Revolution Church Annapolis: Recent Episodes

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SCRIPTURE: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 7:29, 8:16-17, 11:6, & 12:9-14

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does the poem from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 teach us about timing in our lives?
2. Can you think of a specific time in your life when you had to choose the right moment to act? How did that choice impact your situation?
3. Have you ever experienced a time when waiting for something made it more meaningful? How can that influence the way you approach challenges today?
4. The sermon mentions that 'God made humankind upright, but they have sought many evil schemes' (Ecclesiastes 7:29). What do you think this means?
5. The closing instruction of Ecclesiastes is to 'fear God and keep His commandments.’ How do you feel about this? What can you learn from it?
6. In what ways does the concept of 'vapors' or 'smoke' relate to our understanding of life's uncertainty? How do you deal with uncertainty in your own life? Do you find it challenging to trust in God during those times?

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SCRIPTURE: Ecclesiastes 2:1-11, 3:9-19, & 4:9-12

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS WEEK HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Kenny’s “song” for this week sings, “This is the day that the Lord has made! / Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” Do you find this idea comforting? Do you find it sufficient?
2. If it is true that our imaginations are limited by our anxieties about Time and Death, we’re going to struggle to develop a “right” way to live! In this sermon, Kenny discussed two “life philosophies” in the ancient world: Hedonism and Stoicism. How would you define each? Do you see echoes of these philosophies in the world today?
3. Have you ever been tempted by a “hedonistic” life? Where did that road lead for you? What did you learn?
4. Have you ever been tempted by a “stoic” life? Where did that road lead for you? What did you learn?
5. Ecclesiastes suggests that a better option is what we might call a “life of gratitude”: recognizing the many gifts we are given (even in this broken world) and trying to enjoy them. Does this resonate with you?
6. The main challenge of this series is that our conclusions, most weeks, are still going to feel incomplete or insufficient. What are the limits of a “life of gratitude”? What more are we seeking from “the good life”?
7. What small things in your life bring you joy? How can you make a conscious effort to appreciate them more… and share them?

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SCRIPTURE: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, 2:12-17, & 4:1-3; Proverbs 8:17-21 & 9:10-12

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What do you think Ecclesiastes means when it says, 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity'? How does this idea challenge what we often believe about work and success?
2. Kenny said that Time and Death are barriers that keep us from really being able to imagine the “horizon” of things, where God really does bring heaven down here to earth. How do those barriers affect your hope and faith? How do they impact your own sense of meaning and purpose in life?
3. In Proverbs, wisdom is promised to lead to a good life, but Ecclesiastes challenges this idea. How do you feel about the tension between these two books? Does it feel strange to see places where Scripture is challenged… by other Scripture?
4. Kenny concluded by saying that Ecclesiastes helps us wrestle with the gap between what we believe and what we experience in the world. What doubts or questions do you have about the meaning of life? About things like legacy and purpose?
5. How might discussing these doubts in a safe environment help you grow in your understanding and faith?
6. How might the prospect of a 'bigger Story' reframe our sense of purpose or meaning? What might that ‘bigger Story’ be? What part might you be playing inside of it?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 10:17-22

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is the difference between certainty and confidence in our relationship with God?
2. How does Kenny relate the act of “cleaning a messy room” to our relationship with God?
3. What are some things in your life that you are hesitant to give over to God? Why?
4. In this story, what do you think Jesus means when he says the man “lacks” just one thing? What is it?
5. Kenny argues that, for many people of faith, the rules can become a substitute for the relationship. Have you ever experienced this? What happened?
6. In what ways can you shift your focus from following rules to building a deeper relationship with God?
7. Do you really believe the Holy Spirit is committed to transforming your heart, your desires, and your life? How might greater confidence in this Biblical truth bring you more freedom and joy (and courage!) as you learn to submit yourself to God’s leadership?

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SCRIPTURE: Genesis 3

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why do you think it's important to care for our own needs before we can effectively care for others?
2. Can you think of a time when you neglected your own needs? How did it affect your ability to care for someone else or complete a task?
3. Reflecting on the story of Adam and Eve, what do you think their awareness of their nakedness symbolizes? In what ways might recognizing your own vulnerabilities help you connect better with others?
4. How can cultural messages make it harder for people, especially women, to address their own needs? Have you experienced any cultural pressures that made it difficult for you to take care of yourself? How did you respond?
5. How does the idea of caring for oneself relate to the notion of being a good parent or caregiver?
6. What might God's inquiry, 'Who told you that you were naked?' suggest about our own self-perceptions?
7. How do you perceive yourself when you make mistakes, and how does that affect your relationships with others?

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SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 29; Matthew 6 & 22:37-40

YOU CAN ALSO READ THE MANUSCRIPT FOR TODAY’S SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When was the last time you really felt overwhelmed? What are some ways that feeling overwhelmed can prevent us from caring for others?
2. How does the Lord's Prayer remind us to prioritize both our relationship with God and our care for others?
3. How might focusing on local acts of kindness help to keep us engaged in the world? Can you think of a situation where focusing on one local issue made a difference in your community?
4. Kenny mentioned Jeremiah's message to the Israelites about building lives in exile. How can we apply this idea in our own lives when facing difficult situations?
5. What does it really mean to you to 'love your neighbor as yourself’?
6. Can you identify a specific person or community in your life who might need your support right now? What steps will you take to show them love?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 19:1-10

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Can you think of a time when you felt judged or misunderstood? How did that affect how you see yourself?
2. In the story, Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus despite feeling embarrassed. What does this say about his character? Have you ever taken a risk to learn something new or to connect with someone? What happened?
3. When Zacchaeus declares he will give half of his possessions to the poor, what do you think caused such a radical change in him? What conversations have influenced you to change your actions for the better? Can you share an example?
4. How does the interaction between Jesus and Zacchaeus challenge our assumptions about who deserves compassion?
5. Luke 19:9-10 says that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. What does it mean to be 'lost,' and how does this relate to the story of Zacchaeus?
6. Who around you might be ‘misunderstood’ today? How can you seek to understand them and encourage them?

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SCRIPTURE: John 20-21

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Can you think of a time when you were afraid of something that held you back from caring for others or for a specific situation?
2. Why do you think the fear of death can hold us back from experiencing shalom, or wholeness, in our lives?
3. What does it mean to you that Jesus defeated the grave, and how can this belief change the way you view challenges in your own life?
4. In John 20:19-23, Jesus says 'Shalom be with you' to his disciples after his resurrection. Why do you think he chose to say this first?
5. How can you extend peace to those around you, especially in challenging situations?
6. How does the story of Peter's denial and restoration relate to the theme of second chances and extending shalom? Can you identify an area in your life where you can offer a second chance to someone?
7. What practical ways can we, as a community, work together to extend shalom to those in need, as mentioned in the sermon?
8. What is one step you can take this week to reach out and help someone in your community?

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SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 9:6, Luke 19:29-42, & John 12:23-25

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How might you define “shalom”? What have you learned this week about all this word might mean or encompass?
2. What are some of the areas in your life where you might need more peace or wholeness?
3. Consider the title of this week’s message (“When You Want a Warrior…”). Are you sometimes tempted to long for victory–over your circumstances, over your enemies–instead of peace? What fears might be underneath that desire?
4. The heart of the message today is that God understands our real enemy is Death… and our fear of this will always make us half-hearted in how we pursue the kinds of love and generosity God intends for us. Can you imagine how your life might be different if you could be free from this fear?
5. The closing challenge was to “choose flourishing over victory.” What are some of the relationships in your life where the desire to win is more important to you than loving the other person well?
6. Take some time to listen to the Holy Spirit today: what might shalom look like in this relationship?
7. Next week is Easter Sunday! We will be talking about what Jesus’s love for us leads him to do in order to deliver us from our fears. Spend time this week preparing for this message by asking: “where am I holding myself back from God, from others, and even from me?” Ask God to soften your heart so you might hear Him more clearly, believe more deeply, and grow!

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 10:38-42

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What do you think Jesus meant when he said, 'few things are needed—or indeed only one'?
2. In your own life, what ‘occupations’ might be preventing you from spending more time with God?
3. Why do you think Mary chose to sit at Jesus's feet instead of helping Martha with the preparations? Are there areas in your life where you need to be bold in prioritizing your spiritual health, even if it means going against the norm?
4. How can we relate to Martha's feelings of being overwhelmed and wanting recognition for our efforts? Have you ever felt similarly? How can you communicate your feelings to God or others in your life when you feel overwhelmed?
5. What does the story teach us about the importance of rest and listening to God? How can you incorporate moments of rest and listening to God into your daily routine?
6. What costs have you encountered or feared when trying to prioritize your spiritual growth? How can you address those fears?

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SCRIPTURE: Acts 8

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why do you think people often find it easier to resist rather than to surrender? Reflect on a situation in your life where you've resisted change. What might have happened if you had chosen to surrender instead?
2. Look at Philip’s stories in Acts 8: what do you see in his behavior (towards others, towards the Holy Spirit) that is worth imitating? What elements of discipline do you see in Philip?
3. What are some barriers that prevent us from being inclusive like the early Christians were with the Samaritans and the Ethiopian eunuch?
4. Consider any barriers you may have in your own relationships. How can you work to break down those barriers and be more inclusive?
5. What does it mean to truly surrender to the Holy Spirit in our daily lives?
6. How can we develop the discipline of listening to God in our busy lives? What specific practices can you put in place this week to help you listen for God's guidance more effectively?

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SCRIPTURE: Acts 6-7, Philippians 2:10-11, & 2 Peter 3:8-9

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does it mean for us to be “holy houses for God’s burning Spirit” as mentioned in the sermon? How can we become more aware of this in our daily lives?
2. Why do you think Stephen's defense emphasized the mobility of God's presence instead of focusing on the physical Temple?
3. In what ways can you worship God outside of church or formal settings, acknowledging His presence in your life?
4. Reflecting on Stephen’s statement, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them,” what can we learn about forgiveness in difficult situations?
5. In what ways can we combat our “stiff-necked” tendencies to focus on defending institutions or traditions at the cost of nurturing our relationship with God?
6. How might the idea that “death is not the end,” but rather “sleep,” reshape our understanding of the hope we have in Christ? What about the hope we have for others, or for the ultimate goal of God’s bigger Story?

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SCRIPTURE: Acts 2-3

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does it mean to have 'all things in common' in the context of a church community?
2. Can you think of a time when you shared something valuable with someone else? How did that experience affect your relationship with that person?
3. In Acts 3, Peter and John healed a man and then called for repentance. Why is this two-step process significant?
4. How can you approach helping others while also encouraging them to think about their relationship with God?
5. How do we balance the need for community with the challenge of including those who might not share our beliefs or values?
6. Are there people in your life whom you find difficult to accept? What steps might you take to open your heart to them?
7. How can the Holy Spirit help us overcome our fears about sharing our possessions or time (or grace!) with others?
8. What responsibilities do you have as a member of the family of God?

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SCRIPTURE: Acts 2

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are the significance and implications of the Holy Spirit arriving at Pentecost, especially in relation to the previous events at the Tower of Babel?
2. How do you think the way we communicate today shapes our unity or division in communities and relationships?
3. How does Peter's transformation from denying Jesus to boldly preaching at Pentecost inspire you in your own personal growth?
4. Can you think of a time when you overcame a difficult situation or learned from a mistake? How did that change you?
5. How does the concept of a universal message reflect the importance of inclusivity in faith communities?
6. How can you foster inclusivity in your own environment? How?

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SCRIPTURE: Acts 1:1-9 & 1 Corinthians 3:9

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why do you think the disciples were focused on a political kingdom instead of understanding Jesus's mission to address sin?
2. How do you think our society today sometimes falls into similar traps of seeking political or material solutions rather than addressing deeper spiritual needs?
3. In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells the disciples they will be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. What does being a witness to Jesus mean to you?
4. What role do you think the Holy Spirit plays in helping us understand God’s love and guidance?
5. Have you ever felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life? How did that influence your decisions or relationships?
6. Kenny defined “caretaking” as “curiosity towards what is placed in your care and the kind pursuit of its flourishing.” What do you think of this definition? Have you ever been a “caretaker”?
7. To be effective caretakers, we must listen, trust, and nurture our relationships with God and others. Which of these is easiest for you? Which is most difficult? How can you take steps towards growth this week?

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SCRIPTURE: John 4:1-41

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why do you think Jesus chose to engage in a conversation with the Samaritan woman, despite the cultural tensions between Jews and Samaritans?
2. Have you ever felt hesitant to talk to someone because of differences in background or opinions? How can you overcome those feelings to build a connection?
3. How can having an “unhurried conversation” help you see a person more fully? Can you find an echo of your thoughts in the story in John 4?
4. Why is it so hard to avoid “us vs. them” traps in conversations… especially in charged political climates like our own? What might we gain from pushing through these traps and trying to stick it out in our conversations with others? What does Jesus gain? What about the woman from Sychar?
5. How might having longer and more sincere conversations with other people actually model the hope we have in/through our faith? Is it actually “doing any good” to talk with people?
6. The last thing Kenny noted in this story was that Jesus stuck around for this woman (and her friends!). Why is this such an important step in building relationships? Who can you “stick around” for this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Psalms 4 & 5, Mark 1, James 4:7-10, & Hebrews 10:19-24

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why is trusting that we are cared for important for us to become caring people? Can you think of a time when you struggled to feel cared for? How did that affect your ability to care for others?
2. How can we use prayer as a tool to experience God's care according to the examples from David’s psalms?
3. Have you ever prayed honestly about your feelings? What might change in your prayer life if you were more vulnerable with God?
4. What can we learn about “dwelling in care” from the example of Jesus? What is the difference between “doing to feel” and “feeling to do,” as discussed in the sermon?
5. Jesus makes time in silence, time in solitude, time in prayer a priority before he takes next steps. How might you follow after him in this?
6. James challenges us to pursue radical and profound humility… what do you think he means? How might this help us experience God’s care?
7. Kenny said that “ Humility is the daily trust that simply being a person among people is enough.” Is it really true that seeing ourselves as “just” people is the key to being lifted up into God’s care? Why might this work?
8. The author of Hebrews says that we can (and should!) have confidence in God’s presence. Why is this okay? What would this look like in your spiritual life?
9. All caring actions flow out from our security and experiences as “cared for” people. What changes can you make in your routines to spend more time dwelling in God’s care for us? Will you make them?

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SCRIPTURE: Psalm 139, Isaiah 54:10, Zephaniah 3:17, and Romans 5:8 & 8:37-39

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE ON HIS SERMON BLOG HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does “care” mean to you? What sense of the word (receiving, extending, feeling) do you think about first?
2. Do you struggle to feel or believe God cares for you? What has helped you overcome this struggle in the past? Where do you think these struggles come from?
3. In the sermon, Kenny suggests that we sometimes over-rely on Scripture when we’re looking for answers or for comfort because the more mysterious realities of our faith–our living relationship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us–can feel less clear or certain. Can you relate to this? How so?
4. Do you find comfort in your connectionto the “big story” of the Bible? Is it really “okay” if God isn’t talking exclusively to us in Scripture? How might this possibility affect the ways you study and read?
5. The first way to feel God’s loving care for us is to accept that we are small parts of a much, much bigger story. Have you ever felt a sense of belonging that came from being one part of a bigger group? Share that story!
6. The second way to feel God’s loving care for us is to talk to God! Ask God how He feels about you this week. This is scary… but it really can provide deep comfort!
7. The third way to feel God’s loving care for us is to participate in a caring faith community. Are there steps you could take towards deeper belonging here at Revolution?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 10:1b-2 & 1 Peter 5:6-10

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does “care” mean to you? What sense of the word (receiving, extending, feeling) do you think about first?
2. In the Old Testament, care is compassionate, reflecting a fear that something might be lost. Have you felt this before?
3. In the New Testament, care is more closely related to worry and anxiety. Have you felt this way before?
4. What can we learn from Peter’s insistence that you can “cast your cares upon” God, “because He cares for” you? What is the relationship between accepting worry and caring, as God models it?
5. We often “feel love” for others… but that doesn’t mean we are always willing to listen to their worries or anxieties! Who can you do a better job of listening to this week?
6. Although it is good to care for others by accepting their worries… you can’t hold onto them forever, either! Kenny suggested we think of ourselves as “conduits of God’s care”: what do you think this means? How can we do this?
7. In your life, what have you learned about receiving care?
8. What have you learned about extending care?
9. What have you learned about feeling care for others, for your community, or even for the world more broadly?

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SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 10:14-25 & 1 Peter 2:9

KENNY FORGOT TO RECORD AUDIO THIS WEEK… BUT YOU CAN STILL READ THE MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE ON HIS SERMON BLOG HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does it mean to you to be part of a community in church? Why do you choose this?
2. Why is it important to work together despite our differences? How can insisting on community be a meaningful example in the world?
3. Have you ever struggled to “keep this up”? Share your story with someone: it matters!
4. Have you ever thought of yourself as a “priest”? How does that title challenge the way you participate in community? The way you interact with friends, neighbors, family members, co-workers?
5. When was the last time you were “blessed” by someone in your church community? How did that feel? Did it inspire or encourage you to share kindness with others?
6. At the very beginning today, Kenny said that a healthy community “adds kindness into the world.” Do you think this is true? How can you contribute to the health of our community here at Revolution?
7. As we look back on 2024, what have you learned about being “Together On Purpose”? What has challenged you about our teaching last year? What has encouraged you? What lessons can you bring with you into this new year?

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SCRIPTURE: John 9-12

THE MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS WEEK’S SERMON CAN ALSO BE FOUND HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have you been learning in this series on John’s gospel? Have you felt challenged by anything in particular?
2. Do you feel afraid? What are your specific fears today? It is okay to acknowledge them… and to share them with God.
3. In what ways do you think our fears about life, like fear of not having enough or fear of death, can limit our ability to experience the gifts of the Holy Spirit?
4. In this section of John’s gospel, Jesus is the “Sign”... but how would you describe who or what Jesus is pointing towards?
5. How does the story of “the man who was born blind” in John 9 reveal the limits we put on the Story God might be telling? What do you see in the disbelief of the Pharisees in this story? In the man’s faith (v. 35-41)?
6. How do Martha's words to Jesus about her brother Lazarus show both anger and hope? What does this teach us about processing our emotions?
7. What do you think this means: “Sin and Death might bind you, but they cannot keep you”? How does this idea shape your understanding of freedom in faith?
8. Why do you think it’s important to be open to seeing the world through a larger story? How can this perspective affect your daily choices?

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SCRIPTURE: John 2-6

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. The first half of John’s Gospel is known as “The Book of Signs.” Have you ever thought about Jesus’s miracles in this way–as “signs”? What do they point to? How do they work?
2. Can you think of a time when you faced a fear or need and how trusting God helped you see beyond it?
3. In the story of the wedding at Cana, how does Jesus's act of turning water into wine challenge our understanding of scarcity and abundance?
4. How do you view abundance in your own life, and are there areas where fear of scarcity is holding you back?
5. Why do you think Jesus emphasizes 'Do not be afraid' in the stories of his signs, and how does this relate to our fears?
6. What fears do you struggle with that might be preventing you from fully experiencing the life Jesus models for us?

Where can you grow in your own radical generosity during this season?

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SCRIPTURE: John 1:19-51, Genesis 28:11-19

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What do you think is the significance of Jesus being called both the “Lamb of God” and the “Chosen One” by John the Baptist?
2. What about “Rabbi” and “Son of God”? What do these names illuminate about Jesus?
3. How can understanding the different roles that Jesus fulfills impact the way you view your own faith and relationship with God?
4. Consider Jesus’s encouragement (which is echoed by Nathanael) to “come and see.” What does this reveal to us about who Jesus is and how he is working? Why is it notable that Nathanael says this, too?
5. The name Jesus gives to himself in John 1 is a reference to a dream given to the Jewish patriarch, Jacob (Genesis 28:11-19). Read that passage… what does it teach us about who Jesus is? What does it teach us about his work and purpose?
6. As “Christians,” we’ve all been given a new name, too! What do you think this name really means? What responsibility does it carry?
7. We’ve probably all had experiences with “Christians” who weren’t great representatives of that name. Take a moment to reflect on these experiences without personal judgment: what was really the source of the hurt? What can we learn about how we might carry this name ourselves?
8. Christian faith is not intended to be practiced alone. How can we support one another as “witnesses” to the name we’ve been given? How can a community like our church work together to carry this name well?

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SCRIPTURE: John 1:1-18

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What might it mean to “exegete the Father” as described in the sermon, and how does this concept help us understand who Jesus is?
2. Why is it important to recognize both the humanity and divinity of Jesus when understanding His role in revealing God to us? How does understanding Jesus' dual nature influence your perspective on challenges you face as a believer?
3. The first “key” is that Jesus is God’s Words, made understandable. What does this mean to you? Does it teach you anything new about Jesus?
4. The second “key” is that Jesus is God’s Life, made undefeatable. What do you think this means? How might this offer real hope to us?
5. The third “key” is that Jesus is God’s Light, making God’s Way visible. What does this teach us about the relationship between Jesus’s example and how we live our own lives?
6. The final “key” is that Jesus is God’s Purpose, made believable. Talk this through with a friend in your small group, or with God in prayer: how does Jesus really accomplish this? Do you believe in him? What does this mean?
7. What do you think the word “repentance” means? Why do you think it’s understood to be such a crucial part of what it means to be a Christian?
8. One way of understanding our task, as Christians, is to “exegete Jesus” in much the same way Jesus “exegetes” the Father. Have you ever thought about Christian living in this way? What does it illuminate for you? How can you act on what you are discovering?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 5:10 & Acts 6-7

YOU CAN ALSO READ THE MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How does the concept of the 'good life' differ between our culture and the teachings of Jesus?
2. Kenny said the Desert Fathers and Mothers “fear safety more than persecution.” What do you think this means? Have you ever felt this way?
3. What do you think it means to be 'persecuted for righteousness’s sake'?
4. Can you think of a time when you stood up for something you believed in, even if it was hard? How did that experience shape your understanding of righteousness?
5. Kenny said the Pilgrims sought persecution by running away from their neighbors. What mistake was embedded in this decision? Can you relate to this situation?
6. In the final “skip,” Kenny talked about a moment when he imagined persecution as a middle schooler. What mistake was embedded in this attitude? Can you relate to this situation?
7. In the end, persecution isn’t something you should seek out or something you should run from… because it isn’t really supposed to be about you. What do you think of this idea? How might it apply to your current situation?
8. When we follow Jesus’s example–caring for outcasts by stepping in to their situations–persecution can happen… but we don’t need to fear it. Who can you care for and support in this season? Where can you show courage by choosing to model Kingdom values over the values of our world?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 John 2:3-6, James 1:2-4, 1 Thessalonians 5:13-22, Galatians 3:2-3, James 2:14-17, 2 Thessalonians 1:3 & 3:5, & Philippians 1:3-6

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some of the questions that might have stumped early Christian communities? What are some of the questions you have about Christian faith or community?
2. The sermon begins with some of the direct advice of the epistles when we face uncertainty, including a) following/remembering the Law, b) finding joy in hardship, and c) learning to listen to the Holy Spirit. Are any of these easier/harder for you? Why?
3. In the second half of the sermon, Kenny goes through the indirect advice of the epistles, as evidenced by their existence and preservation through the centuries. This advice includes a) asking questions, b) remembering you’re still growing, and c) sticking together with other believers. Are any of these easier/harder for you? Why?
4. Have you ever felt supported by a church family/community? What was that experience like?
5. Have you ever worked alongside other Christians to support someone else? What was that experience like?
6. Our theme for this year is “Together On Purpose.” Now that we’re in October, what are some of the things you’ve learned about togetherness this year? What have you learned about purpose?
7. What is one step you can take this week either a) towards community or b) towards personal growth?

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SCRIPTURE: Acts 1:6-11, James 5:7-9, Galatians 6:7-10, & 2 Peter 3:8-12

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS WEEK HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. This message is all about waiting. Have you ever waited on something really important before? Are you waiting on something now? What is that experience like? What questions and struggles are an inescapable part of it?
2. The first Christians were impatient at first as they waited on Jesus’s return. So the early Church’s leaders, like James, wrote letters to remind them that good things are growing while we wait. What did those leaders mean? What “good things” might be growing as you wait?
3. After the Church spread throughout Judea, Samaria, and the eastern Roman empire, their impatience emerged again! So, the apostle Paul wrote to them about “becoming weary in doing good.” Have you ever felt this weariness? Where did it come from? What reminders about God’s heart and God’s purposes in the world might help relieve that weariness?
4. By the end of the Church’s second full decade, impatience about Jesus’s return was starting to become doubt. In this context, the disciple Peter tells the Church to remember that God wants everyone to know Him (2 Peter 3:8-12). How does this reframe “waiting” for the first Christians? How might it encourage you?
5. Kenny said that the key to Christian patience is remembering that it’s not all about you. When we hold faith in God’s promises and trust Him to finish the Story when He’s ready, we can be free to participate in it without anxiety or impatience. How can you embrace this message in your life? How can you embrace it in your week?

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SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 2:19-22, 1 Peter 1:3-4 & 2:11-21, Romans 12:14-13:2, Colossians 3:13-14, & 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Have you ever thought about the epistles (or letters) in the New Testament as a conversation in the early Church before? How might this lens affect the way you read them?
2. The clear testimony of the first Church leaders is that Christians are no longer citizens of this world, but of God’s Kingdom. How do you think about your citizenship, as an American? What can this illuminate for you about your citizenship, as a Christian?
3. What does it mean for us to view ourselves as “foreigners and strangers” in the world? How do we live when our values, as Christians, are in conflict with the country or kingdom we are living in?
4. How can we apply the idea of 'overcoming evil with good' in our daily lives, especially when faced with difficult situations or people?
5. Why do you think the early Christians were encouraged to embrace suffering and sacrifice as part of their faith, according to the letters?
6. What freedoms or privileges has God given to you, either through your faith or through your identity… or even through your nationality?
7. How might you be able to sacrifice those freedoms for the sake of others, or as a witness to God’s Kingdom?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 5:9, John 1:12 & Philippians 2:4-8

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does being a “peacemaker” mean to you?
2. What is the difference between pursuing peace by avoiding conflictand pursuing peace by stepping into conflict? Can you think of times when you have used one or both of these strategies? How did things go? What did you learn?
3. What are some of the things “peacemakers” can do?
4. Kenny listed some additional options on Sunday, including: being quick to apologize, stepping in to mediate disagreements, advocating the mistreated, absorbing harm, and giving generously. What do you think of these strategies? Which ones sound easy to you? Which sound hard?
5. What does the life of Jesus teach us about what it means to be called “children of God”?
6. Kenny points out that because Jesus rose from the dead, we no longer need to be ruled by fear and scarcity. What do you think of this? How might this work?
7. Have fear or scarcity ever stopped you from making peace? How?
8. In light of our discoveries this week, what can you “choose to lose” this week? Where can you find more confidence in your invitation to be a “peacemaker”?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 22:37-40 & Luke 10:29-37

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Matt’s first point this morning is that loving neighbors is easier… when your neighbors are a lot like you. Does that resonate with your situation? What are some of the “easier” ways you have cared well (or can care well) for your neighbors?
2. Can you think of a time when you found it hard to love someone who was different from you? How did you handle that situation?
3. What stops you from… well, “stopping” more often to help those in need?
4. How does the story of the Good Samaritan challenge our understanding of who our neighbors are?
5. One of the big challenges of this parable is how it disrupts our understanding of who our “enemies” are. The wounded man is the Samaritan’s “enemy”... but the Samaritan helps anyway. Who are your “enemies”? How can you learn to see them more empathetically?
6. It’s also worth remembering that the Samaritan is the wounded man’s enemy, too! If he’d had his way, he probably would have preferred help from someone else! Are you open to accepting help… even when it comes from someone you don’t like?
7. What realistic ways can you engage with this parable and sermon this week?

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SCRIPTURE: John 17, Romans 10

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Read Jesus' prayer in John 17:6-23. What do you see here? What is most important to Jesus about how the Church he is building will operate in the world?
2. Do you have past hurt in your church experiences? Who can you share that with?
3. What might “rehab” look like for you, when it comes to your church participation?
4. How can we overcome our own biases and approach other Christians from different denominations with love and understanding?
5. What steps can we take to develop meaningful partnerships with other churches?
6. What role can you play in this?
7. Is there anyone in your life–particularly a professing Christian–who you have fallen “out of touch” with? Would you be willing to reach out to them this week?

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REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Think about relationships in your own life where maintaining “unity” is difficult. What has caused damage to the relationship in the past? What part(s) of that damage can you take on as your responsibility and repair?
2. Ivy said that when times are tough, we typically think our only options are to ignore problems or fight them… but that, as Christians, there must be a “third way.” What do you think that way is?
3. Jesus builds a surprising community among his first disciples: there are people from across the political and religious spectrums; rich disciples and poor disciples; even “zealots” and “sons of thunder”! What can we learn from Jesus’s insistence on diversity?
4. How does Jesus build unity among his closest friends? What can we learn from his example?
5. Why might understanding and believing in God's unconditional love help us in seeking and maintaining unity?
6. How can we, as believers, intentionally foster unity within our church community and with others?
7. What does it mean to carry real hope and unity in today's culture of fear and division?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 5:8, Psalm 24, Ezekiel 36, 1 John, Revelation 22:3-4

YOU CAN ALSO FIND KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are you learning from our study of the Beatitudes this year? What insights have you found so far about living “the good life”?
2. How might “purity of heart” go beyond external appearances?
3. What does judging purity by internal motivations and transformation mean for how you view yourself and others in your faith community?
4. A lot of this sermon has to do with who does the work of creating a “pure heart”. What is God’s promise? What is our task?
5. What does it mean to “ask” for a pure heart? Have you done this before? What has that experience been like?
6. What does it mean to “accept” a pure heart? What makes this so difficult for us sometimes?
7. What does it mean to “surrender” to a pure heart? Where are you struggling with this right now?
8. How can you better “nurture” the heart God has given you?

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SCRIPTURE: Revelation 1:1-18, 5:2-10, 7:9-10, & 21:3-4, 22

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some stories from Scripture that you would rather not read? Are there some specific ones that seem troubling to you?
2. What are your past experiences with the Book of Revelation, in particular? Have you heard or read teachings from it before?
3. Consider the situation of the book: how does recognizing the genre of “apocalypse” influence your understanding? How might the circumstances of the original audience (i.e. - Christians facing Roman persecution) shape the way we read?
4. Consider the hope of the book: John is repeatedly surprised to see Jesus as a “bloodied Lamb” rather than a conquering hero. What does this reveal about his expectations? What does it reveal to us?
5. Reflect on a challenging situation you have faced or are currently facing. How can embracing the themes of hope, sacrifice, and the triumph of Jesus help you navigate through it?
6. Consider the warning of the book: what is the danger of a 'Culture Warrior' mentality? How might it detract from the genuine message of Christ?

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REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some stories from Scripture that you would rather not read? Are there some specific ones that seem troubling to you?
2. Why do you think Solomon’s early dedication to God changed as he grew in power and wealth? Are there areas in your life where you feel your priorities have shifted, and how can you refocus on your relationship with God?
3. What does the story of Solomon teach us about the consequences of unwise choices, even for successful individuals?
4. How does Solomon's story demonstrate the importance of being aware of our own limitations and inadequacies?
5. What can we learn from Solomon's prayer during the temple dedication (1 Kings 8), despite his actions not aligning with his words? Do your actions align with your faith and devotion to God? Are there areas of your life where you need to more closely align your actions with your beliefs?
6. In light of Solomon's story, how can we better understand and appreciate God's faithfulness and the new covenant through Jesus Christ?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 4:1-12

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some stories from Scripture that you would rather not read? Are there some specific ones that seem troubling to you?
2. How does Jesus's temptation in the wilderness help us understand our own temptations and weaknesses?
3. Can you share a personal experience where you faced temptation? Where did it come from? How did you respond? How would you respond now?
4. Why is it important for us to pray and ask God to not lead us into temptation and deliver us from evil? What do you think Jesus is really teaching us here about temptation and deliverance?
5. What is the role of Scripture in resisting temptation? How can we avoid misusing it, or trying to “win”?
6. Humility is at the center of this story: Jesus’s humility in choosing to share in our weaknesses and experience temptation… and the humility he calls us to, when it comes to how we might respond. What does humility mean to you? Where do you see it in your life? Where do you want to see it?
7. How might your “wilderness stories” be useful to others?

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SCRIPTURE: Philemon

YOU CAN ALSO READ THIS WEEK’S MANUSCRIPT HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some stories from Scripture that you would rather not read? Are there some specific ones that seem troubling to you?
2. Get some of your own thoughts about this letter on the table: what do you see here? Why might it be important? Why do you think we tend not to teach it?
3. The big challenge today is about our optimism when it comes to real change. Have you seen personal change in light of your relationship with Jesus? Talk about it!
4. Where have you grown? Where are you still growing?
5. Have you seen change in others? When? What did it look like? How did it happen?
6. Do you sometimes feel skeptical when it comes to believing in real change? What fears or worries lead you to feel this way?
7. Hold these doubts up to the story of Jesus: how does God seem to feel about our capacity to repent, trust, and change?
8. Where can you be more optimistic this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Genesis 19

YOU CAN READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some stories from Scripture that you would rather not read? Are there some specific ones that seem troubling to you?
2. Get some of your own thoughts about the passage in Genesis 19 on the table: what do you see here? What do you think is going on? Why might it be important?
3. The first “tool” this morning is remembering that Biblical stories come from a specific cultural context. When you think about Genesis 19 as a “campfire story,” what can you discover about it?
4. The second “tool” is connecting stories to each other. What echoes from other Biblical stories do we see here in Genesis 19?
5. The third “tool” is reflecting on difficult passages without rushing to an answer. Take a moment to think about this story in Genesis 19: what troubles you? Share these concerns with God! What does He show you?
6. What does this story teach us about hospitality in particular?
7. Compare the story of Lot’s wife in Genesis 19 with the conversion of Saul in Acts 13: what has changed about the consequences of looking at God? Why did this change?

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SCRIPTURE: Genesis 19

YOU CAN READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some stories from Scripture that you would rather not read? Are there some specific ones that seem troubling to you?
2. Get some of your own thoughts about the passage in Genesis 19 on the table: what do you see here? What do you think is going on? Why might it be important?
3. The first “tool” this morning is remembering that Biblical stories come from a specific cultural context. When you think about Genesis 19 as a “campfire story,” what can you discover about it?
4. The second “tool” is connecting stories to each other. What echoes from other Biblical stories do we see here in Genesis 19?
5. The third “tool” is reflecting on difficult passages without rushing to an answer. Take a moment to think about this story in Genesis 19: what troubles you? Share these concerns with God! What does He show you?
6. What does this story teach us about hospitality in particular?
7. Compare the story of Lot’s wife in Genesis 19 with the conversion of Saul in Acts 13: what has changed about the consequences of looking at God? Why did this change?

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SCRIPTURE: Exodus 4:24-26

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS MESSAGE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some stories from Scripture that you would rather not read? Are there some specific ones that seem troubling to you?
2. Kenny’s main encouragement this morning is that even when the Bible is uncomfortable, it is still useful. What do you think about this?
3. Get some of your own thoughts about the passage in Exodus 4 on the table: what do you see here? What do you think is going on? Why might it be important?
4. The first “tool” this morning is remembering that Biblical stories come from a specific cultural context. When you think about Exodus 4 as a “campfire story,” what can you discover about it?
5. The second “tool” is connecting stories to each other. What echoes from other Biblical stories do we see here in Exodus 4?
6. The third “tool” is reflecting on difficult passages without rushing to an answer. Take a moment to think about this story in Exodus 4: what troubles you? Share these concerns with God! What does He show you?
7. How can you read the Bible more courageously this week? Who can you invite to read, reflect, and discuss it with you?

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No audio available for this message, but Paul has graciously provided his teaching script!

I’m not so much a teacher as a story-teller, so I’m going to tell some stories --three: one from a few yeast ago, one from 2,000 years ago, and another a few decades ago. As separated as they are by time and place, they essentially are the same story. And that’s the message.

A few years ago, when my wife Carol and I were living in Cincinnati, we were leaving our Sunday church service when we decided to drop in on Home Depot to see what ideas they have for us to spend more money. To fortify ourselves for the adventure, we stopped at a Wendy’s to grab a couple of salads. When I came into the lobby area to order, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy approaching me. I did not look right at him, but even from a glance it was obvious we was living on the ragged edge of life. One of my skills is the keen ability to focus fully on my task and fend off any distractions, so I kept my gaze riveted on the menu board (which I probably had memorized anyway!). After ordering our salads, we took them into the dining area and sat across from each other at one of the tables. I spent a couple of minutes cutting up the salad, putting on the dressing and the toppings when, well...Have you ever had a feeling that there were a pair of eyes on you? The eyes were Carol’s. “You know you should have helped that guy back there.” Always with a good defense at the ready, I said, “Well, I didn’t have any cash on me.” “It didn’t keep you from buying our salads. You put those on credit card.” Trapped like a rat. I look over across the room and our lobby guy was now sitting at a small table by himself, eating what had to be the smallest things you can get at a Wendy’s: a junior burger and a small soda. As I got up and started his way, I tried to rehearse what I might say, something like “Hey, you might remember that you and I met back there in the lobby...” Nope. So I just blurted out “Do you want something more to eat?” He looked up and said “Sure!” “Well, okay then, I’ll get you a regular Dave’s burger and a large Coke. Hey, actually, how about a Dave’s double cheeseburger, a large fries, and a large Coke?” (I was clearly getting into this generosity thing at this point.) He lit up. “Wow, sure!” So, I went back to the lobby, ordered all that up and came back with the tray, sliding it onto his table and saying something like “God loves you.” Returning to me table, I was digging into my salad when I felt those eyes again. “There, doesn’t that feel better.” (What’s that line by Jack Nicholson to Helen Hunt in the movie As Good As It Gets? You make me want to be a better man.

After ten or fifteen minutes, Carol and I were finishing up when we saw our Dave’s Double Cheeseburger Guy also finishing, putting up his tray and coming our way. When he got to our table, he stuck out his hand, said “Thanks. My name is Kyle Alexander.” We introduced ourselves, wished him a good day, and he bounced out the side door, got on his bicycle leaning against the building, and away rode Kyle Alexander. Funny, its been at least eight years, and we still remember his name.

The second story is brought to us from Luke in his Acts Of The Apostles, the third chapter:

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.

Sometimes when we read stories like this out of the Bible, it has a reserved, muted tone to it, but when you look at what happened here, it’s amazing, outrageous. Peter and John have just recently received the Holy Spirit and are going to the Temple and Peter takes another one of his leaps of faith and decides to try his hand at healing a crippled beggar. I’m not sure why he thought it would work. Can you imagine if he had grabbed this guy and pulled him up, and them BOOM...the guys falls flat out back on the steps. “Sorry, man, seemed like a good idea.”

