After listening to the Leadership Teams and the members of our church, we have determined that the use of the The City is not being used to its full potential and have decided to end the use of this online application. 

We would recommend that your Sunday School class and Growth Groups take advantage of free services like Google Groups or Facebook.  The congregation and Leadership Teams have been using Google Groups and Facebook for a couple of weeks now and it is meeting our needs to stay connected on upcoming events, needs or prayer request. NEW Prayer Request groups and Congregational Care groups are being created now to facilitate this vital information going forward. More information about these new groups will be shared soon.

You can follow the church on twitter (@LCOG) and like us on facebook (www.facebook.com/LawrencevilleChurchofGod) to receive updated information regarding events and activities.

Each user will have until the end of February to download any personal data from The City. 

If you have questions, please contact Steve Kendrick, Executive Director of Ministry Services at steve@lcog.cc.

Please download the attached notes and Scriptures (in PDF format)  to further your study from week four of our series called The Journey To Bethlehem.

The Journey To Bethlehem.

week 4 – From Nazareth To Bethlehem

Talking through the message during the week helps you turn what God is saying to you into action steps. These talking points, questions and scriptures are designed to help you take the next step. You can also use this resource to lead your family or other group.

Don’t feel like you have to answer every question. Pick out the questions that will stir up conversation and action among your group.

You can also add responses on this thread and/or on the church Facebook page(http://www.facebook.com/LawrencevilleChurchOfGod) to discuss your daily inspiration with others.

We pray that this resource will help you grow closer to God through the study of His Word.

Please download the attached notes and Scriptures (in PDF format)  to further your study from week three of our series called The Journey To Bethlehem.

The Journey To Bethlehem.

week 3 – The Humbleness of Joseph

Talking through the message during the week helps you turn what God is saying to you into action steps. These talking points, questions and scriptures are designed to help you take the next step. You can also use this resource to lead your family or other group.

Don’t feel like you have to answer every question. Pick out the questions that will stir up conversation and action among your group.

You can also add responses on this thread and/or on the church Facebook page(http://www.facebook.com/LawrencevilleChurchOfGod) to discuss your daily inspiration with others.

We pray that this resource will help you grow closer to God through the study of His Word.

Please download the attached notes and Scriptures (in PDF format)  to further your study from week two of our series called The Journey To Bethlehem.

The Journey To Bethlehem.

week 2 – Mary visits Elizabeth

Talking through the message during the week helps you turn what God is saying to you into action steps. These talking points, questions and scriptures are designed to help you take the next step. You can also use this resource to lead your family or other group.

Don’t feel like you have to answer every question. Pick out the questions that will stir up conversation and action among your group.

You can also add responses on this thread and/or on the church Facebook page(http://www.facebook.com/LawrencevilleChurchOfGod) to discuss your daily inspiration with others.

We pray that this resource will help you grow closer to God through the study of His Word.

Scripture

Luke 9:18–27

Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”

Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

A Coward for God

Excerpt from The Hole in Our Gospel by Rich Stearns

Let me take you back a few years to help you understand how this luxury-goods CEO ended up in the jungles of Uganda in the first place. One of the lowest points in my life was a Friday afternoon in Seattle. After a nine-month search, the WorldVision board of directors had selected me and offered me the opportunity to become World Vision’s U.S.-based president. I had flown to Seattle with my wife and my teenage son, Andy, to meet the key leaders, learn about the challenges of the job, and decide whether I would accept the board’s invitation. I had not sought this position. In fact, I had prayed that God would send someone else to do it—anyone but me. Yet the board (and presumably God) had inexplicably called me, and this was the hour of decision.

I wish I could tell you that I accepted this call with a sense of spiritual excitement and passion to help the broken people of our world. I’d like to say that I boldly prayed, “Here I am, lord. Send me”—that I was eager to seize the opportunity to serve. But that would be a lie.

That Friday, at the end of two days of meetings and interviews with WorldVision’s top leaders, I had sunk deeper and deeper into a spiritual and emotional funk. I had been bombarded with wrenching stories of human suffering, confronted with the considerable challenges that would face the new president, and introduced to a language full of jargon and acronyms I didn’t even understand. Surely this was a mistake. What did I know about any of this? After all, I was a guy who had spent the last 11 years selling dishes—expensive ones. There had to be someone better qualified than me.

