March 15: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

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Love

Teaching Text: ‭Lamentations 3:18-26

So I say, “My splendor is gone
    and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
    the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
    and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Cry of the Prophet

• Jonah - When We Hate God's Instructions

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Can you think of a time in your life when you wanted to give up? When you felt crushed by disappointment? When you felt you could not believe any more. Trust anymore. Love anymore. Go on anymore?

• Jeremiah is a prophet who teaches us something about endurance. About reliable maturity.

• Endurance and reliable maturity don’t sell much ad space in our culture.

• Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet

  • He found a way to cling to God’s love and faithfulness even in the middle of despair, in the middle of what looked like failure, when his spirit was crushed, when surely he wished he could give up.

• Anybody can say God you are my portion when you have as many portions of whatever else you want. But your city is crumbling and your life work lies in ruin and you can say to God...

  • You are enough for me. Your mercies are new every morning. You are my hope.

  • That type of prayer in the middle of despair is profound.

• How do we do that?

  Jeremiah had sense of being known by God

  • The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

    “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

    before you were born I set you apart;

    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

    – Jeremiah 1:4-5

• One of the first things after God calls Jeremiah by name is God tells Jeremiah that He has known him well before Jeremiah became aware of it.

• God is an object about which we have questions. We are curious about God. We make inquiries about God. We read books about God. We get into late-night bull sessions about God. We drop into church from time to time to see what is going on with God. We indulge in an occasional sunset or symphony to cultivate a feeling of reverence for God.

• “But that is not the reality of our lives with God. Long before we ever got around to asking questions about God, God had been questioning us. Long before we got interested in the subject of God, God subjected us to the most intensive and searching knowledge. Before it ever crossed our minds that God might be important, God singled us out as important. Before we were formed in the womb, God knew us. We are known before we know.”

  – Eugene Peterson

JEREMIAH KNEW GOD HAD CALLED HIM AND HAD A VISION FOR HIM

• Jeremiah has insecurity and he told it to God... This is the exchange...

  • Jeremiah 1:6–15

  • God met Jeremiah’s insecurity with two visions

    • The first was an almond tree branch - and there is little world play here...

      • The word “almond” and the word “watching” are nearly identical in Hebrew. “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I see a “shaqed” (“almond”). “Good eyes! I’m sticking with you. I am “shoqed” (“watching”) my word to make every word I give you come true.

      • God told Jeremiah that even the most difficult of unlikely things he had to say he wasn’t saying alone. God was watching his promises to make sure they were fulfilled.

    • The second vision was a boiling pot - Jeremiah had a difficult word to share: because God’s people had ignored His covenant with them and broken it over and over again finally that brokenness was going to become their defining reality.

      • God speaks to Jeremiah in these everyday items.

  • Do you believe God has a call on you?

  • Do you believe God has vision for you?

  • Is your vision for your life so manageable that you can go about pulling it off whether God is involved or not?

  • Jeremiah knew God knew him and knew God had plans for him....

  • One of the most famous verses of Jeremiah is 29:11

    • For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

      – Jeremiah 29:11.

Jeremiah ACCELERATED HIS MATURITY THROUGH OBEDIENCE

• There can often be a huge gap in what we know about God and what we walk in.

• There can be huge gap in what we want most for our lives and how we live on the daily.

• Our maturity grows in leaps and bounds by following through on what God is asking us to do.

• Jeremiah learned to trust and know God more and more by taking God’s invitations and following God’s commands.

• Jeremiah became a new every morning person

• He came to know by experience in the worst possible circumstances that....

  • Because of the Lord’s great love ,we are not consumed,

    for his compassions never fail.

    They are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness.

    – Lamentations 3:22-23

• Jeremiah endured wicked rulers, humiliation, set backs, failure, war and exile to keep showing up God is still at word, God is still showing mercy. The headlines are not all there is.

