Reston Bible Church Sermons

By Reston Bible ChurchReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Reston Bible Church Sermons episodes

September 22, 2024Christ and Culture, Part 4: Created to Work
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERD GROUPS
What stood out to you most about this message?
What have you felt most valuable in your work history?
Discuss your struggle to find meaning and honor God in your journey of work?
Is the fact that you bring meaning TO the work and we are not to find our identity IN the work, new to you? Explain.
How has God used you in and through the way you spend the bulk of your time – whether a job with a salary or not?
What will you do differently as a result of this message?
The post Christ and Culture, Part 4: Created to Work appeared first on Reston Bible Church.
46 min
September 16, 2024Christ and Culture, Part 3: Be Fruitful and Multiply
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERD GROUPS
What stood out to you most in this message?
How have you seen child rearing in our culture change over the course of time?
Do you agree that the valuing of children has changed in our culture? Explain.
Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9. How do you see this playing out effectively in the lives of people around you?
When you think of the elements of “train up an child in the way he should go,” what are the ones that rise to the surface? Brainstorm a list.
If you are a grandparent, married without children, or single, in what ways could this message apply to you? If you are married with children, what do you think the contribution could be from those who do not have children?
How has this message impacted the way you will interact differently with the children in your sphere of influence?
OTHER RESOURCES
The Value of Children
“Heritage from the Lord”
RBC Sermon by David Wright
Choosing Childlessness
“Why Are So Many Americans Choosing to Not Have Children?”
New York Times
“11 Reasons People Choose Not to Have Children”
Psychology Today
Lowering Birth Rate
“U.S. Fertility Rate Falls to Record Low”
Wall Street Journal
Abortion Data
“More black babies are aborted in NYC than born.”
Politifact
“Research Confirms 95.9% of Abortions are Killing Babies as Birth Control, Just .4% for Rape”
LifeNews.com
“Questions and Answers on Born-Alive Abortion Survivors”
Charlotte Lozier Institute
Parentage Laws and Birth Certificates
“Massachusetts Erasing ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ from Family Law”
Alliance Defending Freedom
Child Trafficking Stats
“Child Trafficking – Every 2 Minutes a Child is Sold”
Safe House Project
Fentanyl Deaths
“Number of overdose deaths from fentanyl in the U.S. from 1999 to 2022”
Statista
The post Christ and Culture, Part 3: Be Fruitful and Multiply appeared first on Reston Bible Church.
46 min
September 08, 2024Christ and Culture, Part 2: God Created Them Male and Female
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERD GROUPS
What stood out to you in this message?
How have you historically understood the idea that we are made in the image of God? Did this message alter your understanding given we are created male and female?
Why is it important for a single person to embrace the biblical picture of the image of God in male and female?
Discuss the male and female responsibilities addressed in the message. How have you seen these lived out well in your life? How you have seen them lived out poorly?
Discuss how you have handled a situation with someone in your life who is dealing with sexual brokenness. Do you feel you have been able to speak the truth in love? Explain.
What are your thoughts on how to train children to understand the issues of the sexuality in our changing world?
OTHER RESOURCES
Messages from Christopher Yuan on Holy Sexuality
God’s Creation, God’s Design: Walt Heyer
God’s Creation, God’s Design: Maria Kefler
God’s Creation, God’s Design: Sharon Supp
God’s Creation, God’s Design: Panel Discussion
God’s Creation, God’s Design: Discussion with Jim Supp and Walt Heyer
The post Christ and Culture, Part 2: God Created Them Male and Female appeared first on Reston Bible Church.
46 min
September 01, 2024Christ and Culture, Part 1: God Created Life
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERD GROUPS
What stood out to you most about this sermon?
How do you see the ocean as a metaphor for living in culture? How do you see that playing out in your own life?
How have you seen the efforts to be “free from God” actually result in the degrading of people and not bring significance?
What does it mean for a person to pursue Christ alone?
What are ways that you can facilitate the light of Christ filling your eyes (Matthew 6:22-23)?
If laying our lives down for Christ is, in part, manifested by valuing others above yourself, what might that mean this week?
The post Christ and Culture, Part 1: God Created Life appeared first on Reston Bible Church.
54 min
August 25, 2024Jesus Encounters: The Woman with Chronic Bleeding
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERD GROUPS
What stood out to you most in this message?
Has there ever been a time when you felt desperate for Christ? Explain.
Without necessarily discussing details, is there a time when you felt that the Lord couldn’t cleanse you? How did you move forward from that experience?
Read Romans 8:1. Discuss how one goes from knowing this verse to living this verse?
