Being in fellowship with the God who is Light radically changes the life of the Christian. God's disarming love changes us from the inside out, bringing us further into the Light of His love, and demonstrating that love to brothers and sisters in Christ around us.

Application Questions:

1. How have you seen the love of God disarm you?

2. Does your experience of God's love lead you to love others around you? Why or why not?

3. How can you grow in having a loving posture towards others around you as Christ has?

4. What would it look like in your life to model Christ's love with those around you?

Being close to a God who is light means being transformed into someone who walks the way Jesus walked. This sermon takes a tour of Christian obedience, showing how it is part and parcel of a relationship with God.

Application Questions:

1. What associations do you have with the word “obedience”? How does that affect the way you think about obeying God?

2. Why do you think God wants you to obey him? Why do you think you might want to obey God?

3. Where do you see evidence that God is affecting your life based on your choices to obey him? How does that give you confidence that your relationship with him is real?

John’s agenda is to give us fullness of joy through fellowship with God. So what is God like, and how will that affect our relationship with him? John teaches us that God is light: he is completely pure, completely wise, entirely holy. When we come close to a God like this, it exposes the darkness in us and in our world. But only there do we see Christ taking on our sin and cleansing us to be near God forever.

Application Questions:

1. What do you think fellowship would look like with a God who “is light”? How does that compare to your own relationship with God?

2. Have you experienced God’s light has exposing your own darkness? Are there ways you have avoided God so that you wouldn’t have to deal with exposure like that?

3.John sees confession as freeing because you can be honest before God and be forgiven in Christ. Is that your experience with confession?

John speaks of the truth of Jesus Christ and the joy we get from knowing him. The road from truth to joy runs through fellowship with God, a deep communion with him that is made available in Christ and deeply personal.

John begins his letter focusing on truth: the eternal life of God taking on flesh as Jesus Christ. To John, we have to get this truth right, not so we can know we are right, but so that we can know God, and find fullness of joy in him.

Application Questions:

1. Are you more of a math person or a music person? How does that affect the way you view the Christian faith?

2. How do the truths of the Christian faith lead to fellowship with God? Is that how you think about those truths?

3. Where are you looking for joy? How might you look to the truth John talks about for that joy in your daily life?

As we wrap up our mini-series on how we can relearn to "walk" as the local church, we examine how the community of the local church was designed to be a missional community. While presuppositions regarding "evangelism" may come to mind when you hear the term "missional," the reality of what it means to be a missional community is much deepers. In our missional calling we see and experience the culminating aspect of our purpose as humans and a church: to experience, enjoy, and proclaim the glory of God.

Application Questions:

1. Do you tend to live your Christian life with an "I need to..." or an "I get to..." attitude?
2. How does meditating on the reality of your identity in Christ help to change this?
3. What about the nature of God's glory should help us see the proclamation of the gospel less as a chore and more as an incredible privilege and joy?
4. To whatever extent you are tired and discouraged in this season, how might God still be wanting to workthrough your season of weakness?

The word "church" literally means "gathering". We are called to be relationally close and this requires gathering together physically. Though we have been apart physically for a year, as the pandemic wanes it is important for us to reestablish the rhythm of in-person relational connection.

Application Questions:

1. What steps can you take right now towards regathering in-person with brothers and sisters in Christ?
2. Do you see the importance of in-person gathering for relational closeness and intimacy?
3. How does in-person connection help facilitate relational closeness?
4. Why is it so important that Jesus came to earth physically, and dwelt among us? Why is it important that He comes back the same way?

On the anniversary of our first livestream service, it's easy to see how the pandemic has changed our lives. As restrictions begin to lift, we'll need to learn again what it means to walk together as a church community. This sermon looks at 1 Peter 2 to see how our personal relationship with Jesus is inextricable from our relationship with the local church community.

Application Questions:

1. How has the last year affected your understanding of church—for better and for worse?
2. Peter sees a deep connection between your relationship with Jesus and your relationship with others in the church. How have you experienced that?
3. How might it look for you to enjoy interdependent, rich life in the local church over the next several months?

As we wrap up our journey through the book of Colossians Paul gets personal, giving us a glimpse into the spiritual family God had built around him. When we stop and pay attention to the stories represented in this list we'll find that the community that existed 2,000 years ago in Rome isn't all that different from the spiritual family God is continuing to built here and all around the world. The book of Colossians may come to an end, but the story of the Colossians is one that is still being written.

Application Questions:

1. How does understanding the stories of the people mentioned in this letter help to humanize the book of Colossians?
2. What are some of the stories of God's continued work that you are seeing in the lives of those around you?
3. How do you think God wants to use you in this coming season for the sake of his Kingdom?

We often think wrongly about evangelism - we have fear about getting it wrong, about saying the wrong thing. Or we may think that it's not our gifting so it's not for us entirely! But Paul challenges us to realize the deep well from which every believer should draw and that the motivation for sharing our faith may not be what we think.

Application Questions:

1. What are some ways you underestimate prayer? How can you make your prayer life more humble and consistent?
2. How do you think having a purpose can alleviate the fear you may have in sharing your faith?
3. How can you increase your passion for who Jesus is so that your speech is gracious and "well seasoned"?