KGM School of Service Knowing God Missions · Tumenyimana
Course: The Potter’s Wheel (Wheel)
Lesson: 8
Scripture: Exodus 3:7–8, 16–17; Joshua 3:9–11; Hebrews 11:6
Language: English

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Lesson Eight — The Overcoming Church: Five Challenges, Five Dimensions

BIG IDEA


In the land that God promised, Israel met hostile nations. In the same way, each of the five pillars of the church meets a resistance. We call these the five challenges: biblical illiteracy, self-centredness, unbelief, isolation, and fruitlessness. Each challenge must be overcome through faith, obedience, and reliance on God. So we return to the five dimensions of dependence on God: emotional stability, spiritual strength, intellectual soundness, practical application, and evangelical readiness. When we depend on God, we become fully alive.

PART 1 — SCRIPTURE READING

Exodus 3:7–8, 16–17 • Joshua 3:9–11 • Hebrews 11:6

Open your Bible and read slowly: Exodus 3:7–8, 16–17; Joshua 3:9–11; and Hebrews 11:6. In Exodus 3, the Lord speaks to Moses. He has seen the misery of His people in Egypt, and He promises to bring them up into a land flowing with milk and honey. In Joshua 3, Israel is ready to cross the Jordan, and Joshua tells the people that the living God is among them. In Hebrews 11:6, we learn that without faith it is impossible to please God.

In Lessons Three to Seven we walked through the five relationships. From them rise the five pillars: Love, Truth, Prayer, Fellowship, and Outreach. Now we begin the third part of the term: the vision in practice. We ask how a church lives this vision. We begin with the resistance that each pillar meets, and with the God on whom we depend. This lesson follows Chapter 8 of The Potter’s Wheel.

KEY VERSE — EXODUS 3:17


“And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.”

PART 2 — WALKING THROUGH THE LESSON

A. Hostile Nations in the Land — Each Pillar Meets a Resistance

God promised to bring His people up out of their misery in Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:17). (Your Kiswahili Bible says “I have said.” What God says, He will do.) But that good land was the home of other nations (Exodus 3:8). The key verse names them: the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. So Israel met hostile nations in the land that God had promised. Joshua told Israel that the living God was among them, and that He would certainly drive out the nations before them (Joshua 3:10).

In the same way, the local church meets spiritual resistance in her mission today. Each of the five pillars meets a resistance. We call these the five challenges. Each challenge must be overcome through faith, obedience, and reliance on God. For each challenge we ask one question: how do we overcome?

B. The Pillar of Truth — The Challenge of Biblical Illiteracy

God said through Hosea that His people are destroyed from lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). In the same verse God says that knowledge has been rejected and that His law has been ignored. In those days His people consulted a wooden idol (Hosea 4:12). Biblical illiteracy means that believers do not know the Bible. We met this danger in Lesson Four. When believers lack a deep understanding of Scripture, the result is spiritual weakness, confusion, and deception.

How do we overcome? There are three steps.

  1. Commit to biblical teaching. The first believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42).
  2. Seek wisdom and understanding. Pray for spiritual insight. Paul asked God to fill the believers in Colossae with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives (Colossians 1:9). (Your Kiswahili Bible says “spiritual understanding.”)
  3. Discern truth from false doctrine. All Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). So we test every teaching by the Scriptures.

C. The Pillar of Love — The Challenge of Self-Centredness

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:3–4).

Self-centredness prevents generosity, service, and love for others. But the love of the Father is self-giving, and we are called to reflect His generosity.

Remember the rich young man. He came to Jesus and asked about eternal life (Matthew 19:16). Jesus told him to sell his possessions, to give to the poor, and then to come and follow Him (Matthew 19:21). The young man went away sad, because he had great wealth (Matthew 19:22). Self-centredness kept him from following Christ.

How do we overcome? There are three steps.

  1. Love others sacrificially. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16).
  2. Be generous, as the first believers were. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had (Acts 4:32).
  3. Give with the right heart. “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

D. The Pillar of Prayer — The Challenge of Unbelief

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Unbelief hinders miracles, answered prayers, and spiritual breakthroughs. A father once brought his son to Jesus. The boy was possessed by a spirit that had robbed him of speech (Mark 9:17). The father had asked the disciples to drive out this spirit, but they could not (Mark 9:18). When Jesus heard this, He called the people before Him an unbelieving generation (Mark 9:19). Jesus told the father that everything is possible for one who believes (Mark 9:23). The father answered that he did believe, and he asked Jesus to help him overcome his unbelief (Mark 9:24). Then Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, and the impure spirit came out (Mark 9:25–26). Afterwards the disciples asked Jesus privately why they could not do this (Mark 9:28).

How do we overcome? There are three steps.

  1. Pray and fast for spiritual power. Jesus answered His disciples that this kind can come out only by prayer (Mark 9:29). Jesus Himself was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and for forty days He ate nothing (Luke 4:1–2). Then He returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14).
  2. Ask for faith. “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’” (Luke 17:5).
  3. Rely on the Holy Spirit. He teaches us, and He reminds us of everything Jesus has said (John 14:26).

