Notes For 08/04/2024 Sermon

 Sermon Notes
Aug 032024
 

Last Updated on August 6, 2024 by Rocklyn Clarke

Luke 8: Good Soil, Good Listening, Good Team
Rocklyn Clarke – Sunday August 4, 2024
© 2024 Life Church Ministries, Inc.

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Series Passage: Luke 8

Sermon Resources:

Current Material

Previous Material

Q&A and Discussion (for Communion Sundays)

  • Review the Training Page.
  • Where to you fall under “How To Proceed”?
  • Do you have any questions about the Personal Preparation skills?
  • Do you have any questions about the Life Group Preparation skills?
  • Do you have any questions about the Harvest Preparation skills?

Life Groups

Welcome (5-10 minutes)

Worship (optional for Sunday breakout sessions)

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

Before you begin each question: have someone read the passage out loud, then spend 1 – 2 minutes in silence.

  • What is this passage saying to its original recipients?
  • What is God saying to you through this passage?
  • How can you apply this passage throughout the week?

Witness (check out the Witness section resources below):

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

Identify an accessible pool of unchurched people

If you’re going to make disciples, you’re going to have to spend time with people who don’t yet follow Jesus. Most people will be most effective in winning people with whom they’ve developed a relationship. Relationships develop best when you have frequent opportunities to interact. 

Who are the unchurched people that you connect with on a regular basis? Do a network map. You will need paper and something to write with for this exercise:

    • Think through the various organizations and groups that you connect with.
    • Review your personal calendar for the past week. Where were you each day and with whom did you spend time?
    • Review your personal calendar for the coming week. Where will you be each day and with whom will you be spending time?
    • Do a network map: InterVarsity: The 5 Thresholds Network Map
    • Now that you’ve generated a network map, what will you do with it? Here are some ideas:
      • Use it as a personal prayer list.
      • Share it with the members of your life group so that they can also pray for the salvation of the people on your list.
      • Work with your life group to plan an activity that will build your relationships with the people on your lists.
    • The following article has many great suggestions for successfully inviting people to events and activities:

Optional Witness Material

    • Have your missing members been called or visited this past week?
    • How can you help your life group leaders build up your group this week?
    • Is there someone that you need to talk to about Jesus this week?

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:

Witness Section Resources:

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

Life Groups

Life groups are the basic environment in which discipleship will take place. A life group is a group of 3 – 15 believers who come together weekly outside of the church building for evangelism, community, and spiritual growth with the goal of making disciples who make disciples.

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! Becoming part of a life group is a major way that we “seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness”.

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.

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