Ben Phebus // Rockford Campus // October 27, 2024

SMALL GROUP
DISCUSSION GUIDE

REMINDERS

LEADER DEVELOPMENT CLASS (Sundays, 6–7pm – Rockford Campus Room 304)

As we lead our groups, we all face a variety of challenges: busy schedules, people ghosting us, hurt feelings, differing political views, personal problems that affect our ability to help others. How do you face these? Do you feel stuck and in need of some advice? We want to help you be the best you can be in the way you serve, so that’s why we started the LEADER DEVELOPMENT CLASS.

This fall we’re looking at Crucial Conversations, a training tool that will help you as a leader learn what it looks like to commit to unity and oneness, while at the same time striving for truth and respect. We long to help our church grow in this and know that God will do many good things as we learn to communicate well together! In the Winter, we’ll jump into a longer, 12 week series in the book LEAD by Paul David Tripp.

Leaders: Our classes are “open”—each one is stand-alone and can be attended as you are able. No purchase or prep is required. We provide any materials needed for discussion. Please plan to attend at least 4 of these classes between Oct. 2024 through April 2025.

 

TOGETHER IN LIFE

In the sermon, Ben spoke about our rhythms and routines. As the seasons change, our daily and weekly rhythms and routines often change as well. What rhythms and routines are you looking forward to as our days get shorter and our months get colder?

 

TOGETHER IN THE WORD

THIS WEEK’S KEY PASSAGE: Luke 9:28-37

Note: If you are meeting as a group, we encourage you to read the entire text together out loud.

 

After reading Luke 9:28-37, answer the following questions: 

• What stands out to you in this text?
• What stood out to you in the sermon?

 

The Glory of the Son

This section of Luke records Christ’s transfiguration, the moment when Peter, James, and John witnessed Jesus in His eternal glory as He spoke with Moses and Elijah on a mountaintop. Luke tells us that as Jesus was praying, “the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.”

QUESTIONS

• Take a moment to read John’s words in John 1:14 and Peter’s words in 2 Peter 1:16-18. What does this suggest to you about the impact of the transfiguration on John and Peter’s lives and faith?
• Now compare Luke’s description of Jesus in His glory to John’s description of Jesus in Revelation 1:12-16. What does this reveal to us about who Jesus is and what He is like?

 

From Mountain to Mission

When Peter woke up, he was so excited to see Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah in His transfigured state that he didn’t want the moment to end. Ben noted in the sermon that Peter correctly understood that to bask in the glory of God is what we’re made for. But his timing was off. He wanted to build shelters for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah so that they could stay on the mountaintop together. But the Bible tells us he didn’t know what he was saying.

In other words, he was talking about things he didn’t fully understand.

While his desire was to stay in the glory of their mountaintop experience, his mission was to descend the mountain with Jesus back into a world of brokenness, sickness, and sin so that Jesus could accomplish what He had come to do and the disciples could bring the good news of the gospel to the world until He comes again.

 

QUESTIONS

• Have you ever had an experience with God or a taste of God’s goodness and glory that you didn’t want to end? What have those moments been for you?
• How do you feel when the moments of God’s peace and goodness are followed by the moments of brokenness and chaos that come from living in a fallen world?
• Notice that the disciples descended the mountain with Jesus. He didn’t send them down alone while He spoke with Moses and Elijah, but rather He came with them. What does this suggest for us as we move from moments of peace, rest and renewal with Jesus to moments of engaging with the brokenness and demands of the world around us?

 

Listen to Him

When God told the disciples, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” He was establishing that Jesus is in fact the Savior of the world, and that His disciples could trust that in Jesus all of God’s promises would come true. He was also giving the disciples a clear command to listen to Jesus: to believe, understand, and obey.

In the same way, we as Christ’s disciples have God’s Word—which tells us who God is, what He has done, and what He promises He will do – to hold onto both in the dark and confusing moments of our lifetimes and in this in-between time while we still wait for His return. And we have a command to listen to Him and obey.

But in order to do that, we must intentionally carve out rhythms of being with Jesus in prayer and His Word. As Ben put it in the sermon, we must listen first and foremost to the words of Jesus and allow them to shape us more than anything else. When we do this, we allow God to build our lives on the solid foundation of His Word and not on the shifting sand of our emotions or the ways of the world around us.

 

QUESTIONS

• Do you have a rhythm of being with God in a quiet place? How is that rhythm or lack of rhythm shaping you?
• Do you ever consider how many things in life are competing with God’s Word to shape you and your loved ones? Have you observed the impact of this in you or anyone you love? What steps do you or could you take to counter it?
• Ben shared a list of spiritual practices that we read about in the Bible: Prayer, generosity, fasting, solitude, Sabbath, Scripture, community, service, and witness. Do any of these practices come easily to you? Are any of them more challenging?
• How can you intentionally carve out time in your weekly schedule to include spiritual rhythms and practices?
• Ben noted that by spending time in God’s Word, we’re better able to counter untrue emotions (for example, feelings of being unloved or of things being out of control) with the truth of God’s Word. We can say to ourselves, “My feelings say this, but God has said…” What are some “But God has said” words that you have found comfort or truth in?

 

TOGETHER IN ACTION

Our next steps as a church this week are to:

• Fill your mind with the teaching of Jesus. Listen, believe, and obey.
• Look for one thing to stop doing in your life in order to give space to time with God.

 

TOGETHER IN PRAYER

In the mountaintop experience we see not only the holiness and power of God, but His kindness and tenderness toward His people. Jesus’s transfiguration and the Father’s words in the cloud would give them something to hold onto even in the dark and confusing moments to come at the cross and in the time after His resurrection and ascension as they waited for His final return when He will set all things right.

Take some time to pray for the following things:

• Any prayer requests you have as a group.
• For obedience and faith to intentionally carve out time for daily and weekly spiritual rhythms and practices so that we can grow closer to Christ and live in His love.
• To look first to God and His Word to shape us and fill us.
• For a joyful pursuit of our mission to share God’s love with a hurting and broken world.
• For spiritual oneness with Jesus, your group, and His church worldwide.