Tag: Genesis

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Sunday 18th March 2018

Meeting notes from the Sunday Meeting at Elizabeth (18 March 2018)

2 Visiting Pastors from PNG for the first meeting, with Pr David giving a short presentation for the second meeting.

Pr Wilson (PNG)

  • Hebrews 4:12
  • Ephesians 3:20

Pr Tony (PNG)

  • John 6:65
  • Romans 8:9
  • Psalm 90:10
  • 2 Kings 6:13-17
    • Not Alone
    • Let us humble ourselves
  • 1 Peter 5:6-7
  • 1 Peter 2:9-11
    • I’m going to stay on the battlefield until I die
    • Narrow, not easy road; but take confidence
  • 1 John 4:4
  • Ephesians 6:14-16
    • Spiritual Battle
  • Romans 8:31
  • Genesis 1:2
    • The Spirit moves
  • 1 Corinthians 4:17
  • 1 Peter 2:5
  • Daniel 7:27

Pr David K (Elizabeth)

  • Genesis 1
    • And the Lord saw it was good
    • v31 VERY good
  • Proverbs 20:12
  • Hebrews 11:#
  • Job 26:14
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Still Small Voice

Elijah on the mountain:

1 Kings 19

  • Wind
  • Earthquake
  • Fire
  • distracted from the still small voice (maybe it was always there, but we weren’t listening)
  • Still Small Voice (expounded from the Hebrew
    • a whisper
    • thin, small, fine
    • sound, voice

God has it covered; peacefully, reassuringly.

Remove ourselves from the drama. Stop – be still and listen.

Psalms 4:4
Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

Psalms 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Mark 4:39-40
39. And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
40. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis)

Genesis 3: 1-7
1. Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons

Desire to know everything

Human Beings have a desire to know everything. Technology these days has enabled us to be able to get any knowledge at our fingertips whenever we want. We want to know details as soon as they are found out. If we know something that someone else doesn’t we are one better, we have a leg up. The competitive edge! (Cain & Abel)

There is not just knowing the information, but also knowing every single aspect of it.  And despite that, it doesn’t matter because the other person has the wrong opinion anyway !! So it’s not just a battle of information, but opinions  about that information and how persuasive it is or how you can make it!!

All this points to is our lack of being content. It is never enough. We are never satisfied. Our desire for more is insatiable, because when we speak of something new we becoming “popular” and gain attention for the individual.

1 Timothy 6:6
But godliness with contentment is great gain.

John 3:30
He must increase, but I must decrease.

Extremely appealing, but by allowing it (distractions, useless noise & information) into our lives we also become distracted.

So we are consumed by “information” that we have no need for. Knowledge where its main purpose is just to fill our mind. Self satisfying news that serves to push out any useful understanding like “How to live forever!”.

Daniel 12:4
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Competing for our attention

With all the information feeding our thirst for knowledge, our attention gets drawn in this way and that way. Competing and grading for our every second of consumption. And if we allow it to, it pushes out the knowledge of God and so WE can fix everything ourselves with OUR own knowledge.

Romans 1:28
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

What is happening in our life?

Elijah had a series of good runs. These periods of incredible boldness and being used to demonstrate the power and authority of God … but through all this it appears as though he had a thought in his mind that he was “the only one” (that was doing good, being used by good, going through this situation, etc etc) and there came this moment in his life where he was challenged and fear took over. And the result – he ran.

Maybe we can relate to this. Maybe we feel like we are alone and all we are feeling, seeing and experiencing is:
– The wind shaking the world around us
– Earthquakes trying to knock us off our feet
– And fire consuming everything we see

But none of these are God!

