Small Group Lesson 1: Patience

There’s An APP for That … Series

Life Group Lesson 1: Patience / January 30, 2011

Do you use your mobile phone too much, hardly ever, or just right?

What is the funniest thing you ever saw someone do because they were too busy talking on their phone?

Do you own a smart phone? If so what is your favorite app? Why?

Explain what a smart phone and app is. Smart phones have apps (applications) that can help you with just about anything you do or want to know. The problem is that we have not found apps on our phones that help us be better people. I have not found an app on my phone that will help me live with joy, peace, kindness, or patience. READ Galatians 5:1, 16, 22-25

The Bible is a place you can go to find all the apps you need to live your life.

What are the fruit of the Spirit?

How do the help us be better Christians (better people)?

What do these verses say that the Holy Spirit will do for us?

Have you ever experienced the Spirit guiding you? Explain.

How has being a Christian helped you be more patient?

Why is it easier to be patient with a circumstance rather than with people?

PATIENCE in this verse is the word “Makrothumia”. It means “to be slow to anger with someone, or simply to wait and be patient with someone. To be patient here means, don’t be ready to attack someone when you don’t get your way.

What do you do to be patient when someone repeatedly offends or bothers you?
Read 2 Peter 3:9.
In Scripture we learn that God is “slow to anger and abounding in love.” God is intentionally patient with us. Why?
Possible answers: Because His goal is to save us, to teach us to change our lives, to repent. God is not just waiting around for us, He is working on us, changing us so that we can grow in His love and be more like Him.
How does God’s patience with you inspire you to be more patient with others?

Where plan practice godly patience this week?

Close in prayer.

There’s An App For That

By the way, I love my i phone!!!

The popularity of smart phones are growing each day, it seems like every other person between the age of 5 and 95 have them. Have you heard the phrase “there’s an app for that”? Smart phones have apps (applications) that can help you with just about anything you do or want to know. Do you need to know what the weather in Hong Kong is like, there’s an app for that. Would you like to know the shortest route to the hospital, there’s an app for that as well. My phone has all kinds of apps for all kinds of needs. I’ve got a map app, calculator app, movie listing app, weather app, level and measuring app, Bible apps, news apps, and even a game app called “Angry Birds”. We see people on their phones using their applications everyday everywhere. People risk their lives to be able to use their phones. People die every day trying to drive and use their phones. The other day I saw a man walk out into the street in front of a moving car, he didn’t look, the car threw on it brakes and swerved to miss him. He didn’t even notice, because his head was buried into his phone. It is as if the world has decided it cannot live without the applications that smart phones have to offer. The problem is that I have not found apps on my phone that will help me be a better father or husband. I have not found an app that will help me forgive or not lose my temper. I have not found an app on my phone that will help me live with joy, peace, kindness, or patience. Yet the apostle Peter said “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life” 2 Peter 1:3 NIV. So if you need joy there is an app for that. If you need patience or mercy, there is an app for that as well. As Peter just said, because of Jesus we have an app for every need. The more we read God’s word the more we learn not only how much God loves us, but how much God can help us. I encourage you to read your Bible more, pick it up and read it; you will be blessed if you do. By the way, if you don’t own a Bible but you may own a smart phone, if so, download a Bible app on it. Wow, now that we have the Bible app on our phones we can truly say we have an app for everything.

A Class V Prayer

I often try to use words to inspire people to pray.  Sometimes events make prayer a natural thing to do.  When you are traveling down the Gauley River in West Virginia, prayer has an amazing way of finding its way out of our lips.  In the above picture is me (Vic Pruett), Randy Brooks, Raleigh Brooks, Don Adkins (my father in law), Kent Burnett, and Josh Shelton (who became a father just yesterday).  It was a fun ONE TIME event. 

When Life Attacks

Have you seen those TV shows on cable called “When Animal’s Attack?” The idea of the show is that you have a person walking near a wild animal. The person probably shouldn’t be around an animal that has the ability to hurt or kill them. There is of course a video camera filming this person as they get closer to the wild animal. Then out of nowhere the animal just jumps and attacks this person. And everyone acts surprised when the wild animal attacks. It’s funny and sad when you hear someone say, “I just didn’t think that lion would hurt anybody”. Can these people not hear what they are saying? It’s a wild animal, that’s what they do. Animals can attack, and if you mess with them, they will attack, and don’t be surprised when they do.
In Matthew 7 Jesus tells the parable of the wise and foolish builders. The part we often forget about in the parable is that Jesus says there was a storm. There is no maybe about the storm; in fact Jesus is saying storms happen. Just as we know that animals can attack you out of nowhere, so can life, sometimes life attacks. The point of the parable is not how to avoid storms, because you can’t, everybody faces struggle and storms. The point of the parable is that the only way to overcome the storms of life is to be connected to Jesus. With Jesus as your rock you will overcome every struggle life throws at you. That is why we must be building our lives each day upon the powerful words and promises of God. May God bless you in both sunny and stormy days.

When Life Attacks Small Group Lesson

Have you ever been attacked by a wild or tame animal? If so, what happened?
How would you define fear & anxiety?

