SERMON DISCUSSION GUIDE
Febuary 16, 2025 | Josh Reasoner | Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:8
Glory Days
WORD | What does the Bible say?
Did you know that remembering is a spiritual practice? This idea of remembering God is threaded all through the Bible. When we’re called to remember, what we’re being asked to do is reflect on God’s faithfulness and grace in any and all seasons of life. Doing that helps to center our hearts and our heads on what’s most important. If we are to live life to the full, then remembering God is important!
1. Read Ecclesiastes 8:1-6 then Romans 13:1-8. What does it mean that all authority is established by God? What do these passages tell you about living under authority?
2. Read Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:8. What do these verses say to older saints remembering God’s faithfulness? What is the message for younger saints?
3. Read Psalm 78:1-8 as well as Titus 2:1-8 and 1 Timothy 4:12. Finish with 1 Corinthians 12:12 and 26. As an older saint, Asaph, the writer of Psalm 78, gave us a reason to practice remembering in Psalm 78:6-7. How do young saints help older saints remember? How do older saints help young saints remember? Why is this part of our responsibility to one another?
KINGDOM | How is God working?
Remembering God means recalling who he is, what he has done, what he has commanded, and what he has promised. A lot of those words are past tense, so remembering sounds like it’s about the past. It isn’t. Remembering is future-oriented. We remember as a way to settle our wavering hearts in the present and look forward with hope.
4. The practice of communion or the Lord’s Supper is a great example of remembering that is future-oriented. Read Luke 22:17-20. How is it that communion is both a remembrance of what Christ did and a remembering what is going to happen in the future?
5. Read Deuteronomy 8:7-18. What warnings are given to the Israelites about remembering and forgetting? What happens when God’s people – his church – forget him?
6. Keeping the Deuteronomy 8 passage above in mind, how can our church family remember God, both together and individually, and how do we protect ourselves from forgetting?
HEART | What’s going on in your heart?
Did you notice that the heart was mentioned in both descriptions above (WORD and KINGDOM)? Remembering is not just a head thing; it’s a heart thing, and when we forget God, that’s almost always a heart issue.
7. Read Nehemiah 9:16-17. Being stiff-necked is a kind of forgetting God. What does it mean to be stiff-necked and how might a person get that way? If we don’t want to be stiff-necked, how do we keep a soft and receptive heart?
8. Learning to remember God is how we learn to rejoice (rightly) in every season of life. Read Philippians 4:4-9. How does remembering God teach us to rejoice in all things?
9. What is your practice for remembering? How do you keep yourself focused on God’s faithfulness, especially when you’re worried or upset?
REFLECTION | Is there something for me to consider or do?
Take time this week to practice remembering God. Each day, ask yourself “When or in what circumstances has God been faithful to me?” or “What is a time when I have seen God’s grace for me?” then reflect on whatever comes to mind that day. Remind your heart that as God has been faithful in the past, he will be faithful in the future.
Then think about this: How can you invest in a different generation to help them remember God’s faithfulness?
