June 15: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: Ephesians 5:8-20
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the lightbecomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Pentecost
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
The phrasing of this passage we read today can run past your ears and you might change it without noticing because it is not exactly what you expect.
When it can easily make it say something different from what it actually says because its close to what you would expect it it say but it then its not.
The passage does not say, “You were living in darkness, now you are living in light.”
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
– Ephesians 5:8
We think it’s going to say you were living in darkness, but it says you were darkness.
We think it’s going to say you are now living in the light, but it says you are light.
Live as children of light.
This letter that was first directed to a city church in a bustling crossroads, cross cultural, pluralistic city was also passed around to other cities.
It was written to people who were trying to understand and to live the staggering change that Jesus was bringing into people's lives.
Pattern of the letter
Here is who you are. Now here is how you live.
You were once this. You are now this.
The chapter begins:
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
– Ephesians 5:1–2
You were darkness, You are light.
Your life once made it harder to discern reality, to grasp what is really there.
You weren’t just living in a dark place, you were contributing to it.
You may have had no nefarious intentions and you weren’t setting out to harm, but the self disconnected from God is confusion.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.
– Ephesians 5:6–7
“‘God’s wrath’, in fact, isn’t just a punishment waiting for people at the end of the present age. It isn’t an arbitrary thing whereby God makes up some rules to stop people enjoying themselves and then threatens to get angry with them if they go ahead anyway. God’s wrath is built in to creation itself. There are certain ways of behaving which are so out of line with the way God made the world, and humans in particular, that they bring their own nemesis.”
– NT Wright
He is saying there are spiritual laws that are just as real and consequential as physical laws.
To live apart from God is like trying to ignore gravity.
It’s like pretending you don’t need water to live.
It’s like having no regard for how you feed yourself.
You may have moments or days where you get away with it, but the trouble is built in.
It carries its own consequence.
Sin is a flight from reality.
Light is visible and makes things visible - live in a way that accords with the truest truth of reality
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
– Ephesians 5:8–9
There is a way of life that produces anxiety, loneliness, disconnection, frantic search with no light, anxiety, even death.
And there is a way of life that accords with God’s love and light. It’s not a trouble free life, but it does produce certain fruit … (the three mentioned here are … )
Goodness - character growth
Righteousness - actions of justice and shalom
Truth - a lived expression of actual reality
But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
– Ephesians 5:12–14
HOW?
“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. “
– Ephesians 5:15–20
Recognize the gift of every day (and every moment)
Be filled with the Spirit (and not the substitutes and short cuts)
Soak your life in gratitude and worship.
In a world of scarcity overflow.
In a world of fear, live connected to your courage
In a world where selfishness is expected, shock with kindness
In a world of alone, be together
In a world of lies that shroud in darkness, be light.
June 15: First Sunday after Pentecost
June 8: Pentecost
June 8: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: Acts 2: 1-24
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead,freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Pentecost
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
What is life?
An unchosen gift where we find ourselves experiencing existence and possibility in a relational world.
Unchosen - your life is something you received, not something you began
Existence - your awareness of being alive comes with certain natural and spiritual laws outside of your control.
Possibility - inside of your existence you have many meaningful choices to make
Relational - Human life cannot begin or survive alone. It can barely be sustained alone at any time. Life thrives most in relationship.
World - The physical/natural world is full of immense beauty and danger and so is the world made by human cultures.
A Relational framework:
God - Self - Others - World
Impacts: Identity, Relationships, Physicality, Emotions, Community, Culture, Resources, Work, Power
What if God wants to be known?
What if God wants to heal and restore all that was lost in our disconnection?
What if God wants the renewal of all things?
How?
The gradual and love soaked disclosure of a God who is FATHER, SON, HOLY SPIRIT
Father - YHWH
Working in covenant for repair and renewal
Hints at other members of Trinity
God defines reality
Son - Promised Messiah + Kingdom Bringer
Lamb who takes away the sin of the world
“I have called you friends”
Life, Death, Resurrection
Holy Spirit - makes people alive spiritually by uniting them to Jesus
Our experience of friendship with God
Filling and leading a redeemed life
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly”
– Acts 2: 1-2
This day has been coming for centuries.
