Benjamin Lee <- Back My Boss Wants My Head Benjamin Lee June 8, 2025 My Boss Wants My Head Benjamin Lee 00:00 / 36:50 Download Outline File Download Presention File Request a File Looking for an outline or powerpoint file for a specific lesson? Let us know! Request Now justice, deliverance, Psalm 59, David, Saul, revenge, vengeance, just, deliver, fair, fairness, courage, courageous, work, boss, job, employee, employeer, employment, occupation, vocation

Benjamin Lee <- Back Abba Father Benjamin Lee June 1, 2025 Abba Father Benjamin Lee 00:00 / 31:46 Download Outline File Download Presention File Request a File Looking for an outline or powerpoint file for a specific lesson? Let us know! Request Now Father, Abba, Abba Father, child, children, closeness, close, endearment, relationship, relationship to God, child of God, children of God

Benjamin Lee <- Back What Lucifer Teaches Us About Bible Study Benjamin Lee May 25, 2025 What Lucifer Teaches Us About Bible Study Benjamin Lee 00:00 / 45:31 Download Outline File Download Presention File Request a File Looking for an outline or powerpoint file for a specific lesson? Let us know! Request Now lucifer, bible, study, studies, scripture, scriptures, text, texts, context, understand, understanding, fallen, star

Did you ever play Jenga? Generally, the point of the game is to continue to make a tower of wooden blocks taller and taller until one of the players inevitably causes it to fall over, all while taking blocks from lower in the tower and stacking them on the top. Eventually, the game ends because the foundation of the tower is gone. The structural integrity provided by the blocks literally disintegrates piece by piece until that one key block moves and everything falls apart.   God often uses metaphors related to buildings and houses to describe His strength and the protection provided to His people when they build upon His rock-solid foundation.   The House on the Rock One of the most notable examples of this language is the analogy Jesus gives in Matthew 7 , where He uses the example of a man building His house on sand as a demonstration of the foolishness of a reliance on any foundation other than God. Contrarily, the wisest way to “build a house” so-to-speak, is to build it on the foundation of Christ and His teachings.   Jesus makes clear that in order to “build our house” on Him, we must “hear and do” all of His words. Unfortunately, many today try to pick and choose which parts of the Bible they like and want to follow, or they just surround themselves with Biblical teaching but do not “do” the things that are commanded of them. In either of these scenarios, your house will fall down. There is no such thing as a house with half its foundation in the world and the other half founded on the Rock. As Jesus also said, “a house divided against itself cannot stand” ( Mark 3:25 ).   This passage directly correlates to Jesus’ interaction with Peter in Matthew 16 , when Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ and Jesus responds, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” ( vss. 17-18 ). Jesus makes clear in His commendation of Peter’s words here that the entire premise of the church is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. With Christ as its foundation, the one true church is unwavering and immovable.   The Chief Cornerstone One of the most heartbreaking moments in Jesus’ ministry comes in the form of a parable He tells in the last week of His life, the parable of the tenants, found in Matthew 21:33-46 , Mark 12:1-12 , and Luke 20:9-19 . After telling this parable about wicked tenants who brutally murder their Master’s Son, Jesus quotes from Psalm 118:22-23 , which reads: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” The implication behind this quotation in the context of Jesus’ parable is that because the nation of Israel had rejected God’s leadership and His representatives (i.e. the Prophets) for so long, it should come as no surprise that His Son, Jesus, would be rejected as well.    To drive this point home further, Jesus continues in Matthew 21 , “’Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.’ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet” ( vss. 43-46 ). Clearly, the chief priests and Pharisees “got the memo” and did not like it at all. They knew that they were rejecting the chief cornerstone, and they understood the implications of what Jesus was teaching. Are we hard-hearted, stubborn, and quick to anger like these men, or are we constructing our lives on the foundation that the Chief Cornerstone laid out?   Living Stones Finally, Peter himself echoes Jesus’ words and Psalm 118 in 1 Peter 2 when he encourages the brethren to “grow up!” He says:   “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” ( vss. 1-5 )   Continuing to build on Christ’s foundation, Peter encourages disciples to live in such a way that reflects Who is the foundation of their lives, and argues that our conduct is the clearest indicator of whether or not we are, in fact founded on the Solid Rock. Having Christ as our foundation means rejecting evil, maintaining our holiness, and putting the Father’s will above our own. If we do these things, no matter what rains, floods, temptations, or trials may come, we will remain solid as a rock.

"The Bible is such an old book. It's not really relevant to us anymore." This is a popular sentiment in today's world. The fact that the Bible was written over 2,000 years ago is, quite frankly, an excuse used by many to avoid having anything to do with it. Many will tell us, as Christians, that much of what the Bible teaches on topics like marriage, homosexuality, the roles of men and women, and a variety of other things are just not in line with the times and culture we live in. Sadly, they are correct. The Bible does not align with the views and ideals of the world today. However, that being said, let's be clear about one thing: The world is out of line, not the Bible. When Scripture was written by those whom God inspired, it was written to be everlasting, unchanging, and constant from that time forward. Psalm 119:89 – "Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens." Isaiah 40:8 – "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever." God knew that the world would continue on after He gave us Scripture, and He never intended on sending us a "revised copy." God's word is firmly fixed, as Psalm 119 says. The teachings and commands laid out within it are just as applicable today as they were 2,000 years ago. "The world is changing. Shouldn't our religion change as well?" No. Scripture and the commands of God were never meant to be changed. We were. Romans 12:2 – "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind..." The purpose of our lives is to follow Christ and conform ourselves to His will above anything else—and Jesus isn't changing. He asks us to change. Hebrews 13:8 – "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Scripture gives us a constant and consistent guide as to what we are to be and how we are to live. The ever-changing world that we live in should have no bearing on who we are. Something else to realize is that the Bible speaks plainly on the very issues that people often point to to show the Bible's lack of relevance today. Matthew 19:4–6 - “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female…" 1 Corinthians 11:3 - “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” Romans 1:26–27 - “…their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women… committing shameless acts with men…” 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 - “…do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral… nor men who practice homosexuality… will inherit the kingdom of God.” So is the Bible still relevant? Absolutely! scripture gives us our only insight into the will of God for our lives and the specific instruction we must follow to enter in to heaven. Just because we don't like it, doesn't make it untrue. The Bible will always be relevant and will never require a revision. Stop trying to change Scripture when it was written to change you!

