May 12: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

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Love

Teaching Text: Numbers 6: 22-27

The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:

“‘“The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.”’

“So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Blessing prayer

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• How would the world be different if God answered all your prayers?

• If everyone prayed the way I pray, what would the prayer life of our church life be like? 

• Prayer is our participation with God in making the word right.

• God can do whatever God wants

  • But God shows us over and over that God wants relationship 

  • God invites us to participation and cooperation 

  • God insists on involving us through love 

• But it’s even more than that. God is committed to distributing the resources of Heaven in the world through His sons and daughters in Christ.

• God has said you are My sons and daughters. Here is My Ring.

• It’s all by grace. Distribute the resources of My Kingdom in the world through your prayers and love.

• God’s entire plan has always been participation - Joining/Sharing - Friendship - Love

• A blessing is more than a well wish. It is to use our spiritual authority to confer something to another. It is to partner with God in declaring a present identity or a future good into someone's life.

• To really bless someone is to conspire with God for their good

• To ignore or belittle a blessing is a profound mistake.

• When we pray for one another - we practice blessing one another.

• A blessing confirms our identity - one loved by God

• A blessing invites us into good - may a light shine on how to live out who we are

• A blessing announces the security of our future - reminds us that we cannot be taken out of God’s love 

• When we bless - we are not only offering the Good News of Christ to others. 

  • We are offering our lives as well. 

  • We say I will join in in giving you what God intends in your life.

• “Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, 8 so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.“

  – 1 Thessalonians 2 v 7-8

• Who needs you to pray and enact blessings in their life? 

• What moments in the lives of those around you require you to represent and disperse the blessing and resources of God?

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May 5: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

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Love

Teaching Text: John 10: 1-10 and 27-30

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Hearing God

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• When God began to set the world right after the fall, God initiated a conversation ...

  • Abraham heard a calling - an invitation 

  • Moses drew near to something he has seen everyday for years before

  • Samuel was sleeping as a child when he began to sense God's voice

  • Mary, Paul, Augustine, Martin Luther, Thersea of Avila, Brother Lawrence, and Jackie Pullinger

• Redemptive History is shaped by God's children hearing His voice and responding in faith and love.

• In a relational world and a relational Kingdom of God, there is little that rivals the importance of communication. It is at the heart of every deep relationship.

• God speaks. God is active in revelation. We can learn to discern the voice of God in our lives. 

• Jesus gives us this incredible promise that His sheep will hear His voice. 

• It comes at a moment where His very identity is being questioned. Jesus locates who He is in the reality that His sheep, His disciples, those He has saved, who apprentice under Him WILL HEAR HIS VOICE.

• HEARING FROM GOD IS ESSENTIAL TO OUR LIFE AS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS

• Hearing from God is your spiritual birthright in the Gospel 

• But as in so many things, what is important is not without challenges.

  • It can take time to discern how God speaks to us

  • It can take some wisdom and consideration as to why that is so very rarely in human history in an audible voice

  • It can be humbling to know we may get it wrong sometimes when discerning God's voice

  • I have four children and communicating with them over the years has taught me that different ways of communicating are needed based on the situation and on who they are. There are shared principles, but ways and settings of talking and listening that are unique to each of them.

  • God has children beyond number, but we can be confident that we can learn to hear God's voice, especially if we ask to and commit to seek God's voice.

• Experiencing God study in college

  • 4 of the primary ways - SCRIPTURE, GOD'S WHISPER IN THE SPIRIT, COMMUNITY, CIRCUMSTANCES
    

• Which of the 4 ways of hearing God have you found most prevalent in your life?

• Which of hearing God do you want to grow in? 

• How can you learn/practice that?

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April 28: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

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Love

Teaching Text: Song of Songs 2: 14-15

My dove in the clefts of the rock,
    in the hiding places on the mountainside,
show me your face,
    let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
    and your face is lovely.
Catch for us the foxes,
    the little foxes
that ruin the vineyards,
    our vineyards that are in bloom.

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Little foxes that ruin your prayer life

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• On the scale of discipline to delight where would you plot your prayer life right now? 

Discipline –----------------------------------------------------– Delight 

Song of Solomon 2: 14-15 – My dove in the clefts of the rock,
    in the hiding places on the mountainside,
show me your face,
    let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
    and your face is lovely.

Catch for us the foxes,
    the little foxes
that ruin the vineyards,
    our vineyards that are in bloom.

• Prayer is about relationship with God. 

  • When Jesus teaches we should pray for His kingdom to come, He is not just trying to keep us busy, and out of trouble. 

  • He invites us to cultivate and share His heart for putting the world right. 

• It is intended to cultivate a communion between us and God. 

  • There are ways we can approach prayer that harm the relationship it was intended to cultivate

• In our text, we see that the lover acknowleges the threat of disruptors of intimacy. 

