Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

Ep 59 The King's Return, Lk 19:11-27

While escorting Jesus to his home, Zaccheus is overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit and born again through repentance and faith. As they stand in the street, they are surrounded by a great crowd of disciples and onlookers. According to the ancient Roman historian Josephus, approximately two million pilgrims would flood into Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, so the crowds must have been enormous. In this atmosphere the religious excitement is high. Every miracle Jesus does adds to the growing conviction that He is indeed their Messiah and that when He arrives in the capital city, He will begin a revolution to free them from Rome's bondage, like Moses freed them from Egypt's. Unfortunately, in spite of all that Jesus has said earlier (Lk 9:22,44; 18:31-34), even His disciples are caught up in this misguided fervor. So He addresses a parable to them which is intended to correct their thinking so that when He does come to judge the earth, they will not be ashamed.

To purchase Pastor Steve's newest book Understanding Romans: Life-Changing Lessons from Paul's Greatest Letter, visit Amazon. 

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

 

Ep 58 Why I Fear God, Lk 12:1-5

The Lord needs to instill in each of our hearts a healthy fear of Him so that we are protected from sin and the schemes of the devil. We'll talk about the danger of hypocrisy, of developing a hidden life. We'll talk about integrity, of developing a life that is the same no matter who is watching. We'll also define the fear of God and talk about why a Christian should fear God to begin with.

To purchase Pastor Steve's newest book Understanding Romans: Life-Changing Lessons from Paul's Greatest Letter, visit Amazon. 

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

 

 

 

 

Ep 57 Grieved at His Call, Lk 18:18-30

In Luke 18, the rich, young ruler encounters Jesus on the highway on the road south to Jericho. This young man, probably in his late teens or early twenties, is very rich, and he has some kind of position of authority. He falls on his knees in front of Jesus, who looks intently on the man and loves him. But Jesus sees the man is in bondage. Jesus is able to look at our lives and see the thing we really love more than God, even when we don't see it. And Jesus sees this young ruler is in bondage to an idol, one he doesn't know exists.

In this episode we will see how Jesus deals with this young man, and then we'll discuss how Jesus deals with us because we also have things we love in our lives sometimes more than God as well, and we may not even know it until He reveals it to us.  

To purchase Pastor Steve's newest book Understanding Romans: Life-Changing Lessons from Paul's Greatest Letter, visit Amazon. 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ep 56 Kids of the Kingdom, Lk 18: 15-17

In this episode the Lord is currently on His way to Jerusalem at the end of His public ministry on earth. We don't know which town He is in right now, but He is coming down towards Jericho. The crowds are huge right now in His ministry, and in the midst of the thousands of people who are coming for healing, a group of parents are bringing their babies in arms and are asking Jesus to bless their children. And despite the disciples trying to prevent it, one at a time, Jesus folded each child into His arms and laid His hands on each child's head and blessed them. We will talk about four lessons from this occurrence Jesus has with His disciples and the children because the kingdom of heaven is made up of children.

To purchase Pastor Steve's newest book Understanding Romans: Life-Changing Lessons from Paul's Greatest Letter, visit Amazon. 

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

 

Ep 55 The Widow and the Judge, Lk 18:1-8

The Lord told this parable to make sure His followers would never grow discouraged by God's seeming reluctance to punish their enemies. Though it would seem like God was refusing to answer their pleas for relief from persecution, they must not allow this to spoil their faith. They must continue to pray, believing God to answer all their needs.

To purchase Pastor Steve's newest book Understanding Romans: Life-Changing Lessons from Paul's Greatest Letter, visit Amazon. 

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

 

Ep 54 The Last Generation, Lk 17:20-37

Isn't it interesting that Jesus told His disciples about events which would not take place until the end of world history? Today we can say with confidence that many of these things would not take place for at least years (1967 + 32 = 1999; This sermon was originally preached in 1999). Why would believers need to know about something that far in the future? Obviously, Jesus felt they did, as did Paul (2Th 2:5) and Peter (2Pe 3:1-13) and John (1 Jn 4:3). And, if the early church needed this information, then we who are nearly 2,000 years closer to His return need it as much or more.

Jesus knew that to protect believers from being spiritually deceived and to give them the strength, they need to endure persecution; they must have God's perspective of human history. The forces at work in the last generation are present in every generation. As history moves towards its end, hostile spirits have and will spring up and repeatedly express themselves in human society. So by learning to understand what afflicted the last generation, we will recognize the spiritual causes of that which opposes God in our generation. Jesus knew that: 1) every generation will experience these same forces; 2) every generation must be vigilant and informed; 3) every generation needs hope; and 4) every new believer needs to be told these things to protect them.

