Tag Archives: Jesus Creed

Sunday in Review – 12/16/18

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Today, the Wolfe’s hosted, Justin read the story, and Simeon preached.

The story–

David is still living in the cave with his men and they are hungry. They went to a rich farmer named Naval who lives nearby and he doesn’t help them, but his wife, Abigail does! Abigail sends food back with David and when Naval finds out, he has a heart attack and dies. Abigail then marries David.

The sermon–

“Jesus Creed” by Scot McKnight

Scot McKnight talks about believing, abiding, surrendering, and restoring.

This is the third week of Advent and the theme is joy. Gaudete! (rejoice!)

What does joy mean?

  • happiness (a lot of it)
  • happiness and peace
  • contentedness
  • a deeper happiness
  • a state or way of being
  • love

Joy is more than just eating a good burger or seeing a beautiful sunset. You can’t just be joyful on command.

Where does joy come in Scripture?

  • Mary’s Magnificat
  • Paul’s epistle
  • Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again, I say, rejoice!

We read….

  • Mary’s Magnificat; Luke 1:39-55
  • Luke 2:25-33

In these passages, Mary, Elizabeth, and Simeon are happy/joyful because they are part of God’s plan.

God is doing something that is bigger than us and it is for everybody!

Everyone has known Jesus is coming, but actually getting to personally be apart of the plan is truly amazing.

We should look for personal ways that help us feel more connected with God.

People who live the Jesus Creed will be restoring, “putting things back right”

We want to restore relationships with people and God. Apply the theme of restoring to yourself! Finally, we read Psalm 51.

Sunday in Review – 12/2/18

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Good morning! It’s December!! Today, the Wolfe’s hosted, Justin read the story, and Simeon preached. Big crowd today.

The story–

King Saul is jealous of David who is now in charge of 1000 soldiers. Saul threw a spear at David, but missed. He tries to kill him several other ways too, but never succeeds. Then David marries the king’s daughter, Michael. Jonathan helps David run away from Saul. David cuts a piece of Saul’s robe in a cave and Saul forgives David, but David and his men still don’t trust Saul.

The sermon–

“Jesus Creed” by Scot McKnight

We looked at the theme of surrendering today and talked Advent. This is the first Sunday of Advent. We focus on the coming of Jesus.

What does surrender mean?

  • give up
  • lay down

What context do you use it in?

  • war

What pops into your mind when you hear the word?

  • the hymn–I Surrender All

The word surrender is only found in the Bible a few times.

Josh read Mark 8:34-38

Surrender is submission to God’s will which we do daily when we say the Lord’s Prayer.

  • Mark read Mark 8:27-33
  • Stephanie read Luke 18:18-30

You have to give it all to God!

Do you want to surrender?

  • We read Philippians 2

God won’t ask you to do anything He wouldn’t do.

God will act as our Father. He knows what makes us happy. He knows what’s good for us.

How does this tie back to Advent?

This week’s theme is hope.

The Baby already came to Earth and now we’re waiting for Him to come back again!

Sunday in Review – 11/18/18

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Today the Wolfe’s hosted, Justin read the story, and Simeon preached the sermon.

The story–

We read the story where David went to the war camp to give food to his brothers. In the end, David kills the giant Goliath and becomes friends with the king’s son, Jonathan!

The sermon–

“Jesus Creed” by Scot McKnight

abide- stay, dwell; bearing patiently; remain; wait; to live; to continue the memory without fading

We read Psalm 91, John 8, 12, and 14, and 1 and 2 John which all talk about abiding.

So ‘abide in Christ’. What does that mean?

  • part of it is faith

We read John 15 and John 15:5 really sums it all up.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Loving Jesus involves making Jesus our Friend and Master.

We then read Luke 10:38-42

We should study and read the Scriptures and have fellowship with other believers.

Sunday in Review – 11/4/18

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After an absence of some of our members, we are back again! This morning, the Wolfes hosted, Justin read the story, and Simeon preached.

The story–

Saul and Jonathan go to attack the Philistines. Saul is ready to give up when he found out it was his army of 600 vs. thousands. Jonathan and his armor bearer then go to fight the Philistines by themselves because God gave them a sign. God helped them by sending an earthquake. The two-man army won!

The sermon–

“Jesus Creed” by Scot McKnight.

We’re talking about believing this morning. What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

  • trust? More trust that Jesus can do everything.

We read the following Scripture passages.

  • Mark 1:15
  • Matthew 15:21-28
  • John 4:46-53
  • John 6:53-69

There are many different angles on belief.

To continue to pursue our belief with Jesus, we must be committed to following Him.

Sunday in Review – 10/7/18

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Today, Tracy and Mary hosted, Justin read the story, and Simeon preached.

The Story-

Israel decides that they want a king and Samuel anoints Saul.

The Sermon-

Simeon is still going through Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

What does it mean to love God? We can think about it means to love people. How do we know?

  • Those are the ones you care about
  • They’re your priorities
  • You like to spend time with them
  • You’re fond of them

What is your heart?

  • The seat of your emotions
  • Your conscience
  • Your inner-self/the real you
  • Central key element
  • The fount of your personality

What is your soul?

  • The eternal thing
  • Your essence

Your mind?

  • How you think

Your strength?

  • Your energy
  • With your all

We read through…

  • Stephanie read Luke 7:36-50 — you need to realize all that Jesus has done for you!
  • Tracy read John 15:8-15 –we are more than servants, we are friends of Jesus!

Love leads to obedience and joy — happiness! We find happiness in loving God.

Making a habit of praying before meals, and memorizing scripture are good ways to turn back to God. Communion (another way) is a thing that calls our hearts back to God.

