Lambs Among Wolves - The Jesus Experience
Jesus gathers his followers together and sends out 70 (Or is it 72?) to go bring his kingdom to those who need it. But he says, “You will have struggle, for I am sending you as lambs among wolves.” The world is dangerous; however, he sends his sheep out to bring peace to the house.
Questions to Go Deeper in your Faith
What does being an effective missionary for Christ entail?
Read Luke 10:1-24. How does Jesus describe their missionary calling? How is being a lamb among wolves similar to what Christ has done for us?
When we do work in the kingdom of God, it is common to rejoice in the victories we are gaining. However, Jesus wants us to rejoice in something else. See Luke 10:20 for help. How does your understanding of mission work change with this response of Jesus?
Read Luke 10:25-37. How does Jesus define a neighbor? And who is your neighbor?
The kingdom of God has come near to you. Who can you asct as a person of peace to this week?
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We're Not in Kansas Anymore - The Jesus Experience
Jesus asks the disciples “Who do people say I am?” They get it right and say he is the messiah. Jesus then goes to the top of the mountain, becoming bright and shiny. We’re not in Kansas anymore - this is literally a mountain-top experience. But when there are mountains, there are also valleys, with crosses, death, and suffering. We’re not in Kansas anymore.
Questions to Go Deeper in your Faith
What are some of the peaks and the valleys of your life? What was it like being on that peak? What was it like being in that valley?
Read Luke 9:18-22. Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, Messiah or Savior. What do you think Peter thought Jesus was going to do as the Christ? How are your expectations of Jesus similar to Peter’s?
How does Jesus respond to Peter? What does Jesus tell us about what the Messiah actually will do? How is this different than your expectations of Jesus in your life?
Read Luke 9:46-48. Like the disciples we often want to be great. How does Jesus define the greatest?
Read all of Luke 9. Identify the peaks and the valleys that Jesus leads the disciples through.
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You Have Enough - The Jesus Experience
Jesus sends out his disciples with enough to bring good news. Five thousand people have been listening to Jesus in the wilderness. They are getting hungry, and there are only 5 loaves and 2 fish. But Jesus says it is enough. We often feel like we don’t have enough, that we will be so much better if we just had more. However, Jesus says you have enough.
Questions to Go Deeper in your Faith
What are some things that you trust in for security in your life? Be honest with yourself here.
Read Luke 9:1-6. What does Jesus instruct his disciples to take with them as they go out on their missionary journey? Why do you think he gives these instructions?
Read Luke 9:10-17. The disciples have just returned from doing great things with limited resources (see 9:1-6). Yet now that they are with Jesus, what is their critique when Jesus asks them to feed the 5,000?
The disciples still have trouble trusting that Jesus gives us enough. When have there been times that you’ve had trouble trusting Jesus? What bread does Jesus give us to sustain us in those tough times?
Read Philippians 4:10-14. What is the Christian secret for being content?
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How's Your Soil - The Jesus Experience
Chapter Eight of Luke talks about soil. The great sower throws seed down, and it falls on different kinds to soil. In bad soil the seed withers and dies, but in the good soil the fruit rises up from the ground. This parable leaves an important question, “What if I’m not good soil?”
Questions to Go Deeper in your Faith
Describe your gardening experiences. Do you have a green thumb or a black thumb? What makes gardening easy or difficult for you?
Read Luke 8:4-15. Jesus describes 4 different types of soil.
Which type of soil is most troubling to you?
Which type of soil describes you most now?
What causes the seed to grow, (literally and how we can better understand the parable)?
Read Luke 8:26-39. As we read the stories around the parable of the sower, we see Jesus takes people in bad soil, tills it up, and makes it good, so that they can grow.
What was the bad soil here in this story of the man with the demon?
How does Jesus turn bad soil into good for him?
Jesus turns our bad soil into good by his Spirit.
Read the other stories from Luke 8 (Calming the Storm, Healing the Bleeding Woman and Raising the Daughter)
Can you identify the bad soil and how Jesus turns it to good?
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Shock and Awe - The Jesus Experience
Chapter seven is filled with shock and awe. An outsider shows great faith, a widow's son is raised, John the Baptist is not sure about Jesus, and a sinner is forgiven much. Many times when we encounter true faith, we are filled with shock and awe.
Questions to Go Deeper in your Faith
Describe a time when you’ve seen someone act in faith. What did it look like?
Read Luke 7: 1-10. A centurion, someone who was a Roman military officer and was not Hebrew. He did not feel like he could ask for something from Jesus because he was an outsider to the faith. How does Jesus respond to him?
Why is it shocking that Jesus says “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”? (Luke 7:9) What does this tell us about the nature of faith?
Read Luke 7:36-50. Why do you think this sinful woman would have shown up at this Pharisees house where Jesus was eating?
