The Enemy of God Is Not a Position to Be Envied

In one paragraph

Pastor Mark opened with something he admitted he rarely does: a sermon from the Old Testament. Tucked between last week's message on Philemon and next week's start of Colossians, he walked the congregation through Obadiah, the shortest book in the Bible at 21 verses. The book is, as he put it, a very dark cloud of impending judgment, and he wanted to sit in that darkness long enough for it to mean...

Read together

1. Acts 17:28 opening remark about being in God, living and moving and having our being
2. Isaiah 40:8 prayer before sermon, the grass withers and flowers fade but the word of God stands forever
3. James 1:17 offertory prayer, everything good and perfect comes from God
4. Obadiah 1-21 main sermon text, read and expounded verse by verse
5. James 4:6 takeaway point, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble
6. Romans 1:28 reference to God turning someone over to a reprobate mind
7. Romans 3:10 no one righteous, no not one, used to frame need for grace
8. Philemon 1-25 prior week's sermon referenced, Paul pleading for Onesimus and framing grace
9. Colossians 4 overlap with Philemon characters shown, previewing next week's study
10. Colossians 4:18 closing verse quoted, Paul's greeting in his own hand, grace be with you
11. James 4:8 draw near to God and He will draw near to you, introduced the closing song

Talk about it

1. The pastor said he rarely preaches from the Old Testament partly because he is mercy-gifted and finds the Old Testament points toward mercy rather than showing much of it directly. How does knowing that the Old Testament is pointing forward to mercy change the way you read its harder passages?
2. Obadiah describes Edom's sin as arrogance, a confidence in their high position and strong allies that made them ask 'who will bring me down to earth?' Where do you see that same kind of false security show up in your own life, or in the culture around you?
3. Edom stood by and watched while Jerusalem was attacked, and God treated their inaction the same as if they had joined in the attack themselves. What does that say about what it means to be a bystander when someone we are connected to is suffering?
4. The pastor pointed out that Paul began and ended nearly every letter with grace and peace, even though Paul understood the weight of God's judgment as well as anyone. Why do you think Paul kept returning to those two words, and what difference does it make to lead with grace rather than judgment when you are talking to someone?
5. The sermon closed by noting that the Edomites, though closely related to Israel in blood and language, chose to be enemies of God and have since vanished entirely, while also saying it is never too late to receive grace. How do you hold those two things together, the reality of judgment and the availability of grace, when you are talking with someone who is far from God?