The unifying translator - our primary problem is relational brokeness at the places of most importance
Making sense of the impossible
The Spirit who brought order our of chaos in creation does so again
Are these people drunk? What is happening?
The Spirit helps locate them in the story of the ancient promises. This is happening NOW!
The Spirit lifts up Jesus.
The Spirit translates God’s rescue to our hearts.
Cut to the Heart - gets to the very center and nature of reality and our lives
Repent and be baptized - reorient your entire lie around this new reality and be immersed into relationship with God
Be clean and be filled
This is your invitation
Be cut to the heart - the center of things
Come ready to surrender to love
Be clean and be filled
May 25: Wise & Foolish Builders
May 18: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: Luke 10: 25–37
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
The Parables of Jesus
Good Samaritan
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
We ask some big question in life and we ask some big questions of God:
Among all that’s important, what is the most important?
What matters most to God?
What should matter most to us?
In this story:
This lawyer asks Jesus what must I do to inherit eternal life?
It was actually a pretty common theme of question put to Rabbis - How can I be sure that I will have a share in the age to come?
That’s actually an important question at any time even if we may prefer to keep in out of our minds…
Kenneth Bailey who is an absolute Maestro on the Parables of Jesus - has a book called Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes and it’s a classic
Not every parable has all 4 levels, but many do and this one does.
Compelling Story
Instructive Example
Revelation of the Secrets of the Kingdom of God
Hints at the Nature of Jesus
Entertainment
Ethics
Theology
Christology
Jesus shocks them by making the despised enemy, the hero of this story.
The man is not recognizable - the two ways you could tell who someone was and where they were from was their clothes and their speech.
This guy is unconscious (that’s what half dead means here) and stripped.
These first two men cannot touch him without risking breaking the law
3 Groups served in the temple in Jerusalem…
Priests
Levites
The Delegation is Israel - laymen
Jesus has had a priest and a levite come by, so He is going to make the hero of His story a Jewish laymen.
He shocks them
He makes a despised enemy the hero - a Samaritan
The despised Samaritan makes up for the failures of the priest and the Levite and shows compassion at great personal cost.
He risks his safety, he gives his time, he gives his money.
Ethics - Here’s the shock of the story to the man …
Your neighbor includes your enemy - that is the widest possible reach
A fundamentalist is most worries about their own heart not the heart of the other
God does not see insider and outsider the way we do
He loves the world
Jesus says I can tell you the whole law while you stand on one foot.
It’s love.
Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength
And love your neighbor as yourself
Many of us have seen American expressions of faith that you can have a ornate systems of personal devotion, prayers, Bible readings, conferences, and not love your neighbor
We often measure our spiritual well-being in personal devotional terms, but God keeps putting the emphasis on how we love.
You can do a ton of religious activity and never confront the real Jesus here or never let Him confront you.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
– Matthew 7: 21
“For if the world could have been saved by providing good examples to which we could respond with appropriately good works, it would have been saved an hour and twenty minutes after Moses came down from Mt. Sinai.
Salvation is not some felicitous state to which we can lift ourselves by our own bootstraps after the contemplation of sufficiently good examples. It is an utterly new creation into which we are brought by our death in Jesus' death and our resurrection in his. It comes not out of our own efforts, however well-inspired or successfully pursued, but out of the shipwreck of all human effort whatsoever.”
– Robert Farrar Capon
You cannot reach eternal life (now or forever) without the rescuing love of Jesus, and that is all.
Once changed by that love we learn (with Jesus) to love our neighbor who includes our enemy.
The world is not renewed by people who only love the other people who like them and are like them.
The Kingdom of God looks like loving your enemy. At its heart is a man dying for his enemies
May 18: Good Samaritan
May 4: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: Luke 15
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
The Parables of Jesus
The Lost Coin, Sheep, and Son
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
In Luke 15, Jesus tells 3 stories of lostness and being found.
We will look at the the why of the stories and what those together tell us about reality
The Why is found in the first verse of Luke 15 …
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable
– Luke 15: 1-3
Question from the pharasees and teachers: “Why do you welcome sinners and eat with them?” (2 big offenses)
And Jesus as a true Middle Eastern rabbi doesn’t simply being a conceptual debate with them. He tells 3 stories:
STORY 1 | THE LOST SHEEP
Jesus is saying, you are shepherds who have lost the sheep
And now you are witnessing the cost of bringing them back and you resist.
