Title: Dirty Hands, Empty Barns, and an Unshakable King
Text: Haggai 2:10–23
Big Idea: Religious activity cannot cleanse us; God’s gracious promise calls us to repentant obedience, and God’s chosen King gives us an unshakable future.

Introduction:
God gives Haggai two final messages.
The first concerns the spiritual condition of the people.
The second concerns the future of God’s kingdom.
Haggai closes with three pictures:

1. Dirty hands
2. Empty barns
3. Shaking kingdoms

I. Religious Activity Cannot Cleanse a Defiled Heart
A. Haggai asks the priests two questions (vv. 10–13)

• First question: If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and that garment touches ordinary food, does the ordinary food become holy?
• Holiness does not pass automatically from one object to another. You cannot become holy through secondhand contact with holy things.
• Second question: If someone has become ceremonially unclean through contact with a dead body, and that person touches food, does the food become unclean?
• Uncleanness spreads. Defilement contaminates whatever it touches.

B. God applies the verdict to the people (v. 14)

• The people assumed that working on the temple would sanctify them.
• God says that their defilement was contaminating their work. 
• Religious activity does not make an unrepentant heart acceptable to God.

C. Holy surroundings cannot produce a holy heart

• The question is larger than, “What holy things have you touched?”
• The question is, “Has the holy God cleansed you?”

D. Christ cleanses those whom religion cannot cleanse

• Jesus and the leper
• The Holy One has come to cleanse unholy people.

II. An Empty Barn Cannot Nullify God’s Promise
A. God commands them to consider their past (vv. 15–17)

• “Consider” is one of Haggai’s favorite commands. God tells them to remember what life was like while they neglected his house.
• The great tragedy appears at the end of verse 17: “Yet you did not turn to me.”

B. God promises blessing before they see evidence (vv. 18–19)

• The people have now renewed the temple work. Yet there is still no harvest.
• The seed has been committed to the ground but produced nothing.
• Then God says: “From this day on I will bless you.” The promise comes before the produce.

III. Shaking Kingdoms Cannot Unseat God’s King
A. God turns from the fields to the nations (vv. 20–22)
B. God makes Zerubbabel his signet ring (v. 23)
C. The promise reaches beyond Zerubbabel to Christ
D. The church can remain steady while the world shakes

Conclusion

MEMBERS OF ONE ANOTHER | WEEK 2 OF 12
Entering the Body: Reception
Big idea: A member is a limb joined to a living body. Reception is the church’s deliberate act of recognizing Christ’s gift of a person and accepting responsibility for that person by name.

1. When Did It Begin?
How a church relation begins reveals what we believe the relation is.

2. What a Member Is — 1 Corinthians 12:12–27
Paul’s word for “member” is melos: a limb or organ of a living body — a foot, a hand, an ear, an eye.
A brick is part of a wall; remove it and the brick sits in the yard unchanged.
A hand is a member of a body; it lives only while joined, and its removal wounds the body.

Four features of a member in the text:
•Joined — baptized by one Spirit into one body; God places the members (vv. 13, 18).
•Differentiated — many members, unequal functions; sameness would destroy the body (vv. 14–20).
•Mutually dependent — “I have no need of you” is the one thing a member cannot say (vv. 21–22).
•Co-suffering and co-honored — one suffers, all suffer; one is honored, all rejoice (v. 26).
Verse 27 is addressed to a particular congregation. A limb is always a limb of some body. Can a hand be a hand in general, attached to no body in particular?

3. How One Is Joined — Acts 2:38–41, 47; 2 Corinthians 8:5
Addition is a counting word: the Lord added, and the church could count who had been added.
Reception recognizes a double gift — to Christ, then to his people (LBCF 26.6).

4. What Scripture Shows
•Testing and reception: Jerusalem weighed Saul’s credibility, and Barnabas’s testimony resolved it (Acts 9:26–28).
•Baptism and profession as entry markers: disciples made, baptized, taught (Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 2:38–41).
•Confession: visible saints who willingly consent to walk together, under the church’s government (LBCF 26.2, 6, 12).
Reception does not create salvation; it declares the church’s judgment about a visible relation and starts the clock on defined care.

5. A Faithful Reception, in Sequence
Profess plainly → learn the relation → be examined charitably → be baptized → consent mutually → be received publicly → begin immediately.

1. Can I name the day this congregation accepted responsibility for me, and the day I accepted responsibility for it?
2. Am I taking the body’s benefits while withholding the second gift of 2 Corinthians 8:5?

This week: Read 1 Corinthians 12:12–27 and mark every time “member” is mentioned.

Stewardship for the Purpose of Godliness
Big Idea: Because God owns us and everything he entrusts to us, Christians should intentionally use time and money for his glory, our godliness, the good of the church, and the advance of the gospel.
Primary Texts: Psalm 24:1; Ephesians 5:15–16; 2 Corinthians 8:9; 9:6–8

I. Everything Belongs to God

• God is the owner.
• We are the stewards.
• We will give an account.

II. The Gospel Creates Faithful Stewards

• Christ gave himself for us.
• Our stewardship responds to grace.
• Our good works reveal living faith.

III. Redeem the Time

• Time lives under pressure.
• Time is limited and cannot be recovered.
• Time bears eternal weight.
• Worship, work, service, family, mercy, and rest all belong to God.

IV. Give as a Steward

• God owns everything we possess.
• Giving expresses worship, trust, and love.
• Giving should be regular and planned.
• Giving should be generous and sacrificial.
• Giving should be willing and cheerful.
• Giving should meet real needs and strengthen Christ’s church.

V. Consider Your Ways

• What has my calendar been saying can always wait?
• What does my spending reveal about what I treasure?
• What change should I make this week?

Time: One recurring block I will reclaim: ______________________________

Money: One planned change I will make: _______________________________

Accountability: One believer I will tell: _______________________________

Text: Haggai 2:1-9
Title: When the Work Looks Small
Big Idea: We can work courageously because God is present, God owns everything, and greater glory has come in Christ.

I. God’s presence is greater than our visible weakness (vv. 1–5)

• Comparison produces discouragement.
• God commands the whole community to be strong.
• God’s covenant and Spirit remain.
• Faithful work is significant because God is with us.

II. God’s resources are greater than our apparent lack (vv. 6–8)

• God shakes creation and nations.
• The nations and their treasures serve his purpose.
• All silver and gold belong to him.
• Limited resources never limit divine sovereignty.

