Family Devotional- January 15th and 18th

Sample Family Devotional Schedule: (roughly 30 minutes) 1. Pray with your student(s). (5-7 minutes) 2. Sing a worship song, or hymn. (3-6 minutes) 3. Read the scripture below. (2-4 minutes) 4. Read the devotional below. (5 minutes) 5. Talk through a few of the discussion questions. (8-10 minutes) GALATIANS (15): Peaceful Farewell Bottom Line: The Spirit filled believer lives to bring glory to God, and glories in the cross. The legalist seeks to make much of themselves. Scripture References: Galatians 6:11-18 Paul generally concludes his letters with a very simple phrase along the lines of may the grace and peace of Christ Jesus be with you however, in our closing text for Galatians, Paul concludes with a very important paragraph. It is as if Paul is taking one last shot at getting his point across to the Galatians! The way he begins his conclusion makes me laugh: See with what LARGE letters I am writing this I think Paul is really trying to tell them, DO NOT MISS THIS! With great reason Paul emphasizes the last paragraph as he addresses the glory of the cross of Jesus Christ. Paul is addressing the motive behind everything that we do in this paragraph- and motive is everything. The legalists were people who bragged about themselves, and how many converts they could obtain. They werent interested in the genuine salvation of people, just a conversion in order to make much of themselves. The legalists were huge compromisers. They comprised everything in order to avoid persecution. One thing that we must learn as believers is that if we are going to live spirit filled lives, we will be persecuted. The world ought to look at our lives and think were crazy, and the only explanation we have is that God is controlling every detail of our lives. The Legalists were also hypocrites, and Paul made this very clear in verse 13! As Paul concludes, he looks at the person of Christ, and why we can glory in the cross (v.14-16). Why can we glory in the cross? We glory in the cross because of the person of Christ- we ought to be fascinated with the person of Jesus Christ! We glory in the cross because there is power in the cross! The cross of Christ has the power to make all things new in your life. I pray that you would allow Jesus to make all things new! 1. A bad motive can spoil a good work. Do you agree? Give some specific examples! 2. Mike said, we want more people at APEX not so that we can count, but because people count. How can we treat people better at APEX if they truly count? How can you contribute? 3. What does it mean to glory in the cross? 4. Does the world approve of religion apart from the Gospel of Christ? How do you know? 5. What is the new creation Paul refers to in Galatians 6:15? 6. As we close the book of Galatians, share your thoughts from the series on the grace of our Lord.