“Ow, next time, mister, just drop some coins on the plate like everyone else and be on your way, okay?”

I think every message I’ve heard or study I’ve read on this passage talks about the miracle of the healing, and maybe a side discussion about whether this gift of healing was something just given to the apostles for a short time to kick start their ministry or was something meant for today. I think the greater miracle is what happens inside of Peter, and that’s a miracle of sorts that is accessible to us today. Let’s set the scene. Herod’s Temple is huge. Writing by contemporary historians like Josephus say the entire temple grounds were about 25 acres, surrounding by a wall. That area was like a public plaza, a commons area, maybe looked more like a flea market. Anyone could hang out there. But if you were there for religious business -- praying, offerings, sacrifice -- you did that as a Jew in the temple building itself. To get inside, you had to enter by one of three gates, which led to restricted courtyards. Each gate had cascades of steps leading to them. So, if you’re a beggar looking for yore daily take, sitting at the top of these steps, right in the path of all these religious people, was the place to be. What’s worth noting is that this beggar was a regular fixture there, and this was hardly the first time Peter and John trekked to the temple for prayer.In fact, Luke could have just as easily said as was their practice Peter and John went to the temple at the hour of prayer. The point is, this is not the first time Peter and John saw this lame beggar. But we find it may be the first time they actually LOOKED at him. I don’t know about you, but I find it a bit awkward or uncomfortable to make eye contact with people who personify or represent real need. (Way easier to read menu boards!). Out of sight, out of mind. So, Peter and John both looked at this guy, and Peter said “Look at us.” I wonder what he saw... Hold that thought...

My third story is back when I was growing up in New Jersey and later in St. Louis. For me and my siblings, our favorite family times of the year were Christmas and Easter, but not for the reasons you might imagine. It was because those holidays marked the semi-annual visits of Uncle Ray. Uncle Ray, Raymond McCormick, was actually our great uncle, my grandmother’s brother. The best way to describe him was, well, how many of your remember the old comic strip and TV series Mr. McGoo? The eccentric, balding, nearsighted, good natured, sometimes bumbling but always ebullient character? That was Uncle Ray. He was a bachelor all his life. Went bald in high school, and was barely five feet tall. Likely got teased a lot back then. In his early adult like, he wandered into a used bookstore in lower Manhattan and stayed there working for the next four decades. Despite being so near-sighted, he loved to read, and I think he capitalized on the opportunity to read everything he could get his hands on -- history, mathematics, astronomy, Shakespeare, Greek mythology, science. His reading sated one of his defining characteristics. Did you ever see the movie Rainman with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise? Rainman was (the term seems awkward in today’s sensibilities) what was called an idiot savant -- socially awkward and lacking common sense, but gifted with a mind beyond genius. (I think it ran in the family, since I had a couple of teachers ask if I was an idiot savant. Well, I added the savant part myself. Uncle Ray played the part naturally. When he showed up, he always had a black suit, white shirt and tie -- likely the clothes he needed to wear at the bookstore and just didn’t have the money or the interest in finding anything else to wear. He would show up with salt water taffy, sit on the couch for hours with us, laughing at our silly jokes, teasing us with riddles. He taught us how to play dominoes, checkers and chess (he would also say “Oh, I’ve got you now!” about four moves ahed of when he finally did, He hollered out at my mother “Hey, Anne, how about if I buy the kids a pony?!” As we danced around the house, my mother talked him down into a toy poodle. We’d be playing dominoes and he would at some point mutter “1,378.” What’s that, he’d ask. He had multiplied all the outlying dominoes just to keep his mind active. He helped us with our homework; our take-home math exam scores were never so high as when Uncle Ray visited us.

Each Christmas, us kids would pool our allowances and get Uncle Ray the same gift -- a tie. He would always admire the long wrapped box and say in mock surprise “Oh, you got me a tie!” That’s where I leaned to tie a tie. I would stand behind him as he sat in a chair. I leaned over him, and with the scent of his pipe tobacco and his wisps of white hair tickling my face, he showed me how to tie a tie. Over the years, as Ray got older and his arthritis kicked in, it was hard for him to do it himself, so he would just loosen it and pull it on and off. So he would show up at Easter with his now slightly baggy black suit, the white shirt dingy from being washed in the sink, and the same tie -- the knot now tight as a fist and sporting a few coffee stains and wrinkles, but he loved his ties. As he got older, we fussed over him, even bought an electric razor and helped him shave his jowly face since he would always miss a few spots. He loved it. We loved Uncle Ray.

I still remember the phone call from my mother a few years after Carol and I had gotten married. Seems Ray was walking up the steps of the same New York subway to his beloved bookstore, but this time he didn’t make it. I guess that amazing heart of his finally gave out. I’m sure some people stopped and helped, but as I hung up the phone I could not escape the image of people rushing by with their busy day and perhaps glancing over to this... Old man, with the stubble on his chin, the baggy suit, dingy shirt and a wrinkled, stained tie and saying if to no one but themselves “Poor bum.” I wanted to be there so say “NO! That’s not some bum. That’s Raymond McCormick. He knows physics and chemistry and math, and can quote Shakespeare and knows history! “NO WAIT.” STOP. LOOK! That’s not some bum. That’s our Uncle Ray and he bought us our first dog and taught us now to play chess and told us riddles, and he loves that tie! Why can’t you see that?!

Why can’t we see that?

Peter looked straight at him, as did John, and Peter said “Look at us.” What did he see? The same crippled beggar? Or a Kyle Alexander? Someone’s Uncle Ray? Peter looked, Peter saw, and that was the miracle. Peter touched him -- maybe the first time that lame beggar had been touched by anyone on those steps, and raised him up -- in more ways than just physically -- in the name of Jesus. That man -- lame since birth -- DANCED into the temple courts, a place he never expected to experience, a place where he was never considered worthy enough to enter, a place where he became someone other than just a lane beggar.

I’ve shared three stories -- all really the same story -- but there is one more story. I’d like you to consider three questions:

Where is your Gate Called Beautiful? Where is it you go regularly, maybe every day, routinely, to go about your lives? A place where you intersect with people, maybe even take for granted as always being there. Your community, your street, at work, maybe even through the doors of this building?

Who is your crippled beggar? You don’t have to think of someone as a beggar, but there are people all around us who are “crippled” -- crippled by a tragedy, a struggle, a broken relationship, dealing with a loss or sorrow, financial struggles, maybe even just lonely. People who, if you slowed down and looked, you might see them with new eyes.

Finally, what is your touch? It doesn’t have to be as dramatic as what Peter had with his gift of healing, but we all have gifts we can offer. We all have a specialness, something of value, to offer someone that might be all or exactly what they need, and might make all the difference.

In those three questions -- where is your Gate Beautiful, who is your crippled beggar, what is your touch -- is your story.

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SCRIPTURE: 2 Corinthians 8-9

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How does spiritual formation relate to the process of renovating an old house? What are some examples of 'beneath the surface' issues in your own life that may require spiritual transformation?
2. What’s an example of a time when you realized you had a “head” problem with your faith? What did you do? What helped you get through it?
3. What’s an example of a time when you realized you had a “heart” problem with your faith? What “cleaned out the clog” in the end? What can you learn from that experience which might help you now, where you’re at?
4. What’s an example of a time when you realized you had a “hands” problem with your faith? Have you ever known what to do, wanted to do it… but struggled to actually act? What helped you get through this?
5. What does it mean to align our head, heart, and hands in the process of our spiritual formation?
6. Why is heart change a crucial step before taking action in serving others?
7. After listening to these first two messages on spiritual formation, what do you think about this term/concept? Is it new for you? If you are a Christian, what steps can you take to better participate in this process?

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SCRIPTURE: Genesis 12:1-13, 2 Corinthians 2:13-18, Titus 2:11-12, Philippians, 1:4-6, and Galatians 3:2-3 & 4:19-20

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THE SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Have you had an experience similar to the one Kenny describes at WorldChangers, where temporary excitement to help others faded once you “got home”?
2. Why is heart change a crucial step before taking action in serving others?
3. The Bible is clear: the Holy Spirit lives inside those who believe in Jesus… and the Spirit is working, always, to transform our hearts and our desires. Do you sometimes have trouble believing this? What questions do you have about how this “works”?
4. Although the eventual success of this process is guaranteed in Scripture, Paul’s letters certainly reveal how we can frustrate the Spirit’s work! Is there anything happening in your heart right now that you are struggling to listen to or obey? What is it? Who might be able to help or encourage you?
5. We can be bold in how and what we surrender to the Holy Spirit. What is one way you can be a better listener this week?
6. We can also be naked when it comes to how we share our growth and our anxieties with others. Who is someone you might be able to trust to walk with you on the “forever path” of spiritual formation? Can you reach out to them this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 5:6 & Isaiah 58:1-8

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS WEEK HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is the meaning of 'righteousness' in the context of the sermon, and how does it relate to our relationships with others?
2. Can you identify a specific relationship in your life that needs 'tzedakah'? What actions can you take to foster a right relationship?
3. How does the practice of the “pushke jar” help Jewish families cultivate the idea that we are obligated towards each other?
4. What is a practical way your family or group of friends can create a similar experience or practice to remind each other about our obligations to care for others?
5. In Isaiah 58:1-8, what does God rebuke the Israelites for, and what does He actually desire?
6. Kenny said, “change starts with us and our hunger for right relationships.” Do you feel this sort of “hunger”? Can you think of a time when you have felt it in the past? What happened?
7. Can you think of a recent situation where you could have actively participated in the Kingdom of God by fostering right relationships? What would you do differently next time?

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SCRIPTURE: Galatians 3

“Leaning into discomfort develops what you believe, refines how you think, sands off the parts of you that aren’t wholly in line with God’s heart, and fills in the gaps our own pride and fear create.”

YOU CAN ALSO READ THIS WEEK’S SERMON MANUSCRIPT HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When was the last time you were uncomfortable in church? Did you find that experience to be ultimately helpful? If so, why? And if not, why not?
2. What are some of the uncomfortable relationships in your life right now? What hope can you see or sense in them?
3. In the Galatians 2 passage, Paul celebrates Peter’s initial willingness to “sit with the gentiles.” Why is this important? What does Paul hope this experience will teach Peter? What does he hope it will reveal to the gentiles?
4. Once Peter changes seats, what is Paul’s purpose in challenging him?
5. How might we connect our experiences with comfort/discomfort with the example Jesus sets for us? What can we learn from this comparison?
6. Kenny said that our society is all-too-eager to help us narrow down our beliefs and convictions so that we are more predictable… and more easily outraged. Where are you currently “digging down” in your life? How can you seek more diversity?

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SCRIPTURE: Acts 8 & John 3:1-15

YOU CAN ALSO READ THIS WEEK’S MANUSCRIPT HERE.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is the most diverse environment you are in routinely?
2. Have you ever made an intentional choice to be around viewpoints or cultures different from your own? What about people who are different from you? Reflect on that experience.
3. Kenny argued that what motivates an intentional decision to participate in a diverse environment is curiosity. What are some things you are currently curious about? How can this list grow or expand?
4. Kenny also argued that what motivates real, beneficial curiosity is humility. What do you think this means? Why is humility so important?
5. Read through Acts 8. How does God nudge the early Christian community towards diversity? What is notable about their reactions to some of these challenges?
6. Look at the story of Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3. What do you notice here about humility, curiosity, and intentionality?
7. How does Jesus model the values of humility, curiosity, and intentionality in his own life?
8. How can you demonstrate curiosity and learn from someone with a different perspective this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Revelation 7:9-10 & 2 Timothy 2:8-25

YOU CAN ALSO READ THIS WEEK’S MANUSCRIPT HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is the most diverse community you have ever been a part of? What was that experience like?
2. What diversity do you currently see in our church community? Has it had any impact on your faith or life? How so?
3. Read Revelation 7:9-10. What do you notice here about diversity in God’s Kingdom? Does this vision challenge some of your current beliefs about God, Heaven, or the Church?
4. What can “stall out” some of your own efforts to better engage with or appreciate other beliefs/viewpoints/cultures?
5. Read 2 Timothy 2:1-25. What advice does Paul give to Timothy about the difficulties of maintaining a healthy and diverse church community? Do you see humility here?
6. Kenny said that “diversity is the fruit that grows on the tree of humility.” What do you think this means?

How do you think we might better value and appreciate the unique perspectives, cultures, and gifts of others in our church community? What needs to change?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 5:5, Philippians 2:1-4, & 2 Corinthians 12:8-9

YOU CAN FIND THE MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS WEEK’S SERMON HERE.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How would you define “meekness”? Have you heard it discussed in churches or sermons before? What ideas and feelings does the word bring up for you?
2. Can you think of a situation where you practiced meekness in your life? How did it change your relationship with others in that situation?
3. How does meekness challenge the world's view of power and strength?
4. What is an area, relationship, or situation in your life where you can practice restraint, patience, or grace? What might change if you try?
5. Have you ever been forced to lean into one of your weaknesses rather than one of your strengths? What happened?
6. Why might God be more interested in your areas of weakness?
7. Why does Jesus say that the meek “will inherit the earth”? How do you feel about this claim?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 11:28, 30; Ephesians 5:1-14, & Ezekiel 36:26

YOU CAN ALSO FIND THE MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON AT HERE.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In Matthew 11, Jesus invites us to come to Him and find rest. How does walking with Jesus make the right work easier?
2. Why is it important to bring our disobedient behaviors and sins into the light?
3. Can you think of a time when bringing a personal struggle into the light led to growth or positive change?
4. What does it mean to live a life of surrender to God? How might you practice listening to the Holy Spirit on a more regular basis?
5. What does surrendering to God have to do with welcoming others? How does what we actually discover in our relationship with God retrain us to be inclusive?
6. The keys to being truly welcoming are grace, patience, and follow through. Which of these comes most naturally to you? Which comes least naturally? How can you stretch yourself in these areas?

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SCRIPTURE: Romans 11:13-24

“ A posture of surrender–to God’s capacity for grace, to our God-given capacity to love and include–is what makes radical and enduring welcome work. And the proof that this surrender will work, that we are safe even when it is costly, is the empty tomb on Easter Sunday.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is the most welcoming community you have ever been a part of?
2. Have you ever been a part of a community–or experienced a community–that felt “closed” to you? Has this ever happened in a church?
3. The big idea this week is that “welcome,” under our own power, won’t last forever. Why do you think this might be?
4. In Romans 11, what is Paul afraid will happen to the “welcome” of non-Jewish Christians? What does he want them to remember?
5. Think about your own faith story: have you experienced the “welcome” of God? What did that feel like? What does it make you think about?
6. What, in your view, is the connection between “welcome” and “surrender”?
7. Can you think of a time when you surrendered to God's love in your life, and how did it impact your relationship with others?
8. Are there people (or people groups) who are hard for you to “welcome”? Why is that?
9. How can we make sure that a posture of surrender–to God’s love for us and others, to God’s capacity for grace–remains at the center of Revolution’s culture?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 5:4, John 11:20-26, & Romans 12:9-18

YOU CAN FIND THE SCRIPT FOR THIS WEEK’S SERMON HERE.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Do you have experience with grief you would be willing to share?
2. Why is it important to allow ourselves and others to experience the grief process without rushing it?
3. How does Jesus's response to Lazarus's death demonstrate the importance of empathy and understanding in the face of grief?
4. What does it mean to be 'Resurrection People' as described in Romans 12:9-18?
5. How can you apply the principles of being a 'Resurrection People' to your everyday life?
6. How do the Beatitudes, specifically the second Beatitude about mourning, help us understand the core message of Jesus's ministry?

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WEEK 5 // A SAVIOR WHO LIVES

SCRIPTURE: John 20

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Jesus’s biography is the one and only biography in history which doesn’t end in death! Take some time to think this through and wrestle with it: why is this an important belief for Christians? What would it mean? Is it something you believe?
2. Paul said that “believe” is the most important word in John’s gospel. What do you think John means by this term? What do you think this term means? What are some things you “believe” in?
3. What do you think John means when he asks that we “believe” in Jesus? What does that include? How do we do it?
4. When she sees Jesus near the tomb, Mary mistakes him for “a gardener.” Paul suggested this is an important word! What is significant about “gardens” in Jesus’s world? What hope might we find here?
5. Think about Thomas: is there something wrong with his desire to seek proof of Jesus’s resurrection? How does Jesus respond to him? How do you think Jesus responds to our own doubts?

What do you think “full commitment” looks like for us?

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SCRIPTURE: John 12:13, 13:12-16, 17:6-11, 18:33-39, & 19:19-22

YOU CAN ALSO READ KENNY’S MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What’s your pick for Best Picture tonight? Can anything slow down Oppenheimer’s momentum?
2. Okay, that was a silly question! More seriously: do you ever question God’s ability to really understand what it’s like to be a regular human being? Are there parts of your own experience you might doubt God’s ability to feel/see?
3. In your opinion, what is so important about Jesus's role as both a communicator of God's message to us and a full participant in human experiences?
4. How do you feel knowing that Jesus, as both God and human, understands your personal struggles and experiences?
5. What challenges do you face in accepting God's love and closeness? Is it sometimes easier for you to imagine that God is “far away”? Why might that be?

Using John 19:30 ('It is finished') as a reference, discuss the idea that Jesus's crucifixion symbolizes the completion of his mission to bridge the gap between humanity and divinity.

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SCRIPTURE: John 18

YOU CAN ALSO READ THIS WEEK’S MANUSCRIPT HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some of the Lent or Easter season traditions you have experienced before? Are there any traditions you’ve heard of and would like to learn more about?
2. Let’s talk about commitment: what does the word mean to you? What are some examples of commitment in your own life?
3. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says “I AM” when asked about his identity–which is the same name God gives to Himself in conversation with Moses in Exodus 3. What might the significance of this be? Why does it matter if Jesus “is God”?
4. Why do you think Peter strikes the servant (Malchus!) on the night Jesus is arrested? Do you relate to Peter’s story in John 16-18? How so?
5. When Peter is asked if he is a disciple of Jesus, he says, “I am not.” What do you think is going on in his heart/mind?

Kenny’s big point this morning is that we’re all committed to something… but it might not be the right thing. Think about this statement in your own context: what changes might be important, in terms of your own “commitments”?

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SCRIPTURE: John 14-16

READ THE MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS WEEK’S SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Do you ever feel afraid of God? Where does that fear come from?
2. How might what you know/read about Jesus’s relationship with the disciples serve to calm that fear? What do we see in Jesus that can help us trust God more?
3. What have you heard or read about the Holy Spirit before? How does that compare to what Jesus says about “the Advocate” in John 14-16?
4. Kenny said that the Holy Spirit is the last step in God’s plan to rebuild intimacy with us. How might this plan work? If you are a Christian, have you ever experienced intimacy with God before?
5. All intimate relationships require more than feelings of love! They also require a sense of safety that can foster genuine vulnerability and trust. Would you use any of those words to describe your relationship with God? What needs to change in order for your relationship with God to be more intimate?

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SCRIPTURE: John 13:1-17

AS ALWAYS, YOU CAN READ THE MANUSCRIPT FOR THIS SERMON HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is the “ending” of Jesus’s story? Where is all of this heading?
2. How does knowing the ending help us better understand (and trust) Jesus’s actions in John 13?
3. Kenny talked about the historic problem of God’s apparent distance from us (in the Tabernacle, in the Temple, et. al.). Have you ever felt like God was unapproachable? Have you ever feared God’s judgment of you?
4. How might Jesus’s choice to wash the disciples’ feet relieve that fear? What does it teach us about God’s heart?
5. Why was Peter initially resistant to having his feet washed by Jesus?
6. Have there been times when you've resisted receiving God's help or love in your life? How can you be more open to allowing God to 'serve' you?
7. Do you have a memory of accepting God’s love for you, as revealed in Jesus? Do you identify as a Christian, or a follower of Jesus?
8. If you do have this memory, what sometimes keeps you from “feeling” it or remembering it in your day-to-day life?
9. How might allowing Jesus to serve you–and to save you–transform the way you think about serving others?

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SCRIPTURE: Psalm 1:1-2, Matthew 5:1-5

*READ THIS WEEK’S MANUSCRIPT HERE!***

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How has this conversation affected your understanding of what it means to be “blessed”?
2. Have you ever felt “poor in spirit”? Are you feeling that way now? Share your experience with a trusted friend.
3. Do you think it really is possible that moments of feeling “poor in spirit” bring you closer to the experience of God’s presence or love?
4. Read the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. Are there “blessings” here you are excited to learn more about? What resonates with you?
5. One of the most surprising things about a Christian worldview is that we believe the Kingdom of God has drawn near. This means it isn’t something coming way down the line or some place far away! Rather, Jesus gives us immediate access to God’s presence. How might this discovery challenge your own worldview?
6. Who do you know right now who might be feeling “poor in spirit”? How can you draw near to them in this moment and be an encouragement or support?
7. How does understanding the Beatitudes as definitions of living in alignment with the good life, instead of instructions, affect your approach to these sayings?

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SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 10:17-19 & 15:11, James 2:14-17, 1 John 3:17

*SOME BAD NEWS…Kenny accidentally deleted the audio file of this week’s sermon! But, as always, you can still find the manuscript HERE if you would like to stay caught up!***

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Based on the sermon's challenge, how can we avoid 'overharvesting' and share with those in need?
2. How can you incorporate acts of charity and kindness into your own Christian walk?
3. Do you sometimes struggle to see how God might love ‘outsiders’ as much as he loves ‘insiders’? Where do you think this difficulty comes from?
4. Why is it important for believers to extend their love and care towards the community at large?
5. How does the involvement of the entire community in acts of kindness contribute to the testimony of God's love and story?
6. How can practicing generosity and empathy towards those in need help strengthen our Christian community?
7. What ‘purpose’ have you discovered in our ‘togetherness’ through this series? What is one way you can put this discovery into practice this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 27:17 & Galatians 6:2

MANUSCRIPTLINK

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have you learned in this series so far? Where is it pushing you? How can you better connect with the “purpose” you might have in this church community?
2. Let’s talk about Proverbs 27:17… what did you make of Kenny’s revision of what it means for “iron [to] sharpen iron”? Did it resonate with your own experiences trying to correct or challenge the behaviors of a friend?
3. If Kenny’s reading is right, the bigger question Proverbs 27:17 prompts is what is our whetstone (i.e. - what is the other substance we actually need to be sharpened/honed?). What do you think?
4. Have you ever experienced having one of your “burdens” shared by others in a church community? What was that like?
5. Have you ever shared someone else’s “burden”? What was that like?
6. Kenny said the biggest obstacle to living out Galatians 6:2 is not knowing what burdens people are carrying. How can you make sure you’re asking for help when you need it? How can you do a better job of asking others to share their needs with you?
7. “The Church shares change”: discuss this “thesis statement” for the morning. What do you think it means? How can our church do this more consistently and intentionally?

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SCRIPTURE: Romans 3:22-24, Ephesians 4:11-13, & Genesis 2:15, 18-23

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In what ways have you experienced the benefits of being in a church community?
2. Do you ever feel tempted to try and “make it on your own”? Where do you think this feeling comes from? How might your relationship with God and/or other Christians challenge this approach?
3. What does Romans 3:22-24 tell us about living on our own without the help of others? What does the “commonness of sin” have to do with the story?
4. How does the idea of American consumerism influence the way we think about personal growth, and how does community challenge this perspective?
5. Ephesians 4:11-13 emphasizes the importance of diversity in roles within a community for personal growth. What is your role in your church community, and how do you see it contributing to the growth of others?
6. How can we ensure that we are loving others in our church community deeply, as described in 1 Corinthians 13:1?
7. What is one thing you can do this week to take a step closer to community?

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SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 2:1-10, 4:11-16, & 5:1-2

*WE HAD AN ISSUE WITH AUDIO RECORDING THIS WEEK, BUT YOU CAN FIND THE SCRIPT FOR THE SERMON* HERE*!*

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is your reason (or purpose!) for being “together” with others here at Revolution?
2. How can you transform your answer to the first question into something you can act on, week in and week out? Are there relationships you can pursue? Ways to participate you can investigate? Are you here on purpose?
3. This sermon attempts to investigate God’s purpose in bringing church communities like Revolution together. The first answer in the sermon is to restore us to life. What does the choice to offer real life to human beings tell us about God and God’s character? Why would he do this?
4. The second answer is to share in Christ’s mission. Try to restate this point in your own words: how are individual Christians “together” in the “body of Christ”? If this is true, what are we supposed to do? Look to examples from Jesus’s story to guide you: what does he do?

The third answer is to be God’s delight–to be God’s beloved children. Do you often see yourself this way? What does this relationship change for you, in terms of how you think about God? What if it’s true–that you are God’s child? What does that suggest about how he thinks about you?

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CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK’S SERMON VIDEO

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SCRIPTURE: Matt. 26:28, 1 Cor. 6:19-20, John 17:1-3 & 20:21-23

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why is the Apostles’ Creed important in the history of the Church? Why is it important to us at Revolution? How might it be important or helpful to you?
2. Have you experienced forgiveness, either from God or from others? What did it feel like?
3. Why is it essential for us to extend forgiveness to others, and how can it bring richness to our lives?
4. How does Jesus' sacrificial work on the cross provide a way for forgiveness and reconciliation with God?
5. Is it hard for you to love your own body? How do you think God feels about your relationship to your self/body? This is a very personal topic, so please don’t feel overburdened to share in a group setting… but it is worth exploring this question at a time or in a way that is comfortable for you.
6. What does it mean that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and how can we honor God with our bodies?
7. How can we experience eternal life, not just in the future, but in the present?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 24

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In what ways does Jesus demonstrate his active involvement and desire to restore relationships throughout the Gospel of Luke?
2. How does the encounter on the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter 24 demonstrate the importance of recognizing the ongoing presence of Jesus?
3. Have you ever felt unaware of Jesus's presence in your life, only to later realize He was actively involved the whole time? Share your experience.
4. Why is it important to remember that the Church is not limited to a building or congregation, but rather a global community of Kingdom people?
5. What does the phrase 'the story keeps going' mean to you in the context of your own faith journey?
6. How can you seek Jesus's guidance and know His presence in your own pursuit of restored relationships and spiritual growth?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 21-22

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How would you summarize the “Bible Story” as you have heard it or come to understand it? Who is the “main character”? What is the “journey”?
2. How is this story different from the kinds of stories we tend to tell in our own culture? In our lives? In our churches?
3. Kenny said that, “ if we’re going to talk about fulfillment in a story–in any story!–we have to recognize what we think we’re hoping for.” What are you “hoping for” in your own story?
4. Read Luke 21:10-19… what do we learn here about how “God’s Story” works? What do you think “fulfillment” means in this story?
5. The central point in the sermon today was that “Biblical fulfillment requires that we let go if we’re going to get it.” What do you think this means? How might it apply to your story so far? What do you need to “let go”?
6. What is the “problem” God has sought to solve in the world? How does the Jesus story begin to answer that problem?
7. Consider the story of the Lord’s Supper in Luke 22. What does “fulfillment” seem to look like in this story?
8. Kenny said that, “Luke’s understanding of fulfillment challenges where we think we are in the story.” What do you think this means?
9. If you are already God’s beloved… how does that change the direction your story is supposed to go?

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SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 2:11-22, John 13:34

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is the difference between thinking of the Jesus story as “a good idea” and thinking of it in the Roman sense of “good news”?
2. In Ephesians 2:11-14, Paul talks about how a new humanity has been created in place of the old identities. How does this idea relate to the mission of the church?
3. Why is the church community an absolutely essential part of the church’s witness?
4. What are some of the “Kingdom values” we can proclaim together as a community in the world?
5. How do “heartwork” and “homework” contribute to the mission of the church?
6. What does it mean for the church to be the soul of the world?

What practical actions can we take to embody the life, light, and love that brings blessing and change to our community?

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SCRIPTURE: 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is the healthiest community you have ever been a part of? What made it so healthy?
2. What does “reconciliation with God” look like for you? What gets in the way of this relationship?
3. What does “reconciliation with yourself” mean to you? Why is it sometimes hard to see ourselves the way God sees us? What might change if we learned how to do this?
4. What does “reconciliation with others” mean for you? Are there relationships in your life that need repair? How might learning to see others the way God sees you help?
5. What does “reconciliation with the world” look like? How can a community like the local church participate in this?
6. The 3 “values” Kenny says are crucial to being a healthy, growing church include authentic vulnerability, gracious acceptance, and patient challenge. Do you feel like these values are present at Revolution? How can we invest in them together?
7. “Communal growth requires a community mindset.” What do you think this means? How can we develop this at Revolution?

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SCRIPTURE: Acts 15:6-16:3

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Think about Kenny’s “archery target” illustration for finding the right church: have you ever been in a church that was too close to the center for you, where you struggled to be challenged? Have you ever been somewhere that was too far for you to ever feel comfortable?
2. Have you experienced growth from staying in a challenging community or relationship, and in what ways did it change you?
3. Consider Peter: he looks at the lives of the Gentiles they are discussing before he considers the intellectual arguments about their fate. What can we learn from this?
4. Consider James: he looks for verses in Scripture that speak to God’s heart over verses that seem to offer legal clarity. What can we learn from this?
5. Consider Paul and Timothy: they consider the anxieties of the communities they want to reach above what they know they have a right to do (or not do). What can we learn from this?
6. In your own words, what seems to be the key to building a community where people will feel safe enough to stay?

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SCRIPTURE: John 13

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How can we create opportunities to confront our fears together in our community?
2. What are some fears or vulnerabilities you feel comfortable sharing with your community to grow together?
3. How can embracing uncertainty help us grow in our faith?
4. What is an area of uncertainty or curiosity in your faith that you would like to explore with your community?
5. Why is it important to have patience and curiosity within a community? Can you think of a time when extending patience or being curious about someone's perspective helped strengthen a relationship?
6. Why should leaders trust their followers, and how can this impact the community?
7. How can we build trust in our community following Jesus' example?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 2, Hebrews 12

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Does the word “catholic” freak you out a bit? That’s okay!
2. What are some practical ways we can cultivate unity and cooperation within the Church and our local faith communities?
3. In what areas can you personally contribute to building unity within your faith community?
4. 1 Peter 2:5 compares the Church to a spiritual house and encourages believers to offer sacrifices acceptable to God. What might these sacrifices look like?
5. What does it mean for the Church to be 'catholic' or 'universal'?
6. How can we better appreciate and embrace the diversity within the universal Church?
7. In what ways is the Church called to be holy? Consider the definition from this morning: “as of God, set apart.” How can we individually and collectively contribute to the ‘holiness’ of the Church?
8. What role do 'saints' play in the life of the Church? How can reflecting on the lives and sacrifices of the saints influence our own faith?

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SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 29, Daniel 2

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Have you ever struggled with seasons of waiting? What has made this so hard?
2. Do you resonate with the Israelites’ experience of exile? Have you ever been in a similar spot–where you wonder if God is really present with you? Discuss this with someone you trust this week!
3. What can we learn from Daniel about “waiting well”?
4. One of the lessons from the Daniel stories is how important it is to do the small stuff. What does this mean to you? What makes it hard?
5. It’s so “like God” for God to speak to Israel’s enemies! What do you think we can learn from this?
6. What would it mean for you to trust more in God’s plans for the future? Can you share your hopes (or your fears!) with someone this week?

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SCRIPTURE: 2 Kings 5, Luke 4

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Reflect on your own prayer life: when have you seen prayers answered? When have you seen prayers go unanswered?
2. What does it mean to approach God with a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity? How might this change our perspective on unanswered prayers?
3. How can embracing authenticity and vulnerability in our faith strengthen our relationships with God and others?
4. Can you think of a time when you or someone else shared an authentic struggle with faith, and how did that experience impact your relationship with God and others?
5. What does it mean to live a life of humility, faith, and trust?
6. Why is it important to remember that God's love and blessings extend beyond just our own lives or communities?

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SCRIPTURE: 2 Samuel 11-12

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What can we learn from 2 Samuel 11 about responding to our own personal failures? What is necessary to bring real light to reprehensible behavior? Why does it matter?
2. How does the lack of justice in the story of King David and Bathsheba affect our feelings about the story?
3. In what ways has a lack of justice in the world personally affected you, and how have you leaned on your faith during those times?
4. Why is it important not to idolize leaders and instead place our hope in God? Can you think of a time when you put too much trust in a leader or authority figure, and how did that impact your faith or actions?
5. Have you ever witnessed someone in a position of power behaving unjustly? How did you respond or how would you respond in the future?

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SCRIPTURE: Judges 13-16

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is the role of forgiveness and redemption in the story of Samson, despite his flaws and lack of commitment to his Nazirite vow?
2. How does the book of Judges, including the story of Samson, remind us that God's people are not perfect and still belong to Him?
3. How does Samson's story emphasize the overarching theme of God's plan for salvation?
4. How do you remind yourself of the importance of grace when you or others make mistakes, and how does this mindset impact your faith?

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SCRIPTURE: Joshua 2 & 6

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Have you ever felt like an “outsider” in a new place? Reflect on that experience: did you ever feel “in”? How long did it take? What changed?
2. As you read through Joshua 2, what do you think makes Rahab’s story so important here? What does she know? What does she do?
3. Why do you think she takes the spies “side” here? What does the story say?
4. Why is the act of welcoming others, even outsiders, a significant part of being part of God's story?
5. How can you better practice welcoming and including others in your own life and faith community?
6. What does Rahab's story tell us about hope and inclusion in God's Kingdom, regardless of a person's past?
7. What have your thoughts been about this series so far? What have you learned? How do you think this series connects to our theme this year of “Discipleship”?

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SCRIPTURE: Genesis 25-49!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Reflect on your “life with God” so far. When has it been good? When has it been… not so good? Has it gone like you expected it would?
2. If you wouldn’t identify as someone who “has a relationship with God,” reflect on your journey with the idea of God: who have you wanted Him to be? Who might He seem to be? What questions do you still have about Him? Do you think you will ever be open to a “relationship with God”?
3. Jacob is a “striver” from the start! What costs does that have in his relationships with others? What can we learn from his story?
4. Why is Jacob’s encounter with “the man” seem so important to his story? What changes? What can we learn from this?
5. Do you ever “strive” or “struggle” with God? If so, what has happened in the past? If not, what keeps you from this?
6. Whose “ankles” are you clinging on to in your life? Where are you in competition with people? What might happen if you let that sense of competition go?
7. Do you really think God would still love you if you showed Him who you really are? Why or why not? How might all the ups and downs of Jacob’s story bring you reassurance of His love?

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SCRIPTURE: Genesis 11:1-9 & 12:1-3

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Have you heard the story of the Tower of Babel before? In what context? What did you take away from it?
2. Why do you think God disapproves of the builders’ plans? What does the text say the “problems” are?
3. Kenny suggests that the deeper issues are clarified when we think about “ziggurats.” What did you learn about these other structures in the Ancient Near East? How does this knowledge inform our understanding of Biblical story?
4. How might we, as a church, be prone to “transactional models” for our relationship with God? What might this look like?
5. How might we, in our personal lives, be prone to these same sorts of models? What might this look like?
6. Is it possible that there is purpose in scattering the people? How might it serve God’s ultimate plans? What does it enable?
7. What does the story of The Tower of Babel teach us about our motivations in our relationship with God and worship?
8. How does the story of Pentecost–where God chooses to dwell in the hearts of His followers–interact with the story of the Tower of Babel?
9. What do you think we can learn from this story about who God is, who we are, and how we might best relate to Him?

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SCRIPTURE: 2 Chronicles 36 & Exodus 2-14

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In what ways can seeing the stories of the Bible as larger narratives about God and humanity deepen our faith?
2. How has your perspective on certain Biblical stories changed as you've grown in your faith, and how can this new perspective impact your daily life?
3. What does the story of the Exodus teach us about God, humanity, and our individual relationship with Him?
4. How does it deepen our understanding of the Exodus story to read from within the context of the Israelites in Exile?
5. Have you ever felt tempted to “settle” into a situation of suffering? What can these stories teach you?
6. How can the message of God's responsiveness and compassion be applied to our interactions with others within our community?

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SCRIPTURE:

so many!!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Who have you heard/understood the Holy Spirit to be in the past? Share your stories and what you have learned. Ask good questions! What do you still want to know?
2. How does the Holy Spirit's role as a teacher and revealer of truth impact your understanding of your own faith and personal growth?
3. What is one area in your life where you wish to gain deeper understanding, and how can you invite the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to you?
4. How might acknowledging the Holy Spirit as a divine being impact your relationship with God and your daily walk with Him?
5. In what ways have you experienced the Holy Spirit convicting you of sin or confirming your adoption into God's family? How might you become more aware of the Holy Spirit's guidance and conviction in your life and respond to it?
6. How do you view servanthood in the context of your personal faith?
7. The sermon emphasized obedience to the Holy Spirit's directive, no matter our skills or willingness. Can you recall a situation where you had to obey the Holy Spirit even though you were reluctant?
8. What is one way you can actively seek and follow the Holy Spirit's guidance in situations where you may be hesitant or fearful?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Timothy 1:15-16, 2:4, 4:3-5, & 6:11-15; John 18:33-40 & 19:19-22

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why is it important to consider the context and recipients of the letters in 1 Timothy when interpreting its instructions? How can you apply the principles from 1 Timothy to your own life while considering its original context and audience?
2. What are the qualities of a good messenger, and why are they important?
3. Why are your flaws an important part of your ability to be a messenger?
4. Why is your faithfulness an important part?
5. What is your visibility? Who “sees” you on a regular basis… and who/what do they usually see?
6. Why is Jesus considered a self-evident revelation as a messenger? Is it sufficient for us to see our jobs as ultimately to point to Him?
7. What specific actions can you take to contribute to a loving, sincere, and authentic church community?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Timothy 1:15-16, 5:1-8, & 6:1-2

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What makes “living together” with other people difficult for you? What makes it important?
2. Kenny describes a “paradox” in Paul’s theology and counsel: by making ourselves less, we become more fully who we are. Reflect on this and/or discuss it with a friend: do you believe this? Is it really an essential part of Christian belief?
3. The first “key” for living together is allowing ourselves to be corrected by others. Do you have experience with this? What makes it hard? Why is it important?
4. The second “key” is bearing witness to God’s love. What do you think this means? How can the ways we “live together” accomplish this?
5. In light of the passage from 1 Timothy 6:1-2, how can treating each other as equals in Christ lead to positive change and ethical treatment of all people?
6. What steps can you take in your own life to ensure you treat everyone you encounter as equals in Christ?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Timothy 1:3-4, 2:1-2 & 8-9, 5:24-25, & 6:3-5

*AUDIO RECORDING ISSUES! TO CATCH UP WITH THIS SERMON, PLEASE READ THE TRANSCRIPT HERE*

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Look at some of the problems Paul is asking Timothy to address: what do they have in common? What “illness” is behind Paul’s “prescriptions”?
2. What are some practical ways we can pay closer attention to one another in our church community?
3. How can we ensure that humble and responsible leaders are appointed in our church?
4. Reflect on a situation when you faced conflict or division within your church or personal life: how could you have applied Paul's advice to handle it better?
5. How can we resist “cliques” here at Revolution? What can you do to welcome someone in?
6. What steps can we take to resolve or prevent disunity and infighting within our church?
7. In what ways can we, as a church, embrace differences in our congregation and practice inclusion?

