Digging Deeper
Ron Falstad continues our studies in Philippians 4: 4-9.
- Do Delight in God.
- Don’t have anxiety and live in it.
- Do be intentional in thought and deed. Bring all things to God in confidence… and leave it there.
When we don’t set our minds on His things, we will fill our minds with our things. Your mind never stops. It is like a leaking faucet in a bucket and the water is what we put into our minds. When the bucket is full nothing else can come in. Let God be God… don’t settle for anything else.
www.cornerstonecommunity.net
www.cornerstonecommunity.net
Digging Deeper
Have you ever wondered why the Christmas story is sanitized – leaving out less than desirable details about the birth of our Savior? Perhaps because we feel that everything about His birth was perfect? Pastor Tony describes that Jesus actually came to this earth to be like us so we can be restored to Him. We really can’t have a fulness of worshipping Jesus as our God until we understand that Jesus was our brother and He lived a life just like ours.
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Digging Deeper
- Paul wants the Philippians to imitate him and others who are mature. How comfortable are you to say to a younger believer “imitate me”? Why do we tend to say “don’t imitate me but imitate Jesus”?
- In verses 18-19 Paul gives a somber description of some people within the Christian community that they were not to imitate. Without being overly judgmental let’s talk about the examples Tony gave in his sermon. Why are these people enemies of the cross?
- Read Philippians 3: 20-21. The country to which you commit your Citizenship demonstrates to whom you are primarily devoted. We are not to put our minds on earthly things because our citizenship is in heaven, i.e., the Lord is the one we are primarily devoted to and not the things of this world. How should this affect our daily lives? Read Colossians 3: 1-15 to see more on keeping your mind on things above.
- Jesus is coming back to fully redeem our bodies and our salvation will be complete (see Romans 8: 23). Philippians says that our glorified bodies will be like Jesus’ glorified body. Brainstorm on what that means.
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Digging Deeper
Read Philippians 3: 12-16 and discuss the following questions:
- Paul admits that in his pursuit of perfection, he has not yet arrived; but he is in strong pursuit of it. I am sure that we would all agree that we haven’t arrived yet either, but do we like Paul have an intense desire to pursue that Christ-likeness?
- Discuss what you (or we as a group) need to leave behind as we reach forward for maturity.
- Let’s brainstorm on the specifics of what the “prize of the upward call” looks like. Look up Philippians 1: 9-11; Hebrews 12: 14; 2 Peter 1: 3-4 as you discuss this.
- What do you need to talk to God about regarding what you need more understanding in?
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Pastor Tony devotes this Sunday’s message for thanksgiving to our God. He begins in 1 Chronicles when the Ark of the Covenant is brought into Jerusalem with thankfulness and musical worship. Then he teaches on two doxologies that cover the second coming of Christ – our hope. Our great God created the universe by speaking it into existence, He became human, died and rose again and is reigning until He returns to earth to eradicate all sin and sorrow!
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