How would you answer Allan’s opening question in the sermon, “Name a time when there was a momentous meeting that changed the course of history?”
Share with the group how you met your spouse or some other significant friend in your life.
Dig
The Circumcision Party believed that one needed to believe in Jesus as the Messiah AND to be circumcised in order to be included in the people of God. They believed:
Grace + Circumcision = Life with God
The New Testament witness says:
Grace + Nothing = Life with God
because
Grace + Anything ≠ Grace
What do you think are some of the things that we are tempted to add to Grace as a condition for our being included in the people of God? What has been a particular temptation to you to cling to as a “trump card” that guarantees that God will accept you?
In the sermon we talked about how we rebel against this grace and how we keep reverting to asking questions like, “How much is good enough?” and feeling good (or bad) about ourselves because of our “comparative righteousness.” Has there been a particular moment in your life when you fully realized that you can never be “good enough”? Can you share with the group how you came to that realization?
What did it take (or what would it take) for you to not to place your trust in your “trump card,” i.e. that one thing that you hold onto as a guarantee that God will accept you?
In the sermon we were asked the question, “In light of God’s great mercy, how can we respond in ways that are pleasing to him?” In Acts 15:20-21 James encourages the Gentiles to respond by abstaining from “food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.” What is on your list of responding in ways that are pleasing to God?
Reflect
How well does our congregation live as a community of grace? How does understanding and living in this grace impact how we live together as a body of believers? What are symptoms in our life together that might suggest we are not living as a community of grace? What things do you need to do or to stop doing so that as a community we better embody the grace of God?