III. God’s promised glory is greater than the remembered past (vv. 7–9)

• God himself fills the house with glory.
• Christ brings greater glory than Solomon’s temple.
• Christ is the true temple and giver of peace.
• His kingdom alone remains unshaken.

Week 19, Biblical Theology: Worship: From Eden to the Great Assembly
Big Idea: God gathers a redeemed people into his presence through Christ; therefore, Christian worship must be governed by the Word, centered on Christ, practiced by the congregation, and shaped by the hope of the new creation.
 
I. What Makes Worship Christian?

• If a practice appears somewhere in the Bible, does that automatically make it appropriate for the church’s Sunday gathering?
• How do we determine which biblical practices govern the church today?
• Biblical theology asks:

1. Where does this practice appear in the biblical storyline?
2. Under which covenant was it commanded?
3. What purpose did it serve?
4. How has Christ fulfilled or transformed it?
5. What does the New Testament command Christ’s churches to do?

• Hebrews 12:18-24, 28-29.

 
II. The Story of Worship
A. Creation: Humanity Was Created for God’s Presence

• Read Genesis 1:26-28; 2:8-15
  • The Bible begins with God dwelling with humanity in a good creation.
  • God created humanity in his image to reflect his character and exercise dominion under his authority.
  • Adam and Eve lived in God’s presence without sacrifice, priestly mediation, or a sacred building.
  • Their entire existence was an offering of obedience, gratitude, and service.
• Worship was never intended to be confined to music or a weekly meeting. Worship encompassed the whole human calling.

 
B. Fall: Sin Is Misdirected Worship

• Read Genesis 3:1-24; Romans 1:21-25
• The fall was an act of false worship.
  • Adam and Eve trusted the serpent’s word over God’s Word.
  • They desired the created gift apart from the Creator.
  • Romans 1 describes sin as exchanging God’s glory for worship of created things.
  • Humanity continues to worship because we were created as worshipers. Sin redirects worship toward idols.
• After the fall, Adam and Eve were driven from God’s presence. The cherubim at the garden’s entrance signified that sinful people could no longer approach the holy God freely.
• Key Principle: The worship problem is deeper than style, music, or liturgy. The central problem is that sinners worship the wrong object, according to their own desires, and on their own terms.
• What are some created things people expect worship to provide apart from God?

 
C. Love: God Redeems a People to Worship Him

• Read Exodus 3:12; 6:6-7; 29:45-46

1. God acts in grace.
2. God redeems his people.
3. God brings them into covenant.
4. God gives his Word.
5. God’s people respond in worship and obedience.

• Read Exodus 19:4-6.
• Christian worship follows the same gospel movement:
  • God speaks.
  • God reveals his holiness.
  • We confess our sin.
  • God announces his grace.
  • We hear his Word.
  • We respond with faith, praise, obedience, and thanksgiving.
• A worship service should rehearse the gospel b/c the entire biblical story moves from divine grace to human response.

 
D. Sacrifice: Access to God Requires a Mediator

• Read Exodus 29:43-46; Leviticus 16; Hebrews 9:6-14
• The tabernacle and temple revealed two truths simultaneously:

1. God graciously desired to dwell among his people.
2. Sinful people could approach him only through the means he appointed.

• Under the old covenant:
  • God’s presence was especially associated with the tabernacle and temple.
  • Priests represented the people.
  • Sacrifices dealt ceremonially with guilt and uncleanness.
  • The Most Holy Place remained closed to the people.
  • The high priest entered once a year with sacrificial blood.
• The old-covenant worship system taught that God is holy, sin brings death, and access requires atonement. Then Christ came.
  • John 1:14: The Word became flesh and “tabernacled” among us.
  • John 2:19-22: Jesus identifies his body as the true temple.
  • Hebrews 7:27: Jesus offers himself once for all.
  • Hebrews 10:19-22: Through his blood, believers draw near with confidence.
  • John 4:21-24: Worship is no longer tied to Jerusalem.
• Jesus fulfills every major feature of old-covenant worship:
  • Temple: Christ is the true meeting place between God and humanity
  • Priest: Christ is our great High Priest
  • Sacrifice: Christ offers himself once for all
  • Cleansing: Christ cleanses the conscience
  • Veil: Christ opens access to God
  • Sacred location: God’s people approach through Christ wherever they gather
• Key Principles:
  • We do not create God’s presence through music, atmosphere, architecture, or emotion.
  • We enter God’s presence through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

 
E. Promise: The Church Anticipates the Final Assembly

• Read Ephesians 2:19-22.
  • Christ is the cornerstone.
  • Believers are joined together.
  • The church is being built into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
  • The local church gathers as a visible expression of this new-covenant temple.
• Read Hebrews 12:22-24:
  • Every ordinary Lord’s Day gathering participates by faith in an extraordinary heavenly reality. The church gathers through Christ with the saints whose names are written in heaven and with angels in festal assembly.
• Read Revelation 7:9-12; 21:1-4, 22:
  • The dwelling place of God is with man.
  • The curse is removed.
  • God’s servants see his face.
  • No temple building in the city because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
  • The redeemed from every nation worship before God’s throne.
• Key Principle: Corporate worship is a weekly foretaste of the new creation.
• Our worship should display:
  • The unity Christ is creating (Welcome time)
  • The holiness of the coming kingdom (Prayer of Confession)
  • The joy of forgiven sinners (Singing)

 
III. How the Story Shapes Our Worship Practices
A. Worship Is Governed by God’s Word

• The Second London Baptist Confession, chapter 22, summarizes the principle well: the acceptable way of worshiping God is instituted by God himself.
  • This is commonly called the regulative principle of worship.
  • God determines the elements of corporate worship. The church arranges those elements with wisdom, order, and cultural intelligibility.
• The distinction prevents two errors:
  • Human creativity becoming binding upon Christian consciences
  • Every practical decision being treated as though Scripture supplied one required form

 
B. Worship Is Saturated with the Word

• Read the Word: 1 Timothy 4:13
• Preach the Word: 2 Timothy 4:2
• Pray according to the Word: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
• Sing the Word: Colossians 3:16
• See the Word in baptism and the Supper: Matthew 28:19; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

 
C. Worship Is Centered on Christ’s Finished Work

• Since Christ is the temple, priest, and sacrifice:
  • We pray through Christ.
  • We sing of Christ’s person and work.
  • We preach every text within the story that culminates in Christ.
  • We celebrate the Supper as a proclamation of his completed sacrifice.
  • We approach God with confidence grounded in Christ’s blood.
  • We reject any practice that implies Christ’s sacrifice needs repetition or supplementation.
• Christ-centered worship includes the Father and the Holy Spirit. We worship the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.

