ICEBREAKER
For an icebreaker. Tell them you are going to test their knowledge of American wars. For those of you in other countries, you could do the same with well known wars in your history. You will give them the dates, and then they will tell you what war was fought during those years.
1939-1945 World War 2
1960-1975 Vietnam
1812-1815 The War of 1812
1775-1783 American Revolution
1990-1991 Persian Gulf War
1861-1865. Civil War
1846-1848. Mexican-American war
1914-1918 World War 1
1756-1763. French and Indian Wars
TRANSITION
in Romans 7:15-24, Paul is going to tell us about a war we haven’t mentioned yet. Perhaps the greatest conflict mankind has ever faced. What is the name of that war?
TEACHER READ
Romans 7:15-24
Q: What war is Paul talking about here?
A: The War with Ourselves, or the War with Self.
RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
Have you ever felt like that?
Have you ever felt that inner struggle and conflict with yourself?
Have you ever made a new year’s resolution the you didn’t end up keeping?
Have you ever consciously done something that you knew you would regret later?
Have you ever given into temptation and shortly after complained “Why did I do that?! I didn’t want to do it, but I did it anyway."
Have you ever felt like there was a negative part of yourself that you wish you could just get rid of?
MOSIAH 3:19
King Benjamin probably gave us the best terms to describe the two warring factions of the human soul in Mosiah 3:19
Q: What are they?
A: The natural man and the Saint
NATURAL MAN SCENARIOS
If you feel they are struggling with this idea give them the following scenarios and ask, what would be the easy and natural reaction in these situations?
A car cuts you off on the freeway
Somebody accidentally drops a 20$ bill as they walk by you.
A friend or coworker offers to show you pornography they have on their phone.
You see somebody whose clothing, or home, or possessions are not as nice as yours.
Q: What question does Paul ask at the end of Romans 7:24
A: who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Q: And what is the answer to that question in vs. 25?
A: Through Jesus Christ our Lord
Q:What is my major part in this war according to Romans 8:6?
A: And it’s to be spiritually minded.
THE SPOILS OF VICTORY (ROMANS 8)
Well, when you win a war, there are spoils or rewards you gain for winning. You’ve probably heard the phrase “To the victor goes the spoils”.
Well what are the spoils of this war? The rest of chapter 8 is going to tell us about them.
SEARCH
8:15 God becomes “Abba” to us
8:18 My sufferings will not even compare to the glory that will eventually come
8:28 ALL things will work together for my good
8:35, 38-39 Nothing will come between me and His love
8:15. We call God Abba, Father. When we conquer the self, we gain a new kind of relationship with our Father in Heaven, he becomes Abba to us. Abba is the word for father framed by the mouths of infants and children. The closest English translation would be, Daddy, or Papa. When we conquer the natural man, we gain a closeness with the Father that is similar.
8:18 My sufferings will not be worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in me.
Paul’s Suffering: 2 Corinthians 11:23-27
Paul’s Vision of Heaven: 2 Corinthians 12:1-4
Isaiah 64:4 “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.”
8:28 He will make all things work together for my good. If you want to assure a happy ending to your story, just love God, and the rest will take care of itself.
He’ll make all our negatives into positives
Joseph of Egypt is best cast study
C.S. Lewis Quote:
“Ye cannot in your present state understand eternity: . . . But ye can get some likeness of it if ye say that both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. . . . all this earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. . . . all their life on earth too, will then be seen by the damned to have been Hell. That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, `No future bliss can make up for it,' not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say `Let me but have this and I'll take the consequences': little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, `We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,' and the Lost, `We were always in Hell.' And both will speak truly.” "Ah, the Saved . . . what happens to them is best described as the opposite of a mirage. What seemed, when they entered it, to be the vale of misery turns out, when they look back, to have been a well; and where present experience saw only salt deserts memory truthfully records that the pools were full of water." (C.S. Lewis "The Great Divorce: 67-68)
8:35, 38-39
Who or what shall separate us from the Love of Christ?
