MEETING AGENDA
- OPENING PRAYER – Ask one person to open the meeting in prayer.
- GROWTH QUESTIONS – Ask everyone the Growth Questions.
- ATTENDANCE – Take attendance through the DG Attendance System.
- TODAY’S LESSON – Go over this week’s DG lesson.
- GIVING – Encourage everyone to give on the App.
- CLOSING PRAYER – Ask for prayer requests and pray.
WINNING THE BATTLE WITHIN
TODAY’S PASSAGE:
Romans 7:21-25 NLT 21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
- All people are born under the power of sin with a sinful nature.
- Even when we want to do the right thing and avoid sin, there is still a part of us that compels us to do the wrong.
- Our sinful nature urges us to do what is wrong because it is attracted to sin.
- Thankfully, God provided us a way to overcome our sinful nature by giving His son Jesus Christ.
- Jesus empowers us to say, “No!” to our sinful nature and break away from the domination of sin. (v. 24)
- Sin and death always go together. The result of giving into sin is that it produces death.
- DEFINITION – Death (thanatos): the misery of the soul arising from sin which begins on earth but lasts and increases after death of the body in hell; separation from God and all His blessings on earth and for eternity; great mental and emotional distress, extreme unhappiness, destruction, ruin, bondage, addiction.
- Sin seems enticing to us because it offers temporary pleasure or relief, but the Bible makes it clear that it will ultimately destroy us.
Romans 6:16 (NLT) – Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.
- Sin leaves us with long term depression and extreme unhappiness.
- Wrong choices always lead to death. Right choices ultimately lead to happiness, success and life. Choose wisely.
Deuteronomy 30:19 (NLT) – 19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!”.
- Winning the battle within requires that we give our lives to Jesus Christ.
- We surrender our lives to Him by praying a simple prayer and asking Him to save us, and then He empowers us to live differently than we ever have before.
- The more we get to know Him, through studying His Word and obeying His teachings, the more we will find ourselves able to resist the sinful nature and win the battle within.
- Winning the battle within, on the inside of us, leads to winning the battles others can see, on the outside.
Romans 6:17-18 NLT – 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
- It is only through fully surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ, making Him the Lord of our lives, that we can win the battle within.