Next Steps--Lesson 8--Taking Worship Another Step Forward--John 4 + Various Passages

Discussion Questions:

1.  What kinds of things in your life make you thirsty for more?  How is spiritual thirst different from thirst for things in a physical or emotional way?  How does spiritual thirst being satisfied help with other kinds of thirst?

2.  After Solomon experimented with so many areas of life to find meaning or purpose, what made him conclude that they were all meaningless or vanity?  Why do things like wealth, accumulating things, sexuality, etc. appeal to us if they are truly meaningless or empty?

3.  How have chasing after the American Dream or other worldly quests brought thorns or thistles into your life?  What makes people so easily duped into thinking they are better off without God?

4.  What are some stories from the Scriptures that show that God has a plan to help satiate our true thirst? 

5.  How was Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well tied to her recognizing her thirst and finding an eternal solution?  What kinds of things do you see the woman thirsting for, based upon the discussion and questions she raised with Jesus?

6.  How are Jesus’ dealing with Nicodemus and the woman at the well similar?  In what ways did Nicodemus and the woman at the well show acts of worship towards Jesus after their encounters with Him?

7.  How does gathering for corporate worship help or hinder your worship of God?  What are some other ways you find helpful to have a heart and desire for worship?  How are these things directed at seeing beyond our temporary thirsts to what will satisfy for eternity?

8.  What does it mean to worship in Spirit and truth?  What part of worshiping in Spirit and truth is brought about by you?  Why is it important to recognize and understand this?

9.  Why is it important to recognize and confront sin in our lives to reach a place of worship towards God?  If idolatry is satisfying our thirst in means other than God, how many areas of idolatry do you have in your life?

10. Her steps of worship involve seeking more, repenting, sharing what she has received, showing mercy and forgiveness towards those who have hurt her, not being exclusive, but showing that the opportunity to worship is open to everyone.  How many of these things do you feel called toward because of our corporate times of worship?  What are some ways we could improve our time together so people grew in all of these areas?

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?