WATCH BELOW . . . COMING IN JANUARY - MARCH 2010 . . . A STUDY BY PASTOR DAVID W. BROWN EXTREME MAKEOVER GOD'S EDITION -- Pastor David W. Brown, Th.A., A.A. |
BIBLE STUDY NOTES
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February 28, 2010
Extreme Makeover – God’s Edition
Parson Abe Wiles, Th. Adv.
Extreme Justification
Justification By Faith –
An Act By God Where By Faith We Are Made Righteous By The Merit Of Christ’s Sacrifice
1. Grace By Faith: Ephesians 2:8-9
8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9not by works, so that no one can boast.
• Explain Grace vs. Faith
2. Righteousness: Galatians 4:6-7
6Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."
7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
• Positional – Justification
• Progressive – Sanctification
• Forgiveness of Sin Means to an End: Romans 6:14
14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
o Huiothesia Adoption (Toga Virilis)
3. Merit: Galatians 3:24-25
24So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25Now that faith has
come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
• The Law and Its Function: Paidagogos
• 10 Commandments and the Law
• Christ’s Sacrifice Under the Law: Galatians 4:4-5
LAW GRACE
Sinless (II Corinthians 5:21) ------->
Atonement (Blood Sacrifice)
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January 24, 2010
Extreme Makeover – God’s Edition
Extreme Power
Text: Luke 2:36-38, 4:1-2, 14 and 18
I As we prepare for our Ten in Ten ten-day fast, we want to take a look at the subject of fasting. The
discipline of fasting releases the anointing, the favor and the blessing of God. Sometimes you can feel yourself
growing dry spiritually, and unable to sense that cutting-edge anointing. Fasting can be the answer to those
times of need. It can be the key that unlocks heaven’s doors and slams closed the gates of hell!
1. In our first text, we see the story of Anna, the prophetess. We are told that her life existed to serve
God. She lived there and worshiped there. But more than that, she prayed and fasted…every day!
2. I don’t know how you fast every day, maybe it’s a meal a day, maybe more. But whatever her
process, it had resulted in her having an intimate relationship with God that permitted her to understand the
timing of God’s plan, even when many others did not.
3. Anna was not the only one. Fasting was always a common practice, a spiritual discipline, among the
people of God.
4. But in the church today, fasting have become no longer a common practice, no longer is it a daily or
even weekly activity. And I believe that we are poorer and leaner in our spirits because of the neglect of a
regular fasting regimen.
5. Fasting is a powerful weapon of spiritual warfare and is a must…a must…for anyone desiring to enter to
an intimate relationship with the Almighty and to be victorious in spiritual combat – attaining what we are
referring to tonight as that Extreme Power!
II The Hebrew word for fasting is tsum and means, ‘self-denial, especially an abstinence from food.’
1. Fasting is not ‘going without food.’ That is called dieting. It is refraining from food for a specified
period of time and for a spiritual purpose.
2. Moses fasted for 40 days while on the mountain while receiving the commandments from God. Hannah,
the mother of the prophet Samuel, wept and prayed and fasted until God heard her petition to heal her
barrenness. David fasted often and many times a nation-wide fast was called by the spiritual leaders of God’s
people.
3. By the time the New Testament period rolled around, fasting was a familiar and a well established
practice. The early church writer Epiphanus wrote, ‘Who does not know that the fast of the
fourth and sixth days of the week are observed by Christians throughout the world?’
4. The early church had specifically chosen Wednesdays and Fridays as their two days a week to fast so
that they would not be confused with the Pharisees, who also fasted two days a week, on Tuesdays and
Thursdays.
5. John the Baptist is reported to have fasted regularly, as well as his followers. John Calvin, Martin
Luther, John Wesley, Charles Finney and many, many other great church reformers had fasting as a well
recognized element of their spiritual walk.
6. Joshua fasted for forty days. Daniel fasted for twenty-one days. In one place we are told that Paul
fasted for three days and in another that he fasted for fourteen days. We are told that Peter fasted for three
days.
III If fasting is so vital then why is it so neglected in the church world today? Because it means that we
must determine, as a triune being, which of the three will rule our life. Will it be the spirit, the soul or the body?
1. The spirit is that part of you that is like God…that eternal piece. The soul is your mind, your will and
your emotions. The body is this flesh that is a temporary housing for the spiritual being that is currently trapped
inside.
