You Gotta Have Faith: Just Believe

Mark 5:21-43

1. What are the times in life where we have to exercise the most amount of faith?  When our faith gets tested the most?  Would anyone be willing to share a personal story?  (no where else to turn, situation is dire, you've tried everything else, many questions still unanswered).

2.  What is your reaction when God blesses other people (BE HONEST!!  No Sunday school answers!!!)  Upset?  Bitter?  Cheated? Discouraged?  Why do you feel that way?  .

3.  Do you have a personal story where you feel like you've been "skipped over?"  Maybe you've been faithful, giving, serving, doing everything right, but God seems to have forgotten you and moved on to someone else?

4.  Have you ever had a "why bother" moment, where you lose your little bit of hope and faith and decide to throw in the towel and give up?  What attributes to those "why bother" feelings?  (haters, critics, pride, discouragement, misunderstanding of who God is).

5.  What is the difference in "blind faith" and when Jesus tells Jairus to "only believe?"  How can you combat the argument that all faith is blind and you don't have any real foundation or evidence for your faith?

6.  What do you need to "put out" so that you can move forward in your faith?  (Haters, scoffers, critics, doubts, fears, discouragement, past failures, anxiety).

7. Out of the hurdles that stand between you and deeper faith in Jesus and incredible life change, which are the hardest for you?  (how to ignore what some people say that downplay your faith, you can't hear God because you're too busy listening to other people, you're trying to fully understand and comprehend something that Jesus has told you to "just believe," OR you can't put things out of your life that are slowing your faith journey down).

REMEMBER:  We've got a choice with our faith: Why bother? OR Just believe!

You Gotta have Faith: Scared of Storms

Mark 4:35-41

-What's your storm story?  Have you ever fought hard, worked, tried everything else and gotten worn out, only to ask God for help and see Him take care of it?

-The storms in our lives are designed to teach us things, to help us move forward, to prepare us for what's next in life.  What did your storm story teach you?

-God accomplished many things in Scripture.  Healing people from illnesses, raising people from death, providing for His people, fighting battles that were impossible to win, making a way when everything looked hopeless.  Has anything changed?  Has God changed?  Has Jesus changed?  Then is it feasible to believe that the same things that were accomplished in the Bible can still be done today?  So why don't we believe?  What's wrong with our faith?  Why don't we see these same miracles and events in our lives today?

-Have you ever had a "do you not care" moment with God?  Did He seem distant, uncaring, seemingly unphased by your life's circumstances?  What did you learn from that?  How did God answer your "do you not care" question?

-"Why are you so scared?"  If we all believe that God hasn't changed and that He is in control, then why do we react the way that we do?  (Negative reactions are ultimately a result of forgetting who God is.  Sometimes we forget what He has done in our lives in the past, we forget the promises He made us in Scripture, we forget what He's capable of doing.)

-How does "knowing who He is" change our faith?  If knowing who Jesus is makes such a big difference in our lives and our faith, then what do our next steps need to be?  (telling others who he is by sharing your Jesus story, reminding ourselves daily what He has done by spending time in the Word, praying daily to hear from God and have our faith recharged).

Invite Night

Food, friends, and fire pits. This is your week to hang out with your group and invite people outside of the fold to join you for a good time!

Once Upon a Time: The Landowner and Tenants

BE SURE TO SHARE THESE ANNOUNCEMENTS THIS WEEK WITH YOUR GROUP!!

1. Backstage pass is next week from 10:35-10:55.  Spread the word, get plugged in, and go All-In!

2. Next week is communion, which means that the rGroups for next week will be an invite night.  Remember, invite night is not just a time to throw a party and have fun.  It's designed to bring friends over to your house that may not know Jesus and aren't plugged in to a local church.  Love on them, have a good time with them, and use that as an opportunity to invite them back to your group, invite them to church, and shine the light of the Gospel!



Let's reread the story together from Mark 12:1-12.  To put it on more of a personal level, let's change the names up.  Instead of landowner, say God.  Instead of tenants, use personal pronouns (I, we, us).  Does it read any different to you now?  Does the meaning hit home when you start to verbalize this crazy story?