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SCRIPTURE: John 5:21-24 & 14:1-4; Acts 1:9-11 & 17:31; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15

*AUDIO RECORDING ISSUES! TO CATCH UP WITH THIS SERMON, PLEASE READ THE TRANSCRIPT HERE*.**

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have you learned so far in our series on the Apostles’ Creed? Do you agree that it can be a helpful tool for Christians? If so, how?
2. How might acknowledging the mysteries of God and approaching our beliefs with humility help us grow in our faith?
3. What can we learn from the story of Jesus’s ascension? What can it teach us about God, or about Jesus?
4. Do you ever fear God’s judgment? Talk more about that: where does that fear come from? How can our beliefs about Jesus help?
5. How does pursuing a servant's heart and focusing on loving others more relate to justice and prepare us for judgment?
6. Is it really possible to look forward to judgment? How is Jesus’s judgment good news for us, or for the world?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 25:31-46 & 1 Corinthians 5:17-20

*AUDIO RECORDING ISSUES! TO CATCH UP WITH THIS SERMON, PLEASE READ THE TRANSCRIPT HERE*

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How has this series gone for you so far? Consider the basic structure we’ve been using: what is the difference between the Spirit-led and habit-formed parts of our “spiritual disciplines”? Which is easier/harder for you?
2. Can you think of a time when someone's compassion positively impacted your life or the lives of others you know?
3. How can compassion be the key to changing the world?
4. In what ways does Matthew 25:31-46 demonstrate the importance of serving others in our Christian journey?
5. How can we practice showing love and kindness to others in our everyday lives?
6. How can we develop compassion as a spiritual discipline? Consider both Spirit-led and habit-formed paths!
7. What does it mean for Revolution to be a compassionate church? How can we grow in this as a community?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 12:41-44, Acts 2:44-47, 1 Cor. 16:1-3, 2 Cor. 9:12, & 1 Tim. 6:9

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How can disciplined giving help Christians combat greed and show gratitude towards God?
2. What are some ways in which Christians today may be in conflict with their culture, and how can we navigate these conflicts while staying true to our faith?
3. Why is it important to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's convictions, and how can we practice this sensitivity in our everyday lives? Are there any parts of your life where you feel you could be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit's guidance, and how can you work on this?
4. Why is it important for Christians to be patient and gracious towards each other as they work towards being more generous?
5. What does it mean to be Kingdom people and show generosity, and how can practicing generosity impact our communities? How can you personally practice generosity in your community, and what impact do you think it might have on those around you?

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SCRIPTURE: 2 Chronicles 36 & Exodus 2-14

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In what ways can seeing the stories of the Bible as larger narratives about God and humanity deepen our faith?
2. How has your perspective on certain Biblical stories changed as you've grown in your faith, and how can this new perspective impact your daily life?
3. What does the story of the Exodus teach us about God, humanity, and our individual relationship with Him?
4. How does it deepen our understanding of the Exodus story to read from within the context of the Israelites in Exile?
5. Have you ever felt tempted to “settle” into a situation of suffering? What can these stories teach you?
6. How can the message of God's responsiveness and compassion be applied to our interactions with others within our community?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Timothy 1:15-16, 2:4, 4:3-5, & 6:11-15; John 18:33-40 & 19:19-22

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why is it important to consider the context and recipients of the letters in 1 Timothy when interpreting its instructions? How can you apply the principles from 1 Timothy to your own life while considering its original context and audience?
2. What are the qualities of a good messenger, and why are they important?
3. Why are your flaws an important part of your ability to be a messenger?
4. Why is your faithfulness an important part?
5. What is your visibility? Who “sees” you on a regular basis… and who/what do they usually see?
6. Why is Jesus considered a self-evident revelation as a messenger? Is it sufficient for us to see our jobs as ultimately to point to Him?
7. What specific actions can you take to contribute to a loving, sincere, and authentic church community?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Timothy 1:15-16, 5:1-8, & 6:1-2

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What makes “living together” with other people difficult for you? What makes it important?
2. Kenny describes a “paradox” in Paul’s theology and counsel: by making ourselves less, we become more fully who we are. Reflect on this and/or discuss it with a friend: do you believe this? Is it really an essential part of Christian belief?
3. The first “key” for living together is allowing ourselves to be corrected by others. Do you have experience with this? What makes it hard? Why is it important?
4. The second “key” is bearing witness to God’s love. What do you think this means? How can the ways we “live together” accomplish this?
5. In light of the passage from 1 Timothy 6:1-2, how can treating each other as equals in Christ lead to positive change and ethical treatment of all people?
6. What steps can you take in your own life to ensure you treat everyone you encounter as equals in Christ?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Timothy 1:3-4, 2:1-2 & 8-9, 5:24-25, & 6:3-5

*AUDIO RECORDING ISSUES! TO CATCH UP WITH THIS SERMON, PLEASE READ THE TRANSCRIPT HERE*

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Look at some of the problems Paul is asking Timothy to address: what do they have in common? What “illness” is behind Paul’s “prescriptions”?
2. What are some practical ways we can pay closer attention to one another in our church community?
3. How can we ensure that humble and responsible leaders are appointed in our church?
4. Reflect on a situation when you faced conflict or division within your church or personal life: how could you have applied Paul's advice to handle it better?
5. How can we resist “cliques” here at Revolution? What can you do to welcome someone in?
6. What steps can we take to resolve or prevent disunity and infighting within our church?
7. In what ways can we, as a church, embrace differences in our congregation and practice inclusion?

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SCRIPTURE: John 5:21-24 & 14:1-4; Acts 1:9-11 & 17:31; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15

*AUDIO RECORDING ISSUES! TO CATCH UP WITH THIS SERMON, PLEASE READ THE TRANSCRIPT HERE*.**

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have you learned so far in our series on the Apostles’ Creed? Do you agree that it can be a helpful tool for Christians? If so, how?
2. How might acknowledging the mysteries of God and approaching our beliefs with humility help us grow in our faith?
3. What can we learn from the story of Jesus’s ascension? What can it teach us about God, or about Jesus?
4. Do you ever fear God’s judgment? Talk more about that: where does that fear come from? How can our beliefs about Jesus help?
5. How does pursuing a servant's heart and focusing on loving others more relate to justice and prepare us for judgment?
6. Is it really possible to look forward to judgment? How is Jesus’s judgment good news for us, or for the world?

View Details

SCRIPTURE: Matthew 25:31-46 & 1 Corinthians 5:17-20

*AUDIO RECORDING ISSUES! TO CATCH UP WITH THIS SERMON, PLEASE READ THE TRANSCRIPT HERE*

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How has this series gone for you so far? Consider the basic structure we’ve been using: what is the difference between the Spirit-led and habit-formed parts of our “spiritual disciplines”? Which is easier/harder for you?
2. Can you think of a time when someone's compassion positively impacted your life or the lives of others you know?
3. How can compassion be the key to changing the world?
4. In what ways does Matthew 25:31-46 demonstrate the importance of serving others in our Christian journey?
5. How can we practice showing love and kindness to others in our everyday lives?
6. How can we develop compassion as a spiritual discipline? Consider both Spirit-led and habit-formed paths!
7. What does it mean for Revolution to be a compassionate church? How can we grow in this as a community?

View Details

SCRIPTURE: Mark 12:41-44, Acts 2:44-47, 1 Cor. 16:1-3, 2 Cor. 9:12, & 1 Tim. 6:9

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How can disciplined giving help Christians combat greed and show gratitude towards God?
2. What are some ways in which Christians today may be in conflict with their culture, and how can we navigate these conflicts while staying true to our faith?
3. Why is it important to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's convictions, and how can we practice this sensitivity in our everyday lives? Are there any parts of your life where you feel you could be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit's guidance, and how can you work on this?
4. Why is it important for Christians to be patient and gracious towards each other as they work towards being more generous?
5. What does it mean to be Kingdom people and show generosity, and how can practicing generosity impact our communities? How can you personally practice generosity in your community, and what impact do you think it might have on those around you?

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SCRIPTURE: John 14, Psalm 139, Psalm 69, & Matthew 6:9-13

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What role does prayer play in your daily life? Have you ever “cried out” in prayer?
2. What do you think it means for the Holy Spirit to intervene in our prayers?
3. How can incorporating structured prayers, like the Lord's Prayer, help you grow spiritually? How might you create a consistent habit of praying the Lord's Prayer to enhance your spiritual growth and connection with God?
4. Why is it important to be part of a faithful community and engage in communal prayer? In what ways can you actively participate in and contribute to a faithful community that encourages spiritual growth?
5. How does aligning our prayers with God's will and character help us in our discipleship process?
6. How can regularly confessing our sins and asking for forgiveness in prayer help in our transformation into better versions of ourselves?
7. How do spiritual disciplines, like prayer, study, stewardship, and service, work together to help us grow in our discipleship? What are some examples of how you've seen these spiritual disciplines work together in your own life or the lives of others to aid in discipleship and spiritual growth?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 23:50-56, 1 Peter 3:17-20, Philippians 2:5-11, & Galatians 5:13-14

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Reflect on the third statement of the Apostles’ Creed: “He descended to the dead. On the third day, he rose again.” What do you think is important to proclaim here? Do you have questions about it?
2. The big question this week is, “why did God choose to do things this way?” Kenny offered several possible explanations the Church has wrestled with historically. What do you think of them?
3. What does Jesus’s example teach us about how God feels about “freedom”?
4. Why do you think God offers freedom to us? What does He want us to do with it?
5. What makes this hard for you, personally? What is one area where you are struggling?
6. The challenge from Paul in his letter to the Galatians is “through love [to] become enslaved to one another.” What does this mean? Why is it important?
7. What is one way you can accept this challenge this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 9 & 24

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why is the Easter story the “main thing” in the Christian faith? What does it mean? What does it prove? Why center on this… even over Jesus’s birth or Jesus’s death on the cross?
2. Do you think you’re a “bad guesser”? What do the stories about the disciples in Luke 9 reveal to us about why we so often get things wrong? What can we learn from Jesus’s attitude towards them?
3. What’s so hard about “denying ourselves”? What was surprising to you (if anything) about how Kenny defined/described this challenge?
4. How do you feel about this week’s challenge to focus on following Jesus rather than focusing on the future? Do you ever struggle with this?
5. What’s one way following Jesus is hard for you?
6. Kenny said we can become better followers of Jesus by asking one key question: what does Jesus want to change? How would you answer that question this week?
7. What does God’s willingness to send Jesus to us in the first place reveal about how He feels about us?
8. What does the resurrection reveal about how God feels about us? What does it mean, in terms of the challenge to “deny ourselves” and follow after Christ?
9. Do you believe you are God’s beloved?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 7 & 19

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Who are the people in Jerusalem looking for in Jesus? Can you relate? If you could “make” Jesus fix the world in just the way you want it fixed, what would you have him do?
2. Read Jesus’s prayer over Jerusalem in Luke 19:41-44. Why do you think Jesus says these things? Do they relate to you, too? How so?
3. Why do you think John the Baptist questions Jesus’s identity? How does Jesus’s reply in Luke 7 answer John’s doubts?
4. Why do the people in Jerusalem change their minds about Jesus?
5. Look at Jesus’s riddle in Luke 7:31-35. What do the children want? Why? What does this teach us about the “people of this generation”?
6. Kenny said that the people’s “repentance is limited because it’s just a way to try and get what they want; they don’t realize that what they want is what they need to repent of.” What do you make of this? Do you see it in your own story?
7. The point of this week’s sermon is that the revolution is personal: how do you think this works? Do you believe this? Do you believe it is “enough”?
8. Where do you need to do more “dilly-dallying in Galilee” in your life? How can you be more present, more loving, and more generous towards others? Why do you need to “see” this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 6

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Read Luke 6.  What does this passage mean to you?  What does it teach me about who God is?  What does it teach me about who I am?  What is Jesus showing me about how I can live?

2.  If the Kingdom of God is about living under God's will, what does that look like?

3.  What is the hardest part about loving your enemies?

4.  If Luke 6 has impacted us in any way, how can we make sure we don't forget about what it teaches us?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 5

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What can we learn from the reactions people have to Jesus in this chapter in terms of their awareness of their own “sins”?
2. Consider the mistakes you’ve made in your own life: what did you most need to hear from God in those moments?
3. Why do you think it’s so hard for the Pharisees in this chapter to accept what Jesus is doing?
4. Can you see yourself in the position of the Pharisees? Have you ever struggled to accept or trust the kinds of love and inclusion Jesus is modeling here? Why?
5. What does it look like to be a church that can be a “safe place for the Riff Raff?”
6. What is the hope Jesus extends to the Pharisees? Look at the parable of the wineskins at the end of this chapter: are the Pharisees entirely wrong to be holding on to the “old wine” of their covenant with God?
7. What do the Pharisees get wrong about that covenant? How is Jesus extending hope to them?
8. What does it look like to be a church that can be a “safe place for the Pharisees?”

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 3-4

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Don’t forget your “homework” for this week! Read Luke 1-5, and consider journaling as you go. You can consider: what does this passage say? Who is it for? What does it teach me about who God is? What does it teach me about who I am? What is Jesus showing me about how I can live?
2. This week, we’re talking about way-making: what “way” is Jesus on Earth to make for people? All “ways” connect two points: in this case, what are they?
3. There are four parts to this message, and the first has to do with repentance. Kenny said that John’s hard words to the people who came out to see him are all about challenging them to do “excavation work” in their own hearts. What do you think this means?
4. The second part is about generosity: how does living generously towards others line up with the “fruit of repentance” in these verses? What can make this hard for us?
5. The third part is about what Jesus does: he paves the road and gives us an example of righteous living to follow. But why do you think Jesus is really necessary? What are the limits or problems with just doing the first two things here: repenting and living generously?

The fourth part is about what we do: we walk the road God has built. How do you understand this step? What does it look like for you? What makes it easier or harder for you to do?

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NOTE: New equipment glitches got us again! This week’s audio did not record. The script is copied below, with Reflection/Discussion Questions at the end. Thank you for bearing with us!

This morning, we are starting a new series on the first half of the gospel of Luke. We’re calling this series “Fulfilled,” and I’ll get to some of the reasons why in just a bit. But before I do, I want to talk for a moment about why we’re doing this series now.

Last week, we looked at the second section of the Apostles’ Creed, which we read in its entirety just a moment ago. In particular, we looked at what Christians believe about Jesus… and we noted 4 things: Christians believe that Jesus is fully God; that he is, mysteriously and at the same time, fully human; that he chose to experience actual physical and emotional suffering here on this earth; and he Jesus was crucified and died.

We believe in Jesus Christ, [God’s] only Son, our Lord.

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit

and born of the Virgin Mary,

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried

But something you might have noticed if you were here last week, or something you might be noticing right now as you look at those statements, is this: the Creed covers Jesus’s birth and his death… but it says nothing whatsoever about his life there in the middle.

I’ll admit I’m scratching a bit of a personal itch here, but there’s something about these conventional Christian doctrines when it comes to Jesusthat really does trouble me. Based on the “big picture” stuff about how Jesus dies–which is to say: what we believe about the problem sin creates for us, and our understanding of the covenantal structure of sacrifice, and the mechanics we can put together for atonement–the way Jesus lives doesn’treallyseem to relate to anything. After all, if God’s only purpose in all of this is to solve our sin problem, and even if we agree that there is no solution apart from Jesus’s death… couldn’t God have sent Jesus down as a full-grown man? Did he really have to grow up? And even after he’s grown, couldn’t he have just gotten right to the cross? Why did he need disciples? Why did he bother healing people of their physical problems if he knew that his real purpose had to do with their eternal problems? Why wander about for three years before doing the “important” thing?

The short answer, of course, is that things happened this way because God wanted them to happen this way. But the long answer is that Jesus’s life and ministry were a crucial part of his purpose, too. And in fact, I believe explaining that purpose is the very reason the gospel accounts exist. The truth of the New Testament scriptures is that the heavenly mechanics that go on at the cross and the empty tomb are already key parts of the Christian tradition before any of the gospels are written: Paul talks about them in great detail, and we see the key steps–which are a recognition of our own brokenness, belief in Jesus’s power to take our sins away, and acceptance of Jesus as our personal Lord and savior–in the very first testimonies and sermons the Church ever gave.

But somehow, some 20 or 30 years into the Church’s story, it becomes clear to these “Jesus people” that Jesus's life needs to be recorded and taught, too. What changed? I think the answer is obvious: the people who were there started to die. And as exciting as the spread of the Church was, they wanted to make sure there was more to the story.

We’re calling this series on Luke’s gospel Fulfilled for this reason: the parts of the Jesus story Luke emphasizes have to do with how Jesus’s entire life speaks to God’s loving plan for His people. Jesus doesn’t just get rid of sin and death. He also brings life to the world! And he does this in concert with the big story God has always been telling. “Fulfilled” has to do with prophecy, with patterns, and most of all, with people. When the burden of sin is lifted, we can walk in our design as human beings with freedom. That’s where we want to go with this series.

So, where do we begin?

Helpfully, Luke adds a preface to his own gospel. Here’s what it says:

Luke 1:1-4

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you [...] so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

We can quickly note that Luke’s gospel begins by saying there are other gospels. In fact, he says “many have undertaken to draw up an account” of Jesus’s story. Luke also says where those accounts come from: “they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses.” So, although Luke is not himself an eyewitness to Jesus, he’s saying he’s talked to them. Personally, when I read this, I can't help but think of a good podcast: Luke is the journalist, digging into the Jesus story to which he has devoted himself by interviewing the folks who were there. He says that his job is to try and organize these memories–to construct an “orderly account”–for the purpose of giving others certainty (a better word might be “confidence”) when it comes to what they believe.

So, in a nutshell: Luke is working like a historian. But we skipped over a word here that is important, and that word is “fulfilled”: Luke is not an impartial observer! What he’s interested in is specificallyhow the parts of Jesus’s life connect to the whole of God’s redemptive mission.

Where, then, does Luke go? If you have a Bible app on your phone, it might be easiest to follow along with me…

Interestingly, Luke does not begin with Jesus! Instead, he starts with two seemingly-common (if also uncommonly righteous) Jews: Zechariah and Elizabeth. Zechariah is descended from an ancient king of Judah named Abijah, who although he reigned over the southern kingdom of what was once the united Israel only for a few years, stood out in Israel’s history as one of the last kings to seek reunification after the nation was divided by civil war. Abijah wasn’t successful… but he had a legacy as a unifier. Elizabeth, Luke says, was descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses, and the patriarch of Israel’s priestly tradition.

So, why these two? Luke says that an angel appears to Zechariah and tells him that his wife will become pregnant and give birth to a son, whose name will be John. One day, we know John will be the man who baptizes Jesus. But the angel tells his parents that

Luke 1:16-17

He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

We could get into the weeds here, but the short version of things is this: their son, John, will be a prophet like Elijah. What is Elijah known for? He’s known for calling the Isrealites back from their idolatry and to the right worship of God. He’s a way-maker, or someone who clears a path for redemption. John is going to “fulfill” that same purpose. This is why it’s significant that his father descends from a unifier in Israel’s story… and his mother descends from the priesthood: their son will help usher in a united path to purity.

But why does Luke care so much about John? He cares about John because John puts Jesus in context. When Jesus shows up, we all know he doesn’t mince words with the religious leaders of Israel. But, in the decades since Jesus’s death and resurrection, it became easier to see him as a revolutionary who set out to topple the Jewish Temple. In fact, that’s one of the accusations that gets him killed! But Luke wants us to see him as a reformer instead: Jesus didn’t come to condemn the Jewish people, he came to lead them back to real worship and wholeness. There’s that word again: Jesus came to fulfill God’s covenantal promise.

Where do we go next? Next, we meet Mary. This is a story you likely know already, so we’ll keep our conversation brief! In Luke’s account, Mary is chosen for her part in the story for no other reason than that she has “found God’s favor.” It is helpful that her fiance, Joseph, is descended from the line of David… but added to Mary’s account, we see only her willingness to trust and obey. It’s clear here that this is enough. But there is one more detail in the way Luke presents that narrative we should note: after the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her who her son will be, he ends by saying,

Luke 1:37

“...for no word from God will ever fail.”

Jesus, then, isn’t just a hero, who comes to Israel at the perfect time. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s longstanding promises to His historic people. This cast of characters helps make that point: unifiers like Abijah, priests like Aaron, and faithful kings like David are all arrows pointing ahead in time to this moment, when the words of God prove out.

So, what does Luke want us to know? He wants us to know that Jesus’s place in this specific moment and time means something. It’s not only what happens at the cross: it’s the way the cross proves God’s faithfulness to thousands of years of Jewish history. It’s forgiveness… in the context of steadfast love.

What happens next? Well, Jesus is born, and if you’ve ever been to a Christmas Eve service, you’ve heard folks teach and read from Luke’s detailed account of that event. He’s born in David’s old hometown of Bethlehem, laid in the most humble of homes, and visited by (of all people) shepherds… who both echo David’s own origins and anticipate the kind of human this baby will grow up to be.

But then there’s a story you might not have heard: on the eighth day, Joseph and Mary take Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem in fulfillment of the customs relating to the dedication of firstborn male children. And while they are there, they meet two elderly folks. The first is a man named Simeon, who the text says was “righteous and devout”:

Luke 2:25-35

He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and the glory of your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

Luke says Simeon is waiting for the “consolation” of Israel. What that means is that he was waiting for the Messiah, who would alleviate Israel’s long history of troubles. The word used here is the same word in Greek used to describe the Holy Spirit as our “comforter.” But the rest of Simeon’s words here to Mary are not obviously comforting! He says Jesus will cause many to fall, he will be spoken against, and a sword will pierce Mary’s soul and the souls of others. What is Simeon talking about?

The suggestion is that the kind of “comfort” God intends is not the kind that soothes problems but the kind that gets at the root of a problem: through Jesus, “the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.”

This past week, I've been battling one of the worst styes in my eye that I have ever had. I’ll spare you the details, but it’s been absolutely brutal. When I went to the doctor, they prescribed me an anointment to help me out… but let me tell you, no matter how much it would have hurt, what I wanted was for them to lance this sucker! The thing that was wrong with me needed to be revealed… not just soothed.

The kind of “comfort” Jesus brings us is like that lance sometimes: the roots of our pride or our selfishness or our greed need to be exposed if we’re ever going to heal! Simeon is saying that this is another way that Jesus “fulfills” God’s intentions for us: he will clear out the infection down to its root… and that’s necessary if we’re ever going to get better!

What about the other elderly person at the Temple? Let’s talk about Anna! Luke says,

Luke 2:36

[And] there was also a prophet, Anna [...] She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Anna is a wonderful character to include because, especially after the Simeon episode, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to cut her out! But she’s here because her dedication gives her authority: she’s waited decades and decades at the Temple to meet Jesus, and even when he is just 8 days old, she knows him when she sees him. “At that very moment,” she gave thanks to God and told everyone who would listen to look forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

My goal this morning is to make this a shorter sermon, so I’m going to cut to the chase: real fulfillmentworks in every direction at once. In Zechariah and Elizabeth, in Joseph and Mary, we see how Jesus fulfills what was said in the past. He is the answer to God’s long promises to Israel. But, at this moment, he’s also still just a baby! There’s so much more to being the big Answer to the world’s problems than arriving. And so here’s Simeon and Anna, saying to everyone who will listen: just you wait and see what’s next.

My sense from these first two chapters is that the whole of Jesus matters to Luke, and by writing this gospel, Luke is trying to lay down how much it matters to the early Church and to us. The doctrines we see in things like the Apostles’ Creed emphasize Jesus’s birth and death… but the fact of his life carries much meaning, too. The “fulfillment” he brings isn’t only for Israel, it’s not only for our sin problem, it’s for the entire world, past, present, and future. And it’s a “fulfillment” that’s supposed to reach into our actual lives, too!

Why does this matter? It matters because our eventual salvation and eternal life isn’t just a matter of “emptying” ourselves out from the problems and weaknesses and sins which damage us. They’re about getting “filled up” with the richness of a Jesus-type-life, too! So, our question today becomes this: if you’re following Jesus…where is your joy? Where is the living in your life? What use is it to be freed from the bondage to sin if you’re not embracing the kind of life Jesus showed you how to live?

The gospels help us explore this question because they show us Jesus’s actual life! It’s not a superfluous detail that he had real parents who loved him and who he loved back: in having them, he shows us how to be part of a family! It’s not an extra detail that he went to Temple and participated with sincerity and hope in his faith: he shows us how to be faithful! It matters that others saw him and knew he was different in a way that gave them excitement about the future: Luke is saying that if we’re really following after him, we can expect others to see us this way, too! Jesus’s life gives us an example and direction in our own living.

So, here’s the closing challenge this morning: imagine you’re Zechariah, or Elizabeth, or Mary, or Joseph, or Anna, or Simeon. What promise of God are you waiting for Him to fulfill? Really think about this! For me, it’s a deep and genuine ability to see other people. Can Jesus show me how to do this? Yes! Maybe for you it’s an answer to depression, or release from pain in your past; maybe it’s just a need for real hope. Is it possible the real person of Jesus, if you get to know his life, can lead you to fulfillment?

What if he can? I’ll pray for us.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why do you think the gospel stories of Jesus’s life (as opposed to just the stories of his birth and death on the cross) matter to the early church? Why do they matter to us now?
2. What do we glimpse in Jesus’s life stories that might help us better understand fulfillment?
3. What kind of a life do you feel God wants for you/for others? What sorts of things does it include?
4. What can we learn from the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth? How do their connections to Israel’s past help explain the “fulfillment” Jesus brings?
5. What can we learn from the story of Mary and Joseph? How does their response to Mary’s pregnancy help explain the “fulfillment” Jesus brings?
6. What can we learn from the story of Simeon and Anna? How do their reactions to Jesus help anticipate the “fulfillment” Jesus will bring?
7. What needs in your own life are you hoping God can meet?
8. What is one small way you can follow after the example of Jesus’s life in your own “living” this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 3:22 & Philippians 2:6-7

“Can you imagine the impact a community of people who go first might have? Can you imagine what hope might spring from a people who cancel debts, feed others, seek to help, choose to forgive, and choose to love before their neighbors do anything to earn it? When we say we believe in Jesus, we’re putting our trust in his Way.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. This week, we explored our beliefs about Jesus. Before going into the particulars, think/talk for a moment about your experience with the Jesus story. When did you first hear it? What are you curious about? Why do you find it compelling?
2. The first (of four) beliefs about Jesus in this passage is that Jesus is God’s “only Son…conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.” This belief concerns Jesus’s divinity. Why is it important that Christians believe Jesus is “fully God”?
3. The second (of four) beliefs about Jesus is that he was “born of the Virgin Mary.” Why is it important that Christians believe Jesus is “fully human”?
4. The third (of four) beliefs about Jesus is that he “suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Why is it important that Christians believe Jesus “suffered”?
5. The fourth (of four) beliefs about Jesus is that he “was crucified, died, and was buried.” Why is Jesus’s actual death a central part of this story?
6. What do these beliefs teach us about God’s feelings towards us? How do they help us to trust Him?
7. What is one step you could take this week in the Way of Jesus?

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SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:26, Philippians 1:4-6, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, & 1 Peter 1:22

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have you discovered during this series? Has it enhanced your understanding of “sin” or “atonement”? What questions do you still have?
2. The first half of this week’s sermon is about how we might know if “atonement” really works. Have you ever wondered about this question?
3. Kenny said that the metaphor of a “road trip” can be helpful for understanding three aspects of Christian life. The first is that the Christian journey “always begins with an act of trust.” If you identify as a Christian, can you remember that moment? If you don’t, what do you think of this idea?
4. The second aspect is that the Christian journey “involves progressively letting go.” What do you think we have to let go of? Why is it necessary? Why can it be frightening, and where might you find reassurance?
5. The third point is that the success of the Christian journey (like a good road trip!) is evidenced by “growing relationships.” What relationships are currently growing in your life? What ones might need to?
6. The second half of the sermon is about how atonement changes things right now for us as a community. Scripture teaches that internal changes in us lead to mutual love among us. Where do you see that at Revolution? Where can we pray/act to see it more?
7. Finally, the love we have for each other is meant to equip us to be “ambassadors of reconciliation” in the world. What do you think this means? How can you help?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 5

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What can we learn from the reactions people have to Jesus in this chapter in terms of their awareness of their own “sins”?
2. Consider the mistakes you’ve made in your own life: what did you most need to hear from God in those moments?
3. Why do you think it’s so hard for the Pharisees in this chapter to accept what Jesus is doing?
4. Can you see yourself in the position of the Pharisees? Have you ever struggled to accept or trust the kinds of love and inclusion Jesus is modeling here? Why?
5. What does it look like to be a church that can be a “safe place for the Riff Raff?”
6. What is the hope Jesus extends to the Pharisees? Look at the parable of the wineskins at the end of this chapter: are the Pharisees entirely wrong to be holding on to the “old wine” of their covenant with God?
7. What do the Pharisees get wrong about that covenant? How is Jesus extending hope to them?
8. What does it look like to be a church that can be a “safe place for the Pharisees?”

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 3-4

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Don’t forget your “homework” for this week! Read Luke 1-5, and consider journaling as you go. You can consider: what does this passage say? Who is it for? What does it teach me about who God is? What does it teach me about who I am? What is Jesus showing me about how I can live?
2. This week, we’re talking about way-making: what “way” is Jesus on Earth to make for people? All “ways” connect two points: in this case, what are they?
3. There are four parts to this message, and the first has to do with repentance. Kenny said that John’s hard words to the people who came out to see him are all about challenging them to do “excavation work” in their own hearts. What do you think this means?
4. The second part is about generosity: how does living generously towards others line up with the “fruit of repentance” in these verses? What can make this hard for us?
5. The third part is about what Jesus does: he paves the road and gives us an example of righteous living to follow. But why do you think Jesus is really necessary? What are the limits or problems with just doing the first two things here: repenting and living generously?

The fourth part is about what we do: we walk the road God has built. How do you understand this step? What does it look like for you? What makes it easier or harder for you to do?

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NOTE: New equipment glitches got us again! This week’s audio did not record. The script is copied below, with Reflection/Discussion Questions at the end. Thank you for bearing with us!

This morning, we are starting a new series on the first half of the gospel of Luke. We’re calling this series “Fulfilled,” and I’ll get to some of the reasons why in just a bit. But before I do, I want to talk for a moment about why we’re doing this series now.

Last week, we looked at the second section of the Apostles’ Creed, which we read in its entirety just a moment ago. In particular, we looked at what Christians believe about Jesus… and we noted 4 things: Christians believe that Jesus is fully God; that he is, mysteriously and at the same time, fully human; that he chose to experience actual physical and emotional suffering here on this earth; and he Jesus was crucified and died.

We believe in Jesus Christ, [God’s] only Son, our Lord.

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit

and born of the Virgin Mary,

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried

But something you might have noticed if you were here last week, or something you might be noticing right now as you look at those statements, is this: the Creed covers Jesus’s birth and his death… but it says nothing whatsoever about his life there in the middle.

I’ll admit I’m scratching a bit of a personal itch here, but there’s something about these conventional Christian doctrines when it comes to Jesusthat really does trouble me. Based on the “big picture” stuff about how Jesus dies–which is to say: what we believe about the problem sin creates for us, and our understanding of the covenantal structure of sacrifice, and the mechanics we can put together for atonement–the way Jesus lives doesn’treallyseem to relate to anything. After all, if God’s only purpose in all of this is to solve our sin problem, and even if we agree that there is no solution apart from Jesus’s death… couldn’t God have sent Jesus down as a full-grown man? Did he really have to grow up? And even after he’s grown, couldn’t he have just gotten right to the cross? Why did he need disciples? Why did he bother healing people of their physical problems if he knew that his real purpose had to do with their eternal problems? Why wander about for three years before doing the “important” thing?

The short answer, of course, is that things happened this way because God wanted them to happen this way. But the long answer is that Jesus’s life and ministry were a crucial part of his purpose, too. And in fact, I believe explaining that purpose is the very reason the gospel accounts exist. The truth of the New Testament scriptures is that the heavenly mechanics that go on at the cross and the empty tomb are already key parts of the Christian tradition before any of the gospels are written: Paul talks about them in great detail, and we see the key steps–which are a recognition of our own brokenness, belief in Jesus’s power to take our sins away, and acceptance of Jesus as our personal Lord and savior–in the very first testimonies and sermons the Church ever gave.

But somehow, some 20 or 30 years into the Church’s story, it becomes clear to these “Jesus people” that Jesus's life needs to be recorded and taught, too. What changed? I think the answer is obvious: the people who were there started to die. And as exciting as the spread of the Church was, they wanted to make sure there was more to the story.

We’re calling this series on Luke’s gospel Fulfilled for this reason: the parts of the Jesus story Luke emphasizes have to do with how Jesus’s entire life speaks to God’s loving plan for His people. Jesus doesn’t just get rid of sin and death. He also brings life to the world! And he does this in concert with the big story God has always been telling. “Fulfilled” has to do with prophecy, with patterns, and most of all, with people. When the burden of sin is lifted, we can walk in our design as human beings with freedom. That’s where we want to go with this series.

So, where do we begin?

Helpfully, Luke adds a preface to his own gospel. Here’s what it says:

Luke 1:1-4

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you [...] so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

We can quickly note that Luke’s gospel begins by saying there are other gospels. In fact, he says “many have undertaken to draw up an account” of Jesus’s story. Luke also says where those accounts come from: “they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses.” So, although Luke is not himself an eyewitness to Jesus, he’s saying he’s talked to them. Personally, when I read this, I can't help but think of a good podcast: Luke is the journalist, digging into the Jesus story to which he has devoted himself by interviewing the folks who were there. He says that his job is to try and organize these memories–to construct an “orderly account”–for the purpose of giving others certainty (a better word might be “confidence”) when it comes to what they believe.

So, in a nutshell: Luke is working like a historian. But we skipped over a word here that is important, and that word is “fulfilled”: Luke is not an impartial observer! What he’s interested in is specificallyhow the parts of Jesus’s life connect to the whole of God’s redemptive mission.

Where, then, does Luke go? If you have a Bible app on your phone, it might be easiest to follow along with me…

Interestingly, Luke does not begin with Jesus! Instead, he starts with two seemingly-common (if also uncommonly righteous) Jews: Zechariah and Elizabeth. Zechariah is descended from an ancient king of Judah named Abijah, who although he reigned over the southern kingdom of what was once the united Israel only for a few years, stood out in Israel’s history as one of the last kings to seek reunification after the nation was divided by civil war. Abijah wasn’t successful… but he had a legacy as a unifier. Elizabeth, Luke says, was descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses, and the patriarch of Israel’s priestly tradition.

So, why these two? Luke says that an angel appears to Zechariah and tells him that his wife will become pregnant and give birth to a son, whose name will be John. One day, we know John will be the man who baptizes Jesus. But the angel tells his parents that

Luke 1:16-17

He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

We could get into the weeds here, but the short version of things is this: their son, John, will be a prophet like Elijah. What is Elijah known for? He’s known for calling the Isrealites back from their idolatry and to the right worship of God. He’s a way-maker, or someone who clears a path for redemption. John is going to “fulfill” that same purpose. This is why it’s significant that his father descends from a unifier in Israel’s story… and his mother descends from the priesthood: their son will help usher in a united path to purity.

But why does Luke care so much about John? He cares about John because John puts Jesus in context. When Jesus shows up, we all know he doesn’t mince words with the religious leaders of Israel. But, in the decades since Jesus’s death and resurrection, it became easier to see him as a revolutionary who set out to topple the Jewish Temple. In fact, that’s one of the accusations that gets him killed! But Luke wants us to see him as a reformer instead: Jesus didn’t come to condemn the Jewish people, he came to lead them back to real worship and wholeness. There’s that word again: Jesus came to fulfill God’s covenantal promise.

Where do we go next? Next, we meet Mary. This is a story you likely know already, so we’ll keep our conversation brief! In Luke’s account, Mary is chosen for her part in the story for no other reason than that she has “found God’s favor.” It is helpful that her fiance, Joseph, is descended from the line of David… but added to Mary’s account, we see only her willingness to trust and obey. It’s clear here that this is enough. But there is one more detail in the way Luke presents that narrative we should note: after the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her who her son will be, he ends by saying,

Luke 1:37

“...for no word from God will ever fail.”

Jesus, then, isn’t just a hero, who comes to Israel at the perfect time. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s longstanding promises to His historic people. This cast of characters helps make that point: unifiers like Abijah, priests like Aaron, and faithful kings like David are all arrows pointing ahead in time to this moment, when the words of God prove out.

So, what does Luke want us to know? He wants us to know that Jesus’s place in this specific moment and time means something. It’s not only what happens at the cross: it’s the way the cross proves God’s faithfulness to thousands of years of Jewish history. It’s forgiveness… in the context of steadfast love.

What happens next? Well, Jesus is born, and if you’ve ever been to a Christmas Eve service, you’ve heard folks teach and read from Luke’s detailed account of that event. He’s born in David’s old hometown of Bethlehem, laid in the most humble of homes, and visited by (of all people) shepherds… who both echo David’s own origins and anticipate the kind of human this baby will grow up to be.

But then there’s a story you might not have heard: on the eighth day, Joseph and Mary take Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem in fulfillment of the customs relating to the dedication of firstborn male children. And while they are there, they meet two elderly folks. The first is a man named Simeon, who the text says was “righteous and devout”:

Luke 2:25-35

He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and the glory of your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

Luke says Simeon is waiting for the “consolation” of Israel. What that means is that he was waiting for the Messiah, who would alleviate Israel’s long history of troubles. The word used here is the same word in Greek used to describe the Holy Spirit as our “comforter.” But the rest of Simeon’s words here to Mary are not obviously comforting! He says Jesus will cause many to fall, he will be spoken against, and a sword will pierce Mary’s soul and the souls of others. What is Simeon talking about?

The suggestion is that the kind of “comfort” God intends is not the kind that soothes problems but the kind that gets at the root of a problem: through Jesus, “the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.”

