Free Indeed - Galatians 1:11-24

11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. 18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles--only James, the Lord's brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. 21 Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." 24 And they praised God because of me. - Galatians 1:11-24

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) From whom, and how, did the Apostle Paul receive the Gospel that he preached? (v.11-12)
2) What did the Apostle Paul do to the church of God prior to his conversion? (v.13)
3) What did the Apostle Paul have to boast about in his former religion? (v.14)
4) When was Paul set apart for the cause of Christ? (v.15)
5) What was Paul called to do? (v.15-16)
6) What did Paul do after he was called? (v.17-21)
7) How did the churches in Judea respond to Paul? (v.22-24)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) From whom did you hear the Gospel that you have received?
2) What was your life like prior to your conversion?
3) What was your life like after your conversion?
4) What has the Lord called you to do?
5) How have you responded to your calling?

LIFE LESSONS:
1) A changed life is evidence that we have received the right Gospel message.
2) God's plan for your life is often completely different from your plan for your life.
3) The Lord has a purpose and a plan for the lives of all who respond to His call.

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Free Indeed - Galatians 1:1-10

1 Paul, an apostle--sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-- 2 and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! 10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. - Galatians 1:1-10 NIV

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) "Apostle" means "sent one." Who wrote this letter (epistle), who sent him and who was this epistle written to? (v.1-2)
2) Who was the salutation from and what did the apostle write about our Lord Jesus Christ (what did He do  and why)? (v.3-5)
3) Why was Paul astonished by the members of the church of Galatia? (v.6-7)
4) What was Paul's warning to the church? (v. 8-9)
5) Who was Paul trying to please by issuing his warning? Whom did the apostle serve and try to please? (v.10)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
7) Have you ever heard of another brother or sister in the Christ who did not believe the same gospel of grace that all other Christians believe? If so, briefly describe what their beliefs were and how their beliefs were different from the gospel of grace?
8) What, if anything, did you do to share the truth of the gospel of grace with them?

LIFE LESSONS:
12) The Gospel of Grace is that Christians are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and nothing else.
13) Those believers who insist on earning salvation through "self effort" or other "works of the flesh" are in error.
14) Salvation by good works (external behavior) is a false gospel.

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Noah's Sons - Genesis 9:18-29

18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth. 20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." 26 He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. 27 May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave." 28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 Altogether, Noah lived 950 years, and then he died.- Genesis 9:18-29

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) What were the names of Noah's sons?
2) What became of their descendants?
3) What two shameful things did Noah do?
4) What did Ham do when he saw his father's shameful condition?
5) What did Ham's brothers do after Ham told them what happened?
6) Why did Noah curse Canaan?
7) How did Noah bless Ham's brothers?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) Have you recently learned of a shameful situation concerning a brother or sister in Christ?
2) How did you handle the situation?
3) How should believers handle the sinful actions of our brothers and sisters in Christ?
4) Do you believe that God is more pleased when we expose the sins of others, or when we cover them? 
5) Why, or why not?

LIFE LESSONS:
1) "Love covers a multitude of sins."
2) The Lord always extends His grace and mercy to a penitent sinner.
3) The Lord expects His children to extend the same grace and mercy to the brethren.

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God's Covenant - Genesis 9:8-17

8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 "And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." 12 And God said: "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." 17 And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."- Genesis 9:8-17

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) Who did God establish His covenant with?
2) What was the covenant?
3) What was the sign of the covenant?
4) What would God say He would do when He saw the sign of the covenant?
5) Who was the sign for?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) Have you ever entered into a covenant agreement with anyone?
2) What was the sign of the covenant?
3) What are/were the terms of the covenant?
4) If you, or the other(s) that you were in agreement with, have kept the agreement, what have been the rewards?
5) If you, or the other(s) that you were in covenant with, broke the agreement, what were the ramifications?

LIFE LESSONS:
1) God takes covenant seriously.
2) God's covenant with man does not depend upon whether man keeps covenant with God, or not.
3) God's covenant's are unconditional.
4) Covenant agreements between people are usually conditional.

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God's Blessing and Caveat - Genesis 9:1-7

1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. 6 "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. 7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it." - Genesis 9:1-7

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) In what three ways did the Lord bless Noah and his sons?
2) Over what did the Lord give Noah and his descendants dominion?
3) What did the Lord allow Noah and his descendants to do, that He did not allow Adam and Eve to do? 
4) How did the blessing over Noah and his descendants differ from the blessing given to Adam and Eve?
5) Under what circumstances, and why, did the Lord allow man to take the life of another man?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) How has the Lord blessed you and your family?
2) What has the Lord given His people dominion over?
3) In what areas of your life do you exercise your God-given dominion (authority)?
4) Why do you think that the Lord allowed man to murder anyone who shed the blood of another man?
5) Do you value the lives of everyone the Lord has brought into your life? How do you demonstrate that?

LIFE LESSONS:
1) The Lord always prospers the righteous spiritually, if not materially.
2) The Lord has allowed man to rule over all living creatures (that includes self-rule).
3) The Lord highly esteems the life of everything that He has created.  

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God's Promise - Genesis 8:20-22

20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. 22"As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." - Genesis 8:20-22

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) What was the first thing that Noah did after leaving the ark?
2) Was the Lord pleased with what Noah did?
3) What did the Lord promise not to do? 
4) Who did He make the promise to?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) What is the first thing that you do after surviving a difficult trial?
2) Is the Lord pleased with how you respond when He delivers you from a trial?
3) If so, how do you know?

LIFE LESSONS:
1) Our first response, after deliverance from a trial, ought to be worship!
2) The Lord's promises to His people can be found in His word!
3) The Lord promises are unconditional and enduring.

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Water's Recede - Genesis 8:1-19

1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. 6 After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf ! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. 13 By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you--the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground--so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it." 18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds--everything that moves on the earth--came out of the ark, one kind after another. - Genesis 8:1-19

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) What happened after God remembered those who were aboard the ark?
2) What did Noah do after he opened the window of the ark?
3) How many times did the dove return to Noah?
4) When did Noah know that the waters had receded?
5) When did the inhabitants of the ark leave it?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) What do you do to "remember" (or remind yourself of) the promises of God?
2) What do you do to test (or assure yourself of) the fulfillment of God's promises to you?
3) When do you know that God has fulfilled a promise to you (i.e., before or after it happens)?
4) How do you know that God will keep His promises (i.e., through the Bible and/or experience)?
5) How do you decide when to go to, stay, or leave a place the Lord sends you?

LIFE LESSONS:
1) God always remembers His promises to His children.
2) Followers of Christ are to wait on the Holy Spirit to direct and counsel us.
3) The peace of God infills us when we do those things that please the Lord.

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