 
D. Worship Is Congregational

• Read Colossians 3:16.
  • Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
  • Teaching and admonishing one another.
  • Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
    • Congregational singing has two directions: We sing to God and we teach and encourage one another.
    • The congregation is the primary choir. Musicians and leaders serve the congregation’s voice.
• 1 Corinthians 14:26 gives the controlling purpose: “Let all things be done for building up.”
  • The sermon should be understandable.
  • Prayers should be audible and intelligible.
  • Songs should be singable by the congregation.
  • Leaders should serve rather than perform.
  • Members should hear one another confess and praise.

 
E. Worship Is Reverent, Joyful, and Hopeful

• Read Hebrews 12:28-29.
  • We receive an unshakable kingdom.
  • We respond with gratitude.
  • We offer acceptable worship.
  • We worship with reverence and awe.
  • We remember that our God is a consuming fire.
• Biblical worship refuses to separate joy from holiness.
  • The cross produces humility and confidence.
  • Forgiveness produces gratitude and gladness.
  • God’s holiness produces reverence.
  • The resurrection produces hope.
  • The coming kingdom produces endurance.
• Christian worship should sound like people who know that Christ has conquered and who still long for his return.

 
IV. Conclusion
Biblical theology teaches us that worship is God’s work before it is our response: the Father gathers us, the Son brings us near, the Spirit dwells among us, and the Word directs our praise.

Title: The God Who Stirs What He Commands
Text: Haggai 1:12–15
Sermon Series: Consider Your Ways: The House God Builds, Week 2 of 4
Big Idea: God commands the obedience He Himself stirs — and stays with those He stirs. He reminds us that He is with us so that we can go, bring, and build.

I. The Assumption (v. 12)

II. The Stirring: Wake Up (vv. 13–14a)

III. The Doctrine Named (Phil. 2:12–13)
“Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.”

IV. Stirred People Sweat (v. 14b)
“How is the Word made effectual to salvation?” “The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.”

V. The God Who Still Stirs (Rom 13:14)

Paneled Houses, Ruined Harvests
Text: Haggai 1:1–11
Big Idea: God exposes the futility of self-first living and calls His people to build His house for His pleasure and glory.

I. The Respectable Excuse, vv. 1–4
II. The Divine Audit, vv. 5–6, 9–11
III. The Merciful Command, vv. 7–8
IV. The House Christ Is Building
V. Bring Your Lumber

Consider your ways. Go. Bring. Build.

Series Memory Verse — Haggai 2:9: “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.”

Around the Table
1. What is one “not yet” our family keeps saying to God? What would obedience look like this week?
2. Why is it good news that God sends futility — the “bag with holes” — instead of leaving us alone?
3. For the kids: if God’s house today is His people, how can a kid help build it this week?

The Rise of Islam and Its Impact on Christianity
Big Idea: Within a century, Islam conquered much of Christianity’s historic heartland. John of Damascus demonstrates faithful theological engagement from within a conquered church.

I. The Rapid Expansion of Islam
The exhaustion of the Byzantine and Persian empires
The Arab conquests from Syria to Spain
Christians living under Islamic rule
The loss of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria

II. John of Damascus: A Christian under the Caliphate
His Christian family and government service
His monastic life near Jerusalem
His theological writings

III. John’s Defense of the Christian Faith
Responding to Islamic claims about Christ and the Trinity
Defending the use and veneration of icons
Systematizing Eastern Christian theology
Evaluating John from a Reformed Baptist perspective

IV. Lessons for the Church Today
Know the faith clearly
Test every claim by Scripture
Defend the truth with courage and gentleness
Trust Christ to preserve his church
Pray for Christians living under hostile governments

Habakkuk 2:6-20
Woe, Glory, Silence

I.  The Woe of Plunder, Habakkuk 2:6 – 8
II.  The Woe of Prideful Security Habakkuk 2:9 – 11
III.  The Woe of Bloodshed Habakkuk 2:12 – 14
IV.  The Woe of Debauchery Habakkuk 2:15 – 17
V.  The Woe of Idolatry Habakkuk 2:18 – 20
VI.  The Woe He Did Not Pass, Matthew 26:39

Practical Theology, Week 19
Topic: Members of One Another — Week 1 of 12
Title: Start at the End: How "Members of One Another" Shapes Departure from a Local Church
Texts: Romans 12:3–8; Ephesians 4:1–16, 25
Confession: 2LBCF 26.5–7, 12–13
Big idea: Because believers belong to one another under Christ, an ordinary departure should be completed openly, truthfully, and through the church's recognition.

• When did their membership end? — a case of silent departure
• We belong to one another (Romans 12:3–8)
• Mutual identity requires truth (Ephesians 4:1–16, 25)
• What Scripture places in the congregation's hands (Matt. 18; 1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 2; Rom. 16:1–2)
• A faithful departure: speak, reconcile, transfer care, conclude truthfully
• For reflection: Have I treated membership as a service I consume or as people to whom I belong? If I were ever to leave, whom would I owe the truth?
• Take home: Read Romans 12 and Ephesians 4. Name three members whose spiritual good is your near responsibility.

Text: Habakkuk 1:12 – 2:5
Title: Write, Wait, Live
“If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. … but the righteous shall live by his faith.” — Habakkuk 2:3–4

I.  The Argument from God’s Own ____________   (Habakkuk 1:12 – 17)

• Habakkuk stacks covenant names: everlasting, my Holy One, O ____________.
• His problem with God is built out of his ____________ of God.
• Babylon “sacrifices to his ____________” (1:16) — he worships the tool that caught his prosperity. Name yours.

 
II.  The Tower and the ____________   (Habakkuk 2:1 – 3)

• He files the complaint expecting to be corrected.
• Write it — ink outlasts ____________. Make it plain — legible at a ____________.
• “It will surely come” is a doubled verb: “____________, it will come.”
• God writes the “if it seems ____________” into His own promise.

 
III.  Three Words to ____________ On   (Habakkuk 2:4)

• The ____________ — by his ____________ — shall live.
• Exodus 17:12 — Moses’ ____________ held steady until sundown, because someone was holding them.
• Genesis 15:6 — Abram ____________ the LORD, and it was counted to him as ____________.
• Quoted three times: Romans 1:17 (____________), Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38.

