CrossWay Community Church | Bristol, WI

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. What is the basic posture of your heart toward the leaders in our church? Are you limiting your “respect” and “esteem” to just some of them?<br> <br>2. How aware are you of the spiritual condition of those around you? Do you feel like you know when someone is “idle”? When they are “fainthearted”? When they are “weak”?<br> <br>3. Have you had an experience of being sinned against recently by someone in the church? What has been your response?<br>_________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. How much do you think about the second coming of Jesus? If you don’t think about it much, why is that? Is it that you’ve never been taught about it and being unaware of it hinders your eagerness for it? Is it that your heart has grown somewhat cold and you don’t feel the preciousness of Jesus and that seeing him will be the greatest thing? Is it that you are afraid of what might happen on that day? Is it something else?<br> <br>2. Consider I Thessalonians 5:8. How might your purposed pursuit of faith, love, and hope make you more prepared for Christ’s second coming?<br> <br>3. Who do you know that might need the encouragement of the truth of Christ’s second coming? Think of a gentle and loving way to provide that encouragement and purpose to do that.<br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Have you lost a loved one who was a Christian? How much are you allowing biblical truth about a Christian’s death to influence how you think and how you feel about that loss?<br> <br>2. How often do you think about your own death? How much are you allowing biblical truth to influence how you think and how you feel about that?__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>Do you think about God primarily as a God of judgment or a God of mercy? What makes you think that?<br> <br>2. Is there any danger in emphasizing the fact that God pardons our sin? What will protect us from that danger?<br> <br>3. What is the sweetest part of Micah 7:18-20 for you? How might you keep that truth close in order to keep treasuring it?<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. What are some ways that gratitude was stirred up in your life because of the sermon?<br><br>2. Are there particular ways that you think gratitude for God's mercy has been lacking in your life?<br><br>3. How can considering our similarities to the sailors, the people of Nineveh, and the Samaritan leper help us grow in gratitude?<br>4. What is one practical step you will take this week to be more grateful for God's mercy in your life?<br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Read Exodus 34:5-7. Why is it important be continually reminded of both the mercy and justice of God? What happens if we neglect one or the other of these truths?<br><br>2. Do you find it easy or difficult to trust that God’s heart towards you is characterized by mercy, even when you fail to live for him? How does the book of Jonah help in this?<br><br>3. One sign of trouble in Jonah’s heart was that he was more concerned about the plant that made his booth more comfortable than he was the people in Nineveh who needed God’s mercy. How is this an expression of pride? Are there ways this self-focus shows up in your life?<br><br>4. Do you regularly pray to share God’s heart towards unbelievers and opportunities to speak with them about Jesus? Is there a particular relationship in which you want to increasingly have both compassion and opportunities to share?<br><br>5. Think of people, groups, or political movements in our culture that you perceive as threatening to the freedoms of Christians. Does it help your posture of heart towards them to remember that “they don’t know their right hand from their left”? What do you think it looks like to speak and to act towards them out of a heart of compassion rather than contempt?<br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Who would you consider your enemy today? Think of people/groups that stand on the opposite side of the spectrum socially/politically/culturally/spiritually. What is your primary posture towards these "enemies"?<br> <br>2. Share a time you've experienced the inclusive mercy of God giving you a second chance.<br> <br>3. Share a time you've experienced God calling you to something that was hard.<br> <br>4. Do you feel called to be a part of God's mission to make disciples? Why or why not?<br> <br>5. The inclusive mercy of God is brutally honest and abundantly compassionate. Which of these realities comes easier for you? Why? Why is the other side hard? How can you pursue embodying both in your relationships?<br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. God’s severe mercy landed Jonah in the belly of a fish. Why is it important that we have this category of severe mercy—where God in his mercy brings hurt and pain— for our own lives? <br><br>2. When have you experienced God’s saving mercy in your own life?<br><br>3. What happened to Jonah when he minimized his own sin and looked on the sins of other people and groups? Why is it so important to think often about your own sin? Why is it important to look less on the sins of other people and other groups?<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Jonah chapter 1 paints a picture of God as sovereign: in control of everything from a great storm to the casting of lots. Do you find the sovereignty of God more comforting or troubling? Why?