SESSION 3 - GOD HATES YOUR SUFFERING
GROUP VIDEO
Today we look at why Redemption is important:
GOD HATES YOUR SUFFERING!
Redemption is the single most important topic you will ever learn in your entire life!
Redemption changes everything in your life; the way you attach to God, view yourself, interact with people and the way you interpret the meaning of any event that comes into your life.
- God HATES sin.
- God LOVES you.
- God HATES the curses.
- God LOVES to bless you.
SESSION 3 - GROUP VIDEO
Watch 10-20 minutes of a GROUP video teaching, that correlates with the full Workshop semester topics.
GROUP CONVERSATION GUIDE
GOD HATES YOUR SUFFERING!
Redemption is the single most important topic you will ever learn in your entire life!
Redemption changes everything in your life; the way you attach to God, view yourself, interact with people and the way you interpret the meaning of any event that comes into your life.
- Redemption is what CHRIST did for you.
- Spiritual Authority is what YOU do, in response to what Christ did.
- The Holy Spirit is WHO HELPS you do, what Christ did for you.
EPHESIANS 1:7 NKJV In Him we have REDEMPTION through His blood, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, according to the riches of His GRACE.
MATTHEW 9:2–7 NIV Some men brought to him a PARALYTIC, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN." 3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!" 4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 WHICH IS EASIER: to say, 'YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN,' or to say, 'GET UP AND WALK'? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . ." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." 7 And the man got up and went home.
MATTHEW 9:5 AMP For which is easier: to say, Your SINS ARE FORGIVEN and the PENALTY REMITTED, or to say, Get up and walk?
- Jesus tied sickness, disease or any kind of brokenness in the human body, to the original sin of Adam, or individual sins.
ROMANS 6:23 NKJV For the WAGES of SIN is DEATH, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Anything that leads to physical death would be the offspring of sin. Of course, sickness and disease often do lead to physical death. The same is true of poverty; poverty often leads to physical death.
GALATIANS 3:13-14, 29 NIV Christ REDEEMED US from the CURSE OF THE LAW by BECOMING A CURSE for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." 14 He redeemed us in order that THE BLESSING GIVEN TO ABRAHAM might COME TO THE GENTILES through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. … 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are ABRAHAM'S SEED, and HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE.
- Wherever there’s unrepentant sin in Scripture, there’s also spiritual, physical, psychological/emotional, relational need. However, wherever there’s obedience or atoned sin, there’s also wholeness and prosperity in these areas. This being true, the forgiven Christian, having the whole of his or her sin abolished, is positioned for supernatural peace and wholeness. We’ve been made free from sin; we’ve also been made free from spiritual, physical, psychological/emotional, and relational need!
- Open and unatoned sin carries penalties with it. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a specific sin, just the existence of Adam’s nature trying to impose itself. But thank God as believers our sins are forgiven and the penalties of sickness, disease and pain are remitted through Jesus Christ! We don’t have to pay the penalty for our sin. Our sins are not just atoned for or covered, they have been totally abolished. We are forgiven and healed.
God HATES sin
with the same fervency
He LOVES you!
God hates sin
because it destroys you,
the object of His love.
WHAT IS THE CURSE OF THE LAW?
DEUTERONOMY 28:1-68 NIV
If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his COMMANDS I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.
2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock — the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
7 The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
8 The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
9 The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.
10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you.
11 The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity — in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground — in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you.
12 The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.
13 The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.
--------- THE CURSES BEGIN ---------
15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his COMMANDS and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. (won’t enjoy your work/labor)
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed (can’t get pregnant), and the crops of your land (financial and vocational success), and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. 19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20 The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke (lack of peace, wisdom and clear decision making) in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin (no safety or protection or security of future) because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.
21 The LORD will plague you with diseases (sickness, disease and physical weakness) until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.
22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish.
23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. (nothing easy, so favor, no momentum)
24 The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. (opportunities will be hard, impossible, and hopeless)
25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies (shame, regret, oppression). You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth (fear, faithlessness, question, skepticism).
26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. (isolation, aloneness, separation)
27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. (more sickness, disease, physical disease)
28 The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. (darkness, confusion, mental and psychological breakdowns)
29 At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do (failure); day after day you will be oppressed and robbed (victimized), with no one to rescue you (no oversight, no justice).
