Series: This is my Year
Delivered by: Pastor Julian
Passages Used: 1 Peter 2:2-3, Galatians 5:22-23, Romans 5:3-5,
Today’s Question: How will you gauge growth? What does God expect?
As a group, open up by reading together.
Person 1: 1 Peter 2:2-3
Person 2: Galatians 5:22-23
Person 3: Romans 5:3-5
Person 4:
Pray for God to guide your conversation together, & for the Holy Spirit to give wisdom & insight.
Leader: Before starting these questions, remember that you don’t have to “complete the list.” There are more questions listed than you have time to answer. Every major question has several smaller questions on the same idea/topic that you can use to keep things moving. They don’t have to all be individually answered. You know your group best, choose the ones that work best for your unique needs.
Q1: The One Area of Growth
When we define spiritual growth, we find that is a call to be active, growing closer (bit by bit, day by day) to God. It’s a process, not an overnight thing.
- Name something that you had to work at to grow in…besides your spiritual walk.
- What foundation took longest to lay down before positive growth/fruit began to show?
Q2: Considering our root system
Pastor Julian reminded us that our foundation, our unseen growth-platform (our spiritual growth) is the most important component of our lives. He said, “Growth shouldn’t be measured from me year to the next, but from one decade to the next.”
- What have you seen God doing in your life that has taken a long time to sculpt & develop?
- Could you have handled it if He did that overnight?
- What benefit comes from slow, organic growth?
Q3: Spiritual growth is…
…when we do A, B, C & D with the expectation of growing closer to God. Serving in a ministry will grow us closer. Studying the Bible & praying will grow us closer. Sharing our faith with others will grow us closer. Becoming more consistent in gathering with the church will grow us closer.
- How have you invested in growth in other areas of your life? What is something you wanted to get better at? What steps did you take?
- Remember, we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, so no one can brag that they’re better.
- How are things we do proof of what God has done & what He is doing today?
Q4: We grow through struggle
Pastor Julian reminded us what Romans 5 says about suffering & growth.
- Read Romans 5:1-11 together
- Jim Elliot, a missionary who became a martyr in 1956, said this, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
- How does suffering, denying ourselves & following Jesus instead, produce growth in the face of suffering?
Q5: The WHO and the DO are two different things.
When we come to Christ, and are buried with Him in baptism, we stand blameless before God. But no matter what we DO, we have to remember that we are LOVED by God no matter what.
What we DO is an outpouring of what God is doing in us, not our ticket for admission into His heart.
- How is our growth evidence of Him?
- How is the -process- of maturing in Christ an encouragement in & of itself?
- How can we, as a group/family, encourage each other in this growth?
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Point of Prayer for our Small Group: Pray over the areas that the people within your small group serve within, let different people choose one area (not their own) to pray over.
