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Given: Week 1
Chosen, Blessed, Broken & Given. This was a rhythm of life that Jesus modeled for us. This Lenten season we are going to explore together how we might live into this same rhythm Jesus modeled for us.
Listen along with us through this Lenten series.
If you are looking to develop your spiritual life and create more of a rhythm of intentional spiritual practice, check out our resource guide from our series Rhythm here.
Community Group Discussion Guide:
STEP 1- Ice Breaker:
Help people to loosen up and share. It will be helpful if someone is new to go around and do names and have each person share about a question and share a bit about themselves. CLICK HERE for ice breaker questions ideas.
(Group Leader Note: Use the Learning/Living Circle to guide your discussion and application of the content. Try your best to keep the “learning” and “living” focus balanced. The goal is working towards practical and personal life application.)
Step 2- Learning- Observe, Reflect, Discuss
(Group Leader Note: Don’t feel the need to go through every scripture, point or question. Pick and choose what you feel will make the most impact for your group. If you are not sure where to start, just ask your group what stuck out to them about the message most and start with that.)
Read this scriptures together: Psalm 139:1-18 (NLT)
“O Lord , you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord . You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!”
Observation & Reflection Questions to Discuss:
- Anything that jumps out to you as important, helpful or interesting in this scripture?
- Are there any questions or curiosities you have about this portion of scripture that you would like to look into more?
- What does it mean to you that God knows everything about you (inner life, heart, thoughts, circumstances, past, present, future, ect.)?
- When God thinks about you what do you think his thoughts are? Would they be described as precious & numerous?
- What does it meant to you, to be chosen by God?
STEP 3- Living- Planning, Accountability, Action
- Read this scripture together: John 15:12-16
“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
- For what purpose does Jesus say “I chose you”?
- What do you think it means to “produce lasting fruit”?
- How would you describe how Jesus love towards us?
- What would “loving each other in the same way Jesus has loved us” look like in your life?
- How would you describe God’s common grace in your life? (Common Graces are the innate gifts, strengths and abilities everyone has to offer the world)
- How would you describe God’s special grace at work in your life? (Special grace’s are the gifts and abilities that come alive through the work of the Holy Spirit amidst our weaknesses, vulnerabilities and brokenness.)
- Do you feel like your life aligns with these common and special graces God has put in your life?
- Read this scripture together: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
- What might is look like to be a chosen and inclusive ambassador/representative of Christ’s kingdom in our families, friendships, workplaces, neighborhood and church?
STEP 4- Prayer And/Or Meditation:
Please don’t skip prayer!! Cut the discussion short if needed to pray for one another 🙂 Try one of these options, don’t be afraid to mix it up.
- Have people split into groups of 2-3 to share prayer needs and pray for each other.
- Share requests as a group and pray for one another. Assign requests to people that are comfortable with praying and go around the circle praying for each others needs.
- Help your group develop a vocabulary of prayer. Pray a wrote prayer together. Prayerfully read a Psalm or something from the Book of Common Prayer .
- Meditation with silence and stillness- A word or phrase to focus your group. A time of silence and stillness, set a timer for 5 minutes if you want. Close the time with a prayer for your group.
- Develop someone in your group as the Prayer Coordinator. Have them write down prayer needs, ask them to pray for those needs during the week, have them send a list to the group to keep in prayer, go through the list regularly to celebrate answered prayers and check off or add on prayers.
