CONSISTENTLY SUBMITTING to God’s desires = all about community, connection & deep-spirited friendship.
1 John 4:7-11 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. NIV
Phil 2:1-4 If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care - 2 then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. 3 Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. 4 Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. MSG
It is much easier to be entertained in church than it is to be engaged in community. It takes work to be the family God has called us to be. There is natural family and there is a spiritual family. Every one of us must be fully engaged in faith and in community in order for us to be the family God’s called us to be!
The promises of God are not written to me they are written to “we”. So often we read the Bible as if God is talking to us alone. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray (Matt 6) he said, “Give US this day OUR daily bread..”
Matt 6:12 forgive US OUR debts, as WE also have forgiven OUR debtors. NIV
Forgiveness is something all of us want to receive but most of us hesitate to give. Jesus makes it clear that forgiveness is conditional. We can't have it without giving it.
Matthew 6:14-15 If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, you Father will not forgive your sins. NIV
Jesus did not die so you could have the faith to be connected to God alone. Jesus died so you could have the faith to be connected to others. Faith and forgiveness are tethered together.
Luke 17 Jesus talks about forgiveness and the disciples response is, “Increase our faith!”
A community of faith is a community of forgiveness.
People who live offended are easily defeated. When you are constantly offended by others you are so fragile that you’ve given your emotions the ability to destroy you. The deception of this is that you won’t even connect the dots that your inability to release offense is actually the inability to fulfill your dreams.
The enemy has sifted you into a place of being spiritually incapacitated and feeling fully justified in your diminished state of life.
Recently I read something in an online article that really struck me. It said, “Forgiveness is at the core of emotional well-being. It is fair to say that unforgiving people are emotionally sick. Their bitterness is a disease of the spirit, and it is inevitable that the unforgiving person eventually will experience physical illness as well. Anger causes surges of adrenaline and secretes other powerful chemicals that attack the body. The stress we carry when we refuse to give or receive forgiveness affects our hearts, minds, and bodies. We cannot rid ourselves of emotional pain and its side effects unless we are willing to forgive.”
John 13:34-35 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. NIV
Jesus is making his request clearly known to us. Love one another as I have loved you. Forgive one another as I have forgiven you. Care for one another as I have cared for you.
God is taking us to greater places of influence which opens doorways to places of warfare requiring deeper places of maturity. Do not be offended. Learn to be unoffendable.
God's plan is connection and community centering around the desires of Jesus to build his church.
We Bring GP2RL Action Point:
Purpose communion in your home this week with family and friends to remember the loving sacrifice of Christ as our way of life.
DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR COMMUNITY GROUP LEADERS
Click here for a downloadable pdf file of this guide.
Our goal, as a church family, is that we would all be OUTRAGEOUSLY LOVING people who PASSIONATELY PURSUE the Lord with IRRATIONALLY GIVING lifestyles as we CONSISTENTLY SUBMIT to God’s desires and EFFECTIVELY DISCIPLE others to do the same.
This requires that we put into practice a personal pursuit of God. This year in our Community Groups we want to start each group with the first and primary question:
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
1. Where are you reading in your Bible and what are you sensing from God?
CONSISTENTLY SUBMITTING: This idea is all about community, connection and deep-spirited friendship.
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
2. What are a few things that stand out to you from reading these two portions of Scripture:
1 John 4:7-11 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. NIV
Phil 2:1-4 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care - 2 then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. 3 Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. 4 Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. MSG
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
3. Take some time here to talk through not only what stood out in these verses but then discuss some of the reasons people struggle walking these ideas out together in community.
God’s family is a family of forgiven, dysfunctional people. Our mistakes are frequent and our love is imperfect. But we are still the bride of Christ and even in the church’s state of imperfection our spiritual well-being is tied to our relationship with the body of Christ.
Being in a crowd doesn’t mean you experience community. The Bible actually goes so far as to say we are members one of another obviously placing a very high priority on the relationships we form together as a church:
Rom 12:5 we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. NAS
Matthew 6:14-15 If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, you Father will not forgive your sins. NIV
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you , you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. NIV
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
4. Take some time here to talk through not only what stood out in these verses but then discuss some of the reasons people struggle walking these ideas out together in community.
We Bring GP2RL Action Point:
Purpose communion in your home this week with family and friends to remember the loving sacrifice of Christ as our way of life.
Consider having communion together as a group to conclude giving thanks for the sacrificial life and death of Christ as our ultimate example.