Evergreen Christian Community

The Big Idea: One of the great secrets of life is to simply get in on what God is already doing. Acts 2:1-21 WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? 1. The continuation of GOD’S SOVEREIGN PLAN. 2. The GLOBAL CALL TO UNITY. 3. The INAUGURATION OF A NEW KINGDOM. RESPONSE: ● Get in on what God is already doing! ● Notice the Spirit at work in you! ● Join the mission forward! Discovery Bible Study: • Connection Questions: 1. What are you thankful for? 2. What is a challenge you are facing? 3. How did you do with last week’s “I will” statement? • Have at least one member of the group restate the passage in their own words • Offers individual answers to Five Questions: 1. What stands out to you? 2. What does this passage tell us about people? 3. What does this passage tell us about God? 4. Based on the passage, what is one thing I could do differently starting now and what would happen if I did? (each person commits to their action for one week using an “I will…” statement) 5. Who are you going to tell about what you discovere

9am Gathering Romans 8:1-8 10:45 Gathering Galatians 5:16-25 Response: ● What is God saying to you? ● What will happen if you obey? ● Will you consider a DBS for the 5 weeks of October? --------------------------------------------------------- The Components That Make a DBS: • Connection Questions: 1. What are you thankful for? 2. What is a challenge you are facing? 3. How did you do with last week’s “I will” statement? • Read together a short passage of Scripture (4-10 vss) that addresses the topic • Have at least one member of the group restate the passage in their own words • The group then offers individual answers to Five Questions: 1. What stands out to you? 2. What does this passage tell us about people? 3. What does this passage tell us about God? 4. Based on the passage, what is one thing I could do differently starting now and what would happen if I did? (each person commits to their action for one week using an “I will…” statement) 5. Who are you going to tell about what you discovered? (ea

The Big Idea: The Holy Spirit wants to empower you every day to be a Jesus person. Acts 1:1-11 The Problem The Solution The Game Plan The Problem: We keep asking the wrong question. (V6) The Solution: You will receive power through the Holy Spirit. (v8) The Game Plan: You will be my witnesses. (v8) The most effective work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the power of MARTYRDOM. The Holy Spirit wants to EMPOWER you every day to be a Jesus person. RESPONSE: • What is God asking you to do? • What will happen if you obey?

The Big Idea: The presence of God brings peace to our troubled lives. John 14:15-27 Key Ideas: 1. Presence of the Trinity 2. Power to Love and Obey 3. Peace Within Our Hearts Response: ● I will trust the Holy Spirit to give me peace in ___________. ● Who do you need to extend or offer peace to this week?

The Big Idea: The Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of God’s promise to DWELL in and among His people. God’s PRESENCE is the bookends of the Bible and the answer to how we live in the middle. John 14:15-27 John 16:6-15 RUWACH /roo’-akh/ - wind; breath, a violent exhalation; blast of breath. PNEUMA /pnyoo’-mah/- a current of air, blast of breath, a strong breeze; or spirit. John 14:16-17 COUNSELOR: parakletos /par-ak’-lay-tos/; an intercessor, consoler, advocate, comforter, helper. WHY ARE MANY LIVING A SPIRIT-LESS LIFE? • Some AREN’T AWARE of the Holy Spirit Acts 19:1-3 • Some RESIST the Holy Spirit Acts 7:51 THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL: • COMFORT you. John 14:16 KJV • COUNSEL you. John 16:13 Isaiah 30:21 • CONVICT you. John 16:8-11 The Holy Spirit’s Three Focused Topics: 1. Sin: Colossians 2:13-15 2. Righteousness: Righteousness: /dikaiosýnē / “divine approval” - refers to what is deemed right by the Lord (after His examination), what is approved in His eyes. 3. Judgment: the devil now stands condemned an

Big idea: Baptism is a call to act in faith & obedience for ALL believers. Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ Romans 6:1-11 baptizō (77 times in NT) - to immerse, to submerge Children of God Galatians 3:23-29 So why baptism? Great commission Mathew 28:19 Model the life and example of Jesus Matthew 3:14-15 Question: Why was Jesus baptized? •He wanted to identify Himself with humanity: Fully God & fully man. •He was worthy to be treated differently, but humbled himself. Philippians 2:5-11 •To fulfill all righteousness in Him. Righteousness (/dikaiosýnē “divine approval”) - refers to what is deemed right by the Lord (after His examination), what is approved in His eyes. Response: Respond in obedience to the prompting of the Spirit. Mark 1:9-11 Luke 12:8

