COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY AND DAILY STUDIES BASED UPON OUR VISION SERIES AT COMMUNITY CHURCH PUTNEY
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GROUP STUDY 6 – IN (PART 2)
THOSE BUILT ON CHRIST VALUE
INTERDEPENDENCE
The
Holy Trinity teaches us about the essential place of unity and community in
God. The word of God, the history of Israel and the example of the Acts church
show us that it’s God’s plan that God’s community depend on one another. We
cannot and are not meant to do it alone!
What does Peter teach us about our need for
one another?
·
It
is not possible to become the ‘spiritual house’ or ‘priesthood’ that God
intends unless we are built together! How will our growth will be stunted if we
are disjointed from God’s family? (2:4-5)
·
Peter
encourages us to work hard at relationships because they are challenging. What
good and bad things can stop us from relational devotion? (3:8 and 4:8)
·
What
are we to ‘offer’ one another and how will this help the church to be healthy
and grow? (4:9)
·
As
the ‘body of Christ’ we have different gifts. Difference in the church, as in a
body, is vital! What do our gifts, if used, provide one another (4:10)
·
What
does 1 Corinthians 12:20-27 tell us about God’s value and the value that we
should place on one-another.
Your
brothers and sisters need you! You may feel that you don’t have much to
contribute, people in the church may not treat you as well as you would like,
no matter what you think, or others think, God has created you, He has gifted
you to bless your local church. And,
likewise, you need them!
APPLICATION – LIVE LIKE
YOU NEED AND ARE NEEDED IN THE FAMILY OF GOD
·
Offer hospitality – Following on from last
week - how can you meet informally with other Christians to make them feel
loved by God?
·
Community Groups – Be the best Community
Group member or leader you can be. Don’t let the devil steal your faith for the
importance of meeting in small groups!
·
Join a serving team – This is a great way of
finding and using our gifts. It is a great way of being built into the church,
and it makes what we do possible. (1 Peter 4:10, Mark 10:45)
PERSONAL
BIBLE STUDIES WEEK 6 – 1 PETER 2:25-3:17
MONDAY:
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
1 Peter 2:25 For “you were
like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the
Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
1. GC – We were ‘lost sheep’ – This is an
allegory of us before salvation. But now ‘you have returned’ to God and all the
good that comes with that. Let’s say with Isaiah (53:6), ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to
our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’
2. UP – Jesus says of Himself as good shepherd,
“When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and
his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
Worship is to listen to Jesus’ voice and follow Him.
3. IN – Let’s encourage one another that as
Christians we can be confident in Jesus as our ‘good shepherd’.
4. OUT – Confidence in God speaks of God’s
worth – let’s learn to trust our good shepherd and so make Him attractive to
others.
TUESDAY:
TO WOMEN (Note – I will in no way cover all aspects of this text!)
1 Peter 3:1-6 Wives, in the
same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of
them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the
behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your
lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as
elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather,
it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and
quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is
the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn
themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like
Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters
if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.
1. GC – Too often we get our worth from
authority, power and beauty. Those who rest in God’s grace are increasingly
free to be the man or woman God created them to be.
2. UP – If you are a wife, or woman, are you
inordinately focused on your outward beauty over the ‘unfading beauty of a
gentle and quiet spirit’?
3. IN – Peter points to examples, ‘For this is the way the holy women of the
past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves’. Pray that
you would be secure enough to walk in the true beauty that God gives and that
would be an example to others.
4. OUT – Peter encourages wives to
prioritise evangelism through their manner that they may be ‘won over without words by the behavior
of their wives’. Married or unmarried women, let your walk, and talk be in
harmony.
WEDNESDAY:
TO MEN (Note – I will in no way cover all aspects of this text!)
1 Peter 3:7
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and
treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the
gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
1. GC – Our relationship with our wives or women
in the church is to reflect the ‘gracious gift of life’ God has given us. Too
often men can objectify, use, bully, be violent toward women. Let our
relationships reflect our loving God of grace.
2. UP – Peter calls wives ‘the weaker partner’.
We live in a world that trashes God’s word and we are forced to take on a
political correctness that means that men fail to respect both the physical and
emotional vulnerability of women. It is worship for men to refuse ungodly
domination of women.
ESV Study bible notes: ‘Peter is probably thinking of the
general truth that men are physically stronger than women and may be tempted to
threaten their wives through physical or verbal abuse.’
3. IN – Husbands and men, do you use anger or
violence in any way toward women? Are you ‘considerate’ in the way you speak,
being thoughtful and a good listener?
4. OUT – Good marriages speak of the wisdom
of God to a world that, in its wisdom, is failing in this regard.
THURSDAY:
CHRISTLIKENESS ATTRACTS GOD’S BLESSINGS
1 Peter 3:8-9 Finally, all
of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be
compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult
with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to
this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
1. GC – Here we see how the message of the
cross is to be actualized in our lives. Like Jesus we are to be ‘sympathetic,
compassionate, humble…not repaying evil and insult’. Like the God of the gospel
we are to repay ‘evil with blessing’. Those who know the God of grace will give
grace.
2. UP – God is pleased and will bless us as we
meditate on and seek to live like Christ.
3. IN – In ‘blessing’ (service, love,
generosity etc.) do we give more, less or only what we receive from our
brothers and sisters? What does the gospel teach you to do?
4. OUT – Many people are lonely and feel
misunderstood. Too often we fail to evangelize because we don’t see it first of
all as an act of relational connection. Wayne Grudem says ‘one proper motive for righteous living is the knowledge that such
conduct will bring blessings from God in this life’.
FRIDAY:
LOVE LIFE
1 Peter 3:10-12
For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their
tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn
from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. For the
eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their
prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
1. GC – As these verses teach, the
unconditional salvation offered in the gospel does not mean that sin and how we
live is irrelevant. God is still angry with Christians who sin whilst still
accepting, loving, and disciplining them. (Hebrews 12:6)
2. UP – A life of worship is the only way to
enjoying life. If you ‘love life’ love worship.
3. IN – Surely we all want our brothers and
sisters to ‘love life and see good days’. If this is a desire you have let’s be
encouraging one another to turn from sin to God.
4. OUT – In a world of relational tension it’s a
great witness to ‘seek peace and pursue it’.
SATURDAY:
ALWAYS BE PREPARED
1 Peter 3:13-17 Who is going
to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for
what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be
frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared
to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the
hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping
a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good
behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if
it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
1. GC – We can even suffer whilst trying to do
what is good! People misunderstand or deliberately ‘dis-understand’ us. Sounds
like the way they treated Jesus! Let’s meditate and remember Jesus and so
respond like Jesus.
2. UP – Sometimes it’s ‘God’s will to suffer for doing good’; are we prepared to accept
all of God’s gifts?
3. IN – As a community let’s ‘revere Christ as Lord’. It’s easy to
praise God when people praise us and the church; it’s hard, and we need the
encouragement of one another, when we are being derided.
4. OUT – Peter encourages us, ‘Always
be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason
for the hope that you have.’ Let’s get prepared through prayer and
study. What would you say to someone who asked you why you are a Christian?
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