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 new Fall series 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 Community Looks Like Part 2

Discussion Questions

What has caused you the most stress, anxiety, or despair over the last 18 months? And, how has that affected your relationships with others?

Exodus 15:13,19

“You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode…For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea.”

Revelation 12:10-11

“And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

How does your story testify to the goodness and faithfulness of God?

How does your story contradict the thoughts and feelings you experience when anxiety and despair try to tell you something different about who God is? 

How might your story help those people you said God has placed in your life?

1 Corinthians 1:26-29

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” 

Harriet Tubman

“It wasn’t me, it was the Lord! I always told Him, ‘I trust to you. I don’t know where to go or what to do, but I expect You to lead me,’ and He always did.”

Why do you think God uses people and experiences the world would call weak or failures in order to accomplish His purposes? 

We, as Christians, can tend to portray ourselves as doing better than we actually are sometimes. How might being honest, and yet hopeful in faith, about our struggles help reveal who God is and what His Kingdom is all about to others?

Closing Thought

Let’s take some time to pray for one another as we trust God to give us a “new song” in the midst of what has been a difficult season for many. Is there anything specifically we can pray for?