BE TRANSFORMED: PURSUING GOD

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BE TRANSFORMED PURSUING GODS HEART

• AVRIL VAVROSKY
• L.Th, M.A.
• OMF INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY

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SESSION ONETRANSFORMATION REQUIRES COMMITMENT

• INTRODUCTION

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I. FOUNDATIONAL ISSUES

• Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of Gods
  mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
  holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual
  act of worship. (Rom. 121)
• EXEGESIS
• 1. I urge you. The Greek behind the NIV urge is
  parakaleo. It is stronger than ask, weaker than
  command.

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Exegesis Offer your bodies

• 2. Offer your bodies. Rom. 613, 16, 19 1 Cor.
  620. You are making a decisive dedication of
  your body to God.
• Sacrifice has three ideas consecration (set
  apart for Gods use), expiation (covering of sin)
  and propitiation (satisfaction of divine
  pleasure). Ancient Judaism often used sacrifice
  figuratively for praise or for a lifestyle of
  worship, so Pauls readers would have readily
  understood what he meant.

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Exegesis Living sacrifice

• 3. Living sacrifice just means that it is an
  ongoing sacrificial lifestyle. We need to
  continually crucify our flesh, deny what our
  flesh naturally wants because those who belong
  to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
  passions and desires. (Gal. 524)

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Exegesis Living Sacrifice

• Jesus offered his body as a sacrifice thus
  opening the way for complete forgiveness,
  reconciliation and sanctification. Therefore, as
  we offer our bodies back to God, it too opens the
  way for complete forgiveness, reconciliation and
  sanctification.

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Exegesis

• 4. Your spiritual act of worship or your
  reasonable service
• The word service alludes to the work of priests
  in the temple and the word reasonable refers to
  the proper way to think.

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B. APPLICATION

• II Tim. 219-22, 26
• Paul gives a succinct statement on human
  responsibility and very clearly defines how we
  are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.
• Why does Paul urge us, and not command us, to
  make our bodies a living sacrifice to God? Why
  does he stop short of a command?

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John 1017-18

• The answer lies in Jesus attitude
• 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay
  down my lifeonly to take it up again.
• 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of
  my own accord. I have authority to lay it down
  and authority to take it up again. This command I
  received from my Father."
• Paul wants us to do the same, willing to die to
  self. We are to have the mind of Christ.

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Application

• . Robert Boyd Munger, an author, highlighted this
  truth Jesus Christ, through the Spirit, makes
  the body of each believer his home. As the
  presence of the Lord once filled the temple in
  Jerusalem, so he now dwells in the hearts of all
  who belong to him.

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Application

• 4. Basically when we offer our bodies it is for
  His service. It is to live a life of holiness,
  separating ourselves from the world and drawing
  near to God. We must offer our bodies as dead to
  sin and the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor.
  615, 19)

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II. TRANSFORMATION BUSTERS

• FLESHLY SINS THAT NEED TO BE CRUCIFIED
• PLEASE REFER TO YOUR HANDOUT
• Circle the ones that are a hindrance to your
  transformation. Keep it for the end of this
  session and also for the end of the third session.

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B. EXPERIENCES THAT NEGATIVELY AFFECT MY
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

• Experiencing abuse as a child will cause one to
  view God as far away and not as Father God. Our
  first reaction is to blame God why didnt He
  protect me?
• Some people have turned to atheism and
• homosexuality as a result of abuse. In their
  minds,
• God wasnt there for them. Some became
• Christians but never could break through to God,
• always remaining on the outside looking in. This
  of
• course is connected to rejection.

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Negative Experiences

• 2. Experiencing some type of trauma like
  accidents or near death experiences.
• Here people wonder where God was and how come He
  didnt stop the trauma or prevent it. They wonder
  too if God is more than able or whether He really
  cares about them.

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Negative Experiences

• 3. Rejection of any kind. This wound is even more
  agonizing than shame. Usually this stems from
  some form of broken relationship. In its earliest
  form, it is caused by parents who reject their
  own children. It takes the form of harsh
  punishment, verbal abuse, physical abuse or
  anything that is expressed in a harsh, negative
  way.

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• Or it takes the form of abandonment, failure to
  show love or acceptance. Divorce is another form
  of rejection. Jesus understands our rejection
  because He endured rejection in its most
  agonizing form rejection by a father. At least
  one quarter of adults in America today suffer
  from shame and rejection. Indications are that it
  is rising.

