Main Point: A life devoted to God is a life of transformation.

Questions:

What challenged you or encouraged you from the message this week?

Read Romans 12:1-2. What do you notice about these verses? What words stuck out to you? What questions do you have after reading these verses? How does verse two connect to the study of verse one last week?

What does it mean to “conform to the pattern of this world”? Give some specific examples. How is the pattern of this world different from the way of living prescribed for a follower of Christ?

Instead of being conformed to the pattern of this world, Paul commands follower of Christ to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” What does this mean?

The word “transformed” in the Greek means metamorphosis. It is the idea of changing from one from into another. (The same word was used in Matt 17:2 and Mark 9:2 of Jesus’ transfiguration.) What are our minds being transformed FROM, and what are they being transformed TO?

What does the Holy Spirit use to renew the mind so that Christians are transformed?

Read Romans 12:2b. What is the result of a mind that is transformed by God’s truth?

How does a transformed mind allow followers of Christ to know by experience that God’s will is “good, pleasing, and perfect”? How has your growing understanding of God allowed you to trust that God’s will is good? How does this understanding provide hope?

What is one thing God is calling you to do in response to what you have learned today? By God’s grace, how can you apply this to your life this week?

Main Point: Worship is living for God in response to his amazing grace!

Questions:

1. What challenged you or encouraged you from the message this week?

2. Read Romans 12:1. What do you notice about this verse? What words stuck out to you? What questions do you have after reading this passage?

3. What is the “Therefore” there for? (Most believe that Paul is referring to the previous 12 chapters of Romans.)

4. How would you define God’s mercy? How is it shown in the work of Jesus?

5. What does it mean to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice”? How does this relate to worship?

6. How do you define worship? Give examples of what worship looks like?

7. The English words related to worship in this passage come from the Greek word logikos. This word means logical or rational. How is offering our whole selves to God a logical response to God’s mercy?

8. Paul is saying considering the amazing mercy we have been given by God, we should fully give ourselves to God. This is the logical and rational response. To response to God in this way is worship. How does this thinking challenge your understanding of the Christian life? What keeps Christians from directing all that they do to God as worship?

9. How can we worship God in our relationships, in our work, and in our play? Give examples. How can our actions in these areas be understood as worship to God?

10. What is one thing God is calling you to do in response to what you have learned today? By God’s grace, how can you apply this to your life this week?

Outline:

How to deal with anxiety and fear?

Replace worry with prayer!

Accompany prayer with thanksgiving!

Remember the promises of a truth-telling father!

The result: Your heart will be guarded…

By the sounding of alarm – be focused!

By the weapon of trust in God’s goodness!

Questions:

1. Did the Holy Spirit speak to you about anything today?

2. What is worry? What do you think about this definition: Worry is the preoccupation of life without taking God’s constant love and power into consideration.

3. Do you tend to worry? What about? What exceptions do you make for your worries? How does Augustine’s thought about anxieties stemming from our own idols fit in with what you worry about?

4. What happens when you bathe your prayers in thanksgiving?

5. How have you experienced your mind being your worst enemy when it comes to worry?

6. Have you experienced transcending peace? How would you describe it?

Main Point: Followers of Christ are witnesses to the world.

Questions:

1.    What challenged you or encouraged you from the message this week?

2.    Read Acts 1:3-8. What do you notice about this passage? What words stuck out to you? What questions do you have after reading this passage?

3.    Theses verses occur right before Jesus ascends into heaven (See Acts 1:9-11). These are Jesus last recorded words. What does he want His Disciples to do? How does this relate to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)?

4.    Read Acts 1:8. What areas does Jesus make reference to? How far away is Jesus commanding them to Go?

5.    What does it mean to be a witness for Jesus? What are Christians a witness to? How can you be a witness where you are at?

6.    What power does Jesus promise his disciples to help them fulfill the command he gives them?

7.    God’s desire is that the Gospel would have global reach. What can you do to take part in the Global Mission of the Gospel?

8.    Praying for missionaries and the global church, giving to missions organizations, and participating directly on the mission field are just a few ways you can be a part for the global gospel mission. Can you think of any other ways you could be involved?

9.    What is one thing God is calling you to do in response to what you have learned today? By God’s grace, how can you apply this to your life this week?

Today's Message

August 1, 2021

Christ First in my Community

Pastor Erik Miller

Main Point: The Mission of the Church is Multiplication by Making Disciples.

Questions:

What challenged you or encouraged you from the message this week?

Read Matthew 28:16-20. What do you notice about this passage? What words stuck out to you? What questions do you have after reading this passage?

These verses are known as the Great Commission. What is Jesus commanding His followers to do? Though it seems to be four separate commands (go, make disciples, baptize, and teach), the center of this command is “Make Disciples.” What does is mean to make disciples?

Read 2 Corinthians 5:21. The message that makes disciples is know as the Gospel. How does this verse encapsulate the Gospel message? How would you explain the Gospel in your own words? What are the important truths of the message?

Read Luke 15:3-7 & Luke 19:10. What do these passages tell us about the mission of Jesus? How are Christians to continue this mission?

What motivates followers of Christ to engage in the Great Commission? What keeps people from sharing the Gospel and making disciples?

The method behind sharing the Gospel is to share it in word and deed. This means sharing the Good New through our actions and through our words. Which one is harder for you to do? Why do you think that is?

Who has God placed in your life who needs the Gospel? What are some ways you can share the Gospel with them?

What is one thing God is calling you to do in response to what you have learned today? By God’s grace, how can you apply this to your life this week?

