21 May Discussion Guide Lost from Creation
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 series titled Lost and Found, in which we study one of the central metaphors Jesus uses to talk about the human condition apart from God: lostness. From Genesis until now, the biblical story reveals that people are lost in four primary ways: lost from God, themselves, one another, and creation. In this new series, we will learn to follow the path home by discovering all the ways Jesus has come to find us.
Today’s Topic
Lost from Creation
Discussion Questions
What is the most beautiful or awe-inspiring sight in nature you’ve ever experienced?
Creation is Good
Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
How have you experienced God’s goodness through nature?
How do humans generally regard nature as something that is good?
Why have humans generally struggled to care for nature as a valuable source of goodness in the world?
Creation has a Covenant
Genesis 9:8-10
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after youand with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.
Morgan Stephens
Loving and rescuing creation from human sin is an act that comes directly from the heart of God.
What was God promising in the covenant in Genesis 9?
Historically speaking, have humans aided God in keeping that promise?
How is creation care an act of covenantal faithfulness?
Creation is Fallen
CS Lewis, The Case for Christianity
For Christianity . . . thinks God made the world–that space and time, heat and cold, and all the colours and tastes, and all the animals and vegetables, are things that God ‘made out of His head’ as a man makes up a story. But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again.
Do you feel drawn toward any specific efforts to care for the earth?
What kinds of things can individuals do to support better care for the earth?
Do you regard caring for creation as part of your Christian faith?
God has Good News for Creation
Mark 16:15
[Jesus] said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”
Revelation 21:4-5
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea… There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Can caring for creation before the return of Christ help establish God’s redemptive plan?
If we valued caring for the earth as part of a broader definition of evangelism, how would our churches be impacted?
How do you think God regards our treatment of the earth?
Closing Thought
Katharine Hayhoe
For Christians, doing something about climate change is about living out our faith – caring for those who need help, our neighbors here at home or on the other side of the world, and taking responsibility for this planet that God created and entrusted to us.
Take a few minutes to share some of things you are already doing to foster better care of God’s creation, and then talk about ways your group could increase its awareness and efforts to be faithful to God’s desire for us to tend the world he has created.