Lesson 1: genesis

LESSON 1 (Genesis) – FLC SMALL GROUP
May 4-10
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GATHER (5 min)
Thank everyone for coming.  Introduce any new people that may be joining for the first time.

CHECK-IN (10 min)
Go around the room and invite participants share a high and/or low this week in their family.   

READ SCRIPTURE (10 min)
Ask three different volunteers to read aloud the following three different scriptures:
Have Volunteer 1 read the following: Genesis 12:1-9. God initiates and calls Abraham.
God begins the story of the Bible. God in search of humanity. God comes to Abraham. God offers unbidden promises of land, nation, blessing to Abraham and Sarah. The whole story of the Bible charts how these promises become true, ultimately in Jesus Christ.
12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.  9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.
 
Have Volunteer 2 read the following: Abraham is tested
God’s promise is tested in the crucible of human frailty and the uncertainty over the promise. Even God himself seems to be against the promise in the test of faith of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. In the setting of its time, when other God’s asked the same, here God shows his faithfulness by NOT following through, but offering a lamb. Abraham is just as faithful as others, but shows his faithfulness in accepting the ram.

Genesis 22:1-3, 9-14 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”  “Here I am,” he replied. 2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”  “Here I am,” he replied.  12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Have Volunteer 3 Read the following: Jacob wrestles with God
Human frailty is shown in the life of Jacob, who is a schemer. He gets the birthright by trickery from Esau. Later in life, when he is returning home after a sojourn north to find a wife, Jacob is not sure whether Esau will receive him back. In the night he wrestles with God, with his own demons, finally wrestling from God a blessing. It is a naming of Jacob as Israel, one who strives. And survives, but with a limp. Even an encounter with God impacts us, here in name and with a limp.

Genesis 32:6-8, 22-31 6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” 
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.  27 The man asked him, “What is your name? “Jacob,” he answered.  28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”  But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.  30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.

OPTIONAL: WATCH SERMON ON YOUTUBE OR LISTEN TO SERMON PODCAST (12 min)
You may want to watch the previous week’s sermon together on the YouTube app of your TV or listen to the brand new audio podcast on your phone available on FLC’s website.

REFLECT ON THE PREVIOUS WEEK (40-60 min)
Have a conversation with your group about what you just read, anything from the past week’s sermon that grabbed any group members’ attention, or about anything from the week’s reading.  Questions to consider…

1. What was new or compelling to you?
2. What questions do you have?
3. Was there anything that bothered you?
4. What did you learn about loving God?
5. What did you learn about loving others?

OPTIONAL: WATCH DVD previewing next week “Exodus” (10 min)
To get the most out of next week’s sermon and discussion, and for those who chose to do the nightly reading for the coming week, you may watch the video of Bible teacher John Walton explaining the themes and relevance of Exodus.

CLOSE (5 min)
Thank your participants for coming.  Remind them of the next meeting time and make plans for who will be responsible for snacks/kids/etc.