Life Lessons from the Word

LIFE LESSONS

FROM THE WORD

Dr. Q. E. Hammonds

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: 1-800-839-8640

© 2013 by Dr. Q. E. Hammonds. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/14/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1791-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1790-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1789-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013902904

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

I.   Doctrine

Unity in Teaching in the Church

Christ’s Power Over Demons

Five conditions of answered prayer

Five Crowns

Forgiveness And Fasting

Glorification

Justification by Faith

What Jesus says about worry.

Making a Difference through Love

Making a Difference through Prayer

Making the Hard Decisions Easy

The Pastoral Epistles

New Testament Teaching on Divorce

The Lesson of the Feeding of the 500

Read What You See

Salvation in Christ

Stretching Our Love

Striving for Excellence

Striving for Excellence, Part Two

Temperance

Temperance in Finance

The God Ordained Family

The Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God, Part 2

II.   The Mind of Christ

Jesus Calms the Storm

Jesus Chose the Team

Jesus is rejected

Jesus made a difference in and after church.

Jesus Makes People Free

Jesus’ Preaching, Teaching and Authority

Jesus’ Standard on Prayer

Jesus’ Standard on Prayer

Jesus’ Standard of Excellence

The Mind of Christ on Spiritual Priorities

The Mind of Christ on Prosperity

The Mind of Christ on His return

The Mind of Christ on the Kingdom of Heaven

III.   Youth and Children

There is a lad here

God Listens to Us

God Created and Knows Us

God’s Way in the Home

Good Friends

How Jesus Acted in Church

Jesus Loves Little Children

Jesus’ Preaching and Teaching

The Power of a Child’s Prayer

The True Family of Jesus

Sincerity before God

The Childhood of Jesus

The Importance of Children

Jesus Interprets the Ten Commandments

God’s Word is Right

Supreme Loyalty to God

IV.   Overcoming

Biblical Formula for Handling Failure

Expected to Make a Difference

Family Overcoming a Spiritual Crisis

Lesson on Generational Curse

Overcoming Grief

Overcoming a Dysfunctional Family

Overcoming Medical Crisis in the Family

Overcoming Obstacles That Can Destroy A Marriage

V.   Church

Be Found Faithful

Worship

Biblical Giving

Biblical Giving

Faith and Healing

Faith in Salvation

Faith that would not be denied

Healed to Wholeness

Holding to your convictions

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my loving Mother, Mrs. Rubye Turner Hammonds Delemus. It was from you Mother that I caught the Holy fire of love for the word of God. You were my first teacher, got me my first Bible with S&H Green Stamps. You were my biggest cheerleader but raised me with a firm hand and high morals. I thank God for you. As long as your students live, you will live. Your influence has given you immortality on earth, your love for Jesus has given you immortality in heaven.

Introduction

Those of you who know me will probably understand why I have been described as a teacher with a hoop, or a scholar with a holler. My firm conviction is that the Bible is a book to be believed, respected, reverenced, but most of all lived. In my years of feeding the sheep of God I have developed a deep affection for the contextually interpreted word of God. The Bible is not old school or out dated. The Bible speaks to the people of God today just as real as it did many years ago.

I have been blessed to lead God’s people as a Pastor for 34 years, 2 years at the New St. Paul Baptist Church of Bessemer and 32 years at the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church of Birmingham. God has been so good to me. He has placed me in situations across the years where I had to prepare myself to teach. From District Association Sunday School Congresses to State and National Congresses. From Church Seminars and Workshops to Seminars and Bible Colleges. God has used me to teach Biblical materials as well as Biblical methods. I am so grateful.

The lessons in this book were written and taught by me in our family Bible study class at the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. The class was started on a Sunday night in my office with bold soldiers that I called the Faithful Five. Now hundreds of God’s people are blessed in four different weekday and night classes. Particular care was put into the development of these lessons because they addressed particular situations that we experienced in the life of our church. I also realize that every church goes through situations. Satan attacks every church that stands for Jesus. Our redemption is in Matthew 4:4, Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.

These lessons will show your people that there is victory for the church. Victory for our youth, victory for the family, victory for the individual person, victory in Jesus. These lessons were all written in the last ten years. They give you enough structure to point you in the right direction but not too much substance to overshadow your own spiritual gift. They are divided into five sections: 1. Doctrine, Bible doctrine not denominational doctrine. 2. The mind of Christ, teaching straight from the lips of Jesus. 3. Youth and Children, lessons written to address the issues that our youth have concerning the church. 4. Overcoming, this section is devoted to helping the reader to be victorious over lifes obstacles. 5. Church, this section deals with how you are to conduct yourself in the body.

