Broken Kingdoms: WK 2 - GROUP GUIDE

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:  If you had just moments left to live, what is a piece or two of wisdom that you would want to make sure were passed down to those you care about? Something you’ve learned in your journey that you wish you knew earlier, or that someone had told you?

SCRIPTURE READING
Read together:  Matthew 19:23-30, I Kings 3:5-27, Deuteronomy 17:14-17, Ecclesiastes 1:12-14, 9:7-10, 12:8, 13

Solomon’s journey has much to teach us about worldly wisdom, vs spiritual wisdom, and about what matters most. As you read more about his journey, look at the missing pieces that would have been made complete by partnering with Jesus.

HEAD: Explore the Text

1. Share any wisdom, insights, or thoughts you received just from listening to the text, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead.
2. In Matthew 19, was Jesus saying that being rich is bad? If not, explain your answer.
3. In Matthew 19:26, Jesus was saying that salvation is impossible for humans. If true, then how are we saved? What’s our job?
4. If God came to you and asked “what do you want?” what do you think you’d say? Why do you think Solomon chose wisdom?
5. How would you define wisdom?
6. Knowing that Solomon struggled to follow God throughout his life, but that he was also listed as one of the wisest men to ever live, how would you classify the kind of wisdom he received?
7. Solomon tried everything under the sun to find happiness and contentment, then, at the end of his life, he said only God matters. What was it about his journey, you think, that led him to that conclusion and how does it tie into the word “Meaningless”?

HEART: Personal Reflection

1. Envy and greed are so often at the heart of our hunger for power, and they are so easy to slip into, even when you have good intentions. How can you and I, as a community, help each other keep Jesus the main thing, instead of ourselves?
2. When you read through the story of Solomon, what characteristics of Jesus did Solomon need to be a better leader for God?
3. In the series guide, we talk about how Christians tend to use swords to cut down, shame, and push people away, whereas God tends to use the sword for discernment, to cut to the heart, spiritually. How do we keep focused on the latter, without giving in to the former?
4. If everything, as Solomon wrote time and time again in Ecclesiastes, is meaningless (work, wealth…everything), then what’s the point of this life? How should we live it? Should we enjoy it? If so, how?

HANDS: Practice This Week
Spiritual Practice: What are you praying for?

• Spend some time in quiet reflection, asking God to reveal to you something in your spiritual life that is lacking right now.
• Once he reveals that to you, ask him again if that is the thing you are most lacking at the moment.
• Then, over the next seven days, ask God to reveal to you ways in which you may seek to nurture that thing in your spiritual life. Maybe it’s more alone time with God, or quiet time without speaking a word, or worship, or repentance, or serving, etc…
• Choose two of those “ways” to practice over the next two months, making a journal entry of what it felt like before you started, versus what it feels like or the differences you’ve seen in your life after two months of practice.

Invite the group to check in next week about what they discovered.

FINISH WELL: Bring It Home

1. The kingdom of God is so unlike the kingdoms of man. For one, instead of violence and power grabbing, God’s kingdom is driven by love. Read I Corinthians 13 and notice one aspect of the description of love that you need more of in your life.
2. Who are the people in your life that help you stay grounded in God’s kingdom, over the kingdoms of man? How often do you connect?

WORDS OF WISDOM to Memorize
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.