FAMILY
STUDY GUIDE
SERIES: STORYBOARDS
Parents, use this section to talk to your family about this week’s Big Idea at home!
BIG IDEA:
I have a story to tell!
DO: Mix one tablespoon of salt with half a cup of
BIG IDEA:
What you keep CONCEALED
cannot be fully HEALED!
off and dry them off (if you don’t, they will discolor!).
SAY: Like this solution made these pennies clean, when
ASK: How can God heal your past? How will your story
SAY: Let’s pretend that these dirty pennies are like our
lives. When we let sin into our lives, in a way, we get
dirty. Now let’s pretend that the vinegar and salt is like
Jesus. When we invite Jesus into our lives, He cleans us
and He makes us new again. No matter what we’ve
done, He can make us new again.
DO: Take the pennies out of the solution and rinse them
we ask Jesus to forgive us, He takes our old, dirty lives,
and makes them new and clean.
READ: Help your child read 2 Corinthians 5:17.
TEXT: Kings 6:1-7; 2 Corinthians 5:17
BIG IDEA:
What you keep CONCEALED cannot be fully HEALED.
ACTION STEPS:
• Download the LIFE CONVERSATION GUIDE
app.
• Tell your story – start with someone in your
life group to practice.
• Pray for an open door of opportunity to
share your story with someone in your
sphere of influence.
help the people around you? Who can you share your
story with this week?
• Pray for the three people who God wants
to use you to share the Gospel with this
year.
READ: 2 Corinthians 5:17
• If you or someone you know has struggled
with addiction, we invite you to Freedom
Seekers. Wednesdays@6:30 - Green Room // Kenosha
PRAY: God, thank You that we don’t have to live our old dirty lives anymore. Thank You that when we ask You into our
hearts, You make us brand new! Please help us tell others about how You create us new when we invite You into our
lives. Amen.
• Read the book BOUNDARIES by Dr. Henry
Cloud & Dr. John Townsend
“When anyone lives in Christ, the new creation has come.
The old is gone! The new is here!”
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIrV)
FAITH AT HOME
ICE BREAKER
February 18/19, 2017
SAY: Sometimes life gets tough, and amidst
the countless choices that we have to make
every day, it would only make sense that at one point
or another we’ve made some mistakes. It can be hard
to talk about the mistakes that we’ve made, even with
the people closest to us, but our mistakes don’t have to
define our lives. When we put our faith in Jesus, the
Bible teaches that He forgives our sin and makes us a
brand new creation. That means that you are no longer
defined by the mistakes of your past and are now
defined by who God says you are. You can find healing
in Jesus and be open with your past so that the people
around you can find healing too.
vinegar. Put in several dirty pennies. Let them soak for a
few minutes while you do the “say” section.
Jon Brown, Executive Pastor
HOPE FLOATS
For individual, family, and LIFEgroup use to dig deeper into the message.
If you had to describe yourself using three words, what would they be?
REFLECT
Review your notes and reflections from this week’s message and discuss what stood out to you.
THE STORY: SECRETS — Discuss each of the paragraphs below.
People keep secrets for a variety of reasons that are not necessarily good or bad. Each individual, family,
and culture has spoken and unspoken rules about privacy vs. transparency. I am not suggesting that it is
better to tell everyone everything. But there are some secrets that become toxic when not revealed to
anyone, ever. Underneath toxic secrets, there is some fear that keeps that person from opening up.
Sometimes the fear is justified but often it is misplaced, magnified or completely false. What are some of the
reasons all of us keep information buried inside even when we desperately want to tell someone? Share the outcome of an experience where
you have carried a secret for yourself or someone else.
