Digging Deeper
Pastor Tony starts another series that will explore Who God is and who we are. He covers this in 7 questions, presenting the Christian worldview as well as the naturalistic (atheistic) view – the answers are very different.
-Who is God?
-Who am I?
-What is the problem?
-What is the solution?
-What is right and wrong?
-What is my purpose?
-What does the future hold?
Do you see evidence that society is focusing more on naturalism? Do you see the difference in how your understanding of God affects how you live your life?
www.cornerstonecommunity.net
Digging Deeper
Pastor Tony completes the two-part series on the purpose of Cornerstone Community Church – “We exist to glorify God by being used by God to lead people from their unbelief to be fully mature followers of Jesus Christ.” The focus being #ForNorthTahoe – ministering to the local community of both people that don’t know Jesus and those that do. Tony then covered practical scriptural application on how this will be done, including the beginnings of the Cornerstone deacon team. The remainder of his message covered the various events focused on #ForNorthTahoe during 2020. All of these events need support – please consider volunteering.
www.cornerstonecommunity.net
Digging Deeper
Pastor Tony starts a two-part series on the purpose of Cornerstone Community Church – “We exist to be used by God to lead people from their unbelief to be fully mature followers of Jesus Christ.” We accomplish this by proclaiming, warning, and teaching. We persevere in this purpose till Christ is formed in each of us. This requires each of us to be radical followers of Jesus. Is Cornerstone’s purpose clear and accomplishable? What would you add to it? What can we do to serve our Lord to serve others to become fully mature in Christ?
www.cornerstonecommunity.net
Digging Deeper
Pastor Tony completes our studies in Philippians by recapping what we’ve learned to fully grasp what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. All that truly matters in this life is pursuing Jesus. If we are pursuing Jesus, then He informs us of every area of our lives. If we only tack Jesus on to our lives along with all the other things, that results in mediocrity. What should we truly strive for as believers?
www.cornerstonecommunity.net
Digging Deeper
Do we sometimes take things out of context? Pastor Tony continues our study in Philippians 4 by analyzing the meaning of “I can do all things through Him Who strengthens me” and “My God will supply every need”. Our Lord didn’t give His life for us so that we can have all kinds of cool stuff – cool stuff is a gift from Him. Rather, we need to learn how to enjoy what He has given us and then share it with others. Do we struggle with giving and receiving? We must learn to do both equally so God is honored, rather than making God servant to us so that we can be honored.
www.cornerstonecommunity.net
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.
www.cornerstonecommunity.net
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.
www.cornerstonecommunity.net
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?
www.cornerstonecommunity.net
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