Small Group Guide

VALUABLE: THE CHILDREN OF GOD

The Church at Brook Hills Herbie NewellJanuary 15, 2017 Galatians 3:26

MAIN TRUTH

Message Outline

To download the outline for this week’s sermon, visit brookhills.org/media.

Message Summary

On this Sanctity of Life Sunday, which also falls on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend and the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Herbie Newell, President/Executive Director of Lifeline Children’s Services, challenges us to consider the transformational realities of spiritual adoption, linking physical adoption to God’s adoptive heart. All believers, as part of God’s adoptive family, are called to share the gospel and to defend the orphan and the widow. Understanding the reality of our own adoption by God the Father fuels our mission.

Through our spiritual adoption, Galatians 3:23-4:7 reveals thatGod accepts believers, gives them a new identity in Christ, and brings them into the family of God. Before we serve Christ by doing something, we must first know that we are loved and accepted by God—based on the righteousness of Christ, not our own works. Contrary to our very self-reliant society, the gospel reminds us that we are completely helpless and hopeless apart from Christ. Because the Holy Spirit lives in believers (2 Cor. 5:17), He transforms us and gives us a new identity as He sanctifies us into Christ’s image.

Spiritual adoption grants us the ability to cry out and to speak to our Father. Remembering this awesome privilege as a child of God changes our view of prayer, calling us to speak to God spontaneously, reverently, respectfully, and freely. Living in God’s abiding presence through His Holy Spirit gives us freedom to face anything that comes our way, no matter how difficult, with a peaceful knowledge that God is in control. The intimate relationship we have with our Father fuels us to work for Him because of His great love. Knowing that we are His heirs that own it all changes our view of the world.

Physical adoption mirrors God’s adoptive heart in six ways. Both are planned, are costly, are legal, create heirs, are transformative, and are a blessing. Applying this knowledge causes us to do at least four things. When we understand our own adoption by God, we become fierce defenders of life. Life is a precious gift from God, and we must protect unborn children by supporting pro-life ministries. Additionally, those who have experienced abortion have given in to deception and face condemnation from the enemy, but every sin can be overcome by the power of the cross. And for those who are tempted to abort but who have decided to have a baby in spite of difficult circumstances, we must continue to care for them. Second, understanding our own adoption enables us to embrace differences between races, cultures, and nations, and that understanding engages us into racial reconciliation. Third, it drives us to share the gospel in our own communities. and fourth, it propels us to go to the nations to fulfill the Great Commission.

WHY IT MATTERS

Digging Deeper

Consider beginning your group time with one of two options. First, if anyone in your group has adopted a child, ask him or her (or them as a couple) to share a 10-15 minute testimony of how this sermon has played out in their lives by elaborating the detailed ways that their adoption process drew them into a deeper understanding of God’s spiritual adoption. Be sure to ask them ahead of time so they have time to prepare.

Ask them to prepare a summary statement, filling in this blank: Our of adoption has helped us to better understand God’s ______by experiencing ______.

Another option is to open your time with an evaluation of 2016 and goal setting for your group in 2017. As you consider God’s adoptive heart for you as individuals and as a group and as you consider God’s adoptive heart toward the world around you, begin to consider prayerfully how He is leading you to serve and make disciples this year—as individuals and as a group. Alternatively, you could open with some of the questions below and conclude with a time of evaluation. Be sure to spend time in prayer as you make plans.

NOW WHAT DO WE DO?

Group Discussion & Application

Use the following questions to examine what the sermon and its text mean, to apply the Word to your life, and to guide how you pray. Please note that you don’t have to use all of the questions. These are just options (along with the digging deeper section) to help you frame the group discussion.

  1. Why is all human life valuable to God?
  2. What does it mean to be a child of God? Are all people children of God (Gal. 3:26)?
  3. How does understanding God’s adoptive work change the way you understand Him? The way you understand yourself?
  4. What kinds of things does God adopting us into His family fuel us to do?
  5. Toward the beginning of his message, Herbie challenged the church to remember a foundational truth: Before we serve Christ by doing anything, whether it’s going overseas on a mission trip or becoming a faith trainer in Children’s Ministry, we must know we’re loved and accepted by God. Why is it so important for us to remember that truth before we serve? What can happen when serve but aren’t properly grounded in God’s love and acceptance?
  6. How is the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification connected to our new identity?
  7. Read Colossians 3:1-4. What does it mean to set your hearts and minds on things above?
  8. On today’s outline, read through the list of what spiritual adoption grants to the believer (Gal. 4:4-7). How has your awareness of these realities grown as you have grown in your relationship with God? Has your perception of any of these truths been weakened by unconfessed sin?
  9. Why does God want his sons and daughters—His heirs—to be “fierce defenders of life”? What practical ways are you defending life now? How can you more intentionally defend life in 2017?
  10. How are you showing compassion to the world? How should your financial giving show compassion? How should the way you invest your time show compassion?
  11. What do your closest relationships look like? Are you investing in the lives of brothers and sisters who share different backgrounds, cultures, and locations? If not, how will you begin to pray and act intentionally toward this end?
  12. Why is it dangerous for churches to fail to embrace the racial, economical, and social differences among the children of God? What changes when we do embrace these differences? How is God calling you to make disciples in 2017?
  13. Are you serving locally or planning to servelocally with any of Brook Hills’ partners either as individuals, couples, or as a small group (see brookhills.org/localmissions for opportunities)? If so, how does today’s message change or challenge your perspective and goals for serving?
  14. Are you planning to go on any of Brook Hills’ mission trips, either as individuals, couples, or as a small group? If so, how does today’s message change or challenge your perspective and goals for the trip?

Resources for Small Group Leaders

Weekly Prayer Focus (from Our Worship Guide)

  • Pray for Our Church:
  • Praise God for our spiritual adoption into His family.
  • Ask God to develop within us a deep value for all life and for unity among a diverse family of God.
  • Pray for Our City:
  • Pray for the lives of the unborn and for the intrinsic value of all human life from the moment of conception to death.
  • Pray for Hunter Street Baptist Church and Pastor Buddy Gray.
  • Pray for Our World:
  • Pray for Brook Hills Member Organization Lifeline UnAdopted (visit unadopted.org to learn more about this ministry).

“Valuable: The Children of God,”January 15, 2017 | Page 1