Hebrews 13 Small Group Topics Series

HEBREWS 13 SMALL GROUP TOPICS

Information below is a result of the Biblical conversation of a handful of believers who met on a cold February night at Breadco.

HEBREWS 13: Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;

never will I forsake you.”

A. Zerachiel the Angel: Glenn spoke briefly about a folkore story about an angel named Zerachiel who is a protector of children and has some other spiritual qualities. The group was amazed to learn that wikipedia does indeed tell the story but we also acknowledged that the only angels named in the Bible specifically was Michael and Gabriel. Though we appreciated the story and its importance to Glenn’s early walk with the Lord.

B. God Will Never Give You More Than You Can Handle: We discussed the assumption that God will never give you more than you can handle and went over the fact that is assumption is actually misplaced. The correct verse is in 1 Corinthians 10:13 and the actual verse states that God will never give you any temptation that you can’t overcome. It was a relief to some of us to know that God actually DOES give us more than we can handle and that we are not wusses for our inability to handle it. On the other hand, we recognize that we also not excuse for not standing up to temptation.

C. Flee Temptation. We discussed that it is Biblically accurate to flee temptation and that fighting the Devil and the armor of God is for spiritual warfare not for temptation. As for who has to flee what or who can be present where, that is a gray area depending on a person’s walk and the mission God gave us to witness to unbelievers. A great example of God’s direction of fleeing from danger is Joseph fleeing Potiphar’s Wife.

D. Change. Perhaps the most impactful single line of the night came from Dustin when the Lord had him speak, “God is in the business of changing hearts, man is in the business of changing lives.” And it’s true. Salvation does not come from us so we ought not to feel badly when we don’t see immediate fruit of our witnessing. It’s our job to share the message, it’s their job to accept the message, and it’s God’s job to save. That’s how it works.

E. Light & Salt: Light illuminates and casts upon people. Salt perseveres, adds flavor, but also hurts when it is put into a wound—though sometimes is absolutely necessary for the wound. People tend to focus on the light aspect of our witness which seems to imply verbal statements and outreaches, but people also tend to ignore the salt side, which is the heart of the issue and the pursuit of holiness.

CONCLUSION:

Dakota, Lauren, Kody, Dustin, Nick & Benji: Believe it or not, the Lord led us into a deep conversation about 5 different and distinct theological statements and in all reality no one even knew it. If we read the info above, it’s quite remarkable really. Well done.

OUR ASSIGNMENT IF WE CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT: We will continue to read into Hebrews 13, look specifically at the issue of Love of Money, and maybe even look at gotquestions.org OR sermoncentral.com.

Well done everyone.