Place in Grace: Nations

In a recent TED talk, British diplomat Paddy Ashdown says that “we are now interlocked as nations, as individuals, in a way which has never been the case before.” He goes on to point out how this connectedness can be terrifying: “if you get swine flu in Mexico City, it’s a problem for Charles De Gaul Airport [in Paris] 24 hours later.” But Ashdown also argues that these times are uniquely hopeful because people across the world are finally realizing that we humans “share a destiny with each other.”

Of course, none of these ideas would be new or surprising to the Apostle Paul, who continually reminded the early Christ-followers that they were part of an interconnected divine drama encompassing all the peoples of the earth. In fact, according to Paul, this is part of God’s “eternal purpose” (Eph. 3:11).

During the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about how we find our “place ingrace” by heeding God’s call to the next generation and to our neighbors. On Sunday, we’ll expand our vision a bit further to remember God’s call to the nations. Sometimes that call can seem distant or overwhelming (or even terrifying!). But in light of our new global reality and God’s eternal purpose, that call is closer to home than we might think–we all can find a place in this part of God’s grace for the world.

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SEE IT // BE IT

(Weekly Community Group Discussion Guide)

Date: January 24, 2016 // Title: Place in Grace: Nations

Scripture: Ephesians 3:6-12, John 6:1-14

SERMON REVIEW 5-10 minutes

ARRIVAL / SOCIAL TIME 15-20 minutes
Spend the first 15 minutes or so of your time together catching up and socializing with one another. Also find time to catch up together on how the assignments from last week turned out.

SERMON REVIEW 5-10 minutes
This week in our series Place in Grace, Erin Burchik invited us into God’s heart for the nations. Here at Grace, the nations play a huge role in our community vision. We are a people who have chosen as our mission “to make disciples in the neighborhoods, nations, and next generation.” Just like Paul described his own call in Ephesians 3 to reveal the mystery of the gospel to the Gentiles, so we at Grace have taken it as our calling to be part of opening the kingdom of God to Muslims, both globally and in our local context. Erin challenged us from John 6 (the story of Jesus using a little boy’s lunch to feed 5,000 men—plus women and children), that we all have an “ordinary” or “natural” gift to give, and that in our ordinary giving, Jesus can and will do the extraordinary with it.

THE MAIN THOUGHT Keep this in mind as you facilitate discussion.
Joining in God’s heart for the nations is not something we’ve GOT to do—it’s something we GET to do.

SEE IT Questions :: 10-15 minutes

Picture: When you think about the “nations”, what do you think about? When you think about going to the “nations”, what comes to your mind? How about when you think about the “nations” coming to Atlanta—what comes to your mind? Erin listed all kinds of ways that God is using ordinary people at Grace to reach the “nations”. How many of these can you remember together? How is each of these people giving to Jesus like the little boy in John 6?

Mirror: When it comes to seeing the overwhelming needs of our world, it’s easy to find ourselves in what Erin called “analysis paralysis”—how have you faced “analysis paralysis” in your life? What strikes you most about the story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people—the way Jesus used the little boy’s gift or the way Jesus thanked his Father for that gift before the miracle occurred? Why?

Window: How have you seen God do extraordinary things with someone’s ordinary stuff? Share some of the stories you have seen. What one practical step can you take this week to give your ordinary gifts to God? How can you value the ordinary gifts in each other this week?

BE IT – Practice

Change UP // Speak UP 15 minutes
This Sunday we celebrated the translation of the book of Romans into the Ron language for the people living in Nigeria that our church helped sponsor this past summer. Take a few minutes to divide up the verses from Romans 8 and read them out loud together. As each person reads their verse or verses, imagine hearing these verses in your language for the first time. As each new person reads, imagine those verses being translated into another language. Let this experience remind you of the power of the Word of God and encourage you about how our church has committed to this mission together. Let it also remind you about how many more languages into which the Bible needs to be translated.

Change IN // Dream IN 15 minutes
This week Erin challenged us to bring our “ordinary” and “natural” gifts to God to see what He can do with them. Give each person one minute to think and identify any “ordinary” or “natural” gift that he or she has and invite them to speak that gift out to the group. Then spend two minutes brainstorming around each gift by dreaming ways together that God could use that “ordinary” gift to do extraordinary things. After everyone has named their gift and the group has dreamed out loud together, thank Jesus in advance for what He will do with these “ordinary” gifts.

Change OUT // Give OUT 5 minutes
Take a moment to think through all of the mission opportunities that Grace is mobilizing this year. You can find a list of our local and global “nations” opportunities at www.gfc.tv/snellville. Take some time to talk through some of these opportunities together and think about how your group can GIVE out together. Remember we can GIVE in a couple of different ways. We can give our focus by praying. We can give our treasure by donating our money. We can give our time by going. Talk through your group’s GIVE strategy by looking at the different opportunities and choosing one or two of them to GIVE to in whatever way your group chooses.

CLOSING PRAYER 5 minutes
Take a few minutes to gather any prayer requests and pray for each other to SEE IT and BE IT this week.