48 persor i le with sin. The ‘When a person becomes a Christian, he continues to strug! apostle Paul offers himself as an example of the struggles involved when ‘an imperfect person commits himself to a perfect God. OUR INNER STRUGGLES ‘Romans 7:14-25; 81-11 DISCUSSION ‘A. The Struggles Within (7:14-25) 1. How did Paul describe the struggle within himself? (v.15) 2. How about our own struggles? Cite instances in our lives wherein ‘we have the same experience. 3. Why is this s0? Paul explained it in vv. 16-23. Try to use your ‘own words to express the ideas in this section. |. Paul finally found the solution to his inner struggles in verses fo and 2 Why st sigifican tat he asked who! inverse 24 instead of "how"? b. Letussee how Jesus Christis the solution to our inner struggles. rhen we fight our sinful nature and lose one round, we » oso Bully and defeated that we simply give up trying again. How does Jesus Christ help us resolve this? (f we confess our sins, Jesus Christ frees us from con- demination of the law by paying the penalty of sin on our behalf. We are free to start the fight again.) 2). Since we cannot control our actions because our sinful nature controls us, how does Jesus Christ help us resolve this? (Jesus Christ gives us a new nature to replace our old sinful nature {II Corinthians 5:17]. We have a new desire to please God, new strength, new priorities, new direc- tion, new life.) om christ has given us a new nature, why do Chris- > anos sint How doesesus Chit helps resale this? (Although Jesus Christ gives us a new nature, there are still some residual old self within us. Ephesians 4:22 tells us to "put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, and put on the new self ..." In other 46 ‘words, itis an ongoing process and we need to depend on Jesus Christ, while we do our part, to give us victory over our old self on a daily basis.) 5. What practical steps can we take every day so that we can have the victory through Jesus Christ? a. Draw near to God everyday. Come into His presence. Praise and worship Him. Acknowledge Him as Lord and Master of our life. Read His Word and meditate on it day and night. Converse with Him through prayer. b. Every time the old self wins even a little, confess it to God and ask for forgiveness, and refuse to do it again. © Walk closely with God, in obedience and in love. Imagine there are two dogs inside your heart - a white dog (representing your new nature) and a black dog (representing your old nature). Everyday, keep on feeding the white dog (points a & c above) and starve the black dog (point b). Eventually, the white dog will grow very strong and the black dog very weak. This is what Eph. 4:22 means when it says "put off your old self and put on the new self”. e B. Life Through The Spirit (8:1-11) Many people who read Romans 7:14-25 are left wondering whether it is really possible to win the struggle over sin. Even the second half of Romans 7:25 scems to be ambiguous in this regard. But when we continue on to Romans 8:1-11, the victory over our sinful nature is ‘confirmed beyond doubt. 1, Why is there now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ? How does vv. 1-4 confirm what we had just discussed a while ago? 2. Inwv.5-8, how did Paul describe those who live according to the sinful nature and those in accordance with the spirit? 3. Paul was saying that the battle ground is in our mind. Whatever we fill our mind with determines what we do. Give illustrations to show that this is true. a. Ifwewatch sexually stimulating scenes on TV/movies/tapes, itis inevitable that we think lustful thoughts. b. If people had hurt us and we replay the incident over and over in our mind, bitterness naturally results. “7¢. If our mind is full of negative thoughts (complaints, crti- cisms, etc. we are easily discouraged and depressed. 4. If we make a conscious effort to appreciate people, we will ‘enjoy their company and show love and concern. fe. If we read the Bible and memorize some of the verses and ‘meditate on them, our spirit is lifted up to God and we live a vvietorious life. f 4. Imagine our mind to be a bank account. We can withdraw only what we putin. If we deposit filth, we can withdraw only filth. If we deposit thoughts pleasing to God, we can live a victorious life. What are you feeding your mind with? Review what you read (books, magazines, newspapers), watch (TV, tapes) and listen to (music, idle talk, good conversation, messages. ..). How good or bad are they? 5, Share your experiences on the inner struggles you are facing, and how God is enabling you to overcome them. 6. REFLECTION: How am I faring in my inner struggles? ‘Am I experiencing victory through Jesus Christ, and living a life controlled by the Holy Spirit? i ‘CONCLUSION Our inner struggles are indeed real. If we let our sinful nature take control, we end up not doing what we want and doing what we don't want. But if we have our minds set on what the Holy Spirit wants, the Holy Spirit takes control, and we live_a life pleasing to God. Then we have victory over sin through Jesus Christ. NOTE: Rev. Paul Tanhuanco, Pamela P, Pataroke, Carlos Chua and Vincent Tiu contributed tothe preparation of this lesson. 3. 49 ‘The apostle Paul was writing to the Christians in Corinth. Corinth was a big city with diverse groupsand mixed cultures. The church Paul founded was one of the largest in the first century, but had broken out in a series of spiritual ills. Paul's exhortation that the members of the church should function as one body in Christ is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. ONE BODY IN CHRIST I Corinthians 12:12-31 DISCUSSION A. Overview (vv. 12-13) 1. How did Paul describe the oneness of Christians? (v. 12) 2. What is the basis of our oneness? (v. 13) 3. Everybody agrees that there should be oneness among Chris- tians. Can we truly say that our church has this oneness? What practical steps should we take in order to truly be one? a. Work towards a common goal -to glorify our Lord Jesus, and to build His kingdom. b. We should humbly seek the forgiveness of any brother we have hurt, and be loving enough to forgive those who have hurt us. Have real love and concer for each other. a B. One Body, Many Parts (vv. 14-20) 1. a, Whatare the different analogies Paul used to illustrate the relationship between different parts of the body to the whole? (vv. 15-17) b. Of these body parts, which is more important to you? Why? ¢. If you were to lose one of these body parts, which would you give up? Why? What important point was Paul trying to stress in these analo- gies? a. That although there are many parts, none of them can just detach themselves from the body (vv. 15, 16). No single part can exist alone. ug