Genesis 7, part 2

Great Things
Verse 1
Come let us worship our King
Come let us bow at His feet
He has done great things
See what our Savior has done
See how His love overcomes
He has done great things
He has done great things

Chorus
O Hero of Heaven You conquered the grave
You free every captive and break every chain
O God You have done great things
We dance in Your freedom awake and alive
O Jesus our Savior Your name lifted high
O God You have done great things

Verse 2
You’ve been faithful through every storm
You’ll be faithful forevermore
You have done great things
And I know You will do it again
For Your promise is yes and amen
You will do great things
God You do great things

Bridge
Hallelujah God above it all
Hallelujah God unshakable
Hallelujah You have done great things
(REPEAT)
You’ve done great things

Ending
You have done great things
O God You do great things
CCLI Song # 7111321
Jonas Myrin | Phil Wickham
© 2018 Capitol CMG Paragon (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)
Son of the Lion (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)
Phil Wickham Music (Fair Trade Music Publishing [c/o Essential Music Publishing LLC])
Simply Global Songs (Fair Trade Music Publishing [c/o Essential Music Publishing LLC])
Sing My Songs (Fair Trade Music Publishing [c/o Essential Music Publishing LLC])
For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com
CCLI License # 11176923

Graves Into Gardens
Verse 1
I searched the world but it couldn't fill me
Man's empty praise and treasures that fade
Are never enough
Then You came along and put me back together
And every desire is now satisfied here in Your love

Chorus
Oh there's nothing better than You
There's nothing better than You
Lord there's nothing
Nothing is better than You

Verse 2
I'm not afraid to show You my weakness
My failures and flaws
Lord You've seen them all
And You still call me friend
'Cause the God of the mountain
Is the God of the valley
And there's not a place
Your mercy and grace won't find me again

Bridge
You turn mourning to dancing
You give beauty for ashes
You turn shame into glory
You're the only one who can

Bridge
You turn graves into gardens
You turn bones into armies
You turn seas into highways
You're the only one who can

CCLI Song # 7138219
Brandon Lake | Chris Brown | Steven Furtick | Tiffany Hudson
© 2019 Brandon Lake Music (Admin. by Bethel Music Publishing)
Music by Elevation Worship Publishing (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)
Maverick City Publishing Worldwide (Admin. by Heritage Worship Publishing)
Bethel Music Publishing
For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com
CCLI License # 11176923

Be Thou My Vision
Verse 1
Be Thou my Vision O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me save that Thou art
Thou my best thought by day or by night
Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light

Verse 2
Be Thou my Wisdom and Thou my true Word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me Lord
Thou my great Father I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one

Verse 3
High King of heaven my victory won
May I reach heaven's joys bright heaven's Sun
Heart of my own heart whatever befall
Still be my Vision O Ruler of all

Ending
Be Thou my Vision

CCLI Song # 7056332
Eleanor Henrietta Hull | Mary Elizabeth Byrne | Russell Mauldin
© Words: Public Domain
Music: 2010 Belden Street Music Publishing (Admin. by ClearBox Rights, LLC)

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CCLI License # 11176923

Goodness Of God
Verse 1

I love You Lord
Oh Your mercy never fails me
All my days
I've been held in Your hands
From the moment that I wake up
Until I lay my head
I will sing of the goodness of God

Chorus
All my life You have been faithful
All my life You have been so so good
With every breath that I am able
I will sing of the goodness of God

Verse 2
I love Your voice
You have led me through the fire
In darkest night
You are close like no other
I've known You as a father
I've known You as a friend
I have lived in the goodness of God

Bridge
Your goodness is running after
It’s running after me
Your goodness is running after
It’s running after me
With my life laid down
I’m surrendered now
I give You everything
Your goodness is running after
It's running after me

CCLI Song # 7117726

Ben Fielding | Brian Johnson | Ed Cash | Jason Ingram | Jenn Johnson
© 2018 Capitol CMG Paragon (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)
SHOUT! Music Publishing Australia (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)
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Bethel Music Publishing