Compare the responses of Jesus and Simon the Pharisee, as they encounter this sinful woman who comes into their presence. How does Jesus view the situation differently? What does this tell us about the nature of faith and forgiveness?
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All Or Nothing - The Jesus Experience
Jesus is giving us a picture of the kingdom of God: miracles, healings, and parties. However, some are very upset that Jesus is doing any of this and are threatening to kill him. Jesus just looks at them and says the way of God is all or nothing.
Questions to Go Deeper in your Faith
When you think of all the miracles, healings, and parties that Jesus did and had, which one most excites you and why?
Read Luke 5:33-39. Jesus calls us to fully embrace his new way of trusting him completely rather than ourselves. It’s hard to move to the new way of Jesus because we like the old way so much. Why are we so comfortable in the old way?
Read Luke 6:20-42. Jesus describes the new way. Why is the new way so difficult to embrace?
For further reading about the dangers of holding on to the old way, read Galatians 5:1-15.
Give some examples of how Jesus completely lives out this new way as described in Luke 6:20-42.
This week look for ways you see Jesus’ new way breaking in where the poor are blessed, the hungry are satisfied, the weeping are brought to joy, and enemies are loved.
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Something New - The Jesus Experience
Jesus bursts onto the scene; he reads from Scripture and how God is doing something new, and he says that newness is Him. How do people respond? Will they be happy? How would you have responded?
Jesus falls the third time
He weeps with you and with you he will stay
When all your staying power has run out
You can’t go on, you go on anyway.
He stumbles just beside you when the doubt
That always haunts you, cuts you down at last
And takes away the hope that drove you on.
This is the third fall and it hurts the worst,
This long descent through darkness to depression
From which there seems no rising and no will
To rise, or breathe or bear your own heart beat.
Twice you survived; this third will surely kill,
And you could almost wish for that defeat
Except that in the cold hell where you freeze
You find your God beside you on his knees.
Questions to Go Deeper in your Faith
How many new year's resolutions have you made that you have not kept? Do you have a funny story about a failed resolution?
Read Luke 4:16-30.Jesus quotes from the scroll of Isaiah, that speaks of what the Messiah will do. According to his reading in Luke 4:18-19, what will the promised Messiah do? From what you know about Jesus how does he fulfill this promise?
Optional Deeper Reading
Read Isaiah 61, which Jesus quotes here to get the full context.How do the people react to Jesus saying he will be the one to fulfill this passage?
What does examples does Jesus allude to in response, to explain who God shows favor to? (See v. 25-27)?For deeper context read the stories Jesus alludes to in 1 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 5.
How do you respond when you find out Jesus loves people you may not like?
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Baptism of Jesus - The Jesus Experience
John was a man from the wilderness who “prepared the way of the Lord.” But when he baptized Jesus, it was not the normal pattern of forgiveness. Rather, this time the heavens opened up, and God said “this is my son whom I love.”
Advent Table Talk Questions
Use these questions to reflect on the message this week. Gather with your family, or a few friends and dig a little deeper into scripture and The Christmas Experience this year.
What is your favorite part of the Christmas story? Why is it your favorite?
Read Luke 2:1-20. In contrast with the power of the Roman empire, an angel appears to shepherds in the fields. The angel announces that a Savior has been born to these shepherds who were commonly considered to be lowly and powerless. Why do you think the birth of Jesus was first announced to people like these shepherds?
How has your understanding of Christmas changed the last few years as your faith has grown and your life has adjusted to new circumstances?
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Shepherds - Christmas Experience
Mary looks up from swaddling her baby, only to see dirty, wide-eyed shepherds looking at her. When God chose to send a group of people to witness his new Son, He did not send royalty; he sent those who were not able to sleep within the town at night - the outcasts, the dirty, the shepherds.
Advent Table Talk Questions
Use these questions to reflect on the message this week. Gather with your family, or a few friends and dig a little deeper into scripture and The Christmas Experience this year.
What is your favorite part of the Christmas story? Why is it your favorite?
Read Luke 2:1-20. In contrast with the power of the Roman empire, an angel appears to shepherds in the fields. The angel announces that a Savior has been born to these shepherds who were commonly considered to be lowly and powerless. Why do you think the birth of Jesus was first announced to people like these shepherds?
How has your understanding of Christmas changed the last few years as your faith has grown and your life has adjusted to new circumstances?
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Elizabeth - Christmas Experience
For years Elizabeth had wished for a child of her own. As she grew older, the chances of that happening vanished before her eyes. But then hope of all hope, her husband sees an angel, and she becomes pregnant. Then her much younger and also pregnant cousin Mary comes and visits her. Elizabeth could have said something nasty about Mary getting pregnant so young, but, with the jump of her spirit-filled womb, Elizabeth gives nothing but encouragement.
Advent Table Talk Questions
Use these questions to reflect on the message this week. Gather with your family, or a few friends and dig a little deeper into scripture and The Christmas Experience this year.
