Small Group
the week of November 14, 2021
Heads-up: this week's online materials (that you're looking at right now) will be the last new materials for a while, presumably until January 16th. The hope is that this will be a natural breaking time for small groups, given the upcoming holidays and various items on the church's calendar and Garrett's calendar. If a small group wanted to keep meeting during this new-material hiatus, that is more than okay. Consider channeling your small group's energy toward helping1 with one of GVT's other programs, like
- Youth Group
- GVT float in Goodview Holiday Lighted Parade (Dec. 4)
- Family Fun Night (Dec. 11)
- Trinity Kids
- Foundations Class
Or a small group that still gathers together could go through previous materials or pick a book of the Bible to read through together. Let either of the Small Group Coordinators (Garrett Alford, Scott Guthrie) know of any questions you have.
Now, on with this week's materials...
Worship • Learn • Serve
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I. Worship
Pick a super-short-term leader so you can declare what we believe about God’s nature and work in the words of the Apostles’ Creed.
Leader: I believe in God, the Father almighty,
Group: maker of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Privately pick (quick!) your favorite of the 12 descriptors for spirituality from the Sunday message’s focus on Paul’s Greek run-on sentence in Ephesians 1:3-14.
Spirituality is…
deep
confidence
a family
glory
done
engaging
new
epic
historic
specific
noticeable
renewal
In fairness, some sentences can go rather long (* cough * the apostle Paul * cough *). But do your best to share in only one sentence which descriptor you chose and why.
Praise God with the song “All Must Be Well” by Liz Vice.
(You can find the lyrics to this song just below the song video.)
Free and changeless is his favor
All is well
Precious is the blood that healed us
Perfect is the grace that sealed us
Strong his hand stretched out to shield us
All must be well
Though we pass through tribulation
Ours is such a full salvation
All is well
Happy still in God confiding
Proof of living Christ abiding
Holy through his Spirit guiding
All must be well
We expect such a bright tommorow
Faith can sing through days of sorrow
On our Father’s love relying
Jesus, every need supplying
In living or in dying
In living or in dying
In living or in dying
Through the love of God our Savior
Free and changeless is his favor
All is well
Precious is the blood that healed us
Perfect is the grace that seals us
Strong his hand stretched out to sheild us
All must be well
II. learn
This Sunday, in our continuing quest for hearts of greater thanksgiving, we considered the spiritual gifts that God gives. Let’s explore more about what makes spirituality and the work of the Holy Spirit so bizarre.
Around 520 BC, as the Israelites, who had been sent for a couple generations into captivity in Babylon (!!!), were starting life in the Holy Land back up again, there was a lot of discouragement among the people. Their religious practices had been rendered pointless by the earlier destruction of the temple. Their leaders were not driving people’s hearts back to the Lord. There remained the threat of being overtaken again by a neighboring enemy nation. God’s people would have felt that terrible feeling of being so very obviously weak.
But then God gave the prophet Zechariah these words about how they could persevere:
Discuss:
How might this message from God on its own without explanation have made anyone in the Israelites’ position not be comforted but, instead, be nervous?
Watch this video showcasing the words of Christian minister and author Robert Capon, from his book The Astonished Heart (1996), pages 62-63. Notice how Capon talks about God’s unique exercise of power.
As a group, with Capon’s helpful picture in your minds, come up with some helpful adjectives for left-handed power.
(Such adjectives could be helpful for you in the future as you share these beautiful truths with others.)
(Feel free to throw your hands in the air and declare, "We're just not that great with adjectives, okay?!")
Remember the story of Abraham in Genesis 15 (when Abraham was still called Abram)? God had promised all sorts of things as God was narrowing the focus of His promises of salvation to be channeled through the growing family of Abram. One promise in that bundle of promises was acquisition of the land of Canaan by the nation to come from Abram’s family. BUT! even after Abram put his trust in the Lord to be faithful, Abram still wavered in doubt and cowardice, having the audacity to say to the Almighty Lord this:
But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
(Genesis 15:8)
In other words, Abram was asking God, “Can I get some more proof, please?”
Discuss:
In what situations might we be tempted, when approached by those we’re helping who are demanding proof, to get angry? What actual social situations with that dynamic going on might tempt human beings like us?
Now listen to this audio excerpt from the Sunday message, wrapping up Abraham’s episode with God in Genesis 15.
Classic Lutheranism looks at the peculiar personality of God as articulated in the New Testament letters, in the life of Jesus, and throughout Bible history, and insists on emphasizing one important, true characteristic of God over another important, true characteristic of God. It’s an especially Lutheran emphasis of God’s grace over God’s sovereignty.
(You can even notice how other Christian faith traditions put the emphasis often in the other order, in how the English translation of Genesis 15:8 above translates two consecutive Hebrew words for “Lord” as “Sovereign Lord”, showing the other-than-Lutheran influence on that translating process.)
Discuss:
Based on what we’ve look at already, for what reasons do you think we should keep our eyes open for and insist on emphasizing both God’s grace and God’s sovereignty, but letting God’s grace carry the greater weight of emphasis?
The line of thought we’re following has enabled us to look again at one of the spiritual gifts brought up a few times in Sunday’s message verses. This particular gift is predestination (perhaps even better titled as election).
Ephesians 1:4 He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
Ephesians 1:5 In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
Ephesians 1:11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.
Classic Lutheranism (the framework of theology put forth by this church) insists on viewing the Bible teaching of election through the lens of grace, not sovereignty. This is because that’s how God approaches the topic. It’s God’s love (also known as grace) in God’s Son Jesus (who is distinctively gracious compared to all other possible human leaders) that moved God to make the decision to save those who will believe in God as they exit this life and stand before God. Nowhere in the Bible is there mention of a decision made ahead of time by God to assign some to unbelief and hell. We could speculate about God making such a decision, but it would be merely that: speculation.
All of this leads us to consider God’s choice of predestining as being entirely and only an encouragement for those already in the family of God. The encouragement goes like this:
If you find yourself in that happy and humble place in life of trusting in faithful Jesus for salvation, you can rest assured that you are on a track (of receiving God’s help) that you didn’t create. God created this track you’re on. So, you can lean further into God’s promises and skip questioning if it was you who got you to this point.
Discuss:
For what reasons do you think this careful parsing of truth might matter? (Maybe you don’t think it does matter. Fair enough. Talk about that.)
Does your view of exercises of power in our society change as a result of thinking these thoughts about God?
What does the peculiar left-handed power of God in Jesus make you want to see happen now in your life?
Let’s keep it beautifully simple with the song “Just Because” by JUDAH.
III. Serve
Let’s consider for a moment a possible resident of the Goodview/Winona community who just got invited to come to GVT’s upcoming Family Fun Night.
Discuss:
How might their lack of knowledge on true left-handed power (meaning they know only right-handed power) affect their view of GVT as they weigh whether they’ll attend the event?
What can we as a church do at the event in our awareness of their lack of this knowledge?
What can we as a church do in lead-up to the event in our awareness of their lack of this knowledge?
End your time together with the song “Live to Lose” by Aaron Shust.
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.)
Reminders before you go…
Saturday, December 4th
Goodview Holiday Lighted Parade 5:30p — GVT worship band plans to play live and spread the good news and our church’s mission on a float in the parade
Saturday, December 11th
Family Fun Night 4:00p-6:00p — 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 — scheduled on an as-needed basis
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)