November 26: 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 Texts: John 16:29 - 17:5

Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

“Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone.Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal lifeto all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you,the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

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Themes

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

• Joy Complete – God wants your joy to be complete and Jesus is showing us the way.

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• One of life's biggest questions - If God exists, what is God like?

• Sometimes is easier to believe God exists than to believe He is kind

• Dominant narrative of our time: Consumeristic, technologically driven individualism. 

  Creation narrative: God miraculously and lovingly creates and sustains

• When we immerse ourselves in the dominant narrative, we forget the creation story 

  • Then, a series of things happen: 

    • 1 - We forgo rootedness of the past – we self-invent 

    • 2 - We forgo hope in a faithful God for our future – self-rely 

    • 3 - Our present is filled with FRIGHTENED MEANNESS. 

• Where in your daily life do you experience this drive towards self invention/defining identity?

  Where do you see the encouragement and temptation towards self relying/self preserving? 

• Brueggeman: 

  “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.

  “Recovering the biblical text includes the daring persuasive conviction that God’s fidelity outlasts every circumstance.”

• The story you live in, is the story you live out

• How can we better immerse ourselves in the creation narrative? 

• What God is like is the catalyzing question of this whole conversation. 

  • “May they know you” is Jesus’ prayer at the end. 

• This text is less about a to-do list and more about how we can know God deeply. 

• Challenges in the conflicting narratives:

  • The dominant cultural narrative might be more prevalent in our lives than the true creation narrative 

  • We are trying to trust Jesus for that joy, but we reserve the right to define still what makes us happy.

  • We are not able to discern the timing and the perseverance required

• Which of these challenges do you struggle with most?

• Where in your life do you struggle with a lack of peace and joy? 

• Take some time to scan through chapter 14-16 of John 

  • Notice one or two things that Jesus says that reveal something about the Father that He wants the disciples to know. 

  • Share them with the group. 

  • Pray prayers of thanks and praise to God for who He is. 

• God’s Peace comes from a deep conviction that

  • My future is not in my hands

  • My God is kind and trustworthy and wants my true and lasting joy 

  • No obstacles I face here and now will have the last word

  • Jesus completed the work to restore the kingdom and invited us in

  • He leaves us with His very presence, the Spirit by whom we have access to the Father. 

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November 12: 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 Texts: John 15: 18-16:11

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me.None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with griefbecause I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

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Themes

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

• Joy Complete – God wants your joy to be complete and Jesus is showing us the way.

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Jesus has been sitting with His friends on the even of going to the cross, pouring out His heart to them

• He warns them about the incredible resistance they will face. 

• There are systems and powers in the world that are bent against the things of God and the Kingdom of God - THE WORLD 

  • “the world hates you keep in mind that it hated me too”

• There is internal resistance in the disciples’ own lives that will entice them to fall away and will wrangle them in grief - THE FLESH 

  • “I am telling you this so that you will not fall away.”

• They will meet with outright spiritual resistance, accusation, deception, and temptation from a spiritual entity called here the ‘prince of this world.’ - THE DEVIL

• Even though these blend and overlap, try to: 

  • Name one system thats resists the kingdom of God in your life/world

  • Name one weakness of your flesh (internal to you) that resists the kingdom

  • Name one moment you thought there was specific spiritual resistance you encountered

• Whatever else is happening here - Jesus is being honest with His friends about the resistance they are going to face living as disciples.

  • About the pain and difficulty 

  • About the challenges

• Some important questions and facts to consider in light of this are:

  • Why is it hard to follow Jesus?

  • How we can be helped in the midst of this resistance?

  • Why it is worth it.

    • What do you find hard about following Jesus? 

    • Why do you think these things are so difficult? 

    • What helps you most in the hardships of following Jesus? 

    • What motivates you in the tough times? 

• FLESH may have good manners and even do nice things but its fundamental motivation and operation is the SELF.