He was a bad person, and yet he was a good person. Little is known about his life. Yet, much can be learned from a few hours of his life that’s been recorded for us by the Holy Spirit. I’m referring to the man that we know as the thief on the cross. As Jesus died for our sins, we are introduced to two men who would also die on either side of Him. Like Jesus, these two men would die an excruciating death. Unlike Jesus, they died because of their sins. We read of these two unnamed sinners in the four gospels.  I have heard sermons in the past dealing with the thief on the cross. Yet, in those sermons the biggest point that was often discussed was whether we can be saved like the thief. There’s great reason to focus on this particular aspect of the story, because there’s a lot of false teaching on how one is saved today? Is it through a sinner’s prayer? NO! Is one saved after they are baptized? NO!  Is baptism necessary to be saved? Yes! Jesus says in Mark 16:16 “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” Peter would say the same thing in Acts 2:38 ! In 1 Peter 3:20-21 Peter says, “…baptism now saves you…” Anyone who uses the story of the thief on the cross to say that water baptism is not necessary for salvation is not properly handling the New Testament.   But I wonder if we have overlooked some valuable lessons from this thief. We don’t know his name, but we see the kind of character he had. As odd as it might sound, we can learn a lot from this man.   The Thief was a sinner. He is described as a robber, Matthew 27:38,44 . We don’t know what he stole, but it was enough to get him on a cross. Did he know the other guy who was on the cross for robbery? Had these two worked together? We don’t know.  However, we do know something about this robber. He spent a lot of his final breaths spewing out insults towards Jesus. He was insulting Jesus like the rest of the crowds, Matthew 27:38-44 . Remember, that it was the crowd who had been hurling insults at Jesus. Both thieves joined in this sinful behavior. Why was he joining in the crowd and insulting Jesus? We don’t know. This man was a sinner. While this point is obvious, it’s important and here’s why.  This sinner had a repentant heart. He initially insulted Jesus, but would turn from his sinful behavior, Luke 23:39-41 . This man would have a change of heart on his deathbed! There’s no contradiction between Matthew 27:44 where it says that both men insulted Jesus, and then what Luke said in Luke 23:39-40 . Matthew simply gave us some additional details. At some point in time this thief stopped his wicked behavior. So, what caused this man to repent? He may have repented because he was so convicted by the love of Christ. Do you think his heart was convicted when he heard Jesus say, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” Luke 23:34 ? Whatever the reason was we see a change in this man’s heart, Luke 23:40-41 . This repentant sinner asked to be with Jesus. The thief asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom, Luke 23:42 . This is fascinating isn’t it? Was it the sign that was above the head of Jesus that said, “THE KING OF THE JEWS” that convinced him that Jesus was a King and would establish His kingdom? That could be the case. Maybe it was what he heard others saying about Jesus, Matthew 27:42 . His request to Jesus however is powerful. Certainly, there are questions about how much He believed in God the Father, right and wrong, and the kingdom. But he did acknowledge his wrong. He did make a request to Jesus, Luke 23:42 .  Whether he had a good understanding of the kingdom or not, he wanted to be with Jesus in His kingdom. Thinking about what this man said may come across as amazing to us. Yet, how amazed do you think this man was when Jesus told him “Yes”! Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Despite the thief’s past, despite his present behavior toward Jesus, this man was still loved by Christ. Paradise is the place where departed souls of the saved go in the Hadean world. This man was saved! This unnamed man would have his name in the book of life. Some Points To Take Home In many respects, we are just like the thief on the cross! We are sinners in need of God’s grace, Romans 3:23 . Like him we too deserve death! The thief believed Jesus had the power to save. We must believe in Jesus also. Like this thief, we need to repent, Luke 13:3-5 . This man’s heart changed. So must ours. The thief acted before it was too late.  We need to do the same. Only Jesus could save this man. Only Jesus can save us! Do you want to be saved? Then listen to Jesus, Mark 16:16 .  We must be baptized in water for the forgiveness of sins. Yet, many disagree that baptism is necessary because the thief wasn’t baptized. We know that Jesus had power on earth to forgive sins, Mark 2:10 . He had the power and authority to forgive sins on earth any way He chose. Jesus still has the power to forgive sins. Yet, He is in heaven, and while He will forgive sins, it will be according to the terms He left His apostles as He sent them out to save men, Mark 16:15-16 . We will simply need to trust His terms! Why would you want to argue with Jesus? Conclusion: The thief followed Jesus in the last moments in his life. What will you do with this moment? Jesus could save a thief, and Jesus can save us. Are you willing to trust in His words?