Summary: <p>Way of the Master<br>by Dr. Bob Moorehead <br>In 1980 a young man from Rwanda was forced by his tribe to either renounce Christ or face certain death. He refused to renounce Christ, and he was killed on the spot. The night before he had written the following commitment which was found in his room:<br><br>“I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed, the die has been cast, I have stepped over the line, the decision has been made- I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.<br><br>My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed vision, worldly talking, cheap giving & dwarfed goals.<br><br>My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I won’t give up, shut up, let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up for the cause of Jesus Christ.<br><br>I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till everyone knows, work till He stops me & when He comes for His own, He will have no trouble recognizing me because my banner will have been clear.<br><br><br>How silly is the idea of repentance.<br>How silly is the idea of repentance when you truly see Jesus. <br>Repentance is like telling someone to turn from ugliness to beauty.<br>Jesus calls us to a life of immortality with Him, forever, and when you see Him you can’t keep living the way you did. If you do, its because you haven’t seen Him. <br>For Christians, we hate and detest sin. We want it out of our lives because its not Jesus, its not what He was about and its not what we want to be about.<br>Christians aren’t about coming to as close to the line as possible without sinning. <br><br>Process of Change/ How we stop excusing our sins<br>We have to stop denying our offenses and minimizing them.<br>We have to acknowledge our offense was wrong unconditionally. We have to stop justifying it. We have to stop blaming others and we have to be willing to talk in detail about why our offense was wrong without slipping back into defending it. <br>We have to acknowledge that our offense was a choice, not a loss of control. When we sin it's because we gave ourselves permission to do so and chose to let the ur selves go. <br>We need to take responsibility for the results of our offense on others including loss of trust, and we must do this without feeling sorry for ourselves or talking about how hard it is for us. <br>In order to truly repent we must identify the underlying beliefs that have driven out behavior, beliefs like, "I'm entitled" or "I'm not responsible if provoked by another person." <br>We must develop respectful attitudes to replace our sinful attitudes. This means being able to listen to others during conflict, and to embrace the fact that others rights are equal to our own. <br>We must become empathetic towards others and stop exaggerating our grievances against others. We must compliment others and pay attention to their strengths and abilities. <br>We must seek to make amends for any damage we have done and place the needs of others before our own. <br>We must accept the consequences for our actions and stop whining about "poor me". Receiving forgiveness does. It mean the consequences for our actions disappear and we need to allow the Holy Spirit to build character in our lives through the consequences. Micah 7:7-9<br><br>Part 2.<br>We need to commit to not repeating our bad behavior regardless of the circumstances. Being good for a while does not give us the right to a period of allowed bad behavior. <br>We must stop having the double standard that says I have higher standards for others and exceptions for myself. We should embrace the double standard that says we have higher standards for ourselves. <br>We need to realize that our struggle against sin is a life long battle so that we should never think we have arrived. Our struggles may take years to work through and we should be in it for the long haul. <br>We must be willing to be accountable for our actions and have a willingness to accept feedback and criticism, and to be honest about when we fail. <br>We have to give up the attitude that says "I'm willing to change some of what I do as long as I do t have to give up all of what I do. <br>We have to stop bargaining with others and saying hints like I will only change if you change too."<br>Remember we are not responsible for managing how others treat us but we are responsible for managing how we treat them. <br>We must be willing to change no matter how much support we get or don't get. <br>We must be accepting of the fact that it may take others longer to forgive us than we would like. <br><br><br><br><br><br>What is acceptable in the culture is not acceptable in the church<br>Excusing sin fails to take sin seriously and we have far too much of this in culture. <br>Are we more influenced by the culture or Christ. If it's culture we shouldn't call ourselves Christians because cultural Christians are not Christians. Remember, God is not mocked, and He won't share His glory with another. <br><br>The text maintains an insider/outsider distinction. <br>Ephesians 2:1–3<br>Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. <br><br>Gods wrath will fall on those who engage in the vices of vv. 3-5. <br>These are the sons of disobedience meaning their lives are characterized by such. <br>They do not submit to Gods authority. They prefer to rule their own lives and go their own way. <br><br>See 1 John 3:6, 9<br>1 John 1:8–10<br>8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. <br><br>1 John 2:1–2<br>My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. <br><br>1 John 3:6–10<br>6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. <br>7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. 