Own Programme: Christmas Cheer

This week, we will enjoy some Christmas cheer aided by mulled wine, mince pies and possibly some carol singing. Do come along!

Bible Study: John 11

For starters

• How generally does our world respond to death and bereavement?
• In what ways will Christians respond in a similar way? In what ways will they respond differently?

Read John 11:1-7.

• What do we learn about Jesus’ relationship with Lazarus, Martha and Mary in vv.1-5?
• What’s surprising about Jesus’ response to Martha and Mary’s message in vv.5-6?

Read John 11:17-27

• Look over Jesus’ conversation with Martha. What do we learn about Martha from it? What do we learn about Jesus?
• Jesus challenges Martha in vv.25-26. Why are Jesus’ words here sometimes hard to believe? How does this chapter helps us believe them?

Read John 11:28-37

• What do we learn about Mary from vv.28-33? How does Jesus relate to her differently than he does to Martha?
• How do you respond to v.35 and Jesus weeping? What does this tell us about Jesus?
• What difference does Jesus weeping make to the picture of Jesus we get in this chapter?

Read John 11:38-44

• What stands out for you from these verses about who Jesus is? e.g.
• Jesus’ relationship with his Father?
• Jesus’ power and authority?

Application

• What comfort can we take from a chapter like John 11?
• Look again at v.4. How might God receive glory through his people experiencing difficult or painful times? If you can, think of an example from your own life.
• This chapter shows us both Jesus’ humanity and his divinity. Which do you find more comforting at the moment? How can we help one another hold these two things about Jesus together in our lives?

Leicester Gospel Partnership

This week we are invited to the occasional meeting of the Leicester Gospel Partnership. It is with Vaughan Roberts at Enderby Church. It starts at 8pm and promises to be a great time. Hope to see you there.

Bible Study: Galatians 1 and 2

This weeks bible study is below. We're meeting at our house.

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For starters

Possibly in groups to feedback:

• Why do you think it is so much easier for us to grumble than it is for us to give thanks for something? 
• When does thankfulness come easily to you? When is it more difficult?
• What reasons can you come up with for Christians losing a sense of thankfulness and joy in the gospel of Jesus Christ?

The gospel preached by Paul – Galatians 1:1-10

Read Galatians 1:1-10

• What do we learn about the gospel Paul preached from vv.3-5?
• What is the source of ‘grace and peace’, according to these verses?
• In what sense is this gospel ‘good news’ for those who accept it?
• Why do you think Paul is so insistent that the Galatians Christians hold fast to the gospel he taught them? (vv.1-10)

The gospel’s impact on Paul – Galatians 1:11-2:10

• How does Paul describe himself in 1:1-2? Why do you think he opens this letter with this description of himself?
• Look at 1:11-12. Why does it matter that Paul received the gospel ‘by revelation from Jesus Christ’? How does that change the way:
• the Galatian Christians should respond to this letter?
• we should respond to this letter today?
• Look over 1:13-16. Why does Paul emphasise his opposition to the gospel before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus?
• Optional: see 1 Timothy 1:15-17 for another place where Paul reflects on his conversion to Christianity – and what it tells us about the gospel
• Look over 1:17-2:10. In these verses, Paul emphasises both that the gospel he preached was independent of the church in Jerusalem (1:17-24) and in agreement with the church in Jerusalem (2:1-10). Why does Paul emphasise both in order to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the gospel he preached?

Application

• Think about the things in your life you think are worth fighting for – e.g. particular relationships, loved ones, a particular cause or conviction you feel strongly about. Why would you fight for them?
• Why do you think Paul is so willing to fight for the gospel? Can you relate to how he feels about it? Why / why not?
• What difference does the gospel of Jesus Christ make to your life right now? How precious would you say it is to you?
• How do you think you can grow in your appreciation and thankfulness for the gospel – both individually and as a group? Pray about that together.

Bible Study: Growing in Hospitality

For starters

• Think of some of the people you’ve met in your life who have been most welcoming or hospitable towards you. How would you describe the welcome you received from them?
• What are some of the reasons that stop us being more hospitable?

Into the Bible
Read over 1 Peter 4:7-9

• What are the three instructions Peter gives to his readers? How are these three things linked together?

Read Hebrews 13:2

• What does this add to the picture of hospitality we get from 1 Peter 4? (See the account of Abraham welcoming the three angels in Genesis 18:1-8 for the OT background.)

Look over the following passages for more examples of biblical hospitality:

• Matthew 10:40
• Matthew 25:35-40
• Acts 2:42-47
• Romans 12:9-13

What picture of Christian hospitality do we get from these passages? Why does hospitality matter to Christians?

Application
Definition of hospitality from Sunday – Welcoming other people into our lives

• Why do we need to be willing to welcome other people into our lives as a church family? Why is that often hard?
• How do you really feel about opening up your home? In particular:
• To people you don’t know?
• To people you wouldn’t normally mix with?
• How does understanding the gospel help us grow in hospitality?
• Think about a typical week for you. What could you alter to make hospitality an integral part of your life?
• How can we grow in hospitality over the coming months:
• As a homegroup?
• As a gathered church family?

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“Don’t start with a big program. Don’t suddenly think you can add to your church budget and begin. Start personally and start in your home. I dare you. I dare you in the name of Jesus Christ. Do what I am going to suggest. Begin by opening your home for community. [...] You don’t need a big program [...] All you have to do is open your home and begin. And there is no place in God’s world where there are no people who will come and share a home as long as it is a real home.” (Francis Schaeffer)

Bible Study: Growing in Service

For starters
Think of Avenue and any other churches in which you’ve been involved.

