15 Aug Discussion Guide: The Privileges and Benefits of Calling
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 one-off message from Pastor Morgan Stephens where we are looking at what it means to be called by God. A calling can be both inspiring and overwhelming, painful and joyful all at the same time. And, the call to follow Jesus and His calling to impact the world for the Kingdom of God is no exception. But what does it mean to be called to this work and why should we answer that calling?
Today’s Topic
The Privileges and Benefits of Calling
Discussion Questions
Do you know anyone whom you would say is “walking in their calling?” What makes you say that about that person?
To reconcile something means to adjust the difference between what it is and what it is supposed to be. It means to restore to a place of integrity and completeness. In the context of 2 Corinthians, Paul is saying that God intended us to live one way but humans have shifted away from that purpose and design and there is a difference between who we are and who we are meant to be. This ministry of reconciliation is the call to proclaim the truth of the Gospel to the world so that people can experience the love of Christ, the forgiveness of their sins, and be adjusted back to who they were supposed to be.
Fear and insecurity leads us to living lives of sin and idolatry in our attempts to earn our way back to the place where we feel significant, wanted and loved. However, works based approval and love is neither, and all our best efforts get us is more fear and insecurity of being found out, revealed to be a fraud. It is only the experience of the unconditional love of Christ as seen on the cross, and the forgiveness of our sins and cleanses our hearts and reconnects us to the heart of our Father that can overcome and conquer the fear and insecurity we feel on a daily basis. The proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is how that experience is brought about. To be a minister of reconciliation is to step out into the broken and dead places in our world, and in people’s lives, and proclaim the healing and resurrection power of Christ into those situations and lives.
Ephesians 3:8-10
“To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”
Alan Hirsch
“It’s not that the church has a mission my friends, it’s that God’s mission has a Church.”
Why do you think God’s plan to reconcile all things back to Himself is through a diverse community of people He calls His Church?
How can the way we love, serve, and do life with one another help accomplish that ministry of reconciliation in the world?
Our love for one another, in the midst of our differences, takes the message of reconciliation and the unconditional love of Christ and puts it on display for the world to see not only what it looks like in action, but that it is even possible in the first place. The same way a great drawing or illustration helps you better understand what the words in a book are trying to communicate so the way we love one another illustrates the heart of the Gospel. In the same way the picture on the front of a puzzle box helps you know what the end result is supposed to look like, so the community of Jesus’ people loving, serving, forgiving, and cheering for one another shows the world what life is supposed to be.
Morgan Stephens, Pastor
“Your church won’t make it if you don’t keep rowing. Which means this: Your church needs who YOU are, it needs what YOU bring. I say this not to put any more pressure on you, but only to say this: you are more important than you think, you are so meaningful to your church. What you do absolutely matters. Your inner life, what you go through matters so much to Jesus. If you don’t row, the boat won’t go.”
Have you ever felt “not needed” or “unimportant” in your church?
Why do you think satan would want you to feel that way?
If this is God’s design, you needing the church and the church needing you in order for us to accomplish the mission, why do you think God allows life and relationships to be so difficult at times?
What’s at stake if we choose to walk away from the moments and relationships God has placed us in?
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.”
Author Unknown
“There’s no place where you will experience more peace and joy than knowing you are right at the center of God’s will for your life.”
What do you think this means?
What heart-set and mindset is needed to truly believe that statement?
To believe and experience that kind of peace and joy by knowing you are in the will of God means you have to admit three things: One, that God is God and you are not. Two, that His will is perfect, even when it leads you into a place of pain and suffering. And three, that you are loved by God based on what He has said and not on what you are experiencing.
Closing Thought
Joni Eareckson
“I am sure that the angels and demons stood amazed as they watched the uncomplaining patience of your daughter.”
What is it about our ability to stay faithful and committed to Jesus and His people in the midst of difficult moments that causes angels and demons to stand amazed?
To what do you believe God has called you?