SERMON DISCUSSION GUIDE – 6.5.22
Link to Service: https://subsplash.com/magnifychurch/teachings/mi/+9ghk78b
Scripture Reference: John 14:8-31
Teaching Pastor: Matt Zainea
Title: The Helper
BIG IDEA: The Holy Spirit’s promises for us are Relationship that is unending, to use us to Reach the world for him, to give us Knowledge to love the world as Christ does, Peace that is lasting and comprehensive, and a secure Future with the Father.
Discussion Questions:
Quick note: This summer, we are shifting our regular Sunday evening gatherings from meeting at church, to Worship at Home. We are providing materials to you for you to use at home to dig into the Word, talk about life and pursue God together with those in your home.
“We want to make our homes more and more into the primary place of discipleship in our lives” – Matt Zainea
Do you have a long-distance friend or relative?
- How do you maintain relationship with someone you’re not with?
What do you think Matt meant when he said “Miracles are not an end to our prayer life: relationship is”?
Two of Jesus’ statements that often get taken out of context and misapplied:
- V12: “Whoever believes in me will… do greater works”
- Myth: If we have enough faith, we can do greater miracles than even Jesus did.
- Truth: The church will do more in number and more across the world and across time than Jesus had impacted in his small community within 1st-century Israel
- Pastor Matt: “I [Jesus] am going to be gone, you’re here to continue to do my work”
- V13-14: “if you ask anything in my name, I’ll do it”
- Myth: God will do as you ask if you ask in just the right way or if you tack on Jesus’ name in my prayers, that ensures its effectiveness
- Truth: this verse is about relationship “What you ask for my SAKE I’ll do for you…what you ask in relationship to the mission I’m on and the relationship I have with the Father, I’ll do”
- Jesus and the Father are one and as we grow closer to him, our prayers will more and more reflect Jesus’ mission and will. This correlation grows as we love him.
Have you experienced challenges with these 2 problems yourself?
Tip: Pray and Read and Talk!
- We often get bogged down with passages that confuse us or that we don’t understand. Pray that the Lord will make things clear and keep praying throughout your week. Read Scripture often to help solidify connections in your mind and to make things more clear as you return to them. Be sure to talk about these things that you’re praying and reading about with your group – this is the best place for you to wrestle out these things in your life!
Pastor Matt said, “Sometimes, we pray and God doesn’t answer; that must be because of my sin. This is sometimes true, but not often.” Do you ever wonder this? What hope do we have in Christ? What was the difference between Peter and Judas’ attitude toward God?
What words come to mind when you think of ‘Intimacy with Christ’?
How do you experience this in your own life?
Pastor Matt: “We are in an ‘Intimacy Desert’ [in our society]”
Have you seen this in your life? What has that been like for you?
As a small group, one of your goals is to create an ‘intimate’ space (trusted, safe, known, present and faithful). How do you think you’re doing with this? Do you desire more closeness with each other? How can this group help you grow in intimacy with God?
The Holy Spirit in us is always striving for intimacy with the Father. He is there whether you feel it or not. How might this encourage you as you experience “desert” moments in your faith?
The Promises of God
- V18: Leaving, but not as orphans (without a name, family or home)
- When promises are give, and we don’t feel them, that is the moment we need them most! They are the truth that holds us secure.
- V19: because I live, you will also live
- Jesus is letting us know that his future resurrection is the stamp/proof that we will live with Christ again one day
- V20-21: Whoever keeps God’s commands, loves him
- Our intimacy is dependent – at least in part– by the effort and work we do to remain intimate. Our efforts bear out the level of intimacy we have with God and with the people around us.
- V26: The Spirit will teach you and remind you of truth
- The Spirit brings knowledge to us either by reminding us or helping us understand new knowledge. He does so through the Word, The Spirit and the people of God – the church – in that order. This helps us to examine it, reflect on it and live it out in our lives properly.
What has this looked like in your life? Have you personally experienced this?
If so, share a story of when God – through the Spirit – taught you something new or reminded you of truth.
Pastor Matt: “The Holy Spirit is ALWAYS moving, if we are willing to listen. We need to find the tough spots where we aren’t listening and we need to figure out why.”
Have you ever been resistant to the Holy Spirit speaking to you?
Have you ever wrestled with something that God has said in his Word or done in the world?
How have you worked through this, in the Spirit?
TWO KINDS OF PEACE:
- Worldly Peace: 2 problems
- Incomplete: Oversimplifies the complexities of the problems we have and will not satisfy everyone all the time. It won’t hold up and function in completeness apart from Christ. What God offers is real and complete.
- Short-lived: it won’t satisfy for long. There are too many moments for opportunity for friction, especially when we see the world so differently from each other.
Do not be lulled into believing that because you’re experiencing short-term peace in the worldly sense, that that is what God is offering.
What is a recent example you have experienced of confusion between worldly peace and Godly peace?
- Godly Peace:
- Real, complete and lasts forever. Those who are in Christ Jesus are in his family and will be in his house forever. We will lie down in peace knowing he has it all in his hands
Read Psalm 4 aloud
What are some of the things that keep you from “lying down in peace”?
How do you think having Godly peace would effect your heart in this?
Pause to pray openly for each other’s burdens that keeps them from this Godly peace.
We all experience suffering and need the Holy Spirit to comfort us, lead us, and advocate for us.
Three Responses to the Holy Spirit
- Ignore:
When we ignore the Spirit, we pray mostly in crisis, through routine and empty prayers. We stay in a place of apathy or complacency. Our prayer life can be formulaic and we often aren’t patient enough to wait on the Lord.
- Control
When we try to control the Spirit, we become more legalistic about prayer life. We add requirements to prayer that aren’t in Scripture for it to “work”. We tie the effectiveness to our level of faith and the miracles as outcomes and we use it to subtly (or not-so-subtly) elevate our role in prayer life. This is all pride-oriented.
- Follow
When we follow the Spirit, we “Keep in step (Gal. 5:25)” with God. This looks like both a Structured and an Unstructured Prayer life that brings real peace, is regular and growing. Our prayers will be Scripturally-shaped, relational and result in an obedient life. When we do not obey, then our hearts are pricked to return to right standing with God. In this, we would experience peace that is long-lasting and comprehensive.
What does a “regular” prayer life look like to you?
Is there someone in your life whom you admire as a “pray-er”? Why?
What might be standing in the way of you becoming a follower of the Spirit?
“Our prayers should arise out of immersion in the Scripture. [We] speak only to the degree we are spoken to. . . . The wedding of the Bible and prayer anchors your life down in the real God.” Tim Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God
Through Christ, the ruler of this world has no claim on us.
Do you believe this is true of you today?
Have you experienced freedom found only in Jesus Christ?
If so, what has that meant for you to experience freedom from claims of the “ruler of this world”?
If not, please have a conversation with someone in your group or a pastor to help you understand that you can have real, lasting peace God offers you through Jesus Christ!
Promises to Claim:
Relationship without end (JOHN 14:18)
Use us to Reach the world (JOHN 14:20-21)
Knowledge to love the world the way he did (JOHN 14:26)
Peace that surpasses understanding (JOHN 14:27)
An eternal Future (JOHN 14:30)
This week’s Challenge:
Commit to the Promises we can claim in Christ via the Holy Spirit and Turn it up a notch (or two)
What might this look like in your life?
How can this group help you achieve this?
Read 1 John 4:13-16 aloud in group and consider how you can live this out this week
BIG IDEA: The Holy Spirit’s promises for us are Relationship that is unending, to use us to Reach the world for him, to give us Knowledge to love the world as Christ does, Peace that is lasting and comprehensive, and a secure Future with the Father.