E. The Pillar of Fellowship — The Challenge of Isolation

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24–25).

Believers can become isolated through division, through trying to follow Christ alone, and through a lack of deep fellowship. Even Elijah isolated himself. After the great victory on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18, Elijah was afraid and ran for his life (1 Kings 19:3). He left his servant in Beersheba and went on alone into the wilderness (1 Kings 19:3–4). He told the Lord that he was the only one left (1 Kings 19:10). But the Lord answered that He had kept seven thousand in Israel whose knees had not bowed down to Baal (1 Kings 19:18). Isolation keeps us from seeing the believers around us.

How do we overcome? We give ourselves to Christian fellowship, as the first believers did. They devoted themselves to fellowship (Acts 2:42). All the believers were together (Acts 2:44). Every day they continued to meet together, and they ate together in their homes (Acts 2:46).

F. The Pillar of Outreach — The Challenge of Fruitlessness

Jesus said that anyone who does not remain in Him is like a branch that is thrown away and withers (John 15:6). And a church that looks only inward dies quietly, even when she is full of people.

How do we overcome? We remain in Christ (John 15:4). We love each other, as Jesus commanded (John 15:17). And we go, because Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few (Matthew 9:37).

G. Name Your Challenge — No One Overcomes Alone

Now look at your own life. Which of the five challenges do you face now? Name your challenge.

The nations in the land did not choose to leave. Joshua said that the living God would certainly drive them out (Joshua 3:10). These five challenges will not go away if we do nothing. So rely on God, and begin now to take the steps that overcome your challenge. Take these steps with another believer.

No one overcomes alone.

H. Five Dimensions of Dependence on God

The church overcomes through reliance on God. At the centre of this vision are five dimensions of dependence on God. We met them in Lesson One, in the last column of the chart of the five loves. We take them in the same order as in that chart. In each dimension we lean on God and not on ourselves. Each dimension is based on Scripture, and for each one the Bible gives us an example.

  1. Emotional stability is strengthened through meaningful friendships and fellowship. This is the pillar of Fellowship. “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity” (Proverbs 17:17). Two are better than one. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up (Ecclesiastes 4:9–10). “And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself” (1 Samuel 18:3). Later, when Saul wanted to take the life of David, Jonathan went to David and helped him find strength in God (1 Samuel 23:15–16). We are not meant to live in isolation. God gives us fellowship and godly friends to make us stable. A church family shares both joy and sorrow: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15).
  2. Spiritual strength is deepened through prayer and worship. This is the pillar of Prayer. “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him” (Psalm 28:7). Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength (Isaiah 40:31). Jesus Himself depended on prayer. He spent the night praying to God before He chose the Twelve (Luke 6:12–13). He prayed in Gethsemane before the cross (Matthew 26:36–39). When the crowds grew, He often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:15–16). Spiritual strength is not automatic. We receive spiritual strength through steady prayer and worship. In worship we look away from our problems to the greatness of God. Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns to God in prison. Suddenly there was a violent earthquake, and the chains of all the prisoners came loose (Acts 16:25–26).
  3. Intellectual soundness is rooted in the study of God’s Word. This is the pillar of Truth. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psalm 119:105). Paul wrote that we must not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2). The Bereans received the message with great eagerness, and they examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true (Acts 17:11). They did not accept a teaching without testing it. They built their faith on the Word of God. A strong faith needs a strong mind. Knowing Scripture guards us against deception. When we meditate on Scripture, our thinking follows the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of the world.
  4. Practical application is lived out through service and giving. This is the pillar of Love. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead (James 2:17). In the story of the good Samaritan, a priest and a Levite saw the wounded man and passed by on the other side (Luke 10:31–32). They knew the law. But a Samaritan took pity on the man. He gave his time, his resources, and his care (Luke 10:33–35). Faith is not passive. Faith is expressed through action. True Christianity is put into practice, and not only preached.
  5. Evangelical readiness means being ready to reach those who have not yet met Christ. This is the pillar of Outreach. Peter wrote that we must always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us for the reason for our hope (1 Peter 3:15). Paul asked how people can hear without someone preaching to them (Romans 10:14). Philip was ready. On the desert road he met an Ethiopian official (Acts 8:26–27). Philip began with the Scripture the man was reading and told him the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:35). Then Philip baptized him (Acts 8:38). Evangelism is not only for preachers. Every believer is called to share Christ. To be prepared is to know what we believe and why we believe it.

A believer who truly knows and relies on the love of God (1 John 4:16) will show that love in all five dimensions. Such a believer is stable in fellowship, strong in prayer, sound in the Word, active in service, and ready to reach the lost. When we depend on God, we become fully alive. This is our calling: to know His love, and to make His love known to the world.

When we depend on God, we become fully alive.

The Overcoming Church at a Glance

I. The Lesson in One Sentence

Each of the five pillars meets a challenge, and the church overcomes through faith, obedience, and reliance on God in all five dimensions of dependence (Exodus 3:17; Joshua 3:10; Hebrews 11:6).

