20 Oct Discussion Guide: You Have a Part to Play – Our Common Humanity
Before We Get Started
For our discussion today we will be using the You Have A Part To Play 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.
You Have A Part To Play Topics
Fame Culture. Homelessness. Creation Care.
Politics. Modern Day Slavery. Our Common Humanity
This Week’s Video
They are precious in His sight, the old song goes. That’s easy to see, but harder to live and feel. If anything, Mosaic Church exists to proclaim this single truth: God loves everyone, even if – and when – they don’t love Him. And sometimes the best way to help someone’s life to be transformed by that truth, and by a common Savior, is to show them you remember what we all have in common, along with that Savior – our common humanity.
Discussion Questions
What’s the most offensive/hurtful thing someone has ever said/done to you? Why was it so offensive/hurtful?
C.S. Lewis
“Human beings look separate because you see them walking about separately. But then we are so made that we can see only the present moment. If we could see the past, then of course it would look different. For there was a time when every man was part of his mother, and (earlier still) part of his father as well, and when they were part of his grandparents. If you could see humanity spread out in time, as God sees it, it would look like one single growing thing–rather like a very complicated tree. Every individual would appear connected with every other.”
What would you say is our greatest commonality as humans?
What would you say is our greatest difference as humans?
Why do you think we are so aweful towards one another so often?
Acts 17:26-28
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.”
Whgat does this passage mean when it comes to the way we think about the people we encounter on a daily/weekly basis (neighbors, co-workers, people we see at the gym or grocery store, people standing on the street corner, etc.)?
Do you tend to think about those people and your interactions with them from that perspective? Why or why not?
What would it take for people to see one another in that light?
According to Paul’s assessment here in Acts 17 God has predertemined the time within human history that you were born, the place(s) you have, and currently, live, and the people you find yourself interacting with week-in-and-week-out for the purpose of leading us, and others, to know Him. This means that every interaction and every conversation with the people who are part of our routine is purposed by God to be a reflection, or even a revelation, of who He is and what His Kingdom is all about. Every neighbor, every co-worker, every “chance” encounter at the gym or grocery store, is a “ministry of reconciliation” opportunity. Paul says God is not far from us in our “feeling” our way towards God.
The reason God is not far from us, or far from the people we find ourselves interacting with, is because His Spirit dwells in us and if we are not far from those people then God is not far from those people. We are missionaries, ambassadors, for Christ who are given the chance everyday to represent our King to the people all around us, the people God has predetermined we would “bump” into. Every person is an opportunity for us to know and reveal the love of Christ.
Most people don’t see others in that light because we are so consumed with our own needs, or own fears, our own desires. We tend to, partly because of the cultural waters we swim in and partly because of our own sinful nature, opporate from a consumeristic mindset constantly looking for the things that will make our lives more comfortable, more conveneient, more predictible. To view others the way Paul is telling us we should would require us getting our eyes off of ourselves and on the needs and fears of others, and to do that means we need to know that we are loved and cared for. As long as we are living in fear ourselves we can never love the people around us. We need a source of unconditional, unwavering, unbreakable love from which we can step out into the world as carriers of that love. It is only when we find ourselves in that place of knowing we are loved and seen that we can begin to lovingly see the people God places in our lives.
2 Corinthians 5:14-18
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;
How does the Gospel enable us to see others with the eyes of Christ rather than “according to the flesh?”
Closing Thought
What part can we play in leading our culture in this kind of love for one another?
Text Journey Invitation
The ultimate goal here is discipleship, for us to encourage and walk with one another in our pursuit of being conformed to the image of Christ. Obviously, there’s only so much that can happen in a setting like this, so to continue in that pursuit together we are doing something we call our Text Journey. This will be a daily devotional sent to you via text and our ask is that you would partner up with someone from our community group (preferably someone who doesn’t live in the same house as you) for the purpose of talking through whatever God speaks to you or reveals to you each day. So, if you have not opted in yet you can text the word “Pray” to (855) 931-1450. If you have not partnered up with someone yet then let us know and we’ll help you get connected with someone.