Church of The Open Door

Backstage Pass: An Inside Look at the Greatest Prayer Ever Prayed

“What am I supposed to do?”

John 17:4

As followers of Jesus, our purpose comes from His purpose.

1. We are here on this earth to glorify God: by completing the work He has entrusted to us

2. We glorify God when we live as trustworthy stewards.

When God gives to us, He is entrusting us.

God has entrusted to us what belongs to Him.

Doing the work God has entrusted us to do through what God has entrusted us with is called stewardship.

3. We glorify God when we make Christlike disciples.

To begin his ministry Jesus said: “follow me as my disciple”

At the end of his ministry Jesus said: “go and make disciples”

There is an integral relationship between discipleship and stewardship; whenever we separate them, we weaken them.

Doing the work of God brings glory to God.

LifeGroup Questions: Applying the Teaching to Our Life

1. How important is “finishing strong” to you? Tell your group of a time you did or didn’t “finish strong.”

2. We only drew from John 17:4ff to answer, from the life of Jesus, the question “how do you glorify God?”

a. Of the two answers (live as trustworthy stewards and make Christlike disciples), which one do you struggle with the most? Why?

b. What are some other answers from other Scriptures to that critical question (“how do you glorify God?”)

3. Pastor Jim took a sidebar and did a little primer on stewardship, teaching us that:

God owns everything.

God entrusts some to us.

God expects us to manage it for His glory.

Where are you in your understanding and practice of good stewardship? How are you managing what belongs to God?

4. Is there some work God has entrusted to you, that you’ve blown off or gotten sidetracked?

5. Why is the relationship between stewardship and discipleship so vital and important? How is it that separating them weakens them?

6. Depending on where you are in your own spiritual growth, where are you right now: do you need to be discipled or do you need to be discipling someone else? Ask God to connect you with someone whom either you could disciple or who could disciple you.

Core CHRISTlike Characteristic: Trustworthy Steward of God’s Resources/Living Surrendered

Backstage Pass: An Inside Look at the Greatest Prayer Ever Prayed

“What Jesus Cared Most About”

John 17:1-5

Jesus’ prayer gives us an inside look at:

1. His connection with the Father

How he addressed the Father

His desire to bring glory to the Father

His longing to be with the Father

2. His purpose in the world

That God might be glorified

That people might have eternal life

That people might know God

3. Our purpose in the world

To become more like Christ

To glorify God

To help people know God

Seeing and Reaching our Neighbors

Pray for them; Listen to them

Helped by the Holy Spirit

LifeGroup Questions: Applying the Teaching to our Life

1. Have you ever gotten a backstage pass to a concert or an event of a big time performer? Tell your group about what the event was and what it was like to be backstage.

2. It seems that Jesus wants his disciples to overhear this prayer. How does this fit with what Jesus said in Matthew 6:5-6 about not praying in order to be heard by others?

3. Which phrase(s) best describe(s) your prayer life, not what you think it should be, but what it actually is these days?

a. Non-existent

b. Only when I’m in trouble

c. Spotty and inconsistent

d. Like talking with my best friend

e. Keeping a ritual

f. Warm and intimate

g. Awkward and fearful

h. Ongoing conversation

i. Respectful but distant

j. Insightful and valuable

k. Boring and sleepy

4. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most intimate, how well would you say you know God? What do base your number on?

5. What activities are you doing to help you know God better? Which ones work the best for you?

6. Who are you helping know God?

Backstage Pass: An Inside Look at the Mother of Jesus

“Wise Words from a Great Mother”

Luke 1:26-38

Mary’s words of wisdom:

1. I am the Lord’s servant.

When I know I am the Lord’s servant, my identity is clear.

When I know my identity, my purpose becomes clear.

When I know my purpose, my priorities become clear.

2. I will live surrendered.

I am trusting our sovereign God who is perfect in all His ways.

I am trusting our faithful God who redeems whatever He allows.

I am trusting our loving God who is working in my life.

3. I have been graced by God.

I receive the grace of God.

I will live in the grace of God.

I surrender to the grace of God.

LifeGroup Questions: Applying the Teaching to Our Lives

Did your mother have some favorite sayings as you were growing up? What is the wisest thing you remember your mother saying?

What are some pitfalls we can fall into when we see our identity as any thing other than “the Lord’s servant”?

Why does identity precede purpose? Could it be the other way around?

Which of the 3 “living surrendered” statements in point 2 is the hardest for you to believe/live out?

Give examples of what it might look like to “spurn God’s grace” and then what it might look like to try to “earn God’s grace.”

