Group Guide
This Week's City 7:
4. Can a person be good enough to go to heaven? No. Because Jesus rose from the dead, proving He is God, I believe a person is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
(John 1:12, 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 4:1-25, 5:1-2, 6-11, 6:23, 10:1-4, 10:9; Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 2:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Titus 3:4-7)
(John 1:12, 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 4:1-25, 5:1-2, 6-11, 6:23, 10:1-4, 10:9; Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 2:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Titus 3:4-7)
Ice-Breaker:
- What sports did you play growing up, if any?
Scripture
1 Peter 4
8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
Discussion Questions:
- Peter once again calls us to deep love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Clayton said on Sunday that church should be a CONTACT sport. In other words, we should be very close in proximity. This means you have to let people into your life, get close to them and be honest and vulnerable.... which also means you could be hurt. How easy or hard is it for you to let people in? Do you tend to keep walls up within this group? Have hurts from the past kept you from opening up?
- In verse 9, Peter says we should share our homes with people and share meals together. This means we are close enough to HOST them. We saw this a lot in Acts, when the church was constantly meeting in their homes, eating and fellowshipping together. They were devoted to one another and shared everything they had. In fact, there were no needy among them because they felt what they owned didn't belong to them... it was only theirs to steward. How quick are you to meet a need when you become aware of it? Would God say you have a spirit of generosity? How can we as a group more actively help those in need?
- In verses 10 and 11, Peter starts talking about spiritual gifts. In God's contact sport, we should be close enough use the gifts God has given us to HELP. Every believer receives the Holy Spirit at the moment of conversion, and He gives each one of us certain spiritual gifts in order to serve the church. He gives us these gifts not for ourselves, but we are to use them for the GLORY of God and for the GOOD of the Church. What all are you currently doing to serve the church and this group? How might you life look differently if you lived for only HIS glory and not your own?
- We should all be so connected to each other in this community that we can begin to identify and affirm our gifts and begin using them. Look through the list of spiritual gifts and their explanations. What gifts do you think God might have given you? Take some time to affirm these gifts in each other. How can we serve each other within this group with the gifts He has given us?
- Apostleship: The ability start new works, church plant, pastor pastors in a movement or minister cross-culturally as a missionary.
- Teaching: The ability to understand and communicate Biblical truth in a clear, relevant and engaging manner so that there is understanding and application.
- Pastor/Shepherd: The ability to care for, counsel and build up Christians in their faith and take responsibility for their long term spiritual welfare.
- Service/Helps: The ability to joyfully work alongside other people to help them complete tasks behind the scenes.
- Hospitality: The ability to joyfully host people in your home, feed people or organize parties so that people get to enjoy each others company.
- Encouragement: The ability to motivate, encourage and console others so that they mature in their walk with Christ.
- Giving: The ability to joyfully share, give away and steward money, time and resources in order to meet the needs of a person, mission or organization.
- Leadership: The ability to have a clear and compelling vision and articulate that vision so that others are compelled to follow you.
- Administration: The ability to organize, give direction and make decisions for efficient operation and accomplishment of goals.
- Mercy: The ability to have unusual compassion and empathy for people that are hurting, suffering or done wrong and offer assistance or relationship.
- Discernment: The ability to quickly perceive whether people, things, ideas or events are from God or satan.
- Wisdom: Supernatural or practical insight in to people and situations that is not obvious to the average person that is combined with an understanding of what the Bible says to do and how to do it.
- Knowledge: Supernatural knowledge of a situation or the practical ability to research, remember and make effective use of a variety of information on a number of diverse subjects.
- Evangelist: The ability to speak clearly, passionately and effectively to non-Christians about Jesus.
- Faith: The ability to envision what needs to be done and to trust God to accomplish it even though it seems impossible to most people.
- Intercession: The ability to pray for extended periods of time on a regular basis and see frequent and specific answers to their prayers.
- Miracles: The gift of miracles is the frequent and specific working of divine power in which God’s power is manifested in an evident way to further God’s purposes in a situation.
- Healing: Those with gifts of healing will be those people who find that their prayers for healing are answered more frequently and more thoroughly than others.
- Distinguishing Between Spirits: The special ability to recognize the influence of the Holy Spirit or of demonic spirits in a person and identify spiritual warfare.
- Tongues/Interpretation of Tongues: Speaking in tongues is public or private prayer or praise spoken in syllables not understood by the speaker. Interpretation of tongues is the ability to report to the church the general meaning of something spoken in tongues in a public gathering of the church.
- Clayton ended on Sunday by challenging us to go deep with our church family, to get off the fence and go all in. What was God saying to you through these verses? Are you truly committed to growing in community? How can you go deeper into this community?
Prayer Topics:
- That we would identify and use our spiritual gifts for the good of the church and the glory of God.
- That we would go all in with this community.
- That we would go to deeper levels of commitment to one another.
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