Identity: Part 1 - One Source
MICRO CHURCH GUIDE
January 05, 2025
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Student Life Camp, June 16-20, 2025 - Registration Now Open!
OneLife Students is going back to Student Life Camp this Summer and this year we are heading to the beach! This is going to be a great experience where your student will get to grow closer to God, their small groups, and their leaders! The dates are June 16th - 20th. Registration is open and spots are filling up fast. Visit onelifeknox.com/camp for more information and to register!
MyOneLife - A 4-Week Sunday Morning Small Group Experience
The first step for every OneLifer to get involved and get to know our church culture and mission is a 4-week small group experience called MyOneLife. It takes place on Sunday mornings in the Meeting Room at each of our campuses. You’ll learn about the vision & values of our church, discover your personal mission & spiritual gifts, and find out tons of ways to get involved. The next MyOneLife will start on February 2nd, so for more information or to sign up, mark the “MyOneLife” box on your Connection Card.
Baptism
If you’ve given your life to Jesus but haven’t gone public with your story through baptism then it’s time to take that step! Mark the baptism box on your Connection Card and we’ll help you get started.
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GIVE BACK
Give Jesus your best! Make a one-time tithe or offering or to set up a recurring tithe or offering: Click Here To Give Online.
_____________________
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When have you tried to figure out on your own the ingredients or components of something to recreate it but only came close to reproducing it rather than getting it right? What difference would have been made it the maker or original inventor had provided it for you?
These verses describe a maker or creator who knows on a deep and intimate level who you really are and what the ingredients of your created identity really are. How have you discovered who the Maker created you to be as you have grown in your faith?
What are the other sources in your life or throughout your life that have added (or attempted to add or that you are tempted to add) ingredients to your identity?
What is your biggest fear or challenge to shut out all of those other sources trying to define you and only hear from your Maker?
In verses 13-14, David describes his created identity as one that is as wonderful and marvelous as all of God's other creations. If your created and true identity is made up of only that which is good, how does this help you discover what is - and isn't - truly part of who God created you to really be?
In a way, David speaks to a discovery of who He really is rather than an effort to do or be a certain way. He talks about a baby that begins in darkness and isolation that then comes to know how marvelous and wonderful God's created identity of him really is.
If you think of yourself as the baby in this picture - living at the moment with uncertainty and helplessness - what would you do (or not do) to learn who you have really been created to be?
Now re-read the same two verses, but this time as a prayer. Then pause and simply be still and quite for a moment and listen. What do you sense the Spirit is telling you that he sees? (Hint: what ideas, questions, thoughts, tensions, or convictions come to mind?)
How can you make this your prayer each day this week to begin the discovery of your true identity?
What will you do each day to respond to this prayer?
Pray for each person in the micro church to follow through with their answers to the previous two questions. Pray for each other to tune out and get rid of all the outside sources trying to define you, and only trust the Maker.
_______________________________
CONNECTION CARDS
Be sure to fill out the online Connection Card to let us know next steps, prayer requests, or other information you'd like to share, click here.
_____________________
MULTIPLICATION
Share spiritual/missional conversations you've had where you live, work, and play:
- Who did you have a conversation with that took a spiritual/missional turn this week?
- What questions did you ask to discover where God is at work in their life, even if they are not aware?
- How were you able to share your story of life change or how you have experienced Jesus?
- How can you be intentional this week with people where you live, work, and play to have spiritual/missional conversations if the opportunity arises?
- Who in your life do you think could be disciple-able or open to spiritual/missional conversations?
_____________________
WHAT'S NEXT?
- Discuss the next step for your micro church. When will we gather again, and which purpose will it fulfill (missions, fellowship/care, growth, worship, multiplication)?/giveback/giveback
- Discuss the next step for your micro church. When will we gather again, and which purpose will it fulfill (missions, fellowship/care, growth, worship, multiplication)?
January 05, 2025
Sermon Page
Sermon Slides
YouVersion
Podcast Audio
_____________________
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Student Life Camp, June 16-20, 2025 - Registration Now Open!
OneLife Students is going back to Student Life Camp this Summer and this year we are heading to the beach! This is going to be a great experience where your student will get to grow closer to God, their small groups, and their leaders! The dates are June 16th - 20th. Registration is open and spots are filling up fast. Visit onelifeknox.com/camp for more information and to register!