  • They are called little foxes. 

• Disruptors of intimacy can take on many shapes … little things that you don't think have meaning, or big, looming, glaring, violent things. 

• Foxes chew at the vines and break off the ability for the life-giving nutrients to make their way to the branches. 

• There are little foxes, intimacy disruptors, that are right now at work in breaking down your vital connection to the Jesus. 

• Before prayer changes our circumstances, its intent is to change us. 

  • “Whether prayer changes our situation or not, one thing is certain: Prayer will change us!”

    – Billy graham 

  • It changes us because it has us encountering the living God. 

• Then it does change our world…

  • “It would be of course a low voltage spiritual life in which prayer was chiefly undertaken as a discipline, rather than as a way of co-labouring with God to accomplish good things and advancing his Kingdom purposes.”

    – Willard

• The goal is to restore relational connection and, through that, affect all of life. 

  • “The goal of prayer is to live all of my life and speak all of my words in the joyful awareness of the presence of God. Prayer becomes real when we grasp the reality and goodness of God's constant presence with 'the real me. ' Jesus lived his everyday life in conscious awareness of his Father.”

    – Ortberg

1. Exchanging a relational offering for a bowl of soup

2. A Misrepresentation of the character and nature of God 

3. Superficial Formality

4. Lack of Honesty

5. Paralyzing Guilt and Shame

6. Spiritual Laziness

7. Neglecting Prompts from the Holy Spirit

8. Sensationalism

9. Unrepented sin

• Which of these affect you prayer life? 

• Who can you partner with to work on this? 

• What action can you take to combat each of them?

Confess it

Share it 

Schedule it

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April 14: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

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Love

Teaching Text: Luke 11: 1-13

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”

Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Praying the Psalms

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

Did you recite the Lord’s Prayer growing up? 

• If yes, what did you think when you did that? 

C.S. Lewis lost the love of his life, his wife Joy, to cancer after only being married for 4 years. Afterwards he wrote A Grief Observed - at first published under a pseudonym.

Here is the brutally honest way Lewis described some of his prayers in that time…

“When you are happy, so happy you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be — or so it feels— welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence.”

– C.S. Lewis

Prayer doesn’t work, or doesn’t always work like pulling a lever and getting what we want from God. The wild part is sometimes it does, but because we don't always know when we develop all these THEOLOGIES OF UNBELIEF to protect ourselves and to protect God.

Either we can’t bear being disappointed, or we don’t think God would bother, or we just want to leave it to a sense of mystery of whatever life reveals.

But Jesus wants to tell us to keep going with prayer. Even if we don’t like how it goes at first, especially if we don't like how it goes at first.

• What about the practice of prayer makes you want to give up or not even try? 

The invitation and the instruction is to just keep knocking even when it looks like we aren't getting what we need.

And in the shameless audacity of the continuing knock - you will find yourself provided for. 

Tim Keller said God answers our prayers exactly as we would if we had all the information.

• But of course we don't have all the information. Or the same degree of Love or Power. We often don’t know the prayers of our neighbors, or the way all the longings of our heart relate to the wider world.

• We are often aren’t aware of resistance to our prayers. 

So we have to trust God. And it's building that loving friendship and trust and confidence in conversation with God that we realize our whole lives are held. And even what we lose is held by God.

So Jesus teaches us:

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 

He said to them, “When you pray, say: 

“ ‘Father, 

hallowed be your name, 

your kingdom come. 

– Luke 11: 1-2

The Kaddish was one of three important prayers in the first century Jewish worship liturgy and it began like this…

“Magnified and hallowed be His great Name

In this world which He created according to His Will.

And may He establish His Kingdom during your life.”

Look at the two of them side by side… (this is also in Pete Greig’s book)

“Magnified and hallowed be

His great Name

in this world which He created

according to His Will.

And may He establish His Kingdom

during your life.

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your Name,

Your Kingdom come,

Your Will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

The utter crucial difference is the personalization of Jesus’ prayer…

• Call Him Abba. OUR ABBA. 

• Call Him Abba and then speak to Him like you would to a good Father….

You can call the God of the Universe, Abba - Father - Friend. 

"The most important discovery you will ever make is the love the Father has for you.  Your power in prayer will flow from the certainty that the one who made you likes you, he is not scowling at you, he is on your side.  Unless our mission and our acts of mercy, our intercession, petition, confession, and spiritual warfare begin and end in the knowledge of the Father’s love, we will act and pray out of desperation, determination, and duty instead of revelation, expectation, and joy.”

– Pete Greig

There are some important things to say about this prayer, but the most important thing is to pray it.

• Get it in your mouth and mind and heart.

• The one who asks receives.

• The one who seeks finds.

• To the one who knocks the doors is open.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?  Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” 

– Luke 11: 9-13

PERSIST

• What does it mean to persist in prayer? 

