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Awaken - Title Slide

Awaken | Week One

AWAKEN – Week 1

 

Read 1 Thess 5:6-8 What does a “sober-minded” believer look like amid our current culture?

 

***For Leaders – Answers will vary

 

 

Read Matt 24:42-45: Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

 

What do you think are the most significant things that can lull “the master” (which is you J) to sleep at such a critical time?

 

***For Leaders – Different things can lull different believers into apathy so you must understand what activities trigger you into spiritual dullness. The other piece to this is the feeling of hopelessness. If people feel like they can’t change the outcome in their surroundings, they will stop trying to make a difference, but the master in this text does NOT feel that way!

 

 

 

The word master in the Greek refers to someone who has “significant authority over others.” What does this say about the influence a believer CAN have when a prevailing darkness seems to be occurring in the culture? How does staying “awake” or sober-minded affect their ability to influence?

 

***For Leaders – Pastor Josh shared that when he and Lisa meet with people, the number one thing they tell people as they listen is “that’s a lie.” So, we can tell ourselves lies about the things that are causing spiritual apathy in us and we can lie to ourselves that we cannot make a difference because it’s hopeless. The master of house goes face-to-face with the threat believing that he has what it takes to change the outcome.

 

 

 

Pastor Josh gave us three questions as a tool when facing difficulties:

 

  • What does my faith look like expressed in my situation? A person asked themselves how their faith becomes active in the midst of the trial they are facing.
  • What does God’s love look like expressed in my situation? The sober mind is thinking through the lens of love. Not impatience…not about winning…but love toward others.
  • What does hope in the gospel look like in my situation?
    The gospel is summed up in the work of the Cross. The blood of Jesus changes everything.  I find hope there, because everything that was broken is changeable there.

 

All these questions are around faith, love, and hope…you can’t even ask them without putting on your thinking cap.

 

Share a scenario where you were you wished you were more sober-minded enough to ask one or all of the questions above.

 

 

 

 

Awaken - Title Slide

Awaken | Group Resources

Awaken | Group Resources

2

God With Us

God With Us

Christmas at Lakeland

Week 4 - December 17, 2023

Week 3 - December 10, 2023

Week 2 - December 3, 2023

Week 1 - November 26, 2023

2

God With Us | Week One

God With Us – Week 1

 

Psalm 139:1-10

 

Have there been times in your life when you felt that God was just a passive viewer? How did that play out?

 

 

 

Pastor Josh made the point, “He is close when you are close and close when you are far.” He was with you in your best times and in your worst times.  He is with you at your highest moments and with you at your lowest. He was caring for you in all times.

 

Share with the Group when you have experienced God’s presence during your best and worst times in your life.

 

 

 

Read 139:9-10 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.


What are the differences between a guide and a taskmaster. How does this play out with God in your life?

 

***For Leaders – You’ll receive various answers. Overall, a guide is gentle and wise with your best interests at heart. God will guide us, whereas, Satan will attempt to be a taskmaster that is harsh every time we fail.

 

 

Read Col 1:22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

AND

Read Rev 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has come at last—salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth—the one who accuses them before our God day and night.

We are faultless in God’s presence yet Satan accuses us before God. How do these truths collide in our hearts and minds during our daily lives?

***For Leaders – Satan is a liar (John 8:44) who accuses us with lies. What is his #1 target? Our identity. He knows how essential our self-perception is so he lies to us about who we are, that God is far from us and we are hopeless. How does that play out? Craig Groschel has some examples:

  • After you yell at your kids, you think “I’m a bad parent.”
  • When you don’t get the job you want, you think “I’m pathetic. I never get any breaks.”
  • When you realize you didn’t read your Bible, you think “I’m a bad Christian.”

More accusations: You are a spiritual failure. You will never amount to anything. You will never change. You don’t have what it takes. You can never be healthy. You can never be pure. You can never have a good marriage. You can never be financially free.

 

What is the difference between an affirmation and an accusation?

***For Leaders – God gives affirmations, and the devil gives accusations. Here are some affirmations from God. You are:

  • Sought after (Isa 62:12)
  • Precious in His sight (Isa 43:4)
  • A new creation in Christ (2 Cor 5:17)
  • Not condemned (Rom 8:1)
  • Forgiven (Col 1:14)
  • Loved (Col 1:14)
  • Accepted (Rom 15:7)
  • A child of God (1 John 3:1)
  • Corrected because he loves you (Heb 12:6)
  • Jesus’ friend (John 15:14)
  • Free (John 8:36)
  • The temple of God (1 Cor 6:19)
  • God’s reassured possession (Deut 7:6)

 

***As believers, it is important to note the difference in our Spirit between hearing the voice of a guide who affirms as compared to a taskmaster who accuses. The immature believer doesn’t figure out the difference and gets crushed in spiritual warfare. The mature believer recognizes God’s voice in affirmation when God speaks to them in their thoughts and responds with confidence to His direction even if it is disciplinary. (John 10:27-28)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

God With Us | Group Resources

God With Us | Group Resources

1

Christmas at Lakeland

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21 | 7PM
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23 | 6PM
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24 | 9AM AND 10:30AM

Fall Baptisms

Baptism

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16 AND

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19

Men's Bonfire Night

Men’s Bonfire Night

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2023 | 6PM
CAMP TIMBER-LEE

The Day I Died recolored smaller

The Day I Died | Week One

The Day I Died – Week 1

 

Eph 4:22-24 & Col 3:9

Gal 5:13, 16-17

John 3:3-4, 7-8

 

 

Read Eph 4:22-24 & Col 3:9-10

 

***For Leaders – After reading the texts above, take a poll with the participants in your Group with the following question. Do we struggle with our old man or old self after we become a Christian? Why or why not? Have each person explain their answer and tell them that we’ll answer the specific question later in the discussion.

 

 

A moment of reflection: Pastor Josh said, “Christ is not an add on to our previous life. He is the replacement of our old life.”  Have you thought about this before? What went through your mind when Pastor Josh said this to us?

 

***For Leaders – This is a moment for people to reflect on the actual process of becoming a Christian. Few of us actually think about what is happening in that moment. More about that process will be below in Jesus’ conversation below with Nicodemus.

 

 

 

Let’s check out what Jesus said to Nicodemus about becoming a Christian. Read John 3:3-4, 7-8

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.””

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

[Jesus replied] “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

How do the texts from Ephesians & Colossians work together with this text in John?

 

***For Leaders – The most simple answer is that after the spiritual death of your old self), there is the birth of your new self. Something old and wicked (your old self) dies and is replaced with something new and divine (your new self). Your new self literally has divine spiritual DNA because it was born of the Spirit.

 

 

 

Read Gal 5:13, 16-17

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love...So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want.”

 

Is our “flesh” and our “old self” the same thing? Explain your response ?

 

***For Leaders – This is an answer to the first question. Our old self and our flesh are not the same thing. Our flesh is a remnant of something that has already died. The new self that was born of the Holy Spirit resides in us now, so our old self is officially dead. Our new self will be in conflict with our “flesh” so this is why we feel a war inside of us sometimes. Our “flesh” is always going to give some push back against our new self because it still wants our old way of living.

 

 

 

(After studying the difference between the flesh and the spirit). There is an old cliché that says that you have two dogs inside you…whichever one you feed is going to win. How does that play out in your life?

 

***For Leaders – Answers will vary.

 

The Day I Died recolored smaller

The Day I Died | Group Resources

The Day I Died | Group Resources

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