Discovering God s Will For Your Life - Life Group Questions

Transcription

1 Discovering God s Will For Your Life - Life Group Questions Week 1 September 11 th to 17 th Big Idea: Get Directions From God for Life s Journey Key Scripture: Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. 1. Icebreaker Question: Have you ever been travelling somewhere and found yourself lost? Describe the experience. 2. Read Proverbs 3:5-6. What do you think is the problem with leaning on our own understanding when it comes to discovering God s will? Have you ever leaned on your own understanding and regretted it? Can you give an example? 3. In what ways is wanting to know God s will different from, in all your ways submit to God s will? 4. What is the promise in Proverbs 3:5-6? What does this promise mean and how does it encourage you in your walk with God today? What specific steps will you begin to take in order to put into practice this week s teaching?

2 Week 2 September 18 th to 24 th Big Idea: The Word of God Guides Us Key Scriptures: Psalm 119:105 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105) 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) 1. Icebreaker: As a group (if your group is too big you can break up into smaller units and do this exercise in shifts) go into a room that is pitch black (group leader: you will need to prepare a room before hand rooms with no windows, i.e. some bathrooms and garages, work well; or use heavy fabric to cover windows to prevent light from coming in). Spend about a minute or two in the room, and try to walk around with bumping into each other or the walls. After this exercise, spend some time debriefing what was this experience like for you? What types of feelings did you experience? 2. Have a group member read Psalm 119:105. In what way does God s Word bring light to our paths? Give a specific example from your life? Have you been in seasons where you have not read God s Word regularly and consistently if so, how has that keep you in the dark? Give an example from your life to explain. 3. God s Word equips and prepares us for life s journey. Have a group member read 2 Timothy 3: The Word of God works in four ways to equip us for life s journey. What are they? 4. What steps will you take to put this week s teaching into practice what changes will take place in order for you to grow in this area of your life?

3 Week 3 September 25 th to October 1 st Big Idea: Guys, Don t Hesitate to Ask for Directions! (Through Prayer God Reveals His Will to Us) Key Scriptures: Matthew6:9-10 and 26:39 9 This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done. (Matthew 6:9-10) Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. (Matthew 26:39) 1. Icebreaker Question: Describe a time when you were really seeking answers to a big decision. 2. Do you think there can be some differences between asking God if something is His will and asking God for His will? 3. What was God s answer to Jesus prayer that, this cup be taken from me? Has God ever answered one of your prayers this way? Would you be willing to share specifically? 4. What are other answers God can have our prayers besides yes? And what are some of the reasons God might answer other than yes?.

4 Week 4 October 2 nd to 8 th Big Idea: Get Out the GPS! (God Has Given Us His Spirit to Guide Us) Key Scriptures: Isaiah 55:8-9 and 1 Corinthians 2: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9) 9 However, as it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him 10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man s judgment: 16 For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2: 9-16) 1. Icebreaker: Blindfold some members of the group and have the other members try to guide them around the room using their voices. 2. What is the only possible way a person might know your thoughts? How is it possible to know the thoughts of God according to 1 Corinthians 2:9-16? In what ways, have you read in your Bibles, does the Holy Spirit serve as a kind of Tour Guide in our spiritual journey? 3. How did the Spirit provide direction for God s people in the following Scriptures: Acts 15:22-29; 16:6-10; and 18: What specific steps will you take this week to cultivate the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life?

5 Week 5 October 9 th to 15 th Big Idea: Ask the Advice of Fellow Journeyers Who Have Been There! (The Counsel of Godly Persons Confirms God s Will for Us) Key Scriptures: Proverbs 15:22 and 1 Kings 12:1-24 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. (Proverbs 15:22) 1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from [a] Egypt. 3 So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 4 Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you. 5 Rehoboam answered, Go away for three days and then come back to me. So the people went away. 6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. How would you advise me to answer these people? he asked. 7 They replied, If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants. But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 He asked them, What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, Lighten the yoke your father put on us? 10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, Tell these people who have said to you, Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter tell them, My little finger is thicker than my father s waist. 11 My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions. 12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, Come back to me in three days. 13 The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, 14 he followed the advice of the young men and said, My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions. 15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite. 16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse s son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David! So the Israelites went home. 17 But as for the Israelites who

6 were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them. 18 King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. 20 When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David. 21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin a hundred and eighty thousand fighting men to make war against the house of Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon. 22 But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: 23 Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24 This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing. So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered. (1 Kings 12:1-24) 1. Icebreaker: Describe a time in your life when you did not really want to seek God s will because you were afraid of or already knew what His will was for you. 2. Have someone in your group read 1 Kings 12: What principles or lessons do you learn from this passage on seeking Godly counsel? 3. What qualities would you want in someone who you would trust to give you counsel or advice? 4. This week, identify three people who you would consider going to, to seek advice.

7 Week 6 October 16 th to 21 st Big Idea: Circumstances are used by God to Direct Us Key Scripture: Romans 8:28 and Genesis 50:19-20 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) 19 But Joseph said to them, Don t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis 50:19-20) 1. Icebreaker: Have you ever been disappointed by a closed door in your life, only to learn much later that it was the best thing that could have happened to you? 2. How have challenging circumstances in your life been used by God to accomplish his good purposes in your life? 3. Read Acts 27:13-26 and 28:1-10. How did God work through Paul s circumstances to accomplish his will for him? 4. What steps will you take this week to grow in your trust of God and not in your current circumstances?