Buckling Under Pressure

BUCKLING UNDER PRESSURE

 
 

Pray before lesson!

Okay, let’s start out today’s lesson with a question. My question to you is, will YOU buckle under pressure?

You ask, What pressure am I talking about?

Scripture Text:

• Matt. 26:33-35
• Mark 14:29-31
• Luke 22:33-34

Now to clarify my question, will YOU buckle under the pressure to deny Christ?

I suspected you would all say, no, uh uh, not me. I would never deny Christ. I love him. I love this way of life. This is the good life. No one could ever persuade me any different. After all just like the song we sing here "I choose to be a Christian". I would never cave into deny Christ.

Yeah, right! Isn’t that what Peter just said? Oh Lord, I will even die with you, but let’s see what he did.

Scripture Text: 

• Matt. 26:69-75
• Mark 14:65-72
• Luke 22:54-62

Oh looky here, Peter, Jesus’ #1 disciple, did just that in the face of peer pressure. What about you? How do you react to peer pressure. Now I know you all say, I love this Christian life, and I like who and what I am, but really I want you to think about it. Let’s talk about it. First let’s see why perhaps Peter denied Jesus. Was it just fear? Let’s examine the scriptures.  (Discuss in detail the afore read verses)

Now let’s examine ourselves and see where we stand. Would we deny Christ if the pressure was on. I’m not talking about completely giving up this Christian life and never going to church again, although that can happen if we’re not careful. I’m talking about how you act when you are faced with questions about God or church. Do you act as if you don’t know God. How about this, has someone ever asked you about speaking in tongues? Yeah that a good one. What did you tell them? Oh, no I don’t speak in tongues. I never heard of such a thing. Do people really do that.

Or how about the question, "why do you wear skirts all the time?" Do you answer, Oh that’s just because of my religion? I don’t really want to but I have to. My mom makes me wear these things.

What about the pressure to act like your worldly friends. You may not dress and look like them, but have you adopted their actions and attitudes into your life when you are around them? You have a need to fit in with the crowd so you feel the pressure to act like them and talk like them to make sure you won’t be thrown out of the group. Maybe you’ve adopted their slang talk, their rebellious attitudes or smartalecky attitudes. You may not partake in things like smoking or out and out cussing (or maybe you do), but just picking up on these attitudes and actions is like denying Christ. Maybe you do this so you won’t have to fear persecution and ridicule because of your Christian life. Maybe it’s because deep down you are ashamed of who and what you are. After all, isn’t that why we try to act like our friends to fit in, because we are ashamed who we "really" are? Isn’t that the same as denying Christ? Are you guilty?

Jesus said, "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Mark 8:38

Do you live a double life, acting like the world when you’re around the people of the world and then acting like Christian’s when you are around other Christians? However, we shouldn’t have a Christian life and a worldly life. We should only have a Christian life. We should be the same at all times, like God is the same at all times. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. He is always holy and so also should we be.

We need to take some time to reflect on this and examine ourselves.

I know we all sing and love the song "I choose to be a Christian, I choose to be like him, nobody’s making me do it, this is how I want to live. You decide for you and I’ll decide for me, the choice is mine, this is what I choose to be." Do you really mean that?

Oh I know you all say, not me. I would never deny Christ, but I want you to ask yourself today, am I like Peter? When the pressure is on do I also deny Christ? If so, we need to work on changing that about ourselves. After all, we are the only hope of salvation for this world and if we continually or regularly deny Christ by acting like our friends or making excuses for our religion, we will never be able to point them to Christ that they can be saved. If they constantly see your shame in who and what you really are, they will never find their way to God.

The apostle Paul said, and this is our memory verse this week.

Memory verse:

Romans 1:16—For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

　

RECIPE EXCHANGE

Every lady has a "signature" dish or dessert, a family favorite, that she takes to just about every social gathering she attends and EVERYONE wants the recipe.  Why not get your ladies group together and host a recipe exchange? 

Choose a date, time and place to get your ladies together. 

Decorations:  If you are like me and just have to decorate for the occasion, use posterboards made to look like "oversized" recipe cards and stick them on the walls, or hang recipe cards from the ceiling.  Table centerpieces could include such things as recipe books and "ingredients" (sugar, flour, spices, etc.), measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls, etc.  Use your imagination.

Use recipe cards for invitations.  Ask each lady to bring her all time favorite homemade dish or dessert.  This can be anything she chooses.  Have each lady print out enough copies of her recipe for each of the other ladies to take a copy home.

Each lady should also bring a hearty appetite as the fun part of this meeting is sampling everyone's yummy dish or dessert.  The added treat is that each lady then gets to take a copy of each recipe home with her. 

