by Jonathan Manafo | May 4, 2017 | Sunday Conversations
We just love asking this question after Easter – WHAT NOW?
It’s a question we ask ourselves in the most crucial and important moments of our lives: when we graduate, when we graduate again, when we get a job we’ve wanted but are a little scared to start it, when we get sick, if and when we get better, when we run into money, when we run our of money. We ask ourself this question because we are living in a new reality.
If there is one thing about Easter we must see, it’s that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can live in a new reality. Something has gotta be different in light of that truth. The resurrection isn’t a moment in history, but a movement to launch us forward.
Take a look at a few NT verses that do that…
- Phil 3…I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
- Col 3…you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above
- Acts 4…With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them.
We should always be asking this question “What looks different, what is NEW in me because of Easter, because of Jesus’ death & resurrection?”. You see, Resurrection is not exclusively what happens after we are buried, it has to do with the way we live right now.
With that in mind, we look at Romans 12.
The first 11 chapters of Romans are foundational to the letter and to faith. From chapter 12 onward we have the practical implications of the theology Paul is piecing together.
We read these profound words in verses 1-3: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
Paul begins this section by urging the Roman Christians to have God’s compassion and mercy as their view, their lens, what they look at life through – and in light of that he encourages them and us to be transformed.
What does this transformation look like? He goes on to unpack it in quite detail, speaking about things like humility, love, hospitality, peace, good works, blessing, etc.
Romans 12:2 can be summed up like this:
- Stop Confirming
- Start Transforming
- Continue Renewing
- Begin understanding & living God’s will
As the transformation starts to happen in us, it effects our decisions, which effects how we live. Maybe it looks something like this:
- Minds that are renewed start to make different and new decisions
- New decisions lead to a new life
- New life leads to understanding God’s will
- God’s will is more about who you are then what you do
- But what you do inevitably comes from who you are
This phrase has always helped me when thinking about how my life must look different…Christianity (Following Jesus) is definitely not about DO’s & DONT’s, but eventually you will be faced with decisions that involve something you do and something you don’t.
We ask the What Now question once again. Does my life look different because of Jesus, his death, and resurrection?
A thoughtful read of Romans 12:9-21 shows us that Paul doesn’t just talk about transformation (resurrection life), he actually spells it out for us. We could summarize his thoughts with these 6 words. Rather, we’ll finish this sentence: Resurrection people are people who…
– Love (authentically)
– Extend (themselves through hospitality)
– Bless (those who hurt them)
– are Present (in good and bad times)
– value Peace
– do Good (cf. Eph 2:10)
May we live lives that reflect the life of Jesus. May our lives look different because of his resurrection. May we be people who make a difference, who make noise, in the way we love, extend ourselves, bless others, are present, make peace, and do good.
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(discussion questions)
Have there been some WHAT NOW moments in your life? Wanna share?
What are some things that resonate with you from this theme and Romans 12?
After reading Romans 12:2-3 How would you respond?
– What does transformation look like to you?
– What does it mean to not conform?
– What is God’s will? Is His will a line you walk or a field you live in?
What kind of characteristics are evidence of this transformed/resurrection life Paul is talking about?
Out of the words we used to summarize, which ones come easy, which ones are more difficult to live out?
As you close your discussion, pray that our community (and other churches) would live lives that loudly proclaim the love of Jesus in real and tangible ways.
by Jonathan Manafo | Mar 21, 2017 | Sunday Conversations
Another great conversation this past weekend. If you’d like a recap of the video, go HERE.
For small group discussion notes, go HERE.
by Jonathan Manafo | Mar 14, 2017 | Sunday Conversations
For a recap or a the full video of this past weekend’s talk, go HERE!!!
For small group notes, go HERE.
See you Sunday for the third talk. Remember to be thinking about how you want to respond to our Relief Kit Campaign.
by Jonathan Manafo | Mar 8, 2017 | Sunday Conversations
VIDEO LINK (you’ll also find a shorter recap on this link)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (go to home group questions for small group discussion)
by Jonathan Manafo | Mar 1, 2017 | Sunday Conversations
Here we are: the final week in our series on the Lord’s Prayer. We made it! We hope it was both encouraging and inspiring…and most importantly, that it leads and compels us to PRAY more. Every thing must come to an end, even Jesus’ teaching on prayer. Some might say that it ends with a splash.
