Before the Session

Facilitator: In advance of the session

  • Have the Bible Background Video ready to view.
  • Review today’s scripture text and the session activities to help better facilitate the discussion.
  • Encourage your group to listen to the Faithelement podcast ahead of the next session (Share the link via email or social media)

Context (From the Current Session Page)

Start by asking:

  • What are some things that are permanent fixtures in our lives or in our world.
  • What would that be like if these permanent things be removed or changed?

Share this story of an artist in China who makes impermanent artwork. As you share these pictures of his artwork, ask:

  • Which picture do you appreciate the most and why?
  • What do you think happens in the mind of an artist who sees possibility in something like shorn hair on the floor?
  • After this artist creates, he sweeps it up. The art is present only for a moment. Practically, the work of sweeping away must happen in this place of business. How do you feel when you see something beautiful or noteworthy that needs to be swept away?

Content (From the Mind Session Page)

Read Hebrews 12:18-29, then watch the Bible Background Video.

Then ask questions like these:

  • Reread verses 18-21, where the writer describes the Israelites’ experience at Mt. Sinai. What was the mountain like?
  • What did God command them, and what are the predominant emotions described?
  • How would you characterize the God they encounter there?
  • Read Exodus 34:29-35. In what ways does this story compare to the Hebrews passage?
  • Now reread Hebrews 12:22-24. In what ways does the mountain described here differ from the earlier mountain and why?
  • What does the writer feel we can now experience in God’s presence, rather than fear and trembling?
  • In light of the different way we now interact with God, what response does the writer of Hebrews urge us to, and why?
  • What is going to be “shaken” – what will remain, and what will fall away?

Closure (from the Media Session page)

Continue by asking the group what they remember about the Sandy Hook shooting? (play the Sandy Hook video, if desired)

Tell the group:
The CCM group, Building 429, did a concert only a few days after this shooting where they unveiled a newer song with many of the victim’s families singing along. That song was ‘We Won’t Be Shaken’

Play the We Won’t be Shaken music video and ask:

  • How can we remember to show gratitude this week in the face of things that scare us?
  • How can God’s power and love help you focus on things that cannot be shaken?
  • Speaking broadly, what can we do to offer that kind of love and power to people who need to encounter it in the face of tragedy?
  • More specifically, what kinds of thing can we do over the next couple of weeks that might help someone else deal with the things that may be shaking their life?

Close in prayer.

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