God Paints Big Pictures Too! Adapted from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and while worshipping with Rich Mullins A Goodsoil Discipleship Lesson - Bro. A. Madonio |
Lesson Introduction What this lesson teaches: * The overriding concept of this lesson teaches us to look not only at the "trees" of the Bible, but also to step back and see the "forest" as well. * Some basics of our walk with God are outlined, and they point to ways He teaches and leads via ways we might never have perceived. * God's sovereignty is clearly pointed out in this lesson, particularly in the aspect of "pruning" and "testing". Learning to trust Him and wait on Him surfaces too. Scripture references used: * Genesis chapters 11 thru 21, Exodus chapters 1 thru 14, Joshua chapters 3 and 4, John chapter 15 and 17:14, Galatians 4:21-31, Hebrews 11:13-16, Jeremiah 6:16, Matthew 11:28-30. Discussion questions for study: 1. Did you read this lesson in preparation for this week's discussion? 2. If you get the opportunity, play the Rich Mullins song "Sometimes By Step" referenced in this lesson. It is excellent for praise, worship and contemplation. 3. Is the concept brought out in this lesson regarding natural fathers and our Heavenly Father encouraging, strengthening, helpful, enlightening in any way? Can you see this natural-to-spiritual transition in your life or the lives of others? 4. Are the parallels between Abram/Abraham similar in your life when you see how he walked out his faith and stumbled and learned along the way? Do you have any examples to share? 5. Do you know of instances in your life when your impatience caused something to be "born in the ordinary way", rather than to wait for the "way of the promise" (ref Gal 4:23)? 6. Can you now more easily discern some difficulties in your past that may have actually been God's "pruning" touch? Will you thank Him for them now? 7. Do the concepts of separation and cleansing and rest seem more applicable to your life now that you have this "big picture" vantage point? |
Sometimes I think of Abraham; How one star he saw had been lit for me, He was a stranger in this land; and I am that, no less than he, And on this road to righteousness; sometimes the climb can be so steep, I may falter in my steps; but never beyond your reach. Rich Mullins, "Sometimes By Step" - The World As Best As I Remember It, Vol. 2. INTRODUCTION: A verse or two, spoken to our spirit by His Holy Spirit, will teach us a lesson in a way that we will remember forever. Every believer has heard this at least once - DO YOU KNOW WHEN THAT WAS? (When you were called into salvation!) There are so many wonderful lessons to be learned in the Bible, that we may have a tendency to forget to step back and take in the larger view that God has so graciously provided. Let's do that now with a long-range view of the Old Testament, and let's look closely beginning with Abraham. What we are going to do is show how the big canvases God paints are as remarkable and beautiful and personal as the small, personal snapshots He gives. HOW GOD SHOWS US - FATHERS: In chapter 11 of Genesis, we read very briefly of Abram's father Terah. In verse 31, Terah takes his son, Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai, and his grandson Lot (who's father Haran had died), and sets off from Ur of the Chaldeans for Canaan. The Bible is silent on Terah's reason for the stop at Haran (same name as Lot's father, Terah's son). He had originally intended to go to Canaan, but he got only as far as Haran, and, as the Bible says, "He settled there." Terah lived out his life in this place, and eventually died. Abram's earthly father had taken him to a point, but not all the way to the promise. Terah's job was complete, and God called him home. In the beginning of our walk with God, or maybe even before that walk begins, He places us in a situation where we are led by an earthly authority figure. Ideally, that figure is our earthly father. He is the model that God has established. He is our guide, our provider, the source (as far as we know at this stage in our life) of everything. Just as God had intended, we are to learn much about Him, our heavenly Father, thru our earthly father. For Abram, God had begun the move with his father, just as He does with us. But then, as now, our earthly father's can only go part of the way. At some point, we need to fill our soul's with God's Spirit, and He will then take over and guide us for the rest of our lives. That is that point in time when we must move on to a deeper and more profound walk with our Heavenly Father, to be led by Him. As it was with Abram, so it is also with us. CAN YOU SEE THE ANALOGY? CAN YOU SEE A TIME IN YOUR LIFE WHEN YOU LOOSENED THE GRIP ON THE HAND OF THE EARTHLY FATHER YOU WERE GIVEN AND SPIRITUALLY GRASPED THE HAND OF GOD? We have an earthly father that is a "copy" of God. Our father's are a "model" God has graciously given us to follow that is like Him. That's the tragedy of broken families. There is no ideal "model" in a fatherless household. God's grace is needed in those cases all the more. THE TURBULENT MOVE TOWARDS GOD -- (Letting go of our earthly fathers): Just as Abram's father Terah led his family from a zone of relative warmth and comfort (Ur was in an area located between the Tigres and the Euphrates rivers that was safe and prosperous) to one of uncertainty, we are led in like manner by God. WHY DO YOU SUPPOSE THAT IS? Often, we begin that move completely unaware of God's intervention. When God begins to move us and mold us and shape us into a form of something He can use, the entire process often rails against our non-spiritual common sense. Moving on into Genesis chapter 12, we see God begin His up close and personal dialogue with Abram. He tells a 75 YEAR OLD Abram to "leave your country, your people, and your father's household and go to the land that I will show you" (Gen 12:1). And being ever obedient, the Bible records, "so Abram left," (Gen 12:4) to begin a journey to Canaan, Egypt and back to Canaan, with many adventures in between. Abram's walk was getting closer as he began to hear God speak to him and to lead him. It was here that God told him that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed thru him (Genesis 12:3). This was also the beginnings of God's movement towards establishing His covenant with Abram; "To your offspring I will give this land (Canaan)," (Gen 12:7). Abram began to believe and trust and have faith in God, and to show his love by his obedience. He was traveling to the land that God had told him, "I will show you". We're not sure if Abram knew his destination, or if God informed him along the way, but as we now know, he would end up in Egypt, where God would bless him greatly (despite various judgmental errors on his part along the way - ref Gen 12:14-16). God brought him to Egypt to show him where his descendants would reside for 400 years of captivity. Again, we see God at work in a similar fashion in our lives, just as He was in Abram's. He leads us towards Him thru very uncertain areas, sometimes even hostile areas. God is looking for us to be "carefully careless" in our common sense and to follow Him in faith. Also, in our "Egypt", He may choose to bless us greatly, as He did Abraham. Abram negotiated the difficult region known as the Negev between Egypt and Canaan. This was the same region his descendants would wander in for 40 years because of their lack of faith and excess of rebelliousness. In like manner, we too may go from pleasant comfortable surroundings where our spiritual growth would be certain to stagnate, thru some dry and difficult regions of our own, where we will be tried, tested and challenged . . . . and spiritual growth will occur. HAS THIS HAPPENED TO YOU? HAVE YOU HAD TO MOVE OUT OF YOUR "COMFORT ZONE" TO A NEW AREA, EITHER PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY, SOCIALLY OR SPIRITUALLY? . . . MORE THAN ONCE? OR HAVE YOU RESISTED, KNOWING FULL WELL IN YOUR SPIRIT THAT YOU NEED TO DO WHAT YOUR FLESH HATES? You might not have immediately discerned God at work at first, but if you are a true believer, you begin to sense Him eventually, and you begin to trust Him and to "believe," just as Abram did. Genesis 15:5-6 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. THE COVENANT - GOD REFINES US THRU "PRUNING": Genesis 15:12-14 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. God told Abram of future events, events that would make life extremely difficult for his descendants, but events that they needed to experience in order to grow. We too must be tried and tested -- "pruned", in order to grow and bear more fruit. DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS ANALOGY? Pruning is preparation for bearing more fruit. We are learning to trust God, to discern God, and to know He is COMPLETELY SOVEREIGN -- EL ELYON. Either directly or indirectly, He is in control of all the difficult issues that comprise our lives. The "pruning" operations are intended to cause us to bear more fruit (Read John 15 and meditate on it). CAN YOU RECALL AN INCIDENT IN WHICH GOD DIDN'T SEEM TO BE IN COMPLETE SOVEREIGN CONTROL, BUT LATER YOU SAW THAT INDEED HE WAS? |
TESTING: FLESH or FAITH?: Even Abram showed moments of faithlessness, of spiritual weakness. He, at his wife's insistence, agreed to "hurry up" God's covenant promise to provide descendants "as numerous as the sand of the seashore" by relying on his own strength. The result, Ishmael, was a child born "In the ordinary way", but not a "result of a promise". Galatians 4:21-31 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? {22} For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. {23} His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. {24} These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. {25} Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. {26} But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. {27} For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband." {28} Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. {29} At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. {30} But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." {31} Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. ARE WE NOT ALSO LIKE ABRAHAM IN MANY OF OUR DEALINGS OF FAITH IN GOD? We don't "wait on Him" to do what He will in the fullness of time. We, like Abraham, try to do in the flesh what is impossible. Once again, our model in Genesis is just like our lives today. GROWTH IN TRIALS - STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND (Captivity): The people of Israel were "strangers in a country not their own" (Genesis 15:13). Beginning with Joseph and Jacob's family, they began to multiply greatly in Egypt. Eventually, however, their stay became forced captivity and cruel slavery. This is analogous to our time today in the many inner-city "traps" of crime, poverty and welfare, (Exodus chapters 1-12). Today, in a similar manner but in a spiritual fashion all over this nation, disciples of Jesus are like the Israelites in Exodus; we too are in a "strange land", a "country not our own". Hebrews 11:13b-16 And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. {14} People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. {15} If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. {16} Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. In fact, the Bible even goes as far as to say that our world (country) hates us (Christians). John 15:19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. John 17:14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. So once again, our day and age are a reflection of what God has shown in His word. Just as Israel longed to escape the captivity of Egypt, we also long to free our world from the captivity of sin and destruction and establish a "heavenly" country of our own. SEPARATION, CLEANSING AND REST: In order to escape the curse we live in we need a savior. The Israelites had Moses to deliver them . . . . we have Jesus Christ! In order to be completely "cut-off" from the bondage of their past, the Israelites were delivered thru the Red Sea by a miracle of God worked thru their deliverer. Today, we are delivered by a miracle of God by faith in Jesus, and we symbolize that separation from our Egypt (The World) by baptism. We are made separate and sanctified as symbolized by the water (The cleasing of the Word -- Jesus!) and by the Holy Spirit (Our eternal guide to the Truth of Jesus). On one side of the water we exist as slaves, but on the other side we are victorious children of God. CAN YOU SEE THE SIMILARITY? CAN YOU SEE THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WATER BAPTISM? God wanted His children to enter their place of rest, the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. Today, God still wants us to enter into His rest. His Word remains as true to us as it was to the Israelites. Jeremiah 6:16 This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. {29} Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. {30} For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." * Can you see the leading of God "Step by Step", as the Rich Mullins song goes? * Can you love Him all the more for His patience and love? * Can you see Him more and more as your Heavenly Father? Your Abba Father? * Can you better appreciate the "Big Pictures" He can paint? Remember them, they are important. We all need a "Big Picture" vision of God in our lives. |
