Small group questions—Forgiveness– How to Reconcile

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Small group questions—Forgiveness– How to Reconcile Rich Shannon April 13, 2014—1415

1. When you were growing up, did you ever have a rival? What happened with that relationship? 2. What is the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation? Can you have one without the other? 3. Take turns reading aloud from 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. What does reconciliation mean in this passage?

If I were truly reconciled with _______________________________________________ , how would this impact my spiritual, emotional and/or physical state?

Barriers to reconciliation:

4. How does being reconciled to God relate to being reconciled to others?

My Language 5. How does reconciliation with others relate to our mission as Christ’s ambassadors? 6. Read Philippians 3:12-14. How was Paul able to forget the past and focus on the future? 7. If you attended Sunday service, what insight or principle from Rich’s teaching challenged you or encouraged you? Explain.

Objectivity

Right vs. Wrong

8. Read Romans 12:18. Why do we have trouble living at peace with everyone? 9. In what area of your life do you find this principle most difficult to live out (family, work, ministry, etc.)? 10. Complete and answer the following question in your mind (leader, give time to think): If I were truly reconciled with __________, how would this impact my spiritual and/or physical state? 11. Pray for reconciliation in the relationships of your group members.

Emotion Trumps Logic

Perspective

“God, I truly desire a relationship with you based on Your forgiveness of me as an imperfect human who regularly sins. I recognize my dependent role in our relationship and opt to put my pride aside and seek your forgiveness and accept your unconditional love.”

“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, Come back to God!’ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (NLT)

“Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith. Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become

one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:1-14 (NLT)

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Romans 5:1-11 (NIV)