flatirons teaching team

In light of last weekends message I thought i might be helpful to point you to other messages where we have addressed similar relational issues. Check out Behind Closed Doors, Locked up,  Explicit lyrics and PB&J .  Also make sure to check out our upcoming marital and pre-marital workshops.

JI Packer is one of my favorite authors. I was most recently reading in his book “Rediscovering Holiness” that he believes Christians are often like patients in a hospital suffering from delusions. What he is trying to address is that while we often embrace the total sufficiency of what Jesus did for us on the cross and through his resurrection in regards to our salvation. We often disregard the ongoing process of being made like Jesus, or sanctification if you want to use the fancy theological word. In thinking about the current series we are in I think it relates. We many times fail to apply what is true in our lives. We tend to think that just because we know it, or have heard it that will make all the difference in our lives. It doesn’t. What makes a difference is our active participation in our transformation through applying what the Bible teaches us. There is nothing we do to accomplish our salvation, but there is much we can do to participate in our sanctification. Packer says we often suffer from too many delusions to do this. I’ll list them for you.
Delusions of theological error about who God is and what He is like.

Delusions of doubt and unbelief.
Delusions of self confidence. We think we have finally conquered an addiction or sin in our life and we think we can handle it from this point on.
Delusions that disrupt relationships.
Delusions from failing to distinguish between things that differ. For example “confusing secular psychological counseling with Biblical pastoral direction.”
Delusions about the Christian life. Believing it will be “ordinarily easy, successful, healthy and wealthy”.

I think I’ve suffered from many of these delusions at different points along the way. This is why I”m glad that the “sanctifying work of the Spirit as 1 Peter 1:1-2 talks about never stops. But it also challenges me to be obedient to Christ.

As we dive into our new series, “there’s an app for that”, I thought it would be helpful to provide some background information on the book of Proverbs. Every week in this series we will learn and hopefully apply a different Proverb. Proverbs is grouped in the old testament books of wisdom between Psalms and Ecclesiastes. Most of Proverbs was written by Solomon but there are portions written by other lesser known authors as well. These proverbs or sayings of the wise were put together intentionally to teach the young (although the wisdom applies to those of any age) short, memorable and applicable truths. In fact the book of Proverbs was intended to be memorized! We will aim at a verse a week for now. However it might be incredibly helpful to read through the book of Proverbs while we are working through this series over this next month. For those of you who did the Bible reading challenge and read through the book of Luke this will be a great next step. For those of you who didn’t do the Bible reading challenge this will be a great place to start.

Luke 24:1-53

When you think of the resurrection of Jesus, what thoughts or questions come to mind?

what has been the most significant part of this experience of reading the entire book of luke?

Luke 23:26-56

What do you learn about God’s grace through his treatment of the thief on the cross next to him?

Luke 23:1-25

Why do you think the people demanded that Jesus be crucified?

Luke 22:54-71

In what ways do you identify with Peter?

Luke 22:1-53

What would you do if the disciples were busy arguing about which of them were the greatest as you were preparing to die for them, as Jesus was?

Luke 21:1-38

What is your heart weighed down by right now?

Luke 20:1-47

What do you learn about Jesus’ authority in this chapter?