Conversation Starters
Conversation Starters help us dig deeper, connecting Sunday’s sermons with our Monday lives. Please know that these questions are meant to be a resource. You do not have to follow them verbatim or get through them all. We trust you to know your group and to ask the questions based on your group needs.

1. Read Romans 5:6-11.

2. What stood out to you from the passage?

3. What stood out to you from the sermon?

4. Consider the unprecedented reality in verse 8 that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Is there anything in your life you are holding onto or trying to “fix” before allowing yourself to receive God’s love? What would it look like for you to live in acknowledgement of being reconciled to God now, even while you're still struggling with sin?

5. How will you apply this to your life? What are you going to do, be, or think differently because of this truth?

Title: The Result of Rescue: Reconciliation
Reference: Romans 5:6-11
Speaker: Paul Brandes, PaulB@cckc.church

> How do you know if someone loves you?

> God proved his persistent love first.

> God proved his persistent love even when we didn’t deserve it.

> God proved his persistent love by paying the ultimate price

“If we are looking for a definition of love, we should look not in a dictionary, but at Calvary.”
- John Stott, The Cross of Christ

> God proved his persistent love by paying the ultimate price

> God proved his persistent love by reconciling us to friendship.

“Justification language is legal, law-court language, picturing the believer being declared innocent by the judge. Reconciliation language, on the other hand, comes from the world of personal relationships. ‘To reconcile’ means to bring together, or make peace between, two estranged or hostile parties. The language of reconciliation is seldom used in other religions because the relationship between human beings and the deity is not conceived there in the personal categories for which the language is appropriate.” - Doug Moo

“At the cross, love goes to hell and emerges victorious over it. It is damnation, as one man said, and Jesus takes it lovingly. He takes us, lovingly too. There is no greater love a man can have for his friends than to lay down his life, have it torn up, and then have it raised up for their salvation. Pondering the brutality of the cross, Jesus says, ‘I’ll do that for you.’ Whatever it costs him, he loves you. He loves us to death.” - Jared Wilson

> Receive and rejoice in our friendship with God.

> God proved his persistent love first.