Thursday, October 30, 2008

Wednesday 10-29-08: Song Night

Jr. High
Relient-K
"There was a time in my life"


Sr. High
Jon Foreman
"Instead of a Show"

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Noah Part 4: Noah and His Questions

1. How old was Noah when he built the ark?

- About 500


2. Where did he get all of the wood?


- Probable that there was plenty of wood around him at the time and more than likely used that in order to build the ark


3. Did anyone help him?


- Yes, His family and he probably had people from the community to help him. He was a righteous man and walked with God, so it is probably safe to assume that some people liked him and would help


4. Why were there 3 decks?


- 1 deck people to live on, 2nd deck animals to live on and 3rd deck the poop to go on and out of the ark


5. Did bugs go on the ark too?


- Yes, Genesis 6:20


6. Did Noah have a wife?


- Yes, Genesis 7:13


7. Did everyone in Noah’s time live as long as him?

- Noah lived to be about 950 or so.
- Everyone in Noah’s time lived around the same as He did.
- Gen 5:31 – Lamech
- Gen 5:25-26 – Methuselah – 969 yrs


8. How many animals were there?


- Every kind that you see today


9. How high was the water?


- Gen 7:19-20
- About 20 ft over the mountains.
- Mt Ararat, where they landed, present day Turkey
- About 17,000 ft high


10. How many people were on the ark?


- 8 people
- Noah – wife
- Shem, Ham and Japheth – Wives


11. How did they cook on the ark?


- Possible they could have dried out all of their meat before hand (100 yrs) and it is not likely that they used fire on the boat, so they probably did a lot of preparation


12. Why didn’t people just float on something when the rain came?


- They probably did, but the flood lasted 150 days. Without fresh water, you can’t live longer than a week
- Under normal circumstances you can’t live longer than 4-6 weeks without food
- People would die eventually


13. What did Noah do with the ark after the rain?


- Gen 8:20 – Used the wood for making things!!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Noah pt 3 - Waiting on the Lord

Genesis 8

We answered questions in YG and came together to see what they meant for our lives.

Noah was on the Ark for about 1 year and 10 days. How would you feel if you were stuck in your house for that long?



What specific events kept Noah, his family and the animals on the Ark?




How does Psalm 5:3, Psalm 27:14 and 2 Peter 3:8-9, say about waiting on the Lord? How would you apply those verses to your life?

Monday, October 13, 2008

Your Bible - 10-12-08

Insert – “Your Bible”, Very Important Doctrine!!

God has revealed Himself in two ways
1. General Revelation – Earth, Creation
2. Special Revelation – His Word!!

This is what we will be focusing on today, God’s Word. This is an important doctrine and if we understand it correctly, then this should help to shape the way our lives are lived.

So the Bible....
- Not in the Bible, haha
- Bible = From Phoenecia to Greek to Latin English
- Basically – So Holy Bible = Holy Book

Bible Facts
- 66 books
- 39 OT
- 27 NT
- Written in 3 languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek
- Written over the span of about 1500-1600 years or so
- About 40 different authors
a. People disagree on the authors on some of the books
- They were kings, herdsmen, soldiers, fisherman, poets, statesmen, scholars, priests and prophets.
- All of this accomplished with zero contradictions
- And is the number 1 best selling book of all time!! Praise God for that
a. Voltaire, philosopher, enlightenment writer, (1694-1778) “Within a century, the Bible will be extinct”
b. Good Commentary on people’s feelings about the Bible today
c. People think about the Bible as something to straighten out their coffee table

However, we believe something different about the Bible.

1. What does the Bible say about itself?
A. Jesus used the OT to train, correct, rebuke, teach and defend Himself
- He also refers to the OT as scripture
- Scripture – Graphe = Holy Writings
- Matthew 22:29 Arguing with the Sadducees
- Interesting that He would attest the Scriptures with the power of God
- John 7:38 – Salvation
- So Jesus used the OT as His authority when training, correcting, rebuking, teaching and defending. And He used copies. He didn’t use the originals, rather copies. Make that straight in your mind now, we come back to it.
- Shows how our OT and how reliable it is that Jesus would quote form it

B. Peter uses Paul’s writings and others as a witness to Scripture – Holy Writings
- 2 Peter 3:15-16
- What does this tell us?
- Paul’s writings are hard to understand!!
- Shows that the authors knew, what they were writing. Helps us to see that as soon as these letters were written they were Scripture. It didn’t take a council to say they were scripture, but rather they automatically were.