30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and ravish her (rape of spouse). You will build a house, but you will not live in it (your work that does succeed will not be your reward). You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.
31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. (tools and items that are most precious to your sustenance and dreams will be taken from you)
32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. (child abductions, spiritually abducted too)
33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. (oppressiveness spirit, soul and body)
34 The sights you see will drive you mad. (you will find yourself meditating on your regrets and intense emotions of injustice)
35 The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
36 The LORD will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. (your religion will not make sense but be forced upon you)
37 You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you. (embarrassment, shame, rejection, humiliation)
38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. (Everything there is is against you and nothing works out for you)
39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. (Unforeseen, pest-like things will spring up. When you do everything right, something will happen to undermine it.)
40 You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. (You hopes will begin to get up. But in the last minute you will have them crushed.)
41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. (captivity to drugs, alcohol, to people/spouses who don’t like you, literal child abductions, kidnappings, etc.)
42 Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land. (new and multiplied problems will arise from places you will not believe.)
43 The alien (people from other nations) who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. (everyone else gets promoted and are favored over you, while you continue to stagnate and find no favor.)
44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail. (others will be in control over you and have tentacles that harass your life)
45 All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake (you can’t hide from them, they have GPS accuracy following you) you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you.
46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. (You failure will not be merely natural, you will have miracle level and supernatural failure.)
47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity,
48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. (your work and vocation will be intense with oppression)
49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, (vocational and life confusion that happens in ways that we could not possibly see. We plan our lives by the present landscape but right when we think we are going to make it something pops up from another place that is worse than what I presently have will come and dominate me.)
50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. (life will have no compassion or empathy from anyone who has the human power to change it)
51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. (you don’t get to enjoy any of the GOOD of life, even though you set your life up for it to be good. You’ve done all the right things to get these strategic results of a good life…but it is taken away from you.)
52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you. (No matter what your SECURITY has been and what the great plans and people you have trusted in, you will be overcome by all your circumstances.)
53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you. (such a level of despair that you will turn to cannibalism, you will resort to behaviors of survival that you could never imagine you would ever do. You will become someone that you will finally say, “I don’t even know who you are anymore!”)
54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children,
55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. 56 The most gentle and sensitive woman among you — so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot — will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter
57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities.
58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name — the LORD your God —
59 the LORD will send fearful plagues (sickness and disease) on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses.
60 He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.
61 The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed.
62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God. (every dream of you, your family and your friends will dissipate and leave you empty)
63 Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods — gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart.
66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life.
67 In the morning you will say, "If only it were evening!" and in the evening, "If only it were morning!" — because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.
68 The LORD will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
CAUSATIVE VERSUS PERMISSIVE VERB TENSES
The original Hebrew language, from which our English Old Testament translations come from, does not have a causative verb tense. Each of these words translated in the causative should be translated in the permissive.
Below is an example of how to interpret and understood difficult "causative" texts, from an article by Dave Miller, Ph.D.:
To be honest and fair, the biblical interpreter must be willing to allow the peculiar linguistic features of ancient languages to be clarified and understood in accordance with the way those languages functioned. Specifically, ancient Hebrew (like most all other languages, then and now) was literally loaded with figurative language—i.e., figures of speech, Semitisms, colloquialisms, and idioms. It frequently was the case that “[a]ctive verbs were used by the Hebrews to express, not the doing of the thing, but the permission of the thing which the agent is said to do” (Bullinger, 1898, p. 823, emp. in orig.; cf. MacKnight, 1954, p. 29). Similarly, the figure of speech known as “metonymy of the subject” occurs “[w]here the action is put for the declaration concerning it: or where what is said to be done is put for what is declared, or permitted, or foretold as to be done: or where an action, said to be done, is put for the giving occasion for such action” (Bullinger, p. 570, italics in orig., emp. added). Hence, when the Bible says that the “distressing spirit” that troubled Saul was “from the Lord,” the writer was using an idiom to indicate that the Lord allowed or permitted the distressing spirit to come upon Saul. George Williams commented: “What God permits He is stated in the Bible to perform” (1960, p. 127).
GOD will allow
what WE allow.
MATTHEW 16:19 KJV And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt BIND on earth shall be BOUND in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt LOOSE on earth shall be LOOSED in heaven.
CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION - I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and God in heaven will ALLOW whatever you ALLOW on earth. But he will NOT ALLOW anything that you DON’T ALLOW.
