08 Oct Discussion Guide: Living Out of a Living Hope Week 1
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 begin our new series from 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Living Out of a Living Hope. In life’s ups and downs, the frailty of our human bodies, and with the time that we have each day, the resurrection of Jesus offers us what it offered for the early church in Thessalonica: a living hope.
Today’s Topic
Living Out of A Living hope
Discussion Questions
Can you share a happy or comforting memory from your childhood that you cherish?
1 Thessalonians 1:4-10
For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God,that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath
How the Resurrection Helps Us Remain Present
Brother Laurence, Practicing the Presence of God
I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied without the practice of the presence of GOD. For my part I keep myself retired with Him in the depth of the centre of my soul as much as I can; and while I am so with Him I fear nothing; but the least turning from Him is insupportable.
Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship
The church of Jesus Christ is not necessarily present when there is a correct administration of the sacrament and faithful preaching of the Word of God. The church of God is present where people gather together in the power of the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. It is possible to have the administration of the sacraments and the preaching of the Word of God and to have it be simply a human exercise. And the misunderstanding of the church in this respect is one of the things that create a primary problem for the integration of theology and spirituality. Because, as was emphasized yesterday, a bad theology will kill any prospects of a spirituality that comes from life in Christ.
Why do we so often struggle to remain present spiritually and relationally throughout the week?
Can you share about a time that someone’s intentional presence in your life encouraged you?
How does the gospel reveal that God values showing up and being present for the people he loves?
How can gathering with other Christians, developing well-defined theological understanding, and spending time practicing the presence of God increase God’s living hope in our lives?
How the Resurrection Empowers Us to Imitate Christ
Eugene Peterson
This kingdom of God life is not a matter of waking up each morning with a list of chores or an agenda to be tended to, left on our bedside table by the Holy Spirit for us while we slept. We wake up already immersed in a large story of creation and covenant, of Israel and Jesus, the story of Jesus and the stories that Jesus told. We let ourselves be formed by these formative stories, and especially as we listen to the stories that Jesus tells, get a feel for the way he does it, the way he talks, the way he treats people, the Jesus way.
Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
As Emmanuel, Cardinal Suhard says, “To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.”
The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity
Christian researcher George Barna concludes, “American Christianity has largely failed since the middle of the twentieth century because Jesus’ modern-day disciples do not act like Jesus.”
What characteristics would you use to describe a Christlike person?
What do you find mysterious about the resurrection? In contrast, how is the resurrection quite clear and straightforward to you?
How should the story of the resurrection of Jesus form and inform a Christian’s life, choices, and character?
Who is the most Christlike person you know, and how has their life and example offered hope to the people around them?
Closing Thought
Randy S Woodley
Perhaps God is greater than the west has presumed. There is nowhere that we can travel, including the depths of the ocean or outer space, where Christ is not active in creation. It would seem that part of our job on earth is to discover what Christ is up to, and to join him in it!
Spend five minutes sitting in silence together, allowing your hearts and minds to pay attention to God’s presence in your midst. End with a prayer of thanks to God never leaving you and ask him to heighten your awareness of all he is doing around you as he increases the hope to which you hold fast.