DATE: – SUNDAY 7TH AUGUST, 2022
TOPIC: – KEYS TO HAPINESS
BIBLE PASSAGE: – Matthew 5:1 – 2
MEMORY VERSE: – “If ye know these things; happy are ye if ye do them.” (John 13:17)
INTRODUCTION: – If you want God’s best, don’t think about investing your money or acquiring material assets, rather think about how to invest your life. Happiness is earned and true happiness is gotten from affecting positively the lives of others. A selfish person is a sad person. Happiness is like a rose flower when you give to someone, the fragrance still remains with you.
LESSON OUTLINES
Happiness Keys
1) Making time for friends and loved ones: Most people who isolate themselves or are ostracized don’t live long. This is because you derive happiness from interactions (1Corint.10:24). Someone wrote “Oh, the inexpressively comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts or measure words, but to pour them all out; just as theare, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and then with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away”. Take time out with friends and loved ones and your sadness and gloominess are taken away. (John1:16, Thess.5:22).
2) Giving Thanks: If you can’t be grateful for what God has given you, look around you and be grateful for what He has protected you from. The enemy doesn’t have to steal anything from you, just make you take it for granted. The excitement of a new car of a salary increase soon passes away but anytime you stop to count your blessings you start feeling better (John 1:16, 1Thess.1:22).
3) Practicing Contentment: – A greedy person can never be happy. To be happy you must learn to be contented with whatever you have. A Gardner who had tried everything to get rid of dandelions wrote to the Agric. Department for help “What can I do next?” he asked. “Try getting used to them!” came the reply. In life, you get what you focus on. So set your mind right, think right and be right (Phil.4:8). The measure of a man’s life is not in the abundance of things he has but in the quality of the life he lives (Luke 12:15).
4) Reach out to Others: – The smallest good deed is worth more than the mega-grandiose intention, so if you want to help yourself, help others. Not only will it make you feel better, being and other people who are giving themselves keeps you connected to a large cause. The enemy doesn’t mind you talking about your faith as long as you don’t practice it, whereas God never teaches us anything without giving us an opportunity to put it to work (Luke 11:28)
5) Challenge Yourself: examine how you spend your leisure time. After a long day it’s easy to ‘veg out’ in front of the TV, but you will be happier if you are physically and morally active. Go for a walk, play with your children, take time to study God’s word and pray, even when you don’t feel like it. Spend less time on internet, spend more time with your family both spiritual and physical.
6) Be More Patient: The mad rush for everything these days is making and keeping a lot of people from happiness. Just a little patience, you will still get what you want. Don’t be in such a hurry; give it a little time. After all, the patient dog eats the fattest borne (Isa.28:16)
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The principal key to happiness according to the Lord Jesus Christ is in knowing and doing the will of God (John 13:17). Obedient to God in all things bring happiness all the time.
QUESTIONS
- Mention the keys to happiness?
- What is the principal key to happiness?
DATE: – SUNDAY, 14TH AUGUST 2022
TOPIC: – JESUS THE WONDERFUL (Part 1)
BIBLE PASSAGE: – Isaiah 9:1 – 7
MEMORY VERSE: – “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father; The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
INTRODUCTION: – The Prophet Isaiah a with mind illumined by the Holy Spirit, looked down 740 years and saw the coming of Jesus of Nazareth and uttered the sublime words of our text. In them is wrapped up a world of meaning concerning the divine glory, the matchless character, and wonderful officer of our Lord.
LESSON OUTLINES
1) Jesus Is Wonderful In His Nature He Is A Divine Being
Jesus Christ is divine in a sense in which no other man is divine. The Bible, both the old Testament and the New Testament is full of that great truth. He must unhesitatingly make the claim. In mark 12:6, after speaking of the Old Testament Prophets as servants, He speaks of Himself as the “beloved Son of God, and the “only” Son of God (John 10:30; 5:23; 14:9).
Apostle John said of Jesus in the opening verse of his gospel that He was with God in the beginning and He was God that made all things (John 1:1-3, 14).
