Is that You God?...What are You doing?

Series: Is that You God?
What are You doing? by John Burke, August 24, 2008
This week John continued the series “Is that You God? “ . The question is about how we can have an awareness of God and His role in our world and our lives. Last week it was about seeing God in the blessings of life. This week’s topic “What are You Doing”, is all about how pain and problems focus our attention on God, if only to ask “Why ME?” and “Help!” .

1. Before you get into the hard topics about the pains and problems in our lives, start by looking at the last week. If you heard John's message last week, or did Second Helpings, did you see any difference in the way you viewed the good things in your life? Were you able to connect to God more through gratitude for the gifts He has given you? Take a few minutes for anyone to share their experiences this week (or previously) in seeing God through “blessings”. (10 minutes)

2. Now look at your own life journey – particularly the spiritual parts of your journey, and think about the questions John asked us: “When did you seek/pursue God most intently – was it in your greatest time of prosperity, or was it in your time of greatest crisis and need?” Or as John related, was God your parachute, to be used only in times of emergency? Discuss this in the group. Those who feel comfortable can share their own experiences about when they most tend to relate to God – or try to relate to Him. Notice any patterns across the group. (10 minutes)

3. John said he thought most people tend to look to God more in times of crises. Was that true of your group? Take a few minutes to talk about why that might be the case: Why does pain or problems or a crisis often make us look to God more than we do in our good times? (10 minutes)

4. John discussed a common tendency to think that God should do things differently when it comes to the pain/suffering/evil in the world. So what do you think? Do YOU think God should do things differently? If so, how? Take some time to talk about what you would want to change. Next, using the Bible verses below, as well as any others you are familiar with, discuss some of the reasons why God might NOT change those things. (10 minutes)

5. Before John’s message Tony Hugh sang a song he wrote about feeling like God was missing in some of the toughest moments of his life, until he heard God’s promise: “I will be with you” . Have you ever felt God’s presence during your lowest moments? Take some time to share any personal experience with God “entering into” your pain with you and the result of that in your life. (10 – 15 minutes)

6. Are you or someone close to you in a difficult time right now? Do you have a sense that God wants to walk that path with you? If so, ask your group to pray that you will better see God in your difficult circumstances and that His plan for good in your life will take shape for you. Take some time in the group to pray for each others needs. (5 – 10 minutes)

Bible verses from the message:
He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. Isaiah 53:3-6

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? Matthew 16:25-26

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration…in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time…And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:18-22, 28

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” 3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” John 9:1-3

In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Isaiah 63:9

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