In Lesson Nine we come to the Potter’s pathway, the journey from surrender to sending.

PART 3 — KNOW THE WORD: TEACHING FOCUS

1. The Living God Is Among His People

Read the key verse again (Exodus 3:17). In one verse God gives the promise and names the nations that live in the land. Then read what Joshua said. The living God is among His people, and He will certainly drive out the nations (Joshua 3:10). Make this clear to the class. The church meets resistance, and she overcomes through faith, obedience, and reliance on God. She does not overcome by her own strength.

2. Without Faith It Is Impossible to Please God

The third reading is a single verse (Hebrews 11:6). Read this verse slowly with the class. Anyone who comes to God must believe two things: that He exists, and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Unbelief is the challenge that the pillar of Prayer meets. So we come to God in prayer, and we believe. And we ask, as the apostles asked the Lord: “Increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5).

3. Each Dimension Is a Way of Relying on God

For each dimension, let the class open one passage and look: Jonathan with David (1 Samuel 23:16), Jesus at prayer (Luke 6:12), the Bereans (Acts 17:11), the good Samaritan (Luke 10:33), and Philip (Acts 8:35). Then make this clear. The five pillars are not five projects for us to complete for God. They are five dimensions of a growing reliance on God. We saw this in Lesson One. We know and rely on the love God has for us (1 John 4:16).

PART 4 — TRUST THE SPIRIT: TEACHING FOCUS

1. The Spirit Teaches Us and Reminds Us

We overcome biblical illiteracy with the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will teach the disciples all things and will remind them of everything Jesus has said to them (John 14:26). Paul asked God to fill the believers with the knowledge of His will, through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives (Colossians 1:9). So when we open the Bible, we ask God for this wisdom and understanding. The Holy Spirit teaches us. He gives understanding.

2. The Spirit Helps Us in Our Weakness

The third step against unbelief is to rely on the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us (Romans 8:26). So we do not pray in our own strength. He helps us.

3. The Spirit Produces the Fruit and Sends Us

We do not overcome fruitlessness by our own effort. The Spirit produces the fruit, and we bear the fruit. The fruit of the Spirit begins with love (Galatians 5:22). The Spirit also gives power. Jesus said that His disciples would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them, and that they would be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). And the Spirit sends. He told Philip to go to the chariot of the Ethiopian official, and Philip ran to the chariot (Acts 8:29–30). A ready believer listens to the Holy Spirit and goes where He sends.

Word and Spirit in Lesson Eight — Side by Side

PART 5 — FORMING CHRIST IN THE BELIEVER

This lesson forms Christ in us in three ways:

  1. Christ is formed in us when we depend on God as Jesus did. Jesus spent the night praying to God before He chose the Twelve (Luke 6:12–13). We also receive spiritual strength through steady prayer and worship.
  2. Christ is formed in us when we lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us (1 John 3:16). So in humility we value others above ourselves (Philippians 2:3). We give our time, our resources, and our care.
  3. Christ is formed in us when we overcome together. We spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). Take the overcoming steps with a brother or a sister. No one overcomes alone.

PART 6 — DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Come prepared to answer. Come prepared to listen.

  1. Name your challenge. Of the five challenges, which one do you face right now: biblical illiteracy, self-centredness, unbelief, isolation, or fruitlessness? Which step will you take first, and with whom?
  2. Elijah told the Lord that he was the only one left. But the Lord had kept seven thousand (1 Kings 19:10, 18). Have you ever felt alone in the work you lead? Who helps you to find strength in God, as Jonathan helped David?
  3. A church can examine herself by the five dimensions. Begin with emotional stability. Do your people have friends in the church who truly know them? Or are some of them lonely, even when the church is full?
  4. Is your church strong today in prayer and worship, or is she living on what God did last year? Can your people test a new teaching by the Scriptures, or are they easily moved by every new teaching?
  5. Do the members of your church serve and give, or do they only attend? Are they ready to speak of Christ, or are they silent? In which of the five dimensions must the Potter’s hands press next?

PART 7 — WEEKLY ASSIGNMENT

Before next class, take time with the following:

CLOSING PRAYER

A PRAYER TO PRAY OUT LOUD THIS WEEK


Father, You saw the misery of Your people in Egypt, and You promised to bring them up into a good land. You are the living God, and You are among Your people. We do not overcome by our own strength. We rely on You.


Fill us with the knowledge of Your will, so that we stand on Your Word. Teach us to value others above ourselves. Increase our faith. Keep us together, so that no one walks alone. Keep us in Christ, so that we bear fruit. Let Your Holy Spirit teach us, help us in our weakness, and give us power to be witnesses of Jesus.


Make us stable in fellowship, strong in prayer, sound in Your Word, active in service, and ready to reach the lost, in our town and across Tanzania. Show each of us the challenge we face, and give us a brother or a sister to walk with us. We depend on You. Make us fully alive, so that we know Your love and make Your love known to the world. In the Name of Jesus, amen.

NEXT LESSON — Lesson Nine — The Potter’s Pathway. From Surrender to Sending

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