The Augusta Church

Sharing our faith is much more than inviting someone to church, or even proclaiming the good news; it’s the entirety of our lives as followers of Christ. 

Sunday Lesson Notes, September 5, 2021

Read Acts 3:1-26

What are some main points in this passage?

• Peter and John healed a beggar and everyone was amazed.
• Peter reminded them that the healing was from God's power and faith in the name of Jesus who they believed was literally alive and still with them in spirit
• Peter reminded the Jews in this passage that they were actually personally responsible for Jesus’s death and out of ignorance they unknowingly killed the Son of God
• Peter advised them that they needed to repent, turn from their sinful mindsets and actions, and turn to God
• Peter and John were on their way to the temple to pray and to encourage the Jews that would be there. It was customary for the Jews at this time to pray every three hours, from sunrise to sunset. 
• Peter and John used this opportunity to share Jesus with the beggar and healed him. As the beggar was clinging to them, they noticed the large crowd that was gathering and used it as an opportunity to share the good news about Jesus.
• Peter and John were on their way to meet needs and sharing the good news of Jesus was another natural incident in their lives as they went on their way
• Peter advised them as a  nation, they needed to repent in their thinking and this would also lead to individual repentance
• When we repent and turn to God, God wipes out our sins, like an inkblot wiping out words on a page

Read Acts 4:1-36

What are some main points in this passage?

• Peter and John were arrested for healing the beggar. They were brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious leadership group that did not believe in resurrection
• The Sanhedrin members threatened Peter and John to stop preaching about Jesus but they refused and stated it was more important to obey God
• The Sanhedrin let them get away with it because large crowds of people witnessed the healing and were praising God as a result. 
• Peter reminded them that Jesus rose from the dead after he was killed and that this was foretold by their prophets
• He advised that salvation was found in no one else but Jesus
• They knew their scriptures and were prepared to share the news about Jesus with anyone that would listen
• It is important to remember to read your bible each day and anchor your thoughts throughout the day in those scriptures. This will help you to remember to share Jesus as you go along in your day.
• Internalizing who Jesus was and how he lived and how his disciples lived will help you to live and walk as Jesus did
• Peter and John shared Jesus by telling the other believers what had happened to them.  Sharing our faith is much more than inviting someone to church, or even proclaiming the good news; it’s the entirety of our lives as followers of Christ. 

Sunday Lesson Notes from August 22, 2021

We usually have one thing in our life that we can feel helpless about. Remember to bring that thing to Jesus.

Read Mark 9:17-29

• Jesus is able to fix difficult problems even when we can’t
• Jesus was calm and confident, He knew he could help in this situation
• Jesus was becoming known as someone we can go to for healing
• There was an amazing lack of faith in Jesus’s ability to help

The father in this text was willing to do anything in order to help his son. However, he was unable to change the situation on his own. Jesus and his disciples were known to heal people, but in this particular instance the disciples were not able to heal the boy. After a single conversation with Jesus the son was healed. The disciples then asked Jesus why they were unable to heal this boy. Jesus answered them that this healing was only possible through prayer. When we pray, we tap into the power of the creator. Our very own words in prayer have the ability to do amazing things. We were created in God’s image. God created the universe by speaking. When we speak in prayer God can answer those prayers resulting in amazing things too!

• Jesus had recently come back from the transfiguration and he found his disciples arguing and not praying and not having faith. It was so bad that they couldn’t even heal people. Jesus was gone for only a little while before his disciples lost faith.

Do you pray about hard things in your life or fret and give up?

• We usually have one thing in our life that we can feel helpless about, remember to bring that to Jesus
• Jesus said a really outrageous statement: everything is possible for him who believes!
  • What are some other really outrageous statements that Jesus made in his lifetime?
  • Examples: the only way to God is through Him; Hate your mother and father or you cannot be his disciple; forgive others 77 times and the list goes on and on

Read John 2:18-22

• Jesus’s words are powerful. Our words are powerful in prayer. We are made in God’s image and therefore we have access to these powerful words. 
• Jesus left God to come here to this earth to be with us. He allowed himself to be crucified so we could have a relationship with God. He defeated death so we can too!

Have you ever been invited to something that you thought would be boring, but you went anyway and had a great time?

