Ultimate Christmas Party: Party Crashers

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:

This series moves us into the Christmas Season, culminating in the Sone of God, Jesus Christ’s birth as a baby in Bethlehem! This weekend we looked at how God included people in the ancestry of Jesus people who made mistakes, how these people, like you and I, are not just part of the story; we are the point of the story!

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:

• Have some of your group ever crashed a party? Talk about what happened, how it felt, how you were treated… and if you did it again!

  Group Discussion:

• Read Genesis 37:23-28

  • Why were Joseph’s brothers so deeply hateful of Joseph? (check Genesis 37:1-20)

  • Discuss Judah’s mindset here in v26,27; what was his attitude toward Joseph, his father Jacob, his brother Reuben… even toward God Himself? What was it that made this action (sell Joseph as a slave) make sense to Judah?

  • Read Joseph’s description of what was happening in Genesis 45:3-9— by that time Joseph was the 2nd place rule in Egypt! What was Joseph’s attitude toward his brothers (especially Judah), his father… even God Himself?

• Read 38:15-26

  • Compare how Judah was thinking in v16-17 and v24. How did he see himself, Tamar and God in these 2 situations? What made the difference?

  • In v 25-26, Judah is called to account publicly by the woman he had judged! Now that it was common knowledge that Judah had done exactly what he had judged in Tamar, compare his judgement of Tamar with his judgement of himself for exactly the same thing. Do we do that— do we judge ourselves differently than we judge others?

  • Matthew 1:3 says that Judah and Tamar’s son Perez was an ancestor of the Messiah! How does that display God’s mercy? Why is it difficult for us to show other people mercy while we, at the same time, enjoy God’s grace?

• Read 2 Samuel 11:2-13

  • Compare David and Uriah— their position, their integrity, and their actions.

  • V1 talked about David sending others while remaining home. What might be going on there that can serve as a warning to us?

  • This was clearly an epic ‘fail’ on David’s part. With murder and adultery in the background, why did God include Solomon, the son of this union with Bathsheba, not only the next King but also an ancestor of the Messiah!?

  • Scott made the point that we sometimes think that ‘if our good outweighs the bad, we’re good.’ How do you see that in life/ culture today, and what does the Bible say about that?

Response: 

The point this week is that all of us, every single one, are only ever included in God’s plan, God’s purposes, because of God’s grace. Spend some time thanking God for His grace and recommitting to be witnesses of that critical message to the world around us this Christmas season!

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