October 12, 2025
Christ For Us
Romans 5:8-10 Get to Know the Group
What is the most unusual or funny thing you’ve given up for someone you care about—or that someone's given up for you? God’s Words of Grace Why does Paul emphasize our condition before Christ saved? _________________________________
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How does knowing that Christ died for us while we were still sinners affect our humility or gratitude? ________________________________________________________________________________________ How does justification unite us as a church? Why is it important that the church’s foundation is not tradition or programs but the gospel? ________________________________________________________________________________________ What role do you play in preserving gospel clarity for the next generation? ________________________________________________________________________________________ Paul says we were reconciled while we were enemies. What does that tell us about God’s character? ____________________________________________________________________________ ___________ Find the Oasis for Life In what ways do we sometimes minimize the cross or treat it lightly? ________________________________________________________________________________________
What does living with resurrection hope look like in daily life? ________________________________________________________________________________________ (Write the names of requested prayers on the lines below) Closing Prayer: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your amazing love, demonstrated while we were still sinners. We thank you for Christ’s blood, by which we are justified. We thank you that we justly stand reconciled through his death, and that his resurrection secures our hope now and forever. We also offer up in prayer to you those who are on our hearts _____________, _______________, ______________, ____________. Bless our church, not to our glory, but to you. Strengthen us for mission, give us boldness to speak of Christ for the ungodly. Strengthen us for community, to live out our reconciliation. Strengthen us for the future, confident in the life of Christ. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
FIRST READING
Genesis 3:8-15
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They heard the voice of the Lord God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9
The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
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The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” 11
God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?” 12
The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13
The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14
The Lord God said to the serpent:
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Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal. You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.
SECOND READING (Sermon Text) 8
Romans 5:8–10
But God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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Therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God's wrath through him. 10For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
GOSPEL
John 1:9-14
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The real light that shines on everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not recognize him. 11He came to what was his own, yet his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. 13They were born, not of blood, or of the desire of the flesh, or of a husband's will, but born of God. 14
The Word became flesh and dwelled among us. We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Holy Bible: Evangelical Heritage Version. (2019). Northwestern Publishing House.