• What stops you from persisting in prayer?

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April 7: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

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Love

Teaching Text: Psalm 147: 1-11

Praise the Lord.

How good it is to sing praises to our God,
    how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
    he gathers the exiles of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
    and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars
    and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
    his understanding has no limit.
The Lord sustains the humble
    but casts the wicked to the ground.

Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
    make music to our God on the harp.

He covers the sky with clouds;
    he supplies the earth with rain
    and makes grass grow on the hills.
He provides food for the cattle
    and for the young ravens when they call.

His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
the Lord delights in those who fear him,
    who put their hope in his unfailing love.

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Praying the Psalms

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

What has the easter reality of the resurrection of Jesus changed for you personally? 

Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

What should we do? What was the resurrection for? 

“A restored relationship with Jesus” 

We should talk with Jesus. We should listen for what Jesus has to say to us.

• We should participate relationally in His Life, Death and Resurrection

I can talk with Jesus.

Our hope for the Resurrection of Jesus is not simply about verifying a past event. It is about experiencing the ongoing reality of a conversation with Christ, a friendship with Christ.

“The resurrection is not just something that happened to Jesus two thousand years ago and will happen to each of us sometime in the future, after we die, when our own bodies will be raised to new life. It is that, but it is much more. The resurrection is something that buoys up every moment of life and every aspect of reality. God is always making new life and undergirding it with a goodness, graciousness, mercy, and love that, in the end, heals all wounds, forgives all sins, and brings deadness of all kinds to new life.”

– Ronald Rolheiser

Our life becomes a prayer, becomes a sensing of God's presence, becomes worship, becomes talking and listening to God.

• Mary Magdalene who was first human to tell of Jesus resurrection. How did she begin? She talked with Jesus. She heard Him say her name, and her eyes were opened.

• Peter was an erratic mess, in shambles, buried in shame. And in talking and listening to Jesus after the resurrection, his life was reasssmbeld stronger than before.

• Thomas was full of doubt. He wouldnt believe his friends’ account of Jesus being alive. He has to see Him for himself too talk with Him.

• A couple on the road to Emmaus - they were leaving dejected and confused. They talked with a man as they left town. And then they finally recognized Him in the breaking of bread.

As they recounted their time with Him they said, as we were talking....

• Did our hearts not burn?

• Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

• What should we do?

But the reality is many of us find prayer challenging.

• We struggle to get started 

• We struggle to keep it going 

• We struggle to make it a regular part of our day 

• Many of us feel we don't pray very well

• We wish we prayed more 

Caleb says:

“And the least part of the challenge from my experience is that many of us have a primary way we have thought about prayer that is basically EYES CLOSED SPIRITUAL IMPROV”

Have you experienced prayer this way?

How would you describe your experience of prayer?

Is your idea of prayer helpful for or hindering to your prayer experience? 

And if that is intimidating, then hear this:

• You are not alone

• That’s not the only way to pray

“The great and sprawling university that Hebrews and Christians have attended to learn to answer God, to learn to pray, has been the Psalms. More people have learned to pray by matriculating in the Psalms than in any other way. The Psalms were the prayer book of Israel; they were the prayer book of Jesus; they are the prayer book of the church. At no time in the Hebrew and Christian centuries (with the possible exception of our own) have the Psalms not been at the very center of all concern and practice in prayer.”

– Eugene Peterson

In Jesus’s most trying moments, He prays a pre-written prayer that He is familiar with. He was praying the psalms.

“My God my God why have you forsaken me”

“Into thy hands I commit my spirit”

– Psalm 22 and Psalm 36.

We learn to pray by praying other prayers. 

The Psalms is an amazing place to learn to pray. 

Our vision as a church this year is to expand our prayer life.

For every person in TGC to talk and listen to God every day.

“The Psalms model ways of talking to God that are honest, yet not obvious – at least, they are not obvious to modern Christians. They may guide our first steps toward deeper involvement with God because the Psalms give us a new possibility for prayer; they invite full disclosure. They enable us to bring into our conversation with God feelings and thoughts that most of us think we need to get rid of before God will be interested in hearing from us. The point of the shocking psalms is not to sanctify what is shameful (for example, the desire for sweet revenge) or to make us feel better about parts of ourselves that stand in need of change. Rather, the Psalms teach us that profound change happens always in the presence of God. Over and over they attest to the reality that when we open our minds and hearts fully to God who made them, then we open ourselves, whether we know it or not to the possibility of being transformed beyond our imagining.”

– Ellen F. Davis: Getting Involved with God  

Easter tells us God’ve love will not fail.

Unfailing love is a pretty good foundation for prayer  - God is not disappointed in you. 

