Dear Friends,
This Sunday we will gather for the Lord Supper. I really hope you come and remember the cross as part of our community. After all communion and community seem to go together. I will also preach my last message in the simplicity series. This week’s message will be, “THE SIMPLICITY OF THE CROSS”
The message of the cross of Christ is powerful and liberating. Often, we live lives of bondage and sadness because we do not understand the sufficiency and significance of the cross. Paul said it was the only thing he wanted to focus on.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
I really want you to come and bring someone along for this message. I want you to learn why and how the word of the cross can teach you how to see yourself and others in a completely different way.
Blessings,
Joe
STEPS TO PREPARE
PRAY FOR THE SERVICES AND FOR YOURSELF
AND ME AND THE OTHER TEACHERS.
PRAYERFULLY READ THE SCRIPTURES
AND CONSIDER THE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS.
MAKE PLANS TO ATTEND A PREACHING SERVICE AND A SMALL GROUP.
INVITE SOMEONE TO COME WITH YOU.
PREPARING FOR SUNDAY: SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Galatians 6:14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
How can guilt and shame affect you?
1 Corinthians 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
Explain why seeing yourself in grace can be hard to do.
1 Corinthians 15:10-11 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
How can understanding and believing the word of the cross change how you feel about yourself?
How did understanding of the grace of the cross affect how he talked about himself?
What can you do to get God to love or forgive you more than he does now?
Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
What does it mean to stand in grace?
Who can you invite to come on Easter?
