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? 

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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? 

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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? 

Unseen Series - The Woman With A Dark Past

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: God is inviting us to be men and women from every kind of background that live out faiths that are active, and to embrace the story of our lives in such a way that they might help increase and grows each other’s faith. 

Understanding God’s Word: Know and Understand the Truth

READ Hebrews 11:31 and Joshua 2:1-15

• What about the faith of Rahab stands out or speaks to you? 
• Read James 2:17 — How does this truth reveal itself in the story of Rahab? 
• Why can’t true faith and salvation come through the simple knowledge or fear of who God is and what he’s done?

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

• What of difference would you see between a church of people that demonstrates their faith only with words VERSUS a church of people that demonstrates their faith with words and action?
• Why is owning and embracing our story such an important part of what it means to be a Christian? (Ex: God has used every step of our journey to make us who we are today, no matter how beautiful or ugly.)
• Who is someone in your life whose story has helped increase and grow your own faith? 

Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin

• What parts of your faith do you know you should be living out, but they never work their way out into action? 
• What part of your past are you trying to bury or hide, that God could actually use to help reach, encourage, and save others? (Leaders: This is a good place for us to take the lead and show humility and transparency.)

      

Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

• What would it look for us to starting owning and embracing the parts of our stories that produce guilt, shame, or fear?
  • On what basis can we, as Christians, humbly admit to and tell others about our own brokenness and weaknesses? 
• What parts of your story can God use to help others increase and grow in their faith? 

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Announcements

Next Sunday — Communion Sunday

Next Sunday — Backstage Pass (For those in your group who may not be members of REVO)

November 30th-December 5th — rGroup Christmas Parties

Unseen Series - The Man With The Worst Army Ever

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: Faith that gives glory to God sometimes requires God stripping away every fragment of pride or self-reliance, so that we can become people who are humble and dependent on Him. 

Understanding God’s Word: Know and Understand the Truth

READ Judges 7

• What was God's intent in making the situation seemingly so impossible for Gideon and his army?
• How would you explain the glory of God to someone who has never read the Bible?
• Why would God rather strip every bit of pride or self-reliance away from us, than leave us clinging to it?

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

• How does beholding God's glory affect our day-to-day lives?
• What would our church look like if all of its people were filled with humility and were dependent on God for all things?

Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin

• What is wrong when God does something and we take credit for it?
• What areas of your life do you characteristically go about accomplishing things on your own?
  • What place does God have in this part of your life? 
• Nathan tied our story into Gideon’s so well. Every day we face a seemingly impossible battle against sin. Imagine that you are looking at all your sin on the other side of the river and you are about to go to war. Which way does your heart tend to react? 
  • Pride? (Pride says, “I’ve got this. I can do this on my own.”)
  • Hopelessness (Hopelessness says, “I’ve been here before and I keep failing. What could I ever do against this?”)

          ***Gospel Moment***

• • • Whichever way characterizes us, we both have to recognize that sin will win the day.
      • The one who is filled with Pride will often fall because of their hubris, and they underestimate their sin.  However, there are times they might seem to win. Yet, when a prideful person “overcomes" a sin, most times it’s at the expense of another sin popping up and taking the original sin’s place. We may think we’ve conquered, but sin wins. 
      • The one who is filled with Hopelessness is going to succumb to sin because they often just give in. They give up fighting sin, and many times accept it. They believe it’s just who they are and there is nothing they can do about it. 
    • The Christian however humbly admits and acknowledges their weakness. The prideful person humbles himself and confesses that he can’t fight sin on his own. The hopeless person confesses their lack of power, but it is not a confession with hope. This humility turns both to dependence on the power of God to deliver them. 

Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

READ 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

• How was the cross the ultimate example of God working his strength through weakness?
• What are practical ways to daily turn from pride and self-reliance towards humility and dependence?

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Announcements

November 29 --- Communion Sunday

November 30th-December 5th -- rGroup Christmas Parties

Unseen Series: The Man That Made Hard Choices

Summary: Faith plays an essential role when we have to make decisions in our lives. 