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Negative Experiences

• 4. Jung nan ching nyu regard boys more highly
  than girls. This one makes you feel worthless,
  like a second-class citizen. Many women
  experience low self-esteem, self-hatred and
  self-rejection as a result. This is a South East
  Asian problem. Muslim women suffer the same fate.
  This feeling causes you to hide from God, unable
  to accept His love.

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Negative Circumstances

• 5. Circumstances can have a negative effect on my
  relationship with God.
• EXAMPLE Norma and Mother Theresa.
• Circumstances are there to mold you into the
  image of Christ, not to cause you to fall apart.

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C. SPIRITUAL PROBLEMS

• 1. Striving
• Our relationship with God should not be one of
  striving, but should flow naturally.
• Striving indicates that something is amiss in
  your relationship with God.
• This often comes from a family background where
  parents put pressure on the child to perform, to
  become great, to bring honor to the family. They
  take this pressure into their relationship with
  God, always trying to prove their love to God.
• Striving comes out of conditional love.
  Unconditional love is not something that they can
  understand.
• They have to prove something to themselves and to
  those around them.

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Spiritual Problems

• 2. Spiritual immaturity
• You cannot substitute a fake spirituality for
  sanctification
• Spiritual burnout results when you go around
  trying to be pious, trying to be holy.
• It is one thing to want to live a godly life, but
  it's another to actually master our habits and
  behaviors! Human willpower isn't sufficient on
  its own to tame our natural impulse toward
  sin--we need the help of God's grace.

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Spiritual Immaturity

• Self-control doesnt work
• Living under the law, man-made rules and
  tradition.
• Having a form of godliness only. (II. Tim. 35)

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Spiritual Problems

• 3. Wordly living vs. godly living
• refusal of believers to separate themselves from
  evil will inevitably result in the loss of
  fellowship with God (2 Cor. 616), of acceptance
  by the Father (617) and of our rights as
  children (618 cf. Rom. 815-16).
• Amusements and worldly pleasure A proof of
  spiritual death (1 Timothy 56)
• Friendship with the world. You adulterous
  people, don't you know that friendship with the
  world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to
  be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of
  God. (James 44)

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III. ACTION STEPS

• 1. Matt. 527-30Jesus is not teaching us to
  self-mutilate! The principle here is that we
  should deal drastically with sin.
• 2. James 47-10 7 Submit yourselves, then, to
  God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from
  you. Actually verses 7-10 are a series of ten
  commands on how to eliminate pride in ones life.
• 3. Paul certainly understood the struggle in Rom.
  721-23. Get some professional help.

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IV. CONFESSION

• Right now we are going to do some confession.
  Take out your sheets.
• Keep the sheet dont throw it away as we will
  need it for the last lecture. No one will see the
  sheet of paper.

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V. QUESTIONS TO PONDER

• Group Questions
• What TV shows or movies could corrupt our minds?
  What video games, online games, magazines or
  websites would not glorify Christ? What about
  music? Think of some current examples and discuss
  the danger of their content in relation to a
  Christians walk with God.
• What does the church consider to be worldly
  pleasures that are in direct defiance of Gods
  Word?
• How far should we go in chasing fashion? How far
  is too far?

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• Is it a sin to wear name-brand apparel? To own
  name-brand goods? When does it become
  problematic?
• I want to be a living sacrifice for Christ, but
  my reality is that I have Chinese parents who
  have expectations for me. Where is the happy
  medium for me?

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• What constitutes friendship with the world?
• What should be the Christians relationship to
  the world?
• How does offering my body as a living sacrifice
  demonstrate righteousness?
• How does the enemy use our bodies to alienate us
  from God?
• What tools has God given us to protect us from
  the enemys attacks?

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PRIVATE QUESTIONS

• How do I pursue God through commitment? How have
  I lacked in my commitment to Christ?
• What issues are hindering me right now from
  spiritual growth?
• What issues has the Holy Spirit convicted me of
  tonight?

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Private Questions

• What does it mean for me to be a living
  sacrifice?
• Where has my feet taken me that I would not take
  Christ to? What have my hands done that is
  harmful, shameful or even dangerous? What has my
  eyes seen that would grieve the Holy Spirit of
  God? What things have I heard or listened to that
  makes me uncomfortable when I think of Christ?
• Conversely, what has my feet, hands and eyes done
  to extend the kingdom of God on earth?