Election Direction: In God we Trust
Selected Scriptures
Connect:
Share how you have seen God in the Highs and Lows of your week.
Prayer:
Pray that God would lead your discussion time and bring fresh insight, conviction, and hope through your time together.
Review:
We are moving into a series called “Election Direction” where we are looking at Biblical teaching and principles that help to ground us as believers in a deeply fragmented nation moving into election season. This week, our focus is on “In God we Trust”.
The Grand Tour of the message: Thinking back on what you heard this Sunday…
o What did you learn about God?
o What did you learn about people?
o What did you learn about yourself?
o What do you want to commit to putting into practice?
Reflection:
Personal Experience:
Think about the trust you placed in the person who designed the seat you sat in this evening without thinking about it; why did you trust that chair to hold you up?
Group Discussion:
Read Luke 5:1-11
What is the difference between what God CAN do and what He DOES do when it comes to our experience of life and the world around us?
In verse 4, Jesus said to “Let down your nets for a catch”. Read Simon’s response in verse 5; what moved him from “We tried that” to “I’ll do it.” Discuss why that change happened.
In v8, Simon sees a miracle catch of fish! Discuss his response to that. What was it about that miracle that made Simon respond in that way?
Read Mark 4:35-41
Discuss the difference between Jesus’ experience of the storm and that of the disciples. Why did they experience this very real storm in such radically different ways?
Jesus said, “Let’s cross to the other side”, and then He went to sleep! Discuss why Jesus would sleep in a storm that sent his disciples into a panic— did He really not care, or was there something else happening here? If so, what was it?
In v40, Jesus asked them “Why were you so afraid; do you still have no faith?” Discuss how faith should govern fear.
Read Matthew26:30-39
If Jesus were to stand in your group tonight and say, “This evening, a wave of persecution is coming to NJ so severe that every person here will deny that they know Me”, what would be your response to that?
Compare the disciples’ response to persecution (“We’ll stand tall and true” > “Run away!”) to Jesus response (v36-39). What’s the difference? Discuss what we learn from Jesus in this moment.
Discuss the prayer of trust: “God, be Lord of what I hope FOR so that my trust is in You.” Why would we want GOD to govern what WE want Him to do?
NOTE: The point here is that God has a will of His own for our lives that extends beyond our moment into purposes He has had for eternity. Our choice is whether or not to trust Him in that moment and continue to acknowledge Him as God and follow Him.
Read John 21:15-19
The point here was that trusting obedience brings us a sense of identity and purpose (calling) that can characterize our experience of life. Giving the glory to God, share about a time where you knew God was telling you to do something, and you did it, and you saw God at work!
What does love have to do with trust; how do these two interact in our experience of relating with people? How does any of that change when talking about our relationship with God?
Why did Jesus ask Peter 3 times, “Do you love Me?” before He said, “Follow Me.”?
Response:
Mark ended the message this weekend with a reminder that if we say, “In God we trust”, then we need to acknowledge God as God, entrust ourselves to Him, and walk in obedience step by step. In this time of great national turbulence, spend some time praying together that the Lord would use His people in this moment to draw the nation’s attention back to the Creator.
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