Understanding God’s Word: Know and Understand the Truth

READ Hebrews 11:23-29

• What stands out to you about Moses’ faith as we look at his story? 
• What does it mean when the passage says, “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” (He chose God over the world / eternal rewards vs. fleeting pleasures) 
• What would have been hard for Moses and his family because of their obedience? (Examples: Choosing to hide Moses, instead of allowing him to be killed; rejecting the king and abandoning his place; giving up his world of comfort for one of trials, etc.) 
  • What does this teach us about the realities we could face when we are faithful and obedient to God with our lives? 

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

• In part, Moses’ faith became alive because of the great faith that his own parents demonstrated. What are some ways that we can help pass down faith to those in our family or to our friends? 
• What gain is there in choosing eternal rewards over fleeting pleasures? 
• Decisions are not always going to come down to godliness vs worldliness. Sometimes two opposing choices can be just as godly as the next. (Examples: Which job do I take? / Which school should my kids go to? / Where do I go to college? / Who should I date or marry?) 
  • How do we know God’s will for us in those decisions? 
    • • Seek God’s will and vision for us in his Word! —> His Glory, Our Growth, Great Commission. (There is not necessarily a wrong decision. If we truly seeking God when we make out decisions, He can use anything for his glory, our growth, and to achieve his Great Commission.)

Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin. 

• What are some of the first things you run to when you find yourself at a fork in the road in your life? Who or what is the first person / thing you turn to?
• What role does fear play in your decision-making process?
• Can you think of any times that you chose the rewards of the world over the rewards that God wanted to extend to you? 

Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

• As Christians, one of the ultimate beliefs we have to embrace is that we no longer belong to the kingdom of this world. We have been saved and invited into the kingdom of King Jesus, a kingdom where we live life with God under the rule of God. 
  • How does seeing yourself as a part of this kingdom radically change the way that we approach our decisions? 
• How does faith in King Jesus lead us to action? 
• Our faithfulness and obedience is not just limited to rewards that we receive after this life? How can we experience rewards for our faithfulness right here and right now? (Our lives change, others can experience life change because of us, etc.) 

Unseen Series: The Woman That Couldn't Wait

Summary: God has called us to trust in Him and His promises, to put aside all impatience, anxiety, and grasping for control. God will always deliver on His promises, and they will always be far greater than anything we could do on our own.

Understanding God’s Word: Know and Understand the Truth

READ Genesis 16:1-2, Genesis 17:15-19, Genesis 21:1-3

• What was the promise that God made to Abraham and Sarah? 
• How and why did Sarah and Abraham try to take things into their own hands?
• What can we learn about God through this story? 

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

• Why can we trust God’s promises for us? 
• God spoke promises to Abraham and Sarah, and He speaks promises to us as well. Where can we hear His promises for us? Can you think of any in particular? 
• What kind of outcome will we consistently see whenever we allow God to be in control of our situations vs. what kind of outcomes will we see consistently when we try to take control ourselves?

Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin. 

• What is something going on in your life right now that you’re struggling to wait for, or you’re anxious and worrying over it? 
• What’s an instance in your life when you got tired of waiting on God, tried to take control yourself, and it didn’t work out the way you thought it would?
• It is easy to see ourselves in Abraham and Sarah. Sometimes we hear promises of God (i.e. He will never leave us or forsake us; He is able to change us or someone else; His grace is sufficient for us; etc.) and, instead of responding with hope and trust, we laugh in the face of God, not believing He can do what He says. What does this unbelief communicate to God? 

Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

READ Hebrews 11:11-12

• The way that Sarah and Abraham failed at trusting God's promises seems like it would disqualify them from being listed as great people of faith. When we realize how terribly we fail at trusting God’s promises, we can feel like we should be counted out, too. Yet, Sarah and Abraham are listed here in Hebrews as heroes of faith because God was able to change their hearts which helped them have genuine faith in his promises. 
  • How can God take broken and flawed people like us and change our hearts? (Hint: God changes people when they give their whole lives to Christ. Jesus promises to take us as we are, broken and flawed people, and He will change us and make us new!) (2 Corinthians 5:17) 
  • When Christ changes our hearts and helps us truly trust the promises of God, how might the people around us be affected?
  • How can the community around you help you renew your belief in God when you’re struggling to believe Him?