The Meeting of the Minds

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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Message Series: Set or Reset

Message Title: Meeting of the Minds

Message Goal: Hello Christ’s following break covenant with bad ideas.

Rom 11.29 AMP

For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.]

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Scripture says that God’s grace is constant towards us!

God’s gifts and calling to us are irrevocable because God doesn’t change his mind...so no one else can change His mind either!

God can be stubborn because God is always correct!

▻God isn’t going to change His mind concerning us...

God is not going to decide suddenly to take our gifts away...if we chose to continually walk away that’s on us...however, God isn’t going to stop loving us or calling us.

This is why WE need to repent...because God cannot!

ref: Samson in Judges 16

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God calls us to repent...(not merely apologize) and turn so that we can again align ourselves with purpose and life...

How should we live knowing fully that as long as we have breath and life in us we can chose God because He hasn’t turned his back on us

What’s holding us up? A better deal?

[Slide # 4]

Luke 15 Revisited

• The youngest son KNEW that he could go home, even if only as a servant...
• The father was looking for him to get back on track (Why?)

• The oldest son DIDN’T understand the true nature of his father’s love...

✓Youngest would work to show his love and respect.

✓Oldest son worked to earn love and respect

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[Slide #5]

Repentance = breaking a covenantal agreement with a bad ideas...

The human mind and will are so strong that God Almighty honors them!

We have to change our minds...and God will help us...because God will never change His mind.

Look @ oldest son: (Luke 15:20-30)

But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

“He’s your favorite!”

He sees this as transactional and not relational...

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31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

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Joshua 7:12 NIV

12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

Challenge: Don’t give up on your call just because the enemy has convince you that God has given up on you!

• Respond to sin that God has shown you by asking for help resisting it
• Commit yourself to understand God’s way of doing things (studying about Him)
• Slow up in the fast lanes...Pedal up in the narrow lanes!
• Learn to appreciate God’s grace without abusing it.www.folmadison.org

180 Degree Turn

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Sunday, February 17, 2013

Teaching Series: Set or Reset

Message Title: 180º Turn

Lesson Text: Luke 15:11-24

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Repentance = metanoia (after/behind ones mind)

Repentance (metanoia) = After thought rather than Former thought. A change of consciousness.

Repentance = New perception ➙ New reality ➙ New rules of conduct

If you separate out “sorrow” or “emotion” from repentance, what do you have?

Repentance = Correction. Radical turn.

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[Slide #3]

☛A 180º Turn (Surrender): A 180º from self-love, self-trust, self-promoting, self-interest filled lifestyle to a self-committed (God-empowered) surrender to God.

With a 180º change...you turn your back on something!

Who will it be?

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[Slide #4]

The Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15:11-24)

¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 

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[Slide #5]

Luke 15 is the Chapter of Lost things:

1. Lost Sheep (naturally)
2. Lost Coin (accidentally)
3. Lost Son (purposefully)

Luke 15:10 (New International Version) 

⁸ “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

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[Slide #6]

Voices in head of the youngest son (Voices in our own heads...)

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• “You’re out here by yourself...” (pity)
• “Ain’t nobody looking out for you...” (neglect)
• “Yeah, your father & brother are old-school...all they want to do is work. You’re young...you deserve to ‘taste’ the good life...” (undisciplined)
• “When the old man dies...he’s gonna leave the business to Jr. and Jr. ain’t going to do you write. At the risk of insulting your father...jump the gun and get what’s yours right now...” (Premeditating a strategy based upon inaccurate information. No accountability)
• “No...go buy yourself some friends, some love, some comfort, some identity, some manhood, a good life!!” (The anticipated upgrade is a backslidden condition called demotion, demoralization & defamation of our own character to stoop to buy identity and love when you have it.)

*The money runs out...and so do the buddies, lovers and fans.

• “Oooooh, you messed up! You can’t go home now...everyone will say they told you so!” (entrapment...you can’t recover...you can only hide)

☛The son remembered the last time he was loved. (He hadn’t recognized love because he wanted comfort and recognition rather than discipline and servanthood). That love was from his father.

[Slide #7]

Voices in his heart... (True repentance begins with God’s voice of truth)

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• “You’re already a slave...be a slave to someone who honors you and will never take advantage of you.”
• “You’ve broken fellowship with God and with your father! Admit it and throw yourself on the mercy of both.”

Reality...

• The father was looking for him & ran to him
• The father didn’t allow the boy to finish his speech...he knew what that world would do to a young talented man...which is why he tried to protect him from that cruel world.
• The father knew that repentance is saying “I’m sorry” it is “being sorry, hence being changed” and making necessary changes to live out that new reality.
• The father threw a party for the party-boy!!!!!!

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Challenge & Next New Steps:

• What are the voices in your head telling you about your life?
• What is the voice of the Spirit saying in your heart?
• What will you turn your back on today to live in the Presence of God?
• Denounce your allegiance to a mindset that enslaves and demeans you by coaxing you to live in a manner that defames the image of God within you.
• Do a 180º turn on the empty, unfruitful living! There is no substitute for the robe and ring and feast that you are turning our back on.

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www.folmadison.org