Weekly Challenge: Isaac

We had to cover a lot of ground in Genesis on Saturday.  Started in chapter 11 with Terah having a son (Abam) and ended in chapter 35 with Isaac dying at 180 years old. It is a fascinating part of history when God makes promises and has a relationship with his creation.  No matter how many times we take timing and matters into our own hands (Sarai telling Abram to have a child with Hagar), God keeps his promise.  No matter how many times we get scared and lie or act deceitful (Abraham lying about Sarah being his sister and not his wife), God still protects his plans and promises.
However, our sin does affect generations.  Isaac lied about his wife to Abimelech.  Jacob and Rebekah deceived Isaac.  Laban deceived Jacob.  Jacob's boys lied about their brother Joseph.  And we do the same.
We understand that all these family members had a choice.  They were not forced to follow a pattern of sin through their heritage.  But our actions, good and bad, help shape our future generations.  

Challenge:
Have your parents shaped or influenced your life?
How are you shaping and influencing the lives of your children?
What one sin from your parents would you like help in eliminating from your life?
What are some virtues that are currently a part of your life that you need to pass on to your children, grandchildren, and others in your life?

Weekly Challenge: Abraham

That was a great life group on Saturday.  We had fun using a Kahoot to learn about Abraham and we had great discussions on faith and trust.
I liked the definition which stated "faith is not believing in spite of evidence; faith is obeying in spite of consequence".
Abraham obeying in spite of consequence of losing his promised son.
Daniel and friends obeying in spite of consequence of losing their lives to Nebuchadnezzar.
Mary obeying in spite of consequence of losing her husband and family.  She said "I am the Lords servant.  May it be to me as you have said".

Abraham was not perfect in his faith.  He was commanded to leave his family yet he took his dad, his wife, and his nephew Lot.  He did not trust God's timeline and took matters into his own control and slept with Hagar to have a son.  He lied about his wife.  He failed occasionally as we all do.  But the general trend of his life was marked by faithful obedience.

Here is the weekly challenge:
1.  Read the Faith hall of fame in Hebrews 11.
2. Ask God how you can obey in spite of the consequence. Then talk it over with your family during dinner.

Be intentional.
Travis

Life Group weekly challenge: Lucifer

Our new series started with a study of Adam and Eve.  On Saturday we studied Lucifer. 

As a continuation of what Jamie started last week, we know that spiritual warfare is real.  It can be easy to state and sometimes even comforting to believe.  But we still have a difficult time when talking about Satan.  Why??  Maybe Verbal Kint is correct when in The Usual Suspects he says the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing a world that he doesn’t exist.   Or maybe our culture has created a pitchfork carrying character similar to a Santa Claus. 

So we took time in Life Group to go through the bible and list the names used to describe or talk about Lucifer.  Here is a partial list:

Accuser, adversary, lion, Beelzebul, ruler of demons, Belial, Leviathan, twisted serpent, devil, father of lies, dragon, serpent, satan, evil spirit, ruler of this world, prince of the power of the air, tempter, god of this world, Lucifer, angel of light, the enemy, Angel of the abyss, Abaddon, Apollyon

Then we made a list of the attributes or characteristics of Satan:

Was the anointed cherub, is limited spatially, and not omnipresent.

He is a liar, an oppressor, and an imitator.

He came to kill, steal, and destroy.

He will tempt, he plans, he schemes, he fights, he loses.

My challenge for you this week involves watching this clip of Bishop Ron Archer testimony.

Then I want you to stand with your family outside of your house and tell Satan that he is not welcome in your home.  Tell him that in the power of the name of Jesus, that you forbid him to work in your home.  Then pray a blessing on your house and family.

Be intentional this week.

Travis 

Weekly Challenge: Philippians 4:1-17

Life Group,
After Paul told us to stand firm, be unified, pursue Christ, grow through the journey, and imitate Paul's example, he tells us to:

• Rejoice in the Lord
• Share your patience and gentleness with everyone
• Do not be anxious about anything
• Accept the peace of God as you pray about everything.

Jesus spoke about anxiety in Matthew 6 where he stated the most common causes of anxiety: physical attributes, clothing, food and drink, and the future.  Our list we made during Life Group probably could be lumped in those categories. 

But when we learn to trust God, to worry about nothing, to get along with others.....  The result is inexplicable peace. 

