Category: Going Deeper

Breaking Ground

Recall a recent act of kindness that was shown towards you. What was it? How did it make you feel? 

The Dig

This Sunday, we continued our series on the Beatitudes, Jesus’ opening blessings from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. 

Begin by reading the next Beatitude in Matthew 5:7. Here, Jesus declares that the merciful are blessed (or close to God) before stating that our capacity to receive mercy is, somehow, connected to our ability to give mercy to others. 

How do you define mercy or being merciful? What about this attribute might imply proximity to God? 

Why do you think Jesus links receiving & giving mercy? How are these two actions interconnected? 

Next, read Matthew 18:10-35. In this section of Matthew, Jesus uses two parables & one direct instruction on reconciliation to teach on the nature of both giving & receiving mercy. 

What stands out to you about this section? 

How do these teachings expand upon Jesus’ blessing & further inform how we’re called to understand the relationship between giving & receiving mercy? 

Finally, close by reflecting on how this blessing might speak into your current season of life. 

Where are you struggling to extend mercy or forgiveness? Why? 

What is refusing to extend mercy or forgiveness costing you emotionally, mentally, & spiritually? Consider how judgmentalism towards others may lead you to judge yourself, hold onto resentment, feed pride, etc.

How might these teachings help you work through your unforgiveness in a healthy & merciful way? 

Getting Out of the Hole

Take time to reflect on the Sunday sermon & how this week’s teaching might speak into your daily life.

• Read Matthew 5:7 & 18:1-35. Highlight & make note of key terms & images that stand out to you or speak to you in this season. 
• How do you define mercy? Where do you struggle to show mercy to yourself & others?
• What does that struggle reveal about your own worldview & relationship with Jesus? 
• How might Jesus’ story & teachings help you heal in this area? How might it better equip you to both offer & receive mercy? 
• Re-read the passages & pray over your answers to the previous questions.

Journal, reflect, & pray on how God might be speaking to you through each week’s teaching. Share your experience with your growth group next week!

Additional Resources*

The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

Matthew by Stanley Hauerwas

TheBibleProject.com 

Coming Up This Week:* 

Saturday, October 1st: Join us next Sunday for week 7 of our series on the Beatitudes! 

* Please see mye3.org for details.

Breaking Ground

What’s your favorite comfort food? Why? 

The Dig

This Sunday, we continued our series on the Beatitudes, Jesus’ opening blessings of the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew. 

Begin by reading Jesus’ next Beatitude in Matthew 5:6. Here, Jesus declares that those who hunger & thirst for righteousness are blessed (or close to God).  

Recall from the Sunday sermon that righteousness refers to the right, equitable, & fair relationships that God desires for all things. Thus, to act righteously or seek righteousness is to behave in ways that create or maintain such relationships in the world.

With that in mind, consider Jesus’ statement here. 

What do the terms hunger & thirst bring to mind? What is it like to be in such states? NOTE: Remember that, unlike us, Jesus’ audience was well acquainted with thirst, hunger, & even starvation. 

With your previous answer in mind, what does it mean to hunger & thirst for right relationship? Why does Jesus use this intense language?  

Next, read Matthew 21:12-17. As Pastor Mike discussed on Sunday, this scene depicts Jesus expressing righteous anger & challenging Israel’s Leaders over fostering injustice in the Temple; which, as God’s Dwelling, was intended to be a vehicle of righteousness in the world. 

Recall that Pastor Mike taught that righteous anger, as modeled by Jesus, always

1. Targets broken systems or circumstances, not people. It never scapegoats. 
2. Focuses on some brokenness in the world (that is, it isn’t about me). 
3. Seeks to restore, not consume or destroy. 

How does this scene inform this week’s Beatitude & offer us a model for righteous anger?

Where do you currently feel righteous anger towards an area of brokenness in the world? 

In that area of brokenness, do you find it easy to adopt the definitions of righteous anger listed above? Are there any that you struggle with in particular? 

How might Jesus’ model help you engage that brokenness in a restorative way? 

Getting Out of the Hole

Take time to reflect on the Sunday sermon & how this week’s section of Ephesians might speak into your daily life.

• Read Matthew 5:6 & 21:12-17. Highlight & make note of key terms & images that stand out to you or speak to you in this season. 
• What does it mean to hunger & thirst for righteousness? What brokenness in the world makes you feel that level of longing?
• How might Jesus be using that feeling to prompt you to help? That is, to act to make that part of the world a little bit more whole or righteous?
• Re-read the passages & pray over your answers to the previous questions.

