Most of our spiritual choices are responses we automatically make according to our walk with the Lord.

Negative responses to Jesus
1. The multitudes- they rejected Him. (Luke 23)

When people respond to Jesus by rejecting Him, Jesus is crucified over and over again.

2. Pilate – tried to evade Him.
Every person is either lost or saved.
The criteria for that is whether you have received Jesus.
The one who judges that is Jesus. (John 5:22, 27; Acts 10:42)

3.Peter -denied Him, or Judas - betrayed Him.
Every time we fail to take a stand for Jesus and His righteousness, we deny Him or betray Him.

4. religious leaders – always wanted to question Him.
When you question Jesus in doubt, that response will get you nowhere.


Positive responses to Jesus.
1. hemorrhaging woman- Jesus knows the one who reaches out to Him in faith.

2. men on the road to Emmaus

a. they were searching.
b. they allowed Jesus to walk with them.
c. They invited Jesus to stay with them.

3. sinful woman – totally genuine response of worship
Will you think of your contributions as anointing Jesus?
What will you do with Jesus?

1. Praise (vs. 1)
God wants to hear the sounds of the praising of His people.
a. The basis of praise is that it is a voluntary thing.
b. It is also something that is universal.


2. Psalms(vs. 2)
God wants your heart.
Refusing to sing will cut off that emotion that God desires for you to feel about Him.


3. People (vs. 3)
Worship is very much a public thing, as well as private.
“know” means to acknowledge or confess.


4. Pattern (vs. 4)
content of worship
a. thanksgiving
b. praise
c. us going to Him


5. Person (vs. 5)
We go to church to worship God.


If you believe the Lord is good, you will go to church to worship Him.
If you know He has been merciful to you, you will go to church to worship Him.
If you have found God to be faithful, you will go to church to worship Him.

deliver- to liberate or to rescue
God never guaranteed to deliver you from difficulty.
He does guarantee to deliver you from evil.

II Corinthians 1:10- Our deliverance takes place in the past, the present, and the future.


How Paul was delivered
1. Antioch (Acts 13:42-52)
If you really love the Lord, your life is going to automatically be separated from those who reject the truth.


2. Iconium (14:1-7)
God may deliver His people from evil by giving them the common sense to flee from it.


3. Lystra (14: 8-20)
Sometimes we may need to be saved from ourselves, by being rejected by others.


4. Rome (II Timothy 4:6-8)
Deliverance can be found in and through death, when there is victory through Christ Jesus.
​

Paul was delivered from corruption at Antioch by separation.
He was delivered from harm at Iconium by flight.
He was delivered from self-importance at Lystra by rejection.
He was delivered from sin's hold at Rome by his own death.

Biblical words for discouragement
Hebrew- masas- “to melt”
           - ratsatz- “to break”
           - qatsar - “to be shortened”
Greek - athumo - “to lose heart”
English – discourage – no courage”

Sources of discouragement
1. Weariness
2. Mistakes
3. Trials
4. Loneliness
examples from the Bible
1. a. Moses (Exodus 5-6)
what was needed from the Lord - deliverance
b. Jeremiah (Lamentations 3)

2. Jonah (Jonah 2; Isaiah 1:18; Heb. 8:12)
what was needed from the Lord - salvation
3. Job (Job 3, 42)
what was needed from the Lord - provision

4. Elijah (I Kings 19)
what was needed from the Lord - fellowship

kinds of loneliness
1. self-created
2. created by loss
3. cosmic loneliness

God has supplied the answers to all three kinds of loneliness in the Church.
For every broken heart, there is the healing, loving touch of a perfect, understanding Savior.