Matt described four categories of people in our church. Which of the following do you most closely identify with? What is one small decision you are going to make this week towards becoming more biblically oriented?

-You are not a Christian, but you might feel inclined to study the Bible.

-You are new to your faith, and your goal now should be to grow deep roots so that you are not swayed by this world.

-You are consistently in church, but there has not been movement or growth in your life for a while. Your heart is hardened, and you have been sitting close to the Word and not obeying it.

-You have been feeding on the Word faithfully for a long time, and you can see that the Spirit has made you fruitful and strong.

To be biblically oriented instead of self-oriented, we must respond with both personal devotion and constant learning. What does either of these look like in your life currently? Which one do you have a harder time with and why?

What is something you have recently read in Scripture or heard taught that you might be disobeying? How do you need to respond instead?

God says we are rewarded when we seek him, yet when we hear his Word and disobey, there will be consequences—a hardening of our hearts. Can you remember a time in your life when your heart was tender and responsive to God’s Word? Can you give an example of what that looked like and how your inward devotion to God’s Word showed outwardly?

What have you defined as your community either in your current life stage or in the past? How might your definition differ from what the Bible calls us to?

Chris uses the example of carrying a backpack alone versus carrying a boulder alone to illustrate sharing and carrying each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2) and knowing when to take responsibility for your own (Galatians 6:5). The assumption here is that everyone is carrying burdens. When have you seen or experienced this type of sharing of burdens? What “boulder” have you been carrying that you need to confess in community? For whom do you need to step in and help carry their “boulder”?

Being relationally connected is not about spending all of our time with a functional community of friends who are just like us and make us “feel good”, but about a formative community of people who are spurring us to be more like Jesus through challenging, exhorting, sacrificing, encouraging, and motivating. Where might you be investing in a false, or functional, form of community that isn’t the life-changing community of the Bible? When is a time that God has used true, formative community to mature you?

What can you do to step out of functional community and move towards formative community? How has social media, your phone, and other communication kept you from being fully known and relationally connected? How might these things contribute to loneliness?

Chris explained the progression from the “one another” in James 5:16 to confess and pray and then be healed. How have you seen or experienced the healing process of accountability and the confessing of sin bring life change? What is helpful from the quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer?

"Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one's community back from the path of sin." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The expression of our generosity reveals what’s going on in our hearts—what we value, fear, have confidence in, and what makes us happy. Where are you most generous? Where do you fear missing out or not having enough? What do you think your spending reveals about your heart?

When we deplete ourselves of resources and cut something loose, it rights our heart and reframes reality. When have you felt what it is like to deplete yourself to bless someone else so that you have to trust God? How did this change your heart?

We are either fearful owners or fearless managers of our resources. If this were a spectrum, where do you think you would fall and why? In what area of your life do you find it most difficult to be a fearless manager?

Matt challenges us to hold possessions loosely acknowledging that God owns everything we have, to be careful with debt, and to start small with giving, even if our heart isn’t in it, because our hearts will follow. Where can you move in one of these areas this week?

Direction: Pray this week that God would help you see someone that no one else sees and that when you see them, God would tell you what to do to be generous to them. Let us deplete ourselves to care for someone else.

As you think about being ministry focused, do you lean towards self-protection or self-promotion and in what ways? How have you dealt with some of these issues? In what ways can you repent?

-Self-Protection: Crave comfort, fearful of the “burden” of serving, and “If I expose myself, my gifts, and my time, I might lose my comfort or find myself under this burden”

-Self-Promotion: Crave Significance, fearful of irrelevance or insignificance, and you are always thinking of how to be in the center of what is going on and in the middle of every room. It feels like a deep loss to sit in the back.

Paul’s appeal for serving is based on everything God has done for us, not on anything we can accomplish ourselves or any particular need to be met. In what ways have you wrongly fed your soul off of what you are getting done for God or needs you are meeting versus feeding your soul on what God has already done for you? How has that affected your joy? What are some practical ways you can renew your perspective by reflecting on what God has done?

Read Romans 12:1. What is the command here? How does this contrast with our culture’s need to “create balance” and be comfortable? How are you or are you not living in this type of sacrificial serving (see key point #2 for more on this)?

Bill explained that the “how” of living a life of sacrificial serving is through continually being transformed by the renewing of our mind; In what ways do you daily reorient your mind around Scripture? How have you seen your mind transformed over time to come in line with the truth of God’s Word?

We need humility that our service is rooted in God’s sovereignty—in how HE wants to use us. And instead of seeking to perfectly deploy our gifts through self-discovery, we should just serve joyfully as we have opportunity and allow our community to clarify and affirm our gifts. Have you had this happen for you? When is a time that you were able to affirm someone else’s gifts based on how you benefited from them? Where can you step out and start serving?

Matt mentioned that the light that we give is the good deeds that we do. What good deeds are you personally involved in that others can see and give glory to God? Did any of Matt’s ideas resonate with you? (e.g. coaching a team, getting involved in a school, mentoring, visiting someone in the hospital, inviting your neighbors over, etc.)

Read Acts 4:16-22. How would you say you are characterized: as someone who wants to tell about what God has done and shares with your voice, or someone who remains silent about what you have seen and heard? What holds you back from sharing, and what does that say about who you fear, God or man?

How have you seen good deeds and voice work together to show someone the love of Christ? How have the good works and love of someone else affected your own faith and shined light in your darkness?

Matt mentioned three ways we can share with others: (1) Ask questions about people’s lives and ask if you can pray with and for them, (2) Speak and respond gently and kindly, and (3) Share your story (resource on the Grace Church mobile app). Which one of these is hardest for you? How can you do one of these this week?

If no one asks you about your faith, you might not be living a compelling life. People should be asking you why you do the things you do. When is the last time someone asked you about your faith? Or have you so surrounded yourself with Christians that there is no one to ask you?

GROUP: Discuss the initiatives that your campus pastor shared. How can you personally or as a group get involved in what your campus is doing?

On this continuum of independence and dependence, which category do you lean toward? What are some examples of ways in which you tend toward one or the other? What is a practical way you can move away from independence or dependence on others?

Because of our American culture, we are at a decided disadvantage in being prayerfully dependent. We don’t live with the daily consciousness of how frail we truly are, and our security is an illusion. What are some things in your life daily that give you a false sense of control or security? How do these factors keep you from depending on God?

In the Lord’s Prayer, we see: the awareness of our own frailty, how easily we can be tripped up in sin and its destruction, how we should come to God with confidence and to own his cause, how to bring him our needs with open hands, and the acknowledgment of our brokenness and need for him to work on our behalf.

What are some ways this posture of prayer is or is not reflective of you? Did this explanation help you become aware of any ways that you approach God that you want to change?

What keeps you personally from resting in the shadow of the Almighty? (Psalm 91) Below are seven categories for us to think through and their corresponding truths. Based on which categories you resonate with, how are you going to preach truth to yourself? Is there any action you need to take?