The Stream at Riverside

Stacy gives the children's sermon on Amos 2:4-16.

Sermon Discussion Questions 

1) Satan’s lies aren’t anything new, and they’ve unfortunately been all too effective for far too long. If we’re honest, we’ve been like Judah (Amos 2:4-5) in that we’ve bought into some of the same idolatrous lies that many of our ancestors have, particularly here in America. Are there any specific idols and/or lies that have deceived you in your lifetime? How have they affected you? 

2) God doesn’t sugarcoat His indictment(s) of Israel (v. 6-8). What makes their transgressions even more blatant is that they were done in spite of God’s obvious protection (v. 9), liberation and provision (v.10), and rejected efforts to warn them (v.11-12). What elements of God’s goodness have you seen in your life despite some of your most blatant transgressions? 

3) In verses 13-16, God uses simile and metaphor to communicate the heaviness of His judgement on His people. Israel will be “pressed down”, unable to escape or fend it off with their usual means of self-preservation. We, like Israel, were deserving of such heavy judgement. But thankfully, the full weight of His judgement has been borne by another, namely Jesus Christ. How does the truth of God’s judgement weigh on you? How does the truth that Jesus has borne that weight also weigh on you?

Daniel gives the children's sermon on Amos 1:3-2:3.

Sermon Discussion Questions:

1) In what ways do you identify with the question from Psalm 94, regarding unaddressed injustice:  

3 O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? 4 They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast. 5 They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. 6 They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; 7 and they say, “The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.” How does the Psalmist’s answer comfort or challenge you?  8 Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? 9 He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? 10 He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? 

2) Consider the "crimes against humanity” and “war crimes” enumerated in 1:3-2:3 - crimes that are ultimately against God Himself - for which the nations are culpable: “threshing” one’s enemy with iron and stone implements, deportations and slave trade, acting with merciless malice toward the vulnerable in warfare, expanding one’s territory by conquest, ripping open pregnant women, and desecrating corpses. What significant crimes might we be complicit in as Americans? (If the group struggles to answer here, perhaps suggest the large-scale participation of Americans in human trafficking through use of online pornography). 

3) God is patient and long-suffering ... but His patience with the evil of the nations comes to an end in the act of judgment. In the cross of Christ, the sins God had previously "passed over" are reckoned with in devastating judgment (Rom.3:25-26; 8:3). We look back to the cross to find both the justice of God served and a portent of the sure judgment to come. How is this sobering? How is this hopeful and comforting for those who’ve found refuge at the cross?

Nate gives the children's sermon on Amos 1:1-2 and 7:14-15.

Sermon Discussion Questions 

1. In 1st Kings 11:9-13 and Amos 7:14-16, we see both Solomon and the people of Israel reject correction from the Lord. In the absence of the biblical prophets, how do we hear and receive correction from God? What obstacles in your life keep you from recognizing your sin and turning from it? 

2. A reoccurring theme in our text is that those who turn their hearts away from the Lord often become oppressors of the weak or complacent to the marginalized. But the Lord is roaring from Zion as He tries to bring our attention to how our broken worship colors our sense of justice. How can we as a small group worship together through pursuing justice (Micah 6:8)?

Sermon Discussion Questions 

1. What do you remember about your baptism? How does the picture painted throughout out the New Testament of taking off the old and putting refract through your own memory of your baptism, or others you’ve witnessed? How do you understand the ongoing call to “live into your baptism”? 

2. The church in Christ is holy and without any spot or wrinkle “in the heavenly places, where Christ is seated." But the church on earth has warts, blemishes and plenty of wrinkles. How do you negotiate the chasm between the reality “in Christ” and the empirical reality at the present moment? What does it mean for you to live “into our unity” as the church? 

3. God doesn’t just tell us He loves us, and then command us to turn around and love others. He shows us in the dramatic portrayal of Christ crucified for us in the gospel, and then pours His love into hearts directly through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Describe an experience when you’ve vividly known God’s love for you in Jesus. Have you been nourished by that love recently? Are you growing in that experiential knowledge? What might be inhibiting your experience of God’s love for you in Jesus?

Sermon Discussion Questions 

1) What does it mean for us as a church (and small group) to be a part of a Gospel-Shaped Family [Church] with an ancient heritage? In what ways should we be careful to put community in its proper place? In what ways have you sought for community to satisfy you more the than Lord of the community? 

2) How is God calling you to maturity as a member of this Gospel Shaped Family? What things do you want help to put away? What things do you want help to grow in? In what ways do our hearts drift from trusting God, and His Word? 

3) Spend some time diagnosing the state of your hearts. Where do you sense a heart worship problem in your life? How is God calling you to back to Him in worship? What does “making peace with 2020” look like for you?

Sermon Discussion Questions 

1) Paul tells us in this passage that the God behind the world is not only fundamentally good, but loves us and has purposed our everlasting good in Christ. This means that, no matter how unsettling or hard things become in this life, we have every reason as believers to be at peace, deeply grateful and wildly hopeful. How do you relate to this implication? 

2) If what God is doing in the world at present is reconciling all things to himself in Jesus Christ (vv.9-10), how does this relate to your present vocation? To your family? To your small group? To your current evangelistic and discipleship efforts? To your prayer life? 

3) What are barriers to you, at present, in seeing the hope (Eph.1:18) that is yours in Christ, and experiencing the joy of your position as one elected (1:4), predestined (1:5, 11), appointed for an inheritance (1:11, 14), and forever loved in Christ (v.4-6)?