Life Groups

Life Group Questions

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Week 1 Questions

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Week of September 28th Visine Verse of the Week

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

(Isaiah 55:9 NIV)

· Take a minute and share about a great moment you had this summer.

· If your group has new members, use this time to get

acquainted too. Everyone tell a little about yourself and

your family

Group Questions

Don’t worry about getting through all the questions-let your

conversations be free flowing and natural. Remember it’s more about connecting with each other. And be sure to watch the time.

Your group should not last more than 1-1.5 hours.

It’s important to value the time we are choosing to set aside to meet.

"Settling In" Look up Mark 9:14-27 and have someone read it aloud.

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:24

Question: All of us struggle with doubt or “unbelief” at times. In what area do you find yourself struggling with confusion or not believing: With God? With yourself? With others?

Question: What do you typically do when you’re feeling doubt? Have some read today’s Visine Verse - (see front of card)

Question: God tells us his ways are higher...can you think of a time when you have a had to settle for not knowing and just trusting?

Question: How can we build or strengthen our faith?

GOING DEEPER…

More scripture to read about this week’s topic.

How do these scriptures address growing faith?

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17 NIV)

But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart”, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming. (Romans 10:8 NIV)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (Matthew 6:25-26 NIV)

You might remember a guy who was one of the small handful of men chosen by Jesus to be a close disciple. His name was Thomas. Unlike Peter or John, his name doesn’t make it into the New Testament a great deal. Actually it’s only mentioned 11 times. Here is one of those passages…John 20:24-29 Sadly, Thomas’ claim to fame—is that he doubted. Do you also resonate with Thomas’ unbelief ??? Take some time to talk to God about your doubts this week.

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Week 2 Questions

Week of October 5th - Visine Verse of the Week

One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in

Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 3:13-14)

…Some Little Known Facts…

Be ready to share 3 little known facts about yourself that nobody would know…2 of them should be true, but one of them you need to make up. And then let the rest of the group try to figure out which one is the

untrue one.

Example: I would say… I am a private pilot, I like paper crafts, I am a shy person. You all would have to guess which statement is not true about me. After everyone has guessed, I would tell you which statement was actually false. I hope you learn some great little tidbits about one another.

Group Questions

Don’t worry about getting through all the questions-let your

conversations be free flowing and natural. Remember it’s more about connecting with each other. And be sure to watch the time. Your group should not last more than 1-1.5 hours. It’s important to value the time

we are choosing to set aside to meet.

In this little exercise, I think we found that it is easy for each of us to have things in our lives that no one else knows about or would guess was true about us. We don’t necessarily want everyone to know everything about us. But, when some of these facts came out, it wasn’t really a big deal was it? The big deal comes when we are trying to do the same thing with sin in our lives. It does become a big deal for us to keep the little known facts about sin in our life a secret. And the thought of those sins getting out…past or present…can cause us INSOMNIA. But, we learned in the message this weekend that if we would simply choose to run to God with our sin and not try to run away from it or bury it…we can find real rest.

This week, we are talking about dealing with the sin in our lives – how dealing with it incorrectly, or trying to cover it up, can be a major thing that keeps us awake at night. So as we get started, let’s look at how the apostle Paul dealt with the sin in his life…

Have someone read the Visine Verse of the Week aloud: One thing I do:

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3.13-14

Paul made it a regular practice to run to God with his sin and then let God forgive him and replace the guilt and remorse with peace and rest. God has always

intended his people to find rest in Him.

Have someone read these verses aloud: Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. Hebrews 4.1

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; Hebrews 4.9

Question: In what percentage of your life do you feel you experience the kind of rest these verses are talking about? Can you share a little bit about how you

arrived at your number?

Question: What keeps you from experiencing “rest” more often?

Below is a list of creative means that we have all used to escape confronting our sin. Which one do you think that you are most likely to default to?

