1.1.22 - 2021 Year-In-Review: Permission to Hope (Kenny Camacho)


SCRIPTURE: Romans 15:1-13


“God is our living hope. When we call out to Him, when we surrender ourselves and our expectations to Him, we are not living in fearful anticipation, crossing our fingers and throwing wishes at a genie in the sky: we have hope. We may not know what God’s plans are going to look like, but we know they won’t be stopped, by us or anybody else, and at the center of them is His holy and immeasurable love for us. So, if we believe that, what in the world could keep us from living with contagious confidence for the sake of those around us?”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. What have you learned about hope over this past year? How would you define it, in your own words?

  2. In his message, Kenny said that the biggest danger our church is facing right now is that “we will lose hope.” How is that a danger for a church? For us? What might lead us down that road, and how can we safely navigate our questions about this?

  3. We have said several times this year that “hope isn’t a wish, it’s a person.” In the sermon, Kenny compares this to that famous line from Star Wars: “Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope.” How can hope be a person? What might it mean for that person to be…God?

  4. The passage from Romans this week teaches us that to hold onto our hope, we need endurance and open-mindedness. How do each of these qualities strengthen our hope?

  5. What do you most hope for…for 2022? Share this with someone close to you and remind yourself of it throughout the year: practice endurance and open-mindedness…do you see God moving?

Kenny Camacho