Gary Heim Rockford Campus August 20, 2023
SEEK: How to Experience Peace
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDE
REMINDERS
Group Status Updates – It’s that time of year when we are looking to know: how is your group shaping up for fall? Please let us know with an update either via an email, call or text what your group is planning on for Fall 2023. We’ll be sending out a brief survey in the next week to get specific info and to offer a Next Step connection with our team.
Group Leader Development Class (new) – Beginning this fall, we will be hosting an ongoing series of Leader Development Classes that will help you be effective and grow. Whether you’ve been leading for 30 years or are just curious about leading, this class will be helpful to your journey. More information will be posted to the ‘Groups’ site soon, but mark your calendars for class number 1 beginning on Sept. 10, 5:45pm at the Rockford Campus.
August Newsletter – if you haven’t had a chance to check it out, take a look at the August Newsletter here. This is our chance to continue to encourage you and share thoughts for your leadership in your groups.
TOGETHER IN LIFE
What is something that as a child or in your younger years that you worried a lot about, but now find silly or not so scary?
TOGETHER IN THE WORD
THIS WEEK’S KEY PASSAGE: Matt. 6:25-34
Note: We encourage you to read the entire text together as a group out loud.
AN ANXIOUS GENERATION
Statistically speaking, most people will struggle with anxiety issues or have someone close to them struggle. We are not unique in this: we can read many stories of Scripture where people were anxious.
QUESTION: What stories in Scripture do you recall someone/people being anxious?
Spectrum of Anxiety
FAITH ANXIETY
Concern Worry Anxiety Panic Despair
Gary used this illustration to show how anxiousness and faith are connected.
This is not meant to communicate a status of our soul, but rather a “peak behind the curtain” to our current heart posture at any given moment.
QUESTION: In what ways does anxiety affect faith? In what ways does faith affect anxiety?
ANXIETY is a mixture of fear and control – it is fueled by uncertainty.
Big Idea:
We can actively choose faith with our worries. When we turn to Jesus with our concerns, we resist the temptation to grasp for control and manipulation, which lead to less peace and more anxiousness. The more we trust in the Lord, the more we can receive and live in the peace He has for us.
Gary says: “To the degree in which we look to our fears, we look away from God and our faith is weak.”
QUESTION: What examples from Scripture can you think of when people looked away from God and instead focused on their fear? How did that work out? What happened as a result?
QUESTION: Share a time in your life when your fears eclipsed your view of God.
WHO OR WHAT…
… is your treasure?
… do you look to?
… do you worship?
When we look to the things of this world to satisfy us and answer these questions, we will experience anxiety.
QUESTION: What does it look like in your life when you get anxious? What things trigger worry in you?
Big Idea:
Anxiousness is an attitude that mistakenly believes: “It all depends on me and my understanding of the world.” God must be trusted in order to fill our every need, including our mental and emotional health.
Jesus wants to help us see his Good Heart that we can trust.
“Look at the birds of the air… look at the flowers of the field…” (Matt. 6:26, 28)
Gary says: “Let the little things (birds, flowers, etc.) draw your mind to God’s provision and protection… Worry has no value and destroys our peace in God. It can destroy our body and also our relationships.”
CHALLENGE: Make a list of all the things that are worrying you right now. You’ll refer back to this later.
OVERCOMING ANXIETY
FACE IT AND NAME IT
- Say out loud that you are afraid… “I feel scared” or “I’m feeling anxious.”
- Try and answer “I feel afraid because…” or “______ is making me nervous.”
Kingdom of God (Fruit: Love, Joy, Peace, etc.)
Trust
OUR HEART’S SECURITY
Control
Kingdom of Earth (Fruit: Anxiety, Fear, Anger, etc.)
STRUGGLE BEFORE GOD WITH YOUR FEAR
- Choose to “Go North” and choose trusting God over controlling out of fear.
- Example: Psalm 42:5
- Anxiety alerts us to the fast we are believing a lie…
- “What if…” “Even if…”
- This can be a long and hard process
TRUST AND RELEASE
- As we trust and release to God our fears, we begin to fundamentally change who we are and how we live.
- Peace comes through repentence of our despair, panic, control, and fear.
- Faith is trusting in the character of God to be Good and Right and Just.
- “The Lord is at hand…” Phil. 4:5-7
TOGETHER IN ACTION
This week, pick one person in your group to reach out to per day. Ask them what they may be anxious about right then. Be a good listener; genuinely curious, slow to speak, anger and quick to really listen. Pray for them and circle back in the next group meeting about their fear.
TOGETHER IN PRAYER
Look back at the list of your worries. Walk through the process as Gary laid out (above). Do this together with your group through one of those items on your list. As you share with each other, take time to pray over one another.