Apostle Thomas after resurrection of our Lord fell at the feetof the resurrected Christ and cried to Him “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).
The Apostle Paul said of Him that “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col.2:9) and he says of Him again that “He is over all” (Rom.9:5). The Apostle Peter says of Him “He is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). The Author for the Epistle to the Hebrews said to Him that He is “the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of God’s personality and that He upholds all things by the word if His power (Heb.1:3).
Apostle Paul that He existed originally “in the form of God” before He became man (Phil.2:6).
If the Bible makes anything as plain as day, it makes it plain as the day so that our Lord Jesus is a divine being with all the attributes, glory, majesty, and power that belong to God. He is God. Welt then the Prophet Isaiah in His inspired vision exclaimed, “His name shall be called Wonderful” (Isaiah 9:6). He is Wonderful, most wonderful, wonderfully wonderful, wonderful before description, wonderful beyond understanding, wonderful beyond conception. The wonderfulness of His being and nature will be the object of our glad and adoring contemplation and the throne of our highest praises throughout the endless eternity. But there is another wonderful thing about the nature of Jesus. While He is divine He is at the time a real man; He is both the Son of God and the Son of man. He is the Mediator between God and man (John 1:1-3; 14; 1Tim.2:5).
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Do you ask how are the perfect deity and the perfect humanity united in Jesus? I do not know. Neither do I know how spirit and body are united in myself, but I know that they are. I do not know how the divine nature I received in the new birth is united with the physical and intellectual and moral nature that I received by my natural birth but I know it is, and so also I know that Jesus Christ is perfectly divine and perfectly human.
QUESTIONS
- How is Jesus wonderful in His nature?
- What will be the wonderfulness of being and nature throughout eternity?
DATE: – SUNDAY, 21St AUGUST 2022
TOPIC: – JESUS THE WONDERFUL (Part 2)
BIBLE PASSAGE: – Isaiah 9:4 – 7
MEMORY VERSE: – “Saying, let us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24).
INTRODUCTION: – While Jesus is wonderful in His nature, in His divine glory and perfect humanity. He is not just wonderful in His nature alone. He is wonderful all round
LESSON OUTLINES
1) God Is Wonderful In His Character
Jesus is wonderful in His character. His character is absolutely perfect. He is absolutely without blemish and without spot. He is not faultless, but every possible perfection of character rests upon Him. There is not a perfection of character of which we can think that is not to be found in Him, and found in Him in its fullness. As the years go by, we study Him more and more carefully and came to see Him as He was and is more fully, the more absolute perfection of His character shines further. For years, He lived in a hostile world that sought to find some imperfection in Him, but they could find none. For centuries since, men have been hunting for some fault in His character and they cannot find it. What would not the men give if they could only put their finger upon one single flaw, even one little defect in that character, but they cannot. Jesus in the perfection of His character is indeed wonderful. He is the wonder of the ages. He stands out absolutely peerless and alone.
2) Jesus Is Perfect In Holiness
Peter spoke of Him as “the Holy and the Just (Acts 3:14). John spoke of Him (1Jhn.2:20). Even the unclean spirits when they met Him were forced to cry-out of Him (Mk.1:24). The epistle to the Hebrews speaks about Him as Holy (Heb.7:26). He passed through all our experiences if conflict and temptation yet without sin” (Heb.4:15). The dazzling white light that glorified the garments of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration was the out shinning of the moral purity within.
But He is not only perfect in holiness. He is also perfect in love. His love to God the Father revealed itself in His unhesitating obedience to every command of God, in His unreserved surrender to God’s will, in His drawing back from no sacrifice that God demanded, in His delight in doing God’s will, a delight so great that forgetting the long denied demands of bodily hunger (John 4:34, Heb.5:7-10; 10:5-10).
