This week is a finally nudge to allow God to do what he wants to do for more than us; update us, bringing us into conformity with the image of his son. See this week's discussion as license to say and ask things about changing that you've perhaps not had before.
Thaw
- If someone came to your house and offered you $10M if you participated in an olympic event, which would you choose and why?
- If Jesus came to your house and offered you his definition of Life if you stepped out of human expectations and into what he wired you to be, what would you assume he was talking about?
- Share a moment or two where you "read the label" on a word or action in the past week, pausing to check an impulse and to employ wisdom instead. Describe all the positive and negative feelings that it came with, and what you learned.
- Where are the recurring areas in your life that God seems to be trying to help you surrender your thinking and teach you wisdom?
- What has stayed with you from the message Sunday?
- How do you see it applying in the near future?
Read
- Ephesians 4:17-5:2
- What are the things that most pop off the page for you?
- Paul gives many instructions in this text. Describe the relationship between the "don'ts" and the "do's".
Leader note: for example, "stop stealing" is coupled with "work with your hands". Paul illustrates new uses and new thoughts, not just the prohibition against the old ones.
Discuss
- How might a passage like this make someone feel guilty?
- How does your perception of this passage change when you read Ephesians 1:1?
Leader note: The point here is that Paul writes this instruction to people he calls Saints. Our view of a "saint" is typically someone else that's arrived in the faith; someone that doesn't need told not to steal or have rage issues.
- How does your perception of a saint change when you read who Paul is speaking to?
- Might you be a saint? Why or why don't you think that?
Leader note: "Saint" comes from the same word in Greek ("hagios") that we get our word holy, or "set apart for special use". Saints in Greek are the holy or "set apart ones" that have allowed God to continually transform them into the image of Christ, and are part of redeeming the world with him into His Kingdom dream.
Read
- Ephesians 1:2
- Ephesians 6:24
- Thoughts?
- Replace the word "grace" with "God's loving patience"...what does this facet of God's attitude toward us (you) say to the process of transformation we're undergoing?
- What place would guilt have in this process? Explain.
Leader note: Some may still think God uses guilt to control. Their daily life of "don't do that because God will get mad" is proof. That kind of control would be a weak, unimaginative god trying to manipulate people like religious leaders have done for millennia. But some want to throw guilt out all together, when that's not Biblical either. Guilt can catalyze a desire for change, but it can't do the changing. I may feel guilty for stealing supplies at the office. That's good guilt. It may drive me to go back, give the supplies back, repent and confess. The repentance (change of mind that precedes the change of behavior) is where the transformation occurs, and Christlikeness is employed.
Discuss
- If we compare ourselves to other "saints" we'll surely not compare equally. One will have matured in areas the other hasn't, and vice versa. Others may be immature by comparison to ourselves and we'll feel like we've achieved and arrived. Ephesians 5:1-2 says mimic Christ. Yet, there are people that are more like Jesus in certain areas than ourselves, and we more than others....what do we do?
Apply
- What are some of the first areas of your life that will be/are affected by Christlikeness?
- What are some of the areas of your life that seem to be impossible to get to in terms of allowing God to change them? Why might this be?
- How can your group help?
- How can embracing disciplines help?
Leader note: Prayer, study, meditation, fasting, simplicity, solitude, more open discussion in group, serving as a lifestyle, wisdom seeking, etc...
- If Jesus came to your house and offered you his definition of Life if you stepped out of human expectations and into what he wired you to be, how do you assume he would work to transform you?
- The premise of the above question isn't hypothetical. You are covered in God's loving patience, and challenged/invited to become new. What does you saying "yes" to this invitation look like tonight? This week?
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