Starting Point
Speaker: Andy Stanley
Length: 8 Parts
Everything has a starting point. Sometimes we forget that faith has a starting point as well. For some of us, our faith journeys began in childhood or maybe we had no faith at all. Too often, our faith isn’t strong enough to withstand the pressures of adult life.
This updated study designed for community groups incorporates recently recorded podcast episodes with Andy Stanley and includes a short video to watch in your group meeting.
Available in Other Languages
Part 1: “Start”
Physical life is one of many starting points. Your formal education had a starting point. Your career had a starting point. Your romantic life had a starting point. Your experience as a parent had a starting point. Faith has a starting point as well.
Be sure to listen to the “Start” episode of The Starting Point Podcast before your group meets.
Part 2: “Problem”
During childhood, you may have been handed a faith framework through which you began to view the world. For many of us, that childhood framework didn't survive the rigors of adulthood.
Part 3: “Trust”
The three largest faith traditions—Judaism, Islam, and Christianity—claim the same starting point: a man named Abraham. God made a series of promises and Abraham’s responses to those promises had large implications.
Part 4: “Rules”
Rules are often the centerpiece of religious life. What if a relationship with God doesn’t depend on our obedience to a set of rules?
Part 5: “Jesus”
Guilt is powerful. Shame can be crippling. We all have things in our pasts that haunt us. We know we can do better from this point forward, but how are we supposed to fix the past?
Part 6: “Grace”
We often settle into a bargaining posture with God. “God, if you will...I promise I will…” We all do it. But is that really how God wants us to relate to him?
Part 7: “Faith”
We constantly look for evidence to support what we believe. But how do we know that Christianity isn’t just a made-up concept with massive success?
Part 8: “Invitation”
Jesus predicted he would start a movement—the church—that would spread all over the earth outlasting the Roman Empire. It would change the world. Here we are, two thousand years later, and Jesus’ church gathering is still going strong.
Looking for the original Starting Point sermon series? Watch the full messages here.