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CCLI License # 11176923

__________________________

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%207%3A1-20&version=CJB,RSV

__________________________

INSPIRATION 

As Jesus sought for a way to explain his return, he hearkened back to the flood of Noah. Parallels are obvious. A message of judgment was proclaimed then. It is proclaimed still. People didn’t listen then. They refuse to listen today. Noah was sent to save the faithful. Christ was sent to do the same. A flood of water came then. A flood of fire will come next. Noah built a safe place out of wood. Jesus made a safe place with the cross. Those who believed hid in the ark. Those who believe are hidden in Christ. Most important, what God did in Noah’s generation, he will do at Christ’s return. He will pronounce a universal, irreversible judgment. A judgment in which grace is revealed, rewards are unveiled, and the impenitent are punished. As you read the story of Noah, you won’t find the word judgment. But you will find ample evidence of one. The era of Noah was a sad one. “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence” (Genesis 6:11). Such rebellion broke the heart of God. “His heart was deeply troubled” (verse 6). He sent a flood, a mighty purging flood, upon the earth. The skies rained for forty days. “[The waters] rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered” (7:19). Only Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark escaped. Everyone else perished. God didn’t slam the gavel on the bench, but he did close the door of the ark. According to Jesus: “That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:39). And so a judgment was rendered. Talk about a thought that stirs anxiety! Just the term judgment day conjures up images of tiny people at the base of a huge bench. On the top of the bench is a book and behind the bench is God and from God comes a voice of judgment—Guilty! Gulp. We are supposed to encourage each other with these words? How can the judgment stir anything except panic? For the unprepared, it can’t. But for the follower of Jesus who understands the judgment—the hour is not to be dreaded. 

(From When Christ Comes by Max Lucado.)

  

REACTION 

7. Imagine yourself in Noah’s situation. How would you have responded to God? 

8. In what ways does obedience to God often require a step of faith? 

9. Why is it sometimes difficult to lean into the implications directed by God's Spirit? 

10. In what ways has God rewarded your obedience to him? 

11. How can your obedience to God have an influence on others? 

12. What attitudes are typical of people whose obedience to God you greatly respect?

LIFE LESSONS  

Moses invites us into the very heart of God when he tells us the Lord’s heart “was deeply troubled” because of the sin of humankind (Genesis 6:6). Sin had so infested everything about humanity—both inside and out—that the Lord ultimately decided he needed to start over with Noah and his family. Notice the Bible doesn’t say that God was pleased with this outcome or that he felt any form of vengefulness or wrath toward the human race. Rather, we read that God experienced deep pain as he mourned over the sinfulness that affected his beloved creation. It was for this same reason that God would send Jesus, “who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

DEVOTION 

Sometimes, Father, you ask us to do things that we don’t understand. We question, hesitate, and struggle to obey you. Today, we pray that you would draw us closer to you so we will have the confidence to take that step of faith and do as you ask.

Lucado, Max. Life Lessons from Genesis (pp. 29-30). HarperChristian Resources. Kindle Edition. 

Pouring over the Community

 

HOW MIGHT EACH OF US POUR OVER PEOPLE WHERE THEY WORK, LIVE, STUDY AND PLAY?

(Notes taken from our Lesson 8, Letters to the Church by Francis Chan (c) 2018 by David C Cook 

This serves as a reminder that each of us is given a purpose for our presence within a community)  

Francis Chan:  I was having lunch in São Paulo with the pastor of a thriving congregation. I began encouraging him for the exciting things I saw happening, but he stopped me mid-compliment and said, “Yeah, but the church still feels too much like a zoo. So many churches feel like zoos. We take these powerful animals out of the jungle and put them on display in cages. Have you ever seen the movie Madagascar?” I immediately knew what he was talking about. The movie begins with a bunch of “wild” animals in a zoo. All the spectators are in awe of these powerful and exotic animals. Everyone’s favorite is the lion; the children go crazy, cheering every time he roars. Most of the animals love this setup. They’re extremely well cared for. Trainers wait on them hand and foot, bringing them everything they need and ensuring that their habitats, which are carefully designed to look like “the wild,” are safe and comfortable for the animals. But the zebra finds himself dreaming about the wild. He can’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t made to live in a zoo; he was made to roam free. His restlessness creates a situation where several of the animals escape the zoo and later find themselves stranded in the jungle of Madagascar. The movie is hilarious, mostly stemming from watching domesticated animals trying to survive in the wild. These animals were born to live free, born with the instincts and physical characteristics required to thrive. But their zoo environment had made them tame, useless in the wild. I wonder whether you’ve felt like the zebra. You’ve been a faithful member of your church, but you keep feeling like you were made for something more. Maybe you’ve even experienced what it’s like to live in the wild. It may have been on an overseas mission trip or while boldly reaching out in your own neighborhood. You’ve known the joy of seeing your instincts kick in and allow you to thrive. But now you’re stuck in the zoo, where everything is comfortable, everything is controlled. And you just want to get back to living in the wild.

