START CONVERESATION
What do you think about raising ostriches?
What do you do when you’re home alone and the power goes out? (PG Please ????)
Do you know any good conversation starters?
START TALKING
The moment you wake up each morning all your wishes, worries and plans for the day come rushing at you like wild animals. One of the first task of the day involves us shoving it all back and, instead of listening to the voice of the enemy, choosing to focus our attention on the “life” God promises. Every day and, in every way, and in all kinds of situations, we have a choice whether we are going to get in on God’s plan or we’re going to try to do our own plans. In our passage of scripture this morning, we discover that God has a Calling on Your Life.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Do you believe that God still calls people to do His work?
If God does have a “call” on our lives, are there certain ways he calls? How do you feel he call us?
1. GOD’S PROMISE (vs.28)
READ ROMANS 8:28
“We know, in fact, that God works all things together for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.”
When we take on the challenges that each day brings, God gives a unique promise to “those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” He clearly states that the believer can “know, (for a) fact, that God works all things together for good with those (the believer) …”
Think about it, on those days when you feel the devil using all his evil “schemes” (Ephesians 6:11) and you feel the breeze of the “flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16) as they bounce off your “shield of faith” (Ephesians 6:16) we have the promise that God is working with us and we can “stand (our) ground” (Ephesians 6:13).
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(The question below is a “problem-solving” question. There is not a right or wrong answer. So, be honest. Understanding how we hold a view of success and failure can help you see that God is working in all things)
What areas of your life do you view as your work to accomplish and what areas of your life do you view as God’s work to accomplish?
2. GOD’S PURPOSE (vs.29)
READ ROMANS 8:29
For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Not only do we have a unique promise, we have a unique purpose. The “good’ that God is “working out” is, and has always been, for the believer to be like Jesus. God “foreknew” us because we are His creation. His creation is “predestined (chosen) to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” The believers DESTINATION from the outset was to be shaped in the same lines as the life of Jesus. It is a perfect plan. It all done. You DO NOT have to work for your salvation. Jesus did the work and when it was done he said, “It is finished!” He has chosen each one of us to be a part of that finished work.
Now this verse does not say what God knew it says, “The people that God knew.” We’re talking about knowing somebody personally. Before the planets were ever thrown out into place before the stars were littered into the universe God said, “I knew you and I chose you to be one of my children.” God really wants everybody to be saved but he also knows not everybody will. He gives you a choice in the matter.
He says to you, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord WILL be saved.” Romans 10:13 What will be your choice?
If we chose Christ and follow him, he starts the process of “conforming (us) to the likeness of his Son (Jesus). He keeps on working on us. Philippians 1:6. It says: “Being confident of this he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
God’s main goal in saving you was NOT to get you to heaven. It wasn’t even to forgive you for your sins. Those are important, but NOT the main goal. His main goal was to make you like Jesus. You need to put that in your mind and in your heart. God’s main goal in saving you is to make you like Jesus, first in your character and finally in your body. In other words, even your body is going to be made like Jesus. Right now, he is trying to make your character like Jesus.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
How has God used your “hard times” to draw you to Jesus? How can you become a more willing participant in this process in the midst of “hard times”? How does God use our “present (global) sufferings” to conform a person to the image of Christ?
3. GOD’S PROCESS (vs.30)
READ ROMANS 8:30
And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
We live in a real world where “reality” knocks at our door each day… sometimes several times a day. God, in his grace, offers the believer a promise to work with us in the “reality” settings. In those “real” moments, we CAN stand our ground knowing there is a purpose. God’s purpose is shaping us to be more like Christ.
In verse 30 we discover God’s shaping process is simple, “Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
You have a choice about God’s Calling on Your Life. God won’t force you or coerce you into His will for you. But once you chose to follow him, the destination is predetermined. The question that you MUST answer is this: What is God calling you to do?
Maybe it’s a Call of Salvation. Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy-laden & I will give you rest.” Do you know Jesus as your savior?
Maybe it’s a call to follow Him … a call of service. Mark 1:17 says, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” What that means is there are some of you in this room who have answered his call to be a Christian but you haven’t answered his call to serve him. You are still a “pew potato”. You’re warming a seat but you’re not serving God. Today God is calling you to serve.
Maybe it’s a call to go deeper … a call to Abide in Him. John 15:4 says, “Abide in me and I in you as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself. Neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in me.” This means you have surrendered to the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.
God’s call is an invitation. That invitation has been extended to you this evening. How will you respond?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
“She said to herself, ‘He has brought me here when I did not want to come for his own purpose. I, too, will look up into his face and say, ‘Behold me! I am thy little handmaiden Acceptance-with-Joy”
(Hannah Hurnard, Hind’s Feet on High Places, p. 45).
Can you think of a time that God brought you to a place that you did not want to go? How did He use that experience for His own purpose? A job, a mission trip, a relationship, something else?
START PRAYING
God, thank You for sending Jesus to be with us. Thank You for giving us real life through Him. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit being in us. We ask You to bring the reality and presence of Jesus into our thinking, our praying, our decisions, and each area of our lives this next year. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
