21/08/ 2022 | MOVING TOWARD MATURITY | POURED-OUT WINE – BROKEN BREAD
Fellowship (10 min)
Begin with general conversation and sharing about how the past week has gone. Try not to go over time.
Worship and Prayer (15 min)
Click on the link below on your smartphone, Smart TV, or computer, to select songs to sing; and then spend a few minutes in song and prayer.
PLETT METHODIST YOU TUBE CHANNEL SONG’S PLAYLIST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbsAkwbV_S1vXdZVPkZ0_tQW5n9RqeZX0
And if you need to check on the Message for the week again, then click on:
PLETT METHODIST YOU TUBE CHANNEL (MESSAGE): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU1X4YYw1KLpda1yGnqKgfw/videos
This time of worship and prayer will encourage you to move your thoughts from daily worries and pressures to our time of Bible study and prayer.
READING: 26:17-30
The Commission Of The Call
By Oswald Chambers
“I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church — Colossians 1:24
We take our own spiritual consecration (to dedicate ourselves to God) and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then he gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me! (Isaiah 6:8)
This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification (to make ourselves holy), but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed – you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.
I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in his hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit his other children.”
1. What are some initial thoughts and feelings that you experienced during the message?
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2. Read Matthew 26:17-30 again. Reflecting on this reading and on the sermon, what does communion mean to you? (Has your view on communion changed?).
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3. Read the devotion by Oswald Chambers again. What are some things that stand out to you?
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4. Think about the bread in communion, and how it represents “the body of Christ broken for us”. Are you willing for God to turn you into “broken bread”? What does this mean for you?
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5. Think about the wine in communion and how it is “the blood of Christ offered for us.” Are you willing for God to turn you into “poured out wine”? What does this mean for you?
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6. To become wine God needs to squeeze you. He does this by using your circumstances. It could be your job (conflict between a work colleague, or work pressure), it could be a family member, it could be an ‘enemy’ in your life. Thinking back on your life, have there been moments you think God has been trying to squeeze you? Are you prepared for him to squeeze you in the future?
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7. The spiritually mature christian focusses on staying right with God and allowing God to “do as He likes”. Are there any areas in your life you think are not right with God and need to be made right? Are you willing to allow God to “do as He likes” with you?
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8. Write a short prayer to God where you offer up anything you feel might be standing in the way of you being ‘poured out wine’ and ‘broken bread’. Allow the peace of God to set you free and the love of God to give you strength.
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