The Big Idea: Disciples of Jesus can serve only one Master. Matthew 6:24 Luke 10:25-37 A Kingdom Concepts review: ● The Messenger is the Message Philippians 2:3-11 ● Paradoxical Power: Jesus accomplishes things in His own time and His own way: power of suffering love vs command and control. ● No Condemnation John 3:17 ● Every natural idea you have about dealing with enemies is wrong. ● The King grows His Kingdom. ● God’s Kingdom is like a secret treasure worth more than the sum of everything you own. ● A Disciple is an “OIKODESPOTAI” /O-EE-kō des pah tye/ A master of the inexhaustible storehouse of treasures, both old and new, bringing them out to share. RESPONSE: ● Trust God with everything ● Love God with everything ● Love people like you love yourself

Matthew 13:44-46; 51-52 The Big Idea: God’s Kingdom is like a secret treasure worth more than the sum of everything you own. Three Parables: 1. The treasure in the field 2. The pearl of great price 3. The storeroom of treasures The Treasure in the Field: Two Powerful Secrets of Joyful Disciples: buying the farm and hiding the treasure. Colossians 3:2-4 Colossians 2:12-15 You must DIE to buy the farm with the treasure, BUT what you are killing is a life that is already DEAD IN SIN. The Pearl of Great Price: The pearl merchant = Every man: searching and shopping for fulfillment, actualization, and purpose. Selling all you have is the MOST SNEAKY and SHREWD business deal of a lifetime. The Storeroom of Treasures: Matthew 13:52 In the New Testament: ● The word “DISCIPLE” is used 269 times. ● The word “CHRISTIAN” is used only 3 times. A Disciple: ● Has found the treasure that produces joyful transformation ● Spends huge amounts of time exploring and enjoying the storehouse of hidden treasures ● Is an “OI

Matthew 13:31-35 Big Idea: There is nothing that can stop the eternal power of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom’s COMING and GROWING has almost nothing to do with us. “Therefore, for every second of the time the world has been a world, it has also been the kingdom. Its progress through history is not a transition from non-kingdom to kingdom; rather, it is a progress from kingdom-in-a-mystery to kingdom-made-manifest.” - Robert Farrar Capon The Kingdom didn’t just appear with Jesus. Jesus REVEALED the mystery of the Kingdom! God’s Kingdom is ruled by Jesus Christ and grows by His Word and The Holy Spirit. Colossians 2:9-10 “All we need to do, and all we can do, is simply trust that the leaven is, was, and always will be entirely mixed into the lump of our existence — and that it will infallibly lighten every last one of us. The job is already, if mysteriously, done: by the power of the Word who breathed out his life for us on the cross — by the might of him who, in the glory of his resurrection, forever

The Big Idea: Every natural idea you have about dealing with enemies is wrong. Matthew 13:24-30 Matthew 13:36-43 The Problem of Weeds: The world contains good and evil - good seed and bad. Often it takes an expert to tell the difference. Both sowers are counting on us to do our thing. The Wisdom of Doing Nothing: Judgment hurts the wheat. Judgment declares an unreliable verdict on the weeds. Judgment reveals a lack of trust in the Sovereignty of God. The way of Jesus is also the way of wheat. The Wisdom of Doing Something Acts 2:42-47 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 The Certainty of the Harvest Matthew 13:40-43 John 3:16 John 3:36 John 3:17 John 12:47-48 Response: Leave every verdict to God. Commit to being the people of God, together. Suffer weeds like Jesus, for Jesus.

