MISSION GROUP QUESTIONS FROM SPIRITUAL GROWTH SERIES - 28/3/10
Matt spoke from Luke 15:11-31 (the Prodigal Sons) in a preach entitled 'How do you find God'
The passage deals with two sons who have very different interactions with their father. It’s a picture of how we relate to God the father. The idea is that Jesus wants us to compare and contrast them – see ourselves in them. If we don’t, we run the risk of totally missing the point of the story. I think Jesus is making a bold statement. He’s saying ‘Men and women have tried to find God in many different ways – but so far, all their efforts have been completely wrong’
There are four ways that stop us finding God
1) Excusing Sin
The younger excuses his outrageous behaviour. We can do the same by blaming our:
circumstances (stupid driver cut me up so badly, you’d have gone just as mental at him),
upbringing (I’m just like my dad. He had an addictive personality and so do I),
biology (it’s just the way I am, nothing I can do about it) or
personal history (if you had been through what I’ve been through, you’d be angry too).
2) Minimizing Sin
We also avoid responsibility for sin by minimizing it. “it’s not that bad” or ‘Its not as irresponsible as such and such”
The point being you’re never want a saviour till you admit you need one.
We only can only connect with God, when we truly repent. We can only say sorry when we take responsibility. When we admit our need!
3) Changing Yourself
A third way we can miss God is through trying to change ourselves. The younger brother wants to go back and work for his father as a ‘hired hand’. He wants to earn his way back.
you don’t find God by saying
• I’ll put my house in order
• I’ll go on the straight and narrow
• I’ll give up my party lifestyle
• I’ll try harder
• I’ll do anything
• I’ll fix it
External stuff doesn’t get us back to God or change us because the sin or evil comes from within our hearts. Change will never come if you just try and change yourself.
Just as the Father goes and finds the son and embraces him so we truly change when we understand that God loves us before we respond to him. You’ll never seek him before he seeks you.
4) Your Goodness
The Elder Son hates the way the Father welcomes the younger son. This attitude reveals how lost the elder son is, but he doesn’t realise it.
The point is that Jesus is messing with our idea of sin. In the 1st act you get a traditional view of sin. Bad people = sinful. In the 2nd act, Jesus turns the tables. Good people = sinful
There are two sons, one is very bad and one is very good and both are alienated. Each one used the father to get what they loved. Status, wealth, property
One did it by being good and one did it by being bad. Both are lost! In the end, it seems like the bad one is saved and the other isn’t!
The elder bother is unhappy at the expense incurred at bringing the younger brother home, what will change him is understanding the cost Jesus paid to bring you home.
Summary:
Jesus is our true and better elder brother who gives up his life to bring us home.
Questions for Mission Group:
1) Re-tell the story in your own words to one another
2) What are some of the cultural issues that help us understand this story?
3) Who do you most relate with, the younger or elder brother and why?
4) How does Jesus’ life, death and resurrection bring us closer to God? Relate your answers to being a younger or elder brother (or both).
Don’t forget we have our first Good Friday Service at the Warehouse at 11am. This will be a 45 minute creative service followed by lunch.
Then on Easter Sunday we will be celebrating with a baptismal service.
Sweet Life on Sweet Street for Mosaic
Last week I had a guy from the BBC come and ask what we were up to....and rather brilliantly and rather surprisingly he hit the nail on the head
Have a read of the article and post your comments. I think this really captures what Mosaic is about
Do let us know your thoughts.
ALSO - don’t forget that we have a Good Friday Service (11am-12pm) which will be creative and fun and will be followed by a bring and share communion lunch (12-1pm). Do come and reflect on the cross with us. And then come back on Easter Day for 10.30am or 5pm Easter Service Baptism services.
MISSION GROUP QUESTIONS: SPIRITUAL GROWTH: What motivates us for change?
Last week, Steve painted an awesome picture, a vision of what spiritual change could look like – The vision was that Christ’s accepts us who we are, we can drink from him, he is the water of life, and we can encounter him. Absolutely amazing! But what motivates you to get there. What motivates us for spiritual growth? Read Luke 18:10-14
Whilst the Pharisee and the Tax Collector are societies highest and lowest, they have two things in common with each other and with us.
a. They are both human
Before their society moulds, before they see the world through the lens of the culture they live in, they are men, normal, created, breathing, fleshly, men – both created by God – both made in his image – to be in his presence!
b. They are both broken
Adam and Eve, in the garden, right at the creation of the world and mankind, choose to usurp God’s authority and eat from the tree they were told not too. And the result of this disobedience of God is that they are banished from the Garden, the presence of God– man is created to be with God – they are now banished from his presence – everything changes! When Adam and Eve have a son, Seth, in Genesis 5, Seth inherits his father’s image – but what kind of image is it? - a broken, banished from Gods presence kind of one. The Pharisee and Tax Collector are in the same position – created in God’s image, yet broken by sin and banished from his presence – we are in the same boat!
