How People Change

AT A

GLANCE:

HOW PEOPLE

CHANGE

Lesson 6:

THORNS 2:

Why Do You Get Entangled?

CPR Preview

• Central Point: All ungodly behavior grows out of a heart that has been captured by something other than Christ.

• Personal Application: If I am to grow and change as Christ’s disciple, I need a deeper awareness of the things other than Christ that I tend to worship.

• Relational Application: As I seek to help others grow, I must help them to see the motivations that produce THORNY responses.

The Big Question

What has captured your heart? What cravings, desires, and beliefs rule your heart, producing ungodly

reactions?

Scriptural Background:The 10 Commandments and the sin beneath the sins

• Deuteronomy 5:6-21: "'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out

of the house of slavery.

"'You shall have no other gods before me.

"'You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Scriptural Background:The 10 Commandments and the sin beneath the sins

• Deuteronomy 5:6-21: (cont.)"'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD

will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

"'Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Scriptural Background:The 10 Commandments and the sin beneath the sins

• Deuteronomy 5:6-21: (cont.)"'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded

you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

"'You shall not murder.

"'And you shall not commit adultery.

"'And you shall not steal.

"'And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

"'And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.'

Scriptural Background:Making good things ultimate things

• Romans 1:25: Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and

served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Scriptural Background:The connection between idolatrous worship and

ungodliness

• James 4:1-4:What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this,

that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Illustrations

Group Discussions

• Homework Discussion

• X-ray questions

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

Central Point:• All ungodly behavior grows out of a heart that

has been captured by something other than Christ.

• Often our hearts are captured by good things that have become ultimate things. Normal desires quickly morph and become replacements for God.

• Lasting growth begins when we see the things that lead our hearts away from Christ.

CPR

Personal Application:

• To grow as a disciple, I need to see that my real problem is my heart, not my circumstances.

• I need to identify the good things in creation that I sinfully organize my life around.

• To grow, I must recognize the things that can lead my heart away from Christ.

CPR

Relational Application:• To help others grow, I must help them see that

their real problem is their straying heart, not their circumstances.

• Biblical ministry involves a sensitivity to people’s circumstances and a willingness to show them how even good things can wrongly take God’s place in their hearts.

• Assisting others to see the things that typically captivate their hearts is a powerful and loving way to help them grow in Christlikeness.

Make it Real (Homework)

• Look for places where you evidence strong emotions.

• What things tend to function as God replacements in your life?

• Reflect on the gospel from Lessons 1 and 2.