Sermon
Based Small Group Lessons
God, My Vision
Series Title is I-Am Tunes (The logo
used in worship let you know that this is a knockoff of Apple’s Itunes)
2008 March 30
Dr. Les Hughes, Senior Pastor
Meeting Schedule
1. Fellowship time & snacks
2. Share prayer requests
3. Pray (taking turns with short sentence prayers is good if group members are comfortable).
4. Begin the lesson.
a. Share the title (above)
b. Ask the Ice Breaker Question
c. Follow the guide, reading the Scripture and asking the questions.
Ice Breaker
Questions
If you could choose one song title that represents
your life, which of the following Beatles song titles would you choose
and why? (New groups: Share your name and….question
above.)
a. A Hard Day’s Night
b. Act Naturally
c. Crying, Waiting, Hoping
d. Don’t Pass Me By
e. Hello, Goodbye
f. Let it Be
Focus
Scripture: Psalm 34
Ask people to open their Bibles and read this passage again. Ask them to be willing to share one verse that they would want to claim for themselves.
Give a few minutes to read, then allow people to share some of their passages.
Much of today’s message was centered on the song “Be Thou My Vision”. Here are the lyrics in case you want to do anything with this song.
Be
Thou My Vision
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my
Wisdom, Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my
fight, Riches I
heed not, nor man's empty praise, |
High King of heaven, my victory won, |
Digging
for Truth
1. When Moses asked God “What should
I tell Pharoah when he asked who sent me?” God said, “Tell him I AM sent
you.” The lack of tense
indicates “I have been, I am, and I will be.”) Why do you think God answers in such a
way and what do you think it meant to Moses?
2. Westwood’s stated goal is
“to develop growing disciples of Jesus Christ.” How will looking at Old Testament songs
about God help us to grow in Christ?
3. Pastor Les stated that two things that
made a great impact on him spiritually were starting to read God’s word on
his own, rather than getting second hand information, and also trials that he
experienced. If you could choose
one of those ways for God to teach you, which would it be? (Just kidding, but not
really. God may have that
choice for us sometimes!)
What
things have most helped you grow in Christ?
4. 2 Cor. 4:18 says,
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on
what is unseen. For what is seen is
temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” What spiritual truth can we take from
that passage?
5. God wants us to
experience Him with spiritual vision, not just physical sight. What have been some experiences in your
life when you have experienced God beyond physical sight?
6. Many of the songs
of King David (The Book of Psalm) are about deliverance. Is there a time you feel God has
delivered you?
7. How can we know God
is with us when we are in the midst of a trial and we can see or feel Him?
8. One point of the
sermon was “God hears and answers some of our most feeble
prayers.” Do you ever feel
that some of the things God teaches us don’t stick and like Peter, Jesus
would ask us “Where is your faith?”
Why
do you think some of the faith lessons don’t impact the rest of our lives
the way they should? Do we forget?
9. Pastor Les said
“When my eyes are on God, I bless Him in good times and bad.” Have you ever been able to bless Him in
bad times? Can you share about
that?
10. Another point was
“When God is my vision, other people see Him as well.” Do you think you live your life in such
a way that others “see Him as well” through you? What keeps you from getting to that
level?
Closing Thought
If
you could write a song to be sung at your funeral, what would the title
be? Before you answer, give some
thought as to what you want the rest of your life to be.
Application
To
make God our vision, we have to keep Him continually before us. Encourage group members to adopt some
plan for reading God’s word daily.
Some plans are available at www.BiblePlan.org
or a reading guide is available in the back of Westwood’s Devotional
Book. Pastor Les also has a plan
available at www.wwbc.org.