Week 2 — Faith & Works

October 23, 2022



Start off today’s study of faith and works by listening to (and maybe singing along with) Lauren Daigle’s song “Trust in You”.

It can be helpful to sort out faith and works, but also, it can be harmful to our understanding of God if we sort them out too much.

Case in point: Abraham.

Discuss / prime the pump:

Take just a couple minutes at most to share with one another as many details about the Bible person Abraham as your group can come up with.

 

(Feel free to play this 2-minute background song as you discuss. But, trust me, you will regret it.)

 

Consider the following statistics for the Hall of Faith" chapter of the Bible (Hebrews 11)

Number of verses focusing on Abel: 1

Number of verses focusing on Enoch: 1

Number of verses focusing on Noah: 1

Number of verses focusing on Abraham: 7

Number of verses focusing on Sarah: 1

Number of verses focusing on Isaac: 1

Number of verses focusing on Jacob: 1

Number of verses focusing on Joseph: 1

Number of verses focusing on Moses’ parents: 1

Number of verses focusing on Moses: 5

Number of verses focusing on Rahab: 1

When you think of faith worth pondering on, think of Abraham (and a little bit of Moses 😊).

Now, let’s look at those Abraham verses from Hebrews 11 in picture form, with the verbs showing actions taken by Abraham highlighted.

 

(You don't need to read this whole thing, just notice the number of verbs.)

 
 

This is shocking! You’re shocked! Show me your shocked face.

It’s shocking because when faith gets carefully parsed out and defined by God in the Bible, and even in a chapter that focuses a lot on Abraham, faith is defined like this:

 
 

Do you get it?

Faith is the non-work. The thing through which we are saved is a non-doing thing for us to do. Trusting in Jesus isn’t about being a really good truster. It’s just about trusting in a really good Savior, the one who already did all the work so you don’t have to!

Take a moment to appreciate this before we go onto our final section of the digital spotlight materials. Here’s the song “Rescuer” by Rend Collective.

 

So, why focus on so many verbs in Hebrews 11? Why think highly of the good works that Abraham (the man of faith) did? Are those works not good because faith is the non-work?

While those questions might not vex you, they lurk behind many of the doubts that people in your life have about God and about faith. In our Foundations class, there is a one-page appendix (among many such appendices [that’s a tough word to read 😊]) that strikes to the heart of this issue and these questions.

Read through the one-page appendix and then discuss it with your group.

 

(The question you'll be prompted with for discussing this appendix is, What detail(s) from this do you find most likely to help you explain faith to someone who doesn't know Jesus very well?)

Discuss:

What detail(s) from this do you find most likely to help you explain faith to someone who doesn't know Jesus very well?

 

Finish up by listening to (and maybe singing along with) “For the Cause” by the Gettys.

 

Upcoming Events @ GVT

  • Youth Group - Sundays 5pm-7pm

  • Some of the youth have taken to making meals, but we could use food supplies. Ask Garrett Alford or John Mullen for more info if you'd like to help. Or, perhaps you want to be a responsible adult presence at youth group gatherings.

  • Saturday, October 21, 2023, 4pm-6pm — next year’s Fall Family Fun Night

    • Lots of ways to help out with this outwardly focused event in which we see more newcomers to our campus than any other yearly event