Mosaic Church

22 Aug Discussion Guide: Differently The Same – Worship Part 1

Posted at 09:00h in Community Group Resources by Mosaic Team

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 begin a new series for the Fall titled Differently the Same. A lot has changed over the past two years, both out there in our world and internally within each of us. However, in light of all the things that are different today, there are some things that remain the same. One of those things is the purpose, mission, and vision we are called to as followers of Christ. During this sermon series we will be taking a fresh look at that mission, and the core values we believe God has called us to pursue together as Mosaic Church: Worship, Community and Mission.

Today’s Topic

What Worship Looks Like Part 1

Discussion Questions

What has changed in your world over the last 2 years? Why?

What has stayed the same? Why?

Harold Best, Unceasing Worship

“We begin with one fundamental fact about worship: at this very moment, and for as long as this world endures, everybody inhabiting it is bowing down and serving something or someone—an artifact, a person, an institution, an idea, a spirit, or God through Christ. Everyone is being shaped thereby and is growing up toward some measure of fullness, whether of righteousness or of evil. No one is exempt and no one can wish to be. We are, every one of us, unceasing worshipers and will remain so forever, for eternity is an infinite extrapolation of one of two conditions: a surrender to the sinfulness of sin unto infinite loss or the commitment of personal righteousness unto infinite gain. This is the central fact of our existence, and it drives every other fact. Within it lies the story of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation or final loss.”

What does it mean to worship something?

Based on that definition, what are some things you’d say people in our culture worship?

Genesis 12:1-3, 78-9

Now the Lord said^[a] to Abram, “Go from your country^[b] and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

“Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. ⁹And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.”

What thoughts do you supposed might have been running through Abram’s mind when the Lord called him to leave behind all that was familiar to him?

And yet, Abram chose to follow God’s calling. Why do you think that is?

What motivation(s) would you say tend to drive our worship of something?

Where does that motivation come from?

What does the worship of creation produce in our lives?

What does the worship of Creator, Yahweh, produce in our lives?

Romans 11:36-12:1

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to dedicate your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Paul tells us that whatever takes the place of glory (center focal point) in your life, you will dedicate yourself to and sacrifice for the sake of, because that is what worship looks like.

What things tend to compete for that place of glory in your own life?

Is it always bad things that compete for that place, or can it be good things as well?

Why is having Jesus in that position of glory the only way to experience true freedom?

Closing Thought

How could the worship of a community truly committed to Jesus overflow into, and have an impact on, our world?