There is a tremendous cost to go after this lost sheep and then to find it, place its 70 -100 lbs on your back and make the long arduous trek back.
But the now good shepherd rejoices, and celebrates with his community.
STORY 2 | THE LOST COIN
Luke does a particular work at highlighting a powerful and unique aspect of Jesus’ ministry for His time.
In that He does just tell stories that address the world of men and mens’ cultural expectations, but the world of women as well.
The woman here has been entrusted and is responsibly for the resources for her home.
A coin is lost and she will search diligently and not give up until it is found.
The sheep would not simply return on its own and the coin certainly is not simply going be found on its own.
The coin can show no initiative whatsoever in being found.
But again the search is all too worth it once what has been lost is found and the priority of Heaven is to rejoice over what is lost being found.
Any person turning to God.
Jesus is confronting these leaders with how they were a block to others finding and being found by God.
STORY 3 | THE LOST SONS
“Any Middle Eastern son who requests his inheritance from a healthy father is understood to want his father to die. Such a son is indeed dead to the family.”
– Kenneth Bailey
He humiliated his father and wished him dead and went off his part of the family’s money and came to ruin.
But the younger son comes to the end of himself in his own humiliation and he’s reduced to feeding pigs and longing to eat the pods the pigs ate.
Finally the Pharisees may have begun to think Jesus took sin as seriously as they did.
And in this way he invites them in for the shock of the rest of the story.
The son begins to return home with a prepared speech of how he would simply be a hired worker in his fathers home, no longer a son.
There was a formal ceremony where a pot would be broken in front of a son like this to say to the whole community, he is cut off.
This is the expectation he should have returned home to.
Instead we see this absurdity …
RAN - experienced disgrace himself and interrupted the speech
ROBE - heir to the kingdom, identifying him as a member of the family.
RING - authority to speak and act as an heir to the Kingdom.
SANDALS - freedom to move uninhibited about the father’s land and business.
PARTY - celebration of the best kind.
It is then we see the lostness of the older brother. There are more parallels than we can go into right now.
But he comes in from the field and humiliates his father by refusing to go into the banquet that his father has thrown.
And in the speech he does share we learn that he has been close in proximity but far in heart from his father.
He has been lost by keeping all the rules, perhaps even worse than his brother who broke them all.
Jesus boldly confronts these leaders who are convinced they are diligently seeking God but have lost touch with God’s heart.
God’s heart is to go after the lost and there are many ways to get lost.
We can wander off accidentally
We can be lost and not know it and not have an ounce of ability to return
We can with God was dead and go utterly do our own thing
We can follow all the rules and have a heart hard as stone
Heaven celebrates what is lost being found.
Be careful when you become certain in your exclusions
if God hates everyone you hate, its a pretty sure sign you’ve tried to make God in your own image.
There is a cost to be born in restoration
The burden and the long walk back
The difficult and diligent search
The bearing the cost to welcome in
The offer of grace at personal expense
Lets Celebrate today - celebrating the heart of God in restoration.
Lets remember the tremendous cost God has paid for our restoration
Lets be those who love grace - not those so comfortable in our own place (or insecure in our own place ) that we despise grace.
May 4: The Lost Coin, Sheep, and Son
April 27: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: Matthew 13: 1-13
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heavenhas been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
The Parables of Jesus
Wise & Foolish Builders
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
There is a place, a quick line you could miss if you weren’t looking for it in the book of Acts that says in the 40 days after the resurrection Jesus spoke with the disciples about the Kingdom of God.
Think about that. Hadn’t Jesus been talking with them about the Kingdom of God the whole time?
The disciples had seen partially. But now, His death and resurrection put His life in a new clarity, a new understanding.
This Eastertide we are also going to take these 40 days after Easter and listen to the teachings of Jesus on the Kingdom of God.
Parables lay two things beside one another so that in understanding one, you can better understand the other.
So they reveal the Kingdom of God, especially if you carry the story with you and let it work on you. But they also cloak the meaning to some degree and provide a way to say some very provocative things in public without being able to be immediately arrested.
No one parable shows us everything of the Kingdom of God but as we hear them and reflect on them, more and more of the reality of God in our midst becomes clear.