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March 8: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

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Love

Teaching Text: ‭Jonah 3:10 - 4:11

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relentedand did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered.When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Cry of the Prophet

• Jonah - When We Hate God's Instructions

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Two mentions of Jonah outside of these 4 chapters that make up the book with his name.

  • In the Gospels, Jesus seems to be frustrated that people keep demanding more and more external phenomena from Him while not experiencing a real change of heart and mind. 

    • He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. 

      – Matthew 12:39-41

  • In 2 Kings 14 - Jonah, son of Amittai, was a court prophet to Jereboam II. While other prophets of Yahweh in his time, Amos and Hosea, criticized the royal administration for its injustice and unfaithfulness…

    • Jonah had supported Jeroboam’s aggressive military policy to extend the nation’s power and influence.

    • Tim Keller gives a helpful comment on this story and it begins to shine some light on how Jonah ends up running from God…. 

      • The original readers of the book of Jonah would have remembered him as intensely patriotic, a highly partisan nationalist. And they would have been amazed that God would send a man like that to preach to the very people he most feared and hated.

        – Timothy Keller

• So from these two mentions outside of the book of Jonah we learn some crucial things about the story…

  • Jesus saw this as an essential sign of God’s plan bringing salvation to the world, for breaking healing and redemption to a broken world.

  • We learn a little something about why Jonah was so reluctant to follow through with what God asks of him. 

  • Parallels in the story: 

    • In 1:1 - God’s words comes to Jonah – In 3:1 - God’s Word comes to Jonah

    • In 1:2 - the message is conveyed – In 3:2 - the message is conveyed

    • In 1:3 - the response of Jonah – In 3:3 - the response of Jonah 

    • In 1:4 - a warning is given – In 3:4 - a warning is given 

    • In 1:5 - the response of non-believers – In 3:5 - the response of the non-believers

    • In 1:6 - response of the leader – In 3:6 - the response of the leader 

    • In 1:7 unbelievers respond better than Jonah  – In 3:7 - unbelievers respond better than Jonah 

    • In 2:1-10 How God taught Jonah grace through the fish – In 4:1-10 How God taught Jonah grace through the plant 

• Few things that bear on all of us…

  • Why we do not want to do what God says

  • How we return to God when we’ve gone our own way

  • Why our anger new tells the whole story

  • And from all that a few things we learn about how God works…

    • The Conflict of Identity: Jonah’s primary significance was found in being a Hebrew and a nationalist rather than a servant of God. This caused him to flee to Tarshish because he feared God might actually forgive the "wicked" Ninevites.

    • The Storm of Disobedience: The sermon posits that every sin has a "mighty storm" attached to it. For Jonah, the storm was mercy—a visible picture of the chaos that comes from trying to manage the world without God.

    • The Death and Resurrection Pattern: Jonah’s journey "down" (to Joppa, to the ship, to the sea, to the fish) represents the end of self. Jesus later calls this the "Sign of Jonah," pointing to His own death and resurrection.

    • The Cliffhanger of Grace: The story ends with God asking Jonah if he should not love the great city. The sermon suggests the story ends abruptly to force us to answer: Will we be angry at God’s mercy toward others, or will we walk in the grace we’ve been given?

• You may sincerely believe that Jesus died for your sins, and yet your significance and security can be far more grounded in your career and financial worth than in the love of God through Christ.

• Shallow Christian identities explain why professing Christians can be racists and greedy materialists, addicted to beauty and pleasure, or filled with anxiety and prone to overwork. All this comes because it is not Christ’s love but the world’s power, approval, comfort, and control that are the real roots of our self-identity.

  – Timothy Keller

• Sin: 

  It [has qualities like] an addicting drug. At first it may feel wonderful, but every time it gets harder to not do it again. Here’s just one example. When you indulge yourself in bitter thoughts, it feels so satisfying to fantasize about payback. But slowly and surely it will enlarge your capacity for self-pity, erode your ability to trust and enjoy relationships, and generally drain the happiness out of your daily life. Sin always hardens the conscience, locks you in the prison of your own defensiveness and rationalizations, and eats you up slowly from the inside. All sin has a mighty storm attached to it.

