Hill Thread

Romans 12:6
“So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.”

To avoid living a regretful life, learn to recognize your dominant gifts and orient your life around them. David knew that he was more than a shepherd and a singer, he was a leader in the making. However, God used him as a shepherd and a singer too. Killing Goliath gave David a chance to demonstrate his faith, his willingness, and his leadership.

Two things blind us from our dominant gifts:

1.) An obsession with our flaws. Instead of focusing on our strengths, we listen to our critics and become convinced that we aren’t good enough. Always remember that the company we keep either encourages us or discourages us; lifts us up or pulls us down. Especially be careful of those people who resent your accomplishment. They’re resentful because accomplishment reminds them of their own failures, and they’re stuck trying to make others feel as bad as they do.

2.) Admiring/Obsessing over the gifts of others. While there is nothing wrong with appreciating the gifts of others, we shouldn’t get caught up in becoming the same person as someone else. God needs variety and He has given us individual gifts and abilities. Instead of living on another’s shadow, stand on their shoulders.

Ask God to reveal your most dominant gifts, talents, and abilities. Dedicate them and use them to His highest service!

Related Text:
Matthew 25:28-29
“Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.”

2 Timothy 4:2
“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”

A World War II soldier was caught creeping back t his quarters from some nearby woods. Brought before his commanding officer and charged with communicating with the enemy, his defense was that he had just gone out to pray.

His CO growled, “Do you make a habit of spending hours alone in prayer?”

“Yes Sir,” he replied.

“Then down on your knees and pray now,” roared the officer, “for you have never needed it more!”

The soldier kneeled and poured out his heart in prayer so powerfully that his CO shouted, “Enough, you may go! I believe you!”

You see, prayer is not like a spare tire; that we just leave it in the trunk of the car and expect it to be useful only in desperate times. The soldier convinced his CO that he truly had been praying in the woods because his words were sincere. By his words, the CO could tell that this soldier spent much time in prayer with the Lord, he could tell that the soldier was not faking it.

The goal of believers is to live with a prayerful attitude, and to stay in contact with God always. Don’t give up on praying, only to return to prayer when there is a crisis. Spend time with God daily, talking to Him, seeking His wisdom and direction, and just pour out your heart to God. He sent Jesus to die for us so we could have a relationship with Him!! He wants to hear from you.

Why pray? Because prayer changes things when nothing else will. Prayer puts the situation into God’s hands, and take sit out of our own. Perhaps most importantly, prayer changes us. In prayer, we become reliant on God.

Related Text:
Romans 12:12
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

1 Samuel 8:4-20
4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”
6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”
10 Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

God made it clear to Samuel that Israel’s rejection of Samuel as their Judge was not really a rejection of Samuel at all. Instead, God made it clear that their rejection of Samuel was really a rejection of God. They didn’t trust in God’s plan, they panicked, and they began to demand t have a king just like all of the other people groups around them.

Somewhere they forgot that they were God’s chosen people, set apart.

Have you ever thought about what that means to you in your life. Set apart? Do you ever wish you were different, or more popular, or into other things so that you might get more friends. Do you ever go along with the crowd, because you have this fear of being left alone?

As God’s children, we are called to live a life set apart from the people of this world who don’t know Jesus. Through faith in Jesus, we are God’s children, and co-heirs with Christ. Don’t forsake God and His plans for your life just because everyone around you is doing something different. When you live for God, when you are obedient, when Christ is the center of your life, YOU WILL BE DIFFERENT.

Malachi is the last of the Old Testament prophets. However, we know nothing of the person of Malachi – all we have as any insight into who he was are the words that he wrote. By these words, we get a sense that he had a dynamic and obedient love for God and faith in God’s plan.

This passage that we read today brings to mind many different topics that we could focus on. For instance: How does God refine you? Do you need refining? What’s your attitude like under pressure? What sort of offerings are you giving up to God?

But what I would like you to spend some time on today is to think about this question. If you were gone and you left behind a journal, or essays about your life, or a video log of your daily activities, or if someone secretly followed you around for a week with a camera, what would any of those things show about your love for and faith in God? What does the paper trail of your life tell about your devotion to our LORD?

Malachi 3:1-4
1 “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.

