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

Over Every Power

Today’s Topic

The Mystery of a Changed Life

Discussion Questions

A Holey Condition

Colossians 1:21

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds…

 

When have you felt cut off or separated from God?

Who in your life is reliable to reach out to when you need to be reconnected with God?

A Wholly Work

Colossians 1:22-23

He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

When have you felt God’s nearness and goodness in the midst of your own broken circumstances?

What do you think motivates God to rescue us when we stray from his path or fail to be perfect?

What practices help you reconnect with the gospel and God’s redemptive work on the cross?

A Holy Calling

Colossians 1:24-27 

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 

How can suffering allow us greater access to God’s mercy and grace?

What does it look like to rejoice in our sufferings?

What do you imagine is God’s greatest hope for you?

Closing Time

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking

Only God is holy, just as only people are human. God’s holiness is God’s Godness. To speak of anything else as holy is to say that it has something of God’s mark upon it. Times, places, things, and people can all be holy, and when they are, they are usually not hard to recognize.

In your final moments, take turns naming one place or thing in your life that you recognize as holy and set apart for God’s purpose in the world.