Word of Life Study Series

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Welcome to the Gospel Series- The Discourses of Jesus: www.wordinspire.org
Discourse: “The Rich Young Man”
Reference: Matthew 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30
Theme: The Perceived Sacrifice for Following Jesus is Far Outweighed by the Rewards
Context: Jesus was ministering in Judea and Crowds came to Him, Along with a Rich Young Man
Mark 10:17-31
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good — except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’“ “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” Peter said to him, “We have left everything to follow you!” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields — and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

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Welcome to Word of Life Study Series- The Pentateuch! The time of Noah and the flood is a bit of a mystery in the Scriptures. However, in the book of Genesis we do get a glimpse of what had transpired for approximately 1,656 years from Adam to Noah. Due to the long life spans leading up to Noah’s flood, it is speculated that as many as five billion people or more could have been alive at the time God sealed the door to Noah’s ark and the deluge came upon the earth. The life span of people was greatly reduced when capped to 120 years due to the effects of sinful human nature living so long on the earth.

1. The world before the Flood

So what was life like on the earth before Noah’s flood. What kind of people were they? When God had created Adam and Eve, he told them in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” The depravity was widespread. And it was inward, continual and habitual. God was forgotten or openly defied according to the Scriptures. It is generally believed that there were only two branches of the race of man. One, a godly line through Seth (third son of Adam and Eve), and the other, an ungodly line through Cain.

2. The Profile of a Giant

It was the purpose of Satan and his fallen angels to corrupt the human race and thereby do away with pure Adamite stock through whom the seed of the woman should come- Genesis 3:15. This would avert their own doom and make it possible for Satan and his kingdom to keep control of the planet earth indefinitely. This, he tried to accomplish by sending some of his fallen angels to marry the daughters of men in (Genesis 6:1-4), and produce a nation of giants through them.

3. The Ark and Deluge

Up to 1850 A.D. there was no ship in the history of the world as large as the ark. The capacity of the ark was equivalent in tonnage to more than 600 freight cars, which would form a train about 4 miles long capable of handling over 90,000,000 pounds. When the catastrophe came, the physical means employed were twofold, namely the breaking up of the “springs of the great deep” and the opening of “the flood gates of heaven” in Genesis 7:11.

4. God’s Covenant with Noah

God makes an everlasting covenant with all life on the earth to last throughout all generations; He will never again destroy all life on the earth by a flood. As a sign of this covenant, the presence of a rainbow appears for the first time and becomes a perpetual reminder for us and God that even though mankind is wicked and deserves to be wiped out, God will honor His covenant with humanity and will not destroy the earth with another flood.

5. Table of Nations

It is interesting to note that all races, colors, and distinct physical characteristics of men came into being after the flood. Since Noah and his three sons and their wives were the only survivors of the great deluge. Even though today we have many distinct ethnic groups, we must remember we all came from the same family tree!

6. Tower of Babel & Division of the Earth

In the 100 years after the flood, mankind traveled from Mt. Ararat in Armenia to the east of the Euphrates where they settled. The whole world at that time had one language. Humanity were not divided as to tongues and nations until after the event of Genesis 11:1-9. Hence, Genesis 10 gives the earliest division of mankind after the confusion of tongues and before the division of the earth into continents and islands which took place in the days of Peleg- Genesis 10:25.

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Welcome to Word of Life Study Series- Why some have a small harvest. Here is an important point to consider, the people of God are reaping a harvest, but they are much smaller than they need to be. They are reaping a small harvest, when they should be reaping a large harvest instead. Let’s look at some reasons why people reap only a small harvest.

1. They Sowed Sparingly

When folks get a revelation of this, they will start liquidating their assets so they can get a lot of seed in the ground, because they realize that is the secret to big harvests is big giving. It’s more up to us than it is up to the Lord. Unless the Lord leads us with a specific amount, we will make the decision of how much we are going to sow. In making that determination, we are determining the size of our harvest.

2. They did not Sow in Good Ground

The seed sowed into the hard, stony and thorny soil did not produce a harvest at all and so was wasted. We can have good seed and sow a lot of it, but if the ground is not good, we are not going to get a very good harvest. However, if we put the very same seed into very good ground, we would have a much larger yield or harvest from that seed, because the ground is going to produce of itself accordingly.

3. They Forfeit the Blessing of God

In the natural, when a developing crop does not have the proper balance between rain or sunshine, those factors will affect the outcome of the harvest; these are conditions that are outside of our control. This is God’s part, when He blesses our seed by providing the right elements to cause it to grow.

4. Allowing the thief to come in

Yielding to our flesh and treating people wrong, opens the door to the devil to devour our harvest. It matters how we live and how we treat other people; walking in love will always keep us on the side of God’s blessings for our lives.

5. Did not discern their harvest

People do not even realize that they need to discern the harvest in order to reap it. I am talking about discerning the timing of the harvest. People may think that the harvest is at a different time than it really is. It is like baking something in the oven, if you pull your apple pie out too early- gooey.

