Enough 04

"...and this not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so no one one should boast".

This week is another way of reinforcing much the same idea: what we have from god came exactly from there- God. It's not something we were able to procure from ourselves or make God want to give us more than his own heart already did before it even occurred to us.

This week, we'll contrast how we "do relationships" with people and with God to help us call out in ourselves the false view of God and of the righteousness he provides we may have. This is significant because the peace that comes with a right view of God's salvation can only be experienced when you understand you're not manipulating him with your saintliness in order to stay saved.

Many in the Crosspointe congregation have a deep appreciation for Jesus, yet are also deeply convinced (to the extent that many don't even realize they believe this) that somehow what we are/do positions us within God's eternal favor. The side-effect of this is double-edged; always wondering when it's enough, and always comparing yourself to others less holy in some area. Grace becomes something we earn, as well as boast about among our less spiritual friends. Neither dynamic is true Christianity, and obviously flies in the face of what Paul insists. So, help your group do the hard work of exploring what and why they believe, and step more fully into the scandalous grace of Jesus Christ.

Thaw

• What's one thing you see God doing in your life?
• What's one thing you want to see God doing in your life?

• What most stuck with you from the message Sunday?
• Is there anyone in the group that is willing to admit that while someone was answering the question about what God is doing in our lives, you felt a sense of jealousy about their connection with God, and felt distance from God that you wished you knew how to remedy? Share.
• Do you believe this disconnected feeling is the absence of God's grace and love, or is it just a sense that your spiritual apathy has begun to cost you relationally with God?

Leader note: The last question is a huge distinction. The first part is about feeling as though I don't have something right in my journey, and so God has abandoned me. What do I do to woo him back?" The second is the very real sense that, "though God still loves me, I haven't lived by that love or disciplined my heart to live in relation to it, and I feel cold". The second didn't put God's unmerited favor in question, it's just the group member admitting that he/she hasn't lived in response to God lately and feels the pangs as a result.

Read

• Ephesians 2:1-10
• As you read and reread this over the weeks, are there any themes or layers that you are noticing that you haven't before? Share.

Read

• Genesis 3:6-13 and verse 21

Leader note: There are a ton of other directions the discussion can go with this passage. If you get the sense that this is where the group needs to go, dedicate some time to it and then move on. Perhaps scheduling a whole night in the future to all the questions and thoughts surrounding this text is a good idea. But don't let side-conversations about pain in child-birth, talking serpents and God over or under-reacting take away from the discussion at hand!

• Thoughts?
• Bonus question: Whose fig leaf apparel looked better, and why? (have fun).
• Deep question alert: What are some of the changes you can imagine would occur between people who had previously related to each other with their own fig leaves between them (their own presentation, based on their own identity and strengths), versus people who relate to each other with the sacrifice of God between them (their identity rooted in what God is and has done)?

Read (at same time)

• Isaiah 64:6
• Rom 3:21-24
• Gal 2:21
• Why is it important to continue to emphasize our ineptitude in achieving righteousness and holiness on our own?

Leader note: many hold to the thought that God is so self-absorbed that he needs us to feel badly about ourselves. Explore in your discussion here that all of these passages and more are in reaction to a certain mindset that puts God's love as contingent on our work. Some of us get really cocky the more we believe this, which deeply affects our ability to humbly love and serve each other, as well as have any peace before our Father.

• Why is it so important to Paul and others that our faith system be wholly and completely centered on Jesus and what he did, rather than anything we do? Doesn't this let us off the hook?

Read

• Luke 18:9-14
• Thoughts?
• Does God want us groveling, or is he after something else? Explain.
• How does this passage speak to how we see others that are, what we would say at least to ourselves, "worse sinners than me"?
• Respond as a group to this quote

Evangelism is just one beggar telling the other beggars where she found some bread.

Discuss

• If our faith is in Christ Himself, and not in anything we are or do or know, and not in any organized group of Jesus-followers, how is life affected?
• Be honest: would any of the groups' answers to the above question be the same if you exchanged Jesus for some other god or moral standard? Why is it different with Jesus?
• This coming Sunday, our community is going to be invited to take a step and say "yes" to Jesus in some way. How will your life be different by you saying "yes" to Jesus in some way this week?

Leader note: You may want to call out specific people and embrace the awkward here. Many people have gotten so used to telling Jesus "wait", that they no longer realize they are telling Him "no". Statistically, a gentle but specific question about all this can get people thinking intentionally about their actual response to Jesus and bear much fruit!

• How can this group help you say "Yes", not so much to religion or to theology or two anything but Jesus himself?

Prayer

Additional texts:

• Galatians 2:16
• James 3:2
• Romans 3:9-28

Enough 03

Hey Leaders

Once again, utilize the general discussion makers for your group time this week. We'll begin with more message specific questions for the message next Sunday.

What were the key points for you?

What was the "one thing" you took away?

What surprised you?

What bothered you? Why?

Have you ever heard or come across a similar teaching or idea? Have you ever been taught something that was contradictory?

What is/was already part of your thinking on this subject?