<br><br>2. Jonah’s disobedience started when he elevated his nation above God in his priorities—he made his people an idol. Is there anything in your life that you find to be regularly challenging your obedience to God or your commitment to spending time with him? Do you have any relationships in which you are displeasing God in order to please another person? What do you think God wants you to do about these things?<br><br>3. God sent a storm after Jonah in order to turn him around and restore him to right relationship with God—the storm was a severe mercy. How does this inform how we think about suffering that comes into our lives?<br><br>4. Think of people who feel like enemies to you—maybe people who have wronged you, or are wronging you, or whose opinions you think are dangerous or harmful. How should knowing that God has mercy for his enemies shape the way you think about, pray for, and relate to them?<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Of the three instructions given in I Thessalonians 4:11—living quietly, minding your own affairs, and working with your hands—with which do you struggle the most? Where does that struggle show up for you and what does it look like?<br> <br>2. Which of the two reasons for living like this that Paul names in verse 12 is most motivating for you?<br> <br>3. What does all this have to do with the gospel?<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. In what way is connecting God’s love for us to our love for one another helpful to how you think about loving others?<br> <br>2. Think about some of the “one anothers” in the Bible: greet one another, welcome one another, encourage one another, serve one another, bear one another’s burdens. What opportunities might you have in the near future to show love to another believer in those ways? How might you be intentional about showing that love?<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. What is one thing that stuck out to you from the sermon?<br><br>2. How can we as believers help each other pursue holy sexuality?<br><br>3. What are some ways that you can be tempted to see God’s guard rails as robbing you of joy rather than for your joy? (Grand Canyon Illustration)<br><br>4. What is one step that you need to take in your own life based on the sermon? (It could be new way of thinking or new action)<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Is there a clear and purposeful connection in your mind between the instructions in God’s word and your living of your life? Is there a recent example of you reading something in your Bible and purposing to implement what you read into your life? If that hasn’t happened recently, why do you think that is?<br><br>2. How convinced are you of the goodness of God’s instructions? Is your desire to obey more begrudging or truly joyful?<br><br>3. Are you operating daily with an awareness of Jesus’ presence? What might you do to heighten your awareness of that wonderful reality?<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Are you meaningfully and regularly engaged in shared life with other believers? What does that look like for you? If not, what steps might you take to pursue that?<br> <br>2. Run through the six “effects” of shared life Paul names in I Thessalonians 3:6-13 (i.e., thanksgiving, joy, earnest prayer, longing to do others good, love, and holiness). Which of these do you feel are strongly present in your shared experience? With which do you feel there is room for growth?<br> <br>3. Pick just one of these areas you desire to see growth in. What first step might you take in that direction? Know that God is ready to meet you one step down the path of obedience.<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Are you currently experiencing any opposition for being a Christian? If yes, what does that look like? If no, why do you think that is?<br> <br>2. Have you witnessed another Christian endure opposition recently? How has this affected you?<br> <br>3. What helps you to get outside of the “small frame” of your circumstances and live within the “large frame” of God’s purposes? Are there specific steps or habits you need to be cultivating here?<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Do you have reservations about the authority of God’s word? What are those reservations? How do you think they might be addressed?<br> <br>2. Think about your daily and weekly habits of receiving the word of God. Do you feel like your current habits are allowing you to benefit fully from the “working of the word” (I Thess. 2:13) in your life? Is there some step you feel you could take to strengthen your “Word habits” so as to more fully benefit from its effect?<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Would you say that you speak about Jesus freely with your family, neighbors, and coworkers? Why or why not?<br><br>2. Do you find yourself more often motivated by the desire to please God or the desire to please people (v. 4)? Can you think of a time recently that your desire to please God led you to disappoint someone? Can you think of a time when your desire to please people led you to compromise what God was calling you to?<br><br>3. What are some ways you can grow in your desire to please God?<br><br>4. Think of some people to whom you’re trying to do spiritual good, whether non-Christians, less mature Christians, your children, or someone else. Which facet of self-giving love do you think God wants you to show more of in that relationship: affection (v. 7), availability (v. 8), exertion (v. 9), or exhortation (vv. 10-12)? How could that look?