The Big Idea: God is both hidden in Jesus and revealed in Jesus. Therefore, Jesus is the guiding light in every existential question. Mark 4:21-25 John 1:9-13 1 John 1:5-10 God wants me to LIVE IN THE LIGHT. Amos 3:7 My three enemies PREFER DARKNESS. Mark 4:24-25 God wants me to CARRY THE LIGHT TO OTHERS. With the measure that you use in your relationship with God and others, God will use that measurement to apportion to you – and even more! What jar or bowl are we hiding the light of the Word under, that is keeping others from seeing the light? What is snuffing out God’s Lamp? RESPONSE: Three Calls Forward: 1. HEAR and ACCEPT God’s Love. Mark 4:20 2. Get off the PERFORMANCE TREADMILL. Colossians 2:23 3. LOVE OTHERS like you love yourself. Matthew 22:37-40 John 13:34-35

The Big Idea: Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. Mark 4:1-20 Two Difficult Realities One Powerful Truth Three Constant Enemies One Simple Job Two Difficult Realities 1. Some people get it and some people don’t 2. To them that have, even more will be given but to them that have not, even what they do have will be taken away. One Powerful Truth: The forgiveness of God is extended to EVERYONE. Isaiah 6:6-7 Ephesians 3:2-6 Three Constant Enemies: 1. The DEVIL 2. The FLESH 3. The WORLD We Have One Job: Remain in Jesus. Life is not about accomplishing work but about bearing fruit RESPONSE: Ask the Father to reveal the mystery of Jesus to your heart Fight the three enemies for the work of the seed Practice the GO lifestyle this week

The Big Idea: The Messenger IS the message. Hebrews 1:1-4 John 1:1-5, 9-14 The Privileges of the King Philippians 2:5-11 The Power of the King Paradoxical power: Power that looks for all the world like weakness, intervention that seems indistinguishable from nonintervention. More than that, it is guaranteed to stop no determined evildoers whatsoever. “The New Testament proclaims an unlikely Savior. The work of Jesus in his incarnation, life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension makes no worldly sense at all. The portrait the Gospels paint is that of a lifeguard who leaps into the surf, swims to the drowning girl, and then, instead of doing a cross-chest carry, drowns with her, revives three days later, and walks off the beach with assurances that everything, including the apparently still dead girl, is hunky-dory.” “God doesn’t force people to behave. God doesn’t stop sinners from sinning—he doesn’t stop murderers from murdering. Of course, he does make exceptions, but those are exceptions, not th

The Big Idea: The Father’s blessing satisfies the deepest cry of the human heart. Matthew 3:16-17 Matthew 17:1-5 Fatherlessness is the most destructive pandemic in our world. The enormous impact of fatherlessness in the world: • 90% of all homeless and runaway children are fatherless • 71% of all adolescent substance abusers are fatherless • 80% of adolescents in psychiatric hospitals come from fatherless homes • 2X more likely to commit suicide • 9X more likely to drop out of school • 20X more likely to be incarcerated The cry in our hearts is greater than any human father can satisfy because we were made to know and be known by THE Father John 1:9-15 In Jesus, we are included in the Father’s Blessing: • The pride of RELATIONAL OWNERSHIP • The boast of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE • The declaration of UNALTERABLE VALUE We are authorized to give blessing to others, prophetically Matthew 16:17-19 Response: • Receive Jesus • Receive the Father’s Blessing • BLESS your Oikos in Jesus’ Name: - Body - Labor (work o

Romans 15:1-13 Big Idea: The Body of Christ is defined by the overflow of hope and love. Acts 10:11-15 We are called to be like-minded, with Christ because the world needs a united Body of Christ.  Philippians 2:3-11  Be Like Christ: 1. Unconditional Love 1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 2. Acceptance Acceptance: To grant one access to another’s heart. 3. Self Sacrifice John 15:13  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 13:34-35 How will the world know that we are Christ’s ambassadors? Nonsensical, audacious, impractical, and unconditional love. Through mutual trust in Jesus, we will collectively overflow in hope and love. RESPONSE: 1. Trust in Jesus completely. 2. Live for the good of the “Other.”  3. Pursue unity of the Body.

