20th June Sermon Discussion - Consider the Goodness and Severity of God

Scripture: Romans 11:21, 22

INTRODUCTION

• Take a moment and think through what God is like. Now try and put a picture to what God is to you.

• Is God like an old gentle man floating up on the clouds giving out gifts and love to everyone

OR

• Is God like an angry giant up in the heavens looking down in anger waiting to zap everyone with lightning?

• God may or may not be either one but to know God as who He truly is, we need to know God and see Him completely.

MESSAGE

• The truth is that God is good and loving, but at the same time God is severe and fierce.

• God’s goodness is always popular but people usually don’t want to talk about God’s severity.

• In order to truly know God, we need to see every part of Him and not just choose the parts that we want to see.

Question: Based on Romans 11:21-22, what do you think will happen if you only choose to see God’s goodness and not His severity?

• We need to see and understand God’s severity before we can understand God’s goodness.

• If we choose to see God in an incomplete way, then we will end up falling away and rejecting the truth – Look at the book of Jeremiah!

• We need to see God fully and complete! He is not 50% gracious and 50% severe – He is 100% gracious and 100% severe!

How then shall we live?

#1: We need to be overwhelmed by the grace of God

• We are all imperfect and have sinned and because of that we actually deserve to die and not live another second. But take a look at Lamentations 3:22-23.

• God loves us so much that’s why He doesn’t consume us! And He demonstrated that love in Romans 5:8!

• We all actually do not have the right to live and have any form of blessings in our lives. But because of God’s grace and mercy, we can live a life full of blessings.

#2: We must not take His grace for granted

• Hebrews 12:29 tells us that God is a consuming fire.

Question: Take a look at another verse, Hebrews 10:26-27. What do you think will happen if we always say that it’s okay to sin because God will always forgive us?

• Always listen to the voice of God and do not harden your heart (Hebrews 3:15).

• If your heart is hardened, your reject the word of God and because of that you cause yourself to stop receiving God’s grace, mercy and love.

APPLICATION

• The way to always be overwhelmed by the grace of God and not to take it for granted is to walk closely with God.

• The question is, how is your quiet time? Do you spend time with God?

• Choose today to walk with God every day. Do your quiet time every day. As you obey God and spend time with Him, you will learn and see God in His completeness. Don’t choose parts of God that are better for you. Choose God for all that God is.

MEMORY VERSE

Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV) “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

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13th June Sermon Discussion - "You Can Be A Blessing!"

Introduction:

How many of you want to see yourself leading a group or inviting your friends to the 40 days of faith? If you want, you need to start now! Yeah! Though 40 days of Faith officially starts on 1 August, you need to start praying and planning now. Don’t worry its just a few simple steps☺

Bible verses: Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-8

3 simple steps that we can take in response to this call and experience the miracle of multiplication

1. Go and see the need

Write down the names of your friends/family members that you want to invite for 40 days of Faith.

How many of you here are troubled or stress out on what to do to reach out to them? Let’s look at what Jesus do when He reach out to the multitudes.

In Mark 6:34 states ‘When Jesus arrived, he saw this huge crowd. At the sight of them, his heart broke – like sheep with no shepherd they were. He went right to work teaching them. Looking at this verse, it says that the crowd was like sheep with no shepherd and what Jesus did was to meet their needs by teaching them. He didn’t spend thousand of dollars nor perform a talent show to reach out. He just met the needs of the people.

Activity 1:

a) How did you come to know Jesus and what makes you believe in Jesus? Write it down. I believe many of you here believe in Jesus because Jesus met your needs. Maybe some of you here a wounded heart and Jesus met your needs by healing it. Maybe some of you here have fears and Jesus met your needs by helping you to overcome your fear.

b) Look at the names of the friends/family members that you have written just now. Do you know their needs? Write it down beside their names and start praying for them. If you don’t, then its time to spend time with them, to know more about them and pray for them. And if their needs are something that you can meet, are you willing to help them meet it? For example, some of them need friends to study with. Are you willing to set up a study club and study together with them? Or maybe some of them need friends to go out with. Are you willing to organize a simple outing for them to spend time with them?

2. Pray and bring them to the Lord

In Mark 6:30-44, we see how God was able to feed the thousands despite having five loaves and 2 fishes. Indeed, with God, all things are possible.

Activity 2:

a) As we are talking about leading a group or inviting friends for 40 days of Faith, how many of you are fearful doing it or think that you can’t lead a group? Write down those fears and reason why you think you can’t.

b) Today, God wants to tell you that you can! In Phil 4:13 ‘ I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.’ Just like how Jesus was able to feed the thousands with 5 loaves and 2 fishes, He is able to help you overcome your fears. As long as you tell God that you are willing to lead a group or willing to participate in the 40 days of Faith, God will help you.

c) Make it a commitment to pray to Him daily for the people that you are inviting.

3. Organize and serve them together

Jesus was very detail at His execution. Similarly we need to be organize in our 40 days of faith.

Activity 3:

a) Take this time to think of the venue that you want your 40 days of faith to be held and write it down. Make sure it’s comfortable, convenient and conducive. There will be a short video for them to see. Do ensure that the place is able to show the video.

b) Which day and time do you want it to be held? After school? Sat?

c) From now till 40days of Faith, it’s about 1 month plus. Organise activities that can fellowship with them or meet their needs before the 40 days of Faith officially start. You can have a study club/a once a week movie outing/a bbq gathering/play sports or computer games etc. It will be good if you can work together with a fellow sister/brother in Christ.

Yeah, remember 40 days of Faith don’t start on 1 August. It starts NOW!

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