Flu shot effectiveness

Introduction. This week’s LifeWay Explore the Bible lesson “Freed Through Christ” from Romans 7:1-25, aims to help Christians be useful to God (vs 4, “bear fruit to God”).

I’ll use the pictured PPT slide to implement the “flu shot” intro (step 1, pg. 104) suggestion from the LifeWay Adult Leader Guide (see also this commentary). Michelle Malkin reports flu shots may not be that effective.

I’ve already distributed these study questions from bible.org to class members. These lessons on Romans are too important not to encourage members to study anyway we can!

Chose righteousness, or lawlessness?

Co-teacher Curt taught today and had everyone involved when he asked, “Why do we struggle so much to choose obedience?” One answered that we deny the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Another said it was a matter of wrong habits. Yet, one more said that it was a matter of training and discipline. Curt underscored the ramifications of the choice with the following slide.

To help us grow and mature spiritually, Curt didn’t use the tactic of the LifeWay lesson, which was to leverage the fact that Christians are “Given Eternal Life”, but he still accomplished the lesson aim.

Let me ask, “what did you end up emphasizing as you taught your lesson today?” Please share how you taught the passage Romans 6:15-23. Thanks!

An imperishable crown

I started this lesson on “Given Eternal Life” with the idea of a payday. In addition to eternal life, we also will receive “a crown that will last forever” according to 1Corinthians 9:24-27. That is, if we mature spiritually and “victoriously run the race of life” as Chuck Swindoll phrases it in Improving Your Serve (pg. 205), we are rewarded with an imperishable crown.

In the terminology of the lesson passage: Romans 6:15-23, Paul says in verse 1Corinthians 9:26, that he makes his body his “slave.” Why? So he won’t be disqualified for the prize (an imperishable crown). Ask members to share what tips have helped them personally mature spiritually.

On page 189 of the above book, Swindoll offers two ideas to remember. (1) Know that not one thing happens to us, which has not been filtered thru God’s hands, and (2) everything we endure further prepares us to serve others. A personal tip I offer is to remind myself who I am in Christ, which has helped me grow on several occasions. I experienced real growth after the pain of suffering. Feedback made the difference. [note: if you have some feedback regarding this site, please share it as a comment. Thanks!].

Secrets of the self-life

Bill Elliott spoke at our Wednesday evening service last night and likened the game of life to a baseball game (the Astros made it to the World Series for the first time). Bill made the point that if we are to grow spiritually, we must experience nine innings of repentance from secrets of the self-life.

These nine secrets are crippling sins, and until we suffer pain of exposing their fallacy, we cannot grow in maturity.

1. A secret spirit of pride.
2. Love of human praise.
3. Stirrings of anger and impatience from self-importance.
4. A critical spirit, quick to find fault in others.
5. An un-teachable spirit, stubborn or headstrong.
6. Rationalizing personal sin as “the way I am”.
7. A secret spirit of envy, or jealous disposition.
8. Straining the truth, lying.
9. A spirit of discouragement, disposition of worry, lack of trust in God.

Post up a yearbook photo and ask members to recall the time they were that age. Ask, “We have obviously grown physically, but how have we grown spiritually?” Lead the class to identify and confess personal instances of these sins. Challenge members to grow not only by confession, but also by repentance.

Extremes

Extreme sports participants leave us in awe, or envy. We can’t imagine doing what they do, or we wish we could do what they do.

Two other extremes are found in Romans 6:17-19. Paul says we can be slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. Like an extreme athlete, observing either of these in real life might leave you in awe or envy. Which is it for you? Paul describes how we can escape our natural state as a slave to sin to become a slave to righteousness. You might show David Colbey’s painting to illustrate these extremes, or use the face on the left with a cross face guard to illustrate a slave to righteousness.

The LifeWay Adult Leaders Guide for this lesson “Given Eternal Life” describes how liberty follows obedience (see Step 3 on page 96). If we step out in faith, God empowers us thru the Holy Spirit to keep us obedient. This keeps us on the path of sanctification. Speaking of keeping, think of the Holy Spirit operating in your life as you read the “Keeper of the Springs” story by Peter Marshall.

Obedience and liberty...huh?