To purchase Pastor Steve's newest book Understanding Romans: Life-Changing Lessons from Paul's Greatest Letter, visit Amazon. 

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

 

Ep 53 Increase Our Faith, Lk 17:5-10

The apostles have asked the Lord to increase their faith, and in verses six through ten Luke records two of the foundational truths with which He answered them. Both are given to them as parables. The first, in verse six, reminds us to keep our attention focused on the unlimited power of God rather than the size of our own faith. It's God's power that does the work, and all we need is enough true faith to connect with Him. The second truth is the subject of our study today, and in this parable (vs. 7-10), Jesus bluntly warns us to never think we earn answers to prayers because of the service we do for God. When it comes to God answering prayers, He will no more reward us for ministering on His behalf than a slaveowner would reward a slave. The normal tendency in all humans is to try to earn God's blessings. When we have faithfully done things for Him, we assume He will be grateful and therefore be more ready to answer our prayers. But, this attitude is built on the presumption that we can earn God's favor.

By selecting the cruel institution of slavery, Jesus makes it unavoidably clear that when it comes to serving God, hard work would be followed by more hard work and, even after all was done, we still would not have earned one special favor from God. At first glance, this makes God sound like a thankless taskmaster who abuses His servants, but that is not what Jesus is saying, and from many of Jesus' other teachings we know God is not like a slave owner at all. We know He is thankful and will reward us for our service (Lk 12:37,43,47; 19:17) and does not consider us slaves, but rather His adopted children (Lk 15:19,21, 22; Jn 15:15;Gal 4:1-7). But, if we take Jesus' teaching to heart, we will never again rely on our good works to get God to answer our prayers.

To purchase Pastor Steve's newest book Understanding Romans: Life-Changing Lessons from Paul's Greatest Letter, visit Amazon. 

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

 

 

Ep 52 Forgiveness, Lk 17:1-6

In this episode, we are talking about forgiveness. It's one of those subjects you simply have to talk about regularly because offenses come, issues come into our hearts, and we can grow bitter and hard. So God is constantly reminding us through His word to forgive each other.

We will talk about two levels of forgiveness in this episode. We're not just talking about the personal offenses that take place, although we will touch on that, but we are talking in more detail about what happens when we see another believer slip into some serious moral or doctrinal error. God expects us to go after that person. In other words, when I start to slip, we can't say, "It's not my business," because we are a family of believers, and we are indeed our brother's keeper. 

To purchase Pastor Steve's newest book Understanding Romans: Life-Changing Lessons from Paul's Greatest Letter, visit Amazon. 

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

 

 

Ep 51 The Rich Man and Lazarus, Lk 16:19-31

In this parable Jesus pictures the death of two men. One is a rich, self-centered man who had no compassion on the poor, and the other was a beggar named Lazarus. Jesus takes us beyond the grave and lets us see what happens to each as they step into eternity. The passage is meant as a warning against hardening our hearts toward God, thinking that life will go on forever and that we will never have to account for our attitudes. It's also a warning to those who think they can make up excuses for ungodly behavior. We may justify ourselves in our own minds, but we will not fool God at all. 

As we consider the rich man and his hard-hearted family, we will look more closely at the forces that harden a person's heart, and ways in which God is able to soften hearts so a person can be saved before he/she dies. All of us know people who stubbornly resist repenting and turning to God. Understanding why people refuse to turn to God and how God works to win them back to Himself should help us pray for such people and to be more patient while we're waiting. And through it all, we must remember no one loves hard-hearted people more than God (Eze 18:23: Jn 3:16:2Pe 3:9).

To purchase Pastor Steve's newest book Understanding Romans: Life-Changing Lessons from Paul's Greatest Letter, visit Amazon. 

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

 

Ep 50 Managing God's Money, Lk 16:1-13

Listeners, we are so sorry we had a technical glitch in this episode! But we have fixed it, so please listen again.

You and I need to be faithful managers of God's money. But how do we do that in a practical sense?

As we continue through the book of Luke, we are looking in this chapter at more of what Jesus says specifically to His disciples as opposed to the Jewish leaders. So if you are a disciple of Jesus, these words are for you! In this episode we will look at the basic principles of this parable and then ask how we can be faithful managers ourselves.

To purchase Pastor Steve's newest book Understanding Romans: Life-Changing Lessons from Paul's Greatest Letter, visit Amazon. 

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