HOME GROUPS | As It Is

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After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Revelation 7:9-10

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For the month of January we have taught and remained in Matthew 5:13-16. Our first week we grew in our understanding of what it means to be salt of the earth and the light of the world. This week we continue in application of how to be a light in the world and God’s heart for all people. 

Discuss the texts: In Matthew 5, Revelation 7, and Luke 10 we are given a vision of how God invites His followers to be a light to the world. A people whose present is shaped by the coming age, the future in which God will restore and redeem all things unto Himself. A people who love people in their lives as their neighbor. A people who are not divided but diverse in backgrounds and unified in Jesus. 

Read Rev 7: 9-10 - What is the most Ethnically diverse Christian gathering you have ever been a part of ? Describe that experience.

What does it say about God that eternity is filled with such diversity?

How does the parable of the good samaritan shape how we as Christians treat people who are different than us?

What people has God placed in your life to love as your neighbor? To be a light to the world to? Encourage your group to take a moment to reflect on this, to pray and ask for God to bring faces and names to mind. 

Encourage our church-wide practices. As a church, we are invited throughout this sermon series to engage in three practices: Morning Prayer, Evening Silence and Wednesday Fast. The practices are a way to become satisfied in God. May you abide in Jesus and access the presence of God this week. Amen. 

Close in prayer: God our Father, we are Yours. We thank you that through complex and difficult topics we have clarity in hope and assurance in love. May you guide us in how to love others and may we obediently walk through our discomfort to care.