Blaming Others: The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Genesis 3.12

Living in Denial: “But I did obey the Lord,“ Saul said. 1 Samuel 15.20a and If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1.8

Avoiding or Evading the issue: But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. Jonah 1.3

Comparing ourselves to Others: The Pharisee stood up and prayed about

himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers,

adulterers—or even like this tax collector.’ Luke 18.11

This week, try to be aware of tendencies in your life where you find yourself

wrestling with sin in some way, rather than taking it right to God. Jot down some of your thoughts and feelings as you intentionally go to God…how did it make you feel? How was it different from the past?

GOING DEEPER…

More scripture to read about this week’s topic

How do these scriptures address growing faith?

Most of the book of I Samuel is dedicated to the Life of King Saul. Take some time this week to read I Samuel, chapters 8 - 31. It is a lot of reading, but it would give you a good idea of how a life lived open and repentant before the Lord can look like…and what

happens if we choose to justify and/or deny our sin or to run away from God’s forgiveness rather than to repent and find His rest. Write down any thoughts that God gives you as you are reading His Word.

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Week 3 Questions

Week of October 12th - Visine Verse of the Week

In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26-27 NIV))

Settling In -

Facilitators: Have a copy of last week’s questions available for review. Read this entire paragraph below aloud to the group, not stopping

after each question. After reading the paragraph, then re-read the tendencies we use to avoid sin listed in last week’s questions.

Last week we talked about some of the things we do to avoid addressing or owning sin in our lives. Since talking about that, did you catch yourself using some of those tactics this past week? Or, since we brought these tendencies to light, were you able to stop yourself from defaulting to your old ways? Did it surprise you to find yourself using some of these avoidance tactics? If you were able to stop yourself and just confess the sin…how did that make you feel?

Allow time for each group member to share about their past week based on the above paragraph.

Letting it soak in -

Read together the Visine Verses for the last 4 weekends:

Have a different person read each verse. Allow for a minute of

silence after each verse is read. Give the Lord a chance to minister to your heart.

Week 1- It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves? (Psalm 127:2 The Message)

Week 2- As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9 NIV)

Week 3- One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

Week 4- “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26-27 NIV)

Question: Would anyone like to share how these words of God spoke to you? (Allow time for everyone who would like to answer this question-but-everyone does not have to answer.)

Group Questions

This week’s Insomnia topic is anger…

Let’s review the tools for processing anger:

Be intentional—take a time out / ask “why am I angry…really?”

Stay in Focus—what’s God’s plan?

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14 NIV)

Assuming that we all get angry, how would you answer the following questions?? Try not to default to the tendencies we talked about earlier. J

Questions:

What do you do when you get angry?

What has helped you keep anger from becoming an “issue”? or Do you think it is an issue for you?

What is your response when someone is angry with you?

What do you wish your response would be?

GOING DEEPER…

In your quiet time this week answer these next two questions and then begin asking God to show you why this is. Go over the Visine verses That we just read and see if these words from God help to give you a different perspective. Write down any thoughts that come to you.

What kinds of things make you angry?

Who are you most often angry with?

Last week we asked you to consider reading the whole story of King Saul, which was almost the whole book of 1 Samuel. This week, you can read the whole story of Haman. It is found in the book of Esther….the whole book of Esther. The good news is that Esther is only 10 chapters long. As you read Haman’s story, let God speak to you about the anger in your own life and how He can help you overcome it before it can overcome you.

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Week 4 Questions

Week of October 19th - Visine Verse of the Week

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

(I Corinthians 10:13 NIV)

Settling In -

We have just experienced some beautiful fall weather this past week, and the autumn colors are approaching their peak. Share something you did to enjoy such an extravagant gift from our creator.

Two weeks ago we talked about sin. Last week we talked about anger and now this week we are going to talk about temptation. Take a poll. How many of your group want to go ahead with the questions? How many would rather go rake leaves than have to talk about these questions???

Have someone read aloud our Visine Verse of the Week:

(1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV)

Question:

In your own words, what does this verse speak to you?

