This Week

GATHERING TOGETHER

Welcome one another, catch up with one another and share personal stories to encourage, strengthen, and support at a time of isolation and discouragement.

PRAYING TOGETHER

Share your needs, and pray for one another.

IN THE WORD TOGETHER

Learning the way of apprenticeship together.

SERVING TOGETHER

Identify a service project to participate in together.

Review Apprenticeship Practices

  1. Scripture meditation - Listening to the voice of Jesus above all other voices by delighting in and meditating on His Word. (Psalm 1)

  2. Unceasing prayer - Talking unceasingly to God first and most about everything. (1Thessalonians 5:16-18)

  3. Life together - Practicing true community in which the love of God takes on flesh by loving one another. (Hebrews 10:23-25)

  4. Unhurried presence - Living life at a with-God pace, slowing down, and being attentive to God in the present moment he has given you. (Luke 10:38-42)

REVIEW QUESTION

Discuss how the seven practices build on one another from one to the next.

STARTER QUESTION

Share an example of “joyful generosity” that you have personally witnessed and/or benefitted from (not just money but time, talent, or treasure).

IN THE BOOK

Below there are three different types of questions, so we encourage you to seek a balance if possible. In addition, there is a Leader Study Notes section for further study!

  1. The Understanding questions are designed to refresh your group's memory about the text. These can be answered fairly briefly without a need for a longer discussion. (What does it mean?)

  2. Application questions are structured to draw out the ways the text, as preached, calls us to live. You should make a strong effort in your group to point people to Scripture as they’re discussing these. (How should I live?)

  3. We’ve built out Personal Sharing questions that connect with the sermon but make a more conscious effort to allow the members of your group to know each other better. These help to build a sense of trust by giving people a chance to share their lived experiences. (What is my experience?)

We pray that as you consider which of these questions work best for your group that God blesses your time together so that the Word of Christ “dwells in you more richly” and you become “knit together in love” as a community.

Heavenly Treasure

READ: Matthew 6:19-24

UNDERSTANDING:

v. 19-20 - What are my portfolio choices? What is Jesus’ investment strategy? Why?

v. 21 - How is our treasure a thermometer? How a thermostat?

v. 22-23 - Why does Jesus insert this optometry lesson in the middle of a passage about treasures?

APPLICATION:

1Timothy 6:17-19 - How do we store up treasures in heaven using our time? Talent? Treasure?

This teaching seems obvious--who would argue that it’s wiser to collect stuff on earth? Why do we struggle to do it?

What’s the risk of trying to serve two masters? Why not balance the two?

Meditate on how God the Father and our Lord Jesus put this principle into practice (see 2 Corinthians 8:9; John 3:16)

PERSONAL SHARING:

What is your biggest obstacle to being generous relative to your use of time, talent, or treasure?

LEADER NOTES

APPRENTICESHIP PRACTICE #4 - UNHURRIED PRESENCE

  • Quotable Quotes:

    • To be rich in good works (to seek the good of others) is to store up treasures in heaven, to generously give to others the blessings God has given to us!

    • Giving is both a thermometer that tells of the heart’s condition and a thermostat that serves to alter the heart’s condition. It doesn’t just expose our desires. It shapes and amplifies them.

    • Giving is a way we know a life is changed by grace. But giving is also a way that God’s grace changes us.

    • Joyful generosity is the practice of loving others by freely sharing what God has graciously given you.

FOR REVIEW: INTRO TO THE WAY OF APPRENTICESHIP:

  • Definition of Apprenticeship - “​Apprenticeship is embodied loving trust in Jesus, empowered by His Spirit, transforming us into His image.”