Tell of someone who has encouraged you. How did they specifically encourage you?
Read Luke 1:39-45. What role does the Holy Spirit play in this story?
Elizabeth encourages Mary with what God is doing in her life. Tell of a time when someone was encouraged by something that God was doing in their life.
Filled with the Spirit, Elizabeth encourages Mary. Who can you encourage this Advent season? How can you encourage them specifically this week?
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Mary - Christmas Experience
All of a sudden, a messenger of the Lord comes to Mary saying she is highly favored. At first she is agitated at the experience, just like her older cousin Zechariah was. However, when Zechariah’s experience with the angel ended, he was left in forced speechlessness, but Mary leaves with her voice. What was the difference? Perhaps it was one simple mindful stance, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
Advent Table Talk Questions
Use these questions to reflect on the message this week. Gather with your family, or a few friends and dig a little deeper into scripture and The Christmas Experience this year.
Describe a time you felt unworthy of a task assigned to you. How did you respond?
Read Luke 1:26-38. Mary was an unwed, teenager who would become pregnant and is told by the angel that she is “highly favored.” The angel of God thinks more of Mary than the world would have thought. Describe a time when someone showed you favor and it wasn’t deserved. What impact did that make on you?
Mary is “greatly troubled” when she finds out that she will be pregnant with God’s Son. She doesn’t feel worthy. How does she react? (See Luke 1:38)
How is Mary an encouragement to you to act in faith, when God or the church asks you to do something you don’t feel worthy of?
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Zechariah - Christmas Experience
He has worked his whole life for this one moment. He will be doing the sacrifice and will be blessing the people! However, when God shows up, Zachariah is left speechless, literally. Perhaps God is doing something different that no one expected.
Advent Table Talk Questions
Use these questions to reflect on the message this week. Gather with your family, or a few friends and dig a little deeper into scripture and The Christmas Experience this year.
Tell of a time when a Christmas experience did not go as planned.
Read Luke 1:1-25. How did Zachariah’s experience not go quite as planned when he entered the temple?
In the temple things didn't quite go as planned for Zechariah. An angel of God met him and said his wife, who was beyond childbearing years, would become pregnant with a messenger of God’s Savior. After this extreme experience he was made unable to speak.
What would be going through your heart and mind as you experienced this angel of the Lord if you were Zechariah?
What would you be thinking and feeling about the encounter if you then lost something afterwards, like you ability to speak?
After Zechariah's experience, his wife gave birth to John who would point people to Jesus, the Savior who will serve all of humanity. At John’s circumcision, Zechariah gives a blessing pointing people to Jesus, this servant. Read this blessing in Luke 1:67-79. What are ways you might serve you neighbor or point people to Jesus through your words and actions this Advent season?
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Thanksgiving Sunday
Sometimes our life is filled with chaos all around us. The holiday season shows us this well: Party after party, hand out after hand out, all the traveling, the cooking and gift wrapping. This season is supposed to be a joy-filled time; however, with everything going on we often feel overwhelmed. God’s people were feeling overwhelmed in their situation, and God told them like he tells us: give thanks for everything you have.
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Free To Live - God's Act of Grace
Today God’s act of grace to us is that, though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9
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Free To Live - God's Varied Grace
Today we see that as stewards of “God’s Varied Grace” (1 Peter 4:10), we put the gifts that he has given us in Christ Jesus to work in his kingdom.
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Misquoted - Poor Will Always Be With you
John 12:8 — Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
“John 12:8 — Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.””
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Misquoted - Love of Money and Evil
1 Timothy 6:10
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.”
Money has a way of controlling us. However, Jesus has given us life that is truly life.
“1 Timothy 6:10
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.”
Money has a way of controlling us. However, Jesus has given us life that is truly life.”
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Insiders - Submit Humbly to One Another
“Submit humbly to one another out of reverence for Christ.” With all the language we as modern Christians have gotten stuck on in the Bible, Paul’s “submit” has to be at the top. However, we understand this as mutually serving each other.
“Paul is encouraging us, saying through Jesus, the promise of Abraham, has come true, that those who were once outsiders are now insiders; those who were lost are now found. “A plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Ephesians 1:10 ”
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Insiders - Awake
We no longer emulate the ways of the Gentiles, put aside all of our dark ways. The things we do and think and say which we hope never sees the light of day. The empty words we listen, telling us stay asleep, stay in the dark. The Light of the world has come and we all sing in unity “Awake Oh Sleeper, Arise from the dead, Christ will shine on you.”
“Paul is encouraging us, saying through Jesus, the promise of Abraham, has come true, that those who were once outsiders are now insiders; those who were lost are now found. “A plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Ephesians 1:10 ”
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The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – Dec 15th. Starring Lauren Graham, Judy Greer, and Pete Holmes.