Here are the lessons:

1) We reap what we sow. The tell-tale sign of what we have been reaping is to examine our harvest. What has come into our lives? What is the fruit of our lives? What are we reaping today? Pause and take a spiritual inventory.

2) Plant new seeds. God asked Gideon to tear down the altars to Baal and the Asherah poles. This spiritual receptivity and responsiveness to the prompting of God is what separates the average Joe Christian and people like Gideon and Abraham and Moses and Paul. What is God prompting us to obey today? How do you rate in your spiritual receptivity to God?

3) Whether we say Yes to God or No to God, there is always a decision and always a result. Saying Yes to God is a conscious decision and it means a growing receptivity to God and discernment of His voice. Saying No is also a decision and it leads to a hardening of the heart, a decrease in spiritual receptivity and an increased chance that we will say No the next time God calls. Either way — for good or for evil — we all touch the world. How are we touching the world today by the choices we are making?

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. ~2 Tim 1:7

There were 3 main points.

1) Power is 100% God’s responsibility. All we need to do is to continue to go to Jesus, admit our powerlessness and ask for his presence.

2) Love is a shared responsibility – it is both God’s part and our part.

3) Lastly, we are given a spirit of self-discipline. This one is fairly obvious. SELF-discipline so this last component is entirely our responsibility.

Power is God’s – do you want his presence more than anything else? Love is both God’s part and ours – are you committed to it? And finally, self-discipline is up to us – what are you going to do about it?

14But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? 17Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God. (2 Cor 2:14-17)

In Roman times, a victorious Roman military leader would return from battle and the entire city would be filled with the aroma of crushed flowers. And there would be 2 lines in this triumphal procession — one consisting of the victorious Roman soldiers and the other one consisting of the prisoners of war from the defeated army.

Paul is making the argument that these Corinthian believers are beginning to smell like the Romans.

Brother Abraham said our suffering, our preferences and our complaints bring out our smell. The smell in us will come out eventually. He urged us to examine whether the aroma of Christ was permeating from our lives.

Matthew 7:7-8 – 7″Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Pastor Daniel challenged us to pray. We just got to do it. We know it is something that all Christians have to do, but for whatever reason, we don’t end up doing it. Matthew 7:7 says to ask, seek and knock. They are essentially interchangeable terms Jesus is telling us to ask, ask, ask or seek, seek, seek, or knock, knock, knock. In other words, in case we didn’t hear it the first time, Jesus is repeatedly imploring us to pray, pray, pray.

This is not a theological point, but with each word — ask, seek, knock — there seems to be an intensification.

Ask. Kids have wonder so they ask their parents questions all the time. Why is the sky blue? Like a child who asks his father why, Christians must never stop asking our Heavenly Father. Just ask. We are not sure so we ask God for wisdom.

Seek. Seek can be viewed as a little stronger, as in we seek the face of God. It is more than asking God to meet this need or that need. It is seeking to encounter God personally.

Knock. There are things that we know already are aligned to the will of God (i.e. Paul asking for prayer to continue to boldly preach the gospel), but Jesus tells us to keep knocking in prayer.

Now, all there is left to say is just do it.

If we learn to view our lives through the lens of the the slain Lamb and the work he accomplished for us on the cross, then truly nothing done unto the Lord is in vain because we can attach eternal significance even to the smallest of acts. Let’s examine to see if we are investing in temporary things or things of eternal significance.

This woman was in a dire situation. Her daughter was suffering from demon-possession. She cried out to Jesus for mercy and instead of offering immediate mercy, Jesus says 3 interesting things. First, Jesus did not answer a word. In other words, he ignored her. She was a Canaanite woman, a half breed despised by the Jews. Plus, she was a woman who was often ignored in that culture. And on top of everything else, her daughter was demon-possessed which people thought was a sign of being cursed by God.

How many of us would have walked away at that point?

The second thing Jesus said to her was “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Another shocking statement! I guess that disqualified her since she was not a full Jew. This is how the disciples must have felt. They were the privileged ones who could follow this Rabbi named Jesus. The rest of the world, it seems according to this statement, would have to wait for their own Messiah.

How many of us would have walked away at that point?

The third thing Jesus said to her was “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” This is the most shocking statement of them all. During this time, Gentiles were considered to be like “dogs” and how much more this applied in the case of a person of mixed blood like this Canaanite woman. Jesus was basically calling her a dog.

How many of us would have walked away at that point? Certainly, not many of us would have stayed to continue our conversation with Jesus after a word like that?

But the amazing thing is that through it all, the woman persisted and she demonstrated exceptional faith. What drove her to have faith that always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres? It was driven by a deep love for her sick daughter. Often, it is our love which causes us to hold onto our faith.

Do we easily walk away when God is silent and seems inactive, even ignoring our prayers? Do we easily walk away when others seem favored and God is actively working in their lives (I only come for the lost sheep of Israel)? Would we walk away when God challenges us at our deepest level of our pride and ego, like he did when he called the woman a “dog?” Only love will give us the strength to hold onto our faith in the midst of these kinds of circumstances.

Afterward, we enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship at Abraham JDSN’s house as we rooted for the New Orleans (Christian) Saints! Colts, who dat?