Above Ground 1

The Fruit of the Spirit.

Not a list of do's but different ways of identifying and observing God's Spirit free to work within us.

Rooted in the previous four-week discussion on humility, and our constant effort to keep ourselves true to what we really are (no more, no less), we hope to see fruit spring healthfully from the humus.

Use the generic discussion maker and key texts to begin a ten week journey of looking gmor alike Christ as he works in and through us.

Key texts:

• Galatians 5:18-23
• John 15:4-5

What most stuck out for you about Sunday morning?

What were the key points for you in the message?

What was the "one thing" you took away that seems applicable in your own, personal life?

Have you ever done harm by trying to do good?
How does this happen, and how have you learned to see the difference early?

What did you learn:

*About God?

*About yourself?

*About others?

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

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

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

Humus Week 4

This series on Humility made other church's series look stupid. ADMIT IT! This was the best ever.

...Ok, that was the last humility-themed joke. (For good laugh, consider that Moses is assumed to have penned the book of Numbers, and read Numbers 12:3)

As we close this series, use this specific discussion time to not only dig around in the topic some more, but think of it as an anchor to come back in the life of your group. A LifeGroup without humility, or at least a desire to embrace it, is terribly difficult thing. You may want to ask the group if it would be willing to use what they have learned over the last few weeks as a way of holding each of them accountable. Don't let it fade in the rearview mirror, continue to walk with each other, making sure that we collectively keep our feet on the ground and our eyes up.

Thaw

• What most stuck with you from Sunday morning?
• How is it helping to shape you into the person God's wants?
• What's the take away, beyond the obvious, for this whole series?
• What are you up against when it comes to living humbly?

Read

• 1 Peter 5:1-7
• Thoughts?
• Considering Peter often had difficulty with listening to Jesus and, seemingly, being humble enough to let Christ be Master, how does these final thoughts of Peter sound to you?
• What's the significance of bringing up the shepherd imagery?
• How does shepherding sheep require humility?
• Why do you think he starts with an admonition to young men, then immediately widens the scope to everybody?
• Why does God humble proud people, and exalt humble people?
• Why does this section about humility include the phrase, "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you"?

Leader note: You may want to point out that the actual phrasing can be interpreted, "Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you". A lack of humility is often an assumption that you're going to have to run your own PR firm if anyone is ever going to love you, respect, want to be exclusive with you, envy you, etc. Offloading those cares, obsessions and anxieties onto God, resting in his caring about what we care about, is a way of saying "God, will you exalt me so that it happens the right way, and not due to my own insecurities!"

Discuss

The band Switchfoot is a Christian rock band with wide appeal in the non-Christian music scene. Their music fills specifically Christian airwaves, but is also featured prominently on TV, college football, and by rock station who don't make it a habit to use Christ's name outside of a expletive. People of faith as well as people who aren't ready to categorize themselves that way admit to being inspired by Switchfoot's music; being drawn into the message. Discuss as a group this quote from lead singer, John Foreman.

“There’s a certain amount of humility that is attached to wonder, and a certain amount of pride attached to knowledge and I think the moment you say ‘we know beyond a shadow of a doubt this exists’, you can’t have faith that it exists. Faith is no longer possible. So faith is only possible when doubt is possible. Faith is only possible when humility and wonder is possible. And I feel like the musical world of humility and wonder is a much wider door to enter into than the narrow confines of epistemology and things like knowledge and these really narrow boxes. That’s kind of where our songs are… [those are] the worlds our songs are trying to explore"
John Foreman, Switchfoot

• Thoughts?
• How is this applicable to the kind of "music" our individual lives create on a day-to-day basis?
• Why is this such an important facet of who we are as people pursuing the Christ?

Discuss

• What are some examples of Unholy Deafness that you have experienced in your life?
• Were you rebelling, apathetic, or were you unaware of consequences? Explain the difference.
• What changed your thinking on this?
• What are some examples of Holy Deafness that you have experienced?
• What was/is the root of this?

Leader note: be sure and bring up that certainty feels like a Biblical mandate, but as John Foreman states, faith lives along side doubt. If there aren't doubts, there isn't faith. Frankly, if there isn't faith, however good and satisfying and powerful it might feel, it's not Christianity. As people share their Holy Deafness, make sure it's understood to some degree that this is rooted in a desire to have power (not maniacally, we all want to avoid leaving ourselves physically, emotionally and intellectually vulnerable!) and to mitigate the necessity for faith, surrender and, ultimately, humility.

