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. Everyone has words or phrases that drive us crazy or set our teeth on edge. What are they for you?

2. What is your knee jerk reaction when you hear the word “submit?” Why do you think this word provokes a strong response in many people?

3. Read Ephesians 5:22-23 and pause for a minute. Now read Ephesians 5:20-33. Does reading the broader context change how you view verses 22-23?

4. Have you previously encountered the concept that human marriage is a picture of the heavenly marriage between Christ and the church? How does looking at marriage merely through the lens of culture or romance fall short of what Paul is showing us is the purpose of marriage?

5. Paul tells the Ephesians in verse 5:21 to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. What role does humility and deference to others play in our lives? How can this kind of life point others to the gospel?

6. Read Philippians 2:3-11. We are to be imitators of God. In what ways does Christ’s example inspire us to elevate others above ourselves?

PRAYER PROMPT:
Praise Jesus for giving himself up for the church - for us. Pray for the humility and love to give ourselves back to Christ in joyful service.

Title: Walk In Love
Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-21
Speaker: Paul Brandes, PaulB@cckc.church

> Loved people love people

> Loved people love people more than their desires

“Paul labels [these behaviors] as sinful and completely off-limits for believers. In doing so, I repeat, he asserted and reflected a stance diametrically opposed to the prevailing attitudes of the time, and he intended to distinguish sharply what should be the sexual behavior of believers, particularly males.” - Larry Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods

"Even when it goes well, sex is complicated. It involves our bodies, minds and emotions, our connections to each other and our deepest selves. Despite the (many, and popular) arguments that it’s only a physical act, it is clear to almost anyone who has had it that sex has vast consequences, some of which can last long after an encounter ends. Over the past several decades, our society has come to believe that consent—as a legal standard and a moral requirement—could somehow make our most unruly activity more manageable. But it was never going to be that easy."
- Christine Emba, “Consent was never enough. We need a new sexual ethic.”

> Loved people love people more than our desires

> Loved people love people more than our privacy

"Unfortunately, our culture's love affair with privacy has elevated it to the status of a divine right. The result is that we now have large islands of secrecy and anonymity where we used to have transparency. It's supposedly no one's business what I watch or download in the privacy of my home. Child psychologists tell me my children's rooms are off limits. Lawyers tell me I can pay for my kids' college tuition, but I have no right to access their grades or medical records. [But] the Bible knows no such right to privacy, especially when it's used as a cloak to hide things we'd never do if others were watching. In fact, the Bible promises the opposite, a coming day when everything will be brought to light, scrutinized, and judged. Glass House Living recognizes that any privacy I may have now is only temporary, that our closets will one day be opened wide. So why not let people go ahead and peek in now?"
- Larry Osborne, A Contrarian’s Guide to Knowing God

> Loved people love people enough to create a better community

"Paul has the entire church in mind here, and he is contrasting two sorts of community performances. They are not to act like their surrounding communities in Asia Minor, getting drunk and behaving foolishly. In contrast to being just another worldly community that pursues ungodly behaviors, the church is to be filled by the Spirit with the presence of God, a reality that will become manifest through community habits and practices." - Timothy Gombis

> Loved people love people enough to create a better community

> Loved people love people