The Book of Genesis The Pattern of Justification and Sanctification

MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE TODAY FROM THE BOOK OF GENESIS

Please watch the Video Before Reading the Lesson Plan

 Church: Laodicea                         2 of 39 lessons                                  Theme: Faith

Background Information:

The Old Testament has a message for people today.

Statement of Faith to Say Amen to for the Book of Genesis:

I (the creation) can enter into a covenant relationship with God (the Creator) and remain faithful.

Essential Question:

Can I (the creation) enter into a covenant relationship with God (the Creator) and remain faithful if I choose to conform to the pattern of the world?

Book of Genesis:

Have students read pages 2-14 in The Rock of Faith.

After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"

Remember the Issue:

Does the world teach us we love because God first loved us? How does the world teach us to love?

The world is trying to separate God from His creation with a worldview that teaches us to love by caring more about what we get from a relationship than what we give to the relationship. We need to know the truth to combat the enemy’s lies.

Remember the Truth Jesus Brought:

When the world teaches us how to love, we need to remember that we love because God first loved us, and God is love. Students will read Genesis Chapter 3:1-24 in their Bible to learn about how the creation was deceived by Satan to interrupt the relationship with God. Eve was deceived by Satan to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then Eve gave Adam some of the fruit she ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Students will learn how God put a curse upon the Earth because the creation did not obey the Creator. Two truths are important: (1) God’s creation, humanity, interrupted the relationship between the creation and God, and (2) God offers a way for humanity to restore the relationship by being faithful to a covenant relationship through sacrificial forgiveness.

Define Covenant – A covenant between God and the creation is where God offers a blessing for obedience to God’s commandments. This includes a binding promise with love between the creation and God. God teaches humanity how to love with covenant love.

Define Sacrifice – Because God loved us first while we are sinners, He offers forgiveness for sins with a sacrifice. Through sacrifice, we can be faithful to the covenant relationship.

Christ was present in the Old Testament through a promise. In Genesis 3:15, we are aware of a promise that the seed of Eve would have victory over Satan. We are not told a lot about Satan, but we know he was cast out of heaven and his agenda is to have God’s creation keep making choices (sacrifices) like Eve and Adam did. Satan’s goal is to destroy the covenant relationship between the Creator and his creation. God teaches us (1) To enter into a covenant relationship with love, (2) To make a sacrifice (choice) with love to be forgiven of sin, so (3) We can remain faithful to the covenant relationship. Now we have the new covenant, and as God promised, He sent His Son to teach us how to present our body as a living sacrifice with love (behaviors that spiral to bear witness to Christ). We can build our internal temple by making choices that align with God’s promises or Satan’s lies.

A sacrifice is a choice. A sacrifice does not include multiple options. It is an either/or choice where you have to lose something to gain something. If we gain the world, we will lose our soul (Matthew 16:26). It is a choice (sacrifice) where we choose God or the world. A sacrifice is a religious rite.

Remember the Rock God Established:

A sacrifice is a way for the creation to restore the covenant relationship with God (the Creator). Through a covenant relationship, the rainbow is a reminder of how Noah and his family were saved from the wrath of God. The rainbow is a reminder that God judges sin. By faith, Noah chose to do all that God commanded him to do, and he became an heir of righteousness. After the flood, Noah offered a sacrifice of thanks to God, and God smelled the sacrifice and said in His heart He would not curse the ground anymore. This covenant was established after Noah’s sacrifice.

A descendant of Noah, Abraham, entered into a covenant relationship with God to restore the relationship with God. This covenant includes a sacrifice. Read Genesis 15:6-19 to learn how Abraham was able to perform a sacrifice with God. Abraham was a little surprised by the conditions of the sacrifice because God passed through the pieces of dead animals, and the covenant was sealed by God alone. Nothing depended on Abraham. Another promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 was, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.” When Abraham entered into a covenant with God, he understood that God would do what He promised even if Abraham did not do what he promised. However, with this covenant, there is still a choice (sacrifice) because whoever does not bless the descendants of Abraham, God will curse. This covenant was a way for humanity to repair the relationship with God by blessing the descendants of Abraham. This involves a choice to bless or curse the descendants of Abraham. While Noah was the heir of righteousness, Abraham was credited with righteousness.

Define Credited with Righteousness – We are called to be different from the normal standards of the world. We are called to reflect the holiness of God in a dying world. Satan wants us to be self-righteous, where we determine right and wrong apart from God. Satan uses lies to get us to break the binding covenant of love with God by having us be disobedient to God’s commandments.

With the new covenant, God has given His creation a choice to be in a covenant relationship where God makes certain promises and requires certain behaviors (a living sacrifice) from his creation. The new covenant promises us that covenantees can have all sins forgiven by Jesus for those whose hearts are turned back to Him. Lessons six through thirty-six present a pattern of sound teaching from Jesus of (1) How to turn back to Him and get a new heart and a new spirit to restore the relationship and (2) How to have righteous behaviors that increase our faith in God by love. In the next lesson, God did “stir up” and awaken the Israelites' hearts to know that faith includes a sacrifice (choice).

Activity:

Please complete the BLOG below.

Conclusion:

Satan is still deceiving humanity to interrupt the relationship with God with self-righteous behaviors.

Next Lesson:

In the next lesson, the Hebrews (Israelites) were awakened to know that faith includes a sacrifice (choice). Now we are awakened to know that grace includes a living sacrifice (behavior).

BLOG:

To answer the blog, go to lessons 7, 12, 17, 22, 27, and 32 on this website and identify the righteous theme that God justifies and the self-righteous theme that the world teaches for each of the six churches (Another way to complete this is to look at the chart at the end of the video because it lists the themes of righteousness that God justifies and self-righteousness that the world teaches.)

Example: The first church has an example for you, which is lesson number 7. Please write this answer in the BLOG that is given below, and continue to go to lessons 12, 17, 22, 27, and 32 on the website to complete the BLOG.

An example is given with the church of Ephesus.

Church	God Justifies	The World teaches
Ephesus Lesson 7	God is working to justify me with grace when I plant a seed of faith that loves God	Working for prosperity
Smyrna Lesson 12
Pergamos Lesson 17
Thyatira Lesson 22
Sardis Lesson 27
Philadelphia Lesson 32