Sister Teri Sunday School 6/21/15

Sister Teri Sunday School 6/21/15

To live our life Coram Deo is to have a real awareness toward God, to have our lives in order before God.  He has a divine plan and we want to be lined up according to that purpose.  His purpose is for His glory.  We want to live our lives that way actively and not just to say it.

God desires that we operate as a Body.  He blesses it when we operate that way:  Fitly framed together, in the bond of working together and into the bond of peace.   He desires that we come to the measure of the perfect man, Jesus.  What motivated Christ was love, for others and for the Father.  He did what the Father had Him do.

We want to be measured to this that all we do would be for the love of God and for the love of each other.  The enemy fights this love, God’s love, working through us by His Spirit.  If we are having trouble loving, we might be doing it through our own strength.

The lack of love divides: produces division, independence, and the increase in unbelief and wickedness.  We want to allow the love of God to work in us and not do anything that would cause division.  We want to encourage unity. 

It was a blessing to gather together and work together on VBS.  We don’t want to allow the enemy to work any little attitudes between us so that we cannot have that liberty and blessing as we work together.  The work of God is hindered if we don’t resist the enemy’s work to hinder love.

“What would love do?”  When we face situations that is the question to ask.  I remember situations that I went through with my dad, I asked myself, “What would love do?”  It was a difficult thing for mom and me to help him in the ways that we had to help him.  It was humbling for him and for myself. 

I was encouraged to know, “That is what love would do.”  It showed the love of God in a way that words cannot.  We can talk, but when we have the opportunity to do love, then that is powerful.

When my daughter had a child, I asked, “What would love do?”  God helped me to know and I was able to do love.  God worked, love is powerful.

Let us always dwell in the presence of God, letting His Spirit work love through us for it is powerful.

Mat 7:12  Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Again it is the question, what would love do?  What is the motivating factor and purpose of the Law and the prophets?  It has to be in love.  If it is just a bunch of rules and no love with it, it will not do what God intended it to do.

Luk 6:27  But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

Luk 6:28  Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

Luk 6:29  And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.

Luk 6:30  Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.

Luk 6:31  And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

Luk 6:32  For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.

Luk 6:33  And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.

Luk 6:34  And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

Luk 6:35  But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

Luk 6:36  Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

Luk 6:37  Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

Luk 6:38  Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

We are not to live in self-protection and self-defense.  God might say, “Let it go.”  You might have every right to hold on but love would say, “Let it go.”

Can we be kind to the unthankful and the evil?  If the love of God is working in us then we can. 

We want to allow the love of God work in us however He would have us to.  And not have a self-protective attitude working in us and the thought, “It is our right.”  We want to sacrifice our rights if that is what the love of God would have us to do.

Joh 15:12  This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

The measure is not by our love but by the love whereby He loved us.

Rom 12:9  Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

Rom 12:10  Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

It is more than just giving an appearance of loving someone:  Putting on a front, pretentious, inwardly roiling and outwardly smiling. 

1Th 3:12  And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:

1Th 3:13  To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

It is God that will make us to increase and abound in love toward one another.  God is not going to force us to increase and abound.  It is His Spirit and power that will give us that increase if we will seek it and humble ourselves before Him. 

Our love affects our holiness.  It contributes to our holiness and to our love to each other.

1Pe 1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

Our holiness affects our love.  They work together.  It is the Love of God working in us through the Spirit and not our human love.

Jas 2:8  If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:

Jas 2:9  But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

Our love has to be without partiality.  We cannot show ultimate love to this person but let another go and treat them indifferently.  Fulfil the royal Law impartially.  We need the mind and influence of God to recognize how. 

It is natural that there will be some that connect better than others.  To be partial means we are operating under human love.  That is not showing the love of God working in us.  We want God to reveal to us if we are showing the love of God in a partial way.  The bible teaches that to be a respecter of persons is sin. 

Human love will in partiality excuse wrong.  Someone can actually be doing wrong and in offence against another child of God and human love will excuse that.  We must hold the standard high against anything that will be against God.

If we love ourselves more than the plan of God we will protect ourselves and those that are close to us in a human light.  We need to let His love and purpose rule in our heart and life.

If we are partial it causes trouble.  It appears that Joseph’s father had partiality toward him.  It caused trouble in the household.  We see it again with Esau and Jacob: The father had his favorite and the mother had hers.  There were problems.

We want to have the mind of Christ in all that we think or do.

1Jn 4:19  We love him, because he first loved us.

1Jn 4:20  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

1Jn 4:21  And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

If we don’t have proper love for our brother this reveals that the love of God is not in us as it should be.  If the Love of God is in us then we will love our brother. 

We want to be laborers together with God.  Without the love of God, we will not be laborers together as God would have us to be.

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

1Co 3:5  Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

1Co 3:7  So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

1Co 3:8  Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

1Co 3:9  For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

Divisions and strife work when you are walking in human love.  There is partial love?  That is because there is carnal love working. 

We are laboring as one.  Together with God.  It is not one doing so much greater, “This person is so great we will line up behind him.”  No we are all laborers together, God’s husbandry and influence, according to the grace of God.

Exo 17:12  But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

Have you ever had to hold your hands up for a length of time?  You don’t even have to have much in your hands, it gets weary.  They did not try to take over, they helped him to do his job.  We want to be this way: encourage and help each other in all the work of God.

Jdg 20:11  So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.

There was a great wickedness that had happened in the tribe of Benjamin.  They wanted them to turn over the wicked men.  They wouldn’t do it.  There was that partial love. 

The others stood together against wickedness.  We want to stand together against wickedness.

1Sa 14:6  And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few.

1Sa 14:7  And his armourbearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart.

“I am with thee according to thy heart.” (Jonathan and his armor bearer.)  God went with them and they won a great victory.

All the people working together in united purpose wrought a great work:  While fighting a spiritual warfare working together.  (Nehemiah.)  There was not a place on the wall that was not covered.  Everyone was in his place. 

They were not looking to the side at their neighbor and saying, “are you covering your spot?”  Neglecting their own responsibility while trying to check on another.

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Php 1:27  Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

Striving together for the faith of the Gospel:  What are we striving for?

1Pe 3:8  Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:

1Pe 3:9  Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

Act 1:14  These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

In Acts 4 it tells that they lifted their voices with one accord, all with boldness were able to speak the Word of God.  They were operating under the Spirit of God with no striving or contention.  He blessed in a mighty way.  When they prayed the place was shaken. 

Not holding to their own but having all things in common.  Everything yielded to the work of God, and with great power He gave witness.

When Peter was in prison, the church united in prayer for him.  God worked a mighty deliverance.  When Peter came to the door, they couldn’t believe it was him for it was so miraculous.

Luk 24:15  And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

As we unite and commune together, Jesus himself will draw near.  Under the presence, Spirit, and authority of God.