Sermon Prep for September 18, 2016. Week 3 of Love [Fruits of the Spirit]
Welcome to or Welcome back to Communities Under Development with North Harbor!
The mission of North Harbor’s Community Development Ministries is to provide opportunities for people to grow in relationship with the people of Jesus’ Body, the Church. We hope that through growing in relationship with people of the Church, you might have a stronger sense of belonging to Christ, His Body, and our community in particular.
Communities Under Development (a.k.a. “CUD,” formerly "small groups") consist of 6-12 women and men that do life together and weekly meet in the MidCoast area for seasons of ~10 weeks at a time. Together they pray and talk, with a focus on sermon content, in order to learn how to be more like Christ (disciples).
Each week by Tuesday night, I’ll post a Sermon Prep guide to allow you to dig into the Biblical passage that the next Sunday’s sermon will be based in. Our CUD groups discuss the content you explore through these guides and the sermons. Our hope in this approach is to streamline the process of choosing group discussion content, unify your experience of learning to be more like Christ by coordinating group discussions with sermons, and unify our groups’ experiences by having them digging into the same material – thereby enabling more cross group dialogue and affinity.
Our mission at North Harbor is to lead people toward a growing relationship with Jesus. So it is our hope that through the tool of sermon prep, you would be invited into meeting directly with God, with the aid of His word, in order to de-emphasize and aid the preacher’s teaching, empowering your ownership on your spiritual journey, and dignifying the power of your personal time with God to have a significant impact in transforming your life and relationship with Christ.
Sermons at North Harbor this school year are going to work through the Fruit of the Spirit [Galatians 5:22]. Each month will focus on a different aspect of the Spirit’s fruit, September kicks things off with a focus on LOVE. This coming Sunday [9/18/16] will continue to look at the story of David and Jonathan. To catch up on previous sermons visit: http://www.northharbor.org, choose the menu “What to expect” and select “Recent Sermons.” But let’s get into this week’s text!!
READ: 1 Samuel 20.
What is the covenant made between David and Jonathan? How does this covenant demonstrate love on both their parts?
This last Sunday [9/11], Dan’s key statement was, “Love is rooted in God and not subject to circumstances.” How do you see this being illustrated in this story?
Read Galatians 5:13-26. Does this friendship between David and Jonathan look like men bearing fruit of the flesh or fruit of the spirit? How so (especially consider verse 26)?
Applying myself to this message:
Jonathan and David offer a beautiful example of resisting competition, envy, and the desires of the flesh. What in your heart needs crucifying so that you might move deeper into belonging to Christ?