Soul Care notes

Didn't get sermon notes this week so the Soul Care notes are the HEAD, HEART & HANDS questions.  

I will try to get some things up for the groups but with it being Mother's Day that probably will not be until Tuesday and I will probably post them on the church blog www.emmanuelbaptist.com/blog for everyone.   

Sorry Sunday groups.

I would strongly encourage you to see if there is a connection between the Fighter Verse and the sermon - fighterverses.com

For example last week, in the sermon Pastor Duke talked about stumbling blocks.
The Fighter Verses devotional from last week, http://fighterverses.com/set-2-core-esv/week-19/, had the following final implication:

One final implication: If what I’m saying is true, then we get to see glimpses of our God more often than we might realize. Anytime we see any love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, or self-control in the life of a believer, it isn’t simply God at work, but God himself manifest in the life of that person. That reality ought to change the way we see our fellow believers.

We talked about how the opposite of being a stumbling block to others was showing the fruit of the Spirit.

Love's Hope - Romans 15:1-7

This week's Soul Care notes contain the basic HEAD, HEART and HANDS questions.
After Sunday's message, I will try to post a couple of other questions and helps.

Here is a video specifically about Romans 15:8, 9, which is part of next week's passage but I would encourage you to watch it this week because Piper goes back to look at verses 5, 6 and 7.

Some issues to discuss...

Here are some issues you can talk about with your group.  I have included some resources to help with some of the issues:

Food and health:

• Organic food, essential oils and the Gospel of Grace: www.desiringgod.org/articles/organic-food-essential-oils-and-the-gospel-of-grace

Marijuana:

• Marijuana for the Glory of God:  www.desiringgod.org/articles/marijuana-to-the-glory-of-god
• Various "The Briefing" by Albert Mohler on the topic of marijuana: www.albertmohler.com/tag/marijuana/

Worship Music:

• Finding Unity in Worship Styles:  thomrainer.com/2017/04/finding-unity-in-worship-styles-featuring-mike-harland-rainer-on-leadership-322/
• Doubtful Issues and Church Worship:  thomrainer.com/2016/06/church-music-preferences/

Celebrating Holidays:

• Halloween:  ekidzministry.blogspot.com/2014/10/halloween-what-should-you-do.html
• Christmas:  www.crosswalk.com/church/pastors-or-leadership/should-christians-celebrate-christmas-and-the-birth-of-jesus-christ-11562388.html

Discussion or Debate

First of all I updated the attendance information:
http://soulcare-disciplemaking.blogspot.com/2016/01/how-to-record-your-attendance-on-arena.html

Second, I have contacted a couple of you about getting together for breakfast or lunch soon to talk about the year.  Please let me know if there is a time or day that works best for you. 

Thirdly,  if you and/or your Soul Care group are able to serve the meal at Mosaic Ministries on Saturday, May 6, let Pastor Paul know.

Finally, here are some helps for Soul Care this week.  I may add more to this throughout the week.  I will italicize any additions.


Here are a couple of quotes that you can use as talking points.  I have grouped them under the three words in the first question

Weak

"The 'weak' are not sinful in this context... They aren't wrong for being weak."

"Both the strong and the weak take their view very seriously - they are very spiritual about it."

Do or don't do what for the glory of God.

Strong

Do or don't do what for the glory of God.

Welcome

"The goal is not for everyone to think about everything the same way you do."

"The goal of progressive sanctification is not others being conformed into your image but being conformed to the image of Christ.

I may add more to this later.

Read Romans 14:1—4.

From the passage & sermon, discuss the following words & what they look like in a God-glorifying, disciple-making church:

Weak                                             Strong                                          Welcome

What are some general principles for becoming a church that is a place of love, peace and mutual up-building?

What are some specific action steps you can take this month to help our church become a place of love, peace and mutual up-building?

Here is what we did with the 1st through 3rd graders.

