The Beautiful Upset: WK 2 - GROUP GUIDE

The Glory WE Can’t Hold Onto

INTRODUCTION
The following is a guide to help facilitate discussion between you and the person you’re studying with or with your Connect Group. Feel free to add, subtract, or change questions to fit the conversation, and pray for the Spirit to lead in all things.

OPENING QUESTION
Think back to a spiritual experience you’ve had in your life that you would call a “mountain-top” experience. What happened and why was it so meaningful to you?

HEAD

1. Read Mark 9:1-29, together and share any wisdom, insights, or thoughts that come to you from the reading.
2. What do you think the significance was of Jesus being transformed into dazzling white in this moment?
3. Why was he able to talk to Moses and Elijah? What significance might that have had and what do you think they were talking about?
4. In verse 9 and 10, Jesus talks to them about rising from the dead, which he had done before and would do again before the crucifixion. Why do you think it was so hard for them to accept his words?
5. Why was the crowd overwhelmed with awe when they saw Jesus?
6. In verse 23, do you think Jesus scolding the father’s faith, or something else?
7. Was Jesus saying, in verse 29, that the disciples could have cast him out if they prayed?

HEART

1. Imagine you were Peter, James, or John. How would you have told a friend who wasn’t there what you saw?
2. Note what happens in verse 9 right after the most amazing mountain-top experience ever. We often think the “good life” is all about having mountain-top experiences, but most of life is lived in the valley. What happens to Jesus in the valley and how does this compare to the ups and downs of our lives today?
3. Where does more growth happen; on the mountain-top, or the valley?  Think through what this may mean to our perspective on struggle. Is struggle always a bad thing?
4. It took great humility, and honesty, for the father to admit that he struggled with unbelief. What do you think Jesus’ action for the father communicates about faith to you and me?
5. Jesus had several encounters with demons. Was this just something that happened in his day? Does it still happen today? If so, what might it look like and how do you and I combat these dark forces?

HANDS
This week, take some time to look back over your life and reflect on some of the tougher seasons. What did you learn about yourself in those seasons? What, if anything, did you learn about God? What could you do to remind yourself, the next time struggles come, that God is still with you and not only will never leave you, but can use those moments to bring the best out of you?

WORDS TO LIVE BY
20… “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20b, NLT