<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br> <br>1. Are you a Christian? How do you know?<br> <br>2. What does the idea of being “chosen” by God (v. 4) do in you? What do you think the Bible means that truth to do in you?<br> <br>3. What evidences of genuine conversion (like what Paul names in v. 2) is it encouraging for you to see in your life?<br><br>__________________________________________<br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions: <br> <br>1. Remember back to when you first really heard the gospel. How did you respond?<br> <br>2. How long after responding to the gospel did you become a part of a local gathering of believers? What difference did that make in your living as a Christian?<br> <br>3. Open your Bible to I Thessalonians and just glance over the section headings through the book. What part of I Thessalonians are you most looking forward to? Why is that?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Why does God have the writer of Psalm 105 rewrite the events he’s already had Moses record in the book of Exodus? What does the fact that this psalm was written 400 years after Exodus say about its usefulness for us living so many years after the Exodus?<br><br>2. How does that saying, “The way to build trust in a relationship is to make promises and keep them” strike you? Do you think it is true? Does it help you in your appreciation of God or does it seem like it doesn’t really apply?<br><br>3. What promises that God has made are most precious to you and would be most devastating to you if God did not “remember”? What accounts of God’s remembering in the past do you need to “remember” (v. 5) that will help you trust him now?</p>

<p>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532<br><br>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>Think of the two main points from today’s message:<br><br>1. God means his presence with his people to be uninterrupted.<br><br>2. God means his presence to be known by his people.<br><br>Reflect on each of these truths as they relate to your life, and then ask: What is the level of my confidence in and my experience of God’s presence? How do I think about it? How does it affect my day-to-day life? How might I grow in experiencing what God desires for me?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Have you allowed any impatience to turn to unbelief and lead you into idolatry? What might that look like?<br> <br>2. Are you currently perhaps experiencing some correction from God that you need to pay attention to? How would you know that it is God’s correction?<br> <br>3. If there has been sin, have you responded to God in true repentance? What would true repentance look like?<br> <br>4. Are you enjoying all that God has for you in Christ today?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. What struck you most from these chapters of Exodus regarding God’s desire to dwell with his people? Was there something newly precious to you about Jesus and what he has done?<br><br>2. In his commentary on Exodus Alec Motyer says, ‘The Lord, for his part, was willing and ready to dwell in the midst of his people, but it was for them to decide if they wanted him to do so. It is the same for us; we can either engage or neglect these things. We can choose to live at a distance, neglecting those things which would bring God near to us and us near to him.’ Do you desire God’s nearness? What are the things that help you engage with God?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Go back and read Exodus 19:4-6 especially noticing the order of things. Are you ever tempted to slip back into thinking that it is your obedience that is the grounds of your standing with God? What is the ground of your standing with God? Why is it tempting to slip back into a works-righteousness? Think about that question carefully because knowing the answer will likely help you avoid the temptation.<br><br>2. Do the 10 Commandments (or any other command from God) sound ‘foreboding’ to you or liberating and confidence-engendering? Where is the truly good life found?<br><br>3. Do you feel like you are God’s ‘treasured possession’? Why or why not?<br><br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions<br><br>1. Have you ever felt like becoming a Christian was leaving something familiar and heading into the wilderness? How so?<br><br>2. Do you feel like you actually know God better now than you did five years ago? One year ago? How did that happen?<br><br>3. Think of a recent example of God providing for you, whether for your physical needs, your spiritual stamina, or some sound guidance. How did you know that it was God’s provision?<br><br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532<br><br>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. God says that his aim in the exodus is that (14:4) 'I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and that the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.' Does that seem selfish to you? What are some reasons it’s good for us that God is committed to displaying his glory and revealing who he is?<br><br>2. This passage reveals God as his people’s present shepherd. What circumstances in your life right now make you feel your need for a shepherd to lead you and provide for you? How does this passage help you in your need?<br><br>3. God is his people’s gracious Savior. Do you ever find it difficult to keep a firm hold on this truth and instead feel more sure of God’s love when you’re obeying him consistently and less sure of his love when you fall short? How does seeing the way he deals with his people in this passage help you?<br><br>4. God is his people’s victorious king. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus he has defeated our greatest enemies: sin, death, and the devil. How does being deeply assured of this lead not to living however we want, but living for him? Have you seen this change in your own life?</p>

