Charisma Life Church - TEAM

Luke 15:1-32

The SETTING of the Parable (vv. 1-2)
The SIN of the Prodigal Son (vv. 11-16)
The SOLUTION to the sin of the Prodigal Son (vv. 17-20a)
The SURPRISE of the Prodigal Son (vv. 20b-24)
The SOUR attitude of the Older Son (vv. 25-32)

Study:

• What theological themes are taught by Jesus in the parable of the prodigal son?
• What have you learned from this parable about sin and sinners, repentance and God’s forgiveness, God’s love and restoring grace?
• Why didn’t the father go after or look for his lost son, but simply waited for him to return?
• How did the two sons demonstrate self-centeredness which is the very essence of sin?
• What earthly event makes heaven rejoice?
• Besides rejoicing over God’s blessings, what should bring joy to our hearts as Christians?
• From the two sons in this parable, what do you need to let go so that you can experience more of God’s love in your life?

Filed under: Sermon Study, Bible Study on August 13th, 2007 | No Comments »

Text: Lamentation 3:1-24

Definition of “Sorrow”: (according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary)

1. Deep distress, sadness, or regret especially for the loss of someone or something loved, resultant unhappy or unpleasant state; “to their great sorrow they could not marry”
2. A cause of grief or sadness 
3. A display of grief or sadness

How did the author of lamentations express his deep sorrow and grief to God?

1. By complaining to God (v.1-6)
2. By expressing his frustrations to God (v. 7-9) 
3. By blaming God for the cause of his pain (v.10-13)
4. By wallowing in self-pity (14-20)

God can turn our sorrow into joy if we put our complete hope in Him.

We should put our complete hope in God because of God’s great love (v.21-22), because of God’s unfailing compassion (v.22),  and because of God’s faithfulness (v.23)

Reflections: 

1. When going through a time of deep sorrow and sadness, how do people usually react to God? ( Ex. Loss of a loved one, health problems, marital problems etc…)
2. Why is it hard for some people to put their complete hope in God, especially in times of deep sorrow?
3. In Psalm 42, how did the psalmist respond to the sadness and pain that he felt caused by the storms of life? (Please read Psalm 42).
4. Do you have any personal testimonies of how God has turned your sorrow into joy?
5. Please read Revelations 21:1-5 and pray for one another.

Filed under: Sermon Study, Bible Study on April 29th, 2007 | No Comments »

This study is on Psalm 73 

Who was Asaph?

Asaph and the Problem of Unfairness (vv. 1 - 14)

• The unfairness of life can lead us to doubt the goodness of God (vv. 1 - 5).
• The unfairness of life can justify human wickedness and irreligiousness (vv. 6 - 11).
• The unfairness of life can heighten our dissatisfaction with goodness (vv. 12 - 14).

Asaph’s Solution to the Problem of Unfairness (vv. 15 - 28)

• Spiritual reflections on the unfairness of life must be done responsibly (v. 15).
• Spiritual reflections on the unfairness of life cannot be approached from a purely rational perspective (v. 16).
• Spiritual reflections on the unfairness of life must rely on revelatory encounters with God (vv. 17 - 20).
• Spiritual reflections on the unfairness of life must lead to the recognition of the sovereignty of God even in the midst of unfair situations in life (vv. 21 - 28).

“When life seems unfair, change your perspective.”

• Do not focus your attention on the seeming unfairness of life; rather, focus your attention on God.
• Get rid of your misconceptions about God’s ways of relating  with humans.
  Misconception #1: God immediately rewards the good people and immediately punishes the bad people.
  Misconception #2: I can bribe God with my good deeds.
  Misconception #3: I can blame God for my sufferings.
• Remember that your life, as a Christian, is not about you anymore; rather, it is now about God.

{ Reflections on this study }

1. What are the conditions that make life seemingly unfair? [Note: You need to remember that the term “unfair” is inherently evaluative in nature. It is a term that we use to make judgment about the nature of a particular action, comment, or situation, e.g. unfair accusation, unfair decision, unfair working condition, etc. So, it presupposes a standard that determines what is fair or unfair. What sort of standard do we use when we claim that life is unfair?]
2. Is the unfairness of life incompatible with our understanding of a good, loving, just, gracious, and merciful God? Explain your answer.
3. How can we effectively hear the voice of God in times of suffering? [Note: The voice of God is very  difficult to hear in times of suffering, since, during such times, the sufferer is probably confused, stressed, anxious, desperate, etc.] Share your experiences of hearing the voice of God in times of suffering.
4. How will God solve the problem of unfairness? [Read Romans 8: 18 – 30. Remember that two of the three Christian virtues are faith and hope. We need faith in order for us to believe the promise of God’s final redemptive act. In the same manner, we need to cultivate the ability to hope in order for us to anticipate with assurance the fulfillment of God’s promise of redemption. So, God’s solution to the problem of unfairness is eschatological in nature.]
5. What kind of perspective do we need to have in times of suffering? How can we develop such kind of perspective?       

