Month: May 2012

1.  Introduction:  5 Minutes

Where did you go on your last vacation?

Leader note:  Focus on the more positive aspects of vacation – the relaxation, the chance to get to see new places, the time away from daily hassles and routines.  You may want to save your story for last just in case you need it to create the atmosphere of rest.

2.  Observation:  15 Minutes

Read Genesis 1, 2:1-4.  What did God do in each of the six days?  What did he rest from on the seventh day?

Leader note:  Your group may want to debate whether Creation actually occurred in six literal days or if it is merely a figurative reference to time.  Simply state hat though those are valid differences of opinions, today’s study is focused not on that greater issue but rather on the accomplishment of the work and the rest that followed.  Further studies on Creation are something you can always choose to study later.

Leader note:  As you look at the facts of each day, talk about all that was encompassed in that part of creation.  This just expands the realm of the work involved – God did a LOT in His six days, we could never work this hard or accomplish so much.  It helps to understand the bigger concept of the work He did and  continues today.

Commentary:

First day:
He separated the dark from the light, creating night and day.
Second day:
He separated the waters of the heavens and earth can called the space “sky”.

Third day:
He made the waters come together, leaving dry areas, and called them “sea” and “land”.
He produced all of the seed-bearing trees and vegetation on the land.

Fourth day:
He made the solar system to govern this day and night: he placed the sun, moon, and stars in the sky.

Fifth day:
He made all the fish and creatures in the sea and the birds of the air, commanding them to multiply.  He created all fish and birds that create fish and birds of the same kind.

Sixth Day:
He made livestock, small animals, and wild animals – all animals that produce animals of the same kind
He created human beings in his image to reign over all of the fish in the sea, the livestock, birds, wild animals, and small animals on the earth.
He created human beings as male and female and told them to multiply and fill the earth and govern over the animals and fish.

Seventh day:
He rested from all of his work
He blessed the seventh day and called it holy because he rested from all of his work.

3.  Understanding:  20 Minutes

What are some different ways in which people fill up their seven days each week?

Leader note:  We live in the busiest time in history.  We do more because we have access to more.  Before there were cars, a trip to the market could be most of what was accomplished in one day.  Before the advancement in technology, getting one note or letter written and delivered could take days, but now it takes seconds and allows time for more opportunities and tasks to fill the day.  It will create a lively discussion if you talk about why we are busier now than ever and then list specific tasks, opportunities, appointments and activities that fill each day.  Include driving distances, kids’ activities, sports and physical fitness regimens, TV time, socializing, business meetings, travel, meaningful and meaningless time fillers.

4.  Application: 20 Minutes

What are all of the things you do in a typical week?

Leader note:  To answer this, you might want to have your group list out their activities for that specific day, and maybe the day before.  And if they can, maybe even the day before that or took at what is on their calendar for tomorrow.  Remind them to include mealtimes, sleeping, doctor’s appointments, hair appointments, nail appointments, kid’s sports, movies or TV time, work, driving time, pet time, cleaning, Bible studies, working in classrooms, volunteer work, and so on.  It is also interesting to split the time into weekday and weekend times as tasks tend to vary drastically during those times.

Leader tip:  Most people will be surprised by how much they actually do every day.  The list can contain more than fifty activities per day, and with most people trying to sleep between six and eight hours per day, that leaves only sixteen to eighteen hours to accomplish those fifty-plus tasks.  If you consider those things accomplished while “multitasking,” it is truly incredible what can be achieved in one day. 

The definition of Sabbath is “ceasing”.  What would it look like to cease from those activities in your life, one day per week?

Leader tip:  Now take a minute to consider what would happen if one out of every seven days was dedicated to resting, taking a break from “all of the work” you do.  To take a break from everything you normally do.  What would happen to your physical and mental health?  What would you “do” instead of al all of the work?

The Sabbath can “just be a day of rest.”  How does this view of the Sabbath differ from your previous thoughts?

Leader Note:  People have a tendency to think of the Sabbath as a day for God.  They think that if they are to observe the Sabbath, God is asking them to spend an entire day worshiping, contemplating him, and praying.  God gave us the Sabbath for us, just as he took a full day of rest after creating the universe (something our busyness will never outdo), he has instructed us to take a day off from “all of the work”. Talk about what “resting” looks like to you.  It will be different for almost everyone.  We want to avoid defining rest for everyone because once we assign rules – what you can and can’t do – we start looking like the Pharisees from Jesus’ day, where they had hundreds of laws about how many steps you could take, how much weight you could carry – before it was considered work.  This is a heart issue – not a legal issue.  It is about trusting in provision from God, in His working in your life.