Returning to Reneé and Andy that afternoon, I was at the end of my emotional and spiritual rope. I had run out of time, and now I had a decision to make. Would I accept the board’s invitation, leave my 23-year career behind, and move my wife and five kids across the country, or would I turn down the job and stay at Lenox? This was one of those life decisions that changes everything, and I didn’t want to make it. I was afraid. When Reneé asked how the day had gone, I said I couldn’t talk about it just yet; I needed to rest and be alone. I was an emotional basket case. And so, at 4 p.m., I slipped into my pajamas, crawled into bed, pulled the covers over my head, and began to weep and pray, crying out to God to “take this cup” from me. It was pretty pathetic…

During my “dark night of the soul”—caused by a call from WorldVision—I began reading my Bible with greater intensity. But when I came to Matthew 19 and the story of the rich young ruler, I wanted to run for the scissors and cut it out of my Bible. You remember the scene. A man variously described in three different gospel accounts as young, rich, and a ruler approached Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” (v. 16) now, as I read this passage, I saw myself in this man. He was young and prosperous. His peers and his community likely held him in esteem. He seemed to exemplify the epitome of Jewish respectability. I imagined that he was successful in everything he did, that he went to temple regularly, tithed his income, observed all the holy days and feasts, and read his Torah. He had worked the whole system and had ended up at the top. That was me in spades. Everyone who knew me would have said that I was a poster boy for the successful Christian life—church every Sunday, great marriage, five attractive (and above-average) kids, a corporate CEO with a Bible on his desk, a faithful supporter of Christian causes—the whole Christian enchilada. So I could really relate to this guy’s frame of mind. I sometimes imagine that he might have actually approached Jesus that day filled with a bit of pride, asking his question and expecting a nice pat on the back, perhaps thinking Jesus would point to him in front of the crowd and say, “This, my friends, is exactly the kind of follower I am looking for.” But Jesus’ reply was rather disappointing: “If you want to enter life, obey the commandments” (v. 17). That was not what the man had wanted to hear. So, trying to pin Jesus down a bit more, he asked, “Which ones?” (v. 18)

Jesus’ reply was conventional: “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself ” (v. 18). The young man now seemed more pleased. “All these I have kept,” he said (v. 20). In other words, check me out, Jesus. Check out my reputation. Ask my rabbi. You’ll find that I have got all these bases covered.

Now, as I see it, this is where the young man should have stopped—no harm, no foul. He should have just said thank you to Jesus, shaken his hand, and walked away. But no, he decided to push it just a little further. “What do I still lack?” (Translation: Come on, rabbi, this is too easy. Give me a tougher test.)

And this is when Jesus nailed him. “One thing you lack,” he told the self-righteous young man. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21).

Whoa, Jesus, time out! Can you imagine what must have been going through the young man’s mind just then? Be serious, Jesus. Isn’t that a tad extreme? I’ve worked pretty hard to get where I am, and I have obligations. Sell everything I have and give it away? I can’t just pick up and leave. I’ve got a wife and kids to support, workers that depend on me, and some big financial deals that are pending—I own a lot of land here. Let’s not be too radical about all of this. Aren’t you taking this a little too far? I tell you what: maybe I could just write a little bigger check to help the poor . . .

But Jesus’ words hung in the air: “One thing you lack . . . Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor . . .Then come, follow me.” Devastating. Jesus had looked into the man’s soul and diagnosed the condition of his heart. You see, on the outside he was doing all the right things, but on the inside his heart was divided. His possessions and his position were competing with God for primacy. He had surrendered his outward behavior to God, but his commitment to him was not absolute. He had not made a total surrender of self; he had not “bet the farm.” I don’t believe Jesus was saying that all of us have to sell everything we have and give it to the poor. No, Jesus was looking into the heart of this particular young man, and he saw that he had not relinquished his life unconditionally. For him, his status and stuff had become idols. Most troubling of all was the very next line in Matthew’s account. “When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth” (19:22). He couldn’t do it. At the moment of decision, he simply could not surrender everything. He turned his back on Jesus and walked away.

Are you willing to be open to God’s will for your life? That was the question Rob asked me, quite simply, but it cut much deeper than that. Jesus wanted everything; he always has. You lack one thing, rich. Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me. Quitting my job, selling my house, and moving my family to serve at WorldVision was uncomfortably equivalent to what Jesus had asked of this other rich young man.