All of us cling to something to get us back into relationship with Him. We try and prove ourselves.
1. Prove ourselves to God
The Pharisee tries to prove himself to God. How many of us try to prove our way into heaven – “I am a good man – surely that gets me in” – “I read my bible everyday” – “I always keep to the speed limit” – “I committed to Christ when I was a kid, why worry now, I’m in” – “I pay my taxes” – “I prayed everyday for my Dad to be healed, and he didn’t, so I gave up on God”
We bargain something of our lives with God so that he would give us something. Is God really that small that we can bargain with him? And con him into letting us in so we get what we want, we bring God down to our level and make him human – someone we can barter with.
Ultimately, The Pharisee is in charge. We want to be in charge. We want to be God. We are trying to prove ourselves to Him, to tell him we have what it takes to restore the broken, we want to make God as small as we can so we can give him something that would pay our way and fix our problems.
2. Prove ourselves to others
In standing at the front of the temple and praying, the Pharisee compares himself to the tax collector and justifies himself as being a better man. The tax collector and the society around the Pharisee set the bench mark for this comparison, and the Pharisee just has to do one better.
What he does is prove himself by what others think of him. He needs to keep up the Pharisee appearance in order to keep up with benchmark – if he drops any of the balls he spirals down the social ladder. The last thing you want is for people to see what’s really inside – he has to wear a fake mask to keep himself above what everybody else thinks is in, so he can stay in and feel proved.
What kind of mask, what appearance are we keeping up today?
3. Prove ourselves to ourselves
We tell ourselves we are good people, or we made the right decision, or “I am right, she is wrong” – because we justify ourselves by our own actions. We have become our own Gods – choosing what is right and wrong. But how come when we sin, or let someone else down we feel so bad, we feel so guilty. The longer the distance of time between when we last sinned and now, displays how strong we are at being good people, at proving just how good we are – again God is small, we are big.
In all three of these ways of proving ourselves – we or another broken human being is God.
We have this great vision for change – yet we make ourselves the way to get it.
Every time we do this we make spiritual growth about us and our change - no-one like the Pharisee, tax collector, you or I can restore the image first broken by Adam and so restore our identity as those in relationship with God. No one born of Adam can complete the vision of change. Romans 5:6 – “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, [when we were still broken and banished] Christ died for the ungodly” - Paying the price of death, with his blood, for our freedom.
Basically in order to restore our image, in order for us to have union with God again – Christ, God made flesh, must be crucified for us to be accepted back into relationship with God.
Tim Chester – “We don’t change so we can prove ourselves to God, we’re accepted by God so that we change”
You can’t change without being accepted – it is always self centred proving – that it why it feels like hard work.
You can change burden free when you know you’re accepted. Note the order – accepted, justified and proved then you can change. God gives us a new identity – he redeems our broken image.
We try and prove ourselves to God and he says my son died so you could be my son
We are accepted – as Steve taught us last week through the telling of the woman at the well.
I am a child of God. When I look at what needs to change in my life, He looks at me and says, you’re my son – you’re already accepted regardless of the change. Changing will not make you more acceptable to me – what does this do?
It takes the pressure off – I don’t have to prove myself to him.
We try and prove ourselves to each other and God says my son died so you’d be his Bride
We are married to Christ. As a bride comes under the security, safety, protection, love and care of her husband, so we do with Christ. He now protects us as his bride – when life seems to get on top, when sin seems to bad, when temptation is too much, he stands next to us and says, I protect you, rest in me.
We try and prove ourselves to ourselves and God says my son died so you’d get a Co-worker
God doesn’t just call us a son, take us as his bride and leave us to get on with it. No he gives us a co-worker - he puts himself in us, by his Holy Spirit to help us understand this new identity – to live this life as a son and bride. He is able to correct our thinking about ourselves. When we start thinking and behaving like the broken man or woman we were, he steps in and helps us be the man or woman God has redeemed us to be – the man or woman we are.
The motivation for change is that God has already given you the new identity – you already have the new life with God – it came free and you are now proved by Him to be with him. You don’t have to work for it or pay for it – no amount of hard earned change will make you more or less loved by God. The change comes as we realise this new identity.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
1. In what ways do you find yourself trying to prove yourself to God, other people, or yourself?
2. What internal benchmarks do you set yourself that you need to achieve to find acceptance?
3. What appearances or ‘masks’ do people have to wear to be part of your mission group?
4. Think through situations where your behaviour is affected by the three ways to prove.
a. How does your new identity affect your behaviour?
