2024
God is Love
Passage: Galatians 5:22-23 & 1 John 4:7-16
“Let me tell you where love was born. Love was born in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus sweat great drops of blood, it was nurtured in Pilate’s hall, where Jesus bared his back to the ploughing of the lash, and gave his body to be spit upon and scourged. Love was nurtured at the cross, amid the groans of an expiring God, beneath the droppings of his blood—it was there that love was nurtured. Bear me witness, children of God. Where did your love spring from, but from the foot of the cross?” —Charles Spurgeon
SERMON OUTLINE:
1. God is love
2. Love grows more love
3. Love grows steadfast joy
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
What is one significant way your understanding of God’s love has been shaped?
Read Galatians 5:22-23 and 1 John 4:7-16. What do these passages teach us about God and about our human condition? What in these passages surprises, encourages, or challenges your understanding of following Jesus?
What practices help you grow in your understanding and remembering of God’s love for you? And how do these practices help you deal with sin in your life and evil around?
At Covenant, we want to be a community training in the love of God. In what ways are we doing this well? In what ways can we continue to strengthen or train in new ways? How is training different from trying (personally and as a larger community)?
We all long for approval from someone or in some way. How does knowing God delights in you shape your identity? How have you experienced the joy of the Lord this week or how could you remember the joy of the Lord more deeply throughout this coming week?
PRAYER
Share with your group how they can be praying for you: what is weighing on you from this past week? What are you praising God for from this past week?
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13