My Epic Journey

Here is the teaching outline from last week’s lesson on our GodView:

GodView (2): Distorted

Bottom Line: How you view God determines both your expectations and your responses.

TEACHING OUTLINE

INTRO:

People walk away from Jesus.

But when they walk away, are they walking away from God or are they rejecting the view they have of Him?

TENSION:

God’s primary goal is not for us to be good.

God’s primary goal is not for us to be happy.

But when we live with these as the ultimate goal, and God does not deliver, our Godview falls flat.

God’s primary goal is to be God.

TRUTH:

When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:2-3 NIV).

Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. And tell him, ‘God blesses those who do not turn away because of me’” (Matthew 11:4-6 NLT).

Jesus was saying, “You need to see Me differently. Where you are now doesn’t change who I am, but your view of who I am does need to change.”

APPLICATION:

We have to learn to follow a God who is bigger than our expectations.

The times when life seems the most out of control are the times when we need the most accurate view of God.

CONCLUSION:

Our prayers aren’t usually for surrender to a loving Father, they are usually for us to get more control.

There is a real and personal God who longs for you to surrender your deepest hurts and your biggest disappointments.

Here is a funny and weird video we showed at EPIC this weekend.  Hope you enjoy!

Tom Houser (Pastor of Discipleship and Administration) recently entered the blog world and I am LOVING his posts.  Go to Run In Such A Way to see what is going on.  Below is his most recent post which I am going to be passing along to our EPIC Small Group Leaders.

Know and Be Known

Life Groups are not just meetings or Bible studies.  Meetings focus on an agenda and Bible studies can be done alone.  Life Groups are meant to be places for people to grow closer to God via authentic fellowship with one another.  It is the fellowship which lays the foundation for everything else that our Life Groups try to do.  This excerpt from a post on smallgroups.com speaks to this topic quite well:

Fellowship is the glue that keeps us in relationship with one another.  Ephesians 2:19, [a] key verse about fellowship, talks about how we are members of God’s family. It says, “You are no longer foreigners or outsiders, but citizens together with God’s people and members of God’s family.” Godly fellowship enables us to experience true family.

Genuine fellowship helps us move from just sharing coffee and cookies to being a safe community where we can be transparent with one another. Here are some simple but effective steps a small group in your church can take to build this kind of fellowship and encourage genuine community:

• Offer new people a history of the group. Have everyone-including the first-timers-share a little bit about their family and a few of the activities they enjoy doing in their free time.
• Provide ice-breakers. Sometimes the silliest questions or activities are best. These help people get to know one another in a safe way.
• Celebrate milestones. Help foster community by celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, long-awaited adoptions, and other special events in people’s lives.

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