Journal, reflect, & pray on how God might be speaking to you through each week’s teaching. Share your experience with your growth group next week!

Additional Resources*

The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

Matthew by Stanley Hauerwas

TheBibleProject.com 

Coming Up This Week:* 

Saturday, September 24th: Join us next Sunday for week 6 of our series on the Beatitudes! 

* Please see mye3.org for details.

Breaking Ground

What life achievement are you most proud of? Why?

The Dig

This Sunday, we continued our series on the Beatitudes, Jesus’ opening blessings for the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. 

Start by reading Jesus’ third Beatitude in Matthew 5:5. Here, Jesus declares that the meek are blessed & will inherit the earth. NOTE: As a reminder throughout this series, Jesus’ definition of being blessed is about coming into the proximity of God.

How would you define meekness? Do you & your culture view meekness as a positive or negative trait? Who or what comes to mind when you think about meekness? 

In many ways, to be meek is to consider oneself unimportant (either in your own mind OR because the world tells you that you are). Thus, this is a vision of oneself that can be either healthy or unhealthy depending on how you understand the term (that is, it can produce healthy humility or unhealthy self-loathing). However, in this scene, Jesus speaks directly to a group of people his world would’ve definitively labeled unimportant people &, shockingly, declares that they are the blessed ones who are positioned at the top of his upside-down Kingdom. 

First, with Jesus’ definition of blessed in mind, why do you think meekness might bring someone closer to God? What does this reveal about the nature of God?

Why would those who are important in their own eyes or those of the world be less likely to embrace Jesus’ worldview or Kingdom? How does this help explain the second part of this blessing? 

Close by reflecting on how this Beatitude might speak to you right now. 

Where do you find it easiest to be meek? 

Where do you find it hardest to be meek? 

How might adopting a healthy view of meekness equip you to grow in these parts of your life? 

Getting Out of the Hole

Take time to reflect on the Sunday sermon & how this week’s section of Ephesians might speak into your daily life.

• Read Matthew 5:5. Highlight & make note of key terms & images that stand out to you or speak to you in this season. 
• What does it mean that the meek are blessed? 
• Where do you struggle to embrace meekness when it comes to your worldview? How might this be holding you back from following Jesus more fully?
• In what ways would adopting a posture of meekness help you better navigate your internal & external/relational worlds in this next season? What might growing in this area look like tangibly?
• Re-read the passages & pray over your answers to the previous questions.

Journal, reflect, & pray on how God might be speaking to you through each week’s teaching. Share your experience with your growth group next week!

Additional Resources*

The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

Matthew by Stanley Hauerwas

TheBibleProject.com 

Coming Up This Week:* 

Saturday, September 17th: Join us next Sunday for week 5 of our series on the Beatitudes! 

* Please see mye3.org for details.

Breaking Ground

What’s your favorite sad movie or book? Why?

The Dig

This Sunday, we continued our series on the Beatitudes, Jesus’ opening blessings of the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew. 

Begin by reading Jesus’ second Beatitude in Matthew 5:4. Here, Jesus declares that people in mourning are blessed, which upends many of our misunderstandings of what it means to be blessed. 

How do you define mourning? Consider what causes it, how it feels, what it looks like, etc. 

What do you think Jesus means with this declaration of blessedness? NOTE: Recall the definition for “blessed” that we’re using in this series, which is to come into proximity with God. 

Next, turn to the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane that Pastor Mike taught this Sunday. As a reminder, this scene depicts Jesus preparing to face his imminent arrest, torture, & execution on a Roman Cross. 

With this in mind, read Matthew 26:36-46. In many ways, the Garden of Gethsemane captures the most grounded, human, & visceral depiction of Jesus in mourning across all of the Gospels. In it, Jesus processes through his grief & exits ready to face what’s coming even though the circumstances that led him to mourn don’t change. 

How does Jesus process through his grief here? Consider how Jesus names, processes, surrenders, & moves forward in his pain. 

How might this scene inform what Jesus means with his second blessing? How might it offer comfort to those who mourn? 

Close by considering how this might speak into your life during this season. 

Where are you currently experiencing mourning? How have you been working through that grief? 

How might this Beatitude & story of Gethsemane help you mourn & pass through that experience of grief in a healthier way? 

Getting Out of the Hole

Take time to reflect on the Sunday sermon & how this week’s section of Ephesians might speak into your daily life.

