Core
Curriculum
Discussion
Guides
Matthew's Book Leader Notes - Session 4
Matthew 5:17-20 This session touches on an important aspect of the Bible – the commands God has given. We need to avoid the extremes of making the commands the most important aspect of our faith (legalism) as well as dismissing them because of God’s grace through Jesus (Jesus, Himself, makes that clear in this passage).
One common mistake people make when trying to obey God’s commands, is starting with their behavior. They think, “If I just try hard enough, I can do what God says to do.” The truth is that we cannot obey God’s commands outside of God’s power in our lives and His transforming work in our heart and mind. When we encounter a command that we are not obeying, our first response should be to ask God to first change our heart and mind. Once our heart and mind have begun to change, our behavior will more naturally follow.
I love verse 20 because it highlights the great gift of God’s grace through Jesus’ death and resurrection on our behalf. The admittance criterion into God’s Kingdom has always been perfectly obeying God’s Law. Without Jesus, that burden falls on us (and I, for one, fall very short of that target!). If people are trying to be good enough to get into heaven, it’s a sure bet they’ve already blown it more than once! Jesus lived that perfect life (this is what Jesus meant in verse 17, when He said that He had come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets) so that He could die for us to pay the penalty our sins incurred.
Matthew's Book Leader Notes - Session 3
You Are Salt and Light Matthew 5:13-16
What does it mean to be salt and light? Generally speaking, salt is a reference to our efforts to fight against the sin and moral decay in our world (salt preserves) and light is a reference to the gospel message we share with people who do not know Jesus (Jesus is the light of the world).
There are a couple of things to focus on in this session. First are the "you are" statements. Jesus doesn't say we can be or will be, but we are the salt and light in our world. This speaks to not only His expectations of our lives, but also His belief in us to act as the salt and light of His Kingdom in this world. Jesus believes we can actually do it! Second, is the need to be both different, but also closely connected with the world around us. If we are too similar to the world around us, then we lose our saltiness and our light dims. If we are disconnected from the world around us, then our salt and light never impact those that need it.
Matthew's Book Leader Notes - Session 2
Session 2 – You Are Blessed Matthew 5:1-12
I would say there are two things to focus on in this session. First (and this may be an internal focus for you as the leader) is the focus on these verses as blessings, not commands. Jesus is not telling us how to live in these verses. Rather, Jesus wants us to rethink our understanding of the “good life,” which brings us to the second focus. Many of us would say we are “blessed” when good things are happening to us. Jesus flips that around by saying that these hurting and dejected people are blessed. The key is this: we are blessed when we have Jesus regardless of what is happening in our lives. Is that how you and I truly view life?
Matthew's Book Leader Notes - Session 1
Session 1 – Start at the End. Wise and Foolish People Matthew 7:24-29
This session is pretty straight forward, but if we miss this point, it will impact how we read and apply the entire Sermon on the Mount. The speaker begins at the end of the sermon in order to highlight Jesus’ expectation that we actually apply these teachings in life. While we will certainly learn many great things in this study, we must never lose sight of Jesus’ expectation that we also live them out in our day to day lives.
Group Prayer Ideas
Here are a few creative ideas for prayer in your group. You could use several of them for an extended prayer time or use them individually to spice up your regular prayer times.
- Use a map or globe to pray for different nations of the world. If you have a globe, give it a spin and see which country your finger lands in when you stop the spin. If you have a flat map, have people close their eyes and point to a spot on the map (or throw a dart at the map!). Pray for the missionaries and the gospel to spread in whichever countries are "chosen".
- Pray through the Bible. One really fun way to pray is to read the Bible while you're praying. Take a chunk of the Bible (ex. the Gospels, Gen-Deut, Prophets, Epistles, etc.) and people skim through it. As a passage catches their attention, they pray their thoughts (praise, request, confession...whatever). It works best for folks to take turns praying. Don't worry about trying to cover every verse in your prayers. Take about 5 minutes for each section.
- Pray with your taste buds. Gather a few items for people to taste (ex. ketchup packet, lemon slice, sugar cube, cilantro, salt, etc.). As you taste the item, take a moment to silently reflect on how the taste reminds you of God. Then have a time of prayer to express these things to God. Sound crazy? Read Psalm 34:8 before you toss this idea!
- Prayer positions. Utilize different physical positions to experience prayer differently. Confession - lay prostrate on the floor or kneel. Praise/Thanksgiving - raise your hands high. Requests - hold your hands out with palms open and facing up.
- Meditate on an image of the cross (make one out of sticks, draw one, put one on your computer screen, etc.). After a time of reflection, express whatever thoughts have been on your heart related to the cross and Jesus' death for us.
- Listen to a song and reflect on its meaning. When the song is done, pray together about the focus of the song.
These are just a few ideas. I know you have some great ideas of your own, so feel free to add a comment and share it with us!
Sharing Your Leadership
One of the best things you will do to develop and strengthen your group is roping in others to help you lead. Brett Eastman wrote about this in an article I want to share with you:
First Corinthians 12:7 says that God gives every believer spiritual gifts for the common good of the body. But if your small group is like most, it's led by just one person—you. Not that you're probably complaining, but that's a huge burden. And it also keeps everyone else from growing in their gifts.
The load usually falls on one person because many leaders feel like the only way to get things done is to do it themselves. And it doesn't occur to group members to volunteer because they don't know that taking on responsibility is part of being a full member of God's family. This contributes to group members thinking they don't have any spiritual gifts because they've never had a chance to experiment. So how do you motivate people to step up to the plate and discover their gifts?
Talk About the Role of Small Groups
Read through Acts 2 as a group and talk about how that community demonstrated all five purposes of the church (fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism, and worship). Just as that community brought the purposes into their homes—not just into the temple—so should all five purposes be going on in your group. And this requires sharing the load with your group members.
Meet People Where They Are
Deal with shared ownership in a developmental way. Take into account people's spiritual age. If they're seekers—not even sure if they believe in Christ—don't ask them to do anything. Just welcome them into the group. If they're new believers, give them small roles. Don't overwhelm them. If you've got mature believers, you can dump the truck on them. They can certainly handle it.
Also take into account your small-group stage. If your group is brand new, give people baby-step responsibilities. Perhaps you can have a potluck and let everyone bring something. The key here is that you don't want people to be afraid to show up next week because they feel overwhelmed with responsibility. If your group has been together for a while, you can nudge people to take on something bigger. A good first step would be to pass out a sign-up sheet for helping with the group's prayer time, snacks, or icebreaker question.
Learn to Share
Don't expect people to go it alone. Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs. You can ask a couple of people to team up to host a social evening for your group. Or ask two people to share the job of coordinating the prayer list. Teaming up makes it less scary for people.
Make the Ask
The best time to ask people to take on a role is right after a great group meeting. Most will say yes to a responsibility if you ask them then. Ask them to do it for the next three weeks—not forever. Or ask people to coordinate one project. If you ask members for help and the room goes quiet, don't just drop it. Follow up with people after the meeting. If you're nervous to ask for help, remember the Holy Spirit will be right there with you every step of the way.
Brett Eastman is the founder of LifeTogether. All rights reserved.
September Food Pantry Items
Help us feed the hungry in our city! The September items for the food pantry are 16 oz. jar of peanut butter and 32 oz. jar of grape jelly. You can bring them by the Journey Group booth in the atrium all month or drop them off at the reception desk in the atrium during the week.