(Click here to listen to the message)

Filed under: Sermon Study, Bible Study on April 22nd, 2007 | No Comments »

1. Uncertainties about tomorrow
   1. Your physical health?
   2. Your marital stability?
   3. Your financial status?
   4. Your children’s economic, physical and spiritual well-being?
   5. Your retirement?
   6. Your eternal destiny?
   7. All of the above?
2. The life Jesus promised His followers
   1. A satisfied life (John 10:10 cf Luke 12;15)
   2. A peaceful life (John 14:27) 
   3. A life with trouble (John 16:33; John 15:18, 20; Matthew 10:34-36)
   4. Examples of troubles from just being a human being
   5. Good news (John 16:33b; II Timothy 1:11-12)

Entrust your past, your present, and your future life to God.  When you entrust your entire life to God, then you’ll know the reality of Jesus’ promise, “Because I live, You also will live.”

Filed under: Sermon Study, Bible Study on April 15th, 2007 | No Comments »

“Human life is like a wheel,
You are up or down
If it is God’s will.”  

How does this apply to our life?

• Be a righteous man before tragedies hit you. 
• Don’t allow loses of wealth, health, children and the misunderstanding of a spouse and friends destroy your faith and hope in God.
• Pray to God for people who misjudged and condemned you in your difficult times.
• Trust God to restore and bless you again.
• Declare your hope to see God in a resurrected body, even if God allows you to die of sickness.
• Jesus said to Martha after her brother, Lazarus, died and was put in the tomb-John 11:23-26
• If you have Jesus in you, no one, nothing can keep you down forever-not even death, because when Christ comes back all who died believing in Christ will rise again with glorified, immortal bodies.

What seems to be unfair in this story of Job?

His attack by Satan with God’s permission but without Job’s knowledge that the catastrophes he went through were a result of a spiritual conflict between God and Satan.

What is the BIG IDEA or theme of the story of Job? Suffering? Faith?

What lessons can we learn from the story of Job that are applicable to us today?

• Even righteous people are allowed by God to  suffer.
• It is possible to lose everything you have and enjoy except your faith in God.
• God knows His righteous people and He knows what hardships they are capable of bearing through faith in Him.
• Tragedies are not necessarily caused by God’s displeasure or punishment in a person’s life.
• You can choose your reactions to God in times of suffering.
• The highest point in Job’s story is the declaration of his faith and hope in God that goes beyond this earthly life.

Based on the story of Job, what should you do so that no suffering will knock you down forever?

What will you ask God in prayer as a response to this study?

Filed under: Sermon Study on April 8th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Who was ultimately behind Christ’s brutal death on the cross?

• A. The Jews
• B. The Romans
• C. All of us sinners
• D. God Himself (Acts 2:23)

Why did God ordain His sinless Son to suffer death by Roman crucifixion?

• To demonstrate His love for us sinners (Romans 5:6-8).
• To demonstrate His justice (Romans 3:21-26)
• God allowed His sinless Son to die on the cross on our behalf so that we sinners can “become the righteousness of God (II Corinthians 5:21).

Christ’s righteousness in us is the basis of our peace with God, the foundation of our fellowship with God, the ground of a prevailing prayer life.

How, then, should we respond to God’s mercy that was demonstrated through Christ’s death on the cross on our behalf?

Filed under: Sermon Study, Bible Study, Fellowship, Worship on April 1st, 2007 | No Comments »

Let’s look at the recent statistics on Church total attendance today.

Attendance Total Churches
1-99 177,500 (59%)
100-499 105,000 (35%)
500-999 12,000 (4%)
1,000-1,999 6,000 (2%)
2,000-9,999 1,170 (0.4%)
10,000 + 40 (0.01%)

The highest goal of being a disciple is to be Christ’s fully devoted and obedient follower,  and to influence others to follow Christ through our life and example.

Who is Christ?

He is the Christ of eternity (John 1:1, 7:5) who became the Christ of history (John 1:14) and became and still becomes the Christ of experience to those who receive Him (John 1:11-13; Acts 26:12-18; Revelation 3:14, 20).

Why do you need to follow Christ?

Because only Christ can save you from sin (Matthew 1:21; Romans 7:15-19, 24-25), can give you new life (II Corinthians 5:17), and give you eternal life (I John 5:11-12).