Confused? Paul began Romans 6:15-16 with a question. The LifeWay Leadership guide suggests questioning members about a list of things they did yesterday. To get started, read over the list of “things I did yesterday” from paint spattered jeans and answer these questions: Which activities, if any, show obedience to God? How so? Also, cover this list from Cardboard.

In his commentary on this LifeWay lesson “Given Eternal Life,” based on Romans 6:15-23, Troy Bush notes the Fred Factor. Troy says, “Obedience and liberty may not seem compatible, but in Christ they result in a passion that the world recognizes as extraordinary.”

Fred’s way of living inspires others, whereas this individual was turned off by “street preachers.” By the way I live, do I inspire others or switch them off to the gospel?

Payday

Introduction. This week’s LifeWay Explore the Bible lesson “Given Eternal Life” from Romans 6:15-23, aims to help Christians grow and mature spiritually by reminding them that God gives them eternal life with Him, which puts the lesson focus on “payday,” I suppose.

Payday is an almost universally understood concept that is easily leveraged. Some board games are available--Hasbro, Parker Brothers’, and L.J Barker (defunct, the goal was to make the most money).

The key verses are 22 and 23. Paul uses “wages” in 23 to imply one “works” at sin, which has an ultimate payday—death. In 22 we can infer that the “wages” of serving God is holiness. Work is a given it seems, but where we choose to put our efforts results in a dramatic difference on payday. Choose holiness (Isaiah 35:8).

Summary and challenge

Sam Tullock offers a summary of the lesson “United with Christ” from Romans 6:1-14, which I turned into a PPT slide below. Joe White spoke at our church and after a dramatic presentation, challenged us to lives as slaves to Christ. As an object lesson he passed out individual chain links and ask us to wear them as a reminder that we are bondservants to Jesus Christ. If you have some excess chain used to hang a chain light, then pass out individual links to class members to wears as remindered that they are United with Christ.

New Lifestyle (Romans 6:12-14)

Step 5. After teaching justification by grace through faith, Paul asks in Romans 6:1, “Are we to continue sinning that grace may increase?” Someone might have a misunderstanding that increasing sin implies an increase in grace, to which Paul replies, “By no means.” More importantly, Paul goes on to teach what Sam Tullock says, “the believer’s union with Christ is the central doctrine of Pauline theology.” To underscore its importance, Tullock says our union with Christ is “one of the most neglected and mysterious truths in Scripture.” Trey Turner writes, “It is important to remember, grace in Jesus allows the Christian to live in righteousness not merely to be forgiven for unrighteousness. Paul says, come out and be free because you have a new lifestyle.”

Key to success in this new lifestyle is how to follow the Spirit’s leadership by faith on a moment-by-moment basis? By grace, God’s Spirit is available to lead us, but will we take the responsibility to seek His direction? Will we follow it?

Have the class share examples of instances where they took advantage of God’s grace and asked the Spirit for life direction, received it, and then followed it. Ask, “What advice can you offer to help others do this more often?”

Here is a Following God’s Will Maze puzzle. To illustrate the idea of “listening and following directions”, have people work it in pairs. One person gives directions—“go left, right, straight, or back”. The other makes the marks on the puzzle to follow the directions.

New Master (Romans 6:8-11)

Step 4. For LifeWay’s Explore the Bible lesson “United with Christ” from Romans 6:1-14, Troy Bush writes in the Florida Baptist Witness, “God is the chief agent, providing our redemption. Our sanctification, however, involves God’s divine work uniting us with Christ, and our participation not to let sin reign in our bodies.” Below are a couple of PPT slides I plan to use to help apply the key points in Romans 6:8-11. I plan to discuss the meaty THOUGHT QUESTION in the homework guide for day FOUR.

Also, I’m toying with using the last scene in the movie Fearless in the Introduction to this lesson, or possibly in this step. The movie has a powerful theme where the main character considers himself dead after a plane crash and after saving others in the course of the movie, he asks his wife to save him, which she does in a dramatic way. Very stirring music as well. Emotionally it connects the viewer with the idea of coming alive. Watch it and tell me what you think.

New Life in Christ (Romans 6:4-7)

Step 3. Lesson commentary by Trey Turner of Canyon Creek Baptist Church, Temple makes the point that “No one should think, “Well, Jesus died for my sins so I can start over, I will do better next time.” By saying this, the Christian shows a belief that the power for righteous living is centered in the will.”

