wednedsay night series - "how people change", week 4

How People Change

AT A

GLANCE:

HOW PEOPLE

CHANGE

Lesson 4:

HEAT 2:

The Real You in the Real World

CPR Preview

• Central Point: The Bible describes life this way: We live in a broken world as people who struggle daily.

• Personal Application: I need to recognize the specific places where I struggle in a world that does not operate as it was intended.

• Relational Application: I need to help others to be honest about their struggles with life.

The Big Question

As God sees me respond to the HEAT in my world, what in me does he want to change? Where is God

calling me to personal change right now?

Scriptural Background:The real world: the details

• Romans 8:20-22:

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

Scriptural Background:The real world: the details

• Romans 8:20-22:

Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at."

Scriptural Background:Lessons from the wilderness

• Numbers 11:4-23: Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.


• Numbers 11:4-23: Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. Moses said to the LORD, "Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?


• Numbers 11:4-23: (cont.)Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,' to the land that you swore to give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, 'Give us meat, that we may eat.‘ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness."


• Numbers 11:4-23: (cont.)

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.



And say to the people, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, "Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt." Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,



but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, "Why did we come out of Egypt?"'“ But Moses said, "The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, 'I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!‘



Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?“ And the LORD said to Moses, "Is the LORD’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not."


• Numbers 14:1-4: Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?“ And they said to one another, "Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt."


• Numbers 20:1-5:

And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there. Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD!


• Numbers 20:1-5:

Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink."

Scriptural Background:What God is doing in you in the wilderness

• Deuteronomy 8:2-3: And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Illustrations

Group Discussions

• The main points of previous Lessons

• How God used the wilderness wanderings in the life of his people, according to Deuteronomy 8:2-3

• Use the various passages to identify a personal situation or relationship that is a regular source of struggle

Central Point, Personal Application, and Relational Application (CPR)

Central Point:

• The Bible says that we live in a broken world as people who struggle daily.

• The Bible reminds me that all of creation (everything I face every day) was broken and marred by the Fall.

• God clearly depicts the ways that we, as sinners, respond to life in world that is “groaning”.

CPR

Personal Application:

• I need to identify the specific places where I struggle with life.

• I need to recognize where the brokenness of this world is particularly troubling to me.

• Scripture welcomes me to be honest about the ways I deal with these difficult things.

CPR

Relational Application:

• I need to be committed to help others to be honest about their struggle with life.

• I need to lovingly help others to recognize their expectations and disappointments as they deal with life.

• I need to remind people that God welcomes them to be honest about the ways they deal with life’s difficulties.

Make it Real (Homework)

Personal Growth Project

This Make It Real begins a process of self examination that will take you through the remainder of this course. This will be, by far, the most personally searching and rewarding aspect of it. What you do with this assignment and those that follow will determine how much you personally benefit from this course and how much it will prepare you to be used by God in the lives of others.

wednedsay night series - "how people change", week 4

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