The Jesus Creed encourages us to pursue loving God.

We closed with the Lord’s Prayer.

Sunday in Review – 9/2/18

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Hello! Today the Wolfes hosted, Justin read the story, and Simeon preached.

The story–

Today’s story talked about Samuel working in the tabernacle. God calls out to Samuel in the night and prepares him to be a great prophet.

The sermon–

“Jesus Creed” by Scot McKnight

Jude read Mark 1:9-15 and Simeon read a few other verses with Kingdom references.

Questions: What do Jesus’ audience think about Him and His teachings?

Simeon recommends reading through all of Matthew 13 sometime – we read Matthew 13:31-35 and Matthew 13:44-46.

We talked about how Jesus references the Kingdom of God: Stop waiting for the Kingdom to come. The Kingdom is alive around you!

Sunday in Review – 9/16/18

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Today the Wolfes hosted, Justin read the story, and Simeon preached the sermon.

The story–

Today we read about the Israelite people fighting in a war with the Philistines. The Philistine army captured the Ark of the Covenant. Eli died at ninety-eight upon hearing this news. The Philistines put the Ark of the Covenant in their temple by their god. When they came back, the statue of their god had fallen over and was bowing to the Ark. This happened multiple times and more people got sick and rats infested the city. Then they returned the Ark to Israel with a cart and two cows.

The sermon–

“Jesus Creed” by Scot McKnight

What does the Kingdom of God look like?

One chapter in Jesus Creed is entitled A Society of Justice.

What does justice mean? What do you think of when you hear the word justice?

  • a court
  • Rough justice
  • People getting what is coming to them

Two words in the Old Testament, mishpat and tsedeq mean justice, fairness, or righteousness.

In the Bible, justice is God’s will being done on Earth as is in Heaven.

Stephanie then read Luke 4:16-21 which is about Jesus’ Inaugural Address as some people call it.

April read Luke 19:1-10, the story of Zaccheus. What does that story mean to you?

  • Restoration
  • Justice

And Amanda read Luke 10:25-37, the story of the Good Samaritan. What do you notice about that story?

  • Important people ignore the wounded man
  • Samaritans were considered outcasts, yet he helped the wounded man.

Jesus wants us to see those opportunities and take them. Do them!

The Jesus Society is the Society of Joy!

It’s interesting that so much of what we, as humans and sinners want, don’t actually make us happy when we get it.

Simeon recommends a book, “Surprised by Joy” by C. S. Lewis

John 2 – Simeon read us one last story and then we closed with the Lord’s Prayer.

Have a great Sunday! 🙂

Sunday in Review – 8/12/18

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Hello! Today the Wolfe’s hosted church, Justin read the story, and Simeon preached the sermon.

First we read about Hannah giving her son, Samuel to God so Samuel could do work for Him.

Simeon continued preaching from The Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight and talked about some of the characters in the Gospel story.

First We talked about John the Baptist first – what do people know about John?

  • He’s Jesus’ cousin
  • A prophet (the first in a long time)
  • An odd character — he ate crickets and wore camel hair
  • He baptizes people
  • He also baptized Jesus

Tracy then read Matthew 3 out loud and we talked about why God has prophets. The Prophets declare God’s will to the people and frequently warn them and call them to repent. What is John the Baptists message?

  • That things are about to change
  • Repent — he is the prophet of repentance
  • Which means people should change their ways

Then we talked about Jesus’ disciple, Peter. What do people know about Peter? Before Jesus’ resurrection Peter is great but flawed:

  • When Jesus was betrayed, Peter cut off the ear of a soldier
  • But then he betrayed Jesus at the trial
  • Peter walked on water, but took his eyes off Jesus and fell
  • His name was Simon, but Jesus named him Peter when he confessed Jesus – but right after that he rebuked Jesus
  • His character seems kind of impulsive

We read some passages about Peter

  • Mary read Luke 5:1-11
  • April read Matthew 16:13-20
  • Jude read John 21:3-19
  • Eliza and I split reading Acts 2:1-24

We had a discussion after all those readings – Peter’s conversion process is a long one of growth by being with Jesus. McKnight says that we can also be shaped by the stories of the Gospel.

Sunday in Review – 7/22/18

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Happy Sunday everyone! A small gathering was hosted today by Amanda. Simeon read the Bible story and also preached the sermon through the book Jesus Creed

This week we continued reading about Jesus going with His family to Jerusalem for Passover and talking to the rabbis and priests. They were amazed at His knowledge!

Simeon also kept going through the book Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight.

Some things we talked about…

  • The different approaches to reading and studying the Bible
  • Different themes in the Gospels
  • Recognizing that God is our Father and He loves us!
  • How Jesus almost always refers to God as Father while praying
  • We read through a few parables like the story of the Prodigal Son
  • We discussed participating in the feast at the end of history – celebrating the Kingdom of God.

 

Sunday in Review – 7/8/18

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We are officially half way through the year. How crazy is that. 😛

This week Amanda hosted us.

Today we read the story about Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus fleeing to Egypt because Herod ordered all babies under two killed.

Not the most lovely story… 🙁

We are now done with studying Mark and switching over to a more topical sermon for a bit.

Simeon is using a book to base his sermons off of. The book is called “Jesus Creed” by Scot McKnight. (Goodreads)

We talked about…

  • What the word ‘creed’ means
  • Some religious habits of the Jews that Jesus would have practiced
  • The similarities and differences between the Lord’s Prayer and the Kaddish
  • We read over Mark 12:28-34 and talked about how to understand the “greatest command”