5. How can you as a mission group help others to find their new identity?
Image copyright: Beppie K
MISSION GROUP QUESTIONS FROM SPIRITUAL GROWTH - John 4: The women at the well
This week we started a new 9 weeks series looking at "spiritual growth." What does it mean to grow and change and experience internal transformation in our lives? And we looked at the story from John 4 of Jesus transforming a women's life to give us A Vision for Change
We live in a society that is obsessed with change, but it is usually external change. In this story we saw how none of the women’s circumstances changed but because of an internal change in her she had the power and perspective to face her situations. What brought about this change
(1) The Acceptance of Jesus.
Jesus broken down every barrier that should have separated them.
(1) She was a moral and social outcast (alone by a well at midday), society had rejected her and she was hiding from the community - but Jesus puts himself in her eed (vs7)
(2) She was a Samaritan - but Jesus puts aside the years of anger and bitterness and hatred that existed between Jews and Samaritans (cf 2 kings 17.24ff)
(3) She was a women - but Jesus breaks all the cultural norms and gives her dignity and worth.
Why is this important? Because for most people two of the biggest obstacles to change are
(a) Shame - what will people think of me? But Jesus accepts her in her mess and accepts her and loves her. He accepts her before she cleans up her act (he doesn’t even mention the husbands at this stage). Jesus’ acceptance of us will give us the power to open up other people to work through our issues.
(b) Dispair - “I have tried and failed.” This women must have given up hope for change. Yet Jesus pursues her. He initiates. She isn’t searching for him but he comes after her. This is gives us hope for change. He hasn’t given up on us. He doesn’t think change is impossible. He is coming after us (the bible is one big story of God coming after us to transform us).
(2) The living water of Jesus
Jesus does not want to condemn the women but convict her so in verse 17 he brings up the issue of her previous husbands (don’t forget, he had already accepted her - it is a gospel of grace). He wants to show her that she is thirsty but finding satisfaction in the wrong place and it is leaving her in a desert…a relational desert….and she is becoming more and more thirsty. It has become a destructive pattern in her life but that pattern is only the symptom of a deeper issue - the real issue is that she is drinking from another well - the well of approval/status/sex/affection that men give her. For Jesus to give her living water he must expose the well she is drinking from, he has to convict her, so that she can find true satisfaction in the living water he gives. For us to experience spiritual change we must not try and change the symptoms, we must change the well from which we drink, our desires need to change. If our heart doesn’t change then no amount of discipline will help us see growth. If Jesus had said “don’t hang out with men” he would not have solved the issue, he needed to expose her well and then offer her something far more satisfying so that she wouldn’t want men! So to see change we must (1) tackle the underlying issue that reveals itself in destructive patterns and (2) go to Jesus from greater satisfaction (like a kid letting go of a forbidden object for something far more satisfying. Our change is as much about the positives (finding joy in Christ) than the negatives (saying “no” to sin) - see Matthew 13.44. C.S Lewis famously said
“Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak.
We are half hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition
when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on
making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant
by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
(3) A bigger picture of Jesus
If we are not careful we can say to Jesus “I want the change….I want the satisfaction, contentment, joy, peace, freedom etc…..but I don’t want you” - “I want your living water but I don’t want you.” But Jesus is the living water (vs10, John 7.37-39). We must come to him to drink. He is the one that satisfies our thirst. What changes this women? What does Jesus give her? An encounter with himself! He becomes bigger and bigger in the story - he starts off as a tired and thirsty man sat at a well, he then becomes a rabbi and a prophet…ad at the end he is the saviour of the world (vs42). In fact, in verse 26 in the original greek, we have the first “I AM” saying referring back to Exodus 3.14. We don’t offer people a set of rules or “7 steps to growth”, we offer them a person (who we now know and experience through the Holy Spirit).How does Paul tell us transformation happens in the Christian faith? 2 Corinthians 3.18 says…
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect/behold/gaze upon the Lord’s glory,
are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
It is a wonderful story and gives us a fantastic vision for spiritual change. She starts hiding, ashamed, ostracised and afraid and she ends up becoming a spring of water that brings other people to know Jesus. She is not hiding, she is telling people to come and see a man who told her all her sin! WOW!
Reflection and Application
(1) What do you think are the biggest obstacles to wanting change in your life? How does this story help you?
(2) In what areas are you wanting to hide? Why?
(3) Have you given up hope on being able to change? If so where and why? How does it make you feel that Jesus is coming after you?
