Mission Focused Men for Christ

Episode Summary: As our study of Elijah approaches the confrontation between two kingdoms on Mount Carmel the worshippers of BAAL versus the worshippers of Yahweh, it is worth first asking the question: How did God's covenant people descend into the evil of Baal worship in 80 years, just two generations? How did the nation of godly King David, who established Jerusalem as the capital city and brought Yahweh’s Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem to reside there, descend to such depths? How did the people who joined in Solomon’s whole-hearted dedication of the temple welcoming Solomon’s challenge, “Yahweh is God; there is no other. Let your heart, therefore, be wholly true to Yahweh our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day,” turn to the evil false God’s Baal and Ashtoreth? This episode examines the answer, which gives us a sobering lens through which to see a parallel descent of America 

For Further Prayerful Thought.

1. What struck you about the role that Israel’s kings played in leading them down the destructive path of idolatry? Since “the people” are the rulers of a democracy, what is the implication for us as citizens?
2. What have you learned about being close enough to the lost to have influence yet not “assimilating” into our lost fallen culture?
3. What pro-same-sex arguments have you heard coming from church going people who claim to believe the Bible? Which arguments in this episode stood out to you. What have you learned about how to refute them?

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Episode Summary: Dave Murrow in his book about the motivation of males, writes, “President Woodrow Wilson said, ‘Men are in love with power and greatness.’ Men constantly fantasize about it. The movies they watch, the video games they play, and the books they read always feature a powerful hero who does great things. Every man wants to be a hero, to become a great man. Boys do not dream of sitting in a cubicle; they dream of slaying the dragon, rescuing the Princess, and absconding with the treasure. If you want to capture the heart of a man, especially a young man, you have to offer him a shot at greatness.”  

Jesus did not condemn this innate masculine desire for greatness. To the contrary, he built upon it to motivate men to true greatness—serving others. Today we study a model of true greatness and as greatness tends to do, that greatness is revealed under great pressure.

For Further Prayerful Thought.

1. Obadiah, like Jospeh, Daniel, and Nehemiah rose to the highest of positions of trust given to them by pagan kings whose values collided with their own. In what ways do their examples challenge you?
2. What stood out to you in this episode about the relationship of God’s holiness to us exhibiting the fear of the Lord?
3. How would you define prudence? Do you think Obadiah’s initial resistance to Elijah’s plan was being overly cautious or properly prudent?

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Episode Summary: To the spiritual leaders of the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul issued the challenge: Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong (1 Cor 16:13). Men are called to lead their homes and churches with spiritual power. This calling of Christian men to spiritual strength is one of the reasons for studying the life of Elijah. The spiritual might and power of Elijah are well known. In fact, when the angel of the Lord wanted a metaphor to explain to Zechariah the spiritual might his promised son, John the Baptist would wield, the angel said he would go before the Messiah in the spirit and power of Elijah. This episode examines the source of Elijah’s spiritual power, his astonishing faith.  

For Further Prayerful Thought.

1. In what way is self-reliance a virtue and in what way is it a form of pride that prevents us from depending fully upon God?
2. What has most helped you overcome the sinful nature we all receive from Adam that makes us question God’s goodness?
3. What do you see as the relationship between loving our comfort zone and growing our faith?
4. How does Elijah’s approach to prayer relate to what Jesus taught about prayer in Like 5? 

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Episode Summary: This podcast always begins with a reference to the race marked out for us, from Hebrews 12:1. After its author devotes 40 verses to highlighting the faith of the members of the Biblical Hall of Fame in chapter 11, he says to each of us: Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, AND LET US RUN WITH ENDURANCE THE RACE THAT IS SET BEFORE US, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (12:1-2a). This description of the life God has planned for you and me to live is a race requiring endurance. That is a stunning revelation of what God is doing in our lives—building enduring trust in God. James explains that there is only one way to build enduring faith. “Consider it all joy,” he writes, “when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produce endurance.” God is telling us in his Word that the individual race marked out for us will relentlessly test our faith to produce endurance. This podcast zooms into the life of Elijah the Tishbite because the race marked out for him has so many parallels to the race marked out for us including the way God tests his faith.

For Further Prayerful Thought.

1. What stood out to you in the biblical overview of trials?
2. When God told Elijah to go to Zarephath, where a widow would care for him, what obstacles to his trust in God do you think he had to overcome.
3. What do you most admire about Elijah’s faith? What do you most admire about the widow’s faith?
4. When God has tested your faith through tough times, what has most help you still trust God and get through those times?

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Episode Summary:  Elijah was the biblical superstar, the hall of famer, who singlehandedly was used by God to turn the hearts of Baal-worshipping Israel back to Yahweh. But the Bible insists there was nothing special about Elijah. “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit” (James 5:17-18). This podcast series looks for clues about this ordinary man who accomplished a most extraordinary feat—turning fallen hearts back to the worship of the true God. This episode examines the God’s faith-building bootcamp, and how Elijah’s faith muscles were built.    

For Further Prayerful Thought. 

1. What do you think is the significance of the four words from Elijah’s story turned their hearts back. How does that relate or not related to your prayer concerns?
2. How would you use the example of a tight rope walker crossing over Niagara Falls to explain the difference behind faith that is a mental nod of agreement and a life-changing choice to trust?
3. What stood out most to you about the way God strengthened the faith muscles of Elijah by the brook Cherith? 