• Read Matthew 5:4 & Matthew 26:36-45. Highlight & make note of key terms & images that stand out to you or speak to you in this season. 
• What does it mean that those in mourning are blessed? How does Gethsemane reveal that Christ draws close to people in such a state?
• How might Jesus’ identification with & presence within our experiences of grief offer comfort?
• Reflect on your own life today. Where are you mourning? How might these stories help you find God within your hardship, loss, & pain? How might it change our response to the tragedies of this world? 
• Re-read the passages & pray over your answers to the previous questions.

Journal, reflect, & pray on how God might be speaking to you through each week’s teaching. Share your experience with your growth group next week!

Additional Resources*

The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

Matthew by Stanley Hauerwas

TheBibleProject.com 

Coming Up This Week:* 

Saturday, September 10th: Join us next Sunday for week 4 of our series on the Beatitudes! 

* Please see mye3.org for details.

Breaking Ground

What acts of care make you feel seen? That is, what’s something that someone else can do that makes you feel like they understand, affirm, recognize, or validate you for who you are? 

The Dig

This Sunday, we continued our series on the Beatitudes, Jesus’ opening blessings of the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew. Recall, Jesus is speaking to a crowd of people who he’s healed & who have started following him after hearing his message about the arrival of God’s Kingdom. In particular, this group is composed of the least important/powerful people in society: the sick, poor, marginalized, & oppressed. 

With this in mind, read the first Beatitude in Matthew 5:3. To kick off his blessings, Jesus proclaims a blessing over those who are poor in spirit. 

What do you think it means to be poor in spirit? What or who comes to mind first when you hear this language? 

In context, this terminology can refer to a number of different characteristics or groups of people (Jesus likely has all of these interpretations in mind simultaneously). 

• Those who’ve learned to forsake self-reliance because of the hardships of their lives.
• Those with low self-esteem (because of internal beliefs, external narratives about them/their circumstances, or both).
• Those who are considered to be spiritual zeroes in their society (people considered to be the least holy, knowledgeable, or worthy of being listened to on matters of God, spirituality, or religion). 
• Those who are economically poor (NOTE: being economically poor was often viewed as intertwined with one’s spiritual status in the Ancient world). 

With this in mind, consider what Jesus is saying here. 

Why do you think Jesus believes that such people are blessed? 

Why does Jesus claim that God’s Kingdom belongs to such people? What might make them more likely to understand, enter into, & embrace Jesus’ Kingdom? 

In turn, why would those who are rich in spirit, self-esteem, self-reliance, & worldly riches be less likely to understand, enter into, & embrace Jesus’ Kingdom? HINT: Consider why being self-reliant or possessing worldly power might give you more to lose or create other barriers to following Jesus. 

Consider how this Beatitude might speak to you today.

Who do you think might fit into Jesus’ definition of being “poor in spirit” in our society today? How would viewing them as being closest to the Kingdom challenge you, your world, worldview, & concepts about who is truly blessed? 

Where might self-reliance or self-importance be holding you back from fully following Jesus? How might this Beatitude both comfort & challenge you to let Christ transform this area of your life over this next season? 

Getting Out of the Hole

Take time to reflect on the Sunday sermon & how this week’s section of Ephesians might speak into your daily life.

• Read Matthew 5:3. Highlight & make note of key terms & images that stand out to you or speak to you in this season. 
• What do you think it means to be poor in spirit? Write down the first definition that comes into your head & who might comprise such a category in our world today. 
• Reflect on your own life today. What do you have in common with the people you identified? Where do you differ from them? What do you need to learn from them in terms of what the Kingdom is about & who Jesus calls us to be in the world? 
• Re-read Matthew 5:3 & pray over your answers to the previous questions.

Journal, reflect, & pray on how God might be speaking to you through each week’s teaching. Share your experience with your growth group next week!

Additional Resources*

The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

Matthew by Stanley Hauerwas

TheBibleProject.com 

Coming Up This Week:* 

Saturday, September 3rd: Join us next Sunday for week 3 of our series on the Beatitudes! * Please see mye3.org for details.

Breaking Ground

When did you last feel unbelievably lucky? Why?

The Dig

This Sunday, we began our new series on the Beatitudes, Jesus’ opening blessings of the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew. Begin your discussion by reflecting on the word blessed.

From your perspective, what does it mean to be blessed? What does this entail & where does it come from? How does our culture define someone who is blessed? 

Next, reflect on the context of the Beatitudes. The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ longest ethical teaching concerning how to live in God’s Kingdom here & now. It appears immediately after Jesus proclaims the arrival of God’s Kingdom, enacts it with healings, & invites crowds to enter into it. 