Malachi 4:1-6
1 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. 3 Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things,” says the LORD Almighty.
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
5 “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

2 Peter 3:8
“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and (B)a thousand years like one day.”

A man read this verse and asked God, If one day is as good as one thousand years, does that mean a million dollars is as good as a penny?” God said, “Yes.” The man continued, “Then give me a penny.” God replied, “Sure, just wait one minute!”

Think about it for a second . . . ah, you got it! We want the prize but not the process. I have heard the ability to wait called “the masters attitude”. Having the ability to wait on God requires:

1.) Trust – We must learn to let go of what God tells us to relinquish and wait for Him to supply what He has in store for us.

2.) Humility – Waiting on God reminds us that we are not in charge; and it humbles us in the way we need to be humbled.

3.) Hope – Paul writes, “If we hope for what we do not have, we wait patiently for it.” (Romans 8:25) When I read that verse, I always think about Christmas morning as a child. You know there is something great within reach, but you have to wait til everyone is up.

Learn to wait, it is the master attitude.

Related Text:
Hebrews 11:1
“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

John 16:8-11
“When he [Holy Spirit] comes, he’ll expose the error of the godless world’s view of sin, righteousness, and judgment: He’ll show them that their refusal to believe in me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control; that judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted.”

People can’t change other people – only God can!

Have you ever been in one of those spots where you try and try and try to convict people of their sin? Trying to show them the error of their ways and trying to show them that they need salvation? Only to have them become more resistant to what you are saying??

Those situations aren’t successful because we as humans are trying to do something that we just don’t have the power to do. Only God can convict people of their sins, we can supply them with His truth, but we cannot make them feel true conviction. Our jobs as Christians is to love people, pray for them, meet their needs where we can, and allow God to change them. And remember, God doesn’t work on our timetable or according to our plans. We need to stop obsessing over people’s refusal to be convicted over sin, and start praying for them and loving them through Jesus.

Commit the people you love to God! Trust Him!

When we try to play God, everyone loses.

Related Text:
Isaiah 42:16
“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them.”

1 John 3:1-10
“1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”

When we are in God, when we abide in Him, and when we are convicted of a sin in our lives, we turn from that sin. Sin is evil. And evil is a huge word that many people like to avoid using. No one likes to think of themselves as ever being evil, and some people don’t even like to think of others as evil. But simply, sin is evil an when we sin, that is evil to. But praise God we have a Savior who has paid our debt to God.

Related Text:
“With Christ as our Savior, we ought to live as children of light.” Ephesians 5:8

Revelation 1:17
“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.’”

While the apostle John was a prisoner on the Isle of Patmos, far from his loved ones and surrounded by the cries of abused captives, he had a vision of Jesus. The incredible book of Revelation came to him amidst chaos and pain. Often, that is the way it works.

The difficult circumstances of life can actually clear our perceptions, cause us to seek God’s presence in our lives like never before, and lead us to find real answers rooted in Gods word. John’s predicament shows us that negative experiences don’t hide the Lord – they reveal Him – if we are looking for Him.

Persevering through Satan’s attacks can actually take us to new spiritual heights. When the pressure feels like it will never end, it stretches our faith. Stretched faith expresses itself in two ways: in deeds of faith and in perseverance of faith.

The Lord revealed Himself to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in a furnace heated seven times over (so hot, it killed the guards who threw them in). In the midst of the fire, they were safe with God. There is a place in God where the fire consumes everything except the desire to know Him. Though that place may sometimes escape your grasp, never let it escape your view. Always be reaching for a closer relationship with God, no matter what you may have to remove from your life to do so.

Paul lived with no reservations and no regrets; just a passion to know the Lord more intimately, and a commitment to follow God wherever He called.

Related Text:
“Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him.” – Philippians 3:8

Philippians 4:4-7
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Wow, think about that. Always be close enough to God to strike up a conversation. Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

I pray for myself and for all of the members of this Bible study that God would give us an undeniable desire to pray continually and always be in conversation with Him. May God give us the wisdom and ability to take our worries, turn them into prayers, and receive His peace.

1 John 2:1-11
“1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.”

John is encouraging us not to sin. But he assures us that when we do miss the mark that God has set for us, Jesus is there to go before God on our behalf. Praise God!

This part of 1 John, especially verses 3-6, hits pretty hard. John lays is out pretty bluntly. If you claim to know God, you will obey his commands. Not just the easy ones, not just half of the time, not just when it’s convenient or when you’re reminded to. Walk as Jesus walked.