06 Mar Discussion Guide: Better Than I Began Week 4
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 continue our series that has us focusing on one of the most impactful chapters in all the Bible. Romans chapter 8 is referred to by many as the high point of one of the most influential books in the history of the church. With so much stress, anxiety, insecurity, and strife swirling around our world right now, this chapter helps us to hear, remember, and re-center our lives around our true identity in Christ. And, as we do that, we truly believe that we can all end up Better Than We Began.
Today’s Topic
A Blessed Assurance
Discussion Questions
Have you ever had you paradigm, or assumption, about something shattered? If so can you tell us about it?
Romans 8:31-35
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”
How would you describe God’s love for you?
Has that description changed over time for you?
Romans 8:28-31
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
What does it mean for something to be predestined?
What does it mean for humans to have free will?
If God predestines, and yet we also have a free will to make our own choices, what are the implications, and what does that mean about how we should live life?
The idea of God’s sovereignty and predestining history, and the free will of humanity have been pitted against one another for centuries. In our minds, those two ideas seem to juxtapose one another, to be at odds with one another. However, all throughout Scripture we see the sovereignty of God and the free will of man working alongside one another in harmony. In Scripture, we see that God knows and authors the future. Yet, we also see people making choices that we know are outside of God’s desire. Somehow, those things work together. But, how?
Well, we don’t really know the answer to that question. We don’t know how God does this, only that He does this. God’s sovereignty means He oversees and orchestrates all of human history for the purpose of accomplishing His plan and purpose in the earth. This does not mean that God makes people do the things they do, but it does mean that God knows, sees, and orchestrates the actions of humanity for the purpose of accomplishing His will in the earth.
This truth should produce two different, yet simultaneous, attitudes in our hearts. First, it should give us a sense of peace knowing that God’s will is not dependent on us getting it perfect. We do not possess the power or ability to thwart God’s redemptive plan in human history. This doesn’t mean I should deliberately seek to step outside of God’s will for my life, but it does mean that my mistakes don’t destroy the course of human history like Loki and the multiverse.
Second, it should give us a great sense of responsibility because, though our choices can’t derail God’s plan of redemption, they do have consequences both in our lives and in the lives of the people we care about. God can use our bad choices, but God doesn’t want us to make those bad choices because He knows the catastrophic outfall they can produce in our lives, and in the lives of others. The goal is to seek to walk in obedience to God’s will because it is how He has designed life to work, and our obedience brings peace and blessing into our lives and into the lives of others as a result.
Romans 8:37-39
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Why do you think we tend to view God’s love as something we have to earn, or maybe prove we deserve?
When you read Romans 8, how does that shatter the paradigm of having to earn God’s love?
What does Paul’s statement that, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God,” speak to your heart?
How does the Gospel of Jesus guarantee the Truth that God’s love for you is indeed unconditional?
Earlier, in Romans 5:8, Paul tells us that, “God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
This means that when we were at our worst, God loved us. It also means that all of your sins were future sins when Jesus went to the cross. So, if God knows the beginning from the end, and therefore knew every sin you would ever commit and almost 2,000 years before you were even born sent His son to die for your sins, then He isn’t surprised by any of your poor choices. Meaning, He loved you, and sent His son as a ransom for you, knowing full well everything you were going to do in rebellion to His will. And. He. Still. Chose. You. And. Loved. You.
Closing Thought
What might it look like for a community of people to believe that Truth?