New Hope Podcast

Questions:

1. Because of his love for his fellow Israelites, Paul was willing to be “cut off from Christ” for their benefit. Are there any unbelievers in your life whom you feel similarly toward? To what lengths are you going to share the good news with them?

2. What can we do to cultivate compassion in us for the people in our lives who still don’t believe in Jesus?

3. Verses 6-13 seem to indicate that God failed to keep his word. Have you ever asked a similar question? What answers did you arrive at? How did you get to that conclusion?

Next step: Romans 9:14-29

Questions:

1. What in your life has proven God’s love is dependable? What could it look like to remind yourself of God’s unchanging love when you face doubts?

2. How can we use what our enemy means for evil—like suffering and affliction—to serve the purposes of God in our lives?

3. No man is an island, so do you know people who has the kind of confidence in God’s love that Paul has? How could you spend more time with them and learn from them? What can you do to become absolutely convinced of the love God has for you?

Next step: Romans 9:1-13

Questions: 

1. In what ways could your longing serve as prompts that lead you back to the gospel?

2. Is there anyone outside the church you love so deeply that it pains you? In what ways are your praying or suffering for their sake?

3. How could you cultivate the kind of concern for them that Paul describes in this passage?

Next step: Romans 8:31-39

Questions to wrestle with:

1. What one thing can you do differently today that will help you set your mind on the things of the Spirit?

2. Who in your life could you recruit to help you grow in your ability to fight in the Spirit?

3. In what areas of your life do you need to surrender to the Spirit? What could it look like to surrender to God through difficulty?

Next step: Romans 8:18-30

Questions:

1. How can you be intentional about giving thanks to God for all he’s done for you?

2. What practical measures can you take to keep yourself from temptation?

3. In what ways can you practice the remembrance of God’s love as a spiritual discipline? What could it look like practically in your everyday life?

Next step: Romans 8:1-17

Questions to wrestle with:

1. Are your acts of service to God fueled by love or obligation?

2. Have you ever thought of sin as actively taking advantage of you? How can Paul’s description of sin help you plan to resist sin?

3. Whom could you enlist to help keep you from giving into sin and temptation?

Next step: Romans 7:13-25

Questions to wrestle with:

1. What difference does it make in your day-to-day choices knowing that sin = death?

2. Having been set free from sin, what could it look like for you to apply Jesus’ victory to the still-sinful parts of your life?

3. What steps of obedience can you begin taking today as an act of worship to God?

Next Step: Read Romans 7:1-12

Questions to wrestle with:

1. What does it look like to place Jesus at the center of your life so that sin cannot control you?

2. What sins do you need to put to death?

3. In what ways are you not experiencing the life Jesus offers? What might be keeping you from experiencing it?4. How might your Christian community help encourage you in your new life in Jesus?

Next step: Read Romans 6:15-23

Questions for us to wrestle with:

1. What changes have you noticed in your attitudes and behaviors since becoming a Christian?

2. How should the knowledge that you’ve been given eternal life shape your day-to-day life now?

3. How can you enjoy the eternal life God has given you through Christ today?

Next Step: Read Romans 6:1-14

Things to wrestle with this week:

Reflect on a time when God used the trouble/s you were facing to produce endurance, character, and hope in you.

How could you use what we learned about God today to remind yourself to rejoice in the troubles you are facing when they come?

What might change in your life if you truly understood the fact that you are no longer weak and helpless as a child of God?

How can you more fully depend on the Holy Spirit, your helper?  

Next step: Romans 5:12-21