Creekside Church, Sunday, September 26, 2021
In a Group
Locations & Times
Creekside Church
660 Conservation Dr, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z4, Canada
Sunday 9:00 AM
Sunday 10:30 AM
What is a Life Group?
A group of people who meet regularly online or in person to learn, study, encourage and pray with one another. They are following Jesus and doing life together.
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When you think of becoming more like Jesus, think of it a community project. It's not a solo project.
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New Testament Vision of the new community/family that Jesus was creating.
Acts 2:42-47
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Galatians 3:26-28
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 4:25
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
Romans 12:3-5
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
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We were created to be Image Bearers.
God is a community of love (triune).
Therefore, you can't bear the image of God alone.
It's a community project.
---
Doing life together is not easy.
It's not dessert, it's vegetables.
Our Culture shapes us against being in community.
Over thirty years ago Howard Snyder asked this question and offered the following strategies: fragment family life, move people away from the neighborhoods where they grew up, set people farther apart by giving them bigger houses and yards, and separate the places people work from where they live. In other words, “partition off people’s lives into as many worlds as possible.” To facilitate the process, get everyone their own car. Replace meaningful communication with television. And finally, cut down on family size and fill people’s homes with things instead. The result? A post-familial, disconnected culture where self is king, relationships are thin, and individuals fend for themselves.
Arnold, Eberhard. Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People
Social commentator Michael Frost suggests that our culture has become like an airport departure lounge, “full of people who don’t belong where they currently find themselves and whose interactions with others are fleeting, perfunctory, and trivial.” Nobody belongs there, nobody is truly present, and nobody wants to be there. We’re tourists who graze from one experience to another, nibbling here and sampling there, but with very little commitment to bind us to one another. We exist in an untethered “nowhereness,” under the illusion that we are free.
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Check out this link to read Bonhoeffer's full explanation of the "Wish Dream"
https://frankviola.org/2012/05/03/wishdream/
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Application
1. Join a Group
2. If you're already in a group, which "One Another" could you focus on doing in your group more this fall? Check out this link for a list of the "One Anothers" - https://www.mmlearn.org/hubfs/docs/OneAnotherPassages.pdf
3. Consider becoming a group leader
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Earliest sign of civilization ______________?
A group of people who meet regularly online or in person to learn, study, encourage and pray with one another. They are following Jesus and doing life together.
---
When you think of becoming more like Jesus, think of it a community project. It's not a solo project.
---
New Testament Vision of the new community/family that Jesus was creating.
Acts 2:42-47
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Galatians 3:26-28
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 4:25
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
Romans 12:3-5
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
---
We were created to be Image Bearers.
God is a community of love (triune).
Therefore, you can't bear the image of God alone.
It's a community project.
---
Doing life together is not easy.
It's not dessert, it's vegetables.
Our Culture shapes us against being in community.
Over thirty years ago Howard Snyder asked this question and offered the following strategies: fragment family life, move people away from the neighborhoods where they grew up, set people farther apart by giving them bigger houses and yards, and separate the places people work from where they live. In other words, “partition off people’s lives into as many worlds as possible.” To facilitate the process, get everyone their own car. Replace meaningful communication with television. And finally, cut down on family size and fill people’s homes with things instead. The result? A post-familial, disconnected culture where self is king, relationships are thin, and individuals fend for themselves.
Arnold, Eberhard. Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People
Social commentator Michael Frost suggests that our culture has become like an airport departure lounge, “full of people who don’t belong where they currently find themselves and whose interactions with others are fleeting, perfunctory, and trivial.” Nobody belongs there, nobody is truly present, and nobody wants to be there. We’re tourists who graze from one experience to another, nibbling here and sampling there, but with very little commitment to bind us to one another. We exist in an untethered “nowhereness,” under the illusion that we are free.
---
Check out this link to read Bonhoeffer's full explanation of the "Wish Dream"
https://frankviola.org/2012/05/03/wishdream/
---
Application
1. Join a Group
2. If you're already in a group, which "One Another" could you focus on doing in your group more this fall? Check out this link for a list of the "One Anothers" - https://www.mmlearn.org/hubfs/docs/OneAnotherPassages.pdf
3. Consider becoming a group leader
---
Earliest sign of civilization ______________?