SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:16-18, John 4:28-42 & 20:11-18

“I want to challenge you to let go, little by little, of the desire to control your faith, to hold your beliefs in a clenched fist, and then I want you to experience the wonder of an infinite and loving and personal God. Then, as you experience it, you can let yourself share it the way you share anything that causes you to feel wonder: not in an effort to convince someone of anything, but out of a conviction that what you have seen is simply, and absolutely, worth seeing.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When was the last time you really experienced wonder? What happened? What did you do? 

2. Sometimes, “evangelism” can feel a lot like making a sales pitch. Have you ever had a conversation about faith with someone that took that sort of a turn? 

3. The big idea this week is that wonder is an antidote to this problem. Do you buy that? What do you think Kenny means by this? 

4. Kenny talks about 3 ways of allowing wonder to reshape our witness. The first one is drawn from the story of Mary “treasuring” and “pondering” the visit from the shepherds: we, too, can start by treasuring what we have seen and experienced of God. Try to talk this through as a group: what comes to mind?

5. The second one is drawn from the story of the Woman at the Well: we can share what amazes us…even if it doesn’t seem like the most important part! How does this lesson connect to the story? How can it apply to your example in question 4? 

6. The final one is drawn from Mary Magdalene’s witness to the disciples on Easter morning: we can trust that what amazed us really is amazing…which means we don’t have to argue about it or prove it. Our responsibility is simply to invite others to see it. What do you think of this challenge? 

7. Evangelism is a difficult topic to discuss! What are your thoughts on it more generally? Why is it important? Why is it hard? How can we be more genuine and authentic witnesses to the wonder and mystery of God?

SCRIPTURE: Colossians 2:2-10

“Just as Jesus is somehow home to the fullness of something impossible, the church is meant to be a home to that fullness, too [...] And we’re called to this because the world needs it. This whole time, the world has preferred a version of God that helps to explain us: why we’re here, who we are, what we’re meant for. But the truth is that we exist in order to testify to the nature and the mystery of Him: we feel love in a way that overwhelms us, but is just a fraction of the Love of God. We sense justice, but in a way that barely imitates the righteous character of God. We build communities and cities and nations, but in ways that are like sandcastles compared to the Kingdom of God. The point isn’t that we should feel small or pitiful or insignificant: the point is that in us, the mystery of God dwells.” 

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Where are you, at this point in the series? What are you learning? What questions do you have? Where are you pursuing confidence over certainty in your own life?

2. This week, the focus of our series is shifting from how we can move from certainty to confidence in our personal lives to what the consequences of such moves could be for our church as a whole. How do you think the insights of this series so far could impact Revolution? Our weekly services? Our ministry to the city of Annapolis? 

3. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul writes that his goal “is that [all the regional churches] may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” How would you interpret this verse? What does it mean for us to “know” a “mystery”? 

4. What is so mysterious about Jesus? Have you ever thought of Him this way?

5. The challenge for this week is to embrace mystery. What does this challenge mean to you? How does it resonate with your spiritual journey as a follower of Jesus?

SCRIPTURE: Matthew 14:22-33; also Matthew 8:23-27 & 4:18-20

“We all want certainty in our lives, especially in times like these, when answers and clarity feel so hard to come by. But we also need to consider what it means for our God to have created a world where certainty is so rare, where so much is unknown, where our perceptions are so limited, and–most importantly–where the desire for certainty so often leads us to put all of our trust in ourselves. What if what we are really meant to chase isn’t certainty but confidence? The problem isn’t that we don’t need saving. The problem is that we prefer to try and save ourselves. And yet, the story of Scripture, the revelation of God, and the experiences we have with the Holy Spirit teach us over and over again that God is capable and that God is trustworthy.”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What are some of the uncertainties you are struggling with right now? They don’t have to be related to your faith!

2. How would you summarize the difference between certainty and confidence? Why is this difference important, particularly when it comes to our relationship with God or our hope in Jesus? 

3. One of the big ideas this week is that we can’t pause our lives, get all the answers, and then decide what’s best to do–instead, we are always placing our confidence somewhere, whether we mean to or not. Does this make sense to you? Can you think of a time in your life that relates?

4. In the story in Matthew 14, Peter often gets a lot of grief for not having enough faith. However, Kenny argued this week that we get Peter wrong: not only does he have the courage to step out of the boat, but even when he is sinking, he cries out to Jesus for help instead of calling his friends or trying to swim back. How does Peter’s story relate to this discussion of certainty and confidence?

5. Kenny said, “What if a new way, a better way, to think about your journey with faith is as a series of opportunities to take little steps of faith, little exercises in trust, towards real confidence in God actually being who He says He is?” Have you ever thought of your faith this way? What might be challenging or encouraging about it? 

