Join us this Sunday! In-Person 9:00am & 10:45am, Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Join us this Sunday! In-Person 9:00am & 10:45am, Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Join us at the next Sunday worship service:
In-Person
9:00am & 10:45am,
Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Week 1 Sermon Questions For Groups

Heroes 

Introduction:

Real life hero’s are important because they give us someone to look up to, someone to pattern our lives after. Many people look at celebrities or sports stars as their heroes. But being a celebrity does not make you a hero. The Bible is full of stories of men and women who became hero’s of the faith. The author of the book of Hebrews lists several of them in the 11th chapter. None of those listed were perfect, they all made mistakes, but I believe we can all learn something from their stories that will help us as we strive to become more like Christ. Each week we look at some of the “unlikeliest” heroes of the Bible, ordinary people who did extraordinary things for God. This week we looked at Moses.

Bottom Line: The most unlikely people make the most likely heroes.

Something To Talk About:

Moses seemed completely ill equipped for the task that God called him to do. He stood not as a finished product, modeling the character qualities we all strive for, but rather as a pretty ordinary, flawed individual much like any of us. Which raises a question: Why was the work of liberating the Israelites from Egypt entrusted to someone like that? Or in the same vein, why does God entrust His work to us?  Maybe that’s the point. Our sight is limited, our steps tentative, our abilities limited, but none of that matters when coupled with the power of God. Moses is confronted by God in a pretty spectacular manner, and yet he argues with God about how God has made a mistake. But in the process, Moses learns that with God all things are possible: 

  1. Heroes see what everyone else sees, but choose to do what no one else does: Acts 4:13 says, “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.  Peter and John had just healed the crippled man outside the temple. Peter and John were looked at as unschooled, ordinary men. What set them apart is that they were known to be with Jesus during His earthly ministry. What set them apart is that they spent time with Jesus and they went about doing what no one else was. God loves to use ordinary people like you and me to do extraordinary things. Throughout the Bible, God used ordinary people to do great things and the only reason that we know about them is because of what God did through them. We have to remember that God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called. God created us to to be His hands and feet and as a result it is not enough to see a need. We need to do something about it. There isn’t a better time than the present to get involved. God’s waiting for you to change your world with Him right beside you.
  1. Heroes are willing and available: In Matthew 8:1-4 we find the story of Jesus healing the leper. In verses 1-3 we read: ”…suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.”Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.”  Sometimes the storied lives of people such as the leper can seem like a fairy tale, like something so unreal that you put it in the category of a cartoon. But the event was real, and the experience is real today. The leper wanted to know if Jesus was willing and Jesus said yes. God will use people, ordinary people like Moses and each of us if we are willing and available. If we are willing, God is willing. Like Moses, many people will have excuses, will be skeptical or reticent at first, but once they are willing God can do extraordinary things through ordinary people.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What’s the lamest excuse you’ve ever given to an authority figure because you didn’t want to obey, take a risk, or do something that pushed you beyond your comfort zone?
  2. Read Exodus 3: 11. What do you think Moses was really saying? What fear or anxiety was behind the excuse Moses gave God?
  3. Try to imagine being in this situation. What if God asked you to do something similar to what Moses was asked to do? How do you think you would respond, and why?
  4. What excuses do we sometimes use in not making the most out of the life God has given us?
  5. What responsibility do we have to be available for God to work through us?
  6. God often calls people to take action because of hurt, pain, or sin; in this situation, God’s people were held in slavery in Egypt. What obstacles or challenges facing people in our world might God call you to take action against?
  7. If God has recently called you to some step of faith or action or obedience, how did you respond? Are you pleased with how you handled it, or should you have responded differently? Explain.
  8. How can you prepare yourself for the future when God calls you to some step of faith or action or obedience? What habits or attitudes can you develop now that will help you when that time comes?

Take One Thing Home with You:

The Bible is full of heroes. And when you read the stories of these heroes you find some similarities. Most of them had humble beginnings and did not seem like the hero type. Abraham was an old man that had no children that God promised to make a great nation out of. Moses was an introvert with a fear of public speaking and on top of that was wanted in Egypt for murder. Rahab was a prostitute. David was the youngest of eight sons of a nobody from a nowhere town. Matthew was a failed levite that became a hated tax collector for the occupying Roman government and stole from his own people. Paul was a persecutor of Christians and killed many of the first Christians.

There was nothing special about them. Nothing at all. Flaws and faults. Hang-ups and issues. Yep, they were normally abnormal. Just like us today. In fact, they were the opposite of what one would expect. Why would God choose an introvert with a fear of public speaking to be his mouthpiece? Why would God take the youngest son of a lowly man from a tiny town to be the King of Israel? Why would God choose a man that made a living trying to squash out the church to become the church’s biggest builder and write a great deal of the New Testament? This just goes to show you that the most unlikely people make the most likely heroes.