TurningPoint Community Church

• Humans have access to God, NOT based on their performance, but based on what Jesus has done for them!

• God doesn’t mind elevating people we might avoid.

See Genesis 37:23-27.

• We all have secrets hidden from everyone but God.

• God’s grace is even available to people who have not made themselves available to Him.

• Self-righteousness has never elevated a person in the sight of God.

• Our only hope has nothing to do with what we’ve done, but everything to do with what God has done for us in Jesus.

• "Come as you are. Accept what I’ve done. Stop trying to fix the past. I’ve got your future."

• We are only disqualified from the Kingdom of God by unbelief, not by bad behavior.

Genesis 49:10 ESV
The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

• God still offers free grace to those who will receive it.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Read Ephesians 2:1-8 out loud. Discuss how amazing it is that God, in Christ, does not hold our sins against us.

2. Why does shame seem so hard to overcome?

3. In what way do we still try to compensate for our failures with self-righteousness?

4. What is the message of Christmas?

NEXT STEPS:

• I will confess that I don’t see myself as God sees me.

• This week, I will meditate on John 5:24 and John 6:29.