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’s something you were stubborn about as a kid that now makes you laugh?
Scripture
Jonah 1:4-16
4 But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. 5 Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. 6 So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”
7 Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. 8 “Why has this awful storm come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”
9 Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
10 The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. 11 And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”
12 “Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”
13 Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”
15 Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! 16 The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.
4 But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. 5 Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. 6 So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”
7 Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. 8 “Why has this awful storm come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”
9 Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
10 The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. 11 And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”
12 “Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”
13 Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”
15 Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! 16 The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.
Discussion Questions:
- Brandon continues to remind us that Jonah's story should function like a mirror. It’s easy to read the story and think, “How could Jonah be so stubborn?” But the deeper point is realizing how often we do the same thing. Jonah claimed to fear God, worship God, and belong to God, yet his actual life direction was moving away from God.
- When you look at your own life, past or present, where is the biggest gap between what you say you believe and how you actually live? (Whether it’s avoiding a hard conversation, refusing to forgive, or prioritizing your comfort over obedience)
- What do you think makes surrender so difficult for us sometimes?
- God didn’t send the storm to destroy Jonah, but to interrupt him. The storm was discipline, but discipline is not the opposite of grace, it’s often the evidence of it. God loved Jonah too much to let him keep running peacefully toward destruction.
- Has there ever been a storm, frustration, or painful interruption in your life that you now know was actually God trying to wake you up?
- How does your perspective change if you stop viewing hardship as God getting even with you and instead see it as God pursuing you?
- What might He be trying to expose, correct, or heal right now?
- Jonah tried to treat his rebellion like a private issue, but his disobedience nearly sank the entire ship. His choices created fear, chaos, and loss for everyone around him. Sin never stays contained, there will always be collateral damage. Our sin spreads outward into the lives of other people.
- In what ways can our sin, pride, passivity, or disobedience spill over onto the people closest to us?
- Why do you think it’s so easy for us to convince ourselves that our private struggles or compromises aren’t hurting anyone else?
- If you’re honest, who is most affected when you are spiritually distant, prideful, passive, angry, addicted, controlling, or emotionally shut down?
- Brandon pointed out that Jonah is a distorted mirror of Jesus. Jonah slept in the storm because he was indifferent; Jesus slept because He had authority. Jonah would rather die than obey God; Jesus obeyed all the way to death. Jonah was thrown overboard because of his own sin; Jesus willingly gave Himself for ours.
- In what ways are you tempted to believe that surrendering fully to God will somehow make your life worse instead of better?
- Why do you think we struggle so much to trust God’s plans, even after the cross proved His love for us?
- Repentance is more than an emotion; it’s a change of direction. Jonah was only three words away from stopping the storm, but his pride made him choose the bottom of the ocean over saying, "Lord, I surrender." We can become comfortable in our compromise and like Jonah, we sleep through the storms that are meant to wake us up.
- What do you think usually keeps people from repenting quickly? Pride, shame, fear, stubbornness, or simply getting comfortable drifting away from God little by little?
- Is there a specific conversation, habit, attitude, relationship, or step of obedience where you sense God asking you to repent and trust Him instead of continuing to fight Him?
Prayer Topics:
- That God would soften our hearts and help us surrender quickly when He speaks.
- That we would trust God’s discipline as an act of love and not resist His correction.
- That God would help us stop running and faithfully follow wherever He leads.
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