  – Timothy Keller

THINGS WE LEARN ABOUT GOD

• God is not just the God of your nation, and group , and people, and politics. God really loves and cares about your enemy. (Be very careful if you imagine God is always cheering on American missles and drone strikes)

• God can meet us where we are even when we run away. (But running away always costs dearly) 

• God redeems through the sacrificial love of death and resurrection. This we see most fully in Jesus. 

• Jonah wanted Ninevah to pay for all their evil and wrong. God wanted to warn them and offer them mercy. 

• This fight between justice and mercy is raging in Jonah - God keeps finding shocking ways to be merciful 

• And ultimately God would say I will be just and the Justifier by going to the cross.

Application Questions

• Where is your "Tarshish"? Jonah ran to Tarshish because God’s command conflicted with his personal politics and national identity. Is there an area of your life (career, political conviction, or personal comfort) that you prioritize over God’s direction?

• Are you "praying your anger"? The sermon notes that Jonah was "rage-filled" but at least he prayed his complaint. When you feel resentful toward God’s timing or His mercy toward people you dislike, do you hide that away, or are you honest with Him about your bitterness?

• How do you view your "enemies"? If God moved powerfully in the life of someone you consider a "villain" or a rival, would you be glad for them, or would you be like Jonah—jealous, resentful, and bitter? How does the "Sign of Jonah" (the Gospel) challenge your view of who deserves mercy?

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March 1: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

---

Love

Teaching Text: ‭1 Kings 19:1–I9

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night.

And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael,and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him.

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Cry of the Prophet

• Elijah - The Still Small Voice

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Now the cultural moment that Elijah is living through is important to mention. Ahab was King in Israel and this is mid 800s BC. Ahab was in a string of not ideal Kings.

  • There’s a little refrain in the book of 1 and 2 Kings where it will say and so and so did more evil than all the previous Kings before them. 

• There was a progression of moving away from Yahweh, and Ahab accelerated that again. He had a political marriage to a woman from the kingdom of Tyre and Sidon, and she has her own reputation that has spilled the pages of Scripture. 

• Ahab was married to Jezebel, and Ahab and Jezebel were on an intentional strategic path towards pluralism in Israel - that’s a nice way to say it. 

  • They had killed prophets of Yahweh and brought in prophets of Ba’al. 

  • And there were many Ba’als but the major one worshipped here was thought to be a god of the storm, a god of the rains. 

• And so Elijah the Tishbite shows up and says, OK well the real God says there isn’t gonna be any rain, there isn’t gonna even be any dew.

  • Like Yahweh had challenged the gods of the Empire in Egypt in the Exodus, he challenges the Ba’al of the storm with a drought. 

• And in a very real way Elijah is hanging on to faith in Yahweh in Isreal at a time when there is very real chance of it dying out.

• Without the turning point of Elijah’s life and ministry - the way of Yahweh and His covenant in Israel was in real threat of dying out.

ELIJAH TALKS AND LISTENS TO GOD 

• A prophetic life, a life that reveals what God is really like is a life that has learned to talk and listen to God.

ELIJAH PRAYS HIS LACK

• Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” 

  So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 

  – 1 Kings 17:2–6

• If this was the end of Elijah’s story it would make a great sermon. But God told Elijah to proclaim a drought, but then provided for him with Ravens and a Brook. 

• But just a little while later. The Brook dried up. 

• God is interested in us learning to trust God. And often God will give us something as a gift, but then there is a risk that that thing God has given us becomes what we actually put our confidence in.

• Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.”

  – 1 Kings 17:7

• And Elijah prays his lack. And however he names it, it isn’t in the scene. What we get instead is God’s response.

• Elijah prays his lack. But God knows his need.

• What do you do with your Lack?

• Then the word of the LORD came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.”

