The Beautiful Upset (S2) WK 3 - 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:  What’s a story or book you remember from growing up that you loved? What was it about that story that drew you in?

SCRIPTURE READING
Read together:  Mark 4:1-34

Jesus was a master storyteller, and he obviously had observed enough of life, and got to know the people around him enough, that he could tell stories that they would understand. For some, it wouldn’t be until the Spirit was poured out that they’d start to make the connections to what Jesus meant.

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. When you think about the seed scattered on the field, falling into one of four different places (the footpath, the shallow soil, among the thorns, and on fertile soil), which soil do you think represents our world right now? Our faith tradition?
3. Why do you think it was so hard for people to understand Jesus’ parables?
4. Concerning the good soil, who produces the harvest; God or the person who received the seed onto good soil?
5. In Mark 4:21-25, Jesus puts a lot of emphasis on listening. Why? And how do you and I practice listening when it comes to Jesus? When it comes to each other?
6. What does the farmer and the mustard seed have to teach us about the kingdom of God?

HEART: Personal Reflection

1. Which of the soils (the footpath, the shallow soil, among the thorns, and on fertile soil), represents your own journey of faith at the moment? Which have you experienced in your life?
2. Can you think of any examples of a person or a movement who had a light, but hid that light from others? Why would one do this?
3. There are different kinds of light. Some light is blinding, other light isn’t enough, while the right amount of light is an incredible blessing. What kind of light in the world of faith is often blinding right now, in a negative way? What might represent not enough light?
4. In the western world, we often put so much focus on what we produce, but these passages seem to be about putting ourselves in positions for God to produce something in us. What are those positions, those places and spaced that we put ourselves into that allow God to go to work, producing fruit, in us?

HANDS: Practice This Week
Spiritual Practice: learning to abide

• Read Luke 10:38-42. Reflect on the following questions in your time with Jesus this week:
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  • Was what Martha was doing bad? If it wasn’t, then what could have changed that would have allowed her to be filled instead of “worried and upset” in this moment?
  • What had Mary discovered that would “not be taken away from her”?
  • Do you think sitting at the feet of Jesus can lead to serving? Explain.
• Take time this week to simply sit at Jesus’ feet and ask Him, “Lord Jesus, what would you have to say to me this week?”
• Journal your insights through this experience as you meditate on these truths this week.

Invite the group to check in next week about their experience.

WORDS TO REMEMBER (Hebrews 12:2-3, NLT)
Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!