Dear Friends,

Life is hard. We sometimes go through hard things. We are also called to do hard things.

We are called by God to do what is most loving and that is usually hard.

Jesus called us to follow him. He said we are to love others as He loved us. His love was demonstrated on the cross.

Love is hard. We live in an age where doing the hard is not popular. In relationships, service, church, marriage, friendship, family when things get hard we are given an array of the clinical reason why we should bailout.

Aren’t you glad God doesn’t bail out on us when things get hard?

We need to be encouraged and to encourage each other to do Hard things.

Without a willingness to do hard things we will sink into a soft, empty self-absorbed loneliness that neither follows Jesus nor stirs our souls.

This Sunday we will learn why we need to encourage the hard things in order to reflect and follow  Jesus

I can’t wait to see you.

Blessings,

Joe

Preparing for Sunday-August 11, 2019

Please read the following scriptures and consider the questions as you prepare for Sunday.

 

JESUS CALLS US TO HARD THINGS!

 

Do you find Jesus’s clear command in the following scripture hard?

Luke 6:27-30  “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28  bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29  “Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. 30  “Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.

 

 

Why is this hard?

 

 

Where do you need to obey this?

 

 

Do you find this command by your Lord hard?

Luke 6:31-34  “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. 32  “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33  “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34  “If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.

 

 

What about this command is hard in your life right now?

 

 

What will keep you from obeying doing this hard thing?

 

 

Do you obey Jesus in this command as your ruler in word and deed?

Luke 6:35-36  “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He, Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. 36  “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

 

 

Do you have enemies?

 

 

Why is loving and forgiving proof you are really saved?

 

 

How seriously do you take obeying your Lord on this hard command?

Luke 6:37  “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.

 

 

How faithfully do you do this hard call?

Luke 6:38  “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure–pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

 

 

Why is this so hard in a culture of plenty?

 

 

In what area are you obeying the following command?

Mark 10:43-45  “But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; 44  and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 45  “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

 

 

What has Jesus told you to do that you find hardest?

 

 

How can we fail to encourage doing the hard things?

 

 

How can we encourage each other to do as He said?

Hebrew 3:12-13  Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13  But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.