6/15 at The Gathering

Blake Coffee and Tony Diamond taught on Sunday, June 15.  The videos and listening guides from that lesson, followed by the scripture, are below.

Core Lesson (Tony Diamond)

To Know Him is to Love (Believe, Trust and Obey) Him

Proverbs 3:5-6; Galatians 2:15-21; Ephesians 2:8-10

Trust in the Lord      Proverbs 3:5-6

All your heart. All your ways. It’s a full time pursuit. Not a hobby. Not an activity. Not limited to special times or special places. Trust in the Lord is the keystone of Christian life.

Do you give all or a portion of your trust to Him?
What’s happened when you only give a portion?

 Faith in Jesus Christ      Galatians 2:15-21

Faith in Christ is the key to being right with God. “I” is prominent when believing works are equally or more important than first relying on the power of “Christ who lives in me.” (v20)

What’s happened when you relied on tradition or rules rather than leaning on Christ for guidance?

 By Grace you have been saved       Ephesians 2:8-10

One of Paul’s clearest explanations of the relationship between God’s grace, faith in Christ and Christian conduct. “By grace” means salvation is a gift of God. “Through faith” is how a believer receives the gift. “Good works” are the full time theme of a saved person’s life.

Have you had a moment when you felt that you needed to “do” something to regain God’s favor?
What has helped you return to the realization of the gift of grace?

God’s commands are designed to guide you to life’s very best. You will not obey Him, however, if you do not believe Him and trust Him. You cannot believe Him if you do not love Him.
You cannot love him unless you know Him.

– Henry Blackaby

 

Venture Lesson (Blake Coffee)

Sola Fides

Proverbs 3:5-6; Galatians 2:15-21; Ephesians 2:8-10

What we, as Christ-followers, are growing in ourselves is the trust that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do.

That sense of being in control when we choose not to trust God but rather our own understanding…is utterly false.

“Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

We don’t obey God in order to be in relationship with Him. We obey God because we are in relationship with Him.

So, is faith something we do or something God does? Yes.

 

::::::::::::::::::::::SCRIPTURE:::::::::::::::::::::::::

Proverbs 3:5-6

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.^[a]

Galatians 2:15-21

¹⁵ “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles ¹⁶ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in^[a] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

¹⁷ “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! ¹⁸ If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

¹⁹ “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”^[b]

Ephesians 2:8-10

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.