SCRIPTURE REFERENCE
- II Cor 5:21
ICE BREAKER
- Brainstorm together as a group and identify at least 12 ways God demonstrates His love toward you.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Share with the group what helps you to hang on to God’s love in the dark times of your life. Next, share what tends to make it difficult for you to do so.
- His love is always directed for our benefit. The proof of this is that He sent His Son to die for us.
The more we taste the love of Jesus the more we love each other. The more we love each other the more the world knows Jesus is the Son of God.Enjoying the love of Jesus is not automatic in the christian life. We must lean into it.
The love of Jesus must be fostered in our lives.
Share with the group some practical ways you have sought to intentionally embrace God’s love in your life.
Consider taking one step as a group this week to lean more deeply into Christs’ love.
One way to do this is by selecting a passage that speaks of His love and meditating on that passage daily.
- Ask God who you need to love this week.
Perhaps you need to forgive someone or perhaps you need to apologize to someone or perhaps you need to take someone out for lunch to reconnect.Enjoy taking that step of obedience as you honor the Lord in your life through loving someone this week.
Group leaders: give the group some time to pray and reflect on this.
Then, have the group share what step they plan to take this week.
NOTES AND QUOTES
For our sake Christ died.
So, the cross is purely unselfish. Jesus died for our sake!
At times we feel uncared for. But, this is never the reality for the believer.
Sin had to be punished because of God’s perfect justice.
All our sin has been placed on Christ when He died on the cross. All our shame, our guilt, our hidden secrets are forgiven.
“In Jesus” is a relational phrase.
This phrase says that He is personal.
When we come to Him in faith that intimacy is sealed.
The more we see our daily life as a union with Jesus the more we taste His nearness and are shaped into His character.
Christ’s union with us is meant to flow from us to those around us.
Jesus’ righteousness becomes ours.
Now, with His righteousness we have a right to stand before the Father.
We have the right to be in a relationship with the Father.
We all desire the perfect Dad–a Father who loves with our best interest in mind.
The perfect Father has the heart that does all for “our sake”.
His love is always directed our way and for our benefit. The proof of this is that He sent His Son to die for us.
There is no greater love than someone laying down his life for another.
His vision is that we would love each other purely like the love in the trinity.
Why does He want us to be unified so deeply?
First of all for the joy that is found in unity but also because of our mission: so that others will see our unity and believe.
It is because of our mission that we forgive those who harm us.
We love each other as part of our mission.
The more we taste this love the more we love each other and the more the world knows Jesus is the Son of God.
