Follow-up Bible Study

Sermon Discussion Guide

Follow-up Bible Study

Sermon Discussion Guide
 

View the full Easter service (including worship)

April 8, 2012

April 6, 2012

40 Days of Experiencing the Spirit Devotional

40 Days of Experiencing the Spirit Devotional

Sermon Discussion Guide

40 Days of Experiencing the Spirit Devotional

Sermon Discussion Guide

Pastor Rich began a new series about the Holy Spirit. He opened by sharing about our human need for touch both from each other and more importantly from God. Romans 12:5 talks about the spirit being poured out – the experience of abundance in the Spirit. We need God’s touch. Joel Chapter 2 prophesied that the Spirit will be poured out on all people and Pastor Rich gave examples of where that is occurring today. The kingdom of God is about inheriting the precious promises reserved for the end of time and enjoying those promises now – the forgiveness of sins, the writing of the law of God on your heart, the experience of a measure of the healing of your body, the experience of the reconciling of relationships, the spreading of justice on the earth, and salvation, regardless of race, ethnicity, or age. God has come to live inside of human beings by His Spirit. Christians today also need an experience of the Spirit. The internal experience of the Spirit is felt by God’s leading, his prompting for action or restraint. We also need an empowering experience of the Spirit – “Christianity is fire setting” Kierkegaard said. The final point made was that the Spirit is not sexist or racist or elitist or ageist. The Spirit is for all people and as a whole church, let’s embrace the experience of God’s Spirit.

40 Days of Experiencing the Spirit Devotional

Sermon Discussion Guide

40 Days of Experiencing the Spirit Devotional

Small Group Discussion Guide
 

Follow-up Bible Study

Small Group Discussion Guide

In this week’s sermon Pastor Rich preached about forgiveness. The message began by suggesting that forgiveness is at the heart of Christianity. “If Christianity is about anything, it is about forgiveness. Not forgiveness as a way of escaping punishment, but forgiveness as reconciliation and total restoration. Forgiveness which restores the broken relationship between God and people. And forgiveness which has the capacity to achieve peace and reconciliation among all human relationships whether personal or global.” Forgiveness is easy, C.S. Lewis said, until you have something to forgive. We often take many paths other than forgiveness, but Pastor Rich warned “that no alternative to forgiveness will heal us or open the possibility to restored relationship”. To help with confusion surrounding acts of forgiveness, we learned three things forgiveness is and is not. Forgiveness is not forgetting; Forgiveness is practicing non-remembrance. Forgiveness is not a 1-time act; Forgiveness is a process. Forgiveness is not the absence of consequences; Forgiveness is breaking the law of action and reaction. We can only begin the process of forgiveness when we begin with honesty – like David in the Psalms. Then we are encouraged to embrace empathy and humility – through prayer and recognizing our own shortcomings and failures. We conclude with tapping into the power of Christ – who helps us go beyond our own limits. When we cut the process short, or fail to forgive, we remain chained to the injustice(s) we suffered in the past.

Follow-up Bible Study

Small Group Discussion Guide
 

Follow-up Bible Study

Small Group Discussion Guide
 

Follow-up Bible Study

Small Group Discussion Guide
 

In this week’s sermon, Pastor Rich continued in his life together series, this time drawing from 2 Timothy Chapter 4 and speaking on the topic of loneliness. In Paul’s letter we get a sense of the kind of loneliness that Paul was dealing with as a result of the circumstances of his life and ministry. It is a very personal letter. First exhorting Timothy to preach the truth of the gospel, but then, reaching out to Timothy expressing his personal experiences of loneliness. We can often deal with circumstances that make us lonely, that are not unlike the kinds that Paul was dealing with. Paul was going through a transitional time in his life, many of his friends had left or gone on to other place to do ministry, he had to deal with issues of betrayal as well as feeling a general sense of isolation that preaching the gospel can cause. These are all ways that caused Paul and can cause us to feel a sense of loneliness. But there are healthy and unhealthy ways of dealing with circumstances like this. We can escape into addictions, entertainment or materialism or, as Paul does in this text, we can reach out and engage with others or participate in something constructive, especially reading and spending time with the Lord. All of these things can combat feelings of isolation or loneliness and reinforce the truth that God is present with us always even if we can’t feel it.

