Bible Study July 26, 2012

Hey Gang,


We continue this week in our study of apologetics with a final case for Hope - God's involvement in your life. 

1 Peter 3:15

But in your hearts set apart 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.

• Up to now our case for hope has been our belief in God and His existence. We talked about how He has revealed Himself through creation, the bible, Jesus and your inner spirit.
• Last week we explored one of the hardest questions, if God exists then why does a loving and caring God allow the suffering He does in our world and in the lives of the righteous? C.S. Lewis would tell us that “It is because God loves us that he makes us the gift of suffering.”

As an apologist, you will meet people:

• Who don't believe at all.
• Who are Christians but struggle with their faith.
• Who agree that God exist but they see Him as distant and removed, like a watchmaker who wound up creation and then stands back. Does God really care about the details of my life? 

 

 This is the kind of skepticism we will face with what we have learned so far: Video - Stephen Fry: Are you prepared to defend what you believe against this degree of skepticism?

Stephen Fry - God Does Not Exist 

Click Here to Watch

Now if you can counter this apologetic, then we are ready to move on to the next question:

Just how involved do you see God in your life?

How differently would we live if we believed that every dimension of our lives—from the happy to the tragic to the mundane—were part of a beautiful and purposeful design in which no thread were wrongly woven?
 

That's what best-selling author and internationally-known apologist, Ravi Zacharias, explores in The Grand Weaver. As Christians, we believe that great events such as a death or a birth are guided by the hand of God. Yet we drift into feeling that our daily lives are the product of our own efforts. This book brims with penetrating stories and insights that show us otherwise. From a chance encounter in a ticket line to a beloved father's final word before dying, from a random phone call to a line in a Scripture reading, every detail of life is woven into its perfect place.

There is one story about a mother who took a job as an inspector for Firestone in Akron, Ohio during World War II. As a result of her scrutinizing expertise, a young sailor escaped drowning twice because of a life-saving device that she personally inspected. He was able to return to his family on leave to tell of his narrow escape—that sailor was her son!

• Did God orchestrate a career path of a mother in a way that would save her son’s life?
• If God can weave the supernatural out of an ordinary factory job, why can’t He do the same out of all the threads of our lives?

When something terrible happens in your life, do you see God there or do you simply think, “That’s Life?”

• How differently would we live if we believed that every event of our lives—from the happy to the tragic to the mundane—were all part of a meticulous and purposeful design.
• There have been moments in my life that I thought God was silent, or even absent; but I know now He was there.

We are going to look at 3 parts of the Bible this morning that give us an explanation and defense for believing that God is in every event of our lives. In each passage we read this morning there is a personal step I want each of you to take in order to see God’s purpose and pattern unfolding in your life: 

 

I. GOD IS PERSONAL AND PRESENT – PSALM 139:7-10

7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.




David tells us in psalm 139 that God to him is very personal and very present in his life. David was certain that wherever he went God would lead him and hold on to him. Think about that – wherever you walk, you’ll never walk alone.



Do we see God as personal and present in every aspect of your life or does He just watch you from a distance? Why?



My daughter use to love the Bette Midler song: "From a Distance".

• The sad thing is that many people see God this very way, from a distance. They believe that He wound up His creation only to step back and watch, leaving humanity with no hope of reaching out to a personal God for help. As you think about apologetics and making a case for hope, understand that your life is prime evidence for God's involvement in our world. You need to really give some thought this week to what God has actively done in your life up to this point. The Bible teaches that God is not merely the Creator but also the Sustainer of all things.

Someone read Psalm 139:16 “You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your Book!” (LB)

• God planned the days of your life in advance, choosing the exact time of your birth and death.

Someone read Acts 17:26-28 “26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'” (NIV)

• God has reason for everything He creates.
• Job 12:10 says, “It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s life is in His power.” (TEV)

How can I see God’s involvement and purpose in the tragedies that wound me or the blessings that bring joy to my soul?

• Isaiah 46:3-4 says, “I have carried you since you were born; I have taken care of you from your birth. Even when you are old, I will be the same. Even when your hair has turned gray, I will take care of you. I made you and will take care of you.” (NCV)
• God trained Moses in a palace to use him in a desert. He trained Joseph in a desert to use him in a palace.
• I believe God intervenes in the lives of every one of us. He speaks to us in different ways and at different times so that we may know He is there.
• When we want to know about God we have to give priority to His Word – either you trust and believe what He says or you don’t.

How does God always being present help you? How does it scare you?