Jim's note: *Ask yourself, Who would be the "zoo-keepers" in this analogy?  Please refrain from saying my name out loud! ;-)

Chan:  Another pastor of a smaller church (“only” forty thousand people) explained that the founding pastor had told the congregation not to stay in the church longer than five years. In his mind, after five years, there wouldn’t be anything else they could learn from him. Like a child turning eighteen, it would be time for them to start a new journey. But they were running into a problem: once the people got comfortable in the zoo, they refused to leave. In fact, they no longer believed they were able to live outside the zoo. I was talking to a pastor from the Philippines who has over thirty thousand people in his church. He told me he used to send missionaries to the United States for Bible training but he would never make that mistake again. He explained that once these would-be missionaries spent time in the US, they never came back! Once they tasted the comforts, they came up with all sorts of reasons they were called to take a nice salary from a church and raise their children in America.

The answer is not to build bigger and nicer cages. Nor is it to renovate the cages so they look more like the wild. It’s time to open the cages, remind the animals of their God-given instincts and capabilities, and release them into the wild. 

Alan Hirsch has said, “In so many churches the mission of the church has actually become the maintenance of the institution itself.”

  ___

“[I pray you would know] what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” Ephesians 1:19–21

_______________________

If the Holy Spirit enters a person at salvation, do you believe that you have already received a full version of the Holy Spirit? If so, do you already have gifts meant to build up the body? 

Ask yourself these questions:

• Who outside our faith are you PRAYING for?
• Who outside our faith have you CARED for?
• What is God teaching you these recent days?

Let's review some of our recent events:

5th Sunday at ASU with the pups

Bible Study inside Fair Trade Cafe

Worship inside The Painters Lounge

August 22, 2021 Worship

This Is Amazing Grace

Verse 1

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness
Whose love is mighty and so much stronger
The King of Glory the King above all kings

Verse 2

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder
And leaves us breathless in awe and wonder
The King of Glory the King above all kings

Chorus

(Yeah) (Oh) This is amazing grace
This is unfailing love
That You would take my place
That You would bear my cross
You laid down Your life
That I would be set free
Oh Jesus I sing for all that You've done for me

Verse 3

Who brings our chaos back into order
Who makes the orphan a son and daughter
The King of Glory the King of Glory

Verse 4

Who rules the nations with truth and justice
Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance
The King of Glory the King above all kings

Bridge

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
Worthy is the King who conquered the grave
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
Worthy is the King who conquered the grave
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
Worthy is the King who conquered the grave
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
Worthy worthy worthy

CCLI Song # 6333821

Jeremy Riddle | Josh Farro | Phil Wickham

• © 2012 Phil Wickham Music (Admin. by BMG Rights Management [c/o Music Services, Inc.])
• Seems Like Music (Admin. by BMG Rights Management [c/o Music Services, Inc.])
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• WC Music Corp.

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CCLI License # 11176923

___________

To God Be The Glory

Verse 1

To God be the glory great things He has done
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin
And opened the life gate that all may go in

Chorus

Praise the Lord praise the Lord
Let the earth hear His voice
Praise the Lord praise the Lord
Let the people rejoice
O come to the Father through Jesus the Son
And give Him the glory great things He has done

Verse 2

O perfect redemption the purchase of blood
To every believer the promise of God
The vilest offender who truly believes
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives

Verse 3

Great things He has taught us
Great things He has done
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son
But purer and higher and greater will be
Our wonder our transport when Jesus we see

CCLI Song # 23426

Fanny Jane Crosby | William Howard Doane

• © Words: Public Domain
• Music: Public Domain

For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com

CCLI License # 11176923

Graves Into Gardens

Verse 1

I searched the world but it couldn't fill me
Man's empty praise and treasures that fade
Are never enough
Then You came along and put me back together
And every desire is now satisfied here in Your love

Chorus

Oh there's nothing better than You
There's nothing better than You
Lord there's nothing
Nothing is better than You

Verse 2

I'm not afraid to show You my weakness
My failures and flaws
Lord You've seen them all
And You still call me friend
'Cause the God of the mountain
Is the God of the valley
And there's not a place
Your mercy and grace won't find me again

Bridge

You turn mourning to dancing
You give beauty for ashes
You turn shame into glory
You're the only one who can