Nothing can come between you and his love.
OTHER SPOILS OF VICTORY
8:6 life and peace
8:11 quickens our mortal body by his Spirit
8:17 we become joint heirs with Christ
8:26 He helpers our infirmities
8:27 He makes intercession for the saints
8:32 He freely gives us all things
CONCLUSION
I like to conclude with Romans 8:37 because it fits so well with our theme of “The War with Self”. It says “Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. The greatest battle you will ever fight will be with yourself, but if you can defeat yourself, or your natural man, you have done something greater than the world’s most famous conquerors. Individuals like Alexander the Great, or Genghis Khan, or Napoleon Bonaparte are known as some of the world’s greatest conquerors for securing some of histories most crucial victories. But if you can conquer your natural man, you will have done something far greater than they ever did. You will become more than a conqueror. Remember that you are not fighting this war alone, you have the universe’s most powerful ally. Through him that loved us, or through Jesus Christ you will conquer. As it says in Romans 8:31 with the JST, If God be for us, who can prevail against us? Turn to Christ, and I promise you that all the promises of Romans chapter 8 will be yours.
SUMMARIZE ROMANS 9-11
ICEBREAKER
Ask them: Does anybody know what it takes to become a Saint in the Catholic church?
Perform two miracles after you’ve already died.
Then ask: What does it take to become a Saint in the Church of Jesus Christ? Hear out a few responses and then
TRANSITION
Paul is going to teach us what it means to be a Saint or like it says in the chapter heading of Romans 12 “to live as becometh Saints”. Romans chapters 12-16 will teach you how to do just that. And a bit of a heads up here, it’s a lot more involved then just two measly posthumous miracles.
SEARCH
Choose some of the key phrases from the chapters and display them one by one on a PowerPoint slide with a word missing and ask them to try fill in the blank. If they can be the first person to raise their hand with the missing word and the verse that the answer is found in, (so it discourages blind guessing) then throw out a little treat to them. Maybe mix them up to make it more challenging but I do it chapter by chapter, so that they aren’t trying to find answers over 6 different pages.
Present your bodies a living _________ (Sacrifice 12:1)
Be not _________ to this world, but be ye transformed (Conformed 12:2)
Not to think of himself more ______ than he ought to think (Highly 12:3)
Abhor that which is evil, ______ unto that which is good. (Cleave 12:9)
Be kindly affectioned one to another with _________ love. (Brotherly 12:10)
Not _______ in business (Slothful 12:11)
Given to __________ (Hospitality 12:13)
Live _________with all men (Peaceably 12:18)
Love worketh no ____ to his neighbor (Ill 13:10)
Let us walk __________ (Honestly 13:13)
_____ ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. (Put 13:14)
We then that are strong ought to _____ the infirmities of the weak (Bear 15:1)
That ye may abound in _____ (Hope 15:13)
That ye also are full of goodness, filled with all __________ (Knowledge 15:14)
LIKEN
Pick your favorite requirement for being a Saint and be prepared to explain why you feel it is so important.
Pick one of the requirements that you feel you need to work on most and decide on one thing you will do this week to live it more fully.
ROMANS 13:10
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.
Does love fill a soul with guilt?
Does love close doors of the temple to a couple?
Does love have to coerce the other person into doing something they don’t want to do?
Does love intentionally hurt the other person, either emotionally or physically?
Does love hinder our prayers?
Does love break up homes?
Does love take children from a parent?
ROMANS 13:14
But put ye on the lord Jesus Christ
Sometimes we may wonder how we are supposed to live a certain way when we don’t really feel like we are supposed to. We may ask things like. “How am I supposed to help other people, when I don’t really feel like helping other people” How am I supposed to forgive my enemies, when all I can feel is hatred”, “How can I have the spirit of sacrifice, when I don’t really feel like making those sacrifices”. I think Paul’s advice would be, stop worrying about feelings. Put on Christ, like a mask, and pretend you’re Him. Do the things that you think he would do, and forget about the feelings. A modern expression of this advice might be “fake it till you make it”. And an interesting thing happens when we do that. Eventually, the feelings do come, a Christlike character is forged. It’s like the time you didn’t really want to go to the service project, but you did anyway, and by the time you were done, you were glad you did the service. You’re feelings changed because you acted. So I would say, just keep putting on Christ every day until finally one day, you’ll take off the mask, and under it, your face will have conformed to His. You will have received his image in your countenance like Alma says.