We keep secret those things that cause us shame. We may hold onto such things because we don't want
to surrender them. Yet if they're causing us shame, wouldn't we live more easily with ourselves if we were
rid of them? Some of us hold onto the things that cause us shame for another reason. It's not that we don't
want to be rid of them; we just don't believe we can be rid of them. They've plagued us for so long, and
we've tried so many times to rid ourselves of them, that we've stopped hoping for relief. Yet still they shame
us, and still we keep them secret. We often forget that healing has already been provided through Christ’s
death on the cross (Isaiah53:5; 1 Peter 2:24). This spiritual and physical healing awaits our willingness to turn away
from our thoughts and behaviors, trusting God for the outcome. Have shame and years of waiting and hoping for relief
caused you to lose hope? Has this driven the hopelessness deeper into your belief system?
It is often said in 12-step recovery programs, “ you are only as sick as your secrets.” Holding on to them can
often bring even more stress, isolation, and self-doubt. Revealing them, often first to a spouse, close friend,
or mentor, can be an enormous relief. A common metaphor about burying toxic secrets (and the guilt and
shame that accompany them) is that it is like constantly carrying around a backpack filled with rocks. It
takes an enormous amount of energy to keep hauling them around. What rocks do you carry around in your
backpack? Do you really need to keep dragging them around with you? Are you ready to take the first or the second or the next scary step of
self-disclosure, sharing secrets that may lighten your load and facilitate your healing?
LESSONS FROM STORIES:
LESSON #1 BENEATH THE SURFACE OF EVERY PERSON ARE HURTS, PAINS, INSECURITIES, AND FEARS
THAT JESUS WANTS TO HEAL AND COMPLETELY RESTORE. - Matthew 8:16,17
Jesus spent most of His time healing people. When John the Baptist sent to inquire whether Jesus was the Messiah or not,
the answer Jesus gave was: "The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear,
the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matt. 11:5). Healing was and is a sign of the
Good News. It is one of the clear proofs by which God shows us "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!" Whenever in
Christian history there has been a revival of the Holy Spirit's power, people begin to get healed. Healing the sick is one of
the major signs of the Holy Spirit's work. Whenever the Holy Spirit gains freedom in people's lives, one of the first things He
does is to bring healing, both to them and through them. It isn't just in the Bible. Throughout Christian history, God has
again and again shown us that He wants to heal. Can you identify your wounds? Do you desire to be healed? Are you spending
enough time looking and listening for evidence of God’s presence in your life?
LESSON #2 WHAT YOU KEEP CONCEALED CAN NEVER BE HEALED. - James 5:16
When we conceal the hurt, the wounds of our souls, we hinder our healing. Pain left in the dark will never be healed,
rather it will produce resentments, fears, and broken relationships, and over time will effect the whole body. The church
often grows weak, because it is full of people who are living with internal wounds that have gone unhealed, not because
the Lord cannot or does not want to heal them, but because people would rather conceal their pain, instead of reveal
their pain. Until we have the courage to reveal our pain to the one who can heal it, it will stay concealed and this will
hinder our healing. But when we reveal the hurt, the wounds of our soul, we will be healed. Hurt revealed is pain healed.
As long as we allow the pain to stay in the dark, it can not be healed, but when we bring it out into the light, when we
allow the Lord to touch it with His word, His presence, His power, that is where healing comes from. But pain concealed
cannot be healed, because we are withholding it from the One who has the power to heal it.
What hurts or resentments are you concealing that could be causing further damage instead of healing, unity, and wholeness?
LESSON #3 GOD WANTS TO USE YOUR GREATEST MISERY FOR AN EVEN GREATER MINISTRY.
Galatians 6:2
Sometimes it is the very same pain that kept you up in tears for many nights, the same addiction that kept you in chains,
the same struggle that kept you battling on your knees that can change someone else’s life if you are not too afraid to
share it. God didn’t pull you of that dark place so you could keep it to yourself. He pulled you out so you can pull others
out also. You have the power to turn your sorrow into someone else’s hope and to turn your pain into someone else’s
victory simply sharing your story. God often uses our deepest pain as the launching pad of our greatest calling – He can
turn your deepest heartache and misery into your ministry. Often times it is the thing that you thought would keep you
imprisoned forever that will be the very tool God will use to help set others free. How will you chose to be different by turning your
personal heartache into someone else’s hope?