My challenge to you this week is to make a list of what makes you anxious.  What are you worrying about?  Then spend time with God every day rejoicing in the Lord.  And give it all to Him.

Be intentional.
Travis

Weekly Challenge -Philippians 3:15-21

Life Group,
Paul told the early Christians (and us) to:
1. Continue maturing (pursue God the Son)
2. Watch Paul, imitate Paul, and follow the example of other growing believers
3. Avoid the practices of the enemies of the cross
4. Live as citizens of Heaven

Can people listen to you talk and know that you are a citizen of Heaven? 
Can they observe your actions and recognize that "you are not from around here"?
Reminds me of the clip we discussed in LG...  How Ya Doin'.  Everyone in the bar knew that guy was not from around here!

Challenge: Identify who is watching you (your children, spouse, other family members, co-workers, younger believers, etc.) and adjust your living so you they can imitate you.

Be intentional this week.
Travis

Weekly Challenge: Philippians 3:1-14

Life Group Family and Friends:

Many people ask me what I like about our life group.  I tell them 2 things: 1. We are very real and don't hide behind masks of what we want others to see.  2. We have great discussion during LG. 

Saturday evening was no different.  Thank you for the great discussion. 

Paul was very real in describing the Judaizers.  Dogs, evil, mutilators.  (Tell us how you really feel Paul!).  But he did not want "works salvation" to muddy the water and force people to lose joy of a true free gift.  Remember how he compared all of his great works, which use to matter so much, as garbage, rubbish, dung, bodily excrement, dog poop, etc.  (might have used the Message version in there somewhere).

Paul is telling us not to be dumpster divers.  But to focus on "knowing Jesus".   During discussion we used the following to describe "knowing": learning, studying, journey, on going, pursue, what Travis D. said, closeness, relationship, confidence, intimate, and oneness. 

My challenge to you this week is to focus on KNOWING your savior.  Do something different this week, talk to your spouse about what it means to know Jesus, pursue Jesus and enjoy the journey. 

Be intentional.
Travis

Weekly Challenge: Philippians 2:19-30

Life Group Family & Friends:

Thank you for stepping up to read during LG and for the great discussion we had. 
After we went through the background story of the church formation in Philippi, we looked at the examples of Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus.
We discussed servant-leadership, why we should use the expression "Lord willing", and honoring spiritual role models. 

My challenge to you this week is:
1. take time to find a way to honor your spiritual role model through prayer, phone call, or a note.
2. Maybe it is time for you to become somebody's spiritual role model.  Step out and work with someone.  Grab a coffee.

Be intentional.
Travis

Weekly Challenge: Encourage - Be Encouraged

Life Group Community,

Saturday night we began our Philippians study in chapter 1 with verses 1-11.  In his letter to the church of Philippi, Paul opens with encouragement. Here is how he do it. (you'll get it in a second)

He tells them how thankful he is for them.
How happy just the thought of them makes him.
How he misses them.
That he prays for them daily.
He lets them know that they are in the fight together and that what they are doing is right.
That they are worthy to be in this fight.
And he ends with telling them in what specfic ways he is praying for them.

WOW!  What if we did this for each other, weekly or even daily.  As believers we desperately need this encouragement to keep fighting the good fight (Galatians 6:9) and not get beat down by the day to day happenings of this fallen world (John 16:33).  As believers we are also commanded to do this for others (1 John 4:19).

So in the immortal words of Montell Jordan "This is how we do it".  (haha! get it now?)

This week - encourage at least two people each day - the first being someone within your close circle (spouse, kids, bff, co-workers, all of the above) and the second either someone you haven't connected with in a while or even a complete stranger.  

Remember, you can go above and beyond two - there may be bonus points involved. 

"Be awesome today and give the world a reason to dance!  You've been Pep-talked!" - Kid President

Be intentional, it's contagious!
J

Weekly Challenge: Identify the Real Enemy

Life Group Community,
We ended the Spring bible study series with 1 Peter 5:1-11.  In the first 7 verses,

• Peter reminds us (spiritual leaders, elders, pastors, etc.) that we have a responsibility to shepherd, guide, & protect.
• We need to serve out of desire, not obligation.  
• We, and the young leaders are encouraged to seek counsel and be humble. 
• We must give our anxieties and worries completely to God.  Because worry constitutes pride since it denies the care of a sovereign God. 

But wait, there's more!