6. Need to discern amount of the harvest

Here is an important question that needs to be answered, do we know how much our giving has been in the past year? Are we keeping track of what and where our seed has been sown? We need to journal that information. Also, did we first check to see if that ground we sowed in, was it good ground? Next, ask yourself what a thirty, sixty or one hundred fold return on that investment into God’s Kingdom would be.

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Welcome to Word of Life Study Series- Rules of Reaping. Here is a provocative question, “can Christians sleep through their harvest?” We have to sow before we can reap and our lack of giving often finds its roots in a lack of faith. If we were to give as the Lord has asked us to, there would be no problem in reaping a harvest today. However, for most of us, when prompted by the Lord to give, we have doubts that He is able to get it back to us in time in order to meet our other obligations that are coming up. “Well Lord, if I give that $500 to so-in-so, that I have set aside for this bill that is due in 15 days, can You really get it back to me in time?”

1. Why Some People Don’t Have Harvests

There are many in charismatic circles today who think that all there is to prosperity is making confessions and turning in prayer requests and calling hotlines. But that is not enough, we have to sow, give and plant financial seed to reap a financial harvest. We will see in the teachings of Jesus and the apostle Paul, they both compared natural sowing and reaping with spiritual sowing and reaping. It’s a mistake for us to separate spiritual things from natural things- thinking that they have nothing in common. In reality, God patterned the natural world after the spiritual realm by design, so we would make the connection.

2. They Got Tired, Waiting for the Harvest

Don’t ever put a time limit on when the harvest is ready. Stay in a state of eager expectation and don’t quit until it comes to pass in your life. What if it took 5 years for something to come to pass? Abraham had to wait 25 years for Isaac to be born- Genesis 12:4; 21:5. You will reap a harvest if you do not quit; it’s through faith and patience that we receive the manifestation of the promises of God. If there are things you believed for and you gave up, go back and pick it back up and keep believing, keep expecting.

3. Many Think Reaping is Automatic

The parable of the growing seed is talking about the spiritual counterpart to the natural process of seed growing in the soil. So in this parable, who sowed the seed? The man did. Who caused the seed to grow and develop? The soil or God does. Who reaped the harvest, God or man? The man did. Many are of the opinion that they have nothing to do with the reaping aspect of the harvest, that it just automatically happens whether they know the harvest has come or not. Reaping the harvest is no more automatic than sowing the seed is.

4. How to Reap

So the next obvious question is this, “having sown material seed, how do we reap a material harvest?” We can be walking by faith in one area of our life, and not walking by faith in another. We can be living in divine health, but be struggling financially. Faith in one area of the promises of God does not automatically make all the promises of God manifest in our lives. We know when it comes to receiving healing that we simply have to claim it by faith based on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and receive. We need to stop praying for money and about money the way we have been up until now. The money we need is in this world, God does not have it in heaven. If we are a giver in line with the Scriptures, we are sowing material seed, then according to the Bible the provision is already there and available. Therefore, what we need to do in order to reap our financial harvest is to claim what we need out of this world system. Be specific and name the dollar amount that is needed to meet those needs. Believe that you receive it and claim it in Jesus’ Name.

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Welcome to Word of Life Study Series- Biblical Laws of Increase Part 1. Our God is the God of blessing and increase and He has given the earth to us to enjoy, develop and utilize for His glory. He wants us to increase in all areas of our life, spirit, soul and body. This also includes financially and materially. He wants us to have more so we can be a blessing and do more for His Kingdom and to increase our own enjoyment level. We find in the Scriptures that just because it is God’s will does not mean that it just automatically happens. There are conditions of obedience and faith associated to working the principles of God’s Word.

1. The Law of Honoring God

The key to Exercising faith for finances is to sow seed according to 2 Corinthians 9:6 and Luke 6:38. If a person will just obey the Bible, they will reap many wonderful results. Spiritual laws, like natural laws always work the same for whomever works them, no matter who the person is. Just as gravity works the same for each person so do spiritual laws in the Bible. Like the concept of cause and effect, when we act on the Word in faith, the results are forth coming. Therefore, we have a part to play in our prosperity- it’s not all up to God. It’s not what we know alone that sets us free, but what we know and put into practice that makes us free.

2. Honoring the Local Church

A modern application of this would be if a Christian was taking an old beat-up piece of furniture to the city dump, but then half way there, decides to dump it on his/her pastor instead- that is a contemptible offering and dishonors God by dishonoring His servant. Until people see the value of the local church, world missions and humanity in general, and see it through God’s eyes, they will not honor it- this is where having a revelation from God is so necessary.

3. How to Honor God

It is important for us to know that we are always on the Lord’s mind and that His abiding presence is a meant to be a continual comfort for us to enjoy. With that being said, let’s also take note that the Lord is called El-Shadi; the God who is more than enough, not El-Cheapo or the God that lets us barely get by. The Bible talks a lot about money and finances, sad that so many are embarrassed and feel uncomfortable about that subject, because of wrong thinking. We have been talking about the Biblical use of honor in regards to blessing others financially. Now we are going to look at the practical application of this principle. It is impossible to say that we honor God, and not be actively giving generously into His works on the earth.

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