Spend some time in prayer.

• Examine your faith seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit.

• Ask the Lord to expose stumbling blocks in your life.

Read James 2:14-17

• Notice the strength of the language. James is very direct.

• Examine your emotions in reading this passage. Are you feeling a bit defensive or put off by these words?

• Pay attention to the words “What good”. What is James trying to say?

James creates a straw man of faith without works then gives an example of just how ineffective such a person is.

• What are the needs around us?

• What needs exist beyond the basic needs of food and shelter?

• What keeps us from seeing and responding to needs?

• What is the difference between needs and wants?

Faith is connected with life, not death. God’s church is to be a place of life.

• How similar am I/are we to the straw man James creates?

• How often do we choose the words of faith while avoiding the action that God is leading us toward? Can such a faith save us?

Let us chose to embrace faith that works and become the people and the church God created us to be.

Spend some time in prayer.

• Ask God to show you what He is calling you to do in God’s church.

• Pray through your stumbling blocks and struggles.

Read Romans 12:19-21

• Notice how Paul doesn’t explain away evil and hurt. It’s expected.

• Consider how avenging ourselves or repaying evil for evil would work against God’s will for His people.

• Reflect on personal examples of times you chose to extend grace to someone who had made themselves your enemy.

Which is stronger? Good or evil?

• Evil overcomes people. Left to its own devices, evil will break down a person who is unwilling to face it in a healthy way.

• Good overcomes evil. Doing good is a choice we make that leads to action. Doing good in the face of evil is powerful.

God is good. His will is good. He reliably leads His people to what is good.

• Can you see how God is using you for good?

• Can you see how God is forming His community in the church for His good purpose?

Will you join God’s good work in this community of faith?

Spend some time in prayer

• Seek God’s will inside of your relationships with other people.

• Ask God to guide you to unity within this community of believers.

Read Romans 12:14-18

• Notice the four “do not” phrases. See Paul’s picture of what we are to stay away from as Christ followers.

• Consider how different following Christ is from normal worldly standards.

• Look for the real life application of following Christ.

• Examine your willingness and ability to “live peaceably with all”.

Unity in Christ is an intentional and vital part of faith.

• Look at the commands Paul gives in this passage.

• Consider the importance of accepting and engaging your community.

• The opposite of unity is isolation. Reflect on how isolated your life is from the people around you.

When Christ’s community is operating in unity, the potential for evil – schism, division, estrangement, conflict, and destruction is avoided and the blessing of cooperative and balanced living is ensured. (Briscoe & Ogilive, Romans)

• Barriers to unity are often found in our reaction to what is different, confusing, or outside of our preferences.

• What barriers do we/you have to unity? How is Christ helping you overcome them?

Spend some time in prayer

• Pray asking that God show you what genuine love looks like.

• Pray for a reignited passion in following Christ.

Read Romans 12:9-13

• Notice the commands. Make a list of each one.

• Consider how each command connects with holding fast to what is good.

• Pay attention to the role of passion and its expression through hope, patience, prayer, and giving.

Paul’s picture of the church is challenging.

• Love isn’t optional, casual, or passive. It is active, intentional, and filled with passionate work.

• God’s church is beautiful. It is a place of opportunity, responsibility, and needed service to all.

• Paul’s picture of the church is idealized. This is what could be. He gives the church a goal to pursue.

How willing are we to settle for less than what Paul is showing us?

• Healthy churches do good using good tools.

• How often do we passively settle for or accept as normal that which is less than good?

• Are we willing to be different in service to the Lord and each other?

Spend some time in prayer

• Pray for the church and the work God has called the church to do.

• Ask the Lord to reveal your role and gift in His work.

Read Romans 12:4-8

• Notice the body language. Consider why Paul uses the image of a body to describe God’s church.

• Notice the relationship between unity and diversity.

• List the gifts mentioned. Consider why these gifts are important.

Often, unity is confused with commonality. We think that if people conform to the same ideas, patterns, beliefs, and abilities they are unified. Paul rejects this notion. It is Christ that makes us one.

• Are we ever guilty of living in a “prison of preference” where our ideas, opinions, and likes are given high or highest value?