Considering this context, read Matthew 4:17-25 (which immediately precedes the Beatitudes & Sermon on the Mount). 

Based on this text, who is the audience for Jesus’ upcoming blessings & sermon? What kind of people comprise the crowds following Jesus & listening to his teaching? HINT: the poor, sick, oppressed, neglected, etc.

With this audience before him, Jesus then begins his sermon with a common style of religious teaching from the 1st century: a pronouncement of blessedness. These were used to describe who a teacher considered to be most favored by God &, usually, how the audience might attain such a status. In the Ancient World, people were usually considered blessed based upon their worldly importance, wealth, power, wisdom, or victories over enemies. 

With that in mind, let’s now turn to the Beatitudes. Read Matthew 5:1-12. 

Who does Jesus consider to be most blessed or favored by God? How does this turn upside-down his audience’s expectations (& our own) when it comes to who is considered blessed & why? 

How do you imagine this would have impacted & affirmed his audience? How would it have upended both how their world viewed them & how it encouraged them to view themselves? 

Why do you think Jesus begins his ethical teaching on life in the Kingdom of God by telling those in front of them that they are already blessed right where they are (rather than beginning with a teaching on what they must do to earn God’s blessing)? How does this provide a healthy foundation for life change & ethical transformation? 

Close by considering how the Beatitudes might speak to you in this season. 

Which blessing do you consider most interesting, surprising, or challenging? Why? 

Where do you struggle to recognize your own blessedness? How might the Beatitudes help you grow in this area of your life?

Getting Out of the Hole

Take time to reflect on the Sunday sermon & how this week’s section of Ephesians might speak into your daily life.

• Read Matthew 5:1-12. Highlight & make note of key terms & images that stand out to you or speak to you in this season. 
• Which of the Beatitudes speaks to your life experiences the most? Which do you find most surprising or strange? Which do you need to embody to a greater degree in this next season?
• How do the attributes of the Beatitudes challenge or turn upside-down our culture’s most prominent understanding of what it means to be blessed? 
• Re-read Matthew 5:1-12 & pray over your answers to the previous questions.

Journal, reflect, & pray on how God might be speaking to you through each week’s teaching. Share your experience with your growth group next week!

Additional Resources*

The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

Matthew by Stanley Hauerwas

TheBibleProject.com 

Coming Up This Week:* 

Saturday, August 27th: Join us next Sunday for week 2 of our series on the Beatitudes! 

* Please see mye3.org for details.

Breaking Ground

What’s a chore that you were assigned as a child that you dreaded? Did you ever not do it even when asked?  How did your parent or guardian respond?

The Dig

This Sunday we explored E3’s Vision, Mission, & Values; focusing specifically on our Values as we head into the Fall. At E3, we believe that when the Holy Spirit is moving in, among, & through us…

…we exemplify the diversity of God in one another

…we experience and display grace in all things.

…we embrace a life of perpetual growth.

…we embrace and live out a life of intentional design.

…we choose to make room for others.

…we live authentic lives, to ourselves and to others.

 …we maintain a posture of humility.

…we trust God to lead, provide for, and guide us, and we trust each other to bring their best to the community.

Each of these values has biblical backing & larger explanations written by the E3 staff (you can pick-up a packet with this information the next time you’re at church). But these values have little power unless they’re put into practice. Without doing the work that they represent & call us to, then they simply become empty words or kitschy phrases without doing the work that they represent!

With that in mind, consider E3’s stated values.

What’s a value that you’re naturally drawn towards?

How might these values potentially “filter out” some guests who may not find E3 to be a great fit for their church walk (not every church will fit every person equally)? 

How have you seen these exemplified at E3? Are there specific instances where you  remember noticing a value being shown?

Next, read Philippians 4:8-9. Here, Paul uses himself as a standard bearer for what it meant for the Philippian church to live a value-filled life; highlighting how collective values can allow a community to hold each other accountable when they fall short of their mutually agreed-upon standards for life. 

Who in Scripture was a standard bearer for values? Ironically, how does Scripture (outside of Jesus) show that they all have failings as well?

Why is showing grace to each other critical for living into any set of values? How does it equip us to grow into these high bars, while recognizing that none of us are perfect? 

How do our church leaders show our values in their lives? Who is someone that you know that lives a value-filled life within the E3 community? 

Lastly, when we live a valued filled life, consider how it can further us in our mission of MAKING DISCIPLES through grounding our community at the intersection of deep faith, authentic community, & emerging culture. 

