back to index2019-02-13: Wed Bible Study Lesson 5
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Okay, let me pray for us and we'll jump right in. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the 00:00:11.120 |
blessing that we have. We pray, Father, that the study of your Word would open our eyes, 00:00:17.320 |
help us to have a deeper understanding of your grace in our lives, and that we may be 00:00:21.120 |
affected and that we may apply all that you have given us. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. 00:00:26.480 |
Alright, so if you look at your first sheet, and just like I did last week, I'm going to 00:00:33.120 |
start out with a principle of hermeneutics. One of the things that, again, I want to emphasize 00:00:39.600 |
each week. And then the rest of it is for you to fill out as we go through the passage. 00:00:45.280 |
So again, if you want to make notes, the Bible verses are written down for you on the next 00:00:50.840 |
page. And I'm hoping that you'll take notes here. And then the more organized notes on 00:00:56.080 |
this one. Okay, so on this one it'll kind of give you an outline and I just left it 00:01:01.040 |
blank. So what I write down on this, you may want to write down on this because this is 00:01:06.560 |
something that you'll probably hold on to. But I also gave you this because I want you 00:01:10.440 |
to see where we're getting at. I don't want you to just say, you know, look at verse two 00:01:14.120 |
and three and then I just write it down. So I want you to see where we're getting at. 00:01:17.800 |
Again, the goal of this study is not for me to just tell you what it means. It's for you 00:01:21.920 |
to go and get in the habit of studying the Bible for yourself. Okay. All right, so if 00:01:27.600 |
you look at the first page, the first principle that we want to look at, Scripture must interpret 00:01:34.600 |
Scripture. God does not contradict himself. Though the Bible was written in the span of 00:01:39.840 |
1500 years through 45 different human authors, the true author was God through the Holy Spirit. 00:01:46.000 |
Therefore we must interpret each letter in light of the context of the whole of Scripture. 00:01:49.880 |
So basically what it means is God is not going to say something that he said otherwise in 00:01:56.800 |
another text. So if you're interpreting a passage and it contradicts something that 00:02:00.760 |
was already stated in Scripture, most likely your interpretation is not correct. Right? 00:02:06.400 |
It's just like, again, this is not unique to the Bible. This is, if you're having a 00:02:10.680 |
conversation and you know, in the same conversation, if he said, I love apples, I hate apples, 00:02:17.440 |
you know, then you say, okay, I must've heard something wrong or he meant, he must've meant 00:02:21.160 |
hated apples in some other context. Right? So in Scripture, we have to understand that 00:02:28.400 |
the author is the Holy Spirit. He used the agents of human beings, but ultimate author 00:02:33.680 |
author is one person, the Holy Spirit. Right? And so therefore what he says in another text 00:02:40.200 |
is not going to contradict what he says in, let's say, you know, in Hebrews, he's not 00:02:45.680 |
going to contradict what he says in James or in Galatians. So that's what it means by 00:02:49.720 |
allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture. One of the reasons why I always quote cross 00:02:57.180 |
references, whether it's my preaching or in Bible study, is because, is for that reason. 00:03:02.860 |
So you can see that the interpretation of that passage is consistent with rest of Scripture. 00:03:08.600 |
So you're not just seeing, it's like, well, this is what it says. And we're just pulling 00:03:11.360 |
meaning out of that, that you need to be in the habit of, if this is what it means, he 00:03:16.600 |
must've said it somewhere else. In fact, oftentimes looking at other passages will help you to 00:03:21.860 |
understand what he's saying here, because it's in the larger context of what he means. 00:03:26.080 |
You understand what I'm saying? Okay. So how this is applied in this particular text is 00:03:30.940 |
in verse 24. So if you look at verse 24, it says, now I rejoice in the suffering for my 00:03:37.120 |
sake and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling 00:03:43.120 |
up what is lacking in Christ's affliction. So if you looked at that outside of any other 00:03:48.440 |
context and just looked at that verse alone, what could you say of this? Which would be 00:03:57.400 |
outright heresy. Apostle Paul is contributing to our atonement. Yes? Okay, you guys are 00:04:06.480 |
all looking at me like you have no idea what I'm talking about. Verse 24, right? If you 00:04:11.880 |
