The Family on the Move

FCC Vision Statement: Building on Exposition, Centering on Christ, Dying in Community, Serving on Mission

Genesis 46:1-34

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The Family on the Move — Lonnie D. Bell, Jr.
Genesis 46:1-34
Sermon Series: Genesis
January 5, 2020

DEEP SHEET: Sermon Study Questions
1.   What is your approach towards new year’s resolutions?  What areas of growth from the Lord are you seeking as you move into a new year and decade?
2.   Why does Jacob go to Beersheba and offer sacrifices to God? How does this guide us into a new year?
3.   How does God’s message to Jacob relieve his fears?  What is Jacob’s response?
4.   In what ways have you experienced delayed comfort?  How does this story help us to endure in those seasons of life?
5.   How does the genealogy point us to Christ?
6.   Why would Jacob’s reunion with Joseph have been a time of deep joy as well as worship?
7.   Why is Goshen an ideal place for Israel and his descendants to settle?

References: Genesis 12:2; 22:1; 28:13-15; 15:13-14; 10; Romans 9:5; Matthew 1:1-3.

Back to Bethel

FCC Vision Statement: Building on Exposition, Centering on Christ, Dying in Community, Serving on Mission

Genesis 35:1-29

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Back to Bethel — Pastor Lonnie D. Bell, Jr.
Genesis 35:1-29
Sermon Series: Genesis
August 25, 2019

DEEP SHEET: Sermon Study Questions
1.   How does Jacob’s story show us the benefit of trials in our lives?
2.   What does this passage teach us about God’s holiness and power?
3.   How does this narrative instruct us in worship?
4.   How are God’s words to Jacob in vv. 10-12 packed with gospel anticipation?
5.   Why does this section serve as a transition within Genesis?
6.   In what ways are we left marveling at God’s faithfulness and grace?

References:Genesis 28:10-22; James 1:2; Genesis 17:1-8; 1:28.

Safe and Sound

FCC Vision Statement: Building on Exposition, Centering on Christ, Dying in Community, Serving on Mission

Genesis 33:1-20

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Safe and Sound — Pastor Lonnie D. Bell, Jr.
Genesis 33:1-20
Sermon Series: Genesis
August 11, 2019

DEEP SHEET: Sermon Study Questions
1.   In what ways is this passage a climax?
2.   What does it mean to say that God may weaken us in order to prepare us?
3.   What does Esau’s attitude towards Jacob tell us about God’s workings?
4.   Where do we see Jacob’s folly in this story? What does it mean to say that God folds our folly into his faithfulness?
5.   Why is it necessary for Jacob to remain separate from Esau?
6.   How do the final verses connect us back to Abraham, and why is this important?

References: Genesis 27:41; 32:6; 28:15; Ephesians 3:20; Genesis 32:11; 12:6.

Facing Danger

FCC Vision Statement: Building on Exposition, Centering on Christ, Dying in Community, Serving on Mission

Genesis 32:1-21

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Facing Danger — Pastor Lonnie D. Bell, Jr.
Genesis 32:1-21
Sermon Series: Genesis
July 21, 2019

DEEP SHEET: Sermon Study Questions
1.   How do the opening verses of this passage give a hopeful impression? What does the presence of the angels communicate?
2.   How have you seen God prepare you for danger?
3.   How do we avoid letting fearful situations overshadow or push out God’s revelation in our minds?
4.   What do the content, structure, and attitude of Jacob’s prayer teach us about how we should pray?
5.   How does v. 12 show that Jacob has God’s greater redemptive purposes in mind?
6.   Why does Jacob make such an extravagant offer to Esau at the end of this narrative? How do we see this propensity in our own lives?

References: Genesis 25:23; 27:36; 28:15; 31:43; 27:41; 28:12; Psalm 34:7; Hebrews 1:14; 1 Peter 5:7; Genesis 14:14

The Two Sons, Part 2

Genesis 21:8-21

8 And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” 11 And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. 13 And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” 14 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. 20 And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

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The Two Sons, Part 2 — Lonnie D. Bell, Jr.
Genesis 21:8-21
Sermon Series: Genesis
24 February 2019

DEEP SHEET: Sermon Study Questions
1.  Discuss how God meets his people, keeps his promises, accomplishes his purposes, and establishes his praise in and through Jesus Christ.
2.  How do we see Sarah’s sin and God’s sovereignty in this passage?
3.  Where do we see God’s grace in how he relates to Abraham in particular?
4.  How are faith and obedience linked together in Abraham’s response to God?
5.  Why did God separate Ishmael from Isaac?  What does this have to do with our salvation?
6.  Discuss Paul’s use of this passage in Galatians 4.  What is he trying to teach his readers?
7.  What does God’s care for Ishmael teach us about his character?

References:Matthew 1:23; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Galatians 4:4; Acts 2:23; Ephesians 1:12; Genesis 16; Galatians 4:21-31.

