Sunday: Luke 1, Jeremiah 32:17; Why do you think God delights in doing the impossible? Is God asking you to believe something that seems impossible right now? Write down something you want to ask Him for this Christmas that seems impossible.

 

Monday: Matthew 2:1-12; The wise men worshiped Jesus by kneeling. Get on your knees (or find some other posture of humility as you are able, i.e. bowing your head, placing your open hands in your lap, etc.) and express to him right now how much you love Him. How does just being in that position change the position of your heart?

 

Tuesday: Galatians 4:1-7; Read the passage about how we have been adopted as children of God through Christ. Many people adopt a family to help during Christmas. Find someone who needs a family this Christmas and make plans to be that family for them.

 

Wednesday: Isaiah 58, Matthew 6:16-18; Take at least a day to fast from something. Journal about your experience of fasting. What did you learn? How did it change you?

 

Thursday: Luke 11:1-3; Use the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern to write down a prayer that has some of those same ideas in it. What parts of Jesus’ prayer pattern do you often leave out the times you pray? How was writing down your prayer different from just saying it?

 

Friday: John 1; What is significant about understanding that Jesus is The Word and that He has been God since the beginning? “Follow me” is a statement you find in John 1. What was it like when Jesus asked you to follow Him?

 

Saturday: John 21:25; Christmas is getting closer! It will be easy to lose focus on Him as the season gets busier. Read the last verse of the Gospel of John. What is your favorite part about Jesus’ life?

As always let your group gather and share some glory sightings or High, Low, Highs of the week.

 

1. Starting question—this week we want to talk about the good times and the bad times. So to get the ball rolling we want everyone to think of your proudest moment and your most embarrassing moment. If we all feel comfortable sharing quickly…

 

There are a lot of things that we can take pride in. Sometimes it is our job, our kids, our accomplishments, etc. If we aren’t careful sometimes these things can grow out of control. In our story of Jacob and Joseph we see a father (Jacob) who took pride in his son (Joseph). This was an ok thing but his pride was a little too deep. In fact Jacob’s pride went way back into his own childhood. Jacob was conniving and deceiving throughout his life and the ripples that he made in his childhood followed him all the way to his adulthood and influenced even his own children. Lets watch this video of how Jacob’s life influenced Joseph’s life. 

 

Joseph had a lot of bad stuff happen to him throughout his life that was out of his control. He was thrown in a well, sold into slavery, thrown in prison….none of this was a direct result of his choices. He was kind of like Andy Dufrain on Shawshank Redemption. Through it all Joseph showed a high level of integrity.

 

 

2. What do you think is a true mark of integrity? Who is someone you know that you consider to have very high integrity? What characteristics does this person possess (or what do they do) that makes you feel this way about them?

 

3. Integrity is probably the most important thing that any of us could possess because each of our decisions creates a ripple effect. If you have ever seen the movie “Crash” you know that the movie is based on simple decisions that produce big results (good and bad). Looking back on your life can you think of a simple decision that you made that had a big ripple effect in your life?

 

4. Have you ever been effected by someone else’s ripple effect? Meaning, has someone else made a decision (good or bad) that had a ripple influence effect in your life?

 

5. Well, Joseph had a lot of CRAP happen in his life that could have lead him down a wrong path. Let’s read about them real quick.
 Genesis 39:1-23
 Genesis 40:1-23

 

6. What were you most impressed with about Joseph in these passages?

 

7. What could have been Joseph’s list of excuses to make different decisions in these passages.

 

8. In the story of Potiphar’s wife Joseph sacrificed temporary pleasure for a long term gain.
 Has there been a time in your life where you have had to delay gratification for a larger purpose or goal? Can you share a story?

 

 

9. In prison Joseph had to live with consistent integrity—no matter what—he never knew if he was going to get out of prison or not even though he had done nothing wrong.

 In each of his situations Joseph’s consistent integrity paid off. He was his dad’s favorite…leader of Potiphar’s house…leader of the prison. In the midst of all of this he focused on DOING GOOD not necessarily FEELING GOOD.
 How do we continue to do good deeds or have high integrity in the midst of the lower points in our lives?
 Has their been a time in your life where you have had to “fake it til you make it.” Basically you had to just get through something even though you weren’t feeling it anymore?