The Wind
  • Fierce strong winds can be incredibly damaging flattening buildings & trees, destroys crops
  • Makes it hard to walk and if (as in this case) it starts to moves rocks, it’s not only the wind that causes us difficulty, but the effects of that wind that we have to watch out for.
  • Once again, a light breeze can be hugely beneficial, by moving on bad weather, drying clothes, cools a hot day – but it’s a fine line.
The earthquakes
  • The things we thought were solid and unmovable
  • The noise and fear
  • The damage to things and people and daily life
The Fire
  • Looks spectacular from a distance but when you get to close it burns
  • In a small contained controlled environment it be hugely beneficial (heat, cooking) but that gives a sense of comfort and peace
  • A large fire is out of control, erratic

Maybe God is trying to speak to us, guide us, direct us, but because it’s doing it in such a quiet fashion we miss it over the glamour and glitz of us knowing everything?

… a still small voice …

I’m sure our first response is “well can’t God speak up?!” (aka Show us a sign and it suffices us – Matthew 12:38) but to seek out an answer (to pray) from God, requires us to remove the noise and allow our heart to truly seek Him out.

Matthew 6:6
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Thought:
Saul being made blind when Jesus spoke to him

Maybe part of the blindness was so that he became acutely aware of the voice of God. That it removed his default senses to allow him to actually hear ...

Job 22:21
Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.

Psalm 55:16-18
16. As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.
17. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
18. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me.

1 Samuel 1:17
Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.
(to Hannah asking God for a son – Samuel)

Jeremiah 29:11-13
11. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Isaiah 26:3-4
3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
4. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

Isaiah 54:10
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.

James 3:17
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

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Marriage

Marriage

The only relationship between a man and woman acceptable to God and to The Church.

Genesis 2:24
Ephesians 5:22-33
1 Timothy 5:11-14
Hebrews 13:4

THOUGHTS:
  • TWO become ONE
  • The woman is the rib of the man … she’s my rib, taken from me, part of me
    • Wife elbowing me in the ribs – remember where I came from and what I’m here to do
  • Do it together, a team, a partnership, don’t run ahead (and don’t fall behind)
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God knows … but we still need to ask

Premise:

God knows every single thing about us:
But, we still need to ask for what we want!

The Talk:

1 Corinthians 10:13
13.  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

God knows every single thing about us:

  • good
  • bad
  • hair on our heads
  • cells in our body
  • the missing genes that we can blame our parents for
  • our hearts desires
  • our needs
  • our wants
  • our strengths
  • our weaknesses
  • what we’re capable of
  • what we’re not capable of
  • how we go about things
  • etc etc etc

And not only does He know this about us, but He knows it about every single person on the planet, that was and that has been …. He knows it all.

So come to a time of need, come to a place when things are not going well and we can find ourselves in the habit of thinking “well God know’s this already … so please God just answer my prayer!!” …. WHAT PRAYER ??? All we did was state a fact …. God does know – correct!
God can answer my prayer – correct!
But have we actually spent time asking??
Have we got on our knees and pressed in for a victory?
Have we spent time calling to God’s attention His promises that we gave us?
Have we spent time building up ourselves on our most holy faith?

We still need to ask for what we want!

Noah and the Ark
God made a way of escape, but he had to build a boat for 100 years to get there.

Genesis 6:6-8
6. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Abraham and Isaac
The sacrifice of Isaac – God made a way of escape with the goat

Genesis 22:8
8.  And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Genesis 22:10-13
10. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

Vipers and brazen snake
God didn’t take the snakes away, but made a way they could be redeemed.

Numbers 21:5-8
5. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
6. And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
7. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
8. And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

10 Lepers
Only one came back to thank Jesus

Luke 17:12-19
12. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
13. And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
14. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
15. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
16. And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
17. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
18. There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
19. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

Heaven and Hell
God hasn’t taken Hell away, but he has made a way to escape hell

  • Israelites through the Red Sea
  • Esther
  • Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo in the furnace.
  • Daniel and lion’s den
  • Peter in prison

How do we escape?
Don’t be overcome.
Have a strong foundation.

2 Peter 1:4-8

4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6. And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7. And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 12:25-29

25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
26. Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29. For our God is a consuming fire.

Luke 21:36

36.  Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

Hebrews 2:3

3.  How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;