Small Group
the week of October 31, 2021
Worship • Learn • Serve
↓
I. Worship
Pick a super-short-term leader so you can speak the following dialogue together.
Leader: All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD,
Group: and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.
All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it! (Psalm 22:27-31)
As you think through and worship via this song video based on the verses of Isaiah 53:4-7 — written 7 centuries before Jesus was born — form your own indisputable opinion: Which of the following Christian distinctives does this passage most closely connect with? Grace alone — Faith alone — The Word alone — The Cross alone
Now do battle as you dispute your indisputable opinions! Again, the question was: Which of the following Christian distinctives does the passage in that song video most closely connect with? Grace alone — Faith alone — The Word alone — The Cross alone
(Limit the length of this battle, mostly for safety's sake.)
II. learn
Listen to an early portion of this week’s message, talking about theology.
Let’s hash that out. Have one person in the group read Romans 2:14-15 from the New International Version, then another person read those verses from the Message, and then yet another read from the New Living Translation.
(NIV)
14 Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.
(MSG)
14 When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. 15 They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong.
(NLT)
14 Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. 15 They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.
Discuss:
(Keep this to a few minutes tops.)
What do you think is an implication of these verses?
Sure, God deposits a shell of a theology in us when we are first made. But (alleluia!) God also reveals in His Word a true, substantial theology.
Listen to 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, a passage all about God’s revealing.
(The verses are written out below if you want to scroll through.)
1 Corinthians 2:6–16
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,
16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Notice in verse 8 the grand mystery that is the revealing of God’s grace through the ignorance of the leaders! God does this often: God reveals the very opposite of what we would expect or prefer.
Discuss:
(If by chance this generates some good discussion, please still keep this to a max of 5 minutes.)
How is the encouragement in the image above (from this Sunday’s message) the opposite of what we’d prefer, keeping in mind different arenas of life, like
in marriage,
at work,
when choosing a career / life path,
at church,
dealing with relatives,
on your day off work?
Listen to another part of Sunday’s message.
Pick a reader for the poem “The Joining”, written by Luci Shaw.
(No need to discuss; you can just let the words linger for a brief moment.)
After the hours of restless
struggling through the waves
of fears, wounded, stroking against
gravity, treading water, stroking,
I choose to let go, to float
numbed, to trust myself to the words
sung across the lake: Lay down
your life, to trust my body to
the drifting wood – in weariness my bed,
my frame, the crux of all matters,
to which he was joined by force
but willingly, laid on it to be
what I have been
to gain my pain
(himself to drown in it).
Thus
am I buoyed, and resting there
cruciform, new knowledge laps me
like a wave: I am the cross —
coarse grained and pocked with holes
for nails – to which he joins himself
(already joined to his deep baptism)
that he may join me to his strong escape,
his rising from the darkness of
the icy lake.
III. Serve
Garrett serves on the advisory team for a group called Reclamation.
After you click the image below to go to Reclamation’s website, click further on one (only one!) of the bold-and-underlined links on that page to read more about Reclamation’s work at the intersection of faith and sexuality.
Feel free to bring any and all questions to Garrett.
Speak out loud to one another what things in your life or in your community you are moved to pray about.
Then pray together.
(Keep this prayer session to 5 minutes max.)
Prepare your hearts for a full experience as you listen to “Luther’s Evening Prayer”, by Branches Band.
Reminders before you go…
Saturday, December 11th
Family Fun Night 5:00p-7:00p (tentative time) — Ask how you can be a part— Invite friends and neighbors
Sundays
Service time 10:30am
Trinity Kids (kids church) during the service
Trinity Teens (youth group) 5:00p - 7:00p
Foundations Class (Bible basics) with Pastor Garrett is great for inviting guests and friends to, so they can learn more about Jesus.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.
(2 Corinthians 13:14)