  1 Kings 17:8–9

• It seems harsh that the brook that God provided dries up

• But Jezebel was from Tyre and Sidon. God sends Elijah to the territory of his enemy. If he keeps providing for him with the magical Brook we never get this story, and (SPOILER) its going to be a story of resurrection.

• But Elijah goes to the widow. He asks her for some water and bread. He has to humbly ask for the thing God has been providing. 

• And she says I have no bread, I am going to make a meal for my son and I and then we are going to die.

• Elijah receives more direction from God in his lack…

  Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the land.’ ” 

  1 Kings 17:13–14

• the woman’s young son dies.

• And she asks the question many of us ask in tragedy? Is this my fault? Has God been against me the whole time? Did you just come to hurt me?

• And then Elijah asks for her son and takes him away to or pray, and he prays basically the same question
  
  

ELIJAH PRAYS HIS QUESTIONS

• When life is really difficult and tragic for us, where we go with our questions matters.

• Are you able to take your questions to God? 

• Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” 

  The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!” 

  – 1 Kings 17:21–23

• When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” 

  “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” 

  So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” 

  But the people said nothing. 

  – 1 Kings 18:17–21

• In confidence do you still turn to God?

ELIJAH PRAYS HIS CONFIDENCE

•  He prays in stages for the rain.

• Rain came. 

• But look what happens instead….

  Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” 

  Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.

  – 1 Kings 19 v 1–4

• He doesn’t want to go on.

• He thinks he is a failure. 

• He wants God to end his life.

ELIJAH PRAYS HIS DEPRESSION

• He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. 

  – 1 Kings 19:4–5

• And we see the incredible wisdom of God here. 

• Elijah goes to the same place Moses went to look for God. To ask to see His Glory.

• And there Elijah prays his desperation

ELIJAH PRAYS HIS DESPERATION

• He makes Elijah food and lets him rest.

• God knows what we need.

• Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. 

  And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 

  He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 

  The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” 

  – 1 Kings 19:8–11

GOD COMES AS A WHISPER. A STILL SMALL VOICE.

• Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. 

  Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 

  He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 

  – 1 Kings 19 v 11–14.

• Elijah asks the same question, but now the Lord is speaking.

• Elijah is told that God has had a plan, he is not alone. He is gong to receive help. He is given a friend, someone to walk with. Elisha.

• As Elijah learns to pray. Elijah Walks in Wisdom.

Pray your lack

Pray your questions

Pray your confidence

Pray your depression, your anxiety, your illness

Pray your desperation

Pray and walk in wisdom

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February 22: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

---

Love

Teaching Text: ‭Daniel 5

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.

The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.

The queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet hall. “May the king live forever!” she said. “Don’t be alarmed! Don’t look so pale! There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods.Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners. He did this because Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means.”

So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom.The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it. Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.

“Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled.But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes.

“But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.

“This is the inscription that was written:

mene, mene, tekel, parsin

“Here is what these words mean:

Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Medetook over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.

---

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Cry of the Prophet

• Fasted Life

---

Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• The goal of the series is to look at the voices of the prophets and their impact as those who critique from the inside. 

• We look at the prophet as a “watchman,” whose job is to call for honesty and to stop the Israelites from relying on anything other than God 

• Richard Rohr says,

  “In this way, they introduced a completely novel role into ancient religion: an officially licensed insider critic, a devil’s advocate who is tasked to call out and expose their own shadow side! Few cultures, if any, develop such a counterintuitive role.”

  – The Tears of Things

• Their work is sometimes labeled “Creating holy disorder” for confronting injustice and exposing abuses of power. 

• Rohr:

  “Prophets, then, are full truth-tellers, not fortune-tellers. They pull back the veil to radically reframe our preferred storyline of history. “

• We need this in the church because:

  • The Christian religion has sought to achieve its own innocence rather than act in solidarity with suffering and sinners.

• “TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting”

  – Daniel 5:27

• King - has a moment of being measured

  • Will you honor the truth you have been taught about God and the true story of the world?  