  • The flesh is also craving, lust, violence, lost tempers, greed

  • It is trying to meet the deep needs of life and our soul without God

• WORLD that is opposed to the KINGDOM OF GOD

• SIGNS of THE KINGDOM : 

  • Salvation/Deliverance

  • Righteousness and Justice

  • Peace

  • Joy

  • God’s Presence 

  • Healing

  • Return from Exile

• SIGNS OF THE WORLD:

  • The self-made person - identity through achievement 

  • Accomplishment and wealth 

  • Victory 

  • Pleasure 

  • Self-sufficiency and power

  • Cost of doing business - degradation, disease, pollution  

  • Looking out for yourself and your group only

• How can we be helped in the midst of this resistance?

• A share in the Life of God through the Holy Spirit.

• Listen 

• “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—He will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.” – John 15 v 26-27

• No Matter how loudly it insists otherwise, the world cannot change that love is better than selfishness in bringing life and life to the full

• No Matter how loudly it insists otherwise, the world cannot change that violence is not the way to peace 

• No Matter how loudly it insists otherwise, the world cannot change greed and getting more and more doesn't satisfy the soul

• No Matter how loudly it insists otherwise, the world cannot change that power doesn’t make you secure 

• No Matter how loudly it insists otherwise, the world cannot change that indigence, lust or workaholism doesn’t bring joy 

• The Spirit will show the difference between sin and true life

• The Spirit will show there are spiritual realities we cannot change

• WHY IT IS WORTH IT? - to deal with this resistance

  • Our present is lived in friendship with Jesus - His spirit testifies with our spirit 

  • We can endure in the way of Jesus - die to the way of the world 

  • Our future is united with Jesus 

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November 5: 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 Texts: John 15: 9-17

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

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Themes

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

• Joy Complete – God wants your joy to be complete and Jesus is showing the way.

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Read the text slowly and contemplatively, then share what stood out to you. 

  • What surprises you when you read this text?

  • How does this commandment compare to what you were taught is most important for faith? 

• There are 7 staggering things Jesus says to them.

  • YOU ARE LOVED - as the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you 

  • REMAIN IN MY LOVE

  • THIS REVELATION IS MEANT FOR JOY

  • YOU ARE MY FRIENDS - I am telling you what I am up to

  • I CHOSE YOU

  • YOU HAVE FRUIT TO BEAR

  • I WILL HELP YOU

• YOU ARE LOVED - as the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you 

  • “The Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existing eternally as one divine essence shows us how God can be the love which no greater can be thought: an interpersonal love that comes from God and is directed toward God, fruitfully freed of all selfishness, eternally generative of still more love. The God who is not a “thing”, but an activity. The Father is the loving of the Son, and the Son is the returning of love to the Father, and from this mutuality of love the loving that is the Holy Spirit is breathed out.” – Frederick Bauerschmidt

• REMAIN IN MY LOVE

  • There are ways to live that make you forget God's love 

    • What ways do you live, that makes you forget God’s love? 

  • There are ways to live that keep you remaining in God's love 

    • In what ways can you live to remember gods love?

• THIS REVELATION IS MEANT FOR JOY

  • ‘I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” – John 15 v 11-12

  • How dows it feel that God’s intent with His commandments and direction is meant for our joy? 

• YOU ARE MY FRIENDS - I am telling you what I am up to

  • “You are My friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his Master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”  – John 15 v 14-15

  • We know He isn’t saying if you keep enough of My commands you can be My friends. 

    • He is saying WE ARE FRIENDS and a key way that is expressed in joining this way of LOVE!! - living this JESUS WAY

  • “The gift-like character of God's friendship with us helps us understand why Jesus was so unconcerned about the perils of befriending sinners and outcasts, so unconcerned about the 'contagion' of sin. The love that is God is present so perfectly, so abundantly in the person of Jesus that his goodness cannot be diminished by contact with fallible and failed human beings. Because God's love is not drawn to our goodness but creates our goodness, because it is active and not reactive, the Spirit can transform God's enemies into God's friends.” – Frederick Bauerschmidt

  • How does friendship with God adjust how you can go about your everyday relationships and responsibilities? 

