21 Aug Discussion Guide: (IN) BREAKING Week 3
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 continue our 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
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life
“You were made by God and for God and until you understand that, life will never make sense.”
Can you tell us about a time when you had to do your best MacGyver impersonation and use an object to accomplish something other than what that object was intended to accomplish?
How would you define the word purpose?
What would you say is God’s purpose for our lives?
According to Scripture, we have been made in the image and likeness of God. Meaning, our purpose is to reflect who God is to the world around us. And, since Scripture also tells us that God is love, that is the essence of who He is, then the way we reflect who He is to the world around us is by loving others. And, the only way we can every truly love others is by first loving God above all else. Therefore, our purpose is to love God and love others as we love ourselves.
What are the consequences (relationally, physically, emotionally, psychologically) when we go against that purpose and live for something else?
The consequence of going against our design to love God and love others is the loss of relationship. This is the heart of sin, and why God hates sin. When we choose to love ourselves and thus act in selfish and self-absorbed ways we fracture relationship with God and with others and therefore are completely incapable of fulfilling our purpose. This tears apart our relationships. It causes decay and death physically as we go against our design and the physical world around us is thrown into disorder. It causes fear, anxiety and loneliness which then leads to depression and other psychological issues.
1 Corinthians 16:14
Let all that you do be done in love.
1 John 4:8
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
How does our culture define the word ”Love”?
Our culture tends to define “love” as either a feeling or an action. And though love will include feelings and is demonstrated by actions, at the core of it, love is actually a motive.
How does that definition differ from the Biblical idea of love?
What would you say is the opposite of love?
The opposite of love is not hate. You can absolutely love and hate at the same time. In fact if you love someone then there are things they do that you are going to hate, things that cause themselves harm. No, the opposite of love is sin, it is the putting of self above others. Love says I consider your needs as more important than my own. Sin says I consider my needs as more important that yours.
What are some things that keep you from loving God? Loving others?
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
How has God responded to your lack of love for Him and others?
When you look at the Good News of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, how would you say it reconciles us back to God’s purpose for our lives?
Closing Thought
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community
“A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses.”
What can we do as a community to encourage one another when loving God and loving others is difficult to do?