Originally posted at ekidzministry.com

He Is Risen!  He Is Risen Indeed!!!

This morning in our EKIDZ ministry we did a resurrection egg hunt.  

The younger ones are looking for eggs in their classrooms.

The older ones are looking for eggs in the 400 hallway and classrooms.

Now if you ask your 1st - 5th grader what we did in class this morning, we may get a copy of different responses...

Some might say "we did an Easter egg hunt."

Others might say "Nothing."

I want to let you know what we did and how you can use it to talk to your child/children.

First, we sang the same worship songs during the service.  Because of the expectation of more people this Sunday morning, we did not have the kids in the service during the singing, which is what we usually do.  

Second, we did the Easter egg hunt.  

Finally, we had our children's lesson and here is what we did during this time.

Foundational Truths (You can find more details about these truths in several different languages at www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl/whowillbeking/)

• God is sovereign, which means he is the king/boss.  He is a good king/boss.  He is the perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing, loving king/boss of the world.
• People are sinners, which means we want to be the king/boss.  We say "no" to him by not obeying Him as king/boss and we pretend to be our own king/boss.
• Jesus is the Savior, which means he is the only who can make our relationship with God right.  He is the only who did what was needed to take the wrath of God and

Specific Truths about Jesus, our Savior:

 

Here is a pdf of the picture cards that we sent home with the kids this morning:  lifeyourway.net/printables/easter-story-cards.pdf
Here is a pdf resource with all kinds of plans, invite cards/posters and other things to do a resurrection egg hunt in your neighborhood
www.familylife.com/~/media/Files/FamilyLife/PDFs/2015/Contact-ResEggsActivity.pdf

How to Put Sin to Death!

A "How to Put Sin to Death" flowchart should have been in your mailbox Sunday morning.
If it wasn't let me know and I will get you a paper copy.

A free digital copy along with other formats of this poster can be found at visualtheology.church/products/putting-sin-to-death-flowchart

I also want to let you know about another resource you can use to help with your group discussion.

It is chapter 6 and 7 of the study guide to that accompanies Visual Theology.
I have put these two chapter online for Soul Care leaders to use.  You can click HERE for these questions.
Now I am not providing these chapters so you will do every question.  
These are supplemental resources.

PASSION and Heart Questions.

When the sermon title is about 4 passions,  you had better plan to talk about passion and action more than review information.

HEAD:  What do I need to know/remember?

What were the four passions Ken referred to in Nehemiah 1:

1. Nehemiah 1;1-4:  Passion for lost people.

2. Nehemiah 1;4-6:  Passion for laboring prayer.

3. Nehemiah 1:7-9:  Passion for virtuous faith.

4. Nehemiah 1:10-11:  Passion to be used by God.

General:  What is faith and what is the object of faith?

Specific:  What is meant by “virtuous faith” and the object of faith?

There are two blog posts about "Virtuous faith" at www.emmanuelbaptist.com/blog.  

HEART:  What do I need to love/be more passionate about?

Was Nehemiah a preacher, a prophet or a priest?  What position in his life gave him a passion to be used?

If you don't remember Ken's answer to the first it was this...
NONE OF THESE.  He was the cupbearer to the king - a layperson.  

The position in his life that gave him a passion to be used by God was his relationship with God.

HANDS:  What do I need to do?

Why (note word correction) is time often an issue in prayer?  

You can have some discussion about this question.
I want to encourage you to remind people that one of the biggest issues is we don't view prayer as an important work.

What can you do to change this?

If one of the biggest issues is we don't view prayer as an important, what you do to change this is gain a better understanding of prayer.  

How can you specifically help our church grow in at least one of these passions?

I would love to hear what some of your groups answers to this question are.

Here are some additional question Ken Rudolph sent that you can use in your prayer time:

• What was the difference between those who came from Jerusalem to Susa and Nehemiah’s response to the condition of God’s people and God’s city?
• Is prayer effective in changing history or in changing people?