were to interpret that, if you're not paying attention, you look at that verse and you 00:04:16.720 |
say, well, clearly scripture said, you're quoting the passage, right? There's a verse, 00:04:21.560 |
there's a line where Paul says, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction. 00:04:27.360 |
So there's a part of what Jesus did on the cross wasn't complete. So therefore Paul is 00:04:32.720 |
fulfilling a necessary part of the atonement. Is that what Paul means? Clearly that's not 00:04:38.720 |
what Paul means. Because Paul says clearly in other passages that that is not the case. 00:04:43.840 |
So that's what it means by allowing scripture to interpret scripture. If you have detailed 00:04:50.160 |
conversation with cults, this is where they go wrong. So as a young Christian, if you 00:04:56.840 |
talk to a Jehovah Witness, they'll quote verses and they'll tell you, well, clearly Jesus 00:05:01.920 |
said this and they said this and Jesus is a God, not the God. And they'll have plenty 00:05:06.020 |
of verses to back it up. Right? But they're taking it out of context. And that's where 00:05:12.100 |
bad doctrine comes from. So if this is cannot mean what it could because it clearly contradicts 00:05:18.500 |
rest of scripture. There's a few verses I want you to look up. John chapter 14 verse 00:05:24.640 |
4 and John chapter 536. So if I can have somebody read out loud John chapter 17 verse 4, one 00:05:35.640 |
of the guys tables can read that. And then John 536, one of the ladies tables can read 00:05:41.040 |
that. Okay. And I'm just going to point to somebody. Isaac usually my go to guy here. 00:05:47.560 |
So he's pretty quick looking at passages. John 17, 4, if you can look at it real quick. 00:05:54.560 |
17, 4. Does it look wrong? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that is the verse. Okay. And then denies John 00:06:14.480 |
536 over there. Okay. Okay. I could have obviously picked, you know, tons of and dozens of other 00:06:33.360 |
passages to refer to his atonement being uniquely Jesus's fulfilled work. When Jesus was crucified 00:06:40.440 |
on the cross, he says it is finished. And again, you know, I'm not going to go into 00:06:44.360 |
that doctrine here, but clearly the New Testament teaches that Christ's work on the cross is 00:06:50.420 |
final and complete. There's nothing lacking. So what does Paul mean here when he says what 00:06:55.120 |
is lacking in his affliction? So if you can look with me to Philippians chapter 230, we 00:07:00.480 |
get an example, at least language wise, because it's the same author writing Colossians writing 00:07:05.560 |
Philippians chapter 230. If I can have a one of the guys read that. Johnny Wang, if you 00:07:14.160 |
can read Philippians 230 for me. And then Samantha, if you can read Romans 10, 14. Okay. 00:07:30.440 |
So Paul uses, again, he's not talking about Christ's atonement, but he uses a very similar 00:07:35.040 |
language talking about how he was completing what was lacking in his service. So again, 00:07:42.400 |
the language is the same. He's saying that something that Paul was doing that he needed 00:07:46.000 |
help in, and he talks about that in the context of, again, lacking. Romans chapter 10, 14, 00:07:53.560 |
and I think you guys know that passage well. Okay. So that passage is talking about how 00:08:07.800 |
Christ fulfilled his work on the cross, but he says how will this become effective if 00:08:13.880 |
they do not hear? And how will they hear if they are not sent? So he's talking about there's 00:08:18.420 |
a gap between what Christ has done and the evangelization, right? And making of disciples. 00:08:23.480 |
So Paul says we need to send people to bridge that gap. Like we need to go. So what is the 00:08:30.660 |
best interpretation of this? In light of everything else that we see. Paul is bridging the gap 00:08:40.600 |
between his finished work on the cross and evangelizing and getting the word out. And 00:08:45.200 |
if you read the context of the text that we're looking at, that's exactly what he's talking 00:08:49.440 |
about. His own ministry of the gospel. Right? So he's not talking about atonement. That 00:08:56.920 |
he's bridging the gap, what is lacking in atonement. He's saying in evangelizing to 00:09:01.120 |
get the word out. You understand what I'm saying? Okay. So if we get this wrong, this 00:09:06.320 |
is where bad doctrine comes from. And this is why so many Christians are intimidated 00:09:11.160 |
to talk to cult members because they quote passages. And most Christians are not aware 00:09:18.320 |
of the passage that they're quoting is out of context. Right? And so it's very, very 00:09:24.120 |
