Verses Used:

• Psalm 23
• Matthew 11:28-30
• John 15

Takeaways:

• Rhythms over hustle. We embrace a Spirit-led pace of life, rooted in rest, presence, and intentionality; not burnout or busyness.
• Hustle culture looks like being hurried, emotionally unavailable, constantly exhausted, or always producing and striving.

The Shepherd Leads Us

• God’s people are often described as sheep, possibly because they are deeply dependent creatures. Goats on the other hand are much more independent. They wander, climb, and do their own thing.
• The sheep are God’s people because the follow the shepherd; goats do not.
• A hustle culture trains us to live more like goats than sheep: independent, self-sufficient, always pushing, always striving, and always proving ourselves.
• The Good Shepherd leads his people, provides for needs, protects from evil, sets a healthy pace, and invites us to rest.
• Many of us struggle to rest because we struggle to trust the shepherd. His way is best and he is leading us to another way of life.

The Shepherd Restores Our Souls

• Jesus knows how to care for a depleted soul that looks like emotional fatigue, constant stimulations, anxiety, endless scrolling, overwork, or burnout.
• The rest or restoring of our souls is found in Jesus. Jesus taught in John 15 the idea of abiding in him. The true need for our souls is met by being with Jesus.
• We are invited into a different way of living, a different rhythm with Jesus. Jesus says, “Let me teach you, and you will find rest for your souls with me.”
• The Shepherd leads His sheep down certain paths because He knows where life is found.

Healthy Rhythms

• Everybody already has rhythms of life. The question is, “Are your rhythms forming you toward Jesus or away from him?
• Healthy Spiritual Rhythms include prayer, scripture, worship, and solitude
• Healthy Physical Rhythms include sleep and exercise.
• Healthy Missional Rhythms include bless, eat, celebrate, story-formed, and ReCreate

Discussion Questions:

• How can you tell when your soul is becoming depleted or restless? What are the warning signs?
• What are some places people commonly go to find rest or restoration apart from Jesus? Do those things actually satisfy?
• What is one rhythm in your life that is helping you stay close to Jesus right now?
• How might a life of constant hustle make it difficult to notice and respond to opportunities God gives us to love and serve others?

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Verses Used:

• James 1:22-25
• Matthew 23:23
• 2 Corinthians 3:18
• 1 John 4:16
• 1 Corinthians 13:1-7
• John 13:35

Takeaways:

• Information-based Christianity consumes content, debates theology, appears knowledgeable, and can still lack love.
• Transformational Christianity learns and applies the gospel, grows in patience and humility, shaped by grace and truth, and matures in love.

Information

• Despite all the content we have at our fingertips, we don’t automatically get discipleship or spiritual maturity.

Transformation

• We can mistake sudden changes in a person’s behaviors as transformation.
• A new Christian might stop swearing, stop partying, start attending church, and start listening to worship music instead of explicit music.
• Transformation goes deeper than behavior management.
• External behavior can change faster than the heart. That’s why Jesus continually focused on the heart.

Love

• Love is the most important aspect of Jesus’ nature.
• 1 John 4:16 says, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”
• The truest measure of spiritual maturity is not how much you know about God, but how well your heart had been transformed by God’s love.

Discussion Questions:

• How do you think it was possible for the Pharisees to know so much about God, and yet miss the heart of God? What happened?
• Why do you think people, including ourselves, often settle for outward change instead of inward transformation?
• Who is someone in your life that reflects the love of Jesus well? What characteristics stand out about them?
• Why do you think love is such a powerful witness to people who don’t know Jesus?

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Verses Used:

• Galatians 1:6-9; 3:1-9
• Ephesians 2:8-9
• Psalm 51:3-4

Takeaways:

Grace is the Gospel

• The good news of Jesus (the gospel) is a message of grace, not of works.
• There are laws God gave through Moses. It included moral laws (do not murder, steal, and commit adultery), civil laws (laws about debt and restitutions, property boundaries, agricultural laws for caring for the poor), and ceremonial laws (animal sacrifices, circumcision, dietary restrictions like clean/unclean foods).
• The ceremonial laws pointed to Jesus, the civil laws governed Israel as a nation, and the moral laws still reflect God’s heart for how we live.

Grace and Relating to God

• Conviction moves us towards God in repentance. Condemnation makes us hide from God in shame.
• Conviction says, “I have sinned”, but shame and condemnation says, “ I AM my sin.”
• Grace is not just how we begin the Christian life. Grace is how we continue living it. We are saved by grace. We are sustained by grace. We are transformed by grace.
• Grace is how we relate to God, at the point of salvation and for the ongoing day-to-day living.

Grace Shapes Culture

• Grace turns ministry from something we HAVE to do into something we GET to do.
• A guilt-driven church culture becomes: performative, self-righteous, exhausting, and unsafe. People start hiding, pretending, and wearing masks because they feel like they always have to look okay.
• A grace-driven culture has: trust, safety, humility, confession, and restoration. A grace-filled church is where people can actually tell the truth about their lives.
• Grace does not remove passion for obedience - it changes the reason we obey.

