Preached by Pam Boea, Brittany Parlour, Betty Garcia, Theresa Broom and main speaker Helen Sullivan, 4/5/2008

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Betty Garcia, Theresa Broom, Helen Sullivan, Brittany Parlour and Pam Boea spoke at Women’s Day 2008

Women’s Day, The Real Secret - Outline

The first annual CICC Women’s Day was an enormous success with over 100 in attendance. The morning began with a beautiful breakfast assortment and sharing by Pam Boea (Southeast Regional Leader), Brittany Parlour (UIC campus student) and Betty Garcia (Spanish Ministry).

Helen Sullivan spoke powerfully about the need every woman has for God regardless of how “perfect” her life may seem. She shared about her own life and how privileged she was to attend great schools, travel extensively and enjoy a loving family that shared dinner AND breakfast together daily. Despite her “perfect” life she understood that “God had set eternity in her hearts of all women and men” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Nothing or nobody can fill the emptiness we all feel- no one except God.

Tricia Overhaug was baptized six days after Women’s Day in response to what she heard and saw. (See Spanish Ministry post). Many other women are studying the Bible and changing their lives to follow God. Pray that the women will continue to share God’s Word with boldness and clarity.

Theresa Broom

(Notes from preaching and teaching below.)

Pam Boea shares her life. Ephesians 4:17-19

Brittany Parlour teaches us to repent. Acts 3:11-19
In verses 13-15 it describes how WE handed over Jesus, the author of life, to be killed and that WE disowned him, even though we were not physically there.
In verse 19 it says we need to repent and turn to God (times of refreshing)
Repent in the Greek is Metanoia
meta=after/with
noia=result of
The Greek meaning of repent would be to think differently after. It is the changes of action due to a change of our heart, mind, and attitude.
Repentance is refreshing. Refreshing can be compared to the satisfaction of thirst through drinking (i.e. Gatorade).

Betty Garcia shares her life and conversion (in Spanish with English translation) Psalm 32:3-5

“The Real Secret”

Even if you have the ability to change your life, then what? Will any of these things fulfill you?
Joy is not from the ability to change, it is from a relationship with God

POINT 1: Who is God?
John 1:1; 1:14
To know who God is we have to look at Jesus
Jesus is God’s image on Earth
We can see who God is through Jesus
Mark 5:1-13
Here we see a “crazy” guy is healed by Jesus
Jesus wasn’t scared of this guy like others were
Verses 14-17 We see the town’s reaction to his healing. The people were not scared of this man anymore, they were scared that he was healed. The people couldn’t imagine this change.
Verses 18-20 This man tells 10 cities of his healing. All of the people were amazed.
Characteristics of Jesus are that he was powerful, bold, confrontational, he changed people,
he was a leader with results, caring and compassionate, and he had deep convictions.
Jesus was someone we all could follow.

POINT 2: How can we be sure a relationship with God is the answer to a happy life?
The beliefs of people are Science vs. Creationism (Evolution). The Bible is a book of relationships, not of Science. We can believe both Science and the Bible.
Some believe that Jesus didn’t really exist. There are other historical books to learn of Jesus besides the Bible. Some people do not know that.
Some people believe that the Bible is outdated. The sins in the Bible are all the same sins that are in our society today.
Some people believe that the Bible is inconsistent. The truth is that God is the same God all the way through the Bible.
Some people believe in humanism. Humanism is great stuff, but it is not the answer and it certainly does not negate the Bible.
Some people focus on education and money. These are not the answer either. These things seep into our hearts, but they are not the answer.
Solomon looked for the answer to the happiness in life.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 The duty of man is to fear God and keep His commands.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 Eternity is set in our hearts. There is a void (hole in our heart) and only
God can fill that void. God put that in us so that we would seek Him and then find Him.

POINT 3: The Nitty-Gritty
John 3:19 If eternity is in all of our hearts, then why don’t people live for God? Here we see that men loved the darkness instead of the light because the light would expose their evil deeds. People have fear.
Galations 5:19-21 To have a relationship with God, we HAVE to deal with these things in our lives (the nitty-gritty).
2 Timothy 3:1-5 We will understand God better when we deal with the nitty-gritty in our lives. All of these things block our having a relationship with God.
James 5:16 We are healed through confession and are able to pray for each other on these things.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 God wants us to have that joy-filled life. There is one condition: We have to seek Him with all of our heart and we will find Him. We need to deal with sin on a daily basis.

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