10.29.08
Posted in Small Group Plans at 8:00 am by Bob
“Among Believers”
Bridging the Gap
Small Group Plan
October 29, 2008
Dear Small Group Leader,
In his book, The Power to Be Your Best! Todd Duncan tells a story straight out of American history.
Long before the Civil War, Robert E. Lee took his eight-year-old son, Custis, out for a walk in the snow. Soon tired from the deep snow, Custis began to fall behind his father. After a few minutes, Lee looked back and saw that his son had solved the problem. He was imitating his father’s every move and walking in his tracks. Later in life, as he recalled this story Lee told a friend, “When I saw this, I said to myself, ‘It behooves me to walk very straight when this fellow is already following in my footsteps.’”
As Jesus prays for those who follow Him, he knows that if people will walk in His footsteps they will find themselves walking together. It’s a unity that is built upon discipleship.
OPEN IT / INTRODUCE IT …
· List and define all the different kinds of unity that exist in the world.
· What are the advantages and disadvantages of a forced unity?
· What are the advantages and disadvantages of a democratic unity?
· How is the unity of faith in God different from either?
LOOK AT IT / STUDY IT …
Jesus Prays For Himself
John 17:1-5
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
· Why does Jesus pray for Himself?
· How is knowing God equal to “eternal life” (Vs. 3)?
· What work did Jesus “complete” (Vs. 4)? Remember, the cross is still ahead of Him.
Jesus Prays For The Disciples
John 17:6:19
6 “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. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 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. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 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 of your name — the name you gave me — so that they may be one as we are one. 12 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. 13 “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. 14 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. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
· Count the pronouns “they” and “them” to see the dominate subject.
· How did “they” know that Jesus came from God (Vs. 
?
· What does Jesus mean by “protect them by the power of your name” (Vs. 11)?
· How is unity (“one” Vs. 11) vital to the mission Jesus has given the Twelve (see: “they are still in the world” Vs. 11 and “I have sent them” Vs. 18)?
· Why doesn’t Jesus want to take them out of the world (Vs. 15)?
Jesus Prays For All Believers
John 17:20-26
20 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.
· Exactly who is Jesus praying for?
· How does “their message” (Vs. 20) help other believers to “be one” (Vs. 21)? Whose message?
· Jesus prayer is for unity “as” modeled by He and God. Look for “as” in Vs. 21 and 22. Also look for “in me” “in us” and “in you.” Are there other, lesser, inferior kinds of unity? How would you describe them?
· What is the difference between unity and uniformity?
· Does Jesus want organizational unity? Unity of belief and practice? Unity of heart?
· Can two people agree with each other and still disagree with God? How?
USE IT / APPLY IT …
· How can we be “in the world” (Vs. 11) but not “of the world” (Vs. 14)?
· Why is unity among believers so important (Vs. 21, 23)?
· How does disunity cause some to reject Jesus?
· Should we seek unity at any price? Explain.
· This is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus, and He prays for unity. Close your time with specific, earnest prayer for the unity of all believers.
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10.22.08
Posted in Small Group Plans at 8:00 am by Bob
“God and the World”
Bridging the Gap
Small Group Plan
October 22, 2008
Dear Small Group Leader,
God came to our world because we couldn’t travel to His. He took the initiative to “bridge the gap.” The only joy worthy of a place next to our Passion for God is the one Jesus chose – our Compassion for People. God asks us to learn from Him, to be His bridge to the world. Jesus, Paul and Peter all describe how our ministry flows from God’s.
OPEN IT / INTRODUCE IT …
· Describe the power of gratitude.
· Try to put your gratitude to God into words.
LOOK AT IT / STUDY IT …
Served … Serve
John 13:14
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet,
you also should wash one another’s feet.
· Why did Jesus wash the feet of the apostles?
· What would they have to understand to move from being served to serving?
Forgiven … Forgive
Colossians 3:13
Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
· How does God’s forgiveness motivate our willingness to forgive?
· Why does Paul stipulate, “as the Lord forgave”? What other ways can we forgive?
Comforted … Comfort
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Praise be to … the God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort.
· List the kinds of “troubles” that bring grief, pain, confusion or doubt?
· What about God matches each with relief and comfort?
· What part of God’s character can guide our attempts to comfort?
Taught … Teach
1 Thessalonians 1:6-8
You welcomed the message …
The Lord’s message rang out from you.
· What has changed in the life of a person who once resisted God but now “welcomes” Him?
· What in God’s message has changed you the most?
· What about your faith can you most easily talk about?
Reconciled … Reconcile
2 Corinthians 5:18
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
· How did God reconcile us through Jesus?
· Why would God entrust us with His “ministry of reconciliation?”
· Why do some point to their failures or inabilities and decide they are not worthy to be God’s partner in ministry?
Graced … Grace
1 Peter 4:10
Faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
· Define and describe the “various forms” of God’s grace.
· What does it mean to administer God’s grace?
USE IT / APPLY IT …
· Jesus gave His mission to men who had failed Him many times. Could you have easily done the same? Explain.
· How can a deep sense of gratitude be the fuel for evangelism?
· As a group, share the first names of people you want to know God. Ask God to fill you with a greater awareness of being served, forgiven, comforted, taught, reconciled and graced. Ask Him to use you as a bridge to your friends who do not know Jesus?