How do these values help E3 become a community that can achieve that goal? 

Getting Out of the Hole

Take time to reflect on the Sunday sermon & how this week’s focus on values might speak into your daily life. 

• What can you do not to just talk about platitudes but instill the hard work in your daily life?
• How could your growth group refocus upon a specific value to do?  
• What tangible and measurable ways would mean success?  
• Where can you “Make Room” perhaps as an example?

Journal, reflect, & pray on how God might be speaking to you through each week’s teaching. Share your experience with your growth group next week!

Additional Resources*

The Unstuck Church by Tony Morgan

Coming Up This Week:* 

Saturday, August 20th: Join us next Sunday for our new series on the Beatitudes & to get a free T-shirt!

* Please see mye3.org for details.

Breaking Ground

What’s the best costume that you’ve ever had (for Halloween or any other event)?

The Dig

This Sunday, we concluded our series on the New Testament Book of Ephesians. 

Read Ephesians 6:10-20. Here, Paul calls the Greco-Roman Church of Ephesus to stand firm against pressures from spiritual evil & worldly powers (empires, systemic sins, etc.) by putting on the Armor of God, which Paul describes with a mixture of allusions to Roman legionnaire armor, Greco-Roman myth stories, & Messianic attributes from Isaiah. In doing so, Paul turns an image of warfare upside-down by connecting it to attributes of Christ’s cosmic peace, unity, & restoration.

What’s been your experience with this passage? How have you seen it used in healthy & unhealthy ways?

Why does Paul specifically focus on spiritual & corporate evils (worldly empires & systemic powers) as forces that will threaten the Church’s peace, unity, & upside-down way of life? 

Reflect upon the attributes that Paul lists with this armor: truth, righteousness (right, equitable, fair relationships), peace, faith or trust, salvation, & the Word of God. 

Why do you think Paul pairs these opposing attributes from Isaiah with this military imagery? What point might he be trying to make?

What attributes from this list stand out to you the most? How does someone put them on & how do they equip them to stand firm against what Paul’s describing? 

Close by reflecting on your life & world right now. 

Where do you see the Church being pulled into un-Christlike postures, attitudes, or actions by our surrounding political, social, & economic world? Which attributes from Paul’s list would help it stand firm & be more like Jesus in what you’ve identified?

Where are you being pulled into un-Christlike postures, attitudes, or actions by our surrounding political, social, & economic world? Which attribute from Paul’s list do you need to put on in order to stand firm & be more like Jesus in what you’ve identified? 

Getting Out of the Hole

Take time to reflect on the Sunday sermon & how this week’s section of Ephesians might speak into your daily life.

• Read Ephesians 6:10-20. Highlight & make note of key terms & images that stand out to you or speak to you in this season. 
• What stands out to you the most about the attributes that Paul lists in this section? How might each help disciples stay true to Christ’s upside-down way of life in the midst of internal & external pressure?
• Which attribute do you need to lean into more in this season? What’s a tangible practice that you might be able to adopt to do so (spiritual disciplines, acts of service, worship, etc)? 
• Re-read Ephesians 6:10-20 & pray over your answers to the previous questions.

Journal, reflect, & pray on how God might be speaking to you through each week’s teaching. Share your experience with your growth group next week!

Additional Resources*

A Journey Through Ephesus by David Gwartney

The Bible for Everyone: Ephesians by NT Wright

TheBibleProject.com 

Coming Up This Week:* 

Saturday, August 13th: Join us next Sunday for our fall kick-off! * Please see mye3.org for details.

Breaking Ground

In hindsight, what do you appreciate most about the culture that you grew up in? Why?

The Dig

This Sunday, we continued our series on Ephesians. In chapters 5 & 6, Paul provides an altered version of a culturally common Greco-Roman Household Code as a vehicle for exploring how Christ’s story impacts three key areas of life for the Ephesian church: marriage, parenting, & work. 

Before diving in, we must recognize that texts like this have been horribly misapplied at times in Christian history (being used to justify sins ranging from spousal abuse to slavery in God’s name). Thus, it’s critical to understand the text’s context as it should dramatically impact how we engage them:

1. Paul’s writing specifically to the Ephesus community in 60AD, relying upon culturally grounded terminology & concepts that they’d understand. This  limits such text’s ability to be explicitly prescriptive for us today.
2. Paul had to delicately balance both working within & subverting the cultural expectations of his day. He wanted to highlight how Christ should transform the Ephesians’ lives within every social structure without pushing them into a disastrous revolt against Rome or thinking that they should impose their beliefs upon others (something that would’ve undermined Christ’s message). Thus, such texts depict Paul speaking within a cultural framework his audience would understand, while still subtly challenging core beliefs within it. 
3. Finally, despite their contextual specificity, such texts do remind us that Christ’s story must impact all aspects of life; including things like marriage, family, parenting, & work within our unique cultural context.  

