Enthusiastic Consent | Learning Guide

October 2nd, 2022

5:00pm I Facebook Live & Zoom

Watch last week's message here

Title

Enthusiastic Consent

Text

1 Peter 5 (NET)​

Introduction:

If you ask any member of my family what their favorite country we ever went to visit was, the unanimous answer would be Turkey. Back in the summer of 2000, we got the chance to work and travel there. It was an incredible experience, the people and culture, history and architecture and especially the food. My goodness, it was exceptional. Lamb, figs, yourgurts, olives, honey and the fruit– I felt like I tasted an orange for the first time. It was an orange as an orange was supposed to taste. Until that moment, I thought that our American store bought oranges were the only way an orange could taste. But once you have one off the tree in Turkey and immediately realize that is not the case. The former is only a poor copy of the real thing.

The same is true when we encounter, really inhabit, the reality of the Kingdom of God. When we practice the ways of Jesus and let them transform us, we begin to see that words and ideas like love, hope, peace, joy– all words we regularly see being used to sell us stuff, words commified, tamed and mass produced– actually land in profoundly different and more meaningful and flavorful ways. One of those words is “leadership”. The leadership of the Kingdom of God is something radically different than what most of us are used to and have experienced. This week we’ll get a tangible example of that in addition to our study. Remember we’re meeting at Katie and Jeremy Roger’s Boston Mountain Youth Ranch at 5:00pm for a potluck picnic and service there.

Grace and peace y’all,

John Ray and the teaching team

Pray:

“Abba, in the areas where I provide leadership, let me lead with humility, grace, eagerness and not for vanity or gain. In the areas where I follow, let me practice humility and healthy submission as it is reciprocated. Whether I am leading or following, may I do all things in the manner and spirit in which you do all things. Amen.”

Big Idea:

Relationships that reflect the heart and ethos of the Kingdom of God are remarkably different from those of “the world”. A primary way they are different is in rejecting all means of manipulation, coercion and involuntary obligation.

Take Away:

Training ourselves to live by the ethos of Kingdom relationships is a never-ending task. It takes consistent, intentional and community integrated effort. There may be no more profound expression of our faith than how we relate to each other in the name of Jesus.

How does this fit with Belong, Become, Believe?

At Grace, our practice of hospitality is rooted in the hospitality we have been shown by Jesus. We make every effort to extend this in the same spirit to others. This practice is a major part of what forms us more and more into the likeness of Jesus. Through these practices we both affirm and clarify what it is we confess we believe.

What's Next?

We jump into 2 Peter 1 and discuss what it means to be a church together.

Resources:

Leading not out of duty, but sacrificially

Contact Grace Church NWA here