Goal 1: Being with Jesus
community group guide
vision series session 3: being with Jesus
INTRO: (2-3 minutes)
Welcome to Community Group! Start off by introducing everyone in the group and then praying and asking the Holy Spirit to move and guide the conversation during your time together.
Let’s continue looking at the HOPE Church Mission Statement together:
“We exist to bring HOPE to our community by practicing the way of Jesus until it is in Nashville as it is in Heaven.”
DISCUSSION: (10-15 minutes)
ASK the group:
Can you think of a time in your life when you spent so much time with someone you actually started acting like them?
A. What kind of things did you do or say that they did?
B. Did it have a positive or negative effect on you?
After discussing, have someone read John 15:4-7 :
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
SAY the following:
From recent discussions, we know that apprentices spent every waking and sleeping hour with their rabbi. Why? Because they knew that in order to be able to mirror their rabbi and do the things he did they had to be with him...always. It is near impossible to spend every moment possible with someone and not start mimicking them even down to the smallest details.
So what does this mean for us as apprentices of Jesus? Well, let’s look at the quote Jason shared with us from Dallas Willard: “The first and most basic thing we can and must do is to keep God before our minds . This is the fundamental secret of caring for our souls. ”
“Being with Jesus” should not be limited to quiet times peppered throughout our week. Being with him means we do not leave his side. We can know we are doing this when our first response in any situation is to first look for direction from him and then move in that direction. We have to “keep God before our minds”. How do we do that?
The Examen is a simple and wonderful way to begin and to keep us in a constant state of being with Jesus.
1. Remember that God’s presence is already with you. Soak it in.
2. Review the last 24 hours and allow the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind things you should be grateful for and behaviors that need to be changed.
3. Recenter your heart and mind around the fact that God loves you. Nothing can add to it or take it away.
4. Renew your mind by asking him to prepare you for the coming day or hours and to transform you.
APPLICATION: (approx. 5-10 minutes)
Have each person in their group pull their phone out. Now everyone set an alarm for a certain time that will repeat each day to take as little as two minutes to practice The Examen. (Make sure everyone knows how to do this on their phone).
Once this is done, go around the circle and have everyone briefly explain what time they’re going to commit to and to communicate their initial feelings about it.
CLOSING: (10-15 minutes)
Practicing something like The Examen may seem a bit trivial or minuscule in light of an entire day. However, as we regularly practice these things we begin to find that it helps to keep our minds focused on Jesus throughout the day. This happens because we start practicing it all throughout our day and not just at a specific time.
Each time we do it we realize more and more that the only way to live a life of apprenticeship to Jesus is to constantly be with Jesus. Pray that each person in the group will be able to commit to The Examen for at least a week. Pray also that they would begin seeing fruit being produced they may not have seen before in themselves.