Ask, “Why is the power to live free from sin not just a matter of will power?” In Romans 1:17, Paul said that righteousness from God is from faith to faith—it starts with faith and ends there. We didn’t merit or earn righteousness by individual effort. We should not try to live in Christ by individual effort. Then how can we live successfully?

Turner makes the point that power to overcome sin comes by following the leadership of the Holy Spirit in faith. Recall the point of Philippians 4:13. To learn to live a new life in Christ study verses Romans 8:5-17, Colossians 3:1-4, 1 Corinthians 2:10-16, and 2 Corinthians 4:18. See Paul’s example in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. The fruit of righteousness is the result of the new life. Ask members to share personal examples where they have learned to live in Christ by faith.

Time permitting, discuss a selected homework guide question for day THREE.

New relationship to sin as a master

Step 2. We are dead to sin. It has no meaning or purpose in our lives. Furthermore, because God’s grace abounds is no justification for continuing to ‘serve sin’ as if it still held some value to us. Read Romans 6:1-4 and point out that Christians are “dead to sin.” Use an animated baptism such as this one from eBibleTeacher.com and explain how our baptismal identification with Christ symbolizes our death to sin (as a ruler dictating continuing practice of sinful habits) in addition to our resurrection to a new life in Christ.

You can use the lesson plan from Exciting Bible Study, which offers the idea of dipping a plastic figure of a person and a bowl of water as an object lesson for demonstrating baptism. It might be hard for members to see dipping a figure in water in a large class.

Ask members to recall their own baptism. Some may wish to share their experience with the class along with its meaning. Ask, “In what way are we freed from sin’s mastery as a result of becoming a Christian?” Discuss the homework guide questions for days ONE and TWO.

From a personal perspective, this lesson touches on the crux of the issue of living life as a Christian. We wrestle against a sinful nature knowing that Christ died for our sin and that God considers us righteous. The set up for the material coming in chapter 7 is all too clear.

Changed gears

The teaching plan for LifeWay’s Explore the Bible lesson “United with Christ” from Romans 6:1-14 aims to help learners serve God (and not serve sin) by examining their lives for evidence they are serving God and not serving sin. A Christian’s life should offer evidence of change that signals a new life in Christ (v 4). Agreed? Distribute the homework guide for this lesson from bible.org.

Paul gives overall instructions for exhibiting this new life in Ephesians 5:21-6:9. John tells us that Christians exhibit love, not fear. Some conversions resulted in dramatic exhibitions of changed lives, but generally, Christians hope to bear fruit to God. Here is an interesting changed life project that might offer some encouraging stories.

Lesson Introduction. Paul changes gears in Romans 6 to address sanctification. Hearing the evidence of the gear change in this video is tangible evidence that a change occurred. Similarly, “a person’s life changes after he/she becomes a Christian. What are some of the evidences of this life change?” Ask the class to recall Bible verses that speak to the changed life of a Christian? (e.g. 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 4:20-31, Colossians 2:20-21, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:9). Staying in first gear too long promotes engine overheating because of the higher number of engine revolutions. Likewise, Christians that stay in the old life have a problem.

Spotlight grace

Here is a picture of grace posted by bible.org.

“When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award—yet receives such a gift anyway—that is a good picture of God’s unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God.” Clip-Art Features for Church Newsletters, G.W. Knight, p. 53.

I didn’t deserve to be born in the great state of Texas, but I was. I didn’t deserve to be born to loving parents, but I was. I didn’t deserve to find a caring, faithful wife, but I did. I didn’t deserve to have two wonderful, healthy children, but I do. I didn’t deserve to have a healthy body, but I do. I see God’s grace everywhere I look. Similarly, it’s illustrated on almost every page of the Bible. Note God’s favor to pick Israel, or His selection of Zacchaeus. Have the class name examples of God’s grace demonstrated in their lives. Shine the light on God’s grace in this lesson!