Can you see why I wanted to run for the scissors when I read this story in the Bible? (Pp.25-26, 36-38)

Reflections

 “The true gospel is a call to self-denial. It is not a call to self-fulfillment.”

—John MacArthur (p. 25)

“When my friend Jim Wallis was a seminary student at Trinity evangelical Divinity School outside of Chicago, he and some of his classmates did a little experiment. They went through all 66 books of the Bible and underlined every passage and verse that dealt with poverty, wealth, justice, and oppression. Then, one of Jim’s fellow students took a pair of scissors and physically cut every one of those verses out of the Bible. The result was a volume in tatters that barely held together. Beginning with the Mosaic books, through the books of history, the Psalms and Proverbs, and the Major and Minor Prophets, to the four Gospels, the book of Acts, the epistles and into Revelation, so central were these themes to Scripture that the resulting Bible was in shambles. (According to The poverty and Justice Bible, there are almost 2,000 verses in Scripture that deal with poverty and justice.) When Jim would speak on these issues, he would hold his ragged book in the air and proclaim, ‘Brothers and sisters, this is our American Bible; it is full of holes. Each one of us might as well take our Bibles, a pair of scissors, and begin cutting out all the Scriptures we pay no attention to, all the biblical texts that we just ignore.’ Jim’s Bible was literally full of holes.”

—Rich Stearns (pp. 23-24)

Discussion Questions

1.The passage in Luke 9 tells us that in order to follow Christ, we must deny ourselves and pick up our cross daily. What are some tangible ways that you could deny yourself today, this week?

2.What does it mean to you to “pick up your cross”? What are the impediments to carrying “a cross,” personally or with the people around you?

3. Luke 9 also says “whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” What do you think Christ meant by this? What are some ways that you try to “save your life”?

4. How do you make daily decisions? What would happen if you tried to make decisions based on more than what’s easy or what you want: for example, comfortable vs. uncomfortable, God’s will vs. my will, for myself vs. for others?

5. Rich discusses his resistant journey in giving up his “life of luxury” as the CEO of Lenox and following God’s prompting to become the president of WorldVision. Describe times in your own life when you have been resistant to God’s leading. What are some of your fears associated with following God’s lead? How might you overcome them?

6. Rich talks about the story of the rich young ruler and how he wanted to cut this passage out of his Bible. Which Scripture passages have you wished would be eliminated from the Bible? Why?

7.What areas in your own life might God point to and say, “One thing you lack”? What areas of your life do you need to surrender to God?

8. Regarding John MacArthur’s quote, how is the gospel message a call to self-denial? What are ways in which the gospel has been distorted to be all about self-fulfillment?

9.What do you think about Jim Wallis and his seminary friends cutting out every verse in the Bible having to do with poverty, wealth, justice and oppression? When reading these Scripture passages, what might you do to help yourself take them more seriously?

Take Action

Think of one or two passages found in the Bible that you would rather skip over and leave behind. Reflect on reasons why you might be resistant to these passages and write those reasons down. Next, copy each passage onto separate note cards. Place them in areas that you will look at often (car dashboard, TV, purse, front door, bathroom mirror, dinner table). This week, be intentional in doing what you have been resisting. Maybe you need to love someone who is your enemy, or do something nice for someone who has hurt you, or let go of finances that you hold onto tightly. Do not engage in these acts to be seen or praised but only in obedience to God and to glorify his name. Write down your reflections throughout the week as you follow God’s lead.

Challenge

Next time someone asks you for spare change, cheerfully give away all the money you are carrying.

Scripture for Further Study

• Matthew 5:3–10 • 2 Corinthians 9:13 • Galatians 1:6–7 • Mark 10:17–31 • 1 Corinthians 1:27 • Mark 4:1–20

Prayer

Ask God to show you the areas of your life that he wants you to surrender to him. With palms open, imagine the things that you wish to offer up to Jesus as a form of surrender. These could be tangible or intangible: your job, vanity, family members, and insecurities. Ask the lord to place in your now-empty hands what he so much wants to give you—peace, love, and joy. Listen to his voice as you begin to loosen the grip on your “stuff ” and turn your attention toward him. Imagine the symbolic act of taking up your cross now that you are appropriately equipped with what you need to follow where he leads. Confess to God any resistance you may have in surrendering your life to him. Rest in the promise that God will be with you wherever you go.

THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL

Dig Deeper notes – week 1

Scripture

James 2:14-26 (NLT)

14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

 17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

 18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”

 19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?

 21 Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. 23 And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God. 24 So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.

 25 Rahab the prostitute is another example. She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road. 26 Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.

Richard’s Story

Excerpt from The Hole in Our Gospel by Rich Stearns

His name was Richard, the same as mine. I sat inside his meager thatch hut, listening to his story, told through the tears of an orphan whose parents had died of AIDS. At 13, Richard was trying to raise his two younger brothers by himself in this small shack with no running water, electricity, or even beds to sleep in. There were no adults in their lives—no one to care for them, feed them, love them, or teach them how to become men. There was no one to hug them either, or to tuck them in at night. Other than his siblings, Richard was alone, as no child should be. I try to picture my own children abandoned in this kind of deprivation, fending for themselves without parents to protect them, and I cannot. I didn’t want to be there. I wasn’t supposed to be there, so far out of my comfort zone—not in that place where orphaned children live by themselves in their agony. There, poverty, disease, and squalor had eyes and faces that stared back, and I had to see and smell and touch the pain of the poor. That particular district, Rakia, is believed to be ground zero for the Ugandan AIDS pandemic. There, the deadly virus has stalked its victims in the dark for decades. Sweat trickled down my face as I sat awkwardly with Richard and his brothers while a film crew captured every tear— mine and theirs.

I much preferred living in my bubble, the one that, until that moment, had safely contained my life, family, and career. It kept difficult things like this out, insulating me from anything too raw or upsetting. When such things intruded, as they rarely did, a channel could be changed, a newspaper page turned, or a check written to

keep the poor at a safe distance. But not in rakai. There,“such things” had faces and names—even my name, Richard.

Not 60 days earlier I had been CEO of Lenox, America’s finest tableware company, producing and selling luxury goods to those who could afford them. I lived with my wife and five children in a 10-bedroom house on five acres just outside of Philadelphia. I drove a Jaguar to work every day, and my business travel took me to places such as Paris, Tokyo, London, and Florence. I flew first-class and stayed in the best hotels. I was respected in my community, attended a venerable suburban church, and sat on the board of my kids’ Christian school. I was one of the good guys—you might say a “poster child” for the successful Christian life. I had never heard of Rakia, the place where my bubble would burst. But in just 60 days, God turned my life inside out, and it would never be the same…

Two crude piles of stones just outside the door mark the graves of Richard’s parents. It disturbs me that he must walk past them every day. He and his brothers must have watched first their father and then their mother die slow and horrible deaths. I wondered if the boys were the ones who fed them and bathed them in their last days. Whatever the case, Richard, a child himself, is now the head of his household.

Child-headed household, words never meant to be strung together. I tried to wrap my mind around this new phrase, one that describes not only Richard’s plight but that of tens of thousands, even millions more. I’m told that there are 60,000 orphans just in Rakia, 12 million orphans due to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. How can this be true? Awkwardly I asked Richard what he hopes to be when he grows up, a ridiculous question to ask a child who has lost his childhood.“ A doctor,” he said,” so I can help people who have the disease.”

“Do you have a Bible?” I asked. He ran to the other room and returned with his treasured book with gold-gilt pages. “Can you read it?”

“I love to read the book of John, because it says that Jesus loves the children.”

This overwhelmed me, and my tears started to flow. Forgive me, lord, forgive me. I didn’t know. But I did know. I knew about poverty and suffering in the world. I was aware that children die daily from starvation and lack of clean water. I also knew about AIDS and the orphans it leaves behind, but I kept these things outside of my insulating bubble and looked the other way.

