How To Be At Peace With What God Does

Pastor Neil McClendon

GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

Matthew 1:18-25

1. Understand that life is designed to be a response to what God is doing, v. 18
Luke 1:26-38

2. Who you are informs your response, v. 19
Two things about Mary & Joseph...
a)how heaven talks about them
b)how they respond

3. Be responsible with the revelation you receive, v. 20-24
Guidelines for interpreting dreams...
a)Does it align with Scripture?
b)Understanding a dream requires prayer and wise counsel.
c)Should be interpreted with humility.
d)Who does this invite me to trust?
Jeremiah 23:25-29

. Learn to glorify God in what you don’t do, v. 25
“...but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”

Mental worship...
1. What do your prayers demonstrate that you know?

2. Is there a difference in your vertical and horizontal righteousness?
3. Do you ever wonder how heaven talks about you?
4. What would it feel like for you to say, “Let it be to me according to your word?”
5. Should you pray differently knowing that God knows what you are thinking before you say
anything?
6. What could you not do this week that would glorify God?

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor
GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

Matthew 1:1-17
Finding Hope In The Genealogy of Jesus
1. Because God is telling a big Story, v. 1
Genesis 3:15
Psalm 89:49-51
Genesis 2:4
2. Because God uses imperfect people as a part of His story, v. 2-15
a) Tamar
b) Rahab
c) Ruth
d) Bathsheba
e) King Solomon
f) Manasseh
g) Jacob

3. Because of the virgin birth the perfection of Jesus is sufficient for your
imperfection, v. 16
Matthew 1:16
Isaiah 7:10-14

Romans 5:12-14
4. Because God was at work then and is now, v. 17
Romans 5:1-5

Mental worship...
1. How often do you feel connected to the bigness of the Story God is telling?
2. Do you most often use your imperfection as an excuse or your perfection in
Christ as an explanation?
3. How does the doctrine of original sin help you explain the state of the world, a
person’s need for the redemption that is found only in Christ and the doctrine of
the virgin birth?
4. Do you ever confuse the “then” and the “now” of the Christian life?
5. Have you developed enough character to be a hopeful person?

Pastor Chris Brooks
GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

How the Spirit Helps us to Hope
Romans 8:22-30
(Place each of these 3 groupings of questions on their own slide i.e. fight questions, then flight
etc...)
Fight Questions
1. What emotion do you fear feeling?
2. What is this emotion trying to tell you?
3. What is one way you can fight to feel the emotion you fear the most?
Flight Questions
1. What do you run to instead of God when you are afraid?
2. Who are the friends you trust to hear your fears and help you face them?
3. How will you strengthen this friendship when you are not afraid? (What do you need to do to
be a better friend?)
Freeze Questions
1. What frantic activities do you need to freeze?
2. How does the hope of the resurrection inform your relationship to fear?
3. What would change about your attitude and interactions if you truly believed God is working
all things together for good?
Three things that give you false hope
a. Thin theology of heaven
b. Thin theology of suffering
c. A compulsive need for total control
Mental Worship
1. What emotion do you fear feeling?
2. What is this emotion trying to tell you?
3. What do you run to instead of God when you are afraid?
4. Who are the friends you trust to hear your fears and help you face them?
5. How does the hope of the resurrection inform your relationship to fear?