Discovery and Renewal of Your Life with Christ

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FORMATIONS

Discovery and Renewal of your Life with Christ

Mark Carroll, Pastor

SouthWalkerBaptistChurch

December 29, 2014

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CONTENTS

Introduction – Session 1

Rediscovering Joy! – Session 2

Abiding in Christ and Bearing Fruit

– Session 3

Worship Formation – Session 4

Prayer Formation – Session 5

Bible Study Formation – Session 6

Bible Study Formation – Session 7

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Formations for Your Life with Christ

Introduction – Session 1

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Welcome to a journey into a deeper appreciation and practice of your life with Christ. When each of us made the decision to repent of our sinful life and return (which is what “repent” means) to God’s love through faith in Jesus of Nazareth, we surrendered our life to Christ (we died to self) so that we could follow him. For the Christian, there is only one life that we desire to live; the one that is in us by God’s grace and our faith in Jesus. Paul describes his life with Christ in these ways:

“I have been crucified with Christand I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,who loved meand gave himself for me.” Gal.2:20

“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Phil.1:21

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider lossfor the sake of Christ.8What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowingChrist Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ,” Phil.3:7-8

Jesus said it this way:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Lk.9:23

For Paul, faith in Jesus is a no-brainer – he is dead to his old life and the only life he has to live now is the life of Jesus. Jesus is the only eternal life. Through your faith in him, he shares his life with you by means of the Holy Spirit taking up residence in you at the time you believe. This means that you share in his life now and that you will share in his resurrection at the time that he returns for you. This is the promise God makes us for having faith in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord

This is the “Good News” that the angels announced to the shepherds on the first Christmas night. They said,”Today in the town of David a Saviorhas been born to you; he is the Messiah,the Lord.” Luke 2:11. The Good News is that Jesus was born into the world as a human being just like you and me, that he came from God to save us from our sin – to put to death sin in the flesh and to offer eternal life to us by being raised in the flesh, and that he is Lord of life because he is the only one who can show us how to live and overcome the effects of sin and death that invade and corrupt our lives each and every day.

The South Walker Baptist Church Formations class is meant to help you take hold of the life of Christ and to develop skills and practices that will help you live the life Jesus came freely give you– “a file to the full”! (Jn. 10:10) This is a “basics” class that will help you go deeper in your faith, in worship, in ministry and service, and in fellowship. Specifically, you will:

• Examine again your profession of faith in Jesus
• Abiding in Christ and Bearing Fruit
• Develop a complete understanding of your worship offered to God
• Develop a broader and more inclusive prayer life both privately and with your family and others
• Learn how to study the Word of God using various methods
• Develop a meaningful understanding and practice of Christian fellowship
• Develop your own personal course of action of sharing the Gospel with anyone
• Learn and develop skills in nurturing others to faith in Christ and in helping others in the Christian faith
• Develop a plan for your life to serve Christ both through the life of the church and outside it
• Develop skill in leading ministries in the church

This course will last about 6 months. It is important for you to get the Formation right before you are fully ready for God to form and shape you into the living image of Christ that he planned for you.

Each week we will:

• Take time to pray for each other. You will pair up with someone in the group each week and pray together
• Have a short introduction to the lesson material for the week. You will interact with the material during the week. This will be the real instruction that you will receive from being in this group – the work you do at home. It will take about 45 minutes a day, so you will need to rearrange your routine to get the most from this course. During the week you will contact your partner to encourage one another.
• Most of the group time will be discussing the material from the previous week, sharing with others in the class what you have discovered or what you accomplished. You will have assignments to complete (part of the 1 hour investment of time during the week) that you will be asked to share. Believe me, once you get into this class, you will be eager to share what is happening in your life!

Together you will choose a ministry or mission project that we can do together during the course of our time together. You each will also have the opportunity to participate in a worship service with our church.

There will not be a lot of Bible study in this class per se. The Bible study we do together will come from the work you do during the week and share with the group when we meet. When I think about the great possibilities that this study holds for you and the life of our church I am overwhelmed with excitement!

May I share with you a bit of my story? Please indulge me for just a moment. At the young age of eighteen I knew that God desired me to go into full time ministry. It was the plan he had for my life. At the time I was excited about the prospect of giving my life over to God completely. I was raised in a strong church enjoyed the influence and mentorship of some very fine ministers and leaders in the church and had the full support of my family and friends. The only problem with all of this was that I still thought enough of my own plans and vision for my life to allow them to block out everything God was working to accomplish through my life. I went my own way.

It’s not that I had a bad life; some would say that I lived my dreams, that it was a life of adventure. I was my own man, setting my own course and living out of my own well thought out plans. And it was a good life… for a while. It did not take me long to realize that I did not have all the answers for the very person that I thought I knew best – me. My adventurous life became a disaster and all my best laid plans left me in hopelessness.

It was in a moment of surrender that I was set free. I decided that God did know what was best for my life after all. That,for my life his ways were better than anything I attempted own my own. I was ready to give life a try his way.

Now he didn’t just restore me to the place in my life I was before when I decided to go it my own way. He had to undo some damage I had done, reorient my life to his will and arrange some things in my life to make the most of my new desire to life my life out of my love for him.

Showing much mercy and grace that has culminated in a great expression of his love for me, I am able to serve him that prayerfully bring glory to his name and comfort and care to his people. And along the way I hope he may use me to increase the lives that I touch for his glory.

Why did I want to share with you this brief account of the “Roaring Twenties” of my life? To illustrate this: Most every person I know (and certainly myself) at some point in life needs to take a moment to reset their life with God and establish again a firm Formation of faith. Once a person is willing to do that, then moving forward with God becomes a great joy and proves to be the most rewarding life imaginable – a full and meaningful life.

