Forgotten God

We are beginning our study this Wednesday, January 26th on Francis Chan’s Forgotten God. Please join us and find out how you can find out more about the Holy Spirit and how He works in your life.

Chapter 1 beginning questions due this week.  We will begin this week watching the first video and discussion chapter one.

 

 

Jan. 13th 2010 Lesson 1

Thursday: Read Romans 12:1-21

Friday: Read Romans 12:1-5 again

1.  What does it mean to be “living sacrifices?”

2. Why does Paul emphasize the mind in verse 2?

3. How do Paul’s words in verses 3-5 help Christians be more unified in one body?

Saturday: Read Romans 12:6-13 again

1. In verses 6-13, how does Paul suggest that the gifts he mentions are not just ways in which we are carried away by supernatural power but that they also involve plain hard work?

2. How, according to Paul, might our attitude make a big difference as we express our gifts?

3. What do you find particularly challenging in verses 6-13?

Monday: Read Romans 12:14-21 again

1. Paul does not intend to say that believers should “go soft on evil.” Saying you shouldn’t take revenge isn’t a way of saying evil isn’t real; it often does hurt after all, or that it doesn’t matter. Evil is real; it often does hurt, sometimes very badly indeed and with lasting effects, and it does matter.

What does Paul say we are to do about evil?

2. What happens when people do start engaging in private vengeance?

3. How can a society make sure this doesn’t happen?

4. How is Christ Himself an example of living out what Paul calls for in verses 14-21?

Tuesday: Read Romans 12 again

1. The earlier part of Romans 12 (verses 1-13) deals with what we might call the inner life of the church. The last section (verses 14-21) is about how Christians behave within the wider public world.  How would the wider world respond to seeing the church live out what’s described in 14-21?

2. In what specific ways can you be a “living sacrifice” to those around you right now?

Advent Preparation

Come join us Wednesday night (Dec. 16th) from 6:30 -8:30 for a chance to prepare yourself for Christmas.

Take this time to center yourself around Christ with worship, readings, and prayer.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Dec 9th week 3

Thursday

Read Romans 2:1-16. Pick out the main concept, phrases or key words that are repeated or emphasized and list below:

Friday

After see the downward spiral described in 1:18-32, Paul is addressing the Jews who have grown up as the “chosen” people because of their covenant relationship with God in the Old Testament.  What does Paul say about those who are looking down on others?

How have the “chosen” people of God in the Old Testament responded to God’s special favor?

What is your reaction to this?  Are you confused by their reaction?  Can you relate in anyway?

Saturday

In verses 6-13 & 16, what are the standards God will use to judge people?

How do you reconcile these standards with the theme of Romans- justification by faith rather than good works?

In God’s judgment, what is the reward? The punishment/ Who is righteous in God’s sight?

Monday

How does verse 16 bring comfort in the midst of a passage about judgment, where all people, Jews and Gentiles, will be judged according to their lives?

Do you need God to deal with your attitude toward people you tend to think are not as “good” as you are?

What is one thing you can do locally to model God’s true justice?

Tuesday

Share one event in your life where you have appreciated God’s grace towards you.

Bonus: (for those who want to go deeper)

• What is the most important term and/or concept of the passage?

• What are the main verbs? What are the tenses of those verbs?

• Are there terms you need to define so you can better understand the passage?

• Are there people or places you need to identify?

• What do you already know about the people and places mentioned?

• Can you identify any cause-effect relationships in the author’s writing?

• In what ways does the passage apply to your own personal life? (If there isn’t an obvious application, is there a more subtle one?)

• What things from this passage might you want to study later in further detail?

Romans Week 2 for Dec 2

Thursday: Read Genesis 2

What do you think is the focus in 2:4-25?

 

Why do you think the Bible outs the focus on people from this point forward?

 

In looking at the creation of Adam in vs. 7, what makes Adam different that the animals in vv. 26-27?

 

What does this say about the original purpose for creating humanity?

 

What does this mean to you?  Does this change your view of yourself?

 

Friday: Read Genesis 3

As you read this account of the Fall, what stands out for you?

 

What statements of the serpent in vv. 4-5 are true? Which are not true?

 

What do you think the serpent’s purpose was here?

 

How did Eve misquote God (2:9, 16-17)? Why do you think she misquoted?

 

How does this chapter make you feel about your own relationship with God? With sin?

 

How are you misquoting God in your own life?

 

Saturday: Read Romans 1:18-32

What in our natural world has confirmed to you that God exists? If nothing, explain why?

