Known and Loved

“Known and loved.” That’s a powerful phrase. 

At some level, all of us are looking for places in life where we feel known and loved. Some of us have that, and some of us don’t. Others of us are looking for that in family, romance, friendships, or any number of things - and have felt hurt or betrayed in the process. 

And yet, the beauty of Scripture says this is what Jesus offers us when we follow Him.

For this series, we’ll spend three weeks looking at how Scripture calls us to be known and loved by God, known and loved by each other, and making Jesus’ love known to our neighbors.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1:

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 2:

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Week 3:

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Sermon Outline)

Acts | Part 2

SERMONS | MISSION TRAINING GUIDE | RELATED RESOURCES

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses.”

These were some of Jesus’ very last words on Earth. And yet, a little over a week later, something happened. Jesus released His Spirit on the disciples who went out proclaiming everything Jesus did. Their proclamation was the day The Church began.

You cannot tell the story of the early church without also telling the story of the person, work, and power of the Spirit of God. He’s everywhere on almost every page of Acts.

We hope that during this series, we experience afresh not only who the Spirit is but experience all the potential He can unleash in and through us when it comes to walking more closely with Jesus, including prayer, worship, and being on mission.

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SERMONS

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: The Movement of God

(Sermon) (Transcript) (Mission Guide)

Week 2: A Defining Moment

(Sermon) (Transcript) (Mission Guide) (Scripture Guide)

Week 3: Three Expectations from the Life of Paul

(Sermon) (Transcript) (Mission Guide) (Scripture Guide)

Week 4: Who’s In and Who’s Out

(Sermon) (Mission Guide) (Scripture Guide)

Week 5: The Church in Antioch

(Sermon) (Transcript) (Mission Guide) (Scripture Guide)

Week 6: The Power of Persistent Prayer

(Sermon) (Transcript) (Mission Guide) (Scripture Guide)

Week 7: Mountains, Molehills, and Which Ones to Die On

(Sermon) (Transcript) (LifeGroup Guide) (Scripture Guide)

Week 8: The Church in Philippi

(Sermon) (Transcript) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 9: The Church in Athens

(Sermon) (Transcript) (LifeGroup Guide) (Scripture Guide)

Week 10: The Church in Ephesus

(Sermon) (Transcript) (LifeGroup Guide) (Scripture Guide)

Week 11: Living in the Dash

(Sermon) (Transcript) (LifeGroup Guide) (Scripture Guide)

Week 12: The Storm and the Shipwreck

(Sermon) (Transcript) (LifeGroup Guide) (Scripture Guide)

Week 13: The Story Continues

(Sermon) (Transcript) (LifeGroup Guide) (Scripture Guide)

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GRAB THE GUIDE

We want to focus on particular tools to help us learn to follow Jesus more closely. Since Acts concentrates so much on spreading the name of Jesus, our corporate practice is mission.

To help us grow in this practice, we've created a six-week-long guide to work within your group. Each lesson comes with discussion questions, a teaching video, and worksheets to print out for everyone in your group.

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RELATED RESOURCES

To accompany our book and further expand on the topics covered in this series, we’d recommend the following books and videos to you.

|giv| 2020

For most of the Bible, God’s people were seen as an exiled people. Life was far from how they imagined or hoped, as they were constantly reminded of the brokenness and sin around them. And yet, amidst their exile, God reminded them that good news was on the way.

This year has been far from how anyone of us would have imagined or hoped either. We’re reminded in the headlines and in our daily lives that we are still a people in exile. So during this Christmas season, we want to once again remember that good news has come through Jesus, and one day He is coming back.

So every year, we take 3-4 weeks to intentionally focus on our hope in Jesus through growing in generosity. We take this time to think about how God has given us undeserved grace while we were still sinners and continues to grow us as his people.

Listen to sermons & download LifeGroup resources.

Week 1: Jesus, God With Us - (Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Transcript)

Week 2: Jesus, Our Shepherd King - (Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Transcript)

Week 3: Jesus, Our Comforter - (Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide) (Transcript)

1. Sign up to Tithe

We consider tithing a spiritual practice that helps develop a lifestyle of sacrificial generosity. We are encouraging members of our church to set up a recurring tithe because the gospel transforms us not just to be generous around the holidays, but throughout the entire year. It’s also specifically how we fund and fuel all that we do as a church in our city.

SET UP RECURRING GIVING HERE

2. Attend the Personal Finance Class

We want to equip our church family to be spiritually healthy by stewarding the financial resources that God has entrusted to us. On Sunday, January 24, January 31, and February 7, we’re hosting a class that consists of practical training to manage your finances, pay off debt, invest well, and practice biblical generosity. The class will be hosted virtually from 2:00-3:30pm.

SIGN UP FOR THE CLASS

3. LifeGroups partner with a Serve the City Organization

Due to the pandemic we’re postponing our annual Serve the City Weekend to a later date; however, we want every LifeGroup to select a Serve the City organization to partner with over the next year to serve. Through LifeGroups regularly serving alongside our STC organizations year-round, we’re able to sustainably love and serve the most vulnerable and marginalized in our city.

PARTNER WITH STC

4. Give to Agape Children's Ministry

Give to Agape Children’s Ministry - Agape Children's Ministry is an orphan reunification ministry that seeks to reunite street children in Kenya with their biological families when possible through family rehabilitation. The executive director of Agape is the father of a Missionary Member at Lexington, and their efforts in Kenya have been very successful in a much-needed and often-neglected area of orphan care. Their ministry serves approximately 1500 families and they are seeking to establish a new arm of their ministry in the city of Nakuru. We are seeking to raise $20,000 for Agape, and those funds will serve approximately 56 additional children from rescue to reintegration (including follow up care for 5 years).

FIND OUT MORE

GIVE HERE

To help us prepare our hearts for the Christmas season, we wrote a brand new five-week-long Advent devotional guide for you and your LifeGroup to work through during this season. Iif you haven’t received a hard copy yet, you can pick up a copy at any of our on-campus events. The guides are first come first serve and the suggested donation is $6 per copy.

DONATE HERE