This week we talked about God’s Sovereignty. We focused on defining the word and then looked at the Old Testament story of Joseph and how God was sovereign over all the events of Joseph’s life. To paraphrase Joseph is Genesis 50:20, “What you meant for evil, God meant for Good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive.”
This week we continued our series called “Big Church Words” where we are looking at words we hear in church but maybe don’t really know the meaning. Last night our word was Sanctification, and we defined it as the ongoing process of growth to look more like Jesus and less like our old self. Our main goal last night was not to just define the word, but to look at what is causing us to not grow in this process of Sanctification. Maybe it is a particular sin or sins that we keep reverting back to or maybe it was just simply we are coasting or going through the motions in our faith. Regardless of what is hindering us from growth, we must realize that it is God’s desire for our Sanctification and that “He who began a good work in us, will complete it.” (Philippians 1:6) Our main Scripture passage we looked at last night was Hebrews 12:1-2, where the writer of Hebrews challenges his readers to run this race well by laying aside everything sin that entangles us and weight that hinders us and run with endurance, looking to Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith.
This week was week two of our series called “Big Church Words”. In this series we will be looking at words you hear in church all the time, but maybe don’t have a full grasp of their meaning. This week we talked about the word “Justification”. More importantly, we looked at the idea of Justification by faith and why it is important that we understand this key doctrine. Martin Luther once said, “The Doctrine of Justification by Faith is the doctrine by which the church stands or falls.” My goal last night was to stress the importance of through faith alone God counts the ungodly as righteous, or justified, because of Christ and that it is for all of us. We read through the last 5 verses of Romans 3 and much of Romans 4.
This week at Fuse we started our series called “Big Church Words”. In this series we will be looking at words you hear in church all the time, but maybe don’t have a full grasp of their meaning. The first word we talked about last night was “Gospel”. Although it is not a big word in terms of letters, as you know it is huge in its meaning. If you were to ask many students to give a clear Gospel presentation, they may or may not struggle to do that, so we thought this was a good starting point for the series. Below are a few questions/thoughts for you to continue this conversation in your home throughout the week. Our main text is found in Romans 3:21-26