CrossWay Community Church | Bristol, WI

Sermon Application Questions: Main Point: The main point of this past Sunday’s sermon was that Jesus is God’s very own son, which means he is the supreme, mighty God. Jesus is far grander, far mightier, far superior, far more powerful than our minds can comprehend. While it’s good to see Jesus as approachable and gracious and gentle, he’s also much more.     Ice Breaker:  In just a moment, I’ll sa...

Sermon Application Questions: Main Point:  The main point of text is: that even though you cannot see Jesus, receive his blessing by believing in him.     The passage contrasts Thomas who had his doubts, but was able to see Jesus and believe. For everyone after Jesus ascended into heaven, they wouldn’t be able to see Jesus. Jesus anticipates this period of history (post his ascension where his goo...

Sermon Application Questions: Main Point:  The main point of this past Sunday’s sermon was: Prioritize listening to Jesus over serving Jesus, for his pleasure and your peace.    The passage contrasts how Mary and Martha approach Jesus differently. Martha wants to do good things for Jesus but is distracted, anxious, and troubled. Mary makes it her highest priority to listen to Jesus. Jesus commends...

Sermon Application Questions: Main Point: The main point of this past Sunday’s sermon was: Jesus welcomes the broken and forgives those with humble faith.    The passage contrasts how two people approach Jesus. One powerful leader has Jesus over but isn’t generous towards him. The other person has a shady reputation, but approaches Jesus with gratitude and lavish generosity.     Re-read Luke 7:36-...

Sermon Application Questions: Main Point: The main point of this past Sunday’s sermon was: outsiders become insiders through faith in Jesus' authority--so trust in him. Ice Breaker:  Share a time when you’ve been surprised. It may be a party or someone sharing a thought and being floored by it, or something else. Digging Deeper: This past Sunday we looked at a passage that highlighted how people t...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Reread Matthew 12:9-22. What about Jesus from this passage makes you most drawn to him?   2. Do you see yourself as a “bruised reed”? And do you see yourself that way not as a matter of self-pity but as a matter of objective reality?   3. It’s one thing for Jesus to perform a relatively small miracle. It’s another thing for him to set all things right in the world,...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. The idea of “trembling” before God’s Word can sound a bit foreign or overstated to us. But when we understand what “trembling” means we understand how appropriate it is. Do you recognize something like “trembling” in yourself when you read or hear God’s Word? 2. Is there anything in your life that is shrinking your capacity to “tremble” before God’s Word? Consider...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Read back over Isaiah 65:17-25. Which of the specific things described in these verses makes you most eager for this future time? 2. Do you feel like your thoughts about “heaven” are sufficiently grounded in the reality of God creating a “new earth”? How does the fact that God is making a new earth help your anticipation of that coming day? ________________________...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Have you ever felt like God was silent or absent in your life? What truths helped you in that time? 2. Is God’s vengeance, and his day of vengeance (v. 4) something you think much about? When you do think about it, what response does it stir up in you? Why? 3. Why is good for the world that there is a day when all wrongs will be met with perfect justice? Why is it...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Read Isaiah 61:1 and think about your own spiritual history. With which of the situations described in that verse do you most identify?   2. What has God’s gift of salvation meant to you? Think about this carefully and as specifically as you can. What is true of your life because of God’s saving work?   3. Read Isaiah 61:10 and Philippians 3:9. Are you regularly co...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Have you ever bought a knock-off product (e.g,. Fake Oakleys, Some Fake Designer Brand)? What was it? Why did you get it? 2. Fake religion claims that if you do a few good things for God then you can do whatever else you want. What's compelling about fake religion? 3. Fake religion doesn't work. It earns distance from God (Isaiah 58:4b, 59:2). There are at least th...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. What comes to your mind when you hear God described as the one who “inhabits eternity”  What helps you get your mind around that?   2. Is it hard for you to imagine God dwelling with you? If so, why?   3. Where in your life are you most aware of your need for the healing and reviving work of God? Have you asked him to do that work in your life? ____________________...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Have you ever felt, for some reason, that you were outside of God’s reach and ability to gather you into his family?   2. Is there any area of your life where you are conscious of being out of willing and glad alignment with God?   3. How does the idea of being a part of a great gathered community of God’s people affect you? Are you excited by that? Suspicious of i...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Read the question in the first half of Isaiah 55:2. Where have you been tempted to go to find satisfaction in life? What has your experience of that been like?   2. Isaiah 55:11 tells us that God’s word is designed to get things done in our lives. Can you name some ways that God’s word has had a specific transforming effect in your life?   3. How much do you think...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. If you’re a Christian, look back on your own story of coming to faith in Christ. What did God use to give you new spiritual life and make you one of the children he describes in vv. 1-3? 2. Read again through vv. 4-10, and find all of God’s descriptions of how he will treat his people (e.g. he will cause them to forget their shame, he will show them everlasting lov...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Are there any circumstances in your life that tempt you to wonder if God really loves you? How does beholding what Jesus has done as our substitute speak reassurance to your heart? 2. When you think about the “spoils” of victory Jesus shares with all who trust him (peace with God [v. 5]; healing of our hearts, bodies, and all creation [v. 5]; and perfect righteousn...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Spiritual captivity either was or is a reality in all our lives. How has the reality of spiritual captivity shown up in your life? What form did it take? 2. Think about what happened when God brought you out of captivity and enslavement to sin and into the freedom of relationship with him. What were some specific ways that showed up in your experience? 3. Do you ge...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. What false “gods” are you tempted to turn to to find meaning, purpose, identity, fulfillment, and satisfaction? How have you experienced their inability to provide?   2. When you consider this truth of God carrying you, what part of that is most meaningful to you right now—his tenderness, his strength, or his purpose?   3. What future possibility makes you most anx...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Do you find it challenging to consider that God is sovereign over both the good and bad of our lives, both “well-being” and “calamity” (45:7)? What difficulties does that truth create? What difficulties does it resolve? 2. Describe a difficult situation in your life right now. How could you imagine God using it to conform you to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:28-29)?...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Is there something, even some good thing, in your life that has become too important to you, potentially rivaling even God for first place in your life? These questions may help you discern: a. Is there anything you will disobey God in order to get? b. Is there anything you’re terrified to lose? c. Where do you go for comfort when you’re stressed or afraid? d. What...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. When, or in what circumstances, are you most aware of yourself as a “bruised reed” or a “faintly burning wick”?   2. Which of these two truths in Isaiah 42:1-4 are you most affected by—the fact that Jesus will someday make all things right or the fact that day-by-day he patiently and gently cares for you in your weakness?   3. Can you recall a time when you specifi...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Do you struggle at all with doubt about these things Isaiah 40 is saying about God? If so, what kind of doubt is it? The kind that is open to being convinced or the kind that is completely closed to being convinced?   2. Isaiah calls us to respond to God’s incomparability in two ways: trust (i.e. do not fear) and hope. Do you feel weak or strong in these two respon...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. With which of the first three pictures of God that Isaiah presents in 40:1-11 do you most resonate—his glory, his foreverness, his power? With which one do you feel least in touch?   2. Read Isaiah 40:11 slowly and out loud. Do you know God this way? Do you want to know God in this way? Which moment in that verse stirs up the greatest longing in your heart? _______...

Sermon Application Questions: 1. Read James 1:2-4 and 1 Peter 1:6-7. What do these passages contribute to our understanding about God’s purposes in testing our faith? 2. Hezekiah faced very different kinds of tests: a national crisis, a personal illness, a temptation to which he was vulnerable. Is your trust in God being tested by something like one of these, or maybe something different? Is somet...