Apply

• How might this group help itself remain a student, listening to and for the Christ?
• How do we remain students when we're not together, throughout the week?

Humus Week 3

There is quite a bit of excitement in the air as our community steps into the next chapter where Kenya and Haiti are concerned. This week, Jonathan interview's Kurt from 410 Bridge and discusses a few key updates, as well as important principles that apply to our ongoing work in the 3rd world, as well as our day-to-day.
Use this time as a group to talk about the principle of "when helping hurts", standing on the shoulders of the previous two weeks as well as gleaning from your own experience in humility.

As a group leader, remember to not only "get through" the discussion time, but help the group to discover their involvement in Crosspointe's overall mission. THis could range from prayer, sponsorship, getting educated about Jacmel Haiti and Michura, Kenya, helping out with fundraisers, etc. In addition to find ways in the near future for more and more people to get involved, remember to find ways to explore the topic, humility in this case, and how it applies to each of us in real life, and not just as an idea within a discussion.


What most stuck out for you about Sunday morning?

What were the key points for you in the message?

What was the "one thing" you took away that seems applicable in your own, personal life?

Have you ever done harm by trying to do good?
How does this happen, and how have you learned to see the difference early?


What did you learn:
*About God?

*About yourself?

*About others?

Can you think of any examples where Jesus "could have" helped someone and didn't? Might he have known something about longterm harm coming from short-term help? Explain.

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

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

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

Humus. Week 2

As discussions on humility go, make sure yours triumphs over all the other groups!

This week, discuss the importance of humility in the context of "being right" and how much we prioritize our certainty. Certainty often comes at the cost of a relationship, and if it all hangs on love- we must be extremely cautious to not be choosing the idea of love over a living, breathing object of it.


"Should you ask me, What is the first thing in religion? I
should reply, The first, second, and third thing therein --
nay, all -- is humility."
-Augustine


"Humility is the solid foundation of all the virtues."
-Confucius


Thaw
*Though pretty early in the game, what is different this year than last so far?
*How do you see this group as part of your growth? How do you see your involvement in it?

*Who is someone that you consider strong in the faith and humble regarding others that may disagree with them? Describe them, and as the group shares, look for commonalities.

*What most stayed with you from Sunday? Why?

Read
The following is the second chapter from the Letter to the Ephesians, as translated by Eugene Peterson in The Message. Have one person read it aloud while the others listen.

"It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
 
Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

But don't take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God's ways had no idea of any of this, didn't know the first thing about the way God works, hadn't the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God's covenants and promises in Israel, hadn't a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.

The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.

Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home."

*Thoughts?
*This may have been great news of the previous "outsiders", but perhaps not for the "insiders". What is the modern parallel?

Read
Ephesians 4:1-3
*Thoughts?
*Why does unity take so much work?

Leader note: help the group discover that our differing ideas don't divide us, but our fear of them do. Humility in accepting that Christ unites what we divided is key, and working hard to preserve that unity involves us seeing our differences as secondary to what (Who) binds us.

What role does remaining a student of life play in humility and the bond of peace?
Can we cease to be a learner and remain humble? Explain?

Discuss
*When does it feel necessary to fight for a principle, even at the cost of a relationship?
*Have you ever done this?
*Did/do you regret the outcome, or see your choice to stand up for truth at the expense of a relationship as necessary? Share.
*Are there any religions or ideologies that you are aware of whose adherents will accept literally any person, regardless of their views? Is this acceptance a strength or a weakness? Explain.

*In Ephesians, Paul refers to Jesus as a cap stone, the thing that holds everything together. How does this play out in our various contexts (church, churches, work, school, family, politics, etc...)?
*How is it playing out in this group?


Meditate on these passages on pride, allowing yourself to consider how they play into relationships where there is disagreement of division and even fear about contrary ideas. When finished, share what you have learned, realized or have been reminded of.

When pride comes, then comes shame;
But with the humble is wisdom.

Prov 11:2

By pride comes nothing but strife,
But with the well-advised is wisdom.

Prov 13:10


The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom,
And before honor is humility.

Prov 15:33


Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly,
Than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Prov 16:19


Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Prov 16:18

Before destruction the heart of a man is proud,
And before honor is humility.

Prov 18:12


A man's pride will bring him low,
But the humble in spirit will retain honor.

Prov 29:23

By pride comes contention.

Prov 13:10


The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach
his way.
Psa 25:9


But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight
themselves in the abundance of peace.

Psalms 37:11


Surely he scorns the scorners: but he gives grace to the
lowly.
Prov 3:34