 

How does this passage make you feel?

 

In verse 18, what did mankind do when given “the truth” about God?

 

When people failed to accept the truth, how did God respond (vv. 24, 26, 28)?

 

Trace the downward spiral of the depraved mind (vv. 29-31). What stands out for you in this list? Have you thought of these behaviors as all equally sinful? Why or why not?

 

Monday-Tuesday

How have you generally thought of God- a God of anger or of love?

 

Do you tend to think of mankind as generally good or bad? Why?

 

What questions from your study this week do you want to discuss in your group?

 

Is there something from this week’s sermon that caught your attention?

 

Romans

We will be starting a new series this Wednesday based on Romans. We will be looking at how Romans expresses the idea of being fully human and fully alive. We are fully alive in Christ and we will need to learn how to live with our passions. It should be an exciting study that allows us to study God’s word in depth but also to apply His truths to our lives. We will also be practicing some ways in which we can connect to each other and learn how God is working within us all.

Remember, 6:30-8:30 this Wednesday night!

Week 2 I am the church

Paul is reminding the believers in Ephesus that they are the real temple of God, that is the church.  This is Christ’s body; each congregation is a local manifestation of this heavenly entity, not a part of it. So although the apostle is writing about the one body which is in heaven, all that he says applies also to each local congregation, for it is here that the unity of the body is visible.  The citizen of Ephesus that I made up before thought his identity and purpose came from being a part of that grand temple made by human hands.  He thought that just being a part of the temple and its system made him special. He never even dreamed of knowing this god or being known by this god.  This temple gave him bragging rights but did not fix the emptiness inside.  It did not fix that fact that he ached from loneliness and he felt guilty and dead on the inside.  Maybe he knew somehow that temple was false, just a big show on the outside. But Paul wanted these Christians to understand that they were different. That this new thing called the church , it was really the new humanity called the body of Christ.  He wanted them to grasp that they represented the one hope and faith that is found in the gospel, that is the Jesus is our only hope and salvation and gives us access to God through the Holy Spirit.  This is how he expressed it in Eph. 2: 15b

“His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

¹⁹Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²²And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

We have been invited into the body of Christ, to be His holy dwelling place and we have this hope! Hope that God will reconcile all things to Himself.  He is faithful. Hebrews 3:6 says, “But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”

For some of us today, we are living in the reality of this hope. We know that we are in the body of Christ and we share this unity with all those in Christ.  For some of us, this is a harder thing to grasp.  We have been left out in some way; we have not really believed this for ourselves; the scriptures that describe the church seem to apply to others and not us; or we somehow lost our sense of belonging because of sin or shame.  Tonight, we want to help your mind be transformed by the truth of God’s word.

Here are some truths from Ephesians:

• We are alive with Christ- even though you used to be dead in your sins
• We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms
• We are God’s workmanship- created in Jesus to glorify Him through our good works
• We are the ‘new man’ or ‘new humanity’ and have peace with each other in this new body
• We are fellow citizens, member’s of God’s household, built on the foundation that is Jesus, His holy temple- the new dwelling place of God by His Spirit.

Week 1 Sermon

Here is the sermon from the night.  Unfortunately, we cannot copy the booklet for the series to this blog because of the format, but you can get it from the website: www.christchurchec.org.

Passages is all about: The Word. The Journey. Together.  It is Spiritual Formation that has Christ at its center.  It is all about how we, as Christ followers, desire to live after the pattern of Christ.  We do this by studying God’s Word, again not for information sake, but for the inward transformation that happens as we engage with the Holy Spirit so that our outward actions and inward heart match that of God’s.  This year as we start the fall and this study, pay attention to how you actually do the study.  Are you simply filling out the answers to the questions or are you stopping and thinking about how the Holy Spirit is using the questions and presentation in your life?  One way to think about this is called the 4 “h”s. We talked about this last year, and will continue to emphasize it. Head, Heart, Hands, Homework.

This week we looked at Ephesians 4:1 and its significance on “The Call to Be the Chur

Ephesians 4:1 says, “I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called…” The TNIV says, “to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”

The question of the night is then…What is the difference between ‘attending church’ and ‘being the church’?  The answer is all in the way you live, or is it walk?

Let’s look more closely at this verse, especially the phrase: “live a life worthy”

As you saw in your booklet, we concentrated on the Greek word peripatew which means “to walk” and translated “to live.”