More about God’s grace

Step 5. For this week’s LifeWay lesson “What about God’s Grace?” from Romans 5:12-21. Summarize with “How do you explain God’s grace?” Try using a story such as The Lord’s Baseball Game. It makes clear the point that grace must come from God. I have a friend named Claude that loves to use humor. He would tell the Pearly Gates story to help define grace. I like "What's So Amazing About Grace?". It reminds me of Sister José Hobday’s story “The Ice Cream that Set Me Free,” which might be used to illustrate grace.

Since the aim of this lesson is to assist others in knowing more about God’s grace, you might want to put together a simple quiz on grace (see quiz 1 and 2 followed by the answers). But be careful! Quiz 1 states a belief that people can “fall from grace”, which is not possible (see Baptist Statement of Faith and Message).

Here is an alternative grace quiz. These two examples should give you an idea of how to put together a useful quiz that people should enjoy working thru. After people have an opportunity to work the quiz, then call out for volunteers to answer the questions. This way you won’t make any particular person feel uncomfortable.

Abundant grace

Step 4. For this week’s LifeWay lesson “What about God’s Grace?” from Romans 5:12-21.

According to Romans 5:13, before the law, humans were sinful (wrong nature) and coupled with verse 20, the law multiplied sin. How so? The law was a standard that shed light on man’s behavioral sins over an above his sinful nature. Hence the law multiplied sin. In some ways it’s like using a lint remover. No matter how many times I pass a clean remover over my clothing it comes up full of lint. The law reveals sin like the lint remover picks up lint.

To illustrate abundant grace, post up a picture of an empty cross with a wastebasket below it, or set a real cross on a table, again with a wastebasket below it. Hand out a clean paper towel to each learner. Say, Christ died to take away the sin of the world—yours and mine. Through grace He gives us righteousness that wipes away all sin. Have them pass the paper towel over their whole body in a wiping motion. Then ask each person as they leave the room to place his or her paper towel in the wastebasket to illustrate that their sins are gone and they are clean before God. Lead them in prayer thanking God for His abundant grace—that is, giving each one of us what we do not deserve—forgiveness and acceptance.

Perspective gap

Step 3 for this week’s LifeWay lesson “What about God’s Grace?” from Romans 5:12-21.

Imagine you are looking into the mirrored side of a two-way mirror. Who do you see? If you see a ‘basically good person’, Troy Bush, writing in the Florida Baptist Witness says, “Grace becomes a kind act by our God, but it loses its extraordinary character….all we need is a bit of help from a friendly God.” But what if you see yourself as God sees you?

Imagine God looking at you through the other side of the two-way mirror. Who does He see? According to Romans 5:6, He sees you as completely helpless, and not just someone who needs a “little assistance.” Granting righteousness to you by grace is now seen as “an unexplainable act of justice and love.” Is there a gap in how you view yourself verses how God’s views you? If so, there is a gap in your experience with God’s grace.

Furthermore, Troy clarifies a subtle point about our experience with grace. Suppose you both see yourself as completely helpless and you understand that Christ died for your sins. If you fall into this category, then do you see yourself as deserving justification? Well, “The gift is not like the trespass” (Romans 5:15). The gift of righteousness is not bestowed automatically as is a sinful nature. Righteousness must be given. God’s gift (grace) is undeserved! We do not merit His favor.

What is your experience with God’s grace? Is there a separation in how you view grace and how God views it? Can you sing Amazing Grace all out?

Can’t get there from here

For this week’s LifeWay lesson “What about God’s Grace?” from Romans 5:12-21, I’m still noodling on the issue of defining grace, which we need. You can use this post to construct Step 2 in a lesson plan. As I mentioned before, Step 1 explains the “what”. Step 2 explains the “so-what”. That is, we understand grace in Step 1, so in Step 2, we make it relevant. Use the picture (adapted from a John Berry illustration) to illustrate how we can’t get to the cross without God's grace.

Following are definitions of grace offered by Rogma, which also offers commentary with homework on Romans 5:12-21.

“Grace is the unhindered, wonderful and immeasurable love of God, poured out upon us in an infinite variety of ways without limit. Not according to what we deserve but according to His limitless heart of love. Grace is the free, unmerited favor of God in Christ Jesus. FREE – it must be exercised or bestowed without the possibility of anything being offered in exchange. Otherwise, it would simply be barter or an exchange (Romans 11:6). UNMERITED – God’s grace is poured out upon us in utter disregard of the extent of our sins. No one has any merit to offer God in payment for His grace. To recognize merit is to nullify grace.”