Bridge

You turn graves into gardens
You turn bones into armies
You turn seas into highways
You're the only one who can

CCLI Song # 7138219

Brandon Lake | Chris Brown | Steven Furtick | Tiffany Hudson

• © 2019 Brandon Lake Music (Admin. by Bethel Music Publishing)
• Music by Elevation Worship Publishing (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)
• Maverick City Publishing Worldwide (Admin. by Heritage Worship Publishing)
• Bethel Music Publishing

For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com

CCLI License # 11176923

Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing (Nettleton)

Verse 1

Come Thou fount of ev'ry blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love

Verse 2

Here I raise mine Ebenezer
Hither by Thy help I'm come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wand'ring from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

Verse 3

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let Thy grace Lord like a fetter
Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart Lord take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

CCLI Song # 108389

John Wyeth | Robert Robinson

• © Words: Public Domain
• Music: Public Domain

For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com

CCLI License # 11176923

August 22, 2021. - A Time of Introspection and Prayer

Genesis has reminded us of how, in God's plan, we would spend time with Him, perhaps walking alongside Him inside the Garden. Genesis 3:8 says, “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, (but) the man and his wife hid themselves ... among the trees of the garden.”

• Take some time and stroll to one of the benches or spots to sit in our Roosevelt Community. Try to imagine you are strolling along with The Father. You can pair up with someone or find a private spot alone. Look around and notice the people; Each one is someone made in the image of our Creator.

“So God created Human in his own image, in the image of God created he him"; The Hebrew phrase for “image of God” is tzelem elohim. Every person you come across or see today is just that: Made in the Image of the God who created him.

Our world is heaving in all sorts of pain now. The reports of Afghani people falling from the sides of aircraft as they clung on as the cargo planes leaving the Kabul Airport is disturbing. Parents looking for their children after the earthquake in Haiti this last week pains our hearts. Flash flooding happened in our own state that overtook families. A gas pipeline that explodes kills a father and daughter. And then we see how Covid is cutting lives short and overwhelming the healthcare workers. People are looking for a chance to argue with someone.

One can only imagine that pain it brings our Heavenly Father as He sees Man's choices leading us down this road to these consequences. This present picture is a sad contrast to the original path that God created for us. If only Adam had admitted his sin and asked for forgiveness!

But he didn't.
Perhaps we should learn from Adam's omission.

• Take ten minutes, breathing slowly and asking God for His forgiveness of your own sin. Think back over this last week, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, to discover the sin you need to own up to. Remind yourself of the words we discussed last week from Psalm 51, this time reading from the Amplified Bible translation.

A Contrite Sinner’s Prayer for Pardon.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David; when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had sinned with Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;

According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness and guilt

And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them;

My sin is always before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned

And done that which is evil in Your sight,

So that You are justified when You speak [Your sentence]

And faultless in Your judgment.
5 I was brought forth in [a state of] wickedness;

In sin my mother conceived me [and from my beginning I, too, was sinful].
6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,

And in the hidden part [of my heart] You will make me know wisdom.
7 Purify me with [a]hyssop, and I will be clean;

Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Make me hear joy and gladness and be satisfied;

Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins

And blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a right and steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation

And sustain me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,

And sinners shall be converted and return to You.
14 Rescue me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;

Then my tongue will sing joyfully of Your righteousness and Your justice.
15 O Lord, open my lips,

That my mouth may declare Your praise.
16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it;

You are not pleased with burnt offering.
17 My [only] sacrifice [acceptable] to God is a broken spirit;

A broken and contrite heart [broken with sorrow for sin, thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.
18 By Your favor do good to Zion;

May You rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then will You delight in the sacrifices of righteousness,

In burnt offering and whole burnt offering;

Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.
Footnotes [a] Psalm 51:7 Evidently, hyssop was a bristly plant which was useful as a kind of brush.

Some of you also have personal agony or anxiety in your lives. You have plans that have yet to come to fruition. There are goals in your life that might not be realized. Again, take a moment and breathe before the Lord. Imagine you have the full attention of our Heavenly Father that knows the very hairs on our head and has numbered each one; He knows us more intimately that we even know ourselves.

• Then read; praying as you read these words.

Look to these words written by The Psalmist.

Psalm 121 translation from the Complete Jewish Bible

1 If I raise my eyes to the hills,
 from where will my help come? 2 My help comes from *Adonai,
 the maker of heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot slip —
 your guardian is not asleep.