important that when you are studying the scripture that you know not only what that verse says, 00:09:30.380 |
but the context in which it is said. That's why even memorizing scripture, you know, I've 00:09:35.180 |
had so many scripture verses that I memorized out of context. And years later as I was studying 00:09:41.120 |
the Bible, what I thought it said was completely different when I began to study it. Right? 00:09:46.720 |
Like, there's still value in studying, I mean, memorizing scripture topically. But it's equally 00:09:53.320 |
important, maybe even more important that you understand the context in which that verse 00:09:57.360 |
came out of. Or else that's where bad doctrine typically comes from. Okay? So that's one 00:10:03.360 |
of the principles that I hope you remember. That's why cross references is always important. 00:10:09.280 |
Especially early on in studying the Bible. If you're studying the scriptures and you 00:10:14.160 |
say, wow, this is a great revelation. Make sure you double check with other cross references 00:10:19.880 |
that is consistent with what he said in other passages. Okay? All right. Let's jump in. 00:10:26.560 |
As I did last week and the previous weeks, I divided the text into an outline. And that's 00:10:33.160 |
why I kind of divided the way I did. I saw, again, number two in the outline that I gave 00:10:39.600 |
you, outline of this passage in three parts. Verse 21 to 23, it gives our past, present, 00:10:46.360 |
and future standing before God. So before we jump into the text, to get a broad outline 00:10:53.840 |
of his flow of thought. So that you're going to, when you're studying the word or you're 00:10:59.400 |
studying the sentence or you're studying the paragraph, you understand what he is saying 00:11:03.280 |
before and what he's saying after. Right? To always understand it in context. So he 00:11:08.680 |
starts out, at least in this text, about our past, present, and future standing before 00:11:13.520 |
God, 24 to 27, Paul's calling to the gospel ministry. And then thirdly, verse 28 to 29, 00:11:22.400 |
Paul's work in the gospel ministry. How is God accomplishing this work through Paul? 00:11:28.080 |
Verse 28 through 29. Okay. That's already written for you, so you don't need to write 00:11:38.160 |
all that. All right. So the first section, I said past, present, and future. So if you 00:11:43.440 |
look at verse 21, again, none of this is something that you have to go to the commentary for. 00:11:50.160 |
If you spent enough time in front of this text, you can gain these insights for yourself. 00:11:54.560 |
Okay? So if you look at the first three verses, you can clearly see that there is a 00:12:07.840 |
past component of the first verse. Right? He says, "Although you were formerly alienated 00:12:15.720 |
and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds." And then the present, "But now, he has now 00:12:23.400 |
reconciled you through his fleshly body and to present you blameless." And then the future 00:12:34.280 |
is called to persevere, to continue to go forward. Right? So in the first section, verse 00:12:41.160 |
21, 22, and 23, past, present, and future of where we stand before God. Right? Remember 00:12:52.040 |
one of the things that I asked you to do when you're looking for observations, that see 00:12:55.800 |
if you see any contrasting ideas. Do you see any in this section? How do you see it? Okay. 00:13:12.960 |
Alienated and reconciled. Okay? Right? Before we were alienated, now we're reconciled. Anything 00:13:22.920 |
else? Hostile in mind. Okay, that's not the word I want to use. Hostile in mind. Right? 00:13:43.840 |
Talking about the mind being hostile, being reconciled in the flesh. Right? So if you 00:13:50.400 |
look at the third part, "Engaged in the evil deeds, but presented as blameless." Right? 00:13:57.640 |
So he's talking about, so each one of these lines basically nullifies the other. Was reconciled, 00:14:05.320 |
was alienated, but reconciled. Hostile in mind, but atoned in the flesh. Engaged in 00:14:11.760 |
evil deeds, presented to be holy. Right? So I don't think it's by accident. Paul is basically 00:14:17.440 |
systematically targeting, this is who you were, but what Jesus did nullifies and transferred 00:14:23.800 |
you. Right? And then the third verse, he points to the future where he says, "But if indeed 00:14:32.360 |
you continue in the faith." So this is not passive. He's not saying, "This is what happened." 00:14:42.800 |
That you just kind of enjoy yourself. He adds that if this is you, and it will be continued 00:14:49.320 |
to be you, if you continue in the faith, firmly established, steadfast, and not moved away. 00:14:57.480 |
