Foundations 5

Intro

We are doing a Round Table night!!

Man these have become my favorite nights at Students!

We just wrapped up our series called “Foundations” where we sought to understand who God is by using Old Testament passages!

Week 1

In week 1 we looked at the creation account

We saw that God is a God that creates!

We talked about the Hebrew word for create “Bara” which means something out of nothing

Think about that — we cannot create we can only make, but God creates

When then talked about how not only does God create, but also that He creates with a purpose

Everything that God created was with a purpose! He doesn’t make mistakes

Then we wrapped up the night by talking about how when God created us, He created us different

You are quite literally BUILT DIFFERENT!!

Genesis 2:7 ESV

then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Genesis 2:21–22 ESV

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

So at your tables lets take a few minutes to discuss these two questions:

Why is it significant that God created something out of nothing? What does that teach us about God?

Why does it matter that we were created different than animals?

Week 2

In week 2 you got to hear from John!

Let’s be real here, it was the best message of the series!

John talked about Genesis chapter 3

We looked at the fact that sin entered into the world!

John walked through the text showing us how sin is deceptive — it is always seeking to lie to us

Genesis 3:1 ESV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Satan looked at Eve and said “did God really say that”

He didn’t say “I am Satan here to pull you away from God!” Notice instead he was crafty

John then walked us through Genesis 3 where God lays out punishments for the sin of man

How mankind is no separated from God forever!

But then at the end of Genesis 3 we something awesome

Genesis 3:21 ESV

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

There was a sacrifice to bring mankind back to God!

John dropped the best one-liner:

What Sin Has Broken, God Promises to Restore

So at your tables lets discuss these questions:

How does sin affect us today?

Week 3

In week three of the series we did a deep dive into the story of Abraham

We first looked at how the Lord doesn’t abandon His people — we saw this through the fact that though the world was terrible in Abraham’s time God still stayed faithful to Abraham

We then looked at the fact that Abraham’s life shows that God keeps His promise!

God promised a child to Abraham when Old Abe was 75 years old — it then took 25 years for this child to come

Yet GOD stayed faithful!

Genesis 22:13–14 ESV

13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

Finally God proved that he offers salvation by the fact He provided a lamb in place of Isaac!

A beautiful picture of what Jesus did for us!

So at your tables lets discuss these questions:

How have you experienced God’s faithfulness in your own life? Are there prayers that you have been praying that God answered?

How can you encourage others of God’s faithfulness?

Week 4

Finally last week at the Spooktacular Michael wrapped up the series by talking about Joseph

He gave us three things to remember when it comes to the story of Joseph:

The first thing was that God is always in control

When you see the story of Joseph this is evident — he was sold into slavery by his brothers, lied on and thrown into jail, and then forgotten

By everyone

Except God

Then Michael shared how God can use the bad for good

All the events we just mentioned are BAD things!

And yet at the end of the story God takes care of everything

Genesis 50:20 ESV

20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Finally we saw that God invites us to trust Him fully

Joseph didn’t have the blueprint for what God was doing, simply that He knew God and knew that God had a plan

So at your table here is the question I want you to ponder:

Where in your life do you need to trust that God is working — even when you don’t see how any good could come from it yet?

Conclusion

In the Foundations series we saw God for who He is:

God is creator who always creates with a purpose

God is forgiver who offers redemption for His people

God is promise keeper who never forgets us

God is working all things out for His people

Which one of these aspects of God do you need to focus more on?