30 Apr Discussion Guide Lost from Others Part One
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 Others Part One
Discussion Questions
What’s the worst part of getting lost?
Genesis 4:1-7 (The Message)
Adam slept with Eve his wife. She conceived and had Cain. She said, “I’ve gotten a man, with God’s help!” Then she had another baby, Abel. Abel was a herdsman and Cain a farmer. Time passed. Cain brought an offering to God from the produce of his farm. Abel also brought an offering, but from the firstborn animals of his herd, choice cuts of meat. God liked Abel and his offering, but Cain and his offering didn’t get his approval. Cain lost his temper and went into a sulk. God spoke to Cain: “Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won’t you be accepted? And if you don’t do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it’s out to get you, you’ve got to master it.”
The Story of Cain
John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Adam said, “I can’t get over a feeling that Cain got the dirty end of the stick.”
“Maybe he did,” said Samuel. “But Cain lived and had children, and Abel lives only in the story. We are Cain’s children. And isn’t it strange that three grown men, here in a century so many thousands of years away, discuss this crime as though it happened in King City yesterday and hadn’t come up for trial?
What kind of person do you think Cain was?
What did Cain expect from God when he brought his offering?
Who reached out to mend the conflict first, Cain or God?
Genesis 4:8-12 (The Message)
Cain had words with his brother. They were out in the field; Cain came at Abel his brother and killed him. God said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “How should I know? Am I his babysitter?”
The Loss of Others
Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices reaches complete beastiality, and it all comes form lying continually to others and himself. A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn’t it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked up on a word and made a mountain out of a pea–he knows all of that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility…
What lie did Cain believe about himself that made murder a possible path for him?
How is Cain’s declaration that he was not responsible for keeping track of his brother contrary to his behavior before he killed Abel?
How did Cain’s need for approval cause him to lose his connection to his brother?
Have you ever become lost like Cain, forgetting to love others well because you have believed a lie about yourself?
Genesis 4:12-16 (The Message)
God said, “What have you done! The voice of your brother’s blood is calling to me from the ground. From now on you’ll get nothing but curses from this ground; you’ll be driven from this ground that has opened its arms to receive the blood of your murdered brother. You’ll farm this ground, but it will no longer give you its best. You’ll be a homeless wanderer on Earth.” Cain said to God, “My punishment is too much. I can’t take it! You’ve thrown me off the land and I can never again face you. I’m a homeless wanderer on Earth and whoever finds me will kill me.” God told him, “No. Anyone who kills Cain will pay for it seven times over.” God put a mark on Cain to protect him so that no one who met him would kill him. Cain left the presence of God and lived in No-Man’s-Land, east of Eden.
Salvation from Sin
Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World
The problem is, many of the people in need of saving are in churches, and at least part of what they need saving from is the idea that God sees the world the same way they do.
What does Cain’s conversation with God reveal about God’s love for Cain and Abel?
What does Cain’s punishment reveal about God’s concern for justice for both victims of sin and those who commit sin?
How are love and justice both necessary for our salvation from sin?
How does our ability to value love and justice equally help us not to lose one another?
Closing Thought
Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart
How much greater is the God we have than the one we think we have.
Take turns sharing a story about or characteristic of someone else in the group that helps you feel less alone or reminds you of God’s love.