Hello This is a Test

Group Guide

March 6th, 2022
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Ice-Breaker

If you are married, how are your spouse's strengths and weaknesses different from your own? How do they compliment and contrast each other? If you're not married, what about your best friends or members of your family? 

This Week's City 7

7. How can I trust that the Bible is still God’s Word today? I trust the Bible is still God’s Word today because Jesus rose from the dead proving He was God and said His words would never pass away. Through the Holy Spirit, God inspired the writing of the Scripture, determined the canon of Scripture and protected the copying of Scripture so that we might know Him and worship Him to this day.
(Matthew 24:35; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Revelation 22:18-19)

Discussion Questions

Have someone read Luke 6:12-19 aloud.
  1. The City 7 this week highlights why we should have complete confidence in the Word of God and its accuracy. When we compare the scriptures we have today to some of the original manuscripts, we get 99.5% accuracy to the original texts. That is EXTREMELY accurate. So when Jesus said his words would never pass away, he wasn't lying! If God could raise Jesus from the dead, don't you think he would be capable of overseeing the writing and copying of Scripture? Don't you think he could protect the process? Don't you think he would WANT us to have an accurate copy of his Word? What does this do for your confidence in Scripture? Does it build your faith in the truth of his Word? Would you say you have a true LOVE of Scripture?

  2. Jesus' ministry of preaching and miracles is well underway. He's had a few run-ins with the religious leaders of the day and he's chosen some men to follow him, to be disciples. These verses introduce us to three groups of people...  the crowd, the disciples and the apostles. Being a disciple means being a disciplined follower of "The Way." An apostle, though, is someone that has been with Jesus and was commissioned by Jesus himself. He is a representative that is invested with the full authority of the one who sent him.  Jesus chooses here 12 of his disciples to be apostles. These 12 were far from perfect. In fact, if we're being honest, they were a bunch of misfits. They were very flawed, imperfect men. James had trouble remembering things Jesus said, Peter started fights with Jesus and behaved impulsively. And then, of course, there's Judas. This should be encouraging to us. God used regular people to do great things THEN and he does the same thing NOW. Have you ever felt like you were unqualified to be used by God in a big way? Have you ever felt like your life is too messed up to tell people about Jesus? Has insecurity ever kept you sidelined?

  3. The first takeaway from Sunday was that FOLLOWERS are committed to a PERSON. FANS are committed to a PRODUCT. Following Jesus means a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus. It's not a system or a program or even a lifestyle. It's not committing to a new set of rules, it's having a relationship with a new person. It's natural for us to forget this simple truth. The busyness and stress of life has a way of grinding us down, pounding us into submission. Our relationship with Jesus that was once rich and vibrant can easily become dull and mechanical. Have you ever found yourself in this place? Are you there now? How do we get that fire back? How do we keep the fire going?

  4. The next takeaway was that FOLLOWERS are committed to ALLOWING. FANS are committed to HARBORING. Jesus' choice of disciples is interesting. We know he was seeking to start a new movement; a unified church body that is bound together, honors each other, forgives each other, worships together, on mission together. And yet his 12 guys couldn't be more different. The most glaring example of this is Simon, the religious zealot, and Matthew, the tax collector... these two are opposite in every way! Zealots resorted to kidnapping or even murdering Romans and Jews if they suspected them of being loyal to Rome. That means that, were it not for their common devotion to Jesus, Simon may have murdered Matthew! So then, it is truly a miracle that these guys were on mission together. Read Colossians 3:13-15. How do you think the 12 resembled these verses? What about your life and relationships?  Are you constantly making allowances for each other's faults, or do you tend harbor resentment and offense?

  5.  Finally, we learned that FOLLOWERS are committed to GIVING. FANS are committed to RECEIVING. In Scripture, the crowd is always wanting something from Jesus, whether it be healing or food or just to see the show. The same is true of the crowd today... they're in it for what they can get. The problem is that the faithfulness of the crowd is always dependent upon whether or not they are receiving what they want. Disciples' faithfulness, on the other hand, is based solely on their relationship with Jesus. Fans aren't willing to sacrifice, but followers are. Our society has turned church-going into a consumer-based model. We've all been there... church shopping and church hopping. And church buildings everywhere are full of those shoppers, sitting on pews, consuming the content until they get dissatisfied for any number of reasons and start the process over again. If we are going to be faithful followers of Jesus, we CANNOT be like the crowd in the Gospels, who turned away from Jesus when his messages got too difficult to hear. We have to be like Peter. When Jesus asked the disciples if they were also going to leave him, Peter said, "We have nowhere else to go. You have the words of LIFE!" So, having said all of that, it's time to look in the mirror and be brutally honest with ourselves. Are you a FAN or a FOLLOWER? Maybe a little of both? I'm not asking what is in your heart or what you wish to be true, but what do your actions and decisions say about you? How does one move from FAN to FOLLOWER? 

Prayer Topics

  • That we would fall in love with the Word of God.
  • That we wouldn't let insecurity get in the way of God's will for our lives.
  • That our lives and relationships would be marked with forgiveness and grace.
  • That we would be FOLLOWERS of Jesus, not just FANS. 

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