Who comes to mind for you when you hear the word grace? How did Steve s message change your understanding of what it means to receive grace?

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1 June 11/12, 2016: Baptism 2 Timothy 2:1 Steve Carter Quick-Connect Guide Use the questions in this section if your group is already studying something else and won t be using the full discussion guide. Who comes to mind for you when you hear the word grace? How did Steve s message change your understanding of what it means to receive grace? Discussion Guide In this section, you will find an opening prayer, discussion questions, next steps, and a closing prayer. The discussion questions are separated into three categories Getting Started, The Basics, and A Little Deeper and are designed to allow the group discussion to deepen as you move through them. Use the prayers, questions, and next steps in whatever manner you find helpful based on your group s needs. The Message Recap might help you and the group to prepare or to remember key points. Opening Prayer Father in heaven, thank You that we are able to gather and thank You for each person here. Open our hearts and minds to You as we listen to one another and study Your word. Help us now to know Your presence among us. Amen. Leading a New Group? Ask this question in order for your group members to get to know each other better: Who was the most influential person in your life as a kid? Explain why. Allow for five minutes maximum for each person. Ask the other members of the group to listen and invite them to ask questions and affirm the person who is sharing.

2 2 Getting Started Ice Breaker: Who comes to mind for you when you hear the word grace? Why? Introducing the Discussion: How did Steve s message change or enhance your definition of grace? Next Step Follow-Up: What next step did you commit to last time the group met? How did it go? What was the outcome? Where did you get stuck? The Basics Read 2 Timothy 2:1 aloud as a group (It is written out at the beginning of the Message Recap on page 4). What does it mean to receive God s grace on a daily or weekly basis? What practices and relationships help you to be strong in grace? What environments, behaviors, or relationships hinder your ability to be strong in grace? When you consider the three words Steve described in association with grace fuel, perspective and relationship which seems easiest for you to embrace on a daily or weekly basis? Which seems most difficult to receive? Explain. A Little Deeper Have each person in the group share how they imagine God. What is He like in their minds? How do they think He responds when they act wrongly or fall away from Him? Now read Ephesians 1:3 10 aloud as a group: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. What do you understand to be true about God and His grace after reading this passage? What part of yourself, your relationship with others, or your relationship with the world are you longing for God to transform by His grace?

3 3 What does it mean to have an eternal perspective and live like a citizen of heaven now, in your actual life? Next Steps Review the next steps below and consider which one or ones each member of the group would like to commit to for the upcoming week (and beyond). Pray and journal. Receiving grace is humbling. It goes against our tendency to try harder but instead requires us to ask God for help in our daily thoughts, attitudes and relationships. Spend time this week asking God to illuminate any area in your life where you need to embrace or receive His grace. Encourage someone. We encounter people all over the place in our workplaces, communities, churches, and homes who need grace and encouragement. Perhaps they are overwhelmed by their circumstances or struggling with sickness or another kind of suffering. God s grace gives us the ability to encourage and strengthen those who are struggling. Who can you encourage this week? Who needs to experience grace and kindness? Reach out and encourage them this week. Reconsider a Paul/Timothy relationship. Baptism is a declaration of the gift of Jesus grace in your life; however, because it is a public statement, you also are admitting your need for others to help you in the journey. Consider the following steps if you do not yet have a mentoring Paul in your life. o Ask God to bring a mentor into your life. Watch, throughout the week, to see if you sense God prompting you to ask someone to be a mentor to you. o Reach out to someone who is a step ahead of you in the Christian life. Ask them to meet one or two times to discuss questions you have about God s grace in their everyday life. Closing Prayer Pray for whatever difficulties or needs were shared during your time together and have someone close that time by reading the prayer below. Father in heaven, thank You for Your word and for the gift of grace, both saving grace given to us by Jesus death and resurrection, as well as daily grace which fuels us to be our best, with a constant eye on eternity. We long to be people who are free to be all you designed us to be, encouraging and challenging others to do the same. Our world is broken and in need of this grace. Please let it overflow from our own hearts to make a difference in this world. In Jesus name, amen.

4 4 Message Recap Steve Carter Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:1 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 2:1) What kind of person will you be? How strong are you in grace? In this second chapter, Paul addresses Timothy in an endearing fatherly manner, and encourages him to make the decision to be strong in grace. The gospel is the revolutionary invitation to enter right relationship with God, ourselves, others, and the world. God Others World You Paul tells Timothy that two men he knew, Phygelus and Hermogenes, abandoned him, not extending Christ s grace to impact others. However, another man, Onesiphorus, went out of his way to show mercy to him, offering Christ s grace beyond himself (2 Timothy 1:15-18). Paul reminds us that the grace of Jesus Christ is an act of receiving all that God has in store for us in order to pour out the same grace to others and the world. It is higher, wider and deeper than we can understand. For Paul, grace always took him back to his conversion when God both blinded him and reminded him of his new identity in Christ. He once was a persecutor of Christ, but was then transformed to be an ambassador for Christ. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul said: Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12) When we receive grace, we receive three unique gifts: 1. Grace supplies the fuel we need to fight the good fight, as described in 1 Timothy 6:12. Paul encouraged Timothy to allow grace to be the source from which to derive strength for this fight. Grace allows us to see redemption and restoration. 2. Grace supplies us with an eternal perspective. Paul urged Timothy to take hold (to seize and pull near) eternity. To take hold literally means to seize and pull near. Grace allows us to remember the reality that Christ will come again just as described in Revelation 21 and 22, where we are promised a new heaven and a new earth, with no more mourning and no more war or suffering. This perspective allows us to hold on to the here and now, knowing we were designed to live with God forever.

5 5 3. Grace supplies us with a relationship with God and others. In grace, we confess our desperate need for God, much like admitting our limited strength or needing directions when we are lost. When we confess to God that we need His help, He pours grace upon us. One outward demonstration of this grace is baptism. Additionally, the gospel is not merely between you and God but extends to our relationships with others. How do we receive this grace? It begins by our confession and baptism. While there is nothing magical about the water itself, baptism is an outward representation of our new life in Christ. Going down into the water, we bury the weight of sin because of the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. Coming up out of the water represents our redeeming life which is now forgiven and blameless. This material is protected by U.S. Copyright Law and is for your own personal use. Any further use requires permission. Contact Kellye Fabian at Willow Creek Community Church with your request.