How People Change

AT A

GLANCE:

HOW PEOPLE

CHANGE

Lesson 3:

HEAT 1:

Life in the Real World

CPR Preview

• Central Point: God understands the full range of joys and sorrows that make up our lives.

• Personal Application: Personal comfort and direction result from knowing that God understands my world and provides help that fits my need.

• Relational Application: I want to help people understand that because God understands their struggles, he can offer help that is genuinely helpful.

The Big Question

What is your situation? What are your burdens, pressures, joys,

hardships, temptations, responsibilities, opportunities, and pains – both actual and potential?

Scriptural Background:God understands our deepest struggles of life in a

fallen world

• Psalm 88: O LORD, God of my salvation;I cry out day and night before you.Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!For my soul is full of troubles,and my life draws near to Sheol.I am counted among those who go down to the pit;I am a man who has no strength,

like one set loose among the dead,like the slain that lie in the grave,like those whom you remember no more,for they are cut off from your hand.

Scriptural Background:God understands our deepest struggles of life in a

fallen world

• Psalm 88: (cont.)You have put me in the depths of the pit,in the regions dark and deep.Your wrath lies heavy upon me,and you overwhelm me with all your waves. You have caused my companions to shun me;you have made me a horror to them.I am shut in so that I cannot escape;my eye grows dim through sorrow.Every day I call upon you, O LORD;I spread out my hands to you.

Scriptural Background:God understands our deepest struggles of life in a

fallen world

• Psalm 88: (cont.)Do you work wonders for the dead?Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,or your faithfulness in Abaddon?Are your wonders known in the darkness,or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But I, O LORD, cry to you;in the morning my prayer comes before you.

O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?Why do you hide your face from me?

Scriptural Background:God understands our deepest struggles of life in a

fallen world

• Psalm 88: (cont.)

Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.Your wrath has swept over me;your dreadful assaults destroy me.They surround me like a flood all day long;they close in on me together.You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;my companions have become darkness.

Scriptural Background:Pastoral realism in the face of trial

• James 1:1-18: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:Greetings.Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Scriptural Background:Pastoral realism in the face of trial

• James 1:1-18: (cont.)

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Scriptural Background:Pastoral realism in the face of trial

• James 1:1-18: (cont.)

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

Scriptural Background:Pastoral realism in the face of trial

• James 1:1-18: (cont.)

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Scriptural Background:Pastoral realism in the face of trial

• James 1:1-18: (cont.)

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Illustrations

• Provide an illustration of the comfort that comes when someone knows your story. Compare this to the confusion we experience when we think we must live a double life because no one knows what we are going through.

Group Discussions

• Group reflections about times they felt alone.

• Use James 1:1-18 to reflect on a past and present trial.

• Why does suffering surprise us? What assumptions do we make about suffering? How can these assumptions increase our pain?

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

Central Point:

• God understands the full range of joys and sorrows that make up our lives.

• The Christian life is not about finding shelter from the real world as much as it is about God meeting us in the midst of it.

• The Bible comforts us with the knowledge that nothing we experience is a surprise to God.

CPR

Personal Application:

• Personal comfort and direction result from knowing that God understands my world and offers help that fits the struggles I face daily.

• I must identify where I run from trouble rather than run to God.

• I need to recognize the places where I miss God’s comfort because I am embarrassed to admit my struggles to him.

CPR

Relational Application:

• I want to help people understand that God understands what they face in a fallen world, and that he offers help that is genuinely helpful.

• I want to help people to identify the false shelters that keep them from turning to God in their difficulties.

• I can demonstrate the fact that God understands our struggles by modeling that understanding in the way I comfort others.

Make it Real (Homework)

1. Take some time to think about your life. What is the HEAT in your current situation? Use the questions below to make your responses concrete and detailed.

a) What pressures do you regularly face?

b) What are your God-given opportunities?

c) What are your normal, everyday responsibilities?

d) Are you facing difficult circumstances?

e) What temptations are you facing?

f) Who are the difficult people in your life?

Make it Real (Homework)

g) What unexpected blessings have you received?h) In what situations do you feel alone or misunderstood?i) What challenges does the value system of modern

culture present to you?j) In what areas do you feel overwhelmed by the things

that have been “assigned” to you (blessing or difficulty)?

k) Are there places where you are tempted to avoid, hide or quit?

l) What situations tempt you to say you are okay when you are not?

Make it Real (Homework)

2. Do you see any themes or patterns in your answers regarding relational struggles, responsibilities, certain temptations, finances, physical suffering, etc.? In other words, what part of the HEAT of real life tends to get to you? All the categories listed in Question 1 are part of every life, but what things, specifically, tend to hook you?