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The following lessons are part of the series currently being aired on Into His Likeness radio broadcast. To view the lessons on-line, click on the lesson titles.
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| Series: LIVING LESSONS FROM PROVERBS |
| #901-A THE FOUR FACES OF WISDOM
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| How would you like to have the wisdom of Solomon? How would you like to know how to make the right decision every time? How would you like to see your life in harmony with the heart of God in the way you think? The wisdom God gave Solomon is yours, and then some, if you'll just read and heed the book of Proverbs. This lesson will begin a series of lessons on the book of Proverbs where we will find real "Shoe Leather" Christianity. |
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| #901-B THE PERENNIAL PROBLEM OF PRIDE
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| The perennial problem of pride so blinds the mind to truth that we do not see anything but ourselves. All He wants is to be Lord. All He wants is for us to take that wretched corpse called self down from His throne. We are to see pride for what it is and to choose humility, the mind of Christ. How does God look at pride? How does God respond to pride? Finally, how does God deal with pride? We will take a look at God's divine wisdom where pride is concerned. |
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| #902-A LOOK AT ME!
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| The disease of pride seems to break out in the Christian's life in two deadly forms. The first is "natural pride", various forms of preoccupation with the natural man. The second is "spiritual" pride. Both are vicious. Nearly always, Satan takes five simple statements and through subtle variations, tricks us into conforming to his slimy image. Find out what those five questions are in this lesson. |
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| #902-B THE PROBLEM OF SPIRITUAL PRIDE
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| Spiritual pride is perhaps Satan's most impressive tool. Through its deceptive destruction, he has moved right onto the Christian's home turf, taken the very things that mean the most to him and used them against him, and in essence has literally used the building blocks of spiritual success to build an altar to the false god of self. It's so subtle, so disguised in spiritual robes, that we miss it. What God is after is serving saints, not proud of their church, their spirituality, their leaders, or talents, just in love with Jesus. |
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| #903-A LANDMINES AND LIES PART 1
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| What are the reasons for spiritual pride? What are the land mines and the lies that the father of lies uses to deceive the children of God? We will ultimately be looking at nine ways Satan trips up the Christian and causes pride to surface in robes of spirituality. We step on these landmines, because we exercise no caution in our walk in the area of of spiritual pride, and behind or beneath each land mine lies a lie from Satan. We will take a look at nine of those land mines which damage our walk with the Lord. |
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| #903-B LANDMINES AND LIES PART 2
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| Landmines and lies. Subtle. Well-hidden and devastating if ignored. In this lesson, we will look at three landmines known as the landmines of kingdom ambition, that attitude that is so busy competing, seeking to be the greatest that it misses the message of the cross. We need to be careful, also of silent battlefields. The absence of warfare doesn't mean the war is over. We also must be careful to guard against the perennial problem of success, of watching God do the impossible, only to be deceived into thinking we made it possible. These are all part of perennial problem of pride. |
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| #904-A THE HIGH COST OF HUMILITY
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| Peter said, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God." Just how do we go about doing that? Our goal is to examine seven ways to do that. As we humble ourselves before God, we are purposing before God to cooperate with Him as He does the rest. There are at least four tools that God uses to humble His saints. We find these tools in the lives of Joseph, Job, Peter, Paul and Moses. The cost is high, but it is worth it. |
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| #904-B THE BATTLE IS NOT YOURS; IT'S GOD'S
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| How many times have we faced circumstances that were completely overwhelming? We had no idea how to deal with them and seemed powerless to face them. Jehoshaphat had the same feeling as he was surrounded by his enemies. In fact, he cried out to God, "We have no might, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are on Thee." God must have smiled. He knew all along that the battle would be won by Him, not Jehoshaphat and so it is with us. We must turn to Him, because He gives the victory. |
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| #905-A SEARCHING FOR HIDDEN TREASURE
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| How often do we search the Scriptures with the same intensity we would were we searching for hidden treasure? When we begin to see a nugget of truth appear, do we take all our tools, our concordance, our translations, our Bible dictionaries, and do we dig and dig. The Word of God is the treasure house wherein all of the rare jewels of spirituality are buried at different levels beneath the surface. We need to become treasure-hunting Christians who daily uncover the priceless gems that turn the commonplace into crowns, the natural into the supernatural, the daily discoveries of life into the dynamic of discipleship. |
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| #905-B WANTED: CORRECTABLE CHRISTIANS
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| God is looking for men and women who want to be changed, who want to be changed so badly they will cooperate with joy when He sends rebuke or admonition or counsel into their lives. How correctable are you? How graciously do you respond to rebuke? That's the question we're asking in this lesson from the book of Proverbs. |
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| #906-A WANTED: CORRECTABLE CHRISTIANS PT 2
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| How does God go about getting our attention so that He in us can change our attitude.? God is looking for correctable Christians. See how God uses the Word to change our hearts and minds. He may also use those in authority over us to rebuke us and turn our hearts around. What is our response to rebuke? There is also pressure God places on through counsel and through divine discipline. Would we make a choice to be a correctable Christian? |
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| #906-B SELF-CONTROL: MIRAGE OR MIRACLE?
