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Week 1 Sermon Questions For Groups

September 10, 2017

Playlist

Introduction:

Your life has a soundtrack. Every peak, every low note, and every rhythm make up a part of who you are. Don’t just shuffle through your days—create a Playlist worth listening to. The Playlist series uses popular songs to illustrate biblical truths. These songs—like Scars to Your Beautiful: Alessia Cara have messages and meaning for Christians. In “Scars to Your Beautiful,” Alessia promotes a message of self-acceptance that challenges the beautify standards we see every day. In this message we talk about how Scars To Your Beautiful reminds us that no outward appearance shines better than Christ in your heart and that you are God’s masterpiece.

Bottom line: With Christ, you are God’s masterpiece. 

Something To Talk About:

I don’t know what you see when you look in the mirror. I don’t know what you need to feel okay about yourself. But I do know that if you remind yourself that you are a beloved child of the King of Kings, you would find peace regardless of your shortcomings, your imperfections, your poor decisions, your appearance, your insecurities and in all those other areas where you don’t feel like we just don’t measure up, we just aren’t good enough, or smart enough. Today’s message opens a window to see the heart of our creator and the thought He put into creating you just as you are – a masterpiece.

  1. “I just don’t quite measure up”: Measuring up is a worry for many people. It’s exhausting. All those standards, all those rules, all those emotions to control so we’re the person we are expected to be. We live in fear of sinning. We begin to question our motives, actions, thoughts—everything—and assume everyone is questioning them as well. We are afraid of the judgment of God and of others. We are overly concerned about the opinions of others. That eventually leads to a constant sense of discouragement. The grim truth is that nobody can measure up to everything and everybody, and those who try eventually give up trying. Trying to measure up ignores the fact that God loves us and accepts us just as we are. Think for a moment about some of Jesus’ disciples. Did Peter “measure up” to God’s standard? No, he denied Christ after His arrest — not once, but three times. And yet Jesus forgave him, and God greatly used him to win thousands to Christ. Or think of Paul. Did he have to “measure up” to God’s standard before Jesus would accept him? Not at all; he persecuted Christians, and yet Jesus forgave him and welcomed him just as he was.  Don’t let anything — make you feel that you aren’t “good enough” and keep you from Christ. He loves you so much that He gave His life for you, and He is willing to welcome you just as you are. Every time we think we are are not good enough, we say to the Lord that His sacrifice was not enough. God is enough and He is already pleased with you and with me.
  1. You are God’s masterpiece: From time to time, we all see areas in our lives that we struggle with; areas that we wish could be different. It might be imperfections, bad habits, flaws, moral failures, spiritual weaknesses, in our lives. It is easy to forget about grace and that is not how God operates. We don’t need to measure up because Jesus measured up for us.  We can never measure up to God’s standards no matter how hard we try. Our best just isn’t good enough, but the good news is that Jesus is. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, His righteousness becomes ours. We instantly measure up. God created your abilities and talents and accepts you completely. Yes, God expects you to do the best with what you have, but He loves us for who we are, not for what we do. God is actually proud of you. Some of you are probably rolling your eyes right now, but it is true.The Bible says you are the “apple of his eye” (Zechariah 2:8 ESV) while the NLT version says, “Anyone who harms you harms my most precious possession.” He made you unique from all the billions of people He has ever created or will create. Do not be weighed down by self-judgment and concern as to your ability to make God accept you. You can’t make Him love you more. The Creator of the Universe already loves you enough to sacrifice everything in order to be with you. God Thinks You Are Beautiful…you are His masterpiece.

Discussion Questions:

  1. When you listened to the song Scars to Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara, what thoughts, feelings, or memories does this song bring to your mind?
  2. What’s something you’ve wanted to change but haven’t quite worked up the determination to do?
  3. On a scale of 1 to 10, how important to you is your physical appearance? Why?
  4. Is it hard for you to believe God’s opinion of you is good? If yes, why?
  5. Fill in the blanks with your current and honest perception. Sometimes I wish God made me less ______ and more ______.
  6. Read Psalm 139:13-14: What does this passage tell you about who God created you to be?
  7. What is the most dramatic transformation story you’ve ever heard? (e.g. ISIS fighter converts to Christianity)  What lessons can these examples teach us about transforming our own scars into signs of hope?
  8. Does your perception of yourself cause you to do more of what you were made to do, or less? Talk that out.

Take One Thing Home with You:

Scars. They tell stories, don’t they? We may have fallen off a bike or you had your appendix out or maybe they are emotional rather than physical scars. We all have them. The physical scars are often easy to hide. The emotional scars not so much. The physical scars tend to fade over time.  If only emotional wounds worked that way.

You’re betrayed by a close friend, lose your job, unexpectedly lose a family member, or have a miscarriage. Any one of those leave scars. There is no band-aid to fix these problems, nor is their a timeline for when the pain will go away. We find ourselves isolated, hurt, alone, and confused. God wants to make something beautiful out of those scars. What if we began to embrace our scars? What if we refused to avoid, deny, minimize, or run any longer? What if we took a moment to embrace what’s happened to us; the good, the bad, the ugly? What if we remembered that the cross overcomes any scar. God has proven by the power of His death and resurrection that He desires to heal us, restore us, and set us free. Be content with your imperfections and your progress, knowing that even if you’re not quite where you want to be, God is not finished with you yet. He is working on making you the masterpiece He created you to be.