Respond to Sunday, September 8th, 2019
“Extend Gospel Grace” – Luke 7:36-50 | Pastor Rickey Primrose
Truth: In extending Gospel grace, we will strive for authentic Gospel relationships, not settle for superficial friendliness. In the Parable of the Two Debtors in Luke 7 Jesus makes a point that we can only be loving and gracious toward others when we first see the depths of our own need for grace. Those who believe the Gospel, become like the Gospel.
Response: How did you come to understand the depths of your sin? How did you come to understand the depths of God’s grace to you? If you haven’t seen your sin, and your need for forgiveness, ask God to show you. Confess and repent and fall on his immeasurable grace.
Truth: We extend Gospel grace by displaying unexpected kindness to those outside the family, demonstrating sacrificial love to those inside the family, and delivering gracious truth to those straying from the family. We sometimes think that we have to prove our godliness by being harsh toward unbelievers. This goes against the Gospel we want to proclaim. Our relationships inside the church should also be marked by sacrificial love that serves and bears with one another without condemnation. This grace isn’t against truth in pursuing and drawing others back to restoration with the family of God.
Response: Are there people outside the church you tend not to see through the eyes of Jesus? Muslims? Transgender? Are there people inside the church that you aren’t pursuing and serving? Ask God to reveal any subtle, or not so subtle, attitudes,
thoughts, or actions in your life that are antithetical to the Gospel. Repent of anything God reveals and begin extending Gospel grace to someone inside and outside the church this week.
Truth: Extending Gospel grace will require us to go continually deeper into the Gospel, make relationships a priority, and lead us to find practical ways to love our neighbors. The Gospel is not Christianity 101; the Gospel is the schoolhouse we sit in everyday as believers. In order to extend this Gospel to people we must have meaningful, deep, authentic relationships with people. This will require us to think of practical ways to help, serve, and meet needs of your neighbors to show the grace of the Gospel.
Response: How are you going deeper into the Gospel? Are you making relationships a priority? How are you showing love to your neighbor practically? At home? At work? At school? If you, and your family, moved away tomorrow, would your neighbors notice? If our church ceased to exist tomorrow, would our community notice at all?
Family Response
Truth: God commands the Israelites to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you (Jeremiah 29:7a).” This would be easy if they had just moved into the newest suburb of choice with the highest-rated schools and a going housing market. Of course, they would want to benefit that kind of community. But the Israelites are being forced to live in the community of the very captors that destroyed the homes their families had lived in for generations and dragged them off to a place they don’t want to be.
Response: The non-Christians in our communities are not our enemies, but it certainly might feel that way at times. They don’t care about the same we care about. And even though we are “hateful” for disagreeing with them, they are “right” for saying we’re wrong. It might be more comfortable to shut ourselves off to the communities around us, but we cannot be beneficial to a community we are not a part of. Help your children connect with people in your community by interacting with neighbors, learning and using the names of local store clerks, keeping your neighborhood clean, and praying for city leaders.
Response: Participating in the community outreach event running from September 29 through November 17 is a practical way to “seek the welfare of the city.” Please strongly consider doing this as a family on your Community Group’s designated dates.
Prepare for Sunday, September 15th, 2019
Pray for the Church
- Leaders in worship: Pastor Rickey Primrose, Brandon Ramey & the Worship Music Ministry.
- God will meet with us through His word and by His Spirit, lead us to worship Christ and grow in Christ-likeness.
- God will help us to be a church of zeal and hope, passionate about ministry and confident in His promises.
- God will make us more passionate about and obedient to His mission of leading people to trust and follow Christ.
Prepare for the Message
“Deploy Every Member” 2 Corinthians 5:15-21 | Pastor Rickey Primrose
We conclude our mini-series this week entitled, “Distinct: The Core Values of MacArthur Blvd.” This Sunday we will be focusing on 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 as the text that will drive the message around our value, “Deploy Every Member.” Read all of 2 Corinthians 5 this week in preparation for this message. As you read take note of some of the reasons every church member should be deployed. What are some of the motivations of an ambassador seen in this passage? What does Christ’s love compel us to live for? How does our new life in Christ change the way we see people? What is the “ministry of reconciliation”? How does this passage explain the Gospel?
Music for Sunday
Our God Saves
The Lion And The Lamb