No More Islands (Part 2): Pass It On

#1 Listen to “No More Islands: Pass It On”

Consider this Sunday morning’s lesson. You can listen here: http://bit.ly/1gCDfNL

Or watch here [video will be posted by Monday each week]: www.vimeo.com/rrcoc

What stuck out to you as interesting?

Did you encounter any challenging or re-orienting truth?

How’d it make you feel?

 

#2 Made to Work

Read Ephesians 2:10.

 "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

  • As Justin said during the sermon, God has things he wants to do through you. How does it make you feel to know God prepared good works for you to do before you were even born?
  • If you were made to do good works, why is it sometimes so hard to do them?
  • Does knowing God made you to do good works change the way you feel about serving Him and His people?

 

#3 I Belong to You, You Belong to Me

Read Romans 12:3-5

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

What does it mean that "each member belongs to all the others"?

Share some practical examples.

Consider the two verses (12:1-2) preceding this passage:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

How does our calling to "living sacrifice" play out in the way we relate to God's people?

How might our philosophy of "belonging" be counter-cultural? Does it require a "renewing" of our minds to offer up our lives (time, finances, resources, skills...) to the body of Christ?

  • What lies does culture tell us that might keep us from fully buying into God's plan for His people?

Paul says all members do not have "the same function." Sometimes it's hard for us to identify our personal gifts and functions. Go around the room and have each group member point out a fellow group member's gifts (perhaps including a time they've used those gifts in the family of God). This should be an uplifting time of mutual encouragement and assurance.

 

#4 Symbiotic

Symbiosis is "the relationship between two different kinds of living things that live together and depend on each other."

Watch this video about a symbiotic relationship in nature:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm2qdxVVRm4

How does this biological reality, prevalent throughout nature, inform your understanding of what we explored in the sermon?

Think of a specific instance when you've found yourself in a symbiotic relationship with a brother or sister in Christ. Share with the group.

 

 

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