Jesus didn’t invent parables. It was a popular rabbinic teaching tool in a culture that valued a learner coming to a discovery from considering a teaching rather than simply having information laid out to them to repeat back.
But His disciples are worried that He may have cloaked too much. They ask why are you teaching like this?
I am teaching this way because this way is a heart revealer. It will show where people are at. Some will listen and listen but not hear. They will look and look and not see.
They many be present but they are not seeking God’s Kingdom. They have too much riding on their own Kingdom.
But for those who follow up, who ask questions, who keep the conversation going, who carry the story away and mediate on it, let it confront them, don’t hide from it, approach with humble and receptive heats it can bear the most precious fruit in all the world.
4 Categories of Responses to the seed that is sown:
(HOW IS YOUR HEART TODAY?)
Is it hardened?
Is it shallow?
Is it crowded?
Is it tender and open?
Jesus tells us ... The seed is the message of the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is where God’s heart is being expressed and known and experienced.
“When we speak of the kingdom of God, we are speaking of a kingdom which works more like a family or a well-functioning neighborhood, where people really do love one another and care for each other. This kingdom is the range of God’s effective will—or simply God acting in this world—where what He wants done is done. Jesus’ teaching showed us that the kingdom of God is not a thing of times and places; it is a thing of the heart. It is a life that is lived in vital connection with God himself. Unlike the kingdom of God, human government functions on principles of force, deception, brutality, and the power of death. All human governments have the power of death, but what they lack is the power of life. This is what the kingdom of God has: the power of life. Human governments can kill. God’s government gives life. This life is based upon the new birth that is an entry into the kingdom of God.”
– Dallas Willard
HARD HEART:
Our hearts can become hardened when we become certain that our understanding of the evens of our life is all there is.
But also our hearts can be hardened simply by too much traffic there. We indiscriminately let too many things into the deep places of our life.
Our heart can also be hardened by the many messages of the world that enthrone the self, glorify selfishness, and keep us isolated in the pursuit of project self.
This parable is reminding us that we aren’t just hearing the message of the Kingdom of God in a neutral space.
How do you measure the hardness of your heart in light of these three descriptions of hardness?
SHALLOW HEARTS:
In this condition, it is received with joy, but there is no root, and the initial fast-growth withers when trouble hits.
I often see people mistake agreement for participation or mistaking on the spot resonance or actual obedience
We receive with joy but we are so used to only led by our feelings that the response lasts as long as the feeling.
“In the stony ground, the people hear the Word and say, “[T]his is wonderful!” But they don’t receive the Word at the deep level of their soul where it can penetrate the depths of their personality. The seeds don’t take root because there is nothing within the person’s character to take hold of. A person’s character is the internal, overall structure of the self that is revealed by long-running patterns of behavior and from which actions more or less automatically arise. It’s what runs our life. It shows itself in our thinking and choices and in our habitual ways of behavior that are built into our bodies and become obvious in our relationships. What we will seriously think about is one of the strongest indications of how our character has grown. The way our thoughts are directed affects our feelings before and apart from the point where they settle into the habits of our body and our social relationships. Receiving good news can make our bodies jump up and down with joy because our feelings are largely determined by our thoughts. That’s why people jump up and down when they win the lottery. But then very often their winnings ruin their life because their feelings were one thing and their character was something else.”
– Dallas Willard
How difficult do you find it to follow an emotional moment with obedience?
CROWDED HEARTS:
Received the word but the worries of this life and deceitfulness of wealth chokes out the world
There is an initial growth, but life is so full of other things.
Our old ways of meeting the deep needs of our life out of our own resources do not just vanish in a flash.
We keep making our way through life by worry as our functional guide instead of faith.
Fear leads our life more than love.
We begin to take the security of things like wealth as if that is the true abundant life.
“Western culture today is so powerful and alluring that it often swallows us whole. Its beauty, power, and promise generally take away both our breath and our perspective. The lure of present salvation—money, sex, creativity, the good life—has, for the most part, entertained, amused, distracted, and numbed us into a state where we no longer have a perspective beyond that of our culture and its short-range [salvation story].”
– Ronald Rolheiser
This is the first era in human history, you can reach in your pocket, check the stocks, check the news, see if someone liked your photo. You see your aunt dyed her hair a new color, right along the side of a tragic explosion, and then a filtered photo of your friends vacation.
