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 primary 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

The Domino Effect

Today’s Topic

Dreaming

Discussion Questions

What does it look like to forget?

Judges 21:25

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

 

Timothy Keller, Judges for You

Becoming and continuing as a Christian is about same pattern—becoming weak to become strong. Only those who admit they are unrighteous receive the righteousness of Christ. Only those who know their life and strength are theirs purely because of grace…Only those who know their own weakness are able to know God-given inner strength; the strength which enables us to avoid the pitfalls of Samson’s life: pride, lust, anger, vengefulness and complacency.

 

What are the most important truths people seem to forget?

Why do you think we tend to forget important truths about God and ourselves?

What are the consequences of forgetting important truths?

What does it look like to remember?

Ruth 1:8, 16-17

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me”…. But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

 

Ruth 4:11-12

All the people who were in the court, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel; and may you achieve wealth in Ephrathah and become famous in Bethlehem. Moreover, may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the offspring which the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

 

What do you think Ruth remembered about Naomi and God when she clung to her?

What did the people of Bethlehem remember when they welcomed Ruth and blessed her?

How does what we remember shape us as a people?

What does it look like to dream?

Ruth 4:14-17

Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

 

What helped the people of Bethlehem retain redemptive hope for the future?

What practices can help us retain hope in God when we face challenges?

What is God’s dream for people?

How do the teachings of Jesus help us participate in that dream?

Closing thought

Carrie & Morgan Stephens, Friendship Can Save the World

“We should commend Naomi for not allowing bitterness to taint her hopes for Ruth. Naomi’s generous friendship proved she hadn’t relinquished all hope for redemption even after losing her comfort and security and renaming herself “bitter.” She didn’t become permanently jaded and suggest that all marriages would end in sorrow and despair as hers ended. Naomi hadn’t deconstructed her life to the extent that left her with nothing to offer when Ruth needed wisdom and guidance. Despite all she had gone through—first on the road back to Bethlehem, and now here with a man like Boaz in view—Naomi told Ruth, both times, there could still be manoach in her future. Naomi said, I want to be the friend who helps you experience rest and tranquility. And then she went for it. Naomi didn’t just talk about it—she made a plan to find it.”

 

Take some time to pray for your friends tonight, asking God for opportunities to offer them his love and mercy generously, and to help you participate in his dream of becoming a people who generously love one another as he has loved you.