Think about what we’ve been reminded about? Some very important essentials: (show the prayer)
- God is Father…He is Holy
- We can pray for his ways, his kingdom, to be present right where we are…and we can live in a way that expresses this…
- God is our provider…each and every day
- God forgives…and invites us to extend that forgiveness to others
- God leads & delivers us…away from temptation and away from evil
After Jesus says all the things we read in this prayer…we are then presented with 3 words: Kingdom, Power, Glory. It reads like this in the NKJV, For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. This is essentially a closing statement, a clincher, the final word…it’s a Doxology – a Benediction – an AMEN.
It’s worth noting that not all bible translations agree on including this section in the prayer. There is however, enough evidence, both form the first century and the last four centuries to justify its use. The reason being is that these words summarize so well what Jesus is trying to say. They solidify the rest of the prayer. What’s also important to notice is the beginning and ending of this prayer are so closely knit by telling us who God is. Jesus begins with Father and ends with King; he begins with Holy and ends with Powerful.
Is it possible that Jesus is trying to helps us deal with our false view of power and guide us back to the one who is truly powerful? We can probably agree that we put too much value on power and before we know it start abusing it for our own gain.
Lincoln said this “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
Jesus, with this one statement, centres and balances our perspective – God gives life, God provides, God forgives, God delivers, God leads.
How do we fight against our desire for a false view of power? A few suggestions might be to pray, rest (sabbath), worship, gathering (community), love and serve others, be generous, be light, etc.
Don’t fight the power struggle alone, let Jesus’ invitation to prayer bring us to a place of humility, reminding us of who God is and what he does.
After 6 weeks in The Lord’s Prayer what are some must have take-a-ways?
This prayer is a model, not a formula. Jesus says, ‘pray like this’. Prayer is about relationship, not results.
Prayer is never selfish, but always selfless. We never read the word me in this prayer. Instead we read Our Father, give us, forgive us, forgive others, lead us, deliver us. Prayer really is a community thing. No matter if you’re praying alone in your home or your car or your seat at church, you are praying with the community of people who you follow Jesus with.
Lastly, if there’s only one thing you take away, let it be this, PRAY! Just pray!
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small(er) group discussion: (VIDEO RECAP)
What are some feelings or thoughts you may have about The Lord’s Prayer? Inviting? Challenging? Helpful? Thankful?
Jesus ends with 3 words: Kingdom, Power, Glory. Any thoughts on this? Why?
Does our culture struggle with power? Do we tend to want more of it than we should have? (Lincoln’s quote)
– Where do you see this in others? Where do you see this in you?
– What leads to this?
– What can help us stay away from this?
Some earlier and more recent theologians say that this last statement in the Lord’s prayer summarizes and/or solidifies the whole prayer? How so? How does it connect to the first phrase of the prayer(Our Father, Holy is your name)?
Two take homes from the prayer:
1) Did you notice the lack of a certain word, ‘me’? What we read instead is Our Father, Forgive us, Deliver us. What do you make of that?
2) Can we all agree that this prayer should, at least, if nothing else, encourage and challenge us to pray more?
by Jonathan Manafo | Feb 22, 2017 | Sunday Conversations
One of the first movies that caught my attention when it comes to finding truth and faith in film was Changing Lanes, a 2002 film with a young Ben Affleck and a younger Samuel L. Jackson. The two main character’s lives changed because of a traffic accident. One, a young punk lawyer, began to realize who they had become and wanted to change, the other, a simple, honourable Father, was tempted at every turn to become a person he never wanted to be. Two words that depict this movie are also found near the close of The Lord’s Prayer: Temptation & Evil.
These aren’t two words we love to talk about. They are words we hope don’t associate with us very much. I want nothing to do with evil. I want very little to do with temptation – at least I don’t want to succumb to it. Jesus puts it like this, “Lead me not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” He choses to include these words with this final petition.