Note:  When you hand out invitations you can provide each lady with a stack of index cards or recipe cards to print their recipe on.  There are many online sources for free recipe card printouts. 

Click on the recipe card above for a print out page for this recipe card

Suggestions:  Instead of allowing each lady to bring the type of dish she wants, you can change it up a bit and ask each lady to bring a specific type of dish; for example, a main dish, a side dish, appetizer or dessert, etc.   That way there will be a variety of recipes to sample. 

Other options:  This type of meeting could be held around the holidays.  Have each lady bring their favorite holiday recipe.  It could also be done as a "just desserts" recipe exchange.  Have each lady bring their favorite dessert.  There are many options to this type of meeting.  Be creative and have fun!!!

Party favor idea:  If your budget allows, you could provide each lady with a small scrapbook, purse-size photo album or recipe organizer to keep her newly acquired recipes in.

Sleeping with the Enemy

It's no secret that we are quickly approaching October 31st, the day deemed as "Halloween".  Many years ago, against the warnings of godly men and woman, our country adopted this day as an american holiday.  Since that time, many american families have celebrated Halloween as a fun family tradition. As a matter of fact, Halloween has become so popular that it is given as much thought and attention to as Christmas in most american homes.  In retail, sales of Halloween related items has sky rocketed and is threatening to top Christmas in sales worldwide.  Halloween is quickly becoming the #1 celebrated holiday.  Now that is SCARY!!

In recent years the denominal Chrisian world, and some Apostolics, have also embraced Halloween as a holiday on their calendar. Many churches and youth groups across the country now celebrate this day by hosting a Trunk or Treat, a costume party or passing out Halloween tracts to the neighborhood children.  This is not only scary, it is downright DISTURBING!!! 

I have to ask, has everyone lost their minds?  Have they forgotten what Halloween truly is and where it originated from?  Have they forgotten what Halloween is in celebration of?  Halloween was not created by someone whose interest was to make children happy by filling them up on candy, or by someone who just wanted another occasion to celebrate. 

Halloween originated straight out of the depths of hell when the Druids, the priests of Satan's church, dedicated this day (or night, I should say) on their calendar to celebrate the dead, to worship and offer sacrifice to Satan and the gods of the underworld.  It was a night dedicated for the spirits of unrest to roam the earth seeking whom they might inhabit.  The wearing of masks and costumes was adopted so that humans could "disguise" themselves in order to trick the evil spirits from being able capture and possess them.  Halloween is the night that witches, wizards and enchanters all over the world practice their evil magic, casting spells and holding seances to call the dead up from the underworld.  It is the devil's day and there is nothing "holy" about it.  The Druids held the midnight hour, the hour known as the bewitching hour,  as sacred.  They revere darkness instead of light and anyone who participates in anything that was and is held sacred by them are "flirting with evil".

With that in mind, I have to ask why in the world would people who claim be to Christians have anything to do with this event or allow their children to partake in it?  Aren't we the children of light and life?  Then why would we consider participating in anything that holds darkness and the dead sacred.  Have we forgotten what the bible teaches?

Be ye NOT unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?  And what communion hath light with darkness.  And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  Wherefore come out from among them and be ye SEPARATE, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.  2 Corin. 6:14-17

This is not just talking about not being married to someone who isn't a believer.  It is talking about fellowshipping and partaking in the things, including the activities and celebrations, of unbelievers. 

Besides all this, the Bible clearly tells us in passage after passage that God's people should have nothing to do with the dead, with witches, wizards, sorcerers, enchanters, those with familiar spirits, necromancers, observers of time, or any other person, group or sect who practices magic, deceipt and who delves into a spiritual world with which they do not belong.  To actively partake in any of their rituals or customs is an abomination to God.  In fact God considers you to have "cheated on him".  It's one thing for the unbelieving world to partake in this evil day, but for a Christian to partake in Halloween, no matter what their reasoning, has graduated from just flirting with evil to sleeping with the enemy, and their very soul is at stake. 

And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. 

Lev. 20:6

Enter NOT into the path of the wicked, and go NOT in the way of evil men. Prov. 4:14

There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: 
Deut. 18:10-12

For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for THEE, the Lord thy God hath NOT suffered thee so to do.  Deut. 18:14

We, God's people, have not been given permission to partake in these sorts of celebrations, though we dwell in the same land as those who do.  As a matter of fact, WE have been told NOT to do so, and the Christian world, especially Apostolics, would do themselves well to STOP celebrating the devils holiday!  It's time to quit "Sleeping with the Enemy"!!!