Snow Day Sermon - Rest

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 Mark 6:30-32

• What's the context of this passage? Where were the apostles returning from when they met up with Jesus? 
• Where else in Scripture do we find God inviting his people to rest? [Ex: Creation (7th day); 4th Commandment (Sabbath); Matthew 11:28-30 (Yolk of rest)]
• What does it mean Jesus suggests going to a desolate place? Why is this an important part of getting rest?

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

• Why is rest important to God? Why would He constantly invite and remind His people to rest? (Ex: Step away from everything going on in life and just experience being in his presence (Exodus 33:14); Refocus our minds - turn away from everything we can get so wrapped up in and bring our focus back to Christ; Humility = Rest allows us to remember God’s strength and sovereignty, forces us to embrace and believe that we cannot accomplish everything on our own.)
• What does Sabbath look like in your life right now? (Do we even have one? Do you think yours matches the outline God gives us for rest in Scripture?) 
• How might your life look different if you were someone who faithfully rested? 
• What impact would it have on the world if the church was known as a people who rested well? 

 Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin

• What gets in the way or what excuses do we make that keeps us from resting in this way? 
• One of the reasons that God calls us to rest is so that we can spend time with Him, and so that we can have a time of refocusing our hearts and minds back to Christ. But many of us don’t use our rest for that. What are some of the things that we give our hearts to instead of God in those times of rest? 
  • What does that communicate to God? (Ex: Those things that we give ourselves to are more important than Him. Our rest can often reveal our idolatry.)

      

 Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

READ Hebrews 4:9-10, Hebrews 10:12

• There is a deeper reason that so many of us are terrible at resting. So many of us struggle to rest because, functionally, we think that the more we work, the more we can win approval and acceptance from God and others. But that kind of thinking is suicidal. We simply can’t earn that through our work. This Scripture points us to the gospel, and the most important reason that we can rest.  Do you know what that is? (We are reminded that we can stop working to try to win God’s approval since Jesus has already perfectly bought that for us - Hebrews 10:12. Jesus did the work and sat down, so that we sit down and experience real rest because we are completely accepted and approved.)

Read Hebrews 4:11 

• When we believe this gospel truth about rest, we’re truly able to experience the kind of rest that God is talking about. But it’s something we have to strive for. What are practical ways you can strive to incorporate this kind of rest in your life this week?
• God’s community is a place where can live out this kind of rest together! What are some ways that we as a community can practice rest with one another? (Ex: Big meal, park, movies, picnics, etc. Note: This is why we work rhythms of rest into our rGroups, alongside our discussions, serving, and scheduled events.)

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Announcements

• rGroup Invite Night: Our rGroups will be hosting an Invite Night during the week of February 14-20! REVO will be having a Communion Service on the 14th, and we always like to follow that up with a gathering of food, fun, etc. This gives people who have no experience with rGroups an opportunity where they can easily check out your group and get a taste of our community in a laid-back atmosphere. Use your imagination and come up with something fun for you group to do! This is an excellent opportunity for you guys to practice this function of community: REST.  

Throw Back 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 Philippians 2:3-8

• What does it mean when Paul describes Christ "...though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant..."?
• What is the connection between humility and serving? Is it possible to be humble, yet not serve people? Is it possible to serve people in a Christ-like way, yet not be a humble person?

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

• In what ways do we see the culture around us normalizing and even celebrating conceit or “self-love?” 
• Can you think of any example in your life where you experienced someone showed you with their actions that they considered you more significant than themselves? 
• How far-reaching could the genuine, humble service of all Christians be in changing the way that world sees the church? The way that the world sees Christ? 
• Take a moment to encourage each other in your group for ways that you have them serving! 

 Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin

• Give an example of a time that you served others, but you primarily did it to gain something for yourself rather than doing it for the sake of others. 
• Why is "self-love" and conceit a sin? Why would God hate things like these so much? (Answer: Think what is at the heart of all of these kind of things. It's idolatry. Elevating ourselves to a position that only God should hold.)

