Yeshua - God's Salvation

Main Thought

What do you do when you try an amazing new dish or restaurant? A lot of us share our experience with friends; in person, through text, or on social media. Experiencing Jesus is very similar. The name Jesus is translated from the Hebrew Yeshua, or Yehoshua, which means “God saves” or “God’s salvation.” We experience God’s salvation because of His grace. It’s extended to us freely, even though we could never earn it. Experiencing this great gift moves us to share it with others. God promises to empower us as we do so. He wants to do amazing things in us and through us that we could never do on our own.

Main Passages

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

- Luke 1:26–35

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! 

- Psalm 90:17

Discussion Questions

1. Has God saved you? What has God saved you from?

2. What’s one aspect of your life that reveals God’s grace working in you or around you?

3. What’s one thing you’d like to believe God to do through your life? Share with your group, and ask God to empower you in your personal prayer time.

Main Thought

1. What’s one good thing God has done for you? What’s one good thing you can do for someone else?

El Shaddai: God Almighty

Main Thought

Life can be messy sometimes. Our choices can make a mess. We can find ourselves in a mess because of someone else’s decisions, or because we live in a world broken by sin. Regardless, God wants to meet us in our mess! As God walks with us through the messy situations of our lives, we learn to recognize and remove our idols. An idol (in a functional sense) is anything other than God that we trust to meet our deepest needs. Idols like power, approval, comfort, and control fail to meet our spiritual needs - but God does not! God is El Shaddai: a Hebrew phrase that can be translated to God Almighty, or the All-Sufficient One. God is sufficient for our personal needs, and He is sufficient for us to fulfill our purpose. If we’ll remove the idols from our lives, then we’ll be able to truly rely on God.

Main Passages

God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.

- Genesis 35:1-2

9 God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel. 11 And God said to him, “I am God Almighty. be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.

- Genesis 35:9-11

Discussion Questions

Reflect on the four functional “idols” listed below, and the characteristics that might help us identify them.

• If your idol is Power: your greatest nightmare is humiliation, your problem emotion is anger, and the people around you can feel used.

• If your idol is Approval: your greatest nightmare is rejection, your problem emotion is cowardice (for fear of being rejected), and the people around you can feel smothered.

• If your idol is Comfort: your greatest nightmare is stress or demands, your problem emotion is boredom, and the people around you can feel neglected.

• If your idol is Control: your greatest nightmare is uncertainty, your problem emotion is worry, and the people around you can feel condemned.

1. Which, if any, do you think you might be a struggle for you in this season of your life? Why?

2. Think about some God-given purpose you feel called to fulfill. How might one of these idols interfere with your ability to fulfill that purpose for God’s glory?

3. How can God replace that idol in your life?

This is Only a Test Discussion Guide

Main Thought

Trials are tests to determine whether something is suitable or prepared. God will sometimes allow adverse circumstances to test if we’re prepared for the things he has in store for us. No one enjoys being tested! Life’s trials often reveal what we trust and value most. But we can be confident in knowing that God sees what we really need. He already saw our greatest need (the forgiveness of sin), and He provided the solution (Jesus). We can be at peace when we ask for our God’s provision in our day-to-day lives.

Main Passages

9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” 

- Genesis 22:9-14

56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 

- John 8:56-58

23 Jesus replied, Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. 

- John 14:23

Discussion Questions

1. Think about a trial you’ve faced. What did you turn to, or trust, to bring you through that trial?

2. On a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being not confident and 5 being very confident), how confident are you that God can provide for all of your needs? What makes you feel that way?

3. God is called “Jehovah Jireh” because it is His nature to provide for his children’s needs. What’s one practical way you can respond in faith, knowing that God provides for our needs?

Family Questions

1. What are some things that you want right now? What are some things that you need?

Jehovah El Roi - The God who Sees

Main Thought

Have you ever felt unnoticed or insignificant? It’s easy to feel that way sometimes. When we feel that way, we can turn to “the God who sees,” Jehovah El Roi. This name reveals a lot about God. God sees us when no one else does. He sees our struggles. But He also sees ahead, into promise and purpose that He’s prepared for our lives. That’s how God can bring redemption from the midst of suffering. He knows how to get us there! Every time we obey God, we take steps in God’s path of promise and purpose for us. 

Main Passages

7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her,  “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”   13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”

- Genesis 16:7-13

You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

- Psalm 56:8

Discussion Questions

1. Has there ever been a time that you felt you suffered or struggled in silence, and no one else could see or understand? What happened?

2. God “turns our mess into a message, and our tests into a testimony.” In other words, God redeems our suffering. Have you ever seen God do that in your life?

3. Is there a place of struggle or suffering that you want “Jehovah El Roi,” the God who Sees, to redeem right now? Is there anything you can do to walk with God in obedience and faith?

Family Questions

1. Who can you turn to or talk to when something is hard for you?

Finding Peace Discussion Guide

Warm-Up Question

What was one highlight from your Christmas or New Year celebrations?

Main Thought

God wants to bring peace to a world that lacks it, because the peace in our world is broken. We’re in a pandemic that has affected everyone. Other bad things happen that destroy our peace as well. When our peace is broken, the broken pieces inside us - our flaws - can be revealed. But we can still learn to press into God’s peace! Pressing into peace starts when we decide to keep on doing the right thing. We need to look and listen for God along the way. These things prepare us to act in faith and encounter God. Peace comes from God; as we draw close to Him, we’ll experience His peace. It’s the peace of God that calms our inner turmoil and enables us to answer God’s call.

Main Passages

14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”
- Judges 6:14-18

23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
- Judges 6:23-24

The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 4:5-7

Discussion Questions

1. Do you have peace around you? Do you have peace inside you?

2. What, if anything, makes it difficult for you to “press into peace”? Why?

Family Questions

1. What does it feel like when you have peace? How can God help you find peace?

"What's in a Name Anyway?"

Main Thought

A “brand” is whatever someone thinks of when they hear a name. For example, when someone says the name “Apple, you might think of a smartphone. When someone says “Amazon,” you might think of packages. What comes to mind when someone says God? One of the names God uses to describe Himself, and communicate his “brand,” is “Jehovah.” (Jehovah is one of the ways to translate this self-given name of God in the Old Testament; only the consonants were recorded in writing, so there are slight variations.) Jehovah refers to God’s self-existence: He is the Eternal Creator; the “uncaused Cause” of all things. Yet this name also communicates God’s nearness. He cares for us personally, and has a personal plan for our lives.

Main Passages

10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”  13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ THIS IS MY NAME FOREVER and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. 

- Exodus 3:10-15

Discussion Questions

1. Why was it important for God to communicate His Name to Moses and the Israelites?

2. How does God reveal Himself to us?

3. What does the name Jehovah communicate to you? What aspect of God’s nature, communicated by His name, resonates with you most?

Family Questions

1. When someone says “God,” what do you think of?