Main Point: Meditating on the Bible transforms our thinking and gives us the opportunity to experience a deeper connection with God.

Questions:

1. What impacted you from the message this weekend? What did you learn about meditation?

2. How would do you define meditation? How does the habit of mediation relate to transformation and deeper connection with God?

3. Read Psalm 1:1-4. What are the two ways of life that are being presented in these verses? What are the habits of the two different kinds of people in these verses?

4. What are the qualities of a person who meditates on God’s word? What does the example of the tree planted by streams of water suggest about the results of biblical meditation?

5. Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Does any of this sounds familiar? (See Matthew 22:37) What does the writer say about God’s commandments (e.g., God’s Word)?

6. What roles does the word of God have on raising children?

7. Where does the author say we are to talk about the word of God? What is the symbolic significance of placing the God’s Words on a person’s hands and foreheads? On the door posts and gates?

8. What do these verses communicate about the importance and centrality of the word of God?

9. Read Romans 12:2. How does meditation on the word of God help us not to conform to the patterns of the world? How does meditation help us to renew our minds?

10. What role does Bible memorization play in meditating on Scripture?

11. What did you learn about God in these verses? What did you learn about yourself? What is God asking you to understand or to do as a result of what you have learned?

12. By God’s grace what is one thing you can do to apply what you have learned this week?

Main Point: Through reading and applying the Bible to our lives, we grow in our relationship with God and are transformed into his image.

Questions:

1. In week one we defined Spiritual Disciplines as the practices found in Scripture that promote spiritual growth and deeper connection to God. In your own words, what is the goal of the Spiritual Disciplines?

2. Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17. What observation do you have about these verses? What words stuck out to you? What questions do you have after reading this passage?

3. What does it mean that “all Scripture” is God-breathed”? How does this set apart the Bible from other books and sources of information?

4. How is the Scripture useful in teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness?

5. How does Scripture equip followers of Christ for the good work God has for us?

6. What did you learn about how to read and study the Bible in this week’s message?

7. Are there any barriers that keep you from reading and studying the Bible? What are they? Name a few ways that you can get more of the word of God into your life?

8. What did you learn about God in these verses? What did you learn about yourself? What is God asking you to understand or to do as a result of what you have learned?

9. By God’s grace what is one thing you can do to apply what you have learned this week?

Main Point: The goal of the Spiritual disciplines is transformation into the image of Christ

Questions:

1. What comes to mind when you hear the term “Spiritual Disciplines”? What do you know about spiritual disciplines? What are the benefits of engaging in the spiritual disciplines?

2. How does a biblical understanding of grace affect our understanding of the disciplines? Are the disciplines a matter of salvation or sanctification?

3. Read Romans 8:28-30. What is the purpose of God working all things for the good of those who love him? What does it mean to be “conformed to the image of his Son”?

4. What is the goal of spiritual transformation? What does it look like to be transformed into the image of Jesus? How do spiritual disciplines help this process?

5. Read 2 Corinthians 3:12-18. What do these verses tell us about the process of spiritual transformation?

6. Read Colossians 3:9-10. What do these verses tell us about the process of spiritual transformation? What are do we put on and what do we take off?

7. Read 1 Timothy 4:6-9. What does Paul command Timothy to do in this passage? What does it mean to “train yourself to be godly”?

8. How does physical training compare to training in godliness? How is analogy of physical training helpful in understanding certain aspects of spiritual training?

9. What did you learn about God in these verses? What did you learn about yourself? What is God asking you to understand or to do as a result of what you have learned?

10. By God’s grace what is one thing you can do to apply what you have learned this week?

Main Point: Through faith in Christ, we have new life.

Questions:

2 Corinthians 5:16-21. What grabbed your attention in these verses? What questions do you have about this section of Scripture? Was there anything challenging or encouraging?

How does this passage relate to Easter? What does the Resurrection have to do with New Life in Christ?

Read 2 Corinthians 5:16. “So” is a conclusion based on the previous verses. What is Paul talking about in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15? How does this relate to verse 5:16?

In verse 5:16, Paul talks about not regarding other people from a worldly point of view. What does it mean to view people according to the world? Give examples of evaluating people this way.

What does it mean to view Jesus from a worldly point of view? How do people view Jesus?

Read 2 Corinthians 5:17. What does it mean to be a new creation in Christ? Does that happen all at one or is it a process? What does it mean that the old is gone and the new is here?

Name a few ways a relationship with Christ changes a person’s life? How does it change a person’s relationships? Outlook on life? Purpose in life? Hope?

Read 2 Corinthians 5:18-21. As a result of being saved and being made new, what is a Christian’s new title? Describe what it means to be an ambassador for Christ.

How is a person reconciled to God? What did it cost God to reconcile humans to Himself? What do we need to do to be reconciled?

What did you learn about God in these verses? What did you learn about yourself? What is God asking you to understand or to do as a result of what you have learned?

By God’s grace what is one thing you can do to apply what you have learned this week?

Main Point: Dying to self leads to living in the fullness of life.

Questions:

1. Read John 12:12-36. What grabbed your attention in these verses? What questions do you have about this section of Scripture? Was there anything challenging or encouraging?

2. Read John 12:12-19. Describe the celebration that is going on in this section of Scripture. What is the significance of the palm branches? What do the people mean when the shout, “Hosanna”?

3. What does the celebration of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem tell us about the people’s expectations of Jesus? How were they right? How were they wrong?

4. Read John 12:19-26. What do the Greeks ask to do? How does Jesus respond? What does his teaching about the kernel of wheat mean?

5. What role does dying to self have for a Christ follower? How does this teaching compare to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 16:24-26, Mark 8:34-37, and Luke 9:23-26?

6. Read John 12:27-36. What is Jesus troubled about? What do these verses reveal about the “kind of death he was to die”?

7. What does Jesus mean about the light and the darkness? What implications do these verses have for followers of Christ?

8. What did you learn about God in these verses? What did you learn about yourself? What is God asking you to understand or to do as a result of what you have learned?

9. By God’s grace what is one thing you can do to apply what you have learned this week?