Judges 6:7-16 // Big Dreams And New Names

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Saturday Nights at Mariners is the place to be! Come to the 5 pm service and stick around after for great food, awesome games with prizes and live entertainment. Summer Saturdays is a great way for you entire Life Group to connect and invite others in from your community! Click the image above to learn what’s happening each week.

Lean In // 5 minutes

What are nicknames you had growing up?

 

Look Down // 10 minutes

Read Judges 6:7-16

What do you learn about God in the passage? What about Gideon?

 Sample answers may include…

  • God response the cries of his people
  • God has the power to rescue and save us from desperate situations
  • God will remind us of how he has lead/saved us
  • God calls us to worship him alone
  • God is with us even when we turn our back on him
  • God sees things in us that we don’t see in ourselves
  • God gives us strength, he sends us
  • Gideon, was hiding, afraid
  • Gideon doubts God’s presence, sees the circumstance and feels abandoned
  • Gideon focuses on his own lack of strength, makes excuses for what he can’t be a “Mighty Warrior”

Leader Note: Led your group to focus on verse 12 where God calls Gideon a “Mighty Warrior.” In that moment there’s no way Gideon could have believed that to be true. He was hiding in fear for us life and his response to the name that God gives me is meet with doubt and excuses. Even still God will use Gideon to do all that he promised. God designed Gideon to truly be a “Mighty Warrior.” That was his Gideon’s God-given dream and calling.

 

Look Out // 5 minutes

What are the names the world gives us? Where do we get those names?

Sample answers may include…

  • Broken
  • Worthless
  • Less-lan
  • Stupid
  • Expendable
  • Ugly
  • Shameful
  • Un-loveable

Commentary: The names the world, and the enemy tries to stamp on our hearts often come from comparison our experiences and failings. Names shape our identity and self worth.

 

Look In // 20 minutes

What name has God given you?

Leader Note: This may take time for your group to identify. Explain that the name God give us will be associate with a dream a hope and calling that we believe God has for us. To not live in the calling would leave us feeling frustrated, unfulfilled and hopeless. Challenge your group to write down what the believe that name is. It will likely take them a few different cuts to really identity that name. Encourage them to go with the one that invokes the most emotion, the name that in a sense stops them in their tracks.

What’s a lie the enemy would have you believe about your name?

Leader Note: Like Gideon, we all have reasons, excuses why we can’t live in our calling. These are lies that the enemy feeds us to cast doubt and to shape a “false reality” of our selves and our calling. 

One you have the name and the lie associated with the name you will now use your group to pray over each person. Thank God for the calling and purpose placed on their life then replace the lie that the enemy has used with the truth of God’s word and how He sees them. Pray body, pray with passion and expectation for God to speak and empower each individual to truly embrace and live out all that God has for them!

 

Live It Out // 5 minutes

Who could you impact by living out your God-Given Name?

 

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.

Ephesians 1:3-8 // Remembering And Forgetting

Lean In // 5 minutes

What are some of your favorite summer time memories?

What are the pictures, the emotions you have in those memories?

Leader Note: Summertime for many is a time to vacation, a time to be with family and a time for new adventures. Transition your group to the next section by saying something like… “it’s fun to recall experiences we’ve had in our lives. In the same way, remembering who we are as Children of God is an important exercises that can bring us encouragement and joy.”

 

Look Down // 10 minutes

Read Ephesians 1:3-8

What do you learn about the blessings God gives us?

Sample answers may include…

  • He doesn’t hold them back, every spiritual blessing is ours
  • We are blessed because of what Christ did, we don’t earn His blessings
  • God chooses to bless us, it was His plan from the beginning
  • God brings us into His family
  • He blesses us because He wants to
  • It gives Him great pleasure to bless us
  • His blessing show up in kindness and wisdom

 

Look Out // 10 minutes

What do people experience when they embrace God’s blessings?

What do people miss out when they don’t embrace God’s blessings?

Sample answers may include…

Embracing God’s Blessings

  • Freedom
  • Peace
  • Secure in who we are
  • More willing to take risk, to step out to new places
  • Not dependent on the approval or praise of others
  • Boldness, confidence in what God has called them to

Not embracing God’s Blessings

  • The security that comes from knowing who are
  • They potentially miss out on seeing God the unexpected, the impossible in and through them
  • We become less willing to extend love and grace to others
  • We become judgmental of others and either highly critical or over confident of ourselves

What keeps people from embracing God’s Blessings?

Leader Note: The life that God has for us, through His blessing, is a full and vibrant life, the kind of life we all want. So why don’t we all choose it? Why would people exchange God’s blessings for something lesser? 

Sample answers may include…

  • Doubting that God is actually good
  • Doubt that God wants to bless them, they feel unworthy of it
  • They can’t understand God’s blessings, can’t rationalize it or Him
  • Choosing a life of the “known” the uncomplicated and safe life 
  • People want to feel like they’ve earned what they have, they created their own path and blessings

 

Look In // 20 minutes

Leader Note: Use the the following to help set up the next two question for your group. The truth is, we are much better about holding onto the things that we think make us ‘unworthy’ of God’s blessings. Our sin, the shame we carry and the hurts and disappointments of the past. While those things are true and we don’t dismiss them they don’t define who we are. Challenge your group to identity the things they are holding onto, the things that are impeding their relationship with God and others. Then, recalling the passage, what do they need to remember about the ways God see’s them? What’s holding them back from living in that truth, and how would things be different if they could embrace that truth.

What are the things you need to forget?

What are the things you need to remember?

 

Live It Out // 5 minutes

What would change in your life if you embraced God’s blessings?

Leader Note: When we live in a place of seeing ourselves as God sees us we are transformed as are the people around us. When we are secure in our identity we will live lives of purpose and seek to serve and bless others. How would that change not only our lives but the lives of those around us, our communities, our families?

Communion Experience // Optional at the end of group

One of the most tangible ways we are invited to remember God’s gift of His son to us and the sacrifice He made for our sins on the cross, is through communion. In Acts 2:42 we read, “They (the early church) devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer.” The breaking of bread, or communion, was on of the repeated experiences of the early church. As we take communion we celebrate the life we have in Christ and remind ourselves that He came to be with us, to free us and make us whole!

You may want to read 1 Corinthians 11:23-28 over your group. After you read the passage, pause for your group and yourself to reflect on anything that may be in your heart that you’d like God to cleanse and heal. Take the bread and cup, serve each-other and as do you do speak a blessing over the person you serve. An example of a blessing you can give is, “This is Christ body’s and blood shed for you. He died that you may live.

 

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.