MyOneLife - A 4-Week Sunday Morning Small Group Experience
The first step for every OneLifer to get involved and get to know our church culture and mission is a 4-week small group experience called MyOneLife. It takes place on Sunday mornings in the Meeting Room at each of our campuses. You’ll learn about the vision & values of our church, discover your personal mission & spiritual gifts, and find out tons of ways to get involved. The next MyOneLife will start on February 2nd, so for more information or to sign up, mark the “MyOneLife” box on your Connection Card.
Baptism
If you’ve given your life to Jesus but haven’t gone public with your story through baptism then it’s time to take that step! Mark the baptism box on your Connection Card and we’ll help you get started.
_____________________
GIVE BACK
Give Jesus your best! Make a one-time tithe or offering or to set up a recurring tithe or offering: Click Here To Give Online.
_____________________
Bottom Line: There can be only one source of identity.
Identity: Who I am, the way I think about myself, the way I am viewed by the world, and the characteristics that define me;
Identity: my exact likeness in nature and qualities.
Psalms 139:13-16 NLT
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
My identity has already been defined as something good.
Only the maker knows the true identity.
Uncertainty and helplessness are just the beginning of discovery.
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START TALKING
When have you tried to combine two sources for something but it only caused problems? Maybe it was trying to combine ingredients from two different recipes, using two different sources of power, listening to two different voices for information, or having two different leaders calling the shots. What would have been different if you had only trusted or used one source?When have you tried to figure out on your own the ingredients or components of something to recreate it but only came close to reproducing it rather than getting it right? What difference would have been made it the maker or original inventor had provided it for you?
START THINKING
Read Psalm 139:1-12.
Read Psalm 139:1-12.
What do these verses say that God knows about you?
Now read Psalm 139:13-18.
Now read Psalm 139:13-18.
What do you notice is different about how these verses describe how God knows you?
Why is it important to go beyond simply acknowledging that God knows all about you but that he also knows you?
Why is it important to go beyond simply acknowledging that God knows all about you but that he also knows you?
START SHARING
Read Psalm 139:13-14 again. These verses describe a maker or creator who knows on a deep and intimate level who you really are and what the ingredients of your created identity really are. How have you discovered who the Maker created you to be as you have grown in your faith?
What are the other sources in your life or throughout your life that have added (or attempted to add or that you are tempted to add) ingredients to your identity?
What is your biggest fear or challenge to shut out all of those other sources trying to define you and only hear from your Maker?
In verses 13-14, David describes his created identity as one that is as wonderful and marvelous as all of God's other creations. If your created and true identity is made up of only that which is good, how does this help you discover what is - and isn't - truly part of who God created you to really be?
START DOING
Read Psalm 139:15-16 again.In a way, David speaks to a discovery of who He really is rather than an effort to do or be a certain way. He talks about a baby that begins in darkness and isolation that then comes to know how marvelous and wonderful God's created identity of him really is.
If you think of yourself as the baby in this picture - living at the moment with uncertainty and helplessness - what would you do (or not do) to learn who you have really been created to be?
START PRAYING
Read Psalm 139:23-24. Now re-read the same two verses, but this time as a prayer. Then pause and simply be still and quite for a moment and listen. What do you sense the Spirit is telling you that he sees? (Hint: what ideas, questions, thoughts, tensions, or convictions come to mind?)
How can you make this your prayer each day this week to begin the discovery of your true identity?
What will you do each day to respond to this prayer?
Pray for each person in the micro church to follow through with their answers to the previous two questions. Pray for each other to tune out and get rid of all the outside sources trying to define you, and only trust the Maker.
_______________________________
CONNECTION CARDS
Be sure to fill out the online Connection Card to let us know next steps, prayer requests, or other information you'd like to share, click here.
_____________________
MULTIPLICATION
Share spiritual/missional conversations you've had where you live, work, and play:
- Who did you have a conversation with that took a spiritual/missional turn this week?
- What questions did you ask to discover where God is at work in their life, even if they are not aware?
- How were you able to share your story of life change or how you have experienced Jesus?
- How can you be intentional this week with people where you live, work, and play to have spiritual/missional conversations if the opportunity arises?
- Who in your life do you think could be disciple-able or open to spiritual/missional conversations?
_____________________
WHAT'S NEXT?
- Discuss the next step for your micro church. When will we gather again, and which purpose will it fulfill (missions, fellowship/care, growth, worship, multiplication)?/giveback/giveback
- Discuss the next step for your micro church. When will we gather again, and which purpose will it fulfill (missions, fellowship/care, growth, worship, multiplication)?
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