For conversation - for talking and listening

God is always previous - you don’t have to start it all

God is in conversation - you don;t have to sustain it all

Praying the Psalm is a way to being when you can’t work out how to begin

“I need a language that is large enough to maintain continuities, supple enough to maintain nuances across a lifetime that brackets child and adult experiences, and courageous enough to explore all the countries of sin and salvation, mercy and grace, creation and covenant, anxiety and trust, unbelief and faith that compromise the continental human condition. The Psalms are this large, supple, and courageous language.”

– Eugene Peterson

Praying the Psalms this week:

• Like Mary, you may hear your name called 

• Like Peter, you may sense a lifting of your shame 

• Like Thomas, you have have your doubts confronted 

• Like those leaving town going to Emmaus, you may find your heart burning.

The Psalms lift our spirit before they lift our circumstances. 

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March 24: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

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Love

Teaching Text: Luke  18: 28-48

Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him;they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.

Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Triumphal Entry

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

Lent: Historically, the season of Lent in the church year is a time of preparation, repentance, and renewal. We remember and mark Jesus’ time of fasting and temptation in the wilderness. We ask God to help remove our sin and anything that has entangled us or is keeping us from experiencing our union with Jesus.

5 moments as Jesus comes into this final week and what they show us: 

• About what it takes to save the world

• What it costs to forgive 

• How we can be brought into God’s family and Kingdom forever 

• How that Kingdom might come on earth as it is in heaven 

• Why this MARCH OF LOVE was worth it

The Triumphal Entry

• Luke has been telling us that Jesus had set His face towards Jerusalem. Even though He had been there many times, this was different. He had tried to tell His disciples, but they didn’t seem to be able to hear. 

• He was coming to Jerusalem to give his life away. To die.

• Jesus is deeply aware this is THE MARCH OF LOVE

• “Imagine the imperial procession’s arrival in the city. A visual panoply of imperial power; cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold. Sounds: the marching of feet, the creaking of leather, the clinking of bridles, the beating of drums. The swirling of dust. The eyes of the silent onlookers, some curious, some awed, some resentful.” 

  – The Last Week

• NT WRIGHT summarizes this…

“That was the way the pilgrims came, with Jesus going on ahead as he had planned all along. This was to be the climax of his story, of his public career, of his vocation. He knew well enough what lay ahead and had set his face to go and meet it head-on. He couldn’t stop announcing the kingdom, but that announcement could only come true if he now embodied in himself the things he’d been talking about. The living God was at work to heal and save, and the forces of evil and death were massed to oppose him, like Pharaoh and the armies of Egypt trying to prevent the Israelites from leaving. But this was to be the moment of God’s new Exodus, God’s great Passover, and nothing could stop Jesus going ahead to celebrate it.”

The Borrowed Donkey

• There a centuries-old prophecy from Zechariah…

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!

    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you,

    righteous and victorious,

lowly and riding on a donkey,

    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

• Jesus is not riding a warhorse or accompanied by soldiers

• It’s an unexpected Kingdom. A donkey is the carrier of the king. 

  • In what ways is the kingdom of God unlike what you’d expect as strength in our culture? 

Weeping over the city

• “As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it”

 – Luke 19: 41

• Even further back than the prophecy about the donkey, God revealed Himself to Moses in a way that Israel has repeated ever since…

• “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” 

– Exodus 34: 6-7

• GOD HAS SHOWN THAT HE IS COMPASSIONATE, GRACIOUS, MERCIFUL, LOVING, FORGIVING

• God will not compromise His holiness. But He will not let go of His love.

  • He doesn’t say I will throw our justice so I can forgive 

  • He doesn’t say I love so much that it means people living as their own God is fine and does no damage.

• This is the Gospel.

• “For the essence of sin is we substitute ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us. ”

– John Stott

• The tears of Jesus show that God hates what our separation has done to us. 

• “Oh, that you would know even now what makes for peace” 

  • That you wouldn’t cling to your stubbornness 

  • That you would come out of your blindness

  • You have no idea what pain you are bringing on yourself 

  • You are missing the moment of God visiting you 

• His heart breaks for His people. But then also for people who aren’t His people yet…

  • What does it mean to you that God weeps over the separation you experience because of sin?

Cleansing the Temple

• “When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. 46 “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” 

 – Luke 19

• A HOUSE OF PRAYER (FOR ALL NATIONS)

• A place of communion for all types of people, for anyone who would join 

• For us.

• JESUS did something to get Himself arrested. But it wasn’t a random act of anger. IT WAS MAKING SPACE FOR ALL OF US.

A Meal with Friends

• Sometimes, you will hear the crowds who shouted Hosanna, just a few days later in the week, were shouting crucify Him.

• That very well may have been true. There may have been some of the same crowds from this moment of walking into Jerusalem who were there when Pilate offered to release Jesus.

