The following blog post contains notes and application questions from our January 5, 2019 message, Community. For more from this series, check out Better Together.

Discussing and Applying the Sermon

• What’s one way your community group can make 2020 better than 2019?
• What’s one way you, personally, can make your community group better in 2020?

Summary

How was your 2019? What was it marked by? As we gather together for the first time in 2020, Todd Wagner kicks off a new series, Better Together, teaching through the importance of Devoting Daily and Pursuing Relationally—two of the six community core values.

Key Takeaways

• Watermark’s six core values of Community are: Devote Daily, Pursue Relationally, Live Authentically, Admonish Faithfully, Counsel Biblically, and Engage Missionally.
• The only requirement to get admitted to the church is to acknowledge that you are screwed up and that you need help.
• This is the first time since the 1910’s that the life expectancy in America has declined three years in a row.
• One of the great things about pain is that it lets us know that something is not right.
• Jesus says we should increasingly be a people whose lives are defined by peace. Is your life marked by peace?
• Some of the most sought after speakers in Christendom are not people whose company you want to share.
• One thing that won’t surprise you in heaven is the devotion to God’s Word by those who are there.
• The Bible isn’t a rule book...it’s the story about a God who loves you and wants a relationship with you.
• If you are being informed by Google and whatever the world tells you is the most important thing to look at, it’s not going to go well for you.
• We will never be the people or the church we want to be if we are not people of the Book. It’s our authority, conscience and guide; we are firm where it is firm and flexible where it is flexible.
• You aren’t saved because you read your Bible, but if you know Jesus, you ought to want to know Him more through reading His Word. If you don’t want to know Him more, it’s doubtful you know Him at all.
• If you are having a lot of success in the things of the world after coming to know Jesus, it should trouble you.
• One of the greatest evidences I am saved is that when I sin I hate it. The Spirit of God inside of me wants no fellowship with sin.
• Do you want to break bread with Jesus every morning? You can! He’s alive and He left you His Word.
• If you are trying to walk with Jesus alone you are trying to walk with Jesus wrong.
• How are you feeding your soul (Devore Daily and Pursue Relationally)? How are you feeding your flesh (Live Authentically and Admonish Faithfully)? How are you feeding others (Counsel Biblically and Engage Missionally)?
• The number one thing you can do to make your community group better in 2020 is to read God’s Word out loud when you are together and then discuss how you can live out and apply what you read.

Mentioned or Recommended Resources

• Suggested Scripture study: John 20:30-31; John 21
• Books by JC Ryle: Thoughts for Young Men; Warnings to The Churches
• Bible reading plan: Join the Journey
• App: Reading Plan
• Sermon: Devote Daily: Staying Connected to God