Living Out Our Heavenly Citizenship On Earth

Life Group Announcements:

1. Continue to pray for Pastor Joe Houser as he takes extended time off to focus on his health, family, and relationship with God.
2. Divorce care will be a weekly seminar and help support group that will help those heal from the hurt and reality of divorce. It will be a 13-week class on Wednesdays from 6:30-7:30 PM. The class will meet in the church office entrance and child care will be available upon request. Cost is $25. Please see church site for registration details.
3. Young adult ministry started September 13^th. Ages 18-26, will meet every Thursday from 6:30-8:30 PM. If interested, talk to Matt Wadley on Sunday or email him at Matt@OB1church.com.
4. Starting September 27^th, from 6:30-8:30 PM, there will be a class on prophecy to include growing in listening to God as well as learning more about the prophetic gift. It will be a 7-week class taught by Jamie Weston. Cost is $25. Please see church site for registration details. 
5. On October 20^th, from 12-2 PM, Valerie, Laura, and Lu will be hosting a women’s fellowship event called, Women’s Tea. Sign up at the church Café starting September 23^rd and the cost is $3.00. No child care provided and only children that do not crawl are allowed.
6. The church website has been updated to include pictures of our ministry council for a better reference and visual.

Life Group Questions:

Speaker: Pastor Julian Malotti
Sermon Series: Joy!
Title: Living Out Our Heavenly Citizenship On Earth

1. In the beginning of the sermon, Pastor Julian told a story about his trip to Mexico and how his daughter thought that they may not make it out alive from this random boat trip they took on a secluded beach they found. Julian then related that to how Paul the apostle also did not know if he would make it alive out of the prison from which he wrote the book of Philippians. 

   Have you ever been in a situation in life where you really felt like you may not make it out alive (either physically, emotionally, or spiritually alive)? How did you handle that? If you could have done one thing different, what would it have been?

2. One way we learned to deal with chaotic and stressful situations, much like Paul was going through in prison, is to remember that this life is not our permanent home. We are citizens of Heaven dwelling temporarily here on earth. This helps us to not become too attached and fixes our perspective from the circumstance to God. 

   What are some tempting ways that either Satan, the world, or even we are convinced that this world seems more like our permanent home rather than Heaven?

3. Pastor Julian told us that we need to remember the purpose in our circumstance (that we are here on earth to bring a little piece of Heaven down) and our hope (that we can have victory over our sinful desires). Also see 1 Peter 2:11-12. 

   Do you think a person can have a sense of purpose but no hope? Or, hope but no purpose? Why are purpose and hope so closely related and why do they depend on each other in order to experience joy?

4. A powerful point was made during the sermon that there is a difference between behavior modification and change of heart. Behavior modification is us forcing ourselves to change our outward behaviors only, while our heart stays unchanged. 

   What are some examples of behavior modification? Some examples of heart change? Is behavior modification always a bad thing?

5. Lastly, we learned the importance of unity in the midst of opposition and trials. Unity is not uniformity (everything the same). Unity is often found in diversity (differing of opinion but agreement on the gospel and Person of Jesus). 

   Why is unity important within the body of Christ? What are some unimportant issues that tend to cause division? How can we approach disagreements within the Body of Christ (the church)? 

   Bible Verses Read Sunday: 

• Philippians 1:21-24 and 27-29 (Main passage)
• 1 Peter 2:11-12