Yet this was to be the moment that would ever after define me. Rakia was what God wanted me to see. My sadness that day was replaced by repentance. Despite what the Bible had told me so clearly, I had turned a blind eye to the poor. Now my heart was filled with anger, first at myself, and then toward the world. Why wasn’t Richard’s story being told? The media overflowed with celebrity dramas, stock market updates, and Bill Clinton’s impending impeachment hearings. But where were the headlines and magazine covers about Africa? Twelve million orphans, and no one noticed? But what sickened me most was this question: Where was the Church? Indeed, where were the followers of Jesus Christ in the midst of perhaps the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time? Surely the Church should have been caring for these “orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Shouldn’t the pulpits across America have flamed with exhortations to rush to the front lines of compassion? Shouldn’t they be flaming today? Shouldn’t churches be reaching out to care for children in such desperate need? How could choruses of praise music drown the great tragedy of these orphans out in hundreds of thousands of churches across our country? (pp. 7-11)

Reflections

“Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.” —Bob pierce, founder of World Vision (p. 9)

“We are the carriers of the gospel—the good news that was meant to change the world. Belief is not enough. Worship is not enough. Personal morality is not enough. And Christian community is not enough. God has always demanded more. When we committed ourselves to following Christ, we also committed to living our lives in such a way that a watching world would catch a glimpse of God’s character—His love, justice, and mercy—through our words, actions, and behavior. ‘We are . . . Christ’s ambassadors,’ wrote the apostle Paul, ‘as though God were making his appeal through us’ (2 Cor. 5:20). God chose us to be His representatives. He called us to go out, to proclaim the ‘good news’—to be the ‘good news’—and to change the world. Living out our faith privately was never meant to be an option.”

Discussion Questions

1.Think about a time or place that completely overwhelmed you and forced you to think about life differently. Share that experience.

2. Rich talks about his privileged life at home and how this “bubble” he lived in insulated him from “anything too raw or upsetting.” How do you relate to his desire to keep “the poor at a safe distance”? What fears perpetuate this desire?

3. Do you believe that faith without deeds is dead? Why or why not? How would you describe faith devoid of actions? How would you describe deeds without faith? How does your life reflect the reality that true faith is accompanied by action?

4. Ephesians 2:8 tells us, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, — not by works, so that no one can boast.” How does this verse complement or contradict James 2? Some would say that this verse has been used by Christians to justify faith as simply being a state of mind or a one-time prayer. Do you agree or disagree? Explain your answer.

5.Were you surprised to learn that there are so many children orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa? Does this fact motivate you to do something? If so, what?

6.What actions has your church or community taken to address the needs of our brothers and sisters around the world? Is there something more they should be doing? If so, what?

7. Re-read the quote by Bob Pierce. Has this ever been the cry of your heart? What would it feel like to have your heart broken by the things that break God’s heart?

8.What do you think it means to be an ambassador for Christ? Is being an ambassador something that you do or something that you are? Explain your answer. In what ways have you been an ambassador of Christ?

Take Action

This week, look for ways to put your faith into action. Every day there are thousands of opportunities to reflect God’s love. Maybe you offer to watch your neighbor’s children for the afternoon, volunteer at a local shelter, call someone you know who needs a friend, advocate for a child in need, or donate money to an organization that cares for the poor. The goal is to become transformed people whose actions are a result of faith rather than trying to prove something to God or to the world. It is normal to feel outside your comfort zone in your acts of compassion, but as you spend time with God and trust in His love, action will begin to naturally flow out of your faith.

Keep a journal of your efforts, and consider sharing your experiences with your study group or friends. You can also contribute your story on www.theholeinourgospel.com—look for the section called “The Buzz.”

Challenge

Skip a weekly trip to the grocery store and donate the money saved to a local food bank. During that week, eat only what is left in the pantry or fridge. By the end of the week, choices are often limited and your family may get a feel for what it’s like to have few food choices.

Scripture for Further Study

• James 1:22–27 • Job 29:11–17 • 2 Corinthians 5:16–21 • Luke 4:14–21

• 1 Chronicles 29:11–16 • Luke 12:32–34

Prayer

Pray for the Ugandan orphan, Richard, and all those who share his story. Ask God for wisdom and obedience in following His call to care for orphans and widows. Maybe you need to repent for turning a blind eye to the poor. Maybe you need to ask God to break your heart with the things that break His heart. This prayer of asking God to break your heart should not be taken lightly; it may take you places far beyond your comfort zone, but take heart, for Christ has gone ahead of you.

forgotten virtues – week 5

GRATITUDE

Talking through the message during the week helps you turn what God is saying to you into action steps. These talking points, questions and scriptures are designed to help you take the next step. If you are leading a group through this guide, don’t feel like you have to answer every question.

Pick out the questions that will stir up conversation and action among your group.

