2022
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Before you click on the link below, you can read the transcript of the video below the link and the project Kevin suggests.
Fellowship Project: Blog Posting
After you watch the video and read the study notes below, answer these questions here:
1. Can you trust your feelings, especially when they go against what we just read here in the scripture?
2. Talk about your feelings and what they’re based on?
3. Discuss: The spirit is the part of you that is eternal and born again. The soul is your mind, will, and emotions, which we get the word “psyche,” it is the mental part of you that your emotions are tied to. Then, you have a body, which we have to discipline. Of all these, your Spirit is most dependable, but our minds are to become transformed by being renewed with the Word of God, which it then will side with your spirit. Talk about all of this and then discuss how we are to arrest our emotions and thoughts.
4. Discuss how outside influences impact you to make decisions.
5. God already invested in you by choosing you and He gave you the Spirit of God, then He assigned you with a book that He wrote about you. Talk about how “If God is for you, then who can be against you?” (Romans 8:31).
6. How do we weigh all three parts: the internal struggle verses, the external influences, and the sound Word of God? God is on the other end saying, “This is not an opinion, “I believe in you, and I’ve chosen you”
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
—1 Corinthians 1:9
DISCUSSION:
Here in the United States. We use the words “hang out” when we spend time together, and God wants to hang out with you. He created us in His image because He wanted fellowship with us. The purpose for why we are here has been lost and misunderstood because of the fallen world satan doesn't want us to know our value.
He likes to keep that from us. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul said that satan is the god of this world and spirit of this world.
God is not in control of the world. He's in control of those who obey Him and love Him and listen to His commands, according to Jesus. He said, “If you really love me, obey my commands” (John 14:15). He wants us to have fellowship with Him. We’ve got to come to God on His level because He made us to sit with Him in the heavenly realm. right here, Paul is saying in today’s verse that God was faithful. He is faithful, but He's called us to this fellowship. That's an invitation. The idea here is the same thing as getting an invite to go somewhere with a friend if you do the word study on this. We're called into this fellowship, and we're called to meet with God and Jesus Christ and to have fellowship with them. Even though Jesus is our Lord, we are co-heirs, not just heirs of God. In other words, we have an inheritance where we're co-heirs with Jesus Christ, which, if you read it in legal terms, it means that whatever Jesus acquired, we acquire the same as He, which is not fathomable. It's obvious that we're not comprehending it because of the way that we live. When we talk to each other, you can hear in our voices that we feel knocked down a couple of notches and we don't feel worthy. According to what Jesus said and Paul has taught us, we have an inheritance through Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, and with Jesus Christ. All those ideas are worded differently, but they all mean that we have everything that Jesus has. We're literally considered a brother to Jesus as well as Him being our Lord, and it can be kind of hard to understand this.
For example, several members of my family are professionals. If I were to hire my sister as my lawyer, even though that's my sister, she's going to be a professional and represent me in court. I have to treat her as a professional one representing me even though I grew up with her and teased her all the time. She's the expert at what she does, but she's still my sister. That's what it’s like with Jesus, and it's not easy to understand this, but you have to know where the line is drawn. If He's my Lord, I'm going to do exactly what He says, but we are also co-heirs with Him. In other words, whatever He's inherited, we have inherited that as well. Whenever we go to God, we have to remember that Jesus represents us, but we are also with Him equally. The religious spirit really gets upset with that statement.
Isaiah 43:7
Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.
You have to remember that God started this whole thing. He created you, but then when Jesus came, He came as the Son of man, and I saw this in Heaven. I can't imagine a Christian not knowing and understanding the Apostle Paul and what he was writing about. I can't imagine them ever going on in the transformation phase and changing without understanding that God started this all. He also sent Jesus as the Son of man, and Jesus always wanted to be known as the Son of man because the demons knew Him as the Son of God, and He would tell him to shut up.
God was showing through Jesus that He become equal with us. Jesus came down and considered equality with God, and that was something no one could grasp. He became a servant, and He did this so that He can take us up with Him. He seated us with Him, and this is something I don't understand. When I went to heaven, I didn't think I was coming back. I saw how we lived way below, and it embarrassed me, and I was sad. I told the Lord, I said, I would have done so much more for you if I had known this, and as soon as I said that He didn't say a word. He just kept looking at me like He was listening. I heard the Holy Spirit say inside of me, “Well, you should have. You could have. It was available.”
I didn't tap into the Holy Spirit to help me. He's our counselor. God wants to be with you. We're thinking, “He just deals with me. He tolerates me,” and that is not the case at all. The Holy Spirit wants to get you dressed up so that you can present yourself to Jesus and the King and to God to have fellowship with Him. If you're going to have fellowship, you're going to have to know how to talk to God. He doesn't want to talk about certain things. He already knows all the answers to every issue you have, every problem you have. He already has a solution. There is a way out.