Renew EPC: Sermons

The God of Scripture is the one who chases you down to bring you good promises because he hears you and sees you.
Outline: Why worship the Lord?
1. He chases you down.
2. He has good plans for you.
3. He hears your cries
4. He truly sees you.
Questions for Personal Application:
1. What was something from the sermon that encouraged you?
2. What is something that makes you feel cared for or reminds you that someone is looking out for you?
3. Hagar was mistreated and felt she had to flee into the wilderness. What stands out to you about the fact that God sought her out, even though she was an Egyptian servant and a complicated part of Abraham and Sarah’s story?
4. The sermon highlights four reasons God is worthy of our worship: He chases us down, has good plans for us, hears our cries, and truly sees us. Which of these stands out to you most, and why?
5. As followers of Jesus our actions should reflect God’s character to others. How might our words, attitudes, or treatment of people cause others to misunderstand who God is? What would it look like to represent Him more faithfully?
6. If you truly believed that God sees you, hears you, and pursues you with His love, what might change about how you approach Him and how you treat others this week?

The gospel is not “finish what I started” its “It is finished.”
Outline: Three traps that produce bad faith:
1) The trap of shame
2) The trap of self-reliance
3) The trap of pride
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. What was something from the sermon that encouraged you?
2. Why do you think we are so prone to find our worth in things like our job, marriage, kids, popularity, success, possessions, etc.? Of these, which do are you prone to find too much of your worth in?
3. Imagine a friend sharing with you that they cannot imagine God could love someone like them, what might you say? What Scriptures would be good to share?
4. A friend says to you “God helps those who help themselves.” How would you explain in a gracious manner that this is NOT what the Bible teaches. Discuss what verses/stories would help you explain the truth that God helps those who can’t help themselves.
5. Why do you think we are so tempted to turn toward pride when we have so many experiences of it making situations worse?
6. How is the gospel shame’s destruction?

How are we to know we will be saved? God provides great assurance.
Outline: Three ways God greatly assures His people
1. By His Covenant (15:7-11)
2. By His Sovereignty (vv. 8-16)
3. By His very Being (vv. 17-21)
Questions for Personal Reflection
1. What was something from the sermon that encouraged you?
2. All of us are familiar with the sidelines of faith and life. What are some of the reasons you have lived at the sidelines?
3. The question “How am I to know?” can be a question we use to support our doubt or to seek greater assurance. What makes the difference for which it is?
4. Does God need to prove His trustworthiness to us? Why do you think He does?
5. Read Hebrews 6:17-19 together. Share a Scripture that you call to mind frequently to be an anchor for your soul.
6. “God’s Sovereignty assures us that even the bad things do not stop His promise, they can only be part of fulfilling it.” How would you support this statement?
7. God has made a blood-oath to save you. How can you apply this truth to leave the sidelines of your faith?

Do we have faith for the long haul? How can we know?
Outline: Three gifts we receive from God by faith alone to survive the long haul.
1. By faith alone we have God's presence
2. By faith alone we have God's assurance
3. By faith alone we have God's righteousness
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. What was something from the sermon that encouraged you?
2. What is an area of your life where you can relate to Abram’s long waiting to see God’s promise fulfilled?
3. “God’s presence is a fact, not a feeling.” What can be the problem with associating a feeling or sensation as evidence of God’s presence in our life?
4. By faith alone, God is present to us all the time. What are some ways you can keep yourself aware of God’s presence in your life?
5. “By faith we can always raise our needs, questions, complaints to God.” Read Philippians 4:6-7 slowly. Share what phrase or word most catches your ear and why it is comforting. What is something in your life you need to take to God in prayer?
6. Why is it good news that God gave Abram righteousness on the basis of his faith and not on his obedience? 7. Put in your own words what it means to be justified (counted righteous) by God.

How can your life look different with the eyes of faith?
Three life-changing truths only visible with the eyes of faith:
1. The victory belongs to the Lord (vv. 13-20) 
2. The spoils are not the prize (vv. 21-23) 
3. The one greater than Abraham has come (v. 18)
Questions for Personal Reflection
1. Share a specific “thank you” to God from this last week.
2. What was something from the sermon that encouraged you?
3. Hebrews reveals Melchizedek is a foreshadow of Jesus. How might you use this truth to show a non-believer the divine nature of the Bible?
4. How have the “eyes of faith” changed your understanding of your victory and/or failure? Give an example.
5. What are the spoils of this world that most entice you? Consider money, success, social standing, relationships, lifestyle, political causes, etc. How have you felt these spoils exert leverage against your faith and witness? How can you use the “eyes of faith” resist these spoils?
6. Read Hebrews 10:23-25: According to this verse how does worshipping together strengthen our eyes of faith?
7. Because Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek, he is able to save us to the uttermost by faith in Him. How does fixing your eyes on this truth allow you to face your week ahead with hope?