How do we live in the tension of dheap grace (I can do whatever I want and the Lord will forgive me) and condemnation (Jesus can’t forgive me for this one)?
What other Scriptures speak to you about God’s healing power when we sin and experience shame? Discuss.
Is there an experience of freedom in your life that God may want to use in helping others experience freedom? Explain.
The post Jesus Encounters: The Woman with Chronic Bleeding appeared first on Reston Bible Church.
42 min
August 18, 2024Jesus Encounters: The Transfiguration
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERD GROUPS
Pastor David opened up the last two sermons by referencing how Jesus is both immanent and transcendent. Which of these characteristics do you tend to primarily associate with Jesus, and why?
Why do you think that Jesus transfigured before Peter, James, and John, but not the rest of the disciples?
How does Jesus’ transfiguration provide the disciples – and us – sustained encouragement during trials and suffering?
When you think about yourself from years ago, where do you see evidences of Jesus’ transforming power in your own life?
How might this passage be a good evangelistic tool with people who claim to follow the Bible but do not believe that Jesus is Yahweh (Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc.)?
The post Jesus Encounters: The Transfiguration appeared first on Reston Bible Church.
43 min
August 12, 2024Jesus Encounters: Mary and Martha
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERD GROUPS
As a group, look back at John 11:1-44. What stands out to you about the way that Jesus ministers to Mary and Martha?
David’s main idea was, “When we suffer, Jesus ministers to us with his tender love, timing, truth, tears, and triumph.” Which of those five “T’s” have you found the most comforting when you have suffered?
Jesus is a model of ministering both with truth and tears.
When was a time in your life where someone supported you in suffering with truth, tears, or both?
What can happen when we minister with all truth and no tears?
What can happen when we minister with all tears and no truth?
Read the story right after Jesus raises Lazarus in John 11:45-53. What are the different responses to Jesus raising Lazarus? How do those responses compare with the way that people respond to Jesus today?
The post Jesus Encounters: Mary and Martha appeared first on Reston Bible Church.
40 min
August 04, 2024Jesus Encounters: Nicodemus
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERD GROUPS
What stood out to you from yesterday’s message?
Just as Nicodemus came to Jesus by night out of fear of how the rest of the Pharisees and Sanhedrin would perceive him, has there ever been any moments in your life where you avoided revealing your beliefs about Jesus out of fear of others?
With a new birth comes new identity. In what ways have you found yourself identifying with God/Jesus Christ since being born again?
With a new birth comes new awareness. In what areas of your life has the Holy Spirit brought new awareness?
What dangers might lie in presenting John 3:16 as a single verse by itself without the added context of Jesus’ full response in the surrounding verses?
How do you think Nicodemus felt upon hearing that if he didn’t believe that Jesus was God’s only Son, he was “condemned already”? How do think the world responds to this message?
The post Jesus Encounters: Nicodemus appeared first on Reston Bible Church.
48 min
July 28, 2024Jesus Encounters: The Man Born Blind
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERD GROUPS
What stood out most to you in this message?
What is something that you see in our world that seems to be the result of spiritual blindness?
Can you recall life without Christ in your life and the spiritual blindness that you experienced?
What were key elements is your journey toward spiritual sight?
How do you see religious activity contributing to spiritual blindness in other and in yourself?
What are critical passages in the Bible that God has used to be a light to your path?
What elements of today’s message stood out related to other you are seeking to talk to about Christ?
The post Jesus Encounters: The Man Born Blind appeared first on Reston Bible Church.
43 min
July 22, 2024Jesus Encounters: The Commissioning of Peter
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERD GROUPS
What are situations in your life where you feel Satan has an opportune time to tempt you to sin or to doubt God’s goodness?
Where were you when you first encountered Jesus? Who first told you about Him? Have you told your friends and family about Jesus?
How would you describe where you are in your journey with Jesus?
The speaker said that we need to be strong in the Word. What would a practical application look like for you to do that?
What have you been pondering in your heart as you have been hearing God’s word and seeing God’s work?
How do you keep yourself from taking God’s blessings and making them all about you?
How would you evaluate yourself in regards to living with Jesus as your Master, a boss who is superior but with limited authority, or Jesus as your Lord, the one with complete, supreme authority?
Describe the situations in your life when you felt that you were trying to run from God or avoid Him?
What does it mean to you that Jesus didn’t come to judge you but to save you, and give you a mission with eternal value?
What part of your life are you struggling to give up in order to follow Jesus?
The post Jesus Encounters: The Commissioning of Peter appeared first on Reston Bible Church.
40 min