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| The book of Proverbs surfaces on nearly every page the need for self-control: godly restraint in our attitudes, godly restrain in our appetites, and godly restrain in our actions and activities. Only the Christian under the Spirit's control can experience the miracle of self-control that the book of Proverbs describes as the normal Christian life. We are to choose who we will serve-the spirit or the flesh. |
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| #907-A DECISIONS! DECISIONS! DECISIONS!
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| What the Christian life boils down to is decisions. It is the process of making right choices without being swayed by Satan's input into our appetites or emotions. We will begin our look at the enemies of the controlled Christian life by looking first at the enemies of God-controlled responses. We will begin by focusing our attention on the central enemy: Satan's attack on our response to making the decisions themselves. |
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| #907-B DECISIONS! DECISIONS! DECISIONS! PT 2
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| Decisions are a major part of God's scheme of things. If we accept the Scriptures for what they are: a living God speaking without error, and if we accept life for what it is: a temporary journey through a foreign country as a chosen ambassador for a conquering King, then all of life's decisions are made through the Word with eternity as the only criteria. If we learn that, decision-making will be simplified |
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| #908-A TAMING THE TEMPER PART 1
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| Anger is the emotion that, if not properly handled, unravels reasons, distorts the truth, and releases a venom that falsely accuses, denies sensibility, and becomes on occasion vicious, vengeful, and vindictive. Is it any wonder that a life under God's control must also have under control the enemy of ungodly anger? Is it any wonder that taming the temper is no option for the Spirit-controlled life? |
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| #908-B TAMING THE TEMPER PART 2
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| The essence of anger surfaces in detail in the New Testament whichTestament, which seems to reflect three expression of anger that simply are not acceptable to God. As we look at these different types of anger we need to ask God to search us for what rights we are clinging to that we have not given to God. What should our proper response be? |
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| #909-A RECKONING WITH OUR RIGHTS
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| Much of our anger comes from claiming rights we do not have. The violation of those imaginary "rights" brings about a response in us that God never intended us to have. The result is that we demand our day in court, or boil with resentment, or explode in a rage because we have assumed the place of God. What rights are we claiming that are not ours? |
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| #909-B TEAKETTLES, SUNDOWN, AND A SECOND HAND
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| In this fourth of a series on dealing with anger, we are given three practical ways of dealing with our anger. These three principles, if put into practice, will give us victory over anger. Victory will not come overnight, but one day we will awaken to find an ebbing of the old urge to retaliate, a softening taking place in the spirit. The bitterness and rage will be gone. It starts when we begin to seek the mind of Christ in controlling anger. |
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| #910-A TURNING THE CURSE INTO A BLESSING
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| Taming the temper involves redirecting the energy of anger into transforming, revolutionary spiritual power so the curse becomes a blessing, and the enemy is not only withstood but totally defeated. God is calling us to resist the devil, to choose not to get angry, and then to go on the offensive. Let that temptation to anger become a springboard to loving, blessing, praying, and doing good until a confused and discouraged Satan flees from you. |
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| #910-B THAT ENEMY CALLED ENVY
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| Envy. It will surface in your prayer life, both in who you pray for and who you don't. It will surface in your thought life: the people you compare yourself with. It will surface in your relationships and how you spend your money. How do you combat this enemy called envy? Let's begin by asking some hard questions from the Scriptures concerning envy. |
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| #911-A IT IS I..DON'T BE AFRAID!
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| What are you afraid of? Do you have a stronghold that holds you in bondage in an area of living in which God intended you to be free? Does Satan approach you with a temptation to fear saying that God is not in control.? God has created an alternative to fear. This alternative is the FEAR OF THE LORD. We will discover just what the "fear of the Lord" is in this lesson. |
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| #911-B IT IS I..DON'T BE AFRAID! PART 2
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| God does not want us to be afraid. He does not want us to fear what man can do. He does not want us to fear what Satan can do. But above all He is saying that He does not want us to fear what HE can do, if we will but let him. He wants to be Lord and re- release first century power into twenty-first century Christians. He will do it, if we will just stop being afraid. |
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| #912-A IT IS I..DON'T BE AFRAID! PART 3
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| In this lesson we are going to look at the subjects of why not to fear and how not to fear. God says we have no basis for fear because of who owns us. We need to trust his Sovereignty. So, how do we conquer fear? Find the two keys that will drive out the Satanic fears that hover over us and threaten our peace. |
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| #912-B CHRISTIAN, BEHAVE!
