Lesson 11 – May 27, 2015

Thank you for being here tonight!

The Ten Week Challenge

WE MADE IT!!!

The Ten Week Challenge

Pray daily for the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened.

Monitor our hearts daily by monitoring what is coming out of our mouths.

Pray daily for God to search our hearts and transform them into the heart of Christ.

70 days inFINISHED

The Ten Week Challenge

Identify the source of impurity in our lives.

Expose them to God.

Prayerfully develop a plan to eliminate these sources.

70 days inFINISHED

The Ten Week Challenge

Monitor the attitude of our hearts.How merciful are we?

How much do we truly desire God’s righteousness?

Pray for God to search our hearts and show us wounds that need to be forgiven.

Make the decision to forgive and work the steps to forgiveness.

70 days inFINISHED

Remember…

We are in a war!

Eph. 6:11-12 – Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our

struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the

rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against

the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

of the heart…

What can stand in the way of Spiritual Transformation?

We can…

CAN

For theirs is the Kingdom of God.

...

Matthew 5:3

Matthew 7:24-25.. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

Matthew 7:26-27.. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

We must first understand the word “Blessed”

Godly, untouchable joy. It is present, not future.

It is independent of chance or change.

It will not vanish. It is within the heart.

We must also understand the word, “poor.”

Poverty has a four step process: Being simply without. Having no influence or power. Being oppressed by men. Putting your trust in another

person.

Poverty, beaten to its knees.

But Jesus isn’t talking about material poverty.

Blessed are the Poor…..

He’s talking about spiritual poverty.

in Spirit.

Spiritual poverty is one of the untouchable blessings

in Christ.

The process of Spiritual poverty will lead us to be “blessed” with real joy

from the Holy Spirit.

We approach God with an empty heart

“being simply without”

Bargaining Power

Luke 18:9-14 -To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this

parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself

and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers,

adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me,

a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and

those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

We approach God with a humble heart…

“Without influence or power”

James 4:10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you Up.”

We approach God with a

broken heart…

“oppressed by men”

Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices

of God are a broken spirit; a

broken and contrite heart, O God, you will

not despise.”

We approach God with a desperate heart.

“Putting your trust in another person.”

When we approach

God, spiritually helpless...

Then, onlyJesus canlift us up.

Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for

theirs is the

Kingdom of Heaven.

Those who experience spiritual poverty are blessed with the

untouchable joy of the reign of God in our hearts!

Next week…