We are learning that church is about action rather than attraction but we don't just want to mobilize you to action. We want to awaken God’s love within our lives. Scripture points to this travail of spiritual labor until Christ is formed in the church (Galatians 4:19).
James 2:8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. NIV
When we leave our neighbor out of this equation, we wind up with a self-serving disposition that always produces the same empty conclusion. Relational emptiness awaits people who are relationally selfish. Financial emptiness awaits people who are financially selfish.
The key to great friendship or marriage is the attitude of kindness at the expense of your own happiness from both people in the relationship. Living a fulfilling life is learning to live for purposes beyond yourself. This is because you were created by God for purposes beyond your own.
For God so loved that he gave: Love gives! This is why God has always made giving tithes and offerings as a part of worship. This perpetual and sacrificial giving breaks materialism off of our lives. Any brand of Christianity that is self-serving misrepresents the nature of Christ.
It is our responsibility to follow the example of Christ sacrificially release heaven into earth bringing the full impact of a good God and a prosperous Kingdom to a broken world in desperate need of God’s Love. This theme is repeated over and over throughout God’s Word.
Philippians 1:9-11 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. NIV
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. NIV
1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. NIV
God is bringing the church into a more mature understanding of love. Immature love focuses on how helping others makes us feel. This brings our focused attention in the wrong direction.
Consumer-minded Christianity presents serving as an avenue of self-fulfillment rather than Kingdom advancement. We must be cautious not to exchange our Kingdom advancing assignment for a self-serving substitute. Kingdom influence seeks to serve God and promote others. The pursuit of popularity seeks to brand and promote self.
True Christianity is more than just acknowledging certain truths, or even living by them. True Christianity is becoming a "new creation," that is in even higher unity with our Creator than the first creation. God is in us! He did not just come to change our thinking, or just change our behavior; He came to live in us.
We must be devoted to seeing the church become the temple of the Lord. Therefore, if there is any way to measure the overall maturity it would be by the manifest presence of the Lord in His church. Is the church abiding in Him so that He can manifest Himself through us? We must always keep in mind that we do not change so we can fellowship with God, but we are changed by our fellowship with Him.
This commission is far beyond human genius or ability. Christ is being formed in His people. We must not let any other emphasis eclipse this basic work. We are looking for far more than the manifestation of the sons and daughters of God; we are looking for the manifestation of the Son of God in His people.
GP2RL: Come to the table with others exploring a deeper place of worship this week by making a simple relational effort to know God’s heart together.
SUGGESTED TABLE CONVERSATION:
Where is God at work in your relationships and how are you learning to love more deeply?
DEEPER: God is inviting us into a deeper place this year. A deeper place comes at a greater price.
You Are What You Eat: The Royal Law of Love
DISCUSSION GUIDE
UNDERSTANDING THE SEASON: A shared meal could be the activity most closely tied to the reality of God’s kingdom, just as it is the most basic expression of hospitality. It comes as no surprise that many significant stories of Jesus are centered around a dinner table.
When Jesus wanted to explain to His disciples what his death was all about, he didn’t give them an informative lecture. He gave them a relational meal.
In a society that has grown so relationally disconnected, an invitation to Biblical hospitality might be one of the most compelling and irresistible aspects of Christianity. The heart of hospitality is about creating space for someone to feel seen and heard and loved. It’s about declaring your table a safe zone, a place of warmth and nourishment.
Great encouragement comes from rehearsing God’s Word. It is God’s plan is for us to spend time drawing close to his heart and hearing his voice together as a family. This is why we start each meeting with this question first:
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
1. Where are you reading in your Bible and what are you sensing from God?
Ask each person in your group to answer the discussion questions below after reading the verses. Realize, there is great power in just reading the Bible together and allowing the Holy Spirit to awaken His conversational nature in the group.
James 2:8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. NIV
Philippians 1:9-11 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. NIV
1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. NIV
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
2. DISCOVER: Have each person give a simple 60 second summary of what these verses are saying, Encourage people to try not to add insights or application yet. Just simply summarize.
3. DEVELOP: What do you sense God may be speaking to you personally as we focus on these verses?
4. DEPLOY: We are to be doers and not hearers only. What will you do this week in response to what you sense God is revealing in this time together?
Everywhere we go, we bring...
GP2RL: Come to the table with others exploring a deeper place of worship this week by making a simple relational effort to know God’s heart together.
SUGGESTED TABLE CONVERSATION:
Where is God at work in your relationships and how are you learning to love more deeply?