WEEK 5: THE MOST EXCELLENT WAY

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This week’s we wrapped up our Focus series by talking about our call to love, and what it means for us to love others. His main teaching text was 1st Corinthians 13...

IfIspeakinthetongues[a] ofmenorofangels,butdonothavelove,Iamonlyaresoundinggongor a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all
knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I giveallIpossesstothepoorandgiveovermybodytohardshipthatImayboast,[b] butdonothave love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

We often approach this famous passage as if it were a checklist. We think that the challenge is to try our best to master the items on the list. The truth is that this is not a comprehensive “to do” list for believers. Instead, it is a description of the traits that characterize a person who follows Jesus. It is not about acting a certain way. It is about our very motives being permeated by the love of Jesus that lives inside of us.

Scott also talked about the fact that Christians tend to fall into two general categories, those who are about grace, and those who are about truth. Those of us who more highly value truth tend to be more judgmental. We want people to do what is right and we will speak to our convictions with little regard for the feelings of others. Those of us who fall in the “grace camp” value harmony and despise tension. We err on the side of forgiveness without accountability. Most people look at this as a balancing act. We ask how we can practice grace while balancing it with truth, but Jesus didn’t do this. He was

one hundred percent gracious, and one hundred percent truthful. The book of John tells us that he was “full of grace and truth”; two things that live in tension with one another. And when we follow Jesus, we live in that tension. In all situations, we seek to answer the question, “What does love require of me?”

DISCUSS

Have you ever interacted with a person who displayed some of the traits described in 1 Corinthians 13, but was not motivated by love? How could you tell the difference? What made you suspect that their motives were not sincere?

What are the negative effects of looking at 1 Corinthians 13 as a checklist?

As we grow closer to Jesus, our lives become characterized by the attributes of love. In the same way that a tree doesn’t try to bear fruit, a Christ-follower naturally produces Christ-like attributes. What fruit has grown in your life as a result of following Jesus?

Would you describe yourself as a “grace” person or a “truth” person. How would you defend your position as being more valid than those on the other side of the argument. Go ahead and rant a little bit if you want to.

How does the cross show us that Jesus is completely gracious, and completely full of truth at the same time?

When we deal with difficult people, how can we be both completely gracious and completely truthful? See if you can come up with some examples.

PRAY

PRAY FOR YOUR LIFE GROUP
Pray that we will embrace the tension between grace and truth, and learn to live in it. Pray that we will develop Christ-like traits in our lives that are motivated by love.

PRAY FOR FCC & OUR COMMUNITY
Pray that people will experience the love of Jesus through us this week on the third, fourth, and fifth of July, as we serve our community. Pray that every interaction is full of love and authentic care for others.

WEEK 4: Fully Engaged

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This week’s message was about the primary purpose of Jesus’s mission here on earth, and the call that is central to everything we do as a church.

Luke 19:10

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Matthew 28:19-20

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you...

While the church is made up of people who are “found,” its purpose is all about people who are “lost.” When we lose sight of this, our focus gravitates inward. We start to focus on our own experiences, our own preferences, and our own comfort. This is what happened in Antioch, when Christians began to insist that Gentiles must be circumcised in order to be saved. They longed for the spiritual journey of the Gentiles to look like their own. Ultimately, it was determined that past practices were not beneficial to the process of bringing people to know Jesus. These religious requirements only served as obstacles, making it difficult for people to be saved. Their personal preferences stood in conflict with the mission of the church, and the church leaders did not allow these preferences to stand in the way.

Regarding the issue of whether or now Gentiles should be required to undergo circumcision, James said this...

Acts 15:19

"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

DISCUSS

What are your personal preferences when it comes to church? If our services and events were designed around your own personal tastes, how would we do things differently?

When you talk about the church, do you find yourself discussing the mission of the church and how we are to bring people to know Jesus? Or are you more likely to discuss your own preferences regarding the way we do things?

Acts 15:19

"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

Do you think that there are things that we do (individually or corporately) that make it difficult for people to turn to God?

Do you feel that your own focus is more about the mission of the church, or your own preferences?

