Jeff's Submission

Exploring Faith - How to Live Wisely

Jeff Fry — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:30:00 GMT

16 Exploring Faith: The Wisdom of God's Creation

Darwin Park Community Church - Lichfield, UK

^NIVGenesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. ³And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

Thesis: We must live wisely according to God's created order.

I. Intro

A. Review

1. We had communion last week and so we talked about the centrality of the gospel from 1 Corinthians 15:1-3 .

2. Paul said that the gospel was three verbs: died (for our sins), buried, and resurrected.

a) "died for our sins" = Jesus literally was crucified on the cross in our place. We deserved to be put on a cross and crucified to pay for our own sins but Christ went instead in our place

b) "buried" = Jesus was laid in a tomb, the rock was rolled in front of it, and it was guarded by Roman soldiers.

c) "resurrected" = on the third day of his death Jesus resurrected to sit at the right hand of God according to the Old Testament Scriptures. This showed that God's hand was upon Jesus' death.

3. This gospel was of first importance because it is the only thing that "saves" a person.

a) let me ask you: why do we need to be saved? what do we need to be save from?

(1) ^NIV1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

(2) If we haven't embraced Christ as Lord and Saviour then the penalty of sin stills sits on us meaning the wrath of God will fall upon us on the day of judgment. God can't just wink at sin.

B. This Week: God's created everything: so what?

1. Do you want to be wise?

2. Then You must know a bit more about the implications of God's creation

II. We must be wise and live according to God's created order

A. State

1. The Apostles Creed states "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth"

2. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth …"

3. These are important truths, especially in these days. It means we didn't come about by chance like science would like to assert.

4. The doctrine of creation is important because often the origins of something will give a clue as to the fundamental nature or principle of a thing - ie. in this case the world's fundamental nature or how it works.

a) therefore, the better we understand creation of the world, the better we will understand how the world works

5. Read Genesis 1:1-3

6. Taking a look at the passage

a) What does verse 1 describe?

b) What does verse 2 describe?

c) what does "formless and empty" mean? what would that look like?

d) What starts to happen in verse 3?

e) How is the earth different now in Genesis 1:31 after all the creating from Genesis 1:2 - "formless and empty"?

7. The earth starts out "formless and empty" in verse 2 and by verse 31 it is a highly ordered planet with night and day, water and land and sky, plants and trees, seasons, days and years, sun and moon, fish and birds, animals according to their kind on dry land, and finally man and woman who are to look after all the creation.

a) while in its initial form the "heavens and earth" may have been formless and empty, by the end of God's creative period He had created an ordered and structured universe

b) and in fact because of this order and structure to the universe we can do science.

(1) e.g. the law of gravity

(2) leading scientist of the Human Genome project, Francis Collins, said, "Science is climbing the mountiain of knowledge by amassing more and more knowledge each day. But when we finally reach the top of it, I think we will find the theologians have been sitting there at the top for some time." ('The Language of God' by Francis Collins).

c) Jesus now holds all things together

(1) Of Christ Colossians 1:16-7 says, "For by Him all things were created : things in heaven and on earth … He is before all things and in Him all things hold together"

(2) Christ is the sustainer of the universe

8. It was very good (Genesis 1:31)

a) "good" = fit for purpose

9. Now man and woman have responsibility as stewards of this ordered creation.

a) steward = to take care of the creation and we are responsible to use its resources well

b) man and woman given this unique role

10. As stewards we are to follow God's instructions for using and cultivating the world

a) This is the way of wisdom

b) God's created order was wise

(1) Jeremiah 10:12 says, "But God made the earth by his power, he founded the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his understanding."

(2) Proverbs 3:19 says, "By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place;"

(3) In Genesis 1:31 after God was done creating on the last day he said that "it was very good".

(a) "good" = fit for purpose

(b) God purposely created the world in the way He did.

(c) This has incredible ramifications for the way we live.

11. We can be wise and follow God's created order or we can be foolish and do our own thing against God's way.

a) In Genesis chapter 1 & 2 God gives his wise instructions to Adam and Eve:

(1) the man was to work the garden of Eden and take care of it

(2) the man was free to eat of any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or else you will die said God (Genesis 2:15)

(3) be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28), fill the earth

(4) subdue the earth and rule over it (Genesis 1:28)

(5) the man is to leave his parents and cleave to his wife (Genesis 2:24)

b) The man and woman ate of this tree and true to God's word there were consequences

(1) spiritual death and separation from God

(2) physical death entered

(3) sin entered the human race

(4) they felt ashamed

(5) they hid from God

(6) fear entered their hearts

(7) even anger, depression soon entered into relationships

12. There are moral absolutes because creation has a fixed order

a) God is our creator / we are the creation

b) The way of wisdom would be to recognize that we live in a world of order and structure which is God's order and structure. Therefore it is wisdom to obey his instructions for getting along in the world.

c) God is not trying to be a killjoy through giving us moral absolutes. Just the opposite - He says if you follow my way it will go well with you - you will have joy.

d) The 10 commandments - e.g. "do not kill"

e) "leave and cleave" (Genesis 2:24)

B. Illustrate

1. We can see today in which our world is unwisely moving in directions contrary to God's created order - what ones do you see?

a) Same-sex marriages becoming legal in more states in America & civil unions legalized in England not long ago.

