Introduction: One of the family stories my wife likes to tell is that
her mother stressed to her that she liked “sameness.” She did not
want any changes in her life. Six weeks later, she got married and
moved to a new residence. So much for “sameness.” Generally, people
fear change. Like my mother-in-law, they say they want “sameness.”
Let’s dig into our study of the Bible and see what it has to teach us
about changes in life and how we should evaluate them!
- History Lessons
- Read 1 Corinthians 10:1. What does God think we should
know? (History! We should know what happened to our
“forefathers.”) - Were these forefathers in the middle of great changes
in their lives? - Read 1 Corinthians 10:2-4. What is the Bible saying about
the common history of these people? (That they all had a
wonderful spiritual background. Christ gave them food and
water and Moses gave them spiritual leadership.) - Read 1 Corinthians 10:5. What is the spiritual lesson?
What should we learn? (That having a great spiritual
background and training does not mean that our lives
please God. We might not do well with change.) - Read 1 Corinthians 10:6. What is God saying when He refers
to these things as “examples?” (The main point is that
history is incredibly important in deciding how to live.
There are a few things that upset me and make me worry
about the future. One of those is the future of religious
and economic freedom. They made our country great. Because
the nations of the world are turning to religious and
economic freedom, the number of people living in poverty
world-wide has dropped. Yet, the younger generation in my
country question both religious and economic freedom.) - Life Changes and History
- Re-read 1 Corinthians 10:6. How should we use history when
considering change? (History should guide our thinking.
What changes need to be made, and what needs to stay the
same? Biblical history should “keep us from setting our
hearts on evil as they did.”) - Read 1 Corinthians 10:7 and Exodus 32:5-6. What historical
sin should we avoid? (The “calf” was a god made by Aaron.
God’s people had just seen His incredible power, and now
they want to worship something Aaron made. How stupid
could they be?) - None of my Christian friends have erected an idol in
their backyard and worship (or trust in) it. Is this
a history lesson that no longer applies? - Do we worship things that we make or purchase?
(Sometimes I hear silly things. If a person has a
nice car or house someone who is jealous calls those
“idols.” The issue is worship: whether we put our
trust in those things. If those things reflect
wealth, it is easy to trust wealth.) - Read 1 Corinthians 10:8 and Numbers 25:1-3. Which sin came
first: idolatry or sexual immorality? (Engaging in sexual
immorality with the Moabite women. It was that which led
to sacrificing before false gods.) - Read Numbers 25:5. Which sin seems to bother God the
most? (False worship.) - I have often said (in fact I just preached two weeks
ago) that “all sin is sin.” The argument is that we
should not pick out certain sins and condemn them
more vigorously. Am I wrong? Or, is history teaching
us another lesson? (I could be wrong, and history is
also teaching us another lesson. I think the history
lesson is that sexual immorality leads us into other
sins. In this case, God treats Baal worship as the
more serious sin.) - Read 1 Corinthians 10:9-10 and Numbers 21:4-6. What two
sins does history reveal here? (Grumbling and testing
God.) - Grumbling seems pretty obvious. What is “testing”
God? (This is trying the patience of God. Doing
things that make God unhappy.) - If you were with us when we studied the book of Job,
you recall that Job did a lot of complaining about
God. Job even asked to sue God ( Job 9:32-33), so
that he could have someone arbitrate their dispute.
Why does that seem to be fine, and grumbling about
the food gets you killed ( 1 Corinthians 10:10)? (An
obvious difference is that the wilderness grumbling
was about God not taking good enough care of the
people. The people kept saying that things were
better when they were slaves. That insulted God.
Job, on the other hand, argued that God was treating
him unfairly. Job had done nothing to deserve the
punishment under which he suffered. God knew that
this was a reasonable complaint. Job should not have
been suffering under the normal rules. The history
lesson about change is that God indulges our
reasonable complaints. However, we must not grumble
about His blessings.) - Read 1 Corinthians 10:11-12. What warning do we find in
history? (That others fell and so could we. We should not
be arrogant and overconfident.) - Read 1 Corinthians 10:13. What has God promised us with
regard to temptation? - What does this have to do with change? (We can, by
the power of the Holy Spirit, withstand temptation.
Our life change can (and should) be positive and not
negative.) - Parenting Change
- Read Psalms 127:3-5. What is the assumption about children
and protection? (If you have many sons, you will have
soldiers to protect you.) - Is this still a relevant issue? (Engaging in physical
battles on behalf of parents should be rare, but as
parents get older children can help protect them in
many other ways.) - Re-read Psalms 127:3. Children are a reward and a
“heritage from the Lord.” I think heritage means
“inheritance” in this context. If you are a parent, in
what way have you found this to be true? (My wife and I
learned that our children teach us a great deal about God
and His kindness to us. When our children were rebellious
or disobedient, we thought about our own rebellion and
disobedience towards God. It was a remarkable lesson on
understanding the grace of God.) - How do children change your life? (They change it
forever. They make life richer and more complicated.) - Read 1 Samuel 3:12-13. What is our obligation with
regard to our children? (To restrain them. Obviously,
at some point children make their own choices.
However, in the case of Eli, he had authority over
his sons beyond that of being their father.) - Changing Age
- In our prior section we discussed how many sons could
protect you in your old age. Read Psalms 71:9. What is one
problem that we face with age? (The loss of strength.) - Read Psalms 71:18. What should be our attitude as we age
and lose strength? (We should teach the next generation
that power lies in the hands of our God. We can be a
witness and an example of that.) - Read Psalms 71:23-24. What should be our attitude as we
grow older? (To shout praises to God. Rather than grumble,
we should “tell of [God’s] righteous acts all day long.”) - Focus on verse 24. What should we expect is the
future for those who seek to harm us? (“Shame and
confusion.”) - I’m familiar with the theology that we should
pray for confusion and defeat for our enemies.
Read Job 31:29-30 and Matthew 5:43-44. How do
you reconcile these texts? - Here is my history lesson: One time I decided
to pray for confusion for my enemies in a
religious liberty case I was arguing in federal
court. When my opposing counsel entered the
court, he hit his head on the metal detector
and fell down. He staggered into the
courtroom! He was so injured, the judge did not
make him argue his case. But, the judge found
(and made) even better arguments against us and
dismissed our case! - Friend, when it comes to change we need to look to the
lessons about how God has led in the past. We need to seek
his will and cheerfully trust Him. Will you agree to make
that your goal? - Next week: When Alone.