If you feel that your focus could use a shift, what can you do to make that happen?

PRAY

PRAY FOR YOUR LIFE GROUP
Pray that we will have a focus that is more about the mission of the church than our own preferences.

PRAY FOR FCC & OUR COMMUNITY
The Fourth of July is approaching. Pray that as we use this opportunity to serve our community, people will be drawn to the church and to Jesus.

PRAY FOR OUR GLOBAL PARTNERS
Spend a few moments in prayer praising God for the successful trip of our FCC high school global connection team to Chile last week. Praise God for the positive relationships that were built and for the Chilean church to continue to remain encouraged from our two teams this summer. Pray for the pastor and his family with Ibero American ministries, that they’d feel encouraged and equipped to continued guiding their church community in El Monte, Chile.

WEEK 3: NOT SO TRIVIAL PURSUITS

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This week’s message focused in on the things that we are about accomplishing as a church. At the very core of our existence, God wants us to be about two things, loving Him, and loving other people.

John 13:34-35
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Our love for one another is our trademark trait as followers of Christ. It is the characteristic that the world should know us by. Our goal for the church is that as we follow Jesus, our faith in God increases, along with our love for one another.

2 Thessalonians 1:3

Our goal as a church is to love God more, and love people more. The strategy for this goal is summed up in the pursuit of three things; intimacy with God, community with insiders, and influence with outsiders.

Intimacy with God is not just knowing things about God, but having a personal relationship with Him. It is about trusting God as we put the things we believe into practice.

Community with insiders is about letting other believers into our lives. It is about connecting relationally and growing spiritually together.

Influence with outsiders has to do with the way that we love people outside the church. It is about practicing influence that seeks to love and to serve instead of influence that seeks to overpower and manipulate.

Matthew 20:25-28
Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.

DISCUSS

In his message, Scott pointed out the connection that Jesus makes between loving God and loving people. In spite of the fact that you cannot love God without loving those He created, people have historically attempted to do just that. What does it look like when someone tries to serve God without loving people?

2 Thessalonians 1:3 also links our faith in God to our love for others. How does growing faith in God increase our love for others? How does loving others increase our faith in God?

Matthew 20:25-28 contrasts the power structure of the world against the powerful influence of people who follow Jesus. We are directed to not exercise the kind of power and authority that is prevalent in the world. How do worldly leaders lord their authority over others today?
What are examples of times that well-meaning Christians attempt to lord their authority over people instead of serving them?
How would things change if we used all of our power and authority to love and serve others instead of trying to exert power over them?

PRAY

PRAY FOR YOUR LIFE GROUP
Pray that we will have greater intimacy with God, authentic community with each other, and increasing influence with people who need Jesus.

PRAY FOR FCC & OUR COMMUNITY
Pray that we will leverage whatever authority, power and resources we possess as a church to lovingly service others, and never to lord it over people.

PRAY FOR OUR GLOBAL PARTNERS
Spend a moment praising God for the significant progress last week’s adult FCC Chile team made in building a bigger gathering space for a Church in Chile. Pray for peace, smooth travels, and a positive impact and experience for the High School Chile team serving this week in Santiago.

WEEK 2: TRY SOMETHING NEW

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In the second week of our Focus series, Scott talked about how the way that the Jewish religion of Jesus’ day was about preserving the past. Passover was, and still is, the most prominent Jewish holiday. It celebrates the way that God freed the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt. Celebrating Passover is done through the use of many traditions and rituals which represent the final plague of death and the exodus from Egypt.

When Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples, he took the old practices of Passover and made them about something new. The unleavened bread traditionally a reminder of the Passover lamb, and of the fact that the Hebrews hurried out of Egypt without time to allow their bread to rise. This time, Jesus said that the bread was his body. The blood was a reminder of the Passover lamb that was sacrificed, but Jesus said that it was his blood. Jesus took the old symbols of the Exodus and gave them new meanings. They became about him. This was significant, because in order to follow Jesus, his followers would have to reject the idea that faithfulness to God was about the 613 written laws of the Old Covenant, and embrace that there would now be a New Covenant with one law.