10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God. <br><br>1John 5:16–19<br>16 If you see a fellow believer sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. 17 All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death. <br>18 We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. 19 We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. <br><br><br><br>V.7 partners only here and in 3:6<br>Ephesians 5:7<br>7 Don’t participate in the things these people do.<br>Don’t partner up with people in their sin.<br>Here the idea for us is we don’t enable people in their sin.<br>“I can’t help you with that. I can’t support that.”<br>This is true for wives with their husbands.<br>1 Peter 3:6 For instance, Sarah obeyed her husband, Abraham, and called him her master. You are her daughters when you do what is right without fear of what your husbands might do. <br>“not fearing any intimidation.”<br><br>This is true for friends that want us to be accepting of their destructive behavior.<br><br>Cf. 1 Cor 5:10<br>Meaning we are not to engage in their sin with them. <br>Cf. 2 Cor 6:14-7:1<br>We don't sin, not bc of fear of judgement but bc we have been made children of light. <br>There are too many who call themselves Christian, who are perfectly fine taking Communion, who live exactly like those who walk in darkness. <br>And if u want to know if that's you just look at whether your tendency is to excuse your sin. <br><br>CG Questions:<br>1. What did we say the 3 components to saving faith were?<br>A. Knowledge of Jesus <br>B. and approval of that knowledge <br>C. depending on Jesus to save you personally.<br><br>2. What did we say the 3 components to repentance were?<br>A. Repentance is an intellectual understanding (that sin is wrong), <br>B. an emotional approval of the teachings of Scripture regarding sin leading to a sorrow for sin and a hatred of it, <br>C. and a personal decision to turn from it, a renouncing of sin and a decision of the will to forsake it and lead a life of obedience to Christ instead. Genuine repentance will result in a changed life, a truly repentant person will begin at once to live a changed life, and we can call that changed life the fruit of repentance.<br><br>3. Do you believe that the reason God wants us to turn from our sin is because He has something better for us? Please explain.<br><br>4. If God has something better for us, then why do we resist forsaking our sin?<br><br>Please read the following verses in preparation for the following questions:<br><br>1 John 1:8–10<br>8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. <br><br>1 John 2:1–2<br>My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. <br><br>1 John 3:6–10<br>6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. 7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. 10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.<br><br>1 John 5:16–18<br>16 If you see a fellow believer sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. 17 All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death. <br>18 We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them.<br><br>5. What is the seeming paradox we find in this passage? <br><br>6. What is the answer to the paradox, or how do we reconcile these seemingly two opposite (antithetical) ideas?<br><br>Please work through the following ways we need to stop excusing our sins, commenting on where we recognize these in our owns lives and where we struggle with fullfiling these:<br><br>We need to commit to not repeating our bad behavior regardless of the circumstances. Being good for a while does not give us the right to a period of allowed bad behavior. <br>We must stop having the double standard that says I have higher standards for others and exceptions for myself. We should embrace the double standard that says we have higher standards for ourselves. <br>We need to realize that our struggle against sin is a life long battle so that we should never think we have arrived. Our struggles may take years to work through and we should be in it for the long haul. <br>We must be willing to be accountable for our actions and have a willingness to accept feedback and criticism, and to be honest about when we fail. <br>We have to give up the attitude that says "I'm willing to change some of what I do as long as I do t have to give up all of what I do. <br>We have to stop bargaining with others and saying hints like I will only change if you change too."<br>Remember we are not responsible for managing how others treat us but we are responsible for managing how we treat them. <br>We must be willing to change no matter how much support we get or don't get. <br>We must be accepting of the fact that it may take others longer to forgive us than we would like.</p>
