Vanishing Grace (Teaching Series)

View fullsize

Christians have proclaimed the good news about Jesus for centuries. But the good news isn't sounding so good these days, at least to some. Let’s acknowledges the problem and then explore how we can respond with both grace and truth.

---

Amazon Link

Purchase the Book

Vanishing Grace: Bringing Good News to a Deeply Divided World

By Yancey, Philip

Buy on Amazon

Reading Plan
The readings for Sunday

• 2/19/23 - Justice

  • Exodus 17:1-7
    Hebrews 12:12-15
    John 4:5-26, 39-42

• 2/26/23 - What Can We Do About It

  • Jeremiah 1:4-10
    1 Corinthians 13:1-13
    Matthew 5:38-48

• 3/5/23 - Who are the Grace Dispensers

  • Deuteronomy 26:1-11
    1 John 3:11-18
    Luke 4:16-21

• 3/12/23 - Is it Really Good News?

  • Isaiah 52:7-12
    Hebrews 13:1-16
    Matthew 13:31-35

• 3/19/23 - Holy Subverses

  • Exodus 19:1-6
    1 Corinthians 9:19-27
    Luke 4:1-13

• 3/26/23 - Holy Subverses

  • Exodus 19:1-6
    1 Corinthians 9:19-27
    Luke 4:1-13

• 4/2/23 - Holy Subverses

  • Exodus 19:1-6
    1 Corinthians 9:19-27
    Luke 4:1-13

• 4/9/23 - Holy Subverses

  • Exodus 19:1-6
    1 Corinthians 9:19-27
    Luke 4:1-13

[Sunday] Beautiful News - Vanishing Grace

Jesus was tempted in the wilderness in every way that we are. This story right at the beginning of Luke's gospel foreshadows the way it ends: Jesus taking all our sins and struggles and giving us grace and victory over them all. Now that we have been freed, we can live knowing that grace is for all.

Questions for this week.

1. How have you seen God’s good news physically affect someone in a positive way?

2. Read Luke 4:1-13.   How is Jesus tempted by the devil?  How have you been tempted in the same way?  How does Jesus free you from these temptations?

3. Who might you love this week, and how might you bring them good news?

---

---

What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Sunday] Beautiful News - Vanishing Grace

What does beautiful news look like? Perhaps, it looks like ordinary, dare I say, small things, like providing for someone who's hungry, loving your spouse, and being a good neighbor. Perhaps these small things provide the cooling shade of a great tree for us to rest under.

Questions for this week.

1. When is a time when you have received good news?

2. Read Isaiah 52:7 and Hebrews 13:1-8.   What does it look like when God’s good news comes?

3. Read Matthew 13:31-35.  How does good news come like a “mustard seed?"

4. What is a small “mustard seed” way God has used someone to bring good news to you that really affected you?  

5. What might you do to bring a “mustard seed” of good news to someone this week?

---

---

What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Sunday] Love Laid Down - Vanishing Grace

This is how we know what love is, that He laid down his life for us. This love is like a cool breeze on a hot day, good news when surrounded by the bad, and liberty to the oppressed.

Questions for this week.

1. When are times that you’ve been able to share good news with someone?

2. Read 1 John 3:11-18.  Why did Cain kill his brother?  How does a similar attitude prevent us from truly loving our neighbor?

3. What does Jesus do to enable us to simply love our neighbor?

4. What impact do you think Jesus' followers would have on the spiritually uncommitted people if we--pilgrims, activists, and artists, all united as a church community -- carried out John’s charge to “not love with words or speech, but in actions and in truth?"

---

---

What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Sunday] Uncomplicated Love - Vanishing Grace

The young man who pushed aside his family now thinks of only their love as he longs for the pig feed. We tend to make love more complicated that it needs to be, but perhaps its simple.

Questions for this week.

1. Describe a time you’ve felt most fulfilled in life.

2. Read 1 Corinthians 13.   According to this passage, when we speak and act without love, what do we produce? And to what extent might we deserve the unpleasant words people use to describe Christians?

3. What does love always do (v. 7), and what impact will these actions have on our relationships and interaction with those who do not acknowledge God?

---

---

What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Sunday] Wells of Grace - Vanishing Grace

Jesus was sitting by a well, and she showed up. All by herself, she carried with her the weight of so much struggle. While it would be so easy to belittle her, Jesus instead is a well of grace that is like a cool drink of water on a hot day. Maybe we can be like that.

Questions for this week.

1. How do you interact with people who are antagonistic to your faith in Jesus or living a life full of sin?

2. Read John 4:1-42.  Why would the woman be at the well in the middle of the day?  How would people in her day viewed Samatarians? How does Jesus respond to her?

3. What are some ways you can be a grace dispenser this week?

---

---

What Had happened at Grace this week.