Lead us not into temptation…
At first glance, this sounds about right. I don’t want to be tempted, I don’t want to fall into temptation – do things that I have no intention of doing.
A few things we have to think about when reading this:
First, the word temptation may better be translated testing. That changes how I understand this phrase. Temptation is something I struggle with. Testing is something I deal with. I am tempted to do something wrong (personal). I am tested in a circumstance and have the opportunity to overcome or succumb. Some might even say that testing can refer to future judgement or difficult times for those who want to follow Jesus in this world.
But what about James 1 (trials/testing is pure joy) Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (2-3)
Or 1 Corinthians 10 (God will not give me what I can’t handle) So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (12-13)
Jesus did say, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:33)
In light of those scriptures, it’s fair to say that we will experience difficulty or testing or even temptations, but Jesus says, I have overcome this for you. Perhaps we should understand the prayer to mean that we can ask God for help so we don’t fail or fall from or because of these obstacles in our lives.
Remember that Jesus was also tested and tempted. In the wilderness with the Devil, and in Gethsemane where we read something like this, ‘If you could remove this from me…please do…BUT…your will be done through me.’ Those two instances (including John 16) say something about what he dealt with, but also that he overcame troubles for us.
So…when we pray these words, we are asking God to help us not succumb to temptation and not to fail in times of testing.
But deliver us from evil/evil one…
What is Evil…? How do you define it? I guess you can answers this with simple responses or significant ones, with (lower case) evils to (UPPER CASE) EVILS.
Evil is all around us. We are naive to think that it isn’t. From one of the first scenes in Scripture we find humanity turning something beautiful into something not so beautiful. In ideal conditions, Eve and Adam fail their test. We’ve been failing tests and falling prey to temptation ever since.
Does evil come from inside or outside of us? It has to be a bit of both. Perhaps a cycle that can only be broken with God’s intervention and power. In Matthew 15 we read that evil thoughts flow from our heart. So it’s in us. However, we also know that people’s lives have been influenced by the evil done to them or shown to them.
Some standard responses to evil are:
– head in the sand (pretend it doesn’t exist)
– the opposite (think that it’s everywhere)
– self-righteousness (I’m not as bad as them)
Jesus uses none of these. Instead, he recognizes evil’s reality and power, and he confronts it with the reality and power of the Kingdom. (i.e. beatitudes, fruit of the spirit, clothes in Colossians 3)
With that in mind we must balance how we view evil. It may not be everywhere, but it’s also got to be somewhere. We can’t talk about it all the time (conspiracy theorists), but we also can’t pretend it doesn’t exist.
Our response should be this:
– Recognize & Pray (Matt 26:41 says to watch & pray)
– Confront evil with who we are & how we live
– Romans 12:41, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
We pray this prayer because as we follow Jesus we are called to be in the middle of the action, making a difference, being a witness, shedding light in dark places. In those places, doing those things, with Jesus with us, we pray this prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” so we can do all that he, Jesus, has called us to do.
And remember this, both our wrong doings (fulfilled temptations) and the wrong in the world (evil) have been conquered by the cross of Jesus. One writer puts it like this, In the cross God has seriously and radically dealt with evil. When we pray this prayer we are ‘inhaling the victory of the cross…’
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small(er) group questions: (video recap)
When say Temptation & Evil, what goes through your mind first?
The word temptation can easily be translated as testing. Does that make a difference for you? If you’re praying for either, what kind of things are you praying for?
Read (from above) James 1, 1 Corinthians 10 and John 16. Do these verses seem to contradict what Jesus invites us to pray for? Jesus was tempted and also prayed to avoid testing. What do you make of that?
How do you define evil? What words or phrases or actions would you use to do so?
Are you an evil is everywhere or evil is nowhere kind of person? Why do you think there’s such a drastic difference in perspective from person to person?
What can we learn from Jesus’ response to evil? Recognize, Pray, Confront?
How does Romans 12:41 help us here? (Overcome evil with Good)
How is our calling to serve impact the context of our prayer?
