This past week I asked several people around the office about the biggest “game changer” they had ever experienced in their life. I extended the conversation to my friends on Facebook and Twitter. And needless to say, I received lots of responses. Some people told me about mission trips they had taken. Others told me about marriages or divorces, births or deaths, abandonments or adoptions. Some talked of extreme difficulties. Others talked of dramatic victories. Some even spoke of getting their first iPhone or the day they first became a Kentucky Wildcat fan (and that wasn’t even Randy). To be honest, I loved hearing just a small piece of so many stories of so many of my friend’s lives. My imagination ran wild at just how impactful certain moments of story and history can be.
And it’s exactly this kind of nostalgic and inspirational story telling in which this week’s journey into I Corinthians 15 needs to be heard. That’s because here in I Corinthians 15, Paul reminds the Corinthian believers that the greatest “game changer” of all time was the resurrection of Jesus. It’s the one event that if truly embraced, has the power to change everything. So join us this week as together we embrace the timeless “game changer” of the resurrection. We’ll follow it from the past into present and toward the future. We’ll engage it through belief, choice and anticipation. But mostly we’ll stand in awe of it, and together imagine just how much it has, can and will change the entire game that we know as all of humanity.
Podcast
Podcast: Download (Duration: 46:16 — 52.9MB)
Downloads
Notes See It Be It Video Audio iTunesSEE IT // BE IT
(Weekly Community Group Discussion Guide)
Date: November 22, 2015 // Title: Game Changer
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15
SERMON REVIEW 5-10 minutes
ARRIVAL / SOCIAL TIME 15-20 minutes
Spend the first 15 minutes or so of your time together catching up and socializing with one another. Also find time to catch up together on how the assignments from last week turned out.
SERMON REVIEW 5-10 minutes
This morning Dave Rhodes invited us into the discussion of the resurrection of Christ. We’ve been in 1 Corinthians and are now entering the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul was writing to the city of Corinth, but really he is writing to us, the present church. We are challenged to rethink the realness of the life of Christ. Not to just believe in Jesus but to chose him for our life. The resurrection of Jesus has intersections into our life. It’s not an embellished memory, but is rooted in actual events of the past, ripples into the present, and reaches into the future. Jesus is really alive. The challenge is to believe in the person of Jesus. On the cross, He purchased our past to give us a new future.
THE MAIN THOUGHT Keep this in mind as you facilitate discussion.
The possibility of our redemption is only as good as the actuality of Jesus’ resurrection.
SEE IT Questions :: 10-15 minutes
Picture: Where are the three places of the intersection of the resurrection? Dave looked at Genesis 1 and 2. What happened when Adam and Eve named their own goodness? Dave wrote the word “LIVE” on the board. Turned around, what did Adam and Eve actually produce?
Mirror: Where have you seen the resurrection intersecting in your past? Present? Future? Where do you need to have the resurrection in your own life? Where are you trying to name your own goodness? Christ made a choice to lay down his life at the cross. What would it look like for you to chose the manifestation of Christ’s life for you? How are you allowing Jesus to reframe choices that you have made in the past, to frame those in the present and to give you hope for the future?
Window: Christ’s death, burial and resurrection was his choice. If you gave yourself fully to the resurrection—feet planted in the past, arms stretched to the future and living fully in the present—what would it look like for you allow Jesus to bring the “eviction papers” into places of death and sin? How are you going to choose to live today? This week? What changes do you need to make in your life to make this a reality?
BE IT – Practice
Change UP // Acknowledgment 15 minutes
Christ brought the biggest “Game Changer” for all mankind. With his death, burial and resurrection we are given the chance to bring this into our past, present and future. Spend some time allowing what He has done for you to crash into your being. Acknowledge how we have mini representations of resurrection in our life every day.
Change IN // Affirmation 5 minutes
Discuss what have been the big game changers in your life. Confess those broken choices and celebrate what God has done. As a group, bring these to the table and pray for each other.
Change OUT // Assessment 5 minutes
Dave used an illustration of foreclosures and the eviction process. From the time the foreclosure papers were served until the actual eviction, many living in those homes destroyed them. We live between the foreclosure and the eviction. Jesus brought the eviction papers with the resurrection and we live in the time when the enemy is trying to destroy our present. But Jesus brings hope to our future. With Thanksgiving here and family time coming, think of a relationship that you need to give the eviction papers to, in order to choose life with the present resurrection of Christ.
CLOSING PRAYER 5 minutes
Take a few minutes to gather any prayer requests and pray for each other to SEE IT and BE IT this week.