Dining Room | May 14 – May 20, 2017
Series Big Idea
God’s wisdom, understanding, and knowledge can help us build rare and beautiful relationships.
Message Big Idea
Truly knowing one another is how we live as the family of God.
Scripture
Ice Breaker and Opening Thoughts
1. Share a time you felt like you didn’t belong. It could be a town, a party, or even a circle of friends.
2.The word translated “hospitality” in the New Testament means “love of a stranger.” Hospitality is the practice of opening our homes and our very lives to one another to turn strangers into family. How is this portrayal of hospitality different than what you commonly think of as hospitality?
Bible Discussion
3. Read Ephesians 2:11-22 (MSG). What images and phrases stand out to you? Why?
4. In what ways do you see hospitality portrayed in this passage?
5. The text talks about a dividing wall between people groups. What kind of dividing walls existed then? What walls exist now?
Life Application
Theologian Stanley Hauerwas said, “To be a disciple of Jesus is to be made part of a new community in which the family is reconstituted. We are all children, but now a community has been established in which we are all called to be parents, brothers, and sisters to and for one another.”
6. Where have you seen or experienced this kind of family in the church?
7. What are the challenges we have in being a kind of community that includes others?
8. How can we be the kind of church that practices a kind of hospitality that turns strangers into friends?
Challenge
Lauren Winner said, “We are not meant simply to invite people into our homes, but also to invite them into our lives. Having guests and visitors, if we do it right, is not an imposition, because we are not meant to rearrange our lives for our guests – we are meant to invite our guests to enter into our lives as they are.” Who can you invite into your life?