• But we know with more clarity where His disciples, His friends were in these scenes

• In the height of emotion, at the height of a long climb when they could fairly see the city. They shouted, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord"

• Then days later they would betray Him, argue over their own status, fall asleep in His hour of agony, run away, and deny Him multiple times…

• The Gospel is that Jesus laid down His life for friends, knowing all of that.

• On the Cross, He speaks mercy over the ones who are killing Him. Forgive them; they dont know what they are doing. At the heart of the Gospel is a man dying for His enemies.

• DO YOU SEE THE SAVIOR’S MARCH OF LOVE?

  • He has come to the city, though He knows what it holds

  • He is inviting us to join in

  • He is weeping when we do not

  • He is making space for us

  • And when we fail or scream “crucify Him”, or deny Him by the fire 

---

March 17: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

---

Love

Teaching Text: Ephesians 4: 11-16

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Spiritual Parenting

---

Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Who has been a parental figure in your life for whom you are very grateful? 

• What did they do that impacted you?

Lent: Historically, the season of Lent in the church year is a time of preparation, repentance, and renewal. We remember and mark Jesus’ time of fasting and temptation in the wilderness. We ask God to help remove our sin and anything that has entangled us or is keeping us from experiencing our union with Jesus.

We have looked at the ecosystem of our various relationships during lent. Jesus says that people will recognize us as those who are becoming like Him - by noticing the way we love. 

Today, we are looking at spiritual parenting. 

Spiritual parenting: This journey of helping one another from infancy to maturity.

I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17 For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. 

– 1 CORINTHIANS 4 v 14-17

Paul as a spiritual father cares about their future! 

• Who has been involved in your life that really cared about your future? Send them a text of gratitude. 

There are many tutors… with their own agenda and their own ministry. 

A  father or a mother is different

There is a powerful combination of invitations in what is described here in Spiritual Parenting.

• Imitate me  

• See the integrity between my words and actions

If God’s world is a relational world and the Kingdom of God moves along relational lines then YOUR INFLUENCE IS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL GIFTS YOU CAN GIVE

Can you recognize when someone is exerting their influence for their own benefit instead of for the benefit of those being influenced? 

What a privilege:

• That someone would know God’s love from your life

• That someone would know the good news of Jesus from you. That they can know forgiveness and union with God

• That someone could be rooted in their true identity as deeply loved by God because of you

• That someone could see an aspect of how to follow Jesus from your life

• That you walk with someone in how to endure grief without giving in to bitterness

• How to experience free from crippling addiction

• How to navigate treacherous career waters with grace and trust in the Holy Spirit  

• Someone learns how to pray from praying with you

“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations....

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” 

– C.S. LEWIS

YOUR INFLUENCE IS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL GIFTS YOU CAN GIVE

The gifts of the spirit:

• They are ways God helps us to love one another.

Apostles: Often carry a burden and spiritual responsibility to take new ground. To establish new works. To build the church where it hasn’t been. To expand the community of Jesus  into new places. 

• This could be thought of like spiritual entrepreneurship. They often are strong at carrying and creating a certain type of culture.

• My friend Jon Tyson who helped start the first Trinity Grace’s in Manhattan is one of the most apostolically gifted people I have ever been around.

Prophets:  A prophet is gifted with hearing and longing to hear God. They keep asking

What is God saying? What has God said?

• They want to speak the words of God to the people of God.

• A prophet helps a community continually align itself around the world of God.

• Where have we drifted from the heart of God?

Evangelists:  someone gifted with communicating the good news of Jesus.

• Someone who might say I love the new ground we have taken, I love that we are listening for the Lord, but are we welcoming in the outsider?

• Is our church aware of those around us who need to experience the love of God?

• Do we have the courage to be honest about the hope with have in Christ?

Pastors:  these are shepherds of the soul. They are gifted with caring for people

• Are people being loved well or forgotten?

• A community may be growing and doing new things and sharing faith but are people falling through the cracks, getting trampled by busyness

• Are we healthy in our souls?

Teachers: They help take the mysteries of God and give us access points

• They help teach us how to read, hear, understand and hear God’s word 

• They may take something that feels inaccessible or confusing and break us off nourishing morsel 

• Our city last year mourned the loss of Tim Keller who was certainly an evangelist, but one of the greatest teachers of the Scriptures of his generation.

As we look at these things, we can start to see the brilliance of God. 

• Not only should we ask “Which can i identify with (there may be more than one)?”

• We should also celebrate the diversity and difference that others represent! 

GOD HAS GIVEN THEM ALL TO THE CHURCH - and in concert they help us move from infancy to maturity.

We are “given to one another” and can appreciate and show gratitude for one another. 

There’s a picture of spiritual parenting in this passage. 

• the word equip here is a rich word with many uses in the ancient world.

• if you’ve been at TGC for a while you will have heard these uses before.

