Message: The Bigger Story
Speaker: Angela Beise
Life is full of invitations:
- What have been some of your recent invitations?
Angela pointed out that the Bible is full of invitations from God, and mentions 4 specific ones in both Old and New Testaments:
- Abram (later called Abraham) Genesis 12:1-3
- Mary (his mother) Luke 1
- The servants at the wedding in Cana John 2:1-11
- The Disciples Matthew 4:18-22
Each person received an invitation from God-
- What was God calling them to?
- Discuss what each of them left behind as they said yes to God? What were the risks? The losses?
God never came out with a gameplan or roadmap to explain how their decision to follow Him was going to work out. And note that God was seemingly silent for over 10 generations before calling Abram. We benefit from seeing the bigger picture, the bigger story.
- Discuss what were the promises, the rewards and blessings for accepting God's invitation, from each of these 4 groups.
And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
Read
Read the Scriptures associated with the people above.
Reflect
What do you think you are living for? Comfort? Work? Status? $? Children/family?
What kind of invitation is God extending to you? Have you taken Him up on it? What does that look like?
Do
Take some time to share any thoughts about what 2019 looks like in your relationship with God. What might He be inviting you into.
Then pray for one another - for discernment, for courage- for whatever you need to accept God's invitation to go deeper into His story.