1 Thessalonians | Living in Faith, Love, & Hope
How to use it: After watching/listening to this week’s message, from January 29, 2023, use the questions to go deeper into the message, with your group…or on your own. The questions will introduce you to the topic, reflect content from the sermon, go ‘Beyond the Message’, & get you thinking about practical applications for your life.
Tell the group about an opportunity you had to teach or train someone in a task, and then witness them successfully (or perhaps not) apply your lessons. How did it make you feel?
Read Eph 2:4-10. Based upon Pastor Mark’s sermon, and this passage from Ephesians:
a. In your own words, define “work produced by faith” (1 Thess 1:4-5). Who is the one doing the work? Who is the one doing the faith? Who benefits from this work?
b. In your own words, define “labour prompted by love” (1 Thess 1:6-8). As you consider the example of a “fusion energy,” explain whose love initiates the “labour,” and then the process by which it is experienced by others.
c. Is there someone in your life whose demonstration of Jesus love in them has inspired change and/or act of love in you? What examples of this have you witnessed or heard of at West Meadows?
d. In your own words, define “hope inspired by Jesus” (1 Thess 1:9-10). How does the thought of one day seeing Jesus face-to-face make you feel? What impact for this feeling/ thought have upon how you live and love today?
Read 1 Corinthians 11:1 and 13:13. Take a moment to quietly consider what step you could personally take in following Jesus to better live out the virtues of faith, hope, or love. Share with your group one step you would like them to hold you accountable to.
Before you close, take time to pray for one another, and that West Meadows would continue to grow in being a place where people experience the work of faith, labour of love, and hope of Jesus.