of those who get lost to God in this way!!!

Luke 16 Recap:
• Parable set in terms we could understand
o Money
o Jesus got demanding and bossy about money
o And scary!
o Correlation between this world and “light”
• This world is darkness
• Not your home
• 1 John (only 5 chapters) don’t love the world
 it’s passing away
 lust of flesh
 lust of eyes
 pride of life
o Use money to get friends
• Make friends withthosse of high status!
 Not “nobodies”. Somebodies
 And who is greater than Jesus?
• Matt. 25: He is the least of these!
• James 1
o Rich are low
o Poor are high
• First are last, last are first
Metanoia
• Turn your mind around!
o Repent!
• Romans 12—reneweing of the mind. Not in conformity with the world!
• Our New Language (of the TURNED MIND) Praise
o One of the most important things of ourlife
o Eph 4 ane 5
• Thanksgiving is our new language
• Much better to be silly in praise than to be fitting in with the typical complaining and bitterness
•

Scripture lists are necessary
• Radical life change required
• Consider what you’re getting involved in!!!
• Is it a cult?
• Or is it the Gospel?

Mt. 25—seriously get your heads into it and get it into your head!
Renewing of the mind!
• Five categories:
o Hungry
o Thirsty
o Stranger
o Sick
o Prisoner
• Repeated severally!
• When it’s repeated, it’s important!
• Four times repeated! Hello!

2 Cor. 13:5
• classic prooftexting! Check it out!
• Paul has been calling them throughout the letter to return to faithfulness to the way
o Harsh even
• Smitty reads it.
• “How dare you question my faith?”
o we dare very well question you!
o It’s for your own good
o And for the Lord’s pleasure
• We’re bold to question each other!
• JP shares:
o Ephesian elders warned Acts 26
• The evil comes from within
• Watch out
• Be on guard
•
Making a Scripture list is so important

Greed:
• In terms of people in this room
o So soaked in greed that we can’t even see it
o So out of touch with poverty
o That I think it’s like

Christmas Eve.
• We’re about to receive precious gifts from God our father
• The opening of the kingdom to our hearts is a convicting, painful thing, but we’re being HEALED!
o Nehemiah 8:10—
• They were utterly undone when they learned what they had been missing!
• They are weeping, but Ezra and Nehemiah were telling them to rejoice and celebrate
 It’s natural to weep when we realize we’ve been on the wrong path.
 It’s supernatural to rejoice when we are shown our wrong…
• Mt.5 Second Beattitude
 Blessed are those who mourn
• Happiness in grief!


Taking Spiritual Responsibility/Gaining Spiritual Maturity
• Nehemiah 8
o They take responsibility
• Ezra reads the law
• They realize their state
• They understand
 in mourning
 in action
• They take responsibility
 Jubilee practices
• major reform!
 Celebrating at table
 Shares for the poor
 Shares to the levites

o The American ChurchWe have Neglected
• Why?
 Doesn’t matter!
 It’s not our fault
 Or it is!
 But it’s not important why!
 It’s important to realize that it’s our RESPONSIBILITY!
• Grow up now! Maturity!
o If you’d grown up 100 year s from now…
o And the environment were poisonous…
o You would be RESPONSIBLE to fix it!
 Well the environment is poisonous with Greed. And you and I must fix it!
• We must take responsibility for it and fix it…
o It might be inherited from our forefathers
o It might be because of unfaithful leaders
o It might be totally just the water we swim in
o But it is OUR responsibility to reform it!
• To be reformed by Jesus/the Word
• To be transformed by the renewing of our minds!
 To let that Word work its way out in our lives


…This is as far as I was able to get transcription of the audio notes… do with it what youcan…