Experiencing the Beautiful Life
Oct 08 2006 • Annie Perdue-Olson, Dwayne Polk, Greg Boyd, Nikole Mitchell, Scott Boren
In living his life, Jesus was the manifestation of beauty. As God’s children, we are invited to participate in the beautiful life of Jesus. The kingdom of God is the dome in which God is king. It is the realm where Jesus displays true beauty in the midst of a world of chaos, ugliness, manipulation and stress. It is the manifestation of the glory of God as the delightful wonder of God’s presence is revealed through God’s people. The Kingdom of God is a wonderfully beautiful thing. Life today is quite full for most people. Many hear about the Kingdom of God and think, “Nice idea, but my life outside of the church has little room to make it a priority.” While understanding the Kingdom of God is good, we also need to think practically about how our lives can be ordered so that we can actually experience the Kingdom. This is the purpose of Experiencing the Beautiful Life.
Small Group Discussion Guide
Movie Discussion Questions
Six-Week Devotional Guide
Sermons in this series:
This weekend concludes our six-week series entitled “Experiencing the Beautiful Life.” Over the course of the last few weeks we as a church have to begun to discover the deep yearnings we all have for more meaning and purpose in life. We have started to seek out a new way of doing life that connects us more deeply with God and with others. As we conclude the series, we look to God to continue the good work and bring about its lasting completion.
Topics: God's Will,
Transformation
Living out the beautiful life of God’s kingdom requires living by faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Our main job in life is to be receptive, and by faith, willing to follow God’s leading in our lives. It is a life of vision and purpose; that does not settle.
Topics: Faith
Meaning and purpose in life. It is a longing and yearning that we all have. We want to make a difference and leave a mark in this world. The problem is that we don’t believe we are beautiful. To experience meaning in this life requires believing that God has wonderfully and beautifully made us. As we recognize our beauty we are then able to share this beauty with others.
Topics: God's Will,
Spiritual Gifts
Every human being is designed with basic yearnings and desires. One of our most basic desires is the need to connect with one another. However, in the overwhelming demands of modern life, we often do not listen to or even acknowledge these desires. Our lives and relationships look more like fragmented pieces than complete and meaningful masterpieces. To live out a beautiful life of belonging in God's kingdom is to live in covenant community with one another.
Topics: Community,
Covenant,
Love
When we look are our hectic lives, we can sense the pain and despair that we often feel...but we never stop to think about what has really caused the problem of our shattered beauty. One important problem is that we have forgotten beauty related to the Center of the Kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants us to create “spaces for God” so that we can experience the matchless beauty of Jesus in our daily lives, and then, see our own beauty!
Topics: Disciplines,
Identity in Christ,
Presence of God
When we read the Gospels, some of the words of Jesus may seem a little unrealistic to us. For example, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus actually speaks about people not being worried about how they shall get the things that they need to live, like food and clothing. Many of us spend a significant amount of time trying to secure the things that we need to survive. So when we see Jesus’ words, we find it hard to believe that he could really mean what he said. Perhaps the reason that we have such a hard time with Jesus’ words is because we are not truly understanding what he was saying.
Topics: Pain & Suffering,
Simplicity,
Transformation
This weekend, we started our “Beautiful Life” series! Sometimes, the state of the world can make life look so ugly, but God is a beautiful God that wants us to understand that life was meant to be enjoyed as beautiful. God wants to give us “beauty” in exchange for the “ashes” of our everyday existence and give us crowns that let us know who we were created to be in God.
Topics: Identity in Christ,
Kingdom of God,
Transformation
