Join us this Sunday for Trinity's Easter Services.

Friday, Good Friday Service, 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 | The Secure, Relentless Grace of God | Oct 20, 2019

The Secure, Relentless Grace of God 
Rev. Scott Mitchell, Pastor of Community Formation

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

Romans 8:28-39 (NASB)

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written,

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


QUESTIONS (40 minutes)

1. Describe the sense or mood of v. 29-35.

2. What is the author's purpose in using rhetorical questions in v. 31-35? What is he wanting to highlight?

3. Why do the list of "separators" in v. 38-39 differ from those previously in v. 35? Of those in both lists, which most resonates with you.

4. In what way does the absolute security of God's grace lead his children to a life of freedom?

5. Look at Psalm 23:6 (ESV): "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Pastor Scott mentioned that the word "shall follow" (Heb: radaph) is translated elsewhere in the Old Testament as "pursue," "chase," "persecute," and "hunt down." How does this help us understand God's grace better?

6. Pastor Scott shared the analogy of the bank vault, that a bank can be secure only if it's also relentless. How does that apply to God's grace?

 

PRAYER (10 minutes) 

Take prayer requests, and then pray together that God's grace in the Christian life would move us toward a life of confidence and love before the Father.