• What does the ideal level of involvement and service look like?
• Why is there always more to do?

Into the Bible
Read Ephesians 4v1-16
v1-6

• What does it look like to “live worthy of the calling you received”?
• How should our salvation affect our service?

v7-11

• What is the connection between our effort and our Jesus given gifts?
• How do we know if we are serving in our own effort or in Christ’s grace?

v12-16

• How are we doing at Avenue with identifying/using each other’s gifts?
• How can we encourage each other to grow?
• Is there anything you’d like to do? What training do you need?

Optional group-work
Divide the following passages between you and then report back.

1. 2 Thessalonians 1:3 & Colossians 1:9-14
2. Romans 12:4-13
3. John 13:1-17

• What do each of these passages tell us about serving?
• What is the basis for our serving?
• What encouragements are there to keep going in serving others?
• How can we embed serving like this at Avenue?

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Some helpful quotes on service
Have you ever realized that you can give things to God that are of value to Him? Or are you just sitting around daydreaming about the greatness of His redemption, while neglecting all the things you could be doing for Him? I’m not referring to works which could be regarded as divine and miraculous, but ordinary, simple human things – things which would be evidence to God that you are totally surrendered to Him. (Oswald Chambers)

One of the principal rules of religion is, to lose no occasion of serving God. And, since he is invisible to our eyes, we are to serve him in our neighbour; which he receives as if done to himself in person, standing visibly before us. (John Wesley)

“Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. … Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’" (C S Lewis)

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(Optional - here is the tongue-in-cheek Gift Profiler from Sunday. You may want to look at together, with a serious side – how do we discover our gifts?)

Discover your gifts

Use the patented Avenue Gift Profiler to help you find how you could be serving at Avenue. Honestly answer these questions and then follow the instructions below. Feel free to answer these questions in discussion with a mature Christian if you would prefer.

1. You notice that Avenue is going to start an hour earlier each week. Do you:
   
   1. search the scriptures diligently to find out if this is the right course of action.
   2. think what a great idea and tell everybody so.
   3. carry on turning up at 10:38 as usual.
   4. offer to do an early morning alarm call through the entire address book.
2. The quality of the doughnuts is decreasing week by week. Do you:
   
   1. tell everyone that it doesn’t matter because man doesn’t live on doughnuts alone.
   2. say “Tally ho! There’s always chocolate brownies!”.
   3. clear off round the corner to buy your own as soon as we’ve sung the last song.
   4. get up at 5:30am every Sunday morning to bake enough for everyone else.
3. You’ve just come back from visiting friends who go to church at St Keller the Fabulous. Do you:
   
   1. lead a bible study on Acts 2:42.
   2. pick up a few good ideas and share them with the elders, along with a logistics plan, a resource survey, a funding stream and 32 volunteers.
   3. sit in the Avenue toilets and watch their videocast.
   4. offer to help out at whatever the next Avenue initiative is.
4. Great-aunt Gertrude, a long standing member of Avenue, needs her toe-nails clipped once a fortnight. Do you:
   
   1. help your homegroup apply what Jesus meant by washing each other’s feet in this situation.
   2. Draw up a rota and offer nail-cutting training to everyone.
   3. Book yourself in for a pedicure, believing that charity begins at home.
   4. Buy some latex gloves, a face mask, some bolt-croppers and arrange to visit.
5. Belleview Home For The Terminally Old, needs some help to clean their solar panels. Do you:
   
   1. lead a Sunday evening seminar on the Biblical view of environmentalism.
   2. help everyone see what a vital role they can have in tea making, water changing or glass scrubbing duties
   3. Lie in a darkened room hoping that your acute and brutal attack of vertigo goes away
   4. thank the Lord that those hours spent at the climbing wall will finally have some gospel use.

Bible Study: Growing in Prayer

For starters...

• Think of a time in your life when you prayed a lot. What was going on in your life during that time/those times? Why do you think you prayed so much during that time?
• Why do you think so many of us struggle to pray regularly?

Into the Bible
Read together John 15:1-17

• How does Jesus show his dependence on the Father? (See also John 5 v 19) What is
  surprising about this?
• What did we have to offer when we came to Christ the first time?
• Should this be any different now we are children of God? How should this affect how
  we pray?
• What does being Jesus’ friends mean? (v.15) How is this different from being a
  servant?
• What is the connection between “remaining in Jesus” and praying? Why is it
  tempting to try to be independent?
• Why did Jesus choose & appoint us? How does this connect to prayer?

Application

• How can we encourage one another to pray more in our homegroups – both:
• ‘big picture’ prayers from the Bible – e.g. Psalm 27:4 or Philippians 3:10-11 to become a reality in someone’s life – and
• praying for the nitty-gritty of one another’s lives – e.g. work, home, family, friends, illness
• Share any practical steps that have helped you pray more in your life: e.g.
• prayer lists/cards
• praying with other people – e.g. prayer partnerships/triplets
• use of the Bible in encouraging prayer
• choosing the right time of day to pray
• how to mingle praise, confessions, intercession

“Come overwhelmed with life. Come with a wandering mind. Come messy.”
- Paul Miller, A Praying Life. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2009 (available on the church website – avenue.org.uk/resources/bookshop