How People Change

AT A

GLANCE:

HOW PEOPLE

CHANGE

Lesson 7:

CROSS 1:

New Identity and New Potential

CPR Preview

• Central Point: Because Christ now lives in me, I have everything I need to respond in new ways to what I face daily.

• Personal Application: I must consistently ask where God is calling me to respond to the heat in my life with a CROSS-centered perspective.

• Relational Application: I must help others recognize the practical daily importance of remembering that Christ lives in them.

The Big Question

In what specific ways are you failing to let the CROSS shape your situations

and relationships? What would change in these areas if you lived in a more

CROSS-centered way?

Scriptural Background:Your potential: the indwelling Christ

• Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Illustrations

Group Discussions

• Homework Discussion

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

Central Point:

• Because I died with Christ, sin’s dominion over me has been broken.

• My heart, once controlled by sin, is now the dwelling place of the Lord Jesus Christ.

• I now live by a new principle: the principle of the grace and power of Christ who lives within me.

CPR

Personal Application:

• I must remember that I am not the same as I once was. I have been forever changed by Christ’s work on the CROSS.

• I have potential for amazing change and growth because Christ lives within me.

• Because Christ lives within me, I have his wisdom, strength, and character at my disposal.

CPR

Relational Application:

• I want to help others recognize that the CROSSguarantees that they are constitutionally changed; they are not what they once were.

• I want to help others grasp the hope and potential that is theirs because Christ lives within them.

• I want to help others recognize where they have failed to live out of the wisdom, strength, and character that is theirs in Christ.

Make it Real (Homework)

Here is another opportunity to examine the area you chose as your Personal Growth Project. Think about what you have learned about life in this fallen world, your own heart and behavior, the consequences of your choices and actions, and now, the amazing heart- and life-changing grace of the Lord Jesus. As you reflect on what you have learned, begin thinking about how the CROSS equips you to deal with your struggle. Use these questions to guide your thoughts.

Make it Real (Homework)

• Where have you failed to recognize that sin’s power over you has been broken, and you do not have to give in to it any longer? How would embracing this truth change the way you think and respond?

• Where have you failed to live up to your full potential as a child of God? Where have you failed to take advantage of the wisdom, strength and character that is yours because Christ lives within you? In what specific situations and relationships do you have God-given opportunities to exercise the new things that are yours in Christ?

Make it Real (Homework)

• Where have you been repeatedly tempted to forget that the CROSS has fundamentally changed you, which has led you to give in to old temptations and patterns? How would remembering the CROSS lead to new ways of dealing with these old things?

• Where, specifically, would a CROSS-centered perspective change your relationships? (Forgiveness? Patience and grace? Compassion and gentleness? Making peace? Speaking the truth? Humble service? Saying “no?”)

• Where is God calling you to new ways of living in the middle of the same old stuff? Where do you need to say, “I do not have to give in to that!” or “I have greater potential than that!”