  • He says no…I’ll worship what I want, in fact,  I’ll use the very things that were intended to affirm God’s sovereignty and drink from them while praising the idols that I have chosen instead of God to satisfy me. 

• But Daniel is also being measured in this moment

  • After 65 years of captivity and indoctrination - what would he do? He could be killed in this process if he tells the king the wrong thing.

  • He honors the God of his origin. He holds to the true story of the world. He calls out the king for neglecting to heed the warning of the past. 

• Memory is an engagement with fidelity from a God who takes endless initiatives in life-transforming, life-guaranteeing actions of generosity.

• “It is inescapable if one's past tense is burdened by self-invention and one's future tense is limited to self-sufficiency. It takes no imagination to see that technological consumerism, unable to host past miracles or future promises, has given us a present tense of greed powered by anxiety and issuing in shameless brutality against our neighbor.” 

  – Bruggeman

• For it is only when the past is brimming with miracle and the future is inundated with fidelity that the present can be recharacterized as a place of neighborliness in which

  • Scarcity can be displaced by generosity

  • Anxiety can be displaced by confidence

  • Greed can be displaced by sharing

  • Brutality can be displaced by compassion and forgiveness

• The recovery of the true story of the world includes the daring, pervasive conviction that God's fidelity outlasts every circumstance.

• Daniel was able to hold onto the truth for 65 years in a hostile pluralistic environment. 

  • Honor the past (the king didn’t honor the lessons his grandfather learnt) Daniel held to the faith and devotion of his heritage

• Trust God for the future - his fidelity will outlast every circumstance!!!!

• Be courageous in our moment - order your life around that reality. God is faithful and will continue to be.

• Daniel did this through forming daily life habits that immersed him in the truth. They connected him with God. 

  Here’s a practical outline for building these habits by Alice Bohn. 

• A Well-Ordered Life: Practical Steps – Daniel’s prophetic clarity was the result of a life oriented toward God. We are all "ordered" toward something—the question is whether it's anxiety, money, etc, or our Creator.

• The Purpose of Ordering

  • We reorder our lives to plug into God, our ultimate Source, and join His work in renewing all things.

• How to Start

  • Establish habits that seek Jesus’ presence. Lent serves as a communal opportunity to audit these routines with the support of the Church.

  • The First Step: Fasting

    • Fasting reminds us of our dependence on God and creates margin for other spiritual practices. Beyond food, consider fasting from social media, late bedtimes, or digital noise.

  • Pillars of an Ordered Life

    • Prayer: Use "in-between" moments like commuting, brushing teeth, or Emmanuel Prayer at bedtime.

    • Scripture: Try a verse a day, audio Bibles during chores, or family devotions.

    • Worship: Practice "Worship Walks," gratitude lists, or daily singing.

    • Confession: Schedule weekly friend calls, spouse check-ins, or pastoral confession/counseling.

    • Service: Integrate rhythms like trash pickup, meal trains, or plugging into TGC service opportunities.

    • Obedience: Be intentional; a well-ordered life requires a plan. Tithe. 

  • We reorder our lives to live in the Presence of God. If this is daunting, start by asking God for help this Lenten season.

---

February 8: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

---

Love

Teaching Text: ‭John 1:35-51

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas”(which, when translated, is Peter).

The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanaeland told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

---

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• By Your Life We See Light

• Come and See

---

Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Sometimes, we hear things at exactly the right moment.

• This opening chapter of John's Gospel account begins with something like cosmic/meta level poetry, about Creation, about the personhood of God, about the deep questions of human philosophy, about our most ancient hopes as a human race, about Israel's prophetic expectations …

  • It's breathtaking in its scope when we really hear it.

  • The Logos became flesh and blood and skin and bone and set up a tent in our midst.

  • The Eternal Word became a person and tabernacled among us.

  • God moved on to the block. 

• The chapter ends with what is almost like a kids’ game of telephone.

