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. We all have different emotions when we talk about relationships between children and parents. You might think of your relationship with your own parents (past or present), or maybe you think of your relationship with your children. Let’s take a moment to sit quietly and try to identify what we’re thinking/feeling because of this passage. Briefly share initial thoughts/emotions to help move the discussion forward.

2. In Ephesians 5:21-6:9, Paul talks about different relationships in the family of God. Husbands and wives, children and parents, bondservants and masters. In a time when children were undervalued and overlooked, why do you think Paul includes children in these important instructions to the body of believers? Take a look at Matthew 19:13-15. What does this show us about God’s heart for children?

3. What can everyone learn from Ephesians 6:4? Even if you are not a parent, you have a role of aunt or uncle, or spiritual parent, in the family of God. What does it mean to “not provoke your children to anger”? How can we apply this in our relationship with our “spiritual children/nieces/nephews” in the faith?

4. Do these verses only apply to children (under 18) or to all of us at any stage of life? What does it look like to honor our fathers and mothers in adulthood? How do we bring glory to God through our relationship with our parents? Why do you think Paul references this promise for the command to honor one's parents (Deuteronomy 5:16)?

PRAYER PROMPT:
Pray for our parents. Pray for everyone in the group who is a parent. Pray for the children in the group. Pray for the body of believers as they are spiritual parents/aunts/uncles to younger believers.

Title: This Mystery Is Profound
Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33
Speaker: Paul Brandes, PaulB@cckc.church

> Jesus always turns marriage on its head.

> True Christian marriage is subversive.

Love = A commitment to act for the well-being of another.
Submit = Prioritizing the interest and well-being of others above your own.

“The fundamental nature of the reversal is critical. It would have struck Paul’s audience not only as odd but even more so against nature. The sacrifice of the head would be suicidal for the entire body since the head provides guidance for the whole. The reversal of expectations in regard to love would also seem shocking in light of the traditional honor conventions because Paul tells the most esteemed part, the head, to love the body. … He asks [husbands] to do something that goes against this fundamental order of society, which would have been considered disruptive and even dangerous.” - Michelle Lee- Barnewell

> True Christian marriage is sacrificial.

> True Christian marriage is a signpost.