When you drift away from fully living in the grace of God, do you tend to drift towards “spurning God’s grace” or attempts at “earning God’s grace”?

Core CHRISTlike Characteristic: Trustworthy Steward of God’s Resources/Living Surrendered

…from Unshakable Roots

John 16:31-33

1. The end of a conversation with Jesus

a. Jesus is in a trial

b. Jesus is alone and betrayed

c. Jesus relies on God the Father

2. The Father is the Gardener

a. Intimate relationship

b.Listens to us in prayer

c. Firm roots in His Word

3. When we are shaken

a. We have an opportunity to bear fruit

b. Unhealthy roots can’t bear fruit

c. Healthy roots can bear much fruit!

1. Our strength is seen by others

2. Our compassion is felt by others

3. Our testimony is grown

4. Our trials reveal our trust

Hope and Trust from Unshakable Roots

LifeGroup Questions: Applying the Teaching to Our Life

Do you have personal experience walking into the end of a conversation and being lost?

What is your instinctive response to hardship and challenges?

Where have you planted your Roots? Where do you find yourself being fed?

How has hardship and stress added to your testimony? Can you think of specifics?

How have you found it best to come into someone else’s trial and support them?

CHRISTlike Characteristic: Connected to God through word and Prayer/Loving God

What Are You Standing On?

John 16:1-6, 33

You Can Have Unshakable peace amidst unbelievable stress.

Jesus is a “realist.” He reminds us we will have trouble in life.

Trouble produces stress.

Stress breeds anxiety.

Anxiety fosters fears.

Today: Exploring the tie-in between peace and hope

(Romans 15:13; I Tim. 6:17; Ps 62:1-2; Ps 16:8 – 9; Is 40: 31; Hebrews 10:23)

Hope

What are you standing on?

Trusting in any false hope will leave us weary, worn-out, discouraged, disappointed, and depressed.

Where we run to in times of storms or times of stress reveal our “idols.”

The Rope of Hope (I Peter 1:3-6)

LifeGroup Questions: Applying the Teaching to Our Life

Currently what is causing the most stress, anxiety, or fear in your life?

When you unravel that string and get to the root, what is the reason (root cause) for the stress, fear, or anxiety?

In answering the question “what are you standing on?” which one of the four options do you lean/gravitate toward?

During times of storms and stress what idols are you most tempted to run to?

What situations in your life right now do you need to hang on the Rope of Hope?

Core CHRISTlike Characteristic: Connected to God through the Word and Prayer/Loving God

Unshakable

“When Your Peace is Endangered”

John 16:16-22

Your peace will be tested.

Sorrow will threaten your peace.

The pain and grief will be real.

Your hurt will feel overwhelming.

Your sorrow will change you.

Your sorrow can become joy.

As we surrender our hurts to God, He will lead us to healing and joy.

Think of your pain as birthing something new.

Your life will be transformed.

Joy has the power to make you forget your pain.

Unspeakable pain and grief can birth unshakable peace and joy.

At the deepest point of our grief, we find the grace of God.

LifeGroup Questions: Applying the Teaching to Our Lives

Think back to all of the significant “goodbyes” where you or someone you really loved was leaving and you weren’t sure when or if you would ever see them again. What was the most difficult one?

As a society, we don’t deal with death and loss very well. Why do you suppose that is?

In the sermon, we said that “sorrow will change you.” What are some good and bad ways that people change because of sorrow, grief and pain?

Read v. 21. If you are a woman who has given birth to a baby, would you be willing to describe to the group how the pain of labor and childbirth was transformed into joy?

Is there a hurt, loss or sorrow in your life right now that you are dealing with? How does remembering these two points (“Think of your pain as birthing something new” and “As we surrender our hurts to God, He will lead us to healing and joy”) help you?

Close your group time by praying for each other, that God would bring help and healing to each other.

Core CHRISTlike Characteristic: Living Surrendered

Unshakable

“Unexpected Peace”

John 16:7-15

Unshakable peace often comes in an unexpected way.

When you go through hard times, Jesus calls you to:

1. Remember the promise of His Spirit

He convicts the world

Before we can experience God’s peace, He must deal with our sin.

Before there can be peace, there first must be grace.

He guides us into truth

The truth about God

The truth about us

He gives us peace

The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Peace.

2. Receive the gift of His peace

Not absence of problems, but in spite of our problems.

Peace is God’s presence overruling your problems.

Not based on the situation, but based on the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit breathes God’s peace.

Not once and for all, but moment by moment.

We receive God’s peace as we breathe in God’s Spirit.