So all three of these words are basically saying the same thing. That you continue this 00:15:02.840 |
path. You persevere. Right? You don't just hear it and say, "Oh, we're justified and 00:15:07.800 |
that we're just waiting to get to heaven." He talks about sanctification and the idea 00:15:12.080 |
of persevering is staying steadfast. How do we stay steadfast? In faith, from the hope 00:15:17.640 |
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Right? Staying grounded in the hope. So one of the questions 00:15:22.440 |
that I asked in your discussion question is, if our justification, he says, will carry 00:15:29.040 |
us on to completion if we hold fast to our confession in faith. Right? And remain steadfast. 00:15:36.260 |
So these aren't just passive, where you're just kind of on the boat and you're just floating. 00:15:40.120 |
And that's the problem with the Hebrews. Right? The recipient of Hebrews was they got on the 00:15:44.560 |
boat and they're just drifting. But here he says to hold fast. Right? In faith. Okay? 00:15:53.220 |
So past, present, and future. The second part, verse 23, 24 to 27, talking about Paul's ministry. 00:16:09.200 |
So, there's five things that I observed about Paul's ministry. One, he says he rejoiced 00:16:19.600 |
in the suffering for your sake. One of the questions that came up when he says, "When 00:16:25.040 |
he reconciled." What verse was that? Yeah, verse 22. Yeah, he is clearly referring to 00:16:43.060 |
Christ because he's talking about how he reconciled in his body. Okay? That was one of the questions 00:16:47.520 |
that came in. All right. So the five things that I noticed in verse 24 through 27 about 00:16:54.160 |
Paul's ministry is that Paul considered his suffering a joy. Okay? Now, an average person, 00:17:03.520 |
you know, it's like, "Well, he's an apostle of Jesus Christ. There's a special anointing 00:17:06.480 |
in him. And he says that." But how many times do you see a Christian, like, actually saying, 00:17:12.880 |
"I'm suffering for your sake and I rejoice over it." Right? If somebody said that, we 00:17:16.840 |
would almost be cynical thinking you're fake. Like, be real. Tell me how you really feel. 00:17:22.480 |
Right? Now, we would never accuse Apostle Paul of that because he's an apostle. But 00:17:27.520 |
I think that's directly linked to what he said previously. If his hope is firmly grounded 00:17:32.840 |
in Christ, yes, his suffering is leading to greater glory. And it's because of his great 00:17:37.360 |
faith he's able to see it in joy. Right? But if your hope is laid up here, how can 00:17:43.400 |
suffering be rejoicing? It's only when you see suffering as a way of greater glory. Right? 00:17:50.800 |
And if you believe that. So, one, he says his suffering. And then, what suffering is 00:17:55.600 |
he talking about here? What context is he writing this letter? Remember? Huh? He's 00:18:06.840 |
a prisoner. So, this is one of the prisoner epistles. So, he's in Rome writing this letter. 00:18:10.160 |
So, when he says he's suffering, everybody's aware where he is. Right? And then he says, 00:18:19.320 |
number two, his work for the church. And in my flesh I do my share on behalf of the body. 00:18:29.760 |
And then third, in work for Christ. And then fourth, that God gave him this stewardship. 00:18:49.360 |
He's rejoicing. He's doing his part for the church. He's doing his part for the gospel. 00:18:57.040 |
And spreading the gospel. Fourth, he says he was appointed by God. And fifthly, he's 00:19:04.440 |
talking about the message itself. Right? Is a mystery. So, when he says God appointed 00:19:11.800 |
him to be able to fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, he says the full, the 00:19:17.320 |
preaching of the word of God is making the mystery known. Like that's God's will. Right? 00:19:23.740 |
What was hidden, now they know. But there's so much more to be revealed. Even now. Right? 00:19:31.480 |
How many of you, and again this is a rhetorical question, have been Christians more than ten 00:19:34.700 |
years and did not make the connection of Leviticus to the New Testament? Right? It's a rhetorical 00:19:40.580 |
question. You don't have to answer. My guess is most of you didn't. Right? Because it's 00:19:47.180 |
just not taught. But those of you who made the connection, now look back at it. How important, 00:19:53.700 |
how important is Leviticus in understanding the gospel? Crucial. Right? Now how many Christians 00:20:02.460 |
in our, you know, in our area or around the world do you think understand that connection 00:20:07.100 |
between what God was doing in Leviticus in understanding the depth of the gospel? Right? 00:20:12.580 |
Very few. So, Paul says the preaching of the gospel is the mystery being revealed. And 00:20:19.340 |
