Listening To Hope

The Gospel of Reconciliation

II Corinthians 5:11-6:2

Hope Chapel, 3-21-10

Steve Hawthorne & Geno Hildebrandt

Notes by Kristy Brown

Lesson: The Gospel message stretches us ‘forward’ to bring people to reconciliation with God, and also pulls us ‘backward’ to God as we come to understand God’s love for us and the joy relationship with us brings to Him.

Texts: II Corinthians 5:11–6:2; Luke 15: 4-24

Ice-Breakers:

1. What is the silliest thing you’ve ever prayed for out loud in front of others?
2. Do you tend to be a prosecutor, a defense attorney or an envoy when you talk about God with unbelievers?
3. Did God instantly remove any of your bad habits when you first believed?

Background:

Geno started us off with a recap of last Sunday: God is FOR us. On our own, we cannot approach God, but we also can’t get away from Him. Jesus died on the cross to bring us salvation. We move from death to life by joining Him, by attaching ourselves to him in loyalty and receiving his resurrection life, His eternal life.

This ‘forward’ looking Gospel puts the focus on us, and how we can get some really good fire insurance. But it’s not about us, it’s about God and what He gets out of it--sons & daughters who love Him and dwell with Him eternally, who help others find their way to reconciliation so that there is ever-increasing joy and ever-increasing glory.

Digging Deeper:

1. Luke 15: 4 - 24.
   1. Who is the main character in each story, the one who is lost, or the Seeker?
   2. What is it about the lost things that make them so important to the Seeker? What does that tell you about how God sees you?
   3. Who is it the Seeker asks to rejoice? Is the Seeker rejoicing?

The real point of these stories is not to emphasize our lostness, but rather God’s love for us, how valuable He considers us, and His joy when we are found.

2. II Corinthians 5: 11 – 13 (from the NIV if possible).
   1. How does your relationship with God make you seem like you are ‘out of your mind’?
   2. Why do we need to be ‘in our right minds’ for others?

1. Steve spoke on II Corinthians 5 and said some pretty awesome things that I can’t quite get my head around. Or maybe I just can’t read my own handwriting. Either way, my notes are not resolving themselves into nice little discussion questions. So let’s just see if anyone in your group can make sense of these statements:

II Corinthians 5: 14 – 16

1. Jesus is functionally operative in the present.
2. Self-absorbed becomes self-sabotaged becomes enslaved.
3. Spiritual suicide is the only path to life.
4. The crucifixion is more than historical fact; it is current reality.

II Corinthians 5: 17

1. We’re really nice people, but we’ve got some cantankerous ones,too.
2. We’re getting differenter.
3. God is the ultimate helper-outer (that’s how we wrongly treat Him)
4. We are new creations, not just in the upper percentile of morality.
5. The righteousness of Jesus becomes our operative DNA.

II Corinthians 5: 18 – 6:2

1. Reconciliation is more than the cessation of utmost hostilities.
2. We are tighter with God than Adam and Eve were in the Garden.
3. We are God’s envoys, not God’s prosecutors (v. 20).
4. God offers us a deal which we can accept, but not negotiate.

Wrap Up:

You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride.

-         Song of Songs 4:9

Pray together that God will make the truth of His joy in you more and more real in your hearts.

Outreach/Mission:

Practice looking at each person you meet as someone who God rejoices over. Take every opportunity to express God’s joy to those around you.