 
IV.  Arrogance & Acquisition   (Habakkuk 2:4a – 5)

• The ____________-up soul is a churchgoing possibility — you can recite a catechism about faith and still trust in yourself.
• The opposite of living by faith is living by ____________ — grasping because the soul cannot trust.
• Habakkuk never ____________ Babylon fall. The promise outlives the prophet — and he is content that it should.

V.  The Coming One ____________   (Hebrews 10:37 – 39)

• Hebrews reads Habakkuk 2:3: “the coming ____________ will come” — the vision that surely comes is a ____________.
• He came once at the appointed time; He will ____________ again at the appointed time. You live between the two — on the tower.

Big Idea:  The righteous live by ____________ while ____________ on God.

This week for Family Worship:
1.  God told Habakkuk to write His promise down and read it while he waited. Why does a written promise help on days when we can’t feel it? (Habakkuk 2:2)
2.  Is a promise true before you can see it come true? Who makes it true? (Habakkuk 2:3)
3.  What are the three words God gave Habakkuk on the tower? Can you say them together? (Habakkuk 2:4)
4.  When Moses’ arms got tired, who held his hands steady? When your faith gets tired, who holds you? (Exodus 17:12)

Memory verse for the series: “But the righteous shall live by his faith.” — Habakkuk 2:4.

Week 18
The Church's Role in God's Story: Ecclesiology Through the Lens of Biblical Theology
Theme: The church is not God's "Plan B." The church is the covenant people of God, anticipated throughout the Old Testament, established by Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and destined to display God's glory until the new creation.
Objective: Understand that the church occupies a central place in the unfolding story of redemption, serving as God's covenant community that displays His kingdom until Christ returns.

I. Introduction

• Where does the church fit within God's entire story from Genesis to Revelation?

II. God's Original Design: A People for His Presence
A. Creation. Genesis 1-2

• God did not merely create individuals. He created humanity to live together under His rule in His presence.
• Notice three themes: God's Presence, God's Rule, God's People
• Even before sin entered the world, redemption's goal was communal.
• God's purpose has always involved a people who reflect His glory.

B. The Fall. Genesis 3

• Sin shattered: fellowship with God, fellowship with one another, harmony with creation
• Humanity became divided: Cain murders Abel. Nations scatter at Babel. Idolatry replaces worship.
• The story of Scripture becomes God's work of restoring fellowship.

III. Israel: God's Covenant Assembly
A. Abraham. Genesis 12:1-3.

• God's promise includes: land, descendants, blessing to all nations
• God promises a people before He promises a nation.

B. Sinai. Exodus 19:4-6.

• Israel becomes: a treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation
• Why priests? A: represent God to the world. Israel was intended to display God's character among the nations.

C. Israel's Failure

• Israel repeatedly failed because of: idolatry, covenant breaking, injustice, unbelief
• The prophets promised something greater. Jeremiah 31. Ezekiel 36. Isaiah 2
• God would create a renewed covenant people.

IV. Christ Establishes His Church
A. Jesus Announces the Kingdom

• Jesus does not merely gather followers. He forms a new covenant community.
• Matthew 16:18—Church (ekklesia): “assembly.” The language echoes Israel gathered before God.

B. Pentecost

• Acts 2: The Holy Spirit creates God's new covenant people.
• Notice four characteristics. They devoted themselves to: Apostles' teaching, Fellowship, Breaking bread, Prayer

C. Jew and Gentile Become One

• Ephesians 2:11-22. Paul uses several images: One new humanity, Household of God, Holy temple, Dwelling place of God
• The church fulfills what Israel anticipated.

V. The Church's Mission in God's Story

• 1 Peter 2:9-10. Notice Peter applies Israel's covenant language directly to the church. The church is: chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for God's possession
• Why? "you may proclaim the excellencies of Him…" Mission always flows from identity.
• Three Primary Purposes

1. Worship: The church glorifies God. Romans 12. Hebrews 13.
2. Witness: The church demonstrates the gospel. John 13:35.
The church is God's visible apologetic. Our love authenticates our message.
3. Formation: God matures believers through life together. Ephesians 4.

VI. The Church in the New Creation

• Revelation 21:1-5. The Bible ends where it began. God dwells with His people. Notice the progression: Garden —> Tabernacle—> Temple—>Church—>New Jerusalem
• The church is preparing for the eternal dwelling of God with His redeemed people.

VII. Application

• Am I treating church as an event or as God's covenant family?
• How can our congregation better display God's kingdom together?
• Does our life together make the gospel believable?

Conclusion

• We gather each Lord's Day because we are participants in God's unfolding kingdom.

Text: Habakkuk 1:1-11
Title: A Work You Would Not Believe
“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” — Habakkuk 1:5

I.  The ____________ the Prophet Carried,   Habakkuk 1:1

• “Oracle” is literally a ____________ — something lifted and carried. 
• The prophet ____________ what he was given to haul.

 
II.  How Long? The ____________ of the Righteous,   Habakkuk 1:2 – 4

• “Violence!” (chamas) — the word of Genesis ____________:11, the world before the flood.
• Faith complains ____________; unbelief complains sideways.  (See Psalm 13:1.)
• Watch the phrase “justice goes forth” — it will return in verse ____________.

 
III.  “I Am Doing a ____________ in Your Days,”   Habakkuk 1:5

• Every command in v. 5 is ____________ — God answers one prophet in front of the whole nation.
• “I am doing” — the work is already ____________. Unanswered is different from ____________.
• Baptist Catechism Q. 14: God’s works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful ____________ and ____________ all His creatures, and all their actions.

 
IV.  The Bitter and ____________ Nation,   Habakkuk 1:6 – 11

• “Behold, ____________ am raising up the Chaldeans” — God claims the instrument.
• Judah’s justice went forth ____________ (v. 4)
• Babylon’s justice goes forth from ____________ (v. 7). Measure for measure.
• 1689 Confession 5.4 — God ordains the course; the ____________ belongs to the creature alone. God can wield what He will still ____________.

 
V.  The Work You Would Never ____________,   Acts 13:38 – 41

• Paul quotes Habakkuk 1:5 immediately after proclaiming ____________ by faith (Acts 13:38–39).
• In Habakkuk’s day, God used a pagan empire to ____________ His people
• At the cross, God used a Roman instrument to ____________ them.
• The danger in Antioch and now, is not that God’s work fails, but that we ____________ at it.

Big Idea:  God is always at ____________ but His work may be the last thing we would have ____________.

