Group Discussion & Life Challenge
Use these notes as discussion prompts for your group, or in your personal time with God.
Connect:
Get to know each other. Connect, warm up to each other, fellowship.
Care:
Carry each other’s burdens. Share life’s challenges and practice Soul Care. Pray together.
Challenge:
1. In Galatians 2, Peter switched tables when the “important people” arrived. Can you relate that to a group of people that you may heaven tempted to change your Gospel convictions just to be accepted?
2. The leaders in John 8 relied on being “Abraham’s children.” What “spiritual pedigree” (your service, your upbringing, your knowledge, other perception of your home life?) Are you tempted to use as a shield to keep people from seeing your need for grace?
3. How can our “good” qualities—like how much we know about the Bible or how long we’ve been members, or how much we give or serve—actually become a barrier to genuine community? How do we make sure our “pedigree” isn’t stopping us from admitting we still need the same Grace as a person just getting started in their journey with God?
4. If we truly believe that “the Truth sets us free” (John 8:32), why is it so much easier to gossip than to have a Paul-and-Peter conversation? What would it look like for this specific group to become a place where we “wound” each other with Truth rather than “killing” each other with silence?
5. Look at this group right now, whether we are at a “table” like Peter was or just in the same room, the question remains: Are we sitting here Acting? Do we have the right Gospel “MATH” Jesus plus me acting religious?.. Do we need to lay down the burden of acting today in any way? Take a moment and if you can be so bold then share your thoughts with the group. Be sure to pause and pray also for us as a church, we don’t want to be a place that has our Math wrong
Jesus + Nothing = Freedom
Clarify:
Does anyone need clarity on something? Are there any big God questions you are wrestling with?
Celebrate:
Celebrate life’s successes and God’s provision. Worship God’s presence. Time to brag about God.
BibleApp
Through the Bible in one Year
Join us in reading through the entire Bible in one year. Each day of this plan guides you through passages from both the Old and New Testaments, allowing you to see connections between the history of our faith, and the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan. Readings average four chapters in length, so it is posible to do. When you use the YouVersion Bible App, you can even have the app read the Bible text to you – very useful when you are in the car or otherwise occupied with your hand.
All you need to do is click the link to the Bible Plan, which should lead you straight to the Bible app. Your two options are now (1) to read the plan on your own, one day at the time. Or (2) you can make it more fun and rewarding, by sharing the plan with one or more friends, and then even “Talk about it”.