PEACE Week 3 Sermon Prep

Before you begin, consider one thing you have gratitude for right now. Treasure it: Spend at least 15 seconds meditating on this one thing.

READ: 1 Timothy 2:1-6a

 

What strikes you? What challenges you? What encourages you?

 

What does this passage show you about God’s desires for you? Your family? Your group? Your community? Your enemies?

 

How might God be speaking to you through this passage into your present moment?

 

Note that “peaceful” and “quiet” [your translation may vary] are listed together, but separate. We often can associate these two words as synonyms. What does their distinction and the rest of the content of this passage teach you about what peace means? 

 

Who do you find it hard to pray for right now? What would it look like to offer petitions [requests], prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving for and on behalf of even that/those person/people? How might this work to bring about peace? 

 

READ: Deuteronomy 6:1-9

 

What strikes you? What challenges you? What encourages you?

 

What does this passage show you about God’s desires for you? Your family? Your group? Your community? Your enemies?

 

How might God be speaking to you through this passage into your present moment?

 

Re-READ verse 4. Fill in the blank: “The LORD our God, the LORD is ______.”

What does this statement mean?

 

In a divided and fractured society, filled with divided and fractured families, filled with divided and fractured people, what does it mean for us to have a LORD who is ONE? What might His ONE-ness mean for our hopes for peace, or what our hopes for peace could/should look like?

 

Re-Read verse 5. How does His ONE-ness make possible the healing of our own fractured hearts, souls, and strength?

 

What would it do to you home if you obeyed this command and wrote the words of this command down on the “doorpost of your house and on your gates”? What would it do to your family? What would it do to your neighborhood? 

Peace Week 2 Sermon Prep

Before you settle into study, try to write out how you define PEACE.

 

READ Leviticus 3:6-8, and verse 11

  1. Why is this Peace Offering Happening?
  2. What is this Peace Offering accomplishing?  
  3. Is a negative thing being removed?  Is a positive thing being restored? Both?

READ Romans 4:24- 5:2.

Can  you confidently proclaim for their own lives what Paul says in these verses?

  1. If so, why do you feel as confident as Paul?  
  2. If not, what is it that prevents you from confidently declaring that you have peace with God?

Re-READ Romans 5:1-2

  1. Does Jesus remove anything negative between our relationship with God?  If so, what?
  2. Does Jesus add anything positive between our relationship with God?  If so, what?

Revisit Galatians 5:22-23

The Fruit of the Spirit is an outpouring in your life and relationships when the Spirit of God is at work within you. The above passage speak good truths on the peace Jesus makes possible between us and God. What does it look like for this peace to overflow from your life? Where do you see this fruit in others in your community? What is it like to benefit from this fruit? 

Peace: Week 1. Sermon Prep Mark 4:35-41

He is our PEACE

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. ~Galatians 5:22-23


READ Mark 4:35-41

What sent the disciples into the storm that scared them?

In what were the disciples putting their trust? 

What made them secure? At what point in the story did that security begin? 

What do these verses teach you about what peace is and what it looks like? 

In what do you put your trust?

READ Ephesians 2:12-14

What does peace look like in these verses? 

 

In these verses, what provides security? How does this source provide security?

Consider a person or people group that you identify LEAST with. What wall stands between "us" and them? What would it look like for Christ to break down that dividing wall? 

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Is these presence of God ever apparent to you? What is that experience like? Does it bring you peace?

Brother Lawrence is famous for "Practicing the Presence of God." How would your daily life look different if you were seeking out and attending to God's presence in and around you?  

How do these passages inform you understanding of the fruit of the spirit? Do you feel like your life if bearing the fruit of peace [this is not an invitation to be critical, but to be attentive - to see the life of Christ growing in and through you]?