0731 Hired Hand
7-31-16: Jamie George
The Hired Hand APPETIZER: The Perfect Shepherd
• ALL leaders, teachers, & speakers will let you down. • LISTEN to the Good Shepherd (Jesus, God, Holy Spirit)
DINE-IN: Hired Hand John 10 paints a big contrast: OWNERSHIP vs. EMPLOYEE The spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice. Because AA’s 12 Traditions repeatedly ask us to give up personal desires for the common good, we realize that the sacrificial spirit… is the foundation of them all. – Jay Westbrook, Behavioral Health If we hold on to sin, we have (3) options: 1. Denial 2. Skepticism 3. Shame Tendencies of the Hired Hand (idol/spiritual addiction of care-giving):
1. Fill unmet need vicariously through care-giving, especially to those who appear needy. 2. Unable to change our parent(s) into what we want, we try to change others through our love. 3. Believe almost nothing is too much trouble/time/money if it will "help" the entity with which we are involved.
4. Willing to take more than 50% of responsibility, guilt, shame, & blame in relationships. 5. Believe we must earn the right to enjoy life. Characteristics of the Good Shepherd • He KNOWS us. Know = Intimacy • He sacrificed His best for our worst When I hold on to my sin & the sins of others I refuse the cross. Rather than despising shame, I am despising the Shepherd. Hold all things loosely… …be content to sit with God & ask for wonder.
TAKE-OUT: Apply What You Know 1. If you are truly honest yourself, what are your underlying motives? Are you seeking to be praised? Are you looking for approval, fame, wealth? a. Write it down. b. Share it with a spouse or someone you trust. c. Receive God’s forgiveness & change behavior. 2. Isolation is a trap! If you haven’t joined a village, now is a great time to join… Sign up at JourneyFranklin.com 3. Have you downloaded the new Journey songs? They’re FREE! Go to: WWW.JOURNEYSONGS.US
Village Conversation HANGOUT (Warm-up) 1. When was the first time you remember seeing a flaw in someone you admired? How did you react?
HEAR (Listen to God through scripture) 2. Read Romans 8:31-39 aloud. 3. Take 1-2 minutes of silence to meditate on the words. 4. Now re-read the same scripture together. a. What stands out to you? b. Can people be against us? What’s the meaning of verse 31? c. What do you think is meant by “all things” in verse 32? d. If God justifies, are we exempt from accountability? e. Paul lists things that could potentially pull us away from God’s love (but don’t). What are the things that try to pull you away? What is your list?
HUDDLE (Making it Personal & Praying together) (split into groups of 3-4, so everyone has a chance to answer)
5. When are you most likely to doubt God’s love for you? 6. When are you most likely to doubt God’s love for others? How can we access/remember His love for us & others? 7. Pray for each other.
QUOTES/SCRIPTURE… It is indeed by analogy that I believe the mind makes its richest movements, and it is by analogy that I believe the mind makes its deepest use of what it has understood… - R. P. Blackmur Rigid moralists, ramrod stiff with righteous rectitude. There is never any doubt about their dogmatically asserted position... Their principles are hammers that crack skulls and bruise flesh… It is dangerous to be in their company for very long, for if they detect any mental weakness or moral wavering in us, we will be lucky to escape… - Eugene Peterson, Run with the Horses John 10:11-15 (NIV) Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV)
The spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice. Because AA’s 12 Traditions repeatedly ask us to give up personal desires for the common good, we realize that the sacrificial spirit… is the foundation of them all. – Jay Westbrook, Behavioral Health We are apathetic, slouching and slovenly. Not all the time, to be sure. We have spurts of love, passionate risks of faith, impressive episodes of courageous caring. But then we slip back into indolence or greed. Soon we are back at the old stand, handing out the glib patter that fools others into thinking we are better than we really are. Sometimes we even deceive ourselves into thinking we are pretty nice people indeed. - Eugene Peterson, Run with the Horses In the Cross is salvation; in the Cross is life… In the Cross is perfection of holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of eternal life, save in the Cross. - Thomas à Kempis, The Inner Life The first step into the realm of giving is a like surrender – not manward, but Godward: an utter yielding of our best. So long as our idea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things we have never grasped its true meaning… - Lilias Trotter, Parables of the Cross It is not in the partial relaxing of grasp, with power to take back again, that this fresh victory of death is won, it is won when that very power of taking back is yielded; when our hands [are] folded behind our backs in utter abandonment. Death means loosened grasp- loosened beyond all power of grasping again. - Lilias Trotter, Parables of the Cross Hebrews 13:20-21 (KJV) 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:31-39 (NIV)
The Hired Hand APPETIZER: The Perfect Shepherd
• ALL leaders, teachers, & speakers will let you down. • LISTEN to the Good Shepherd (Jesus, God, Holy Spirit)
DINE-IN: Hired Hand John 10 paints a big contrast: OWNERSHIP vs. EMPLOYEE The spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice. Because AA’s 12 Traditions repeatedly ask us to give up personal desires for the common good, we realize that the sacrificial spirit… is the foundation of them all. – Jay Westbrook, Behavioral Health If we hold on to sin, we have (3) options: 1. Denial 2. Skepticism 3. Shame Tendencies of the Hired Hand (idol/spiritual addiction of care-giving):
1. Fill unmet need vicariously through care-giving, especially to those who appear needy. 2. Unable to change our parent(s) into what we want, we try to change others through our love. 3. Believe almost nothing is too much trouble/time/money if it will "help" the entity with which we are involved.
