DCC Small Groups Fall 2025 Season

Week Four

Part One: Prayer

Go around the room and spend time updating your group’s prayer request and praises. Have someone or some people pray for these needs and ask God to open all hearts to receive His Word.

Part Two: Lives in your hands

You’re going to discuss and decide the following situation: A major earthquake has hit a small town. There are approximately 1,000 people living in the town. There have been many casualties, of which a number of survivors has not been determined. Of the following ten people, you as a group will decide which five lives and which five dies.

Grant, 45, a doctor

Betty, 32, a single yoga instructor

James, 41, a long-time alcoholic

Bradley, 8, a 3rd grader

Susan, 15, a young high school volleyball player

Gus, 50, business leader

Jason, 49, Mayor of the town

Emma, a newborn baby

Kathy, 32, Emma’s mother

Matt, construction worker, Emma’s father

This is a very uncomfortable position to be in, but your group must take ten minutes to decide which five lives and which five perishes in the earthquake. You’ve made your decisions, now decide if you want to change your answer based on the following additional details:

Grant has performed surgery high on three occasions due to an undiscovered drug addiction

Betty, runs the local food bank and without her the whole operation would become chaotic

James has been sober for three years due to his involvement at Celebrate Recovery, he has been reconciled with his wife and kids for about a year

Bradley has incurable cancerSusan has been stealing from her parents to buy drugs from her 20 year old boyfriend

Gus, an elder in his church, has been volunteering to fill in as the preacher at his church while the search team finds a new pastor.

Jason has been having an affair with Kathy

Matt has been stealing from his company

Go around the room and now individually say out loud if you would change the five who live and five who die.

Questions:

What about this exercise was uncomfortable, and why?

Why is your group ultimately not equipped to decide arbitrarily whether someone should live or die?

How does having more information make the exercise even harder?

Part Three: The Word

We’re picking up the story from our last meeting where God visited Abraham in the flesh. During His visit God shares some blessed news for Abraham and Sarah (even if it seemed unbelievable). However, this is not God’s only purpose for visiting and we’ll soon find out it isn’t good news for all involved.

Read Genesis 18:16-23.

What is God’s reasoning for his involving Abraham in what fate befalls Sodom and Gomorrah?

How does Abraham’s role in this story foreshadow Israel’s story? How did Israel fail in the role? (Rather than Israel obeying God and being an example of light to the nations around them, they often disobeyed God and served the false gods of those nations).

Read Genesis 18:24-33.

Abraham had a close nephew who lived in Sodom, named Lot. Abraham most likely knew many people in the cities and had dealings with them. Abraham even had an audience with the King of Sodom in Genesis 14. Why would Abraham be motivated to save the city?

Why would just God destroy an entire city of people? Why does Abraham contend for a more surgical approach?How does Abraham’s continued pleads to lower the amount of righteous people (starting at fifty and working down to ten) reveal the awful reputation of Sodom and Gomorrah?

This is a question that requires our sincere honesty: Without hearing what Sodom and Gomorrah was up to in detail, do you have a hard time reading that God would allow men, women and children to die in mass destruction? How difficult is it to read this was God’s direct judgement and not just passive inaction to save them?

Why is Abraham incapable of being able to judge the cities? How does this relate to the thought exercise earlier during group?

Read Genesis 19:1-5.

Why was Lot committed to care for these men (actual angels)?

How shocked are you by the desires of the men in the city?

Read Genesis 19:6-11.

The men in the cities clearly desired to sexually violate these travelers. Lot, at his most desperate, offer sup his own daughters to quell their lust. How does this story both show Lot’s desire to do good and morally flawed nature? How does this speak to humans living in and amongst sin?

The men won’t accept Lot’s substitute which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt they aren’t merely looking for gratification but using sexual dominance as a portrayal of power.

They also insult Lot as someone who has the status of a foreigner/ outside. How does this story demonstrate Sodom and Gomorrah were complicit in many sins, not just sexual immorality?

Read Genesis 19:12-26.

How did people in the story who could have been saved miss their opportunity (Lot’s future sons-in-law, wife)?

Why does Lot beg to go to the town which will be known as Zoar? How does the Angels’ saving of Lot, who constantly begs for accommodations, show God’s incredible patience even amidst His judgement?

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah becomes linked with and serves as a warning to others of God’s de-creation judgement when sin renders a situation irredeemable (Deuteronomy 29:21-23; Isaiah 1:9-10; 3:9; 13:19-20; Jeremiah 23:14; 49:17-18; 50:39-40; Lamentations 4:6; Ezekiel 16:48-50; Amos 4:1-11; Zephaniah 2:9. Even Jesus references this story throughout His own teaching ministry (Matthew 10:14-15;Matthew 11:20-24; Luke 17:28-30). Other mentions of this story in the New Testament includes Romans 9:29; 2 Peter 2:4-10; Jude 1:7; Revelation 11:7-8. God’s direct involvement in the story appearing to Abraham as a human, and sending two Angels in the appearance of humans makes this story stand out in a way that will remain in the teaching and imaginations of God’s people through the ages. But why of all moments in the Bible when places are complicit with horrific sin does God elevate Sodom and Gomorrah? Let’s take a close look at the ending.

Read Genesis 19:27-29; read Jeremiah 5:1; read Luke 17:20-33.

Jeremiah 5 speaks to the time when Jerusalem will go into exile. Things are so bad God asks Jeremiah to search the city to find just one righteous person, in the same tradition as Abraham futilely asked God to examine if ten righteous people could be found in Sodom and Gomorrah. And finally we discover in Jesus’s ministry the unrepentant worldview hostile towards God is like Sodom’s.

Why can’t everyone be saved? How does Sodom and Gomorrah foreshadow this?

How does the Jewish exile and Jesus’s preaching confirm this? How does God’s personal involvement show His commitment to humans, even when they won’t turn to Him for salvation?

How did Abraham’s intervention help save Lot? How does this same thing happen in our world with the church’s involvement?

Part Four: Conclusion

Jesus has made a Way, Truth, and Life for anyone to hear, believe, repent, baptized, and receive Salvation. Not all who hear the gospel of Jesus will be saved. This can be extremely disheartening, maybe even borderline unbelievable. However the stakes are life and death, and the Bible is clear about that from the earliest origin stories of Genesis to when God makes all things new. Throughout it all God is not passive. He’s an active participant in the work of winning back and reconciling with His creation. Believers in His Name are invited into the role of Abraham seeking not harsh judgement but an opportunity for others to be saved.