Small Groups: Created For Connection Series

Created for Connection

Genesis 1:26; John 17:20-26

I want to start our message this morning with an informal survey:

How many of you have participated in a small group before?

How many of you had a positive experience in your small group?

How many of you are currently in a small group?

How many of you would be in a small group if it were not for one or two obstacles in your life currently? I belong to this group. For those with obstacles, will you write them down on the small group sign up insert in your worship bulletin? This way we can know what they are and try to help.

Over three Sundays, including this one, we will learn some biblical foundation for small group. We'll hear reasons for small group participation from small group participants. We will also provide an opportunity for you to ask questions and sign up at the table in the lobby if you want.

While I am not currently in a small group, I have had very positive experiences in small groups since my high school days. My first small group experience was a H.S. Bible study group in my first church. Then I went to college and participated in Asian American Christian Fellowship large group as well as small group. The church I attended in college had small groups called Cell Groups.

When I graduated, I went back to my first church and participated in their inter-generational neighborhood group. Then I pastored in Marin where Susan and I led a young family small group. I also led a men’s group.

Since being at BACBC, I have been a part of H2O small group the first few years and then a young families group. Then I led two other mentoring groups via google hangout. One was more effective than the other, but virtual small groups have their limits.

I see small groups as more than a church program. It is a venue and opportunity to experience and express what God created us for. But there are legitimate reasons for not being a part of a small group for a season.

You may be in a season of incredible busyness, raising children, caregiving for a family member, dealing with personal illness. For some in these situations, small group will be a true blessing. For others in the same situations, small group can be a burden. The Bible reminds us that there is a season for everything under heaven.

Here is a possibility. You may be in a small group and don’t even know it. The Bible tells us that when two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, we have his promised presence.

Again I believe small groups are a venue and opportunity to experience and express what God created us for. And what is it that God created us for? for connection. relationship. Connection with God and connection with one another.

Our main text is John 17:20-26 with various supporting text that I’ll read later. Allow me to read our main text now.

20 “I do not ask for these only (Jesus' 1st century disciples), but also for those who will believe in me through their word (Jesus' future disciples - including us), 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

From John 16 and 17, Jesus reveals that God exists in three Persons: Father and Son (Jesus Christ) in John 17, and in John 16 (You can read on your own.) Holy Spirit and the Son of God. In this John 17 prayer, we see the Son of God having a conversation with the Father about us, believers in Jesus Christ.

First, we see we are created for connection because we are created in God’s image.