We have all heard about Satan prowling around like a lion waiting to devour someone (verse 8).  But it is more than just imagery.  It is real.  The name Satan, means adversary.  He is our enemy.  He was given limited power (Job 1:8-12), but his mission is to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10).  He will do this through lies (John 8:44).
We must identify the real enemy.  It is not your spouse.  It is not your family.  It is not your church community.  It is not your job.  It IS Satan, the great deceiver.

My challenge to you this week is to spend time getting to know your adversary.  Know his names, his attributes, his methods, his characteristics.  I suspect that you will begin to see that he is real, but he is not original.  Once you identify the enemy and the simple tactics, you can begin to prepare to fight the enemy with the power of God.

Verbal Kent, from The Usual Suspects, had a great line when he said "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he does not exist".

Be intentional.
Travis

Weekly Challenge

Life Group Community:

We are ending our Spring series with several lessons on end times and being ready for judgment. 

We can be certain that judgment will occur for believers and for non-believers.  There are only 2 destinies for humans; one is to be with God forever and the other is to be forever separated from God.  This fact is our motivation for telling others about the good news, whatever the cost. 

This is the application from the lesson.  Are we doing everything possible to inform and challenge people to receive Christ before it is too late?

Who are you going to tell the good news to this week?  Start by asking God to show you and provide for you open doors of opportunities.  And ask Him to help you see those open doors. 

It may start with “Praise God for the rain” or “We had a great message at church this week”.  Or maybe it is praying for a member in your family or asking a co-worker if it is ok for you to pray for them.

We are on the winning team and we have an exciting message to tell in joy, not in fear.

Be intentional this week.
Travis

Weekly Challenge: Are we Immature?

Life Group family and friends:

We studied 1Corinthians 3:1-4 and Hebrews 5:11-14 during LG on Saturday.  Many Christians were not growing.  Paul called them immature and still babies in the faith.  They were jealous, lazy, selfish, living in fear, not teaching others, and not applying what they have learned.  Other Christians were being intentional and growing.

During LG, we came up with these words to describe the maturing Christian:

Connection, training, authenticity, bible studies, self-discipline, sacrifice, action, community, mentors, and choosing to be intentional.

We read a paragraph from For the Love of God, by D. A. Carson written in 1999.  This is the excerpt:

People do not drift toward holiness.  Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.  We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith.  We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.

 

My challenge to you this week is to read this excerpt every day.  Make it your call to action and maturity.  We will not drift into Christian maturity.  We must make a decision.  It will take an effort on your part.  We have to be intentional.  

 

Travis

Weekly Challenge : Family Values

This week's challenge comes from Clay York...

Develop with your wife and family the values you will live by. Back these with scripture. Keep these handy and refer to them often. 

Example of a few the ten values we developed:

1. I am who the Bible says I am. I can do what it says I can do. I can have what it says I can have. A faithful man will abound with blessing. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Now draw near and discover His love for you. (Rom 10:17, Hosea 4:6, Prov 28:20, Col 2:8)
2. Make a living by your giving. (Malachi 3:8-11 and Proverbs 19:17) He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord and He will pay back what he as given. (Prov 21:13)
3. God loves righteousness over sacrifice. (1 Peter) For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Honor all people, Love the brotherhood, Fear God, Honor the King.

I hope this is a valuable exercise for everyone!!

Weekly Challenge: Serving Others

Weekly Challenge: Serving Others

Life Group Community:

Awesome discussion on Saturday.  The theme was USING YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS TO SERVE OTHERS

Our study was on Romans 12:1-8.  We discussed some different kinds of spiritual gifts and how our individual gifts fit together to make up the body of the church.  It is only when we work together that the body works as a whole to further the kingdom of God.

My challenge to you this week is to conduct this brief audit of where you stand when it comes to using your spiritual gifts to serve others.

MY PLAN FOR SERVING

Life Group Involvement: “All to service; some to leadership.”

            If God has gifted and called you to be a leader, where are you leading?

            If God has gifted and called you to be a servant, where are you serving?

Action steps                                                                                                                           

Participate in another church ministry.

•             What is a need in your church that is important to you?
•             How can you passionately invest your time, energy, talents, resources, skills,                   personality, spiritual gift(s), etc. to help meet this need?

Action steps                                                                                                                           

Participate in a community service project.

