Articles from November 2015

Here are the notes from the Sunday Morning Service, November 8, 2015:

Scripture: Proverbs 7

Various Webs:

1. Addictions

2. Internet (Where to go)

3. Lying/Dishonesty

4. Stealing

5. Sexual Sin

6. Spending/Materialism

7. Anger/Bitterness/Unforgiveness

8. Stubbornness

9. Rebellion

10. Gossip

11. Procrastination

12. Laziness

13. Disrespect

14. Homosexuality

15. Jealousy/Envy

16. Judgementalism

17. Unbelief

18. Idolatry

19. Pride

20. Selfishness

Questions:

What is the web you are caught in?

What is the web you need to be aware of?

1. Initial Appeal

Something that brings Pleasure or relief

7:5b – Flattery “Flattereth with her words”

7:17 – Scent “perfumed my bed”

7:18 – Emphasis on the Moment

2. Don’t see any danger

7:23 – “Knoweth not that it is for his life”

HALT

Hungry

Angry

Lonely

Tired

3. Once in the web they are stuck

7:13 – “she caught him”

4. The enemy can take his time to attack

– Flesh: yearns for things outside of his perimeter

– World

– Devil: he wants to highlight the goods of the trap

5. Once the attack is made it does not end well for the one that is caught

7:22 – “as an ox goes to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks”

7:23 – “Till a dart strike through his liver”

Has something to do with you – “Reap what you sow”

6. Deliverance can only come from an outside source

“Faithful is the wounds of a friend”

Tendency to try to free yourself

– Christ

– Biblical Counseling

– Accountability with a trusted friend, pastor, deacon

7. How to avoid the web

7:24 “Harken” – Listen

7:25a “Let not” – decision of the will

7:25b “Go not astray”

Here are the completed notes from the Sunday Morning Service November 1, 2015:

Scripture: 1 Kings 18, 19

The Background for the message

Elijah the Prophet of God:

• Elijah announced God’s judgment in the form of a drought upon Israel – 1 Kings 17:1
• Elijah is supernaturally cared for during the drought – 1 Kings 17:2-7
• Elijah raised a widow’s dead son to life – 1 Kings 17:17-24
• Elijah prayed and the drought ended – 1 Kings 18:17-40; James 5:17, 18
• Elijah carried to heaven in a chariot of fire – 2 Kings 2:9 (Translated to glory without dying)

Elijah challenges Ahab and his 450 pagan prophets to meet him on Mount Carmel – 18:17-19

Ahab – King of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the most wicked up to this time – He marred Jezebel, a fanatical Baal worshipper

Baal – Lord of the Canaanite religion, seen in thunderstorms as a god of weather, also worshiped as a god who provided fertility

Elijah rebukes Israel for wavering between worshipping the Lord and worshipping Baal – 18:20-21

Elijah proposes a contest between himself and the prophets of Baal -18:22-24

• Each side was to prepare a young bull as a sacrifice and place it on the altar
• Elijah tells the prophets to call on their god to send fire down to consume the sacrifice and Elijah will call upon his God to do the same
• The God that answers by fire, “let Him be God” – 18:24
• As the prophets of Baal shouted, leaped on the altar and cut themselves till the “blood gushed out” – 18:26-28
• Elijah prays and fire falls from heaven and consumes the sacrifice – 18:30-39
• The people acknowledge “the LORD, He is God” – 18:39
• The prophets of Baal are executed – 18:40

Elijah announces the end of a 3 year drought and there is a terrific rainstorm that sweeps over the land – 18:41-45

(Drought was punishment for the sins of the king and those of Northern Israel)

News comes to Jezebel (Ahab’s wife) and she determines to have Elijah killed – 19:1-2

Elijah’s response – 19:3-4

• Elijah suffers here from discouragement, despondency and depression

Taking God out of the Picture:

 Can happen to anyone at any time

Elijah, a great and mighty prophet of God

• Elijah raised a widow’s dead son to life – 1 Kings 17:17-24
• Defeated the prophets of Baal – 1 Kings 18:22-40
• Elijah prayed and the drought ended – 1 Kings 18:17-40; James 5:17, 18

Many times begins with a trigger – See 19:1-3

• Here we have Elijah, tired, drained and alone

When God is taken out of the Picture:

We are left with what we see on the surface

– 19:10  We focus of self and our own circumstances

We are left to our own understanding

We are left to struggle through life on our own and in our own strength

During times when God is taken out of the Picture:

God has not changed

God continues to be faithful – 19:5-8

• God provided Elijah a time of rest and refreshment (that’s what he needed at the time) – 19:5-8

God wants us to consider where we are at and what we are doing – 19:9, 13

God wants our attention and for us to have listening ears – 19:11, 12

God brings clarity to our lives – 19:18