C. The Scriptures are inspired by God
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17
- Because of the inspiration by God.
- I want to camp for a little while and fully take on what this passage means

All Scripture is inspired by God
- We already looked at what Scripture meant
- Same thing here, referring to Holy Writings
- Inspired – Theopneustos – Literally means God out-breathed the word to the human authors
- Not meaning that God’s word is inspiring – even though it is, Rather scripture is a divine product of what God has spoken out
- What did this look like?
a. Dictation? No
b. 1) We see authors’ different writing personalities, vocabularies, literary styles, and conscious desires imbedded in the Word’s of God
c. 2) 2 Peter 1:20-21
d. God moved men to write what He wanted.

That is why we (Pastor Jay, elders, doctrinal statement of the church, myself) believe in the Verbal Plenary Inspiration of the scriptures.
- Basically what that big title means, we believe that every word in our Bible is inspired by God, Inerrant – No mistakes and has all authority for our lives.
- John 11:35 – “Jesus Wept”
- Shortest Verse, yet it tells a lot!!
i. Emotion
ii. Human
iii. Incarnation

- Helps to show every word is inspired b/c why else would this be added?
- We ascribe this to the originals, the very letters and books that the human authors wrote.

Profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequately equipped for every good work.

Teaching – If we are not teaching from the Bible, than we are wrong
Reproof – Not only showing sinfulness, but to show discipline
Correction – Show is someone is in error
Training in righteousness – Training in our lives, our lives are a race and we need to train for one

2. How can we be sure that the Bible we have today is God’s Word? Or Accurate?

A. Copies of Manuscripts
- Where we got our Bible from
- Common misconception is that the Bible started off in one language and played the telephone game. NOT True
- Copies were always made from the original language.
- Refer to Chart


****For Chart shown in Church go to:

http://www.carm.org/questions/rewritten.htm


- We can trust what we have is accurate





B. Personal Experience
Hebrews 4:12-13
- Most of you sitting here can attest to awesome power that Scripture has in your life. Maybe in Salvation story
Maybe in Overcoming a sin
Maybe in Sharing Christ with someone
- Scripture changing me
- Others can’t tell you, that this has hasn’t happened in your life!

C. Prophecy
- This is something that helped me to see that Jesus was real and believe what He said not only about Himself but about us as fallen sinners

a. Isaiah 7:14 – Virgin Birth and His name will be Immanuel
- Fulfilled in Matthew 1:18-25.
- Born of a Virgin and “God with us” – God Incarnate


b. Micah 5:2 – Born in Bethlehem
- Fulfilled in Matt 2:1


c. Psalm 16:10 – Would rise from the dead
- Fulfilled in Christ’s Resurrection
- Referred to by Peter in Acts 2:31

- Jesus Fulfilled more than 300 prophecies in His lifetime
- Consider This
- The odds of fulfilling 8 prophecies by one man, would be liken to these odds
- Build a fence around Texas
- Fill it 2ft deep with silver dollars
- Paint 1 red
- Mix em up
- Starting anywhere, blindfolded, stop anywhere and pick up the coin and have that be the red one.
- Jesus did not fulfill Prophecy by ACCIDENT

So What? I’ve given you a bunch of information and so what do we do with it?

Non-Christian
- Seek out this Jesus we have been talking about
- He is real and He wants to be in a relationship with you
- I just proved how the Bible, which attests to Jesus is real, Search Him out!!
- The Bible tells us that when we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sin, He took that death for us, He was our substitution. And He was raised three days later
- Bible says believe that Jesus did that for you and you are saved

Christian
- Realize what the Bible is saying about our lives
- Struggling with sin, the Bible says take drastic measures to get it out of your life
- Know that the Bible has authority in our lives and let it have that authority, not because it is a book that the church likes to talk about, but Because it is God’s WORD
- “Within the covers of one single book, the Bible, are all the answers to all the problems that face us today--if only we would read and believe.” – Ronald Regan



Resources:

Who Made God?
By Ravi Zacharias and Norman Geisler


Basic Theology
By Charles Ryrie


Ryrie Study Bible
By Charles Ryrie


One Heartbeat Away
By Mark Cahill


Carm.org

Thanks!
God Bless
Steve

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Instruction and Obedience: Noah pt 2

Topic Tonight
Instruction and Persecution


Vs 14-21 – Instruction
- Some people try and argue all about things about Noah and what was real and what wasn’t. I want to suppose that that is not the most important parts of the story. I think the parts we are talking about are the most important.
- Make an Ark
- God gives Noah instruction on what to build and what He wants it to be made like
- Specific instructions as to how it is to be built – (vs 14-16) **Instruction Manuel**
- Why?
- What is the purpose? **Not to have the coolest boat around**
- Because God always knows the outcome – He gave Noah instruction
- He did it for protection
- Love

Where and Why is instruction good in our lives
- School – To Learn
- Parents – How to function in society
- Job – Work and make money
- Spiritual Live – Please Jesus and grow

Same for us today
- He gives us instruction for us to follow – Psalm 119:105 – Your word is lamp to my feet and a light to my path
- Where does our instruction come from?
- Why is this instruction good?
- Because He wants to protect us - -
a. Psalm 37:28, “For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off”
b. John 17:15 - My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
**Protected many times while driving**

- He Loves us - -
a. John 16:27 – No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
b. John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life

So Out of this we have 7 verses on instruction, and 1 verse, (vs 22) of Noah’s obedience.

