PREPARING FOR SUNDAY: SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS
We all see the chaos in our culture. We all feel the chaos in fighting in our own lives. Nothing is easier than to give in. Nothing is more applauded than for you and me to go with the flow of whatever fad morality or political propaganda that is promoted.
How can we be stable? How can we be the rocks of truth and love our people need us to be? How can we keep from being pulled into the chaos around us and the lust with in us?
This Sunday, the apostle Peter’s words will show us the way.
Peter lived in a day of persecution.
- Wicked rulers – Nero
- A morally pagan culture.
- Social injustice and oppression.
Yet Peter and the churches flourished and reached millions of people. They had no television coverage or Facebook announcements yet over time they turned the world upside down. They had no political representatives or even the right to vote yet they transformed the ancient world.
How did they do this? By putting all their hopes and focus into the person of Jesus and His message. By learning to live stable God-centered lives in the midst of the chaos.
This Sunday I will teach three things Peter said we must do to be stable in a Culture of chaos. These are thing is you must do to follow Christ in a way that transforms you and those around you. Please come and hear how you can change your world.
PLEASE PRAYERFULLY READ THIS PASSAGE
for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. – 1 Peter 2:10-16
PLEASE PLAN TO BE LIKE PETER AND INVITE AT LEAST ONE PERSON TO COME SIT WITH YOU.
And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” – Acts 4:18-20
PLAN TO ATTEND A SMALL GROUP AND CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS?
- WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN YOU ARE CALLED TO LIVE AS STRANGERS AND ALIENS AS A PERSON LIVING IN AMERICA?
1Pe 2:10 for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.
1Pe 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. - WHY IS LEARNIG TO SAY NO TO YOURSELF AND OTHERS ESSENTIAL TO BEING A STABLE WITNESS?
1Pe 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. - WHAT IS LUST AND WHAT CAN WE LUST AFTER?
1Pe 2:1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,
Rom 13:13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.
Rom 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. - HOW SHOULD THINKING AS A RESIDENT ALIEN CHANGE YOUR BEHAVIOUR?
1Pe 2:12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. - HOW CAN YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE BEAUTIFULLY?
EXCELLENT OR GOOD FROM THE GREEK WORD
kilos’
Of uncertain affinity; properly beautiful, but chiefly (figuratively) good (literally or morally), that is, valuable or virtuous - WHAT IS THE POWER OF A BEAUTIFUL LIFE?
1Pe 2:12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. - WHAT ARE THE WAYS WE AVOID AND EXCUSE NOT SUBMITING TO THE LORD? 1Pe 2:13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,
1Pe 2:14-16 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God. - ARE YOU A BONDSLAVE TO GOD?
δοῦλος
doulos
doo’-los
From G1210; a slave (literally or figuratively, involuntarily or voluntarily; frequently therefore in a qualified sense of subjection or subserviency): – bond (-man), servant. - HOW CAN WE PRAY FOR YOU PERSONALLY?