I recommend this book to all Pastor’s, Ministers, Teacher’s, and Christian Education Workers who are serious about giving the people of God a healthy dose of the word of God. God bless you in your ministry to Biblically educate God’s people. In victory Q.E.

DOCTRINE

I Timothy 1:1-12

Unity in Teaching in the Church

Timothy is serving in the church at Ephesus. He has been given authority by the Apostle Paul to command or charge certain in the church to remain within the unity that existed when he was present. The desire of Paul was not a secret for he says in Ephesians 4:11-15, It was he (Jesus) who gave gifts to mankind; he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers. He did this to prepare all God’s people for the work of Christian service, in order to build up the body of Christ. And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God; we shall become mature people reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature. Then we shall no longer be children carried by the waves and blown about by every shifting wind of the teaching of deceitful men, who lead others into error by the tricks they invent. Instead by speaking the truth in a spirit of love, we must grow up in every way to Christ, who is the head. The Good Shepherd translation, recommended for children. The end result of unified teaching is the building up of the Church. Now that Paul is away, he urges Timothy to keep the doctrinal unity.

Word Study

1.   Other doctrine-heterodidaskaleo, hetero(different)+didaskaleo(teaching)

2.   fables-muthos, a tale, fiction

3.   minister—parecho, bring near, show trouble

4.   teacher of the law-nomodidaskaleo, nomos(law), didaskaleo(teaching), Rabbi

5.   charge-parangello, give command, declare

Reasons for there to be unity in teaching in the Local Church.

1.   Disagreement in teaching causes confusion in the body, verse 4.

2.   Disagreement in teaching causes division based on personality, 1Corinthians 1:10-13.

3.   Disagreement in teaching doesn’t make mature believers, verse 4.

A.   Disagreement in teaching doesn’t accomplish the goal of teaching, verse 5. love from a pure heart good conscience, moral thinking

B.   Sincere faith, without dissimilation or hypocrisy.

Exegesis is to draw out of a passage what it means, Eisogesis is to read into a passage what you want it to mean. Too many times in teaching the teacher reads into a passage what he or she believes instead or drawing out of it the meaning that God put into it. Then to prove their point they will take another verse out of context as confirmation. When this is consistent it leads to division in the body and Satan has an opportunity to enter because of the confusion. That is why it is important that we who are at Antioch speak the same mind, not our minds but the mind of Christ. If we will grow and mature we must be unified in what we teach. Since God, not me, set the teaching agenda in the church in the hands of the Pastor, (Ephesians 4:11, 1Timothy 3:2, 1Timothy 5:17), those who teach in this church should be unified with the Pastor. It only causes confusion when the Pastor teaches one thing and those who serve in lesser teaching capacities teaching something else. Everyone has the right to disagree with the Pastor, but no one has the right to openly teach concepts that contradict the pastor’s teaching. The end result is confusion, frustration and divided loyalty. The solution is simply, if you cannot agree with your Pastor in teaching, DON’T TEACH! The alternative is going and placing yourself under a Pastor that shares your view on issues. That way there is no confusion in the church where you will go and the source of the confusion will be gone from the church that you left. Philippians 1:1-2, Paul’s prayer is that there will be peace (absence of confusion), between Bishops, Deacons and Church.

Christ’s Power Over Demons

Mark 5:1-20

The storm of chapter four had a two-fold purpose. One was to test the faith of the disciples and the other to keep Jesus from getting to Gadara. Jesus had a great mission in Gadara for as soon as he got off the ship he was met by a man who was possessed by demons. Demons are real. They are spiritual beings at enmity with God and having power to afflict man not only with disease by with spiritual pollution that can affect the mind. By them being spirits they have to have bodies to express themselves. People who are not spiritual and even animals as you will see in the lesson can be possessed by demons. The man in the lesson calls himself Legion. A Legion is a regiment, a Roman army of about 6000 soldiers. What he was saying to Jesus was that there were 6000 demons in one body. But Jesus Christ shows us that he has power over demons. There are some people who have been diagnosed as crazy that are just demon possessed. There are some people that have been diagnosed as ill that are just demon possessed. Key word SOME. If the condition is demonic then it can be handled by the word of God. We don’t need an exorcism; we need the word of God to be victorious over demons.

I.   Life before Christ, verse 1-5

A.   Peculiar Residence, verse 3

B.   Could Not be controlled, verse 4

C.   Destructive Strength, verse 4b

D.   Restless and self destructive, verse 5.

II.   Legion Meets Jesus, verse 6-13

A.   Deceitful humility, verse 6

B.   Admits Jesus’ superior authority, verse 7

C.   The WORD of Jesus expelled the demons, verse