Growing in the Word 2025
Galatians Sermon Series "WHAT REALLY MATTERS"
PURPOSE
As a church, we want to always grow in the Word of God. However, we have set growing in the Word as one of the church wide initatives for 2025, because we recognize that such growth is particularly important for us during this transitional time. Therefore, we have set forth a special sermon series on the book of Galatians.
The book of Galatians was written by Apostle Paul to address what he calls a “different Gospel (1:6-9, paraphrased),” one that placed circumcision and other laws of the Torah above the grace of God and life in faith that ensues such grace. The Church was experiencing continued growth and ethnic/cultural diversity at this time, with some scholars estimating that the Church had actually become more Gentile heavy by the time of Paul’s writing. Therefore, we can perhaps understand Paul’s passionate work in this letter as asking the question of “what really matters,” when it comes to the big spiritual questions of how a person gets saved, what life right with God looks like, what Jesus primarily cares about, what it means to be truly free, and etc. In other words, Paul was asking what really matters as the visible markers of the church were changing. The context and the message of the letter both seem thus fitting to our congregation today as we continue to grow as a church in this gap period.
DETAILS
A. Preaching
From March 2 to April 6, we will cover one chapter of Galatians per Sunday. All preachers will be from our own preaching team rather than guest speakers.
B. Studying
We will be providing a study guide our staff and media team have created just for this series. Each chapter of the guide has loose connections to what is preached, while being different enough to also work as an independent study. We are hoping that the guide enriches our listening to the preached sermons and widens our understanding of each chapter of Galatians. The study guide will be distributed in print as well as digital.
- Study Guide - Print Version (available for pick up in the Main Hall 2/23-3/9)
- Study Guide - Digital Version (see directions below)
Instructions to Access the Galatians Study Online
- Scan the QR Code or Follow the Link
- Use your phone's camera to scan the QR code or click this link:
- Galatians Study Link
- Create an Account & Download the App
- If you don’t have an account, sign up by creating a login.
- Download the Fully Alive app if prompted.
- Navigate to Living Hope Community Church
- Open the app and log in.
- On the left-side menu, find and select Living Hope Community Church.
- Find the Galatians Study
- Under Individual and Group Studies, click on Galatians Study to access the materials.
You're all set to start your study!
C. Cell Groups
We ask all cell groups to meet every week through this series. We encourage those without cell groups to follow along using the study guide individually. Those doing First Cell can also use the study guide in addition to the Rooted curriculum. Cell group leaders can receive optional training on each Sunday during the series. Please inquire with Pastor Ben Tabbal (ben.tabbal@livinghopecc.org).
