1. Be Real

Alright — your fresh DNA is a month old! Nice, right? What’s been the high and low of your last month? Try and let everyone share a snapshot within 15 minutes or so.

2. Grow Together

This week, we’re focusing on the bigness of the gospel and the good news that Jesus Sustains. We are not rescued only to be abandoned. Jesus keeps us, holds us, and promises to never let us go. He gives us sustenance. He provides the very things we need, at the precise time we need them. Things like hope, joy and peace. He cares for us. He is more committed to us than we are to him. Even when we are faithless, he is still faithful. When we feel like we can’t walk, he carries us.

Read this together:

Psalm 62:5-6

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.  

Matthew 11:28

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Romans 8:32

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

3. Next Steps

What should sustained people do?

1. Rest. We who are sustained by Jesus can enjoy rest in a way that is truly remarkable. We are secure in the work of Christ. Because we’ve been purchased at a great price, we don’t need to continue to prove our value to ourselves, someone else, or even God. When it comes to rest, we’re not talking about mere inactivity. Rather, rest that manifests in confidence, security, and a freedom from earning, maintaining and worrying.

What would resting in God’s work look like for you? Have you attempted to adopt a sabbath rhythm?

2. Risk. Sustained people are also empowered to take risks. We can pursue opportunities to know Jesus and make him known in ways that we considered too costly in our old selves. Those who know they are secure in Christ’s hands need not worry if they will be provided for, or protected, or eternally cared for — they have received promises to all these ends from God. We believe the promise when we live with security.

Has God prompted you to take gospel-inspired risk before? Do you sense him leading you that direction now? What would it take?

Bonus BIble to digest this week:
Isaiah 41:10; Matthew 11:28; John 4:14: John 6:35-40; Romans 8:32; Philippians 1:6; 1 Corinthians 1:8-9; Jude 1:24-25

Additional Recommended Resources

The Pursuing God — Joshua Ryan Butler
The Problem of Pain — C.S. Lewis  
Be Still, My Soul — Nancy Guthrie