O Worship The King Series, Pt. III

This guide is a tool to help you facilitate discussion with your rGroup. Use it to lead your group in discovering, owning, and applying God’s Word. This is a flexible tool, not a rigid task list. Follow the Holy Spirit’s lead as you lead your group. You don’t need to ask every question.

Understanding God’s Word: Know and Understand the Truth

READ Luke 2:8-20

• Why might encountering the glory and presence of the Lord cause people to feel fear? Why would the shepherds need to be told, “fear not…?"
• Why is the message that the angel gave to the shepherds such good news for them and all people? 
• What was the shepherds’ response when they encountered the good news that the angels brought to them?  

Living and Applying God’s Word: Give a Vision of Life With God

• What would happen if the people of our church lived out their lives like these shepherds did? 
• Why does Scripture tell us that the greatest life we can experience here on earth is found by those who are worshippers of God rather than those who worship the things of this world? 

Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin

• Worship doesn’t just take place on Sunday mornings, and worshippers aren’t just found in churches. Every person who has ever lived is a worshipper, whether they recognize it or not. Anyone can identify what it is that they worship, they just have to take a look at what they put their time, money, thoughts, energy, and hopes into.
  • Beyond God, can you identify anything else in your life that you may, in fact, be worshipping? 

      READ Romans 1:18-25

• This passage highlights that something is severely wrong when people know about who God is and what He has done, and yet give themselves in worship to things other than God. Why is worshipping and serving creation rather than the Creator such a grievous sin? 
• What does this communicate to God when we call ourselves Christians, yet give ourselves more fully to things other than Him? 
• What does this communicate to non-believers when we call ourselves Christians, yet give ourselves more fully to things other than God? 

      

Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

• Why is the goods news that the shepherds were told about a Savior, the same good news for us: people who have been alienated from God because of their sins and misplaced worship? 
• Knowing that in Christ we have been forgiven and restored to God, what would it look like for us to practically respond this week? What can we learn from the shepherds’ response?
• What are ways that we can share this good news that we have received with the people around you this week? 

O Worship The King Series, Pt. II

This guide is a tool to help you facilitate discussion with your rGroup. Use it to lead your group in discovering, owning, and applying God’s Word. This is a flexible tool, not a rigid task list. Follow the Holy Spirit’s lead as you lead your group. You don’t need to ask every question.

  Understanding God’s Word: Know and Understand the Truth

READ Matthew 2:1-12

• How would you define worship to someone outside of the church? Would you define it any differently from last week? 
• Why would the coming of the King of the Jews be such an important event for the people of Israel? 
• What does this story reveal about God, that He brought foreign and pagan wise men to worship His Son when the other king and religious leaders failed to seek or know Him?
• What does this story reveal about people's hearts, that even though God was present among them they failed to seek him or know Him? 

  Living and Applying God’s Word: Give a Vision of Life With God

• What is joy and how do we get it? Can you point to any expressions of it in your own life? 
• What would our church look like if everyone came to our Sunday gatherings or rGroups expectantly ready to encounter and worship Jesus? 
• What can it look like for God's people to worship by offering their gifts to Him and others, rather than just receiving?

 Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin

• What about God or His church were you fired up about, but have seen yourself become complacent or apathetic about? 
• Is there ever a reason you gather with the church on Sunday's or with your rGroup other than an expectation of encountering Christ? If so, what reasons? How often?
• What do we communicate to God when we come before Him in half-hearted worship?  

      

 Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

• As Nathan said, when the wise men encountered Jesus, they couldn't help but walk away changed people. How do you know you have truly encountered Christ?
  • (Note: When you encounter Christ, you see life change. All Christians need to encounter Him again and again every day, because we are constantly in need of change. That is why Christians, too, need the gospel, the good news that continually helps us encounter Jesus and continually causes change.) 
• What would it look like for us this week to cultivate a heart of repentance for half-hearted worship, and to prepare for joyful and expectant encounters with Christ? 
• How can we as a community help one other do this? 