Sometimes life attacks. We all experience pain & struggle. Cars break, accidents happen, we get sick, someone we love gets sick, or we lose something or someone. When life attacks, it hurts. Jesus knows that when life doesn’t go our way, that we have a tendency to be overwhelmed with anxiety, worry, & discontentment. Notice how many times Jesus uses the word worry as we read Matthew 6:25-34.

In v.25, what does Jesus say about food and clothes? What is His point?
Idea: Vic’s opinion, life is more than those things. Your thoughts?
In v.26, Jesus illustrates the lesson by talking about the birds of the air and the storing of resources in barns. What is Jesus’ point here?
Why is it dangerous to live with the idea that we “live to eat”, “live for clothes”, or “live to store up resources”?

When we live that way we make clothing, food, and resources our god. We put our faith in things when we live for them. Why would living for things cause worry?
IDEA: It causes worry because we are afraid we will lose those things.

READ 1 Chronicles 4:9-10
“9 Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” 10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.” 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 NKJV

Why was Jabez given his name?

How would you like it if you were defined by the pain that you caused others?

What struggle do you allow to define you as person?

Notice in the NKJV that Jabez asked God to bless him so that he will longer cause others pain. It is possible that the guilt of causing his mother pain caused him great pain. **Some thoughts here were inspired by Bruce Wilkerson the author of "The Prayer of Jabez".

Why do we allow guilt, fear, and anxiety to define who we are?

Because of his faith and prayer life, Jabez is no longer synonym nous with pain, but with blessing. Prayer has the power to redefine who we are and what we do. If we seek first His Kingdom and righteousness as Jesus said we should in Matthew 6 we will have the power to overcome the storms and struggles that life may throw our way. Close in Prayer.

Surviving Disappointment / Small Group Lesson

Surviving Disappointment / Life Group Lesson
January 16, 2011 / WHCOC

• If you don’t mind, please share a time when things did not go to plan. Go around the group. (Ask everyone to introduce themselves.)

• In life we all face disappointment. How would you define or explain disappointment?
IDEA: We all face spiritual, professional, personal struggle and disappointment in life. The priority is not really to avoid being disappointed but to learn from it and overcome it.

• What has helped you in the past in overcoming disappointment?
Read Romans 8:28-30; 37-39.

• How does knowing that God works for our good help you overcome disappointment?
IDEA: In v.30 it says God has a predestined plan that will help us overcome the struggles of this life; of course the plan is directly connected to Jesus.

• How does following the example of Jesus help you overcome struggle & disappointment?
• Did Jesus ever face disappointment & hardship? (examples I thought of: In Garden He was filled with sorrow, when Lazarus died he wept, he was angry at the money changers at the Temple, He was tempted by Satan, he was crucified)

• What did He do when faced with those struggles?
READ Proverbs 24:16
IDEA: Solomon says sometimes even righteous people fall. The number “7” in the Bible is a number that is indefinite, it means that things can happen over and over. The writer uses the number 7 not to be exact about a number, but to say that all people struggle and fail, unfortunately it happens countless times. But there is also good news, in v.16 Solomon says that even though you at times fall, you can rise again.
• The reason we will rise again is because of God. What examples “rising” or “resurrection” do you know of in the Bible? How does this encourage you?

READ Hebrews 11:1-3
• How is faith in God important especially when we hurt or struggle?
IDEA: The next 35 verses give an account of people who had fallen many times, and yet their faith brought them back to their feet. By faith, these people trusted & followed God, and God was faithful to them.
• How does knowing that God has a purpose for you help you in the most difficult of times?
CONCLUSION: Commit to God that even on your darkest day, in the deepest disappointment, commit to Him saying “I will use this somehow to bring glory to Him.”
Close in prayer.

Hospice or Hospital?

When we are sick and go to the hospital, we go there with the intention of getting well, that we would be healed. To be at the hospital requires humility, an understanding that in order to get well we need help, that we must trust the doctors and nurses who are treating us. When we go the hospital we have a goal in mind, that we would be healed, so that we can go out into the world and live. People leave the hospital with their health changed for the better, ready to change the world.

I have heard people describe the church as a hospital for sinners. As Christians we know we can’t make it on our own, that we need the help of the great physician in order to have life to the full.
Similar to hospitals are hospice care centers. They do an incredible work in these places. They help people who are dying; they make them comfortable in their last days. When one goes into hospice care they are preparing to die.
So when we think of what the church is or what it should be; do we act like a hospital for sinners or do we act like a hospice for sinners? Do we worship God to be challenged and changed or do we worship him to be comfortable in our last days? We are not called to live in spiritual hospice care; we are called to be transformed into His likeness, to experience the comfort, joy, and salvation that can only be found in Him. We are not spiritual hospice care, we are a hospital & rehab center that celebrates the life that God gives us. As the church, we connect with the God who changes us, and who gives us new life. Now that He has transformed and healed us, let us go out and transform the World.

Some of the thoughts on hospice care were inspired by the book Transformational Church, written by Thom Rainer and Ed Stetzer.