God has spoken His final Word through His Son Jesus, so our lives find their anchor in His finished work as His covenant family. Because Hebrews reveals that in Jesus we have everything we need… this makes all of life an act of confident worship and means we draw near to God and persevere together by faith.
Series Schedule
April 12th: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-8
April 19th: 1 Thessalonians 2:2-12
April 26th: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7
May 3rd: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
May 10th: 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17
May 17th: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Small Group Resources
Week 2 – A People Shaped by Their Shepherd
- Paul says he shared “not only the gospel of God but our own lives as well.” What does it look like in a practical sense to share your life (not just beliefs) with others? Where do you see that happening—or not happening—in your relationships?
- The sermon emphasized that “the gospel grows where believers share their souls.” What tends to keep your relationships at a surface level? What would it take for you to take one step deeper with someone?
- Paul uses family language—gentle like a mother, encouraging like a father—to describe Christian community. Which of those do you most need right now: care, encouragement, or challenge? How might God want to provide that through others?
- Where do you sense an invitation this week: to join community, to go deeper in vulnerability, or to invest more intentionally in others? What is one specific step you can take?
Week 1 — A People Who Know They Are Chosen
- Paul says the gospel came to the Thessalonians not “in word only” but in power and in the Holy Spirit. Think about your own experience of faith — was there a moment when it moved from something you believed intellectually to something that felt genuinely real and alive? What made the difference?
- Paul celebrates that the Thessalonians “turned to God from idols.” For them, those idols were concrete religious objects with real social and economic consequences for abandoning them. What do you think the modern equivalents look like — not objects, but the structures of trust and desire that function like idols in our lives?
- James K.A. Smith argues that we are shaped more by our habits and practices — what he calls “cultural liturgies” — than by our conscious beliefs. What practices in your daily or weekly life do you think are forming your loves in ways you may not be fully aware of?
- Greg Boyd talks about the idol of political and national identity — the temptation to transfer to earthly powers the hope and trust that belongs only to God. Where do you see that temptation in yourself or in the church broadly?
- Paul describes the Thessalonians’ conversion with three verbs: you turned, you serve, you wait. Where are you in that movement right now? Which of those three feels most alive in your life — and which feels most incomplete?