Romans: How God Sees Me

Message: How God Sees Me (Romans 1:1-7)

· How God sees me:

1) I am a servant of Christ

2) I have a calling in the Kingdom

3) I am set apart for the gospel

4) I am loved by God

5) I am holy, forgiven in God’s sight

6) I have received grace and peace from God

· Six things Paul says about the gospel:

1) It’s God’s good news for the lost world.

2) This is not new. The Old Testament points to Christ.

3) It is all about Jesus. (Rom 1:3)

4) Obedience of faith is the purpose of the gospel. (Rom 1:5)

5) Ultimate aim is to bring glory to Jesus.

6) It’s for all the nations.

Questions

1. How do you see yourself? Does that image align with God’s image of you?
2. What are you a slave to? Jesus?
3. Share parts of the Old Testament that point to Christ.
4. Take time to pray for the nations.
5. What gets in the way of believing God’s love for you?
6. How have the six ways God sees you (listed above) impacted your life?

Bring Hope to Our World

Message: To Bring Hope

· It is vital to have hope for this world and for the next world.

· Bringing hope to people gives us meaning and purpose in our lives.

· Bring hope by:

1) Serving God

§ We were created to do good works. (Eph 2:10; Eph 4)

2) Generosity

§ God is the most generous person because He is a lover.

§ You cannot live without giving. (John 3:16)

3) Missional Living

§ We are all on mission for God to represent Christ.

§ Luke 19:10 – Jesus’ purpose in coming.

§ Mark 2:17 – Jesus came for the lost.

§ Mark 10:45 – Jesus came to serve.

· WoodsEdge desires for every small group to be missional.

· Being called as a church to be missional through finances and local/international ministries.

Questions

1. Share a time when someone brought hope to your life and the impact it had.
2. What is your calling for service? What are you passionate about?
3. Does your small group have a missional focus?
4. What steps do you need to take, or have you taken, to make serving part of your life?
5. How is serving in the church different from serving outside the church? Why does God call us to both?
6. If you are not yet serving as an individual or a group, speak your “next step to serving” to a trusted individual and ask him/her to hold you accountable.

To Live In Community

Message: Journey Together

· Our triune God is a perfect image of community and we are made in His image.

· Living in community can no longer be optional for us.

· Matt 26:36-46 demonstrates how Jesus needed to be in community with the Father and with the disciples.

· Jesus spent most of His time with His “small group”, not with the masses.

· Act 2 and Romans 12:15 are examples of living in community.

· Goals of WoodsEdge small groups:

o Love Jesus

o Journey Together

o Bring Hope to Our World

o Feel safe, loved, not judged

o Feel like a family

o Help individual relationships with Christ grow

Questions

1. What specifically gets in the way of creating community in churches?
2. How can you restructure your day so that it includes community?
3. In what ways do we long for community?
4. What characteristics of community does the triune God exemplify?
5. How will WoodsEdge change as it moves from a church with groups to a church of groups? How can you help with this transition?
6. Why did Jesus have to feel so abandoned and alone in the garden of Gethsemane?
7. How does living in community make you feel fully alive?
8. Share how your life has been enriched because you took the time to live in community.

To Love Jesus

Message: Three core values of loving Jesus:

1. God’s Word

· The Bible is from God’s mouth. (Ps 119:72, 2Tim 3:16-17)

· The Key to a healthy, thriving relationship with Christ is: loving His Word.

· Create a plan for when and where you are going to read the Bible.

2. Prayer

· Prayer is birthed from desperation and is a source of power.

· God listens. (Gen 4:26b)

· Jesus always prayed. (Mark 1:35)

· In prayer, we seek God’s face (intimacy) and God’s hand (power).

3. Worship

· When God reveals His glory, respond in worship: Ex 33:18, 34:5-7, 34:8

· If you love, you worship. If you worship it’s because you love.

· Whatever we do for Christ becomes an act of worship. (1Cor 10:31)

Questions

1. Is God’s Word your most prized possession?
2. If you never had access to a Bible again, how would this impact your life?
3. Share your plans for reading the Bible and memorizing Scripture.
4. If prayer is birthed from desperation, what does “desperation” look like?
5. Have you experienced a time when your reliance on prayer revealed what God can do, His power, rather than what you could have accomplished?
6. What does worship look like in your life? How do you show God love, adoration, and praise?