Sermons

    FILTER BY:

    ← back to list

    Dec 06, 2020

    We NEED a Community

    Passage: Romans 7:20-24

    Speaker: Steven Cooper

    Series: What We NEED for Christmas

    Category: Sermon

     

    Message Summary:
    Advent week 2 lights the Bethlehem candle, and we celebrate the Community that gathered around the newborn king in the city of David. That Community’s members were so different from each other, but they all worshiped Jesus. Since then, Jesus has been gathering people who are radically different into His family so that they can love and care for and challenge each other to grow. We are now that family, and our church is a big part of the Community Jesus wants us to belong to. It’s community that is built on the grace, understanding, and power of the gospel that is what we need when we are faced with the reality that Romans 7 describes about us.

     

    Discussion Questions:

    1. How does Romans 7:18-24 resonate with your experience in life? What does it do for you to know that this is the experience of most of the people in our church?
    2. How were the members of the Bethlehem community different from each other? How does this change the way you see people in our church who are different from you?
    3. Share a time when you had a meaningful spiritual experience with someone who was different from you.
    4. How can you step forward to deepen and/or broaden your community in our church?

     

    VERSES:

    Romans 7:18-24 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

    21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

     

    Luke 2:1, 4-6 1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 4 Joseph went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

     

    Luke 2:8-17 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

     

    Matthew 2:1-2,11 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." 11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.