God can ALLOW things
that He does NOT advocate!
God hates the "curse" with an equal fervency as He hates sin. Where both blessings and curses are concerned, He will allow what we allow. Yet, God still hates it. These are issues of free moral agency, the gift of God to a free moral world.
God hates these curses. You and I need to nurture an equally intolerant attitude towards these curses. We must contend for the blessings of God, because Redemption was purchased by Jesus precious blood. We emphasize the blessings of God, that God wants you to be victorious, because God emphasizes it.
God’s predisposition towards blessings and cursings in our life creates a secure attachment with Him. Intimacy is on the line! To reduce the emotional impact of God on our suffering is to reduce our capacity for security, and therefor our capacity for intimacy.
God HATES the CURSES
with the same fervency
He HATES SIN,
and the same fervency
He LOVES YOU!
IMPORTANT:
If you are struggling with pain and suffering, this teaching in now way is projecting that you must have sin in your life. The sin and forgiveness is about a system that caused the earth to be under a curse. That curse has now come upon all people. Redemption gives us restitution and spiritual authority to turn the curse into a blessing.
GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Take a few moments to discuss your answers to these questions with the Group.
ICE BREAKER
What is your favorite TV show? Why? (If you don’t have one presently, what about when you were a kid?)
MY MEMOIR STORIES
IMPORTANT: If the Group would like to continue telling one Memoir Story per week until they are completed, that might allow for a more congruent transition. Please be sensitive to the Science of Freedom content and discussion. It is important that our people are exposed to the possibilities in their potential that this content will provide. Please take no more than 20-25 minutes for the Memoir to leave time for the rest of the content below.
MEMOIR: PREPARING TO TELL MY STORY (Scope Timeline) worksheet to help you think through your story. You can download the SCOPE TIMELINE WORKSHEET at the link. There is a longer version of the worksheet, that gives an extra step to dig deeper into your story, which can be downloaded at LONG VERSION WORKSHEET (RECOMMENDED). You can also watch the WRAP UP video from last week that explains how to use the worksheet. Each person's Memoir should be 10-15 minutes long.
QUESTIONS
- Describe how you feel when you hear that God “hates” the curses mentioned in Deuteronomy 28. Can you accept that God has emotional intensity around your blessings?
- While you may have heard of God wanting to bless your life, have you ever had evidential reasoning behind that belief? For instance, have you ever heard that “God HATES sin with the same fervency He LOVES you! God hates sin because it destroys you, the object of His love.”What is different about what you are processing in this Group Video Teaching, and what you have previously known?
- Describe what it means to you for God not to “smite” or “cause” people to be cursed, only that He “allows” it to happen. Have you ever thought God was “cursing” you, or loved ones, with troubles in life? Even if you believed God allowed the “curses” for good discipline, how did/does that impact your intimacy with God?
- After watching Session 3’s Video, what is your biggest takeaway, “ah ha” moment, or challenging thought? Why?
SESSION 3 - WRAP UP
This is a 5-10 minute section for MOVING FORWARD, GOING DEEPER, use of worksheets and periodic church-wide announcements.
MOVE FORWARD
Receive the challenge to “move forward” by applying what was learned this week.
SUGGESTIONS:
- PRAY FOR GROUP MEMBER - Pray for at least one person in the Group. Try to identify someone who hasn't been prayed for, or given an encouraging Scripture. Don't worry about feeling inadequate as a prayer. No one feels like they are professional prayers, at least not when they look into eyes of the Almighty God. Praying the Scriptures over people is the best way to learn how to pray effectively. Simply find a Scripture, put the person's name in the text, and pray those words out loud. Then ask the Lord to help you think of things to say to Him about them that would help their lives.
- ASK FOR A SCRIPTURE WORD - Ask God to give you a Scripture to give them to encourage, comfort and edify them. You can Google search "God's Promises" and find a plethora of appropriate texts. Look for one that seems to give you a spark of energy as you think about the person you have been praying for.
- DELIVER THE WORD TO THEM - Then send them an email, text or phone call to encourage them. This is how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. As you practice these movements you will expand your own capacity with God, all while giving people much needed hope and strength.
GOING DEEPER
Encouragement to engage the FULL WORKSHOP SEMESTER experience. While this is not required, nor is the Group discussions connected to the full workshop, it is an option for everyone.
PRAYER / DISMISS GROUP
Prayer time with the Group.