Resources

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How often do you feel overwhelmed by the world’s strongholds? How does it change your view of the world’s strength to remember we fight from a position of guaranteed victory?
2.  Why do we settle for a “valley of trouble” when we have been assured victory? How has your own depravity tried to get you to settle for less than what God has prepared for you to experience? In what ways do you try to do for yourself what God has already provided?
3. How comforting is it to see that God did not waste their failure at Ai, but used it to bring about the next victory?
4. How healthy is your covenant bond with the LORD?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. In what ways should our worship balance rejoicing with fear and respect?
2. Are we ever guilty of trying to protect God? Does He need our protection? How much of our effort to protect comes from a need (or an instinct) to take control?
3. Why do you think people fall into the habit or trap of being more concerned with the protocol of worship rather than actually worshiping themselves?
4. How do difficult stories like what God does to Uzzah provide reasons to trust the veracity of the bible?
5. Do you think it is fair to compare Michal winding up barren with the church getting caught up in old ways? Does Garden Ridge have a problem with trying to put new wine in old wine skins?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How does diversity and unity work together? Is this a true or false statement: “I have to stop being who I am to be part of God’s Kingdom”?  
2. Why do you think the church struggles with division so much? How does God’s picture in Ezekiel and Revelation challenge us to be more intentional about unity and Kingdom purpose?
3. How does having a united purpose (like being the salt of the earth) help us overcome the challenges we face from the culture around us? How does diversity give us strength in this unity?
4. In what ways have we struggled like the people in Ezekiel’s time to be the “salt of the earth”? What can we do to regain our saltiness?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Have you heard the term, “Worship Wars” before?  How have you seen churches struggle with getting along in their worship practices?
2. Who in the story of John 4 was made uncomfortable by the way Jesus interacted with people? What should that tell us about coming to corporate worship services hoping to be comfortable?
3. What social and theological conventions might Jesus struggle with in our culture and church family today? How would Jesus ask us to change in order to offer refreshment to people’s souls more than being right?
4. In what ways have you tried to satiate the thirst of your soul unsuccessfully?  How does worshiping in spirit & truth change what you experience?