This past week, I've been battling one of the worst styes in my eye that I have ever had. I’ll spare you the details, but it’s been absolutely brutal. When I went to the doctor, they prescribed me an anointment to help me out… but let me tell you, no matter how much it would have hurt, what I wanted was for them to lance this sucker! The thing that was wrong with me needed to be revealed… not just soothed.

The kind of “comfort” Jesus brings us is like that lance sometimes: the roots of our pride or our selfishness or our greed need to be exposed if we’re ever going to heal! Simeon is saying that this is another way that Jesus “fulfills” God’s intentions for us: he will clear out the infection down to its root… and that’s necessary if we’re ever going to get better!

What about the other elderly person at the Temple? Let’s talk about Anna! Luke says,

Luke 2:36

[And] there was also a prophet, Anna [...] She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Anna is a wonderful character to include because, especially after the Simeon episode, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to cut her out! But she’s here because her dedication gives her authority: she’s waited decades and decades at the Temple to meet Jesus, and even when he is just 8 days old, she knows him when she sees him. “At that very moment,” she gave thanks to God and told everyone who would listen to look forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

My goal this morning is to make this a shorter sermon, so I’m going to cut to the chase: real fulfillmentworks in every direction at once. In Zechariah and Elizabeth, in Joseph and Mary, we see how Jesus fulfills what was said in the past. He is the answer to God’s long promises to Israel. But, at this moment, he’s also still just a baby! There’s so much more to being the big Answer to the world’s problems than arriving. And so here’s Simeon and Anna, saying to everyone who will listen: just you wait and see what’s next.

My sense from these first two chapters is that the whole of Jesus matters to Luke, and by writing this gospel, Luke is trying to lay down how much it matters to the early Church and to us. The doctrines we see in things like the Apostles’ Creed emphasize Jesus’s birth and death… but the fact of his life carries much meaning, too. The “fulfillment” he brings isn’t only for Israel, it’s not only for our sin problem, it’s for the entire world, past, present, and future. And it’s a “fulfillment” that’s supposed to reach into our actual lives, too!

Why does this matter? It matters because our eventual salvation and eternal life isn’t just a matter of “emptying” ourselves out from the problems and weaknesses and sins which damage us. They’re about getting “filled up” with the richness of a Jesus-type-life, too! So, our question today becomes this: if you’re following Jesus…where is your joy? Where is the living in your life? What use is it to be freed from the bondage to sin if you’re not embracing the kind of life Jesus showed you how to live?

The gospels help us explore this question because they show us Jesus’s actual life! It’s not a superfluous detail that he had real parents who loved him and who he loved back: in having them, he shows us how to be part of a family! It’s not an extra detail that he went to Temple and participated with sincerity and hope in his faith: he shows us how to be faithful! It matters that others saw him and knew he was different in a way that gave them excitement about the future: Luke is saying that if we’re really following after him, we can expect others to see us this way, too! Jesus’s life gives us an example and direction in our own living.

So, here’s the closing challenge this morning: imagine you’re Zechariah, or Elizabeth, or Mary, or Joseph, or Anna, or Simeon. What promise of God are you waiting for Him to fulfill? Really think about this! For me, it’s a deep and genuine ability to see other people. Can Jesus show me how to do this? Yes! Maybe for you it’s an answer to depression, or release from pain in your past; maybe it’s just a need for real hope. Is it possible the real person of Jesus, if you get to know his life, can lead you to fulfillment?

What if he can? I’ll pray for us.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why do you think the gospel stories of Jesus’s life (as opposed to just the stories of his birth and death on the cross) matter to the early church? Why do they matter to us now?
2. What do we glimpse in Jesus’s life stories that might help us better understand fulfillment?
3. What kind of a life do you feel God wants for you/for others? What sorts of things does it include?
4. What can we learn from the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth? How do their connections to Israel’s past help explain the “fulfillment” Jesus brings?
5. What can we learn from the story of Mary and Joseph? How does their response to Mary’s pregnancy help explain the “fulfillment” Jesus brings?
6. What can we learn from the story of Simeon and Anna? How do their reactions to Jesus help anticipate the “fulfillment” Jesus will bring?
7. What needs in your own life are you hoping God can meet?
8. What is one small way you can follow after the example of Jesus’s life in your own “living” this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Romans 5:10 & 6:23, John 1:14, Galatians 3:13, 1 Peter 2:24 & 3:18, & Matthew 26:28

*The audio for this week’s sermon did not record–we’re still working out the kinks with our new equipment on this front!–but the script is shared below. If you are ever looking for written copies of a week’s sermon, you can always find them at Kenny’s blog: revolutionsermons.wordpress.com***

Let’s jump right in. Today, we’re in the middle of a 3-part series about Sin… and that’s frightening for me! It’s not just that “sin” is a scary thing in and of itself (which it is). It’s that “sin” is a word that gets everybody’s ears up in a church when you say it. Even if you’ve never personally sat in a sermon where a pastor used this topic to insult and marginalize and shame people, you’ve heard stories about that happening; that’s one end of the danger. And on the other end, there’s a worry that churches who prioritize open doors, belonging, and invitation–which is to say, churches like ours–sometimes talk so little about sin we run the risk of minimizing how important it is to the Christian story. We fall victim to the criticism that we don’t really care about the state of people’s souls, so long as everybody tries to be nice to each other. In this series, we want to steer clear of both of these dangers. Sin matters… but feeling endlessly wretched about ourselves isn’t going to change things. And openness matters… but if we imply that just doing your best is good enough, we’re undercutting the power of the Gospel of Jesus.

Making all this harder, of course, is that sin is a huge topic that doesn’t break down into 25-minute chunks easily! So, this series truly is a series: none of these 3 sermons works on its own. So, I want to start by framing up both what we’re going to do today, how it fits into what happened last week, and what’s coming next.

This week’s topic is atonement, which is what God does about the sin problem. To set it up, Travis talked to us last week about what sin is and what sin does. He said that sin is the accelerating deterioration of our proper humanity over time. That’s pretty clinical, so I’ll try to clarify: at the root of the Christian worldview is a conviction that something is wrong with us. It’s not that we’re entirely awful (although that’s an issue of disagreement)! It’s that we, in a way that is unlike any other thing on this earth, struggle to be what we can sense we’re supposed to be. We know humans are capable of great love and kindness, and we feel compelled towards that… but we don’t always do it. And we also know there are things that are bad for us to do because they hurt others and even hurt us, sometimes to the point of death… and we intentionally do them anyway. Trees are not like this. Dogs are not like this. Nothing is like this but us: we sense the goodbut can’t consistently be the good.

Why? The Christian story holds that the reason is we’re on the run. We have a hereditary condition that turns us away from the kinds of communities with others, with the world, with ourselves, and with God we’re designed for, and we have developed an instinct for going it alone. We’re unplugged. This has a natural consequence in the world because being unplugged puts us at odds with it. That consequence is brokenness, leading to death. One of Travis’s main insights last week was that this problem compounds over time, which means the more we run, the harder it is to find our way back. And all people, everywhere, for all time, get lost out there: we fall out of sync with our purpose. We break. I do; you do; everybody does.

But what is unique about the Christian story is that we believe God steps in. He does this in a way that harmonizes with who He is and what He’s like, and He extends a solution to this problem that can restore all people, everywhere, for all time, back to His intent. There are two topics in that last sentence we need to note: what God does and what the results look like. This week, we’re going to talk about what God does. Next week, we’ll talk about the results.

The one word answer for what God does is atonement. Atonement is a funny word because it contains its own literal definition: “atonement” means “at-one-ment.” I’m not being clever or silly: it is the process by which what has been separated from its intent is brought back into harmony with itself and with its Creator. God extends a way for us to be “at one” with Him, with each other, with ourselves, and with the world. What’s disconnected can be restored. That’s good news for us, because it amounts to a kind of rescue.

I want to start with this point–and with the idea of rescue–because, if you hear nothing else this morning, I want you to hear this: you are being rescued. You don’t have to ask for it. You don’t have to accept it. But it’s happening all the same, and you’re invited to take it. In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul puts this as plainly as he can. He writes,

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

ROMANS 6:23

God steps in to freely release us from our bondage to sin. That’s the root of the good news, and I’d wager you’ve heard it before.

Now, there are all sorts of objections here. It may be that you’re not convinced you have a sin problem. If that’s true for you, the first point this morning is that that’s okay; the rescue is waiting for you if you ever change your mind. It won’t expire. It may be that you feel you can find another way out apart from the hand God is extending. If that’s you, that’s okay, too; the rescue is still there if you want it. Or it may be that you don’t trust the Rescuer: God seems frightening or aloof or even crazy… or at least His followers do. If that’s where you’re at, you know what I’m going to say: that’s okay, and God leaves the light on for you if you decide you want to try. I say all this because we’re going to get into some weeds here in a bit about the mechanics of this rescue… but as interesting as those things might be, they are secondary to the existence of the rescue.

This is because it is crucial to the Christian story that God does not need to be solicited or bribed or appeased in order to come to our aid. There are other faiths and other worldviews where that is the case–where a certain offering must be given or certain steps of atonement must be taken by humans. But that is not the Christian story. In this story, the work has already been done, there is no “asking” or “begging” that’s necessary, and it is, as Paul says, a gift freely given. So we begin here: however the atonement works, it has already happened and it is available to you. Always.

But you don’t have to accept it. If Point #1 is that the rescue is freely offered, Point #2 is that God’s nature nonetheless requires it to be a choice. This is an easy place for us to stall out, because it can be really hard to trust or believe it. Travis hinted at this point last week, but I’ll dive all the way in: there is something about who God is and what God intends for this world that uniquely asks human beings, if they are to fully and truly be human beings, to participate with Him in it. There are all sorts of theories about why this is, but I’ll cut to the chase and just say this: nobody knows why. We just know that God isn’t going to force people to be proper people.

If you’ll permit me to offer it, my hunch is that the reason might have to do with our unique place as image-bearers of Him: He says He made us to reflect Him in the world, and f it goes against God’s nature to be forced to do things, perhaps that means it goes against our nature, too. Or perhaps it has to do with love: love that’s not freely given may not be love; you’ve probably heard that before as well. But whatever the case, God has been clear in the Biblical story that accepting rescue matters. This, of course, makes a lot of sense if the Bible story is correct in saying that the root of our sin problem is choosing to go it alone: the goal, after all, isn’t just deliverance from sin, it is being properly human, which means being restored in our relationships.

I said a moment ago it’s easy to stall here. Here’s why: precisely because the rescue has to be freely accepted, and God is patient in waiting on that acceptance, quite a lot of harm can be done by lost and broken people in the meantime. The truth is that we do a lot of damage, and sometimes that damage appears irreparable. There’s a reasonable argument that asks: “if God is interested in the good, why does He tolerate such rampant bad?” The good news is that the Bible is full of persons who ask that same question, and God answers them. But the bad news is that we’re not typically satisfied by His response. In sum, God’s reply is this: we don’t know what He knows… but in the end, justice will be done.

If you’re skeptical of that line, I am, too. For the sake of the drunk driver, I’m grateful for God’s patience and grace. But for the sake of the person they hurt, I wish God would have come down stronger sooner. I don’t know, and the truth is it causes a rift: if I don’t think God quite understands what it’s like to be one of us, I get frustrated and angry with Him. It’s the flip of the original sin problem, right? Sin alienates me from being the kind of human God wants, so I can’t know Him anymore. But sin also alienates God from me! So how can I trust that He actually knows what being broken in a broken world is like?

This question leads us to Point #3 about atonement, which is that God identifies with us. This rescue, which God is freely offering but which must be freely accepted, has been done by a God who came down here. That’s what I mean by “identification”: God has become what we are, so we can become what He is. The mechanism for this is the person of Jesus, and again, this is a distinctive of Christian faith: the God who made us chooses to experience our brokenness alongside us. John’s gospel makes the case directly:

The Word [of God] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

JOHN 1:14

God walks in our weary shoes.

I said before there are a lot of weeds to get lost in when it comes to theories of atonement, and quite a few of them start right here. Most everyone agrees that the sin problem is God’s to solve, that He does so freely, and that it’s our responsibility (to varying degrees) to accept rescue. But why does it work? Some say this moment John talks about–the incarnation–is a big trap to trick the devil. Some say it’s a way of providing us with a clear moral example. Some say it’s an elaborate bait-and-switch with God’s wrath as the “prestige.” My sense is that everybody is partly right, and we need all the vantage points to get very far. There was a draft of this sermon where we got into some serious note-taking here. But now we’re going to go a different way. What happened was that I got caught up thinking about lesson plans. Here’s what I mean:

Imagine (humbly!) that you’re in God’s shoes. What you want is for the people you love to freely choose to be what they’re supposed to be. You want this for their own sake: you know that being proper people leads to full, real, and even eternal life. It is marked by responsible harmony with each other and with the world you’ve made, as well as clarity in their relationship with you and fullness in their relationship with themselves. But they don’t want to. And worse: by choosing to be something else, they set themselves on a trajectory that makes it harder and harder to come back. You can’t force them to return, because a prisoner isn’t a proper human, either. What you need is for them to understand two things: first, they need to understand that what they’re doing is going to hurt them before it hurts them. And second, they need them to believe that you really can help them. What do you do? How do you teach that lesson?

Let’s take it a piece at a time. Are you familiar with food tasters? I won’t overly romanticize this metaphor: a food taster is a relatively unimportant person who eats food before it is served to a relatively important person to make sure it’s safe. There are records of food tasters being employed by kings and emperors at least as far back as ancient Rome… and you might be surprised that it’s still a gig: Barack Obama had one; his name was Andrew. You employ a food taster because you only get one shot at not being fatally poisoned.

Why is the incarnation essential to God’s rescue plan? Because we haveto see that we’re on a fatal trajectory before it becomesfatal. And we’re too myopic, our relationships are already too broken, for us to really see ourselves in anybody else. So their bad ends don’t convince us of much: we tend to believe most people get what they deserve, and we’ll be luckier.

But Paul puts things this way:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us

GALATIANS 3:13

Why does God come down here? So we can see where we’re headed. Because the wages of sin aren’t just our deaths, they are Death! So, in Jesus, we see a person who, one, didn’t deserve what he got, but two, in getting it, exposed all the meanness and terror the world we’re breaking dishes out. Why? Because the hope is that if we see the food taster die… we’ll stop eating the food.

But, of course, that’s only a part of God’s plan. He doesn’t just want us to stop running, He wants us to let Him carry us home. So, how does He do that? If Point #3 is that Jesus’s identification with us shows us where we’re going, Point #4 is about what our identification with him can do: it can offer incorporation.

This is the miracle of the atonement story, and although endless generations of Christian thinkers have tried to work out the particulars, it’s ultimately the mystery of it, too. We’re going to get into the theories and their consequences next week, but for now, we’re just going to close by saying what we believe about incorporation.

The first part goes back to Jesus, the poison eater. By experiencing the consequences of the world’s brokenness, by dying, Jesus shows us where we’re headed. But the Bible says something else happens on the cross, too: Jesus doesn’t just reveal what sin does, he absorbs it. All of it. He takes the curse away, in Paul’s terms. His friend and disciple Peter puts it this way:

[Jesus] boreour sinsin his body on the [cross], that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

1 PETER 2:24

The radical belief of the early church is that Jesus’s incorporation with us runs so deep that he takes on our problem. We somehow become one… and in an echo of the long story of the Jewish Law, his death stands in for our own deaths.

You might be wondering where early Christians got such a radical idea. The answer, of course, is that Jesus gave it to them. At his very last meal with his friends, he told them this:

For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

MATTHEW 26:28

Jesus’s offer of rescue, of incorporation, is a sacrifice. At-one-ment kills him. That’s what it means for him to incorporate with us.

But then he doesn’t stay dead. And that’s the second half of the miracle we believe in: because his incorporation has led all the way to one-ness with us, his victory over death is also our victory, too.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

ROMANS 5:10

This doesn’t mean we won’t ever die. But it does mean that death is no more the end of our story than it was the end of his. It means that, if we choose to accept that free rescue, to allow Jesus to be one with us, we can share in the fullness of the inheritance he possesses. We can be fully and truly humans again. We can be restored to wholeness in our relationships. We can be co-workers with Christ in God’s Kingdom. And, most amazingly of all, that work can begin even now. That’s the fullness of incorporation: he became what we are so we can become what he is.

There’s no way to soften how big a belief this is! But with our time running out, this is what I can say: I believe it. And if you press me, here’s why: if there’s a God, this is who He needs to be.

I can sense the good, even if I can’t always do it. And I sense I’m made to love and to be loved. That life is aimed at that kind of wholeness. And the best way of describing real love is seeking the good of another. Not controlling them. Not pampering them. Playing a part in their flourishing. If what I’m sensing comes from anywhere, it must come from the heart of my Creator. And what is the atonement story if not a story of God loving us in just this way? Giving of Himself not to control us, not to pamper us, but to make a way for our wholeness?

We’ll talk about the mechanics and consequences of all of this next week, but I want to leave us here today: a loving God comes to us in our weakness and gives us His strength. Our question is: are we willing to trust Him? To allow his desire to identify with us, to be one with us, to change our stories? It’s not a small question, and there’s not an easy answer! But I’d ask that you turn it over this week. Are you like me? Is this the kind of God God has to be?

If your answer is yes, there is so much hope in this story! We really can be whole again. God has made a way.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Atonement is “the process by which what has been separated from its intent is brought back into harmony with itself and with its Creator.” Work through this definition: does it make sense to you? Does it line up with what you see or need in your own story?
2. The first of four points this morning is that you are already being rescued. Kenny said that this is a distinctive part of the Christian story, because we don’t have to do anything to get God’s attention or earn His grace. Is this something you believe? What makes it hard to hear or accept?
3. The second point is that it’s still a choice. Why doesn’t God force people to participate in atonement? What are the consequences of this aspect of God’s character?
4. The third point is that atonement happens by way of identification. Why is it important for God to fully identify with us? How does He do it? In what ways might it be a comfort? In what ways might it be frightening or upsetting?
5. The fourth point is that God identifies with us for the purpose of incorporation. What does this mean? Kenny said it goes both ways: why is it important for Jesus to be “incorporated” with us? Why is it important for us to be “incorporated” with him?
6. Atonement isn’t just hard to wrap our heads around, it’s ultimately impossible for us to fully understand! What are some of your lingering questions?
7. Where do you find hope in this story? What might it look like for you to believe it?

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WEEK 1: THE WORK OF BELIEF

Genesis 1:1-5 & 1 John 4:7-12

“If there is a God, and if that God is good, there is a moralorder to the world that He, by His nature, must have put there. I think we sense that moral order. And I think part of Christian practice is deciding to be loyal to it. To chase it where it goes. To open ourselves up, with humility and reverence, to what and Who it reveals.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Have you had any prior experiences with the Apostles’ Creed (or any other Creed) in your church story? How was it treated/introduced? How did you feel about that experience?
2. The primary purpose of the Apostles’ Creed is to help Christians remain unified in the “essentials” of Christian belief. As we begin our study, what seems to be most essential, according to this Creed? If you were making your own creed, what would it include? What is most essential about Christian faith, from your perspective?
3. The Creed begins with the words “I believe,” and Kenny made the point on Sunday that this is extremely important because our beliefs shape and determine both the way we think about things and the way we behave in the world. Do you think this is true?
4. There are 4 affirmations in the first statement of the Apostles’ Creed. Let’s talk about them! Why is it important that we begin with the belief that God exists? Why does this really matter? What makes this easy/hard for you?
5. What is important about believing God is Father? Why does it matter? What makes it easy/hard for you?
6. What is important about believing that God is almighty? Why does it matter? What makes it easy/hard for you?
7. What is important about believing that God is the maker of heaven and earth? Why does it matter? What makes it easy/hard for you?
8. Re-read the quotation from the sermon above. Do you sense a “moral order” in the world? What do you think it means to “be loyal” to it? How is this connected to our lives as Christians?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 13:6-9 & Isaiah 55:10-11

“If we believe in our hearts we are loved, that Jesus is tending our roots, we can delight in who we are becoming in every moment. We can learn to feel it more fully, to embrace how we are being shaped not into something or someone different, but into who and what we were made to be. We’re becoming more fully human: God is doing it (sometimes whether we want Him to or not!) and participating with Him in that work can be our vocation. Here’s what it takes: making a discipline of stillness rather than doing. Listening for Him with real openness and expectation. Participating in what He is doing in you, and in the world.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How has the discipline of being still been going for you over the last few weeks? When has it been easy? When has it been hard? How do you feel about continuing the practice moving forward?
2. How has the discipline of listening with openness and expectation been going for you? What is comforting or reassuring about it when you try? What makes it frightening or difficult? Can you identify any of the roadblocks you’re experiencing? Would you be willing to share them?
3. How would you articulate the difference between obedience and participation? Try to imagine God’s perspective: which might He prefer? Why?
4. Kenny quoted the Brazilian educator and activist Paulo Freire, who said that it is our “ontological vocation [to] become more fully human.” What does this mean? Do you agree? (A quick reminder: ontology is “the study of the nature of being” and vocation is “work that aligns with your calling”).
5. What keeps us from “being fully human” already?
6. Look at the parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:6-9. What is everyone’s role in the parable? What is the fig tree’s responsibility? What is its opportunity? How does the passage from Isaiah inform the parable?
7. How did the woman in Kenny’s adoption story participate in what God was doing? What would it mean for you to participate more in your own story… or the stories of others?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 3, Habakkuk 1 & 2, Isaiah 30:21, & Hebrews 4:12

“It really does matter how you’re listening. Are you willing to try to be more open? Do you respect Him enough to expect Him? Can you nurture the imagination necessary to believe that the God of the Universe really wants to be heard… by you? That’s an enormous thing! It’s an amazing thing! But we can believe it, and we can experience it. We can be still… we can listen… and we can hear.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How would you explain what it means to be a “good listener”? What skills are involved? What are some of the situations in your life when you have to practice “good listening”?
2. What have your experiences been with “listening to God”? Have you heard Him before? In what ways? In what senses? What was the situation? Do you find listening to God easy or hard? Why?
3. Kenny said that listening to God requires radical openness. What do you think this means? What makes this hard to do?
4. He also said that we don’t have to become fully open to God overnight! It’s a gradual process, and it takes a lifetime. What is one thing about your life that you can open up to God about this week? Who can you talk to about what you find?
5. The second component of “good listening” this week was expectation. When you talk to God, do you expect Him to answer you? Why or why not?
6. Kenny said that what we expect from God reflects what we respect about God. Who do you believe God is? What is His character like? How can those things (re)shape what you expect when you listen for Him?
7. Some helpful practices for listening to God include journaling and talking with friends about your prayers/expectations. Do you have these routines in your life? Would you be willing to try and start them this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Psalms 46 & 131

“Stillness is necessary not just for our humility, not just because it helps us listen, but because it demonstrates trust: God will do it! It’s true that He may use you to carry out His purposes… but we are not His commissioned soldiers, running out to change the world on His behalf! This is where our attempts at discipleship so often go wrong: we want to learn how to be better Christians on our own–’follow these 10 foolproof steps and your faith will grow! You will be happy! You will be holy! God will be impressed!’ But the whole point of being Christian is getting out of the performance-based economy of the world! When we choose stillness, when we choose to do ‘nothing’ instead of ‘something,’ we’re practicing trust in God to see His own plans to the end. This isn’t easy to do, and it’s certainly not comfortable. But it’s what we can choose to do, if we really want to participate in God’s Kingdom rather than build up our own.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Evaluate your current relationship to the practice of “stillness” in your life: when are you still? Is stillness difficult for you? Why?
2. Read and reconsider Psalm 46, from an historical viewpoint: why might stillness have been difficult for David? What temptations towards “busy-ness” would have been present in his life? How might he have been tempted to justify “busy” choices? What does this psalm reveal about how God is challenging those choices?
3. Kenny said stillness does 3 things in this sermon. The first is that stillness surrenders control. What do you think this means?
4. The second is that stillness fosters listening. Has this been your experience? What makes someone a good/bad listener? Evaluate your own listening practices.
5. The third is that stillness demonstrates trust. How does this work? How is “demonstrating trust” different from “surrendering control”?
6. Read and reconsider Psalm 46, from your own viewpoint: what could you learn from the choice to be still? How might the decision to be still be a blessing for you?
7. Where are the best opportunities for stillness in your life? How can you practice being still this week?

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On Christmas Eve, we again partnered with other churches in our community to hold a multi-denominational, community-wide candlelight service. This is one of our most treasured traditions: a testimony to the truth that we are ONE CHURCH MADE OF MANY PARTS. We were honored to participate alongside our sisters and brothers at:

College Creek Church

First Baptist Church of Annapolis

Heritage Baptist Church

John Wesley United Methodist Church

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!

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SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 35:1-10, Luke 1:46b-55, & James 5:7-10

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SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 7:10-16 & Matthew 1:18-25

“Love is the foundation for our hope in this world. Love is the miracle in Creation that blossoms any time and every time we look beyond ourselves and open ourselves up to others… or to God. There’s no explanation for it on its own: there is no reason for us to put our final focus on anything beyond our own survival. But when we do it anyways, we are filled up with something beautiful, and scary, and fragile, and yet still overwhelming. Even more, we are filled up with something we cannot stay pregnant with forever: something that, if we nurture it, will overflow the banks of us and rush out into the world. A force for good, for deliverance. Love is trust. Trust nourishes love.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Much of this week’s sermon hinges on the connection between trust and love. What connections do you see between these things? Are they dependent on one another?
2. Consider the context of Isaiah 7:10-16. Although we often see this verse as a prophecy about Jesus, what else might it be talking about? What does it mean to Isaiah and King Ahaz?
3. Kenny suggested that Joseph, in the Matthew 1 passage, is like King Ahaz in the Isaiah passage. How so?
4. What threatens our ability to see God’s love as it is expressed in His promises to us? What gets in the way of your ability to feel God’s love?
5. Kenny spent some time talking about the miracle, hope, and fear of pregnancy. Why do you think God chooses this path for His son? For Mary? What can we learn from this?
6. Spend some time this week reflecting on the meditations we borrowed today from Henri Nouwen. Say slowly to yourself: Jesus is God’s beloved. I am God’s beloved. We are God’s beloved. How can you nurture and share love this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 2:1-5, Matthew 24:36-44, & Romans 13:11-14

“In light of Jesus’s life, the Kingdom that is still coming can get started now. We can live in it, in anticipation of its full arrival sometime in the future. What it requires from us is hope. Hope is what rises up in us when we hold the mystery of God up against the faithfulness of God in our story. It’s what we feel when we say, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen today, but I still know the ending.’ Our God is always bigger than our theories or our plans or our predictions. The prophets know that! But He is also nearer than we could ever expect Him to be: that’s the heart of what Jesus’s birth means.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Read Isaiah 2:1-5. Kenny described this “puzzle piece” as a promise. What do you think he meant by that? What is being promised?
2. Read Matthew 24:36-44. Kenny described this “piece” as a paradox. What do you think he meant by that? Why is “hopeless” to think we can be “ready,” based on this story?
3. Read Romans 13:11-14. Kenny described this “piece” as a presence. What do you think he meant by that? Who is being present?
4. How can presence help to answer the riddle created by the first two “pieces?” What might this have to do with “hope”?
5. Hope has much to do with our imagination: it requires us to stay focused on God’s faithfulness, even when it can be hard to see how it is manifested in the world. How does this kind of attention bring “light” into our lives? What gets in the way of that?
6. What patterns or practices can help keep us “hopeful”?
7. Do you feel hopeful today? Why or why not? How might these verses and ideas bring you comfort?
8. At the end of the message, Kenny tied our ability to “carry hope” to the story of Mary and Joseph. What is the connection? How can reflecting on their experiences give us a clearer sense of our own hopes?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 16

“We can be a church of people who are seeking amazement. Who are actively on the lookout for it, as our God keeps working. And you can be a person with a similar imagination and eager curiosity, too. What does a living Jesus mean for the way you see the world? What does it mean for your fears? What does it mean for your ability to be generous, or to be patient, or to be forgiving? If Jesus is alive, what changes for you? What is possible in our world?”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Take some time to reflect on the series as a whole: what have you learned? Where does Mark’s gospel push you or stretch you?
2. This sermon is broken into two parts: an analysis of verses 1-8 and a discussion of the multiple endings in verses 9-20. Let’s start with 1-8! What are some of the details that stand out to you about these women and what they have set out to do? What does this reveal about the expectations of Jesus’s followers after his death on the cross?
3. Why are the women afraid? What are some of the mysteries produced by Mark’s enigmatic ending in verse 8?
4. Kenny said that “wonder wins” at the (original) end of Mark’s gospel. What do you think he meant by that? Why would this be a particular encouragement to Mark’s original readers?
5. The second half of the sermon focused on the puzzle of the 3 distinct endings to Mark’s gospel. What does each ending reveal or add?
6. It’s okay to wrestle with hard questions! What do you make of the presence of these 3 endings?
7. Kenny said that adding on to Mark’s gospel made sense in its original context, in part because the focus of the gospels wasn’t on enshrining the story as Scripture, it was on offering reassurance to early Christians. Did that make sense to you? How does the text offer help or comfort?
8. Where can we find hope in the story of Mark’s gospel, as a document? Why was it written? Why was it changed? What does its history teach us about God’s continuing concerns for the Church?
9. How can we be a church (or be Christians!) “seeking wonder”? How can this help us with our own fears or worries?

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SCRIPTURE:Mark 14 & 15

“Our whole calling flows from surrendering to Jesus’s incredible love for us, from first allowing him to reach us. When we do that, we experience a kind of death–of our rebellion, of our willfulness–but on the other side of it, at ‘12:01’, we believe that new life begins. Our challenge when we read this gospel is the same as the challenge facing those first listeners: can we find courage not to fight this kind of total surrender, but to face it? Are we willing to lose?”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Take some time to reflect on the series so far: what stands out to you in our study of Mark’s gospel? What kind of a king is Mark revealing Jesus to be? Where might you find hope or wonder in this?
2. The starting point for this week’s sermon was a question: why does Mark spend so much time on Jesus’s death and so little time (if any!) on his resurrection? What is your initial response to this?
3. Kenny framed the sermon as an “investigation” following three clues or leads about Mark’s initial audience: Christians facing persecution in Rome. The first was that they were a community facing persecution. How does the “passion narrative” in Mark 14 speak to people in this predicament? Where might they find hope or comfort?
4. The second “lead” was a reminder that Mark’s audience was a community that had lost its leaders. How does the possibility of Peter’s recent execution in Rome reshape what we see in Mark’s gospel? What is Mark trying to show Roman Christians about their leader/hero?
5. The third “lead” was a connection between Jesus’s death and the (un)likelihood of rescue for Mark’s readers. How does Mark’s framing of Jesus’s death offer any reassurance or hope at all?
6. Kenny said the “ extremity of Jesus’s suffering demonstrates the scope of God’s power… it [also] demonstrates the scope of God’s empathy, of His compassion, of His love.” Talk through this idea: what does it mean? What challenges you here?
7. The final challenge for us, as we read Mark’s gospel, is to choose total surrender. What do you think this means? Why is it important? How in the world can this be “hopeful”?!

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 12

“If we are bearers of God’s image, if our value comes from Him, if our future is secure in Him, and if we are called to recognize the image of God not just in our religious friends but in everyone (including Caesar!), then we have a task that is one and the same with who we are: we love as God loves. We trade with the ‘coins of God’s realm,’ honoring the eternal value of other people. People right now are putting their trust in the Church to be the hands of God in the world, trusting us to see them rightly and fully, trusting us to care for them in their need and their grief…are we giving our whole selves towards valuing who and what they really are?”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Take some time to reflect on the series so far: what stands out to you in our study of Mark’s gospel? What kind of a king is Mark revealing Jesus to be? Where might you find hope or wonder in this?
2. Kenny said that there is more to a text like Mark 12 than just an opportunity to cheer for Jesus as he outsmarts the authorities who are questioning him. Why is it important to look for more in a text like this one?
3. There are three “imperial coin” passages this week. The first is the most literal: Jesus tells the Herodians to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s.” What is the connection between these two statements? What is Jesus reminding everyone about when it comes to “what is God’s”?
4. The second passage builds on the first when Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6 about the “greatest commandment(s).” How does the call to love God with all of our strength, hearts, minds, and souls echo the call to “[give] to God what is God’s”? How does the call to love our neighbors flow from this connection?
5. The third passage sees a poor widow giving her “imperial coins” to the Temple treasury. What does this act reveal about her faith? Who is she trusting to support her?
6. How can we, as a church, be challenged by Jesus’s reminder that everyone bears God’s image?
7. How can you, as an individual, be challenged by this?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 11

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 10

“What kind of a king is King Jesus? He’s a King who gives us His whole self, so we can have the courage to give up our whole selves, too. Truly, what’s stopping us? What legalism, what cynicism, what self-righteousness keeps us in fear? Do we believe God’s love is enough to hold us and shelter us? Are we willing to step into His Kingdom by living with radical compassion, radical generosity, radical hope? We are invited to.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. This series covers the second half of Mark’s Gospel (Ch. 10-16), and it begins immediately after the Transfiguration event in Ch. 9. Go back and read through that story: how does it answer the question that dominates the first half of the gospel (i.e. - who is Jesus?)? How does it anticipate the question that will dominate the second half of the gospel (i.e. - what kind of King will Jesus be?)?
2. In the Transfiguration story, the disciples talk about setting up tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah (v. 5). This connects to the Tabernacle tradition of the Old Testament, where God “dwells among the people.” But Jesus does not stay in the tent! What do we make of that? What is it teaching us?
3. There are 4 main episodes in Ch. 10. The first has to do with a question the Pharisees ask Jesus about the Mosaic laws for divorce. What does Jesus’s answer reveal about the kind of King he will be?
4. The second episode involves the disciples’ rebuke of children seeking blessing. What does this episode reveal about Jesus’s Kingship?
5. The third involves the encounter with the “rich young ruler.” What does it reveal? Why do you think the man walks away from Jesus’s Kingdom?
6. Why do we walk away? What connects these stories? What do they illuminate, together, about how Jesus will reign?
7. We didn’t talk about the 4th episode: the healing of Bartimaeus (v. 46-52). Read that story together and put it in conversation with the sermon. Why does Jesus say he can be healed? How can that challenge us, too?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 15 & Psalm 139:7-12

“We are always on the lookout for the God of power and might and authority. But Jesus’s heart is consistently set on revealing the God his hearers are not prepared to see: the God who lays down His power in order to pursue His people, one by one, person by person, that our hearts might turn back towards our Father. The Jesus standing in front of these Pharisees is the God, running down the road to embrace the wandering son! Discovering Him means opening ourselves up to a God whose power is nothing compared to His love. Indeed, whose power serves that love. Who rejoices when each and every heart turns back to Him.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How can anything (or anyone!) become “lost” to God?
2. Kenny agreed that God must be omni-scient, omni-potent, and omni-present (which are the three traditional, philosophical attributes of God). But he asked us to ponder why Jesus would tell stories that challenge those qualities. Before we move on, talk about this for a moment: in your view, what is Jesus trying to accomplish?
3. Kenny suggested a fourth attribute: God is omni-personal. What do you think he meant by this? What would this mean?
4. In the parable of the lost son, in what sense does the father “lose” his child? What “lie” does the father permit his son to believe (or, at least, to pretend is true) in order for the whole story to unfold? (think: inheritance!)
5. How does the father’s posture towards his son reveal God’s prioritization of His omni-personal qualities over and above His other “omnis”?
6. What’s the older brother’s problem? Think about this carefully: what lies is he choosing to believe about his relationship with his father? Why is he permitted to believe them? What does he need to discover?
7. Now, let’s go back to the parables of the lost coin and lost sheep: what do these parables teach us about God’s attitude towards the “one”? What does it teach us about the temptations/fears of the “ninety-nine”?
8. How can discovering God’s omni-personal character help you grow in your faith? What practices can help you meditate on, experience, or otherwise encounter this discovery more regularly?

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SCRIPTURE: Galatians 4:6, 2 Corinthians 5:14-20, & Luke 24:13-31

“What if what God is asking for from us is to be sincerely interested in His company? It’s true that what He has to say to us leads us to something great: it’s a road to salvation, to eternal life…but over and over again, Jesus shows us that God’s heart is not to threaten us into accepting heaven, it’s to open heaven up to us through a relationship with Himself.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Do you tend to see “becoming a Christian” more as something which happens in an instant or something which happens over a lifetime? In what ways are both true? What is lost when we prioritize the former over the latter?
2. What are your thoughts on the Holy Spirit? What do you think it means for the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, as Christians? What work is the Holy Spirit doing?
3. The challenging truth at the center of the Christian journey is that we’re ultimately called to lay down everything before the sovereignty of God. What can make this frightening? What scares you about this calling?
4. Kenny talked about the “ship of Theseus” riddle: how does that riddle relate to our fears about surrendering our whole selves to God? How might it offer some reassurance or comfort?
5. Kenny also said that the metaphor of “walking with God” can help us understand how God can be both present and sometimes silent in our lives. Think this through: is it possible that sometimes God is actually present with us, even when we can’t seem to feel Him or hear Him? Are you ever present with others in a similar way? If so, what does that teach us about who God is and how God wants us to experience His presence?
6. How can we be a church for others who sense Christian faith is a “journey” rather than a “destination”?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 23:39-43, Isaiah 7:14, & Micah 6:8

“When we stand up for causes over people, we reveal that our actual heart is still fixed on ourselves. We want to be right. We think of ourselves as good people because we support something noble. But if our motivations don’t start with actual compassion, with an actual willingness to know and love our neighbors, we won’t stick things out when the spotlight is off us. If we’re going to be a church for anyone, that has to change.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Where do you see injustice in our community? In the past, have you been involved in “justice work”?
2. What does the Bible teach us about the role God’s people have in advocating for justice in the world? Whose “side” does the Bible suggest (or command!) us to “be on”?
3. Kenny said that sometimes we’re not there, for the “right” reasons. What did he mean by this? Can you relate?
4. He also said that sometimes we are there, for the wrong reasons. What did he mean by this? Can you relate?
5. What steps can you take this week to build real relationships with people who long for justice?
6. What do you think people who long for justice need from a local church?
7. How can Revolution do a better job of being a church for people who long for justice?