2. We are constantly faced with the need to determine which one will rule in our lives. And when we do as
Paul commanded, that is to crucify the flesh…making it come into subjection to the spirit…then there is a
tremendous power and anointing that is associated with that exercise.
3. But fasting is more than simply a physical discipline…it is a spiritual feasting!
IV We also know that Jesus fasted many times during His brief ministry, which brings us to our second
text. Re-read Luke 4:1-2, 14 and 18. When we read this we can notice a progression of events. Notice
this…first we are told that Jesus was full of the Spirit. As a consequence to that statement and fact, Jesus was
led by the Spirit into a place of solitude with the Father.
1. So, when we are full of the Spirit, that Spirit will lead us to enter into times of solitude and intimacy with
Him. The closer I walk to God, the more I find myself wanting to shut out the world and spend more and more
time alone with Him.
2. Contrary to what you may have believed before, the Scripture does not say that Jesus went into the
wilderness to fast…only that He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. I believe it was here that He was
intent on spending some times of one-on-one with the Father.
3. BUT, Satan was there…and during that period when He had His mind set on spending some quality
time with the Father, Satan came and began to trouble Him…to draw Him into a season of combat. Satan
comes, begins to test Him for forty days He tests and tempts Him, and the very next statement is what? ‘He
ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry.’
4. We often think that the next temptations were His tests, but this is at the end when it says, ‘at the end
He was hungry.’ He had already been aggravated, tried, tested and tempted by Satan for forty days. During
the times of His testing, what did Jesus do? He ate nothing …He fasted .
5. It is interesting to note that Adam and Eve were enticed to sin for the very first time, forever selling
mankind into the slavery and bondage of sin by the enticement of something to be eaten…to satisfy the flesh.
6. Conversely, Jesus began His earthly ministry which was for the purpose of undoing the damage done by
Adam with a period of forty days abstaining from food and the satisfaction of the flesh. In one case the spirit
surrendered to the flesh, but in the other the spirit demanded that the flesh come into subjection.
V How much different do you think our times of distress would be if, when we find ourselves in dire
straights, we would go immediately to prayer…but not just prayer. What if the next time Satan attacks, we go
immediately to a time of fasting and ‘eat nothing during those days?!’
1. In those times of need we often go to prayer, but we have forgotten the one-two punch of prayer
coupled with its partner…fasting.
2. Satan will flee quicker, problems will be resolved faster, demons will be defeated, answers will arrive
more rapidly when fasting is coupled with our prayers.
3. Jehoshophat was surrounded by invading armies and it seemed there was no solution. But he call for a
corporate fast. During that fast God revealed to Jehoshaphat exactly how the enemy was attacking and what to
do to defeat him.
VI Jesus had been full of the Spirit, He had been tested and had fasted His way thru it. Satan had tempted
Him, but had been defeated. Now on the back end of that verse 14 says, “Jesus returned in the power of the
Spirit.” And in verse 18 Jesus says, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me…He has anointed me.’
1. So now we must ask ourselves, ‘How badly do we desire the imprint of God on and in our lives?’
Presumably, we are all full of the Spirit tonight. But times of testing will come…there will be times when we are
under attack and in distress of heart and spirit.
2. But what we do during those times will determine the final outcome. We need to stop measuring our
faith by the size of our problem!
3. We can buckle, or simply muddle our way thru it. Or…we can take Jesus’ example and go
immediately to prayer…but not just prayer…prayer coupled with fasting.
4. Fasting until the testing and distress is thru, and we receive a release in the spirit. He ate nothing during
those days!
5. I saw a movie where the heroe with his band of ragged soldiers standing at his side promised them, “I
will not sleep until we have righted this wrong. I will not sleep again until I have done this!”
6. How powerful, and how much quicker would a resolution to the conflict be administered if we have a
similar approach with fasting. “I will not eat again until this situation is remedied. I will not eat again until God
hears and answers my prayer!”
7. Going into times of testing we may be simply ‘full of the Spirit.’ Coming out of that test we return not
just full of the Spirit, but in the power of the Spirit….and God’s anointing is upon us for the purpose of
flowing into and thru our situations.
8. Fasting is one of the greatest, but most frequently overlooked, weapons we have at our disposal when
engaged in spiritual warfare.