{"id":1036,"date":"2014-07-26T13:02:58","date_gmt":"2014-07-26T20:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2014-08-02T14:14:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-02T21:14:40","slug":"week-two-returning-to-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/?p=1036","title":{"rendered":"Week Two \u2013 Returning to God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Behold Your God<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Adult Sunday School class has begun a new series that is based on DVD\u2019s and the name of the series will be at the head of every lesson.\u00a0 It is not easy to transcribe an entire lesson, but I\u2019ll attempt to take notes and let you know the primary topics and main points in every message.\u00a0 From there, you will have to fill in the blanks.<\/p>\n

It will generally take two weeks to cover each DVD since there is the message, which is about 45 minutes, and there is a practical application, which will be covered the following week.\u00a0 I will make notes of some of the more memorial quotes and if this sounds interesting to you, you might do some research and find the series online.\u00a0 The primary instructor is John Snyder.\u00a0 This is an attempt to summarize the DVD.<\/p>\n

Week Two \u2013 Returning to God<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The opening section focuses on the life of Timothy Dwight.\u00a0 In the late 1700\u2019s, the nation was at a critical stage of its development.\u00a0 Because of the influence of France during the revolutionary war, two views had crept into the American Society.\u00a0 1) An Anti-monarchy view of life that didn\u2019t want anyone to dictate from above how someone should live.\u00a0 2) A drift towards atheism.\u00a0 In 1795, Dwight became the president of Yale and later the Professor of Theology.\u00a0 He preached 173 sermons on the Majesty of God with an emphasis on the Character of God.\u00a0 \u201cSin is always the rooted in our ignorance\u201d was the primary message and he made an effort to confront the University of Yale about the character of God.\u00a0 Over 1\/3 of the student body of Yale was converted to life changing Christianity and more than 30 students dedicated their lives to the service of God.\u00a0 Even the non-Christians were changed and the desire to mock God was diminished.\u00a0 Rethinking who God is was at the heart of all the change.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lecture<\/strong>: He begins with some biblical passages about God.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Daniel 4:34-35 – But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my [b]reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever;\u00a0 \u201cFor His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. \u201cAll the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven, And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, \u2018What have You done?<\/strong>\u2019<\/li>\n
  2. Psalm 113:5-6 – Who is like the Lord our God, Who is enthroned on high, Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth?<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Psalm 5:4-5 – For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  4. Nahum 1:2 – A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Is this the God you know?\u00a0 Is this your Christianity?<\/p>\n

    Verses about the life lived with God:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
    2. I Peter 1:7-8 – to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
    3. Colossians 1:9-11 – For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

      There has been a drift in our lives away from a biblical view of God and after spending too much time in this drift, we have begun to believe that this is normal Christianity.\u00a0 We get used to a lessor Christian life.\u00a0 People say you need to accept this lessor view, but there is a huge gap between what we live and what we read in the Bible.\u00a0 We also continue to clutter the path to return to a biblical view of God with objects that restrict us from taking that path towards the return of a biblical view.\u00a0 Many have come to the point where they are not sure if we can return to God.\u00a0 We want to walk in that faithful life, but we have begun to believe that it might not be possible.\u00a0 There are three truths that must be grasped if we are to return.\u00a0 And in order to properly evaluate our lives, we must be able to be critical of our lives and where we are today.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. A correct diagnosis is crucial to returning to God. The wrong diagnosis will always lead us to the wrong solution.\u00a0 Take the examples of both psychical and spiritual illness.\u00a0 What is the primary problem?\u00a0 If we look at some of the things that have some through the church in the past 10 years, we see that there have been several \u2018fads\u2019 that have passed through the church.\u00a0 After 10 years, are we really a more purposed centered church?\u00a0 After 10 years, have we seen the church fundamentally change?\u00a0 Are we truly living the solution? It is easy to waste years because of the wrong diagnosis.\u00a0 The wrong diagnosis can kill even if the medicine is good and is meant to heal the illness.\u00a0 A spiritual misdiagnosis can and has damaged the church severely. The true solution is that our churches have embraced a non-biblical idea of who God is.\u00a0 Our words are weightless because our non-biblical view of God is weightless.\u00a0 In Psalms 50, God lists the sins of the nation and then hits upon something critical, their view of Him. \u201cThese things you have done and I kept silence;<\/strong> You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case<\/em> in order before your eyes<\/strong>. \u00a0\u00a0We are not called to fix the world, but we can fix our errant view of who God is.<\/li>\n
      2. We must understand there is an order and connection in Biblical Truth. There are four things to understand that they build on each other.\u00a0 If we begin to understand these very important points, things begin to fall into place.\n
          \n
        1. What a person believes about God impacts<\/li>\n
        2. What a person believes about self which impacts<\/li>\n
        3. What a person believes about sin which impacts<\/li>\n
        4. What a person believes about Salvation. A small view of God produces a large view of self.\u00a0 Sin is more than something that takes us where we don\u2019t want to go.\u00a0 Sin is a thief of God\u2019s glory.\u00a0 Glory that God deserves.\u00a0 The problem with our churches today is that with such a small view of God, no matter what we teach, people think that things are just fine with living in (whatever) sin. \u00a0If we begin on the wrong path, we will end up at the wrong destination.\u00a0 Something any one knows but we haven\u2019t put into practice.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
        5. Root Sins must be distinguished from Fruit Sins. Both repulse God but Root Sins are the ones that are hidden, broader sins that we all wrestle with individually.\u00a0 Fruit Sins are the more obvious and often the uglier and the more embarrassing. The Root Sins are pride, unbelief, and selfishness.\u00a0 But know that no root sin will survive in a life that is pursuing an ever clearer view of God.\u00a0 \u00a0Until we are willing to repent of the our root sins, we will never resolve the fruit sins in our lives.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

           <\/p>\n

          Can we afford more and more years and the cost of:<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. A misdiagnosis of the problem?<\/li>\n
          2. A misdiagnosis of our understanding?<\/li>\n
          3. A misdiagnosis of the solution where we attempt to kill the fruit but not the root of the problem?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            We must have the courage and discipline to discipline our lives to examine our lives correctly and to deal with what we find.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Behold Your God The Adult Sunday School class has begun a new series that is based on DVD\u2019s and the name of the series will be at the head of every lesson.\u00a0 It is not easy to transcribe an entire …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[53],"tags":[54,55],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1052,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions\/1052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}