In Your Bible Read This
Isaiah Chapter 61; Matthew 22, 1-14
Here Is Your Memory Verse
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to preach
good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the
prisoners,
recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed and
to proclaim the year of the Lords favour. Luke 4.18-19
Afterwards Talk About
This
In your town, who are these people Isaiah 61 talks about.
Name names,
occupations and locations. Pray for them.
Something To Do Before
Next Time
As a team, after much binding and loosing prayer, visit the
red-light district
of your town to sing, preach Jesus and offer love and friendship
to people
who are deeply lost and gripped by sin and Satan.
Written Diploma Work
Review Romans 1.18-32 and write a page explaining the
downhill
slide into depravity, as it is in actual life.
Meditate Word By Word On
This Verse
Ezekiel 36, 37-38
- Spend
a Minute to Change the World
- Pray For Uganda - 22,000,000
Bantus & Nilotics
- 84% Christians, 8%
Muslims, War followed a 60 year revival
- Huge orphans &
AIDS problems
-
Be sure to
teach this lesson to others.
Always pray and
prepare well adding
your own verses and
stories to bring it to life.
In Isaiah 61.4
there is a special promise -
They will rebuild the ancient ruins,
and restore the places long devastated, they will renew the
ruined cities, that have been devastated for generations.
Many city centres are beautiful because
money has been spent to make them pleasant for people to work in
and attractive for visitors. But for millions of men, women and
children who live in the inner cities the truth is very different.
They come looking for employment, wages and a better life but all
they find is -
Unemployment, poverty, exploitation,
pollution, drugs, vice, crime, sickness and violence. For them,
and for God the cities are moral and spiritual ruins where life
has been devastated for a long time. Why is this?
1. The Downhill Slide.
Romans 1, 18-32, says that once men forget
the one true living God they fall into the grip of idolatry,
which is the beginning of a slippery, downhill slope. 21-23
The inevitable consequence of idolatry
is another slide, into impurity and immorality. 24,25.
Because immorality never satisfies for
long, men and women fall further into perversity. 26-27.
Finally they hit depravity at the
bottom. People become senseless, faithless, heartless and
ruthless which is the inner city streets with all their
deceit, malice, strife and murder. 1, 28-32
The good news is that God has promised that
"they" will rebuild these ruins, and restore these
devastated places.
2. Who Are These People?
Here is the astonishing answer. Once upon a
time they were poor people, broken-hearted men and women. They
were captives to sin, self and Satan through addictions and abuse.
Once upon a time they were prisoners, even in jail, and their
lives were full of darkness, despair and grief.
- Now they are comforted.
- Now they are beautiful people.
- Now they have joy and gladness.
- Now they are stable, unmoved.
- They are called priests of the
Lord.
-
- And ministers of our God.
- They have wealth to feed on.
- They enjoy even a double portion.
- They look forward to an
inheritance.
- Their descendants bless the
nations.
And everyone who sees them has to admit
that God has blessed them. No wonder they celebrate and
praise God. Isaiah 61, 1-11.
How Did This Happen?
An exchange of lifestyle like this has to be a miracle of
God. The key is in Isaiah 61.1 where someone, a rescuer says,
"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the
Lord has anointed me." Anointing means a calling and
enabling. 1 Samuel 16.13.
3. Who Has The Lord
Anointed?
The Lord God has anointed his Son, Jesus.
Luke 4.16-21 tells us that Jesus went to the synagogue, read the
Isaiah promise publicly and declared that on that day the
prophecy was fulfilled. Jesus then began to do all that God had
promised.
4. What Is Jesus
Anointed For?
To Be Good News For The Poor.
A poor man is a man who humbles himself and asks God for
help, like the leper in Luke 5.12-15 .A man may be wealthy
but if in his spirit he is crying out for help, he is a
humble man. A beggar with nothing might be proud and say
leave me alone.
To Bring Freedom To Prisoners.
When Paul and Silas were in prison in Acts 16, 16-40 they
were praising God at midnight. The Lord sent an earthquake
that shook them free and brought salvation to the jailer as
well. He can do the same for today's prisoners of drugs and
disease.
To Bring Sight To The Blind.
Some people are physically blind, but many can neither
enter nor see God's Kingdom because they are spiritually
blind. Jesus said that they need to be born again. John 3, 3,5.
To Release The Oppressed
It is Jesus who sets people free from the demons that
torment through fear, anger, hatred, rejection, self pity,
failure, with visions and voices at night.
To Declare The Year Of Gods
Favour.
Those street people who were so poor, broken and captive
to sin met Jesus and found that today he is still restoring
men and women to life, health and hope and giving them
dignity and purpose. And the blessing does not stop there.
5. God Also Anoints
Street People.
Jesus said that when the Spirit of the
Sovereign Lord comes you also receive power to tell people that
Jesus is alive today and doing the miracles in the inner city.
Acts 1.8.
Jesus said that if anyone has faith in
him he would also do all that Jesus had been doing and even
greater things. John 14.12
Jesus said that just as his Father sent
him to rescue men and women in this sin stricken and demon
possessed world so he is sending his disciples to continue
the work of rescue and restoration. So the very people who
were the victims of the streets become the rescuers. They are
the ones that Jesus is anointed for, comes for, changes,
anoints and sends to rebuild and restore the lives that sin,
sickness and Satan has ruined.
Taken from the
Joshua Project Unreached Peoples List
these people have no church and as yet
no cell, church or mission has committed themselves
to prayer, adoption or church planting among this people.
Kazakhstan
|
People Name |
Language |
Population
|
Chechen, Shishan |
Chechen |
52,000
|
Kurd, Northern (Kermanji) |
Kermanji (Kurmanji) |
27,000
|
Parsee |
Parsi (Parsee) |
110,000
|
See all of the
lessons
|