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SCRIPTURE: Genesis 2 & John 3:16

“Feeling lonely doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrong! It means you’re sensing that something is missing in you, and you are hungry to fill it. And what’s missing isn’t any one thing, it’s three specific things: wholeness in your relationship with God, wholeness in your sense of purpose, and wholeness in your relationships with other people. God’s story with Adam is complete when He has helped Adam receive and accept all three. And if we, as a church, are going to mirror God in the world, we have to be about all three, too: a church for the lonely pursues God, is at work in the world, and draws people into relationships. That’s the task in front of us.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When have you felt lonely? What caused that feeling? If you were able to find peace, how did you do it?
2. A key point this morning is that loneliness is not sin: in fact, the first person God created felt it, even when the world was perfect! Why is this so important to remember?
3. The story in Genesis 2 reveals three important points about loneliness. The first is that God alone isn’t enough. How do you feel about this point? Is it true? In what sense? How do we–as individuals, as churches–lean too heavily on this solution to loneliness?
4. The second is that work alone isn’t enough. Is this true? Have you experienced it? What does it look like when a church focuses on “the work” over and above all else?
5. The third is that people alone aren’t enough. Is this true? Have you experienced it? Why is it risky to put all of our hope for love in other people alone?
6. Kenny argued that the space in us, which when left unfilled makes us experience loneliness, is there because we are made for love. Talk this through together: do you feel like you are “made” to receive and share love? What can get in the way of pursuing this?
7. How can we truly be “a church for people who are lonely?” What can you do?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, John 3:1-9, Galatians 1:11-18, Habakkuk 1-2

“All faith is wrestling. It’s trying to hold onto something that is bigger than we are. And it’s healthiest when the goal is connecting to that bigger thing…not controlling it. Any mechanism we have built to control or limit our God needs to be deconstructed. But what if our imagination for the church wasn’t just introducing people to a packaged and sanitized God but living together in the awe, and even in the confusion, a real and amazing God creates?”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How would you answer the question, “who is church for?”
2. Every church isn’t meant to be the same! We exist as parts of the larger Body of Christ. What do you feel makes this church community unique?
3. Have you heard people, either inside the church or outside of it, use the word “deconstruction”? What was your initial sense of what it meant? What did you think of Kenny’s definition?
4. It can be really scary to “take apart” your faith! But, for many, it is an important step in truly accepting Christian hope. How can something good come from “deconstructing”?
5. Kenny said the first thing we can learn from Scripture about reaching “deconstructors” is the importance of asking honest and humble questions. How does this help? How can it be important for you?
6. The second step is putting the Jesus story first–even above the Church story. Which story do you tend to prioritize? Have you ever seen Christians try to “squeeze” Jesus into the system their church promotes? What happens–to us, to our churches–if we put Jesus first?
7. Lastly, when we open ourselves up to taking things apart, it’s important that we hold out hope that they can be put together again! How can a church community help support someone who is “deconstructing” in a way that honors and respects them?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 12:22-48 & John 20:19-23

“Perhaps we experience this tension, between what we’ve been called to do and what we can do, specifically because our limitations help us to actually accept what God is trying to give us. Don’t turn away from God’s grace, either because you’re ashamed of the ways you’ve missed the mark… or because you are still trying to earn it. Instead, consider: what if God really does love you? What if He really does want to serve you? What if you really are being invited to join Him in the good work He has promised to do?”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Let’s talk about workplace culture! How does the pressure of “supervision” affect the kind of work you do? How does it affect the way you do it? Do you ever feel a pressure to “perform”?
2. Now, connect that to your expectations for God: have you ever felt pressure to “be a good Christian”? Did that pressure come from God, or from another source?
3. What would it look like to steadily pursue your relationship with God? How is this different from performing that relationship?
4. What would it look like to steadily pursue your neighbors? How is this different from performing compassion and service?
5. Do you feel the tension between Luke 12:35-46 and Luke 12:22-31? How might you resolve that tension?
6. Look at Jesus’s grace towards his disciples in Mark 14:32-42 and John 20:19-23. How is this different from the behavior of the Master in the parable? What can we learn from this difference?
7. How might the gift of grace help us resolve the tension between the command to be ever watchful and the command to rest, as the birds and flowers rest, in the love and provision of God?
8. What challenges can you take away from this message this week?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 28:1-23

“Be brave enough to feel and see where you are. What small truths support your weight? What larger truths might these be stepstones towards? Are you open to a God who doesn’t want your greatness… but your presence, just as you are?”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have you learned through this series about listening? Why is it important? How can we follow God’s example in listening well?
2. Let’s get it out there: this is a strange story! What do you make of it? Why do you think the scribes of Israel, who transferred this story from Israel’s oral tradition to a written text at least 400 years after the events it describes occurred, chose to keep this episode?
3. What might God be revealing–about Himself, about us, about how we are meant to live in the world–through it?
4. Are you ever tempted to connect God’s silence with God’s absence? Share your story. Is it possible to imagine what God’s presence might have been like in that moment?
5. The Witch of Endor is a fascinating character! Kenny noted that she is compassionate towards Saul… even though Saul is a clear threat to her. What can we learn from this person? What does her compassion reveal?
6. Let’s connect this series, which has been about listening, to our 2022 theme of “(Un)Certainty”: how can prioritizing listening help us when we feel frightened or uncertain? What gets in the way?
7. Our hope for this year is that we learn to prioritize confidence, which is relational, over certainty, which is mostly about control. Does listening “speak” to this hope? How?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 24

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are you learning so far in this series? How would you summarize the “big idea”?
2. Have you ever struggled with the idea that David was “a man after God’s own heart”?
3. Kenny emphasized three big differences between David and King Saul, each of which is highlighted by the story in 1 Samuel 24. The first is that David is willing to push back against his men. What makes that so risky for David? Have you ever ignored God when you sensed what He was saying was different from what you wanted?
4. The second is that David is willing to trust God’s timing. What must David believe about God, and about himself, in order to do this? Do you sometimes struggle to believe you already are who God says you are?
5. The third is that David is willing to trust God’s judgment. What does it tell us about David that he repents of cutting off the corner of Saul’s robe? Have you ever been afraid of God’s “verdict” against you?
6. Kenny’s proposal was that David is a man who truly wants to better know God–and this is what it means for him to be “after God’s heart.” How can you be encouraged or challenged by that this week?
7. Read Psalm 46:10–how can you make more space to “Be still” in your life? How can you be intentional about “knowing” God better?
8. Think of those 4 essential human relationships: with Ourselves, with God, with Creation, with Others. Which are easiest? Which need more investment?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 28:1-23

“Be brave enough to feel and see where you are. What small truths support your weight? What larger truths might these be stepstones towards? Are you open to a God who doesn’t want your greatness… but your presence, just as you are?”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have you learned through this series about listening? Why is it important? How can we follow God’s example in listening well?
2. Let’s get it out there: this is a strange story! What do you make of it? Why do you think the scribes of Israel, who transferred this story from Israel’s oral tradition to a written text at least 400 years after the events it describes occurred, chose to keep this episode?
3. What might God be revealing–about Himself, about us, about how we are meant to live in the world–through it?
4. Are you ever tempted to connect God’s silence with God’s absence? Share your story. Is it possible to imagine what God’s presence might have been like in that moment?
5. The Witch of Endor is a fascinating character! Kenny noted that she is compassionate towards Saul… even though Saul is a clear threat to her. What can we learn from this person? What does her compassion reveal?
6. Let’s connect this series, which has been about listening, to our 2022 theme of “(Un)Certainty”: how can prioritizing listening help us when we feel frightened or uncertain? What gets in the way?
7. Our hope for this year is that we learn to prioritize confidence, which is relational, over certainty, which is mostly about control. Does listening “speak” to this hope? How?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 24

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are you learning so far in this series? How would you summarize the “big idea”?
2. Have you ever struggled with the idea that David was “a man after God’s own heart”?
3. Kenny emphasized three big differences between David and King Saul, each of which is highlighted by the story in 1 Samuel 24. The first is that David is willing to push back against his men. What makes that so risky for David? Have you ever ignored God when you sensed what He was saying was different from what you wanted?
4. The second is that David is willing to trust God’s timing. What must David believe about God, and about himself, in order to do this? Do you sometimes struggle to believe you already are who God says you are?
5. The third is that David is willing to trust God’s judgment. What does it tell us about David that he repents of cutting off the corner of Saul’s robe? Have you ever been afraid of God’s “verdict” against you?
6. Kenny’s proposal was that David is a man who truly wants to better know God–and this is what it means for him to be “after God’s heart.” How can you be encouraged or challenged by that this week?
7. Read Psalm 46:10–how can you make more space to “Be still” in your life? How can you be intentional about “knowing” God better?
8. Think of those 4 essential human relationships: with Ourselves, with God, with Creation, with Others. Which are easiest? Which need more investment?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 8:1-22

“Remembering mistakes takes seriously the legacy of those mistakes and the lives that will be impacted by them. It also helps those who come later to situate themselves in this bigger work, which is not about fresh starts, but about God’s patient, compassionate work to earn (and earn again!) our trust.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some of the embarrassing moments Israel chooses to remember in the story this week? (1 Samuel 8:1-22)
2. Why would they choose to remember them?
3. The ones who suffer for Israel’s decision in this week’s story are not the ones who made bad choices! Who suffers instead?
4. How can remembering the whole story–even the embarrassing parts–help the Isrealites?
5. Where is God when the Israelites are suffering?
6. What can we learn from this story? Why is it important for us to remember the embarrassing parts of our stories?
7. What can we learn about God when we choose to do this? (Think of the ebenezer!)

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SCRIPTURE:1 Samuel 7:3-16

“I think we need a telescope. We need to be able to see not just what’s happened lately, but what’s happened ever. We need a vantage point that’s bigger than ourselves…not because we’re small or insignificant, but because we’re a part of an enormous and amazing story.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What blind spots are created by the Israelites’ tendency to have a “what have you done for me lately?” attitude towards God?
2. What are the roles of judges in Israelite culture? What are the roles of a priest? How does Samuel exercise both?
3. What is the ebenezer and what purpose does it serve?
4. How might an ebenezer be helpful to you in your own life?
5. What can we learn from this story about who God is?
6. What can we learn about who we are?
7. What can we learn about how to live in right relationships with Him, with ourselves, with others, or with Creation?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 1 1:9-20, 1:26-2:10, 2:12-25, & 3:1-20

“The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground.”  - 1 Samuel 3:19

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is the relationship between listening and compassion?
2. Reflect on Hannah’s story: who is listening here? Who is compassionate?
3. Reflect on the story of Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phineas: who is not listening here? How does that affect their compassion?
4. Reflect on the story of the bad news Samuel is asked to share with Eli: what is compassionate? What does it mean to listen?
5. What can make facing the Truth–in a situation and in ourselves–so difficult sometimes? What would it take to have courage in that kind of situation?
6. What can we learn from this story about who God is?
7. What can we learn about who we are?
8. What can we learn about how to live in right relationships with Him, with ourselves, with others, or with Creation?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 25:14-30 & Luke 16:1-13

“The point here is that we should be asking ourselves, ‘do I think my God is the kind of master who expects me to participate with Him in the work of the Kingdom?’ What does my attitude towards money suggest about my answer? Am I trying to keep it separate, trying to avoid thinking about it in the context of my faith, or treating it like it is something embarrassing? Or do I see money as something I’ve been entrusted with, not just to meet my material needs, but to reflect my beliefs about who God is? “

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have your experiences been with “money sermons”? What has been helpful, or made a positive impact on your life? What has “rubbed you the wrong way”?
2. Does the way we use money really “reveal the beliefs about God we are investing in”? How so? How does the parable about the money given to the three servants (Matthew 25:14-30) relate?
3. How might your money habits illuminate your relationship with God?
4. Kenny said the parable in Luke 16:1-13 is one of the most famously tricky parables in the New Testament. Give it a read: what stands out to you? What is confusing?
5. If we agree with Kenny that the manager is likely offering discounts to customers by eliminating his own commissions, what makes this behavior “shrewd”? What makes it “commendable”?
6. How can you use your money to invest more in people? Why is this something Jesus wants us to do?
7. The end of that passage in Luke 16 is oft-quoted: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” How does this verse relate to our topic tonight? How does it teach you or challenge you?

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Catching Up…

In his letter to the Galatian churches, Paul confronts young Chrisitans who are trading in a faith rooted in confidence, freedom, and community for a faith rooted in fear, judgment, and self-control. Paul desperately wants them to remember that the Gospel of Jesus isn’t just another religious system! It’s an antidote to the shame that accompanies legalism and a free gift of life-transforming hope.

Here’s what we have explored in this series so far:

1. Jesus is better: we can trust Him and the intimacy He offers overour instinct to build a faith we can perform through rule-following.
2. Jesus draws us together: when we step away from a legalistic approach to our faith and towards humble obedience, we find ourselves pulled towards a community of faith made up of other people who have made the same choice.
3. Jesus sets us free: legalism can’t give us the confidence and hope we need because its purpose has been to “set a people apart”... not by making them righteous, but by revealing God’s merciful and loving character. When we have confidence in Him, we experience the freedom from shame and fear we are looking for.
4. Jesus offers us a gift: when we try to turn our faith into a set of rules to follow, we miss out on a living (and overwhelming) relationship with a God who is steadfastly seeking our good! The actual Holy Spirit of God comes to live within all those who put their faith in Jesus: this is a profound mystery… but when we lean into that mystery, we experience transformation.
5. Jesus is our reassuring example: When we surrender our desire for control to the Holy Spirit, our life produces fruit that echoes what we see in the character of Jesus and rises up from who we are truly made to be ourselves: people of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and temperance.

Where We Can Focus…

As we conclude this series, we can focus on a few important connections between our story and the story revealed in Galatians:

1. We, like the Galatians, can fall into the trap of “merely behaving” like good, religious people. When have you caught yourself “merely behaving”?
2. The root of this temptation is fear: that we aren’t good enough; that we aren’t sincere enough in our faith; that we will lose control of our lives. When have you experienced these fears?
3. The truth is that what sets us apart isn’t the appearance of our purity but the conspicuousness of our forgiveness. Where have you experienced God’s grace in your story? How can you share that experience more openly?
4. Our hope is not in the certainty legalism offers but in the confidence that grows when we open ourselves up to a trusting relationship with our Creator. What gets in the way of your confidence?
5. We can be reassured of the transforming and life-bringing work of the Holy Spirit within us when we see the “fruit of the Spirit” in our lives. What “fruit” do you see in your own story? What “fruit” do you long to see?

What We Can Pray…

As we finish this series, we want to be challenged in our willingness to surrender to and trust the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We want to confront the fears and insecurities which hold us back from that trust, and to experiment with letting our guard down–with spending open time with our God, that His good character will comfort us, strengthen us, and teach us to let the same good character overtake us, too. We can pray:

1. God, help me to see my fears. Speak truth to me, and help me to see what keeps me from trusting You.
2. God, I want to let my guard down with You. Show me Your good character in ways that I can’t miss or ignore.
3. God, teach me to listen to Your Holy Spirit within me. Help me to have patience when I am panicked and hope when I am afraid.

We also want to be encouraged in our capacity to identify and celebrate the fruit of the Spirit, both in ourselves and in our church community. Do we see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in one another? Are we looking for it? Pray:

1. God, help me to see the evidence of Your Spirit in my life. Make it so clear I can’t keep from seeing it! And help me to feel reassured, in those moments, that You are working in me for my good.
2. God, help me to see the evidence of Your Spirit in the lives of others. Give me boldness in celebrating it with my friends and church family, and help us to grow and keep growing.

How We Can Listen…

As we close this week, make space to listen to God and His Holy Spirit within you. Set time aside to sit quietly in your favorite place or to take a walk: what is God showing you about Himself? What is He showing you about how He sees you and feels about you? How do you feel about Him? Are there worries you can begin to put down? Is your heart open to taking even small steps towards trust? Where can you sense God moving in your heart and in your life?

Thank you for setting time aside to worship with us as a church family in this way this week. We look forward to seeing you soon, and we pray for God’s continued grace and provision for us: as individuals who are each lovingly made in God’s image, and as a church community being faithfully prepared for the good work of God’s Kingdom. Amen.

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SCRIPTURE: Galatians 5.13-6.2

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” - Galatians 5:22-25

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Take a moment to try and summarize some of the things we’ve learned about the letter to the Galatians so far: What has stood out to you? What might God be trying to say to us?
2. What do you think gets in the way of your willingness to rest in the truth that the Holy Spirit is working within you?
3. Where do you experience the temptation to seek control in your life, especially when it comes to “good behaviors”?
4. Where do you see reflections of God’s character in yourself?
5. What “fruit of the Spirit” do you feel most distant from? Are you willing to pray for that “fruit” to be more evident in your life?
6. Where do you see reflections of God’s character in others? Take time this week to tell them so!

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SCRIPTURE: Galatians 4.8-5.1

“We may not be rushing to observe Jewish festivals or pursuing adult circumcision… but we are still Galatians. What have we done? We’ve chased certainty and systems of rule-following. We’ve dressed those things up as ‘maturity.’ We’ve allowed the spirits of judgmentalism and legalism those things foster to justify unkindness within us. And when these rigid structures we are relying on inevitably crack–in divisions, in corruption, in scandal–we walk away from our faith because it looks like it has let us down. Would those things have happened if we had held onto the mystery? Would they have happened if we had made our personal trust in the unfolding discovery of God’s love for us and the transforming conviction and guidance of the Holy Spirit our top priority, over and above what seemed practical and certain?”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Take a moment to try and summarize some of the things we’ve learned about the letter to the Galatians so far: What has stood out to you? What might God be trying to say to us?
2. So much of this series has been about the temptation to chase certainty in our faith: when have you experienced this temptation? Where has it led you?
3. What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian?
4. How can we stay open to the work the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives? What do we have to be willing to give up in order to see it happen?
5. What is your personal reason for being a Christian? For being a part of this church?
6. Kenny asked, “does Revolution exist because there is good work to be done in Annapolis [or] because the Holy Spirit, working freely and unmistakably in each one of us, makes the existence of Revolution inescapable?” What is the difference? How can we be a church more firmly rooted in what the Holy Spirit is doing among us?

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SCRIPTURE: Galatians 3.1-4.7

“The big story God has been telling remains the same: He wants to be known in the world. He wants to set a people apart for himself for that very purpose! But what makes those people set apart cannot be their purity, it must be His generosity. He sets prisoners free: that’s what God’s love looks like. That’s what His love does. We embody that Good News when we live in freedom.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Take a moment to try and summarize some of the things we’ve learned about the letter to the Galatians so far: what would you say is the “big idea” here? What has stood out to you? What might God be trying to say to us?
2. Why do you think God is committed to creating a “people set apart”? What’s the purpose?
3. Kenny used the analogy of our church softball team to talk about two ways of thinking about being set apart: we can be ‘set apart’ as an example of the values of our church… or we can be ‘set apart’ as a way of judging or condemning the values of others. What’s the difference between the two? Which is closer to the heart of what you believe about God?
4. What does the Law reveal to us about ourselves?
5. Why is it so important to Paul for the Galatians to see the Good News as freedom?
6. Paul describes the Holy Spirit as the Answer to the dilemma of the Law: how can we make listening to the Holy Spirit a more consistent practice in our lives? How can we do this in a way that is rooted in love and joy rather than legalism?

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SCRIPTURE: Galatians 1.13-2.21

“The free gift of an intimate relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ draws us closer together. It draws us into harmony, in our hearts and in our actions. And that harmony can be the Church. In fact, it’s meant to be the Church. But this also means the best way of understanding the Church is as a kind-of miracle of grace: it’s what happens when we walk together in the same direction. It’s the community that emerges, just as freely, from our discovery of God’s grace alongside our friends.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Kenny said that “the Gospel is bigger than the Church.” What do you think he meant by this? Why does Paul (and why do we!) say the Gospel is something we preach instead of something we give or share?
2. Many of us are wary of the Church. Take some time to talk this through: what makes Church difficult for you? What might make it difficult for others to trust the Church?
3. After fourteen years of ministry, Paul goes to Jerusalem to share what he has been preaching with the leaders of the first Christian church there. What draws him back to them? What is he hoping will happen?
4. If the Gospel is true, it will draw us together: this is the “big idea” for tonight. How can this idea challenge you as you take the next steps in your faith? Where (and to whom?) is Jesus leading you?
5. How can our church better encourage unity among Christians? How can we be part of the solution, when it comes to the fears and anxieties of our neighbors who are skeptical of the Church?
6. What do you think it means to “live the Gospel”? Why is it impossible to do this alone?

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SCRIPTURE: Galatians 3.1-3 & 1.10

“The difference between a legalistic faith and a relational faith is in who we are focused on: in a legalistic faith, your eyes are always on your neighbors, to see if they approve of what you are doing–to see if they even see you at all! But in a relational faith, your focus is entirely–even blindingly–on the one you love. What Paul asks us to consider is who our behavior pleases–who the behavior is for. Under the old system of the Law, you could only love and serve God by proxy, through the medium of rule-following and ritual. Paul’s challenge is to try and remind the Galatians that Jesus is better: the rule-following and rituals are responses to a real and personal delight in being loved and known by God.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Reading Paul’s letter to the Galatians can feel a bit like eavesdropping on an argument. Why do you think it is important for us to continue to read and consider letters like this one? What do they contribute to the greater whole of Scripture?
2. At the center of Paul’s frustrations with the Galatians is this verse, from chapter 3: “After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” What do you think this verse means in context? What does it mean to you?
3. How would you define “legalism”? What makes it not only tempting but reasonable, at least some of the time?
4. Paul’s response to the legalism of the Galatians is to insist that Jesus is enough–in fact, Jesus is better. What do you think Paul means? How can it help the Galatians in their situation?
5. Although we really want everyone to return to the regular rhythms of church, we are committed to encouraging folks to rediscover God’s love for them first. What do you think of this value for our church in this season? How are you taking steps to better feel and know God’s love for you?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 11:1-13 & Matthew 21:28-32

“When you chase survival, when you chase self-sufficiency, the best you can ever hope for is appreciation. But when you admit weakness, you can experience love. If faith is confidence in God’s promises and God’s character, the only way you will ever truly discover it is by learning to more deeply–and more audaciously–depend on Him.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Have you ever felt like you are in “survival mode”? Kenny said that one of the consequences of this feeling is that “your world shrinks down.” Do you know that feeling? Have you felt it in the last few years, as we have been going through the pandemic?
2. How do you get out of “survival mode”?
3. Kenny defined faith as “confidence (not certainty!) in the promises and character of God.” Take a few minutes to think over this definition: what is helpful about it? What questions do you have? Would you agree or disagree?
4. In the story of the two neighbors, it is the first man’s “shameless audacity” that ultimately convinces the second man to help. Try to connect this to prayer: does praying feel “shameless” or “audacious” to you? Would you want it to? How does this story challenge you?
5. It’s important to the parable that God is not like the second man, who only answers requests begrudgingly. How does Jesus describe God’s attitude towards our needs/prayers?
6. What about the second parable, about the two sons? When have you said “no” to something…and then changed your mind? When have you said “yes” to something…and then dropped the ball? How do you feel about each experience in hindsight?
7. What is Jesus trying to communicate about God’s Kingdom in this parable?
8. How can you take a step of faith towards God this week? How can you accept a deeper connection in our church community?

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REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

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“RECONNECT,” WEEK 4: PRAYING FOR OUR CONNECTIONS

Over the last 3 weeks, we have been exploring what it means to reconnect in a “post”-pandemic world: with our faith, with the church, and with one another. At the center of these conversations has been a discovery that the truth is we are already connected, and the challenge set before us is to better see and better respond to our relationships. Here’s how we have tried to map out this challenge:

1. God has already sought us out: are we willing to accept the abundant life offered by Jesus and live as “people of grace”?
2. The Church is made up of Christians, whether we like it (or like them!) or not: do we realize we have an important role to play in seeking the health of others believers?
3. And finally, our lives have already brought us into relationships with other people who we need and who need us: are we willing to be people who are eager to pour out the same hope we are learning to receive through our faith?

In this, the final week of our “Reconnect” series, we want to be intentional about truly creating time and space to listen to the Holy Spirit as we seek to respond and act. To that end, we are asking everyone to find moments this weekend to step away for a few minutes to pray. As you pray, allow yourself to really ask the questions below with a humble heart: you are God’s beloved child, and He wants to lead you, not just to new work or new tasks, but to a deeper experience of His love and a place of genuine excitement about how you can better serve and love others.

PRAYER 1: WILLING TO LISTEN

Take a moment to “hear” what you are really feeling about yourself and about your faith. Who has God shown Himself to be to you? Where do you see or experience God in the world around you? Where do you see Him in the people around you? What does He want you to better see or feel or understand?

PRAYER 2: WILLING TO REPENT

Take a moment to “hear” what is getting in the way of your growth or your faith. What has been hardest for you to bear lately? When you consider the 3 areas of connection in this series (God/Church/others), where have you been most guarded? What are you guarding? What most interferes with your ability to truly feel the ways you are connected? What do you need to let go of or admit, in order to be able to accept what God is seeking to show you or give you?

PRAYER 3: WILLING TO BE LOVED

Take a moment to “hear” how God really feels about you. This can be so, so hard to do…but it is so, so important! How do you usually feel like God “sees” you? What does it mean to be God’s “child”? What can we learn about this by looking at God’s Son, Jesus? Ask God, and listen to what He shows you: who are you to Him, really?

PRAYER 4: WILLING TO BE SENT

Take a moment to “hear” where God has put you in this world. Who is in your “circle”? Who are the people who know you, who listen to you? How can you open yourself up to deeper connections with those people? Who around you needs you? How can you show them that you love them, that they can trust you? Who do you not yet know…but can seek to know?

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SCRIPTURE: Revelation 2:2-5 & Ephesians 4:11-16

*AUDIO UNAVAILABLE; TRANSCRIPT OF THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE BELOW**

Good evening, everybody. It’s good to be with you again. Tonight, we are continuing in the second week of our series on reconnection. Last week, we started things off by talking about what it means to reconnect with God. If you weren’t able to join us, we said that reconnection with God has two basic components. The first is that God has come to find us where we are. This, I argued, is really what the cross of Jesus is most about: it’s the moment when God chooses to pursue us all the way into the darkest, loneliest, and most horrible places we could ever find ourselves in order to be able to say to us, truly and empathetically, that “even here, I am with you.” Because of the cross, we are never and will never be alone in our experiences of loneliness, or suffering, or injustice. In fact, when we experience those things, we can most intimately discover that our God loves us and is with us. So, that was component #1: God connects to us. The second component was about what we do in response to that connection, and the answer we found in Jesus’s parable of the vine and the branches is that we remain. We abide. Which is to say, we accept that connection and the abundance of life God offers to us. In our most desperate moments, he is near…and real hope is offered.

If we think about all this in the contexts of our own individual lives, what we talked about last week probably felt a lot like your personal “come to Jesus moment.” Many of us have stories about this: at some point in our lives, we were confronted with deep brokenness, and when we faced it, we made a choice to stop depending only on ourselves and to instead try our best to depend on the story and person of Jesus. At this moment, we became Jesus-followers; this is when we were “grafted,” as separate branches, into the “true Vine” which Jesus represents.

But, for many of us, it didn’t take long after we experienced this amazing moment of connection to discover that there are problems on this side of things, too. Why? Because there are other branches over here, too…and a lot of those branches have brought their own brokenness into this tree with them. This new story turns out to look a lot like our old story did: we became part of this entity of Christians called “the Church,” and we’ve seen that Church also make mistakes and end up in places of deep brokenness. So, how do we live with a broken Church? Does the same plan for company and hope exist for us collectively that existed for us as individuals? If the cross is where Jesus goes to find us in our separate lonely and broken places so that we might find community in him…what’s the plan for rescuing that community when it, too, seems to lose its way?

These are our questions for this week: how do we reconnect to the Church…and should we? What difference does it make if we don't?

To talk about those questions, I want us to look specifically at the first-century Christian community which formed in the city of Ephesus. The book of Acts tells us that the Ephesian church was planted by the apostle Paul and two local women named Prisicilla and Aquila. We know that Paul spent more than two years living in Ephesus to help the congregation find its footing in the city. We also know that the church flourished for several decades. But we also know that, during his exile on the island of Patmos near the end of the first century, the apostle John receives an apocalyptic vision about the return of Jesus Christ and the doom awaiting the Roman empire which we now call the book of Revelation, and in that vision, the church at Ephesus specifically shows up…and this time things aren’t all compliments and flattery. Apparently, something has changed in that church community over the decades, and not for the better. John writes,

Revelation 2:2-5

To [...] the church in Ephesus:

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.

So, what has happened? What was the “love” the Ephesians “had at first?” Why did they lose it?

Our best hope for finding out requires that we go back a few decades to a letter we have from Paul to this church he once planted. In that letter, we hear much of the same stuff John says: the Ephesians are hard workers; they have been critical of false teachers and have held true to their core beliefs and convictions. Furthermore, they have become one of the best examples in the early church of a truly “blended” congregation, in that they consist of both Jew and Gentile Christians who have avoided many of the rivalries and arguments between these two camps which dog other churches in the first century.

But there is a thread in Paul’s letter which John’s brief note suggests did not go the way Paul hoped it would go when the Ephesians read it. Paul writes in his letter that the reason God instituted the Church is specifically in order

Ephesians 1:10

to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

He writes that, because of what Jesus has done,

Ephesians 2:19-22

you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Later, he says

Ephesians 4:1-6

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

The thread Paul is weaving is a reminder to the Ephesians that they are part of a body called the Church. As a single congregation, they have much to be proud of, and they have thinkers and philosophers and theologians among them who are doing great work keeping their beliefs about doctrine and about God on track! But they seem to be tempted to believe that they can “go it alone” as a church community, and Paul is trying to keep them humble, open, and generous.

What is the “love they had at first” which Paul fears will be (and John confirms has been) forsaken? Although we cannot know for sure, an argument has been made that the love was brotherly love for Christ’s Church. And why might the Ephesians have forsaken this love? Well, look around at their neighbors: churches in Galatia, who we know quarreled endlessly about the divisions between Jews and Gentiles; churches in Corinth, who were prone to all sorts of inner conflicts. Ephesus had internal unity, as one part of the body…but Ephesus struggled to see the need for bodily unity in the Church as a whole. And so it seems they withdrew.

I bring their story up tonight because I think it can help us tell our own story. We, too, have known tribulations in recent years. We, too, have seen the faults of “the Church” as a whole all over the place, from Christians’ fanatical and often un-Christlike support for cruelty and prejudice and violence over the last few decades to the moves by many churches to “circle the wagons” during the last two years of the pandemic in ways that seem to have more to do with keeping their businesses afloat than loving their neighbors. And that’s just in the community of non-denominational churches! In the Catholic church, we’ve seen stories of rampant sex abuse and institutional cover-ups. In megachurches, we’ve seen pastor after pastor fall in scandal after scandal. Churches have “bought in” to the hope offered by politicians. Churches have been “bought off” by businesses and corporations and start-up culture.

In the wake of spending more than a year gathering online (where nobody can really check our attendance!), we have seen huge numbers of Christians–including many here at Revolution–who have drifted away from the Church in order to pursue and practice their faith more-or-less alone. And if we’re honest, it’s hard to blame them! You might be one of them: maybe you’re here tonight by a thread, too. If so, I want to say that I get it; I really do. To go back to where we started tonight, becoming a Christian was supposed to be an answer to our failures and disappointments. What are we supposed to say to someone who says, “I love Jesus, but I just don’t see enough of him in you guys.” I say this in all sincerity: this city is filling up with people in exactly this position. So, what can we do?

The first temptation is to do what it seems Ephesus did: we can set ourselves up as something different than all the other guys. Tired of politics in church? We won’t say anything! Tired of churches fostering discrimination? Not over here! Tired of the light show? We got rid of ours years ago! We can make ourselves a little island of something different when it comes to our faith…and we would feel good doing it.

So, why don’t we? Well, because I’m convinced the problem with going it alone as a church is the same as the problem with going it alone as an individual, and I hate to say it, but it’s this: when we set out alone, we don’t usually get very far. We tend to find a comfortable spot and settle into it. And that doesn’t do us any good…and it doesn’t do the Church as a whole any good, either.

In that letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes this:

Ephesians 4:11-16

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

There are two things I think we have to note here. The first is that the goal of this whole project God is up to in the world with us–the work that truly began when Jesus came to us in our despair on the cross, and then took its first enormous step towards the end goal when Jesus rose from the dead–is the maturity and fullness of the entire body of Christ. This gets a little metaphysical, so bear with me a moment:

The idea we see here, and throughout the letters collected in the New Testament, is that Jesus’s resurrection from the dead can be understood as a kind of rebirth. It turns out that Jesus goes first when it comes to being “born again”...and this time, he’s brought along with him not just a physical body, but a Spiritual body which we read over and over again is composed of us, the people of his Church. We are Christ’s new body, which is–yes–a kind-of symbol which helps us understand that we are his “arms and feet” in the world, or the means by which his love is meant to be felt by other people. But it is also a way of understanding how important we are to him…as well as how important our growth and unity are.

That passage above said, Christ gave all these gifts to us to

“equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

The point of our equipping as Christians (and our calling as friends and neighbors) is not just to do good stuff or to learn to behave ourselves. The point is “so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity…and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” So long as we aren’t staying unified and maturing, Christ isn’t maturing either: the whole thing God is doing in the world through the resurrection of Jesus is stunted. When we detach ourselves from the body of the church, we may think we’re choosing Jesus over people who are supposed to look and act like him but don’t. But we’re also choosing to stunt their growth into Christlikeness by stepping away.

As you all know, I grew up in rural South Carolina. I went to small schools that literally set their calendar around the assumption that kids would have to help their parents get the harvest in. I was always a good student–and not much of a farmer!–and so I grew up thinking a lot about how to get out of there. But, for both better and worse, my mom would have none of that: she always told me, “if everybody who’s different leaves, what’s going to change?”

Now, I want to be careful: I’m not calling you to become martyrs, or to stay in unhealthy situations. But I am saying that pulling back from the mess of the American church and saying, “here at Revolution, we’re doing things different!” may make us feel good…but it doesn’t do anything to help the whole. If we have been blessed by God with something different and unique, we need to put it to work in the body, so the body can grow to maturity. And this is important because the Church isn’t separate from Christ! He’s our “head”...and the maturity of the plan God is working out in the world through him depends on the Church’s growth.

The second thing we can learn from the Ephesians is more personal. That passage said that only by growing together will we

“no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”

This isn’t easy to say or to hear, but it’s the truth: if you’re disconnecting because you want to do all of this on your own, you won’t. When we go it alone, we end up unfed and needy. I wish this weren’t the case, but it is. And this isn’t an accident, nor is it some cosmic injustice: it’s the way we are made. From our first moments in this life, it is abundantly clear that we need each other, that we are made for dependence and not independence. When the people in our lives betray our trust–when they act in ways that are harmful to us, and to the name of Christ they dress themselves with–that brokenness isn’t just a poor witness, it’s so much worse than that! It’s a cancer in Jesus’s own body. But when cancer develops in an organ, the other organs do nothing for the body by shutting themselves down or running for the exit…even if that cancer is a direct threat to them. Rather, the only solution is radical healing.

Last week, we said that God connects to us, and then He pours life into us as we abide in him. This week, I want to say that God’s plan for the Church flows out from the healing that willingness to remain brings: if we want to see our world experience connection with God, we have to care enough about one another to do the hard work in our relationships that will actually reveal something greater is working within us.

If we want to see the American Church transform, we have to begin here. We have to begin with our own devotion, first, to the depth and sincerity of our faith, and second, to reaching out to the organs and limbs around us. As the pastor, I can do some of this: I can teach the Bible on Saturdays; I can work with Andy to launch new small groups for discipleship; I can work with Liz on finding service opportunities, and Maggie on creating fun moments for us to build our own community. I can even spend my work weeks investing in other pastors to build better partnerships with them. But those efforts won’t get us very far if we don’t show up together. As we feel more deeply connected here, we have the responsibility to let that life overflow from us and spread into the places around us. If you love our church, visit another one. If you have received more than you know what to do with, give your time as well as your money to a charity here in town. If you have deep friendships here, look around the room and find somebody you don’t know well and take them out to dinner a half hour from now. And if you know everybody here, come back tomorrow morning and find someone from Heritage you can take to lunch. The body will only reach maturity when we let what God is so freely giving us pour into the places where healing and hope are desperately needed. And sometimes, that’s inside the church as much as it’s outside the church.

The Ephesians traded their love for the church for love for their church. For many of us, our temptation is to trade our love for thechurch for a disconnected love for Jesus alone. But it’s precisely Jesus who refuses to leave us alone, or to let us stay that way. The truth this week is the same as the truth last week: we are already connected! The question is: are we willing to let ourselves feel and experience that connection? It makes sense, in the case of our relationship to the Church as a whole, to be a bit afraid of opening that door. But God’s very plan for the redemption and restoration of this world waits for us to face that fear, so that Jesus’s Church can find wholeness. I want to be a part of that work. I hope we all do.

I’m going to pray for us tonight, but I’m going to do it in a different way than I usually do. Most Saturdays, I would close the sermon with a “prayer of recognition”: I would thank God for who He is, and what His Words challenge us to do. But tonight, I’m going to close with what’s called a “prayer of intercession,” which is a prayer asking God to provoke change in us; to “intercede” in the trajectories of our lives, and the trajectory of our world. The prayer tonight is brief, and it was written anonymously. Afterwards, we will sing one more song before we close our service by receiving Communion together. Please pray with me:

Lord, my Rock and Redeemer, thank you that you know me and you love me. Your word says that your people are to love one another, serve one another, honor one another, teach one another, rebuke one another and build one another up. Would you bless your church that we can fulfill these commands with one another and help each other grow in our faith. May the Lord make us increase and abound in love for each other. May you establish our hearts as blameless in holiness before you. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. If you regularly attend church services, why do you do it?
2. We speculated a bit about what it means for Jesus to reveal to John that the Ephesians had “forsaken their first love,” arguing that this likely meant their sense of camaraderie and connection to other churches. Do you also struggle with this? If so, why?
3. Why is your connection to a local church important?
4. Why is our connection as a church to other local churches important?
5. Read Ephesians 4:11-16 together. What do you see here?
6. Do you think it is a problem to “go it alone” when it comes to your faith? Why or why not?
7. What are some ways you might “reconnect” with the Church as a whole? With Revolution in particular?