4. Willing to take more than 50% of responsibility, guilt, shame, & blame in relationships. 5. Believe we must earn the right to enjoy life. Characteristics of the Good Shepherd • He KNOWS us. Know = Intimacy • He sacrificed His best for our worst When I hold on to my sin & the sins of others I refuse the cross. Rather than despising shame, I am despising the Shepherd. Hold all things loosely… …be content to sit with God & ask for wonder.
TAKE-OUT: Apply What You Know 1. If you are truly honest yourself, what are your underlying motives? Are you seeking to be praised? Are you looking for approval, fame, wealth? a. Write it down. b. Share it with a spouse or someone you trust. c. Receive God’s forgiveness & change behavior. 2. Isolation is a trap! If you haven’t joined a village, now is a great time to join… Sign up at JourneyFranklin.com 3. Have you downloaded the new Journey songs? They’re FREE! Go to: WWW.JOURNEYSONGS.US
Village Conversation HANGOUT (Warm-up) 1. When was the first time you remember seeing a flaw in someone you admired? How did you react?
HEAR (Listen to God through scripture) 2. Read Romans 8:31-39 aloud. 3. Take 1-2 minutes of silence to meditate on the words. 4. Now re-read the same scripture together. a. What stands out to you? b. Can people be against us? What’s the meaning of verse 31? c. What do you think is meant by “all things” in verse 32? d. If God justifies, are we exempt from accountability? e. Paul lists things that could potentially pull us away from God’s love (but don’t). What are the things that try to pull you away? What is your list?
HUDDLE (Making it Personal & Praying together) (split into groups of 3-4, so everyone has a chance to answer)
5. When are you most likely to doubt God’s love for you? 6. When are you most likely to doubt God’s love for others? How can we access/remember His love for us & others? 7. Pray for each other.
QUOTES/SCRIPTURE… It is indeed by analogy that I believe the mind makes its richest movements, and it is by analogy that I believe the mind makes its deepest use of what it has understood… - R. P. Blackmur Rigid moralists, ramrod stiff with righteous rectitude. There is never any doubt about their dogmatically asserted position... Their principles are hammers that crack skulls and bruise flesh… It is dangerous to be in their company for very long, for if they detect any mental weakness or moral wavering in us, we will be lucky to escape… - Eugene Peterson, Run with the Horses John 10:11-15 (NIV) Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV)
The spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice. Because AA’s 12 Traditions repeatedly ask us to give up personal desires for the common good, we realize that the sacrificial spirit… is the foundation of them all. – Jay Westbrook, Behavioral Health We are apathetic, slouching and slovenly. Not all the time, to be sure. We have spurts of love, passionate risks of faith, impressive episodes of courageous caring. But then we slip back into indolence or greed. Soon we are back at the old stand, handing out the glib patter that fools others into thinking we are better than we really are. Sometimes we even deceive ourselves into thinking we are pretty nice people indeed. - Eugene Peterson, Run with the Horses In the Cross is salvation; in the Cross is life… In the Cross is perfection of holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of eternal life, save in the Cross. - Thomas à Kempis, The Inner Life The first step into the realm of giving is a like surrender – not manward, but Godward: an utter yielding of our best. So long as our idea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things we have never grasped its true meaning… - Lilias Trotter, Parables of the Cross It is not in the partial relaxing of grasp, with power to take back again, that this fresh victory of death is won, it is won when that very power of taking back is yielded; when our hands [are] folded behind our backs in utter abandonment. Death means loosened grasp- loosened beyond all power of grasping again. - Lilias Trotter, Parables of the Cross Hebrews 13:20-21 (KJV) 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:31-39 (NIV)
