Coming out of Sunday January 3rd’s teaching, “RESET: Being With Jesus”, spend some time in prayerful reflection and dialogue with your Home Church/Friends/Family around any combination of these questions:
Read John 15:1-8 (from The Message) before starting. Pray and ask God to speak.
- On Sunday, Jeff talked about “spiritual drift” and how many people have moved into a place of apathy and indifference in their life with God throughout 2020. How would you describe your life with God coming out of 2020? Do you resonate with what Jeff was talking about regarding spiritual drift? Why, or why not?
- Heading in to 2021, are you feeling the need to hit ‘reset’ in your life with God? Why, or why not? If yes, what do you think this might look like for you (be as specific as you can)?
- Jeff (re-) introduced three basic goals for following Jesus:
- Being with Jesus
- Becoming like Jesus
- Doing what Jesus said
- Spend a few minutes reflecting on what you think each goal means in practical terms.
- Sunday’s focus was on Goal #1: “Being With Jesus“. As followers of Jesus, why is it so important that we start with this goal instead of #2 or #3 (or anything else, for that matter)?
- Looking back at our passage (John 15:1-8), what degree of importance did Jesus seem to put on “being with Jesus” (“living in me“)? Why? What are some other observations that you notice from this passage as it relates to “being with Jesus”?
- Jeff talked about the image of “making our home in Christ” (V4). What are some words, feelings or experiences that come to mind when you think of a healthy home? (Reminder: Jeff spoke to the words ‘Safety’, ‘Identity’ and ‘Relationship’). How might these words/feelings/experiences shape the way we think about “making our home in Christ”?
- Fundamentally, the invitation in John 15 is to spend time with Jesus – to “be with Jesus,” which then leads us to live out of a place of knowing Jesus (to live ‘fruitful’ lives). What has your experience been of spending time with Jesus? What are some of the challenges in this for you? What are some of the joys?
- Jeff talked about some simple ways we can practice “being with Jesus” this week:
- Practicing silence (for 2 minutes)
- Praying The Lord’s Prayer daily & deeply
- Reading Scripture (find a reading plan at YouVersion.com)
- What might be some other ways you can practice ‘being with Jesus’ this year? What does it look like for you to be intentional to plan for this (and/or to set goals in this) for the coming year? What is your next step in “being with Jesus” throughout 2021?
