The Fourth Wall - End of Week 4

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

OPENING QUESTION(S)
When you were a child, what stories or fairytales did you believe to be absolutely true?  

HEAD

1. Read 2 Kings 5:1-27 together and share any wisdom, insights, or thoughts that simply come to you from the reading of the Word.
2. Jesus once said that our faith needed to be like that of a child.  What is so special about a child’s faith? Why do you think that they are so much quicker to see beyond what we can see and trust in something more?
3. Why do you think the King of Israel was so quick to think that he was the one to provide the solution?  Do you and I do the same thing? Do we sense God calling us but then think that all the work depends on us?  Why are we this way?
4. Why did Naaman get angry with Elisha and his response to Naaman’s need?  
5. Think about the rest of the story and what Naaman would have missed out on if his officers didn’t step in to help. Are you and I at risk of missing out on God’s blessings because of our own stubbornness or expectations?  How do we seek to avoid missing out?
6. So Naaman agrees to go and do what the prophet commanded, but do you think Naaman was all in with each dip under the water, or do you think he wanted to give up after the third, or fourth, or fifth dip when nothing happened?

HEART

1. Naaman got to see through the fourth wall, peak into the kingdom of God, and his healing didn’t just change him physically, it converted him to be a follower of God.  Have you ever had this kind of moment, a time when you saw passed what was going on in this realm, to see what God was up to in the next?  What happened?
2. We are told in Scripture that this world is temporary, but that the things of God are eternal, and that we shouldn’t let ourselves be caught up in the temporary.  How do we got about living with the eternal mindset day to day?  Is there a way we can help each other remember that no matter how hard things may be, they are not forever.  Only God is forever, and guess what?  His way has already won.

HANDS
This week, take time to read the following verse, praying over what they have to teach you about the kingdom of God, the world beyond the one we see.  Maybe for you that means journaling, maybe it’s another form of meditating on God’s Word, but let them soak into you as you consider how God is calling us to live, here and now, as citizens of the kingdom of heaven: Romans 8:18-26, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, I Corinthians 15:42-44, 51-58, 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 16-17, I Peter 1:6-13 and 5:7-11

WORDS TO REMEMBER
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33, NLT