Religious Lies: Functional Saviors

Announcements!:
-Family meeting after 9:30 and 11:00 am services. BIG Announcement!

-Pray for Cuba team as they serve this week (Jessica Wilson, Andrew Shumate, Steven Wright, Emily Deer, Paul and MacKenzie Davidson)

-Live Q & A session July 28th. Email your questions about any of the content from the book of Mark to info@discoverrevo.com

Mark 12:13-17

1.  We have 2 kinds of saviors: functional and non-functional. (A non-functional savior is one we profess verbally or subscribe to in principle but does not affect or govern our lives practically. A functional savior is someone or something to which we look for security and hope practically, in real time situations). All Christians would admit that Jesus is their savior, but unfortunately he often serves in a non-functional role.  What are the functional saviors that we pursue daily?  (family, money, career, government)

2.  Caesar's purpose was to advance his kingdom, make his name known, and create followers of him that would be loyal.  One of the greatest ways that these leaders would accomplish that is through the concept of money: paying taxes, printing their image in every place that they could.  What is the correlation between this idea and what Jesus calls his followers to do? (tithe, evangelism, being image bearers of Jesus)

3.  Why do we say that giving tithes and offering each week has really nothing to do with money? (Giving is not about the money, but about WHO it is going to.  It's about selling out to the belief system that changed your life.  Your money shows whose authority you are under.  If you spend it all on you, you are acknowledging that you are the boss, the only one that matters, the sustainer, the provider.  Giving first to God acknowledges that you are under His authority, that you are trusting Him to provide, that His kingdom and agenda is most important, that He is the one that sustains and blesses. Those attitudes create followers of Jesus, and that's REVO's goal: to create followers of Jesus.  We want something for you, not from you.)

4.  A great summary statement is Matthew 6:33.  What does is mean to "seek first the kingdom of God"?  How can you do that on a daily, practical level?

-What did this text teach you about God?

-What did this text teach you about yourself?

-What do you plan to do about it?

Religious Lies: Give Me A Sign

Mark 8:11-21

1.  Why didn't Jesus give them a sign?  It would have been an easy fix, right?  It would have shut them up and finally helped them to be authentic followers, right?  What's wrong with asking for a sign?

2.  Jesus compares the traditionalism, doubt, and skepticism of the religious people to yeast in dough.  How do those things work in our lives?  What are the results?

3.  Here are the 5 questions that Jesus asked.  Let's put them in our context and answer them.

a. Why are you talking about having no bread?  (Why do we always sweat the small stuff?  Why do the unimportant things always worry us and consume us?  How can we stop doing that and focus on what matters?)

b.  Do you still not see or understand? (How many times have we heard a sermon on love, forgiveness, evangelism, discipleship, faith, etc, and it seems to never stick?  What causes that?  Why are so quick to forget the basics, which in turn causes our lives to seem like chaos sometimes?)

c. Are your hearts hardened? (Do you ever read the Bible or hear and sermon and automatically think of 5 different people that need to hear it?  How can you create a habit in your life of wrestling with texts/sermons/Bible reading?  Maybe you can take notes during the message and then revisit them during the week.  Maybe you can focus on ways that this text applies to your life/situation/job/relationships right now.)

d. Do you have eye but fail to see and ears but fail to hear? (Are you so desperate for the big things that you miss the little ways that God is daily moving in your life and around you?  Do you have a plan for your life/prayers that you want God to follow?  If he answered those prayers in some other way, would you even notice?)

e. Don't you remember? (Do you ever take time to think about what God has done for you in the past?  How he has provided, sustained, spoken to you, helped you?

4.  How do you identify the ways that God is moving in your life every day?  How can you move from "wanting more signs" to "acknowledging what God has done and worshipping Him for those?"

You Gotta Have Faith: Blind Faith

Mark 10:46-52

1.  Close your eyes.  Imagine what it would be like to be blind.  Imagine not being able to see color.  To know what the beach looks like, or the sunset.  The phrase that I think comes to mind most when I think about blindness is this: "you're missing out on so much.  So many of the joys in life, so many beautiful things, so many indescribable moments of life."  Now, how does that relate to spiritual blindness?  How would you describe what spiritually blind people are missing?