• Notice that the body of Christ is filled with members who have different functions and different gifts.

• What does it mean to be “members one of another”?

God gives His people gifts. That means each of us has some.

• What gift from Paul’s list resonates with you?

• How effectively are you putting God’s gifts to work in your life?

From many…One. The church is people united by Christ who engaged each other and the world through His gifts. Let nothing stop this work.

Spend some time in prayer.

• Ask the Lord to help you see yourself, others, and the church clearly.

• Reflect on faith and how your faith impacts your daily life.

Read Romans 12:3

• Notice the foundation of Paul’s words. He speaks from a place of grace as a recipient of grace.

• Reflect on what grace is and how you can be person of grace.

• Consider why Paul feels the need to warn everyone “not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think”.

Our ability to know and speak truth is often clouded. That which keeps us from the truth will also keep us from being honest with ourselves.

• Identify the barriers to truth that you encounter in yourself (we all have them).

• Reflect on who you really are. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are you wrestling with? What significant events have shaped you? Who are the people who impacted your life?

• Allow the Holy Spirit to speak into the places of joy and pain you find.

We each have a measure of faith. Inside of this faith we gain insight into who we are in Christ and what we are called to do.

• Consider what God’s plan and purpose is for your life.

• Consider what God’s plan and purpose is for His church.

Spend some time in prayer.

• Reflect on how Christ has changed your life.

• Ask for the Lord to show you His will.

Read Romans 12:2

• Notice the words conformed, transformed, and renewing.

• Consider the difference between being conformed vs. transformed.

• Renewing is an ongoing process. Consider how a mind can be renewed.

Transformation reveals God’s will. It is only through the work of Christ in our lives that we can see and understand God’s purpose.

• To discern is to learn and comprehend. Discernment sees through the distractions of life to find the truth.

• How does my will impact how I see and respond to the world?

• God’s will causes us to imitate Christ. How am I reflecting the personality, love, grace and courage of Christ?

• Reflect on how your will and God’s will impacts your daily life.

God’s will makes us uncomfortable. His will is larger and has greater impact than what we might create for ourselves.

• Do you have a God-sized vision for your life?

• Can you see the God-sized vision for His church?

Everyone is needed. Christ has a purpose for us. Will we seek it out?

Spend some time in prayer.

• Thank God for how He has been and is working in your life.

• Ask God to show you His will for both your life and the church.

Read Romans 12:1

• Consider the significance of the word appeal/urge/plead/beg.

• What are the “mercies of God” and why are they important?

• How does being a “living sacrifice” connect with “spiritual worship”?

There is urgency in this scripture. God has a call for His people that requires a response.

• What is the call or purpose God has given you? This church?

• Reflect on what you think/talk about when you talk about God.

o How focused are you on the purpose God has?

o Do small or less important issues dominate God’s purpose?

• Consider what level of urgency you have in following Christ.

Being a Living Sacrifice places our lives in God’s hands

• Define grace. How does God’s grace change our perspective?

• What is required for a sacrifice to be holy and pleasing to God?

• Worship comes from within. Consider what worship is really about.

All in for Christ. What does that phrase mean to you? Is it true of you? What needs to change in order for you to be all in?

Special Guest Speaker Pastor Tim Cockroft

Father’s Day

• Spend some time in prayer for your family.

• Consider your relationships both past and present with family.

Read Luke 15:20-24

• Pay attention to what the son has to say to the father.

• What role does fear, shame, and guilt play in the son’s words?

• How do the words of the prodigal son connect with us today?

The son returns confessing his sin and disgrace. He could not survive apart from his father’s house. He sees himself as unworthy.

• How does the father respond to the words of the son?

• Consider how the fear, shame, and guilt of the son is overcome by the love, peace, and joy of the father.

• How can we exhibit the same love, peace, and joy the father gives his son today?

This parable causes the Pharisees to ridicule Jesus. The world stands opposed to the love, peace, and joy found in Christ.

• For believers, what are the consequences of claiming faith while acting in a manner that does not demonstrate the Kingdom of God?

• God knows our hearts. He knows our motives. He knows the darkness in us. Yet His compassion and love are without limit.

• Reflect on how the love of God is exhibited in you and your family.