• I CHOSE YOU

  • “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” – John 15 v 16-17

  • How does being chosen affect your understanding of your identity? 

• YOU HAVE FRUIT TO BEAR

  • Fruit of the Spirit in your ever-forming character  - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control 

  • Fruit in your relationships - forgiveness and mercy and peace and generosity and creativity and love 

  • Fruit in the gospel - salvation, healing life and light, wholeness, freedom , JOY JOY JOY 

  • Is bearing fruit a burden for you or do you experience it naturally? 

• I WILL HELP YOU

  • “whatever you ask in My name the Father will give you. This is My command: Love each other.”  – John 15 v 16-17

  • JESUS’ WHOLE LIFE IS PRAYER…

  • “[JESUS’] whole life is a prayer because it is the expression in time of the eternal conversation of love that is the life of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the stillness of eternity, God the Father speaks the Son as His Word, and as the Son responds in love, the Spirit is breathed forth. Through friendship with Jesus in the Spirit, we have become part of that eternal dialogue of love.

    – Frederick Bauerschmidt

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October 29: 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 Texts: John 15: 1-9

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

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Themes

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

• Joy Complete – God wants your joy to be complete and Jesus is showing the way.

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• Read the text slowly and contemplatively, then share what stood out to you. 

• “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. – John 15 v 1-6

• The picture is unmistakeable.

  I am your source.

  Your life comes in connection to me

  There is no spiritual life outside of this union

  As my life and power flow in your life, you will produce fruit (the things of God will show up in your life)

  Remember what he just said about the Holy Spirit.

• THE LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF A PERSON

• You must live by this connection, by this union, by this friendship, by this trust.

  • Without it nothing of God’s Kingdom will come.

  • God is utterly determined to work through relationship

• What do you think and feel when you hear that God wants to prune you?

• What form do you think that pruning usually takes? 

• Gardener and Pruning

  • Often a vine will grow in too many directions, or begin growing inward in places, or at  times produce too many smaller, less vibrant grapes.

  • Don’t be surprised by this pruning, by this ongoing cleanining, nourishing, realigning, cutting away what is dead or dying so new life can

  • But it’s a cut to refocus, to direct from inwardness, to forgo smaller immature clusters so the rich full fruit of the vines potential can be produced.

• He prunes so it will be even more fruitful. This is a work of love.

• It is for the sake of love and flourishing

  • What has God pruned in your life? 

  • How did you respond to that pruning? 

  • What was the result of that pruning?

  • What is this fruit the pruning is supposed to produce?

• The signs of the Kingdom from Israel’s prophets….

  • Salvation/Deliverance

  • Righteousness and Justice

  • Peace

  • Joy

  • God’s Presence 

  • Healing

  • Return from Exile

• Character Fruit -  the best list for this is the fruit of the spirit….

  • “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  – Galatians 5 v 22-23

• Relationship Fruit - forgiveness, hospitality, peacemaking, justice doing, generosity 

• Spiritual Fruit - salvation, obedience, the fruit of repentance, healing, God’s presence 

• “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” – C.S. LEWIS - The Weight of Glory

• ABIDE: 

  • How do you grow your friendship with God?

  • Abide everyday - it is the most important opportunity available to you.

  • God loves to be in union with you

  • God longs for the fruit of abundant life to grow in your life

  • Pruning is part of that

  • Abiding is how we nurture that healthy connection

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October 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.

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Love

Teaching Texts: John 14: 15-31

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubledand do not be afraid.

“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

“Come now; let us leave.

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Themes

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

• Joy Complete – God wants your joy to be complete and Jesus is showing the way.

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• What kind of peace does the world offer us? 

• What shape does it take? 

  • Peace when you win 

  • Peace when you are on top

  • Peace when you have crushed the other into submission 

  • Peace when your circumstances all take a turn for the better

• What about God’s peace? 

• In first-century Israel, among the Jewish men and women there was a compelling question…

  WHAT WILL THE WORLD BE LIKE? when Messiah arrives. 

