Lesson 11
Lesson 10 review
So admitting our powerlessness was our first step on our journey to grace and truth. We only had to admit that reality. As the journey continues through our steps we will begin to explore in more depth the destructive responses (sin, programs for happiness) to life that we acknowledge we had no power over.
If you are still at a place where you think you “got this” look deeper. There has to be some aspect of your life that you can not manage. Is it your health, a relationships or one of the unhealthy behaviors or thoughts that you struggle with? Can we accept that every last one of us is broken and deeply flawed, that we’ve messed up and got ourselves into tangles that we cannot undo and normalize it as a part of the human experience?
We have talked about a paradigm shift in the way we look at our sin. Here is the good news about your sin, it will often bring you to a conflict or crisis which will then bring you to the reality of your powerlessness. When you reach the end of your rope, the end of your ability to cope and manage life God can give you the power to transform through grace.
Whatever you confess you are too weak to manage will also make the power of God active in you to see it change.
2 Co 12:8–10 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Boasting of his weakness gave him the power of Christ. Do you see the humility, the attitude of powerlessness?
Lesson 11 Trust and Transformation
Quiet time 2
What kind of God to I believe He is? (This may be different from what you really know)
What actions and feelings do I anticipate He will have towards me?
Step 2 Believing God is for you.
I believe God loves me and will comfort and transform me as I explore and grieve the reality of my sin (destructive responses) and it’s effect on my life.Philippians 2:13 “For it is God who works in you to will and act according to His good purpose.
Step 2 Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
This week we want to come to a place where we believe God wants to use the damage done from our destructive plans for managing life to comfort, restore and transforming us. To build us up not tear us down.
Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Comfort here is the word parakaleo, which means to call to one’s side, to console, to encourage, to strengthen, to instruct, to teach. Picture what that looks like. God gently pulling you to His side, encouraging, teaching you a new and better way.
Blessed are the poor in spirit who mourn. Blessed are the people who can clearly see there weaknesses and sin, who don’t try to hide it, who are honest and confident in God’s grace and love.
In Matthew 5:4 we are promised blessings (joy) if we mourn the results of the decisions in our life that fell outside the will of God. We are also promised comfort as God will pull you close and teach you from those things that have caused damage to you or others. He will stand with you where you are as you learn from your mistakes not point His finger at you.
We have 2 obstacles to grieving our sin.
1. Our first obstacle to grieving and receiving comfort is our fear of God. Many of us will have to battle the programmed belief that you must be punished for your sin. It is no wonder we try to hide or deny our sin like children hiding their mistakes from their parents. If we are hesitant to dig deep and look at our sin we need to ask ourselves, what kind of God do I really believe He is and is that based on the attitudes and behaviors displayed in the life of Christ or the parables He shares?
This idea of punishment, is not what Jesus modeled in the New Testament. Look at the parable of the prodigal son who took all his inheritance left and partied it away in Luke 15:20. “So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” There were no I told you so, no you have to repay me, no rejection, no shame. He embraced him and celebrated he was home.
He knows our situation.
He is compassionate.
He loves us, anyway.
He will save us through grace.
2.The next obstacle to grieving is our innate response to pain. We run from it. We touch a flame and we pull away. Even though we are taught that the process of grief is good from God and psychology, we basically spend our lives trying to avoid mourning it because it hurts, inadvertently avoiding the comfort of God.
Hopefully we can become open to the reality that the sin admit and mourn can be used to transform us and we will walk away having been blessed by God not punished.
I think it’s easy for us to believe God exist, but if we don’t fully understand who he is and what kind of God he is we won’t trust Him and believe He is for us and trust him with our sin and grief.