  1. EMBODIED LOVING TRUST -​ This is the ​WHAT​ of apprenticeship. “Embodied​” reminds us that apprenticeship is a whole-life way of being and seeing in the world ... it includes your hands, feet, head, and heart ... your words, thoughts, and emotions. ​“Loving trust” ​indicates that an apprentice acknowledges that Jesus is Lord of all our being and doing, and he is the one who tells us about reality. Jesus defines in his Word what is the good life--what is good, beautiful, and true. He teaches us how to live in wisdom, and how to be truly human as God designed us to be. And it is “​loving​ ​trust”​ , not cold obedience. It is working out our love for him.

  2. EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT -​ This is the “​HOW”​ of apprenticeship. It is through the miracle of the indwelling Spirit that enables the acting out of our love and trust in Jesus. A Christian, by definition, is one who has the Spirit of Jesus dwelling in them. We are called to “walk by the Spirit” and to “be led by the Spirit” (Gal. 5).

  3. TRANSFORMING US INTO HIS IMAGE ​ - This is the WHY​ of apprenticeship. The goal is to become like Jesus, to be transformed into His image. Being transformed into the image of Jesus glorifies God, and is the way we become truly human as we were designed to be like Jesus.

  • Paradigm or Model of Apprenticeship​ (helps us understand the origin, essence, and aim of apprenticeship)

UNION​ → ​ABIDING & OBEYING​ → IMAGING

  1. UNION - ​An apprentice is one who has been united to the Master. United to Jesus. Union with Christ is one of the deepest, most profound truths of the Christian life. The life of Jesus leads to the death of Jesus, and then to the resurrection of Jesus, and to the ascension of Jesus … and ultimately to the incredible truth that JESUS GIVES US HIS INDWELLING SPIRIT as a 24x7 Helper in our apprenticeship! The Holy Spirit is the source of REGENERATION (New Birth), He is the Spirit of ADOPTION, and the source of NEW HEARTS that know and love God. This is described in Gal. 2:20-21 where Paul describes it as Christ BEING IN US, and we BEING IN CHRIST. Paul teaches that an apprentice of Jesus is called by him, and united to Him by His Spirit so that Jesus’ life is within us by HIS SPIRIT.

  2. ABIDING & OBEYING - Apprentices ABIDE ​with the Master and OBEY what the master says. ​With Union with Christ as the life-giving reality through His Spirit, we turn to our daily being. Being with the Master is at the core of being an apprentice. An apprentice painter spends her days with the master, watching, observing, talking, asking questions, learning, absorbing the way of the master. There is a true relationship established around the key of BEING WITH or ABIDING. But it is not just BEING WITH, but there is DOING as well. The apprentice doesn’t just watch, but takes up the palette and brush and puts paint on canvas. Someone who just hangs out with the master but doesn’t PRACTICE or DO what the master says is NOT an apprentice. They are just an audience, a spectator, part of the crowd.

  3. IMAGING - The end result of apprenticeship is to be transformed into the image of Christ.

  • Seven Practices of Apprenticeship - These practices are NOT aimed at earning God’s love or acceptance, but rather at learning to be like Christ in our LOVING.

  1. Scripture meditation - Listening to the voice of Jesus above all other voices by delighting in and meditating on His Word. (Psalm 1)

  2. Unceasing prayer - Talking unceasingly to God first and most about everything. (1Thessalonians 5:16-18)

  3. Life together - Practicing true community in which the love of God takes on flesh by loving one another. (Hebrews 10:23-25)

  4. Unhurried presence - Living life at a with-God pace, slowing down, and being attentive to God in the present moment he has given you. (Luke 10:38-42)

  5. Joyful generosity - The practice of loving others by freely sharing what God has graciously given you. (Matthew 6:19-24)

  6. Compassionate gentleness

  7. Faithful witness

ONE ANOTHERING:

Whether you are meeting together or not, check in with one another to make sure that everyone is cared for and has what they need. Does someone in your group need help with grocery shopping, childcare, or caring for themselves? Keep a list of the ways you can provide care as a comGroup.

Remember that the Benevolence Ministry is a resource for our comGroups.

  • How can we love or serve one another this week?