But Paul says is Romans 5:20, “grace increased,” but in what manner does it increase? God does not change, or “increase”, but grace is from God and it increases, like a “reckoning”, or a “consideration”, or is it like a “help” or an “enabling”? The former is on the part of God, and the later has an effect in man. Moreover, it’s not the “gift” referred to by Paul in Romans 5:15, since that gift is clearly righteousness (see Romans 5:17).

Also, Romans 5:21 makes clear that grace “reigns” to bring “eternal life”. Men are subject to the rule of “grace and life” in contrast to the rule of “sin and death.” The rule of sin (our wrongness) and death came thru Adam and increased (see Romans 5:20). Sin and death comes from man. By contrast, the rule of grace and life came thru Jesus Christ and increased (Romans 5:15). Grace and life comes from God.

According to Romans 3:24 we are justified by grace (from God) and by faith (Romans 3:28), which is also from God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Our justification comes from God entirely and completely. Jesus Christ suffered death and separation from God to make righteousness possible. By the grace of God those who believe by faith that Christ died in their place are justified.

Clearly then, grace is from God and is needed by us. Regardless of how we define it—God’s favor, or kindness, or goodness, or love, it teaches us that God is absolutely amazing. We cannot grasp a nature like His that changes not and is not bound by time, but yet somehow can consider unrighteous, finite men as righteous before Him. Thank you Jesus for your vicarious death and resurrected life!

Grace as God’s ability

After looking thru a few of the commentaries about this week’s LifeWay lesson “What about God’s Grace?” from Romans 5:12-21, I think we can fall into two traps. One is to get balled up in a theological discussion regarding “original sin”, and two, settle for a technically correct explanation of “grace” as “unmerited favor” but which doesn’t really help us grow much in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is the favor? Stopping at “unmerited favor” could be confusing. In preacher terms, it’s difficult to explain the “so-what” unless one first clearly explains the “what.”

The LifeWay Adult Leader Guide really only explains grace as “an undeserved benefit” (p. 79). The LifeWay Adult Commentary goes further by noting, “God’s grace is the kindness by which God bestows favors even on the undeserving and grants to sinners the pardon of their offenses and invites them to accept eternal salvation through Christ” (p.75). Does this mean grace is the same as God’s kindness?

On his blog, Joe Kennedy quotes James Richards defining grace in “Grace: The Power to Change” (p. 22) as “Grace is God's ability working in man, making him able to do what he cannot do in his own ability”. He emphasizes “God’s ability”. Impact Church offers an individual drama Missing Grace that you might want to order and use to introduce your lesson as a frst step.

Or, it might be instructive to have members read the focal verses that use the word grace and substitute “God’s ability” or simply “Ability” (with a capital A) in place of grace as they read. Ask, “What do we learn about God by reading the verses in this way?” Joe offers the additional verses John 1:14, 1:16-17 to read. Prepare these on a slide with “Ability” substituted for grace to see how the new reading makes sense, and if so, what can learn about Jesus as a result?

Post mortem

In the Joy Over the Benefits Post, I mentioned the homework guide available from bible.org at Romans 5:1-11. Several class members mentioned to me proudly before class that they had worked thru the questions. Unfortunately, I should have asked members to volunteer answers to questions such as “For those that did the homework, what impressed you in particular about this passage from Romans?” Or, “Would someone share some insights or meaningful way God used the homework in your life?”

This would have encouraged members to complete future homework assignments, but I blew it. Next time I’ll try to remember to do this.

Even though I had tested playing it from PowerPoint many times, I had problems during class showing the golf swing demo where a player tries to obey numerous rules in order to achieve a perfect swing (even then we may hit a bad shot!). This illustrates the the foolishness of legalism. However, when the class ended, I quickly got the demo working and showed it to the majority of the class members anyway. It was a hit!

I point out this problem because it is difficult to be the “technical A/V” person and “teach the lesson” at the same time! The issue was simple to solve once my mind was clear of the pressure to teach the lesson. Argh!

In spite of these problems (and a few others), the lesson was well received. We’ll have to wait and see how God uses it in individual lives over the coming weeks.