• In 50 verses from the highest heights of divine poetry, and human thought and longing to what appears on the surface like a very pedestrian series of conversations.

  • But these brief and initially simple encounters between friends change the world because they change these lives.

• They hear, ‘Look the Lamb of God’, right at the moment where they register the weight of what is being said and when they can walk right along follow after Jesus.

• People come to Jesus, and they want some information. They want a little clarity on who He is or what He thinks about something, or what they should do and Jesus will say “Come and See.”

  • Or “Follow Me” or “Let’s Go”. 

• And journey of relationship begins, a walking together begins. 

• The Kingdom of God moves along relational lines.

  • Because God’s very nature is relational.

• So God insists not on doing things all on His own. He insists on involving us in relationship and participation, even if as it often does, it gets messy. 

• That meant I have chosen you to be My disciple - to live in the dust of Rabbi

• “Follow me” was a really loaded phrase in Jewish culture at this time.

• “Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 

  “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. 

  “Come and see,” said Philip. 

  • Andrew found Simon, and now Philip finds Nathanael.

  • Nathanael cracks a joke about Nazareth. And Phillip says Come and See.

• The Kingdom of God is moving along relational lines.

  • These friends are passing on what they have received

• One of the most joyous things as a follower of Jesus is to be able to pass on to someone else what Christ has given you. And you don’t have less for it, you have more.

• Our world has a strong resistance to proselytizing

• We should talk about our most deeply held beliefs.

• There is tremendous joy in passing on what you have received from God

• You can often tell when someone is talking about God in a way that is more about them feeling like they must say it than any concern for who hears it.

• People talk about what they love. We pass on what is meaningful to us. 

• “But the most obvious fact about praise -- whether of God or anything -- strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. ... The world rings with praise -- lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game. ... I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.”

  – C.S. Lewis

• We praise the things we enjoy. We want others to see the good in them. 

• We praise what we care about. 

• When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” 

  “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. 

  Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 

  Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” 

  Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.” 

  – John 1:47-51

• Nathanael is initially skeptical. He makes fun of Jesus’ home town. 

• But then Jesus reveals that He knows something true about him. The smallest detail. Where he  was sitting before Philip got to him.

• It is deeply moving to know we are seen by God.

• The Kingdom of God moves along these relational lines.

• We pass on what we have received

• We tell what has happened to us.

• Occasionally, we write it all down.

• Sometimes we meet people who have been through something just like us and need to hear how God met us there.

• If you’re embarrassed to identify with Jesus because some people publicly take His name in vain and attach it to things Christ has nothing to do with 

• All the more reason we are invited to humble integrity in following Jesus.

• We are invited to live in the dust of the Rabbi - to do what we see Jesus doing, to follow what we see Jesus teaching.

---

February 1: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

---

Love

Teaching Text: ‭John 1:19-34

Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

---

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• By Your Life We See Light

• Baptizing with the Spirit

---

Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• There is light in Epiphany, even if it’s still dark pretty early.

• There are powerful reasons for hope.
  

• Sometimes we can read the Bible like a nice clean devotional book, and treat the Gospels like everyone was just curious religious thinkers walking in small groups in robes and debating ideas.

• But - There were powerful and dark political forces at work. Jesus wasn’t executed because He carried lambs around and said love your enemies.

  • Leaders thought He was a threat.

  • And so they come looking for John because he was drawing crowds.

• John keeps pointing away from himself and playing his part in the redemption story. 

• The Words of the Prophet

• The Work of the Lamb

• The baptism of the Spirit

• The Words of the Prophet

  • John does use a quote from the prophet Isaiah to describe what He is up to…

  • “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ " 

  • Isaiah 40 in fact where the quote comes from is about Yahweh coming to His people and a highway being made for Him. John is applying that to Jesus.

• The Work of the Lamb

  • The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” 

    Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.” 

    – John 1:29–34

  • Jesus is….

    • The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

      &

    • The One who baptizes us with the Holy Spirit

      • The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, sets us free by dying without any sin of His own from the law written into the universe of sin and death.

