Jesus Over Everything Week 5
Welcome to Jesus Over Everything 5! We are going to get right into it this week! Pastor Josh preached from Colossians 2:16-3:4 and challenged us that Jesus wants to rule over our hearts, our minds, and our spiritual pursuits. He also gave a personal example in this area in that he likes to waterski, but at the end of the day, it’s his friends that he skis with that matters the most. So Pastor Josh challenges himself with the following prayer almost daily:
God, what are you most passionate about for me today?
– Have you ever asked God this question? If yes, what has he told you? If no, what do you think he might tell you?
Focus Questions: We’ve already started deep…let’s keep going deeper together!
In Colossians 2:16-23, Paul is essentially telling the people that they have just included Jesus as an add-on to all their existing rituals.
1. Have you personally ever made Jesus an “add-on” in your life? What did that look like?
***For Leaders – When Jesus is just an add-on, we find ourselves just checking boxes. I read today…I prayed today…I worshipped today…I did a good deed today. We miss out on the river of living water that is supposed to flow from our hearts to empower us to do those things. (John 7:37-38) When Jesus is an add-on we will eventually abandon the idea of doing life with God to only asking him to help us out with the things we can’t do ourselves.
Pastor Josh talked about the need for a “hard reset”. He mentioned King Manasseh and some of the things that he was guilty of doing during his reign (v.6). Manasseh fell to the temptation of the power witchcraft & divination and felt that sacrificially killing his children would lead to a better life for himself. Read his whole story together in 2 Chron 33.
1. (vv9-13) Manasseh was humbled by his fall to the temptations that he faced and prayed to God for forgiveness with a humble heart. It says (v13) that “then he knew that the Lord is God.” How can a “hard reset” in our lives affirm our knowledge of who God is?
***For Leaders – When we genuinely cry out to God for forgiveness, we will feel his love in mercy because the Bible says “God is Love.” (1 John 4:16) When we see who God really is…it’s irresistible. Bonus Scripture is Romans 2:4 “…his kindness leads us to repentance.”
2. Read 1 John 4:8 & 4:16 with your group and discuss how Manasseh’s experience in knowing God in mercy relates to those verses.
Reread Colossians 3:1-3 & 2 Chronicles 33:14-16.
1. Pastor Josh gave the example how Lisa is so good at not just telling their kids that they are doing the wrong thing but giving their kids something else to do. How does Manasseh redirect his energies after his hard reset?
2. What can you personally learn from Manasseh in how he redirected his spiritual pursuits and impacted a nation after his hard reset?
***For Leaders – Manasseh had to “die” to the earlier pursuits of the evil that he found so fulfilling. He had a “hard reset”, and it transformed his heart and his spiritual pursuits. This impacted a nation, and he was now leading those people to God instead of away from Him. A hard reset in our life can do the same.
Bonus Moment
This is a wonderful opportunity for leaders or seasoned believers to share testimony as to how they had to “set their affections on things above” after a hard reset in their own lives. Maybe one person has done this already during Jesus Over Everything 5 but request more! Revelation 12:11 says we overcome the evil one by the word of our testimony. It never gets old! We all have much to gain from hearing testimony no matter where we are in our level of maturity in Christ!
Request prayer from those who may be struggling to take the initial step of a hard reset or they are willing, but are having difficulty implementing one.