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SCRIPTURE: John 15:1-13

“It’s time for reconnection; truly it is. It’s time to see God not as Someone to chase but as Someone to trust. It’s time to see your faith not as a source of certainty but as a place for growing confidence. We can do this together, because God has grafted us into each other’s lives, just as branches are grafted alongside one another into a vine. We just have to remain…and to remain is to simply be in love: with God, our gardener; with Jesus, our Savior and hope; with our brothers and sisters, our companions in this world; and with our neighbors, who are already connected with us, too…even if they don’t yet believe it.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Let’s revisit this year’s conversation about (Un)Certainty: what are you learning about the desire to feel “certain” in your life? Where do you feel/sense this most urgently? What are you learning about “confidence” as a kind-of antidote or counter to that desire? Where is your confidence growing?
2. Now, let’s talk through the parable of the vine and the branches (John 15:1-13). What does it mean for God to be the “gardener” in this parable? What does our understanding of gardening help us to see about God?
3. What does it mean for Jesus to be the “vine” in this parable? What does our understanding of how vines work help us to see about Jesus?
4. What does it mean for us to be the “branches” in this parable? What is surprising about how the branch is described here? What is the branch tasked with “doing”?
5. On Sunday, Kenny said that what makes Good Friday “good” is that the cross is where the connection between us and God is made. What does this mean? How are we connected to God in this moment?
6. Kenny said,

“If Jesus is the source of our life, if Jesus chases us down even in the absolute depths of our despair, what can we do? What does the branch do in order to find its flourishing? It remains. It accepts–every day, every hour, every minute–the new life purchased on the Cross and promised by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The chasm that our sin created between us and God hasn’t been bridged, it has been filled, and Jesus has crossed over it in order to find us and graft us into real and true Life. Are we willing to let ourselves feel it? To be loved? To remain in love? To make our joy complete?”

What does this mean to you? What is so critical about “remaining”…and how do we actually do it? What can you take away from all of this as we move forward into 2022?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 4:31-32 & 4:26-29; Matthew 13:33,13:44, & 20:1-16; Luke 14:16-24

“Jesus identifies with us, so we can be incorporated into Him. Jesus chooses to experience all the messiness of a human life, including mockery and abandonment and false accusations and even torture and death, so He can wholly and fully identify with His own Creations. We have a God who fully and personally sees us, so that he can then bring us to true and complete liberation from our smallness, our meanness to each other, and incorporate us into His perfection and His story. The Empire-story shares itself–even gives itself–for the Subject-story, the Slave-story.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. This week we are dealing with what can feel like a pretty remote concept: the idea of a “kingdom.” What does that word mean to you? How would you define it? How might it be a relevant idea for you?
2. Kenny said that, in the kingdoms humans make, we incorporate so we can identify with power and control. Can you think of any examples of this? What are the limitations or problems with this kind of “kingdom”?
3. In the first four parables Kenny discussed, the “KIngdom of God” is presented as a mustard seed, yeast, a treasure in a field, and a harvest. What connects these four metaphors? What do they teach us about God’s Kingdom?
4. Kenny said that the core belief of the kingdoms of this world is that violence can be redemptive. How did you process that idea? Do you see evidence of it in your own life? How is this at odds with God’s Kingdom?
5. In the final two parables, God’s Kingdom is a banquet, where those who are invited refuse the invitation and so the invitation is extended to strangers on the street, and a vineyard, where all workers are paid the same wages no matter when their shift started. What does this tell us about God’s Kingdom? What does it mean for God’s Kingdom to be liberation…and how does this work?
6. How does Jesus turn the “incorporation for identification” model of earthly kingdoms upside down?
7. If we really are living in the Kingdom of God…what should we do? How do we live well?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 8:22-9:29

“Jesus didn’t come to be a social revolutionary, although he continues to upend societal norms and structures. He did not come to reveal a more ethical and moral way to live, although that can be a consequence of following him. He did not come to be the greatest teacher of all time, or the greatest prophet, although he is all that and more. Jesus came to suffer, die and rise from the dead. His words: not mine, nor anyone else’s. To miss this point is to miss the reason Jesus came to earth in the first place.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Mark 8:22-26: How do you feel about Jesus healing the blind man in stages rather than instantly? Do you see this as some kind of sign of limitation on God’s power?
2. Mark 9:14-29: Have you ever struggled with your faith regarding a specific event? Would you be willing to share? Is there a difference between unbelief and doubt? How can the two play a combined role in actually strengthening faith?
3. Mark 9:2-13: Place yourself in the sandals of the disciples. How would you have reacted to Jesus’s transformation? The Bible talks about Jesus being both man and God–how does Jesus’s divinity affect your everyday life?
4. What is your answer to Jesus’s question, “Who do you say that I am?”
5. What’s your reaction to Jesus’s emphasizing his suffering, death, and resurrection?
6. Has God ever done something that made you want to yell at him?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 6:30-8:21

“We have to experience God routinely…because if we don’t, the gap between what our fear leads us to believe about God and the God who truly is will keep growing. We need to keep seeing Him with a soft heart. We need to be eager to have our assumptions challenged, to have our ‘minds blown’ by Him! What we have in Jesus is unimaginable access to an utterly overwhelming God, and what is so wild and excessive and inconceivable about God? It’s His grace. It’s his unthinkable and unrelenting willingness to pour Himself out for the people and the world He has made. Every time we try to put a limit on His kindness, He blows past it. Every time we try to say, “this far, and no further! Surely a God as mighty and as just and as powerful as You will stop here!” He says to us, ‘Do you still not understand?’”

DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. Let’s take stock: what are you learning about Mark’s gospel in this series?
2. In our passages for this week, Jesus and his disciples travel back and forth across the Sea of Galilee several times, alternating between trips to the western shore (Jewish territory) and the eastern shore (Gentile territory). He even performs two versions of the “same” miracle in each place: feeding large crowds with a few loaves of bread. Why do you think Mark includes so many of these stories? What point is he trying to get at, as he presents Jesus’s story?
3. What do you think the disciples “don’t understand about the loaves”? Why does Mark says this specifically about their failure to recognize Jesus when he is walking on water?
4. Kenny said that these chapters are about the “feel-able mystery of Jesus.” What do you think he meant by that? What do you think is the “mystery” of Jesus?
5. Why do we (like the Pharisees) so often treat God as someone we have to impress with our good behavior before He will come to our rescue?
6. What can we learn from Jesus’s description of the crowds as “sheep without a shepherd”? How does this shape the way he treats those crowds?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 2:23-3:35

“Do we really believe Jesus is most interested in those of us who are still in the midst of sin, of rebellion against God and against him? Or do we think, ‘yes, he loves those people…but he most loves me because I pray and read my Bible and go to church every week’? The Bible tells us that Jesus is the kind of shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep in order to go find the 1: from the perspective of those 99, is this really good shepherding? And if you believe that you are really a Jesus follower…do you spend your own time and invest your own passions in the same way? Do you spend more time with the sick or the well? My hunch is that we are more like the Pharisees than we think we are, and that’s a bigger problem than we think it is. This is our topic for tonight: what’s the real danger of staying inside the religious bubble we tend to create for ourselves? What does it cost?”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. The Pharisees in this week’s passage continue to be perplexed by Jesus’s apparent willingness to break the religious laws about the Sabbath in order to feed people or work miracles. Put yourself in their shoes: why is what Jesus is doing so frustrating for them?
2. Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." How do you interpret this statement? How might it challenge you, as it challenged the Pharisees?
3. Kenny said that although Jesus is clear about his willingness to seek out the one lost sheep, even if it means leaving the ninety-nine!, we don’t often think about this from the perspective of the sheep who are “safe.” How does it feel to know that Jesus is most interested in those who are not already following him? When have you been the “lost” sheep? When have you been one of the ones who are safe?
4. The point of the intercalation section of Mark 3 seems to be that our “family” is actually stronger when the boundaries we use to define it are left open. Wrestle with this idea a bit: do you think this is true? How can it apply to your life? To our church?
5. What are some ways you can work to “expand your circle” this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:29-2:22

“This is the very heart of what we have so often gotten wrong in the American church: we’re supposed to be aiming at something. We’re not supposed to be trying to go backwards, to a point when we used to be healthy! Jesus is here for the sick, and if Jesus really is the Messiah, that means we have to rethink our Savior in Jesus’s terms: is the goal to restore Israel…or to grow Israel? Is the goal to restore me, or to grow me? This is our good news: every day, God wants us to get closer to the Kingdom of God. He wants us to go deeper in our relationships with Him, which are relationships He has made intimate through His Son and through His Holy Spirit. He doesn’t want us to always be seeking “do-overs” and “clean slates” and second, third, or hundredth chances to follow the Law: He wants us to His heart…which the Law merely reflects.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. This is the first weekend of the Lenten season. Talk a bit about your past experiences with observing Lent, if you have had any. What did you “give up”? What positive changes did you experience, if any?
2. In the passages for this week, we keep seeing a tension between who Jesus says he is–the Messiah!–and the expectations the religious leaders of his time have for that figure. Discuss this: what were the Pharisees looking for? What does Jesus say his mission in the world is? Why are they in conflict?
3. We often say Jesus “lived without sin.” The Pharisees would disagree: he does several things in these passages which made him ceremonially unclean. Why is this a big deal? What does it teach us about how Jesus views cleanliness?
4. We also often say that God “cannot bear sin in His presence.” Have you ever thought about how Jesus challenges that belief? What does Jesus’s ministry teach us about who God is and what God wants for His children?
5. Do you sometimes feel tempted to think about purity as something you start with…and are trying not to lose? What would it change in your life if you flipped that around: what if you’re becoming more pure, as a follower of Jesus? Does that change the ways you think of your past? Your future? Your present?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:1-28

“The Gospel of Mark is meant to invite Christians to keep their questions in front of them, because it will ultimately be those questions that see us through our own trials. If we think our faith is just about what we have declared we believe about Jesus–“Jesus is my Savior!”–we are still keeping ourselves at the center of things and putting our hope in our own strength. But the Christians in Rome are at this very moment learning the limits of their own courage in the pits of the Colosseum! Ultimately, what they need–what we all need–is a hope that comes not from what we can do but from what Christ is still doing in us, despite our weaknesses. Like the disciples, we have been invited to put down our nets and to follow Jesus in wonder.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some of the ways people might answer the question, “Who is Jesus?” How would you answer that question?
2. Why do you believe what you believe about Jesus? When and how has that belief shifted over time? What could cause it to shift in the future?
3. If the structure of Mark’s gospel mirrors that of a courtroom trial (where Jesus is being “accused” of being the Messiah), what evidence “against” Him do we see in the first chapter? Walk through it together: what is Mark’s “case”?
4. Kenny spent some time talking through the calling of the first disciples. What can we learn from this part of the story? Why does Jesus call them? What do they have to do in order to follow Him? What do you think they knew about Jesus, at the moment they decided to go with him? What keeps them in His entourage, over time? What can we learn from this?
5. At the end, Kenny said that the demon asks the right question: “what do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” Why don’t other characters in the first chapter ask this question? What does Jesus’s answer seem to be? How does this question affect your own view of who Jesus is…and why you might (or might not) believe in Him?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 4:3-20

“The Parable of the Sower makes us wrestle, but we are richer for that wrestling. We grow. Which, in the end, is exactly how the parable says things work: when we are planted in a place that is deep, when we reach down into the difficulty of things, we begin to flourish. Shallow understandings wither, or are snatched away. Emotionalism and sensationalism don’t endure. The Kingdom of God is a place where seeds scattered in dark places, even ones far from the path, can take root and be nourished.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Have you ever experienced a change in the meaning of something? What was it? What meanings did it have? Do you know why the change happened?
2. Why do you think Jesus spoke in parables? Do you ever find this frustrating? Why?
3. Read the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:3-9): what is your initial sense of what the parable means? What might another interpretation of it be?
4. Now, read Jesus’s explanation of the parable to His disciples (Mark 4:13-20). What does this clarify? What new questions does it present?
5. The “first rule” of reading a parable is to have “ears to hear,” which Kenny defined as a willingness to shift our perspective from what the parable teaches us to what the parable reveals about God and His Kingdom. Try to apply this rule to the Parable of the Sower. What do you see?
6. The “second rule” of reading a parable is to “look for more, not less,” which Kenny defined as a willingness to see how a story changes over time and from different perspectives (he compared this to the changing view from a window). Try to apply this rule to the Parable of the Sower: what do you see?
7. This week, our challenge was introspective: when it comes to your faith, are you hoping to know a thing more or to know more things? What’s the difference? In reference to the Parable of the Sower, what kind of “soil” is your heart? Are you content with the answer?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:16-18, John 4:28-42 & 20:11-18

“I want to challenge you to let go, little by little, of the desire to control your faith, to hold your beliefs in a clenched fist, and then I want you to experience the wonder of an infinite and loving and personal God. Then, as you experience it, you can let yourself share it the way you share anything that causes you to feel wonder: not in an effort to convince someone of anything, but out of a conviction that what you have seen is simply, and absolutely, worth seeing.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When was the last time you really experienced wonder? What happened? What did you do?
2. Sometimes, “evangelism” can feel a lot like making a sales pitch. Have you ever had a conversation about faith with someone that took that sort of a turn?
3. The big idea this week is that wonder is an antidote to this problem. Do you buy that? What do you think Kenny means by this?
4. Kenny talks about 3 ways of allowing wonder to reshape our witness. The first one is drawn from the story of Mary “treasuring” and “pondering” the visit from the shepherds: we, too, can start by treasuring what we have seen and experienced of God. Try to talk this through as a group: what comes to mind?
5. The second one is drawn from the story of the Woman at the Well: we can share what amazes us…even if it doesn’t seem like the most important part! How does this lesson connect to the story? How can it apply to your example in question 4?
6. The final one is drawn from Mary Magdalene’s witness to the disciples on Easter morning: we can trust that what amazed us really is amazing…which means we don’t have to argue about it or prove it. Our responsibility is simply to invite others to see it. What do you think of this challenge?
7. Evangelism is a difficult topic to discuss! What are your thoughts on it more generally? Why is it important? Why is it hard? How can we be more genuine and authentic witnesses to the wonder and mystery of God?

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SCRIPTURE: Colossians 2:2-10

“Just as Jesus is somehow home to the fullness of something impossible, the church is meant to be a home to that fullness, too [...] And we’re called to this because the world needs it. This whole time, the world has preferred a version of God that helps to explain us: why we’re here, who we are, what we’re meant for. But the truth is that we exist in order to testify to the nature and the mystery of Him: we feel love in a way that overwhelms us, but is just a fraction of the Love of God. We sense justice, but in a way that barely imitates the righteous character of God. We build communities and cities and nations, but in ways that are like sandcastles compared to the Kingdom of God. The point isn’t that we should feel small or pitiful or insignificant: the point is that in us, the mystery of God dwells.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Where are you, at this point in the series? What are you learning? What questions do you have? Where are you pursuing confidence over certainty in your own life?
2. This week, the focus of our series is shifting from how we can move from certainty to confidence in our personal lives to what the consequences of such moves could be for our church as a whole. How do you think the insights of this series so far could impact Revolution? Our weekly services? Our ministry to the city of Annapolis?
3. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul writes that his goal “is that [all the regional churches] may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” How would you interpret this verse? What does it mean for us to “know” a “mystery”?
4. What is so mysterious about Jesus? Have you ever thought of Him this way?
5. The challenge for this week is to embrace mystery. What does this challenge mean to you? How does it resonate with your spiritual journey as a follower of Jesus?

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 10:17-31

“If the rich young ruler’s mistake was searching for safety in what he has already done, and if the disciples’ mistake was resting in what Jesus will eventually do, the actual place where confidence seems to grow is in a daily, living relationship walking alongside Jesus right now.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. This week’s message was all about where we find our “wealth,” or the sense of security and safety we create for ourselves…and which we struggle to “give up” in order to fully commit to our relationship with Jesus. What is your “wealth”? In what areas of your life are you slow to trust? Why?
2. One of the most striking parts of the rich young ruler story is that even after the man boasts to Jesus that he has kept the entire Law without making a mistake, Jesus looks at him and loves him (Mark 10:21). What do you think of Jesus’s response? What does it teach us?
3. Kenny made the case that when the disciples boast about their own sacrifices and commitment to following Jesus, they reveal that theyaren’t exactly “living in the moment” either: instead, they are expecting rewards in heaven in exchange for their time suffering with him on earth. How does this connect to the story of the rich young ruler? How does it relate to the topic of “confidence”?
4. One of the hurdles when it comes to taking our confidence out of ourselves and putting it in God is confusing submission and self-loathing: the goal is not to see ourselves as puny or useless, but to see God as loving, faithful, wise, and generous towards us. What is a Jesus-centric view of self-esteem or self-confidence? How can we hold onto a sense of deep self-respect while also placing more of our confidence in Christ?
5. What steps can you take towards placing more confidence in your relationship with God? How can your friends in our community help walk with you towards this goal?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 14:22-33; also Matthew 8:23-27 & 4:18-20

“We all want certainty in our lives, especially in times like these, when answers and clarity feel so hard to come by. But we also need to consider what it means for our God to have created a world where certainty is so rare, where so much is unknown, where our perceptions are so limited, and–most importantly–where the desire for certainty so often leads us to put all of our trust in ourselves. What if what we are really meant to chase isn’t certainty but confidence? The problem isn’t that we don’t need saving. The problem is that we prefer to try and save ourselves. And yet, the story of Scripture, the revelation of God, and the experiences we have with the Holy Spirit teach us over and over again that God is capable and that God is trustworthy.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some of the uncertainties you are struggling with right now? They don’t have to be related to your faith!
2. How would you summarize the difference between certainty and confidence? Why is this difference important, particularly when it comes to our relationship with God or our hope in Jesus?
3. One of the big ideas this week is that we can’t pause our lives, get all the answers, and then decide what’s best to do–instead, we are always placing our confidence somewhere, whether we mean to or not. Does this make sense to you? Can you think of a time in your life that relates?
4. In the story in Matthew 14, Peter often gets a lot of grief for not having enough faith. However, Kenny argued this week that we get Peter wrong: not only does he have the courage to step out of the boat, but even when he is sinking, he cries out to Jesus for help instead of calling his friends or trying to swim back. How does Peter’s story relate to this discussion of certainty and confidence?
5. Kenny said, “What if a new way, a better way, to think about your journey with faith is as a series of opportunities to take little steps of faith, little exercises in trust, towards real confidence in God actually being who He says He is?” Have you ever thought of your faith this way? What might be challenging or encouraging about it?
6. Our challenge this week is to take small steps towards confidence…and to keep our eyes open in order to see the results. Where do you need to take a small step this week? How can we help hold each other accountable to this process?

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SCRIPTURE: Romans 15:1-13

“God is our living hope. When we call out to Him, when we surrender ourselves and our expectations to Him, we are not living in fearful anticipation, crossing our fingers and throwing wishes at a genie in the sky: we have hope. We may not know what God’s plans are going to look like, but we know they won’t be stopped, by us or anybody else, and at the center of them is His holy and immeasurable love for us. So, if we believe that, what in the world could keep us from living with contagious confidence for the sake of those around us?”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have you learned about hope over this past year? How would you define it, in your own words?
2. In his message, Kenny said that the biggest danger our church is facing right now is that “we will lose hope.” How is that a danger for a church? For us? What might lead us down that road, and how can we safely navigate our questions about this?
3. We have said several times this year that “hope isn’t a wish, it’s a person.” In the sermon, Kenny compares this to that famous line from Star Wars: “Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope.” How can hope be a person? What might it mean for that person to be…God?
4. The passage from Romans this week teaches us that to hold onto our hope, we need endurance and open-mindedness. How do each of these qualities strengthen our hope?
5. What do you most hope for…for 2022? Share this with someone close to you and remind yourself of it throughout the year: practice endurance and open-mindedness…do you see God moving?

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SCRIPTURE: Micah 5, Psalm 84

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SCRIPTURE: Zephaniah 3

“In God’s economy, we are always moving from an initial state of stubbornness, of rigidity, of overconfidence and arrogance into a state of humility, of gentleness, of flexibility, of submission. We are becoming softer, not harder! And the more we change, the easier it is for us to catch, to receive, God’s love for us...and then to share it. Our joy is increasing, it’s ahead of us. There is no time better than this one, than Advent, to be reminded of what is to come...and to feel replenished and restored by that promise and that hope.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does ‘joy’ mean to you? How have you heard it defined? When have you felt it?
2. What does the Bible teach about joy? What does it mean for joy to be a “fruit of the Spirit”? Where does it come from? What is its purpose?
3. The central metaphor Saturday was that “joy” is like a game of catch between God and us: God sees goodness in us and He celebrates it, He draws it out; we are then filled with His love and attention, and we are compelled to pour that back out in praise and compassion for our neighbors. What do you think of this metaphor? How is this situation “joy-bringing”?
4. On that note, the angels who appear to the shepherds on the night of Christ’s birth are very clear: their news will bring us great joy. What does that mean, exactly? How does it connect?
5. What gets in the way of your joy right now, of your ability to accept what God is giving you and then pour it back out?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 1.67-80 (Zechariah’s Song)

“Here’s the thing: real love seeks another’s good. It’s not just about convincing somebody that we like them. It’s about putting their wellbeing, their growth, their wholeness, their fullness above our own. In some ways, that’s a kind of self-sacrifice…but I think it’s more than just the old words about dying to ourselves. It’s also the joy of seeing someone open a gift! Our God sacrifices himself; our God paves the path to redemption; and our God invites Jesus’s cousin to tell folks that Jesus is here because God is so excited for us to discover how much we are loved, to see with his eyes. He wants us to participate in the story–not just to be the objects of his affection. This means that God’s love is aiming at our wholeness, our true joy…in addition to our salvation. I wonder if we reflect on this often enough: Jesus isn’t medicine God is trying to convince us to take! Jesus is a gift we are invited to unwrap, to claim, to embrace, to enjoy.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Talk for a moment about the story of John the Baptist. What is his role in Jesus’s story? What does it mean to “prepare the way” or “make the pathways” straight? What does he preach, and how does it serve the Gospel?
2. Now, read through Zechariah’s song together: what do you see? Why is Zechariah thankful?
3. On Saturday, Kenny compared John’s ministry to “unwrapping” the gift of Jesus. How might this resonate with you? What do you think Kenny meant by that?
4. “Jesus isn’t medicine God is trying to convince us to take, but a gift we are invited to unwrap, to claim, to embrace, and to enjoy.” How does this quotation sit with you? Does it challenge any of your ideas about Jesus?
5. How is our invitation to participate in God’s story connected to God’s love for us?
6. What can we learn from any of this about what it means for us to both accept and share love?

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SCRIPTURE: Psalm 25:1-10

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How would you define “hope”?
2. Our theme for 2021 has been Permission to Hope. Have you learned something about hope over the course of this year you can share?
3. Kenny’s big point this week was that the reason we often miss what God is doing is because our sights are set on what we would do rather than the kinds of things God does: our imagination is too small, and we are “looking for socks" instead of the good and amazing gifts God gives. How does this point resonate with you?
4. The key to recognizing what God is doing is to remember that the miracle of Christmas is God’s intimacy: God loves us in ways that will always be surprisingly personal and profound. Do you expect God to love you intimately? Why is this hard for us to remember sometimes?
5. What are you “hoping” for this year?

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SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 13:1-19

“God is the one who says, ‘I will give up something important to me to show you I’m serious about knowing you.’ He’s the one trying to cross the gap between us...because of course he is! Isn’t that what a God who is more just, more kind, more loving than us would do?”

SCRIPT AVAILABLE HERE!

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. The “paradox” at the heart of the letter to the Hebrews is that even Israel’s long story needs to be understood as a reflection of what Jesus has done and is still doing in the world. This is a big idea! What questions do you have about it?
2. Kenny compared this idea to an “echo” or a “quote”: how do the rituals of Judaism “echo” what Jesus has done?
3. As someone living 2000 years later (and more than likely not as an Orthodox Jew), does this point have any resonance for you? What does it mean for your faith that Jesus is “the center of the story”?
4. Our theme for this year has been “Permission to Hope.” How has that theme resonated with you in 2021? What have you learned about how hope works, or where hope comes from, this year? What still makes having hope difficult?
5. If our lives are meant to “echo” the life of Jesus, what do we need to know about him? How can we respond to this challenge?

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SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 12.3-29

“What we need in order to change is God’s constant presence in our lives: his loving forgiveness and his encouragement of our becoming the people he created us to be. Discipline is a scary word, but it doesn’t have to be scary in practice: we just have to stop running. We have to stop hiding. We have to stop avoiding the conversation, avoiding the pain that might flow from it...because what we’re really doing is trying to avoid having to change.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. The big question for this week is “do we sometimes choose to avoid hardships as a way of avoiding change?” How does this question make you feel? How would you answer it?
2. What has prompted real change in your life in the past?
3. Kenny’s thesis was that “real change is the result of the constant presence of those who believe we can be better in our lives.” What do you think about this idea?
4. What does God’s presence in your life look like? Are there ways you try to avoid his presence? What might happen if you leaned into (instead of away from) him?
5. What are some specific ways you could lean into God’s presence in your life?

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SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 11.1-12.3

“What can we do? We can live in relationship with God. We can fix our eyes on his example, and hold on to the combination of confidence in faith and humility in certainty Jesus embodies. When we wander from the actual example of Jesus into our assumptions about what God should do, we tend to cheapen our faith and trade it for pride. But the thing that makes faith so special is that it’s the only sense we have that forces us out of ourselves, out of our own narrow worldview. It’s the way we pick up on what someone else is doing, and seek to align ourselves to it.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How would you define “faith”? How have you heard it defined before? What makes this a particularly tricky term to work with?
2. The anonymous author of Hebrews writes that “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Try to put yourself in the context of a Jewish Christian, living in the first century: how might this definition resonate with you? What do you think the author is trying to say to this audience?
3. How do the stories of others’ faith help our own faith to grow? What is the difference, according to this letter, between the kind of faith our ancestors had and the kind of faith we, as Christians, are able to have?
4. What actual example of faith does Jesus set? What was he like? How did he model faith…even though he was also God? What can we learn from this?
5. What is the difference between confidence and certainty? Kenny made the case on Saturday that the American church has been “peddling certainty” in recent days, and that this is a source for real concern about our future. What did he mean? What might the problem be?
6. How can we be confident in our faith, even when we still have questions? Can we actually live as healthy Christians if we are still wrestling with doubts?

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SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 10.19-39

“Here’s the truth: when things are hard in the world, when it seems like God’s plan is either failing or taking far too long, we have to lean on each other if we’re going to really remember the promises our hope is built on. We can’t trust them on our own, because the best evidence we have to support what we believe is the love and the transformation we see in others. It’s hard for me to see what God is doing in me! But I can see what he’s doing in you. I can see resurrection in your story. I can be reminded that God isn’t bound by the game clock in your life...and so he’s not bound by it in mine, either.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Have you ever wondered why things aren’t better in the world? Where does that question lead you? What fears does it uncover? What can help you face them?
2. Kenny said that there are two big temptations we often face when we think about God in light of these questions: the first is that we think of him as a “disinterested watchmaker” who cares little for his Creation. The second is that we think of him as a riddle we’re supposed to solve: if we pray the right way or do the right things, he’ll do what we ask. Have you ever been tempted by these views? What might be dangerous about them?
3. If Jesus’s work actually restores our access to God, why don’t we tend to take more advantage of that? How might you pursue that relationship?
4. What is so doggone important about Jesus’s resurrection? What does it change for us, in terms of our fears about how long it seems to be taking for the world to change?
5. When have you been “stirred up” for love and good works in the past? What did the trick? How can you motivate and encourage others in this way?
6. Kenny said that it is absolutely critical for us to keep meeting together, to be present with each other, because we just can’t keep the faith without each other. What do you think he meant by that? What sometimes gets in the way of your presence in our church community? What would growth look like for you in this area?

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SCRIPTURE: Psalm 77

“This year, we’ve been talking about discovering our permission to hope, and Psalm 77 gives that effort a clearer expression and vocabulary than any other we’ve seen thus far. Here, where we have been and what we have seen helps to resolve our doubts about God and to have a stronger sense of his love and his character. Then, those very things enable us to look ahead to our future with confidence that, whether we succeed or fail, God will continue being who he has consistently shown himself to be: he will keep loving, he will keep working, he will keep delivering. Whatever roles we do or don’t play in God’s work are secondary to the hope we have in those core promises: God loves his creation, and he will continue to work for its good.”

SCRIPT:

I want to start by asking you a question: are any of you verbal processors? Do you ever talk things out, even as you’re still thinking about them?Does this ever get you into trouble?

This past weekend, my youngest, Graham, was learning how to play the board game Ticket to Ride with us. It was his first time. If you’re familiar with the game, the basic idea is that you use these multi-colored train cards to buy these small, shorter routes between cities in order to eventually be able to add them up to bigger routes that give you points. Over the course of a game–particularly with 5 people playing–things can get pretty crowded and pretty competitive...and thus, secrecy is paramount. But Graham was new at this, so he kept laying all his cards out on the table and, each turn, he would talk through what he was planning to do for himself. This makes sense for someone learning, right? But it also meant that the restof us had to do our best to not pay attention to what he was saying, and then, once we failed at that, to not thwart him! So, in the end...we all kind of beat up on a seven year old. It was not our family’s finest moment. In any case, what Graham was doing was verbally processing: he wasn’t sure at the start of things what he was going to do, so he talked it out to himself (and to us) in order to figure things out. But what we were doing was eavesdropping on that verbal processing...and trying to figure out how to respond to it.

I bring this up because today, on our 11th birthday, we are taking a break from our typical sermon series in order to talk about a particular psalm–Psalm 77–and I think the best way to think about this psalm is as an example of verbal processing in written form that we get to eavesdrop on: the psalmist begins in a dark place, and then he talks out what he’s feeling and arrives at a renewed hope. But what strikes me as curious about this whole thing, about the very existence of this psalm in a text that is two and a half millennia old, is why we keep copying all that processing work instead of just cutting to the chase, cutting to the ending, keeping the secret. As we’ll see, the “processing” takes the psalmist down some pretty dark roads! So, if we know the final answer by the end...what is the benefit in seeing how the writer gets there? The answer, I think, is that the end of Psalm 77 isn’t actually the point, it’s not why the psalm exists! Instead, I think Psalm 77 is meant to help us walk through our own thinking, our own processes, by giving us a guide to what that kind of work can look like.

So, let’s get into it. Because we’re outdoors here and we don’t have a screen to help keep us organized, I’m going to work through the psalm bit by bit...which should work, because the psalmist is working through it in the same way! Here’s how it starts:

I cried out to God for help;

I cried out to God to hear me.

When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;

at night I stretched out untiring hands,

and I would not be comforted.

We begin in grief and desperation. There’s a crisis, and the psalmist cries for help. There’s no real premeditation or ritual here: just that primal calling out to God that I imagine most everyone, at some point or another, participates in...whether they believe in God or not. That’s how the psalm begins: with a cry. And then, in the next verses, the psalmist gets more organized: we shift from crying to more formal practices of prayer and meditation. He writes,

3 I remembered you, God, and I groaned;

I meditated, and my spirit grew faint.

Then, he writes that God

4 kept my eyes from closing;

I was too troubled to speak.

5 I thought about the former days,

the years of long ago;

6 I remembered my songs in the night.

The psalmist was crying, shifted to praying, but that’s not working, so now he says he would most like to just go to sleep. I gotta say: this is highly relatable content. But no matter, because God won’t let him close his eyes. So, he sits silently, “too troubled to speak.” And then–just as often happens to me and also probably often happens to you when you pray–his mind begins to wander. He “thinks about the former days, the years of long ago”...and then also the “songs in the night” he has sung before. There’s a pattern he’s realizing this current moment of distress is connected to! And so, he goes on:

My heart meditated and my spirit asked:

7 “Will the Lord reject forever?

Will he never show his favor again?

8 Has his unfailing love vanished forever?

Has his promise failed for all time?

9 Has God forgotten to be merciful?

Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”

This part is so, so important: knowing that he’s been here before, that he’s cried out in pain to God before, that he’s felt alone and abandoned by God before, the psalmist tries to map out the implications of this pattern. It’s a bit like having an aunt or an uncle who has forgotten to send you a birthday card for a few years in a row: at this point, are we forgetting, or have they just given up? The psalmist wonders, “will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again?” In other words, should I even be upset? Are you even out there? These first verses represent private worries; they are only about the psalmist. But what if the problem is bigger than him? If he can be abandoned, what does thatimply about God? With that in mind, the psalmist asks, “Has [God’s] unfailing love vanished forever?” There’s a kind sarcasm here, right? If the love has vanished, it wasn’t unfailing! Which is to say, God isn’t who he said he was. Then: “Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful?” Has he become so angry that he no longer feels compassion?

This is where I feel so amazed by this bit of verbal processing: it takes courage for the psalmist to take what he’s feeling and stretch it out and look at what it would meanif what he is feeling is true! If we’re honest, I would bet we’ve all been in a similar place...but we aren’t always so brave. When Meredith and I are in an argument, I might feel, in that moment, that she hates me, that she’s given up on me, or on us. But do I have the courage to play that out in my mind? To think through that, if what I feel is true, what will happen next? Is she going to leave? Is she going to shut me out? Am I unlovable? These are all really scary thoughts! But that’s what’s happening here: the psalmist feels abandoned...and so they start to think through what it means if those feelings are true: if a God who says he is faithful forever leaves you...then hasn’t he failed to be an honest god? Is that possible? The psalm enters a dark place here as the poet wrestles with the real possibility that his own hardships undermine the very authority and commitment of God.

But then, because the psalmist is willing to actually map that dark place, he begins to see how what he fears is out of step with what he has experienced in the past! He says,

10 Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:

the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand.

11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord;

yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

12 I will consider all your works

and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

13 Your ways, God, are holy.

What god is as great as our God?

14 You are the God who performs miracles;

you display your power among the peoples.

15 With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,

the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

16 The waters saw you, God,

the waters saw you and writhed;

the very depths were convulsed.

17 The clouds poured down water,

the heavens resounded with thunder;

your arrows flashed back and forth.

18 Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,

your lightning lit up the world;

the earth trembled and quaked.

19 Your path led through the sea,

your way through the mighty waters,

though your footprints were not seen.

That was a long stretch there, but I just couldn’t bear to break it up or interrupt it. In the midst of his own doubts and his own pain, the psalmist finds comfort in remembering what he knows of God. He thinks, first, of God’s presence in his own life, in the ways that he has been blessed and loved in the past. And then he thinks: that God, the loving and faithful and invested God, is the God that most lines up not just with my history, but with all history. He remembers God’s miracles. He remembers how God redeemed Jacob’s family after Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. And then he remembers the moment during the Exodus when God parts the sea and leads his people across on dry land. And there, in that event, he finds the ancient analog to his own circumstance: he is drowning, lifting up his hands and desperately trying to escape his suffering...but his God creates a path that leads “through the sea,” “through the mighty waters” and not over them, “though [his] footprints were not seen.” God is both strong enough and loving enough to deliver you right where you are...and also great enough and mysterious enough to do it in ways you might not expect or recognize. His footsteps may be hidden–which is how the psalmist feels at the beginning! But that doesn’t mean he has forgotten or abandoned you. It doesn’t even mean he isn’t working out your deliverance even now. It’s an encouraging final thought: even though we don’t always see or feel him, we can trust from God’s track record that he loves us, and he will deliver us.

Which leads back to the verbal processing problem, right? If the conclusion is, “God is great! God works miracles! God is delivering you, even when you don’t recognize you are being delivered!”, what do we need those first 12 verses for? What purpose do they serve, aside from giving language to our own doubts and despair? Isn’t that a kind of harm? The best answer, I think, is that we’re not just looking at an answer we’re supposed to accept, we’re looking at a process we’re supposed to follow. And what is that process? I want to propose that it consists of three steps:

First, the psalmist is honest about where he is right now in his relationships with God, with others, and with himself. He’s desperate, he’s despairing...and then, in that lovely little moment in verses 3 and 4, he’s tired, he’s bored, he’s distracted and losing focus. There’s no performance here: he’s seeking honesty. And in our own lives, this is something we can and should model. We need to be challenged to take the mask off, put down the desire to spin things, and just name what we’re feeling. Oh man, I struggle with this! I don’t want folks to worry about me, so I’ll often share where I’m at...and then explain how it’s not a big deal; things will be fine. But what I’m doing is refusing a chance for verbal processing, for welcoming somebody else into the middle of the mess with me, instead of trying to just tell them about it after the fact. I’m chasing control, and I shouldn’t do that, if only because it short circuits my ability to do the second step.

The second step is to tell and listen to stories: in your life, in others’ lives, in the history of the Church, and in Scripture. Take the things you’re feeling and put them next to the things you know. The psalmist recognizes that he’s been in this pit before; he then remembers that there have been other times when he hasn’t been in the pit, and those also have to be accounted for in his view of who God is. He can’t build his skepticism out of only his lowest moments! This leads him to remember who God has been not only to him, but to others, to Israel: sure, God feels distant right now, but is God’s distance a fact or a reality about him? Ishe prone to distance? Or is he prone to presence, to compassion, to deliverance? These questions may feel like ones where the answer is obvious, but don’t let them be: have the courage to really face the implications of what you’re thinking, and then hold them up next to the bigger picture to see how things compare. Do the stories validate a belief that God is indifferent to you, indifferent to others? Or do they suggest something different?

These hard questions can then get us to the third step, which is to let what you know shape where you’re going. The psalmist has the formula, “if this is true about God, then I can trust He ___________” running right under the surface of the psalm. Rather than letting the short-term fears and emotions direct his hopes, he seeks out anchors to either reinforce or correct what he’s feeling. That doesn’t mean he’s rejecting his feelings! It means he’s trying to accept them and then hold them up to the whole of his story, of God’s story. So, this is a reasonable way to organize the psalm, and, I am arguing, a reasonable way to navigate our own dark nights of the soul: Have the courage to take an honest look at your feelings, put what you’re feeling in conversation with the stories of others, of the church, and even of yourself, and then let what you know shape where you’re going.

All year long, we’ve been talking about discovering permission to hope. In fact, it’s been our 2021 theme. And this psalm gives that claim a clearer expression and vocabulary than we’ve seen so far. Here, where we have been and what we have seen helps to resolve our doubts about God and to have a stronger sense of his love and his character...and then those very things enable us to look ahead to our future with confidence that, whether we succeed or fail, God will continue being who he has consistently shown himself to be: he will keep loving, he will keep working, he will keep delivering. Whatever roles we do or don’t play in God’s work are secondary to the hope we have in those core promises: God loves his creation, and he will continue to work for its good.

So, today is Revolution’s birthday party. We’re celebrating eleven years since our church was planted, eleven years of life and service in our city. And I’m drawn to Psalm 77 today because it feels like the process that this psalm is mapping out is also the right process for us on a day like today: Where are we? What stories can we share? What do we have permission to hope for?

I’d actually encourage you to talk about these very things in just a bit when we are socializing and eating cupcakes; if you think you might forget them, you can find them on your program! But to set the stage, I’ll close this morning by answering those three questions for myself.

Where are we? We’re a church that was deeply engaged in the hard work of reforging our culture and identity as a community–a process that was triggered by some major shifts in our sense of vision and then a major change in our leadership–before a global pandemic hit. So, we’re in a state of arrested transition: are we still the church we used to be? Are we trying to start over? Can we keep going at all? Does this matter? There have been difficult and discouraging times over the last 6 months as we’ve attempted to find a new normal! We can be honest about that.