His love to God was absolutely perfect, but so was His love to man. His love to man took in all men, it took in the good, it took in the vilest as well. It took in men like John and Nathaniel, but it also took in the demoniac if Gadara. It took in man like Peter, but it also took in Paul the injuries prosecutor if the Church. It took in men like Nichodemus, but it also took in the thief on the cross. It took in women like Martha and Mary of Bethany, but it took in also the woman with seven devils, and the woman caught in the very act of adultery. It took in His enemies for whom He prayed even as He endured the agonies and the reproaches and the shame they heaped upon Him (Lk.23:34). He love hesitated no sacrifice (2Corint.8:9, Phil.2:6-8).
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful love that seeing full equality with God Himself in honour and glory, turned His back upon all this and chose the cow stable for His birth place, the poor carpenter shop for His school, the contempt and rejection of men for His reward, the glory of Gethsemane and shame and ignominy and torture of death upon the cross for its consummation, because by these things He could save the role and worthless and outcast. Well might Isaiah say that Jesus’ name should be called “WONDERFUL”
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
There are many other perfections in the character of the Lord Jesus. For instance He is perfect in His meekness that He the creator subjected Himself to His creatures to be tortured and crucified. He is perfect in His gentleness and humility, in His patience and courage and manliness, but we cannot dwell much upon these now. Indeed, Jesus is Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful love personified.
QUESTIONS
- Describe the perfection of Christ in His love.
- How is Christ Wonderful in His character?
DATE: – SUNDAY, 28TH AUGUST 2022
TOPIC: – JESUS THE WONDERFUL (Part 3)
BIBLE PASSAGE: – Isaiah 53: 1 – 12
MEMORY VERSE: – “He was wounded for our transgression; He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
INTRODUCTION: – As Wonderful as Jesus is in His nature and character alone, He is also wonderful in His work.
LESSON OUTLINES
1) Jesus Is Wonderful In His Work
Jesus, in the first place made a perfect atonement for sin (Isa.53:6).
Every sin of ours was settled by the death of Jesus upon the cross (Gal.3:13).
The death of Christ so perfectly atones for sin that the moment I believe in Jesus Christ and thus accept the atonement He has made for me, every sin of mine is blotted out from God’s account and God reckons me as perfectly righteous in Him (2Corint.5:21).
Is not this Wonderful? Is it not amazing? That the vilest sinner, the liar, the thief, the blasphemer, the murderer, the harlot can come as crimson with the sins they have committed and yet the death of Christ so perfectly atones for them all that the moment they accept that atonement all their sins are blotted out, and they become as white as snow. Oh, when the sins that I have committed come up before me, and that I have committed come up before me and they have been great (the sins of everyone have been greatly, I look away at the cross and I see Jesus hanging there, I hear his dying cry “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” (Matt.27:46) and I hear His other cry “It is finished” (John 19:30) and I can see the Roman soldier draw back his speak, and I see it piercing into the side that all my sins are atoned for. I know that
“Jesus paid my debt,
All the debt I owe,
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
Yes, I know for sure that by His death;
“He paid the debt He did not owe,
I owed the debt I could not pay,
I needed someone to wash my sins away,
Bow I can sing a brand new song, Amazing grace,
Lord Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay”.
Oh! It is wonderful; the sin of the whole race atoned for at Calvary, and all that any man has to do to enjoy the fruits of the atonement is, just to accept it.
But Jesus not only made an atonement for sin, He also saves from sins power. Jesus Christ has power to set any man who will put his trust in Him free from sin, and the power of all sin (John 8:36). Is it not wonderful that there is not a man on earth today so completely in sin’s power but that Jesus Christ can set him free?
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Jesus is indeed wonderful. He is wonderful in the infinite glory of His divine nature. He is wonderful in the matchless perfection of His character. He is wonderful in His work, blotting out all sin by His death, delivering from all sin by His resurrection life transforming us from all remaining imperfection into the full glory of sons of God by His coming again.
Jesus is the wonderful one. Oh, the wisdom and the blessedness of those who accept Him. Oh, the folly and wretchedness of those who reject Him.
QUESTIONS
- How wonderful is Christ Jesus in atoning for our sins?
Apart from atonement for sin, what other things did He save us from?