Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

17 - The Lord's Day

In Luke 6:1-5, we're looking at an event in Jesus' ministry where the subject of the Sabbath comes up. We'll look at what the issues were, what the Lord says about it, and we'll look at some practical things about the business of giving a day to the Lord. We'll talk about whether it's required or not and what might be the benefits of it. 

 

To purchase Pastor Steve's new book Understanding Acts: Life-Changing Lessons from the Early Church, visit Amazon. 

Also check out our website at lifelessonspublishing.com for additional resources for pastors and leaders. We have free recorded classes and other materials offered at no charge. 

And check us out on Instagram as well!

16 - The New Wine

The new wine is an illustration that Jesus gives. The Pharisees, along with the disciples of John the Baptist, can't understand why Jesus and His disciples are not adhering to the same rituals, like fasting and Sabbath observance, that they do. Jesus answers in Luke 5:34-39 and says, "I am bringing a new spiritual walk with God. I am not rejuvenating Judaism. I am making a break and introducing a whole new walk with God." What we have as Christians is deeply, foundationally different than any man or woman in the Old Testament. Yes, there will be saved people in heaven from the old covenant, but what Jesus brought is so different that the old and new cannot be put together. It's new wine. 

To purchase Pastor Steve's new book Understanding Acts: Life-Changing Lessons from the Early Church, visit Amazon. 

Also check out our website at lifelessonspublishing.com for additional resources for pastors and leaders. We have free recorded classes and other materials offered at no charge. 

And check us out on Instagram as well!

 

 

15 - Resurrection Faith

As we read Luke's account of that first Resurrection Day, we are startled by the unbelief and confusion in the disciples as they discover the Lord has been resurrected. If Jesus had never explained what would happen to Him, their response might have been understandable. But that was not the case. Jesus had clearly taught that He would die and rise again after three days (see; Lk. 9:22-24,44,45; Mt. 12:40; 16:21-25; Jn. 2:18-22). Oddly enough, though His own disciples did not understand Him, the religious leaders who opposed Him did hear Him and understood exactly what He meant (Mt. 27:62-66). Why were His own so confused, while those who didn't believe in Him were not?

 

To purchase Pastor Steve's new book Understanding Acts: Life-Changing Lessons from the Early Church, visit Amazon. 

Also check out our website at lifelessonspublishing.com for additional resources for pastors and leaders. We have free recorded classes and other materials offered at no charge. 

And check us out on Instagram as well!

 

14 - Seeking the Lost

In this account of the Lord's calling of Matthew to be His disciple, we see a stark contrast between the heart of God and the attitudes of religious people toward unbelievers. Whereas God is merciful and aggressive in seeking to rescue lost people, religion tends to build up a wall of separation. First we need to understand how and why that wall builds up, then we need to look carefully at Jesus and listen to some of His pertinent parables to discover how God wants us to relate to unbelievers.

 

To purchase Pastor Steve's new book Understanding Acts: Life-Changing Lessons from the Early Church, visit Amazon. 

Also check out our website at lifelessonspublishing.com for additional resources for pastors and leaders. We have free recorded classes and other materials offered at no charge. 

And check us out on Instagram as well!

 

13 - Overcoming Obstacles to Faith

When people reached Jesus, their restoration came easily. But there are obstacles that keep us from coming to Jesus and receiving His care. Our lesson today gives us two powerful examples of people who refused to let obstacles keep them from receiving from Jesus. As we read these accounts, not only do we see Jesus' power to touch lives, but we are prophetically confronted by models of aggressive faith. These people pressed through hindrances until they reached Jesus. Once they were face to face with Him, the answer to their need came quickly. The principles we'll see here are not only applicable to physical healing but to deliverance, guidance, transformation of attitudes, forgiveness, reception of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit andgeneral spiritual renewal.

The main gift of the Holy Spirit we see at work in both the leper and the friends of the paralytic is faith. Their faith in Christ impelled them through whatever obstacles would keep them from Him, until finally, face to face, they found their answer. Let's look more closely at the issues that are raised here and ask ourselves if any of these keep us from breaking through into Christ's presence to find our answer. 

 

To purchase Pastor Steve's new book Understanding Acts: Life-Changing Lessons from the Early Church, visit Amazon. 

Also check out our website at lifelessonspublishing.com for additional resources for pastors and leaders. We have free recorded classes and other materials offered at no charge. 

And check us out on Instagram as well!

 

 

12 - Deliverance from Demons

America is now a nation of religious and cultural pluralism, witti a Christian minority. As a society, we are rapidly discarding the Judeo-Christian worldview and ethics that were the agreed upon norm of past generations. Biology, geology, astronomy, and psychology in particular have been used to sever us from our theological roots. Also, nearly uncontrolled immigration has accelerated us toward pluralism by introducing foreign religions with growing populations of adherents. At the same time, historic denominations have turned to human reasonings rather than the Bible for at least the past seventy-five years, producing leaders who no longer believe in the Christianity of the apostles. Evangelism and regeneration of the individual has declined. Rootless, independent churches have filled this vacuum, often collapsing or perverting the faith, leaving a legacy that strips believers of their zeal and reduces Christianity's credibility with unbelievers. The spiritual effect of all of this is to open the door to varieties of non-biblical behavior and spirituality. As a result, open demonization will no longer be a foreign phenomenon.