Vs 22 – Obedience/Persecution

The Bible says that Noah was obedient to follow what the Lord had told Him to do

Why Did He Do It?
- Vs 9 – He walked with God
- He understood who God was and followed Him
- Even in a time of wickedness and evil
- Even when made fun of

You have the same opportunity everyday
- You can choose to follow God everyday
- Daily Choices
1. Make fun
2. Gossip
3. Party
4. Hook Up
- In your decisions that you make to honor God and walk with Him or not

How can we do this?
- 1. coming to know Who Jesus is and what He did for you
- Hebrews 11:6 – Without faith it is impossible to please Him
- We place our faith in Jesus, that He died on the cross for our sin and rose 3 days later to conquer death and live.
- 2. OBEY!!

Wish I could Say Happily Ever After!!
Unfortunately there will come a price
- Noah, faced persecution no doubt (1 Peter 3:18-20)
- Idea of Ark in the middle of the earth, weird??
- Us, people might make fun of us.
- 2 Timothy 3:12 – All who desire to live godly lives in Christ will be persecuted
- Most people won’t tell you guys this, but I want to. Not to discourage you but rather to encourage you, that the things of this world are nothing compared to the joy of knowing Jesus
- My best times were serving Jesus
- He even says come and taste! Will you???

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Youth Group Message. Noah and the Flood pt 1

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Noah and His Flood (Part 1) – Wickedness and Sin

Genesis 6:5-12

We’re going to be starting a series on Noah

- Write down questions you have/anonymous/answered on the 22nd at Harvey Cedars

A lot of people have different thoughts about this....

Background

What are some common misconceptions about Noah and the flood?

1. It’s a children’s fairytale

2. No way it could have happened

3. It’s a made up story

4. Hollywood Fictionalized (Show Film)

Other Cultures have stories about a flood happening too?

- Many other cultures around the world wrote that the earth actually flooded!

- They all have different interpretations as to what and why, but that is bc they didn’t know the One and True God

As Christians we believe this actually happened because

- We believe that what Bible says is truth, and unless otherwise mentioned, we take stories like this literally. That they actually happened

- Jesus and Peter both referred to Noah and everything that happened as really taking place

So let’s see what the Bible says about the flood.

(Genesis 6:5-12)

Why did the Flood happen? (5-7)

- Because the earth was evil.

- The Bible says that God was actually grieved that He had made man

- He was angry at the choices and the things that man was doing

- EX – Like When We Choose to Disobey Our Parents

How Did the Earth get this Bad? – A Look into Genesis

- God created everything and said that it was good

- Earth, Light, Darkness, Plants, Animals, Fish and People! – All of Which Were Good!!

- However sin entered the Human Race when, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

- And it continues with us today, when we sin. Even though it is hard not to

Why Didn’t God start over from there?

- He loves us and ultimately has a plan for everyone

- We learned about this a couple weeks ago

- What is His plan for us?????

(Again) Why did the Flood happen? (5-7)

- God was grieved because of the evil that the people were doing

Do you think our world is like that today?

- If you ever turn on the news or look at the news paper, what’s in it?

- Stories of murder’s, rapes, gangs, violence and hatred

- I think this is exactly like our world today.

- We live in a period of time where people are angrier, stressed, hateful than any time before!

- And even though the world we live in is crazy, we need to understand Noah’s story to help us in our lives

What made God not kill all of Humanity?

- Vs 8 – Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord

- Vs 9 – Noah walked with God, was blameless and righteous

- What does that look like?

- Back than they didn’t instruction (Bible)

- They knew who God was but willingly disobeyed

- Noah had Faith in Him and did things bc he knew they were what God wanted

So what do we take away from this?

- Understand sin in our lives

- This is the reason why God condemned the earth

  1. Sin is nothing to be taken as a joke
    1. God Hates It - Proverbs 6:16-19
    2. Sin deserves Death – Romans 6:23

  1. What do we do about it?
    1. Call it out in our lives – 1 John 1:9
    2. Move away from it – Matthew 5:27-30 - - Drastic Measures!!
    3. Prayer – Matthew 6:13

Take an example from Noah

  1. Walk with God
    1. Understanding who God is – John 3:16
    2. Follow His way – Matthew 22:37-39