so he describes his preaching of the gospel as connecting the dots. What Christ has done 00:20:24.780 |
and what God had done in the Old Testament. Right? And that was preaching of the gospel. 00:20:29.820 |
So the preaching of the gospel isn't simply God loves you, has a wonderful plan for your 00:20:33.340 |
life. The gospel actually begins in the Old Testament. Right? Gospel doesn't start in 00:20:38.980 |
Matthew chapter one. It starts in the beginning. All of it is the gospel. So when somebody 00:20:45.940 |
says you know you got to preach the gospel and say God loves you, has a wonderful plan 00:20:49.580 |
for your life. That's, they're starting at the midpoint. Starting point is all of sin 00:20:53.740 |
and fall short of the glory of God. Right? And what God was doing through all of that. 00:20:59.060 |
Okay. So the third part, verse 28 through 29, Paul's work in the gospel ministry. I don't 00:21:15.100 |
know if you can read my writing. All right. So four things I saw. One, we proclaim him. 00:21:22.020 |
So at the core of this mystery being revealed is Christ himself. Right? That's why you probably 00:21:28.700 |
hear all the times that all of the Bible is about Christ. Because Christ is at the center 00:21:32.980 |
of all of this. Not only is he the creator, not only is the sustainer, not only is he 00:21:38.420 |
the goal, he's the mediator. Right? He's the fulfiller. All of the Bible at the center 00:21:45.540 |
of it is Christ. Right? So remember we talked about context. If you're interpreting a passage 00:21:54.280 |
and you're preaching something and you don't know how to connect that to Christ, you probably 00:21:58.740 |
didn't interpret that correctly. Okay? I give you an example about the book of Jonah. Right? 00:22:08.820 |
The point of that story is not don't mess with God or Wales is going to kill you. The 00:22:13.700 |
end. What does that have to do with redemptive history? Not saying that there aren't principles 00:22:20.060 |
where God teaches us how to behave. Like does the Bible teach us don't mess with God? Yes. 00:22:25.260 |
Does the Bible teach us that we need to rely on him? All of these things are true. But 00:22:29.300 |
if the central message is Christ and you don't see any connection to Christ, you probably 00:22:34.300 |
miss the bigger picture in that text. Right? So the central message of Jonah is God raised 00:22:41.180 |
up the nation of Israel to be a light to the world. Right? And he was self-focused. Israel 00:22:49.340 |
only cared about Israel. God said from the very beginning that I'm going to bless you 00:22:53.020 |
and through you many other nations are going to be blessed. But they completely forgot 00:22:56.340 |
about that. So all of that in redemptive history. And the same thing with the church. He said 00:23:02.140 |
if we are the light and we lose the light, right? And we're for the salt of the world 00:23:07.980 |
and we lose our saltiness. He said what good is it for? That's basically what was happening 00:23:12.300 |
with the nation of Israel. Right? So number one, Paul's ministry was proclaiming Christ 00:23:20.020 |
at the center. Two, the work was admonishing every man and teaching every man with all 00:23:27.540 |
wisdom. So right off in Matthew chapter 28, right? Make disciples, baptizing them in the 00:23:35.540 |
name of the father, son, and holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded 00:23:39.060 |
you. So it's not like he's not simply saying God is awesome, he died for us, isn't he awesome, 00:23:45.420 |
let's go to heaven. Right? So Paul's preaching and preaching about Christ includes admonishing, 00:23:51.860 |
teaching, rebuking, training in righteousness. Right? So that process of sanctification is 00:23:59.140 |
part of what it means to put our hope in Christ. So that was also his preaching. So again, 00:24:06.180 |
for whatever the reason in our modern era, preaching imperative has been dismissed as 00:24:12.180 |
moralism. Right? It's moralism if you don't connect that to Christ. But if you connect 00:24:18.340 |
it to Christ, Christ will always call us to holiness. So you can't separate these two 00:24:23.940 |
things. You can't separate the preaching of the gospel and then say imperatives are legalism. 00:24:28.940 |
Because imperatives are part of the gospel. Right? We no longer obey the law, but we obey 00:24:35.580 |
the law of what? Christ. Right? So that's number two. Three, to present everyone, every 00:24:46.740 |
man complete in Christ. Right? So he's not just teaching and he's not just training. 00:24:53.660 |
His goal is to bring them to the end conclusion. So the word for complete here basically means 00:24:59.080 |
