2013 Term 2 Week 6 - Gospel Expressed through "can"

Must / Should / Can

Michael to add notes here

2013 Term 2 Week 5 - Gospel of God's Works

Justification and Sanctification

Use Venn Diagram
Circle 1 = God's works
Circle 2 = Our works

Circle 1 is where the Gospel happens, the overlap doesn't mean anything special for the Gospel.

2013 Term 2 Week 4 - The Gospel doesn't avoid Pain - Part 2

2013 Term 2 Week 3 - The Gospel doesn't avoid Pain

The Gospel will not make life easier or less painful.

Why do we think following Jesus will be less painful for us than Jesus' life was for him?

God loved Jesus and did not spare him from pain, suffering, and death.

The most important thing for God is connection with us, not how we feel about life.

Psalm 23. God makes a mockery of pain and death by choosing to enter into it to be with us. God makes a mockery of conflict by choosing to throw a party before the enemy is defeated and in the presence of the enemy. In fact God goes even further and invites the enemy (humanity) to dine with God.

It is not painless for God to connect with us (read the prophets). I believe pain and suffering will be done away with once Jesus returns, until then the Gospel mocks pain and suffering as being less significant. God doesn't wait for us to be safe to love us, he loves us in the midst of our pain and suffering and he experiences that pain and suffering too. It does not destroy God and the Gospel promises it will not destroy us either.

2013 Term 2 Week 2 - Tracing the Gospel from Genesis

The Gospel didn't suddenly appear with Jesus. It is the story God has been telling from the very beginning.

When sin entered our reality God had to distance himself from us, lest we be destroyed. We see the eviction from Eden as punishment when it is grace. If sin remains in God's presence it is destroyed. God found a way to sustain us even though we are sinful. The downside is that it required a separation between God and humanity. A separation that was necessary for our protection. Right from the beginning of our rebellion God was saving us from the eternal consequences of our rejection of God.

2013 Term 2 Week 1 - Gospel of Love

We don't love something/someone because they are worthy of it. It is not that this person or object demands our love due to some intrinsic value. Rather it has value because it is loved.

God loves us not because we are loveable, rather because God is love. God gives from an abundance.

Humanity didn't force God to rescue us. It is because God loves us that he was compelled to rescue us.

We are the object of the Gospel, not the subject. The Gospel is about God's love. We are the object of this love. We aren't the heroes in this story. If we have a role in this story it is that of the enemy. And God's love ignores whatever role we might try to bring to the story and loves us regardless.

2013 Term 1 Week 10 - Sin as a choice we create

[Michael to do this]

2013 Term 1 Week 9 - Sin Summary

We sin because we like it more than we are willing to admit.

Review the other weeks.

We sin when we are not like God.

Federal Man

2013 Term 1 Week 7 - Why isn't it as simple as stopping sinning?

Pink elephant / Ocean Liner

We sin all the time.
Do I sin when I am asleep? Am I sinless in a coma?

That we think we can stop sinning is sinning.
Thinking we don't sin often is sinning.

Definition of sin: We sin when we are not like God.

Most of our energy is focused on ourselves. This is a large part of why it is hard to reduce sin inspired actions.

Directing energy to doing good leaves less energy for sinning.
Note: this has nothing to do with gaining salvation or holiness. It is more what we do in response to the gospel.

Paul sees himself as the worst of sinners. We see others as being the worst sinners (Us vs Them).

2013 Term 1 Week 6 - Why do we sin? - Part C - Control

We sin because we want to be in control. This flows on from trust. We don't trust God's plan is good so we make our own. We don't want to trust God because that requires vulnerability, which is scary. And God has made it clear that we will not be rescued from pain, nor be showered with relief/pleasure until Jesus returns. This is too long for us, so we think we can do it better. We also like the idea of being in control as it helps us to avoid facing the fear of living in a broken world.