Question:

The weekend message talked about King David’s slow fade into sin. Can you think of a time when that happened in your life? Without using any names or deep details, can you talk about the progression….the slow fade you gave into? What did you learn from that experience?

Have someone read these verses aloud.

but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:14-15 NIV)

Question:

Again, if you are comfortable with it, share what is a major

temptation in your life these days…but more importantly what you are doing to stand up under it in order to prevent the afore mentioned slide into sin and death that James talks about.

Talk about what kinds of death you have seen as a result of temptation giving way to sin.

Going Deeper:

Since scripture is such an important part of dealing with temptation, consider sharing a commitment together as a group to reading a certain amount of scripture daily over the coming week.

Examples:

Read the first 7 Psalms (1 per day) or break the book of

Philippians into 7 even parts for daily reading.

Day 1: Philippians 1.1-15

Day 2: Philippians 1.16-30

Day 3: Philippians 2.1-15

Day 4: Philippians 2.16-30

Day 5: Philippians 3.1-15

Day 6: Philippians 3.16-4.10

Day 7: Philippians 4.11-23

Read Psalm 1

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or

stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is

in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is

like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the

wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the

wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the

righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the

way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1 NIV)

Question:

How do these verses encourage you to continue to fight against the pull of temptation; to ward off a slow fade?

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Week 5 Questions

Week Of October 26th Visine Verse of the Week:

We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

Hebrews 4:15-16 The Message Bible

Settling In: Because this is the week of Halloween we are going to be talking about open wounds and scars…oh yuck. J Take a few minutes, go around the room and give everyone a chance to share about their biggest “physical ouch”…how it happened, when it happened, and what is the result today? NOTE: The Biggest scar wins!

Pressing On: Now go back around the room and briefly share about the biggest “emotional ouch” you have had or are now enduring. In telling our stories, let’s not use names - rather we’ll use phrases like…a friend of mine, a family member, a co-worker, a fellow church goer, a former spouse, someone close to me… etc.

Have someone read aloud the Visine Verse of the Week: We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

Hebrews 4:15-16 The Message Bible

Question: When you are tempted to give up or give in to sin during an “ouchy” situation do you ever use phrases such as…it’s a lot tougher to live in our society today than it was when Jesus lived on Earth, or Jesus will understand after all I am only human!!? (Allow some time for open discussion.)

Question: Do you walk right up and take His Mercy but refuse to accept His help that can see you through your despair? Do you forget that while on Earth, Jesus was a human being, that His power to overcome came from the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that is in us today?

Question: In light of the Visine Verse, how well do you think Jesus can relate to your present situation?

Have someone read aloud: There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped him and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. Isaiah 53.2-5 The Message Bible

As the scripture says, our hurts are not pretty. They can leave ugly scars and disfigurement. Pull out your eyeball card. On the back is a great big Band Aid. On your Band Aid, write down your biggest “ouch” right now. (Allow a minute or so for people to think about this and write something down.)

In closing, let’s practice walking right up to the throne of God to receive the Mercy and Grace that He has for us, and then also to receive His help…His Holy Neosporin that can heal us and our ouches.

Have everyone bow their heads and then simply go around the circle and offer up a one sentence prayer to Jesus. Example: If I wrote on my Band Aid: my relationship with my sons, I would pray, “Jesus help me to improve my conversations with my sons”. And then the next person would pray their sentence prayer. The last one to pray will say Amen…(Which means so be it.!!!).

Going Deeper: Pick one of the first four books of the New Testament…(Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), and commit to reading from it every day looking for clues to how human Jesus was…what his struggles were, how he dealt with them, and consider how he might have felt during those “ouchy” times. Each person can choose whichever book they want.

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Week 6 Questions

Week of November 2^{nd
-} Visine Verse of the Week

Then Jesus said to his disciples,

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself

and take up his cross and follow me”.