Feebleness & Faithfulness Revisited

FCC Vision Statement: Building on Exposition, Centering on Christ, Dying in Community, Serving on Mission

Genesis 20:1-18

1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” 11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13 And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”
14 Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.” 17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. 18 For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

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Feebleness & Faithfulness Revisited — Lonnie D. Bell, Jr.
Genesis 20:1-18
10 February 2019

DEEP SHEET: Sermon Study Questions
1.  What does this narrative teach us about God’s attitude toward marriage?
2.  How does this passage show us God’s authority, control, and power?
3.  Why should God’s protection of his promises to Abraham bring us reassurance?
4.  How would you describe the various facets of Abraham’s sin?
5.  Why is it significant that Abraham repeats this deception after all that he has experienced between chapters 12 and 20? What does this tell us about the “old sins” in our lives?
6.  How does God use Abraham’s sin to confirm some important things for him? What does this tell us about God’s ability to turn our failures for good?

References: 2 Peter 2:7-8; Genesis 12:10-20; 3:15; 1 Peter 1:4; Ephesians 1:13-14.

The Faithful God & The Feeble Faith

FCC Vision Statement: Building on Exposition, Centering on Christ, Dying in Community, Serving on Mission

Genesis 12:10-20

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The Faithful God & The Feeble Faith -- Lonnie Bell
Sermon Series: Genesis
Genesis 12:10-20
7 October 2018
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FCC Vision Statement: Building on Exposition, Centering on Christ, Dying in Community, Serving on Mission
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Deep Sheet: Sermon Study Questions
1.  How are the “heroes” of the Old Testament useful to us as Christians? How do they always point us to Christ?
2.  How would you summarize Abram’s stumbling in verses 10-13? What do you think was going through his mind?
3.  In times of difficulty or danger, what does it look like for us to go into survival mode rather than seeking mode? Describe a time when you have done this.
4.  How would you summarize God’s faithfulness in this passage? How does it show God’s care on both a macro and a micro level?
5.  How does this passage prefigure later events? How would this have encouraged the first readers of Genesis?

References: Hebrews 11:8-12, 17-19; Galatians 3:9; Genesis 20:1-18; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Genesis 3:22; 11:6-8; 2 Timothy 2:13; Ephesians 1:3; 1 Corinthians 1:8-9.

The City of Man, Part 2

FCC Vision Statement: Building on Exposition, Centering on Christ, Dying in Community, Serving on Mission

Genesis 11:5-9

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The City of Man, Part 2 -- Lonnie Bell
Sermon Series: Genesis
Genesis 11.5-9
16 September 2018
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FCC Vision Statement: Building on Exposition, Centering on Christ, Dying in Community, Serving on Mission
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Deep Sheet: Sermon Study Questions
1.  How does this story show us the danger of being a “reputation manager”? How can a person’s life become a little Babel in this regard?
2.  How does finding our identity in Christ act as the only guard against chasing our own name?
3.  Why do we need to be constantly reminded that we can’t hide from God?
4.  How do we see both a pitiful picture and a powerful potential at Babel?
5.  In what ways have you witnessed the deceptive power of sin?
6.  How is God’s preventing work at Babel both preservation and punishment?
7.  How does this passage remind us that sin leads to futility?

References: 2 Corinthians 5:15; Isaiah 40:22; Psalm 103:19; Genesis 2:7; Isaiah 40:15, 17; Genesis 3:22; 18:21; Zephaniah 3:9; Acts 2:6. 

The Flood

FCC Vision Statement: Building on Exposition, Centering on Christ, Dying in Community, Serving on Mission

Genesis 7:1-24

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The Flood -- Lonnie Bell
Sermon Series: Genesis
Genesis 7:1-24
05 August 2018

Deep Sheet: Sermon Study Questions
1.  How does the New Testament guide us on how to read the flood narrative? Why should the world’s view of Noah’s flood not surprise us?
2.  In what ways is the flood a “controlled” event? How should this impact our view of God and our circumstances?
3.  How is the flood a “careful” event? What all does God preserve?
4.  What do the words at the end of v. 16, “And the LORD shut him in,” teach us about God?
5.  How does the text describe the flood as both powerful and universal?
6.  What does it mean to say that this story should leave us in repentant reverence running to the ark of safety?

References: Matthew 24:37-39; 2 Peter 3:5-7; Matthew 7:21; Genesis 1:9; Hebrews 11:6; Romans 2:6; Proverbs 18:10; Exodus 14:28; Genesis 1:2

Expelled With Grace

FCC Vision Statement: Building on Exposition, Centering on Christ, Dying in Community, Serving on Mission

Genesis 3:20-24

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Expelled With Grace -- Lonnie Bell
Sermon Series: Genesis
Genesis 3:20-24
03 June 2018

DEEP SHEET: Sermon Study Questions
1.  How would you describe the relationship between Adam and Eve and the entire human race?  What does it mean to say that the story of sin runs through every biography?
2.  In what specific ways does the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden serve as punishment?
3.  How does Adam’s naming of Eve demonstrate faith?|
4.  How does God’s act of covering them with animal skins point to Christ?  What does it mean to say that the covering of guilt and shame is God’s work?
5.  How is God’s expulsion of Adam and Eve a means of protection?  How does God protect us from ultimately being lost?

References: Genesis 4:8, 23; 6:5; Romans 3:23; 5:12; Ephesians 2:3; Hebrews 11:1, 4.