  They had expectations:

  • Rome will be pushed back

  • We will step into our promise and our place

  • There will be victory and peace and self-determination 

• Jesus shows up and begins making these Messiah claims, sometimes quite obscurely, but He keeps asking now that Messiah has arrived – WHAT WILL YOU BE LIKE?

• Many are asking what will the world be like when God sends the Messiah (Jesus’ disciples among them - there’s an obsession with this certain groups of American Christianity even now) 

• God is asking what will you be like now that I’ve sent the Messiah?

• We ask what will the world be like when God shows up?

• God asks What will you be like when God shows up?

  BECAUSE YOU WILL MAKE THE WORLD

• God says “I already made the world, what will you make the world?”

• One of the ways you bear the image of God is the ability to make worlds - to make spaces what they are, to make times what they are, to fill up voids with creation, where there is nothing, to make something, where there is something to to take that and make something out of it.

  • Your interior life

  • Your actual habits

  • Your apartment 

  • Your family 

• THERE ARE PLACES YOU HAVE DOMINION IN THE WORLD. WHAT WILL YOU BE LIKE?

• AGAIN THE CONTEXT IS JESUS’ LAST EXTENDED HOURS TALKING WITH HIS FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS WHO WILL CARRY THIS MOVEMENT FORWARD

  The last time he will teach them before going to the Cross. Often called the farewell discourse.

• IF YOU LOVE ME → KEEP MY COMMANDS

• How do you feel hearing these words? 

• How does your heart respond to such a statement? 

• This is pretty hard for us on first blush.

• We do not want to think at first of our love relationships being contingent on keeping commands.

  But we cannot flip it around. We know from the whole story He isn’t saying, IF YOU DON’T KEEP MY COMMANDS I WONT LOVE YOU.

• We have so many examples of Jesus showing love even to those who had no interest in hearing or doing what He said.

• JESUS SAYS IF YOU LOVE ME…

  • It is not simply feeling nice feelings towards me (though our affections matter) 

  • It is not gathering weekly to sing songs (though worship matters), 

  • It is living the life I have shown you and given you.

• JESUS IS SAYING IF YOU LOVE ME, TRUST MY LOVE ENOUGH TO FOLLOW MY WAY OF LIFE

• SO THEN ALSO A SUPER IMPORTANT QUESTION IS - What does Jesus command?

• The best summary is in Matthew 22:

  Love the Lord with all you heart soul mind and strength

  Love your neighbor as yourself

• HOW?

  • Live in conversation with me

  • Live by the Holy Spirit

• THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

• Read John 14

  • “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – John 14 v 25-27

• What does the Spirit do? 

• How can this encourage you today? 

• “All the main themes of the gospel so far are now revealed for what they are: truths about the inner life of the father and son, truths which turn to fire and love and invite us to warm ourselves within their inmost circle.” – NT WRIGHT

• Judas asked a key question: 

  • “Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” – John 14 v 22

• Jesus answers: 

  • “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”  – John 14 v 23-24

• This stretches back to the first motivations of creation and the last hopes of redemption 

  • THAT GOD WOULD MAKE HIS HOME WITH US

• God’s peace

  • Peace that can hold up when you have just been betrayed, when you are being denied, when you are falsely accused

  • Peace that might be able to pass through death and return 

  • Peace that is beyond human understanding 

  • Peace that is like the shalom of being united to the inner life of God and radiant love that is at the center of the Trinity.

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October 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 Texts: John 14: 1-14

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority.Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

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Themes

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

• Joy Complete

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• God wants your joy to be complete and Jesus is showing us The Way.

• What do you think about Jesus’ conversation with His friends at the end of His life? 

• What do you notice about what Jesus gives His attention to? 

• What surprises you? 

• “You don’t have to let your heart be troubled.”

• For many of us this is the real crucible of belief

• How can I deal with the swirling agonies of my own heart?

• How can I hold on to concrete hope in a world that throws pain in my face everyday?

• How can I know my days are filled with meaning and love?