But at the same time, even in facing hardship, what stories can we share? What have we seen in our own church’s history? In our personal histories? In 11 years, we’ve provided literally millions of meals for people who need them. We’ve been a major part of directly planting at least 7 churches. We’ve seen a hundred people begin their journey as Christians through baptism. We’ve forged partnerships, we’ve loved our neighbors, we’ve done our best to care radically for one another, and even though we’re small, God has used us to do big things: our debt relief efforts have wiped out more than six million dollars of debt in our state over two years. And even more: the stories of our efforts played a part in inspiring hundreds of other churches to follow our lead, resulting in more than half a billion dollars of debt forgiveness. All that to say, God has used us to bless others at a national level, at a local level, and at a personal level. This church and my relationships with all of you are an anchor for my growth and my faith. Absolutely, you are.

So, what happens when we put those stories in conversation with this moment? Things are hard right now; amazing things have happened in the past. Is this proof that we will survive, that we will grow and buy a building and remake our city for Jesus? No! Here’s what it is: we see, when we let where we have been shape how we think about where we are, that God uses our mistakes. God is patient. God is working love into our lives like a baker works yeast into bread, and then he is working us (and the love we are carrying) into our city in the same way. We see the importance of humility, of repentance, of trust in our own story. And I think we find real and living hope here: hope that God is good, that he loves us, and that he is not finished with us yet, no matter what happens next. I can step forward into that future with confidence not in myself or in our plans but in God’s love for me and for everyone around me.

My dear, dear friends: if we can trust in that, if we can believe God loves us and others deeply, we will see much better things than a 12th birthday. But our 12th birthday will be a great time to talk about them!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Where are you right now? Read through Psalm 77 again on your own. What sometimes keeps you from being as honest about where you are as you want or need to be?
2. What stories do you have? If look back on your life, can see times or seasons when God has been more/less present? Who has God shown himself to be to you, over time?
3. What stories surround you?
4. If God is consistent to his character, what can you trust him to be like now? What can you expect from him in the future?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 3:3b-9, Colossians 4:7-18

“There is one church in Annapolis–one church in the world–and we are a door among other doors into it. If we’re going to actually be a contributing part of the entire church’s success, we have to start thinking radically about what it means to be a part of the whole. We have to lean in to what makes this door distinctive and effective in its particular and unique context...and we have to lean out over to the side to make sure that the doors next to ours are able to succeed, that they are able to deeply and truly believe they aren’t on their own.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have your experiences been with rivalries–either real or perceived–between churches? Where do you think rivalries come from?
2. What would happen to tensions or “rivalries” in your own life if you were able to let go of the desire to be the “hero” in the story?
3. Why is it important for churches to “talk to each other”? Think about real, particular benefits in our own church community.
4. Why is it important for churches to “share with each other”? What does that look like for us, as a young church here in Annapolis? What makes it difficult?
5. What, in your view, is “unique” about Revolution? How can we do a better job of celebrating and sharing that with people who aren’t a part of this community?

How can you participate in celebrating and encouraging other churches in our city?

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SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 29, Philippians 2:5-11

“We need to seek our city’s flourishing for our city’s benefit rather than our own. We need to seek it because sharing love and kindness in our neighborhoods gives people reason and permission to have hope that there really is a God of Truth and Power and Justice in the universe. We simply cannot let our hopes for our own success or our own fame get in the way of that: we can’t insert ourselves between the hope we exist to share and the God whose goodness and glory can deliver it.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have your experiences been with serving your community at the church-event level? What has been really positive about those experiences? What questions do you also have about them?
2. Have you ever fallen victim to the temptation Kenny described this week to “look for the logic behind your blessings or privileges”? What makes this so tempting? What might be dangerous about it?
3. Read Philippians 2:5-11 together. What do you notice here? Why would this be a popular song in the early church? What is challenging or instructive about it?
4. What might it mean to love your neighbors or love your community for their own sake? What are some things that can make that difficult?
5. Do you ever struggle with a desire to feel useful or relevant in our culture? What problems does this create? What might help to relieve this burden?
6. Andy Crouch might ask us, “what keeps you from choosing sainthood?” How would you answer that challenge?
7. What are some practical ways you can participate in God’s love for your neighbors this week? What are one or two concrete things you could do?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 23:3-5, John 3:2-10, John 3:16-17

“The author of John’s gospel says that ‘God sent his Son into the world not to condemn it, but to save it through Him.’ This means there’s no shortcutting the relationship, because that relationship is actually the means God is using to save the world. In Jesus, the big picture and the little picture come together, and our questions find an Answer that sends us all the way back to the beginning, calling us to actually live differently. Then, Jesus teaches, that different kind of life will be the very thing that manifests the different kind of world you are hoping for.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When was the last time you actually changed your mind about something? Was it a quick process? What made it possible? How has your actual life been affected by that change?
2. Kenny argued that the culture we live in (like the culture of Israel in the 1st century!) puts more pressure on choosing the right political side or having the right opinion than it does on the slow work of living out what we believe. Is that true in your experience?
3. Read the story of Nicodemus in John 3. What stands out to you? What is Nicodemus seeking? Why is Jesus’s answer so challenging for him?
4. How do the famous verses of John 3:16-18 relate to the Nicodemus story that precedes them? What is the author’s point, do you think?
5. When you think about the big problems facing the world, do you ever feel impatient about the Way of Jesus?
6. What is so challenging--and what might be encouraging--about Jesus’s instruction that we must all be “born again”? Is there hope in this idea?
7. How do you need to respond to the challenge you find in Jesus’s words?

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SCRIPTURE: Luke 23:39-43, 1 Timothy 1:12-16

“The story of the Bible begins with a garden that is in perfect balance. Then, the human beings God puts there (the human beings God entrusts with that space!) mess it up. The consequence is that they get kicked out: “no imperfect people allowed.” But every page of the Bible that comes after that is telling a story about God’s plan to bring them back home. Which makes one thing absolutely inescapable for those who set out to obey and follow God: our God loves imperfect people.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Think back to the time before you either became a Christian or began exploring Christian belief. How did you think about Christian communities or churches? What ‘stereotypes’ came to mind? Which of those would you now say are ‘untrue’? Which ones still hold up?
2. Have you ever felt like you needed to behave in a particular way in order to ‘fit in’ in a church context? How does this resonate or clash with what you believe about Jesus and His ministry?
3. What do you think your attitude or behavior communicates to those outside the church about who Jesus is or what the church might be?
4. The “No Perfect People Allowed” slogan can’t just be about who and how we welcome outsiders...it needs to describe how we behave as insiders, too. Do you sometimes wear a mask in our church community? What steps can you take towards taking that mask off?
5. Who are some people in our church community you might be able to trust with this process? Would you feel comfortable reaching out to them?
6. How can being seen or being known help your faith grow?

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In this series, we will be exploring how God has formed and shaped the mission and values of our church over the last 11 years. This week, Matt Murphy—who was once our worship leader, then our executive pastor, and now works for Stadia Church Planting to help hundreds more churches get started each year!—shares about how church planting has been a key passion at Revolution since the very beginning. By sponsoring planters, hosting church planting residents, sending out members to join new plants in our area (and beyond!), and consistently giving 10% of our tithes and offerings back to church-planting, we strive to be an open-handed church, not striving for our own unique success, but doing all we can to promote the growth of God’s Kingdom by starting more and more local churches where people can discover a personal and radical relationship with Jesus.

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SCRIPTURE: Genesis 1 & 2

CHALLENGES:

1. Know God. He’s real. We need him. We’re made for relationship with him. So listen for him. Talk to him. Build that rhythm into your day. Start this week!
2. Know Others. He’s telling a story that’s bigger than the two of you! To see what he is doing, we need to listen and learn. Don’t focus on what you are defending...ask questions this week. Of your neighbors. Of your co-workers. Learn stories...you will see God in them.
3. Know Creation. This might sound like a strange challenge, but go for a walk. Listen. See. Wonder what God loves so much about all of this. What he reveals about himself through it. Take a walk.

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SCRIPTURE: Psalm 50

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 4:7-5:14

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 3.13-4.19

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 2:13-3:13

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. This week’s verses are among the most famously troubling (and most often abused) in all of Scripture. Why do you think this might be? Are there aspects of verses like these that worry you? Why?
2. Kenny said about Peter’s message here that “the plan isn’t maintaining the status quo–which is how these verses are so often abused!–the plan is counter-cultural kindness.” What do you think this means? What is potentially “counter-cultural” about these verses?
3. Why does it matter that the instructions to wives and husbands here are directed at women and men whose spouses are not Christians? How does that affect what Peter is saying?
4. Peter’s argument is that our eternal freedom “frees” us up to submit in culturally surprising ways…and, by virtue of how surprising they are!, to open doors for the Gospel. Have you seen this work in your own life? How are you challenged by this?
5. Part of the point this week is to consider how the relationships you are in constitute a “mission field” for your life. Where can you invest in others in life-changing and hope-bringing ways?
6. The final challenge this week was to share our own stories in the same way the anonymous author shares his story to Diognetus about Christians in the first century. What is so powerful about this letter (text below)? How might your own story be powerful?

From EPISTLE FROM MATHETES TO DIOGNETUS (c. 1st century):

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred. To sum up all in one word — what the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world.

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 2:4-2:12

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. What does the word “priest” mean to you? How would you define the role?
2. What do we see in the example of the Aaronic priesthood about what it means to be a priest?
3. What “priestly” jobs has Jesus already done for us? What job(s) does that leave us to do?
4. Kenny said on Sunday that “there is nothing revolutionary about setting yourself up as a revolutionary. What is revolutionary is taking all of your talents and gifts and putting them out on the table for everyone to use.” What do you think about this? When have you seen this in practice? How can you participate in this kind of “revolutionary” behavior yourself?
5. How can a church like Revolution best participate in the “priestly” calling we have been given?
6. How can you best participate?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 1:10-2:3

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. Why is it so important to Peter to make sure his (Gentile) readers know that they aren’t at the margins of God’s story? That they are connected to the story of Israel? How might these reassurances matter to people facing the situations his readers are facing?
2. Do you think of yourself as being free? Why or why not? What kind of freedom is Peter promising you in these verses, if you are a follower of Jesus?
3. “Free to do what?” This is the question that animates the sermon today. His answer is to pursue holiness. Have you ever felt confused or unsure about this word or how you might pursue it? What are you learning today about pursuing holiness? How is your freedom connected to this pursuit?
4. Peter tells his readers to live “as foreigners in reverent fear.” What do you think he means by this? In what ways do we live “as foreigners” in our own communities? How can living this way actually be something beneficial, or something for us to desire or pursue?
5. We are also told to “love one another deeply, from the heart.” Where or when have you experienced this kind of love in a church, or from other Christians? How can you be more intentional about extending this kind of love to others? How can Revolution better love this community?
6. In what ways have you personally “tasted that the Lord is good,” even in this difficult year? How might remembering those moments help you to live into your freedom as a Jesus follower?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 1:1-7

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. What are “Fern’s Rules for Living Nomadically”? What is the big opportunity feeling like a nomad can create for you?
2. Have you ever felt like the Gentile Christians Peter is addressing in his letter? Like aliens in your own community? When did this happen? What got you through it? What were you able to learn?
3. Peter’s encouragement to these Christians has 3 main parts: he tells them God sees them, he tells them God is connecting them to His story, and he tells them God dwells in them. How do these 3 things equal “encouragement”? How might you relate here?
4. Peter’s reassurance to these Christians has a lot to do with their inheritance. What is going on here, do you think? How can we benefit from this reassurance, too?
5. Lastly, Peter celebrates the faith these Christians have already demonstrated. What is so significant about this praise coming from Peter? What is his story, when it comes to faith in Jesus? What can we learn from him?
6. What does it mean to have “permission to hope”? Do you feel like you have this? Like you need this?

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Good morning, everybody. Thanks for watching with us today. This week, we are talking about our final “valleys” in the current series, which are fear and anxiety. Just like the previous weeks, we are going to be exploring how God recognizes and addresses our feelings in the stories and words which are preserved and passed on to us in Scripture. But before we get there, I want to start by talking a bit more about the feelings our verses today are addressing. What is fear? Why is the experience of it woven into our lives in the first place, and what is meant to produce or meant to do? And finally, how does God work in our experiences of fear or anxiety in order to bring his perfect love to bear in the world, and in our own lives?

Fear, of course, is the easier of the two terms to define: fear is an instinctual response to a perceived threat to our health or safety. We feel fear at a base level, and when fear comes over us, our body floods our system with adrenaline in order to help us fight or flee from danger. To answer that second question, fear is woven into our lives in order to protect us from the kinds of harm which exist in a Creation that is no longer safe for us. In this sense, fear isn’t primary to being human--which is to say, it isn’t an echo in us of God--but it is something we have developed, over time, in order to survive. When it comes to how we best process our fears, the work “feeling afraid” gives us to do has two parts: first, we need to identify what is dangerous...and then we need to escape that danger. So, when we are standing on a ladder and it begins to wobble, we first feel that rush of adrenaline shoot through our system, and then we have to try and figure out what’s going on and how to react to it: did something break? Is someone shaking the ladder? Is it our sense of balance? And the adrenaline gives us that almost-superhuman burst of strength to respond.

All that to say that, when it comes to fear, we’re not dealing with a state or condition of existence so much as we are dealing with a way we have adapted to survive. Fear isn’t something we share with God--God, being God, can’t be afraid. But it’s also not very long-lasting: we feel fear in short bursts of time.

Interestingly, “fear not” is the most common command in the entire Bible, and I would wager this is largely because the sudden sound of the voice of God or the appearance of an angel in our lives would feel a lot like shaking a ladder we’re standing on: it would cause a jolt to run through our system--that shock of fear--and, recognizing that, God is quick to try and calm us down: no need to run, no need to fight; it’s okay!

But, if that’s all true, then fear isn’t exactly a “valley,” is it? It’s more of a crack in the earth or a crevasse: deep, sure, and dangerous...but momentary, and something to be navigated quickly.

But what about that other way we use the word fear, the one that might also carry the label of “anxiety”? Which, to extend that metaphor, we might think of as a crack or crevasse we fall into: what happens when we don’t get out of the danger quickly and instead, we end up living with that sense of unease and worry over and over again, all of the time? That experience can become a valley...and a particularly dangerous kind of valley, since it’s a kind with no clear way out.

I want to make the case today that that kind of fear--the anxious kind--rises out of a threat not to our literal selves but to our idea of ourselves…and that God challenges us to navigate the valleys of anxiety is by 1) naming what we fear, 2) remembering what he wants for us, and 3) resting in what he believes to be true about us.

To talk about all of this, I’d like to look at someone who I often think of as the most anxious person in the Bible: the first king of Israel, King Saul. To set the stage for our verses this morning, we need to remember who Saul is and how he came to be in the place where we find him. Saul is the first king of Israel after their deliverance from Egypt and their establishment, under the reign of the Judges, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean in a place called Canaan. But crucial to Saul’s story is that Saul shouldn’t have ever been king: he is anointed by the prophet Samuel, who is also the last of the ruling Judges, after the people of Israel, who had grown comfortable in their prosperity, cry out to God demanding a human king, that they might look more like their political neighbors. God, we must remember, had established himself as Israel’s king, with the Judges serving as his emissaries. But once the people of Israel are safeenough to pause and realize that this arrangement is weird in their context, they demand to be more normalin their governance. God at first rejects this call...but, in time, he decides to allow them their king...although with a warning that the king’s kingship will be disastrous and unjust.

Then, in that context, Saul is chosen. All of that backstory then haunts him: insecure in his kingship, Saul is overly dependent first on Samuel’s approval, and then his overdependence on the approval of the people--which he wins through military campaigns--leads him to impatience and cowardice. Three times during his kingship he gets himself and his armies into risky situations and then, only when faced with his mistakes, does he seek God’s aid in propping him up. And three times, God’s silence towards Samuel becomes his undoing, as the pressure on him builds and he panics, trusting his own wisdom over God’s instructions.

The last of these instances is the one we’re going to talk about today, and you can find it in your Bible in 1 Samuel 28. The Israelites have once again gone to war against the Philistines, their neighbors, but as the armies gather for battle, Saul runs into a problem: Samuel, the prophet who anointed him and who he trusts to communicate God’s promise of victory for him, has died. After he died, Saul followed one of his final instructions in the kingdom and, as verse 3 tells us, he had “put the mediums and necromancers out of the land.” He got rid of the psychics. But on the eve of battle, Saul

1 Samuel 28:5-6

saw the army of the Philistines [and] he was afraid...his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.

Saul experienced that first kind of fear: his life was threatened, and he was trying to find a way to survive. All that is reasonable! And then, that fear led him to ask God for help. Also reasonable! But then, getting no answer, something else happens to Saul: he ties God’s silence to that bigger worry that’s always hovering in the background for him, which is that he isn’t really supposed to be the king. His identity, in other words, comes under threat...not just his life.

We know this because of what he does next: he calls his advisors together and tells them to go find a medium, a psychic behind enemy lines in Philistine territory. Then, he disguises himself as a peasant and goes to her to seek counsel. Which is to say that Saul’s fear isn’t really that he might die--he does something extremely risky here! Something that could easily get him killed!--it’s that he might lose. Meaning, his army might lose. And finally,hear me on this: he reveals that he has no confidence in who God has already told him he was. Saul was anointed: like it or not, God chose him to be king. But Saul found his confidence, his hope, in his performance as king--which is to say, how others saw him.

You see the irony, right? Israel wanted a king because they were overly on what other nations thought of them. And then the king they got becomes overly focused on what they thought of him. It’s a shell game: when we look to solve our own insecurities by putting our identities in the hands of other people, we are placing our trust in people with their own insecurities, which they might be trying to solve by placing their trust in us. There’s no anchor here, there’s not fundamental stability: we’re all just performing for an audience of performers who are themselves performing.

And so, for Saul, things go about as you would expect: he finds a woman known (amazingly!) as the Witch of Endor (yes, just like the Ewok moon!). And he asks her to summon Samuel...and, in what is frankly one of the more puzzling passages in all the Bible, it works. Samuel appears, and here’s what they say to each other:

1 Samuel 28:15

Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul answered, “I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more...Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do.”

Let’s pause and note how relatable this content is: Saul starts with what is understandable, his apparent fear: the Philistines are going to kill me! He adds to that a bit of self-pity: God won’t talk to me anymore. But that’s just a deflection for what is really bothering him, his anxiety, which is that he doesn’t know what to do in order to win and hold on to his power. To which Samuel says,

1 Samuel 28:16-17

“Why then do you ask me? [...] The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David.”

Samuel’s words cut right to the heart of Saul’s fear: it’s not about the Philistines, it’s about you, and your worry that you will lose the throne. You will lose your title. You will lose what you feel, at your deepest, makes you who you are. And the irony? Although the Israelites will lose this battle, it’s this battle that will set the political stage for David’s rise to the throne.

So, what to do with any of this? What grounds what we’re talking about here? I think what can reach out to us in the valleys where we experience the crushing weight of anxiety in our own lives--a weight many of us are carrying right now, as we look at the uncertainty of the year ahead, of the uncertainty of our jobs, of the uncertainty of our lives in a country where so much around us feels so broken--is a challenge to try and name our real fears. Part of what leads Saul so far astray is that he has this whole military battle to distract him from his deeper insecurities, from his real problems. And, being king, it’s a distraction he has created for himself! Now, most of us can’t start literal wars to avoid facing our own insecurities...but we can do the same kind of thing in other ways:

We can create tensions in our relationships to try and distract us from the fact that we are putting too much of our identity into what our partner thinks of us. Have you done this?

We can numb ourselves by drinking a bit too much, binging Netflix a bit too much, being on our phones a bit too much, in order to avoid confronting that what we’re really afraid of is that we’re not as successful as we thought we were going to be, we’re not as in control of our lives as we imagined we would be.

We can overwork ourselves to a point of misery in order to avoid confronting the fact that we struggle to know who we are if it’s not tied to a job, tied to what we do.

That’s where I find myself so, so often: I’m scared of failing as the pastor of this church. I’m scared of Revolution suffering because I’m not good enough, not creative enough, not visionary enough. And so I try to keep as busy as I can, so I can justify myself if the thing I’m afraid of comes to pass. But here’s the truth: what makes me worth loving, what makes me worthy, isn’t succeeding as a pastor. To name my fear--my real fear--is to acknowledge that I’m scared I’m not good enough. I’m scared I only matter to people if I am useful to them. Which is to say, I’m scared I don’t matter. But to put my hope, to put my trust for that, in this job and what all of you--people I really care about!--think of me is to build a house on sandy soil. It’s to set myself up on an eroding foundation.

I’m chasing likes. Rather than allowing myself--allowing myself--to be loved. I’m trying to take control of the ways other people value me...rather than trusting that my value is secure. Saul isn’t king because he wins victories. He’s king because God anointed him.

This is the first big thing this morning: when we are anxious, we need to name our root fears. When we do this, something kind of magical can happen: by turning something big and existential into something specific, we give that other half of the equation this morning--that classic fear response--a chance to do some good work! When our anxieties are unmasked and fears are named, we have an easier time assessing what real threats are posed and what we might be able to do to protect ourselves. To go back to that somewhat silly illustration of standing on a stepladder, it’s the difference between thinking we just have a wobbly ladder--there’s nothing we can really do about it; I just live with this--and pausing to really look at what’s going on down there. What if it’s not a wobbly ladder, but there really is someone shaking it! What if you didn’t set it up on a flat surface to begin with? When we name the real fear here--I might fall!--we can do better work to get to the bottom of what the source of the insecurity is.

Second, we can recognize something really profound in the rest of Scripture, beyond the story of Saul, which is that God very specifically does not want us to live anxiously. There are a litany of verses to this effect:

Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Psalm 55:22

Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Proverbs 12:25

Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

Fear is part of how we are made to be: it’s a tool God has given us to protect us. But anxiety isn’t part of the plan: it’s a problem, which develops when big fears prey not on immediate dangers but on our insecurities, turn themselves down to a simmer inside of us, and put on masks to keep us from seeing them! Unmasking them...and recognizing, as we unmask them, that they are not part of God’s plan for us are steps one and two.

And finally, step three is to rest in what God promises to be true, which is that our worth is something he alone can guarantee. In the end, Saul’s insecurity is the reason he falls apart. He can’t bring himself to trust that God’s anointing is enough; that, once God anoints Saul, it’s God’s reputation that is on the line! That point is so, so important, and it’s the one I would like to end on: when God anoints Saul, God is the one saying Saul is the king. Which means that, if Saul is a poor king, God is, in a sense, the one who was wrong about him. God wants Saul to succeed; he is going to work towards Saul’s effectiveness. What sabotages things is that Saul fears that God is always on the verge of cutting him off, of being displeased with him. But that’s not what happens in the story: Saul ends up cutting himself off, metaphorically by failing to trust in who God says he is and symbolically by going behind enemy lines to consult with a medium and a ghost. What Saul could have done, had he not succumbed to his anxiety, would have been to rest in the God who has named him the king.

And the comparison to us begins to come into focus, right? Because God has declared things to be true about us, too, right? Specifically, he has said that Jesus’s solidarity with us has made us children of God. If God’s reputation was staked on Saul’s kingship...what is staked on our sonship, our daughtership? Is it not God’s love? God will not let us go. We are God’s children, of infinite worth to him. No sin, no failure, no weakness can unmake us, can destroy our value, our worth. If the root of my insecurity and anxiety is that I don’t matter, God says otherwise.

I want to listen to that more. I want to feel that more. I want you to tell me that; I want to have chances to tell you that: God thinks we’re worth it. God thinks we’re worth it.

As we close, I want to say that we’re in this together. Our responsibility, as followers of Jesus, is to testify to the loving character of God with our whole lives. To do our best to imitate his kindness, his selflessness, his servitude. And so this is a role we really can play in one another’s lives: we can remind each other of the way God sees each one of us. We can love each other beyond our material successes, beyond our positivity or our pleasantness. We can be people who are quick to say, God think you’re worth it. Worth all of it. Your dignity isn’t negotiable; it’s not contestable.

So first, let us be allies with one another against the insecurities which lead to our anxiety.

And second, let us be bullhorns in our city, shouting out on behalf of those whose infinite value as children of God is under assault. You are worth it. You are valuable. You are secure...and I, to the best of my ability, will be the hands of God wrapped around you to protect you, to embrace you, to lock arms with you.

REFLECT:

1. What feelings do you sometimes find yourself “stuck” in? What are your “valleys”?
2. How have you seen God be present with you in these moments?
3. How have you experienced the presence of others in these moments?
4. Lots of the sermons here talked about naming what we are feeling as a critical step: name our powerlessness, let ourselves give up, accept our grief, be ‘long-nosed’ and reflective on our anger, name our fears when we are anxious. What is the power naming has? From a Biblical perspective, does this strike you as interesting? (See: Genesis 1-2!)
5. How can our group be a refuge moving forward? How can we be intentional about caring for one another in “valleys”?
6. Our theme for this years is Permission to Hope. How does this series connect to this theme?

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SCRIPTURE: Genesis 4:1-15

REFLECT:

1. The big idea this week is that anger isn’t the problem; arrogance is. What are your thoughts on this statement?
2. Do you feel that anger is either good or bad? How do you experience anger in your own life?
3. Kenny said that Cain’s anger (the first anger in the Bible!) caused his “face to fall.” What do you think the significance of this is? Fall from where?
4. Cain’s anger also leads to his famous retort, “am I my brother’s keeper?” What does this reveal about Cain? About his priority in this moment? How are we also guilty of using this question to avoid our responsibilities in the world?
5. What can we learn from God’s anger in this story? What does he do/what doesn’t he do here?
6. How can we be more “long-nosed” with our own anger? What can we do to avoid what is dangerous in it and honor what is good in it?
7. Where should we be angry as we look at the world today? What is the God-like way to deal with that anger?

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SCRIPTURE: Job 14, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

REFLECT:

1. When you hear the word grief, what do you think of? What experiences have you had, or are you now having, with grief? How would you define it?
2. Kenny said that “grief is the very place we fear no real god can follow us...but it is also the very place our God does.” What do you think of this statement? What does it mean? What is “at stake” in it?
3. One effect of Jesus’s death on the cross is that it means when we grieve, “we have Divine company.” Do you believe God knows about our grief? If so, how does it feel to know he understands? What does it reveal about his character?
4. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” What does this verse mean? How can it apply to your own life?
5. Who around you is grieving right now? If you don’t know, how can you find out? How can your own grief serve them? How can you follow God’s example in this relationship? What would such a thing mean?
6. If you are carrying grief alone today, please reach out to Kenny to talk about where you are. What you’re feeling is okay...and you don’t have to carry it alone. You can email him at kenny@revolutionannapolis.com or call at 803.727.8500.

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SCRIPTURE: John 20:11-23

REFLECT:

1. Kenny argues that saying “He is risen!” is the single most important claim in Christian faith. What do you think he means by that? Do you agree? Why or why not?
2. Why is it significant that the Roman authorities,the chief priests, andthe disciples all blame each other for the disappearance of Jesus’s body on the morning of the third day? What does it suggest to us, as we consider the events from a historical perspective?
3. When Mary goes to the tomb and finds it empty, what does the risen Jesus say to finally get her attention/reveal himself to her? What might we learn from that, in our own lives? What does it teach us about who God is and how God feels about us?
4. In this sermon, Kenny argues that giving up is a good thing. He says it’s necessary, if we want to recognize a real miracle when it happens. What do you think he means by this? How does it fit into the story of Easter?
5. Where are you struggling with feelings of “giving up” in your own life? How can the Easter story meet you where you are? What comfort might it be able to provide? How are you challenged by this message…and who can you share what you’re feeling with?

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Good morning, everybody. It’s good to be able to speak with you today. Today, we are starting a new series called In the Valley, and the big idea is that the Bible doesn’t run from hard emotions or low times. We see suffering, sadness, depression, and grief throughout this book; in nearly every chapter, as a matter of fact! And this is no accident, because as it turns out, the Bible isn’t just a book about how we are supposed to live: it has also long served as a resource for helping people through the low and even defeated places in which we sometimes find ourselves. If we read the book carefully, and treat the hard times it records not as aberrations or mistakes but as part of why Scripture exists at all!, we can find a hope here that is not rooted in learning to be happy or ignoring pain...but in recognizing God’s presence with us, even in the depths of our despair. The idea is that God is here, too: with us, understanding us, and always and forever in love with us. Which is all to say that God promises we are not alone...wherever we may be.

The preaching team and I decided to develop this series now, in the second spring of our pandemic lives and as we are all praying and hoping we are just maybe on the leading edge of returning to some of the things that make life seem more normal, because the more we have thought about it, the more we believe that it would be a mistake to treat this last year as a “blip” we can move past and forget. It’s been stressful and hard for every one of us; I know that is true. It’s been hard for Revolution as a church, too: without a building or regular in-person meetings to anchor us, our community has splintered in some ways, and although I’m genuinely excited about the opportunities we will have in the year ahead, I also know we won’t get through all of this unscathed, as a church: there are folks who have left our community and won’t come back. People here have experienced death and loss and grief that is still reshaping who they are. The Revolution we’re going to return to won’t be the same as the one we left, some 54 weeks ago. But if we try to just bury all this hardship, or pretend none of this ever happened, we’re giving up on any good it still might generate! We say all the time that God is not done with us--and he’s not! He’s working, even in this mess. It would be a mistake to give up on that.

So, in the weeks ahead, we want to think about where we are, about how our friends here in this community might be struggling. And we want to address all of this together because no matter what you’re going through, if we can bring it into the light, God will use this church family to help you shoulder it, and even to help all of us still learn something from the road you have traveled.

This first week, I want to talk briefly about two things. Well, maybe three things--we’ll see how far we get! The first is my own experience in the last few months with numbness and powerlessness. That’s the road I’ve been walking, mental health-wise, and I know more good will come from sharing where I am with you than burying it down within myself! The second thing I want to talk to you about is where I’m seeing my reflection in Scripture these days. In particular, I want to talk about the book of Ecclesiastes. And then finally, I want to talk to you about one thing I’m learning from that reflection. It’s going to be a bit of an unusual sermon--maybe a bit less like listening to someone read an essay than it usually is!--but I’m praying it sets the stage for us in the weeks ahead.

So, Thing #1: where I’m at. As most of you know, my entire family battled Covid-19 throughout most of February and March. It started with my girls, Evangeline and Cecilia, who tested positive just after Valentine’s Day. Although they weren’t experiencing any serious symptoms, we went into a panic in our house trying to figure out how to isolate them in their bedroom in order to keep the rest of us safe. For 3 days, we gated them off and brought them food to their door and tried to make things seem a bit more normal by having movie watch-parties on computers in the evenings. Then, on February 19, Graham and I tested positive, too. This changed the game, as now we needed to keep Meredith safe from the rest of us, so she quarantined upstairs and we brought her food! This all seemed to work, and for the next few weeks, I battled fatigue and minor flu symptoms and we kept pressing on. Then, with things apparently behind us and cleared from quarantine, we tried to seize a moment of immunity to finally go visit my folks in South Carolina, who we hadn’t seen since last summer. On Friday, March 5, with Meredith still testing negative over and over again, we headed down. And then, on the morning of March 6, while at my parents’ house, Meredith got a positive PCR test. We turned around and came home so Meredith could isolate. I was devastated: for a year, we had said no to so many things to try and keep my parents safe. And in the end, we took the coronavirus right into their home. We thought we were through it...but we got sucked right back in.

Meredith’s bout was similar to mine, but on her third night of feeling pretty sick, she had her first panic attack. She woke me at 2:30 in the morning, afraid she was going to die without having a chance to tell the kids goodbye. She was fine, in the end--but after this, I really shut down. On the same day, the church website was hacked and stolen; all our emails were disabled. I felt helpless and totally cut off, and after a year of trying to be a good leader and trying to hold things together and trying to make responsible decisions, I just broke: I’d poisoned my parents, I couldn’t help my partner, the only ways I had to reach my church family were broken. I couldn’t physically see anyone. And I went completely numb. Maybe more so than any other time in my life. I knew there were things I should be feeling, but I couldn’t feel them. I was just getting up, doing what I was required to do, and going to bed again. Nothing felt...well, nothing felt like anything at all.

A few weeks ago, I talked to my counselor about all this, and he pointed out that going numb isn’t always a bad thing. Like shock, it happens in extreme situations in order to help us get through them. It was a defense mechanism, a way we have of protecting ourselves. But as a Christian, one of the most important things I believe comes from Jesus’s words in John 10:10:

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that [you] may have life and have it abundantly.

For better or worse, I want abundant life: I want to feel and experience the things that are happening to me! But the opposite of that was happening. I felt like this verse and its promises weren’t really for me right now, or maybe anymore.

What I’m saying is that I know this experience didn’t happen to me--isn’t happening to me still--for nothing. It’s not a “blip” to forget; there’s something to learn here, something to share. I don’t see it yet, at least not fully. But if I let what I’m going through die in silence with me, it truly is useless. This isn’t quite depression, which I have wrestled before, too. I feel like, just like I’ve lost my sense of smell!, I’ve lost deeper senses I use to experience the world, too.

One thing I’ve done this week--and the second thing I want to share today--is I’ve been looking for a reflection of myself in Scripture. Where is this “numbness” there? When did God lead someone to share their own story, in the same way I feel like he’s pressing me to share mine? This question led me, first, to the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. It also led me to Paul’s letter to the Romans...but we’ll get there in a minute.

I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds with Ecclesiastes, but I will say that if what I’m saying today resonates with you, you should read it this week. Read it today, even; it’s not long. If you do, you’ll find that it’s a work of “wisdom writing” authored by someone called “The Teacher” in the text and identified as King Solomon in Jewish tradition. In the book, this Teacher says that he has set out over the course of his life to try and understand the fullness of human experience on this earth. Why are we here? Why do we feel the things we feel, delight in the things in which we delight, suffer in the ways that we suffer? He starts by saying,

Ecclesiastes 1:13

It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

Some days, I agree. But nonetheless, what the Teacher discovers is that

Ecclesiastes 1:14-15

I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

By “vanity,” the Teacher means that the things we make we make to prop up our own glory...but they are empty, in and of themselves. The book goes through long stretches where the Teacher wonders about this: humans work tirelessly to make things that crumble and fade...and meanwhile, God--in the Nature he has created--builds work after work that is eternal, that outlasts human beings, who think of themselves as the pinnacle of his handiwork. In chapter 3, there’s a lengthy poem we often hear at funerals and other solemn events, where the Teacher says, among other things, that there

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, 4, 7

Is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; [...] a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; [...] a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.

What we tend to want is to be the ones who establish these times, who get to say when they will be. But what the Teacher is saying he has learned is that the control is always God’s: we don’t get to choose. Which means for me, as someone whose been going through a season where I’ve had so little control, and where my best efforts to keep myself safe, to keep my parents safe, to keep Meredith safe all fell apart, that it’s easiest to feel defeated...but Ecclesiastes is trying to remind me that, for perhaps the worse and maybe even for the better!, I’m not God.

What I’m getting at is that today, as I’m feeling powerless over my life and numb to my emotions about this, I see myself here, in Ecclesiastes. I see, in the Teacher, someone else wrestling with the apparent meaninglessness and insecurity of this whole thing. And frankly, it’s a surprising gift to have his company!

Sometimes, when we think of the Bible, we fixate on how it can instruct us in our lives, what it can say about what we should or shouldn’t do. But the Bible also bears witness to what it means to simply be a human person in this world. It includes these books, like Ecclesiastes, where we don’t get any real answers...but we do get to see someone else walk through those dry places, those valleys, in between the question and the answer. And that’s a wild and wonderful thing to contemplate: this book declares as sacred long passages that don’t give answers. What can we learn from that? What does it teach us about what God values, about what God wants us to be doing in the world?

In the middle of chapter 3, the Teacher says something that I’ve been stuck on all week. He says,

Ecclesiastes 3:10-15

I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. [...] I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

That first part I have highlighted here, about God putting “eternity into man’s heart,” is incredible to me. The Teacher is saying that God gives us the ability to think about eternity...but not the ability to understand it. Which means our frustrations are part of our design! So, why would things be this way? Why do we ask questions about existence we will never have the tools to answer? Well, my hypothesis is that God puts eternity into our hearts so there is a space in us big enough for him. We are inspired to wonder because God is a bottomless question, an infinite answer.

And then, at the end of this passage, the Teacher says something else that doesn’t even quite make sense. He says that there is nothing new, God has done all that has ever been done and he has established already all that will ever happen...and then, God seeks what has been driven away. In the picture the Teacher is painting, the only thing that is impermanent, the only thing that is frustrated, the only thing that is limited is our understanding of God. I think that must be what “has been driven away”. Our frustrations are hardwired into us by a God who makes us aware of what we cannot understand. But then, that same God seeks what has been driven away: he comes after us. He comes after us...and keeps us company here, even in our lowest places.

All of this is to say that in our numbness, in our inability to control things, in our defeat and surrender, really--which is what I’ve been feeling!--we’re not abandoned to this emptiness and fear. That’s the third thing this morning: as I look at Scripture and the reflection of myself I find there, I’m learning that just as my numbness serves a purpose in protecting me when I’m scared, my feelings of failure and powerlessness right now are preparing me to see what God is doing. That feeling of loneliness is exactly what breaks through the kind of arrogance that a sense of control creates in order to prime my heart for God’s company. For your company. A season of not feeling primes me for a new encounter with what it is to be loved, to share love, to have joy, and I can strive to be open to that. That isn’t to say that these better feelings are just around the corner! I have no idea how wide this valley I’m in might be. But whereas feeling like I can’t control anything seemed like a bad thing at the start of all this, it’s starting to seem like a good thing now...because it is a relief to trust in a God bigger than I am.

I honestly don’t know how you all are hearing this, if it resonates with you…or if it just feels like a Sunday where I’m off in left field somewhere. But if you’re with me in any of this--if you’re struggling right now, particularly because you feel like you have no control and you’re just worn out from the worries of the last year--here’s what I want to challenge you, and what I want to challenge myself, to do today:

First, if we find reflections of ourselves and our struggles in Scripture, we need to remember that the only reason they’re there to find is because someone took the time to share them. What we can learn from that is how important it is to name and describe and share what we’re feeling, even when it feels like we’re stuck in the middle of the experience. You don’t need to be out on the other side to have a testimony! It’s altogether more helpful for people to see how you live in the mess. Whatever you’re feeling, write it down, talk to somebody, share it. I am so, so happy to be that person for you...but it can be anyone you trust. Don’t keep it to yourself!

Second, keep bringing how you feel to God in prayer. I wrestle with this sometimes because I have no idea what to say! But Paul says something absolutely amazing in his letter to the Romans about this. He writes that,

the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

“Groaning too deep for words.” I know what that sounds like in my own prayers, in my own self. Don’t be afraid to bring yourself as you are to God in prayer.

