This Week's Discussion Guide

This Guide is available for download as a .pdf here.

Life Group Discussion Guide :: Sunday, March 10, 2013 (JXG) 

Sandy Lake Wesleyan :: Pastor Shawn

King Me | Saul (Week 1)

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.

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 Be sure to pray for, encourage each other, 

and share the victories God is giving your Group.

From Last Week (Truth & Dare, week 5 | Submission):

“There are four influences that we allow to shape the way we live:

God | Others | Enemy | Self

We segment and divide how much influence any of these may have in us.

:: How have you seen this in your life?

:: What Scriptural examples can you think of that illustrate some of these?

:: How can we tell which of these has primary influence in our lives?

Pastor Shawn shared the following Seven Realities which have an impact on the way we submit to the authority of God/Scripture in our lives (how have you seen each of these play out in your life/the lives around you? What is the call to us in each of these principles?):

1. What we value determines how we live.
   ~ We don’t pursue what we don’t value. How can we tell what we value?
   ~ Read John 14:15 -- what does this say to us about pursuit, value, and authority?
2. We give authority to what we value.
   ~ Value creates influence, influence is authority.
   ~ Read John 21:15-17 -- what does this say about influence, authority, and what we value?
3. Who we give authority to determines what we do.
   ~ What examples from Peter’s life did Pastor Shawn use to illustrate this? Can you think of other examples in life/Scripture that show the same principle?
4. Going first takes courage
   ~ Living out the Bible is increasingly seen as ‘wrong’ in our culture… so how can we have the courage to live this out?
   ~ Read Matthew 14:25-30 -- how does this passage show us this truth?
5. Our lack of understanding limits our readiness to engage in the things God wants us t0.
6. God wants to be caught more than taught--He values pursuit more than knowledge.
   ~ What are symptoms we value knowing more than pursuing? How can we know we’re chasing after him?
7. Personal surrender is ‘table stakes’
   ~ Our salvation gets us ‘in the game’ but running and winning the race takes sacrifice and cost.
   ~ Read & discuss James 4:6b-10 --what is the call to greater submission?

This week:

Pastor Shawn said, “We’re all looking for a king.” What do you think he meant by that? How do you see this in your own life? In those around you?

Read 1 Samuel 8:4-7

How were the people rejecting God as King?

What reason do the people give for wanting a king?

How can we do the same thing? 

Do you think in searching for our own kings, we can reject God, too? How can we avoid that?

Read 1 Samuel 10:1

How do we see God allowing a leader but retaining Kingship for Himself?

Why is this significant?

Read 1 Samuel 11:12-15

Samuel recognizes and affirms a kingship--who’s is it (hint, it isn’t Saul’s)?

Why is it significant that the people confirm Saul ‘as king in the presence of the LORD.’

Read 1 Samuel 12:16-19

What sticks out to you as part of this rebuke from Samuel?

How was ‘asking for a king’ an evil thing?

How do we see God’s desire for us to choose him in this and other passages?

Why is this a sign of God’s sovereignty and love?

How does this change the way we understand the people’s rejection of God as King?

“Saul’s biggest issue is that he didn’t have a heart for God...Israel’s choice of him as king revealed they didn’t have a heart for God either.”

How do our choices of who has influence in our lives reveal our heart?

What are ways we can discover if we have a heart for God?

“Israel ultimately kinged themselves...taking authority which should have been God’s alone and assuming it as their own.”

We do the same thing of making what God is doing more about ourselves than God. How can we maintain a focus on who God is, what he is doing, and what he desires?

How do we do this when it not only means possibly missing out on
                personal benefit but can be tremendously costly?

“If you add anything to Jesus as a requirement for being happy, that’s your real king.” ~ Tim Keller

How did this resonate with you? What part of this did you resist--how is that resistance evidence of yearning for more than Jesus? What have you ‘added to the happiness equation’ in your life? Pray with one another as a Group that the Holy Spirit would reveal to each of you what true king you have followed and how to seek him first and foremost. How can you affirm Christ as King individually and as a Group?