  • Do you realize that? The Law of Sin and Death is as real as gravity and it not an arbitrary thing that God set up to keep people really moral and threaten them with death if they didn’t behave.

  • God is the source of life.  God is life.

• If you part ways with God (which is what sin is) You part ways with life and death comes into the story. 

  • In big and small ways.

  • Death of trust, death of love, death of peace, death of relationships. 

• NT Wright’s comment this is helpful …

  • “The death of Jesus takes place, in this gospel, on the afternoon when the Passover lambs were being killed in the Temple. Jesus is the true Passover lamb. John, like many New Testament writers but in his own particular way, wants us to understand the events concerning Jesus as a new, and better, Exodus story. Just as God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, so God was now bringing a new people out of an even older and darker slavery.”

• Maybe you are like “How can this old tribal barbaric violent way of thinking still be relevant our modern world?”

• Friends, sin is still bringing about death. God gave His people a visceral costly picture to work with. So they could grasp what sin does to a person and community….

  • But every time forgiveness is given, someone has to absorb the cost of the wrong done.

• Christ is saving and healing the world because He took that cost on Himself. 

• If you want a commentary on this read Hebrews 9 and 10 but I’ll give you this one highlight…

  • “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” 

    Hebrews 9:14

• The Lamb who is slain sets us free

  • And the Spirit poured out – the Spirit we are baptized with makes us alive
    

• The Cross in our forgiveness, the Spirit brings our realization of it.

• The Cross sets us free, the Spirit helps us walk in freedom.

• The Cross in our mercy that changes our view of God and the world, the Spirit helps us walk in humility and courage.

• Be free and be baptized by the Spirit. 

• Whatever life we can muster on our own, it is nothing compared to life Christ is offering.

  • It is a life of freedom - where nothing ensures you

  • It is a life of union, of friendship, of fullness …

• There’s a million ways I want the world to be different. Christ brings this new creation to our lives and says ‘You be different.”  Here is forgiveness and my Spirit. Now show up in the world in a new way.

---

January 11: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

---

Love

Teaching Text: ‭‭John 1:1-13

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

---

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• By Your Life We See Light

• True Light

---

Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• The intro to gospel of John is a tremendous resource for this type of reflection. We open with it this first Sunday of Epiphany because it is such a powerful guide.

• The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

– John 1:9–11 

• Do you ever think of God as experiencing grief? That rejection impacts us profoundly, but God feels it as well? 

• Why would God arrange a situation where God would show up in a place and not be recognized?

• If you are watching there is plenty of God’s obvious power in what Jesus does but its not like sky writing in the clouds so everyone can read.

  • Instead he goes small first, shows up in weakness initially, hyper local, specific. Relational.

• In the beginning - we are clued in right away that whatever he is doing he is harkening back to the original creation story.

• NT Wright has a helpful comment on the connection to Genesis…

• Whatever else John is going to tell us, he wants us to see his book as the story of God and the world, not just the story of one character in one place and time. This book is about the creator God acting in a new way within his much-loved creation. It is about the way in which the long story which began in Genesis reached the climax the creator had always intended.

– NT Wright

• John is telling us using the opening lines of of Torah (of Genesis) that God has made and is remaking the world. 

• And the way that is happening is for God to show up in person.

• He is telling us that nothing in the natural world was created without relationship - without through-ness. 

• Creation was not a lonely endeavor.

• John is saying there is a light that is a light to whole human race.

• There is a true light that gives light to everyone and it has come into the world.

  • And no matter where you have started in life, whatever your life is up to this point, you can be Born of God.

• The reality of God’s life can be born in your life. This is something more than just a  new idea in your head about God.

• This is a transformation where what is true about God’s life begins to fill your life.

  • The light, the love, the perspective, the future of God becomes yours to share in.

• This passage says it hinges of our part on recognition and reception.
  
