CONVERSATION STARTERS:
Conversation Starters help us dig deeper, connecting Sunday’s sermons with our Monday lives. These prompts have been designed to help Community Groups grow in their relationship with God, with one another, and with their neighbors. Please know that these questions are meant to be a resource to you. You do not have to follow them verbatim or get through them all. We trust you to know your group and to ask the questions based on your group needs.

1. Have you ever had an authority figure that you did not get along with or respect? Without giving identifying details, what was that experience like for you?

2. Read Ephesians 4:32 - 5:1. Ephesians 5 begins with the word “therefore,” pointing us back to 4:32. What is the connection between 4:32 and 5:1? What reason do we find there to imitate God?

3. Ephesians 5:1 tells us to be imitators of God as beloved children. We obey because we are loved. How does love as the foundation for obedience change our ability to obey?

4. Ephesians 5:1-21 tells God’s redeemed people to live lives that are at odds with our culture and often our own human desires. This is not easy. How are we able to “walk as children of light?” Read Ephesians 5: 15-21. What part does the church play in this?

PRAYER PROMPT:
Every member of your group is a beloved child of God. Take a minute to silently meditate on that reality. Then thank God for his love and care for you. Thank him that though you were once darkness, now you are light in the Lord. Ask for his wisdom and grace to walk in love.

Title: Bring Them Up
Scripture: Ephesians 6:1-4
Speaker: Paul Brandes, PaulB@cckc.church

“The counsel is directed toward the well-ordered household with a view to how the patriarch would maintain control over every other member of the community. [The Apostle] Paul’s instruction, therefore, is radically subversive. Where there are hierarchical relationships, Paul addresses the subordinate members first, giving them unprecedented dignity. They are full and equal participants in the people of God. In contemporary visions of ancient society, these members are not addressed. They appear only as objects of control by the patriarch. But among God’s new people, there is no place for control, domination, manipulation or exploitation. Rather, mutual respect and service is to be the norm.” - Timothy Gombis

> As a parent, your most important task is to lead your children in the way of Jesus.

> Do you want to lead your children in the way of Jesus? Make sure you’re following Him first.

> If we’re going to lead OUR children in the way of Jesus then we ALL need to be following Him first.

> As a child, it is right for you to follow your parents as they follow Jesus.

> Follow your parents as they follow Jesus.