• What is one of the greatest gifts you have ever received from another person? Why was the gift so special? How did you show gratitude?

With your Bible or YouVersion.com, read Luke 17:11-19.

In this passage, we see what ingratitude looks like when only one of the ten men who Jesus healed returned to thank Him.

• What are some of the reasons we aren’t as grateful as we should be?
• Are you more like the nine lepers who didn’t show gratitude, or the one leper who returned and thanked Jesus? How can we become more like “the one” leper?
• What does gratitude toward God look like? How often do you show it?

Read Luke 15:11-32.

In this passage, Jesus shares the Parable of the Lost Son. In the story, the youngest son “wanted it now” while the oldest son thought he “deserved more.”

• Which of these two ungrateful mindsets do you struggle with the most?
• How has ingratitude influenced your behavior and decisions?
• In what ways do you feel entitled?

Read Philippians 4:11-13, Ecclesiastes 6:9 and Proverbs 15:15-16.

These verses encourage us to be content in all areas of life.

• In what areas of your life are you experiencing the most discontentment? How can you become more content?
• What are some ways to cultivate gratitude in your daily life?
• Who do you need to express gratitude toward? How will you do that?

next steps

Here are some specific things you can do this week to help you cultivate an attitude of gratitude in your life and keep it from being a forgotten virtue: 

This week, take time to express your gratitude to someone. It may be something as simple as a phone call or email, or as elaborate as taking someone to lunch or giving a gift. Any gesture that expresses sincere gratitude is a great place to start!

Express your gratitude to God for all He has done in your life. You can show Him thanks by simply telling Him, by spending time with Him, or by serving Him and/or others in a special way.

Talk It Over with God:

•     Confess the areas where you have felt a sense of entitlement.

•     Ask God to help you cultivate an attitude of gratitude in all areas of  your life.

•     Thank God for all He has done in your life! Praise Him and give Him glory.

•     Commit to show gratitude to God and others.

Don’t let the conversation stop here. Keep talking it over online.

On theCity: lcog.onthecity.org           

Twitter: @LCOG

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LawrencevilleChurchofGod

UPCOMING EVENTS…

June 5^th-7th – next Sunday begins our Summer Celebration – Special services with our guest, Dr. Raymond Culpepper, general overseer for the Church of God. 9 & 11:15am Sunday morning, 7:00pm Sunday – Tuesday evening.

June 19^th- Father’s Day – special guest Ricardo Sanchez, worship leader (9 & 11:15am)

June 26^th- special guest Reggie Dabbs, musician and communicator (9 & 11:15am)

Please use the following notes and Scriptures to further your study from week one of our series called FORGOTTEN VIRTUES.

forgotten virtues – week 2 – PURITY

Talking through the message during the week helps you turn what God is saying to you into action steps. These talking points, questions and scriptures are designed to help you take the next step. You can also use this resource to lead your family or other group. Don’t feel like you have to answer every question. Pick out the questions that will stir up conversation and action among your group.

 • Describe someone you know who is a good example of the virtue of purity. What have you learned about purity from this person?

With your Bible or YouVersion, read 2 Corinthians 7:1.

In this verse, Paul encourages us to cleanse our bodies and minds of all impurity.

• What impurities do you continue to allow in your life? How can you be cleansed of those impurities?

• What safeguards do you have in place to help keep impurity out of your life?

Read Ephesians 1:3-14, John 3:29 and 1 Peter 1:13-25.

These verses show us who we truly are in Christ and remind us that we are called to live a life of purity and holiness.

• What does holiness mean to you? How have you experienced it in your life?

• How can you renew your mind? How can this help maintain purity in your life?

• How does your view of yourself compare to God’s view of you? Is there anything about what God says about you that is hard for you to believe?

Read 1 Peter 3:1-6 and 1 Timothy 2:9-10.

These verses encourage us to strive to be pure on the inside and on the outside in the way we behave and in how we dress.

• Why is it important for both men and women to dress appropriately and behave in a way that brings honor to God?

• What behaviors do you need to change that are inviting impurity into your life or into the life of someone else?

next steps

Here are some specific things you can do this week to help you fight for God’s virtue of purity:

Take a few minutes to read the modesty survey at www.therebelution.com/modestysurvey. After reading the survey, reflect on what you learned and the changes you may need to make.

