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MISSION POSSIBLE: Transform, Part 3

Deep Dive Weekly Small Group Study 10

Text:  2 Corinthians 5:11-21

Message: “Mission Possible: Transform Pt. 3”

Week of November 16, 2009

QUICK REFLECT:   Looking back on this week’s message, was there anything that particularly caught your attention, challenged or confused you?

OPENING:  Why does the world need to be transformed?

THOUGHTS:   Each time we offer the Lord’s Prayer we include the petition, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The Apostle John paints a portrait of the fulfillment of that prayer in Revelation 21:1-7.  We pray for the world’s transformation.  We hope the world will be transformed.  What is our role?  Are we only to pray, or does God expect something more?

 

What is your attitude toward the transformation of the world?  It’s too far gone?  It’s not so bad?  Something between?

 

In Rev. 21 and 2 Peter 3:13 the transformation of the world is linked to the “end times.”  Are we just supposed to wait for the end when God will straighten out the world or are we supposed to be doing something until then?

 

Do you think the problems of the world are too big for the church to solve?

 

Have we been guilty of ignoring the problems of the world?

 

That’s  what HE Said:      Read: Matthew 5:13-16

What is the context in which Jesus shares this teaching?

What does it mean to the salt of the earth?  The light of the world?

Are you hiding your light under a basket or setting it on a lamp-stand?

What do “good deeds” have to do with letting your light shine?

 

Read: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

 

What does it mean to others and Christ from a “human point of view”? (vs. 16)

 

What does it mean that in Christ we become a “new person”? (vs. 17)

 

What does the last sentence of verse 17 mean to you?

 

What does it mean that God was in Christ “reconciling the world to Himself”?

 

What does it mean that we are “Christ’s ambassadors” and “God is making his appeal through us”?

 

How would feeding starving children help us be ambassadors?  How could this transform the world?

 

Share Prayer Concerns

Have each person offer a sentence prayer.

Close with the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.  Amen.