EQUIP

1. To reset a broken bone 

2. To pack a ship with the supplies it will need for a journey 

3. To restore something that has been damaged to its original condition

4. To train a soldier to fight 

We need healing 

• When we parent well - we help offer healing for wounds the world gives us

We need to be made ready for what is ahead 

• When we parent well - we help supply someone with what they will need for their journey 

We need reminders of our identity 

• When we parent well we help remind each other of who God says we are - apart from any sin or failure 

We need help (skills and tools) for the struggle of life 

• When we parent well we help prepare each other for the fight of keep faith, hope, and love 

When we parent well we remind people who they are in God:

WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST | The Identity of a Christian

John 1:12 I am God's child.

John 15:15 As a disciple, I am a friend of Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1 I have been justified.

1 Corinthians 6:17 I am united with the Lord, and I am one with Him in spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 I have been bought with a price and I belong to God.

1 Corinthians 12:27 I am a member of Christ's body.

Ephesians 1:3-8 I have been chosen by God and adopted as His child.

Colossians 1:13-14 I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins.

Colossians 2:9-10 I am complete in Christ.

Hebrews 4:14-16 I have direct access to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:1-2 I am free from condemnation.

Romans 8:28 I am assured that God works for my good in all circumstances. Romans 8:31-39 I am free from any condemnation brought against me and I cannot be separated from the love of God.

 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 I have been established, anointed and sealed by God.

Colossians 3:1-4 I am hidden with Christ in God.

Philippians 1:6 I am confident that God will complete the good work He started in me.

Philippians 3:20 I am a citizen of heaven.

2 Timothy 1:7 I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind.

1 John 5:18 I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me.

John 15:5 I am a branch of Jesus Christ, the true vine, and a channel of His life.

John 15:16 I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit.

1 Corinthians 3:16 I am God's temple.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 I am a minister of reconciliation for God.

Ephesians 2:6 I am seated with Jesus Christ in the heavenly realm.

Ephesians 2:10 I am God's workmanship.

Ephesians 3:12 I may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. 

AND FROM THIS IDENTITY YOU HAVE A LOT TO OFFER. No matter your age or life stage.

---

March 10: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

---

Love

Teaching Text: John 15: 11-17

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

---

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Friendship

---

Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Think of a childhood friendship. What aspects of that friendship did you particularly enjoy? 

• Who do you most unlikely friend? Why does this friendship surprise you?

Lent: Historically, the season of Lent in the church year is a time of preparation, repentance, and renewal. We remember and mark Jesus’ time of fasting and temptation in the wilderness. We ask God to help remove our sin and anything that has entangled us or is keeping us from experiencing our union with Jesus.

In our text today, Jesus is talking about friendship in one of the most crucial hours in the history of the world.

• God is a relational being - the Trinity 

• The world is a relational world 

• The Kingdom of God moves along relational lines 

• So friendship is one of the most powerful forces in this world 

If we can see an enemy become a friend, it is one of life's great miracles

• It happens to be at the heart of the Gospel. 

What is a friend?

How can we make friends?

How can we keep friends?

• What makes a good friend?  

• Share with your group something that stood out  that a friend did for you.

What a friend is:

• A friend is someone you share with and who shares with you

• That’s what we hear Jesus saying here. You are my friends and not something else like a servant because I am sharing with you.

Friendship and Selfishness. Two of the great defining realities of human experience. It’s wild how often selfishness feels safer, but over time diminishes us.

“Each of us has contact with hundreds of people who never look beyond our surface appearance. We have dealings with hundreds of people who the moment they set eyes on us begin calculating what use we can be to them, what they can get out of us. We meet hundreds of people who take one look at us, make a snap judgment, and then slot us into a necessary category so that they won’t have to deal with us as persons. They treat us as something less than we are: and if we’re in constant association with them, we become less.

And then someone enters our life who isn’t looking for someone to use, is leisurely enough to find out what’s really going on in us, is secure enough not to exploit our weaknesses or attack our strengths, recognizes our inner life and understands the difficulty of living out our inner convictions, confirms what’s deepest within us. A friend.”

– Eugene Peterson

When you stop sharing, friendship will diminish. This can happen in a well established relationship or a brand new one.

When we look at Jesus life.

• We see Enemies, Multitudes (Neighbors), 120 disciples, 12 apostles, and the 3 close friends.

• The difference in a real way was He shared more as the relationships grew in intimacy.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” 

– ACTS 2 v 42-27

• That word FELLOWSHIP there is a Greek word KOINONIA and it means SHARING.

“It is no small thing to open our hearts and our arms and allow another to enter there, to grant another person the same worth, the same consequence, the same existential gravity that we take for granted in ourselves. The fact is that our natural tendency is to treat people as if they were not “others” at all, but merely aspects of ourselves. We do not experience them as the overwhelming, comprehensive realities we find ourselves to be. Compared with us, they are not quite real. We see them through a haze, the haze of our own all-engulfing self-hood.”