4 No, the guardian of Isra’el

never slumbers or sleeps.
5 Adonai is your guardian; at your right hand
 Adonai provides you with shade —
6 the sun can’t strike you during the day

or even the moon at night.
7 Adonai will guard you against all harm;

he will guard your life.
8 Adonai will guard your coming and going
 from now on and forever.

*What is the meaning of the name Adonai?
Adonai ( אֲדֹנָי, lit. "My Lords") is the plural form of adon ("Lord") along with the first-person singular pronoun enclitic. As with Elohim, Adonai's grammatical form is usually explained as a plural of majesty. In the Hebrew Bible, it is nearly always used to refer to God. Imagine our Lord as One who is our Master and Protector.

God the Refuge of His People. Psalm 46 Amplified Bible translation
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, set to soprano voices. A Song.

God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable],

A very present and well-proved help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change

And though the mountains be shaken and slip into the heart of the seas,
3 Though its waters roar and foam,

Though the mountains tremble at its roaring. Selah - Pause and think ....
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her [His city], she will not be moved;

God will help her when the morning dawns.
6 The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered and were moved;

He raised His voice, the earth melted.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah - Pause and think ....
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,

Who has brought desolations and wonders on the earth.
9 He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;

He breaks the bow into pieces and snaps the spear in two;

He burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah - Pause and think ....

To Be Forgiven

 

Genesis 3:23 - The Voice

23 So the Eternal God banished Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden and exiled humanity from paradise, sentencing humans to laborious lives working the very ground man came from.

______________________________

What are some of the Life Lessons you have become aware of during our study of Genesis thus far?

______________________________

Psalm 51:1-17 - The Voice

(c) The Bible Project

1 Look on me with a heart of mercy, O God,
    according to Your generous love.
According to Your great compassion,
    wipe out every consequence of my shameful crimes.

2 Thoroughly wash me, inside and out, of all my crooked deeds.
    Cleanse me from my sins.

3 For I am fully aware of all I have done wrong,
    and my guilt is there, staring me in the face.

4 It was against You, only You, that I sinned,
    for I have done what You say is wrong, right before Your eyes.
So when You speak, You are in the right.
    When You judge, Your judgments are pure and true.[a]

5 For I was guilty from the day I was born,
    a sinner from the time my mother became pregnant with me.

6 But still, You long to enthrone truth throughout my being;
    in unseen places deep within me, You show me wisdom.

7 Cleanse me of my wickedness with hyssop, and I will be clean.
    If You wash me, I will be whiter than snow.

8 Help me hear joy and happiness as my accompaniment,
    so my bones, which You have broken, will dance in delight instead.

9 Cover Your face so You will not see my sins,
    and erase my guilt from the record.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God;
    restore within me a sense of being brand new.

11 Do not throw me far away from Your presence,
    and do not remove Your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Give back to me the deep delight of being saved by You;
    let Your willing Spirit sustain me.

13 If You do, I promise to teach rebels Your ways
    and help sinners find their way back to You.

14 Free me from the guilt of murder, of shedding a man’s blood,
    O God who saves me.
    Now my tongue, which was used to destroy, will be used to sing with deep delight of how right and just You are.

15 O Lord, pry open my lips
    that this mouth will sing joyfully of Your greatness.

16 I would surrender my dearest possessions or destroy all that I prize to prove my regret,
    but You don’t take pleasure in sacrifices or burnt offerings.

17 What sacrifice I can offer You is my broken spirit
    because a broken spirit, O God,
    a heart that honestly regrets the past,
You won’t detest.

________________________________________.  

In this poem we hear King David’s confession after committing the heinous crimes of adultery and murder against his own people. He uses powerful imagery to describe how distorted his character has become––stained, broken, guilty––but he also paints a contrasting portrait of God’s generous mercy towards his failed human creatures. God is willing to clean and wash, to repair and recreate, to offer forgiveness. Notice that David doesn’t look for hope in his own power and ability to reform himself. Rather, he looks to God’s compassion and power to create a new humanity, one that lives by God’s will and love.

_________________________________

• Why is it a given that we are slaves to SIN?

• How can we first, identify our own sin and ultimately, cleanse ourselves from it?

• Where is the significance in Christ's model prayer to "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others that trespass against us?"

• Ultimately, how do YOU connect your own heart to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to identify sin and move beyond it?

• What will YOU do this week to grow in your spiritual maturity?