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

This week we have a stand alone message dealing with emotional maturity. Over the last two years fear, anxiety, and uncertainty have plagued our nation and it has taken an emotional toll on people. What will it take to overcome those experiences, thoughts and feelings that threaten to steal our peace and our joy? How does the Gospel empower us to remain steady and stable in the midst of all this uncertainty?

Today’s Topic

Three Keys to Emotional Maturity

Discussion Questions

Key #1: Quit Giving In To Chronic Reactivity

Time Magazine, Why Everyone is so Rude

“September 2021 was a bad month for manners. On the 21st, a woman pulled a gun on servers at a Philadelphia fast food restaurant when they asked her to order online. On the 16th, several women from Texas pummeled a hostess at a New York City family-style restaurant. A few days prior to that a Connecticut mother was investigated for slapping an elementary school bus driver and that same week, a California woman was charged with felony assault for attacking a SouthWest airlines flight attendant and dislodging some of her teeth.”

What kind of things make people fearful or anxious?

What situations tend to make you fearful or anxious?

What effect does fear and anxiety have on the human heart, mind, and behaviors?

What would it take to be a “positive, emotional presence” in those moments where fear and anxiety threaten our peace?

What’s the difference between reacting to a situation and responding to a situation? 

Key #2: Quit Believing Everything Everyone says About You is True

Galatians 2:20

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

In what places do we, as Americans, find our identity? 

What’s the problem with having your identity rooted in those things?

As Christians, where should our identity be rooted? 

How might having your identity (value, worth, security) rooted in Christ affect the way we live and love others?

Key #3: Quit the Emotion of Despair

Romans 5:1-5

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

What causes us to feel the emotion of despair?

What’s the difference between despair and hope?

Where does Hope come from?

Closing Thought

How does Jesus give us a hope that cannot be taken from us?