(Matthew 16:24 NIV)

Settling In: This season of Insomnia is coming to a close. The Final weekend of this series will be Nov. 8 and 9. Take some time and go around the room letting everyone share what their favorite moment or experience has been in your Life Group during this season of Insomnia. Now take another minute to discuss how you want to wrap up this particular Life Group series. For some groups it will be necessary to end the regular meetings, for others, they will choose to continue meeting and some will look for some other book that they can read and discuss. Some will choose to set a date to get together for a dessert or potluck meal sometime during the upcoming holiday season. Whatever your group decides, please note that we will be doing another season of Life Groups sometime in Feb/Mar 09. Your Life Group may want to make a point of getting back together then, or maybe some of you will want to branch out and experience a different mix of people in a new group during the next season. Whichever route you choose, please be aware of those you do life with on a regular basis…both at TVC and in your daily lives. Do they need to be invited to come join a group with you?

Have someone read aloud the Visine Verse of the Week: Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Matthew 16:24 NIV

Question: What might “denying yourself and taking up your cross” look like in your life right now? How is that going for you?

Question: This past weekend we were asked the question…”What’s your day been like so far?” For most of us, even our best days have pieces of “junk” that creep in, blow in, or just plain do a smack down on us. And then we were asked to consider: What if… all the bad stuff in your life right now wasn’t really junk at all…what if it was really something good for you that was disguised as junk?

Have someone read these words of the Apostle Paul aloud: Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12.8-10

Give each group member a chance to recall a piece of “junk” that happened in their own life, and yet, when they looked back, they could see that even in their weakness, it turned out to be something good for them that was just disguised as junk until they got “Second Sight”.

Turn over the Eye Ball Card. Write these verses on your Second Sight Glasses:

On the right lens put: Do everything without complaining…Philippians 2:14a NIV

On the left lens put: Give thanks in all circumstances…1 Thessalonians 5:18a NIV

At the bottom of the card put this verse: And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4.19 NIV

As a group, make a commitment to each other to ask God to help you trust God for all your needs.

Going Deeper: Continue Reading a Psalm a day…Psalms 8-14. Or Continue reading one of the Gospels…Matthew, Mark, Luke or John- looking for clues about what kind of person Jesus was

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Week of November 9^th

Visine Verse of the Week

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 4:6-7)

Settling In: This is the last week of Insomnia. Let’s review the major categories of things that can keep us awake…doubts, unbelief, sin, anger, temptations, hurts. Now, let’s also remember that we can choose to have ‘Second Sight’ when this kind of junk happens in our lives…to stop and consider whether the junk, in the end, is really something good for us. And finally, let’s review one more time, the Visine Verses that can help us overcome our Insomnia. (Have different group members read aloud all of our

Visine Verses of the Week. The Verses are printed on the back of the Eyeball Card…or if you are looking at this online…they are listed at the end of the questions for this week.) Don’t forget this week’s verse on the front of this page. It might be a good idea to stick this card in your Bible for easy reference if you find yourselves experiencing angst in the future.

Share with the group one way you feel you have begun to change your thinking or attitude towards something that has been keeping you awake at night since listening to this series.

Question: And now go around the room and share something that you are still afraid of…heights, spiders, giving a stupid answer to one of these Life Group questions…etc. Do you worry about finding yourself in these situations?

Letting it Sink In: Have someone read aloud….Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6 NLT

Question: Can you share about a time when you were asked to do something or you found yourself in a situation that you had absolutely no idea how you could ever get through it or accomplish it?

Have someone read aloud "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

As we are wrapping up our focus on Things that keep us Awake…spend a little time sharing with each other how these words from Jesus himself could encourage and/or challenge you to begin changing your thought processes towards your life…and the lives of those you love?

Wrap Up: Go around the room and let each person offer a one sentence prayer to God listing something that they will let go of and let God work out in their life. Example…”God, I am going to trust you to show me what to do about my job situation.”

One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus..

(Philippians 3:13-14)

In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

(Ephesians 4:26-27 NIV))

(I Corinthians 10:13 NIV)

(Hebrews 4:15-16 The Message)

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”.

(Matthew 16:24 NIV)

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:9 NIV

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