Family Worship questions for this week:
1.  Is it okay to ask God a question when something seems unfair to you? Whom did Habakkuk go talk to?
2.  Can God be busy working even when we cannot see anything happening at all? (Habakkuk 1:5)
3.  Can God use even bad people to carry out His good plan — without ever once doing anything bad Himself?
4.  What is the most surprising thing God has ever done to save people? (Acts 13:38–39)

Memory verse for the series: “But the righteous shall live by his faith.” — Habakkuk 2:4

Church History
LESSON: The Split Between East and West
Big Idea: The Great Schism was the eruption of a fracture line within political, cultural, and theological thought that had been forming for centuries.
Objectives:
1. Identify the long-developing political, cultural, and theological causes of the East-West split.
2. Explain the filioque controversy and the Photian Schism as the decisive flashpoints
before the formal break of 1054.
3. Evaluate both traditions' departures from apostolic simplicity, while clarifying where
Reformed theology actually lands on the filioque question.

I. Framing the Big Idea

• Can two churches share the same creed and still split apart?

II. Historical Context: Centuries of Divergence

• Political divergence. 
  • Charlemagne's coronation as "Roman Emperor" by Pope Leo III in 800 was, from Constantinople's vantage point, an act of usurpation — there was already a Roman emperor, and he sat in Constantinople. The West now had its own emperor and increasingly saw the papacy as standing above, not under, imperial authority.
• Cultural and linguistic divergence.
  • Latin in the West, Greek in the East. By the ninth century, few churchmen on either side were fluent in the other's language or theological vocabulary — councils and correspondence increasingly talked past each other rather than to each other.
• Ecclesiological divergence.
  • The West developed a doctrine of Roman primacy rooted in Petrine succession (Matt. 16:18). The East held to a conciliar model — the pentarchy of five patriarchates (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem) governing jointly, with Rome holding honor but not unilateral authority.
• Theological friction points building toward the schism:
  • The filioque clause ("and the Son") added to the Latin Nicene Creed describing the Spirit's procession.
  • Disputes over leavened versus unleavened bread in the Eucharist.
  • Clerical celibacy required in the West, married clergy permitted in the East.
  • The Iconoclast controversy of the eighth and ninth centuries (covered further by John of Damascus's defense of icons next month) left lingering East-West tension over images and authority to settle doctrine.

III. Core Content: The Filioque Controversy and the Photian Schism

• The filioque clause. The original Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381) confessed the Spirit as proceeding "from the Father." Western churches, beginning in Spain in the sixth century and spreading north, began adding "and the Son" (filioque) to clarify the Spirit's relation to both Father and Son.
• The Eastern objection has two layers, and we should distinguish them carefully:

1. Procedural objection: no ecumenical council authorized the addition; the West altered a universally received creed unilaterally, which the East regarded as a breach of conciliar order regardless of the theological merit.
2. Theological objection: the East holds the Father as sole archē (source) within the Trinity; double procession, in Eastern eyes, risks compromising the Father's monarchy and conflating the Son's role in the Spirit's eternal origin with his role in the Spirit's temporal mission (cf. John 15:26).

• Reformed theology has historically affirmed the Western filioque on exegetical grounds (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7 — the Spirit is "sent" by both Father and Son), while still recognizing the East's procedural objection as a legitimate complaint about how doctrine should be settled.
• Photius and the schism that bears his name (867–886). Photius, a layman and senior imperial official, was elevated through the clerical ranks in a matter of days and installed as Patriarch of Constantinople in 858 amid a contested succession.
• Pope Nicholas I refused to recognize his elevation and backed the deposed patriarch Ignatius instead. The two sides excommunicated each other in 867 — a full breach, later patched over but never fully healed.
• Photius's enduring importance:
• He articulated, more systematically than anyone before him, the theological case against the filioque (in his treatise Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit), giving Eastern objections lasting intellectual form.
• His Bibliotheca, a vast compendium of summaries and reviews of ancient texts (many now lost except through his record), preserved an enormous amount of classical and patristic literature.
• He was deposed, restored to the patriarchate (877–886), and deposed again — his career illustrates how thoroughly church office had become entangled with imperial politics in Byzantium.
• From Photius to 1054. The formal break came when Cardinal Humbert of Rome excommunicated Patriarch Michael Cerularius, and Cerularius responded in kind — both acting somewhat impulsively, without full sanction from their own sides, in a dispute that nonetheless stuck and has never been formally reversed.

IV. Theological Evaluation

• Both traditions departed from New Testament simplicity in different directions: the West toward monarchical papal authority claiming universal jurisdiction; the East toward a church too tightly fused with imperial power to maintain independent doctrinal judgment.
• The filioque debate is a useful case study in careful theology — precise trinitarian language matters (cf. 1689 LBCF 2.3), and unilateral changes to shared confessional language, even when theologically defensible, carry real pastoral and ecumenical costs.
• Neither side's claim to final authority — papal infallibility in seed form, or imperial-patriarchal consensus — survives scrutiny against sola Scriptura. The schism is, in part, a story of two traditions each substituting institutional authority for the final authority of the Word.

V. Discussion Questions

• Rome changed a shared creed without an ecumenical council. Does the how of a doctrinal decision matter as much as the what? Why?
• The East and West each developed a different answer to "who has final authority to settle doctrine?" How does the 1689 LBCF answer (1.1, 1.10)?
• Photius rose from layman to patriarch in days, largely through imperial favor. What dangers does this illustrate about appointing church leaders for political rather than spiritual qualifications (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1–7)?

VI. Closing

• Ephesians 4:3–6

Text: Hebrews 8:11 7/12/26
A Covenant With the Elect

Hebrews 8:11
"And they shall in no way teach each one his fellow-citizen, and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’; because all of them will comprehend Me, from their insignificant to their dignified.”

Outline:
I. The Nature of the Danger Paul Addresses in Hebrews
II. The Difference in the Law in the Old Covenant Vs. the New
III. The Basis of the New Covenant: Forgiveness
IV. Hebrews 8:11, The New Covenant is With the Elect
V. Church Children and the New Covenant
VI. “All” Means No Infant Baptism
VII. Making Fleshly Sense of the Bible

Our prayers are mixed by angels with incense in Heaven (Revelation 8:4), but we can’t see or smell it from here; please let us see and smell a little incense in our worship
proceedings too.
Kid-speak: In the Old Covenant, the priests made nice- smelling incense for God’s house. But in the New Covenant, we don’t do that, because the real incense is where?

