“TO LIVE IS CHRIST”
CONVERSATION STARTERS
Sunday October 18, 2015
Talk about your experience on Sunday morning.
- How did God speak to you this week?
- Did you meet anyone new?
Read Philippians 1:12-30 together.
- What words, phrases or verses jumped out at you as you read this passage? Why?
Paul is under house arrest as he writes this letter and speaks of ‘rival preachers’ who are trying to “afflict me” (V17) while in prison.
- Think of a problem you are dealing with in life right now. How do you react that that problem? What do you do (or how do you feel) when you face adversity?
- Jeff talked about how our maturity levels are revealed when we go through adversity in life. In what ways does this happen?
- What can we learn from Paul about how to deal with adversity in life (V. 12-18)?
- Why do you think he was able to react the way that he did?
Paul’s perspective on his life was to say that “To live is Christ, to die is gain” (V.21)
- What do you think Paul meant when he said this? What makes this statement so radical?
- How does this perspective have the potential to change the way you deal with adversity and problems in life?
Paul’s final encouragement was to “let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (V.27)
- What do you think this looks like in practical terms?
- As an application to this statement, Paul talked about “standing firm in one spirit” (V. 27) and about not being “frightened” (V. 28). What do these two things have to do with “living in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ”?
- In Verse 29, Paul reminded the Philippian church that they would suffer for following Christ. What do you think this means for us in 2015? What makes following Jesus today so difficult?
Spend some time in prayer for one another as a group. Ask God to grow and mature each person, so that they would be able to respond to life challenges and difficulties with the maturity of Jesus Christ.