LifeGroup Questions: Applying the Teaching to Our Lives

Tell your group of a time when something that first looked like a bad thing actually turned out to be a good thing.

Which comes first: the truth about God or the truth about us? Why?

Read Romans 8:5-8. Discuss what Paul means by “the mind governed by the flesh” and “the mind governed by the Spirit.” If anyone has The Message Bible, reading it might help. (You can get it by going to BibleGateway.com.)

How do you live that out practically in your day to day life?

Is there any area of your life where you are currently not feeling peace?

Close your group by praying for each other, asking God by His Spirit to fill one another with His peace.

Core CHRISTlike Characteristic:

Connected to God through the Word and Prayer/Loving God

“Unshakability”

John 16:1-6

You can have unshakable peace amidst unbelievable stress.

1. Jesus warns us we may feel like giving up on God.

Hard times bring huge temptations to stop trusting God.

2. Jesus reminds us we will have trouble in life.

Trouble produces stress.

Stress breeds anxiety.

Anxiety fosters fear.

3. Jesus promises us we can have peace amidst trouble.

Peace from Jesus comes from remaining in Jesus.

The peace of Jesus makes us unshakable in trials.

His promise is true; His peace is real.

LifeGroup Questions: Applying the Teaching to Our Life

Have you ever been in a situation that was so bad/traumatic/dangerous that you literally thought you were going to die?

Review the subpoint of point 1. When was the last time this happened to you?

Read vv. 1-4. How would Jesus’ accurate prophecy of what was to come for the disciples have encouraged them during the dark days following Jesus’ death on the cross?

Read v. 1 in as many translations as you have in your group. What are some of the translations for the last words of the verse? The New Century Version and Good News Translation (which I doubt any one has) have “won’t give up.” Jesus warns us for a reason. What are things that might cause you to give up and abandon your faith?

Why does God allow us to go through suffering, pain, stress and difficulty?

Review the three subpoints of point 2. Notice the verbs in each of the three statements. The first verb seems unavoidable: trouble ‘produces’ stress, but the second two verbs (‘breeds’ and ‘fosters’) only point to the possibility of anxiety and fear not the inevitability of them. So how can you combat the anxiety and fear that threatens to bring you down? How can you turn stress into maturity and faith?

Core CHRISTlike Characteristic:

Connected to God through the Word and Prayer/Loving God

Easter 2018

“The Foolishness of God”

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

What you do with the cross determines your destiny.

The cross is foolishness:

if you see it as a good luck charm.

if you see it as a tragic death.

if Jesus has not been resurrected.

So people stumble over the cross.

But because Jesus HAS BEEN resurrected,

The cross is full of God’s power:

to save you.

to forgive you.

to fill you with His love and strength.

to give you new life.

The message of the cross is:

Jesus died so we could be forgiven

Jesus was raised so we could have new life

Surrender your life to the Lord of the cross.

LifeGroup Questions: Applying the Teaching to Our Life

What’s the most foolish thing you’ve ever done?

Is there anything you do in your life that might be considered superstitious?

When you see a baseball player make the sign of the cross, what do you think that means?

What are ways that people treat the cross as more superstition and religious artifact than a reminder of Jesus’ death? Have you ever done this?

What would you say to a person who says “believing in the idea of a man’s death on the cross 2000 years ago somehow being for me is foolishness”?

In the sermon, Pastor Jim said “Just as you don’t have a cross without both the vertical and horizontal pieces so you don’t have the message of the cross without both Jesus’s death AND resurrection.” Why is this so?

Organic

“I hate when I can’t remember”

John 15:18-27

Jesus wants us to remember

What he said and what he did

Jesus went first

He is with us in our pain

He is with us in our rejection

We’re hated because:

Jesus chose us

Jesus gave us his name

Becoming like Jesus isn’t “pick and choose”

Becoming like Jesus is yes or no.

We remember when we remain

Life group questions: Applying the teaching to our lives.

Following Jesus isn’t “pick and choose”. Following Jesus is “yes or no”. What are some teachings of Jesus you struggle to accept and why?

Has loving people, like Jesus, brought about hate in your life? Explain to the group what happened.

As a group review the Christ acronym. Discuss how each attribute helps us handle the hate that comes as we go and make disciples.

There is a popular phrase that says “the safest place is in the center of God’s will”. Do you agree or disagree? Explain your answer.

We should be people that love the name of Jesus. As you become a disciple how, specifically, have you seen power in his name?

Core CHRISTlike Characteristic: (All) C.H.R.I.S.T / Loving God, Loving People, Living Surrendered