I hope that his course may both renew and begin and new chapter in your life with God. So may God bless you as we begin together.

A Few Questions to help you get focused for the next several weeks of study:

1) How comfortable are you with your own personal expression of your faith in the world around you? How would you like it to change?

2) Describe briefly you reliance on the Holy Spirit as you live through the “everyday” moments of your life.

3) What is your understanding of God’s will and what impact does it have on your moral and ethical stance and the personal values you hold for you and your family?

4) Describe for yourself the strength of your worship, prayer and Bible Study life. Is it rich and meaningful or anemic and without any real; impact on your life?

5) Describe how involved you are with other Christians with whom you worship and serve? Are you serving your brothers and sisters and are you involved in fellowship in a way that allows your church to serve you?

6) Describe what it means for you to be able to say that you have shared your faith with another person.

7) Describe your best scenario be being involved in ministry and service that accomplishes God mission of bringing his love to the world.

Record your answers in the Journal section of the workbook located in the appendix.

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Formations for Your Life with Christ

Rediscovering Joy! – Session 2

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Group Gathering

Prayer Formation

Prayers of Praise

Prayers of Petition

Prayers of Thanksgiving

Anything else on your mind?

Write the requests in the PRAY HARD section of the workbook located in the appendix.

FormationsReview

Share with the group a couple of your favorite responses from questions posed in the introduction from last week.

Share with your group how you may have been challenged by the questions. What did you discover about your faith? Your desire for spiritual growth? Your interest in serving Christ and His people?

Formations

It was freakish. We had received snow in the summer before, but usually only a light dusting and never more than a few inches. But on this day in late June, nearly three feet had fallen, which would not normally be a problem except that I was on top of the Continental Divide. I knew I had to get down from there fast. Who knew how long it would fall and how much.

Guideposts line the Continental Divide. They are placed strategically so that you can see the next one from the previous one. As long as you can see the guideposts, you can know where the trail is. As I followed the trail I took a bad step and before I knew it I was tumbling down the side of the mountain, twisting and cart-wheeling over a hundred feet. When I finally got to my feet I was a bit disoriented. I began making my way back up the hill and after picking my way through Juniper, Wild Rose and Scrub Oak I made it back to the trail. I looked around and to my dismay I could see only one guidepost. I knew my direction, but nothing looked right. What I saw was challenging what I knew. My only choice was to hike to the one post I could see and let it reset my bearings. At this point I did not trust what I was seeing or what I knew. But I knew I could trust the guidepost.

When I got to the post, I looked through the falling snow and I could see the next post in the distance. I once again had my bearings. During my fall I worked my way back up the hill on the back side of a ridge that actually took me in the opposite way that I thought I was going. Had it not been for the guidepost I would have walked the wrong direction down a ridge that went nowhere.

I probably by now have figured out why I shared this story. It is easy to get off the trail for life God has laid before you, become disoriented and turned around. Sometimes we need to return to where we began in order to regain our bearings and get back on the correct course. This is what Week 2 is all about – getting back on course.

The Joy of YOUR Salvation!

Peter writes this: Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in himand are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,9for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls 1 Peter 1:8.

The passage is clear: faith in Jesus is the source of joy for your life, because of the reassurance that you are saved by the grace of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus! Every Christian: a seasoned believer, one who is developing or one who is new to faith benefits from taking a look back at that time in your life when you knew that you were transformed, that you were no longer of this world, but by God’s grace he has saved you from it and given you a new life wholly and completely following Jesus.

• What are the advantages of returning to those monumental moments in life?
• How does this help us move forward?
• Share a time in your life that you review to help you move forward in life?

Commit to theLordwhatever you do,
and he will establish your plans. Prov. 16:3

This is good advice from writer of Proverbs. It seems that it would be a natural thing to commit our faith life to God. But the problem is that most of us don’t do that. We believe that upon conversion we should have some special understanding of what it means to be a person of faith. But if we commit our faith life to God, he will establish a plan/process for you so that he may accomplish his desires for you as you grow spiritually.

• What is involved in “committing to the Lord whatever you do?”
• Share with your group what you believe would be God’s 5-point plan for strengthening your faith life.

Committing your life to God means that it becomes his project to make as he chooses. He will establish his best plan for your life when you trust him with it.

• Share how in what ways you may change the trajectory of your faith life so that God has more of your life. Share what may be holding you back.

You are on your way to renewing or gaining a new appreciation for the joy that comes just from knowing Jesus as your Savior and Lord.

Personal Formation

This week we are going to review some of the basic realizations and decisions you made when you decided to receive forgiveness for your sin and to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior. Enjoy the journey.

DAY 1

Knowing for Certain that You have Eternal Life

Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Again Paul says in Romans 8:38 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

Take some time today and write down your thoughts about your own sin, God’s gift of salvation to remove our sin and death problem and the love of God that guarantees that we may have eternal life with him because of Jesus.

Pray today giving thanks to God that Jesus came so that “you may have life and have it to the full”, beginning now.

Write your thoughts in your Journal and your prayer in the PRAY HARD Journal.

Today’s Suggested Bible Reading

Proverbs 1James 1Colossians CH 1

DAY 2

Understanding Your Sin Problem

God’s purpose for you is that you have meaning in life as we direct our lives and hearts toward him. The problem is our sinful nature keeps us from fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23) We deserve sin and death because we chose to rebel against God, the source of all that is good and meaningful for us.

God made a way to conquer sin for us. He sent his son to us as a man so that sin could be destroyed by a man – the perfect man! “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” (1 Pet. 3:18a) It was by his death AND resurrection that death is defeated. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Rom. 4:25). Our only hope of ever standing justified before God is to believe what Jesus has done through his death and resurrection and to trust him with your life.