Welcome to Sunday Fuel. This series of questions is designed to assist your personal reflection and fellowship with others about the sermon from this past Sunday.
- Meditate carefully on 1Pet 2:24-25. These verses are a presentation of the gospel. As pastor David said, “we can get overly familiar with it and begin to tune it out.” So as you meditate on it, consider these questions:
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- What fresh gospel treasures make you want to rejoice?
- What portions of the gospel have you become overly familiar with that you need to consider more deeply?
- What areas of the gospel confuse you that you would like to understand more?
- Write out a brief confession of sin to the Lord for a particular struggle in your life, then read over your confession of sin. How we confess our sin helps us understand our own view of sin. How do you understand the nature of your sin and how has that knowledge grown and matured over your life? (e.g. as a child I saw sin as breaking an abstract law or moral code, as I grew I saw sin as a product of spiritual warfare. While sin is breaking God’s law and involves spiritual warfare, today I can see how my sin comes primarily from my worshiping heart that wanders away from God to worship idols in his place)
- Peter himself was a gospel cynic, he rolled his eyes at the gospel in Matt 16:21-23 when Jesus talks about dying and rising from the grave. In that passage Peter rebukes Jesus saying, “Far be it from you Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Jesus says, “But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” What “things of man” do you meditate on that can dull your worship and prevent you from considering the glory of Christ in the gospel?
- Consider the three realities of a cruciform life that Pastor David covered: “our sins are paid for, our lives are transformed, our care is secured.” Briefly reflect on how God has deepened your enjoyment of these realities in your life. How does this passage deepen your ability to worship your Savior in light of these realities?
- Pastor David closed his sermon by keeping our attention on our caring shepherd and seeing how his care for us changes us, “trimming away the parts of us that don’t look like Jesus”. As we behold Christ, we better understand the ways we need to live out his likeness in this world. In light of this, what aspects of your life would you like God to trim away to make you look more like Christ? How might you pray about those things? Who in your life could you invite to pray for you about those things as well?
