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Love
Teaching Text: Acts 2: 42-47
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 numberdaily those who were being saved.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Pentecost
Formation
For group discussion:
Which forces shape your life the most in your present moment?
What do you think changes in someone's life when they become a follower of Jesus?
For reflection:
What do you do the day after your life changes?
Our life often changes in two ways.
Breakthroughs and habits
Significant moments like:
We meet God in Salvation
We experience a shame freeing experience of love or forgiveness
God shows us how seen and known and loved we are
You have a new insight into God's character
You come to the absolute end of a thought or behavior thats been sapping your life and you cry our for help and God meets you
Maybe the Spirit leads you to a new place of surrender of obedience
And now you have to decide how you are going to live - especially after the adrenaline or emotion or immediate challenge has passed.
How will you shape your time?
What will fill up your thinking?
What will relationships look like?
How will you do mornings?
What will the rhythms of you week be?
What will be non-negotiable a part of your life?
A way to ask this is what you will be devoted to?
What changes in me can be put into three categories:
Identity: WHO YOU ARE - known, loved, forgiven, adopted in the family of God, filled with the Spirit, qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints
Desires: WHAT YOU WANT - God’s Word, God’s presence, Expressions of the Kingdom of God, people to experience God’s love, to use my gifts and talents to reflect God and do good, to lift others up, etc
Rhythms: HOW YOU LIVE - how I spend my time, my energy, my attention, my money, how my actual days go, what my habits are
But it’s not just automatic:
What if you have a moment or season of forgetting or losing who you are?
What if your desires are primarily shaped by our moment in American culture, advertisements, social media, or just selfishness?
What if your life doesn’t match who you say you are or what you want most?
This passage at the end of Acts 2 is an incredible guide….
Their lives changed in a radical moment
What were they devoted to?
We are told of 4 things they were devoted to the Rhythm of their life.
The Apostle’s Teaching
Fellowship
Breaking of Bread
Prayer
Apostles teaching – instead of just being shaped by their wider culture they were forms by God’s Word to the
The Fellowship – instead of remaining isolated and going it on their own or using the world’s criteria for evaluation, they joined in this new shared life.
Breaking of bread – In being devoted to the meal, they were devoted to keeping Jesus and the message of the Gospel at the center of their shared lives.
Prayer – as you learn to pray, you will learn to enjoy God
Start praying in the simplest ways.
Begin and end your day
Make spaces where you pray
Practice venting as you go
Normalize praying together
Don’t despise small beginnings
Prayer changes lives
“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
The most incredible things flow out of a life of devotion to the things of the Holy Spirit
