Kev’s eGroup study notes – Prayer and Sermon Discussion Agenda: Welcome What is on your heart? What concerns do you have? Sermon discussion Closing Prayer Page 1 Kev’s eGroup study notes – Prayer and Sermon Discussion Late July 2019 Page 2 Kev’s eGroup study notes – Prayer and Sermon Discussion Holly’s annual Reflect Conf. for women – 9/5/2019 at 7PM. https://elevationchurch.org/reflect/ Page 3 Kev’s eGroup study notes – Prayer and Sermon Discussion Memory vs. of the week: Acts 8: 25 After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages. Page 4 Kev’s eGroup study notes – Prayer and Sermon Discussion Acts 1: 6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Page 5 Kev’s eGroup study notes – Prayer and Sermon Discussion • And here are the two truths that God has taught me: • Being liked (being popular) is not a prerequisite for being loving - being accepted has nothing to do sharing the love of Christ in your life. • As ambassadors to this new covenant and as a disciple of Christ - as men and women have been undone by his mercy - it is incumbent upon us to love hard - even when it’s hard - when we don’t demand reciprocity from Lisa Harper culture. It is a misnomer in evangelical circles in America to think that we require power & acceptance in order to express the gospel. This is not biblically defensible - nowhere in the Bible do you see the type of What are Christianity that says our faith in Christ is dependent upon on being your thoughts accepted - the gospel in fact teaches us that is contrary to that point. regarding • What really matters is while we were still sinners - Jesus showered us with lavish mercy. And we should be so undone when we understand this. this? • Whether you’re Pentecostal and want to jump over pews – or where this is your first time at church - or you are watching this YouTube video at a bar and How do we not sure what to think about all of these crazy Christians - If you put your hope answer this in Jesus - you will receive power and you will share the hope that lies within you - this is in your revocable call - and of course we mature in the boldness by challenge? which we share the gospel - at some point you cannot prevent yourself from sharing the hope of the gospel with others. • In Acts, the disciples are being both murdered and martyred for their audacious claim that Jesus actually connects them with Jehovah. It is not based on keeping 613 Torah laws – but rather it is based on recognizing your neediness - that you can’t keep it by yourself and that you are desperate for a Savior. Page 6 Kev’s eGroup study notes – Prayer and Sermon Discussion • Peter preached the first two evangelical sermons were over 8000 people got saved. This was about two months after Peter “through Jesus under the bus” during his trial. • Peter had completely sabotaged his own future as a spiritual leader – and yet became a rock where this frail church was placed on his shoulders. • For these early Christians undergoing intense amounts of oppression - it would’ve been easier for them to get back the bus up - where the environment was more open to Lisa Harper evangelism. And they did the exact opposite - they could not mute the miracle. • When was the last time that your heart was so excited for the gospel - that you ran to Have you read acts someone to share Jesus? recently – how as this • During theology training in Colorado, a theology professor told me the following: “if it chapter strengthened doesn’t preach is Sudan, it should not be preached in America.” your understanding of • In every single person I relate with - there is the image of God. the gospels • Two of the four boys that murdered Amy Biehl now work for the nonprofit created by Biehl’s family. • Isn’t it time to change the way Christians are perceived? • Isn’t it time to love hard even when it’s hard? What does this mean? Page 7 Kev’s eGroup study notes – Prayer and Sermon Discussion Gugulethu – Cape Town South Africa The Gugulethu Seven “In August 1993, Gugulethu was the site of the violent murder of a young white American woman, Amy In March 1986, South Africa's Apartheid security murdered Biehl, in the upheaval following the official end of seven young black men. The incident became known as the apartheid and before the multi-racial election of Gugulethu Seven. 1994.” Two of the four boys that murdered Amy Biehl now work for the nonprofit created by Biehl’s family.” Page 8 Kev’s eGroup study notes – Prayer and Sermon Discussion Kev’s 4 pages of prayer – at the ready Kev’s Fire Extinguisher – when emotions are inflamed, when bad things happen, when you feel abandonment, when you feel loss, and when you are left asking why? – revised 3/27/2019 Prayer for Home and Family - By Robert Louis Stevenson: “Lord, behold our family her assembled. We thank Thee for this place in which we dwell; for the love that unites us; for the peace accorded us this day; for the hope with which we expect the morrow; for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies that makes our lives delightful; for our friends in all parts of the earth. Let peace abound in our small company. Purge out the every heart of lurking grudge. Give us grace and strength to forbear and to preserve. Offenders, give us the grace to accept and to forgive offenders. Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully the forgetfulness of others. Give us courage and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors. If it may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we may be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of the fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV): “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Joshua 1:7-9 (NIV): “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Job 1:21 NIV: “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." Psalm 23:1-8 NIV: “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Page 9 Kev’s eGroup study notes – Prayer and Sermon Discussion Stuff from last week Page 10 Kev’s eGroup study notes – Prayer and Sermon Discussion Kev’s dive to the deep end of the pool: Are we easier to offend because of disconnected moral matrices? “By the 2010s, most Americans were using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, which make it easy to encase oneself within an echo chamber. And then there’s the “filter bubble,” in which search engines and YouTube algorithms are designed to give you more of what you seem to be interested in, leading conservatives and progressives into disconnected moral matrices backed up by mutually contradictory informational worlds.