– Mike Mason

How can we make friends?

• Jesus says here to His friends that He made a choice. He chose friendship with these whom He is sharing the meal with

• Friends are discovered and friends are made

• We aren’t joined in Christ by mutual compatibility similar demographics. We are joined by the love and mercy of God revealed to us in Jesus.

• One the most beautiful and needed aspects of church life is we don’t curate who is here. We brought together and we discover friendship. By first sharing the mercy and grace God has given us with each other.

• We don’t begin with the old resume lists for friendships. We, together at the communion table, offer the grace we have received.

• Friendships in Christ are discovered, but they are also MADE, and I think it comes back to sharing.

• When you share time, share honesty, share a love of something, share a sense of humor, share an effort, share suffering even you see bonds strengthen.

• Companionship becomes friendship through intentional sharing. 

C.S. Lewis said it’s hard to find friends if you just want friends. Because friends bond over something shared.

Pursue deep friendship with Christ - Jesus will shape and reshape your heart with grace

• Helps ground your identity 

Go after your loves, passions, and talents. Pursue the things God has made you to love and be good at and care for most

• Your passions may be a clue to your friendships

• We keep showing up to serve together, to create together, to practice together, to enjoy something together

• Pursue God and what God has given you to care about and then…

Pay attention to whom your fellow-travelers are.

• When you see a potential friend

• Take the risk of sharing

• That intentional paying attention and sharing can build and strengthen friendships 

***I HAVE SOME FRIENDS WHO HELP ME WITH THIS***

Friendship has risk

• Someone could move away, or hurt you, or not give as much as your giving to the relationship

• It might cost you time at some achievement or accomplishment 

• It requires investment and some of those are without guarantees

• Some of you have seen a regression in your willingness to pursue friendship in

”To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
– C.S. Lewis

Sometimes People Use the Word Friend When They Mean Something Else

• Internet acquaintance  

• Someone I am networking with to get what I want 

• People I compete with and compare myself to 

• We won’t be able to be friends with everyone even some of our companions and that’s ok

We have lost the art of loving confrontation, confession, and forgiveness 

• Friendship has to be maintained by resolving differences

If we cant confront, confess or forgive - our friendships will be short lived or shallow

If you get close to someone they are going to hurt you.

How can we keep friends?

• We do have to lay down our lives for one another.

• “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

– JOHN 15 v 11-13

• We keep friends by walking in the way of Jesus - the way of forgiveness and mercy and self-giving love.

• But also we keep friends in Christ because we share in His death to share in His resurrection.

What aspects of your friendships do you feel to pay attention to and change?

Where do you withhold sharing more of yourself? 

Are there any friends that you need to share forgiveness with?

Any friends you want to build and share more of your resources asnd even yourself with? 

---

March 3: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

---

Love

Teaching Text: Revelation 21: 1-5

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City,the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bridebeautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

---

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

•  The Marriage of God and His People

---

Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• What parts of marriage represents to you the relationship between God and the church? 

Lent: Historically, the season of Lent in the church year is a time of preparation, repentance, and renewal. We remember and mark Jesus’ time of fasting and temptation in the wilderness. We ask God to help remove our sin and anything that has entangled us or is keeping us from experiencing our union with Jesus.

Ancient Jewish weddings 

As we look at Ancient Jewish Weddings: (I should say I am indebted to Ray Van Laan, Marty Solomon (from Bema), Frank Viola, and Bethany Allen (from Bridgetown and 24/7 prayer) for all presenting great work and helpful research on this …)

• Arrangement - How the family makes the choice. We sometimes think of this in only negative terms, but quite often this worked well and was a true communal effort. A way today maybe a teenager with raging hormones could use some guidance - this isn’t just about you. But it’s a negative Disney type myth that the wishes of the kids wouldn’t have been take into consideration. 

• Betrothal  - father would bring a cup and give it to the son. The son would hand this cup filled with wine to his potential bride and he would say, “This is the cup of a new covenant that I make with you today. I will drink of this cup again until I drink it with you in my Fathers house.

  • He hands her the cup. He is saying I will do what most be done. I will prepare a place. I will pay whatever price to make us one.

  • If she takes the cup and drinks from it, it was her way of covenantally sealing the arrangement.

• Preparing a place: groom goes back to father’s dwelling and builds a place for he and his bride.

  • Only the father knows the timing, because he has to approve the work

  • A time where father gets to really see the formation of his son.

• Groom Returns - he returns. The timing was not known. There was an expectation of readiness and preparedness during whole engagement. Remember Jesus’ parable of the ‘bridesmaids.’