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10.15.08
Posted in Small Group Plans at 8:00 am by Bob
“Us and God”
Bridging the Gap
Small Group Plan
October 15, 2008
Dear Small Group Leader,
There once was a carpenter who visited one of two brothers who had recently grown embittered with each other over a misunderstanding over the farm they had managed together for 40 years. The carpenter was in need of work and so he asked one brother for a job. The older brother said, “Yes, I have a job for you. Look across the creek at my younger brother’s farm. Last week there was a meadow between us. But he took his bulldozer to the river levee, and now there is a creek between us. So, I want you to build a fence so I won’t have to see his place or his face anymore.” The carpenter said, “I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger, and I’ll do the best job I know how.” The older brother had to go into town, and the carpenter worked hard all day.
At sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. But when the farmer looked, there wasn’t a fence. Instead, the carpenter had built a bridge that stretched from one side of the creek to the other. And the neighbor, the younger brother, was walking across the bridge toward them. He offered his hand and said, “You are a true brother; to build this bridge after all I’ve said and done.”
Hoisting his toolbox onto his shoulder, the carpenter said, “I’d love to stay, but I have more bridges to build.”
OPEN IT / INTRODUCE IT …
· Who can you completely trust, even without having to know all the details? Why do you trust them?
· Put the following synonyms for “trust” in sentences that describe why God is trustworthy: confidence, certainty, reliance, assurance, conviction, dependence, hope.
LOOK AT IT / STUDY IT …
Building Bridges
Genesis 3:22-23
22 And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
· Who is God talking to, and what does He mean (Vs. 22)?
· Who was most responsible for “The Fall” – Adam, Eve, the serpent, God? Explain your answer.
· From our vantage point we know that God immediately begins to rebuild the bridge that Adam and Eve have burned. Why and how does God act to build a bridge to humanity?
· Why is “banishment” (Vs. 23) necessary in God’s plan for reconciliation?
Trusting Bridges
John 14:1, 5-6
1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. …
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
· How would you define “trust” (Vs. 1)?
· What kind of trust is Jesus asking of the disciples?
· Why is it difficult for them to trust Jesus?
· How does worry effect trust?
· What kind of “way” is Thomas asking about (Vs. 5), and how does Jesus change the meaning of “way” (Vs. 6)?
· How can a new understanding of the “way” lead to greater trust?
Crossing Bridges
John 3:16-17
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
· Using the bridge metaphor define what it means to “believe”?
· Why did God build a bridge to humanity? Describe His motive.
· In spite of the words, He came “to save” why do some only hear, He came “to condemn”?
USE IT / APPLY IT …
· Have you ever felt hesitant to cross God’s bridge? Explain.
· What is most likely to keep people from putting a foot on God’s bridge?
· How can “worry” change into “trust”?
· If trust means putting our full weight down on God’s bridge, how would you explain your trust in God to someone who is afraid to trust?
Ask for God’s blessing.
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10.07.08
Posted in Small Group Plans at 8:00 am by collodi
“Ask … Imagine … Seek … Find”
Small Group Plan
October 8, 2008
Dear Small Group Leader,
In his book, The Will of God, Leslie Weatherhead tells this story,
The picture in my mind is that of children playing beside a tiny stream that runs down a mountainside to join a river in the valley below. Very little children can divert the stream and get great fun out of damming it up with stones and earth. But not one of them ever succeeds in preventing the water from reaching the river at last. … In regard to God we are very little children. Though we may divert and hinder His purposes, I don’t believe we ever finally defeat them; and … frequently our mistakes and sins are used to make another channel to carry the water of God’s plans to the river of his purpose.
What is God’s will? What did He intend from the beginning? Where will the stream of human history finally flow in the end? God’s power can be seen in both His original design and in His creative end. In between He patiently works with our feeble efforts.
Because of a Cross,
Bob Chisholm
OPEN IT / INTRODUCE IT …
· Think of a time when all your carefully laid plans were suddenly changed (trip, conversation, plans, etc.)
· How did you feel?
· How did you react?
· What did you learn?
LOOK AT IT / STUDY IT …
God’s Will In The Beginning …
· Use your imagination to picture the Garden of Eden:
What did it look like?
What was the weather like?
How would it feel to stroll through its forests?
· What did God originally want from Adam and Eve?
· Imagine and describe how it would feel to be asked to leave Eden?
God’s Will In Spite Of Our Failure …
Romans 3:22-23
There is no difference,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
· Very reverently, put yourself in God’s shoes …
· How would it feel to see your people ignore your original plan?
· When someone falls “short of the glory of God” what has actually happened? What is the glory of God?
2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
· Since God didn’t cause our failure, why would He come to our rescue?
· What did it actually cost God for us to receive His “righteousness?”
· How is God able to work through our failure to bring about good?
God’s Will At The End …
Job 42:1-2
Then Job replied to the LORD:
“I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.”
· What are the similarities between God’s will at the beginning and end of time?
· What are the differences?
· Why can’t God’s final plan be “thwarted?”
USE IT / APPLY IT …
· How have you seen God use the difficulties of our past year to accomplish His will?
· How has He changed your character?
· How has He lifted your confidence?
· What should we now be praying about?
Close by asking God to show us how to find His will, as we live in an imperfect world.
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