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 primary 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

Arise

Today’s Topic

Union With Christ

Discussion Questions

Romans 6:1-8

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

Union With Christ Re-Aims Our Desires

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Philippians 2:13 (NIV)

For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

What do you think God desires most for his people?

What should we desire most for ourselves as Christians?

How can we best deal with the desires we have that do not honor our union with God?

Union With Christ Re-Orders Our Allegiances

Romans 6:16–18 

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

 

Matthew 6:24  

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Philippians 3:20-21 

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

What does a life that prioritizes loyalty to God look like?

How can our allegiance to our heavenly citizenship benefit our earthly cities?

How does our willingness to live united with God help us create greater unity in our earthly relationships?

Union With Christ Re-Shapes Our Identities

2 Corinthians 5:17  

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Galatians 3:26–28 

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

 

What are some of the unique interests and talents that make you “you”?

What is one of your favorite characteristics or attributes of God?

How has your faith in Jesus reshaped your identity?

Union With Christ Re-Does Our Have-Tos

Romans 6:13 

Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

Romans 8:12–14 

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (NIV)

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

How does presenting ourselves daily to God help us live united with him?

How can we live in a way that shows we are obligated to righteousness and saved by grace?

What practices and perspectives can help us be led by the Spirit?

Closing Thought

Teresa of Ávila

Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good, and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.

In your final moments together, pray for each person present to unite themselves with God in a greater way.