 |
| A city on a hill cannot be hidden. So, unhide! |
It turns out God wants us to be at peace, and allow others to have the same, by hanging up the show and admitting we all need grace and mercy and love.
As a group step into the deeper waters of being known beyond impressions and performances. See if you can once again step closer to the freedom Christ is walking us into.
And then, as a group, find a way to make this part of your life beyond the typical group meeting. Perhaps split for several weeks a month into gender specific groups within your group if have men and women. See if more closeness can come from that. Maybe give some ideas for the group becoming smaller groups. Two or three grabbing coffee, taking a walk. Help your members, and yourself, remove the obstacles that hinder you from being one person, rather than as many as seems demanded by everyone but God.
Thaw
- Who is someone in your life that you think of when you thing of the word "genuine" or "real"?
- What is it that allows this person to be the way they are?
- What has stuck with you moist from the music and the message Sunday?
Read
- Matthew 5:13-6:1
- Thoughts?
Leader note: Do not feel the pressure to answer all the questions that come from this large selection of text. Discussions about "hell" (gehenna), cutting off hands and gouging out eyes, prohibition against divorce, etc.; these are all important discussions. However, the overall theme is too important to be distracted from. Jesus recites the Laws exactly as they were known in his day- exactly as many of us know them- and then says there was always an underlying principle that's been missed. Help the group see the pattern of calling out mere rule-keeping as not the kind of righteousness God is after. Try to think in terms of the heart of a person following the rules, and that the body of this law and the heart of people are summarized by being as loving and as compassionate as we can be.
- What themes do you notice?
- Why would Christ begin a section like this by pacifying some of his listeners with the words "I haven't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill (satisfy)?
- How does what Jesus said align or misalign with what you believe God prioritizes?
Read
- Proverb 4:23
- Jeremiah 17:9-10
- Psalm 139:23-24
- Thoughts?
Discuss
- What does heartwork look like on a given day?
- How are your life, your words and actions and attitudes, part of how others undergo heartwork and come to become more at peace and at one?
- What barriers exist at home, at work, at church, for you and others to be people who can put their real hearts on display, without pretense?
