Thursday's Power Lunch Outline

Hello men, the outline from the Thursday Power lunch is copied below. We are made from the dust and to the dust we will return. It is God who breathes/inspires the life we have. This lesson encourages us to become the best dirt we can be through God's grace, truth and love. Enjoy!

God bless, Billy

REAL Men Bible Study

Good Dirt

2/11/10

I. Genesis 3: 17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

II. Parable of the Four Soils Receiving Seed – Matthew 13

Ø Path – birds came and ate it

Ø Rocky soil – hard times killed it

Ø Thorny soil – choked by too much competition

Ø Good soil – 100x,60x, 30 more than was planted – very productive

Christ’s interpretation

Matthew 13: 18 "Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23 But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

III. Which Soil are You?

Ø Hardened – does life make you better or bitter?

Ø Shallow – living an unexamined life?

Ø Unfocused/ out of control – chasing after too much?

Ø Rich/accepting/giving – produces much fruit/achievement

IV. Perform a Self Examination

2 Corinthians 13: 5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?

1 John 3: 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.