ROMANS 14
ICEBREAKER
Q: Can you figure out the solution to this problem? What letter comes next?
A: “N” because it’s the first letter of each word in the question. What Letter Comes Next. W L C N
TRANSITION
Q: We’re going to look for the solution to another problem “The members of the church in Rome are having a problem. Can you find what it is in 14:1?
A: Now they might answer with saying “they are weak in the faith” and if they do just explain that Paul is referring to new converts that are still developing their testimonies and that they should receive them, and help them. But the real problem is in the next line, the way they are receiving them is causing something? And what is it? “doubtful disputations” They’re arguing about how gospel principles are to be lived.
And Paul tells us what some of those issues are in vs. 2 and 5.
2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. (Or vegetables)
5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike.
They are good representative examples because in one instance you have a group of people who feels like the other group is doing something they should not be doing (eating meat). And the other is an example where one group feels like the other group is not doing something that they should be doing {observing the Jewish holiday) So these differences are causing doubtful disputations between the two groups with two unique approaches to the other side.
LIKEN
Are there things like that in the church today?
Ok to watch football on Sunday
Having a beard
Paying tithing on gross or net
Political affiliations
Modesty
Media Choices
Caffeinated soda
Playing cards
Now we’re not talking about fundamental gospel standards that have been unambiguously clarified by prophets.
Q: According to vs. 3, what two un-Saint like things are the two groups doing to each other?
A: Despising and Judging. So you have despisers and judgers.
Keep this light, because these can be sensitive issues between members, so approach it with a bit of a sense of humor. So split your class down the middle and say: You guys on this half of the classroom, you are the Football watching, coke drinking, beard growing, shorts wearing, card players. And you on the other half of the classroom, you’re the opposite, you don’t do any of those things. Now you on the second side, which of Paul’s two words describe how you are tempted to treat the other side that’s doing all these things? You judge them. They’re not doing what they should. Any good member of the church wouldn’t do that. You are the judgers. And you on the first side, which of Paul’s two words describe how you are tempted to treat the other side? You despise them. You think, goody-goodies, who do they think they are, always taking things too far, looking beyond the mark, they think they’re so much better than everybody else. You are the despisers. And Paul has some advice for both groups.
Then send each group to the following verses to find Paul’s message to them and then ask if anybody would like to summarize what they learned to the class.
PAUL’S ADVICE
Judgers: 14:10-13
Despisers: 14:15, 20-21
TO THE JUDGERS
Stop judging them
We will all give an account of ourselves to God. God will judge them, it’s not your place
When we become judgmental we may place a stumbling block for them. They may be tempted to get offended, they may feel unwelcome, they may feel contempt for you.
TO THE DESPISERS
If you know that your actions are grieving your brother, you’re not being charitable
For peace’s sake, try not to do things that knowingly offend others
TO BOTH SIDES (TEACHER READ)
14:19 Only do things that make peace and edify others.
15:1 Bear their infirmities and don’t just please yourself
15:5 Be like-minded, one mind, one mouth, receive one another.
TRUTH
When disputation over living gospel principles arises, if I despise the other or judge them, there will be contention. If I accept all in love and understanding then there will be peace in the church.
CONCLUSION
Peace and unity are crucial to the effectiveness of the church. If we are using our time and energy to fight with each other, how can we expect to have time or energy to fight Satan. Instead of judging, we can bear each other’s infirmities and love regardless , instead of despising each other, we can rejoice that our fellow members are living according to what they feel is right. If we all do this, I know our families and our congregations will be filled with righteousness, peace, and joy.
