Aug. 14, 2022

What if it Rains?

August 13 & 14, 2022

Primary Text:  Matthew 5:45           

Previous Teaching:  What if Everything Changes?

1)  Unchanging

Malachi 3:6:  "I the LORD do not change.  So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed."

James 1:17:  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 

DQ 1) Identify the various ways in which life is always changing.

DQ 2) What are the primary attributes of God (such as love, grace, etc.)?  Why is it important to recognize that God and His characteristics never change?

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2)  The Enduring Word

1 Peter 1:23-25:  For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.  For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you. 

DQ 3) What is “the word of the Lord”?  What are different ways that it endures?

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This Week’s Teaching

1)  General Blessings 

Psalm 147:7-8:  Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp.  He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. 

Matthew 5:45:  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 

DQ 1) Why does God bless the righteous and unrighteous at the same time?

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2)  Conditional Blessings

Deuteronomy 11:13-17:  So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today--to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul--then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil.  I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.  Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.  Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.

DQ 2) Does obedience to God’s will earn the blessings of God?

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3)  Warning Signs
Amos 4:7-8:  "I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away.  I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another.  One field had rain; another had none and dried up.  People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. 

DQ 3) How are warning signs from God also blessings?

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4)  Blessing and Cursing

Hebrews 6:7-8:  Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.  But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed.  In the end it will be burned. 

DQ 4) How does an individual “produce a useful crop”?

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5)  Showers From Heaven
Ezekiel 34:25-26:  I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety.  I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill.  I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. 

DQ 5) In what ways does God shower blessings upon those who seek Him?

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