Create an Environment to Believe

Welcome to CROLCC, we are so glad you are here worshiping with us. Can I start by asking you a simple question? When you have some free time, where do you like to spend them? Now, I didn’t ask you what you like to do on your free time, I am asking you where you would like to be in your free time. As for me, I like to be in an environment where I can feel most comfortable. Duh?! Who wouldn’t want to feel comfortable, right?

There are many factors that make an environment comfortable. Obviously, the setting, the chairs, the lighting are all important. If you are alone and by yourself, maybe the setting of the room alone will do. But what if someone else is also occupying the space you are in? For example, your home, your work place, your family reunion or gathering place, a restaurant. What would make you comfortable in those kinds of environments? Is it merely just the setting of the environment? Or would you say it matters who’s in those environments? To be a little more exact, the attitudes of the people in those environments?

You have heard me say this before, we would love to create and continue to create an environment where we don’t exclude anybody.  Because the message of the church is for everybody, but if we are not intentional, we would drift away from that culture.  Today’s message might not be anything new, but I hope it serves as a reminder to you and to me how important it is to create an environment for people to believe.

Discussion Questions

1. Think about your friendships growing up. Were you selective in choosing your friends or did you just gravitate toward those who accepted you? Explain.

2. Have you had the experience of being at a church where you didn’t fit into the culture? How did that affect your view of the church and Christians? How did it influence your relationship with God?

3. Read Romans 3:21–24. Why is it so difficult for us to accept that God’s grace doesn’t depend on our behavior? How would the church be different if Christians lived as though these verses were true?

4. What is one group of people you tend to want to keep out of the church? What is it about that group that makes you want to keep them on the outside?

5. What is one thing you can do this week to begin to change your heart and mind about those outside the church? What can this group do to support you?