GG Facilitator Guide Why It Matters (Romans 12:1-21) January 12-17, 2014 Warm Up The 2014 year has begun! What is one of the most memorable New Year s experiences you ve ever had? Share with your group. We ve begun again with a broad question to help our members get to know one another. If your GG has been together with consistent members for a long time, you ll notice they connect and catch up each week fairly naturally. These ice-breaker questions are most useful for any new members joining a group, and especially for new growth groups just starting up. Having an agenda of the evening, with predictable questions, can create a more comfortable atmosphere for fresh beginners. You may hear fun stories, as well as sad accounts that are most memorable. Focus on what these tales tell about your members. Enjoy getting to know each other better! What stands out from the message this past Sunday morning? Are there things with which you have questions? Processing through what we ve initially encountered during the Sunday morning service is what makes Growth Groups so practical and unique! This time can be useful for getting a feel for what God is laying on the heart of your members, and can inform your later discussion. Stay alert for what Holy Spirit may already be up to amongst your members!
Chop It Up Read Romans 12:1-2. What is the main idea the Apostle Paul wants his readers to know? Read further to Romans 12:21. What is the progression of Paul s thoughts, and why? Why does Paul provide a long list of commands? How does Romans 12:3-8 & 12:9-21 connect with Romans 12:1-2? This is a delightfully rich passage of scripture! From a key beginning in Romans 1:16, the Apostle Paul has been developing deep ideas about the Gospel, and they ve all built up into the epic crescendo of chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. All this truth about the good news of Jesus leaves us with this simple climax. Paul wants his fellow believers currently in Rome to understand that all these realities about God and mankind lead to this one thing: wholeheartedly living for Him. We hear and understand the gospel, but then we must respond! Allusions to the animal offerings at the Old Testament temple wouldn t be lost on his Jewish audience. A lamb was given entirely to God as a ritual sacrifice. Now, as Christians, our bodies, our hopes, our wealth, our priorities, our plans, everything about us should be offered to God. We give our lives into His control. This is how we respond to the wonderful message of the Gospel. This is how we truly worship God. By offering everything we are to Him! Two more sections of Scripture follow. The first is Romans 12:3-8. It follows that a lifestyle of living sold out for Jesus and the Gospel involves being transformed by the renewing of your mind. Paul s use of for in verse 3 explains how this transformation takes place. He provides concrete examples. Those living sacrificially for the Gospel are marked by humility and unity among one another. Despite a diversity of gifts, no one should be seen as more important than another. This harmony characterizes a community revolutionized by the Gospel! Paul then flows into the third part of chapter 12 (12:9-21). This is another elaboration of his big idea in Romans 12:1-2. When we consider our lives as sacrifices to God for His pleasure, these certain characteristics arise. How should one transformed by the gospel respond? The commands Paul provides in verses 9-21 list specific manifestations of gospel-living. What does offering our bodies as living sacrifices to God look like on a day to day level? It looks like loving genuinely, abhorring evil, holding fast to what is good, and on and on (12:9).
Chop It Up (continued) We ve been learning to read the Bible with a laser-like eye for seeing Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Gospel, and the Good News is all pointing to Jesus. We practiced this last week when reading Luke 24:13-35 and Acts 8:26-40. Applying the same eyes, where do you see Jesus in Romans 12? What does Romans 12 reveal about the Good News of The Gospel of Jesus Christ? As we ve already seen, Romans is bursting with Gospel-centered content! Paul starts with the Gospel (Romans 1:16), and builds up to this summit of Christian response to the Gospel s effect. Our lives belong to Jesus. They aren t taken from us; we offer them willingly as sacrifices. Have your members comb through the list of commands for Gospel-living in Romans 12:9-21 and consider how these imperatives relate to what Jesus has done for us. What about the gospel means we should not be slothful in zeal? What about the good news of Jesus Christ means we should contribute to the needs of the saints? Jesus has done so much for us! We live this way out of gratitude and so that others will also come to embrace Him as a friend. Let them make the connection here!
Live It Up Often we can believe we lack the skills, answers, or character to share the Good News of Jesus with others. Do you ever feel you get in the way of the Gospel? Join the club! But imagine this: An engineer at a local power plant can throw a single switch to direct an immense current of electricity to an entire city. One flick of the switch and an entire metropolis shimmers with glowing light. The Gospel is similarly powerful! God chooses to share His Gospel with the world through His people. But the power is in Jesus Christ Himself, not our effort or skills. How does the Gospel effectively power your life? How does Jesus powerfully fit you into the family of those following Him? The Good News about Jesus is powerful enough to save you, and it can redeem others, even those you don t expect! The power of the Gospel to save people is not limited by our weakness, prejudice, or even our track record. God rescues people, sometimes despite us! Even though we have a relationship with God, sometime we get caught thinking like He s not there. We put great faith in our powerful manmade systems, in our rugged independence, and in our society s immediately vast knowledge. We forget how God is so much more powerful than all mankind can muster! All of humanity s influence and all the hordes Satan governs couldn t keep you out of Christ s Kingdom. Here you are today, a child of God! The message of the Gospel, and its King, Jesus Christ, were supremely powerful enough to rescue you from every sin, trouble, and obstacle between you and God. Praise the Lord! This would be a good opportunity to let a few of your GG members share a testimony. A few moving stories about Jesus rescuing them out of darkness, despite opposition, is just the thing to drive the power of the Gospel home! This could be an initial coming to Jesus account, or even a recent what God is powerfully doing in my life now retelling. As your members share, celebrate with them as you remind your group how powerful the Gospel is!
Live It Up (continued) How do you present your body as a living sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel? How can we embody the Gospel so others powerfully experience Jesus? Our last question here is simple enough: how are you expressing your gratitude to God? How are you living out the gospel? If this still sounds like a fuzzy, ideological concept, root your members back in the commands of Romans 12:9-21. Are we living this way? Why or why not? What causes your members to doubt the Gospel s power? Be sensitive to what s disclosed here, then gently direct the group back to how amazingly capable the Gospel is. Do your members have any stories of how living out the gospel like this has changed someone else s life? Encourage them to share. Rejoice together with how powerful and loving our great God is! Again, this Extra section is for your members who regularly work through their GG Guides ahead of time, and still want more! It s not some way to divide real or mature members from others, just a bit more to chew on for those who want it. No one should ever feel they HAVE to work on this part. Romans 1:16 is the keystone verse launching Paul s argument about the Gospel, the one he developed all the way through chapter 11. Thus, living for the gospel in 12:1-2 finds its basis all the way back in 1:16. Because the Gospel is powerful enough to truly accomplish what it sets out to do, we can place great faith it in it. We don t need to be ashamed to identify ourselves with the good news about Jesus! Extra Read Romans 1:16. What does this teach about the Gospel? about sharing your faith with others? about Christian living? How does Romans 1:16 further inform our Live It Up questions?