 

 

10. Joseph didn’t stay in prison. His integrity lead him to be the most powerful person in Egypt because he was going to help lead people out of the famine that was coming. Basically he had all of the power.
 Think about your life. Do you have any positions of authority?
 What are key characteristics of people in authority who have high integrity? Low integrity?
 How do their decisions create a ripple effect?

 

11. Joseph had the opportunity that many people dream of. To pay back the people that had wronged him in a very big way. Instead he chose to forgive his brothers and to help them live. In doing this he changed the ripple effect of his entire family.
 Think about your life…when has someone offered you grace when you didn’t deserve it?
i. Here if you have time you might go to www.rivercitymethodist.com and click on the podcast and share Janna’s testimony with your group and discuss.

 Think about your life…when have you offered someone grace whether they deserved it or not.

Matthew 5:6-7, 9
Daily Scripture Readings:

 

Sunday: Matthew 5:6-7, 9, We are called to be a blessing in the world. Hungering for righteousness, showing mercy, and making peace seems like something the world needs more of. Ask God to show you how you can be his hands and feet in the world around you.

 

Monday: John 8:44, 8:32, What are the lies you have believed about the character defects you have? How do you hear God’s voice challenging you to submit to the changes he wants to make in your life? “As you grow in God’s truth and voluntarily submit to the changes He has in store for you, you will discover the happiness of doing what God requires” (Life’s Healing
Choices, 151).

 

Tuesday: Romans 12:1-2, We are called to be living sacrifices. Unlike a dead sacrifice, which has no free will, we must choose to surrender our lives to God’s will. What choice do you need to make today to stop conforming to the pattern of this world and be transformed into who God is calling you to be?

 

Wednesday: Proverbs 17:24, Sometimes we get so overwhelmed by all the things that need to change in our lives that we end up changing absolutely nothing. We are paralyzed by all the different directions we could go. Ask God to help you focus on one thing that needs to change in order for you to grow in your relationship with Him.

 

Thursday: Colossians 3:13, What we believe about grace and forgiveness is ultimately rooted in the grace and forgiveness of Jesus. We forgive because we have been forgiven. Take time to think about the ways you have experienced God’s grace and forgiveness in your life. How does this shape your ability to offer forgiveness to those who have hurt you?

 

Friday: Matthew 18:21-22, Even when you say “I forgive you”, feelings of anger, resentment, and sadness can sweep over us again and again. Every time they do, keep choosing forgiveness. Keep choosing to forgive over and over again so that God can continue to set you free from the hurt you experienced and fill your heart with love and peace.

 

Saturday: Matthew 5:23-24, What unresolved brokenness exists in your relationships? Are there specific people that come to mind that you sense God calling you to try to make things right with? Ask God for wisdom to make amends to the right person, in the right way, at the right time…except when to do so would harm them or others.

 

Week Two—Session 2

 

Letting Go and Coming Clean

 

Focus of the Group—to hear one another’s stories! Part of sharing who you are and sharing some of your life experience. The good, the bad and not so pretty. This is the beginning of taking the steps to Let Go and Come Clean!

 

Start off your group by letting everyone gather and catch up. Grab your groups attention by starting off with Glory Sightings or sharing some highs and lows from the week. Whichever method works better for you and your group.

 

Let the group know that today we are going to focus on stories and hopefully hearing one another’s stories. The Healing Choices we are focusing on are “Letting Go and Coming Clean.” We hope today that some of us will be willing to share our story. So lets get the ball rolling with that….

 

Materials needed: Paper, pens/pencils
1. Opening questions:
a. Growing up…what was your favorite thing (toy, item, etc) that you could not separate with? (If this isn’t getting anywhere ask about someone’s kids…what are they attached to…or brother, etc)
b. So today…what is the thing that is hard for you to let go of? Specifically, if you were going to be stranded on a desert island with two nouns (person, thing) what would it be.
c. If you could only grab one thing (not person) out of the house and the house was on fire what would you grab and why?

 

2. Very rarely does God call us to “hold on to things.” Instead God calls us to “let go.” What is something in your life that you have had a hard time letting go of and trusting God? Or is there something where God has called you to let go of something and you were able to let go of it?

 

3. On Sunday we talked about things that keep us from Letting Go and trusting God. Some of those are PRIDE, Guilt, fear, worry, and doubt. Can you think of other things that keep us from letting go and trusting God?