1.  Compare and contrast yourself and God in this passage.  List out some characteristics that you see from God. (patient, loving, caring, compassionate, pursuing, merciful, gracious)
Now, how do those contrast with who we are. (impatient, defiant, hateful, turning away from God, merciless, self-centered)

So what does this passage say about us, and what does this say about God?


2.  If the above characteristics are true of God, then how should we be responding to Him?  Remember that our viewpoint of God dictates how we respond to Him.  Let me ask it another way.

Examine how you are responding to God with the areas of your life (time, energy, resources, finances, worship, evangelism, discipleship).  Now, based on your response to Him, what does that say about what your viewpoint of God really is.  If your life isn't showing that He is Lord, sustainer, savior, and owner, then is that really who you think God is?

Who would others say God is if people simply looked at your life and how you respond to Him?


3.  After reading this story, what makes more sense: heaven or hell?  Which one do you think you deserve?  Is it really that hard to fathom that there are dire consequences for our actions?

4.  What would you have done if you were confronted with the killer of your son/daughter?  How would you have reacted?  How does it make you feel when you find out how God reacted?  What are your emotions when you realize that you are the guilty tenant in this story?  And what do you think when God looks at you and offers forgiveness, adoption into his family, and writes you into the will?

Once Upon a Time: The Purpose of the Lamp

Mark 4:21-34

1.  Why do people chose to hide the lamp?

a. Nervous about what people will say and how you will be viewed

b. Nervous about not being able to answer their questions if they ask (How long will you let that be an excuse?  Are you willing to study, learn, dig deeper so that you can answer questions and see them come into a relationship with Jesus?)

c. Being a hypocrite (knowing that shining the light will not match the life you live in front of them already)

d. The gospel really hasn't changed your life (it's going to be hard to tell others about a Gospel that changes lives when by your own attitude/actions/speech it's hard to even tell that it's changed yours).

2.  What are the consequences of hiding the lamp for long? (God will take the blessings/resources that you are wasting and give them to someone else who is wiling to use them to advance the kingdom of God).

3.  How does it make you feel that you are not the one responsible for life change?  How does it make you feel that your only job in the process is to tell people about Jesus and what he has done for you and then wait on God to change their hearts?  In the entire process, we have really been given the easiest, simplest, and most rewarded part of the process!

4.  Share some mustard seed stories together.  In your faith and life, what started as a small seed (decision/habit) that grew and produced great results?  (Maybe it was the decision to follow Jesus for the first time, to pray everyday, to read your Bible daily, to join a church, to give financially, to join an rGroup, to share your faith, to invite friends to church).

REMEMBER:

Who you are determines what you do.  -Jesus

What you do determines who you are.  -Other religions

Followers of Jesus (who you are) means that you shine the light and scatter the seed (what you do).

Once Upon A Time: The Sower

Mark 4: 1-15

-As followers of Jesus, what is our responsibility as laid out in this parable?  (simply cast the seed.  We don't water, we don't make it grow, we don't produce the light and warmth, and we don't make it germinate.  Our role is to simply be faithful with the seed!)  I hope that helps eliminate any pressure that you may feel about sharing the Gospel.  Just tell people your Jesus story.  It's not your job to save them or convince them or change their heart.  So don't worry about that!  The only way to fail is to not cast the seed!

-One way to do a self-examination of our lives is to look at our relationship with Jesus in relation to this parable.  When you gave your life to Jesus, you were given a bag full of seeds.
a.  What do you see when you look in your bag right now?
b.  Is it full? (aren't really doing anything with the Gospel or telling anyone about Jesus).
c.  Is it running low?  (then you've probably got stories of fruit in your life and in the lives of people around you).
d.  Did you even know you had a bag?  (Is the Gospel all about you, all about fire insurance, all about a ticket into heaven?)
e.  Do you see times in your life where God gave you a straight row and lots of little holes to throw seed in, but for some reason you didn't do it?

-What are the top "thorns and weeds" in the world today?  Some of them seem to be harmless initially, even good in small doses.  So how do you talk to someone that has "pretty, flowery weeds" in their life?  How do you talk to someone about the Gospel whose life is going really well?  Is their room for Jesus in the life of a prosperous life?

