FULL SERVICE: *See SERMON ONLY below
SERMON ONLY:
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Questions: Message 3 The Gospel Centered Church, PT 2 (Philippians 1:3-5)
3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, 5 in view of your 3participation in the gospel from the first day until now.
1. As a summary of last weeks message, our main point was that genuine thankfulness was the internal quality of Christian fellowship. We said that thankfulness to God for our brothers and sisters is necessary for gospel believing churches. Why?
2. I said, that Paul “credits the reason for His thankfulness firstly in the work of God in them not some natural lovability for which they themselves manufacture.” Why is this so important?
3. The second point (beginning message #2), is that an affectionate prayerfulness is the external expression of Christian love. Again, why is that the hallmark?
4. Here is part of Bavinck’s quote – “We need each other, every moment, to make our life happy and joyous and meaningful; and yet we systematically keep each other ignorant concerning the deepest stirrings of our heart…” What is going on in us, if this is an accurate statement?
5. Is the other part of the quote the central reason (“…we establish and entrench ourselves in an engrained desire to retain own identity),” really true? Is it an ingrained desire? How does this quote make you feel about the journey of your own life? What is so important about “retaining our own identity?” How can the church ever model the gospel that creates community, if this is true?
6. What do you think of this – “We cannot bless a brother or sister unless they first know the genuineness of our love; you cannot exhort or speak into a fellow sojourner’s life unless we are first, a source of encouragement”? Let’s say we disagree! Have you ever received a blessing from Christ, or ever exhorted to change, from someone you know does not love you, or from someone you know does not really care for you? We all know that God can use anything from any motive, but is this His intention? So, what does this call us to?
7. Our third point was that both of these things lead to “a gospel-centered oneness as the true center of our activity as a church.” It came from the last part of verse three, “In view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.” He is not talking about some social construction, or a shallow conformity, but a deep, loving, connected, related, united, joined in the eternal life of the family of God here in Killarney. How do you think we ae doing? Is this your first thought about us? Do you think others coming into our community would say we are that? If not, why not? If yes, how would it go to a band new level, in your opinion?
8. Theirs’s was a fellowship that was gospel centered, not culturally defined “…with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” Phil. 1:27. How would we recognize that culture, tradition, or humanism, was creeping into our relationships, and not a fellowship of the gospel?
9. We know that the gospel is God’s intention to bring us to Himself by grace. But what did you think about the statement, “God intends the gospel to bring us to each other?” Can you spell that out?
10. Probably a little controversial, I say that “God does not, will not and indeed cannot go beyond His own Word to define and guide our experience in our present life.” What am I getting at? If not, what is the alternative?
11. In closing I say that “we need the work of the Cross, not just as fire insurance, but as the only true response to the Spirit daily. To live a life of repentance, to say to the Father, show me my weakness, my rebellion, my selfishness, my pride, my manipulative tendencies, but then we also need to daily believe that more that “the power, the sufficiency, the freedom of the utter grace of the Cross of Jesus, that justifies freely, that transforms intimately, that renews my heart, renovates my habits, heals my hurts, reconciles my relationships, subdues my innermost being to teachableness, and finally makes me into a honest transparent lover and worshipper of the living God of Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave Himself up for me that I would be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, that comes from the law but that which is through faith in Christ , the righteousness that comes from God
on the basis of faith alone!” Can you see why we need both? Can you see that the second part needs to be emphasized in the heart? Why is that so important for us all?
