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.
Evaluate your love.
- Consider the thoughts you have towards others, the words you speak to them, and the way you act with other people. Would you say agape love characterizes your interactions? Why or why not?
- The apostle John directly states that anyone who does not love does not know God. Take a moment to consider what your lack of love reveals to you about your relationship with God. How well do you know Him?
Meditate on His love.
Pastor Allen reminds us that the God of love came to us first.
- Think first on how God initiated love by sending His Son, Jesus. Think about Jesus who willingly stepped down from heaven to live in this broken world. Ponder how He shows His love to the people He encountered. Reflect on His ultimate act of love in laying down His life for us as an anger-satisfying sacrifice (propitiation) so that we do not experience God’s wrath.
- Think also on how God initiated his love in your own life. Reflect on how He orchestrated your personal salvation. Pastor Allen shared his story of coming to Christ and all God did for him. What are some things He did for you?
- Thank God for His incredible love. Pray that He would guide and empower you through the Holy Spirit living in you to display that love to others.
Reflect His love.
- Consider the people and situations where you struggle to love. How might viewing these as opportunities to make His love visible to these people in these places and times change how you respond to them?
- Out of a desire to reflect Him and serve as a conduit of His love, what is one way you can initiate love or take the first step towards them? What might you need to sacrifice in order to do so? Pray that God will help you to want to imitate Christ in counting the cost and choosing to sacrifice for their sake as He did.
Related sermons:
Fruit, Faith and the Gospel (Gal. 5:22-24)--introduction to series (Pastor Kim)