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: Hebrews 12:4–17

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

Themes

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

Hebrews: A new and Living Way
The Faithfulness of Christ

Formation

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

Sermon Summary

Pastor Tyler opened with Mike Schur — the guy behind The Office, Parks and Rec, and
Brooklyn Nine-Nine. In 2015, NBC gave him a blind 13-episode order, no pitch required.
What he came back with was strange:
- A woman named Eleanor Shellstrop dies and realizes she has accidentally been
  sent to “The Good Place” due to a case of mistaken identity. To avoid being sent to “The Bad Place,” she must hide her deeply flawed past. She convinces her
  designated soulmate, a moral philosophy professor, to secretly tutor her in ethics
  so she can earn her spot and learn how to be a truly good person.
- Four seasons in, there were plenty of moments where viewers had no idea where the plot was headed. But trust in Schur as the showrunner kept people watching to the end.
That’s the posture Hebrews asks of a tired, persecuted church: trust the ultimate Director, even when the plot of your life feels painful, confusing, and overwhelming.
Our faithfulness doesn’t rest on our strength or willpower — it rests on the faithfulness of Christ.
- The call to faithfulness — our duty (vv. 4, 12–14). The Hebrews have been shamed, stripped of property, imprisoned — weary but still alive. “Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees” (v. 12) picks up the race language from 12:1. Fix your eyes on the track. Keep going. The call is to be faithful to Jesus no matter the cost — for some, to the point of martyrdom.
- The cost of faithfulness — our struggle (vv. 5–11). Discipline sounds harsh to modern ears, especially given how these verses have been twisted to justify abuse. But in the ancient world, discipline meant education, training, formation. God isn’t striking in anger — He’s training us for endurance, and He’s in the fight with us as it happens. Illustration: watching other people’s kids at the park, deciding how much to invest — and Sandy Cohen taking in Ryan Atwood on The O.C., giving him both the privilege and the accountability of being a true son. That’s how God parents us: not as orphans, but as children He refuses to leave untouched.
- The community of faithfulness — our shared responsibility (vv. 14–17). Faithfulness isn’t just personal — it’s a team effort. Pursue peace: not passive silence, but active peacemaking with everyone. Watch for bitterness: it doesn’t stay contained, it defiles the whole group. Guard against the “Esau Syndrome” — trading a lifelong inheritance for a bowl of soup, a short-term appetite satisfied at the cost of the long-term promise.
- The faithfulness of Christ — His accomplishment (vv. 1–3). Here’s the turn. Everything in verses 4–17 depends on verses 1–3. We don’t strive for holiness to earn God’s love — we endure because we are already His beloved children. Jesus didn’t just teach us how to run the race. He ran it first, bore the weight of sin, and sat down victorious at the right hand of God.
Where are you resisting faithfulness because the cost feels too high? Where are you tempted to trade the long game for a little relief right now?
Lift your drooping hands. Strengthen your weak knees. Stop staring at your exhausted legs
— fix your eyes on Christ. Trust the story God is writing, even in the chapters you’d love to skip. The faithfulness of Christ has already secured your finish line.

Direct Quotes

“In this remark the author braces the addressees for what their imitation of
Christ’s endurance might ultimately involve.”
— Harold Attridge, Hebrews: A Commentary
“By portraying God as the one who disciplines... the author places God in the
midst of their difficulty. Not as its cause — the ultimate problem is sin — but as its
Sovereign. God is not distant, simply watching the child struggle; God is in the ring
with the child, allowing and shaping the blows so that they do not destroy but
only strengthen... God’s complete knowledge and trustworthiness assert that
God’s use of discipline will never succumb to anger or foolishness... God knows
all things and is working them for the best.”
— Amy Peeler, Hebrews: Commentaries for Christian Formation
“...a very hard text...” that “...certainly has been misused.”
— Amy Peeler, on Hebrews 12:4–17
“Sometimes the best intentions are in need of redemption.”
— Ben Gibbard, “You Are a Tourist,” Death Cab for Cutie

Three Questions for Personal Application

Where am I resisting God’s call to faithfulness right now because the cost feels too
steep? Name the specific struggle, relationship, or obedience you’ve been avoiding. Ask God
honestly whether you’re protecting yourself or actually trusting him with it.
Am I leaning on my own strength to endure, or resting in the faithfulness of Christ?
Notice where you’ve been trying to white-knuckle your way through discipline or hardship.
Consider what it would look like this week to fix your eyes on Jesus instead of your own
effort.
Is there a root of bitterness taking hold in me — toward God, toward the church, or
toward my circumstances? Bitterness rarely announces itself; it grows quietly. Ask God to
show you where it’s already spreading, and what it would mean to pursue peace instead.