2.  What is your role as a person that can now see?  Do you feel any obligation to help anyone else?  Do you desire for others to see?  What does it mean for Jesus to look at us and say, "Call him to me."

3.  Why does Jesus set it up so that the Savior comes before the sight?  Why wouldn't Jesus just give everyone their physical sight first?  (People will then put their faith in their prayers and ability to ask, the signs of Jesus instead of the person).  What is Jesus after, clarity or intimacy?  What does those things produce?

4.  Share time!  Look at Luke 18:43.  If you have faith in Jesus, share how these things are true in your life.  Faith is an internal conviction that leads to external action.  What has your faith produced in your life?  Can you identify these things?

a. Worship

b. Witness

c. Follow

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?

You Gotta Have Faith: Faith Produces Results

Mark 7:24-30

1.  How has faith in Jesus changed your life?  Has it really changed your life?  Is your life REALLY changed?  Law 1- an object stays at rest until it's moved.  Is your spiritual life moving, or is it as rest?  Quote from the sermon: "It’s going to be hard to convince people that your life has been changed by Jesus if there is no change."

2.  What are the ways that life change is measured? (salvations, relationship mended, marriages restored, behavioral changes including speech, attitude, and even actions).  What are the areas in your life that are showing people that your life has been changed by Jesus?

3.  How did so many people find out about Jesus?  Why were people clamoring just to be around him, touch him, talk with him, and be changed by him?  (Because people that had encountered Jesus and been changed by him left and told other people about him).  Think about it like this: before you buy a car, you check out the reviews, you ask around, you check with any of your friends that may own that make/model.  Many times, the experiences of your friends/family with that product carry great weight in your final decision.  How much more important/urgent/life changing is the Gospel!?!  

4.  "Are we so passionate about our favorite restaurant or brand of electronics that it leads us to tell our friends and put it on facebook, but so apathetic about the Gospel that we won't tell anyone about Jesus?"  Sometimes we use the excuse that we don't want to offend people or be embarrassed.  That doesn't seem to stop us from sharing our beliefs about other things, does it?  When you tell people about a good experience at a restaurant, you don't get nervous and think "well what if they go and don't like it?"  You're not thinking "I can't tell them about that steakhouse, what if they don't like steak?"  So why do we have those worries about Jesus and the Gospel?

This woman wasn't thinking "what if he doesn't like me, what if he sends me away, what if I get embarrassed?"  No, it meant enough to her to go and ask Jesus.  She cared enough about her daughter to do what it takes to see her healed.  Are you willing to do what it takes to see your neighbors/friends/coworkers life changed by Jesus?  If so, what are you going to do about it?  (pray, invite, invest in them, share your Jesus story)

5. Take the Name Challenge.  Have each member of your rGroup write a name on a piece of paper that they are committing to pray for.  Pray for them tonight.  Bring the names back out occasionally and ask about them and pray about them more.  Hopefully you'll soon be able to take names off of the list because your prayers will be answered!

When the Answer's No

Mark 9:14-29

1.  Did your parents ever tell you "no," and give you the reason "because I said so?"  How did that make you feel?  Are those feelings similar when God says "no" and it seems to you that He really doesn't have a very good reason for it?  Do you ever think of God as your Heavenly Father that is infinitely more wise and knowing than you are, and knows what's best for your life?

2.  This man was begging and pleading with the disciples to heal his son.  It wasn't a bogus, off-the-wall claim.  Have you had a point in your life where you asked God for a legitimate, important request, and he said no?  In hindsight, can you now understand why you got the answer that you did?  What did God teach you during that process?

3.  What are the areas of your life that you are MOST likely to bring to God first?  What are the areas of your life that you are LEAST likely to bring to God?

4.  Why doesn't God just answer all of our prayers?  Why does he sometimes wait, say no, or actually allow the opposite of what we've prayed for happen?

5.  God views our lives from the lens of James 4:14, like a vapor or a mist that dissipates quickly. How should that mentality and outlook on life change and shape our view of God's response to our prayers?  Does it make it any easier to understand why He does what He does?

6.  How can you personally implement the 3 takeaways from this text in your life?
a. Help my unbelief. (9:24)
b. Bring it to Jesus. (9:19-20)
c. Some things can only be solved through intense prayer. (9:29)

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).