TWO BIG THINGS Before we really get started in this week’s discussion…
Easter Sunday is coming sooner than you think!
Okay, so I have some good news, and I think everyone is going to love this. In fact, I am really looking forward to hearing how you respond to this…
We are currently planning for Easter Sunday to have our FIRST Sunday services in over a year that have.. Get this.. NO social restrictions! That’s right.. The numbers are dropping, the vaccine is getting out, and it seems like so many of us have already had it anyway, so we are planning on THREE SUNDAY SERVICES:
8:30AM service includes masks, spacing, and ingress/egress protocols
10:00 and 11:30 services are “come as you are” with no COVID restrictions.
We really think this will be great news for people in our community, many of whom are unwilling to participate while we have restrictions in place. We feel like this will open more doors for everyone.
One big problem
Typically, we put up a big “EASTER” banner at Chick-fil-A to let our community know what is up. THIS YEAR, however, the restaurant has already scheduled that banner spot for themselves, and we won’t be able to put our banner up.
SO… HELP! We will still invest into Facebook and Instagram for inviting people to our Easter services, but nothing… NOTHING beats a personal invitation. Would you invite and bring someone with you on that Sunday? We will have Easter invitations for you to use starting this week.
Lifegroup discussion question #1:
Who will you bring with you to an Easter Sunday service this year?
We have jumped on the center island project in the parking lot to help create a great environment for this event. Our staff is really excited about Super Tailgate Sunday!
This is the time to make last-minute plans. I have gone over the morning’s purpose, schedule, setup, and lots of details with your Lifegroup leaders in their weekly coaching videos over the past few weeks, so they should have all the details for you.
Make sure to bring your lawn chairs. Bring extras, in fact! You will probably make some new friends at the party!
This weekend is also time change weekend… We will GAIN an hour on Saturday night!
Marriage can be Backwards
Expectations BEFORE you got married… How did that change?
If you were giving advice to a young couple about to get married, what would you tell them?
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT
How do you think this verse would fit into your young married counseling time? (if at all?)
On Sunday, I presented what I believe to be a faithful, contextual view of how we are to “submit to one another” in marriage…
And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:21, NLT
“submitting” is at best a controversial word for people in our culture today. Why do you think that is? What kinds of images does that word create?
On Sunday, I described submission in a little bit more of a Biblical sense… What does “submit” really mean here?
22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
Ephesians 5:22-30 NLT
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.
How has this passage been misused/abused in the church? How have you heard it presented inaccurately in the past?