It’s All Good | Week 5

It’s All Good. Thriving in the Chaos, 

Note to the Leaders:  

This discussion guide is a help for you to engage and steer the conversation within your group.   

You do not have to read every question; this is just resources for you to move the main idea forward.

Go through the lesson before hand to choose the best discussion questions for your group!  

Do your best to make the story come to life by asking questions that will spur your group conversations that make this story play come alive and become applicable to their lives.    

Week 5 Look out for Dogs 

Key Verse: Philippians 3:8 - Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. 

Getting Started:

·      You’ve heard the phrase “you have to give up, to go up” meaning you have to sacrifice something to gain something else.

·      In the material world what sacrifices are made to move up?

·      What are we called to sacrifice to be followers of Christ?

Read: Philippians 3:2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 

·      After Paul would go to a particular town and set up a church these people known as Judaizers would come in behind him and tell the new Believers to be a “real” follower of Christ” you had to also be circumcised.

·      Circumcision was a symbol of the covenant that God had with Abraham from the old testament which would later become the Jewish nation. 

·      These Judaizers false doctrine was that of Jesus plus something.

·      Why is Jesus plus something false?

·      What are other things people attach to a relationship with Jesus to make salvation possible? The Judaizers said circumcision, what else have you been falsely told is required?

Read: Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh

·      What do you believe Paul is saying in this verse?

Read: Philippians 3:4-6 If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 

·      Paul had gone above and beyond to do what the Jewish religion required even to the point of arresting and having Christians killed yet when he meet Jesus everything changed.  

·      How does practicing a religion compare to a relationship with God?

·      How are believers today sidetracked by religion and sacrifice our relationship with God?

Read: Philippians 2:8-11 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

·      What is Paul telling us about practicing religion about God verses having a relationship with God?

·      What is the main difference?

·      Anytime we put our confidence in anything but Jesus it becomes wasted effort.

Next Step:

·      Paul set aside everything to know Jesus at the most intimate levels.

·      Are you practicing a religion or having a relationship with God?

·      What is standing in your way from knowing the full power of Christ working in your life?