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

This week we continue our series titled Beloved. This series will be taking us through the book of 1 John. We will be taking a look at how the Gospel, the true story of the sacrificial love Christ has for us, makes us whole.

Today’s Topic

Made Whole Through Loving One Another

Discussion Questions

How would you define the word “love?”

Acts 10:34-35

“So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

Mother Teresa

“If you judge people you have no time to love them.”

Why do you think people allow stereotypes and prejudices to affect their view of others?

How does getting to know someone’s personal story help us move past our prejudice and stereotypes?

1 John 4:20-21

“If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

Why do you think it can be hard to stay committed to relationships with others, particularly with people different from us?

When relationships get messy and difficult, why do you think the tendency is for people to revert back to their own tribe?

And yet, how does the constrictive nature of commitment enable us to be more of who God has called us to be?

How does the Gospel actually empower us to stay committed and make us into a different kind of tribe, a different kind of humanity?

Closing Thought

Romans 5:6-8

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

How has God loved you?

What does it look like to love one another with that same kind of love? 

How can that love, put on display fir the world to see, bring healing into the brokenness of our world today?