Abraham [Part 5] Heart Transforming Grace

Our 2018 winter preaching & small group series is about the life of Abraham. Join us on Sundays and in small groups as we learn from the example of Abraham's faith in God. You can join a small group by clicking here.

Small Groups Notes

You can download these notes as a PDF by clicking here.

Warm-up. What things bring you joy and make you laugh? Read Genesis 18:6-15 and pray God blesses your study.

  1. Why is it important to have your own experience with God? Has God made himself real to you personally? If so, how?
  2. Sarah’s inward laughter at the Lord’s words revealed a cold and cynical heart. Can you relate to Sarah’s feeling “worn out”, useless, and forgotten? If so, what led to this in your life?
  3. What do you think about the Lord gently filtering out Sarah’s self-disdaining thoughts when he repeated her words in v. 13?
  4. Why is it good not to be overly anxious that your experience with God is not like someone else’s, or to project your experience of coming to faith on somebody else?
  5. What effect do you think it had on Sarah for her to realize that God knew her every thought? Read Psalm 139:1-4 and 1 John 3:20 and discuss how you feel about it.
  6. What does Isaac’s name mean? How might this affect Sarah? Read Genesis 21:1-7. What evidence do you see that God transformed Sarah’s cynical laughter into grace-filled laughter?
  7. To what other woman, centuries later, was it also proclaimed that “nothing is impossible with God”? How is Jesus the true and greater Isaac, and what difference does this make to us?

Praise God for the power of his transforming gospel grace! Pray that we truly believe that nothing is impossible for God and that he fills our laughter with joy and wonder again.