04 Jun Discussion Guide Coming to a City Near You: Paul’s Dream Keys
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
Today, we continue our series titled Coming Soon to a City Near You, in which we study the letter of Ephesians. Written to Christians in the ancient city of Ephesus, which is in modern-day Turkey, Ephesians announces to the world that there is a better story coming to a city near you, and the church is the screen on which the “Jesus movie” plays.
Today’s Topic
Paul’s Dream Keys
Discussion Questions
What city would you most like to visit in the world?
Ephesians 1:18-19
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
The Hope Key
“know the hope to which he has called you”
Joni Eareckson Tada, Hope…the Best of Things
Oh, how we need to grasp the soul-settling hope found in the pages of God’s Word–not only grasp it, but allow the hope of God to fill and overflow our hearts, transforming us into people who are confident and at peace with themselves, their God, and their circumstances
What is the hope to which God has called you?
How can hope settle our souls, increase our confidence, and bring us peace?
Can you share a story about how hope has formed you more into the likeness of Christ?
The Power Key
“and his incomparably great power for us who believe”
Ephesians 1:18-20
I pray that … you may know [God’s] incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
When we define God’s incomparably great power as embracing weakness and trust, how does that differ from the world’s definition of power?
How does embracing weakness lead to greater strength for the Christian?
What spiritual practices can grow our trust in God?
Closing Thought
Martin Luther King, Jr, I Have a Dream
So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
Take a few minutes to pray for the hope of the gospel to light the hearts of the people in our city, that we would understand God’s great love, and learn to love others as he first loved us.