<p> Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532 </p> <p> Sermon Application Questions - March 28, 2021: </p> <p> 1. God liberates his people through sacrifice. Imagine being a slave under one of the most powerful kings of the day. Your parents were slaves, your grandparents, and on and on as far back as you can remember. Then, in a flurry of time, the God you've worshipped sets you free. How would you feel personally? Towards God? How would being freed impact the way you see relationships? work? Challenges? </p> <p> 2. Jesus liberates his people from sin through his death and resurrection. What do you think about having a substitute take your place for a punishment you've earned? What emotions come to mind? How could/should Jesus' death and resurrection impact the way you see relationships? work? challenges? </p> <p> 3. Share a formative tradition, celebration, or rhythm from your life. It can be big things or seemingly normal habits. What significance has it had on you? </p> <p> 4. Are there any traditions you'd like to start? If so, what are they? And why do you want to start them? </p> <p> 5. Would you characterize your heart as hard or soft towards God? Using the list below, which items resonate with your life right now? </p> Hard-heart... Soft-heart... Resists God Receives God Seeks to work around God’s ways Seeks to pursue God’s ways Endlessly searches for an identity, often within themselves Joyfully Finds their identity in God Bends everything in life, career, friends, family, decisions, and lifestyles around itself Bends everything in life, career, friends, family, decisions, and lifestyles around God Needs the approval of others, therefore constantly compromising to fill a void. Has the approval of God, therefore consistently resting in fulfillment Walks through the struggles of life, often dependent on themselves Walks through the struggles of life, dependent on God Thinks the best life is now Thinks the best life is later Says it’s better to be aligned with their feelings, impulses, the ruling powers and/or social classes of the day, even if it means being opposed to God. Says it’s better to be aligned with God, even if it means opposing some of their feelings, impulses, ruling powers and/or social classes of the day. Ultimately takes on God’s judgment and wrath Ultimately Passes God’s judgment and wrath to Jesus <br/> <br/>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Have you had an experience of God preserving you through a spiritually dangerous or challenging time?<br><br>2. Have you ever wondered if God is really able to preserve you through everything all the way to the end? What kinds of things make you wonder that?<br><br>3. It is clear that God’s working through the plagues and though the exodus is so that people will know, without doubt, that he is the one true and all-powerful God. What difference is that truth making in your life?<br><br>4. Were you surprised to hear God call the Egyptians 'my people' (Isaiah 19:25)? What does that do to your vision of God and his purposes? What implications might this have on your own sense of belonging to God? What implications might it have for how you see others?<br><br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Have you ever found yourself resisting God with a stubborn, even defiant, heart? What did that look like? Trying to ignore God? Pleading with God in a crisis but then reverting to refusing him when the crisis passed? Simply defying him? What brought you to your senses?<br><br>2. How aware are you on a daily basis of God’s purpose to bring you 'out of slavery and into a promised place of goodness and freedom'?<br><br>3. What do you understand that 'promised place of gladness and freedom' to include?<br><br>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532</p>

<p>What do Gatorade commercials, library books, LGBT messaging and pop music have in common? They are telling us who we are as humans: our identity. How does modern identity show up in our world and how does it relate to the gospel?</p>

<p>Music and Lyrics Used by Permission CCLI# 1595532<br><br>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>Have you ever been, like Moses, in a posture of resisting God out of fear and doubt? What kinds of things did you find yourself saying to God in that situation?<br><br>Has you fear-based and doubt-based resistance ever turned into outright disobedience? What kinds of things were you saying to God then?<br><br>What part of God’s response to Moses in Exodus 4-7 was most encouraging to you? Have you experienced that in your relationship with God?<br><br>Are there some places in your life where there is now faith where there used to be fear and doubt?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. What do you think of when you think of the book of Exodus? Have you, in the past, made connections between things you read in Exodus and Jesus?<br><br>2. With whom do you most identify in these early chapters of Exodus? How does what God is doing, i.e. 'forming a people and bring them out of slavery and into a promised place of freedom and goodness', relate to your own life and circumstances?