Due to technical difficulties, the first six minutes of the recording were lost. My apologies. -MRW

Apply the Bible to your faults

• Matthew 7:21-27
• James 1:21-25
• Why is it hard to apply the Bible to our faults? Selfishness.
• Sometimes change is challenging.
  • Ezra 9:1-4 – The Jews had intermarried with the people around them, in violation of God’s commands.
  • Ezra 10:1-4 – The people took responsibility for their own sin and corrected it. This was extremely difficult!
  • Ezra 10:9-14 – The change would take time.
• John 3:16-21

Question your anger

• Ephesians 4:26-27
• Genesis 4:5-8 – God tried to get Cain to question his anger, but Cain refused and sinned in murdering Abel.
• Jonah 3:10
• Anger gives us an opportunity to improve the situation.
• Mark 3:1-6 – Jesus was angry at their hardness of heart.
• What are justifiable reasons to be angry?

Overcoming your raising.

• II Kings 21:1-6, 9, 16 – The evil of Manasseh.
• Manasseh ➡ Amon ➡ Josiah
• II Kings 21:19-22 – The evil rule of Amon.
• Maybe you had a lot of bad examples growing up. Whatever your childhood was like, God calls you to holy living.
• Ephesians 3:16-19
• II Chronicles 28:3 – Hezekiah’s father Ahaz sacrificed some of Hezekiah’s brothers to idols!
• I can overcome and make the right choices today!
• II Kings 19:14; 20:2-3 – Hezekiah prayed when he was in distress. He had a Father in heaven who loved him!

You might as well start right now!

• II Chronicles 34:1-4, 8
• John 12:42
• Acts 24:25
• If there’s something that needs improving in your life, what are you waiting for?

Dust off the book.

• II Chronicles 34:8-11, 14-21, 29-31
• II Chronicles 34:27-28 – God showed mercy on Josiah because of his humble heart.
• Galatians 5:19

Be nice to someone undeserving

• Why is this a challenge?
  • We don’t want to be taken advantage of or hurt.
  • Can’t get over past events
  • Think about how we’ve been hurt before
  • See them hurting someone else
  • See someone we love being hurt by them
  • Someone we love being used in a way to hurt us
  • Rationalize that we can just be indifferent
  • They may justify our kindness as approval for their actions
• How do we overcome this?
• Examples
  • Saul appointed king (I Samuel 10:27), David overthrown by Absalom (II Samuel 19:22)
    • Chosen leaders by God. Men stood against them.
    • They were humble and didn’t strike them down.
  • Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because he married a Cushite woman (Numbers 12)
    • Numbers 12:3
• Romans 12:9-19

Let someone else decide

• Submitting to someone, putting others first, being at peace with all men
• What are some other ways we can view this as being Christ like?
• What about when our decision is the best decision?
  • Colossians 1:17
• Extremely challenging because it requires us to fully put our trust in others.
  • Ephesians 5:21; I Corinthians 13:5; Romans 12:18
• What problems can result in the local church when we don’t humble ourselves in this?
• Outside of the church?
• Mark 10:42-45

Refuse to complain

• Everyone has a voice. We have an American right to that voice. We can use that voice to complain.
  • Put our complaints in perspective first.
• Complaint = offended
  • James 1:2-3

Psalms 8:1

• “O LORD, our Lord” – The word LORD is used in place of God’s actual name, Yahweh (YHWH). Jews traditionally avoided saying the name YHWH, substituting the word “Adonai” (Lord) instead.
• Exodus 6:2-3
• Isaiah 42:5, 8

Psalms 8:2

• Matthew 21:9, 14, 16 – Even the children could see that there was something special about Jesus!

Psalms 8:3

• Psalm 19
• Just looking up at the stars shows the power of God!

Psalms 8:4

• Isaiah 40:22-28 – God has absolute power!

Psalms 8:5-8

• Genesis 1:26-27
• Hebrews 2:5-9 – This may be referring to Adam’s curse in Genesis 3. It is also referring to Jesus.
• I Corinthians 15:23

Psalms 8:9

• The psalm ends in the same way it began.