SUNDAY MESSAGES

Jesus – Including the Excluded – The Blind Man

Questions from the Message:

  • How do you go about the task of including others – and through that inclusion – open their eyes to the fact that God is a God of love, grace, and mercy?
  • Who had God placed in your life that He wants you to share that love with so that they too can have the abundant life He promises to those who will see Him?
  • When you are sharing with someone about how sin risks keeping a person in eternally separated from God, how do you go about it?
  • Where has God set up divine appointments with people who – though they may be quite different from you – are still considered precious by Jesus? In those differences, how can you help them to understand that by opening their eyes and submitting to Him their lives will be transformed for the better?

Jesus – Including the Excluded – The Older Brother

  • Have you ever felt short-changed by God? Have you felt that your service has been overlooked and that you deserve a pat on the back? Has your pride puffed you up to the point where you think it’s actually possible to earn God’s grace and blessing?
  • Can you recall times in your life where you have been the older brother that played by the rules, but with the wrong heart?
  • Have you ever found yourself unexpectedly in the ‘cage’ of unforgiveness and resentment? The good news is that God joyfully welcomes us into His arms, too, when we ask Him for the forgiveness of our sins. What needs to happen in your life so that you can turn to Him and enjoy the blessings of His abundant grace and love today?
  • Who do I need to forgive? Who do I need to seek reconciliation and restoration with?

Jesus – Including the Excluded – The Tax Collector

Questions from the message:

  • Jesus gave His life to save sinners like us – to include us in His kingdom. What sacrifices do you made to include others? What do you do to include others?
  • Do you find it difficult to interact with – or relate to – those who look, sound, and are different? How can you change that?
  • When and where have you made the decision to bring ‘outsiders’ in?
  • Are you ministering to the excluded with a sense of urgency, or are you criticising others like the Pharisees in Mark 2:13-17?
  • Why do you think that Jesus spend so much time with the ‘excluded?’

Better together, immeasurably more

Questions from the message:

  • In what ways have you seen Jesus pushed to the margins in the Church? What needs to happen to make sure Jesus is truly at the centre of your church or ministry?
  • What would it take (what would need to change) to truly reach our community for Christ?
  • What are the obstacles to unified mission in your neighbourhood?
  • What impact do you think our internal conflicts have on our wider witness? Can you think of a time or share a story where in the midst of conflict or severe disagreement, grace was shown and as a result God’s kingdom was advanced?
  • In what ways can you and your church show generosity to other churches, pastors and missional endeavours in order to advance God’s kingdom?

What Is Counterfeit Christianity?

Questions from the Message:

  • Where in your life do/have you ‘craved’ the world? What needs to change?  (“For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.” 1 John 2:16).
  • Have you allowed ‘secondary’ sources to take precedence over your primary source – the Word of God? What do you need to do to rectify that to reset your ‘life’ routine to be regularly in the Word of God?
  • Are you evaluating what you hear/watch/see with what you are reading in your Bible? Is it consistent with the Word of God or is it ‘not quite right?
  • Jesus came to give us ‘life to the full’ (John 10:10). Have you given your life totally over to Him? Whose ‘friend’ are you? In whose name do you ‘boast’ in? The world’s – or in the Name of the LORD?