SUNDAY MESSAGES

Questions from the message:

• How has the “river moved” in your life, family, work and ministry?
• What might God be asking you to do differently as a result?

Questions from the message:

• (Matthew 18:21-22) Jesus says we must forgive 77 times or 490 times. Should we take these numbers literally or figuratively? If figurative, what are they figurative of? What does this teach us about God’s willingness to forgive us repeatedly for the same sin?
• (Matthew 18:23-35) In the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, what is the purpose of contrasting the huge debt with the small one? If we were to put ourselves in the parable, which debt would we owe? Which debt might be owed us? Why was the king insulted by the unmerciful servant’s action?
• Have you tested your spirit of forgiveness lately against God’s standard of forgiveness? How does it measure up?
• Take time to express your gratitude to God for His complete cancellation of your debt. Who has sinned against you? Have you cancelled out their debt?

Questions from the message:

• How do you purposefully seek God in your life?
• Do you see knowing Jesus – and being in a right relationship with Him – as the treasure above all other treasures?
• God pursues everyone in His love for all of humanity. In what ways can you help someone else be seeking Him in their life?
• What is it that Jesus is calling you to sell; to surrender; to lay down today, so that you might make pursuing Him a more purposeful part of your life?

Questions from the message:

• Who – and where – are the people in your circles of influence from whom Jesus is ‘hidden?’ What do you see as your role as a citizen of the kingdom in introducing them to Him – and bringing them into the kingdom?
• There is great joy in the unexpected discovery of Jesus. Where would you like to see the joy that you experience in life with Jesus in others?
• When Jesus breaks into your life unexpectedly – what is your response?
• What about you? Are you willing to pay the full price to obtain the “treasure” of the kingdom?
• The price of repentance? – Acts 3:19; 17:30-31.
• The price of complete submission to the will of Christ? – Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:38.
• The price of putting the kingdom first in your life? – Luke 9:23-24; Mark 10:21

Questions from the message:

1. Bring to mind people you know – or have known – who permeated the atmosphere around them with the quiet, continuous, effective and victorious presence of Jesus. What was it about them that you can learn from and apply in your efforts to grow the kingdom of God?
2. Think of times in history in which the ‘yeast’ of God’s principles has permeated and changed entire societies. What are some parts of contemporary life in which you can pray – and work – for that to keep happening?
3. In what ways has your choice to be a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom transformed your life? In what parts of your life is the ‘yeast’ at work right now? In what ways can you permeate the world around you for the kingdom of God?

Questions from the message:

• Have you ever seen God bless someone and felt jealous? What did you do?
• Do you struggle with the fact that God blesses those who you might sometimes consider unworthy?
• What can you do to focus on God’s grace towards you and be thankful for what you have?
• It is not our job to judge anyone else’s worth. How can you be intentional in seeing people as God sees them?

Questions from the message:

• Where in your life have you seen something/someone grow from humble faith beginnings to something huge for the kingdom of God?
• Do you believe that God has a plan for you? How can you go about exploring what that plan might be?
• What field, ground or garden has Jesus been preparing you for the task of growing His kingdom?
• How do you go about ‘feeding’ your faith life so that you can grow and be as effective as you can be to grow the kingdom of God?

Questions from the Message:

• Where in your life do you want to do stuff in your time instead of letting God’s plans play out?
• Do you spend more time looking to find the ‘weeds’ instead of resting in the peace and love of Jesus, knowing He has everything in His control?
• What can you do in your faith life that will see you growing in Jesus?

Questions from the message:

• Can you identify times in your life when – even though the ‘seed’ hit you generously – you were indifferent, shallow, or cluttered? What was it – or who was it – that moved you to being responsive?
• If you can know people around you who desperately need to experience Jesus and move into the kingdom of God, then what are your ways of ‘sowing’ the seeds of the Gospel?
• Take a look at your own life and compare it to before experiencing the love of Jesus and after experiencing it. How can you know the message as well as you can, so that you can be the ‘presence of Jesus’ in a clear and meaningful way to someone whom God has led you to share it with?

Questions from the Message:

• When have you been more ‘legal’ than loving?

• The kingdom of God is for everyone and it’s not up to us to decide who is in and who is out. Where have you ever been less-than-welcoming? (Even cold, compassionless, unforgiving, and judgmental).

• Have you ever been caught doing something – anything – and been totally embarrassed about people finding out? How would you want people to respond to that if it were you?

• What is your response when you encounter the homeless, or the chemical or alcohol afflicted; the lonely; the odd; the strange; the different? Is your mindset to misunderstand or to understand – to judge or to engage?

• Jesus certainly called out sin – but He did it in a way that gave every person He met the choice to move towards Him – not away from Him. Isn’t that our role too?