03 Oct Discussion Guide: Differently The Same – Community Part 3
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 3
Discussion Questions
Would you describe yourself more as an extrovert or an introvert? Explain.
Scripture tells us that we are made in the image and likeness of God, meaning we are made to be a reflection of who God is. If God exists as Father, Son, and Spirit (the Trinity), that means He is a perfectly loving and unified community in-and-of Himself. Therefore, to be made in His image means that we are also made to belong to a perfectly loving and unified community. This is the very reason God said it wasn’t good for the man to be alone. Adam could never reflect the image of a Triune God as an isolated individual human. Adam needed someone who was equal to him as a human, and yet somehow distinct and different than him. So, God formed Eve from Adam’s side.
The feel, or experience, loneliness and/or isolation goes against the very fabric and DNA of what it means to be human. Rejection, loneliness, isolation, those are all experiences that do not jive with the human design. Like putting sugar in the gas tank of your car, or like using your mobile phone to hammer a nail into the wall, using something in a way that it was not designed to be used will always cause it to breakdown. In the case of humanity, loneliness and rejection cause our psyche and our soul to begin to disintegrate. This is evident by the anxiety and fear we experience in those moments.
We were designed for community, and to deny that, or to run away from that, will always lead to some type of breakdown in the human heart.
1 John 4:7-11
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
What does it mean to love someone unconditionally?
How is that kind of love possible?
How can realizing all you need is already yours in Christ impact the way you respond to others in their moments of crisis and need?
How can it impact the way you respond when it feels like someone is offending, insulting, or accusing you of something?
How can loving others like this help bring them into the very heart of God?
Closing Thought
What are some practical things we can do together to show that kind of love to the world around us?