A Reason to Hope

• What do you think it means for Christians to be “entrepreneurs of hope”?
• A Hollywood screenwriter was asked if he thought people were getting better and smarter.  In response he said, “I think we're actually becoming stupider and more petty…What's going on…is beyond depressing.  It's terrifying…I can't believe anybody thinks we're actually going to make it before we destroy the planet.  I honestly think it's inevitable. I have no hope…I want to be wrong, more than anything.”
• Do you know people who share this perspective? How would you respond?
• How hopeful do you think people are in the face of the pandemic?  What gives them hope?  What might make them feel hopeless?
• What other events or situations in our culture chip away at people’s hope?
• Read Romans 5.1-8.  Can you identify the progression in Paul’s teaching found in verses 1-5?
• What is the core message of the New Testament found here? (see v8)
• Do you agree or that every person lives by some moral code?  If so, what do those codes look like?  How might they be like or different from the biblical model?   
• Do you know anyone who actually lives up to their own moral code, Christian or otherwise?  What does that tell us?
• How do you think most people deal with guilt?
• How did the cross deal with our sin and guilt?  Why is this “good news”?
• In what ways is the cross a symbol of hope?