Discussion Questions:

• Why do you think it’s easy to begin the Christian life with grace, but then drift into trying to earn God’s approval through performance?
• In what ways can God’s grace free us from shame, pressure, or pretending?
• How have you experienced guilt or pressure being used as motivation in church, family, or other relationships? What effect did it have on you?
• What might people experience in a grace-filled church culture that feels different from the world around them?

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Verses Used:

• John 4:19-30
• Hebrews 3:12-13
• Romans 1:16

Takeaways:

Spiritual Conversation

• Jews believed the right place was Jerusalem because God authorized the temple there through David and Solomon, sacrifices were established there, and it remained central even after being rebuilt.
• Samaritans only believed the Pentateuch, so they rejected everything about Jerusalem.
• Samaritans believed the right place was Mount Gerizim (gare-a-zim) and they saw it as significant because Abraham built an altar nearby, and it was associated with blessings in Deuteronomy. So they built their own temple and continued worship there even after it was destroyed.
• For the gospel to be good news, Jesus has to be at the center. Without Him, people try to reach God on their own. The gospel isn’t about being right, it’s about knowing and loving Jesus.

Speaking Good News

• Gospel fluency is not just saying Jesus is the answer, it’s showing how Jesus is the answer.
• The gospel exposes the lies we believed before we knew Jesus and the lies we still believe as we follow Him.

The Power of God

• The gospel is not just words, the Bible tells us that it is the power of God for those who believe.
• When the gospel touches a person’s heart it changes them, it has an impact.
• When people experience Jesus and the truth of the gospel in their life they respond.
• The gospel is powerful. It saves us and continues to shape us each and every day. We are saved by the gospel and we are shaped by the gospel.

Discussion Questions:

• Based on her story, what do you think the woman at the well was truly longing for? How did Jesus meet her needs?
• How does being fluent in the gospel help us recognize the lies we believe and the lies others believe?
• Imagine a friend says, “I don’t get it, I worked hard, I did everything right, came in early and stayed late. I thought for sure I would get the promotion to manager. After 10 years of dedication and effort, they gave the promotion to Chris. He’s only been here for a year. Honestly, it just makes me feel like I don’t matter.”
• What do you think they are longing for?
• What might they be believing?
• What “wells” are they going to for life?

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Verses Used:

• John 4:1-18
• Colossians 4:5-6
• Ephesians 4:29
• Jeremiah 2:13

Takeaways:

Start the Conversation

• Mission often starts with ordinary conversation

Discover the Deeper Desire

• Jesus listened closely to the woman at the well. Jesus knows she’s thirsty for something more than water. People are always expressing their deeper longings.

Reveal the Wrong Well

• Jesus knows that the woman at the well has been placing her hope in the wrong well. Placing her hope in these things that haven’t satisfied her.
• What we do on the outside is driven by what we believe on the inside. Behavior reveals belief.
• Some behaviors include: Anxiety, comparison, overspending, and people-pleasing. Behaviors are shaped by what we are believing to be true, even if it isn’t true.
• If we want to share the gospel in a way that actually reaches people’s hearts… we need to spend more time listening than talking.
• Everyone is longing for something like: purpose, identity, peace, satisfaction, or true love.
• With the help of the Holy Spirit we begin to discern what’s really going on. We begin to see the longing in their heart, the brokenness in their story, the emptiness they’re trying to fill.
• Jesus is the living water; He satisfies what nothing else can.

If we don’t take time to understand someone’s story and what they’re longing for we’ll miss the chance to share Jesus in a way that truly reaches their heart.

Discussion Questions:

• If a friend says, “Honestly, I just feel like I’m always the one giving in relationships. I show up for people, I care, I invest, but it never feels like it comes back.”
• What might they really be longing for?
• What beliefs might be driving that longing?
• What are some “wells” you have seen people drink from to fulfill the longing of their souls?
• What are some of the specific longings in your soul that Jesus meets? How is that good news?

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Verses Used:

• Luke 5:27-32
• Isaiah 25:6-8

Takeaways:

The Table has Always Been Significant

• Adam and Eve took their hunger to a place they were told not to.
• People have been taking their hunger to the wrong places ever since, but God redeems this.
• What happens at this “table”? A feast for all peoples, death is swallowed up, tears are wiped away, salvation is fully realized.
• Jesus takes an ordinary meal and fills it with eternal meaning. He uses the table as the place we remember the gospel.
• The table is about relationship, belonging, and connection.

Jesus’ Hospitality

• Levi didn’t find Jesus - Jesus found Levi.
• Jesus walks up and says, “Follow me.” without conditions. No “get your life together first.” And Levi does and leaves everything.
• After meeting Jesus, Levi doesn’t clean up his friend group, distance himself from people, nor go into isolation.
• True hospitality isn’t just about inviting people into your space… it’s about how you receive them when they are with you.
• The table wasn’t just a place to eat, it was a place where people encountered grace - they encountered Jesus.