      

Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

• READ PHILIPPIANS 2:8 = Why was this kind of sacrifice necessary for you and me? How is this sacrifice the key that enables us to begin looking like Christ in our service to others?
• How can reminding ourselves  ofJesus' examples of humility and service help us maintain a heart and desire to live out those things as well? 
• Besides the local church, what areas of your life do you feel God is calling you be a reflection of Christ in the way that you humbly serve others around you? (Sample answers: Home, marriage, work, hobbies, school, etc.)

Throw Back 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 1 Peter 2:1-3

• What is the "spiritual milk" Peter refers to? 
• Is this spiritual milk that Peter writes about something that Christians move on from? 
• What does it mean to "taste" that the Lord is good?
• Is there any possibility to grow deep as Christians if a person has never "tasted" the goodness of the Lord? Why?

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

• Can you describe a time when you've truly "tasted" and seen that the Lord is good?
• When you are truly longing for God, are you more or less likely to be marked by malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, or slander in your heart? Why?

 Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin

• From the list of things that Peter tells us to put off, which one(s) do you find yourself struggling with the most? 
  • Malice, Deceit, Hypocrisy, Envy, or Slander
• How do you see these sins affecting your relationship with God, the way that you experience him on a daily basis?
• As Nathan said, all of these sins are relational. How have you seen these things work themselves out in the relationships that you share with people around you? 
• Even though we know these sins are bad and destructive, and even though we know that we should be people who long to taste the goodness of the Lord, how easy is it for us to switch? 

      

 Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

• Putting away these sinful behaviors and putting on godly ones is not like us deciding to take off filthy clothes and put on nice new ones. There is no switch we can flip that will simply cause our desires to change. Our behaviors and our longings and our desires are not external choices. They rest deeply in our hearts and flow out of them. We don’t need outward change, we need inward change. We are all people who are desperately in need of heart change. 
  • READ 1 Corinthians 15:1-2, 10 = As Paul writes to the Corinthians who are called to live differently, what does Paul say ultimately changes us? (Answer: The gospel is saving us / God’s grace transforms us)  
    • The way that Christians look like newborn infants is to long for "spiritual milk,” the gospel, the Word of God. And ultimately John 1:1 tells us that Jesus Christ is the Word of God. If we are longing for Jesus Christ, then by Him we “may grow up into salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2)  When we are finding our satisfaction in Him, then we will naturally from our hearts grow deeper. From the inside out, we will shed our old ways and become something new. We are being saved. 
• Take some time as a group to pray, confessing how we so often try to make these changes on our own. Pray that God would help us seek and believe that His Spirit would change our hearts through the power of Christ’s love, grace, and the gospel. 

Throw Back 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.

Summary: Christ’s church exists to spark a revolution of life change through Jesus.

 Understanding God’s Word: Know and Understand the Truth

READ Ephesians 5:1-16     

• What does it mean to be children of light? 
• Paul chooses to pick out one particular kind of sin in this section: sexual sin. Why does addressing sexual culture serve as a strong example today, just as it did for the readers back then? 
• What is Paul saying when he tells his readers to “make the best use of the time, because the days are evil”? 

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

• How do you think the people around us would react if we truly became imitators of God and lived counter-culturally with purpose? (People would probably look at it like a revolution.)
  • Is that a good or a bad thing? Why? 
• In what ways can our rGroup or church grow this year to do a better job of walking in love and being the light that engages the darkness in our city? 
• Can you give an example of what it looks like to “not be partners with sons of disobedience” or “not take part in the unfruitful works of darkness,” yet still come alongside people to share the gospel and be relational? 

Assessing the Heart: Identify and Address Sin

• Where are you personally failing to make the best use of "the time"? 
• What problems do we encounter when we try to shine a light on the darkness around us before we allow that light to shine on the darkness inside of us? 
• In what areas of life are you tempted to believe it would be easier to go along with the darkness, rather than living in the light? 

     

Turn to God: Confess and Renew Belief in God

• As children of God, what do we do when we’re exposed as people who have been living in the darkness? What does it look like for us to move out of darkness and into the light? (Confession;  Receiving Jesus’ grace and forgiveness; Repentance / Turning from sin and turning towards Christ; obedience / change.) 
• How can we as an rGroup community do a better job of helping one another when we see a member of our group living in darkness? 
  • What are practical steps we can all take? 

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? 

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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.