What did you learn that was new to you?

*About God?

*About yourself?

*About others?

What changes of thought are necessary in light of what you learned?

What changes of action are needed?

How would life be different if you/we applied this teaching fully?

What are the hindrances, and what do we do about those?

What role can this group lay to help you take steps this week and beyond?

enough part II

Bonjou from Haiti.

We're all well and hoping good things for you as your groups gather this week, discuss, pray and wrestle with the best news in the Universe: God's grace offered to us- all of us- in Jesus Christ.

Use these general discussion makers and pertinent texts to take Sunday's message further. The texts at the bottom are texts used throughout the message, and are good to read aloud, discuss the initial thoughts, wrestle through the implications and even the hang ups- and discover the meaning intended for the original reads, and us today.

What were the key points for you?

What was the "one thing" you took away?

What surprised you?

What bothered you? Why?

Have you ever heard or come across a similar teaching or idea? Have you ever been taught something that was contradictory?

What is/was already part of your thinking on this subject?

What did you learn that was new to you?

*About God?

*About yourself?

*About others?

What changes of thought are necessary in light of what you learned?

What changes of action are needed?

How would life be different if you/we applied this teaching fully?

What are the hindrances, and what do we do about those?

What role can this group lay to help you take steps this week and beyond?

Relevant texts:

Eph 2:8-10

Col 1:21-22

Rom 5:6-11

Rom 2:4

Titus 3:3-7

...and may you dream with your LifeGroup what you all can not only discuss about God's saving grace, but how and where you can go make it happen together. (I can think of one particular, Caribbean locale....but there are other great, local ones too, and don't require a passport. Dream big.)

Steve

Enough 01

How many times has a group member said something that implied, or flat out said, that they believe we will "go to heaven if we're good"? Or that God gets angry and manipulates us with bad circumstances until we read our Bibles more, pray longer and more frequently, etc? Probably plenty, because for people who have spent their whole lives as members o churches, or have spent their whole lives avoiding them, many of them have the same view of God; that you have to really work at being loved, and then you have to really work at remaining that way.

In this first week of discussion, you may find that the best thing for some of your group members is just to allow them to share their view of God's mercy/grace/love and what we must do to procure it. Do some loving confrontation and ask,

"Interesting thought, Bob....how did you arrive at that conclusion?"

"Mary, a lot of people would agree with you view. But can you show us in the Bible where that comes from, because it seems it says something else entirely..."

Once we begin to see just how amazing Grace actually is, it doesn't make us lazy Christians or people who take God for granted (although there are very often seasons of that as people readjust to the relationship, and come out of rule following...), but very free, peace-filled followers of our loving Father in Heaven. And that changes everything.

Thaw

• Has there ever been a time that you messed something up at work, and rather than it turning out as bad as you anticipated, you were given grace and retained your position and involvement? Do tell.

• Have you ever seen examples of someone deserving punishment or isolation was given the opposite and it worked out for the better?

• What has stuck with you the most from Sunday's message?
• What was something you had never heard before?
• How has Grace been shaping your view of God and your relationship to Him?

Read

• Ephesians 2:1-10
• Thoughts?
• What does it mean to be "dead in transgression and sin"?
• What does it mean to be "alive in Christ"?
• What is it that makes one cross over from "death to life"?
• Does your answer to the previous sound like God is responsible, or some well focused human energy gets you there?

Discuss

• What are some of the problems with grace?
• If God had chosen the same system that other religions had used, what would Christianity look like?

Read

• 1 Timothy 1:12-16
• Considering Saul/Paul's history (Acts 8-9), what are your thoughts?
• In verse 16, Paul refers to the grace and patience he was shown, despite his past, as an example God was making of him for others to see. How does this differ from how we usually think of an authority confronting our darkness by "making an example of us"? What are the risks? Why would God do it?

Read

• Galatians 4:4-9, Philippians 3:4-8
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• Why wouldn't someone want to surrender themselves to the grace of God? Why do we seem to gravitate to a system that requires work to be on a scale?
• How is all this different than the Jesus you learned prior?
• Does this mean that there is nothing to work at at all?
• Respond as a group to this quote by Dallas Willard:

"Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action."

Apply

• So what? What does this have to do with our life?
• How does a better understanding of grace shape your relationships?
• How does a better understanding of grace help you deal with your past, or your anxieties about the merits of your present?
• If you have been trying to impress God with your scale-tipping goodness, how can this group help you step into the grace of Christ and become a trusting follower of Jesus Christ?

Prayer

• Spend some time praying that the Holy Spirit would reveal all the ways we live as a people trying to get God to love us, to be impressed with us, or to be less upset with us due to our resume of deeds. Pray that the group would know peace that only comes with understanding the grace and love shown to us in Christ Jesus. Pray also for people that have cheapened grace by making it something that gets you out of trouble. That it's something to shrug our shoulders at since "God is going to forgive it any way". Finally, pray over anyone in the group that doesn't know this grace and has, as a result, settled for living outside of it in the world where you must work to keep the scales tipped to the "good" side so that God will be good to us.