Mosaic Church

21 Feb Discussion Guide: What About Week 3

Posted at 13:07h in Community Group Resources by Brett Millican

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 continue a new series titled What About? We will be taking a look at emotional, cultural, and rational reasons for not only why we can believe the claims of Christianity, but also why would should want to believe those claims to be true.

Today’s Topic

A Better Basis For Doing Justice

Discussion Questions

What does the word “justice” mean to you?

Arthur Leff, Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law.

“There is no way to prove one ethical or legal system superior to any other, unless at some point an evaluator is asserted to have the final, uncontradictable, unexaminable word.”

What must exist in order for something to be just or unjust?

If someone claims there is no God, then what should his/her responses to the brokenness and injustice of our world look like? Why?

If someone claims to be a follower of Christ, then what should his/her responses to the brokenness and injustice of our world look like? Why?

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

If the motivation and actions of a person who believes in God ought to look like love, humility, sacrifice, and standing up for the oppressed and those on the underside of power, why do you think Christians and the Church have gotten such a bad rap when it comes to these issues at times?

What possible motivations exist in a person’s heart who seeks to be “good” apart from a belief in God?

How does that compare to or differ from the motivation of someone who is a follower of Christ in their pursuit of “good” works?

Cornel West

“Justice is what love looks like in public.”

How might living in true obedience to God’s Word, and to the heart of the Gospel, reflect who God is and what His Kingdom is all about?

Is it possible to reflect that kind of love if you have not first received that kind of love yourself?

Closing Thought

If you’re a Christian, how would you say the Gospel enables us to both experience and give away that kind of unconditional love to others?