01 Dec
2024

God Sent His Son

Passage: Galatians 4:4-7 and John 1:1-18

First Sunday of Advent Collect from the Book of Common Prayer:
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

SERMON OUTLINE:

  1. The Identity of the Word
  2. The Distorted Identities We Believe
  3. The True Identity We Receive

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

How are you entering into Advent this year? What is your sense of time (chronos/kairos) and expectations in preparation for Christmas?

Read Galatians 4:4-7 and John 1:1-18. What challenges, encourages, or sparks questions for you in this passage? What phrases stand out to you that help shape your understanding of God’s character and your identity as a child of God?

How have you experienced or wrestled with the truth that our identity as children of God is received, not achieved?

Kara Powell wrote in 3 Big Questions, that there are three significant questions everyone wrestles with: Who am I? Where do I fit? What difference can I make? Where have you been prone to search for your identity to answer “who am I?” (Consider success, possessions, people, sexuality, cultural heritage, knowledge, or politics.) How does the identity you receive in Christ answer the question: who am I?

Every Sunday in worship our liturgy reminds us that God has called us, cleansed us, communes with us, and reminds us that we are part of God’s better story. We are invited to rest in our identity as a child of God. How does receiving your identity in Christ give you rest? How can you grow/mature/bear fruit in receiving and rejoicing in Christ’s identity for you?

PRAYER

Share with your group how they can be praying for you: what is weighing on you from this past week? What are you praising God for from this past week?

Isaiah 9:2 / “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”