 

To purchase Pastor Steve's new book Understanding Acts: Life-Changing Lessons from the Early Church, visit Amazon. 

Also check out our website at lifelessonspublishing.com for additional resources for pastors and leaders. We have free recorded classes and other materials offered at no charge. 

And check us out on Instagram as well!

 

11 - Discipleship

If you knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that God existed, that the Bible was true, that there was a heaven and a hell, that Jesus Christ is the savior, would you be His disciple? How would that change your life? What would it do to you? Jesus has just done a miracle by bringing a load of fish into Peter's net, and Peter now knows God is real. In this episode we look closely at the process of Jesus doing a miracle and the effects on Peter seeing and receiving it. 

To purchase Pastor Steve's new book Understanding Acts: Life-Changing Lessons from the Early Church, visit Amazon. 

Also check out our website at lifelessonspublishing.com for additional resources for pastors and leaders. We have free recorded classes and other materials offered at no charge. 

And check us out on Instagram as well!

 

10 - A Prophet at Home

For most of the past 30 years Jesus has been a normal young man in Nazareth, except, of course, for the fact that He has done nothing to disobey God. He had become the village carpenter, working alongside Joseph His stepfather, and He was regularly found studying in the synagogue and known to be a godly man by the whole village (Lk. 2:52). But over the last few months God has done some profound things in His life. He has been baptized in the Holy Spirit, fasted for forty days, was tempted by the devil himself and has ministered healing & deliverance to many people on numerous occasions. He has even risen up as a prophet and has driven the commercial activities off the temple grounds in a stormy confrontation during Passover. In other words, He is not the same person He was before leaving Nazareth. He is returning as the Messiah of Israel and the Holy Spirit is proving His claims in powerful ways.

What we see in this passage is an illustration of the principle that "a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household" (Mt. 13:57). Rather than rejoicing at what God is doing through someone raised in their own village, Nazareth exhibits more hostility toward the Lord than any other town in Galilee. Unfortunately, Jesus is modeling a pattern of rejection experienced by all who try to minister to the people closest to them.

 

To purchase Pastor Steve's new book Understanding Acts: Life-Changing Lessons from the Early Church, visit Amazon. 

Also check out our website at lifelessonspublishing.com for additional resources for pastors and leaders. We have free recorded classes and other materials offered at no charge. 

And check us out on Instagram as well!

 

 

 

 

9 - The Temptations of a Minister Pt 2

To understand these temptations of Jesus and to recognize how they might apply in our own lives, we must see that these are temptations designed to assault a particular kind of person: they are the temptations the devil brings against someone whose heart is set to serve the Lord. They are the temptations of a minister. Each temptation strikes at a different aspect of our Lord's commitment to serve God. Last week we saw Him tempted to break away from ministering only at the leading of the Holy Spirit. Was God going to let Him starve in the wilderness? Should He do a miracle that the Spirit hadn't led Him to do to save His life? His answer from Scripture meant that He would trust God's care for Him and God's power to speak what He needed into existence. On this episode we see the second and third temptations intended to undermine the Lord's ministry. In the second temptation the devil shows his success in corrupting the hearts of the human race. He tries to convince Jesus that it is impossible for Him to fulfill His calling without compromising with the sinful ways of the world. God's method of ministering in humility and suffering would never work. And trying to turn the world around using only the simple people who would follow Him was an impossibility even for God. Satan was trying to get Him to be more "realistic" and turn away from the path of suffering and rejection.

 

To purchase Pastor Steve's new book Understanding Acts: Life-Changing Lessons from the Early Church, visit Amazon. 

Also check out our website at lifelessonspublishing.com for additional resources for pastors and leaders. We have free recorded classes and other materials offered at no charge. 

And check us out on Instagram as well!

 

 

8 - Temptations of a Minister Pt 1

Jesus' three temptations in Luke chapter 4 are not just run of the mill temptations. They are the temptations of someone who is set on serving God and has an anointing and call on their life. So this is true of an earnest believer, a minister full of the Spirit. The devil also has temptations for that person. And the Lord will actually allow it; in fact, it is part of the process. And that's what we are seeing in Jesus' life here. We see the devil going after a person who is following after the Lord. 

To purchase Pastor Steve's new book Understanding Acts: Life-Changing Lessons from the Early Church, visit Amazon. 

Also check out our website at lifelessonspublishing.com for additional resources for pastors and leaders. We have free recorded classes and other materials offered at no charge. 

And check us out on Instagram as well!