SERMON NOTES
Uncharted Trust | Uncharted | Week 2
Pastor Dave Pretlove
Genesis 15:1-6
- Abraham’s extraordinary life of faith was shaped by pivotal, defining moments that tested his faith.
- Genesis 12:11-13; Deuteronomy 8:17-18; Matthew 6:21; 2 Corinthians 9:7, 8:7
- Abraham’s extraordinary life of faith was shaped by constant reminders that the God of the impossible had bigger, better plans for his life than he ever could.
- Genesis 14:18-20, 15:1-9; Luke 6:38; 2 Corinthians 9:7-11; Philippians 4:19
- Embracing moments that feel too big for us and promises that feel too good to be true leads to uncharted trust.
GROUP QUESTIONS
Find this week’s teaching and testimony video here.
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- Do you find it difficult to trust others? Why or why not?
- When was a time you trusted someone and it turned out for the positive?
- What is required for someone to experience true trust?
PERSONAL REFLECTION QUESTIONS
LifeGroup Leaders: Choose a few that would be best for your unique group!
- God makes the seemingly impossible possible in the life of Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 21). Has there been a circumstance in your life in which God revealed himself in this type of way? How have you seen God do the impossible? If it’s hard for you to come up with a concrete example of this, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the miracle of your salvation and describe what you feel God is speaking to you. Chat about this as a group and record your answers in your Field Guide to remind yourself of God’s activity.
- While waiting on God’s promise, Abram creates his own game plan. We can often do this in our own lives. How have you trusted in your own illusion of control? How can you grow in waiting on God’s promises?
- As you think about this Uncharted Journey and the commitment God is asking you to make, what barriers or situations are preventing you from trusting God fully in this next season?
- Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-19. God says “the new has come” when he gives Abram a new name (Genesis 17:3-5). Why do you think it’s so important that God changed Abram’s name?
- We often can allow our past or our own negative thoughts to “name us” and this impacts how we see both ourselves and God. Describe a past experience that has limited your trust in God in this area.
- How can your LifeGroup be praying for you in this? Allow your community to pray that God would help release this barrier from you and that he would “give you a new name”. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a word or phrase describing the “new name” of this next season of growth. Write what God may reveal to you in your Field Guide.
SCRIPTURES TO MEDITATE ON
“Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abram believed the Lord , and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
Genesis 15:4-6 NIV
“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.”
2 Corinthians 5:16-19
RESOURCES
Article | “Helping Others Learn To Trust God” by Michelle Grover and Logos
“It’s possible to get stuck in a recursive loop, staring at your faith as some intangible idea. Peter instructs believers, “make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness” — for, as James says, “faith without works is useless”. Encourage those you’re discipling to take up trust like a walking stick, lean on it hard—but also walk forward. As Elisabeth Elliot used to ask herself, ‘What’s the one next thing I can/should do?’”
Article | “Trusting When We Don’t Understand, Believing When We Can’t See” by Nancy Guthrie and Crossway
“Certainly God is good to give us glimpses of how he is using our losses for his good purposes in this world in such ways. But ultimately, trusting God with our losses, trusting him to work them together for good is, like everything else, a matter of faith.”
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE TO TRY
This week, try the spiritual practice of silence. If this is a new practice for you, simply start with a few minutes. Find a comfortable but alert posture. Practice a few minutes of silence and stillness to become aware of the Lord’s presence and love for you. Inhale and exhale deeply. Set your attention on God by repeating a short prayer like “Come, Holy Spirit,” or “Here I am, Lord”. Slowly become aware of his faithfulness, his promises, and his heart toward you.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
I bet many of us have childhood memories of playing some sort of game where we pretended the floor was lava! You know the ones. You’d have to jump from the couch to the pillow on the floor, to the other chair, and navigate around a sibling or friend to get to a new spot.
Maybe you were able to plan a few steps ahead, but I think most of us took the closest step and then figured out our next step after that. I wonder if this is another way of walking in trust with God. We’re able to see the next step and we’re discerning that the Lord asking us to jump to the next pillow in the living room. But we hesitate because we’re not sure of the jump to take after that.
What we may not be able to see is God rearranging the furniture or preparing to toss a new pillow down after we take our next step. You can trust the next step. With the Word of God, meaningful community, and union with God, you can discern your next step. And you can boldly take. Better yet, you can trust that God is lining up your next pillow or your next piece of furniture. You can trust him.
Happy Jumping!
Lydia Long