When God’s family gathers in Sunday services or community groups, it’s like family dinner: our values, the way we treat each other, and the way we treat our guests are on full display. This sermon explores how God’s welcome extends through the church community to newcomers when we gather together.

Application Questions:

1. When was the last time you were new at church? What was that experience like?

2. How have you benefitted from services and community groups that focus on the gospel?

3. How might you know, serve, and speak to welcome others at our services and community groups?

Jesus changed the world and impacts lives every day in a surprising way: zoomed in, one person at a time. He not only sees individuals and their specific needs, but he saves and celebrates, with a singular focus, each person adopted into his family.

Application Question:

1. Is there someone in your life who needs to seen by you the way Jesus sees you? Pray and ask God to show you who you need to see today.

Multiplication has always been part of God's plan since He formed humanity in His Image. We should desire multiplication because we want those around us to hear the gospel's Good News. God does not want us to hoard the fruit of Spirit, but by our fruit, those around us should know we are His and desire Him. Multiplication is bittersweet because there is a cost to welcome others into God's family and mission. But it is glorious to see those who once were orphans now adopted as sons and daughters of the King.

Application Questions:

1. How is multiplication a sign of a healthy church community?
2. How is God using you to welcome and influence those around you for His kingdom?
3. Spend some time this week to pray and meditate on ways you can be intentional in multiplication and hospitality when it comes to the family of God.

How did Christianity go from a local, Galilean, Jewish religion to a worldwide faith where we are worshipping Jesus 2,000 years later and 8,000 miles away? After the Resurrection, Jesus gives His disciples the command to go and make disciples of all nations, inviting all peoples to come to know and love God. The welcome that we have received from God we now turn and offer to others.

Application Questions:

1. How is the call to "make disciples" fundamental to being a Christian?

2. What kind of intentionality is needed in your life to live out this calling?

3. How can you extend the welcome of God to those who don't know Him in your life?

People with disabilities are often overlooked, but they are a valuable part of God’s kingdom. Learning more about those with disabilities teaches us how to be more welcoming, and gives us a vision for a community that truly serves one another.

Application Questions:

1. How have you or someone close to you experienced disability? 

2. God creates, works through, and reveals his glory through people with disabilities. What about this stands out to you the most, and why?

3. How do disability and the gospel relate?

4. How might you know, serve, and speak to welcome others as part of a church family that includes various levels of ability?

The church is more than just a building: it's a community, a God-ordained assembly where we are to be reminded of and refreshed by his goodness. We gather to enjoy and share the welcome of God with one another that we might be better equipped to share it with others.

Application Questions:

1. What does church mean to you?

2. In what ways can you work to see church as more of a community and a family than a building or a gathering?

3. How can you enjoy the welcome of God more through your church community this week?

As we reflect on the welcome of God, and the peace we have because we have been welcomed in, Jesus turns our attention toward being a welcoming presence in our city. Just as Jesus was sent from the Father, now we have been sent for a purpose and with a mission.

Application Questions

1. If Jesus welcomed in the disciples after they had abandoned him, what does that teach you about his welcome of you?

2. Do you see yourself as being "sent" by God just as Jesus was "sent" by the Father?  Why or why not?

3. Do you see yourself more as a visitor in our city or a host/representative of the owner and creator of the universe?

4. How would your life and interactions with others change if you consistently saw yourself as a host sent to welcome the world?

To understand how we are to be missionally hospitable to others we must understand and enjoy the hospitality of God. In His love God redeems us from bondage to slavery, and more so adopts us into His family. In Christ your identity is His child, and He invites you to savor your inheritance.

Application Questions:

1. What does it look like to find your security in your identity in Christ?
2. How ought your adoption into God's family change the way you view God and yourself?
3. What does it mean to savor God? How can you cultivate more affection for Him?

The gospel is God’s hospitality to us, and once you see it you’ll find it throughout scripture. Ephesians 1 is an expansive look at the way God welcomes us through Christ by the Holy Spirit. Once we see that we’ve received God’s welcome, and learn how to enjoy it, we’ll find ourselves ready to extend it to others.

Application Questions:

1. Have you ever thought of God’s love in terms of hospitality? Why or why not?

2. What about the gospel is emphasized when we think about it as God’s hospitality? 

3. How does God’s hospitality through Jesus Christ help you in the struggles you have right now?

We begin the year with a new sermon series exploring the calling of our church in our city.  Why does God have us here? How does he want us to live here as his children? How is this unique moment a key opportunity for the church? As ones who have been welcomed into God's family, he has placed us in this city to reflect his welcome through lives of missional hospitality.

Application Questions:

1. As you look back over the past two years, what are some reasons to thank God for the family of Cornerstone WLA?

2. How might your view of yourself change if you saw us (the church) as the light of the world here in West LA?

3. How could Jesus' example in Matt 9:9-13 reflect how you engage with those outside the church in our city?

4. How is the biblical concept of hospitality different from what you tend to think of as "hospitality"?