In today’s world, we are bombarded with images and media that bring impurity in our lives. Take time to examine the things that are attempting to steal your purity. Consider putting safeguards in place to guard your purity. These changes may include altering or disconnecting your cable TV subscription, or installing a filter or accountability software on your computer. You might consider covenanteyes.com or safeeyes.com for your internet filtering and accountability needs.

 Talk It Over with God:

• Confess the impurities in your life to God, asking Him to cleanse you and help rid your life of these impurities.

• Ask God for the courage and resolve you need to place safeguards in your life as you protect your mind against impurity.

• Commit to fight for the virtue of purity in your life. Ask God for His strength.

• Ask God to renew your mind and cleanse any impure thoughts.

• Commit to honor God in how you behave, in how you dress, and in all that you do.

Don’t let the conversation stop here. Keep Talking It Over online.

On theCity: lcog.onthecity.org           

Twitter: @LCOG

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LawrencevilleChurchofGod

Please use the following notes and Scriptures to further your study from week one of our series called FORGOTTEN VIRTUES.

forgotten virtues – week 1 - HONOR

Talking through the message during the week helps you turn what God is saying to you into action steps. These talking points, questions and scriptures are designed to help you take the next step. You can also use this resource to lead your family or other group. Don’t feel like you have to answer every question. Pick out the questions that will stir up conversation and action among your group.

• What does honor mean to you? 

With your Bible or YouVersion.com, read Mark 6:1-4.

When Jesus returned to his hometown to teach and perform miracles, the people treated Him with dishonor. Their dishonor was a result of their lack of faith.

• Who have you honored?   Why have you honored this person?
• How have you seen honor build someone up?
• Describe a time when you were honored by someone else.
• How has receiving honor changed you? What is the difference between respect and honor? How have you seen this difference firsthand?

Read Exodus 20:12, Romans 13:7, 1 Timothy 5:17 and Romans 12:10.

According to these verses, we should honor our parents, those in authority, pastors and other church leaders.

• How have you shown honor to your parents?
• When has it been difficult to honor your parents?
• Why is important to honor people in authority even when we do not completely agree with them?
• How is God asking you to honor your pastors and church leaders?

Read Psalm 22:23.

This verse emphasizes the importance of honoring God.

• How do you honor God? How can you honor Him more?
• Who do you need to honor more in your thoughts, attitude, words and actions? How will you show honor to them this week? 

next steps

Try taking these next steps this week to give the virtue of honor a place of honor in your life:

Once you have identified someone who you need to honor more, take action! Do something specific to show honor to that person. Take time to express to them why you honor them. Feel free to be creative!

God should be the first and most important recipient of our honor. No matter how much we honor God, we can always honor Him more! This week, do something to show honor to God. This might include spending more time in prayer and in His Word, giving to someone in need, volunteering at our church, or telling someone about who God is and what He’s done for you! 

   Talk It Over with God:

• Take time to honor God in prayer. Praise Him and tell Him how much He means to you.
• Pray for your parents or other family members. Ask God to bless them and to meet their needs.
• Pray for leaders and those in authority. Ask God to give them wisdom and discernment as they lead.
• Pray for your church leaders and pastors. Ask God to give them strength as they lead others to become fully devoted followers of Christ.
• Ask God to increase your desire and ability to show honor to others and build them up instead of tearing them down.

Don’t let the conversation stop here. Keep Talking It Over online.     

Twitter: @LCOG

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LawrencevilleChurchofGod

Please use the following notes and Scriptures to further your study from week four of our series called BALANCED.

Big Idea: If God has blessed you with more than you need, it is so that you can share your abundance with those in need.

1. Reference Point: Knowing where it’s going.
2. Constant Correction. DEBT: paying somebody else to be your master.
3. Our Clear Objective: Honor God with everything.

What do you do with your extra money?

Extra money, you say? I don’t have any extra money! Actually, most of us do. Once you’ve figured out how to eat and live indoors—make sure your family eats and lives indoors and you get back and forth to work—the rest is extra.

Chances are you have more extra than your parents had at your age . . . more than most people in the world.

If you have or do any of the following, you have extra:

• Eat out, movies, cell phone.
• Car . . . two cars? Own your own home?
• Expensive coffee habit?
• Seasonal wardrobe?
• Pajamas, work clothes, relax clothes, workout clothes, golf clothes, and work- in- the-yard clothes. That’s just one day!
• Ever trade anything that still work just fine for another one that is prettier, shinier or has more buttons?
• What’s a garage sale? Come buy my extras!
• Ever cleaned out your refrigerator and thrown food away? Garbage disposal for food? It’s the extrafood disposal. 