Jesus is Criticized

• People assume that if you want to stay spiritually pure, you have to separate yourself completely from the world.
• Peoples’ fear of being influenced by the world leads them to distance themselves from it. So instead of engaging with people who are far from God, they avoid them.
• The Pharisees grumbling isn’t just disagreement, it’s resistance to what God is doing.
• A meal wasn’t just a meal - it was connecting with people, it was mission.
• Our tables are a place of mission. We are family, and we make room because adopted people accept people. We are servants, we serve because saved people, serve people. We are missionaries, we accept the invite because found people find people.

Discussion Questions:

• What happens around a table that doesn’t happen as easily elsewhere?
• Can you remember a time where you either felt included or excluded from a table? What did that feel like?
• What are some of the obstacles that keep you from following Jesus’ example of the table ministry?
• Are there people you hesitate to spend time with because of what others might think? Why? How does Jesus challenge that?

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Verses Used:

• 1 Corinthians 15:3-9
• Romans 3:23
• Romans 6:23
• John 20:25-28
• Ephesians 2:1-2

Takeaways:

What Jesus Accomplished

• There is no forgiveness of sins without the death and resurrection of Jesus. This payment for our sins is a gift from God; it’s not something we earn, but something we receive.
• Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

What Jesus is Doing Now

• Since the resurrection, Jesus has been revealing himself to people.
• He is saving people from sin, redeeming their stories, and giving them new purpose.
• Jesus is alive and still at work. The global church continues to rapidly expand.
• You can’t stop the risen Savior. No government, threats, or persecution has been able to. Jesus can’t be stopped.

What Jesus Can Do in You

• Apart from Jesus, we’re not just struggling, we’re spiritually dead.
• Jesus didn’t come to make bad people better - He came to make dead people alive.
• God’s desire for you is to be forgiven, to be set free from sin, to be restored, and to walk in a new life with him. Jesus sees you. He knows you. He loves you.

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Verses Used:

1. Matthew 21:1-11
2. Matthew 20:17-19
3. Zechariah 9:9
4. Matthew 5:38-39
5. Mathew 27:27-31
6. Romans 12:19

Takeaways:

The King Come On His Terms (Control)

1. Jesus doesn’t fit into our story - He invites us into His.
2. Some of us aren’t rejecting Jesus - we’re just quietly frustrated that He’s not running our life the way we wish he would.

The King is Humble (Humility)

1. Jesus not only models humility - He teaches a completely different way of responding to wrong.
2. We prefer strength. We prefer winning. We prefer outcomes we can point to and say ‘That worked’. But Jesus invites us into a different way of living; a life shaped by surrender and sacrificial obedience.
3. Some won’t follow Jesus because His way feels too slow, too weak, or too costly.

The King is Misunderstood (Condition Allegiance)

1. It’s possible to celebrate Jesus and still not surrender to Him.
2. The cross did not make sense. Until it did. God knows what he is doing.
3. Some of us aren’t walking away from Jesus - but we are quietly disappointed in Him.
4. We have a choice to follow Jesus because of what we thought he would do, or because of who He is.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are some ways we become “quietly frustrated” with how God is running our lives?
2. Why is it difficult to trust God with the outcomes of our lives - especially when we’ve been wronged by someone else?
3. Where are you most tempted to hold onto control instead of trusting Jesus right now?
4. Why do we sometimes want Jesus to be different than he actually is? What kind of Jesus do we tend to prefer?

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Verses Used:

1. Ephesians 2:1-10
2. Ephesians 1:4-5
3. Ephesians 1:5
4. Mark 10:45
5. Luke 9:23
6. John 16:8

Takeaways:

1. Last week’s highlight is that: All people matter to God. Therefore, all people matter to us. You are not here by accident. No human life is an accident.
2. If life is random, then purpose is something you have to create for yourself; but if God made and planned you, then your life is not an accident.
3. To understand purpose, we have to understand identity, because ‘doing’ flows our ‘being’.
4. We are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our baptism reflects something of each member of the trinity. Father being family, Son is the servant, and Holy Spirit is missionary.
5. We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
6. Each part of our new identity, rooted in the trinity, has real life implications for us. Let’s look at each one, starting with our family identity.

We Are Family

1. It is important for us to understand God’s love and acceptance into his family because it shapes us.
2. God is pleased to welcome lost people into His family.
3. We get to treat everyone like family, even before they believe and are adopted into God’s family. Adopted people, accept people.

We Are Servants

1. We are baptized into the name of the Son, Jesus. From Jesus we got our servant identity.
2. You can’t follow Jesus’ example of servanthood and be a selfish person. Saved people, serve people.

We Are Missionaries

1. The Holy Spirit is working on drawing people to the family of God all over the world. When people say they found God, the truth is God found them because the Holy Spirit was working on drawing them to Jesus.
2. The Holy Spirit is at work in the world and in the lives of people. We get to live into our missionary identity. Found people, find people.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why does God give us a new identity in Christ? What’s wrong with the other things we tend to build our identity on?
2. Do you agree with the statement that “doing flows from being? If so, how have you seen it play out in your own life?
3. Why is it important to focus on identity before focusing on behavior?
4. Which of the three (family, servant, missionary) is easiest for you to live into? Which is the hardest?
5. Which of these identities do you most need to grow in right now? Family (accepting others), servant (serving others), missionary (living sent)
6. What is one thing you could do this week to lean into that identity?

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