(1) Biology 101: God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve!

(2) To be fruitful requires the coming together of a female and a male and so if we are to carry out God's mandate to fill the earth and multiply then this is His clue to us that same sex marriages are not His will.

b) Science as God

(1) "… to restore science to its rightful place " - Barak Hussein Obama, Inaugural address, January 2009

(a) makes one wonder what Obama's idea of "rightful place" is

(b) if its to sacrifice embryos in the name of science then that would be a mistake - to break one of God's absolutes just to make scientific advancement as if science is our saviour.

(2) Richard Dawkins and his assertion that God was not the author of creation, but instead that after a was and that we should throw off God's ways and live as if natural selection is the truth.

C. Apply

1. Where are you falling into a worldly mentality of living?

2. What are of your life must you change in order to bring it into line with God's created order?

III. Conclusion

A. Jesus Christ is the apex of wisdom. And the wisest choice you can make is to follow Him. The most foolish choice you can make would be to reject Jesus as your saviour.

B. Remember last week we learned that it was a firm trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus that saves us from sin and it was Jesus who was sent by God to show us God's way.

C. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me".

First Things First - What's Most Important in Life According to God

Jeff Fry — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:46:00 GMT

First Things First

by Jeff Fry

Darwin Park Community Church, Lichfield, UK

^NIV1 Corinthians 15:1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ²By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. ³For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. ⁶After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

Thesis: We should see the gospel as central.

I. Intro

A. Review

1. Last Week: Mark spoke on family relations esp. parent - child relationships

2. The week before we were in our "Exploring Faith" series and looked at "The Idol of Power" and talked about servanthood being the true Christian way to lead.

B. This week we are celebrating communion and we are therefore deviating from our series and will focus on the death of Christ for us. We will look at 1 Corinthians 15:1-8.

II. We should see the gospel as central

A. State

1. Background of the passage

a) Corinth was a wealthy, flourishing city in NT times because it was on a main commercial trade route between Italy and Asia

b) it attracted many people so it was a large city

c) It was mostly Romans but there were also Greeks and even Jews. The Roman law was the law of the land but the Romans were Hellenized.

d) 26 different places of worship to the "many gods"

e) also a Jewish synagogue was present where the Jews strangely worshipped only one God

f) it was basically your London or Birmingham of its time although less land-locked.

g) Corinthian church was made up mainly of Gentiles we know from what is said in the letter

(1) it was a church which had some issues and they asked Paul to respond to those issues.

(2) the church had quite a few problems - there were about 11 different concerns which Paul addresses when he does end up writing to them

(3) its members still had a lot of Corinth in them.

2. Overview of the passage - Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-8

a) Who is speaking?

b) Who is the writer speaking to?

c) What does Paul say he wants to remind them about?

d) How does Paul describe this gospel - what are some of the components?

3. "Now" is a connector that says that Paul is now going to develop further his thoughts. Paul has just expounded on the gifts of tongues and prophecy and now he wants to develop his thoughts further.

4. "I want to remind you"

a) they have forgotten about something and Paul has to remind them of it.

b) the gospel

5. "… this gospel …" = literally "this good news"

6. " I preached to you" - lit. "I good-newsed to you", "I evangelized you"

a) it was passed on orally to them.

b) They heard this news or message from Paul's lips

7. "which you received" - you accepted it

8. " on which you have taken your stand" - lit. "in which you stand" (that is the gospel)

a) this indicates again their reception and decision to believe the good news about Jesus and which makes them believers or Christians (as opposed to non-believers or non-Christians).

b) In other words "this gospel … in which you stand before God as believers or Christians".

(1) Your belief in the gospel makes you a believer

(a) Not …..

(i) religion(a) what you do or(b) what you have done or(c) the rituals you perform(d) not even going to church or(e) being a good person (ii) miraculous things you have done(a) ^NIVMatthew 7:22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!

