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Sunday Prep // October 25-29, 2021

"Living In The Overflow" #9

This week, Pastor Scott will conclude our continuing series in Psalm 23 by focusing on the last line of verse 6 which speaks of our hope for heaven.  Read these passages this week to prepare for the sermon this coming Sunday.

Monday, October 25 - Psalm 23:1-6

A Psalm of David.

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. 
He leads me beside still waters. 
3 He restores my soul. 
He leads me in paths of righteousness 
for his name’s sake. 
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil, 
for you are with me; 
your rod and your staff, 
they comfort me. 
5 You prepare a table before me 
in the presence of my enemies; 
you anoint my head with oil; 
my cup overflows. 
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 
all the days of my life, 
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord 
forever. 

Tuesday, October 26 - John 10:22-39

10:22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

Wednesday, October 27 - Psalm 41:1-13

NOTE:  Did you know that the book of the Psalms is actually five books combined together into one?  Psalm 41 is the final Psalm of Book One of the Psalms and it concludes this book with a song of praise.  One thing you might consider doing is going back and reading Psalm 1 & 2 in conjunction with Psalm 41 and see how the book begins and ends.  What observations can you make about the whole of Book One?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

1 Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
2 the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
3 The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health.
4 As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against you!”
5 My enemies say of me in malice,
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6 And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words,
while his heart gathers iniquity;
when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
7 All who hate me whisper together about me;
they imagine the worst for me.
8 They say, “A deadly thing is poured out on him;
he will not rise again from where he lies.”
9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
10 But you, O Lord, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may repay them!
11 By this I know that you delight in me:
my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
12 But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.
13 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.

Thursday, October 28 - Isaiah 65:1-25

CONTEXT:  Although this is another lengthy passage, the message of God's redemptive purposes for this world shine through loud and clear, even at the time of Isaiah who wrote this nearly 700 years before the coming of Jesus!  

65:1 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. 
I said, “Here I am, here I am,” 
to a nation that was not called by my name. 
2 I spread out my hands all the day 
to a rebellious people, 
who walk in a way that is not good, 
following their own devices; 
3 a people who provoke me 
to my face continually, 
sacrificing in gardens 
and making offerings on bricks; 
4 who sit in tombs, 
and spend the night in secret places; 
who eat pig’s flesh, 
and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels; 
5 who say, “Keep to yourself, 
do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” 
These are a smoke in my nostrils, 
a fire that burns all the day. 
6 Behold, it is written before me: 
“I will not keep silent, but I will repay; 
I will indeed repay into their lap 
7 both your iniquities and your fathers’ iniquities together, 
says the Lord; 
because they made offerings on the mountains 
and insulted me on the hills, 
I will measure into their lap 
payment for their former deeds.” 
8 Thus says the Lord: 
“As the new wine is found in the cluster, 
and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, 
for there is a blessing in it,’ 
so I will do for my servants’ sake, 
and not destroy them all. 
9 I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, 
and from Judah possessors of my mountains; 
my chosen shall possess it, 
and my servants shall dwell there. 
10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, 
and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, 
for my people who have sought me. 
11 But you who forsake the Lord, 
who forget my holy mountain, 
who set a table for Fortune 
and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny, 
12 I will destine you to the sword, 
and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, 
because, when I called, you did not answer; 
when I spoke, you did not listen, 
but you did what was evil in my eyes 
and chose what I did not delight in.” 
13 Therefore thus says the Lord God: 
“Behold, my servants shall eat, 
but you shall be hungry; 
behold, my servants shall drink, 
but you shall be thirsty; 
behold, my servants shall rejoice, 
but you shall be put to shame; 
14 behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, 
but you shall cry out for pain of heart 
and shall wail for breaking of spirit. 
15 You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, 
and the Lord God will put you to death, 
but his servants he will call by another name, 
16 so that he who blesses himself in the land 
shall bless himself by the God of truth, 
and he who takes an oath in the land 
shall swear by the God of truth; 
because the former troubles are forgotten 
and are hidden from my eyes. 
New Heavens and a New Earth
17 “For behold, I create new heavens 
and a new earth, 
and the former things shall not be remembered 
or come into mind. 
18 But be glad and rejoice forever 
in that which I create; 
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, 
and her people to be a gladness. 
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem 
and be glad in my people; 
no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping 
and the cry of distress. 
20 No more shall there be in it 
an infant who lives but a few days, 
or an old man who does not fill out his days, 
for the young man shall die a hundred years old, 
and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. 
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; 
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 
22 They shall not build and another inhabit; 
they shall not plant and another eat; 
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, 
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 
23 They shall not labor in vain 
or bear children for calamity, 
for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, 
and their descendants with them. 
24 Before they call I will answer; 
while they are yet speaking I will hear. 
25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; 
the lion shall eat straw like the ox, 
and dust shall be the serpent’s food. 
They shall not hurt or destroy 
in all my holy mountain,” 
says the Lord. 

Friday, October 29 - 2 Peter 3:1-18

CONTEXT:  In this final letter from the Apostle Simon Peter, he writes to refute the notion that Jesus might not be coming back to restore the world.  Critics of Christianity at the time were mocking Christians by asking, "Where is your Jesus?  When is he coming back for you?"  But Peter's response to them is brilliant, and gives hope to all of God's children as we wait for that day.

3:1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.