Life Group Discussion Guide :: Sunday, November 11, 2012 (JXG)
Sandy Lake Wesleyan :: Pastor Shawn
Build it! | Success (week 4)
Remember, this Guide is not intended as an exhaustive list of what can be discussed, but is best used as a guide to help your Group process what God is teaching them. Read through the discussion points below and prayerfully consider what the Holy Spirit would have you work through.
Be sure to pray for, encourage each other, and share the victories God is giving your Group.
------------------------------------------------------
Please use some of these notes from last week to spur conversation with your Groups (the full Guide is posted as last week's entry):
“It was never God’s intent that there would be that many orphans and the Church would be silent.”
What is your reaction to this statement?
How can we step more into the call of God and his heart for us to “Do good. Seek justice. Encourage the oppressed.”?
How do we move in response that is less oriented on us and more on loving God?
Read Isaiah 58:6-12
What are the conditions God sets out for knowing his righteousness, healing, and leadership; for rebuilding, and experiencing all of the newness of life he has for us?
What are things in your life, community, Group in need of restoration?
How has God positioned you/your Group to see that restoration come?
We can get very caught up in discerning the will of God--but if we’re not engaging in the clear calls he sends to us from Scripture, we won’t hear him in the smaller things.
Why do you think this is?
How do we often turn ‘discerning God’s will’ into something more about us than God?
That God is so clear in this means it must be priority for us; why do you think it can be so hard to make our priorities line up with what are obviously God’s priorities?
On Global Orphan Sunday we highlighted the call to practice ‘true religion’ by caring for the widow and the orphan. The overarching challenge was to “do for one what we wish we could do for all” and to “identify the one.” Who is ‘the one you can start with (right in front of you)’ for you as individuals? What are ways that your Group can champion, be involved with, and help resource orphan care? Who is ‘the one’ for your Group?
***
Read Matthew 25:14-30…
The master says, “you have been faithful with a few things” or, “faithful with little,” but a single ‘talent’/bag of gold in this passage is worth approx. 15-20 years’ income for the average worker--how does this change the way we may read this passage? How does this change the way we look at what God has given us?
Our readiness for Jesus’ return is defined by our stewardship of the things he has entrusted to us.
How do we see that “God gives according to ability.”
How is this encouraging?
How does this show that God wants to see the greatest success in us?
What does the anger of the Master show us?
Why is “after a long time” such a significant part of the story?
In what ways are you experiencing the ‘long time’ gap in the story of what God is doing in your life?
What is the danger in confusing ‘successful’ with ‘selfish’? How does Colossians 3:23-24 speak into this?
Why do we sometimes mistake success for the absence of cost or suffering?
Read John 16:33; how does avoiding suffering and cost rob us of the full experience of success God calls us to?
We tend to think success is gaining position, possessions, and prominence. How does Acts 20:35 refute this perspective?
Why do you think God designed his Kingdom in such a way that gain is directly connecting to giving?
“In the Kingdom of God, success is determined by what we do not what we have.”
What are indications we’ve given way to selfishness or laziness in our relationship with God?
Pastor Shawn shared these ‘truths to embrace’:
- You cannot be successful on your own (John 15:5) -- what does it look like to embrace in this in our journey as Christ followers? How do we receive and give what God gives us?
- Success isn’t just about winning and losing. What is it about, then? What has God given us individually and corporately that he is calling us to use for building his Kingdom.
- Success must be weighed before it can be measured--where we invest must have meaning. What are ways God is calling us to shift our perspective to experience him ‘along the way’ rather than pursuing a goal for the goal’s sake?
Pray with one another as a Group that He would speak to you as individuals and a Group about how you’re currently defining a ‘win’ and what he would change in that. Invite members to share an area where this is a struggle with at least one additional person in your Group and invite that person to pray specifically for each other during the weeks ahead. Set the expectation of Checking-in with each other about what God is doing in each of you and your relationships as you seek him together.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for connecting with us. A member of our Missional Living team will respond shortly!