Part of the HARBOR HAWAIʻI ʻOhana
HARBOR HAWAIʻI ʻOhana

Sermon Questions and Resources

All In On God’s Promises

Community Group Discussion Questions
Week of Aug 30
Genesis 15

OPENER

  • What’s a promise someone made you that they never kept, big or small? How’d that change the way you trusted them after?

DISCUSSION
Right after one of the biggest wins of his life, Abram wakes up afraid. That’s when God shows up and says something wild: “I am your shield, your reward will be very great.” God isn’t just promising to protect what Abram has. He’s promising to be what Abram needs. Through this example, we’ll be encouraged to go all-in on that same promise, even when we’re still bringing God our doubts.

  • Read Genesis 15:1. Fear shows up for Abram right after a huge victory. Why do you think fear so often follows right behind obedience or a win?
  • Read Genesis 15:1. God doesn’t say he’ll send a shield or assign an angel to protect Abram. He says “I am your shield.” What are some things you lean on as your shield or reward instead of God himself?
  • Read Genesis 15:2–3. Abram basically argues with God here. And God doesn’t strike him down for it. What’s the difference between doubt that walks toward God and unbelief that walks away from him?
  • Read Genesis 15:6. Abram’s faith gets credited to him as righteousness. How does it change things to know that even the faith to believe was a gift, not something Abram worked up on his own?
  • Read Genesis 15:12–16. God tells Abram his descendants will wait 400 years before the promise is fully realized. Where are you waiting on something God’s promised, and it hasn’t shown up on your timeline yet?
  • Growing as a Worshipper: Read Genesis 15:17–18. God alone walks through the covenant pieces. He signs both sides of the contract, not Abram. What would it look like this week to worship God as someone who’s already secured the covenant, instead of trying to secure your own standing with him?
  • Fruit → Root: When the fruit is chasing security in achievement, money, or control, what root might be underneath: a fear that God’s promise isn’t really enough, or that we have to secure our own reward? How does the gospel redirect our hearts back to God himself as the reward?

ACTION STEP

  • Confess one thing you’ve been treating as your shield or reward instead of God, and take one small step toward letting it go this week.

DIG DEEPER
We study Scripture to understand what it says, means, and intends, patiently walking with the text instead of moving too quickly to application.

OBSERVATION – What Does It Say?

  • In Genesis 13:8–9, what does Abram actually say and do when tension rises between his herdsmen and Lot’s? What does he give up in the process?
  • Read Genesis 13:10 and Genesis 13:14 side by side. Both Lot and Abram “look” at the land. What’s different about what each of them sees and how they respond to it?
  • In Genesis 14:14–16, what specific actions does Abram take once he hears Lot has been captured? What do his speed and strategy tell us about his state of readiness?

INTERPRETATION – What Does It Mean?

  • Genesis 13:13 tells us “the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immensely against the LORD,” right after Lot chooses to settle there. Why does the author include this detail at this exact moment, and what is it revealing about Lot’s choice?
  • In Genesis 14:22–23, Abram tells the king of Sodom, “I will not take a thread or sandal strap… so you can never say, I made Abram rich.” What does this reveal about where Abram believes his blessing actually comes from?
  • Genesis 14:20 shows Abram giving Melchizedek a tenth of everything. What does this act of worship and generosity reveal about how Abram understands the victory he just won?

CROSS REFERENCE & CONTEXT(Connect the Bible to Itself)

  • How does Abram’s posture in Genesis 13:8–9 connect back to God’s promise to him in Genesis 12:2–3? What does it show about how promise shapes behavior?
  • Hebrews 2:1 warns believers to pay careful attention “so we don’t drift.” How does Lot’s movement from near Sodom (Genesis 13:12) to living in Sodom (Genesis 14:12) illustrate what that kind of drift looks like in real life?
  • Ephesians 1:3 says believers are already blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.” How does this larger New Testament picture of blessing reshape the way we read Abram and Lot’s very different pictures of blessing in Genesis 13–14?

SERMON RESOURCES

SERIES RESOURCES