Impact - End of Week 1

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.

OPEN QUESTIONS
Do you know what your name means, why it was given to you, and have you always gone by that name, or another name/nickname?  If another name, why?

HEAD

1. Read Numbers 13:16, Matthew 1:21, Exodus 24:13, Numbers 11:28, Exodus 17:8-13, Galatians 6:4, Deuteronomy 34:5-12 together and share any wisdom, insights, or thoughts that come to you from the reading.
2. In our first passage, Moses changes Hoshea’s name to Joshua. What other name changes can you think of in Scripture? In a time when names were so important to calling and character, why do you think a name change was important for Joshua?
3. Thinking of the story of Joshua, what comparisons can you make with the story of Jesus, both names translated as “Yahweh saves”?
4. What was so important about the relationship between Joshua and Moses, and what can we learn from it in our relationships with others today?
5. From Galatians 6:4, why is comparison so dangerous in the spiritual life? How about in life in general? Social Media is a place of comparisons, who do we avoid making comparisons in everyday life?
6. After a eulogy like what’s found in Deuteronomy 34:10-12, how do you think Joshua would have felt with such big sandals to fill?

HEART

1. When people here your name and think of you, what do you want them to think about?  Is that different from what you think they actually think about?  If different, how do we close the gap between the two?
2. Is there anyone of the younger generation that you are or have mentored, spoken truth into?  If so, what was that like and do you think it made a difference in their life?  If not, or if it’s been a while, is there someone in your circle that you could encourage and mentor?
3. Have you ever had to take over for someone who was larger than life?  If so, what was that like and how did you handle it?
4. Knowing that Jesus and Joshua’s lives were meant to point to the saving work of God, how can our lives today do the same?

HANDS
Since Paul wrote in I Corinthians 5:17, that we are all new creations in Christ (which can be represented in Scripture by a new name), what do you think is new about you with Christ that wasn’t that way before Christ?  Take time to celebrate what God has done and is doing in your life, and then take some time to notice those changes in the life of someone around you.  Affirm God’s work in their life this week, tell them what you see and appreciate, and encourage them to keep walking hand-in-hand with Christ.

LIVING WORDS FOR YOUR WEEK
“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
2 Corinthians 5:16-17 NLT