Before We Get Started

For our discussion today we will be using the sermon series discussion guides. If you would like to follow along you can access this discussion guide on the website at mosaicchurchaustin.com and then select “community group resources” in the menu options.

Prayer

Because the main goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for, or  anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together.

This Week’s Topic

Today, we will discuss some of the thoughts and truths communicated by Pastor Jim Laffoon, who was our guest preacher this past Sunday. Pastor Jim challenged us in our calling to be the kind of community through which our world could see the healing and reconciliation Jesus brings into the brokenness of our lives. To accomplish this, he said, we have to be a new kind of humanity.

Today’s Topic

A New Humanity

Discussion Questions

What is God looking for?

1 Corinthians 1:26-29

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” ‭

Why do you think God uses the weak and “foolish” things of the world to accomplish His purposes in the earth?

1 Peter 2:1-10

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
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How does malice, anger, and hatred keep us from being the people God can use to accomplish His purposes?

What does it mean to be free from malice? 

How does the Gospel of Jesus enable that freedom?

How does the imagery stones being built on top of one another, and on Jesus as the cornerstone, show us God’s heart and desire for our church?

What is the purpose of a temple?

What then, is God’s purpose for His church?

How does the Gospel make one new ethnicity out of all different ethnicities?

Closing Thought

‭‬What part do we play in making that a reality?