(4) What are the destructive patterns of behaviour or thought in your life that reveal that you are drinking from another well? What is the deeper issue? Where are you looking to drink from and why? How is the living water Jesus gives more satisfying? What does it mean for you to drink from him?
(5) Do you feel you have plateaued in your faith? Why is this? What well could you be turning to? Would you like to grow?
(6) How do we help each other “gaze upon/behold” Jesus so that he becomes bigger and bigger?
(7) What did it take Jesus to give you the living water? On the cross he cries out “I thirst” (John 19.28). Meditate on Psalm 22 and the cosmic thirst Jesus experienced to give you living water.
(8) Pray for each other and us as a church that we might grow as we gaze Jesus - that he would become bigger and bigger and that would bring spiritual transformation in our lives.
ACTION POINT - listen to Andrew Wilson’s talk from Saturday morning of love nations called “a joyful people” - 12 ways to find joy in God (i.e how to drink from him). Write down any ideas that the talk gives you about how to find joy in God and discuss them as a group at your next Mission Group meeting.
MISSION GROUP QUESTIONS FROM THE ADOPTION SUNDAY - 7/3/10
This Sunday we had the privilege of celebrating with Rich and Pippa Darnton the adoption (& dedication) of Kasey and Ewan and also looking at the magnificent truth that we are adopted as "Son's of God through faith in Christ Jesus" from Galatians 3-4.
Why is Adoption such a powerful image (and reality) of what it is to be a Christian? Because of what it says happens to us - we have
(1) A new (legal) status
(2) A new experience
(1) A new legal status. What is our status? It is what makes us significant, what gives us value and worth….our reputation! It could be anything from a family to our job to our abilities to our popularity to our looks…the list goes on. However whatever we make our status/significance will ultimately enslaves us - we will be nervous/anxious about it and jealous for it….because it can be threaten/taken away. However if we are Son’s of God we get given a status that (a) can never be threatened or taken away and (b) is far greater than anything in this world…..we become heirs - one day we will inherit the heavens and the earth, and like Adam and Eve, we will rule and reign with God (cf. Romans 8.17).
(2) A new experience. Not only do we objectively get a new status, from slaves to Son’s. We also get a new experience. An embrace off the Father that transforms us. The Holy Spirit comes into our hearts so we cry “Abba, Father.” Their is intimacy and we know in our depths (not just our minds) that we are his children. Notice how vs 4 + vs6 parallel each other…God sent his Son/Spirit - his Son to give us the objective status, his Spirit to give us the subjective experience.
We also looked at how Paul was being very “pro-women” because by saying “you are ALL Son’s of God….” he was putting women on an equal footing, giving them an equal status and an equal experience - something that was radical and revolutionary for that patriarchal culture.
HOW did God make us our Son’s? His Son lost his status and he lost the embrace of his father - he cried out “Father why have you abandoned me” so that we can cry out “Abba, Father.”
Reflection and Application
(1) Read + meditate on Ephesians 1.3-10. What does it say comes as part of being “In Christ” and being adopted? Thank God for each thing of these things.
(2) What things are seen give people status and significance in our society? What things are you tempted to look to for significance? Can you relate to how these things enslave/control us and how we become nervous about or jealous for them?
(3) When have you known the embrace of the father? Notice how in Romans 8.16 the cry of “Abba Father” is the cry from a believer of what it is to be part of a broken and suffering world (8.18-17) - it does not necessarily mean a “nice gooy feeling.”
(4) Becoming a Christian means that something objective happens (a new status) and something subjective happens (a new experience). Which do we tend towards? What will happen if we are not balanced in our understanding of what has happened to us?
(5) If God has adopted us then an appropriate response would be for us as a church to look to adopt disadvantage children (and care for those that are rejected by society). Have any of you thought about adopting? Did Sunday stir any of you to think about adopting? How can we care for the alien, fatherless, widow and outcast in our society (cf. Deuteronomy 10.17-19).
(6) Pray for (a) Darnton’s and Cartledges (b) any kids and people in your lives that are disadvantaged (c) social workers in our church (d) all the guest that came on Sunday
(7) Pray that we might live more and more as Son’s of God and therefore be set free from all that enslaves us
LOVE:NATIONS
Andrew Wilson asked 'What sort of person reaches nations?'Listen to the talks to discover the answer.
Click on the LOVE:NATIONS page to see photos and hear the talks.
Also, here is an amazing website. It is called Great Commission 2020. You can see people reading about the Gospel online all over the world. It then shows you who wants to make a commitment to jesus and those wanting local church follow up!
It’s a great tool for worship and prayer.
