Before 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
Play the “They Earn It” video and ask:
- How anxious are you about retirement (or how is retirement going)?
- What are you or will you be doing to have a good retirement?
- To what degree is retirement is something you earn, versus something that happens to you?
- How does that classic commercial make you feel about retirement plans?
- Why is the idea of “earning” something, as opposed to having it granted to you, still considered fashionable?
Content
Read Romans 4:1-17, then watch the Bible Background Video.
Ask questions like these:
- What is the main point of this passage?
- Why do you think Paul talks about Abraham?
- By what means did Abraham gain righteousness without the law?
- Why do you think the passage uses David as an example given his questionable history?
- Why is the discussion of Gentiles necessary and how does Abraham figure into that argument?
- In what ways does Abraham’s becoming a Jew relate to our own discussion of who is “in” and who is “out?”
Closure
Continue by asking:
- In what way does today’s passage’s argue about how God cares for and loves all people and not just one group more?
- What might change if we truly saw everyone as equal to us in God’s perspective?
- How can we develop a faith like Abraham’s?
Play the Mama Maggie video and ask:
- How may more reflection and silence help us to see life as God sees it?
- What can you do this week to reflect on God’s grace in light of the fact that some things in life cannot be earned?
- What might a true grasp of this concept change about the way we relate to others?
Close in prayer.
Writer: Jon Self