Better Living Through Stealing-Jailer

The Jailer was awakened when the prisoners were set free.

This is what God is always working to do in our individual and collective lives.

Exodus.

As a group, discuss and celebrate what God is up to/has done in this series we've just walked through. Discuss baptism, rebirth and what our church might become with so many willing to "wake up"and trust Jesus Christ.

Looking at the series as a whole, discuss the main take-aways that each member has, and how that is being applied in life. Talk about what the rest of the year might have in store regarding what God is trying to accomplish in our hearts, and what hurdles we may face or even create in response.

Think of the Jailer, and steal from him.

Better Living Through Stealing-Jonah

Next Sunday we will celebrate Baptism Sunday. Some will "jump in" spontaneously, others will have "soaked" on the idea for a couple weeks. (Church humor just slays).

Make sure that you see your discussion this week as connected to both the previous week and the week to come. We are hoping numerous people who have hid behind their presentations of control as well as those who have disqualified themselves from the the life of Christ because of their pasts will feel drawn into faith like never before.

Let's lead our groups in such a way as to create an atmosphere of openness, challenge and courage to take on the life we've been invited to since the beginning.

Thaw

• What do you find yourself thinking a lot about in the last week and why do you think it's been so prominent in your mind?
• How does a recurring thought shape our life, if even a little?

• Read Philippians 4:8
• Take a moment (a minute) and find a good thing to focus on. The friends gathered with you now. The snack someone brought. Air Conditioning. Your favorite phone call with a friend or family member recently. Something about work or school that is going well. Think about this for a minute, and observe how often you mind tries to worry or become cynical. When it happens, remind yourself that your life is more than what's gone wrong, and come back to enjoying the thought. Thank God for this thought and enjoy the results of re-centering as Paul discusses in Philippians.

• What most stuck with you from Sunday morning?
• Did anyone in this group place a decision card in the trough?

Read*

• Jonah 1-3:2

*Leader note: It may be good to have one person read aloud, after priming the group to listen for not just the narrative of the story, but all the minute details and metaphors that are useful for applying to those of us that have never been swallowed by a fish, but feel chewed up and spit out by life in our own way.

• Thoughts?
• Which parts of Jonah's story do you find yourself identifying with? Why?
• While listening, did you ever have the thought that Jonah was evil? Explain.
• Do you think God considered Jonah evil?
• Do you think God considers you evil for running away from the life he has for you? Explain.

Discuss

• The element of being swallowed by the fish happens to also be God getting Jonah where he was supposed to be (even though Jonah didn't know that until he was vomited on to Nineveh's shore). How do you see some of your least favorite circumstances?

Read

• Jonah 3:1
• What are the implications for the "again" to be happening at Nineveh, and not back where God first called Jonah?

Leader note: The idea here is that God, fully aware of the disobedience and the consequences of Jonah's actions, still has the same path for Jonah to walk. Where Jonah may have disqualified himself, God is still building a story and arranging it so that Jonah could do what only Jonah could do. On the beach, he's ready, even though Jonah is probably thinking of starting completely over.

Discuss

• The prayer in Jonah 2 contains no request for forgiveness or admission of guilt. It's simply Jonah acknowledging who God is and what he has done. Why might this be, and how does it apply to you taking steps and growing in your faith today?

Leader note: This is a simple way of getting at God, forgiveness and how guilt and fear aren't employed. Admission of guilt and forgiveness are key, but not in a groveling, hung-over-your-head-forever sort of way. It's waking up to his Lordship, humbly, and reorienting life around his will rather than our own. Living in condemnation and fear is a human trick for lasting control. God doesn't seem to do this.

Apply

• What does the step of baptism have to do with the individual baptized and the world around them?

Leader note: Go through some ways that the individual obviously benefits, but then the benefit they become to others as a co-receptical of God's Spirit in the world. Jonah's obedience put him AND Nineveh right with the Universe!