Follow-up Bible Study

Small Group Discussion Guide

In this week’s sermon, Pastor Rich began a new series called “Life Together”. “Unknown knowns” are realities that we deliberately choose to ignore. In America, our need as Christians to be in close connection with one another and our need for Christian fellowship is an unknown known. From Deut 10, we learn the importance and significance of what it means to “remember”. We’re instructed to remember God when things are hard; remember God at work; remember God’s way of teaching us humility; remember God’s way of disciplining us; remember God when things are good; remember your need for community.
Koinonia = the sharing of life together. There are many “one another” references in the general epistles – James, 1 Peter and 1 John. Why do you need to be knit together in some kind of group with other Christians in order to be a good Christian? One very simple reason is because you can’t obey the dozens of commands in the Bible of what you are to do for another Christian unless you are connected with other Christians. When we remember (practice) community, we need to remember our need for support. Dr. Cloud wrote in How People Grow:
"People’s most basic need in life is relationship. People connected to other people thrive and grow, and those not connect wither and die. It is a medical fact, for example, that from infancy to old age, health depends on the amount of social connection people have. Infants and older people die from a lack of relationship, and those in the middle suffer and fail to recover from illness." 

At the conclusion of the message, there were three videos communicating our need for accountability and support, our need for others to walk through hard times and bear life’s trials with us, and finally showing our need for others to encourage us and help us grow in our faith. 

Follow-up Bible Study

Small Group Discussion Guide

Follow-up Bible Study

Small Group Discussion Guide

Sermon Follow-Up Bible Study

What we’re doing in the weeks leading up to Christmas is anticipating the approach or arrival of Jesus Christ at Christmas. Historically, Advent anticipated not only Jesus’ first coming at Christmas, but Advent was also an anticipation of Jesus’ second coming when he gathers to himself his children and judges the world. For this Advent series we’re looking at portraits of Jesus from the book of Revelation.

The book of Revelation presents Jesus as our Pastor and Shepherd (also John 10, Heb 13:20, 1 Pet 2:25, 1 Pet 5:4, Rev 7:17). When reading Revelation, there has been an “unfortunate interpretive tradition” where everything is read allegorically. In Rev 2 & 3, we want to take a historical approach rather than allegorical. So the writer, the Apostle John, compared the seven churches and their imperfections to the church in the New Creation. One take away is that Jesus has a message for every church throughout history living in this old broken fallen creation. He is our Pastor and we need to listen when our Pastor speaks to us. So, what would Jesus preach on? What would he say?

• Jesus would affirm us – as he does in the messages to each of the seven churches. If we are going to grow and thrive, we need to be affirmed.
• Jesus would also warn us. Jesus corrects and warns his church. We all need correction, if we are going to thrive and grow. It is an act of love to correct in grace. Not blasting people; not sharing why someone is a total failure – but correct in grace.
• Jesus would teach us. Every strength has a corresponding weakness attached to it (Ex. Optimists may struggle with discouragement, self-confident people may struggle with pride, hard-workers may struggle with love and grace, etc.). If there is a mark of the church to lean into this Christmas it would be love (John 13:33-35).
• Jesus would speak to us about our need to suffer (Rev 2:8-11). The NT teaches that the greatest issue that exists regarding the extension of the gospel in every time and in every place is the willingness of individual Christians to suffer so that this gospel message gets announced (John 12:24-26). There is nothing great ever achieved without some degree of suffering, without some deprivation.
• Jesus would speak to us about our need for truth (Rev 2:12-16). The writers of the New Testament know the healthy teaching, which applies God’s Word to real life will result in healthy living. And they also know that bad teaching and bad counsel will result in bad living. Rich asks, “What are we filling our souls with?
• Jesus would speak to us about our need for sincerity (Rev 3:14-19). Many good things were going on in Laodicea, but they were lukewarm about Jesus – their souls were nominal and superficial. Of course, Jesus would prefer not that we be cold, and certainly not that we be lukewarm, but that we be hot, burning in love for him.

Sermon Follow-Up Bible Study

Sermon Based Small Group Leader's Discussion Guide