15 Oct Discussion Guide: Living Out of a Living Hope Week 2
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 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
Integrity
Discussion Questions
What character traits or behaviors do you think of when you hear the word integrity?
1 Thessalonians 2:1-12
You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. Instead, we were like young children among you.
Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
Integrity Matters Because the Gospel Matters
Nelson Mandela
As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself. Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.
Maya Angelou
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
How does a person’s integrity amplify or increase their impact on the world?
How is Jesus’s willingness to go to the cross an example of living with integrity?
How does our willingness to be people of integrity help the gospel flourish in the world?
Integrity Can Create Spiritual Family
Brene Brown
Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.
1 Thessalonians 2:7-8
Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.
1 Thessalonians 2:11-12
For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
How can Paul’s metaphors about nursing mothers and encouraging fathers deepen our understanding of what it means to have faith like a child?
How are familial love and vulnerability connected?
If we have not had earthly families that taught us how to be people of integrity, how can we gain the necessary tools to sacrificially love one another as Paul describes?
Integrity Originates in God’s Person
2 Corinthians 5:20
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
Integrity largely has to do with purifying our intentions and a growing honesty about our actual motives.
Tim Keller
The central basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably his heart is set on us.
What kind of integrity must we have to properly serve as ambassadors of Christ?
How does our honesty and humility about our own motives help us attain the necessary integrity to fulfill our call as ambassadors of Christ?
Given what we’ve discussed so far today, how are integrity, love, and transformation connected?
Closing Thought
Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation
Your desire for more of God than you have right now, your longing for love, your need for deeper levels of spiritual transformation than you have experienced so far is the truest thing about you. You might think that your woundedness or your sinfulness is the truest thing about you or that your giftedness or your personality type or your job title or your identity as husband or wife, mother or father, somehow defines you. But, in reality, it is your desire for God and your capacity to reach for more of God than you have right now that is the deepest essence of who you are.
Since a life of integrity grows through an honest assessment of what we lack, take turns sharing one thing you desire from God in your current season of life. Perhaps you need patience, courage, peace, forgiveness, or simply more time to rest. Then pray as a group for God to meet those needs.