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Firm
Foundations
Secure
in Christ
Lesson
1 - Our Privileges as Believers in Jesus Christ
Questions
for the LFC Firm Foundations Coordinator may be emailed
to firmfoundations@lenoxchurch.org
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A.
Introduction
Through
Christ, we have been given the gift of eternal life. Our
sin debt was fully paid—at the cost of His blood, shed
for us on the Cross. Our eternal life began the moment
we put our trust in Him. And we will spend the rest of
our lives here on this earth learning the greatness of
what God has done for us in Christ.
By continuing
to study His Word, we want to learn how to worship and
serve Him. That is what God wants us to do now and
throughout all eternity—to worship and serve the Lord
Jesus.
B. We are
gathered here as believers in Jesus Christ.
When we put our
faith in Jesus Christ, we became members of His family. “But
as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of God, to those who believe in His
name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John
1:12-13
Jesus Christ is
the Head of His family, and the Owner of each one of us.
- He is the
Owner and Head of this gathering of believers as we meet
together.
- And He is the
Head of each group of believers, all over the world.
Jesus Christ is with us right now, and always.
- In Matthew
28, Jesus told His followers, “I am with you
always, even to the end of the age.”
- Whether we
are gathered together or by ourselves, He is with us.
C. We were
saved through Jesus Christ, and we live as believers in
Christ by His power.
This lesson
will talk about the things we do as believers in Christ.
The power and
ability to do these things does not come from us, but
from Jesus, the source of our lives.
- In John
15:4-5, Jesus told His disciples, “Abide in
Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can
you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you
are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him,
bears much fruit; for without Me you can do
nothing.”
-
The power to live our new lives in Christ comes from
Him.
-
Anything we try to do on our own apart from Him is
useless. Just as we were saved through Christ, so we
also live through Christ.
All of the
power comes from Him, and all of the praise belongs to
Him.
D. We can
praise the Lord by singing.
We express our
praise to God through singing.
Consider
Man didn’t
invent music—God did! In the book of Job, God tells us
that while He was creating the earth, the watching
angels (His messengers, whom He created to serve Him)
sang His praises and shouted for joy! Singing His
praise is something we will be doing forever in heaven.
We don’t have to be great singers—God just wants a
heart of praise. We can sing aloud or just in our
hearts, any time of day or night. Many great hymns
have already been written. In choosing which
songs to sing, look for songs that agree with what God
has said in His Word.
-
Select songs that express what God has said about:
His character
His great works
His gift of salvation through Jesus Christ
The blessings of knowing Jesus Christ.
-
You may even want to write your own songs. As believers,
our songs are sung to God. God accepts our songs because
of Jesus Christ.
E. God has
given us the privilege of prayer.
Prayer is
simply talking to God. He is our Father, and He wants us
to talk to Him—about everything.
Consider:
We desire to
have our children talk with us. That’s how we build
relationships with them. Sometimes though, we may become
weary of their constant conversation. But God never gets
tired of our coming to Him. He wants us to talk to Him
all the time.
-
What a privilege we have, to talk directly to the
Creator of the Universe!
-
We can come to Him any time, day or night. When we talk
to God, we should pray in Jesus’ name. We pray
in Jesus’ name because we know that the only way
anyone can come to God is through Jesus.
Read John
14:6
- Jesus shed
His blood to make a way for us to come to God.
- When we come
to God, praying in Jesus’ name, it is just as if we
are accompanying Jesus to talk to God.
- God accepts
us and listens to us because of the Lord Jesus in whom
we are trusting. At the end of our prayer, we say, “Amen.”
- That means,
“let it be.”
- In other
words, we believe God has heard us and will do what is
best.
F. We
worship and adore God.
God
alone is worthy of worship and adoration. As we pray, we
can personally express our praise to Him for His
goodness. Think about the things we have learned about
His character and nature:
-
God communicates with man.
- He is eternal.
- He is everywhere all the time; He knows
everything.
- God is greater than all and more important than all;
He is the highest
authority.
- God is holy and righteous; He demands death as the
payment for sin.
- God is all powerful; nothing is too hard for Him to
do.
- He is loving, gracious and merciful.
- God is faithful; He always does what He says; He never
changes.
Think
about what God has done for us:
-
He came to earth as a man, in human flesh, to die for
our sins.
-
For us, He paid the death penalty.
-
And, because He was sinless, He rose again. We can
worship Him and praise Him for Who He Is and what He has
done.
G.
We thank God.
As
we talk to God in prayer, we can thank Him for specific
things:
-
We can look back and thank Him for what He has done in
the past, especially for our salvation in Jesus
Christ.
