“THE GOAL”
Conversation Starters
Sunday November 15, 2015
Talk about your experience on Sunday morning.
- How did God speak to you this week?
- Did you meet anyone new
Read Philippians 3:12-16 together.
- What words, phrases or verses spoke to you as you read this passage? Why?
In Verses 12 & 13, the Apostle Paul talks about how he is not perfect.
- Talk about a time in your life where you felt pressure to be “perfect” or as if you had “arrived” in some way (spiritually or in some other way). How did that make you feel?
- Why do you think we sometimes put this kind of pressure (to be perfect) on ourselves? Why is it dangerous when we do this spiritually?
- Jeff talked about how it’s about “direction, not perfection.”
- As you think about your spiritual journey, what does this mean to you?
- What comfort do you take from knowing that the Apostle Paul himself was freely able to admit that he was not perfect?
- What makes admitting our imperfection and brokenness so important?
In Verses 12-14, The Apostle Paul talks about how even though he is not perfect that he “presses on” and “forgets what lies behind and strains forward to what lies ahead.”
- What do you think it means to “press on”? What (or who) are we to press on after? (v14)
- In what ways do you sometimes depend on your own willpower & strength instead of striving after Christ and his strength & power?
- How does keeping our eyes on Jesus (instead of “self-improvement” and “self-help” strategies) change and transform us?
- What do you think Paul meant when he said to “forget what lies behind”? How can we do this?
- How does our past sin & shame sometimes control our present?
- How can our past victories and spiritual highs distract us from Christ as we move into the future?
In Verse 12, Paul talked said that he does all of this (pressing on) “because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
- How did Jesus make us his own?
- What does it mean to be “made his own”?
- How does knowing our identity in Christ impact the way we “strive” after him (as opposed to living by our own willpower and strength)?
Paul concluded this thought in verse 16 by saying, “Only let us hold true to what we have attained” which is Christ himself.
- What makes it so easy to drift from Christ and to live by our own strength?
- What can you do this week to put (or keep) your eyes on Jesus?
