God’s People (Week 3)

OPEN IN PRAYER

MAIN SCRIPTURES

(Read When Prompted)

• John 8:39-44
• Ephesians 2:3-5, 8
• Ezekiel 11:19-20
• Titus 3:5
• Romans 8:15-17

LET’S TALK ABOUT IT!

• Read John 8:39-44. You operate out of what you are. What you obey is your master. As a leader, people will follow your actions more than your words. You don’t get what you preach; you get what you are. People won’t worship because you taught on worship, they worship because you are a worshipper. Jesus was telling the people that they don’t come from Abraham because they weren’t living like him. The word Christian comes from being ‘Christ-like’, if we call ourselves “Christian” than we need to show others that we are living like Christ. How do you think Jesus would react to the division happening today? How can being “Christ-like” help unify the world?

• Read Ephesians 2:3-5, 8. Nature produces desires and desires produce conduct. When God gets ahold of us he doesn’t start by changing our conduct because that religious. Religion deals with behavior and tries to change our actions first. But God goes to the root and tries to change our nature first. People make decisions because their nature has never been changed. You can’t change conduct unless you change your nature. When we are born again we are brand new. When our nature is changed it is not “lightly used” or “second hand” it is BRAND NEW. You are not who you once were, you are called higher. You are not just flesh and blood, you are not your ethnicity you are part of the kingdom. God wanted to build a whole new nation that no matter what bloodline you came from or your background you would be ‘His kind’. Read Ezekiel 11:19-20. There is freedom knowing that when you are born again, you are fully His. What does “being religious” look like? How can religiosity deter someone from accepting Christ in his or her life?

• Freedom is when you become something different that makes you want something different and that makes you behave differently. Freedom is changing from the inside out. Conduct is the lifestyle and sins that you’ve committed. God doesn’t come and say stop your sinning, He says you are born again. Being born again means untwisting the mess we were in from our first birth. Read Titus 3:5. Read Romans 8:15-17. When you belong to God, no matter what is going on around you, the spirit of God bears witness with your spirit. Everyone can say you are worthless, but the spirit declares that you are His! And this goes for EVERYONE! You can’t live God’s way unless you have been born of Him. Therefore, live out your faith. Faith is no good until it is functional. What does being born again mean to you? What part of your nature had to change first when you got saved?

PRAYER FOCUS

This week let’s pray for those people that have not been born again because of their encounters with religion. Let us be the light for those searching for more and when they encounter us, they encounter the true love of God.