1. From Orphens to Beloved children

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

Ephesians 1:3-5

2. From blindness to sight

I don’t know whether he is a sinner,’ the man replied. ‘But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!’”

John 9:25

What Does it mean to have spriritual sight

• We see ourselves the way God sees us
• We see others the way God sees them
• We see things from God’s perspective

3. From what we used to be to what we will be

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

1 John 3:2

Then Peter said, ‘Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’”

Acts 3:6

When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”

Acts 3:9-10

Memory Verse

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 2:6-7

I just finished watching Frozen 2. It was awesome. I noticed a lot of things that were used in the musical. My favorite thing about Elsa was that at the end she was a ” Badass in Pants ” and if you’ve seen the musical you would recognize Elsa’s last outfit as the Monster outfit. That’s my favorite costume in the musical

“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

Matthew 5:7

One day at three o’clock in the afternoon, Peter and John were on their way into the Temple for prayer meeting. At the same time there was a man crippled from birth being carried up. Every day he was set down at the Temple gate, the one named Beautiful, to beg from those going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, he asked for a handout. Peter, with John at his side, looked him straight in the eye and said, “Look here.” He looked up, expecting to get something from them. Peter said, “I don’t have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. In an instant his feet and ankles became firm. He jumped to his feet and walked. The man went into the Temple with them, walking back and forth, dancing and praising God. Everybody there saw him walking around and praising God. They recognized him as the one who sat begging at the Temple’s Gate Beautiful and rubbed their eyes, astonished, scarcely believing what they were seeing. The man threw his arms around Peter and John, ecstatic. All the people ran up to where they were at Solomon’s Porch to see it for themselves.

Acts 3:1‭-‬8‭, ‬8‭-‬11

The Big Idea

1 The change you want might not be the change you need.

2 God didn’t want to to give him spare change, he wanted to give him Life Change.

3. Healthy Habits open you up to Holy Moments

Memory Verse

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Romans 12:1‭-‬2

Big Idea: you and I were created for community

Then The Lord said, “it’s not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.

Genesis 2:18

There is a God shaped hole in every heart that nothing else can fill There is a human shaped hole in every heart that God chooses not to fill. The Christian Life is not just about believing, it’s also about belonging and becoming.

Memory verse

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Why do we need community?

1. Because we grow better together

Walk with the wise and become wise associate with fools and get into trouble

Proverbs 13:20

Do not be misled, bad company corrupts good character

1 Corinthians 15:33

2. Because we Learn better together

Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

Acts 2:43‭-‬47

3. Because we Serve Better together.

So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:24-25

Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands? Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham “made right with God by works” when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are “works of faith”? The full meaning of “believe” in the Scripture sentence, “Abraham believed God and was set right with God,” includes his action. It’s that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named “God’s friend.” Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works? The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn’t her action in hiding God’s spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing —what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.

James 2:14‭-‬26

This is what True Faith looks like

• Persevering
• Retained by trials
• Holds to God’s promises in prayer
• Leads to compassionate Care for others

The Key to Peace is Realizing two Truth:

1. There is a God
2. I’m not him

The cause of conflicts: Pride

Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it. You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to. You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way.

James 4:1‭-‬2‭, ‬2‭-‬3

The Cure for conflict: Humility. Humility means thinking of myself less

The pathway to Peace

1. Surrender to God

So humble yourselves before God

James 4:7a

2. Stand firm against the devil

Resist the devil and he will flee from you

James 4:7b

3. Stay close to God

Come close to God and he will come close to you.

James 4:8

If we don’t pray it’s a sign of pride , because we are telling God that we can handle life without him.

Memory Verse

Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up

James 4:10

Hearing and Doing

Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

James 1:19‭-‬27

Why is Hearing Without doing so Dangerous?

1. You’re only fooling yourself
2. Your religion is worthless

Two myths about faith and works

1. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you believe.
2. It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you do.

The Truth about faith and works

Good works don’t create faith, Good works reveal faith.

We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saved us is never alone.

Martin Luther

If our religion doesn’t transform our image, our religion is worthless

The Bible was not given for our information, but for our Transformation

D. L. Moody

Memory Verse

But don’t just listen to the word, you must Do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourself.

James 1 :22