Read Mark 4:1-25

• What measure is Jesus referring to? 
  • The more effort you put into something, the more you will get out of it. The more you invest your heart and time into Jesus, the more you will get out of your relationship with him. Jesus promises to give to you way more than you can give to Him: that is the measure that is "pressed down".
• The Soils
  • In this passage, Jesus paints a picture, and asks you to look at it.
  • What you see here is Jesus's view of the world.
  • The measure with which you retain this worldview blesses you more than you expect.
  • The words and conversations of Jesus are kinetic and full of life. They grow and shape the world apart from your own efforts.
  • At any time in our lives, we can switch from one soil type to the next
  • We don’t have to remain in the condition of bad soils, we can put work into changing our soil
  • Good news, we can weed the paths, beat the paths to make it better soil
  • Good news, we have a whole lifetime to learn learn different lessons
  • Good news, the farmer already put the seeds in the soil, so we can make effort to change our situation, even if it takes time
  • When I engage with Jesus and put effort into it, I will get so much more out of my relationship with Jesus
  • God is generous and gives us the ability to make good judgements to strengthen our convictions about how we should live and allows us to take time to investigate Jesus further
  • God perseveres with us and helps us in every situation. We don’t have to quit because God is super generous with his love
  • Hosea 10:12- reminds us to take time to prepare in my life now. God uses every moment we are weak to strengthen us

• Hearing Jesus’s Words
  • John 5:25- We live by hearing Christ and making sense of what He says.
  • Ephesians 3:2-6: How did the Jews learn about the mystery of the past? Jesus revealed it to them
  • Romans 16: 25-27: the mystery of Jesus was revealed to some, and not to others
  • Psalms 78:1-2: Mysteries from old will be revealed, some will hear and some will not hear
  • Mark 4: 11-12:He spoke in parables to allow those who really wanted to hear, will hear
  • In order to understand what Jesus was saying, you would have to go ask questions
  • Mark 4: 21-22: When we put effort into something, it shows
  • Although Jesus’s teachings are a mystery, he wants everyone to know what he has to say. He wants to proclaim who He is. He wants to have a strong relationship with each of us.
  • His foot is always on the gas, ours is on the brake.

Sunday Lesson Notes from August 15, 2021

How has spending time with Jesus this week change your life in a positive way?

Read Luke 10: 38-42

• Mary took time to listen to Jesus and it changed her life
• Martha was full of distraction and missed out on something great, spending time with Jesus
• God has already taken care of the “to do” lists in our lives therefore, we can take time to spend time with Jesus as we go along in our day
• Mary sat at Jesus’s feet to learn, which was something against cultural norms for women in her time
• Remember that sitting at the feet of Jesus is about allowing God to do His will through you. Our relationship with God is not about trying accomplish a list of things that we think God wants us to do, but it is really about allowing God to use us to do his will

• Jesus is THE BEST example of someone who asked God to do His will through him

• Spending time with  Jesus will help us to remember what is really important: things like taking care of widows, orphans or the foreigner among us; instead of performing religious acts to feel close to God
• When we spend time with Jesus, we get to remember how righteous he was and learn about what God truly wants from us
• Spending time with Jesus can also help us to enjoy the simpler things in life and see how Jesus is present in these everyday life events. For example, when we spend time taking care of our family members or providing for the needs of others, we can imitate Jesus and the way he did these things, naturally and with a righteous heart, as he went along his daily life.
• How are you going to allow God to use you to do his will this week?

Sunday Sermon Notes 6/13/2021

Read Genesis 2:23-24, Colossians 1:18 and Ephesians 5:30

• When a man and woman get married, they become one flesh, after the man leaves his parents
• Jesus, who had ultimate supremacy, left his Father in Heaven, and came to earth to show us how to follow God and married the church, that is us
• We are members of the church, the one body, the bride of Jesus
• So now, when God looks at the church, he sees us because we have been reconciled to Him through Jesus’s sacrifice

Read Deuteronomy 22:13-21

• In Jewish custom, the women had to prove virginity in order not to be stoned
• Remember, Mary was pregnant with Jesus before marrying Joseph?
• Jesus was willing to be born of an unmarried woman, which was a lowly stigma in that time
• When we were still sinners, Jesus died for us anyway, this is outside of the culture of Jewish tradition

Read John 1:11 and Matthew 15:24

• Jesus went to his own people, they rejected him
• When we say “no” to Jesus, he keeps returning to help us reconcile back to him
• He was willing to go against Jewish tradition and even helped a Canaanite woman, he makes exceptions to meet needs when necessary. 
• He goes above and beyond laws to take care of people

Read Hosea 3:1-4 and 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 and Hebrews 5:7

• Hosea had to buy back his wife
• This is how God feels about “buying” adulteress people
• Hosea had to love his wife the same way
• We were bought at a price, so we should honor God with our bodies
• Jesus paid for his “wife” the church, with his very life
• Jesus was submissive to God’s plan of reconciliation for his people
• What makes you drop to your knees and cry out to God like Jesus did?

Read John 10:16, Isaiah 53 and Ephesians 6:25

• Jesus went against tradition again, and brought Jews and Gentiles together
• He was willing to do anything to save us, like give up his life and come here to earth