• How can I speak of one way to life or God in a pluralistic world?

• DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED

• I am, in fact, very grateful that we don just see Jesus in one emotional state throughout His life.

  • He gets angry and flips over tables 

  • He cries

  • His spirit is deeply troubled at times (these hours show us this)

  • He keeps a party going long into the night 

  • He has deep joy and gladness

• So what is He saying to His friends (the disciples) here?

  • I don’t think He is saying never feel emotional turmoil in a broken world. 

  • I THINK HE IS SAYING – DON’T LET YOUR HEARTS MAKE TROUBLE THEIR HOME

    • Don’t stay there til you sink 

    • Don’t forget hope 

    • Don’t become defined only by your pain or the pain of the world

• WHY NOT?

• UNION WITH ME…

  • YOUR PLACE IS SECURE

  • THERE IS SO MUCH GOOD FOR YOU TO JOIN IN 

• Remember, Jesus is on the way to the Cross. 

  • In just a few hours he is going to be arrested in the garden where he loved to pray 

  • His friends are going to scatter 

  • He will go through a trumped up trial, a brutal humiliating beating, and torturous death 

• And He chooses to do this with His time. 

• He moves to comfort them.

• You an learn a lot by questions one asks. 

• What questions do you have for God right now? 

• What longings, hopes, hurts, etc. do those questions point to?

• Jesus response: 

  • First, YOUR PLACE IS SECURE…

    “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” – John 14 v 1-7

• Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 

• The disciples are often trying to help Jesus make more sense …. But Jesus says I AM THE WAY

• I am not giving you a disembodied religious pathway to walk and I’ll meet you at the end of your life in heaven.

  HE IS SAYING THE WAY IS RELATIONSHIP WITH ME

• How is your peace in turmoil? 

• How is your walk/closeness and understanding of Jesus your friend? 

• GOD SAYS I WANT TO LIVE WITH YOU and your worst failures. I am there to say Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing 

  THE KEY TO THE IMPOSSIBLE IS THIS FRIENDSHIP WITH JESUS.

• BUT ALSO YOU ARE GOING TO DO THE JESUS STUFF

  • “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”  – John 14 v 12-14

• You will do what Jesus does

• You will do even greater things

• This will be sustained and supported in prayer - talking friendship 

• Jesus’ invitation to His friends in the midst of turmoil is a place of peace (connected to Him) and a mission of love to be used in the midst of the chaos. Sometimes in spite of your chaos. 

• “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask Me for anything in My Name, and I will do it.” 

• What does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus? 

• What does this mean for us?

• Where do you need Him to meet you with peace? 

• Where can you be a Kingdom influence in your world?

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October 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 Texts: John 13: 18-38

“I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’

“I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”

After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”

His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant.One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”

Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”

Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

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Themes

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

• Joy Complete

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• God wants your joy to be complete and Jesus is showing us The Way.

• In John 13, Jesus is eating in the room with His friends. 

  For 3 years, Jesus has walked with these friends. He called them to join Him out of their lives, to join in the Kingdom of God coming on earth as it is in heaven.

• Now Jesus is saying one of them is going to betray Him.

• Think about what Jesus is facing here.

  • Betrayal from a close friend 

  • He is very troubled in spirit 

  • It was night - He knows what the night holds

  • Failure of His comforters - you will deny me 3 times

• “It was night” is an amazing detail just dropped in there. 

  Recall the dark night of the soul moments of your life. 

  • Recall a moment of were you betrayed? Or,

  • When were you extremely troubled in your spirit? 

• We don’t have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness. We have One who has been through what we have been through.

  • That hospital waiting room

  • That night of anxiety 

  • That break-up

  • The stress of ‘will the money come through’ 

  • Feeling alone when you thought you were loved 

  • Not knowing how on earth you will ever feel better

  • Jealous, betrayed, unfulfilled, whatever it is.

• “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned r against me.’ “I am telling you now before it happens so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. – John 13: 18-19

• These moments will happen. 