John 13:34-35

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Jesus insisted that the command to love God and to love others completely summed up everything written in the law and the prophets. This kind of teaching is exactly what got Jesus into trouble with the authorities of his time. Jesus was a threat to their establishment. He was a threat to the things that they were trying to preserve.

DISCUSS

In his message, Scott mentioned that during the Egyptian slavery, the Egypt’s religion was a system of justifying and legitimizing their culture. Do you think that in our culture, people use religion to justify their own values?

It must have been difficult for the disciples to let go of the old religious meaning that they had always placed on the Passover meal, as it gave way to a new meaning. Do you ever have trouble letting go of old things? Is there anything in your life that you are struggling to let go of?

It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting new results. Have you ever found yourself in this kind of place, stuck in the same old patterns, but longing for something new?

The Bible tells us that if we are in Christ, then we are new creations. What is something new that you would love to see God do in you or through you?

PRAY

PRAY FOR YOUR LIFE GROUP
Pray that we will let go of old religion and seek the newness that Jesus has in store for us.

PRAY FOR FCC & OUR COMMUNITY
Pray that we will experience newness as a church, and that people will be drawn to Jesus because we look like something new and different in our community.

PRAY FOR OUR GLOBAL PARTNERS
Spend a few moments in prayer praising God for all that was accomplished through FCC’s Adult Chile Global Connection Team last week. The team was able to help with several Church facility refurbishments in Santiago. Pray for the team as they transition back to normal routine at here at home. Pray for the impact the team had on their new Chilean friends to be an ongoing encouragement and to have long-term positive effects as the Church continues to make a difference in its community.

Week 1: WHO THE CHURCH IS FOR

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This week we began a new series called “Focus”. We are spending some time focusing in on what Jesus is all about. When Jesus began his ministry, he spoke at the synagogue in his hometown. When he claims to be the Messiah, those present were a bit bewildered by him, yet not offended. They even spoke well of him in spite of this radical claim. What offended them was his insinuation that salvation was for the gentiles; non-Hebrews, who did not follow Jewish laws and traditions. After hearing this, they drive Jesus out of town and attempt to kill him.

The message that got Jesus into so much trouble with the Galileans, was that God is not just for an exclusive group of people, but for everybody. This is a message that Jesus was hated for throughout his life on earth, as he invited tax collectors, sinners, and outcasts to follow him. Throughout Jesus’s ministry, he keeps insisting that many of the “outsiders” are actually in, and many “insiders” are actually out. Sadly, this was a message that the people of the time rejected. And it is a message that many people in the church today still reject.

As the church, we can become just as exclusive. We tend to define ourselves, not by who we are for, but what we are against. Jesus said that he came to seek and to save the lost, but we often position ourselves against those who don’t know Jesus. Jesus said that it is the sick who need a doctor and that they are the whole point of his incarnation. When we see symptoms of spiritual sickness, do we meet them with healing and care, or with judgment and condemnation?

DISCUSS

Jesus was clearly for people. Do people look at us and see a church that is for people?

Acts 15:19
“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the gentiles who are turning to God.

Do we make it difficult for people to turn to God? If so, in what ways?

Jesus is defined by love, and wants the same for us. Do you think that the church is defined by love? What do you think the church is commonly defined by in today’s culture?

Scott said that we need to be a church for people who don’t go to church. How can we show unchurched people that we are for them?

PRAY

PRAY FOR YOUR LIFE GROUP
Pray that we will show love and acceptance to others in our daily lives, and that we will reflect the love of Jesus to all those we come into contact with.

PRAY FOR FCC & OUR COMMUNITY
Pray that we will be come a church that is known in our community by our love and by the fact that we are for people, not against them.

PRAY FOR OUR GLOBAL PARTNERS
Spend a few moments praising God for bringing healing to our FCC global field worker in India with MidIndia Christian Mission, Mr. Lall. After heart surgery, Mr. Lall has recovered and was well enough to travel to the States to be here for the wedding of his son this summer. Please pray for their ministry in India to continue its profound impact, even during our field workers' absence.