to bring them to the logical end. So the point of justification is to be reconciled so that 00:25:08.500 |
they can go back to where God intended. That's what the word complete means. It doesn't mean 00:25:14.080 |
complete perfect that somehow during this lifetime you're going to be complete. Right? 00:25:19.500 |
You're never going to sin. You never have doubts. You never have, you know, you do anything 00:25:22.980 |
wrong. The word complete basically means to bring to completion. So in other words, God 00:25:30.020 |
justifies us in order to sanctify us. Right? Those two things are not separate. So Paul's 00:25:38.080 |
ministry preaching Christ, admonishing every man to bring him to the logical conclusion 00:25:44.040 |
of their salvation. To make every man complete. And then finally he says all of this by the 00:25:49.880 |
power that's working within him. So it starts with him. Right? You can't be an effective 00:25:58.240 |
minister at any capacity. Small group, one to one, college, singles, married, family. 00:26:06.120 |
You can't be effective in any way if the work is not all first happening with you. He says 00:26:13.680 |
he's laboring according to the power which mightily works within me. So the primary and 00:26:20.560 |
the most important thing that every Christian has to be is making sure that Christ is affecting 00:26:25.960 |
you first. Because everything else that you do without Christ affecting you is just your 00:26:33.160 |
labor is kicking against the goal. Building something that you have no power to build. 00:26:40.160 |
Bringing someone from darkness to light. You have no power to do that. It's only when 00:26:45.280 |
the Holy Spirit is working in us and through us. And that's what Paul says. Okay? Right. 00:26:50.920 |
So again, we can go deep into any one of these things, but again the goal of this is for 00:26:54.920 |
you to see, again, if you spend enough time in front of the Bible and just ask questions, 00:27:00.800 |
outlining, thinking, cross-referencing back and forth, that these are insights that any 00:27:06.120 |
one of you can have. Okay? And so my hope and prayer is that you would learn to do quiet 00:27:13.120 |
time in this way. That you don't just skim through three chapters and say I did my quiet 00:27:17.200 |
time. But sit there and dig. Because so much comes out when you take your time. Especially 00:27:21.840 |
those of you guys who are memorizing the book of James. Right? Even sometimes after you've 00:27:26.480 |
memorized it, like years later you'll be thinking about it. Oh, that's what that meant. Right? 00:27:32.680 |
Because you have it in your head, but you haven't really like, you didn't really dig. 00:27:36.760 |
Right? So anytime you study the scripture, just take some time. All scripture is inspired 00:27:44.280 |
by God. Every part of it. Right? So you want to make sure like you understand. Just like 00:27:48.960 |
if you're reading a love letter, you dissect every word, every sentence. Right? Every smiley 00:27:55.000 |
face. What does this X mean? What does this O mean? Oh, it's kisses and hugs. Right? She 00:28:01.800 |
put ten of them instead of three. What does this mean? So just like you would study a 00:28:06.080 |
love letter in depth, you would, you know what I mean? This is more important than a 00:28:09.880 |
love letter. This is a redemptive letter from God himself. Right? So you can't say I want 00:28:16.960 |
to know God and then not devote yourself to scripture. Because he revealed himself through 00:28:22.440 |
his word. So if you want to know God, you have to commit to study of the word. And it's 00:28:27.800 |
different than me telling you how much God loves you versus you hearing it yourself from 00:28:33.400 |
studying the word of God. Okay? All right. So next week's passage, Colossians 00:28:40.920 |
1, Colossians 2, 1 through 8. And then the discussion questions are here from 1 through 00:28:46.440 |
4. And I'll let you guys get into your group. Okay? Let me pray first and then I'll dismiss 00:28:50.720 |
you to your group. Heavenly Father, I pray for your blessing upon our small group time. 00:28:59.960 |
And I know that many brothers here and sisters who've come from work and a long day, I pray 00:29:05.360 |
that you would encourage and refresh their tired souls. We pray that the discussion would 00:29:12.000 |
be honest, open, and that we would learn to be vulnerable, Lord God, toward one another. 00:29:18.880 |
But whatever it is that we pursue, we pursue Father God in spirit and in truth. And so 00:29:23.520 |
I ask for your blessing. I ask for those who are facilitating that you would give them 00:29:26.840 |
wisdom. And so we ask for your blessing over this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.