<br><br>3. Early in the message Pastor Mike said, 'God’s entire plan of salvation is exodus-shaped.' What parts of the book of Exodus, and of the Bible as a whole, make you say, 'yes, that’s true!'?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. What do you worship or are you drawn to worship?<br><br>You can identify what you worship by considering what you daydream about over and over again. Or what is easy to spend (and overspend) on consistently. Or what in your life, if you lost it, would devastate you to the core, where you’d question if you should even live? (Counterfeit Gods, 165-170).<br><br>2. Is what you’re worshipping or what you’re drawn to worship fulfilling?<br><br>In what ways is it fulfilling? How does it leave you wanting more? Every pseudo god gives us some sort of benefit. And, often the things we go after might be good in moderation, just not as gods.<br><br>3. Would you give your allegiance or continue your allegiance to the God you heard about today?<br><br>If you’ve never trusted in Jesus, what keeps you from considering him as your one and only God?<br><br>If you have trusted in Jesus, what does it look like to actively resist the pull of other pseudo gods and rejoice in knowing God?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Before hearing the sermon, what would have come into your mind when you thought of the book of Numbers?<br><br>2. In Numbers 14:11 God says that the reason the people refused to enter the land was that they did 'not believe in me.' How does disobedience show unbelief? How is complaining (11:1, 4) also a fruit of unbelief? Do you see any habits of complaining or disobedience in your own life?<br><br>3. Hebrews 3:7-14 applies the story of Numbers 13-14 and calls us not to harden our hearts. What does he say leads to hardness of heart? What helps us not become hardened? What are some ways this practice can become a greater part of your life and the life of your Gospel Community?<br><br>4. Read Numbers 21:4-9 and John 3:14-18. What truth does Jesus want Nicodemus to understand in comparing himself to the bronze snake? Do you find it easy to keep this truth firmly in your mind and heart? What happens when we forget this truth?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br> <br>1. What has been your experience with reading the book of Leviticus? What are your feelings about the book?<br> <br>2. Both Colossians 2:17 and Hebrews 10:1 refer to the stuff of Leviticus as “a shadow”. What do you take that to mean? How does that help you in your reading of Leviticus?<br> <br>3. As you read of the great Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16 and consider its great truths, i.e. the cost of sin, the provision of a substitute, the complete removal of our sin, how does knowing it is illustrating a much greater reality help you in terms of having a deep and personal appreciation for the gospel? Perhaps use Galatians 2:20 to help you here.</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br> <br>1. Is there a deep-seated confidence in Christ that produces a deep and genuine hope that characterizes your life?<br> <br>2. Do you genuinely believe that there are others to whom God intends to give that same hope?<br> <br>3. Are you ready to share with anyone who shows interest?<br> <br>Note: I recognize that on the face of it these are all “yes or no” questions. Don’t be content with a simple “yes” or “no”. Think carefully about each question and wrestle with the reality of your own life relative to the issue raised in each question.</p>

<p>1. How does the definition of encouragement offered in the message square with what you see in the Bible? How does it square with your own experience?<br><br>2. What puts you most in need of encouragement in your day-to day life?<br><br>3. Do you feel like heaven is actually functioning as an encouraging thing in your life? How might you be able to help it function as an encouragement in other people’s lives?<br> <br>4. Think about a time when you were truly encouraged by a brother or sister in Christ. What was the encouragement? What effect did it have on you?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions<br><br>1. What might purposing to “train yourself for godliness” look like for you at this stage of your life? What steps of intentionality or consistency or organization need to be taken in your life?<br> <br>2. What specific means of grace are proving most fruitful in your pursuit of godliness right now? What means of grace do you need to avail yourself of more? Be very specific here.<br> <br>3. Which of the two motivations mentioned in Titus 2:13-14 is most compelling for you? Why is that? How might the other be strengthened?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions<br><br>1. When you read Psalm 1 what phrase or line most stands out for you? And what phrase or line is most meaningful to you? Why is it so meaningful?<br><br>2. In the message Pastor Mike made the point that the phrase the 'law of the Lord' (v. 2) represented the 'ways of the Lord' which are presented in all of Scripture. He also spoke of 'the goodness of the ways of the Lord'. How deeply convinced are you of the goodness of God’s ways? How does that conviction show up in your life? How might that conviction be strengthened?<br><br>3. How do you plan to grow in your 'delighting' in the law of the Lord this year?