Big Idea: The unity experienced through the Gospel triumphs any disagreements of human conviction. Romans 14:1-23 So what are disputable matters? Matters of conviction - things that your conscience has deemed right or wrong for you. FOOD Romans 14:2 DAYS Romans 14:5 Romans 14:6 The importance to God lies in our UNITY, not our like mindedness on non-essential matters. “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” ― St. Augustine Weak vs. Strong Romans 14:14 “The conscience can make clean things unclean, but it can NEVER make unclean things clean.” Romans 14:20-21 Romans 14:22 Romans 14:10-12 We are accountable to God, not man. Don’t try to be the mediator between others and Christ. We don’t get to decide what other’s convictions should be. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Response: Focus on the unity and edification of believers who have varying convictions. Romans 14:19 Praye

Romans 13:11-14 Practical Wisdom for Today: Understand the Time Understand the Forces at Play Choose the Greater Yes Understand the Time: Kairos / kī räs/ “an opportune time for action.” “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” The Big Idea: Times of cultural chaos are times of incredible opportunity. Understand the Forces at Play: (They are as different as Night and Day) ● Asleep vs. awake ● Deeds of darkness vs. armor of light ● Gratify the flesh vs. clothe yourself with Christ Evil That Passes for Good: 1. Cruel certitude 2. Burning enemies at the stake 3. Self-righteousness 4. Entitlement 1 John 3:16 Response: What score would you give now? How could you clothe yourself in the Lord Jesus Christ? “Today, I will _______.”

Romans 13:8-10 Leviticus 19:18 The Big Idea: We have one debt that drives our entire social strategy and practice. ● To whom do we have a debt? ● What is the debt? ● How do we pay the debt? ● What is the power of honoring this debt? “Debt” - An obligation to make a payment as the result of having received something of value. To whom do we have a debt? To God Himself. This debt never goes away because God continually pays it forward to you, so that you can pay it forward, too. What is the Debt? To “love” one another Matthew 5:46 “He that loves his neighbor as himself will be desirous of the welfare of his neighbor’s body, goods, and good name, as of his own.” - Matthew Henry How do we pay the Debt? Love like God loves 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a My Father IS PATIENT. My Father IS KIND. My Father DOES NOT ENVY. My Father DOES NOT BOAST. My Father IS NOT PROUD. My Father DOES NOT DISHONOR OTHERS. My Father IS NOT SELF-SEEKING. My Father IS NOT EASILY ANGERED. My Father keeps NO RECORD OF WRONGS. My Father D

“Revival is no more a miracle than a crop of wheat.” - Charles G. Finney Romans 13:1-7 The Big Idea: A refusal to submit to those in authority is a refusal to submit to and trust God. FOUR CRITICAL TRUTHS ABOUT GOD, AUTHORITIES, AND YOU: 1. Authority is a God idea. John‬ 19:10-11‬ 2. Submission to authority is a godly decision. Ephesians 5:21 3. Rebellion against authority is rebellion against God. Acts 23:1-5 4. Your decision to submit or rebel reveals your level of trust in God’s Sovereignty and goodness. Romans 13:5 1 Peter 2:11-21 Submission to authority makes room for God’s blessing. Rebellion to authority invites God’s Judgment. 1 Samuel 15:23 What About Civil Disobedience: Daniel 3:16-18 Is America a nation of rebellion? The Declaration of Independence: “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powe

Big Idea: The Christian Life is best lived with an appreciation and awareness that God exists WITH US. “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.” - Saint Augustine Emmanuel Hebrew “God is with us.” Combination of the Hebrew expression “with us” and the word for God (El) from Elohim. God WITH US in the garden. Genesis 2:25 Genesis 3:8 Tabernacle: Mishkan /mish-kawn’/ Hebrew “dwelling” Exodus 25:8 God WITH US as Jesus. John 1:1-2 John 1:14 Matthew 1:23 John 14:8-11 God WITH US now in Spirit. Pleroo v. /plēroō/ Greek “to make full.” God with us: make us complete, lacking in nothing. 2 Timothy 1:14 John 16:7 John 14:12 A Life Marked by God with Us: ● Clarity/understanding (Who God is) ● Experiencing God’s power (The work that God has for me) ● Growth & Maturity (The plan God has for my life) RESPONSE: ● God Dwells WITH YOU. ● Open your eyes to the intimacy God has called you to. ● Prayer: “God you are here,