Living Water Community Church

We looked at the final recorded event of Jeroboam’s reign. Abijah his son becomes sick. Jeroboam sends his wife in disguise to Ahijah the prophet who had declared he would become king of Israel. When Jeroboam faces a real trial he doesn’t turn to the false gods he had set up but to the true prophet of the true God. But the fact he sends his wife disguised with a common offering of bread, cakes and...

The results of speaking boldly for Christ, even at the peril of ones' life, can bring about an abundant harvest if the Holy Spirit brings remarkable change to bear. Even before rulers and authorities it is important to look to Christ, not to man, for the way in which we should walk. We got to see some of the sweet fellowship of the early church here.

We will look at the strange story of the prophet who announced the judgement of God on the house of Jeroboam and the coming cleansing of Israel by Josiah a future king of Israel. This prophet was supposed to give the message of God and the sign of God and leave Israel returning to Judah by a different path then he came. He was also instructed not to eat or drink anything until he returned to Judah...

We examine more of the beginning of Jeroboam’s reign. It was a reign started and rooted in rebellion against God. He really set out to subvert the law which God had established for Israel. Jeroboam set up idols and commanded the people to worship them. He set up anyone who wanted to be priest except for the Levites. He established false feast days for the people to gather and worship the idols he...

We explored the beginning of Jeroboam’s reign in contrast to the beginning of Rehoboam’s. Rehoboam in Shechem witnessed the devastating breaking of the kingdom as 10 of the tribes rejected his rulership. He sent Adoram his task master to deal with them and they stoned him to death. Rehoboam fled to Jerusalem and began to call together and army to go fight against the rebellious tribes and restore...

We worked through the first 15 verses of chapter 12. The crowning of Rehoboam and the start of his reign is recorded for us in this chapter. It is remarkably different from his father Solomon’s anointing as king. As a matter of fact there really does not appear to be any anointing going on for Rehoboam. The people had all gathered at Shechem to make him king. Jeroboam returns from Egypt and appear...

We explored what our relationships will be like according to what we see in scripture. We explored how the scripture speaks against false beliefs about relationships in eternity even held by great spiritual giants of theology in history. In 1 Thessalonians Paul talked about looking forward to recognizing and interacting with those who have gone before us into eternity. The followers of Jesus all r...

We wrapped up chapter 11. It is such a sad chapter because in it we see the seeds planted which will lead to the division of the kingdom of Israel. The real driving force for this break up is found in how Solomon fostered and introduced idol worship in the land. Solomon lacked a real fear of God like David his father possessed. He embraced the false worship introduced by his many wives and this is...

We explored what is essentially the detailing of Solomon’s kingdom declining. It starts with his disobedience to God’s command to not multiply wives. This led to him being introduced to the many gods of these wives. Ultimately the text says Solomon loved these gods. This is a dramatic departure for the man who started out in Kings with the declaration that he loved God. In a nutshell this really h...

We explored a section which in one way foreshadows the kingdom of God and in another way is a warning to the people in exile of how the kingdom of Israel’s decline began. In the section we witness Solomon gaining a super-abundance of wealth. His wealth in his time would have made him by today’s standards a multi-billionaire. Given the lack of true capitalistic economies in Solomon’s day he would h...

The early Church was united and devoted to prayer. A united pursuit of  God and a seeking after wisdom from God on the path forward after Jesus Ascension. A 50 day period takes place after the resurrection before we come to Pentecost. A brief overview of corporate prayer is a part of this study.

We explored the first 13 verses of chapter 10. In this section we have the record of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon. She came because of all she had heard. It was such astonishing reports she simply had to see it for herself. What she found was greater than what she had been told. The scale and scope of what she saw simply took her breath away. But even greater than what she saw was the fac...

We looked at God’s promise of blessing and also warning to Solomon of what would happen if he turned aside from following God. This happened when God appeared to Solomon a second time after the dedication of the temple. The warning even extended to his children. But there was also the promise of blessing if Solomon remained faithful and followed God like David his father did. God promised to exten...

We worked through the end of chapter 8. In this section Solomon rises from the prayer of dedication and the passage tells us he blesses the people. It is really interesting that it states this is a blessing on the people because what Solomon does is bless God for giving rest to His people as He promised. Then Solomon blesses the people with God being with them and inclining their hearts to Him to...

We worked through the end of chapter 8. In this section Solomon rises from the prayer of dedication and the passage tells us he blesses the people. It is really interesting that it states this is a blessing on the people because what Solomon does is bless God for giving rest to His people as He promised. Then Solomon blesses the people with God being with them and inclining their hearts to Him to...

we explored what our lives will be like according to what we see in scripture. Will we be ourselves in the sense of being unique individuals? We explored things like how the Bible indicates we will know specific individuals in eternity like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Bible indicates we will have emotional responses in heaven. There are good indications we will learn things in heaven. We will st...

Jesus was a living man, not a spirit or some kind of allusion. The Resurrection was testified to over and over by the disciples of Christ. Jesus wants His people to know that He is indeed raised and is with us now and also at God's right hand. 

The Resurrection of Jesus shows the power of Christ over death. Jesus was the perfect man who was sacrificed so that we could have life abundantly. The sacrificing of lambs at Passover is a picture that has been pointing forward to the person of Christ since it began in the book of Exodus. Christ's Death and Resurrection is the complete work that defeats every foe. All we need because of His resur...

We were looking at the end of Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the temple. What we saw as we worked through his last 3 petitions was Solomon interceded for the gentiles who would be coming to worship the God of Israel. This had to be a radical idea to the Jews who saw themselves as God’s chosen people. They were quick to point out their superiority and part of this was the history of God’s interv...

We explored what the resurrected or new earth will be like according to what we see in scripture. We will have a central capital city called the New Jerusalem. As we examined Revelation 21 and 22 it is clear this city is described as having walls and gates. There are nations mentioned and people are said to bring things into the New Jerusalem from the nations. This indicates there will be rulers a...

We have been working our way through Solomon’s prayer of dedication at the temple. The contents of His prayer is interesting because it really seems to reflect what we know about the heart of God. Solomon appears to be moved by God to say what he is saying. His prayer began with a request for justice. There is clearly a dependence expressed here on God bringing justice to the people when no one on...

We looked at the point in the consecration of the temple when Solomon turned and blessed all the assembly of Israel. He talked about the faithfulness of God. How He delivered His people from the land of Egypt. How He set David up to be king over His people. How David wanted to build God a house, but God told him he could not. But how God had promised David his son would build a house for God. Solo...

We worked our way through the dedication of the temple. This was a huge event. A once in a lifetime kind of happening. Solomon assembled all the key leaders of the tribes and the families to come and be present. Of course many of them would have brought their families and children if they could. This was one of the biggest gatherings which had even happened in Jerusalem. The ceremonies started wit...

We worked through the way in which God administers the rulership of His coming kingdom. First of all we looked at how Jesus whole purpose for coming was to establish a kingdom which Adam had effectively lost. If Jesus had not done this there would be no rescue, redemption or resurrection. Everything really hinged on Jesus defeating sin and death. Through Adam sin and death entered the world and pa...

We worked through the details surrounding the items which held water. The massive sea which was really about the size of the average backyard swimming pool. This was used for the cleansing of the priests. The 10 basins which each held 240 gallons and were used for the ritual cleansing needed in some of the sacrifices. The basins and the sea were all cast in bronze. This should remind us of judgeme...