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TM For many believers around the world, following Christ is not simply unpopular or discouraged. It’s dangerous. KNOW HIS WORD. KNOW HIS PERSECUTED. Each year’s Secret Church gathering consists of over four hours of intense Bible study, as well as a concentrated time of prayer for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. We hope you’ll not only believe these truths, but also share them with others. The goal of Secret Church is to serve the church in making disciples of all nations, all for the glory of God. secretchurch.org Copyright © 2019 by David Platt and Radical, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by Radical, Inc. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Why Is This Called Secret Church? The idea behind Secret Church comes from time David Platt spent teaching and ministering among underground Asian house churches. Due to hostility from the government, from the surrounding community, and even from their own family, many of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world are forced to gather in secret, sometimes at the risk of their lives. The plight of our persecuted brothers and sisters also explains why prayer for the persecuted church is a major part of every Secret Church gathering. We remember those who cannot meet openly, asking God to sustain their faith, to change the hearts and the actions of their persecutors, and to use their witness for the spread of the gospel. We also pray for the unreached, those who have little or no access to the gospel. Why So Much Teaching for One Night? We realize that each Secret Church study contains too much biblical teach- ing—over four hours worth!—to digest in one sitting. That’s one reason we make it available in bite-size segments at radical.net. However, this deluge of teaching is meant to remind us of the hunger for God’s Word that exists among many underground churches around the world. With few opportunities to gather and little access to biblical teaching, our persecuted brothers and sisters may meet for eight to twelve hours at a time simply to sing, pray, and study God’s Word. This God-centered focus is a help- ful corrective to the desire for entertainment that characterizes many church gatherings in the U.S. What’s the Goal of This Study? We hope your faith will be strengthened as you encounter teaching from God’s Word in this study. However, the truths you hear are not meant to stop with you. You are encouraged to teach them to others as you meet one-on-one or as you gather in small groups and churches. Secret Church is intended to be a resource for making disciples both locally and globally. We urge you to consider the role God may have for you and your church as you take the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to those in your own community and to unreached peoples among the nations. For more Secret Church resources, go to radical.net. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ......................................................................................................5 Old Testament The Pentateuch ............................................................................................7 The Historical Books .................................................................................47 Wisdom Literature .....................................................................................87 The Prophets ............................................................................................113 New Testament The Gospels .............................................................................................145 Acts .........................................................................................................186 Letters from Paul .....................................................................................213 Letters from Others .................................................................................225 Index ..............................................................................................................246 Somalis of East Africa ....................................................................................251 PRAYER, FASTING, AND THE PURSUIT OF GOD Why Are We Here? • We have many questions about prayer. Prayer: Conversation with God. How does prayer work? When does God answer? Why pray when God already knows what I need? Or does He? Why pray when God has already determined what will happen? Or has He? What do I do when it feels like I’m praying into thin air? How do I know what God is leading me to do in my life? • We are very confused about fasting. Fasting: Abstinence from physical food for spiritual purposes. The world has defined it in different ways. The church has ignored it in most ways. Few of us do it. Most of us avoid it. • We are relentlessly tempted to forsake the pursuit of God. The Pursuit of God: The all-consuming quest to know, enjoy, worship, and love God. We are self-sufficient (or so we think). - 5 - Prayer, Fasting, and the Pursuit of God We are always busy (or so we say). We are easily distracted . We are constantly entertained . We are addicted to food. We are accustomed to comfort. What Is Our Plan? • Let the Word do the work. 125 Texts and Takeaways Explore biblical truths. Answer personal questions. Offer practical exhortations. • Pray the Word in the process. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15:7) - 6 - 125 TEXTS AND TAKEAWAYS A Biblical, Practical Overview of Prayer and Fasting THE PENTATEUCH 1 GENESIS 1–4: Essential Foundations The Nature of God . And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31) • He is the supreme Creator . In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) • He is the sovereign King. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. (Genesis 1:30) • He is the righteous Judge. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16–17) • He is the merciful Savior. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21) - 7 - Prayer, Fasting, and the Pursuit of God The Nature of Men and Women . Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26–27) • We are created in the image of God. We are a unique reflection of God. We are utterly reliant upon God. We are ultimately responsible to God. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) • We are created for the purpose of God. To enjoy a relationship with God. To rule over all creation. To reflect and multiply God’s glory to the ends of the earth. The Nature of Sin . Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:1–6) - 8 - THE PENTATEUCH • We are spiritual beings. • We are in a spiritual battle. Satan can speak and is smart. Satan is a malicious liar and an evil murderer. • We are full of iniquity . Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned . (Romans 5:12) We question God’s Word. We doubt God’s love. We choose our ways. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:7–13) • We need a faithful intercessor .
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