Don Denyes // Rockford Campus // December 29, 2024

SMALL GROUP
DISCUSSION GUIDE

THIS WEEK’S KEY PASSAGE: Philippians 3:12–14

REMINDERS

WINTER BIBLE STUDIES (Beginning the week of January 12, 2025)

Both Men’s and Women’s Winter Bible Studies will begin the week of January 12th at the Rockford and Northview campuses. Registration for each is open on the events page of the website.

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

We’ve had some terrific LDC’s covering the topic of how to navigate Crucial Conversations. Thank you to the leaders who have been able to make it!

This upcoming Sunday, Jan. 5, we will continue our study of Crucial Conversations. Hope to see you there!

TOGETHER IN LIFE

New Year’s is a great time to reflect on the year behind and hope for the year ahead. Name one thing you hoped for this past year that you got, one thing you didn’t hope for but got anyway as a surprise, and one goal you set that you didn’t achieve.

TOGETHER IN THE WORD

THIS WEEK’S KEY PASSAGE: Philippians 3:12–14

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

KEY QUESTION:

• What’s your ambition?

Setting Goals

Often we don’t reach our goals, and this was true of Paul in his pursuit of Christ. Even so, he didn’t stop setting goals. Part of the process is to consider your life, to know where you are and where you want to go.

QUESTIONS

• Socrates said “the unexamined life is not worth living.” How often do you examine elements of your life? Do you think this is too little or too much?
• What kinds of goals do you tend to set in your life? Are they short-term or long-term? Reasonable or ambitious? Crucial or optional? Broad or narrow? Covering a lot of areas or just a few?
• What do you do when you don’t meet your goals?

Knowing Christ and Knowing Yourself

Paul’s missionary goal was to preach Christ, but his personal goals were to be found in Christ and to grow deeper in knowing Christ. Don used the letter to the church in Sardis to illustrate a problem we often have: we don’t know ourselves like we think we do. We need honest friends who can help us keep a healthy perspective on what we see, to and point out the things we can’t see.

QUESTIONS

• Don mentioned the dangers of apathy, complacency, and perfectionism. Do you see any of these in your life right now? Which ones are a part of your past?
• Who do you go to when you need an honest friend? Is there anything you can do as a group to better fill this role in one another’s lives?
• Is there anyone in your life who needs you to be an honest friend when you would rather stay quiet?

Forgetting, Straining

Part of Paul’s process for straining forward toward Christ included forgetting the past. This includes spiritual victories as well as failures and defeats. We tend to remember the wrong things when we look back on life; the hurts we have experienced and the mistakes we made weigh more heavily than times of success or encouragement do. We need to accepts Jesus’s offer to take our burdens and failures and press on toward following Him.

QUESTIONS

• What are some specific things that you need to forget? Are they sources of pain or sources of pride? What makes them hard to forget?
• Do you believe that Christ paid for all of your sins and mistakes? Do you believe that God no longer holds these things against you? Do you believe that your victories in life are gifts from Him?
• What are you straining toward? What do you dream about achieving in life? What would be different in your life if pursuing Christ was your highest priority?

 

TOGETHER IN ACTION

Help one another set reasonable spiritual goals for the year ahead. It may be leaving behind a sinful habit, adding a new spiritual discipline, serving in a new area, learning something new, etc. Set a check point to come back and talk about one another’s progress later in the year.

TOGETHER IN PRAYER

Spend time praying for one another about the year behind and the year ahead. Remember that God is for you, and that He works with you as you strain forward toward Him. While the year ahead may be full of unknowns, it will also be full of God’s faithful presence. Pray that each of you would experience the joy of being in Christ and pressing on toward Him in the year ahead.