September Cell Groups

September - Galatians "Inside Out"

Cell groups have now, finally, officially begun.  Last Wednesday, we had our first Sanctuary of the school year.  Sanctuary is where all the groups meet to worship together and to make sure we are all more or less on the same page.  Starting tomorrow, individual groups will meet together in various places around town.  Each month this year, our cell groups will be taking a look at a different epistle from the New Testament. 

First up: Galatians (the Roman and Corinthian letters would be too long to try and hit in just a month)

As a disclaimer:  Parents, understand that Cell Groups are not "Bible Class" or even "Bible Study".  Cell groups' main purpose is to provide teens a community in which to live out their faith.  Looking at Galatians, and the other epistles serves to generate a conversation about how the Bible might apply to them and their situations.  In order for there to be any genuine discussion about these scriptures, they must be read outside of cell groups.  I encourage you to encourage your teens to read the book each month that they will be discussing in cell groups.  I also encourage you to read along with them, so you can continue the conversations at home, or have conversations that time won't afford in cell groups.  One of our Servantship Team members broke the book of Galatians into a monthly reading plan.  It works out to about 5 verses a day - so I don't think it is too huge a time commitment.  

Paul was someone who understood transformation.  I think most of us are pretty familiar with Paul's conversion experience on the way to Damascus, but I think sometimes that familiarity might cause us to forget just what a monumental transformation it became.  Not only did Paul go from killing Christian converts to becoming one himself, and eventually losing his own life for the cause - he went from a Pharisee, a group that taught that their narrow interpretations of the Law were the only way to be right before God, to the "Apostle to the Gentiles" who advocated on their behalf that they did not even have to follow the Law.  Paul's message to the Galatians, as I understand it, is that outward symbols and practices are not the key to a transformed life.  Near his closing remarks, he tells his readers that he boasts in only in the cross of Jesus Christ (6:14).  In the chapter before, he writes to them that the only thing that has value is faith in Christ that expresses itself in love (5:6).  The problem in Galatia, as it was in much of first-century Christianity, was that there were people saying that in order to receive Christ, believers had to be circumcised, or in other words, they had to observe an outward symbol on the Old Testament Law.  Paul's argument was that this argument was only made to appease outward appearances, so that the Jewish Christians could "boast in the flesh" (6:13) of their gentile converts.  What Paul understood, and wanted the Galatian Christians to understand is that transformation doesn't come from practicing a set of "thou shalls" and "thou shall nots".  True transformation comes from a life lived in obedience to the Spirit that comes by the grace of Jesus.  In chapter 5, he lays out what an untransformed life looks life.  It's a life consisting of immorality, greed, selfishness, fighting, etc. (5:13).  He then contrasts it to a transformed life, which consists of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.  Our actions matter.  As Paul says in the last chapter "God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows."  If we live a life that is all about indulging our selfish desires, there is no reason to suspect that we won't bear the consequences of our selfish behavior.  But our actions are more than a means to an end.  Our actions are an extension of who we are.  If we truly want to live a redeemed, transformed life, then we have to be intentional about changing our spirit.  

Week 1 of cell groups will deal with questions on "sowing to please the Spirit."  How do we change our spirit, or souls, or hearts, or whatever you want to call it? 

Week 2 will deal with questions regarding expressing our faith through love.  How do we do good to all people?  How can we especially do good to the family of believers?  (6:10)

Week 3 will deal with questions regarding our focus.  How do we not get distracted from doing good? How do we keep ourselves from forgetting that we aren't saved by our actions, but by our relationship to Christ?