The Augusta Church

Sunday Lesson Notes from January 22, 2023

“Offended”

• Have you ever been offended by something someone said or did to you?

• How did you respond? How should you have responded?

• Some people respond in the following ways: Acceptance, forgiveness, move on from the relationship, ignore it, get revenge, hold a grudge

• Would you consider responding in the following ways instead?
  • Pray for the offender
  • Hold off on reacting
  • Acknowledge your own thoughts, feelings and emotions
  • Discuss one on one with the offending party
  • Forgive the offender
  • Read James 1:19 for a good scriptural reminder

• Listen to the following song, “Skandalon” by Michael Card, view on You Tube:

• Skandalon- transliteration for the Greek word meaning a trigger for a trap, the stick for the bait of a trap, a snare, a stumbling block

• Read Isaiah 8: 13-25
  • Jesus is a stumbling block for many according to biblical teachings
  • Don’t be afraid to look bad as you ask and seek out the answers to find out who Jesus is and what he wants us to learn
  • Sometimes we can feel bad if we fall or fail, but as long as we keep persevering we will make it in the end
  • We need to remember to consider each other when we communicate our thoughts and feelings to each other. We should have grace and mercy even if someone may be communicating something that may not be accurate and help them along to see more clearly
  • We need each other to make it to the end because life is full of stumbling blocks and only focusing on Jesus and by encouraging each other,  will we make it to the end

• Read 1 Kings 17: 8-16
  • What do you learn from the interaction between Elijah and the Widow?
    • They both had great faith and humility: Elijah trusted that God would do what he promised, allow him to be fed by a widow in the midst of a famine; the Widow, a woman and non-jew who was starving and in a dire situation, trusted Elijah and fed him with her last provisions. She could have shunned him, turned him away or taken offense at her low position. 
    • When things are hard in our life, we should still trust that God is present and will come to our assistance. We show our trust in God by obeying and doing what he says even if everything looks bleak.

• Read 2 Kings 5: 1-15
  • What can you learn from the various individuals in this passage?
    • Naaman- he was a successful commander of the army of Aram, a neighboring, pagan nation that took a young Israelite woman captive; he had to have humility and trust in his wife and her slave girl to get the help he needed to be healed of his condition; he had to be willing to obey and perform a lowly task of washing in the river to be cleaned, if he did not, he would not have been healed; He had the attitude of a transaction to get healed, he had no relationship with God who was doing the healing

• The King of Israel- he was losing faith and tearing up his clothes instead of remembering Elisha was right there and could help him

• The Servant Girl- what big faith and so full of compassion; she was captured and was still willing to share about Elisha so that her capturer would be healed

• Naaman’s wife- she must have had a good relationship with her servant girl who was willing to share her knowledge and heal Naaman; she had faith enough to tell her husband what the servant girl said to her

• Naaman’s servant- full of wisdom and humility, willing to trust and to stand up to Naaman so that Naaman could get the help that he needed

• Remember, the work of God is to believe in the One He sent
• God does not want a transactional relationship with us, he wants us to enjoy spending time with him and getting to know his character
• The more we abide in Jesus’s words the more  we will be able to respond to events in our lives the way Jesus did

• Read Luke 4: 16 ad 22-30
  • Why were these Jews so offended by what Jesus shared in this passage about Naaman and the Widow?
    • Jesus hit a raw nerve. He reminded the Jews in the synagogue that day that they were just like the Jews of the time of Naaman and the widow and  that they currently had a prophet among them, himself, who they still refused to listen to

• The Jews in Jesus’ day had a preconceived notion about what should be going on and who Jesus was. They thought a savior was coming to rescue them from Roman oppression but missed that Jesus was present and there to rescue them, not from Roman oppression but  from the sin of unbelief and disobedience to God. The presence of  Jesus was a constant reminder to them of their lack of faith in God and their unwillingness to obey.