Learning to Love My Friend(s) 2

We had a family meeting Sunday night at Eddyville. I invited people to help with processing the information for the congregational self-study. The wife of one of our elders, Emma Walker, has kept attendance and contribution records for 46 years. That will be valuable in looking at our past. I have been editing and fomatting the self-study questionaire that I received from Charles Siburt. We need people to print, fold, colate, and staple those. More than enough people volunteered to help. I am encouaged.

We had our second home Bible study at the home of one of our deacons tonight. Everyone was present and participated well. We talked tonight about how we can better understand and help others. I am including the outline below.

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My Friend Jesus Understands Me
Lesson 2

Three aims of this study:
1. Learn to love and appreciate Jesus more as my Friend.
2. Become more like Jesus in my friendship with others as He is a Friend to me.
3. Learn to teach and communicate to others that they also can have a friendship with Jesus.

I. JESUS UNDERSTANDS ME BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT I AM THINKING. John 2:24,25; Acts 1:24

II. THE LORD KNOWS ME INSIDE OUT. Psalm 139:1-12

III. HOW CAN I BE LIKE JESUS IN UNDERSTANDING SINCE I CAN'T READ ANOTHER'S MIND? 1 Corinthians 2:11
A. How do you feel when someone tries to read your mind?
B. How accurate are you in reading another's mind?

IV. HOW CAN I HELP OTHERS BE LIKE JESUS IN UNDERSTANDING WHAT THEY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ME? Matthew 7:7,8; James 5:14

V. I NEED TO LEARN TO LISTEN. James 1:19
A. Because many people have answers to their own problems; but they need the assistance of friends who can help them draw them out. Proverbs 20:5
B. This means that I need to be slow to talk. James 1:19
1. I cannot talk and listen at the same time.
2. I may speak before I understand, be embarrassed, and be ineffective. Proverbs 18:13
C. Some advice from Jesus.
1. Take heed what you hear. Mark 4:24
2. Take heed how you hear. Luke 8:18
3. Am I trying to learn the truth or am I trying to get my way? John 8:32
4. Have I listened to more than one side of a disagreement? Proverbs 18:17
D. Am I listening to answer or understand?
1. How important is motive in our actions and in the actions of others? Proverbs 4:23
2. Am I irritated at the person to whom I am talking and what they are doing or not doing because it reminds me of something I am doing or not doing? Luke 6:39-45
3. Do you think that many people sin because they want to sin and be unhappy or because they haven't thought through the consequences of their actions? Luke 23:34; Acts 3:17; 1 Corinthians 2:7,8
4. How could it be possible for someone to be living outside of God's will, even for a long time, and not realize it? 1 John 1:8
5. If I can learn to be a friend to others as Jesus is a friend to me in understanding, what are the opportunities for me to help:
a. Others who are my friends? 2 Samuel 12:1-13
(1) How long had it been since David had committed the sins of adultery and murder? 2 Samuel 11:27
(2) If it were possible for David, who was a man after God's own heart, to commit the sins of adultery and murder and not realize the impact of his disobedience for that long, could it be possible for that to happen to people today?
(3) How could listening to understand rather than listening to answer be both more helpful and easier?
b. Myself?
(1) If I learn something about myself while trying to understand others, what are some possible reactions I might have?
(2) How could this be an opportunity for my growth? Psalm 51:6; Psalm 139:23,24; Galatians 6:1
(3) How do I grow, change? Matthew 13:15

The factory engine wouldn’t start
And so they took the thing apart
To search for flaws.
They took it down from top to base,
They looked at flange and gear and case,
To find the cause.
“Something’s broken,” they declared,
“And what it is must be repaired.”

Nearby a drowsy workman stood,
And someone muttered: “He’s no good;
Just let him go.”
They did not take that man apart,
Or think to search his mind and heart,
The cause to know.
Nobody thought to ask him why
There was no luster in his eye.

But had they looked into the gloom
Of what he called a sitting room,
Or searched his life
They would have found a woman frail,
Tubercular and drawn and pale,
Who was his wife.
And then they might have understood
Why he seemed to be no good.

When engines in a factory stop
We search the things from base to top;
But when a man breaks
We seldom pause,
To search his life to find the cause.
Yet we might mend him could we find
The thing that’s preying on his mind.

- Anonymous