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 main 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 conclude our “One Another” series.  We will be looking at one last way the Scriptures call us to “one another” one another. In the midst of all the “death” and loss and brokenness going on in our world today we can all find ourselves in a place of despair and hopelessness. Today we will look at what the Bible has to say about the way we can encourage one another in the midst of all that is going on. Should we just throw in the towel and hold on tight until Jesus returns? Or, is there something else Jesus has called us to be and do in the midst of all this death and brokenness?

Today’s Topic

Encourage One Another

Discussion Questions

Have you ever felt the pain of loss or death? If so, how? 

C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

A Grief Observed is a compilation of Lewis’ journal entries written following the death of his wife of four years, Hope. In referring to the pain of that loss he writes:

“How often—will it be for always?—how often will the vast emptiness astonish me like a complete novelty and make me say, ‘I never realized my loss till this moment’? The same leg is cut off time after time. The first plunge of the knife into the flesh is felt again and again.”

Why do you think we have such a hard time with the idea, and the reality, of death and loss in our lives? 

Genesis 1:31

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Based on Scripture, how does death and loss differ from what God designed the world to be?

John 8:10-11

“Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.””

 John 9:6-7

“Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.”  So he went and washed and came back seeing.”

Luke 8:46-48

“And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

John 11:34-36,38-39,43

“And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone…” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”  

How did Jesus feel about, and respond to, the brokenness and death of our world?

What would it look like for us to follow Jesus’ lead in our own response to the brokenness and death we see in our world today?

What keeps us from responding that way? 

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

“For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Therefore encourage one another with these words. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” 

How does the Truth of the Gospel and the Love of Christ encourage us to overcome those obstacles and respond in a way that brings hope and life to those dead and broken spaces?

Closing Thought