Message Title: This Is us | Community
Series: Week 3
Scripture: Acts 2:42-47
Bottom Line: Find a group! Be in community with other believers!
Other Scripture References:
Hebrews 10:24-25 - Equipped to love and encourage others.
Genesis 1 & 2 - Adam & Eve: The very first book of the Bible shows God's first creation of community.
1 Samuel 18 & 20 - Example of community (King David and Jonathan)
Group Check in:
How is it with your soul?
Prayer Request? Praises?
How has God shown up in your life this week?
Ice Breaker:
If you could only hang out with one person for the rest of your life - real or a fictional character, who would it be?
What does the word "community" mean to you?
Overview:
Acts 2:42-47
- Learn together
- Spend time together
- Eat together
- Pray together
- Experience God together
- Help each other
Return of Investment in being part of a Group:
- Creating meaningful relationships in a world full of superficial connections.
*Ecclesiastes 4:12: a chord of 3 strands is not easily broken
*God set aside a family/tribe/nation, not a collection of individuals.
*Jesus invested in his disciples.
*Jonathan and David: love (1 Samuel 18:4), encouragement (1 Samuel 20:1),
protection (1 Samuel 20:12-13), companionship (1 Samuel 20:4)
- An increased ability to decern God's voice.
*We are not born knowing how to do this. We learn it just like Jesus taught
His disciples. Knowing the shepherd's voice is the key to abundant life,
growth, and wisdom.
- Empowered to get out of the church walls and change a slice of the world.
Groups commission us to go out into the world and allow us to be the hands and
feet of Jesus.
Not only is the idea of being part of a group a deep Wesleyan principle (it is outlined in Wesley's emphasis on class meetings), this idea of being in a group, being in community, with each other is what the earliest Christians were doing as well.
Discussion Questions:
If growth and transformation lay at the center of following Jesus, what levers do we need to pull to achieve that?
Are you invested in life-changing community?
Read Acts 2:42. There are 4 things/values mentioned in this verse. Of the 4 things the early church says to do, which one do you find the easiest to do? Which is the hardest? Why? (Verse 42: Apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer)
How do you see the ripples of the early Church continuing today? What impacts has it made on us?
Pastor Matt said “ Apart from community, we cannot be who God created us to be.” God intended on us to live in community. Why do you think it so important to be part of a group?
What ways of community do you see demonstrated here at PTCUMC?
God wants us to be together and to have meaningful relationships with each other. What gets in our way of living in this life of community, being part of a group? How can we push against the distractions, the busyness, and false sense of community that technology has the potential of creating?
Our society has put busyness as a badge of honor, and even worse, society has also created this toxic culture of asking for help as a sign of weakness. Why is it so hard to be on the receiving end of help?
In a world that only seems to increase in pace and busy-ness, how can we maintain forward-momentum in our relationship with God and bear the kind of fruit that we’re capable of?
How can your group, our church, meet the needs of our neighbors and community? How can we truly be for our neighbors? (Brainstorm some ways your group can “be for our neighbors” throughout this year & then schedule time together to make it happen)
Is God speaking to your heart right now about how to enter a life of community in a way you have never done so before? If so, how?