Lesson:Don’t settle for Plan B in your life because you’ve become discouraged waiting for God to fulfill His promises.
Text:Genesis 1:15-19;Luke 11:1-10
Ice Breakers:
Is there a dream which you’ve given up on as you’ve waited for God’s fulfillment?Do you feel safe enough to share it with the group?
Is there some wild, hairy thing you’d like to do in/for God?Can you share that with the group?
Background/Summary:
Mark told the story of how Abraham was given a powerful promise by God—that an heir would come from his and Sarah’s bodies who would be the progenitor of a great nation.Part of that story takes the reader to the very human season of their life together when Sarah (then called Sarai) suggested that Abraham could sleep with Hagar, her servant girl.This ‘Plan B’ caused untold misery for everyone involved.Sarah was living out Ben Franklin’s famous aphorism—‘God helps those who help themselves.’
But God was faithful to Abraham and accomplished the miraculous when he was 99 and Sarah was 89 years old—they became pregnant and she bore the child of promise—Isaac.Mark’s main point was that we should not become discouraged and give up on God and ‘Settle’ for Plan b.
Digging Deeper:
Read the text aloud.Why do you think Sarah offered Abraham Hagar?What would you have counseled her if she had secretly asked you for help?
What does it mean that God blessed Ishmael and Hagar as well as Sarah and Isaac?
What ‘Ishmaels’ are there in your life?What‘Isaacs’ have we left behind that God has promised to us?
Mark made the case that our society has lost its taste for believing God for big things because we are a consumer society bent on instant gratification.Abraham had to wait 24 years between promise and fulfillment.What will it take for you to continue believing in the face of unfilled promises?
Read the text of Luke 11:1-10.What did Jesus teach that we should do when we prayed to God?How much perseverance is involved?Why do you think that wrestling is an important part of receiving from God?
Wrap Up:
Mark noted that some promises from God will come to pass whether we believe or not.But others, he contends, are contingent on our obedience.In groups of two or three, share with others a promise of God that you need to step into through obedience and ask the others to pray for your courage and strength.
Mark noted also that there was room for repentance in latching onto the promises of God.In your huddle take some to time to confess that which must be repented and pray for one another.
Reaching Out:
Is there some form of outreach that the Lord has been urging on you or your group that you’ve just needed the stimulus to get on about?As a group take some time to pray over this matter.