How can you become Christ’s fully devoted follower?

• Believe in Him and entrust your life to Him (II Timothy 1:12).
• Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him (Mark 8:34).
• Live for Him because He died for you (II Corinthians 5:14-15).
• Obey Him as the Lord of your life (Luke 6:46).

Filed under: Sermon Study on March 18th, 2007 | No Comments »

“The hallmark of discipleship is total obedience to everything Christ has commanded.”

Christ loved us and paid the supreme sacrifice of dying on the cross because of His love for us (John 13:34, 15:31; Galatians 2:20).  Christ commanded us to “love one another” as He loved us (John 13:34, 15:12)— why? John 13:35
 
Where and to whom should we show our love?
We should show our love beginning in our household (Ephesians 5:22-6:4).
a. Wife 
b. Husband
c. Children 
d. Father 

We should show our love not only in our natural households, but also in our household of faith, with fellow believers in our church family.
We show our love for one another in the church by following Christ’s Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12), by how we treat fellow believers (Romans 12:9-16), and our loving actions (I John 3:16-18)

Our love must be shared not only with fellow believers but also with people outside the church (Galatians 6:9-10).

Filed under: Sermon Study on March 11th, 2007 | No Comments »

What is the heart?

The heart is “the seat of emotions (I Samuel 2:1), desire (Psalm 27:4), thoughts (Genesis 6:5) and decision (1Chronicles 12:38). The heart is the center of a person’s inner self.

Why do we need to disciple the heart, not just the head?
Because the heart is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9) and the heart is the source of our evil thoughts and sinful behavior (Mark 7:21-23).

Outward change in a person’s outward behavior must begin in the heart. Transformation of the heart is the basis for reformation of outward behavior. Educating the head without changing the heart will not change a person’s sinful behavior. Providing a good environment without changing the heart will not change a person’s lifestyle. This is why the heart of Christian discipleship is the discipleship of the heart.

How can the heart be changed and discipled?
Ask God to give you a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26-27), and a pure heart (Psalm 51:10; Ezekiel 14:3; Colossians 3:5). David, the man after God’s own heart, to keep the purity of  his heart did two things. He asked God to search and test his heart (Psalm 139:27), and hid God’s Word in his heart to sin-proof his heart. (Psalm 119:11).

We’ll leave this message with this text from Jeremiah 29:
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

What’s in your heart today?

Filed under: Sermon Study on March 4th, 2007 | No Comments »

What the Bible teaches about you and me can be summarized in three sentences:

• We were formed by God.
• We were deformed by sin.
• But we can be transformed by God into His likeness again.

What do you think, true or false:

• You become like whoever or whatever you worship (Matthew 6:24).
• God’s ultimate intention is to transform and conform you into His likeness (Romans 8:29).
• True worship of God will transform you into the kind of person God created you to be (Genesis 1:26-27)

How does true worship transform you into the likeness of Christ?  Worship transforms the focus of your life.  Life’s primary attention is no longer on you, but on God who created and redeemed you (Galatians 2:20;  2 Corinthians 5:14-15).  Symbolically, your old self was crucified  with Christ.  In place of your old self, Christ now lives in you by faith.  Christ, who now lives in you, “loved” you and “gave Himself” for you.  Christ’s sacrificial love is so compelling that you want to live for Christ, instead of living for yourself.
 
Worship transforms the affection of your life from Narcissic self-love to love for God (Mark 8:34-35; Luke 10:27). Worship transforms your heart and mind by submitting your self to the Lordship of Christ.  Christ is either “Lord for all”, or He is “not Lord at all” (Luke 6:46; Matthew 6:24)

The most basic meaning of worship is “to bow down” to whoever is being worshipped.  More than its physical and symbolic expression, “bowing down” is an expression of surrender and submission to the LORD.  We become transformed as we fully submit ourselves to the Lordship of Christ.

Quote from Nancy Pearcey:
“The renewal of our minds comes about only through the submission of our whole selves to the Lordship of Christ.  We must be willing to sit at the feet of Jesus and be taught by Him, as Mary of Bethany did, realizing that only “one thing is necessary” (Luke 10:42).   Given our fallen human nature, we typically do not really sit before the Lord until our legs are knocked out from under us by crises-sorrow, loss, or injustice.  It is only when stripped of our personal dreams and ambitions that we truly die to our own agendas.  Union with Christ in His death and resurrection is the only path to sanctification of both heart and mind-to being conformed to the likeness of Christ.”

Filed under: Sermon Study on February 28th, 2007 | 1 Comment »