This week Hector spoke from Jeremiah 33 about the fact that God is our restorer.
He spoke about how God as our restorer, healer and peace wants to bring restoration, health and peace in place of our rebellion, brokenness and conflict.
Gordon spoke to us about God’s greatness, beginning with a reflection on the vastness of the universe, and how amazing it is that, despite our seeming insignificance, God, who is far greater than the universe itself, still cares about us. We then looked at Philippians 2:2-11, and how God’s greatness is also shown in his humility, coming to earth in the person of Jesus and dying for us. Here are the discussion questions from this sermon:
God is Great: Creator
Read Psalm 33, paying particular attention to veses 6, 13-15 and 18-19.
1. What is your response/reaction to God’s oversight of his creation and of yourself in particular?
God is Great: Saviour
Read Philippians 2:2-11
2. What do these verses reveal about the nature of God as seen in Jesus?
3. How do you respond to the place of authority that God has given Jesus?
4. Reflect on this question: ‘To what extent have I allowed Jesus to be Lord of my life’?
Today, Dave was speaking from Psalm 27 about how God is our rock, and how because of this we can have confidence in God and rest in his presence. As David says in the Psalm, our desire, even in the midst of trouble can be to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.
However, we also looked at the fact that God is our rock even when we are not aware of it – when we, like David in verses 7-9 start to ask God: Are you listening? Are you there? and Do you love me? In those times of uncertainty, we can move into deeper faith in God and wait upon him trusting that he is our rock.
Here are some questions to think about following the sermon:
1. Confidence & Rest
Share about a time when you felt very close to God and enjoyed resting in his presence and worshipping him.
What do you find to be the biggest challenge to resting in God’s presence? (To-do-lists? Worries & stresses? or something else?)
2. Uncertainty & Doubt
Share about a time when you identified with one of David’s cries of despair. (Are you listening? Are you there? Do you love me?)
David gives us two bits of advice in these tough times: “Seek God’s face” and “Wait on God”. Can you see ways in which these might help you?
Can you think of ways in which choosing to trust in God despite not feeling that he’s there or despite the difficult situations in life have deepened your faith or the faith of others you know?
Hector spoke today about the truth that God is our provider. He was focussing on the story of Ruth, especially Ruth 2:12 “May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge”.
Here are some questions from Hector following on from the sermon which will enable you to engage more deeply with what we were learning. It would also be a great idea to read through the whole of Ruth (it’s not very long), and see her amazing faithfulness to Naomi, and God’s provision for them both.
1. I mentioned that there were over 100 examples of God’s provision referred to in the bible, do you have a favourite one?
2. Have there been experiences in your life when you were aware that God had provided for you in a very special way?
3. Have you had occasions when you had believed and hoped that God would provide and that didn’t seem to happen? How did you react to the disappointment of this?
4. Have you anything to say about the unfair and unjust distribution of the earth’s natural resources that would help to improve the situation?
5. If you support a local, national or international charity or voluntary agency working to provide for the poor in times of austerity, can you tell us about it and what it means to you to support it.
We started a new series yesterday, looking at the character of God and how this helps us to follow Jesus in 2012.
Yesterday we looked at how God is faithful from Hosea 11, where God is portrayed as a faithful father. From this we saw how this affects our relationships UP (with God – knowing he will always welcome us with love when we turn back to him), IN (with ourselves – learning to trust again and being healed from past hurts) and OUT (with others, starting to be faithful people – sticking by others in tough times and taking risks in our relationships, moving beyond the surface level to have deep, honest relationships with each other.
Here’s how the series will flow:
8th Jan God is FAITHFUL (faithfulness in a fragmented society) 15th Jan God is our REFUGE (peace in the midst of global unrest) 22nd Jan God is our PROVIDER (generosity in a year of austerity) 29th Jan God is our ROCK (security in the midst of financial insecurity) 5th Feb God is GREAT (worship instead of seeking fame) 12th Feb God is our STRENGTH (confidence in the face of opposition) 19th Feb God is our PEACE (wholeness instead of brokeness) 26th Feb God is TRUTH (integrity not deceit)Unfortunately we are still unable to record sermons while we’re out of the building, but please take the opportunity to ask others about any sermons you miss.
The first in our series on 1 John, looking at how John lays the foundations for his readers and us, helping us to be sure in our faith, based on: the eyewitness testimony in the bible, the person of Jesus, the testimony of others and our own experience.
Unfortunately, due to being out of our building at the moment, we don’t have our usual ability to record, but by the end of February some more sermons will be arriving here!