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>Review the four 'Shepherd Truths' below and pick the one that seems to be most relevant to you in your current situation. What do you think God would have you do in response to that particular truth? Where might there be some resistance to what God would have you do? Make it a point to pray about this and perhaps talk to a Christian friend about it.<br><br>The 'Shepherd Truths'<br><br>1. Having your life interrupted by God is an unavoidably unsettling thing.<br><br>2. When your life is interrupted by God the best thing to do is respond right away.<br><br>3. When God does something in your life you should make it known to others.<br><br>4. When God interrupts our lives he usually wants us to go back into our ordinary lives, but differently.</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>Let’s focus in on the three things that God delights to see in us—humility, faith, and awe-filled praise. In which of these do you feel there is strength in your life? Where do you feel like there may be some room for growth?<br><br>1. How might a prideful resistance show up in your relationship to God and what he has said? Think about what genuine humility might look like in this area.<br><br>2. How conscious are you throughout the day of God’s presence and the fact that he is at work doing something great in the world? And, can you think of a recent time you actively trusted something God has said in his word? What did that produce in you?<br><br>3. Where does awe-filled praise show up in your life? Is there room for it in your private time with God? Is it in your heart when you worship with the gathered church?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Waiting on God is hard. At one point in the message the following statement was made: 'You cannot judge God by your calendar. God’s plan does not follow our schedules. His timing might seem completely wrong to us, until it becomes clear that it isn’t.' Does that apply to anything in your life right now?<br><br>2. Joy shows up a lot in the first two chapters of Luke: 1:14, 1:44, 1:47, 2:10. How would you rate your JQ (joy quotient) these days? If it’s not what these passages (and the Bible as a whole) suggest it should be what might be the reason for that?<br><br>3. How does longing for God show up in your life? Read John 14:23. What does that awaken in you? Does that describe something you desire? Do you believe that can really happen?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions - 11/29/2020:<br><br>1. Verses 18-21 and 22-24 depict two different ways to encounter God. What does each emphasize about what God is like? What effect do you think God wants vv. 22-24 to have on us after first reading vv. 18-21?<br><br>2. There is a tension in this passage; on the one hand, God wants his people to have assurance of his acceptance; v. 22 says that his people have already come to all the realities he lists in vv. 22-24. On the other hand, he warns that if they refuse God’s voice, there will be no escape for them (v. 25). How should we hold these truths together? How does 3:12-14 help us understand this?<br><br>3. V. 25 warns us not to refuse God’s voice. Is there any area of your life in which you are falling short of believing what God has promised or doing what he has commanded? How can your Gospel Community pray for you in this area?<br><br>4. V. 28 says that ‘acceptable worship’ is both 'grateful' and marked by ‘reverence and awe.’ Do you find that either gratitude or awe come more naturally to you in your relationship with God? How can you cultivate the one that seems less characteristic of you?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Has there been a time or season in life where you've joyfully welcomed discipline in a particular area? [e.g., sports, career, diet, exercise, personal growth, etc]. If so, why were you happy to have discipline?<br><br>2. Why is God's discipline a good thing? How can it help a follower of Jesus kill sin and grow in holiness?<br><br>3. When hard things come into your life, what do you instinctively think and believe about God? Choose one of the options below and share why you feel that way.<br><br>I believe he's distant, forgotten, and uninvolved<br>I believe he's punishing you for something you did<br>I believe he's a loving Father disciplining you for holiness and eternal reward<br>Something else?<br>4. Have you experienced God's discipline? If so, what was it like? If not, what do you think it would be like?<br>5. Is God's discipline a welcomed category in your life? Why or why not?</p>

<p>Sermon Application Questions:<br><br>1. Are you aware of any weariness (12:3) in your life, whether weariness of body or soul? How is your weariness affecting your spiritual life?<br><br>2. We can be hindered in the 'race' of faith by both 'weight' and 'sin' (12:1). Are there any 'weights' in your life, things that are not inherently sinful but are consuming time and energy you could otherwise devote to knowing and serving God? What change do you want to make in that area of life?<br><br>3. Are there sins that you are particularly struggling with right now, that regularly trip you up as you follow Jesus? What does repentance look like for you? What are some ways your group could serve you as you seek to walk in obedience?<br><br>4. Jesus is right now seated in the presence of God, interceding for his people (12:2, 7:25). What are some specific differences that truth makes in our daily lives? As you remember that he sits on a throne of grace, ready to help us in time of need (4:16), what help do you need right now?</p>