What habits and patterns of life crowd your heart’s openness and receptivity to the kingdom of Jesus?
UNDERSTANDING HEARTS:
To understand here is beyond simply grasping the information. Understanding the implications of the Kingdom and surrendering to its reality in friendship with God.
I can change!
If you can be honest about where you are, you are ready to have your heart changed from there
“If you won’t hear the bad news about yourself, you can’t know yourself. You condemn yourself to the maintenance of an exhausting illusion, a false front to your self which keeps out doubt and with it hope, change, nourishment, breath, life. If you won’t hear the bad news, you can’t begin to hear the good news about yourself either.”
– Francis Spufford
Name where your heart is
Offer it to God - The Gardener
Obey what you do understand
Allow the miracle of growth - 30 - 60 - 100
PARENTS:
Read the parable of the sower to your kids
Talk, ask your kids what they think the difference is between hearing/understanding and doing something?
Ask them what it means for Jesus to be the Seed (the Word) of God
Pray with them for God to prepare their hearts to receive Him openly
April 27: Wise & Foolish Builders
April 20: Easter Sunday
April 20: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: John 20: 1-23
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved,and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Easter
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
“You get out of bed, wash and dress; eat breakfast, say goodbye and go away never maybe, to return for all you know, to work, talk, lust, pray, dawdle and do, and at the end of the day, if your luck holds, you come home again, home again. Then night again. Bed. The little death of sleep, sleep of death. Morning, afternoon, evening—the hours of the day, of any day, of your day and my day. The alphabet of grace. If there is a God who speaks anywhere, surely he speaks here: through waking up and working, through going away and coming back again, through people you read and books you meet, through falling asleep in the dark.”
– FREDERICK BUECHNER
Buechner goes on to define the grace of God as if God was speaking....
“The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.”
– FREDERICK BUECHNER
Where are you living in the story of the world?
Look at 3 questions this Easter…
Why did Jesus die?
What does Jesus’ resurrection mean?
How could you find yourself in the story?
So first, Why did Jesus die?
We mark and commemorate this death of Jesus, in all its brutality, in all of its psychological trauma, in all its poetry and grief because we are saying this death is a part of the most important stretch of events in all the world.
The way the Scriptures understand the problem that is behind all the other problems of the world is a relational fracture.
C.S. LEWIS in one of the great descriptions of the framework of faith in Christ called Mere Christianity
“What the [enemy of our souls] put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of human beings trying to find something other than God which will make them happy.”
– C.S. LEWIS
Lewis goes on to say… paraphrasing…
“The reason why it can never work is. God made us: deigned us inside of a relational framework as an overflow of God’s own character. You and I we made to function properly on and in the love of God. Without that, our spirits will burn through any other option looking for what is our true home. We will live always with a searching restlessness. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without faith. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
The problem behind the problems of the world is that we are living separated from God.
The Scriptures say this fracture is caused by sin. A difficult and maybe seemingly old fashioned word, but its…
Going against the nature, character, and choices or God. We go our own way.
But if God is the source of life then to be separated from God means death.
Death has ripped though and is ripping through the world.
There is no way to simply ignore this separation from God and the death it causes.
God cannot simply act as if it isn’t there. But God also refuses to simply leave us stranded without Him.
God says I will show you the cost of our separation, but then I will bear the cost of our separation.
What does Jesus’ resurrection mean?
Resurrection means it worked.
Again Jesus said peace.
Shalom. Well being. Hope. Unstoppable Life.
Everything Jesus had said about the Kingdom of God has been proven true by His resurrection.
Jesus says receive my Holy Spirit in the inner sanctuary of your heart and soul.
Share in the resurrection
How could you find yourself in the story?
Start where you really are.
Mary came in the dark. Devastated, grieving, crushed.
Peter raced in his shame on the wild possibility of the impossible
Jesus’ friends were hiding behind locked doors.
How did any of this group become the small force of loving people who change the known world?
That’s an unimpeachable historical fact.
These untrained, regular folks changed the face of the Roman empire and the world
They saw something. They saw Someone. They heard their name called.
They were embraced by the risen Jesus.
This is your Easter invitation.
Allow yourself to be embraced by the risen Jesus.
