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.
- Whichever way characterizes us, we both have to recognize that sin will win the day.
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?
Announcements
November 29 --- Communion Sunday
November 30th-December 5th -- rGroup Christmas Parties
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