• When we hear I am who I am - memory bells should be ringing.

• The Exodus accounts of God revealing Himself

• Yahweh, who made the bush burn

  Yahweh, who confronted each of Egypt gods with powerful plagues 

  Yahweh, who parted the Red Sea

  Yahweh, who shook the mountain 

  Yahweh, who knew Moses could only stand to see his shoulder blade

  I AM WHO I AM 

• We need a God powerful enough to shake the mountain and split the sea. 

  But just as much we need a God who can sit with us in pain.

  We need a God of fire and a God of unseen tears

  Jesus shows us we have both!

  • Recall a moment God showed up in a time of need. 

• “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” – John 13: 34-35

  • How does this differ from the hallmark of the Jesus people in our day and context? 

• We are called to undoing the pain and hostility of these conflicted moments in our lives by responding in love. 

• Do you care for the purity of your own heart and life and not the condition of others? 

• Do you care about your own joy but not the other? 

• The path to my joy is the way of love for others. 

  • Whatever you have been through, Jesus has been there and is with you

  • You can follow in His way of love then.

• Jesus’ vision for healing the world is love

  By this, they will know you are My disciples 

  Follow Me in the way of love

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October 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 Texts: John 13: 1-17

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God;so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

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Themes

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

• Joy Complete

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Formation 

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

• God wants your joy to be complete and Jesus is showing us The Way

  • Look at how Jesus understands His identity

  • “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. “ – John 13 v 3-5

• He takes up the job reserved for the lowest servant 

• He moves to the humble place. He takes the job no one wants to do.

• He washes the real-life grime out from between the toes of His friends.

  • What are some irrefutable truths of your identity?

  • How could understanding our identity affect how we respond to those we love? Or those we are called to serve? Or even our enemies? 

• Later in these upcoming hours, He is going to say multiple times I want you to have My Joy. I want your joy to be complete.

• One of the secrets of Joy that God knows and we are invited to learn is that power is for service, the truly happy life is one of service and love …

  • What are the paths to joy that you recognize the world around you offers?

• Jesus is showing us the shocking truth of how God uses power. To serve.

• “He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

  Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

  “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

  Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

  “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

  Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.” – John 13 v 6-11

• Peter shows us a bunch of reasonable responses that all miss the Kingdom of God

  • You are the King, you shouldn’t wash my feet - Peter is seen several times trying to talk Jesus out of taking the low road of humility 

  • I am not worthy of this act - it is easy for us to let our sins and failures swell so we imagine them larger than God’s mercy 

  • OK fine but the rest of of me also needs this - we struggle to receive. We struggle to believe that God can make us clean without us directing the process.

    • thank you for you sentiment, let me show you how to fix me

• We want to control God and how God is seen 

• We want to control our lives and how we are seen 

• We imagine our current mood or feeling is the truest thing about us 

  • What are some reasonable responses you can recognize in your life that also might miss what God intends in His kingdom? 

  • What areas do you desire to control how you are perceived? 

  • What areas do you try to control how God is perceived?

• “When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.  “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” – John 13 v 12-17

• But we aren’t blessed if we understand that concept.

  We are blessed if we do this.

• Our world says power is having the upward mobility to never have to do the inconvenient things, thats the dream 

• God is showing us when you are truly secure and full of love you can serve others.

• To be like Jesus is to grow in the ease and spontaneity with which we do the little, annoying, messy things, the things we always secretly hope someone else will do so we won’t have to waste our time, to demean ourselves.

• It is a pattern we can follow - it shows us the way of Love

• Learn the mysterious God-type Joy of love expressed in service

  • The world’s vision of power is so much more alluring in the surface, but once you get into it, you realize it is empty 

• The apostle Paul shows us the pattern in his letter to the Philippians

  • “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 

    In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

    Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 

    rather, He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 

    And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross! 

    Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, 

    that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 

    and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” – Philippians 2 v 3-11

• Jesus trusted His identity and future to the Father so He was able to take the nature of a servant

  And God exalted Him 

• Can you trust God that way?

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