07 Aug Discussion Guide: (IN) BREAKING Week 1
Prayer
Take the first 10 minutes of your time together to listen to what God is doing in one another’s lives and pray for any specific needs people in your group may have.
Today we begin our new series titled (IN) BREAKING. We will be working through the gospel of Matthew and learning how God desires to have His Kingdom come, and His will be done, in our lives as in Heaven. God wants to break into our hearts, our emotions, our actions, our existence so that we might know Him, and be known by Him, in ways that we will never be the same.
Discussion Questions
In one sentence, how would you describe the Kingdom of God?
Corrie Ten Boom
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
Philip Yancey
“I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse.”
Can you tell us about a time when you had to trust God for something big?
What do you find most difficult when it comes to trusting God with your future?
Have you ever felt like God had failed to keep His promise to you? How did you feel in that moment?
Did that promise ever come to pass? Did your desire for what you were hoping for ever change?
Romans 5:1-8
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Based on the life you have lived, would you say you deserve to have God’s promises fulfilled in your life?
Yet, in spite of our shortcomings, what greater promise (Romans 5:8) has God already fulfilled in our lives?
This is the key trusting God in the midst “unanswered prayers” is remembering that when were still sinners Christ did for us what we did not even know we needed Him to do. In other words, our greatest need was satisfied when we least deserved it. God was faithful even when we were faithless. Knowing that, remembering that, serves as an anchor to our soul when it seems that God has forgotten us, or that He isn’t listening to us. We can be assured God is faithful in the small things because He has already been faithful in the biggest thing.
How might that realization help us navigate through the smaller promises that seem to have not been fulfilled yet?
How might that change your perception on God’s faithfulness?
Amy Carmichael, God’s Missionary
“God Hold us to that which drew us first, when the Cross was the attraction, and we wanted nothing else.”
What would your life look like if you wanted Jesus more than anything else?
How would a stronger desire to have more of Jesus affect our ability to be patient in trusting God for other things?
When you have the thing you need most it makes it easier to wait for the secondary things you desire. Just try having someone hold you under water. You’re not thinking about what you want to eat or that new shirt you’re hoping to buy, you are only thinking about th need to breath. But, once you are out of the water, safe and sound, then the secondary matters such as what you want to eat or wear can come back to the forefront of your thinking. Likewise, having had our greatest need for salvation met we can be content with waiting for God’s timing when it comes to other matters. This is what Paul was referring to in Philippians 4 when he wrote, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” When you realize the greatness of having Christ it strengthens you and fortifies your soul to be content in waiting for God’s best.
Why do you think it is so difficult to keep our desire for Jesus burning more passionately than our desire for other things?
Closing Thought
Hebrews 10:23-25
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
How can Gospel community encourage us to continue on in trusting God will be faithful to His promises?