In Eph. 2:1-2, cf. 3- ¹And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

And then in contrast, Paul continues with this verb: 4:17 “walk no longer as the Gentiles walk”; 5:2 “walk in love”; 5:8 “walk as children of the light”; 5:15 “therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise, but wise.” So he is comparing the way we lived before we had Christ and the way we should live after.  In Eph. 2:10 it says, ^“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

So our “walking” and “living” are a supposed to be unique and different than the world’s way of doing things.  Paul is urging us to lead a life that is equal to the call.  Here Paul is a prisoner, as the history section says, Paul is probably a prisoner in Rome where is has limited access to the outside and is restricted in movement.  He is in chains, but somehow he is still “walking.”  His “calling” was a response to the love God showed him and he is urging us to understand our responsibility of response as well.  So what is this “calling?”

Our calling is what God has already done for us.  As believers we have already been called into the blessings of salvation (1:13-14) with its wonderful hope (1:18). We have been united with Christ in his resurrection and exaltation so that we now share in his rule over the new creation (1:20-22; 2:6). We have been reconciled to God by the death of Christ and called into one new humanity (2:13-16), members of God’s household, the new temple in the Lord (2:15, 19, 21) and have freedom of access to the Father by one Spirit (2:18)! Wow! That is an incredible calling, what should our response be?

Our response is to walk in this calling by living a worthy life.  Wow again! So, as if Paul already senses our dumbfoundedness, he says…these characteristics are the right response: humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another, and love.  This is what the community of Christ should look like.  This is all about being the community of Christ as well as the inward transformation of each individual.

When we say, I am the church, we are in essence agreeing to act in these ways.  It is the way in which we can “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  Now notice Paul says, “maintain.” This is essential.  The unity we share as believers already exists because we are all one in Christ, but we need to walk continually in humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another, and love in order to keep this peace.

Paul could not walk around freely but accepted his chains and used this experience to express the bonds we share as Christians to one another.  Here is an illustration:

In 5^th-8^th grade, I was in a Drum & Bugle corp.  We used to practice our instruments every Tuesday and Saturday.  On Saturday, we would add to the practice, our marching.  We would march for two hours straight.  In the fall, spring and summer, we would even march on Tuesdays.  Around and around, keeping in step with each other.  If one of us misstepped or got behind, it was the job of the row leader to slow down and reorient that person.  In my first parade, the Bristol 4^th of July Parade, at age 11, I experienced a misstep.  My drum got really heavy (I think this was around the 3^rd or 4^th mile) and I lifted up the strap to relieve the pressure.  The strap somehow undid and now I was carrying my drum with one hand trying desperately to reattach the strap.  Then I lost one of my drumsticks, it rolled to the side and was gone.  I was desperate.  As I struggled and twisted for my strap, a man came running up and started marching backwards in front of me and held up my drum so I could reattach the strap, then someone else came running back up and gave me my lost drum stick.  It was a community effort.  In order for the band to continue with all its members, others stepped up and aided me.  This is what Paul is talking about.  Are you thinking about church as a parade with all its members?  Are you thinking about the person to your left, right, front and back as you walk this walk?  Are you making sure that all of us are moving forward with no one left behind?  That is what the unity of the Spirit is in the bond of peace.

We are to be walking in such a way that we are not focused on only our own spiritual journey, but on those around us and how we are to aid, support, and come to the rescue so that we are all finishing the parade together.

So what do we need to know tonight?  In our groups we will be discussing the Apply section.  With this in mind, think about your calling.  Think about your response.  Ask yourself, “Am I living a life worthy of this calling?” Are my actions and speech creating unity among believers or disunity?  Am I thinking about my fellow band members and their burdens?  How can I live this way this week?

Week One-i am the church

We welcome you all back to a new season of passages! Here is the first lesson on the series.  If you miss the sermon on Sunday, you can go to the website- www.christchurchec.org.  If you do not go to Christ Church, you still will find this series applicable to you.  You will still be able to apply it to your situation and understand the series- based on Ephesian 4:1-16.

If you have questions or comments, be sure to add them here! The website has the booklet in PDF, you can do the lesson from the site, and be sure to pick up your booklet next week.

Pastor Cheryl and the Passages Team

We are starting again…soon!

Yes, welcome back. We will be starting Wednesday, September 16 for a fall meet and greet as well as registration and fall study materials. You can pre-register with Pat Ritacco if you’d like as well: patr@christchurchec.org.

Invite friends both in and outside the church. We will be doing the all church sermon study: I am the Church!

Any questions? Just ask at cherylL@christchurchec.org