Study Guide - Ecclesia Christian Fellowship

Study Guide for the Week of February 15, 2015
“The Conversion!”
(ECF 2015 Evangelism: Filling Series the Master's House)
John 1:12-13 & I John 5:11-13 (NKJV)
Dr. Joshua Beckley, Senior Pastor
Listen to audio sermon at http://ecclesiachurch.com/audio%20sermons.html
TAKE IT TO PRAYER: Continue to pray for group requests throughout the week.
 Pray for your family and friends and these Ecclesia needs:
Jack McGraw (healing; car accident)
Amaris/Corey Scales Jr. (salvation)
Norman Fisher/Daughter (healing and strength)
Family for Lucy Evans (bereavement)
ECF Members with a CTB pledge
Beth's Child (healing)
Zoey Bucheit (healing)
Donna Gilbert (strength)
Harmon Family(bereavement; brother,aunt,cousin)
TAKE IT BACK:
This week Pastor Beckley elaborates on the next step in our "Filling the Master's House Evangelism
Series," "The Conversion."
“Minimizing the importance of transformed feelings makes Christian conversion less supernatural
and less radical. It is humanly manageable to make decisions of the will for Christ. No supernatural
power is required to pray prayers, sign cards, walk aisles, or even stop sleeping around. Those are
good. They just don’t prove that anything spiritual has happened. Christian conversion, on the other
hand, is a supernatural, radical thing. The heart is changed. And the evidence of it is not just new
decisions, but new affections, new feelings.”
(John Piper)
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
TAKE IT DEEPER:
Quotes on conversion to Christ:
“The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance,
reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center, where flawed people place their faith in Christ,
gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed.”
― Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping
People in Need of Change
“Neither fear nor self-interest can convert the soul. They may change the appearance, perhaps even
the conduct, but never the object of supreme desire... Fear is the motive which constrains the slave;
greed binds the selfish man, by which he is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and
enticed (James 1:14). However, neither fear nor self-interest is undefiled, nor can they convert the
soul. Only charity can convert the soul, freeing it from unworthy motives.”
― Bernard of Clairvaux
“The church must suffer for speaking the truth, for pointing out sin, for uprooting sin. No one wants
to have a sore spot touched, and therefore a society with so many sores twitches when someone has
the courage to touch it and say: “You have to treat that. You have to get rid of that. Believe in
Christ. Be converted.”
― Oscar A. Romero, The Violence of Love
“Social responsibility becomes an aspect not of Christian mission only, but also of Christian
conversion. It is impossible to be truly converted to God without being thereby converted to our
neighbor.”
― John R.W. Stott
“For true conversion doth not consist in putting away great and outward sins only, but in descending
deeply into your own self, searching into the inmost recesses of the heart, the secrets and closets, all
the windings and turnings thereof; changing and renewing them throughout, with the grace that is
given you: and so, by faith, you are converted from self-love to Divine love; from the world and all
worldly concupiscence, to a spiritual and heavenly life; and from a participation of the pomp and
pleasures thereof, to participating the merits and virtues of Christ, by believing his word, and
walking in his steps.”
― Johann Arndt: True Christianity
TAKE IT TO RESEARCH/TEACH:
Last week, the pastor spoke about power, research the POWER you have over:
Sin - Romans 6:14
Sickness - Proverbs 18:21
Death - Mark 16:18
All the kingdoms under heaven (biological, animal, earthly, sea, Satanic). Daniel 7:27
Satan - Mark 16:17, Luke 10:19-20
TAKE IT HOME:
Introduction: John 1:12-13 & I John 5:11-13 (NKJV)
Conversion means: the act or an instance of converting or the process of being converted. The fact
of changing one's religion or beliefs or the action of persuading someone else to change theirs.
When someone is converted, it contrasts at least three things:
1.
Receiving vs. Accepting - John 1:12-13
Conversion occurs when someone Receives Jesus as their Savior!
There are four things a person needs know to receive Jesus:

God loves them! (Jn. 3:16)

God has Plan for them! (Jn. 10:10)

God Died for them! (Romans 5:8)

God wants a Relationship with them!
2. Relationship vs. Acknowledgement - 1 John 5:11-12

God desires a Relationship with us! - He who has the Son...has life!

This relationship is intended to Give of Life! - More specifically eternal Life!
3. Recognition vs. Accolades - 1 John 5:13

God wants to Know that we are Saved! - That you may know that you have eternal life!
Sermon can be seen on "YouTube"
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4yE0t0ek84euNz419gTgWg
TAKE IT TO THE GROUP: Share discoveries and answers in your group discussion.
1.
What should we know about what God did for us? That's should fully persuade that he loves
us? (I John 5:11)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2.
What happens in our life when we know that God loves us? (Galatians 2:20, Hebrews 13:5-6)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3.
Discuss what Christ Jesus' death on the cross, accomplished for the believer. (Romans 5:8,
Romans 6:8, Hebrews 10:10-17)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4.
Where is the Scripture that gives the source of eternal life?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5.
Discuss your approach when speaking to someone about converting to Christ.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6.
Practice explaining the benefits of converting to Christ to a non-Christian.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pray for more laborers, when the harvest is ripe, the time for reaping is short.
HUGG HOSTS:
Please remember to report attendance immediately following your group’s meeting!
Email attendance to huggs@ecclesiachurch.com.
(951) 579-9045 / HUGG Hotline