All you have to bring is nothing.
But we really wanna add something.
Bring nothing and receive Peace, Shalom.
Bring Nothing and receive utter forgiveness
Bring Nothing and receive the Holy Spirit - God’s very presence in your life.
What do you think keeps your from relating to Jesus?
Guilt?
Sin?
Busy-ness?
Distraction?
Doubt?
Jesus welcomes us to bring all these things to Him in exchange for peace.
April 13: Exploring the Practices of Jesus | Suffering with Jesus
April 6: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: Mark 11: 12-25
The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.
In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Walking the Way of Jesus | Exploring the Practices of Jesus
Humble Courage in Confrontation
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
We have looked during Lent at the Walking in the Way of Jesus - looking at the specific practices we see in Jesus life in the Gospels
Fasting
Resisting Temptation
Withdrawing in Prayer
Engaging in Prayer
Today: Humble Courage in Confrontation
Jesus is not just our patient life coach for project self.
Love has a spine, Goodness requires conviction and often courage, Faithfulness means enduring in God's way in spite of great resistance.
There are many moments in Jesus’ life - publicly with the crowds, with the leaders, and even with His friends and followers that Jesus shows humble courage in confrontation.
He keeps confounding expectations. He is both a Lion and a Lamb.
At first blush the whole thing seems a little out of character for Jesus. We have this hangry moment with the fig tree where Jesus seems a little harsh and we can almost see the disciples exchanging glances, like “someone hasn’t had their coffee.”
Jesus Curses a Tree
Jesus declares the true reality of the tree’s condition and then it is miraculously seen for what it is
Like a prophet in the Hebrew tradition He says - This thing that appears to have life is really dead
It turns out He was simply naming a sad reality that was about to be realized.
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
Jesus had been into Jerusalem and the temple the night before and looked around, but because it was late we went back out to Bethany.
I think that’s important, and the other account where He makes a whip of chords by hand is important, not because it makes this easier to understand right off hand, but because it means this is something Jesus has been thinking about.
He is not simply losing His temper and being carried away by anger.
Israel’s Messiah was calling Israel back to its vocation to be a blessing to the whole world and it cost Him His life.
Part of Jesus’ charge against His fellow-Jews was that Israel as a whole had used its vocation, to be the light of the world, as an excuse for a hard, narrow, nationalist piety and politics in which the rest of the world was to be, not enlightened, but condemned. We can see something of this attitude both in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the tendency to violent revolution throughout the period in which Jesus lived. The Temple had been intended to symbolize God’s dwelling with Israel for the sake of the world; the way Jesus’ contemporaries had organized things, it had come to symbolize not God’s welcome to the nations but God’s exclusion of them...
“Violence towards outsiders; injustice towards Israel itself; that was what the Temple had come to mean. As with the fig tree, Jesus’ only word for the place was one of judgment”
– NT Wright
Jesus is standing up for those who are being taken advantage of
Jesus is crying out that the nations have a place to seek and find God.
That His Father’s house will be a house of prayer for all nations
And Jesus is prophetically saying this sacrificial system is over.
The bustling market kept the Gentiles from having a place to meet with God.
What Happens to the tree and the temple?
The tree dies and the temple is destroyed.
Jesus says when we act in true faith we could say to a mountain to go into the sea. In the context it’s hard to imagine He could just mean a random mountain, but He had just prophetically said enough to the Temple Mount.
You are the temple, friends
And we are built together as the temple.
The same disciples whom Jesus speaks to hear would write…
“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
– 1 Peter 2: 4-5
Unthinking Outrage. Anger with out compassion will not do. Self-absorbed zingers to just score points or get clicks is not our way.
But our first allegiance is to Jesus and the Kingdom of God.
A Kingdom of LOVE JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, SELF-CONTROL.
PARENTS:
Ask your kids:
What makes you angry? Why?
What is worth being angry about?
How should we act when we are angry?
April 6: Exploring the Practices of Jesus | Humble Courage in Confrontation
March 30: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: John 17: 1-16
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal lifeto all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you,the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power ofyour name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Walking the Way of Jesus | Exploring the Practices of Jesus
Engaging in Prayer
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
God teaches us to ask for things in specific ways and times through scripture, specifically through the words of jesus. .