(b) It's not about religion or miracles, or power or gifts. It's about believing the gospel. Everything changes when you believe the gospel and trust in it for the forgiveness of your sins:

(i) it opens up a new relationship with God(ii) you become a child of God, you are adopted as a part of God's family, you are Christ's friend, you are accepted by God, you are forgiven, you are cleansed of your sin, you are given the Holy Spirit, you are a new creation in Christ - the old has passed away, you begin a new life, you are connected to God, you are free from condemnation, you cannot be separated from the love of God, you are the salt and light of the earth, you are God's co-worker, you can approach God with confidence, you are seated with Christ in the heavenlies'

(2) if someone asked you - how do you know that you are a Christian? Or on what basis do you call yourself a Christian? What makes you a Christian? - what would you say?

9. Verse 2:

a) "By this gospel you are saved" - lit. by this "good news" you are "rescued".

(1) "saved" - lit. "rescued" picture is this:

(a) spiritually we are in trouble - everyone comes into the world as if they were spiritually in a fiercely burning building or they are drowning in a fast-moving current unable to save themselves

(b) In fact, from other Scriptures we know it is even worse - we are spiritually dead and need to be brought back to life!

(i) the connection line has been broken between us and God(ii) We are physically alive but we are spiritually dead in our sin.(iii) Ephesians 2:1 " As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins …"

b) "if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you …"

(1) true believers are those who believe and trust in the message and who continue trusting in the message to their last dying breath.

(2) See here's the deal:

(a) faith is believing the word of God.

(b) those who have faith and believe the gospel (good news) are called believers or Christians.

(c) the problem is a lot of what the Bible talks about can't be seen. So, it requires faith to believe it.

(d) The question the Bible puts before us is this: will you believe what you see and feel or will you believe God's word?

(i) You may say, "Well, I don't feel close to God right now. In fact, I look around at what's happening in my life and I feel like God doesn't love me at all. I feel abandoned by God. God seems to love everybody else but not me!" Yet, the word of God says, " I will never leave you or forsake you".(ii) Or you look around: I don't see how God could allow my friend to suffer like this. She's so young. She doesn't deserve this. She didn't do anything to deserve this. She deserves a healthy long life like everyone else. How could God allow something like this? Yet the Bible says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him …" (Romans 8:28)(iii) I don't have all the answers to the problem of evil and suffering but …

10. Verse 3:

a) "for what I received I passed on to you as of first importance …"

(1) "for" - Paul starts to explain the "word" which he "preached to them".

(2) "what I received I also passed on to you …" - same phrase as 1 Corinthians 11:23 when he introduces the instruction for the Lord's Supper

(3) It is a phrase used by Paul to indicate that what follows is a fundamental, core teaching that came from the beginning of the Christian faith and was passed downed to the present time.

(4) This is the very core of the Christian faith

b) "as of first importance"

(1) what makes this gospel so important?

(a) What do you think?

(i) because it saves!(ii) nothing else can save us from the penalty of sin but the gospel!(iii) In Romans 1:16 Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes …"(iv) The gospel is powerful becase it saves, it rescues us from death!

(2) what is this gospel?

(a) Christ died for our sins (according to the Scriptures)

(b) he was buried

(c) he raised on the third day

(3) If you want to explain the Gospel to a friend:

(a) Action Verbs: Died, Buried, Raised

B. Illustrate

1. Illustration: I had a friend in Poland who I was discipling. We'd meet regularly together and pray for one another and read Scripture and pray for our friends who didn't follow Christ - yet.

a) One day I'll never forget : he had a job working in a restaurant as a pizza chef. And he worked with other guys that were chefs and waiters etc..

b) He told me about this one guy he worked with - I'll never forget it. He was so excited at what God did.

c) He was pretty open about his Christianity and pretty much all the guys he worked with there knew that he was a Christian. One day one of these guys he worked with came up to him in the restaurant demanding to know how he could be saved. He seemed almost desperate to know how he could repent and know God. My friend had done nothing more than tell this guy he was a Christian and out of the blue he comes up with a question like this.

(1) Well, my friend told him the gospel - Died, Buried, Resurrected - thinking that it probably wouldn't go anywhere and that this guy would just return to his normal, old worldly self soon afterwards.

(2) But instead he underwent such a radical transformation that it was incredible. My friend said to me: "nobody can tell me that the gospel isn't powerful"

(3) The gospel is a special God-message that has the power to change people from non-believers to believers - just like that as soon as they believe in it.

2.

C. Apply

1. Where does the gospel rank with you and your faith? Are other, secondary things crowding it out?

2. What do you think saves you from your sin - is it what you believe or what you do?

3. are you living by what you see and feel or by what the Word of God says is true?