-What can we do to make sure our hearts are prepared to hear and receive the Word everyday?  (Pray and ask God to prepare our hearts, listen intently to help eliminate distractions and keeping the bird from stealing the seed, set up times in our lives where we look back over the notes that we take and the sermons that we hear, attend rGroup and share with others, do a regular check for weeds and thorns before they grow up too high in our lives).

 -A reminder as you go out the door:
a. You are as spiritual as you choose to be.  Your intimacy and closeness to God is a direct reflection of how intimate and close you really want it to be.
b.  No one can make you grow.  No one can grow for you.

 They're back!
-What did this text teach you about God?
-What did this text teach you about yourself?
-What are you going to do about it?

Expletive: F-bomb

Mark 2:18-22

-What are some times in your life that you fasted? Why did you do it? What were the results?

-What were some of your misconceptions about fasting? Why do you think people don't do it more often?

-What does fasting communicate about God? About you? About your relationship with Him?

-Why would you fast? What's the purpose and result?

Pastor Nathan compiled some texts to help us know when to fast. Share these with your group:

1. Crisis, Hardship, In Trouble
-Esther 4:16- She needed favor with the king in a time of trouble.
-Acts 9- Since Paul converted, his friends would want to kill him.
-The fasting wasn't just about getting what they wanted, but about seeking God is a vulnerable time in their lives in order to grow their faith and relationship with Him.

2. Gain Understanding
-Daniel 10:2-3
-The fast resulted in Daniel having clarity and focus on what God had called him to do
-The fast was built around growing the relationship, but a by product of that was hearing from God and gaining clarity and understanding on what the next step was. It's not just about "what's next" but about a daily familiarity with God.

3. Self-evaluation and consecration
-Leviticus 23:27
-Jeremiah 36:6
-It's a time in life to ask God for an evaluation and examination. God, how am I doing in these areas: family, personal relationship, work, finances, calling on your life. What do I need to change? Do differently?
-Doing this at the beginning of the year could be good to know how to Move Forward
-This isn't just about a New Years resolution though. We want to hear from God and what He thinks about our lives so that we can do things better or eliminate things. Doing this increases our intimacy and closeness to God.

4. Big Decisions
-Judges 20
-Summary: The Israelites wanted to fight a battle, but the first 2 times they went to war, they lost. The third time they spent extensive time praying and fasting, and had a sweeping victory.
-Never go into a big decision without fasting and having sought God on the issue. You've asked everyone else what they thought, did you ask God?
-It was more than just a big decision, it was experiencing God and knowing Him more as we move forward into the future. (See a pattern yet?)

5. Mercy, grace, and forgiveness
-1 Kings 21:29
-Sometimes we fast to prove the seriousness of the situation. It's not a nonchalant "sorry about that God." We are recognizing that it's a big deal that we sinned against God.


6. Healing and health
-1 Samuel 30
-Isaiah 58
-Fasting is not just to get skinny or fit into your old clothes. However, since you body is a temple of The Lord and we need to honor Him with it, health is important. Fasting can detox our bodies and help us perform the tasks that God has for us, and give us longevity in our ministry.
-But again, detox and health is about eliminating physical things in order to hear from God and grow closer and more dependent on Him.

7. Spiritual toughness
-The 40 day fast by Jesus
-Jesus was tempted by Satan, and was able to overcome it. Fasting actually made Jesus tougher, stronger, and more able spiritually to get the job done.
-Jesus wanted an extreme intimacy with the Father. This resulted in him being prepared to face any situation physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Spiritual toughness was not the ends, but simply a by-product of fasting and seeking a deeper relationship with God.

8. Refocus on what matters
-Isaiah 58
-Fasting helps us not to focus on ourselves and not be so self-centered.
-Fasting is a reminder that we are not self-sufficient.
-Its a reminder of how important God is in our lives and how dependent we are on Him.


REMEMBER: When we fast, God shows up. However, that's not the reason we fast. It's just a bi-product of a deep relationship. You don't have friends just so they can do things for you and get you out of a jam. That's just something that comes naturally as a result of that friendship.