---

Announcements

REVO UNITED Christmas Service - December 24th from 5:00-6:00 pm at North Campus. 

O Worship The King Series - Pt. I

This guide is a tool to help you facilitate discussion with your rGroup. Use it to lead your group in discovering, owning, and applying God’s Word. This is a flexible tool, not a rigid task list. Follow the Holy Spirit’s lead as you lead your group. You don’t need to ask every question.

Understanding God’s Word: Know and Understand the Truth

• How would you define worship to someone outside of the church? 

READ Luke 1:5-19, 26-38, 46-55

• Why do you think Zechariah and Mary have different reactions to Gabriel's news? 
• What does God demonstrate about himself in promising children to Elizabeth (a barren, old woman) and Mary (a virgin)? 

Living and Applying God’s Word: Give a Vision of Life With God

READ Luke 1:43, 48

• When Mary and Elizabeth encountered the magnificence of who God is and what He was doing, they demonstrated one of the foundations of Christian character: they were truly humbled and acknowledged their lowly estate before God. Why are these important markers of any genuine worship for Christians?
  

READ 1 Chronicles 16:23-24 = "Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among the people." 

READ Psalms 18:49 = "For I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations, and sing to your name." 

• Throughout Scripture, God tells us to worship him in such a way that the world hears about who He is and what He has done. How would a church that humbly worships God in all kinds of circumstances be attractive to people? 

Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin

 

• Do you naturally tend to react to your circumstances like Zechariah or Mary? (Trusting vs. Doubting)
• What is an area in your life that you're demonstrating a lack of trust like Zechariah? 
• What are some things that get in the way of you giving heart-felt worship to God?

      

Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

• This Christmas, we are reminded that God didn't just give Mary a son; He gave the whole world His Son, who would be the Savior of the world. How can God use this act of grace and love to change our hearts when we fail to trust in Him or give him our whole hearts in worship?
  
  • How can the good news of Christ allow us worship in even the hardest of times? 
• How can we as a community help spur one another on and help each other prepare for worship? 

---

Announcements

REVO UNITED Christmas Eve Service - December 24th from 5:00-6:00 pm. 

Unseen Series - The One That Didn't Quit

This guide is a tool to help you facilitate discussion with your rGroup. Use it to lead your group in discovering, owning, and applying God’s Word. This is a flexible tool, not a rigid task list. Follow the Holy Spirit’s lead as you lead your group. You don’t need to ask every question.

Summary: When we find that our own journey of faith is difficult, we are able to push on and finish the race when we remember those who have gone before us and the grace of Christ who endured the ultimate race on our behalf. 

Understanding God’s Word: Know and Understand the Truth

READ Hebrews 11:35b-12:2

• What kind of life does this scripture say people of faith may have to face? 
• What does it mean for Jesus to be the founder and perfecter of faith? 
  • How is he similar and different from the heroes of faith described in Hebrews 11?
• What does it mean when it says, “[Jesus]…for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame…" 

Living and Applying God’s Word: Give a Vision of Life With God

• What does it mean to you, having a relationship with a God who knows what it is to suffer, having experienced the greatest suffering in history on the cross? 
• What does it mean to you knowing that you have a "cloud of witnesses," others who have gone before you enduring this life and finished the same race? 
• Imagine being at the end of your life: you are able to look back and see you’ve faithfully run the race through all life's trials and hardships to the finish line. Or you stand before God in heaven, where he says that done well and have been faithful to the very end. What would that mean to you? 

Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin

 

• What are some sins or people that you’ve had a hard time “taking off” and make running the race harder? 
• What are some of the things in your life that have won your focus rather than Christ and have the potential of destroying your chances of finishing the race well?
• What would it be like to not endure in your faith all the way until the end?

      

Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

• How can the joy that helped Jesus endure life and the cross, also help us endure the hardest trials in our own lives?
• How do we put our focus on Jesus and keep it there? 
• What would it look like to pursue and extend relationships/community for those who are running the same race as us?