Next Steps--Lesson 11--Would You Like to Be Free? Various Passages

Discussion Questions:

1.  What kinds of things would be in your backpack of rocks?  What kinds of burdens do you wish you could drop and not pick up again?

2.  Are there times you have lived so God would love you rather than because He loves you?  What difference does this make in your spiritual vitality?  Why do we fall into this kind of thinking?

3.  Why is knowing your true identity in God important?  How have you been lied to by the evil taskmaster to hinder you from being set free and experiencing a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light?

4.  How do you see people in our time and culture saying, “Let’s go back to Egypt?”  As God tries to lead us to the Promised Land, how are we similar to the Israelites and the way they dealt with the various trials they encountered?  How are we different?

5.  Do you fear having separation from God?  What kinds of things cause separation between you and God?  How do you respond to the statement, “The only thing between us and God is Jesus.” (If we are a believer)?

6.  Why is independence so appealing?   How have you seen independence get in the way of being set free?

7.  How does the Sabbath demonstrate God’s desire to set us free?  What makes keeping a sabbath time a burden?  Is it fair to say that giving into a schedule of busyness is like the Israelites wanting to return to Pharaoh as an evil taskmaster?  Why, or why not?

Next Steps--Lesson 10--Caught in Sin-Now What?--John 8 & 21

Discussion Questions:

1.  Jesus started His ministry proclaiming from Isaiah why He came (See Luke 4:17-21).  What do you see in these verses?  What was Jesus laying as a foundation for His reason to come to the earth?  How does this play out in your life?

2.  Why did Jesus not continue with Isaiah’s words and mention “the day of vengeance of our God”?  What does this tell you about His mission and/or ministry?  Why is this important?

3.  Why do humans find it so easy to judge and condemn?  What kinds of things cause us to do this?  How is this outside of what Jesus proclaimed to start His ministry?

4.  Was it difficult for you to “drop your rock” in the sermon time?  Elaborate on this.  Why do we worry so much about what others think of us?  How has fear of condemnation or judgment caused you to hide things?

5.  Do you think Peter went fishing because he feared his apprenticeship was over?  Are there areas from your past that you find it easy to return to when you have failed?  What comfort do you get seeing that Jesus had no intention of ending Peter’s apprenticeship?

6.  Jesus was able to turn the rooster crow from a bad reminder to something positive.  How have you seen Jesus do the same thing in your life?  How does this help you to live with a mindset of victory rather than defeat?

7.  How have you seen Jesus take your failures (or the failures of others) and turn them into an altar for worship?  In what ways have you seen that God wastes nothing, including people’s failures?

8.  Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him.  In what ways is this question the foundation of worship?  How can we better remind ourselves of this when we come together for our corporate worship?

9.  What did you learn about the Next Step in healing and forgiveness from the message of the sermon?  In what ways did this message help you to take another step forward?

Next Steps--Lesson 9--Looking for a Fight--I Samuel 13-14

Discussion Questions:

1.     What does the concept of needing to look for a fight mean in our spiritual service to the Kingdom?  In what ways is playing it safe risky?

2.     In what ways have you seen being timid or fearful limit spiritual growth and lead to mediocrity?  Are there ways you live according to not losing or being defensive instead of being on the offensive?

3.     Do you think the measure of spiritual maturity is sitting in a worship service for 90 minutes every week?  How is this similar to Saul’s sitting under a pomegranate tree?  How is it different?

4.     How did Saul’s sitting around, not being engaged in the fight, contribute to his paranoia about David and fear of losing what he had?  How have you seen this type of thing in our own time?

5.     It was said in the sermon that we cannot grow to experience more of the LORD without disrupting our comfort level.  Do you agree with this?  In what ways are you disrupting your comfort level to grow in your experiences of the LORD?

6.     How important is seeing the victory through faith in the LORD before going into battle?  What kinds of things help you to look for and focus on the victory that awaits you?  How has this made a difference in the spiritual battles you have encountered?

7.     Why does every Jonathan need an armor bearer?  What opportunities have you seen for you. to be an armor bearer for someone else in their battle?