Lean In // 5 minutes
What holiday food do you wait for all year?
Sample answers may include…
- Stuffing
- Cookies—gingerbread, sugar, etc
- Tamales
- Pie
- Candy Canes
- Turkey
- Casseroles
- Eggnog
- Peppermint Bark
Leader note: The question is intended to get everyone playing and also to highlight the hope and expectation of Christmas.
Look Down // 10 minutes
What have we been given in Christ?
Sample answers may include…
- New birth
- Living hope
- An inheritance
- Resurrection from the dead
- Salvation
- Mercy
- A faith shielded by God’s power
How do hopeful people live?
Sample answers may include…
- Not conformed to evil desires
- Called to be holy or set apart
- In reverent fear of God
- Alert
- Fully sober
- Don’t trust in perishable things
- Set hope in Jesus’ coming
- Called to be obedient children
- Put their faith and hope in God
Look Out // 10 minutes
What’s the difference between a hope and a wish?
Leader note: A wish is something that might happen but seems highly unlikely and passive. Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Hope is active.
Where have you seen someone live with hope? Give examples and describe their qualities.
Leader note: Define what it looks like to have an active hope (standing firm) as opposed to passively waiting.
Sample story: A couple went through a difficult and challenging season in their marriage. Family and friends expected the couple to get a divorce but instead they decided to go to counseling both individually and as a couple. Through the counseling, the couple learned how to find healing and trust in God. As a result, the couple believes they are stronger than ever and although painful, they would not trade the experience. They didn’t run away when things got hard and waited for God to show up. They were courageous and believed the best about the other even in the difficulty.
Look In // 15 minutes
When was a time God showed up when you thought he wouldn’t?
Where do you need God to show up?
What would it look like to embrace hope while you wait?
Leader note: The passage reminds us of the living hope we have received in Jesus and encourages us to not trust in things outside of him. As a follow-up, you may want to ask group members where they feel tempted to place their hope outside of God’s promises.
Live It Out // 5 minutes
What if you waited expectantly for God to show? How would you be different? Who would be impacted?
Key Verse(s): Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel—God with us. – Isaiah 7:14
Key Thought: Hope is God with you and God for you.
Click here for Life Group Serve Opportunities
Learn More About Flow Questions: Check out Kenton Beshore’s book Ask in the Irvine Campus Bookstore for more on the Flow Question model.