Aaron and the Tabernacle service were perfectly aligned shadows (not the real thing) Christ. What Hebrews is for: to break us off from Aaron and wed us to Christ.
Kid-speak: If we built the Tabernacle again, like in the Old Testament, would that be an OK place to worship God?

Just the fact that God told of a coming New Covenant in the book of Jeremiah is enough to let us know that the days of the existing covenant, Moses’ covenant, were numbered (soon to end).
Kid-speak: In the Old Testament, God said He would be making a New Covenant with the Israelites. Did that mean their covenant through Moses would have to stop?

Last time, we skipped to Hebrews 8:12 to see the BASIS or REASON for the New Covenant, which is forgiveness.
Kid-speak: Out of Hebrews 8:10, 11, or 12, which verse tells us the whole REASON the New Covenant works?

Hebrew 8:12
For I will be merciful to their injustices, and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless deeds."

Hebrews 8:11
"And they shall in no way teach each one his fellow-citizen, and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’; because all of them will comprehend Me, from their insignificant to their dignified.”

In brief, the New Covenant is with the elect: those whom God chose, for whom Christ died, and whom the Spirit brings to Christ and keeps until the end.
Kid-speak: What does the Bible call the people whom God chose before the world started, then Jesus came to die for them, then the Holy Spirit brings them to Jesus?

John 6:45
It has been written in the Prophets, They "shall all be taught of” God. [Hebrew, “Your
sons shall all be students of Yahweh.” So then, everyone who hears and learns from the
Father comes to Me.

Concerning church children, we don’t know if children are chosen by God until we see His work in their hearts, evidenced in their recognition of their sinfulness and their need of
Christ.
Kid-speak: Kids, are your parents and Pastor Cain trying to teach you that you need Jesus to wash away the bad things you’ve done?

To allow infants to be baptized, supposedly allowing them into the New Covenant, Mickey saw “all” here as “most.”
Kid-speak: Kids, if we had baptized you when you were a baby, would that have put you in the New Covenant?

Jesus’ attitude had been mainly heavy, as the Man of Sorrows, Isaiah 53:3. Ours, despite great burdens, is mainly light! His preoccupied attitude paid for our carefree
one!
Kid-speak: Jesus thought a lot about what He had to do on the Cross. Because He thought alot about paying for our sins, do we have to worry about it now?

Children born to elect parents are benefited greatly from that. They are even “sanctified,” 1 Corinthians 7:14; but an elect parent does not make an elect child.
Kid-speak: Kids, is it better for you having parents who already know Jesus?

Some say, “The elect are chosen because they chose God,” even though the Bible says the reverse (God chose them).
Kid-speak: Are the elect who they are because they chose God or because God chose them?

Proverbs 26:4,“Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness, lest you, even you, become like him.
Proverbs 26:5,“Answer a fool according to his foolishness, that he not be wise in his own eyes.”
First, don’t enter a debate on a fool’s level. Second though, you can say, “Wanna know what you sound like/ are suggesting?”
First, the 3 friends had taken Job’s desperate despair as a reasoned argument. Second, Job had nailed the 3 friends’ cruelty, but he had “become like them” in making God’s
discipline tit-for-tat.

Proverbs 26:16,“The lazy one is wiser in his own eyes than seven that return a wise answer.” Man’s go-to is, “I don’t need to think. I already know I’m right.” Once Job took the 3 friends’ destructive detour, they needed the 7-fold wisdom of Elihu.

Proverbs 29:19,“A servant is not corrected by words; though he discerns, there is no answer.”
Our main answer in life must be in answering God, but our deaf ears give us a mute mouth: “What? No, He’s not talking to me.” AT this point, Job is so far off that his first answer to
God will be, “Ain’t sayin’ nuttin,” Job 40:4-5, when God had clearly demanded an answer!

Job 40:2.
Father, I will be the Answer to that, if You will answer the punishment for their sin in Me.”
Kid-speak: If we tell people that Jesus is the ANSWER, what is our PROBLEM that He had to answer? Three letters: S __ n.

1 John 5:14-15
And this is the confidence we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

Week 18 – Science and Faith: Does Science Disprove Christianity?
Theme: Science and Christianity are not enemies. Science studies God’s creation, while Scripture reveals the Creator. The real conflict is not science vs faith but naturalism vs the Christian worldview.

1. Read Scripture: Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:3; Psalm 111:2

2. The False Conflict Between Science and Faith

• Many people assume:
  • Science explains everything.
  • Religion belongs to the past.
  • Scientific progress eliminates the need for God.
• This idea is called scientism, the belief that science is the only reliable source of truth.
• Problem: Science itself cannot prove scientism. That claim is philosophical, not scientific.

3. What Science Actually Does

• Science studies:
  • Observable patterns in nature.
  • Cause-and-effect relationships.
  • Repeatable experiments.
• Science answers how questions, such as:
  • How do stars form?
  • How does DNA replicate?
• Science does not answer ultimate questions, such as:
  • Why does the universe exist?
  • Why do moral obligations exist?
  • What is the meaning of life?
  • Those questions belong to philosophy and theology.

4. Christianity Historically Encouraged Science

• Many pioneers of science were Christians because they believed the world was created by a rational God. Examples include: Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, & Robert Boyle
• They believed that studying nature meant studying God’s handiwork.
• Ps 111:2 — “Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.”

5. Evolution and Worldview Assumptions

• In many conversations, science debates quickly turn to evolution.
• Important distinctions:
  • Scientific observations
  • Philosophical interpretations
• Naturalistic evolution assumes:
  • No divine purpose.
  • No supernatural design.
• Christian theology affirms:
  • God created and sustains the universe.
  • Creation displays His wisdom and power.

6. The Christian View of Creation

• God created all things (Genesis 1:1).
• Creation reflects His glory (Psalm 19:1).
• Human beings uniquely bear God’s image.
• Science explores the mechanisms of creation
• Scripture explains the meaning of creation & sometimes the mechanisms.

7. Discussion & Application

• Why do many people assume science and Christianity are enemies?
• What is the difference between science and scientism?
• How can Christians affirm scientific discoveries without adopting naturalism?
• What opportunities do conversations about science give us to talk about God?

8. Take-Home Assignment

• Observe one news article or social media post discussing science.
• Ask yourself three questions:
  • Is this reporting scientific observation or philosophical interpretation?
  • What worldview assumptions are present?
  • How would a Christian worldview respond?

Week 18: The Names and Natures of Christ
Key Truth: Jesus Christ is one Person with two distinct natures, fully God and fully man.