• Cleansing - She goes for a big ritual spa day - helped by her bridesamaids and community 

• Shofar is sounded - a trumpet blast to begin the festivities 

• Gather under the Chuppah - symbol of their new home and open doors of hospitality 

• Present the Ketubah - take their vows - Ketubah

  • A covenant of what their marriage will me

  • Saw this this fall on a roof top but industry city. Chuppah whipping in the wind.

• Room Set Aside for the consummation where the best man stands gaurd

  • Produces a bloody cloth (scandalizes us, but our cultures norm of using sex to get to know someone would scandalize them)

• The families Exchange the Dowry - bride price from the cup of the betrothal 

• Party for up to a week - remember when they ran out of wine

• One Year - Honeymoon. Severely reduced communal responsibility. Learn to love each other 

This is also the story of God and His people Israel:

We can trace this same picture through the story of Israel.

• The Arangement

  • Is off the page.

  • On the recesses of eternity past God determined to get bride for His Son

• Betrothal - Genesis 12 -15

  • God tells Abram leave your father's home and come to a place I will prepare for you.

  • They ratify this covenant by walking the blood path

  • He becomes Abraham 

• Time in Egypt – Waiting. Where is the Groom to be found? They are oppressed. Crying Out.

• Arrival of the Bridegroom – Passover 

• God tells Moses to Consecrate Israel – prepare them

• A SPECIAL TREASURE TO ME

  • Wedding talk in the Hebrew 

  • Later in Exodus 19 is the SHOFAR - the sound of the Trumpet 

• They gather Under the Chuppah - the cloud at Mt. Sinai. Camped against the mountain.

• God presents the Ketubah - the Ten Commandments.

  • Here is how we thrive.

• Tabernacle is going to serve as the Honeymoon suite and the Law is Gods gifts to them. 

  • It makes it all the more tragic that when Moses is up on Mt. Sinai and the people become unfaithful and we have the Golden Calf incident. 

  • This is like a bride being unfaithful in the middle of the wedding ceremony.

• But God continues to move in covenant love. There are places like Ezekiel 16 that describe God’s heartbreak at this unfaithfulness.

  • But the picture is there over and over.

• The marriage of God and His people.

And then when Jesus arrives and on the eve of his betrayal and death. He says….

 “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” 

– John 14 v 2-4

Look at this detail Matthews account gives us…

“Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 

 – Matthew 26 v 27-29

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”  This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church”

– Ephesians 5 v 31-32

How do we live as the Bride of Christ?

Why are we talking about this in Lent?

• Lent a time for us to examine our lives in light of Christ.

• We often think of only personal devotion. 

• But what about our relationships?

How are we living in our marriages? How are we living in our singleness? As the Bride of Christ?

As men, as women? Are we faithful to Christ and faithful to one another?

Are we living with what the Apostle Paul calls a sincere and pure devotion?

“When somebody belongs to the Messiah, they continue with their life on earth, but they have a secret life as well, a fresh gift from God, which becomes part of the hidden reality that will be ‘revealed’ at the last day. That is why, in those great scenes in Revelation there is a great, uncountable number of people standing around God’s throne in heaven, singing glad songs and shouting out their praises. This is the heavenly reality which corresponds to the (apparently) weak, feeble praises of the church on earth. And one day this heavenly reality will be revealed, revealed as the true partner of the lamb, now transformed, Cinderella-like, from slave-girl to bride.”

– NT WRIGHT

Enjoy Communion - there is clearly some ALREADY and NOT YET in the reality of God and his people.

Make Ourselves Ready 

• Let Christ wash us with water and with the Word

  • “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless”

    – Ephesians 5:25-27

• Consecrate ourselves

  • Where have we given ourselves to other gods, to other loves?

  • What else has your primary devotion, attention and affection?

Long for His Appearing - think about where we are the story

Bethany Allen - pastor and elder at Bridgetown in Portland about the bride:

• A term distinguished from wife—emphasizes being the center of one’s affection and love

• Intrinsically tethered to a counterpart: the groom and the groom brings these aspects of pursuit, promise, patience

• An anticipatory term connects to something that is about to happen or has just happened

• “At the core of a bride’s greatest and most defining act is waiting. This waiting has the power either to define her or to diminish her.” 

Waiting can either:

• Builds appetite v dulls senses

• Deepens love v. inflates fragility

• Reveals our deepest hope or illuminates our fears

“Singleness points us beyond earthly marriage (and earthly sex). And bears witness to a life beyond this one—to a heavenly life. It exhibits a high invitation to give oneself to God, who enables us to give oneself to others. Singles can offer a divine state of existence from which marrieds have a lot to learn.”

– Abbie Smith

If you are married in this church you have a chance to show us something of the faithfulness and delight of Christ.

• Let your marriage reflect the love of Jesus and His covenant love 

• Work on and protect your talking and listening 

• Make a covenant with your eyes - not to look on another 

• Remember what your marriage represents

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