21 Jun Discussion Guide: Your Father’s Heart for You
Prayer
Take the first 10 minutes of your time together to listen to what God is doing in one another’s lives and pray for any specific needs people in your group may have.
This week we continue our series titled Sons and Daughters. We will be taking a look at how the Gospel transforms our lives and gives us a new identity as children of God.
Discussion Questions
Galatians 5:1
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
What do you believe God wants most for your life?
What God wants most for our lives is for us to experience the freedom and joy that comes from knowing Him. Sin has enslaved us, it has violated our very purpose and God’s desires that we might be reconciled to that purpose, the purpose of knowing Him and glorifying Him in response.
What does it mean to be free?
Many would say to be free means to be without restraint, to have the ability to do whatever you want to do. However, the lack of restraint seldom results in true freedom. A fish may resent the restraint of water, but if he casts off that restraint it kills the fish. A man may jump out an airplane and feel free, but if the parachute fails to open he is not free, but rather he becomes enslaved to gravity. True freedom is not the lack of restraint, but rather the ability to operate within the proper restraints that lead you to the fulfillment of purpose. Freedom is the ability to know, experience and live out the will of God for your life.
When is a time you have felt free? How about a time when you have not felt free?
”Freedom is not the right and the ability to do as one pleases, but the ability to move without constraint in the sphere for which God made us. Freedom therefore is not inconsistent with limitation and law. The bird is free only when it can move in the air unhindered. A worm is free when it is not prevented from moving in the ground–in a sphere which would mean bondage and death for many other creatures. A locomotive is not free unless its motion is confined to the two rails on which it was made to run. Man was made in the image of God to be like Him and to reflect his holiness. Consequently he is free only when he moves without constraint in the sphere of holiness and obedience to God’s law.” – “Christian Liberty,” in “Report of the Committee on Worldly Amusements,” Agenda: Synod of the Christian Reformed Church, To convene June 13, 1928
How does the love of God lead us to a life of freedom?
The love of God leads us to freedom because it removes the lure of idolatry from our hearts. All sin is rooted in the lie that God doesn’t really love us, that He doesn’t have our best in mind. Therefore, we go looking for some other “savior” that will free us from our fear, our poverty, our loneliness, etc. Those “saviors” are the idols we eventually bow down to, the slave masters we eventually come to realize are demanding more of us than we ever bargained for. We chase after the better paying job, the better reputation, the better looking spouse, the power, the fame, the fortune, only to realize some day, if we’re lucky, that those things have taken from us far more than they have ever given to us. But, then God’s love comes along and says that despite our falling short, despite our spiritual adultery, God has loved us with an immeasurable love. The most important being in the entire Universe has loved us, adopted us, desired us, affirmed us, counted us worthy of His affection even to the point of giving up His life on Earth. When you realize that then you realize you have everything you could ever ask for that your heart truly needs and suddenly you are freed from the lure of those idols. You are free to give generously, love passionately and even lay down your own life because when there’s nothing you need from the world you can give everything you have to it.
How does being rooted in that love lead to the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?
How does sin and/or self-righteousness and moralism keep us from that freedom?
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.”
How does the message of the Gospel not only bring us freedom, but actually keep us walking in that freedom when faced with temptation or suffering?
Closing Thought
“Whenever I see grace, I’m moved.” ― Bono, U2 Front Man
How might our freedom actually move others towards freedom themselves?