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| Self-control has two parts. Internal attitudes, a process of transformation, and external behavior, a principle of obedience. It is into that painful second area that we are moving in our study of Proverbs. We will look at four public enemies of the Christian faith over which the Christian is commanded to exercise self-control--sexual immorality, drunkenness, gluttony, and the tongue. |
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| #913-A BE YE HOLY!
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| In this lesson we will take a look at both the character of God, which makes morality possible, and the portrait of His holiness, which makes our morality essential. The power to behave is not based on our determination, but on God's nature, imputed to us by virtue of the new birth. His Spirit placed in us gives us the capacity to behave. We must choose to behave so that the portrait of our Saviour might not be blurred. |
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| #913-B WALKING ON HOT COALS
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| The purpose of this lesson is for us to see adultery from God's perspective-adultery of the eye, mind, will, body, spirit-and having seen it from God's perspective, never again to toy with immorality. Can we walk through fire and not be burned? Can we toy with immorality and not be burned? We cannot. God has erected sign posts on His Word that clearly warn us: Danger: Hot Coals-Stay Away. |
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| #914-A PRINCIPLES FROM PROVERBS ON GLUTTONY
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| It has been said that the most crucial test of a man's character comes as he slides his tray through a cafeteria line. It is then that the real person emerges. Today, we look at the principles from Proverbs on gluttony. God deplores gluttony. The reason is simple: it wrestles control of a key area of a person's life away from the Holy Spirit, and exercises his will in response to an appetite. God wants to control man's appetites-all of them. |
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| #914-B FROM FEASTING TO FASTING
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| This part of our study on gluttony should be entitled, "The Road to Moderation." How do we get back to the constant control of our will over our emotions.? If controlling our appetites frees us in the spiritual realm to receive greater feasts from God's table, then the logical end of self-control in this area of our lives is fasting. We will also look at the purposes and promises of fasting in this lesson. |
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| #915-A THE ISSUE OF ALCOHOL: BORN FREE!
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| We come to the sixth roadblock to godliness, which is so clearly defined in the book of Proverbs: the issue of drunkenness. It involves behavior, but it involves more than behavior. It involves why we get drunk, how we get drunk, what happens, physically, what happens emotionally, and finally, what happens spiritually. Let's take a look at what the Scriptures say on the subject. |
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| #915-B BE NOT DRUNK: BE FILLED
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| Part two of this lesson on what Proverbs teaches about drunkenness delves into issues and answers on the subject of intoxication. It will seek to answer the questions Who says I can't drink? Who's in control of my life? Who's watching what I do? What kind of fruit is my life producing? What is the issue of the hour? What are my options as a Christian? |
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| #916-A THE TONGUE: TINY SPARKS AND GREAT FIRES
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| Is it possible to control your tongue? Is it possible not to live on a highway paved with regrets over words you wish you had never said? Is it possible not to have to spend the rest of your life having to constantly ask forgiveness for things you uttered in anger or frustration? Is it possible to bring the tongue totally under control? If you are a Christian the answer is Yes. |
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| #916-B THE SPARKS OF AN ARGUING TONGUE
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| Proverbs is practical, and it practically puts the arguer in his place. It says arguing is a senseless pastime enjoyed only by fools who are prompted by pride. It elevates self, wounds others, and breaks the heart of God. The process is to trace the spirit that causes us to argue and root it out, replacing it with the cleansing power of the Word of God. |
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| #917-A IT'S TIME TO GIVE A GOOD REPORT
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| When you look at the cup of life, is it half full or is it half empty? When someone asks you, "How was your day?" do you tell them the good or the bad? It is our perspective that causes men and women to give a bad report, or conversely, a good report. We sometimes get so busy describing the size of the enemy that we forget how big our God is. We need to have the right perspective. |
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| #917-B IT'S TIME TO GIVE A GOOD REPORT PART 2
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| What makes us give a bad report of people? Why do we so delight in verbally destroying another person's character? We will find several reasons. How can we begin to give a good report of others and our circumstances? We can purpose in our hearts to make this concept of giving a good report an integral part of our lives by using a threefold triangle of faithfulness-Commitment, Accountability, and Renewal. |
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| #918-A MESSAGES FROM MURMURERS
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| Complaining, murmuring, and nagging form the three-cornered triangle of trouble that mark off the boundaries of our next phase of study. They all have in common a discontented spirit and a negative concept of the sovereignty of God. We'll be looking in this lesson and the next, at the characteristics of these three tongue twisters, and how to bring them under control. |
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| #918-B MESSAGES FROM MURMURERS PART 2
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| What are the marks of a murmurer? What are the kinds of things God's people murmur over. If God is in control, what possible reason could we have to murmur.? Let's take a look at some of the murmurers we find in the Scriptures and see what the results were. |
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