Control is an attempt to live life without vulnerability.
Control is a commitment to avoid needing others and God.
Control is an attempt to dodge the curse (Gen 3).

2013 Term 1 Week 5 - Why do we sin? - Part B - Trust

We sin because we don't trust God or his plan. And so we try to "improve" God's plan.
Example = Abram (Gen 15-16)

The most important thing to us is pain. The second most is relief/pleasure. If God's plan doesn't deal with those things we look for an alternative. Jesus' life was not a success when considered by this criteria. We think we can do better than Jesus, though we would rarely own up to it.

Either God is unable to give us what we need or we don't realise what we need. Let's start considering what the gospel is based on. What Jesus does and says rather than what we think it should be about.

2013 Term 1 Week 3 - Why do we sin? - Part A - Greed

This will take a few weeks, particularly because week 4 is a public holiday and the guys will have forgotten most of it.

The catch phrase for this section is: "Good desire, sucky execution."

It means what our sinful actions are attempting to get for us is ultimately good, our way of going about it is sinful. At our core we desire God, we are made for relationship with God. Our entire being is oriented towards God.

To get there we will start with Greed.

The catch phrase for this lesson is: "The problem is that you are not greedy enough."

We define greed as asking something to be more than it is. Eg asking a car to help me feel better about myself.

Ultimately all desire leads to God. Greed is what happens when we settle for less. Instead of desiring God we desire something else.

2013 Term 1 Week 2 - Sinning by doing nothing

To start us off we will be looking at Genesis 3, particularly at how Adam sinned. It is my belief that we (guys) sin in a similar way to Adam. So this passage tells us not only about how sin entered our world, it also informs us about how we follow in Adam's footsteps.

Men, in general, sin more by omission (absence). That is to say we sin by leaving something good undone. Adam is the first example of this. The snake was causing much confusion and Adam held back waiting for more certainty before he spoke. Adam was with Eve (Gen 3:6) and let her do the talking. He waited for her to make it safe for him. Then he blamed her when they got into trouble. The strategy Adam used is still used by men today. It is as ingenious as it is diabolical. We will look at examples of other Biblical characters in Genesis as well as common situations in today's world.

Examples:

• During devotions when a hard question is asked everyone goes quiet waiting for someone else to make it safe to have the discussion.
• In group conversation when everything goes quiet, the guys wait for someone braver to break the ice.
• At planning meetings, when asked what class do you want to run this term, guys wait for an idea to be put forward because its less risky to adapt an idea than to suggest one.
• When a guy likes a girl he will try to reduce the risk before he asks her out, which is fine until the acceptable risk is defined. In most cases we want the risk so low that there is no longer a place for courage or boldness.
• We notice someone is not themselves and do not ask them about it as it is none of our business/I'd only make it worse/it would be awkward/it's not my gift/I don't know how/etc
• "Does my bum look big in this?"
• "What are you thinking?"
• "My parents are getting a divorce."

This week will focus more on seeing how wide spread this problem is. Next week will look at some of the contributing factors..

2013 Term 1 Week 1 - Introduction

The devotions for the older guys is run differently. Whereas the younger groups focus on learning about/from the Bible, this group aims to integrate Bible knowledge with everyday life.

Due to this difference it will take the guys a while to adapt, typically the best part of the year. To start this shift we will start by getting the guys who were involved last year to explain to the newcomers what the differences are


The goal is to have the guys thinking about sin at a relational level. For many Christians, sin is considered mainly at a theoretical level. I want to give the guys an opportunity to develop a language (and confidence) to talk about their sinfulness. When we get to term 2 we will be talking about the gospel and the hope is that this focus on the personal will continue into the discussions about the gospel and how it affects all areas of life.

To start us off we will be looking at Genesis 3, particularly at how Eve sinned.We look at how doubt sets us up for sin and how doubt leads us judge God. We think that God is holding out on us. Also we don't really know what good is, more on this idea later on.