Leaders CG Study Guide, The Generous Life, for the week of Nov 14, 2021 PDF VERSION
LEADERS COMMUNITY GROUP STUDY GUIDE
FOR THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 14, 2021
This guide is designed to give helpful hints in preparing & leading your group in discussion.
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LEADER NOTES |
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END OF THE QUARTER PLANNING – Last Week of Community Group is November 28 – December 4. Begin talking to your group about end of the quarter and confirming who is returning. Leader’s Kick-Off: Friday, January 7th Winter Sign-Ups: January 9-16 ANNOUNCEMENTS ⇨ DIVORCE CARE How to Survive the Holidays, November 18, 2021,7:00 – 9:00pm At an online support program, you’ll find helpful counsel to manage the emotional turmoil and practical tools for decision-making. Divorce Care: How to Survive the Holidays is a one-night online program on November 18 from 7 to 9 p.m. ⇨ Married Life Topgolf Date Night November 20, 2021, 6:00 – 8:00pm The Married Life ministry is hosting a November date night that will be at Topgolf Tampa on November 20 from 6-8 p.m. Cost is $50 per couple which includes two hours of unlimited play and dinner platters at each bay. ⇨ FEAST OF PLENTY November 21, 2021, 1:00 – 3:00pm This Thanksgiving season, STF Missions is putting on “The Feast of Plenty.” Our goal is to feed families in need around the Tampa Bay area. Donate canned food items and $50 gift cards (from Save-a-Lot, Walmart, and Aldi, NOT Publix) and drop them off at our Ballast Point and DI campuses during the week or on Sunday mornings until Wednesday, November 17. We will use these donations to pack Thanksgiving meal boxes. ⇨ CHRISTMAS WITH THE CHOSEN December 1 &2, 2021 5:45 – 8:00pm Join us on December 1 or 2, to see Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers at AMC Westshore. This is an event for the whole family and we would love to see you there! The movie will start at 6 pm and the theater will open at 5:45 for general admission. Please make sure to register beforehand! ⇨Christmas Night of Gathering December 5, 2021 7:00 – 8:45pm Gather this Christmas season for an evening filled with a time of worship from our own all-girl band, fellowship as we get to know the women on STF’s staff, and updates about upcoming service opportunities and events! |
QUICK REVIEW
Looking back at your notes from this week’s teaching, was there anything you heard for the first time or something that caught your attention, challenged or confused you?
MY STORY
1. Think through what it means for you to be generous and make lists of things that encourage your generosity and things that discourage it.
Encouraging Things: People saying “thank you”, receiving acknowledgement, a changed life. . .
Discouraging Things: Ingratitude, indignant, no response, no change
Which people or causes do you tend to have the most generosity for and why?
2. Share a story of when someone was generous towards you.
Note: This question would include personal examples from experience. Not everyone may have an answer here, but it can be helpful to hear from the experiences from the group.
DIGGING DEEPER
1. One of the responses to the generosity and compassion we’ve received is gratitude. Gratitude is more of a daily practice of being thankful rather than a one-time decision or feeling. Any day we don’t practice gratitude, we naturally fall back into complacency, entitlement or privilege, which takes us further away from being thankful. What do you see in the following verses that remind us of what God has done for us and can help us practice the daily habit of gratitude?
1 Corinthians 1:4-9 New International Version (NIV)
Thanksgiving 4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
2 Corinthians 4:15-16 New International Version (NIV)
15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 9:11-12 New International Version (NIV)
11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
What habits have you or someone you know used in order to be thankful on a daily basis?
2. Why do you think taking things for granted so easily creeps into our lives?
Can you think of anything you could use to help you avoid taking things for granted?
Additional Questions:
- When we consider what Jesus humbly did for us, what are some ways you have been able you to leverage your finances, power, prestige and preferences for the good of others?
- When you think about those you know and admire, is there someone who leverages their finances, power, prestige and preferences for the good of others? What impact has that had on you?
3. In 2 Corinthians 5:20 the Bible calls this being God’s ambassador. An ambassador is someone who represents and carries out the will of his country or the person who sent them. One of the greatest ambassadors for Jesus was the apostle Paul. What can we learn from Paul in the following passages about how to be better ambassadors?
2 Corinthians 5:16-20 New International Version (NIV)
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Ephesians 6:18-20 New International Version (NIV)
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Galatians 2:20 New International Version (NIV)
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,who loved me and gave himself for me.
How well do you think you’re doing at being a compassionate and generous ambassador?
Be willing to go first and be honest!
TAKING IT HOME
1. Looking back at this week’s teaching and homework, is there anything you want to remember to be grateful for in the next week?
2. Is there anything hindering your compassion for others that you need to pray about?
PRAYER
How can this group remember you in prayer this week?