Week 2 January 30/31, 2016 Quick-­‐Connect Guide Use the questions in this section if your group is already studying something else and won’t be using the full discussion guide. • What topic in Bill’s message—healing, boldness, generosity, or unity—stood out most for you? Why? •
In what area of your life do you need to welcome again the Holy Spirit’s full activity? Discussion Guide In this section, you will find an opening prayer, discussion questions, next steps, and a closing prayer. The discussion questions below are separated into three categories—Getting Started, The Basics, and A Little Deeper—and are designed to allow the group discussion to deepen as you move through them. Use the prayers, questions, and next steps in whatever manner you find helpful based on your group’s needs. The Message Recap might help you and the group to prepare or to remember key points. Opening Prayer Father in heaven, thank You for the ability to gather together. Open our hearts to hear what You have to say to us. Guide our time and our words. Amen. Getting Started •
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Was there a moment this week that you felt the Holy Spirit’s presence? Share it with the group. Is there anything you want to share about the Next Step you committed to last week? What topic in Bill’s message—healing, boldness, generosity, or unity—stood out most for you? Why? January 30/31, 2016 Week 2 The Basics •
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What kinds of emotions get stirred in you when we talk about supernatural physical healing? Have you experienced a time when you prayed for healing for yourself or someone else and it was not granted? Share that experience. Why is it good news that Jesus is the only way of salvation? How do you respond to those who say this is too exclusive, politically incorrect, or socially insensitive? What would you say to a close friend who expressed these concerns? Share a time you have felt a wave of supernatural boldness or Salvation is found in no one courage. What happened? How did that experience impact you? else, for there is no other name under heaven given to Spend some time talking about tithing and Holy Spirit prompted mankind by which we must giving. What emotions get triggered by this topic? What resistance do be saved. you feel, if any? Why do you think that is? –Acts 4:12 A Little Deeper Read this passage aloud: Do not quench the Spirit. – 1 Thessalonians 5:19 In his message, Bill shared that when we admit our need for Jesus and receive His forgiveness, the Holy Spirit takes up residency in us that very moment. And from that day forward we have the Holy Spirit in full. Sometimes, though, we quench the Spirit and decide to run our own lives. Thus, there are times we need to turn back to God and welcome the Holy Spirit anew, asking Him for His full activity in our lives. •
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2 How often do you live in the reality that the Holy Spirit indwells you—offering you God’s presence, power, and guidance in each moment? What practices or activities tend to quench the Spirit in your life? What practices or activities tend to make you more aware of and in step with the Spirit? In what area of your life do you sense the need to welcome anew the full activity of the Holy Spirit? Share why you feel that way. Week 2 January 30/31, 2016 Next Steps Review the next steps below and consider which one or ones each member of the group would like to commit to for the upcoming week (and beyond). •
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Pray and journal. Reflect on the emotions that got triggered by this week’s message. Did you have a strong reaction to any of the topics discussed? Journal about what was triggered and ask God for His help in understanding those emotions and where you feel resistance or discomfort. Invite the Holy Spirit to lead you in every area of your life, and especially those areas you believe you have quenched His presence and power. Exercise boldness. Is there something the Holy Spirit has been prompting you to do—maybe it’s to forgive, to act, to share the gospel, to take a trip to serve the poor, or to reach out in love to a family member or friend? What is one step you could take this week to respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting with boldness and trust? Consider Financial Peace University. The topic of tithing often creates angst in us because so many of us are living in financial insanity—we are deeply in debt, living without a budget, or spending beyond our means. On March 8, we start a nine-­‐week course called Financial Peace University in which you can discover a new way and new tools to recover financial sanity. Sign up on the website: https://ourcommunity.willowcreek.org/default.aspx?page=3965&event=8143 Closing Prayer Pray for whatever difficulties or needs were shared during your time together and have someone close that time by reading the prayer below. Father in heaven, thank You for the promise that through Jesus, and because of Your goodness and mercy, there will be a day that every broken part of us will be made whole again. We pray for patience and grace in the meantime. Use our weaknesses for Your purposes and allow our lives to reflect the hope we have in You and point people to the only source for redemption, restoration, and refreshment. Empower us by Your Holy Spirit to act with boldness and respond to Your promptings with courage and joy. Amen. 3 January 30/31, 2016 Week 2 Message Recap Bill Hybels’ Teaching: Acts 3–4 Supernatural Healing Just when we thought the Holy Spirit was done with surprises after the dramatic scene of violent wind, tongues of fire, and 15 different languages on Pentecost, we see a dramatic healing in Acts 3. Peter and John healed a 40-­‐year old man who had not been able to walk his entire life. Why does it seem like there were more supernatural healings in the early church than there are in our day? This is a hard question to answer, but here are three understandings Bill has reached over time: 1. Every person will be totally healed forever in the next reality when each of us is given a new, glorified body. 2. God designed the body with near supernatural abilities to heal itself—most of our illnesses heal themselves. 