III. Conclusion

Jeff's Submission

Exploring Faith - How to Live Wisely

I. Intro

A. Review

1. We had communion last week and so we talked about the centrality of the gospel from 1 Corinthians 15:1-3 .

2. Paul said that the gospel was three verbs: died (for our sins), buried, and resurrected.

a) "died for our sins" = Jesus literally was crucified on the cross in our place. We deserved to be put on a cross and crucified to pay for our own sins but Christ went instead in our place

b) "buried" = Jesus was laid in a tomb, the rock was rolled in front of it, and it was guarded by Roman soldiers.

c) "resurrected" = on the third day of his death Jesus resurrected to sit at the right hand of God according to the Old Testament Scriptures. This showed that God's hand was upon Jesus' death.

3. This gospel was of first importance because it is the only thing that "saves" a person.

a) let me ask you: why do we need to be saved? what do we need to be save from?

(1) NIV 1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

(2) If we haven't embraced Christ as Lord and Saviour then the penalty of sin stills sits on us meaning the wrath of God will fall upon us on the day of judgment. God can't just wink at sin.

B. This Week: God's created everything: so what?

1. Do you want to be wise?

2. Then You must know a bit more about the implications of God's creation

II. We must be wise and live according to God's created order

A. State

1. The Apostles Creed states "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth"

2. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth …"

3. These are important truths, especially in these days. It means we didn't come about by chance like science would like to assert.

4. The doctrine of creation is important because often the origins of something will give a clue as to the fundamental nature or principle of a thing - ie. in this case the world's fundamental nature or how it works.

a) therefore, the better we understand creation of the world, the better we will understand how the world works

5. Read Genesis 1:1-3

6. Taking a look at the passage

a) What does verse 1 describe?

b) What does verse 2 describe?

c) what does "formless and empty" mean? what would that look like?

d) What starts to happen in verse 3?

e) How is the earth different now in Genesis 1:31 after all the creating from Genesis 1:2 - "formless and empty"?

a) while in its initial form the "heavens and earth" may have been formless and empty, by the end of God's creative period He had created an ordered and structured universe

b) and in fact because of this order and structure to the universe we can do science.

(1) e.g. the law of gravity

c) Jesus now holds all things together

(1) Of Christ Colossians 1:16-7 says, "For by Him all things were created : things in heaven and on earth … He is before all things and in Him all things hold together"

(2) Christ is the sustainer of the universe

8. It was very good (Genesis 1:31)

a) "good" = fit for purpose

9. Now man and woman have responsibility as stewards of this ordered creation.

a) steward = to take care of the creation and we are responsible to use its resources well

b) man and woman given this unique role

10. As stewards we are to follow God's instructions for using and cultivating the world

a) This is the way of wisdom

b) God's created order was wise

(1) Jeremiah 10:12 says, "But God made the earth by his power, he founded the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his understanding."

(2) Proverbs 3:19 says, "By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place;"

(3) In Genesis 1:31 after God was done creating on the last day he said that "it was very good".

(a) "good" = fit for purpose

(b) God purposely created the world in the way He did.

(c) This has incredible ramifications for the way we live.

11. We can be wise and follow God's created order or we can be foolish and do our own thing against God's way.

a) In Genesis chapter 1 & 2 God gives his wise instructions to Adam and Eve:

(1) the man was to work the garden of Eden and take care of it

(2) the man was free to eat of any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or else you will die said God (Genesis 2:15)

(3) be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28), fill the earth

(4) subdue the earth and rule over it (Genesis 1:28)

(5) the man is to leave his parents and cleave to his wife (Genesis 2:24)

b) The man and woman ate of this tree and true to God's word there were consequences

(1) spiritual death and separation from God

(2) physical death entered

(3) sin entered the human race

(4) they felt ashamed

(5) they hid from God

(6) fear entered their hearts

(7) even anger, depression soon entered into relationships

12. There are moral absolutes because creation has a fixed order

a) God is our creator / we are the creation

b) The way of wisdom would be to recognize that we live in a world of order and structure which is God's order and structure. Therefore it is wisdom to obey his instructions for getting along in the world.

c) God is not trying to be a killjoy through giving us moral absolutes. Just the opposite - He says if you follow my way it will go well with you - you will have joy.

d) The 10 commandments - e.g. "do not kill"

e) "leave and cleave" (Genesis 2:24)

B. Illustrate

1. We can see today in which our world is unwisely moving in directions contrary to God's created order - what ones do you see?

a) Same-sex marriages becoming legal in more states in America & civil unions legalized in England not long ago.

(1) Biology 101: God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve!

(2) To be fruitful requires the coming together of a female and a male and so if we are to carry out God's mandate to fill the earth and multiply then this is His clue to us that same sex marriages are not His will.

b) Science as God

(1) "… to restore science to its rightful place " - Barak Hussein Obama, Inaugural address, January 2009

(a) makes one wonder what Obama's idea of "rightful place" is

(b) if its to sacrifice embryos in the name of science then that would be a mistake - to break one of God's absolutes just to make scientific advancement as if science is our saviour.

(1) ^NIV1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.