Untitled Sermon (5)

Welcome to Grace Church’s Women’s Bible Study! Welcome to those who are here for the first time and welcome back to those who have been around for a while! Our mission is to be women who are growing in the knowledge of God through His Word. But the Word is also a man. The God/man, Jesus Christ. Listen to what John 1:1-5 says - “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Instead of studying a book of the Bible this semester we will use this book “Practicing the Way” to learn how to know this man Jesus more intimately, to learn his ways and to walk closely with him. And hopefully we will become more like Him!

You should have received a name tag, a copy of the book and a notebook with the homework assignments and discussion questions. Your name tag should have your group number and leaders name.

Each week you can grab your name tag and head in here so we can begin with worship. Thank you to these awesome ladies for their willingness to lead us into the throne room to prepare our hearts to hear from Him!

After worship we will have our teaching time. You will find space in your notebook to take notes. After the teaching we will join our groups for small group discussion! In our small groups we will discuss the reading material and homework questions as well as what you learned from the teaching.

In order to get the most out of our time together we would ask all of you to abide by our group guidelines.

*Confidentiality. In order to create a safe space for everyone we would ask that you keep what is shared in the group in the group. Please do not gossip or share with others what other ladies have shared in your group.

*We would like to keep the discussion on the topic of the book and discussion questions. This is not a time to discuss anything outside of that including politics or any other topic that could become divisive. It is a beautiful thing that we all have different ideas about a lot of things but are united in our faith and sisterhood in Christ.

*In order for everyone to have an opportunity to share If I could be so bold to just say we would ask the “talkers” to abbreviate or get to the point and for shy ladies to “dare to share”. Respecting and inviting everyone’s input creates a healthy community.

*In order to get the most out of the book and this materiel we would ask that you don’t add other material or tips from other books or curriculum. I know that there is a lot of great material out there but I would like us to focus on gleaning from this book and material.

*Let’s all be humble! If we all could posture our hearts to be “learners” I know that the Lord will meet us and speak to us in profound ways. There are no “experts” on this topic and spiritual formation or “sanctification” is a life long experience.

Isaiah 57:15 - “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

*Be expectant!

1 Corinthians 2:12 - Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand the things freely given us by God.

In order to truly experience this journey there is one requirement. The open door to journeying on “the way” that Jesus invites us into is faith in Jesus. I know that this may sound obvious but in order to be invited on this journey one must put their trust in Jesus and accept the free gift of salvation that he offers to ALL, to EVERYONE who would confess that they are a sinner, separated from God, in need of a Savior and believe that Jesus who was fully God and fully man, lived a perfect life and died a sacrificial death because he LOVES YOU AND ME. He was without sin but chose to pay the price for our sin. He rose from the dead, conquering sin and death and then ascended to the right hand of his father where he rules and reigns and intercedes for us on his behalf. This is the best news ever IF you receive this free gift by faith! You cannot earn it and did nothing to deserve it. Learning the principles taught in this book are meaningless and will prove to be a heavy burden if you have not placed your faith in Jesus. Believe it or not we love to earn favor. We love to think that we deserve things that we work hard for. It is ingrained in our flesh. But the gospel is free. It is actually an offense to God when one thinks they are good enough to be in right standing with God apart from the gospel. Isaiah 64:6 says that we have all become like something unclean, and all of our righteous acts are like. A polluted garment. Gross but like a used mental pad. This does not mean that giving to the poor or helping the weak or praying or reading the Bible is filthy or is disgusting. It is a beautiful sweet aroma and act of worship if these things are done as an overflow of the abundance of love and mercy that God has poured into us. It is disgusting to think that we would do these things to curry favor with God or others. God’s love and forgiveness is a free gift. As believers we must humble ourselves and cling to and stand on the firm foundation of the love, grace and kindness of God.

We will continue to remind ourselves this throughout our teaching because it will feel very natural to learn new skills and place our confidence in our ability to learn new habits!

Many if not most of us would like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists but the truth is that we are all shaped and formed and informed by outside influences. In high school maybe your primary shaping influence was your peer group like being a jock or a smart kid. As adults it can also be our peer group whether it’s being a business executive or a stay at home mom or hanging out with people who share a common interest. Here is another data driven very measurable indicator of our influences. If I were to reach into your purse and take out your handy little device I could go to your settings and see exactly how much time you have spent on websites, apps, chats and so on. Which is exactly why I can be at a dinner party talking about my grandkids and next time I’m on my phone tons of ads are coming across my social media with all kinds of adorable children’s clothes and exactly the type of toys that I like to purchase my grandchildren. Uncanny isn’t it? We would be naive to think that we are not shaped by those things not to mention our church culture, political bent, our besties latest tips and so on. We are all following “somebody and probably somebodies” without even being aware of it most of the time.

Who are you following? How is this forming you? Who will you be shaped into in 20 years from continuing down the path you are on??

I also want to give a disclaimer. We are studying a book written by a human man this semester, not the infallible, living active word of God which means there is room for error. I love his ideas and insight but we don’t want to be infatuated with new ideas or a person. We want to be in love with Jesus. The author quotes a lot of different people from conservative evangelical theologians to historical Benedictine monks from the early church. Be a discerning learner. It’s ok not to agree with all of his ideas. Eat the meat and spit out the bones.

I am thankful that a lot of what he is saying is slow down and stop with a lot of the unhelpful busyness, not add one more thing. He is especially down on too much much technology. There are many benefits of modern technology but one of the downfalls is that we have become very lazy minded. WeOur flesh wants to be soothed and entertained by something outside of ourselves.We are a captive audience to all of the sparkly things around us and can end up losing ourselves.

The goal of this study is to help us take our life back in areas that we have been passive or influenced in ways that we do not want to be influenced. We also want to re-embrance the gospel by entrusting our lives more fully to Jesus. We will learn what Jesus communicated to his disciples and early followers. We will find “the way” that Jesus laid out for them and for us.

This way is not just a theory or a list of things to believe but a measurable, practical way to grow in your relationship with Jesus and into the person you were meant to be.

We will learn to -

To be with Jesus

To Become like Jesus

And to do as Jesus did.

I am very excited to venture on this path with you and look forward to receiving all that God has for each of us.

Pray