Tim Ross - Upset the World Study Guide

Lord, help me be an upsetter. Amen.

M ost people dont like to be upset, especially if that means they are going to be angry. There is more than enough anger in the world already. However, God has used His chosen people to upset the world from the very beginning. Faithful servants and prophets like Noah, Moses, David, Joshua, and many others upset the ancient world as they prepared the way for Gods ultimate upset: the coming in power of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Savior of the world. The purpose of Upset the World is to help you be like Jesus.

No figure in the Bible upset things more than Jesus. However, while Jesus teaching certainly evoked anger in some of those He encountered, that is not the primary meaning of upset in the biblical context, and that is not what He called His disciples to do.

In Acts 16 Paul and Silas are imprisoned in Philippi for their evangelizing, but they are released after their prayers cause a massive earthquake that shakes open the prison doors and causes their chains to fall off. In Acts 17 Paul and Silas are in Thessalonica, again causing all kinds of disturbances among the Jews by teaching Christ publicly in the synagogue. Their teaching causes many Jews, along with some Greek men and women, to believe Jesus is the Messiah and become followers of Christ.

An angry mob eventually looks for Paul and Silas in Jasons house, and not finding them there, they drag Jason and some other believers in front of the city council. Verse 6 describes how the people felt: Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world, they shouted, and now they are here disturbing our city, too. Verse 8 says, The people of the city, as well as the city council, were thrown into turmoil by these reports.

In the Greek, the word trouble literally means upset, so this verse should read, Paul and Silas upset the world. Rather than causing anger, the more accurate and appropriate definition of upset is to disturb or derange completely.

When you come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, your world is disturbed and deranged completely. He has come into your life and turned the whole thing upside down or, more accurately, right side up. An upsetter is a person who has been upset by the overwhelming love of Jesus and upsets others. The person who came to upset us is also the One who shows us how to upset the world.

This study guide will lead you through each chapter of the book, expanding on the material and challenging your thinking with examples and questions. At the end of each chapter you will find Activation exercises to help put principles into practice.

Paul and Silas upsetcompletely disturbed and derangedpeople with the message, hope, and love of Jesus Christ. And this is the assignment Jesus gives to each and every one of us, His believers: that we, as His sons and daughters, would upset the world with the message, hope, and love of Jesus Christ.

Its my prayer that this book will ignite you to live your life as an upsettera person who will go out and share the love of Christ in the most relational way possible so you too can upset the world.

God will reward your efforts as you allow the Holy Spirit to help you fulfill Jesus Great Commission to go and make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19).

As a pastors child growing up just outside of Los Angeles, I was at church all the time. If the doors were open, I was there.

After graduating from high school, I would still go to church, but more out of habit rather than relationship. My true passion was spending time with my friends and performing almost every weekend as a rapper around different parts of the city.

Have you ever spent time doing things out of habit or a feeling of obligation because of the expectations of others, such as parents, friends, or other authority figures? What were the circumstances? Why do you think you acted that way?

When you did these habitual things, did it ever bother you? Explain.

On January 14, 1996, God changed my life forever. That Sunday night I sat in the back of the church, and without hearing a sermon or invitation, the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sins and the need to change my life. I gave my life to Jesus. My life was totally upset.

When my friends came to pick me up after service, as they usually did, I told my brother Myles, who had skipped church that day, about my experience. He and my friends left me behind and went to the beach without me.

Myles and my friends were actually respecting my decision. They knew something was different about me now, and it was upsetting them. Since they werent ready to deal with it and change, they left me alone.

Have you ever had someone close to you change their behavior toward you because of a personal decision you made? What were the circumstances?

Everything changed when I fell in love with God. He transformed my heart. In doing so, I had become upset in the best possible way.

What does it mean to no longer rely on your own will when you fall in love with God?