Bible Study

1 Chronicles 28:9

David’s Charge to Solomon

[9] “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

Jeremiah 29:12-14

[12] Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. [13] You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. [14] I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

John 4:24

[24] God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 9:35-37

[35] Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” [36] He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” [37] Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”

Are You Steadfast as You Wait on God?

PRAY OVER THIS

“For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” Hebrews 10:36

 

PONDER THIS

Endurance means the ability to bear up under trials and difficulties. Many people fail to receive because they fail to endure. This is really the language of athletics. For a time, I ran track, and I would run distance races. In those distance races, if you run a mile and you’re a hundred yards ahead but you quit running, you’re going to lose the race, no matter what.

Now, what is patience? Patience is more than waiting. It is more than passive resignation to trials. The word patience from the Bible does not have a good English synonym. The word in the Greek language literally means “to abide under.” It has the idea of steadfastness. It has the idea of constancy. It has the idea of staying in power. Patience is the bridge between doing the will of God and receiving the promise.

You need patience so that you might inherit the promises of God. Remember yesterday’s provision. He saw you through then. He’ll see you through again. Remember, it is not patience that solemnly waits in the dark; it is patience that gloriously anticipates the dawn. And then, rest in tomorrow’s promise. I encourage you to take hold of the Word of God and never let it go.

How have you actively pursued God when you needed to be patient?

When you think about the future, do you most often look with joy or despair? Why?

PRACTICE THIS

Consider areas of your life in which you need to practice pursing God as you are patient.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Great Exchange

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed. (Romans 1:16–17)

We need righteousness to be acceptable to God. But we don’t have it. What we have is sin.

So, God has what we need and don’t deserve — righteousness; and we have what God hates and rejects — sin. What is God’s answer to this situation?

His answer is Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died in our place and bore our condemnation. “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he [God] condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). Whose flesh bore the condemnation? His. Whose sins were being condemned? Ours. This is the great exchange. Here it is again in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

God lays our sins on Christ and punishes them in him. And in Christ’s obedient death, God fulfills and vindicates his righteousness and imputes (credits) it to us. Our sin on Christ; his righteousness on us.

We can hardly stress too much that Christ is God’s answer to our greatest problem. It is all owing to Christ.

You can’t love Christ too much. You can’t think about him too much, or thank him too much, or depend upon him too much. All our forgiveness, all our justification, all our righteousness is in Christ.

This is the gospel — the good news that our sins are laid on Christ and his righteousness is laid on us, and that this great exchange becomes ours not by works but by faith alone. “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).

Here is the good news that lifts burdens and gives joy and makes strong.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Mark 8:38

[38] For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

1 Corinthians 1:18

Christ the Wisdom and Power of God

[18] For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Acts 3:26

[26] God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

Psalm 40:9-10

    [9] I have told the glad news of deliverance

        in the great congregation;

    behold, I have not restrained my lips,

        as you know, O LORD. 

    [10] I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;

        I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;

    I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness

        from the great congregation.

Do You Have Dangerous Zeal for God?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:5-7

 

PONDER THIS

There is a zeal that is divisive, destructive, and deadly. You can take a hammer and build a house with it, or you can cause someone harm with it. Anything taken to an extreme can become bad. We need to learn the difference between zeal and moderation. Let your moderation or your gentleness be known unto all men. Zeal and moderation are not enemies; they're friends.

That doesn’t mean we compromise our beliefs, but we need to learn to live by grace. The cause of Christ has been hurt by misguided zeal many times. When Jesus was in Samaria, the Samaritans were mistreating the Lord Jesus Christ. James and John were with Jesus, and they became very zealous for Jesus. They said to Him in Luke 9:54, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” But Jesus turned, and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them” (Luke 9:55-56). The manner of spirit they had was that of a misguided zealot. They saw the way the Samaritans were living, and they said “Lord, let’s get them.” The cause of Christ has sometimes been hurt far more in the house of its friends than in the house of its enemies.

What is an issue that easily riles you up? How can you guard against misguided zeal?

When have you been tempted to take justice into your own hands?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk to another Christian who knows you well and ask where you tend to have misguided zeal. Ask your friend to keep you accountable for submitting those things to God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Children of a Singing God

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Mark 14:26)

Can you hear Jesus singing?

Was he a bass or a tenor? Was there a down-home twang to his voice? Or was there an unwavering crystal pitch?

Did he close his eyes and sing to his Father? Or did he look into his disciples’ eyes and smile at their deep camaraderie?

Did he usually start the song? Or did Peter or James, or maybe Matthew, do it?

Oh, I can hardly wait to hear Jesus sing! I think the planets would be jolted out of orbit if he lifted his native voice in our universe. But we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken; so, Lord, go ahead, do it! Sing!

It could not be otherwise but that Christianity be a singing faith. The founder sang. He learned to sing from his Father. Surely they have been singing together from all eternity. Don’t you think so? Would not infinite eternal happiness in the fellowship of the Trinity sing?

The Bible says the aim of our singing is “to raise sounds of joy” (1 Chronicles 15:16). No one in the universe has more joy than God. He is infinitely joyful. He has rejoiced from eternity in the panorama of his own perfections reflected perfectly in the deity of his Son.

God’s joy is unimaginably powerful. He is God. When he speaks, galaxies come into being. And when he sings for joy, more energy is released than exists in all the matter and motion of the universe.

If he appointed song for us to release our heart’s delight in him, is this not because he also knows the joy of releasing his own heart’s delight in his own image in his Son by his Spirit in song? We are a singing people because we are the children of a singing God.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Isaiah 26:3

    [3] You keep him in perfect peace

        whose mind is stayed on you,

        because he trusts in you.

Colossians 3:15

[15] And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

John 14:27

[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 hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Ephesians 3:19

[19] and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.