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Not Yet Christmas

Dec 23
Love0

It’s Time to Do Hard Things | Matthew 1.18-25

By Not Yet Christmas
1. Read Matthew 1.18-25, and Luke 1.28-33. As you read the text, note what stands out to you, what speaks to you differently than the times you’ve read the Christmas story in the past?
2. As you reflect on the message from Sunday, what is most impactful?
3. The angel speaks to Mary and then Mary spends time in solitude with Elizabeth. Why is this dynamic important?
4. How does Mary respond to the news of the angel?
5. Matthew 1.18-25 characterizes Joseph as a “righteous” man. Spend a few moments studying the word righteous in Scripture. What does this characterization say about Joseph? How might the people in your sphere of influence characterize you? How often do you characterize people by their religious belief and behaviors? How do you characterize people by their lack of religious belief and behaviors or their failings in their relational beliefs and behaviors?
6. The angel instructs Joseph “not to be afraid.” Note some of the reasons Joseph may have been tempted to fear? In what circumstances do you find yourself most tempted to give in to fear?
7. Dallas Willard says, “Fear is the threat of evil winning.” Where do you fear evil is winning in your world? How are you finding comfort and strength His abiding peace?
8. After Joseph had made the decision to divorce Mary he was awakened to a new spiritual reality. When was the last time you were awakened to a new spiritual reality? How has that awakening been a catalyst for change in your most personal relationships?
9. When was the last time you sensed God changing a plan that you had made? Describe the tension in “knowing the will of God” vs. “doing the will of God.”
10. How often do you get disappointed when God doesn’t change circumstances? What is at the root of your disappointment?
11. Joseph chooses to live in this new spiritual reality. Yet, his reality is not easy. How does Joseph’s example encourage you?
12. In what ways are you tempted to want God to fix a circumstance rather than love you in the midst of the circumstance?
13. In the message on Sunday, three questions were posed. Reflect and respond to each.
What is God awakening you to today?
What choice or invitation is before you?
How might this Christmas be different if instead of looking for a fix you simply embraced His love?
14. The hard thing is often trusting God that He is using that which is most personal to you to transform you. How is He transforming you today?
Dec 16
Love0

It’s Time for a Holy Discontent

By Not Yet Christmas

1. How do you find yourself swinging between generosity and discontentment this Christmas season?

2.Read Jeremiah 33:14-16.  How does these verses encourage you today?

3. In what circumstances in your life have you waiting for the “days that are coming” found in Jeremiah 33:14?

4.What is challenging for you as you live in the space of the “already, but not yet” today?

5.How does Jeremiah 33:16 encourage you by reminding you that it is God who saves and provides?

6. Is your life marked by contentment in places where God desires for you to have a holy discontent? How so?

7.How does remembering the bad news of Christmas, help you to marvel at the good news of Christ’s birth?

8. Do you find yourself settling for the facts of Christmas, or letting the earth-shattering reality of the Christmas invasion birth in you a holy discontent that causes you to fall more in love with your Savior?

9. Does your relationship with God resemble a search for the bones of the past, or a longing to understand and know a God who is living today?

10. Reflect on Psalm 63:1-8.  How does the longing of the Psalmist encourage and challenge you today?

11. Pray that God would give you a holy discontent this year

Dec 09
Love0

From Lost Cause to New Hope

By Not Yet Christmas
  1. Read Isaiah 40 incarnationally. Where do you find yourself in this text?
  2. Read Isaiah 9.1-7 how does this prophetic passage encourage you? How would it have encouraged the people of Israel
  3. In what ways would the people of Israel have believed they were a “lost cause?”
  4. The promise of Advent is “from lost cause to new hope.”  What resonates most deeply in you when reflecting on this truth?
  5. In what ways do you speak “comfort” and “tenderness”? When was the last time someone spoke “comfort” to you? What difference did their words make in you and through you?
  6. Whom in your world needs to hear a comforting message of hope? How might God be calling you to share it?
  7. In what ways are you “making straight the way of the Lord?”
  8. Isaiah says, “God’s word endures forever.” What would that phrase mean to the people of Israel? In a world that is constantly changing how do you hold fast to the constant Word of God? How do you see the Word today differently than you did a year ago, five years ago?
  9. How do you see God at work, today?
  10. Scripture refers to God as our Shepherd, Jesus our Good Shepherd. How are you currently experiencing His shepherding? How might He be inviting you to shepherd others?
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