• How can this group support those that wish to take the step of baptism?
• What hurdles are in your way as you seek to grow in your trust of God and become part of what he is up to in the world?
• How can the group or your church help with that?

Better Living Through Stealing-Adulterous Woman

Some groups will be ready to go there, some will not be. It will take prayerful discernment to decide which yours is.

This week is about ceasing from sin.

In an non-confrontational, non-judgmental atmosphere, our goal as leaders is to make Christ's words tangible and immediate. As we come closer to the end of this series, we come closer to a time of corporate decision. We will be doing baptisms as part of our worship in two weeks. People will be accepting an invitation to immerse themselves into the name of Christ, into his community and to receive his Spirit as a member of his body.

But you can't do all this if you also continue to live a life of sin anymore than you can legitimately paint over rotted wood and call it new. There are things to quit in order to truly (re)begin.

As the group discusses the idea of sin, and then moves into the specifics of personal sin, it may be appropriate to divide the group by gender, or even divide it on multiple levels to give people smaller audience for reality. Again, this is a leader's discernment. As you do so, point to baptisms in two weeks and their participation in them as being baptized, praying for others or in providing strong support afterward.

Thaw

• What are some recurring thoughts, hopes or worries in your life this week?
• What most stuck with you from Sunday morning?
• Do you have a sense that God is speaking to you through Sunday morning? What about?

Read

• John 8:1-11
• Thoughts?

Leader note: Try not to get too bogged down in discussions about authorship or scholarly debates about the Pericope Adulterae. It will serve as a distraction to try and figure out the earliest place for this segment of text. The vast academics on this piece strongly supports that it's original and genuine, if even a bit bounced around because of its measure of scandal.

Read

• Romans 6:1-11
• Thoughts?

Leader note: Let the group kick some of these ideas around. See what they come up with without being prompted by specific questions. This way people have a better chance at dealing with their own lives than in getting the answer to a question correctly. Remember, silence is uncomfortable, but not painful. Leave gaps and let the members fill them. Additionally, some may wonder (especially if they think a bit formulaically) about this text in Romans (which is to Christians) and the woman told not to sin, though not invited to profess her faith in Christ (and is, but some accounts, not yet a Christian and so not yet reborn and baptized into Christ). Without dismissing this, recognize the tension and the fact that those addressed in Romans are no less sinful and no more loved than Jesus' audience. Standing, convicted of sin in the presence of the son of God, must be on par with praying a sinner's prayer and reading Romans 6! People being saved from their errors is always the point, no matter where God finds them. So, those the two audiences differ, the one seeking their repentance and renewal is not.

• How would you define sin?
• Why are we so good at justifying some of our own?
• Why is it hard to understand some actions as sins?
• How has sin been misconstrued by spiritual leaders?

Leader note: If discussions come up about all sin being equal, you may disagree on the grounds that the Bible never says this. That's why it doesn't feel just. Stealing a banana is not the same sin as killing a banana farmer. Most cite James 2:10 to support this idea, but this text speaks of one person being guilty of sin, no matter how that guilt occurs (adultery, murder, theft, greed....all roads to becoming a "sinner", but not all equivalent sins). This is important for some (and very much not for others) because their specific sins being equal to other sins can produce a blase attitude about all of it. "What's the difference if I stop sinning or not? I'll still mess up once I get a grip on that particular one, and the new sin will be the same as the one I quit. No one's perfect. What's the difference if I sin this way or that?" Any sin can make you a sinner, but sin has a scale of harm that it causes self and others, clearly. To equate them makes God seem disconnected from reality and sin something, ultimately, to not quit for lack of pay-off.

Apply

• What kinds of sin does our culture most struggle with?
• Why are these sins, sins? Explain their destructiveness beyond what we might be told to believe.
• What are some cultural sins that may not be sins at all?

• What are some hang ups you as an individual have had throughout life?
• What caused this?
• What good thing is this sin a counterfeit of?