I. The Names of Christ
•Jesus = Yahweh Saves
•Christ = Messiah, the Anointed One
•Son of Man
•Son of God
•Lord

II. Christ's Divine Nature
•Divine names
•Divine attributes
•Divine works
•Divine worship

III. Christ's Human Nature
•True body
•Rational soul
•Human experiences
•Perfect obedience

IV. The Hypostatic Union
•One Person
•Two complete natures
•Without confusion
•Without change
•Without division
•Without separation

V. Why It Matters
•Only God can save.
•Only man can represent mankind.
•Jesus is the perfect Mediator.

Memory Verse: 1 Timothy 2:5: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

TEXT: Jonah 3:1–10; TITLE: “True Repentance is a Direction”
BIG IDEA: God gives new lives, not second chances.

I: God Is Not a God of Second Chances (v. 1)

II: A Five-Word Sermon and a City-Wide Revival (vv. 3–5)

III: Repentance vs. Remorse vs. Resolution (vv. 5–8)

IV: “Who Knows?” Has an Answer (vv. 9–10)

V: The Direction of Your Life Is a Theological Statement

Week 17: Biblical Theology and Missions
Theme: God's Global Plan of Redemption

Objective: Understand that missions is not merely a church program but the outworking of God's eternal redemptive purpose revealed throughout Scripture.
Key Idea:
The mission of the church exists because the mission of God precedes it. From Genesis to Revelation, God is gathering a people from every tribe, language, people, and nation for His glory.

I. The Missionary Thread Through Scripture
A. The Promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3)

• Genesis 12:1-3.
• God chose Abraham for a purpose larger than Israel.
• The covenant contains:
• A people
• A land
• A blessing
• New Testament Confirmation (Galatians 3:8.)

B. Israel's Calling Among the Nations (Exodus-Isaiah)

• Exodus 19:5-6.
• What does a priest do?
  • Represents God to people.
  • Represents people before God.
• Israel was intended to display God's glory to the nations.
• Isaiah 49:6
  • Examples:
    • Rahab
    • Ruth
    • Naaman
    • The Queen of Sheba
    • These anticipate a larger gathering of the nations.

C. Christ and the Nations (Matthew 28:18-20)

• Jesus does not create a new mission.
• He advances the ancient mission.
• Because Christ possesses:
  • All authority
• The church must:
  • Go
  • Make disciples
  • Baptize
  • Teach

D. The Consummation (Revelation 5:9-10)

• Revelation 5:9-10. 
• Christ purchased people from:
  • Every tribe
  • Every language
  • Every people
  • Every nation
• The Lamb will receive the reward of His suffering.

II. God's Mission and the Church's Participation (20-30 Minutes)
A. Central Principle: The church does not possess a mission. God possesses a mission and graciously includes His church in it.

• John 20:21

B. God's mission originates in the Father's plan

• Accomplished by the Son
• Applied by the Spirit
• The church is the instrument.

C. God's sovereignty fuels missions. It does not diminish missions.

• Acts 18:9-10. 
• Election encouraged evangelism.
  • God ordains the ends.
  • God ordains the means.
  • Therefore: Pray. Send. Go. Preach.

Title: “God Will Make Room”
Text: Jonah 1:17–2:10
BIG IDEA: The fish is a provision instead of a punishment. Our rock bottom is actually God’s foundation to build upon, and the prayer that rises from the belly of the fish is the model of what genuine surrender actually sounds like.

Answer this honestly: is prayer for you a first response or a last resort?

I: We Think the Fish Is Punishment (1:17)

• The word appointed here is מָנָה — mānāh. The same word appears three more times in this book: God appointed a plant to shade Jonah, a worm to eat the plant, and an east wind to beat down on his head. God appointed all four.
• When we are in the belly of the fish, the last thing we want to hear is that it is a gift.
• Before God works on the message, he works on the messenger. The fish is the surgery, not the end of Jonah’s story.
• Paul asked three times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed. God left it there and told him instead that grace is sufficient, that weakness is where the strength shows up (2 Corinthians 12:7–9). Paul did not get the comfort he asked for, but the dependence God knew he needed, and called it a gift.
• The circumstance we are in right now might also be a provision. The confinement might be the point. The darkness might be where the conversion happens.

II: What Prayer From the Deep Actually Sounds Like (2:1–6)

• Jonah’s prayer is almost entirely composed of quotations from the Psalms.
  • You do not need to have a clean theological record to pray the Psalms.
• Jonah makes no excuses & offers no justifications.
  • Jonah’s prayer is not contingent on his circumstances improving.
  • Jonah’s prayer in the fish doesn't get him vomited out immediately. It changes him, and that is the point.
• Luke records Jesus teaching the disciples to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.

III: The Belly of the Fish Is Not Too Far (2:2, 7)

• The belly of the fish is described as Sheol — the place of the dead. 
• Jonah is at the bottom of the theological and physical world, surrounded by chaos and death, with no human means of escape. And God heard him from there.
  • Isaiah 59:1 says: The LORD’s arm is not too short to save. 
• Functionally, we trust our circumstances more than we trust the Lord who controls them.

IV: Vain Idols and the Grace They Cost You (2:8)

• Jonah fled to Tarshish because he valued something above God's call. His pride, comfort,  and desire to see Nineveh judged rather than saved were his vain idols.
• He is saying, from inside the fish, what those idols cost him.
• The NIV renders this verse: those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
  • God's grace is there, but the idol in your hand is keeping you from it.

V: Salvation Belongs to the LORD

• God sets him down on the beach rather than spitting him into open water to fight the current, the surf, and the reef on his own.
• Matthew 12:39–40 is where Jesus himself reads this chapter. He calls this the sign of Jonah — three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Jesus is pointing to himself. The belly of the fish points to the tomb. The three days in darkness point to the three days of death. The vomiting onto dry land points to the resurrection morning.
• The Son of God was thrown into the deepest deep — the wrath of God poured out for sin that was not his own — so that he could carry the people with him.
• Every line of chapter 2 (I called from Sheol, you brought up my life from the pit, salvation belongs to the LORD) is Jonah’s version of what Christ would say from the cross and from the tomb and from the garden.
• It is the grammar of resurrection: death entered, God heard, life given back.

Title: The Church in the Early Middle Ages
Big Idea When Rome's political structures collapsed, the church inherited functions no one had designed it to carry — and Gregory the Great shows both the pastoral fruit and the
institutional cost of that inheritance.

