Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. Colossians 3:23 “The Bible begins talking about work as soon as it begins talking about anything—that is how important and basic it is.” – Tim Keller “The gospel frees us from the relentless pressure of having to prove ourselves and secure our identity through work, for we are already proven and secure.” – Tim Keller “You should expect to be regularly frustrated…
(Discussion Notes Below) The topic today is the Shadow of Futility. The lie: my work doesn’t matter. The truth: you have a calling to serve and heal the world. 1. The Sacredness of Work: Rule and Reign Work is not a 4-letter word! What’s the first thing the Bible talks about? “In the beginning God.” What’s the second thing the Bible talked about? “In the beginning God created.” God is a worker, so if we are made in his image…
In March and April, our focus has circled around the subject of work. In our last time together, we closely examined Nehemiah’s ambition to take part in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. Nehemiah partnered with God to build a wall in order to provide protection for people in distress. Accompanying Nehemiah’s great ambition were great challenges. I thought you would benefit from reading this article from Desiring God about how Nehemiah successfully navigated his discouragements. This week, our focus will…
(Discussion Notes Below) The Lie: Ambition is the fuel for personal success The Truth: Ambition is a gift for Kingdom impact Ambition: a working definition, “A strong desire which leads to a willingness to overcome and fight through obstacles, to achieve a desired outcome.” Review: 1. Ambition is a good thing. God gives us ambitious assignments. Genesis 3 – we are called to rule and reign. Matthew 28 – we are called to go to the whole world and make…
(Discussion Notes Below) Today’s topic is ambition. The lie is that ambition is the fuel for personal success. The truth is that ambition is a gift for Kingdom impact. Ambition: a working definition – “A strong desire which leads to a willingness to overcome and fight through obstacles – to achieve a desired outcome.” Ambition is a good thing. God’s mandates are very ambitious! Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them…
The Apostle Peter, well known for shooting off his mouth much too quickly, writes this to us after some maturing took place in his life: “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” I Peter 3:15 Currently, we live in a “loud-mouth” culture which is what made me really appreciate this…
The lie is that I am a slave to my sexual desire. The truth is that faithfulness is a key to my formation. Lack of sexual control is not a new problem. Proverbs 7:21-27 and Proverbs 6:32 tell us this. We see this self-destruction in the Bible. David, the man after God’s own heart, self-destructs. In 1 Samuel 11, David was alone with no accountability. Then he saw Bathsheba, he inquired about her, he sent for her, he took her….
(Audio transcription below) Last time I mentioned that the very first thing in the Bible that is said to be “not good” is loneliness. Genesis 2:18 says “it’s not good that man should be alone.” The lie is that loneliness is part of being a man. The truth is that friendship is a superpower. When you’re in a war, you go through a lot of intense things in a short period of time and create friendships that you wouldn’t create…
(Audio transcription below) Because we are separated from God, what was right now seems wrong. The deceptive thing about sin is that you can’t see it clearly. We see a problem and so often misdiagnose the solution. We lie to ourselves more than we lie to anybody else. We deceive ourselves. Our topic this week and next week is loneliness. The lie we believe is that loneliness is part of being a man. It’s almost like a badge. I can…
(Audio Transcript Below) I don’t know why this is, but dogs can feel shame. We’ll talk about five signals of shame and this dog has picked up on one, blame shifting! One signal that shame is operational in your life is if you’re blame shifting. The book talks about shame this way: the lie that we buy into is, “I need to do everything possible to prevent people from seeing my failures and weakness.” So we walk in here this…