Mulling on the Eternal - Thoughts to Edify: Bible Study: I am God's Own Son

Hi Everyone

Here are last Friday's notes. You can download or listen to the audio here.

Do share it as you are blessed!

Chris

God Wants Relationship – God Wants Our Hearts

God’s Got Big Plans for You

Jesus died for us, each one of us, individually. He died for us that we might have a hope of calling, for great things in our lives. He wants us to leave this planet on a high note, with a bang, not with a whimper.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (NIV)

God wants us to live out our lives to the fullest, that He might live through you. Then you start to reflect His glory. That’s when life has meaning. It is in dying to ourselves that we really live.

Ephesians 1:18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, (NKJV)

There’s a calling we are supposed to live out. It is never too late!

Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (NKJV)

A good reason why many people don’t find it natural to glorify God is because they have not experienced His exceedingly, abundantly in their lives, but it is according to the power that works within us.

We Are What We Think

It is all in the realm of BELIEF. What is filling your heart today?

The heart is the seat of your thought life. What thoughts dominate your heart today? They will directly influence the path of your life, whether to victory in Christ, or to a life of misery and problem-centricity.

Proverbs 23:7a For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. (NKJV)

The dominant thought in your life will direct the path you go! From young there are a lot of things put into our thought life by how we were brought up – e.g. poverty mentality, shyness, failure, different kinds of fear, melancholy, pride, selfishness. Then there’s stuff put in by contemporary culture – sexual permissiveness, attitudes toward substance abuse, crime, murder, covetousness. If these are allowed to dominate our thinking, it is little wonder we have a lot of problems in our lives.

You Are What You Consume

Mark 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” (NKJV)

It's not that if we avoid these, we will not be defiled. The fact is that we ARE all defiled already and were in need of a saviour. The heart of fallen man, the soul, doesn't have a chance without the spirit. As we are being renewed, we have to guard what goes in

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. (NKJV)

Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. (NLT)

TV, Internet, media, society as a whole continue to program what you think. Friends – if the counsel of your friends is ungodly (ungodly = not like God = not like what the Word says), better to get more into the Word and less with your friends! What you constantly see, let into your mind, becomes what’s in your heart.

God Wants to Restore Your Heart

God sent His Son to save that which was lost.

Matthew 18:11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. (NKJV)

As a Son, your spirit and His spirit are one. There will never be a separation again. However, what God now wants to save is your heart. Beyond praying a prayer to accept Jesus, He wants you to surrender your WHOLE heart to Him to steward. On your own you make a lousy steward of your own heart!

Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (NKJV)

He wants our hearts because He loves us and wants to give us peace.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (NKJV)

He has left us His peace, but if we don’t take advantage of it, walking in the flesh, we will still not enjoy it.

There are promises in God’s Word for every area of your life, no matter how difficult, so that you will be a victor in this life.

Let Him Change the Way You Think

Let the Word renew your mind. Let everything you think be pegged against the Word of God. Let His Word continually be the reference point of everything in life.

2 Corinthians 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, (NKJV)

Let God through His Word take down every form of thinking that is not in obedience with the Word. Through the Spirit we already have His mind:

1 Corinthians 2:16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (NKJV)

Let your thoughts become God’s thoughts, by allowing His Word to mold your thinking. We have to read the Word until God counters our thinking with it. No encounter = no change – only when something clicks inside, when there is a revelation, that we start to change.

One cannot microwave a stew in 3 minutes. It needs to stew, you need to mull, think chew. Ps 1 says to meditate on the Word DAY and NIGHT.

Keep sowing seed into your own heart.

The challenge is in allowing the Word to take precedence in our decision-making. This is walking by faith.

Established Your Heart by His Word of Grace

We need to settle in our hearts once and for all – God loves us and He is for us, not against us.

Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (NKJV)

God = good, devil = bad. John 10:10 – don’t confuse the two!

Acts 20:32 “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (NKJV)

Our heart established by His goodness to us. We change our minds because of the love He shows us, revealed in His Word, in the things Jesus has won on our behalf.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. (NKJV)

The writer of Hebrews again reiterates that the one doctrine we need to remain true to is that of grace, that our hearts should be established in this. Outside of grace, establishing your heart in anything else is considered “various and strange doctrines”.

We need to remind ourselves from the Word and base all our doctrine and belief on the goodness of God, on the gospel, the almost-too-good-to-be-true news.

Our hearts can only be turned on to God when we understand grace. Want a heart after God? Learn about His grace, His goodness, His love in His Word. Establish yourself in it.

2 Timothy 2:1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. (NKJV)

If there is one thing we must be strong in as Christians, it is not doctrine, not serving, not ministry, but grace. We must be strong in knowing that He is good and that He loves us beyond measure.

Hardness of Heart = Unbelief

Acts 19:9 But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. (NKJV)

Believe in the full counsel of God’s Word. Press in to find out more and let the Word of God melt each area of your life. This is a continuous process that we must take for our whole lives. This is Christian growth – to know God more and trust in His Word.

Right Actions Alone = Cold Religion

1 Samuel 4:2 Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel. And when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field. 3 And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies.” 4 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. (NKJV)

We see here a people of calloused hearts, with no understanding of the things of God. They did not seek the Lord much, courtesy of Eli and Sons, but in the time of trouble, they think the Ark of the Covenant is like a magic charm to help them. This is what religion does - it reduces a relationship with God into a bunch of rituals, taking things of meaning and reducing them into mere idols and meaningless works of religiosity.

Knowing God is more important than going through the motions. Here’s the end of the story…right actions by themselves cannot last. It will eventually breed legalism, they won’t work and will result in very hardened unbelieving Christians. That’s when people start to bring the Word of God down to the level of their experience.

1 Samuel 4:10 So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11 Also the ark of God was captured; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died. (NKJV)

2 Timothy 3:2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (NKJV)

Having a form of godliness, going through the motions, but DENYING its power is a characteristic of the last-day church.

Right Heart Produces Right Actions

Luke 8:15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. (NKJV)

Here the Word with a noble and good heart. Every part of the Word. Keep it, mull on it, touch it often. Have patience and it will bear good fruit.

Re-Cap