Next Steps--Lesson 7--A Healthy Fear of the LORD

Discussion Questions:

1.  What kinds of things help you get a clear reflection of your identity?  What kinds of things distort your perspective of your identity? 

2.  Why is it important that God uses the same descriptions of our identity in the Old Testament as in the New Testament? 

3.  Which picture of identity do you resonate most with? (Slave; bondslave; friend; child; covenant partner) Why?  Which do you struggle to experience?  Share what makes you struggle with this.  

4.  Why is it important to start with the identity of a slave to our Master?  How have you seen God encourage you in your identity to move towards more intimacy with Him?

5.  Why is submission or surrendering your will a key part of every other role in our identity?  What does submission do to help build community?

6.  Why does God make an example of Moses when he strikes the rock instead of talking to it to bring water forth?  How unfair does it seem for God to punish him by not allowing him into the Promised Land? 

7.  One could argue that Peter’s denials of his knowing Jesus was a treatment of Jesus as unholy in a similar fashion to what Moses did striking the rock.  Why is Peter restored and entrusted with so much?  How is God the same yesterday, today and forever when His treatment of people’s failures differs so much?

8.  What difference does it make that your new identity is that of a saint (a holy one)?  What are some ways you have set your life apart for God?

9.  What about taking the Next Step with God is about knowing there is another chapter to be written for our lives and for His Kingdom?  What reminders can you place in your life to help you remember that God is not finished writing His story (history) yet?

10. What kinds of things help you to worship the LORD in awe and amazement?  How much more likely are you to take a Next Step in faith and service when your motivation is awe, wonder and amazement instead of fear of punishment?  Who would want you to be stuck in fear of punishment rather than reaching a place of wonder, awe and amazement?

Next Steps--Lesson 6--Go Out & Count the Stars--Genesis 12 & 15

Discussion Questions:

1.  How is faith in God not logical or illogical?  Why must we keep in mind that faith is only true faith if it is Theological? 

2.  What made Abram willing to take the next step with God to go to a land he didn’t know among a people he didn’t know?  What promises has God given to you that help you to be willing to go where He sends you and do what He asks of you?

3.  How much of our waiting upon God is because of Him and how much is because of us? (I know there is no definitive percentage one can give but discuss the implications of this question.). What role does character development play in God being able to move forward with us?

4.  What assumptions about aging and its limitations or a lack of gifts would God probably laugh at or challenge your assumptions if you expressed them to Him? 

5.  How has your limited perspective and being caught up in time led to anxiety or even some doubt or loss of faith?  How does this tie into our faith needing to be Theological?

6.  Why did God take Abram outside and tell him to look at the stars?  What kinds of ceilings have your (wrong) assumptions placed in your life that hinder your abilities to trust in His promises?

7.  How does being in awe influence faith?  What kinds of things help you stay in awe of God?  How do man-made ceilings and wrong assumptions work against maintaining awe of God?

8.  How is God’s presence and activity in your life often like stars in the daytime?  Why is it often in the darkness that God’s presence and direction shine out more brightly?

9.  Why is it important to have faith like a child?  What kinds of things have you seen differently because of your children or other children in your life?

10. The story ends with laughter—Isaac is named “He laughs” and Sarah says God has brought her laughter (Gen. 21:6).  How is that an appropriate end for a sermon series about taking next steps with God?

Next Steps--Lesson 5--Have I Got a Job for You--Exodus 3-4

Discussion Questions:

1.  How would you describe the success of God’s mission to bring transformation into your life?  What things hinder you from accepting that you are a new creation, born again, with a new heart and spirit? 

2.  Explain how one has an immediate new nature when they accept Jesus as LORD and Savior but still must endure a step-by-step process of maturing.  What kinds of things has the LORD provided and done to help you mature step by step?

3.  What kinds of things represent your identity and your security?  How difficult would it be for you to throw them down? 

4.  Tell of any times you reached a point of self-preservation.  How did the LORD move you out from there?  How does having purpose outside of yourself help with moving forward?  How did God use those times to transform you?

5.  Why did God get angry when Moses asked if someone else could do what God was asking of him?  How does God feel when you resist the transformation He wants to bring into your life?

6.  Why did God have Moses pick the staff up again?  What should we learn from the way God used this to emphasize transformation and the role Moses went on to play in shepherding the people of God?  Is there an area like this in your life where God wants to use your identity in a transformed way to accomplish more for His Kingdom?

7.  Why did God have Moses take his shoes off at the burning bush?  Are there things you need to remove to get closer to the presence of God?  Is it a coincidence that Moses gets closer to God than anyone else of his generation?  What does this teach you?

8.  Moses messed his life up in a big way and put himself out to pasture, but God wasn’t done with him yet.  What does this help you understand about your own failings? 

9.  Who is there around you that could be led to freedom from oppression if you took up your staff and entrusted yourself to the LORD?  What will you do to be prepared for opportunities to do this?