• To guide and to hold accountable. Reap what you sow. God continues to be involved in the life of every person to the degree that person trusts Him.

Step # 1 to seeing God’s pattern unfolding in your life:


Step 1: Allow God to make your heart tender.

• Tender means receptive. God uses circumstances in our lives whether it is suffering, tragedies or blessings to shape our inner beliefs – our hearts. When we live through a loss – we learn and God begins to shape you. Depending on how you respond: your heart will either have become coarse and desensitized, crushed under the weight of disappointment, or tender.

Now let’s take a look at God’s personal presence in Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy is a collection of Moses’ sermons near the end of his life:
 

II. GOD GUIDES AND PROVIDES – DEUTERONOMY 8:2-5

2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.



What had God done for the people in this passage? Why wouldn’t God guide and lead us in our journey to the promise land?

• Led them through the desert, provided them food and water, made it so their clothes didn’t wear out and their feet did not swell.
• Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “5Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
• In all your ways acknowledge Him. In all your ways: your schooling, your relationships, your employment, your recreation, your attitudes, your possessions, your music, your reading matter, your television, your desires and aims and goals. In all your ways. Then the path He sets before you will lead straight to the heart of His will for you. Then the way He establishes will be the way to life.

What is Moses’ main concern for the people here before they enter the promise land?

• That they remember what God had done for them. That they not forget how God guided and provided.
• When do we tend to forget what God has done for us? When we focus on our suffering at the expense of our blessing. When we begin to see our blessings as something we earned ourselves.
• A teenage daughter who complains that her parents won’t buy her a particular dress shouts in her dismay, “they never do anything for me.” She slams the door to the room her parents provide, flops down on the bed covered with 14 pillows, turns on the TV or her iPod or calls her friends on her cell phone for which her parents pay the monthly bill for as well, and later drives to a friend’s house in the car her parents bought for her. She has chosen to live by the exception. She didn’t get the dress so she forgets everything else.

How does God sometimes deal with our forgetfulness?

• Maybe through hard times (wandering in the wilderness), maybe through loss (testing’s of our faith), maybe through disciplining or humbling.

Step # 2 to seeing God’s pattern unfolding in your life:



Step 2: Make your mind strong through faith.

• Learn to trust in God’s control and depend on His providence. Faith is a thing of the mind. If you do not believe that God is in control and that He is shaping you for a purpose, then you will lose an incredible insight into Who and where God is in your life. Believe what He tells you through His Word.
• Walking by faith means to follow Someone else who knows more than you do,
• 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”
• If God has prepared something for me that will literally take my breath away, then surely He must have a specific purpose for my life here as well.

Now how do you see what Jesus has to do with God’s involvement in your life?

III. GOD STEPPED INTO HISTORY – PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.


Why do you need Jesus to be God? Why do you need Jesus to be human?

• Because God stepped into history, He understands our situation perfectly and can help us in life. Jesus put a face to God.

What attitude is Paul trying to get us to adhere to?

• Sacrifice, humility – love and concern for others
• Ephesians 1:11 says, “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, He had His eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone. (MSG) His purpose for your life predates your conception. You may choose your career, your spouse, your hobbies, and many other parts of your life, but you don’t get to choose your purpose.

Step # 3 to seeing God’s pattern unfolding in your life:



Step 3: See the world through the sacrifice of Jesus.



Conclusion

• If we will fix our tender hearts and faithful minds on the sacrifice of Jesus, then we will begin to see the world according to God’s pattern. Yes there is pain in this world, but we have to begin to see the world of pain through the eyes of the One who best understands it.
• God shows us through His love, at the cross, that He stepped into history to connect and show us the way.

Once you begin to see God’s hand in every event of your life, His design pulls together every thread of your existence into a magnificent work of art. Every thread matters and has a specific purpose.



There was a young British politician who, when visiting Washington, D.C., was hit by a car while crossing the road. The accident should have permanently disabled him, if not taken his life. In fact he said himself that: he should have been squashed beyond recognition. Those who were there saw it as the fortunate preservation of a single life, nothing more. But history showed differently. We can only wonder what today would look like had Winston Churchill’s life not been spared that day. To stop a Hitler, we had to have a Churchill.
 

This is our final lesson of the initial series on The Case for Hope. Our next series of 5 lessons will be on The Case for Jesus. 

Hope everyone has a blessed week as we prayerfully prepare for some spiritual insight into God's involvement in our daily lives. I read where someone in our group had a hole-in-one Saturday at the Greenville County Amateur Championship - Congratulations Todd!! 

In His Love,

David