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Episode Summary:  With the return of football season, I’m reminded of one of the pairs of network commentators for NFL games, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Whenever Buck introduces his partner, he adds the new first new he has given him: Hall of Famer, “I’m Joe Buck and this is Hall of Famer Troy Aikman.” When it comes to our own motivation to follow Jesus and motivating those under our care, it is worth noting that there is a hall of fame given by God in Scripture. Its members are identified in Hebrews 11: Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Gideon, Rahab, Jephthah, David the prophets and others. All of these showed one distinctive attribute that got them into God's Hall of Fame—unconquerable faith.  Such was the faith of Elijah the Tishbite, a giant from God’s hall of fame. Today we begin a new series that looks at Hall of Famer Elijah and what lessons can we can learn from him as a man and as a leader. This episode examines the seeds of his faith, which he lived out in a world that is as hostile to God and his kingdom as is the world we live in today.

For Further Prayerful Thought. 

1. Do you think it is self-centered or properly self-motivating to want to strive to be in the NFL hall of fame? What about God’s hall of fame in this NT era?
2. Christianity is the only faith that says it is hopeless to think you can earn your eternal presence with God by trying to be good. Yet that admission requires a humility that not only surrenders to God’s provision for our sin but to him as our Lord. How would you explain why might others might be inclined towards false religions instead of Christianity, or atheism?
3. Which components of Elijah’s faith stand out to you?

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Episode Summary: Prayer is simply having a conversation with God. So why would Jesus’ followers ask Jesus to teach them how to pray? Similarly, why would Jesus view prayer as something he needed to teach his followers to do? The answer is that in Jesus’ mind, his followers should build a pattern for a regular conversation with God. Not only that, but there are six component parts to build into that conversation that are so important that he mentioned the identical six components of prayer twice in Scripture. This episode examines these six components and then looks at why it is so hard to continue to pray, especially for kingdom advancement, and what Jesus said to help us stay motivated. 

For Further Prayerful Thought.

1. What is your response to the idea that prayer is an intimate, real conversation with a heavenly father who loves us, but that Jesus directed his followers to build that conversation around six principles?
2. Why do you think Jesus taught us to regularly confess our sins to God and to associate that with insuring that I have a forgiving attitude towards others?
3. With all the challenges that we have to face in everyday life to try to live for Jesus, why do you think Jesus included, as the last petition that we should anticipate temptation and ask for help to resist it when it comes? Why don’t we do that more often? 
4. You would you reconcile your unanswered prayers with Jesus’ promise, For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What message is Jesus trying to send?

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Episode Summary: God wants your prayer life to be filled with petitions and intercessions for others and for the advance of His Kingdom. He wants answers to such prayer to become your thrilling and frequent experience. God wants answers to your prayers to be frequent and blessed. He wants you to prove repeatedly the mighty power of prayer in your own experience. He wants you to become not only a prayer veteran but also a constant victor in situations where the answers bring great glory to God and great consternation and defeat to Satan. This episode takes a fresh look at how prayer fits into our calling to be followers of Jesus. 

For Further Prayerful Thought.

1. What do you think of the argument that there is a parallel between God’s decision to leave the creation incomplete for his image-bearers to complete, and God leaving his new creation for Christ-followers to complete? Where does this analogy seem to fit and break down?
2. How do you think the promise of God the Father to God the Son, “Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage, the ends of the earth your possession” should impact our thinking about spreading Christ’s kingdom of righteousness over earth?
3. What stood out most about the three prayer principles that Jesus explained?

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Episode Summary: When the wisest biblical writer who ever lived begins a command with the three words, “above all else,” we need to pay attention. That is the way that Proverbs 4:23 begins: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” As we come in our study of the Ten Commandments, to the tenth, we realize that this final commandment goes beyond our behavior to the matter of our hearts. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. (Ex 20:17). As I have meditated on this commandment I've come to believe that God takes the sin of coveting much more seriously than we do. This episode looks at the vital matter of the desires of our hearts and how they can lead us astray.

For Further Prayerful Thought.

1. In what ways does the concept of “over-desire” which is the meaning of the Greek word for both lust and covetousness make sense as a description of both words?
2. Paul stated that covetousness was idolatry. How would you explain that? What do you think is the significance of the bookends of the Ten Commandments, the first and tenth, addressing the issue of heart desires?
3. Do you agree that God takes the sin of coveting more seriously than we usually do? Do you think we are worse at ignoring this commandment’s significance than ignoring the other commandments?
4. Which principles for preempting covetousness most stood out to you? 

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Episode Summary: God’s design for mankind is to build a culture based upon truthfulness, not lies. When he revealed to us ten fundamental moral pillars upon which a society needs to be built, he gave us the Ninth Commandment which reads, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” This episode examines this prohibition against lying, why extreme integrity should be the mark of Christians and why society needs Christians to stand for truth in opposition to cultural lies.

For Further Prayerful Thought.

1. What is the strongest motivation you can think of for not lying or shading the truth?
2. In examining the conditions which open the door to the temptation to bend the truth, which of the ones listed stand out most to you? (to avoid punishment, humiliation, embarrassment, to fit in, to save money, or when asked to make a promise you can’t in good faith make?). What others would you add?
3. How would you answer someone who argues that Christians should stop trying to influence their culture but stick to the gospel?
4. Of the examples given of he need to speak into today’s culture, which one or two most stood out? Which others would you add?

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