Main Point: The Church exists for Glorification, Edification, and Multiplication.

 Questions:

What challenged you or encouraged you from the message this week?

Read Acts 2:42-47. These verses may be familiar to you. Try to read these verses with an eye for what the church looked like at the beginning. What do you notice about this passage? What words stuck out to you? What questions do you have after reading this passage?

These verses describe the practices of Christians after the Day of Pentecost. What is most striking to you about the way they lived? How much time did they spend together? What did they focus on? How does the compare with the modern Church?

Read Matthew 5:14-16. In these verses, Jesus talks about living lives that bring God glory. What does it mean to bring God glory? How does making God the priority in our lives give God glory?

Read 1 Corinthians 10:31. What does Paul say about glory in the verse? How can we do everything for the glory of God? Is this the focus of your life?

Read Ephesians 4:11-16. What is Paul taking about in these verses? Each follower of Christ has specific gift that are to be used in the church. What is the goal?

Do you view yourself a necessary part of the church? What gifts has God given you to be used in the church? How are you using these gifts? What keeps you from using those gifts?

Read Hebrews 10:24-25. Why is meeting together with other followers of Christ so important? Why it is essential to be encouraged by others? Where have you experienced this in the church?

How do these verses in Hebrews connect to the passages you read earlier? What is the common message in these verses?

What is one thing God is calling you to do in response to what you have learned today? By God’s grace, how can you apply this to your life this week?

Main Point: Our ongoing experience of God’s love gives us the motivation and ability to love others like Jesus.

Questions:

1. What challenged you or encouraged you from the message this week?

2. Read John 15:1-17. What do you notice about this passage? What words stuck out to you? What questions do you have after reading this passage?

3. The sermon this weekend focuses on verses 9-17. How do these verses relate to verses 1-8?

4. Read John 1-8. What does it mean to remain (or abide) in God? How does Jesus’ analogy of the vine and the branches help us to understand what it means to remain in Him? What does it look like for you to remain in Christ?

5. Look at verses 5-8. What does it mean to bear fruit? How much are Christians able to do if they do not remain in Him? How is bearing fruit related to being a disciple of Christ?

6. Read John 9-17. How does God the Father love Jesus? How much does Jesus love His followers? How does this love motivate followers of Jesus to obey Him?

7. Jesus addresses the subject of obedience and joy. How are these things connected? How would you define joy?

8. Jesus obeyed the Father perfectly and experienced perfect joy. How is this a model and a motivation for Christ followers to obey God?

9. Read John 15:12-13. In this verse Jesus commands His followers to “love each other as I have loved you.” What does it mean to love others in the way Jesus has loved us? How does God’s love differ from the way the culture would define love? What does loving like this look like in real life? Give examples.

10. How can you connect more deeply with God’s love this week? Who are the people God has given you to love well? How can you step into loving other people like Jesus this week?

11. What is one thing God is calling you to do in response to what you have learned today? By God’s grace, how can you apply this to your life this week?

Main Point: When we put God first, everything else finds its proper place. 

Questions:

What challenged you or encouraged you from the message this week?

The word priority is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as, “superiority in rank, position, or privilege.” What are the most important priorities in your life? How does your life reflect these priorities? Is there anything you would like to make a greater priority in your life?

Read Matthew 6:19-34. What do you notice about this passage? What words stick out to you? What questions do you have after reading this passage?

This section of Scripture is part of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is teaching on what life looks like for followers of Christ. How do verses 19-24 related to verses 25-34? (Notice the word “Therefore” in verse 25.)

Read Matthew 6:33. What is the context of the verse? What does this context tell us about the situation that Jesus is addressing?

What does it mean to “seek first his kingdom”? What does the word “first” tell us about the priority of seeking God’s Kingdom?

What does it mean to seek “his righteousness”? What does it look like to seek God’s righteousness in everyday life?

What is one thing God is calling you to do in response to what you have learned today? By God’s grace, how can you apply this to your life this week?

Main Point: If we love God most, we will love others best.

Questions:

1. What challenged you or encouraged you from the message this week?

2. Read Revelation 2:1-7. What do you notice about this passage? What words stick out to you?

What questions do you have after reading this passage?

3. In these verses, John records the words of Jesus to the church of Ephesus. Ephesus was a

major church in Asia Minor with leaders like Paul, Timothy, and John. Summarize what Jesus

is saying to the church.

4. Read Revelation 2:2-4. What does Jesus list as the strengths of the Ephesian church? How

has the church handled “wicked people” and false “apostles”?

5. What can modern churches learn from the example of the Ephesian church? How can modern

churches do the same things that Jesus commended? What are the barriers to doing these

things?

6. Read Revelation 2:4. What does Jesus mean when he states that the church has “forsaken

the love you had at first”? What first love is he talking about? How can Christians receive the

love of God through Christ and still let this love grow cold?

7. Jesus is probably referring to both love of God and love of others. How are these two loves

related? Can a person love God and not love other people?

8. Read Revelation 2:5. What do the Ephesians need to do to avoid God’s discipline? What

does it mean to, “Consider how far you have fallen”?

9. What is Jesus’ solution to the Ephesians lack of love?

10. How is you love for God and others currently? What keeps you (or has kept you in the past)

from loving God and loving others?

11. What is one thing God is calling you to do as a result of what you have heard today? By God’s

grace, how can you apply this to your life this week?

Be the church....

         Live in every way and every circumstance in the sufficiency of God!

         Embrace confession and pray earnestly!

         Reclaim the spiritual wanderer!