 

4. Out of Pride, guilt, fear, worry, doubt and other stuff you listed which one is your biggest struggle.

 

5. Letting go in the immediate can mean that we lose something or even that we fall for a while before we get our feet under us. We know that God takes our hand but we still struggle with “what if God doesn’t.” Have there been times in your life when you have tried to “shake free from God’s grasp” like Derek talked about in his story on Sunday?

 

6. The fourth principle in CR is “coming clean.” Sharing our stories…good and bad with people we trust, God and ourselves. No worries…we aren’t going to ask you to air all your dirty laundry, but we do want to hear some of our stories today around the following topics. Could you share:

 How did you first start following Christ or become a Christian?

 When are sometimes in your life where you have felt very close to God…mountain top experiences?
 When have been some times in your life where you have felt distant from God….maybe “valley experiences?”
 What times of your life have provided the most personal and spiritual growth?

 

7. (try to spend most of your time on question 6 hearing people’s stories) Wow, it is great to hear one another’s stories. What does it do for our group to hear the stories from one another’s lives?

 

8. Letting Go and Coming Clean is something that takes a lot of trust in God and others. It is also about letting go of our will and trusting God’s will for our lives. READ JEREMIAH 29:11-13 and Matthew 11:28-30. Do these verses ring true in your Christian life? IF so how? If not, why not?

 

9. We talked Sunday about when we ask for forgiveness from sin we are forgiven INSTANTLY, FREELY and COMPLETELY. As a Christian, do you feel “that forgiven?” And how do we not take advantage of that forgiveness and continue doing what we are asking forgiveness for?

 

10. Not only are we called to “come clean” to God and he will forgive us, but we are also called to come clean to someone else? What characteristics are needed in a person that we share our hurts, habits and hangs up with?

 

11. Do you have a person like that in your life? Could you tell us about that person?

 

12. We also talked about the need of a team or cord of three in our lives…US, GOD, People of God. It’s all about being real with ourselves, God and others. We even talk about that at River City as TRUE COMMUNITY. Which “cord” do you struggle with….being real/forgiving yourself, trusting God/Trusting inGod’s forgiveness, sharing/trusting others?

 

For our prayer time today feel free to mention general prayer requests (my sick grandma, etc), but also which are could we pray for you about in the cord of three? Can we pray for you that you would trust GOD….YOURSELF…or OTHERS MORE?

 

 

Matthew 5:5, 8

 

Daily Scripture Readings:

 

Sunday: Matthew 11:28-30, What are you trying to keep hidden in your life? What burden are you desperately trying to carry by yourself? Instead of using your willpower to control things, use your willpower to surrender control to God.

 

Monday: Ephesians 1:13, The very core of our identity as followers of Jesus is that we are deeply loved children of God. We are not ultimately defined by our successes or failures, the good or bad things we have done, or the approval or disapproval of others. Where do you tend to find your sense of identity and purpose?

 

Tuesday: Philippians 1:6, Notice the emphasis in this passage isn’t what we do. The work of grace is God’s work from start to finish. God has begun a good work in you, God will continue to help you grow in grace, and God will bring His work to completion.

 

Wednesday: Psalm 139:23-24, Ask God to search you and show you the places where you need to be ruthlessly honest about your hurts, habits, or hang-ups. No more pretending, covering up, or denying. Ask God to show you the truth and lead you in the way everlasting.

 

Thursday: 1 John 1:9, God promises us that if we admit our sins, he will be faithful to forgive us. There is nothing so surprising, so severe, or so big that God can’t forgive. There is no brokenness beyond the reach of God’s grace. Take time today to be honest with God about the things you are struggling with.

 

Friday: Psalm 32:1-2, There is joy in forgiveness…not just the cathartic release of bringing your brokenness into the light, but the joy of knowing that you are forgiven, cleansed, and made new. Ask God to help your soul find rest in His grace today.

 

Saturday: James 5:16, Is there a trusted, mature Christian friend that you can share your hurts, habits, and hang-ups with? Is there someone that you know is praying for you and supporting you in your Christian journey? If so, thank God for these people in your life. If not, ask God to open doors to relationships that will honor Him. We were never intended to be “Lone Ranger

Christians”. We were created for community.