God Will Finish What He Started

In one paragraph

The preacher brought a message from Philippians 1:1-11 on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the first Sunday of Advent. Pastor Ray was still traveling, so Carl filled the pulpit. The sermon centered on one conviction: God begins a good work in us and he will finish it, and that shapes how we respond when life is hard. the preacher opened by pointing out how much of life falls outside our control. We...

Read together

1. Revelation 4:11 read at the opening to establish God's worthiness as creator
2. Romans 15:13 read during the Advent candle lighting as a promise of hope through the Holy Spirit
3. Mark 2:15-17 quoted to illustrate Young Life's outreach philosophy of going to the lost
4. Philippians 1:1-11 the main text, read in full as the foundation for the sermon on grace, peace, thanksgiving, prayer and God finishing the work he began
5. Isaiah 53 referenced briefly as the passage calling Jesus a man of sorrows acquainted with grief
6. John 16:33 quoted as the silver lining: Jesus saying on earth you will have trials but take heart for he has overcome the world

Talk about it

1. Carl read from Philippians 1 and noted that Paul wrote about grace, peace, thanksgiving, and prayer from prison, a place he never would have chosen. When have you found yourself in circumstances you did not choose, and what was your first instinct in how to respond?
2. Carl used the image of a tapestry, saying we tend to see only the knotted underside while God sees the finished work from the top. Has there been a time in your life where, looking back, you could see God working something you could not see while you were in it?
3. The preacher said that when Paul was in prison he did not just look at his problem but looked out at his friends and looked up at God, and that his thankfulness started to trump his trials. What does it look like in a practical, day-to-day sense to give thanks in the middle of something that is hard to look past?
4. The preacher pointed out that Paul did not pray to be let out of prison but prayed that his friends would be filled with the fruit of their salvation and grow in righteous character. The preacher said it seems God is more concerned with our character than our comfort. How do you respond to that, and how does it shape the way you pray when you are going through something difficult?
5. The preacher closed by saying we can choose how we respond to our circumstances even when we cannot choose the circumstances themselves, and he encouraged the church to swim through trials rather than run from them. What does it look like for this group to help each other do that, so that no one is swimming alone?