  
  

• He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

John 1:10–12

• We recognize Jesus - this word made flesh 

• We receive him 

• We become family - born of God

• So lets ask ourselves…

  • How do you recognize Jesus?
    

• In this text, in your life, on a Wednesday, in your goal setting and resolutions, in your budget, on the F train, at your life group, at Monday night English language conversations, in the news?

• How do we recognize Jesus the first time or the millionth time?

• Ask for help to recognize Jesus

• How do you receive Jesus?

• Trust that he is who he says he is

• Believe in his name. - In means Yahweh saves.

• Sit with him, eat with him, speak to you him, trust his guidance.

• Be born of God - are you living like someone born of God? Like family?

• What is animating your daily life?

• What is guiding your discernment? decision making?

• Are you led by love?

• By the Holy Spirit. Pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit

• Recognize Him

• Receive Him

• Be family

---

December 14: Groups Guide

About This Guide

The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.

Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.

pdf download

Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.

Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.

more Resources

Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.

Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.

---

Love

Teaching Text: ‭‭Luke 1: 5-38

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.

When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth,a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

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Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

• Watching for the Light

• PEACE: See a light—God's unchanging Character Across the Ages

• Series Intro: 

  • God is near

  • God is saving and rescuing

  • God is filling and healing.

  • But that can be confusing or disillusioning because life has quite a lot of waiting, some real season is difficultly, loss, grief. Life has what feels like delays. It has uncertainty, pain, and longing.

  • And so we need the darkness of Advent also.  We need the wilderness and waste places of Lent, we need the confused grief of Holy Saturday when Christ has died but we see no sign of resurrection.

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Types of Silence

  • Silence of despair

    • Sometimes suffering can make us forget, and that moment of forgetting is despair.  It is the moment we forget that God is a God who hears the cry of his children.

    • And in the story of the Hebrew/Israelites: hope was a groan and a cry 

    • If your silence with God is one of despair, then it is time to cry out.

  • Silence of shame/unacknowledged sin

    • When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.

      – Psalms‬ ‭32‬:‭3‬-‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

    • Jeremiah 31:3 : “I have loved you with an everlasting love;

      I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

    • The hope of Advent is a God who is coming all the way to you. All we have to do is not hide

  • Silence of awe

    • The silence of awe is also present in the advent story at the birth of Jesus.  The shepherds who heard the announcement of the angels and who saw the newborn Jesus, shared with their neighbors what they had seen and heard.

    • Luke writes in his gospel:

      And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

      – Luke 2:18

    • The ESV better here it says: “And awe came upon every soul…”

    • Awe is our most reasonable response to the presence of the trinitarian God or to witnessing the direct activity of God in the world.

• Tyler Staton: “Fear of the Lord is the willed choice to give my attention to God—to listen to the story He tells about who I am, who He is and where we’re going together—and then live in a contested world of competing fears like God is in fact the only one telling the truth.”

• Are you building your life on God’s faithfulness?  Do you believe the story He is telling in the world? Because if you do, if you can live in the fear of the Lord, then you can experience what I will call the silence of trust.

• Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

  – Exodus‬ ‭14‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ NIV

• ESV renders it: you need only be silent.

• The enemy you fear no longer has any power over you (fear of death, fear of failure, fear of abandonment). You just need to be still. Stand in the place where you are (keep worshipping, keep serving, keep living into the Messiah’s picture of human flourishing)--stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord.

INVITATIONS

• Perhaps we need silence to determine what kind of silence we are in. When the quiet comes and you’re alone, what are the thoughts that comes? Are they of love, trust, hope? Are they of fear, shame?

• Sometimes I don't know what my thoughts are toward God until I’m alone with them. I need to be still first. And sometimes that’s when the trembling truth comes: I’m angry with you. I’m disappointed that you let this happen. Or sometimes: thank you, I love you. And sometimes quiet: just being together. And I imagine a hand on my chest. A face next to mine. Ah, there you are. I’ve been waiting.  Let’s go on our walk.

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