•             What is a need in your community that is important to you?
•             How can you passionately invest your time, energy, talents, resources, skills,                   personality, spiritual gift(s), etc. to help meet this need?

Action steps                                                                                                                          

Participate in a mission trip.

• What is an area of your world that is important to you (local, national, or international)?
• How can you passionately invest your time, energy, talents, resources, skills, personality, spiritual gift(s), etc. to help meet this need?

Action steps                                                                                                                           

Do an anonymous, random act of kindness for someone.

•             What can you do for someone in your family?
•             What can you do for someone in your neighborhood?
•             What can you do for someone in your workplace?
•             What can you do for someone in your church?

Action steps                                                                                                                           

GET BUSY LIVING LIFE ON MISSION!

Weekly Challenge: Information + Application = Transformation

Life Group Community:

Great discussion on Saturday.  The theme was Information + Application = Transformation

Our study was on Proverbs 3:1-2.  Every two verses, we are told to do something (or not to do something) followed by a promise.  It is useful for us to read the bible, but we have to be intentional about applying the information we have learned.

My challenge to you this week is to finish the handout we started in LG.  List the exhortation and the promise.  Then complete the application and the steps you will take. 

 

Verses	Exhortation	Promise	Application	Steps
v. 1-2	Don’t forget God’s teaching and keep his commandments in your heart.	Long life and prosperity	God promises me long life and prosperity if I make his teaching and commands a part of my life.	1.     I will practice a personal Bible study and prayer time daily. 2.     I will make my Life Group and Growth Group a top priority.
v. 3-4
v. 5-6
v. 7-8
v. 9-10
v. 11-12

 

Weekly Challenge -What does it mean to produce Fruit as a Christian?

Life Group family and friends:

The question we worked through on Saturday was "Are you producing fruit?".  We also read through Mark 4 where Jesus was talking about seed falling on the path, on rocky soil, on thorny soil, and on good soil which produced 30x, 60x, and 100x multiples.

But what does all that mean for us?

As believers, the result of a spirit filled life should be fruit.  If you put it in context with Galatians 5, we should be producing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
But when you look at the Mark 4 parable, several questions come to our attention. 
The rocky soil example are believers who hear the good news, believe, but don't have the strong roots or maturity.  They drop out when trouble or persecution arise demanding suffering and sacrifice.
The thorny soil example are believers who get choked out by worry, wealth, and materialism and fall away from their commitment to follow Jesus and grow. 

How are you tending to your soil?  Are you growing roots and going deep?  Are you removing the weeds that choke you out or distract you? 

And finally, what fruit are you producing?  The apple tree does not produce fruit for its own benefit.  The fruit is for other people. 

How are you using the fruit of the spirit to benefit your family, your co-workers, your Life Group community, and for unbelievers?



Be intentional this week.
Travis

Weekly Challenge -Security through the Trinity

LG family and friends:
You have been chosen, redeemed, and sealed!  Amen.  In our study of Ephesians 1:3-14, we learned:

• God the Father chose you
• God the Son redeemed you
• God the Spirit sealed you

Your salvation is a done deal.  God's desire now is that you participate with Him.  He wants you to live a holy and blameless life, be intentional, and make a difference for Him today.  This goes back to our challenge last week regarding Ephesians 4.

The challenge this week is talk to someone this week about the security you have because of what the Trinity has done for you.  Describe the hope, joy, and peace you have and how your life is different. 

People are naturally seeking.  As the news story we read in LG, some people will believe in Jediism to give them some type of higher power.  But they will not find security.

Be intentional.

Travis

Happy New Year Life Group!!!

As we start a new year and a new series, it is time to review the purpose of our Life Group.
There are several phrases we like to use in our LG such as:

• Be intentional
• Community of Unity
• Be authentic
• Relationships are messy
• Grow and help others grow

These phrases all came from Ephesians 4.  As we read each verse, Andi wrote the words or phrases which Paul used for the new believers in Ephesus. 

This is a beautiful picture of what we are as a community of believers.  We can live this way because of Jesus. 
In our lesson, we learned that Jesus told all his followers that they will fail.  They said they would not.  But they all deserted him. 
Jesus knew this of them and of us, yet He still died for all of us.  We will fail, but God will redeem. 

Challenge:   Pick a couple of the words/phrases below and meditate and pray on them this week.  For you, in your family, and in our LG.

Be intentional.

Travis