This week's Life Group Questions
1. Conversation starter: what was the key insight you gained from Sunday’s sermon?
2. Read Luke 9:23-25. We understand the cross primarily as a biblical or theological concept, but for Jesus’ original audience “taking up your cross” was terrifying language, because of what the cross represented in those days: humiliation, suffering and death. Taking up your cross means that you treasure Jesus more than anything else, regardless the consequences.
a) Honest reflection: is Jesus of more value to you than anything else?
b) What other treasures are battling for center stage in your life?
3. Jesus asks His disciples to deny themselves (v.23), which means to renounce yourself as the center of your existence. Used as we are to the self-file, dominated by our own plans, dreams and desires, we find it hard to understand the concept of a good life if it doesn’t involve getting what WE want. Letting go of self is therefore hard…
a) What parts of your self-life have you already let go of in your following of Jesus? How has this impacted your spiritual life?
b) What are parts of your self-life that you find difficult to let go of? What is needed for you to take this step of obedient surrender?
4. Jesus gives us these hard instructions (denying ourselves and taking up our cross) for good reasons: He wants us to find (true) life (v.25). Upside-down as it may feel, it is when we follow Jesus on His terms that we find a satisfying and fulfilling life.
a) Read John 10:10 out loud together.
b) How can you testify to the reality of the promise of a “life to the full” in your following of Jesus (and your letting go)?
5. Break-out in groups of 2-3 (men with men, women with women) for a time of prayer.
Jesus wants us to let go of sin, of self and of the ways and pursuits of the world (see last Sunday’s sermon notes).
a) Share your specific challenges or reservations in letting go of habits, possessions, people, pursuits, thoughts in any of the three areas (sin, self and the world).
b) Confess these things to God and let Him know your commitment from here.
c) Spend time in prayer for each other:
2. Read Luke 9:23-25. We understand the cross primarily as a biblical or theological concept, but for Jesus’ original audience “taking up your cross” was terrifying language, because of what the cross represented in those days: humiliation, suffering and death. Taking up your cross means that you treasure Jesus more than anything else, regardless the consequences.
a) Honest reflection: is Jesus of more value to you than anything else?
- If so, how is this reflected in your everyday life?
- If not, what is preventing you from doing so?
b) What other treasures are battling for center stage in your life?
3. Jesus asks His disciples to deny themselves (v.23), which means to renounce yourself as the center of your existence. Used as we are to the self-file, dominated by our own plans, dreams and desires, we find it hard to understand the concept of a good life if it doesn’t involve getting what WE want. Letting go of self is therefore hard…
a) What parts of your self-life have you already let go of in your following of Jesus? How has this impacted your spiritual life?
b) What are parts of your self-life that you find difficult to let go of? What is needed for you to take this step of obedient surrender?
4. Jesus gives us these hard instructions (denying ourselves and taking up our cross) for good reasons: He wants us to find (true) life (v.25). Upside-down as it may feel, it is when we follow Jesus on His terms that we find a satisfying and fulfilling life.
a) Read John 10:10 out loud together.
b) How can you testify to the reality of the promise of a “life to the full” in your following of Jesus (and your letting go)?
5. Break-out in groups of 2-3 (men with men, women with women) for a time of prayer.
Jesus wants us to let go of sin, of self and of the ways and pursuits of the world (see last Sunday’s sermon notes).
a) Share your specific challenges or reservations in letting go of habits, possessions, people, pursuits, thoughts in any of the three areas (sin, self and the world).
b) Confess these things to God and let Him know your commitment from here.
c) Spend time in prayer for each other:
- Ask the Father for boldness and willingness to let go of the things just shared.
- Ask Jesus for perseverance and a focus on Him in this journey.
- Ask the Holy Spirit for a training-mentality (instead of trying-mentality) and the power to let go.
- End in a time of praise and thanksgiving for the “life to the full” life that Jesus offers us in our following of Him.