THE SUGGESTION
I want to suggest at least one thing that can happen to us in this type of prayer discussion is we mix up God's love and God's power.
God's love is available to all of us without reservation in Christ, but the experience of God's power does not flow equally in all of us.
Francis Schaeffer - a Christian thinker, and apologist, author, philosopher was was speaking and writing late in his life about the greatest threats to the church and the way of Jesus.
He said the church was at great risk of losing their passion, inheritance, calling, zeal, love to kneel down before the two twin idols of personal peace and affluence.
Schaeffer was worried in 1982 that the current and next generations of Christians were going to simply be concerned about getting their tickets arranged and stamped for heaven but have very little concern for living a life of love in the way of Jesus.
He was worried their main concerns were going to be personal peace and affluence.
“Personal peace means just to be left alone, not to be troubled with the troubles of other people, whether across the world or across the city–to live one’s life with minimal possibilities of being personally disturbed. Personal peace means wanting to have my personal life pattern undisturbed in my lifetime, regardless of what the result will be in the lifetimes of my children and grandchildren. Affluence means an overwhelming and ever-increasing prosperity–a life made up of things, things, and more things a success judged by an ever-higher level of material abundance.”
– Francis Schaeffer
Do you feel way more comfortable with withdrawing in prayer than with engaging in prayer for God to move and change things?
Jesus when He is teaching His disciples to pray in Luke 11 kind of tells a wild story. Right after He gives them this model prayer we call the Lord’s prayer.
He says sometimes when you pray it will feel like knocking on a door late at night and no one is coming. In fact it will feel like your friend is directly refusing your request.
You will be desperate and the door will be shut.
What do you do? Walk away and say some prayers just don’t get answered?
No. Jesus says KEEP KNOCKING.
How would you say you are doing in the area of persistence in prayer?
To help think about how to grow in spiritual power I’m going to suggest a little device I call the power equation. And just so you know I’m totally embarrassed by the name of it.
It sounds so cheesy, like one of those lame money-making programs you see on a late night infomercial, “With the proven Power Equation system, you’ll get out of debt now and earn thousands by working part time in your own home, all while melting inches off your waist.”
The name also suggests a sort of mathematical precision that doesn’t really apply. But I’m going with it because the concept of the equation actually helps to illustrate how several different elements can combine together to increase our power in the Spirt.
Plus, a little embarrassment is probably good for the soul. So here’s the power equation in all its glory.
Authority + Gifting + Faith + Consecration = Power
– Jordan Seng
Seng is identifying 4 Categories from Scripture and his own experience where we see God developing followers of Jesus as they grow in power in prayer.
Authority - We grow in authority as we gain experience in obeying God.
Gifting - the New Testament is clear that everyone in Christ is given gifts in the Spirit. They aren’t all the same or too the same degree and they help us see our need for one another in the Christian community.
Faith - in so many of the miracles of Jesus we see the activity of faith.
It often comes down to a confidence in the generosity of God. A confidence in the authority of Jesus.
Faith is both a gift and something we can cultivate.
Consecration - Seng says is the way we dedicate ourselves to God through sacrificial acts.
Perpaps Seng’s equation has some things to teach us.
Authority + Gifting + Faith + Consecration = Power
Perhaps also there is still some mystery to it.
There are WILD CARDS. Times when God answers or moves in prayer and none or very little of any of this is present.
Jesus taught us to pray that GOD’s KINGDOM would come ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
That means engaging in prayer in contested spaces.
Jesus is regularly confronting the contested nature of this world.
JESUS IS ENGAGING IN PRAYER
Pray for breakthrough from strongholds. Things that dont seem to be changing, that are beyond mere willpower to transform.
Praying for protection against spiritual attack.
Jesus seemed to think we would be praying for this all the time, as much as we worship and ask for daily bread.
Pray for what otherwise seems impossible. - Giving in prayer what you may not be able to give any other way.
what can I give them in prayer than I cant give them any other way.
Pray for healing.
Pray for Freedom. Justice. Peace. Salvation.
PARENTS:
Ask your kids:
What is one thing Jesus has asked you to obey?
Why is it difficult to pray sometimes?
What can you pray for that only God can give?