-
We can thank Him for what He is doing right now in our
lives, and in the lives of those we know and care
about.
-
And we can thank Him for what He will do in the future.
-
We can look at the things He has promised in His Word,
and thank Him by faith.
H.
We petition God, through Jesus Christ.
God
wants us to make requests of Him.
-
No request is too big or too small to bring to our
heavenly Father.
-
He cares about us and wants us to bring every need to
Him.
- We can ask
Him to make us more like His Son, Jesus Christ.
We can ask Him
to help us with our needs and the needs of others:
- Spiritual growth
- Everyday problems
- Physical needs.
We should ask
Him to help us take the Good News about Him to others,
especially to those who have never heard. We should ask
God to show people their need to be saved.
- We can
pray that the Holy Spirit will show them their sin and
God’s holiness.
- We can
pray for opportunities to share God’s truth with
them.
We can bring
all these requests to God. We can pray as a group, and
we can pray when we are alone. And as we see God
answering our prayers, we can rejoice together.
I. We are to
testify to other believers about what God is doing in
our own lives.
We honor God
when we tell others how He is working in our own lives.
As we believers meet together, we can share some of the
things God is teaching us personally:
- How He is answering our prayers.
- Showing us His will.
- Enabling us to live this new life as believers in
Christ.
We also need to
share our needs and problems with each other, so we can
pray for each other.
J. We are to
witness to others who are unsaved.
As believers in
Jesus Christ, we have the privilege and responsibility
of telling others about Him.
Everyone can
share from God’s Word, and tell the true story:
- Who God is.
- How man has broken his fellowship with
God.
- How God has made a way for the fellowship to be
restored through
the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
Even as a new
believer, you can share these things. The story of how
you came to know Christ as your Savior is a powerful
witness to someone who is not saved.
K. As
believers, we will continue to learn about God by
studying His Word. The Bible is God’s personal message
to each one of us. God wants us to read His Word.
-
This is how He communicates with us.
-
This is how we grow in Him. As believers in Christ, we
have the privilege of being taught by God Himself,
through His Word.
Read John
14:26.
God the Holy
Spirit helps us to understand what we read in God’s
Word.
As a new believer, you may feel overwhelmed at the
amount of material in the Bible.
-
You will not learn it all at once.
-
Spiritual growth and understanding take time to
develop.
Compare:
A little baby
cannot feed himself His parents must feed him so he can
grow strong. Little by little, with his parents
encouragement and help, and as he grows, he will learn
to feed himself
This is how it
is with a new believer.
- You will need
a lot of help from more mature believers.
- And the more
you study the Word on your own, the more you will find
that God the Holy Spirit will give you
understanding of what you are reading. As you mature in
Christ, you, then, will have opportunities to help new
believers.
L.
Conclusion
Through the
Bible, we have learned about Jesus Christ, and His
death, burial, and resurrection. We know for certain
that we have been forgiven our sins because we have
believed the truth of Christ’s finished work for us on
the cross. And, just as we were saved by the work of
Jesus Christ on the cross, so also Jesus Christ alone
gives us power to live the Christian life.
He is worthy of
our praise! We can praise him by singing. And, through
Jesus Christ, we can come directly to God in prayer. We
can praise God through prayer, thank Him for His
goodness to us, and ask Him for the
things that we and
others need. We can tell each other about the things God
is doing in our lives. And, we can tell unsaved people
the wonderful message of salvation. Let’s thank
the Lord together for these privileges we have received
in Jesus Christ.
QUESTIONS:
1. Who is the
owner and head of every group of believers?
2. Who gives us
the power and ability to live our new lives as believers
in Christ?
3. What is
Prayer?
4. Why do we
pray “in Jesus’ name”?
5. God desires
our worship. What are some of the things we can talk to
Him about as we worship Him?
6. What types
of requests can we bring to God?
7. Name some
things for which you can thank God.
8. When we get
together as believers, we can testify to one another of
how God is working in our lives. What are
some of the things we can share?
9. God desires
for all people to be saved. How can we pray for unsaved
people?
10. How do we
continue to grow as believers in Christ?
11. Who helps
us to understand God's word?
12. Does God
expect us to be instantly mature as believers in
Christ?
 Notes for
Disciples:
1) Memorize
John 1:12-13.
2) Write in
your own words what this verse means. Then take time to
think about what it means in your life.
3) Begin a
praise journal. Write down things for which you can
thank God. These may be things about His character, the
blessings He gives, or anything you want to praise Him
for. Use this journal as you talk to God.
4) Begin a
prayer journal. Mark the date you first talked to
God about something, and write a brief description of
the subject. Leave space to record His answers to your
requests.
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