Focusing on what we don’t have makes our hearts vulnerable to greed. Why? Because as long as I’m on a quest for more, I will assume that when more comes along, it is for me!

Read Luke 12:16-21 

What is foolish according to verse 21?

1. If you assume the extra is all for you, you are out of balance and need to make a correction.

2. If you have a saving plan and a spending plan but no giving plan, you need to make a correction.

4. If God has blessed you with more than you need, it is so that you can share your abundance with those in need.

Application: We have provided a Giving Plan Worksheet (attached PDF file). At the beginning of the year, you decide what percentage goes into your 401k. That keeps you from consuming it. This is why it is helpful to think in terms of percentages when it comes to giving. 

We ask you to assess your current giving in terms of total dollars and then as you to determine what percentage that is/was. Very important. If you don’t know the percentage, you will deceive yourself into thinking you are generous based on dollars. God looks at percentages.

Read Malachi 3:10-12.

• The tithe is a tenth of your income.

This week. Figure out how rich toward God you’ve been. Then make up your mind. Choose a percentage. Pre-decide. And as you force yourself to live as one who no longer confuses possessions with life, you will be freed of that terrible deception. You will have taken a significant step toward freeing yourself from bondage to your stuff.

Attached are the DIG DEEPER NOTES and the Debt Repayment Schedule for you to use following week 3 of our series on Balanced.

Proverbs 22:7 (New Living Translation) - Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.

We are inviting worshippers to join us for the EASTER SEASON and be a part of our Easter Festival Choir! 

To participate in the Festival Choir, you must attend 3 rehearsals and commit to memorize your music. Each participant is also expected to sing in the Festival Choir on Palm Sunday (April 17) and on Easter Sunday (April 24) in both morning worship experiences (9am and 11:10am).

schedule

March            

23       WED   7:00pm Rehearsal   Choir Room

27       SUN   4:00pm Rehearsal   Choir Room

30       WED   7:00pm Rehearsal   Choir Room 

April               

10       SUN   4:00pm rehearsal    Choir Room

13       WED   7:00pm Rehearsal   Choir Room

17       SUN   PALM SUNDAY – Sing in both services (call time 8:30am)

20       WED   7:00pm Rehearsal   Choir Room

24       SUN   EASTER SUNDAY – Sing in both services (call time 8:30am)

OUR MISSION – Exalting God in Pentecostal worship experiences that inspire and challenge believers to a deeper commitment.

Today we began a new series that will affect EVERYONE. It is a series on how to find balance in your personal finances. Over the next few weeks we’re going to dig into God’s Word and realize that the Bible has a lot to teach us about money. ALL of us will learn something over the new few weeks.

Matthew 6:19-21 (New Living Translation)

19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

Three laws of balance: 

Finances follow the law of the harvest. You sow now and reap later…and greater.

The more money you have the easier it is to be out of balance and to stay out of balance. 

Imbalance financially is an indication that things are out of balance spiritually.  

Luke 16:13 (New Living Translation)

  “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

I should be knowing where all my money’s goin’.

The proper reference point for managing money, the thing you have to keep your eye on at all times is where is it going, where is it going? You need to know where all your money goes. For the rest of your life you never take your eye off where your money is going. That’s the point of reference for the rest of your personal financial life. 

*Download the TRACK MY SPENDING sheet. Use it for the next seven days to log all of your expenses.

Things to learn and apply…

This series is about the importance of being in a place financially, so when where God begins to prompt you to do something, finances are not a barrier to what God wants you to do. That’s what He wants for you. He wants you to be financially free. Not free to do whatever you want; free to do what your heavenly Father has called you to do.

Pray this prayer: “God, just pour truth over me and then give me the courage and the wisdom to know what to do with what I have heard.”

Please make some time to download this week’s Sermon Notes and go deeper into God’s Word. Click on the link below to safely download a PDF document containing this resource.

These notes are designed for individual study, family devotion, and they also work well as a group discussion guide.

I pray that this simple resource will be a tool to challenge you in your faith journey.

Pastor Kevin