Next Steps - Lesson 9 - Looking for a Fight - I Samuel 13 & 14 + Various Passages

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?

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?