• Is anyone willing to discuss what sin they feel like Jesus is asking them to walk away from now?
• What are the risks to answering or not answering the above question?
• As Baptism Sunday is only two weeks away, who sense that God is inviting them into rebirth?
• What kinds of things do you sense God will be inviting you to begin and become?
• What will have to be removed in order for those things to begin?
• How can this group be more and more helpful?

Leader note: Affirm every bit of transparency that's been experienced today. Invite them to continue their conversations after the meeting time and to continue to entrust themselves to each other. Studying the Bible does very little if there isn't a pervasive sense that we can trust each other with what we discover in the process.

Prayer

• Pray over the group and those members that feel pulled in two directions by their persistent hang ups and the invitation of Christ. Pray a prayer of encouragement about baptism Sunday.

Further Reading

• Matthew 7:1-5
• Romans 8:1
• Romans 12
• Acts 22:1-16

Better Living Through Stealing-Deborah

This is one of those topics and discussions that, if people would get their arms around it, could change the way they see their relationship to others and their in the world.

Use this time to get at the heart of the Kingdom of Christ in contrast to the way of a base nature. Power and strength aren't what we learned as kids. There are numerous texts about humility over pride, lowness over loftiness and a pervasive attitude adjustment for those who put their trust into superficial displays of power. See if you can find any relevance to such an archaic idea in the Research Triangle, USA.

(There are some additional texts at the bottom of this study for further reading)

Thaw

• What's something you thought you would have finished at this point in the summer and haven't?
• How can the group help?
• What's the main thing you feel you've learned in this series so far?
• What most stuck with from this last message?
• Did you feel like you could identify with Deborah? Why or why not?

Read

• 2 Chron 26:15-16
• Hebrews 11:34
• 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
• 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
• Thoughts?
• How would you describe this theme?
• What's the wrong way to read texts like these?

Leader note: The point of the last questions is to make sure that the group doesn't assume that people of power and influence should feel guilty. God isn't actually on record as strictly using simple minded, unintelligent people for his Kingdom. The 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 and all the passages with similar themes are about an attitude of reversal, where self-confidence is only as meritorious as it's rooted in self-awareness and humble trust of God. Be as smart and as a strong as you want, just don't replace God with it.

Discuss

• What's a time where you felt like you were weak and God showed up in those circumstances?
• What's a time when you felt strong on your own and disconnected from God and others?
• How do you know you're in the midst of one of these times, since they are so much ewasier to recognize in hindsight?
• How do you know you are not in one of those times now?

Read

• Matthew 5:1-13
• Thoughts?
• How is this applicable to our lives when we have so much economically, socially, medically and in terms of our freedoms?

Leader note: It's key to remember that Jesus (despite many sermons and books in support of this idea) isn't saying you must become these things to get blessed. He is, rather, saying that despite what society would teach (i.e. that poor people, persecuted people, meek people...they all have empty existences that should be avoided. It's the people on top that have "blessing") these people have a sacred window thrown open to them. Their simplicity, and their interdependency, prime them for working in tandem with God when the wholes in their lives being filled would actually drive God's Spirit away. This can be realized at any level of influence, resource or class. Poverty isn't a goal for achieving God's favor. Understanding that God's favor is rooted in our admitting reality is the goal. No matter what or who we are, or strength coming from God is a way of keeping our selfish error at bay.

• What is the appeal of an underdog story? Why do stories so often portray a "least likely" to be the protagonist?
• Why don't we want to be underdogs personally, in real life?

Apply

• Does anyone in this group have what they would consider a strong desire to be strong and powerful in some sense?
• What are the pros and cons to achieving this?
• How do you remain aware of when a pursuit of good strength has turned into faith in chariots?
• Who helps you with this?
• Does this group have permission to ask this level of accountability to each other (i.e. allowing others to speak into obsessions with power and strength as they are seen in conversations, ambitions, goals, etc.)?

Additional texts

• Judges 4
• Deut 20:6
• Psalm 20:7
• Isaiah 31:1