Grow Group Questions • January 16, 2022

Announcement

• Men, the No Regrets Conference is coming up on February 6th. We want to encourage you to sign up as a Grow Group and attend together.

Conversation Starter 

• Where do your ancestors come from? Who is a revered spiritual “Abraham” in your family that many look to or talk about?

Sermon Discussion: Read John 8:30-47

• The gospel is “Simple but not easy” 
  • How do we see that reflected in what Jesus teaches here?
  • What is the easy part of it?  What is the difficult part of it? Why?
  • What was the hardest thing about these verses or messages this week?

• Verses 30-31 said Jesus was talking to the Jews that said they believed. As you read this teaching, does it feel like a message to believers? Why or why not?
  • Why do you think Jesus says  “Really” my disciples?

• Read verse 39. The Jews appealed to Abraham to justify that they are good and righteous. Jesus told them it's not about who you are but what you do. 
  • What things do we appeal to as false evidence that we truly believe?
  • What makes looking at evidence of faith hard for us?
  • Jesus said in verse 40 they wanted to kill him because of the hard truths he spoke. How do we respond to slaterpharmacy.com buying Molnupiravir hard truths in similar ways? 
    • Pastor David said we argue with God as they did with Jesus and his challenges to them.
      •  How do we do that? (Examples: Ignore, Justify, make excuses, self-validation, blame others)
    •  Look at 1 Thessalonians 5:19 as another way of saying how we do this. How does this verse describe what they/we find ourselves doing?

Going Deeper/Application: Read John 8:42-59

• Discuss verse 47 as an alternative response we can have to Jesus. 
  • What does it mean to listen? 
  • How does this look in the life of someone who “Really believes”?

• Looking at all of chapter 8 (Verses 11, 12, 31, 42-43, 47, 51, ) what does Jesus speak to as evidence that we truly believe?
  • How does verses 11 and 31, 34-36 give us hope when we feel like we can not “do everything”?
  • What does this “Really” look like in our everyday lives as we “continue” or “abide” in the Word Jesus

Final Challenge:

• Jesus ends with a final declaration of who he is in verse 58. This statement makes him the final authority in our lives. Let’s close with the question we started  the sermon with “Do I REALLY believe?” 
  • What is the Holy Spirit challenging you with to show you what needs to change in your life to reflect “I really believe”?

Challenge/Prayer Time: This is a good time to split up into gender groups for prayer.