11-27-2022 Christmas Hope

ICEBREAKER
What are some of your favorite things during the Advent/Christmas season? Do you have any favorite traditions?

This is the first week of Advent, a time of anticipation that includes the four Sundays before Christmas anticipating the birth of Jesus. Each week during this series, we'll be discussing a different theme. This week we are exploring the Christmas Hope of the promise of the Messiah.

REVIEW & DISCUSS
Read Genesis 3:1-5.

1. Read Genesis 3:1-5. From Pastor Jim's message, what would the serpent have meant to people during the time of the original readers of this passage?
2. In what ways does the serpent deceive the woman?
   
   1. v1 - Casting doubt on the truth.
   2. v4 - Claiming God didn't mean what he said.
   3. v4 - Suggesting she may become like God. 
3. Read Genesis 3:14-15. What does God mean when he says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers"? Think in terms of what the serpent originally meant to the people of that time.
   
4. What is the significance of the word "offspring"? Remember it is both a singular and a plural (much like the word "deer") and the word "he" is singular-male.
   This is the promise that a chosen-one will crush the serpent's head but also that in that chosen-one the collective offspring of the woman would, too. The promise here is that "the deceiver would be defeated." This is the Christmas Hope.
   
5. In Jesus, "the deceiver IS defeated," by his death and resurrection and the authority of his teachings. Through faith in Jesus and obedience to his teachings with the help of the Holy Spirit, his disciples participate in that defeat of Satan. With this in mind, how do we see the deceptions listed above in #2 reversed?
6. Is there anything new or helpful to you in this message and discussion?

PRAYER
First, take some time to identify prayer needs related to the discussion. Second, take some time to ask for additional prayer requests. Then close your time together in prayer.