3. God has raised people up in the medical profession as a way of healing people. In other words, God is not doing nothing. But there is a mystery about why God reaches down to grant direct, supernatural healings to some and not others. In the circumstances in which healing does not come, we can choose to trust God as a healer anyway and that His ways are higher than our ways. For those who deal with serious health issues and debilitating pain, Bill counseled this way: 1. Keep praying that God would heal your body directly and supernaturally. In Philippians 4:6, Paul said to make our requests known to God. 2. Place yourself under the care of the best medical professionals you can find. 3. Hang on to the hope that your glorified body is awaiting you in the next reality. Supernatural Boldness After Peter and John heal the paralyzed man, there was a near riot because throngs of people gathered to find out what had happened. Peter stood and gave his second sermon. At the end of his sermon, in Acts 4:12, Peter stated a truth that has been causing controversy ever since: Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Peter made clear that not all roads lead to God. There is only one path, one road, one name—Jesus Christ. (John 14:16) Many people today say this is too exclusionary, politically incorrect, and socially insensitive. But, this truth was equally incendiary during Peter’s day. So much so that Peter and John were arrested and told not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus ever again. (Acts 4:18) In that moment, however, the Holy Spirit granted them a supernatural boldness and they responded by saying, “As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” The Holy Spirit continues to grant supernatural boldness to Jesus’ followers. Often it comes in a burst of courage that allows us to say yes to something we are afraid to do or say. This supernatural boldness comes over followers who go to war zones to be peacemakers, to people who begin things that seem impossible, and for those who stand up for what is right in the face of persecution or suffering (like Rosa Parks). 4 Week 2 January 30/31, 2016 When we feel fear, we can pray that the Holy Spirit would grant us supernatural boldness and over time, with practice, we become courageous Christ followers. Supernatural Generosity All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. (Acts 4:32–35) In this passage, we see that the Holy Spirit prompted people with more to really notice those in the church who had less and to give with supernatural generosity to those in need. We live in a time of ridiculous wealth inequality and it is getting worse with each passing year. The Holy Spirit promises blessing when the rich care for the poor and wealth is redistributed Holy Spirit style (as opposed to government style). The church economic model—the way the rich cared for the poor in the church—is built on two fundamental principles of giving: •
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Tithing – giving 10% of your earnings to your home church. Often we believe that in order to get from Point A to Point B in our lifetime, we need 100% of our earnings. But, by God’s grace and provision, we can actually get from Point A to Point B on 90% of our earnings and we are even catapulted to Point C because of God’s supernatural blessings that He promises when we give 10% to His purposes in the world. So many of us trust Christ with our eternities, but do not trust Him with our finances. Holy Spirit Prompted Giving – from time to time, the Holy Spirit will prompt us to give above and beyond our tithes and as we see in Acts 4, this has been happening since the church began. In our church, we have seen this kind of giving in the donation of the land; the many cars donated to the CARS Ministry; a recent donated set of new doors for the Care Center; and a donation of an end-­‐loader for our grounds team. When everyone is totally devoted to Christ and the church, and they both tithe and listen for the Holy Spirit’s promptings, the church becomes a place that is generous and where those with more take care of those with less. Supernatural Unity Acts 4:32 says that all the believers were of one heart and mind. Nothing can explain this phenomenon in a diverse church other than the supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit. When people are totally devoted, there is a peace, unity, and cohesiveness that changes not only the church, but marriages, work relationships, and racial or ethnic divides. When we admit our need for Jesus and receive His forgiveness, the Holy Spirit takes up residency in us that very moment. And from that day forward we have the Holy Spirit in full. Sometimes, though, we quench the Spirit and decide to run our own lives. Thus, there are times we need to turn back to God and welcome the Holy Spirit anew, asking Him for His full activity in our lives. This material is protected by U.S. Copyright Law and is for your own personal use. Any further use requires permission. Contact Kellye Fabian at Willow Creek Community Church with your request. 5