And lastly, stay on the lookout. I said earlier that God puts eternity into our hearts so there is a space in us big enough for him. We ache with uncertainty over the absence of what only God can bring to us. As we pray, watch for him, wait for him. I know this is hard! But don’t miss the small miracles God brings into your life day in and day out because your eyes are only set on the big miracle you think you need. Watch for him.

What we all might find is that these practices not only help us feel some company in hard times, and not only help us name what we are feeling, but they might also help us shift our focus from ourselves and our frustrations...to the loving attention God gives to us.

I said earlier that I’ve lost my sense of smell from having coronavirus. It’s super-weird, and I keep wondering when it will come back. To that end, I’ve been doing some Googling...and you know what they say to do if you lose your sense of smell? Nose training exercises. No joke! I’m supposed to find 4 or 5 super-familiar smells to me and then sniff them 3-4 times each day. The theory--as weird as it sounds--is that it will help my nose “remember.”

There’s an analogy here, right? When we’re experiencing emotional numbness, spiritual numbness...maybe part of the answer is finding those super-familiar “spiritual smells”--maybe they are favorite verses, a comforting worship song, the routine of daily prayer, a habit of practical service--and training ourselves with them. It’s not a guarantee some miracle will happen; I still can’t really smell! But I find it comforting to think that, when my nose starts to wake up, things it loves will come first. That’s cheesy, I know. But as someone feeling a bit numb, too...I want my soul to wake up to the best things, too. I want to be reminded that God is here with me; that he’s always been here, if I can relearn to “smell” him, so to speak! And the consistency of his presence, the faithfulness of his love for me...that’s always been and will always be where my hope, where my value, really comes from.

I’ll pray for us.

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SCRIPTURE: Psalm 8

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. When have you encountered or experienced the “majesty” of God? How would you describe it? How does it shape or affect you?
2. What can we learn about God when we consider the psalmist’s question, “what is man, that you are mindful of him”?
3. How does God exercise “dominion” over us? Over his creation? What do the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus teach us about how God intends for “dominion” to work?
4. The challenges from this Psalm could be to 1) reach everyone, as God, in his majesty, makes himself known to all of us, 2) accept intimacy with others and with God, as God chooses intimacy with us, and 3) model generosity, as God shares dominion with us and teaches us how to exercise it. That’s a lot to think about it! Talk through these points with each other, and try to identify which ones are most difficult for you...and how you might lean into your community to better reach out, accept intimacy, and model generosity.

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SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 9-10:18, Jeremiah 31:31-34, & Matthew 27:50-51

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SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 8

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SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 4:14-5:11; 6:19-7:29

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SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 3-4:13

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In what way(s) is Jesus similar to Moses?
2. In what way(s) is Jesus greater than Moses?
3. Why do you think the Israelites turn away from Moses/God when they are wandering in the Wilderness?
4. How are we like the Israelites in the Wilderness? What warning is the author of Hebrews trying to share with us?
5. What do you believe about God’s forgiveness? What do you believe about salvation?
6. Why do you think Christian salvation depends on belief, of all things?

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SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 1-2

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SCRIPTURE: Psalm 1

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. [on the sermon] The Psalms are a collection of earnest songs expressing most every emotion: joy, fear, sadness, anger, envy, bitterness, excitement, hope, and more. Why would the Israelites preserve this collection and even use it in worship? What might this teach us about what worship should be?
2. One of the most remarkable things about the psalms is that they often express pretty “un-Christlike” desires, including the punishment and destruction of the psalmist’s enemies. How can we hold the teachings of the psalms in one hand…and the teachings of Jesus (who revered the psalms!) in the other?
3. What is David’s symbolic connection to the psalms? Why is he such an important figure to Israel, and what is the connection between him and the coming Messiah?
4. What do the Psalms do? How can we use them effectively in our own worship?
5. [on Psalm 1] What does it suggest that the "blessed man" does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers? Why those 3 verbs?
6. Think on the comparison the psalmist makes between meditating on the law and a tree planted by streams of water. How might we be challenged by this comparison?

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SCRIPTURE: Ruth 1-4

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Where do we notice people really seeing one another in this story? Who do you, personally, struggle to see?
2. Throughout Ruth’s story, various characters go a step beyond seeing others and actually become curious about them. This leads to real questions about people’s stories and what their needs might be. Is there anyone in your life right now who deserves your curiosity? What would it look like to seek out their story or learn about their needs?
3. Ruth, the workers in the field, and Boaz are all examples of people who share generously in this story. Why is sharing so important?
4. Why do you think this simple story was so important to the Israelites, who passed it along for centuries as an oral tradition before it was even written down for the first time?
5. Kenny said that one of the most important things about what Boaz does for Ruth isn’t just that he’s generous and kind…it’s that he connects that generosity to the generosity of God by telling Ruth that she’s not just under his care, she is under God’s care. Kenny also said that church’s sometimes drop the ball on this last part: we convince ourselves that being generous is enough…when our real responsibility is to connect that generosity to the hope God gives. How can we do a better job—as individuals, as a church—in sharing what we believe about God’s character with others?

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SCRIPTURE: Daniel 1, Daniel 6, & Luke 2:25-38

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When was a time in your life that you have found it easy to wait in hope for something? What was that? Or something that was hard to hope for?
2. What specific structures/practices do you have in your life to intentionally connect with God and get to know him better?
3. Do you agree that when we participate in spiritual disciplines, we can persevere in hope more readily? Why do you think this is true (or not)? Can you think of an example from your life?
4. Is there a habit you would like to add (or stop) in your life rhythm that would allow you to more easily hold onto hope and see the beauty and truth of Christ? Make a plan to do so and think of someone who you can share your plan with.

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 10:35-45

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Where are you placing your trust?
2. What makes you feel afraid right now?
3. What might God be trying to show you or teach you about where you tend to place your trust?
4. How might Jesus make the “leap to faith” Kenny talked about in this message easier?
5. Do you ever wonder how Christian faith benefits you? What do you make of Kenny’s claim that “Serving others is living the fullest life”? Do you think that’s true? Do you find it difficult to believe?

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SCRIPTURE: Exodus 2-3, Deuteronomy 33:26-27

SUMMARY: We all want to believe a world of beauty, truth, and purpose. We struggle to believe in this when “God doesn’t fit in the houses we build for him.” The Moses story teaches us that the “houses” are the problem--not God! We can shift our trust from those houses (re: our logic, ourselves) to a relationship with God himself. Trust in the Person of Hope.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What do we all “want to believe” is true about the world, according to this message? Do you agree/disagree?
2. Kenny argues that the reason we struggle to hold on to our beliefs about the world/God when we face disappointment is because “God doesn’t fit in the house we make for him.” What do you think this means? Do you do this sometimes? When is a time when your faith has been stretched?
3. What lesson can we draw from Moses’s story (specifically, that God eventually uses Moses to perform the same task Moses once sought out to do on his own)? What do we learn about God in this story?
4. Kenny said that we should trade the “houses” we make for God for a relationship with him. What do you think this means? How might we be challenged by it?
5. What is the hardest thing for you to hold onto hope for? How might renewing your relationship with God help?

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SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 29

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SCRIPTURE: Colossians 1, 1 Corinthians 1

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When did you first hear the Gospel?
2. How would you define the Gospel?
3. On Sunday, Kenny said that we need to ‘put the news back in the Good News.’ What do you think he meant by this? In what way is the Gospel “news”? About what/whom?
4. How is the Story of Jesus built on the Story of the Bible/Israel?
5. In your own words, how does Jesus accomplish God’s Plan of Salvation?
6. What do you think Kenny meant when he said that we also need to ‘change our perspective’ so we can see ‘how we fit into God’s story instead of how God fits into ours’?
7. What is convicting to you about the message/topic this week? How can you grow from here?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 28:18-20, 2 Thessalonians 3:13

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. The central question this week was “is following Jesus making an obvious difference in your life”? Take some time to reflect on that question and talk it through together.
2. What would an “obvious difference” be? What kinds of things about the kind of life Jesus lived would stand out in our world today?

3. Kenny said on Sunday that there are at least 3 reasons why it might be hard to answer this question:

   1. We’ve grown tired. For those who have been Jesus followers for a long time, it can be hard to see or remember much of a “difference” in our lives. But we need to remember that God is still working in us! How can we stay focused on allowing God to continue to transform us in obvious ways?
   2. We’ve stalled out. For some of us, the curiosity and interest which drew us to begin exploring Christianity in the first place can fade before we really make a genuine decision to become a Jesus follower. This leaves us with a general sense of Christian morality in our lives...but without a real relationship with Jesus. What might change if we were to take that next step? What fears might be keeping us from this?
   3. We are afraid. For others of us, shame or embarrassment about who we were before we became Jesus followers--and even shame and embarrassment about ways we still struggle!--keep us from being honest with ourselves or with others about our journey. This makes it really hard to see a “difference” in our lives. If we are more honest about our story, what do you think God might be able to do with that honesty? How might being more vulnerable lead to growth in your life...and maybe even in the lives of others?
   4. How does all of this connect to our responsibility, as Christians, to “share the good news” about Jesus? What are some questions you have for the sermon series ahead?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 26-28

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have you learned in our study of the gospel of Matthew this year? How would you sum the book up? What is one thing that has stood out to you, or that you didn’t know before?
2. What do you think it means to “know the territory, not just the itinerary”? How can this apply to your own life? How can you better “know the territory” when it comes to your expectations about God?
3. When the two Marys encounter the angel in the empty tomb on the third morning after Jesus’s death, he says “Come and see...then go quickly.” What does this teach us about the work God is doing in the world? What does it teach us about what is really happening when Jesus rises from the dead?
4. Where do you need to “go quickly” in your life? Where do you tend to “go quickly”? Are they the same? How can you make sharing hope a bigger priority in your life? Who do you need to share hope with this week?
5. Jesus’s final words to his disciples are that he will be with them always, even to the end of the age. Why do you think Jesus says this last? What do you think it meant for the disciples then? What do you think it might have meant for Matthew’s first readers, in the late 1st century? What does it mean for you now?
6. How can we “abide in our relationship with Jesus”? What actions might go along with this goal?
7. Does Revolution, as a church, really matter to our community? How so? How can we better embody the mission Jesus has given us in our city, in our neighborhoods, and in our workplaces?
8. What hopes do you have for our church in our next ten years??

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 14-17

In these chapters, we could be forgiven for feeling deja vu: many of the sayings and miracles of Jesus appear to be repeated, often in the very next chapter! So, what’s going on here? The answer lies in the text’s geography: Jesus is moving here between Jewish and Gentile cultural centers…and performing identical miracles for both. This is a compelling part of Jesus’s claim to be the messiah: in Jesus’s Kingdom, God has come to deliver everyone…even Israel’s enemies.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In Matthew 14:13, Jesus is described as having compassion for the large crowd, and healing their sick. What does that say about Jesus' character considering He had just heard about John's execution?
2. Throughout Matthew 14-15, Jesus heals many of the sick. If you are dealing with health problems, what comfort does this give you? Or, does it upset you that God hasn’t done the same miraculous work for you?
3. Read Matthew 17:1-8. What is this transfiguration of Jesus about?
4. In Matthew 17:22-23, Jesus predicts His death and resurrection. The disciples are described as being “greatly distressed” upon hearing this. Why do you think that was?
5. On Sunday, Kenny asked an important question: as you read the story of Jesus’s ministry in Matthew’s gospel, what most compels you to believe (if you believe) that Jesus is who he says he is?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 13

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. This week, we talked about Jesus’s use of parables. The big idea was that God wants to be understood. Can you recall a time when you learned something in this way? What do you think about this as a strategy for learning?
2. There were 3 takeaways from the parables in chapter 13 on Sunday. The first was that God speaks in the language of our experiences. Is there anything you have been learning in this season? What might your day-to-day life right now be teaching you about God/your faith?
3. The second takeaway was that God is patient as we mature (the parables of the net, weeds). Where are you hoping to see maturity in your life/faith over the next few months? How are you hoping to grow?
4. The third takeaway was that our job is to respond to what we discover (the parables of the treasure, pearl). Where are feeling a need to “respond”...but finding it difficult to do so?
5. What do you think the parables of the treasure/pearl are about? On Sunday, I talked about “hibernation” in the church as something I’m really worried about--have you sensed/felt this? How can we keep from “forgetting” the treasure(s) we have found in our relationships with God/the church?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 11-12

As Jesus resumes his ministry following the Sermon on the Mount, he begins to encounter doubt from all sides: certainly, the Pharisees and religious leaders continue to question whether he is “of God” or “of Beelzebub,” and even the people of his hometown express uncertainty about whether or not Jesus is the Messiah. But the real challenge, it seems, comes from Jesus’s own cousin and the man who baptized him: John the Baptist. As the author of Matthew explores these questions about who Jesus is, we see, time and again, that the proof of Jesus’s identity can be found in the radical kingdom values he embodies and enacts. Our hope this week is that we can learn how to follow in Jesus’s footsteps by being similarly “good news” to others.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When have you doubted who Jesus is and what he is capable of?
2. What are your experiences--either good or bad--with “purity culture”?
3. In the message, Kenny said that the Kingdom of Heaven is marked by a culture of “how we live” instead of “what we avoid.” Does this resonate with you? How so?
4. What does it say about Jesus that proof of His arrival is the healing of the disabled, and the poor receiving good news?
5. Mathew 11:28-30 quotes Jesus saying,”my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Does it seem easy to have faith in Jesus? What could he be saying here?
6. If spending more of our time learning from Jesus about how to live, resulted in a better life, why aren’t we spending more time learning from Jesus?
7. What are some ways you can “live out” the hope we have in Jesus this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 6:9-13, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, & 2 Thessalonians 3:11-13

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How would you summarize the theme this week of a “Church Awaiting Rescue”? What do you think this phrase means? When, if ever, have you experienced it in a church context?
2. How would you define “premillenial dispensationalism”? Is this a term you have any experience with?
3. At its root, Kenny’s argument this week is about what it means for God’s Kingdom to be coming here, to this earth. How does this idea affect the way we think about issues like climate change or systemic injustice?
4. Why do you think it can be so tempting to abandon hope in the world we live in? What does the Bible have to say about this temptation, in your experience?
5. What would it mean to be a “Kingdom-focused church”?
6. Why do you think working with other churches is important? What makes it challenging? How can we overcome those challenges as a church family?

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SCRIPTURE: 2 Samuel 6, Psalm 1, & Colossians 3

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have your experiences been with “emotionalism” in church? What is good about having a “high emotion” environment? What might be bad or dangerous about it?
2. What do you think the emotional environment at Revolution ought to be like? Why? What changes in our environment have you seen over time, if you have been at Revolution for awhile? What is our emotional environment like now?
3. Kenny said that we should be emotionally incarnational, meaning we should be fully committed to both the head and the heart as a church. What do you think about this? How do you think we can meet this challenge?
4. The first of our Action Steps this morning is to let our emotions lead us to knowledge. One way we can do this is by paying attention to the theological claims found in the songs we sing and prayers we pray. Read through the lyrics of one of the songs for this week: what ideas about God do they contain? What can you learn?
5. The second Action Step is to let our knowledge find emotional expression. Do you ever struggle with this? How can we explore what our faith makes us feel this week? How can we lean into our relationships with others to help us stay accountable to this challenge?
6. What role can discomfort play in a church community? How can we be intentionally uncomfortable at Revolution...without being alienating or upsetting? How can you play a healthier part in our church community moving forward?

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SCRIPTURE: Romans 8 & 9

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Do you tend to think of your relationship with God as individual or communal? Do you feel this distinction is important? Why or why not?
2. Have you ever encountered “fire and brimstone” teaching in a church before? Why do you think that the pastor/church would frame the Gospel in this way?
3. In Romans 8, Paul says that Christian identity isn’t rooted in either Judaism or the Church but instead in the person of Jesus. What do you think this means? How does the promise that we are “co-heirs” with Christ help to resolve the tension between focusing exclusively on an individual faith or a communal faith?
4. Kenny said that, “when you or I fixate on a relationship with Jesus that is not anchored to the broader community of God’s family, we are missing out.” Do you think this is true? If you were to detach from a church community to “do Christianity on your own”...what would the cost of that be, both for you and for others?
5. It can be really hard to stay connected to the church in this season. What opportunities do you see for staying in relationship with others at Revolution? How can you take a step towards our church this week?
6. How can the people of our church be better partners with other Christians and churches in our community...even if we disagree about important things? Do you feel this is meaningful work? Why?

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SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 29:4-14

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is the missio Dei (mission of God) the Bible’s overarching story testifies to?
2. When have you allowed a desire to come across as “pure” (or at least, “okay”!) get in the way of authentic relationships and community?
3. Read through Jeremiah 29:4-14 again. How is God commanding the Israelites to behave in Exile?
4. Have you ever considered your neighborhood/office/family as a “mission field”?
5. What would it mean for you to listen to your neighbors this week?
6. Are you willing to pray for your community each day for the coming week?
7. What are 2 ways you might serve your “mission field” in the weeks to come? Can you invite others to serve with you?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 8, Luke 22:24-30, James 2

DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. In the story of Samuel and the first king of the Israelites, Kenny made the case that the biggest reason the Isrealites wanted a king is because “they wanted to win.” What did this attitude reveal about the state of their relationship with God?
2. What have your experiences been with “politics and the church”?
3. Read Luke 22:24-30 again. What is surprising about the way Jesus responds to the disciples’ request for “political” power? What is the unique life God wants for the Isrealites, for the disciples...and for us?
4. Kenny said that the church is intended to be a countercultural presence in the world. What do you think that means? How can something “counter” to culture have an impact on the world?
5. Kenny also asked us all to write down this point: “It’s not what you oppose that builds God’s Kingdom, it’s what you embody.” What is the difference, in your view? How can this challenge you this week?
6. Lastly, Kenny said that the problem with holding political power is that it tends to draw people to the center, giving preference to what is popular. However, the church exists for the margins. What can we do, asa church, to better care for the people around the “edges” of our community here in Annapolis?
7. In pursuing political power, we risk giving up our values / In relying on political power, we lose our countercultural identity / In holding political power, we trade the margins for the center. In light of these 3 warnings, what “political” things can a church do?
8. How can we, as individuals, be rightly and carefully “political” as both participants in a democratic system and citizens of God’s Kingdom? What are some ways you can better embody a “Christian politics” in the weeks and months ahead?

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SCRIPTURE: Jonah 1-4, Galatians 2

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What stood out to you about the message this week? What do you want to spend time thinking and talking about with others? How might you summarize the purpose of this current series?
2. Kenny’s point in this week’s message is that not being the kind of church we don’t want to be--such as a “Church of Racial Injustice”--is much harder than it might seem. Have you ever found it harder than you expected to not be something? What made it so difficult?
3. The message turns on the idea that church cannot be neutral, partly because we “use the myth of neutrality to justify inaction” and partly because the “belief in neutrality leaves dominant cultural values unchallenged.” When, if ever, have you regretted a moment of neutrality in your life? What do you think it means to “leave dominant cultural values unchallenged”? Why would this be unacceptable behavior for a church?
4. Following this story of Jonah, Kenny asked: “Are we willing to look underneath our fears, to see the ways they excuse our prejudices and biases?”
5. Following the story of Paul and Peter, Kenny asked: “Are we willing to look underneath our excuses, to see what ugly and anti-gospel fears they foster?”
6. What would it mean for us to “own our part in the story”?
7. What would it mean for us to “refuse to normalize whiteness”?
8. What would it mean for us to “actively work for transformation”?

FURTHER READING:

“Broken Churches, Broken Nation”

“How Christians Can Combat Racism Theologically After Charlottesville”

“The Church Must Be an Example of an Anti-Racist Society”

“How White Churches Can Work for Racial Justice”

“On the 1845 Georgia Missions Controversy”

Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

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SCRIPTURE: 2 Corinthians 8

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. As a whole, how has the current series challenged you? What thoughts, lessons, or ideas are you walking away from this series with? How can all of this lead you to take a real step in your personal faith?
2. After the somewhat silly story about the escalator, Kenny said that “if we want to be overwhelming people, who are a real blessing to our neighbors and our communities, we have to bring all of ourselves along on that journey.” Did this resonate with you? What thoughts do you have about this concept?
3. Where are you “clinging” to something in your life that might be holding you back from the direction your “feet” are trying to take you?
4. The first lesson we can learn from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is that we should give in measure with our means. What do you think this means? How can it challenge you? How can you apply it?
5. The second lesson is that real generosity rises up from extreme poverty. What do you think this means? How does the example the Macedonians set--and the example Jesus sets!--help to explain this confusing phrase? How can you apply this idea?
6. The third lesson is that our goal is equality. In the discussion about our own church, Kenny pointed out that we often feel like we can or should wait until our own situation is safe before helping others...but that if our goal is equality, this doesn’t make sense--pursuing ourselves just pulls us farther away from others! How does this idea challenge you?
7. The fourth lesson is that we should keep mission in mind in our generosity. What has this meant for us at Revolution? What is the mission of the church, in your mind? How can your own generosity be more mission-centered?

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SCRIPTURE: John 9

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How are you feeling right now? What thoughts, prayers, and convictions have been weighing most heavily on you? What questions do you have?
2. What “dams” are you currently benefiting from? You might think about culture, education, race, family of origin, financial success--places (in your experience) where lines are drawn between who receives certain benefits or breaks and who doesn’t.
3. What “dams” have you built yourself? You might think about personal wealth, the neighborhood you live in, your work life or environment--areas of your life where you might be prone to hoarding or excessively “protecting yourself.”
4. The big idea this week was that taking down a dam is hard: we resist the work by making up half-reasonable excuses for why it’s a bad idea, and when that fails, we tend to kick the can down the road. It’s certainly not work that can be done in a day! What are some of the reasons “dam breaking” has been difficult in your experience?
5. Talk through the story of the man born blind in John 9. How does it relate to our conversation about dams? What is being “hoarded” here, and why are those in authority so resistant to believing the man’s story about Jesus?
6. On Sunday, Kenny said that Jesus “dismantles our arrogance” when he says the man’s blindness isn’t about sin at all, but about allowing “the works of God [to] be displayed in him.” What do you think this means?
7. Kenny also said that receiving generosity creates openness in our lives, as well as the lives of others. How does this connect to our mandate to be “dam breakers”? What should we be looking for as we strive to let God’s overwhelming provision pass not to us but through us, into the lives of others?
8. Finally, Kenny said that the lesson we learn from the Hetch Hetchy illustration is that dams destroy the valleys upstream. What does this suggest about the danger that faces us if we continue interrupting God’s overwhelming generosity by hoarding things for ourselves?

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SCRIPTURE: Amos 5

This week, we are trying to look in the mirror: how have we benefitted from injustice? And how can we let justice flow freely? “Overwhelming” life comes from rejecting a mindset of scarcity and choosing not to grasp, but to give.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How are you feeling right now? What thoughts, prayers, and convictions have been weighing most heavily on you? What questions do you have?
2. Over the last 2 weeks, we have talked about a “mindset of scarcity” and how that keeps us from experiencing the kind of lives God intends for us. Has this made much sense to you? Do you see it playing out in your own life? Describe an example.
3. Kenny used the metaphor of a dam to try and explain what the Israelites have done: they have taken God’s blessings and diverted them so they supply only themselves. What story does such behavior tell...especially if those who are responsible also claim to be God’s people?
4. What is the heart of God’s complaint against the Israelites, as voiced by Amos? Do you see yourself in that mirror, too? How so?
5. What do you think God wants from the Israelites?
6. Kenny said the example we see in Jesus teaches us not to grasp, but to give. How can this work? What worries do you have, if any, when you think about this?
7. We were challenged Sunday to give up 5 things: money, attention, arrogance, privilege, and fear. Which of these is easiest for you? Which is hardest? How can you take intentional steps to live more generously in these areas this week?

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SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 19:33-34, Exodus 16:4, & Exodus 23:20

So, if God is so generous and abundant and overwhelming, what happened to us? Why aren’t we more generous than we are? This week, we are discussing the trap of a scarcity mindset, and how only overwhelmingly good news has the power to deliver us from this trap into the abundant life we are made for.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. The first part of Kenny’s sermon attempts to prove that “we have become trapped by a scarcity mindset.” Discuss your understanding of this point and how persuasive you found it to be.
2. Kenny argued that a “scarcity mindset” is produced by misunderstandings about the PAST (the supply is limited) the PRESENT (having enough is our responsibility) and the FUTURE (the situation won’t change). Discuss a time when you fell into the “scarcity trap”: did you experience these same misunderstandings? What happened, in your case?
3. Kenny said that scarcity mindsets don’t develop when we don’t have enough...they develop when we have too much. Discuss this claim. How does the Law the Israelites receive while wandering in the desert relate to it?
4. The second part of the sermon argued that the trap a “scarcity mindset” creates for us can only be undone by overwhelmingly good news. What is the “good news” Kenny talked about, and how does it specifically address the past/present/future problems scarcity preys on?
5. How does the “Gospel story” reach out to impact you, whether you believe in it or accept it or not? Did you find this claim persuasive on Sunday?
6. How can living generously help us to avoid a “scarcity mindset”?
7. How can generous living extend beyond our time or our finances to include how we recognize and protect the dignity of other people?

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SCRIPTURE: Job 38-42, Psalm 139, John 10

Our God is overwhelming: his presence is more than we can bear, and yet his concern for us is so, so much more than we warrant. We are unbelievably cherished by an all-powerful God! Generosity--abundant, frivolous, wild generosity--is in his very nature! The evidence is all around us...but it is most visible in the life of Jesus, who is God in the flesh. Jesus’s life and example remind us that we are made for more than a scarcity mindset, and “life abundant” begins with remembering the God whose image we carry within us.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When was the last time you felt “overwhelmed,” in a negative way? Why do you think you had that reaction? What fears were you feeling?
2. Have you had a positive experience of feeling “overwhelmed”? What was that like? Where do you think the feeling came from?
3. In the message, Kenny tries to point out the scope of God’s attention, care, and generosity: he is the God of the BIG (as we see in Job 38-40) and the God of the SMALL (as we see in Psalm 139). What did this conversation stir up in you? Have you ever thought about God in this way before?
4. In John 10, Jesus offers a series of overlapping metaphors about shepherds and sheep. Read through these verses on your own and ask: what kind of life does Jesus intend for the sheep to have? What is he, as a ‘good shepherd,’ offering them?
5. If Jesus is the “gate” to the “sheep pen”...what on Earth do you think that means?? What are the implications of such a statement for us?
6. How do you think Christians ought to feel about being “overwhelmed”? In light of John 10:10, what do you think is necessary for any of us to experience the kind of abundant life God seems to intend for us?
7. What holds you back from trusting God with more of yourself? Talk to someone about what you are feeling and thinking this week!

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REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What do you find frustrating about taking care of others? What is rewarding? Why do you do it?
2. In Philippians 4:17, Paul writes that he delights in the Philippians’ generosity not because he needs their support, but because he wants “more to be credited to your account.” What do you think he means by this?
3. Kenny makes the case that when we care for others, we have an opportunity to look more and more like Jesus...and it is in looking like Jesus--whose story ends in resurrection!--that we find our hope. Did that make sense to you? How does it connect to your sense of what it means to serve others?
4. In the video, Kenny argues that caring for others on its own is not actually a recipe for joy--it’s a recipe for burnout! Does that seem true to you?
5. He then said that the joy comes from seeing, in the ways others need care and in the ways you need care, a bigger picture of a creation that is made for love. That’s a big idea--did it make sense to you? What is your reaction to that?

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SCRIPTURE: Philippians 1:1-26

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Paul wrote Philippians from prison. While we are not in prison right now (hopefully), the Covid-19 restrictions may make one feel imprisoned. What element of the stay in place order is most difficult to endure?
2. If Paul was able to write the “Epistle of Joy” from prison, how can Paul’s example help us in times of our distress? How can Paul be joyful during imprisonment and amidst uncertainty about his future?
3. In Philippians 1:3-8, Paul describes the joy he receives from others. How can we help overcome our distress by taking joy in our friends, family, and church? How can prayer for others impact us, too?
4. In Philippians 1:21, “Paul says to live is Christ and to die is gain.” What is he talking about?!? One Bible commentary says, “Paul was so positively committed to the will of God that both life and death held certain attractions. If the choice were left to him, he would not know what to decide.” How difficult would it be to believe “to die is gain,” when one is young, married, with children or in another place in life where the future here on earth seems so full of possibilities?
5. What “work” do you think the Holy Spirit is “seeing to completion” in you? Where do you see growth? Could you find joy in trusting this process more fully?

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SCRIPTURE: Philippians 3:1-4:1

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In Philippians 3:5-6, Paul presents a resume of his status and achievements that he could use to earn God’s approval.  Do you ever find yourself presenting a similar resume to God in prayer?  Do you ever find yourself thinking you are better than others because you pray more, or study the Bible more than others?  Or, do you ever feel unworthy of God’s love because Christians around you seem so much more righteous?
2. What would it take for us to consider everything loss, or excrement, in comparison to knowing Christ? Would we be willing to give up everything in order to follow Jesus, if He asked us to?
3. During his Sunday morning messages over the years, Kenny often talks about us being God’s beloved, of being made in God’s image.  How can that concept free us from the dangers of self-righteousness or a lack of self-worth?
4. If the power of Christ’s resurrection enables us to live a new life, as Paul says it can, how can we go about knowing the power of that resurrection in our lives?  How can we make use of our time during the Covid-19 stay in place order, to better know the power of the resurrection?

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SCRIPTURE: Philippians 2:12-30

Immediately after the “Christ poem” in Philippians 2:5-11, Paul tells two quick stories of Timothy and Epaphroditus, both of whom follow Jesus’s example by serving Paul and the Philippians. Paul encourages the Philippians to celebrate their acts of service…which leads us to consider: is it possible that joy comes from celebrating others, over seeking accolades for ourselves?

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Kenny argues that Sunday morning services are always, in at least some small way, events of celebration. Is this your experience? What do you think he might be trying to say?
2. A big part of what Paul is communicating in chapter 2 of Philippians is that when we imitate Jesus, we are at the same time acting in a way that satisfies us and gives God glory. This is a complicated idea, so take some time to think/talk it through: does Jesus’s way of life actually resonate with you, on a deep level? How might any of this “glorify” God?
3. Look at Philippians 2:12-18 again. What do you think it means to “work out salvation with fear and trembling”? Why is Paul saying the Philippians should rejoice with him?
4. What is your personal response to Paul’s words here about Timothy and Epaphroditus?
5. What or who can you be celebrating right now? How can you put this into practice in this time when we can’t gather together in person?

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SCRIPTURE: Philippians 2:6-11

Paul’s letter to the Philippians is sometimes referred to as the “Epistle of Joy.” The reasons for this are obvious when we read it: Paul is clearly delighted to write to some of his oldest friends in ministry, and even though he is in prison, he finds tremendous joy in news of their church. But where does all of this happiness come from? And how can we learn from Paul’s letter about ways we, too, can find joy in challenging circumstances? Paul centers his letter around a passage referred to as “the Christ poem,” and in these verses, Paul reminds us of the essential example of Jesus, who “did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,” but instead, emptied himself and became a servant to all. Miraculously, the fruit of Jesus’s sacrifice is abounding joy...and by looking closely at the examples of Jesus, of Paul, of Paul’s friends Timothy and Epaphroditus, and even the examples of the Philippians themselves, we can learn valuable lessons about how we can share in their happiness. All of this helps us, once again, to better understand what it means to be on mission as a church: we are people of joy, and when we live out the principles Paul describes, that joy can overflow from us into a world in desperate need of good news.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What were your thoughts on the Bible Project video we watched together? What did you learn about Paul’s letter to the Philippians? What do you think the “big idea” of the letter is going to be?
2. Read the “Christ poem” in Philippians 2:6-11 together. What are your initial observations about this passage? On Sunday, Kenny said that this passage was likely a quotation from a popular song of Paul’s day; does that affect the way you read it? How?
3. On Sunday, Kenny said that “choosing to trust God leads to harmony with our design, and harmony with our design, just like the resonance of a tuning fork, creates joy.” What were your thoughts about this argument for where joy actually comes from? Do you agree/disagree?
4. Kenny also said that we often work too hard trying to convince ourselves of something that is actually plainly obvious: it is good to serve. Do you agree? When have you felt the joy of service?
5. What have you been given? What resources has God given you?

Where can you pour it out? What opportunities do you have, even in this current season, to share with others?

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 27, John 20

When does an “unbelievable” story become something more? How does the “unbelievable” story of Easter change everything?

SERMON REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is an “unbelievable” story from your own life? What makes it so hard to believe? Do other people in your life/circle believe it? Why/why not?
2. What does Easter mean to you, personally? Why do you think it is such a significant day in the Christian calendar (even though it is pretty weird!)?
3. What were the expectations being put on Jesus as he returned to Jerusalem?
4. In what ways are you like the people of Jerusalem, who have difficulty seeing the ways Jesus is working?
5. What are some of the unexpected ways God has moved in your own life?
6. Where are you allowing your own expectations for how God moves to potentially keep you from seeing what God is actually doing? Join us in praying for the ability to pay attention to how God is moving this week!

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SCRIPTURE: Matthew 28:18-20, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Romans 12:6-13

While it may seem like special “gifts” from the Holy Spirit are unobtainable or mystical pipe dreams, for the most part they are extremely practical talents or strengths. The tricky part is determining where you fit now. What are your natural strengths? What are the talents that your church community needs someone to have? What gifts do you desire to have? Scripture is clear: when people of “the Way” recognize and utilize their spiritual gifts to build up the church, extraordinary things happen. The Spirit enables and compels followers of Jesus to act and speak in ways that propel the church towards its mission of reconciliation. By recognizing our gifts and saying yes to use them, the work of the Spirit reverberates throughout the church and spurs on a lasting and living movement. Whoever you are, you have something valuable for the health and mission of the church. We hope that each of us can identify that gift and recognize the importance of allowing the Spirit to use it.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are your gifts? Have you used them to build up the church? How can you?
2. How can your gifts work now, in our current moment?
3. On Sunday, Kenny said that you are a church, right where you are. What did you think of that? Did it resonate with you? Does it challenge you?
4. In a conversation as a group, offer insight to one another: what do you each perceive about one another’s natural strengths or talents? How can they grow?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 4:6-11

The Holy Spirit or “Helper” is active in and relevant to the lives of Christians today. But what does it look like to be gifted by the Holy Spirit in contemporary culture? How can a gift of the Spirit be identified and named? How are our gifts used for good? Can gifts of the Spirit be sought out or cultivated? How do we encourage one another as we hope to use the gifts the Spirit has given us to bring reconciliation to our communities? This week, our hope is that as we share and listen to each other's experiences with gifts of the Spirit, we will grow in our understanding of and openness to God’s continuing work in our lives and world.

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What have your past experiences been with spiritual gifts as a subject of discussion/discovery in the Church?
2. Was there a particular story shared on Sunday that resonated with you? Why was that story particularly meaningful to you?
3. Do you have an understanding/knowledge of the gifts of the spirit you possess? If so, what are they and how did you come to know what they are? If not, do you have an idea of what they may be and how can you discover them?
4. Read 1 Peter 4:10 and 1 Corinthians 12:7. Share experiences of a time when either 1) you have utilized a gift of the spirit to serve the church or your community or 2) someone has utilized a gift of the spirit that served you.
5. On Sunday, Kenny said that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed as they are among the people of the church, form a “picture of Jesus” only as those people come together to serve. Did that metaphor resonate with you? What might your “piece of the puzzle” be at Revolution?

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 12-13

What are spiritual gifts? Some claim that they are supernatural empowerment of the Holy Spirit separate from our inborn talents and skills. Another camp argues that the Spirit works through our inborn talents and skills to the glory of God. Some believers argue that the listings of the spiritual gifts in the New Testament are the only spiritual gifts, while others believe that the listings are more representative of other things which might not be named. An examination of both Old and New Testament Scriptures reveals a Spirit of God who actively works above and beyond our understandings and limitations to accomplish the Father's purposes of love, unity and reconciliation towards His creation.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In many churches today, “discipleship” means trying to make sure every believer has the same beliefs about doctrine, culture, politics, social issues, etc. Yet in Romans and his letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul argues that each individual believer is unique, and that the Spirit of God is responsible somehow for this (12:4-6)! Discuss whether unity in the body of Christ requires that we all look, act, or believe the same. Where should a line be drawn, if any, regarding agreeing or having the same beliefs in such things as doctrine, culture, politics, social issues?
2. 1 Corinthians 13 is often read at weddings and other times where love, especially romantic love, is being described. But in context, this chapter on love directly follows Paul's discussion regarding spiritual gifts, and the opening verses (1-3) correspond directly to the gifts Paul lists in the previous chapter. Consider the following statement: The use of a spiritual gift without love is ultimately meaningless. Do you agree or disagree? Is this chapter teaching that a believer should not exercise their spiritual gift if it cannot be done in love?
3. The story of Samson (Judges 13-16) reminds us that God is at work in the messiness of our lives and that even in the midst of our sins and shortcomings, he still loves us and desires to perform his work of reconciliation through us. Consider a time when you sensed God wanting you to do something, yet you felt inadequate to accomplish the task. How did the Spirit overcome your reluctance? What steps, if any, did you take to push forward in spite of what you were feeling or even believing about yourself?

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SCRIPTURE: Genesis 1 & 2, Matthew 3, John 20

Before we can look at the story of “giftedness” in the New Testament, we first have to look at the story of the Spirit by whom these gifts are sent! What is the Holy Spirit, what role does this distinct person of God play in Scripture, and what are the implications for what we believe about the Holy Spirit for us, as twenty-first century followers of Jesus? The teachings in the Christian tradition about the Holy Spirit are complicated...but our hope is that a closer look at the story of Scripture will help us better understand not only the central part God’s Spirit plays, but also our roles, too, as people God is actively working in and through to reconcile this world to himself.

SERMON REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Take some time to ask yourself whether or not you have experienced God’s breath, or his Spirit, in your life. What would something like that feel like? What would God’s Spirit want from you? What could the Spirit do?
2. And on the heels of that, ask yourself if you’ve ever said no to that Spirit. If you’ve ever felt something like the wind of God trying to effect a change in you, and you’ve resisted him. Why did you do that? What might the Spirit’s intentions have been? What might they still be?
3. Are you willing to be open to an experience with the Holy Spirit? Are you open to asking for that? This one applies to you, whether you are a Christian already or not: no matter who you are, are you willing to invite God’s Spirit into your life, knowing that this wind will challenge and reshape you...but also that the breath of this wind might fill you with real life.
4. How can you be a loving neighbor this week?
5. How can you bring joy to others this week, in this season of worry and anxiety?