Text Study for Sunday, September 13, 2026

Series Theme: People and Promise

Reading: Genesis 2:4b-7, 18-22

CONNECTING QUESTIONS

Who has been a helper to you in life? How?

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Loving God, by covenant promise and enduring mercy you have joined us to yourself forever. By your Spirit may we join with all your faithful people in trust and hope, through Jesus Christ, our true King, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

CONTEXT

Our sermon series, People And Promise will focus on the ways God shows up! Throughout history, God’s people have celebrated God’s goodness and trusted in God’s mercy. However, God’s people have also fallen short of what God desires, leaving behind suffering and pain. Scripture reminds us that God still loves and claims us! Just as God met people of the Old Testament where they were and worked through them to fulfill God's promise. A promise to be in relationship, to be life affirming, to defend, especially to remain with us even when we stray. God is with us today, in the joys and struggles, praise be to God!

From Dr Terry Fretheim at EntertheBible.org:

Besides being a book about beginnings, Genesis and its concern about creation constitute a fundamental theological category for every other biblical book. Only in relation to creation can God’s subsequent actions in and through Israel be properly understood: God’s purposes with Israel and the church are universal in scope. God’s work in redemption serves creation, the entire creation. God’s redemptive work does not occur in a vacuum; it occurs in a context that has been shaped in decisive ways by the life-giving, creative work of God.

LOOK AT THE BOOK

How is it with your spirit this week?
What was one take-away from listening to the Carry On Cast podcast that connects with this Grow Guide?
Our theme is “People and Promise.” God’s promises are deeply woven in relationships we have with one another. What is one life giving relationship in your life that you want to thank God for? Why?
Open to Genesis 1. Look over the days of creation in the first creation story. Which day are your drawn to and why?
Move to Genesis 2. When a verse is designated “b,” look to the second half of the verse. Notice that Genesis, which means “beginnings,” starts the second story of creation by naming an account of “generations.” What is one thing people misunderstand about your generation?
In verse five, what had not grown yet and why? Here in Minnesota, we celebrate four seasons. When we think of what God has created, what often gets left off the list? Do we include all the natural world as part of God’s creation? Did God create the cockleburr?
Dr Fretheim says that Genesis is not just about creation but it descibes what God continually does...God is still creating. How might God do that? Where do you see it happening?
How does God form humankind in verse seven? What does God give humankind in verse seven?
What problem does God discern in verse 18? How is this still true today?
In what ways can Easter Lutheran Church invite others to live in community? What, in your mind, is a meaningful invitation to become a “partner?”
How is Jesus good news for us this week?
What would you like to talk about that we have not yet?

TAKING IT HOME

What is something you can “create” with positive words in the coming week with someone you know?

Sending Prayer

O God, you made us in your image and send us into the world you so love by your Spirit’s power. As you have called all people to you, make us one in your name. Through your grace, let us live in community to the glory of your Son, for we pray in Christ’s holy name. Amen.

Grow Guide | Sept 13, 2026