I. What happens to a society's institutions when its government collapses?
In 476, the last Western Roman emperor was deposed. No empire-wide replacement emerged in the West for centuries. Into that vacuum stepped the only institution with continuity, literacy, and organizational reach across the old empire — the church.

II. The Church Fills a Vacuum
Political collapse, ecclesial continuity.
Monasteries became the de facto preservers of literacy, agricultural technique, and the manuscript tradition through the centuries.
East versus West divergence begins here.

III. Gregory the Great
Served as Prefect of Rome before renouncing it to become a monk. Elected pope in 590 against his own wishes — he wrote that he accepted the office "with grief."
Missionary initiative. In 597, Gregory sent Augustine of Canterbury to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons in England — the single most consequential missionary decision of the early medieval church, planting the seed for English (and later much of Northern
European) Christianity.
Writings and lasting influence:
Pastoral Rule (Regula Pastoralis) — a manual for bishops on the cure of souls.
Moralia in Job — extended allegorical commentary; shaped medieval exegetical
method.
Dialogues — popularized the doctrine of purgatory in the West through stories
of souls purified after death by suffering and the prayers of the living.
"Gregorian" chant tradition bears his name, reflecting his role in liturgical
standardization (though the precise musical attribution is debated by scholars).

IV. Discussion Question
Purgatory grew out of a pastor's attempt to comfort the grieving with stories about
the afterlife. What does this teach us about the danger of doctrine built on sentiment
rather than text (cf. Acts 17:11)?

VI. Closing
Read 1 Peter 5:2–3.

“The Prophet Who Ran”
Jonah 1:1-17
God's sovereign purposes cannot be thwarted by the rebellion of His servants.

Historical Background

I. God’s Call (1:1-3)

II. God's Pursuit (1:4-10)

III. God's Providence (1:11-16)

IV. God's Rescue (1:17)

Week 17: Man in the Covenant of Grace
Key Truth: God saves sinners through Jesus Christ and brings them into covenant fellowship with Himself as His people.
Key Verse: I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 32:38)
I. The Need for the Covenant of Grace
A. Man's Original Condition
Created righteous
Covenant of Works
Fellowship with God
B. The Fall
Sin entered the world
Death and condemnation followed
Man became unable to save himself
C. God's Initiative
Genesis 3:15
The first promise of redemption

II. What Is the Covenant of Grace?
A. Definition
God's gracious provision of salvation through Christ
B. Progressive Revelation
Promised in the Old Testament
Fulfilled in the New Covenant
C. Christ the Mediator
The center of God's redemptive plan
The source of every covenant blessing

III. The Covenant of Grace in the 1689 Baptist Confession
A. Revealed Progressively
Adam
Abraham
Moses
David
Christ
B. Fulfilled in the New Covenant
The full revelation of God's saving purpose
Established through Christ's blood
C. New Covenant Membership
A redeemed people
United to Christ by faith

IV. Members of the Covenant
A. Christ the Covenant Head
B. Believers United to Christ
C. The Church as a Covenant Community

V. Covenant Blessings
A. Justification
B. Adoption
C. Sanctification
D. Eternal Life

VI. Covenant Responsibilities
A. Faith
B. Repentance
C. Obedience
D. Perseverance

Discussion Questions
Why was the Covenant of Grace necessary?
How does Christ fulfill God's covenant promises?
What makes the New Covenant unique?
How does union with Christ shape our relationship with other believers?
What covenant blessing most encourages you today?

Key Takeaways
✓ God initiated salvation by grace.
✓ Christ is the Mediator and fulfillment of the Covenant of Grace.
✓ The New Covenant is the full realization of God's redemptive promise.
✓ Believers are united to Christ and to one another as God's covenant people.
✓ God's covenant guarantees both present blessings and future glory.

Practical Theology – Week 9 – The Problem of Evil
Theme: The existence of evil and suffering is one of the most common objections to Christianity. Scripture teaches that evil is real, that God is sovereign, and that the cross of Christ offers the deepest answer to suffering.

1. Opening
Scripture: Habakkuk 1:1–4; Romans 8:18–28

2. The Objection

• A common argument against Christianity:
  • If God is all-powerful, He could stop evil.
  • If God is all-good, He would want to stop evil.
• Evil exists.
  • Therefore, God does not exist.

3. The Biblical Perspective on Evil

• Scripture does not deny suffering. It speaks honestly about it.
• Key truths:

1. Evil entered through human sin

• Genesis 3 records the fall of humanity.
• The brokenness of the world flows from rebellion against God.

2. God remains sovereign

• God rules even over suffering (Isaiah 45:7; Amos 3:6).
• Nothing happens outside His providence.

3. Evil never has the final word

• God works all things for good for those who love Him (Rom 8:28).
• The story of Scripture moves toward restoration.

4. The Cross as the Center of the Answer

• The greatest evil in history was the crucifixion of Christ.
• Yet through that evil God accomplished good in salvation (Acts 2:23).
• This shows:
  • God can bring good out of the worst suffering.
  • God Himself entered into human suffering.
  • The resurrection promises that suffering will not last forever.

5. Pastoral Wisdom in Apologetics

• When people raise the problem of evil:
  • Do not begin with philosophical arguments.
• Instead:
  • Listen carefully.
  • Acknowledge the pain involved.
  • Affirm that Christianity takes suffering seriously.
  • Show how the cross reveals God’s justice and mercy.

6. Real-Life Case Study
Scenario
A friend says: “If God were loving, my mother wouldn’t have died from cancer. I can’t believe in a God who allows that.”

• Suggested Response Process

1. Listen and empathize
: Express genuine sorrow for the loss.
2. Avoid quick answers
: Suffering requires compassion before explanation.
3. Affirm biblical truth": 
The world is broken because of sin. Death was never part of God’s original design.
4. Point to Christ
: Jesus Himself wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35).
He also suffered and died to defeat death.
5. Offer hope: The resurrection promises a future where death will be destroyed (Rev 21:4).

TEXT: Ruth 4:1–22  “The Redeemer Has Come”
BIG IDEA: Ruth begins in a graveyard and ends in a nursery, and the closing genealogy is the point: God was using every broken thing in this story to get to Jesus.

I: The Right of Redemption Has a Price (vv. 1–8)

II: Boaz Redeems What He Was Not Required to Redeem (vv. 9–12)

III: From Bitter to Full (vv. 13–16)

IV: Why the Genealogy Is the Point (vv. 17–22)

V: The Greater Boaz Has Already Come to the Gate