6. Our challenge this week is to take small steps towards confidence…and to keep our eyes open in order to see the results. Where do you need to take a small step this week? How can we help hold each other accountable to this process?

SCRIPTURE: Micah 5, Psalm 84

SCRIPTURE: Zephaniah 3

“In God’s economy, we are always moving from an initial state of stubbornness, of rigidity, of overconfidence and arrogance into a state of humility, of gentleness, of flexibility, of submission. We are becoming softer, not harder! And the more we change, the easier it is for us to catch, to receive, God’s love for us...and then to share it. Our joy is increasing, it’s ahead of us. There is no time better than this one, than Advent, to be reminded of what is to come...and to feel replenished and restored by that promise and that hope.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does ‘joy’ mean to you? How have you heard it defined? When have you felt it?

2. What does the Bible teach about joy? What does it mean for joy to be a “fruit of the Spirit”? Where does it come from? What is its purpose?

3. The central metaphor Saturday was that “joy” is like a game of catch between God and us: God sees goodness in us and He celebrates it, He draws it out; we are then filled with His love and attention, and we are compelled to pour that back out in praise and compassion for our neighbors. What do you think of this metaphor? How is this situation “joy-bringing”?

4. On that note, the angels who appear to the shepherds on the night of Christ’s birth are very clear: their news will bring us great joy. What does that mean, exactly? How does it connect?

5. What gets in the way of your joy right now, of your ability to accept what God is giving you and then pour it back out?

SCRIPTURE: Luke 1.67-80 (Zechariah’s Song)

“Here’s the thing: real love seeks another’s good. It’s not just about convincing somebody that we like them. It’s about putting their wellbeing, their growth, their wholeness, their fullness above our own. In some ways, that’s a kind of self-sacrifice…but I think it’s more than just the old words about dying to ourselves. It’s also the joy of seeing someone open a gift! Our God sacrifices himself; our God paves the path to redemption; and our God invites Jesus’s cousin to tell folks that Jesus is here because God is so excited for us to discover how much we are loved, to see with his eyes. He wants us to participate in the story–not just to be the objects of his affection. This means that God’s love is aiming at our wholeness, our true joy…in addition to our salvation. I wonder if we reflect on this often enough: Jesus isn’t medicine God is trying to convince us to take! Jesus is a gift we are invited to unwrap, to claim, to embrace, to enjoy.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Talk for a moment about the story of John the Baptist. What is his role in Jesus’s story? What does it mean to “prepare the way” or “make the pathways” straight? What does he preach, and how does it serve the Gospel?

2. Now, read through Zechariah’s song together: what do you see? Why is Zechariah thankful?

3. On Saturday, Kenny compared John’s ministry to “unwrapping” the gift of Jesus. How might this resonate with you? What do you think Kenny meant by that?

4. “Jesus isn’t medicine God is trying to convince us to take, but a gift we are invited to unwrap, to claim, to embrace, and to enjoy.” How does this quotation sit with you? Does it challenge any of your ideas about Jesus?

5. How is our invitation to participate in God’s story connected to God’s love for us?

6. What can we learn from any of this about what it means for us to both accept and share love?

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 25:1-10

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How would you define “hope”?

2. Our theme for 2021 has been Permission to Hope. Have you learned something about hope over the course of this year you can share?

3. Kenny’s big point this week was that the reason we often miss what God is doing is because our sights are set on what we would do rather than the kinds of things God does: our imagination is too small, and we are “looking for socks" instead of the good and amazing gifts God gives. How does this point resonate with you?

4. The key to recognizing what God is doing is to remember that the miracle of Christmas is God’s intimacy: God loves us in ways that will always be surprisingly personal and profound. Do you expect God to love you intimately? Why is this hard for us to remember sometimes?

5. What are you “hoping” for this year?

SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 12.3-29

“What we need in order to change is God’s constant presence in our lives: his loving forgiveness and his encouragement of our becoming the people he created us to be. Discipline is a scary word, but it doesn’t have to be scary in practice: we just have to stop running. We have to stop hiding. We have to stop avoiding the conversation, avoiding the pain that might flow from it...because what we’re really doing is trying to avoid having to change.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. The big question for this week is “do we sometimes choose to avoid hardships as a way of avoiding change?” How does this question make you feel? How would you answer it? 

2. What has prompted real change in your life in the past?

3. Kenny’s thesis was that “real change is the result of the constant presence of those who believe we can be better in our lives.” What do you think about this idea? 

4. What does God’s presence in your life look like? Are there ways you try to avoid his presence? What might happen if you leaned into (instead of away from) him? 

5. What are some specific ways you could lean into God’s presence in your life?