For April 26, 2009

News

1. CARE Ministry -- Every Tuesday night -- supper at 5:30, outreach/in reach activities at 6:00 p.m.

Current Unit of Study -- "Affirm Spiritual Certainties"

Lesson Supplement for April 26

Explore the Bible
"The Lord is Compassionate"
Isaiah 54:1-10

Intro. -- Have you ever felt unworthy of God's love? Maybe that feeling comes from a past sin that shows up in your memory just when you are beginning to feel confident enough to do something for God. The memory produces the paralyzing feelings of guilt and shame. "How could God use someone like me," you may say. The message of this lesson is that God can use you. In fact, He wants to use you! This is possible regardless of the "ugliness" of our sin because of the compassion of the Lord. If there is the least bit of suspicion about the certainty of the compassion of God, then we are all hopeless indeed. Good news! The Bible affirms this as a certainty. We too should affirm it as a certainty in our lives and fully allow His compassion to break the chains of guilt and shame, setting us free to love others and to serve Him.

Isaiah 54:1-3 -- There are two picture illustrations in these verses. The first picture is that of a barren woman. The barren woman is encouraged to rejoice because she will become fruitful and her household will surpass the number in the household of the "married woman." The second picture is that of a tent or dwelling. The resident of the tent is encouraged to enlarge his living quarters with the promise of even greater territory in generations to come. These two pictures give a vision of hope. The message to the children of Israel is though you will be sent to exile because of your sin, your compassionate God will give you a hopeful vision of return and abundance. Without hope, one withers and eventually dies. If we have no hope that our sins can be forgiven and that there is a bright and eternal future as a child of God, then the paralysis of past sins becomes so restrictive that we wither and die. Let's affirm that God does offer a future to sinners who confess and repent.

Isaiah 54:4-5 -- According to the first three verses, God deals with our future by giving a vision of hope, something to look forward to. In verses 4-5, the message is about how God deals with our past. We can be certain that there is hope. We can also be certain that there is forgiveness. No matter what we have done, there is a Redeemer, and He will remove the shame, fear, humiliation, and disgrace that sin causes. He will restore what we have broken. That is ultimate compassion. Peter once asked Jesus if he should forgive up to seven times. Peter may have thought he would impress Jesus by suggesting such a "high" number. But Jesus was not all that impressed. His response was that Peter and all of us should forgive seventy times seven. When we sin, our fellowship with God is broken, and we can't fix it. Only by His grace and compassion to forgive us our past sins are we able to be restored and have our fellowship with God renewed. Amazingly, He will forgive "seventy times seven" as long as we are sincere in our confession and repentance.

Isaiah 54:6-8 -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a sonnet recognized by most people by these words, "How do I love thee, let me count the ways." If God were to attempt to count the ways he loves us, he would NEVER cease to count! This is everlasting love. It is not dependent on what I do or don't do. If I am His child, He never stops loving me. He loves me when I am obedient just as much as He does when I am disobedient. Because He loves me, He may "desert" me for a season as a form of discipline whenever I sin in order to get my attention and draw me back to Himself. However, as verse 7 indicates, if I recognize the errors of my ways and turn toward Him, He will take me "back with great compassion." There is a saying that I used to have hanging in my room when I was a teenager. It said, "When God seems far away, think who has moved." If I am a Christian and I make a choice to do something that is not of God, my salvation is not lost, but my fellowship with God is broken. The accompanying far-away-from-God feeling is the withdrawal of his presence and power upon my life. His presence and power may be absent for a season, but His love is everlasting. It never fails. It is what draws me back to Him and fixes what I have broken. This is a certainty that we must affirm if we are to be free from the paralysis of guilt and shame.

Isaiah 54:9-10 -- Let us not forget that this prophecy was first issued through Isaiah to God's chosen, the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God established a covenant with Abraham when He called Abram to leave his native land and go to a land that God would show him. God promised Abram that if he remained faithful to God, He would bless Abram with descendants as numerous as the sand upon the shore. Isaiah now delivers this prophecy to these promised descendants. From the time of Abram to the time of Isaiah, God remained faithful to the covenant while Abram and His descendants were often covenant breakers. By all accounts, it would seem that God had a right to let the children of Israel go the way of destruction because of their covenant unfaithfulness. God certainly felt that way toward His creation in the time of Noah. But for the righteousness of the one man, Noah, God would have wiped out all of humanity. God made a covenant with Noah to which He has remained faithful to this day. Similarly, God made a covenant with Abram to which He would remain faithful in the days of Isaiah and in the days of exile. God is not a covenant breaker. Today, this means that if we enter into a covenant relationship with God through our profession of faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, and genuinely turn our lives over to His authority, then even though we may fall into temptation on occasion, God will keep us. His "love will not be removed" and His "covenant of peace will not be shaken." The security this affords me wipes away the shame of past sins and draws me ever closer to Him, strengthening my desire to obey Him at all times and to confess and repent in times of disobedience.

Commitment -- There may be some students in class on Sunday that are paralyzed by past sin and/or current addictions. They need to be set free from the bondage by affirming the spiritual certainty that the Lord is compassionate! They may have a feeling of hopelessness and need to be directed to the vision of hope God gives. There is a future for any and all who believe and enter into a covenant relationship with Him. No matter what sin one has done, God can and will forgive a repentant heart. Ask students if they feel as close to God as they would like. If they do not feel close, lead them to search their hearts to determine if there is any disobedience toward God. Lead them to confess and repent. Then lead them to accept by faith the cleansing power of the everlasting love of our compassionate Lord.

For Further Help with this Week's Lesson Visit http://www.lifeway.com/articleclick/?id=166474 and read Dan Kassis' weekly article

Comments Welcome -- Any ideas for illustrations, other scripture, or class activities to enhance the lesson?