Are your daily choices moving you closer to God or further from Him?
Outline: Why we should live by faith in every part of our lives:
1. The Way of Lot: Living by sight (or how our good decisions can lead us away form God)
2. The Way of Abram: Living by faith (or how every decision we make is about God)
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. Think of something that has become significant in your life: a relationship, workplace, friendship, school, hobby, neighborhood etc. How did this very important part of your life begin out of the mundane?
2. What was something from the sermon that encouraged you?
3. Which do you default to: choosing by faith or choosing by sight? Why did you choose by sight?
4. What is an area in your life that may be overly influenced by the desire for personal comfort?
5. Read Romans 12:2. What are some practices that have helped you renew your mind (live by faith) in the gospel?
6. Share a time where your faith changed the decision you would have made by sight. How did you bring your faith into the decision? What difference did it make to your decision?
7. Spend time walking in your inheritance by reading 1 Peter 1:3-7. What word/phrase comforts you? Think of a decision you are facing: How do these verses bring new perspective to it?

The scandal of God’s faithfulness is that He saves every faithless sinner who calls upon his name.
Outline:
1. The scandal that brings us down: our faithlessness (12:10-16)
2. The scandal that brings up up: His faithfulness (12:17-13:4)
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. Share a time when you thought you had a good plan, but that in the end it only made things worse.
2. Which of the four faithless acts was most relatable? Share why?
3. Nathan asked, “Do we accept that in God’s will for us can be hardship?” Why do you think we struggle to accept this?
4. Stephen Altrogge calls worry “imagining a future without God in it.” Do you agree/disagree? Share why. What can we do to better see our future with the presence of God?
5. Read Romans 14:23 & Hebrews 11:6. Why is faithlessness a sin?
6. “Abram is delivered and blessed opposite of what his actions merit.” Why is this message a stumbling stone for many?
7. Read Romans 5:8. Personalize it by replacing “sinners” with where you have stumbled, i.e. unfaithfulness, anxiousness, lust, dishonesty, cowardice, greed, selfishness, pride etc. How does this change what the scandal of God’s grace means to you?

The journey of faith is not about getting to God it is about enjoying the Gift of God.
Outline: The Journey of Faith goes by three names:
1. Faith goes by the path of obedience (vv. 4-5)
2. Faith goes by the path of trust (vv. 6-7)
3. Faith goes by the path of worship (vv. 8-9)
Personal Reflection Questions:
1. Share something in your life where the effort required was hard, but the outcome was rewarding.
2. What was something encouraging to you from the sermon?
3. Nathan shared that we are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. How does this statement help us understand the relationship between faith and obedience?
4. Obedience is not just loss, but gain. How have you experienced the self-denial of faith resulting in a greater delight in your salvation?
5. When your faith faces trouble, delay, or disappointment, what do you do to experience the reassurance of God’s presence and the confirmation of His promise?
6. Where are you struggling with the tension of being in the world but not of the world? What does “calling home” look like in that struggle?

Can we live by God’s promise when it doesn’t match reality?
Outline: Why we can trust in God’s promise:
1. It starts with His grace alone (v. 1)
2. It shapes reality (v. 2)
3. It saves the world (v. 3)
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. What was something encouraging to you from the sermon?
2. Read Romans 8:28. Share an example where you have seen this verse prove true in your own life?
3. Living by God’s promise requires living by faith, not by sight. What makes this so difficult? How have you grown in living by faith (share things you have done that has helped)?
4. How does the call of Abram show God’s amazing grace? How is God’s amazing grace shown in your own salvation story?
5. The topic of election – God’s choosing us before we chose him – can be controversial. Read John 6:63-65, Ephesians 1:3-5, 2:4-5: Why is God’s election necessary to our salvation? Why is this truth ultimately a comfort?
6. The story of Abram shows that God’s promise becomes reality, but that it does not happen quickly, nor does it remove all difficulties along the way. How does this ‘delay’ keep us from misusing God’s promises? How can this ‘delay’ serve our faith?
7. In Christ, you have been blessed to be a blessing. Whom has God placed you amongst to be a blessing?

Is the gospel the furnace of your heart?
Outline: Do you believe like Terah, Lot, or Abram?
1.The testimony of Terah: A partial faith comes up short
2. The testimony of Lot: A proximate faith will be exposed
3. The testimony of Abram: A pursuing faith will be blessed
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. What was something encouraging to you from the sermon?
2. Who is a person you have known personally whose faith greatly impacted you? What was it about their faith that you especially noticed?
3. What is a “god” that may be interfering with your faith commitment presently or has in the past (consider: sports, recreation, popularity/acceptance, comfort, moral autonomy, etc.)? What does saying “no” to that “god” look like?
4. Read 2 Corinthians 13:5. How can we test ourselves for “proximate” faith?
5. Share a time when your faith was more like a thermometer than a thermostat. What has helped your faith become more like a thermostat?
6. Read Gen 12:1-4: What about Abram’s call would be the hardest for you? What has been “the cost” of faith for you?
7. What do you do to keep your faith God-gripped and promise-fueled?