Leader note:  Choose one day in the next seven where you commit to “rest”.  You may want to assign “accountability” partners and have them check up on one another and see how the “rest” time is going.  What is challenging?  How can they pray for each other as they continue to try to rest?

PRAY:  As you end your time together you can pray in the pairs you have selected to hold each other accountable, or you can pray as a group.  Pray that you will experience the rest that God has intended for each of you.  You may want to read Psalm 23 out loud to the group and sit for a minute with the thoughts that psalm provokes, and what it would look like in your life.  Ask God to show you rest, to give you rest, to meet you in your time of rest.

5.  Live it out:  How will you look different to your friends, family and coworkers if you begin to “rest”?  How might it affect them?

1.  Introduction:  10 minutes

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Leader tip:  Use the time to get people to engage with one another, let them respond to each other – open up the discussion.

Leader note:  After everyone has had a chance to answer, ask, “Why did you want to be that?”

 

What is a job supposed to give you?

Commentary:  Listen to their answers, it may reveal what they either get from their current career, or what is lacking.  You will look at that in the last question.  You may hear things such as:  fulfillment, money, provision, identity, fame, a place to be great, a place to express yourself, a place to use your talents and ideas.

 

2.  Observation:  15 minutes

Read Genesis 1:26, 2:4-17.  What do you learn about work?

Leader tip:  Let your group put things in their own words – not just recite the verse. 

Commentary:  some of the answers you should get are –

• It is a gift from God
• Gives provision
• We are to tend/take care of God’s creation – what he gave us
• It is a commandment
• He modeled it – Created, gardener, got his hands dirty when he created people – man created from dust (the rest of creation was formed from nothing, but man and womam were hand-crafted)
• Work is good – created before the fall
• Honorable, God created work along with everything else – it is from God
• God gives us resources to do our work (he provided water for the garden)

 

3.  Understanding:  20 minutes

How is your job like gardening?

IMPORTANT Leader tip: Use this time to affirm one another – Have your group affirm each other using this question.  For instance, if you have a teacher in your group, you can say something like, “I think your job is like a gardener in that you plan what you are going to plant in each of your students, you work daily to care for what you have planted, nourishing it with knowledge and attention, you help weed out wrong information and prune back behaviors that get in the way of growing, you provide the sunshine in lives by shedding light on new topics,

Every job has the philosophies of gardening attached to it.  Be creative, have fun but be honest so that the affirmation achieves its desired results.

Leader note:  If you are in a couple’s group it may be nice to have the spouses affirm each others.

 

What jobs don’t fit into God’s plan for work?

Leader note:  It is important for us to realize that not all ways people make their living are within God’s plan, for instance, prostitution or any job that exploits humans.  Neither is a bank robber or thief.  Think of others.

 

What can work do?  What can’t it do?

Leader tip: Draw two columns on a piece of paper and at the top of one columns write “Work Can”, and on the top of the other one write, “Work Can’t”

Commentary:

Some of those things work can do are – 

• provide some fulfillment, sense of accomplishment
• Make you feel valuable, worthy
• provide community, friendships, can love people
• make a difference

Some things work can’t do –

• Be in place of God, can’t be what we worship
• Can’t provide significance
• Can’t completely fulfill your life
• Can’t be a perfect place/we are broken

 

Leader note:  Some people think that going into church work or full-time ministry will offer more fulfillment in work, you may want to ask your group the question, “How is full-time work different than full-time ministry or church work?”  Only ask this question if you have time to allow plenty of time for the application question, (don’t ask this in its place).

 

4.  Application:  20 minutes

How does this change the way you will work?  The way you treat those who work with you or for you?

Leader note:  Recognizing that your work is good and a gift from God can change how you approach it each week.  Knowing that God created work will help you understand that your job is no more or less important than any other, which will help with dealing with people differently.  Think about those in the service industry too.  Acknowledge their worth, their value, their significance.  Consider the stay-at-home moms.

Important note:  We want to be sensitive to those who are out of work and not by choice.  Have them consider their job search – how it is like gardening, how it is what God has given them at this time – maybe it will make them look  differently at this period in their life.

Pray:  After this study it is appropriate to thank God for all of the new learnings you have about your work, thank Him for the gift of a job, thank Him for modeling work and for the provision of work. If you realized you need to change the way you think about your coworkers or those who work for you, pray for the opportunity to affirm someone at work this week.  Pray that you will be mindful of those in the service industry and others who you may have in the past treated as “less than”.  If you have anyone in your group who is unemployed, lay hands on them and pray for the gift of a job, and for encouragement to come this week.

 

5. Live it out: 

Think of the people who work with or for you.  Who can you affirm them personally or professionally?  How can you affirm people in their work as you go about your daily activities?