Conversation Starters
Conversation Starters help us dig deeper, connecting Sunday’s sermons with our Monday lives. Please know that these questions are meant to be a resource. 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. Read Romans 3:1-20.

2. What stood out to you from the passage?

3. What stood out to you from the sermon?

4. In verses 10-18 Paul describes just how far all of humanity has turned from God. What are some areas of your personal life, the world at large, and in the Church where you can see/feel the effects of our depravity? Do you recognize any weariness in yourself/the world/the Church as we strive to be “good” on our own?

5. How will you apply this to your life? What are you going to do, be, or think differently because of this truth?

Title: We Need Rescue From Sin
Scripture: Romans 3:1-20
Speaker: Jonathan Neef, JonathanN@cckc.church

> Sometimes it's worse than you think

> We need rescue from sin.

> We are without excuse.

> We are under sin.

We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under his wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed. (EFCA Statement of Faith)

Total Depravity - “signifies a corruption of our moral and spiritual nature that is total not in degree (for no one is as bad as he or she might be) but in extent. It declares that no part of us is untouched by sin, and therefore no action of ours is as good as it should be, and consequently nothing in us or about us ever appears meritorious in God’s eyes. We cannot earn God’s favor, no matter what we do; unless grace saves us, we are lost.”

> We cannot escape

"To speak of sin by itself, to speak of it apart from the realities of creation and grace, is to forget the resolve of God. God wants shalom and will pay any price to get it back. Huma sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half so persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way. Moreer, to speak of sin by itself is to misunderstand its nature: sin is only a parasite, a vandal, a spoiler. Sinful life is a partly depressing, partly ludicrous caricature of genuine human life. To concentrate on our rebellion, defection and folly - to say to the world “I have some bad news and I have some bad news” - is to forget that the center of the Christian religion is not our sin but our Savior. To speak of sin without grace is to minimize the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the fruit of the Spirit, and the hope of Shalom."
(Cornelius Plantigna).