WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS
The Sovereignty of God
God’s Sovereignty, Spirituality, and Immutability – Unit 1
Leader Resources
Exercises
- Review memory verse of the week, and discuss how it relates to the Truth section.
Suggested Discussion
- truth – Discuss any of the in Bible questions you choose, but don’t take time to discuss them all. Ask your JG to share their personal applications of the verses you do discuss. Their personal applications should start with the word “I” – e.g. “I will (with God’s help) …” If they haven’t written down personal applications, or if their applications aren’t specific and measurable, coach them on doing this. Application is the hardest thing the student of the Bible has to learn. Here are some tips for discussion:
- Psalm 29 – To “ascribe” means to attribute or credit to. When David says, “Ascribe to the Lord…” he is calling on his hearers to recognize God’s sovereign power with worshipful awe. David’s intention in this psalm is to inspire awe at God’s power as well as trust and confidence that He will give sustaining strength to His people.
- Psalm 115:1-13 – Verse 3 teaches that in contrast to tangible, but powerless idols which can do nothing, God is transcendent over creation and does all He purposes. The lesson here is that God has ultimate power and absolute authority to carry out all He desires.
- Isaiah 40:27-31 – Our troubles often work to convince us that God is unaware of our needs, or that He doesn’t care. This passage teaches that God has an understanding of our situation that is beyond our own, and His invites us to “wait” for Him and receive His sustaining strength. That is, He calls us to place our needs continually before Him in trusting reliance upon Him to meet our needs.
- Isaiah 46:9-11 – No one is like God. Therefore, no one has His authority. His authority is absolute. Verse 10 indicates that all He plans, He accomplishes. His purpose is always fulfilled exactly as He intends. See Job 42:2 for confirmation. Verse 10 also teaches that God’s knowledge extends into the future because He declares what the future will be. He knows the past, present and future because He determines all things, not because He gets a “movie preview” of what will happen.
- 1 Timothy 6:15b-16 – Paul uses phrases like the “only Sovereign”, “King of kings”, “Lord of lords” and “eternal dominion” to teach that God’s authority is absolute and unchallenged by any competing power or will. There is no other ultimate authority but God’s.
- TRUTH – Review the to summarize section and emphasize these key points:
- God is omnipotent. He is the source of all power.
- God is omniscient. He knows all things because he plans/purposes all things.
- God is sovereign, having absolute authority. He exercises His limitless power and perfect knowledge so that all His will is accomplished.
- The Scriptures call us to respond to God’s sovereign rule with worship, awe, trust and an attitude of humble reliance.
- EQUIPPING – Make sure you plan to spend enough time discussing the equipping questions. Focus on trusting God’s sovereignty. There is a sort of surrender involved in coming to trust someone’s absolute direction of everything that concerns one’s self and the world in general. In fact, the ancient church father, Augustine, once said he hated the doctrine of God’s sovereignty because he feared the possibility of a cosmic tyrant with absolute power. However, after he became a Christian, he wrote that God’s sovereignty had become a most precious doctrine to him because He knew that God could be trusted to do all the good He had promised to His people. Ask your JG members to share their prayers of worship (2nd question) and confession (4th question).
- ACCOUNTABILITY – allow time for smaller groups of 2 or 3 to ask accountability questions and pray for one another.
- MISSION – During this section of The Journey you will organize your JG to participate in a service project in order to demonstrate the gospel. The discipleship and outreach ministries of your church leadership will inform and equip you for leading your group in this project. Try to involve everyone in your JG in a discussion of the mission service project. Make sure everyone has an opportunity to share in the preparation and/or execution of the project. For more info, contact the discipleship ministry at Perimeter Church.
