Join us this Sunday for Trinity's Easter Services.

Friday, Good Friday Service, 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm Bethel Baptist Church (10705 East 86th Street North, Owasso, OK 74055)

Sunday, 7AM Easter Sunrise Service, Barnes Elementary Field (7809 E 76th St North, Owasso, OK 74055)

Sunday, 10AM Easter Worship, Barnes Elementary Gym (7809 E 76th St North, Owasso, OK 74055)

Join Us Sunday: 10am at Barnes Elementary

Community Group Questions | Finding God's Will: Rest in Worship | Nov 3, 2019

Finding God's Will: Rest in Worship 
Rev. Blake Altman,  Lead Pastor

God intends to change you by His Word. How is He at work in you to do that?  Read the following passage and consider these questions. 


READ

Acts 10:1-16 (ESV)

1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, "Cornelius." 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, "What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea." 7 When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, 8 and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

9 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." 14 But Peter said, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, "What God has made clean, do not call common." 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

 

QUESTIONS (40 minutes)

1. Before we get to today's text, let's examine the theme for the next 4 weeks at Trinity: Finding God's Will. Pastor Blake said that finding God's will is 4 things: 1) rest in worship, 2) grow in community, 3) rediscover your calling, and 4) find freedom and make the name of Jesus famous. How is this list different from how we might normally think about "finding God's will?"

Being Good vs. Knowing God
2. Cornelius "feared God" (v. 2) but didn't know God. What might a modern-day Cornelius look like?

3. Think about a friend or neighbor who might be in the same category as Cornelius. What might you say to them to demonstrate that "being good" isn't the same as "knowing God"?

4. Similar to on the TV show The Voice, we all put "judges" in chairs waiting to approve of us (even though they don't actually have this power). Who is in your judges' chair and why might they be there?

Knowing God vs. Knowing Ourselves
5. The second-generation Reformer John Calvin begins his magnum opus The Institutes of the Christian Religion with the following: "Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves." Why is this true?

6. Peter's kosher dietary restrictions (v. 10ff) created a barrier between him and the gospel going out to the Gentiles, including Cornelius. What might be some of your self-imposed barriers to extending the gospel in your life? What barriers might Trinity have as a church that need to come down?

7. Pastor Blake closed by saying that knowing God's will is knowing God and knowing yourself, and that knowing God and knowing yourself come through resting in worship. Do you agree? Why or why not?

 

PRAYER (10 minutes) 

Take prayer requests, and then pray together that through resting in worship, we would all better know God, His will, and ourselves.