March 30: Exploring the Practices of Jesus | Engaging in Prayer
March 23: Groups Guide
About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Text: Mark 1: 29-39
As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Walking the Way of Jesus | Exploring the Practices of Jesus
Withdrawing in Prayer
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
What is your first impressions about fasting?
Have you fasted before?
What was your experience?
"If we knew what happened when we prayed we would pray all the time."
This highlights these two broad aspects of prayer
What we see and experience or think or feel as we pray, what happens that we are aware of.
And what happens that we aren't aware of, that is hidden, sometimes draped in mystery, responses or answers to prayer, changes in other places, or over time that we don't see?
We want to ask and answer this question: What does prayer do?
People ask does prayer work? And what we often mean is WILL I GET WHAT I ASK FOR IN PRAYER?
This is the measure of a good negotiation. “Did I get what I want?”
And thats not an unimportant question, but there may be a better one... DOES CONVERSATION WORK?
We have seen Jesus fasting, we have seen Jesus resisting temptation, and today we see Jesus Withdrawing in Prayer
Jesus made a priority to talk and listen to the Father.
Jesus made a priority to get away and to commune with the Father.
Jesus made a priority to let prayer direct his life and ministry.
Right before the passage we read, we see this:
“The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him. 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.”
– Mark 1: 27-28
Jesus is having success. Jesus has been through an exhausting day. Jesus knows the feeling of having to be “on” all the time.
And so…
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.”
– Mark 1: 35
Threats to our spiritual life
To base our identity on vocational achievement
“Jesus before any miracles had begun his public ministry hearing the Father say “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.
The crippling of our lives by distraction
Withdrawing in prayer is a way to pay attention. To God, to your relationships, to the world
But many of us are becoming wondrously accomplished at things that don’t matter
The uncontested inner monologue of shame and lack
One of the most crucial things we encounter in prayer is just how much God loves us.
Without that we can often slip back into an inner monologue of shame and deficit, of past mistakes and future worry.
Many of us are in a fight with voices of shame.
Withdrawing in prayer is a rebellion against shame
“The most important discovery you will ever make is the love the Father has for you. Your power in prayer will flow from the certainty that the one who made you likes you, he is not scowling at you, he is on your side. Unless our mission and our acts of mercy, our intercession, petition, confession, and spiritual warfare begin and end in the knowledge of the Father’s love, we will act and pray out of desperation, determination, and duty instead of revelation, expectation, and joy.”
– Pete Grieg
The exhaustion of prideful self-sufficiency
Somewhere along the line some of us picked up a deadly weakness disguising itself as strength
Each of these threats …
Basing our identity on our achievement
The pervasiveness of distraction
Our inner monologues of shame
Or pride and self- sufficiency and the exhaustion that comes with it
These are the very things we press back against when we get on our own to pray.
We offer these to God. We invite God in. We hear God speak in these areas. We often experience a kind of reset.
So Look at Jesus’ pattern
Very early in the morning (there may be sacrifice in making time to pray)
Left the house | Solitary place (there may need to be some intentionality in location)
“God alone knows the selfish motives behind my every act, the vipers’ tangle of lust and ambition, the unhealed wounds that paradoxically drive me to appear whole. Prayer invites me to bring my whole life into God’s presence for cleansing and restoration. Self-exposure is never easy, but when I do it I learn that underneath the layers of grime lies a damaged work of art that God longs to repair.”
– Philiip Yancey
We can guess what He prayed
The Lords Prayer
The Psalms
From His own heart for Himself - John 17
For others - John 17
You can pray this way
Remember who you are
Pray through what you want
Adjust how you live in response to God’s love
Identity
Desires
Rhythms
What would need to happen for you to move your understanding of prayer to move from fixing things to conversation?
Rate yourself 1-10: (1=not vulnerable at all, 10=totalaly vulnerable, I’m toast)
How vulnerable are you to these threats:
Basing our identity on our achievement
The pervasiveness of distraction
Our inner monologues of shame
Or pride and self-sufficiency and the exhaustion that comes with it
What is your vulnerability score out of 40?
How can you adjust your prayer life to mitigate these vulnerabilities?
“Maybe we are becoming wondrously accomplished at things that don’t matter”
Ask God to help guard against this.
PARENTS:
Ask your kids:
What do you think is the purpose of prayer?
What happens when we pray?
Why is it difficult to pray sometimes?