18 Nov Discussion Guide: Making A Mosaic Week 3
PRAYER
Take the first few minutes of your time together to listen to what God is doing in one another’s lives and pray for any specific needs people in your group may have.
Today’s Discussion
This week we continue our series called Making A Mosaic. We will be taking a look at not only the story of Mosaic Church, but also the future of Mosaic and what God is calling us to be and do, both in the city of Austin and to the world abroad. What is it going to take for us to get there? And, what is that going to mean for us as a community of people seeking to live lives centered on the Gospel? Let’s dive in and see what goes into making a Mosaic.
Discussion Questions
What does it mean to be significant?
Que significa ser importante o significante?
Madona
“I have an iron will, and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy. . . I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being, and then I get to another stage and think I’m mediocre and uninteresting. . . . Again and again. My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that’s always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I’ve become Somebody, I still have to prove I’m Somebody. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will..”
What are some ways people go about pursuing significance?
What do you think the motivation behind that pursuit?
How does that motivation affect our relationships with others?
Madonna
“Tengo una voluntad de hierro, y toda mi voluntad ha sido siempre para dominar un sentimiento horrible de ser inadecuada…Presionó tras uno de esos episodios, y me descubro a mi misma como un ser humano especial, y después entro en otra etapa y pienso que soy mediocre y no muy interesante…Una y otra vez. Mi impulso en la vida viene del miedo horrible de ser mediocre. Y eso siempre me está empujando y empujando. Porque aunque me he convertido en “Alguien”, todavía tengo que probarme a mí misma que soy “Alguien”. Mi lucha nunca ha terminado y probablemente nunca terminara.”
De qué maneras la gente busca la significancia o importancia?
Que piensas es la motivación detrás de esa búsqueda?
Como esa motivación afecta nuestras relaciones con otros?
The motivation that continually drives us to the need to feel significant and the pursuit of temporary, created things to bring that feeling of significance is the motivation of fear. It’s the fear that we are missing out on something, the fear that we lack value or worth, the fear that we are not worthy of love. It is the same fear inflicted on Eve and Adam when the serpent accused God of not really loving or valuing them as human beings that caused them to grasp for the significance the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil promised to bring them. The problem is this…God has designed us and made us for significance. He created us in His image and then set us up to rule and have dominion over His good creation as His viceroys, His managers. That is significant. That is a significant task and a significant identity. But, when humanity allowed the accusation of God’s lack of love to seep into our minds we grew discontent with the significant identity God had given us and exchanged it, perverted that identity, for what we saw as more significant in our own eyes. The moment we did this fear took over where love once resided in our hearts. Now, separated from God, from ourselves, from one another, and from creation, we live with this constant, nagging feeling that we are lacking something.
That fear then affects every other area of our lives. See, we all have an idea of our own personal hell, that place where we feel insignificant, unloved, unvalued, unwanted. For some it’s our body image. For some it’s our bank account. For some it’s the size or location of our house. For some it’s the title or position. For some it’s just the reputation. Whatever it is we want to avoid going to that hell at all costs, and so we look for, and grasp hold of, some kind of functional savior that will rescue us from that hell. We then devote ourselves to that god, dedicating our time, energy and money to it, and we sacrifice our time, money, relationships, health, etc. so we can make space for that god in our lives because, as Paul tells us in Romans 12:1, that is the thing we worship. When we worship something or someone other than the One True God, the God who is a loving community in-and-of Himself, in whose image we are made, then our hearts are drawn towards our own need for significance and rather than loving, serving, sacrificing and believing the best about others we turn to a life of manipulation, using, conniving, self-centered living because if our significance comes from who we are then by default that means for us to feel significant we have to see others as less significant, less deserving of celebration. We then begin to see our family and our friends as means to the ultimate end of our self-significance.
La motivación que continuamente nos lleva a necesitar el ser importante y a buscar cosas temporales que nos den ese sentido de importancia es la motivación del miedo. Es el miedo que nos estamos perdiendo de algo, el miedo que nos falta algo de valor, el miedo que no merecemos ser amados. Es el mismo miedo infligido a Adán y Eva cuando la serpiente acusó a Dios de no amarlos o valorarlos verdaderamente como seres humanos que causó que tomarán de la fruta del conocimiento del bien y el mal, porque eso prometía darles importancia. El problema es que Dios nos diseñó e hizo para la importancia. Nos creó en su imagen para reinar sobre su buena creación como sus gerentes. Eso es significativo. Es una tarea significativa y una identidad significativa. Pero cuando la humanidad dejó que la acusación de la falta de amor De Dios entrará en nuestras mentes, ahora somos inconformes con la identidad importante que Dios nos dio, y la cambio, la pervirtió por lo que nosotros pensamos es más importantes en nuestro punto de vista. En el momento en que hicimos esto, el miedo empezó a tomar el lugar que el amor tenía en nuestros corazones. Ahora, separados De Dios, de nosotros mismos, de los demás, y de la creación, vivimos con este sentimiento necio de que nos hace falta algo.
1 John 4:7-11,18
”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. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ‘
What is powerful enough to overcome and deliver us from those fears of not being enough?
What are the benefits of being part of an unconditionally loving community of people?
What are the challenges?
1 Juan 4:7-11,18
”Amados, amémonos unos a otros, porque el amor es de Dios, y todo el que ama es nacido de Dios y conoce a Dios. El que no ama no conoce a Dios, porque Dios es amor. En esto se manifestó el amor de Dios en nosotros: en que Dios ha enviado a Su Hijo unigénito (único) al mundo para que vivamos por medio de El. En esto consiste el amor: no en que nosotros hayamos amado a Dios, sino en que El nos amó a nosotros y envió a Su Hijo como propiciación por nuestros pecados. Amados, si Dios así nos amó, también nosotros debemos amarnos unos a otros. En el amor no hay temor, sino que el perfecto amor echa fuera el temor, porque el temor involucra castigo, y el que teme no es hecho perfecto en el amor. ‘
preguntas
Closing Thought
Hebrews 10:24-25
”And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.’
Why does God want us to be connected to a Gospel-centered community?
What is it going to take for us to be the kind of community group who know each other intimately and spur one another on to love and good works?
What changes/choices do you need to make to enable that to the be a reality in your life?
Pensamientos de Cierre
Hebreos 10:24-25
‘Consideremos cómo estimularnos unos a otros al amor y a las buenas obras, no dejando de congregarnos, como algunos tienen por costumbre, sino exhortándonos unos a otros , y mucho más al ver que el día se acerca. ‘
preguntas