Notes For 05/01/2022 Sermon

Last Updated on May 4, 2022 by Rocklyn Clarke

Rome at Last! – Part 1
Rocklyn Clarke Sr. – Sunday May 1, 2022
© 2022 Life Church Ministries, Inc.

Sermon Podcast Page (includes links to audio, handout, and slides for all sermons)

Series Passage: Acts 28
Sermon Resources:

• Acts 28:1-10
• Mark 1:14-15
• Matthew 5:13-16
• Ephesians 1:3-10
• Matthew 28:18-20
• Matthew 28
• Mark 16
• Luke 24
• John 20
• Acts 2:40-47
• Mark 16:14-20
• Matthew 10:5-15
• Luke 10:1-12
• Matthew 6:25-34
• Following Jesus: Testimonies – Life Church

Life Group Meeting

Life group leaders – pace yourselves. Look over all of the meeting components and make sure you have time to cover all of them.

Welcome (5-10 minutes)

• • Icebreaker

Worship (optional for Sunday breakout sessions)

• • Worship in the Cell Group – Joel Comiskey Group

Word – Discussion Questions (if there are no specific questions use the default questions):

For each question, spend 1 – 2 minutes in silence before opening up for people to respond.

1. • How will you help to make your life group safe, healthy, and Kingdom-focused this week?
   • Paul ended up on Malta at Publius’ household. What have you learned from Paul’s experience there?

Witness (check out the Witness section resources below):

How we work together as a team to be “good news” to the people around us.

• • Choose a partner from your assigned life group to pray and work with this week.
    • If you already have a prayer partner from last week and that prayer partnership is working – stick with it!
    • If you’re new and you don’t yet have a prayer partner – this is the time to get started.
  • Are you facing a challenging ministry opportunity? How can your life group members help?

Additional Life Group Meeting Components:

• Reflection – Include a brief time (e.g. 2 minutes) for quiet reflection sometime during your meeting. Potential times for this are:
  • Just before reviewing the questions during the Word portion of the meeting.
  • Just before prayer during the Witness portion of the meeting.
  • Just after prayer during the Witness portion of the meeting.

Immediately after this reflection time, members may want to write down any thoughts or impressions that come to them and anything that they feel the Lord is saying to them or to anyone else. Encourage the members to consider how they might incorporate more reflection in their daily, weekly, and monthly routines.

• Life Group Housekeeping (do this once a month or more often if needed)
  • Be familiar with our life group goals.
  • Review our connection tools: e-Life & the life group email list
    • Does everyone know how to use them?
    • Is everyone’s information up to date?
    • Is everyone receiving email from the life group email list?
  • Is anyone not showing up for Sunday service or life group meetings? If so, who has been in touch with them?
  • How will the group onboard the next visitor?

Word Section Default Questions

(Use these when there are no specific discussion questions for the passage:

• Question 1: “What is this passage saying?”
• Question 2: “What is God saying to you through this passage?”
• Question 3: “How can you apply this passage throughout the week?”

Taken from:

• What is the Best Small Group Lesson? (Three Questions that Will Help Revitalize Your Cell Group) – YouTube (00:5:15)

Witness Section Resources:

How we work together as a team to be “good news” to the people around us.

• • Following Jesus: Evangelism
  • InterVarsity Evangelism Prayer Cards (PDF)
  • InterVarsity Evangelism 2+PrayerISM (PDF)
  • Evangelism and Multiplication – Joel Comiskey Group
  • Questions For Use In Relational Evangelism
  • Small Group Evangelism: Strategies for reaching people for Jesus – YouTube (00:04:50)
  • Small Group Evangelism: Why Small Group Evangelism is Essential – YouTube (00:04:25)
  • Multiplication: Effective Cell Groups First Make Disciples before Giving Birth – YouTube (00:03:36)
  • Multiplication: Myths and Truths about Effective Cell Group Multiplication – YouTube (00:04:35)

Life Groups

Without life groups, we are at the mercy of cliques and people who aren’t in a clique will “fall through the cracks”. Furthermore, even the people who are in cliques will have some of their issues and needs “fall through the cracks”. This is because life groups are organized to please, and be led by the Holy Spirit, whereas cliques develop solely around whatever the people in the cliques find appealing. Life groups are organized to help you grow and overcome your “issues”; cliques simply aren’t!

Check out our Life Group Pages for more life group information and resources.

Five Thresholds

Because the Five Thresholds approach to relational evangelism helps us to pay careful attention to the people that the Lord brings our way, it is an excellent way to meet people “where they are”. We want to prayerfully help them move through each threshold and become followers of Jesus. At any given stage, we may be planting a seed or watering a seed that we or someone else has planted. At each stage, we should see ourselves, together with other believers, as a hospital for sick and wounded people.

• Home Page | Evangelism
• The Five Thresholds | Evangelism
  • Journey to Faith: The Five Thresholds | Evangelism
  • Threshold 1: Trust | Evangelism
  • Threshold 2: Curiosity | Evangelism
  • Threshold 3: Openness | Evangelism
  • Threshold 4: Seeking | Evangelism
  • Threshold 5: Following | Evangelism