Maintaining Momentum

Written by Paul Howdershell
Saturday, 17 February 2007 18:00

Running Free

Sermon Notes: Maintaining Momentum

Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.

Relapse: falling back into a self-defeating pattern.

How relapse happens

The pattern:

1. Complacency
2. Confusion
3. Compromise
4. Catastrophe

What can cause a relapse?

1. Revert to willpower (Galatians 3:3, Zechariah 4:6)
   • Not relying on God
2. Ignoring one of the steps (Galatians 5:7)
3. Trying to recover without support (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, Hebrews 10:25)
   • We need others to encourage and help us
   • You cannot do long term change without relationships
4. Becoming prideful (Proverbs 16:18, 1 Corinthians 10:12)
   • We must live with humility

How to prevent a relapse

Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.

1. Self-examination (Galatians 6:4)
   • What?
     • Physical
     • Emotional
     • Relational
     • Spiritual
   • When?
     1. Spot check throughout the day: keep short accounts with God and don't let mess build up.
     2. Daily review, such as at the end of the day
     3. Annual checkup
2. Bible reading and meditation: slowing down long enough to hear God (Psalm 1:2-3, Psalm 119:111)
3. Prayer (Matthew 6:8-13)

"Recovery is not for those who need it. Recovery is for those who want it."

Small Group Questions

This week Paul Howdershell spoke on how not to fall back into old patterns, not falling back into relapse, but running free your entire life.

The two main scriptures that you can look at are:

Gal 3:3 (NLT) ?How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort??

Matt. 6:8-13 (NLT) "Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don?t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one."

The pattern for relapse is: we experience some healing from our hurts, habits, and hang-ups and believe we are good enough and become ?Complacent? that leads to ?Confusion? of do we really need to rely on God strength, which leads to handling our problem in our own strength in ?Compromise? that eventually ends in ?Catastrophe.?

Possible icebreaker: What is your favorite type of music, or band? And why?

Questions:

1. What does it look like when someone is running free?
2. Have you had a time in your life you were running free?
3. Which of this has caused you to fall down in the past:
   1. Reverting to your willpower
   2. Ignoring one of the steps
   3. Trying to recover without community
   4. Becoming prideful
4. Is there anything you need to change to experience more freedom?

End by praying for each other?s freedom.

Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.