Connect How can you express love “with actions and in truth” within God’s family this week?

Warm-Up

1. On a scale ranging from ‘avoid discussion at all cost’ to ‘jumping in deep’, where would you place yourself on that scale when it comes to talking about sensitive topics in our culture today?
2. When it comes to issues that may have a profound sensitivity for some people, how best do you think Christians can model engaging with these topics?

Read Genesis 1:26-28

3. In whose image are both males and females created? What does it mean to be made in God’s image?
4. Can males or females alone reflect the image of God? How does this make us more interdependent?
5. How does being made in God’s image bring dignity to both males and females? 
6. What implication does this have—or should it have—in how we treat one another? Can you think of examples in the history of Christianity when this has been exemplified or fallen very short?
7. What are the subtle (or common) ways that we can diminish the dignity of the opposite gender?
8. What does it mean for humanity to be entrusted with ‘subduing’ and ‘ruling over’ the earth? In what ways do males and females share in God’s rule together?
9. What is meant by the diagnosis that man is need of a suitable helper? Define both words.
10. How has sin even extended to the way that males and females relate to one another? 
11. How do you think we can model what it looks like to work well together reflecting God’s image?

Read Genesis 2:20-25

12. What is meant by the diagnosis that man is need of a suitable helper? Define both words.
13. How is it clear that males and females are of the same ‘type’? How is it good news that we are bodily?

Read Galatians 3:26-29

14. Is Paul saying that the Gospel obliterates—or wipes out—the existence of differences?
15. What is Paul saying? How is it clear that God’s grace is not out of reach of anyone?
16. How might we need to bring even our gender under the Lordship of Jesus? 
17. How does the fruit of the Spirit transform every aspect of how we express our gender?
18. Whether male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile, how is our primary identity in Jesus?
19. How is the Gospel Good News for anyone—including those who struggle with gender?

Apply What is one frontline in which you can model dignity towards and dependence with the other gender?

On Your Front Line this Week

Who are three people you could invite to join you for the Public Lecture (Friday 26 July)? Register here: stbarts.com.au/publiclecture 

For Families

• Download: some of the family resources to use at home: stbartskids.org

Listen, Watch, and Read

• Listen: “Why is our culture so obsessed with Identity?” by Brian Rosner: https://bit.ly/3WaAiMu 
• Listen: “If any man is in Christ” by John Stott: https://www.allsouls.org/Media/AllMedia.aspx?show_media=223135&show_file=236574 
• Listen: “A Love that Compels” by Pato Oyarzún: https://stebbes.org/sermons/a-love-that-compels/ 
• Read: “Identity, Story, and Purpose” by John Beckett: https://www.seed.org.au/2020/07/29/identity-story-purpose/ 
• Listen: A New Creation. by William Taylor: https://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/talk/7744/ 

Series Resources

• Book: Brian Rosner, How to Find Yourself. Purchase online: www.stbarts.com.au/product/book-how-to-find-yourself 
• Book: Kelly Kapic, You’re Only Human. Purchase online: www.stbarts.com.au/product/book-youre-only-human 
• Book: Stephen McAlpine, Futureproof. Purchase online: https://www.stbarts.com.au/product/book-futureproof 
• Book: Mike McKinley, Friendship with God. Purchase online: https://www.stbarts.com.au/product/book-friendship-with-god 
• Talks by Christianity Today (Audio): Being Human. https://bit.ly/3Lfizxd 

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