With all of this in mind, read Ephesians 5:21-6:9. 

First, reflect on your history with texts like this one. What’s your history with them? How were you taught to understand them & how do you understand them today? 

Verse 21 begins with a universal call to mutual & equal submission amongst ALL Christians. This command is meant to underlie everything that follows in this section. For Paul, mutual submission is a posture that’s modeled by Christ & tied to agape love (which we explored in week 6). In it, Christians submit to one another equally in self-sacrificial love as they recognize Christ’s presence within each individual. 

How do you react to this concept of mutual submission? What are some healthy & unhealthy ways to interpret it?

What stands out about how Paul applies this concept of mutual submission to these distinct arenas of life? In particular, how does Paul simultaneously work within the culturally accepted frameworks of his day, while also upending them? For example, notice how Paul describes a slave & their master as being EQUALS in Christ’s story. 

Finally, close by reflecting on how we might navigate these major areas of life in our own contexts. 

What does a healthy understanding of mutual submission look like within romantic & marriage relationships today? How should it impact how we relate to each other in such contexts?

What does a healthy understanding of mutual submission look like within our parenting or mentoring relationships? How should it impact how we relate to each other in such contexts? 

What does a healthy understanding of mutual submission look like within our work relationships? How should it impact how we relate to each other in such contexts? 

Getting Out of the Hole

Take time to reflect on the Sunday sermon & how this week’s section of Ephesians might speak into your daily life.

• Read Ephesians 5:21-6:9. Highlight & make note of key terms & images that stand out to you or speak to you in this season. 
• What does Christ’s call to mutual submission mean to you personally? What does this look like when it’s modeled in a healthy way? 
• Consider your romantic, family, & work relationships. Where do you find it easiest to model Christ’s self-sacrificial love? Where do you find it hardest?
• Re-read Ephesians 5:21-6:9 & pray over your answers to the previous questions.

Journal, reflect, & pray on how God might be speaking to you through each week’s teaching. Share your experience with your growth group next week!

Additional Resources*

A Journey Through Ephesus by David Gwartney

The Bible for Everyone: Ephesians by NT Wright

TheBibleProject.com 

Coming Up This Week:* 

Saturday, August 6th: Join us next Sunday for week 10 of our series on The Book of Ephesians! 

* Please see mye3.org for details.

Breaking Ground

What was your most interesting or embarrassing style choice in middle school or high school? Consider clothing, accessories, haircuts, etc.

The Dig

This Sunday, we continued our series on The Book of Ephesians. Begin by taking a moment to reflect on the panel during this week’s gathering. 

Did any of the answers or concepts raised during the panel stick with you more than others? Did any make you feel challenged or comforted in a particular way? 

As a reminder, Ephesians 4 & 5 focus on how Jesus’ story should transform every part of our lives here & now. In it, Paul describes this radical, inside-out experience of human change that’s grounded in his conviction that our external world (our behaviors & relationships) flow from our internal world (particularly, from our deepest layers of identity). 

With this in mind, read through this long section of Ephesians & reflect on Sunday’s panel questions. 

First, read Ephesians 4:17-24. Here, Paul begins by describing Christian life transformation as this process of taking off our old self & putting on a new self (a total transformation of who we are). 

What’s often necessary for such a major life transformation to take place? What usually begins, empowers, or inhibits this kind of radical growth within an individual?

Read Ephesians 4:25- 5:2. Next, Paul lays out a series of contrasts in order to describe the difference between what characterizes our old self and new self: 

• Instead of lying, new humans speak truthfully.
• Instead of harboring resentment & anger, new humans peacefully resolve conflict.
• Instead of stealing, new humans are generous.
• Instead of gossiping, new humans encourage others with their words. 
• Instead of getting revenge, new humans forgive.
• Instead of gratifying every impulse, new humans cultivate self-control & surrender to the Spirit. 

What stands out about these major aspects of being human? How might they act as measurements for spiritual or emotional maturity, development, & growth?

Which of these shifts do you perceive to be the hardest to experience change within? Why?

Finally, read Ephesians 5:3-20. Paul closes by describing what being under the influence of the Holy Spirit looks like. In particular, he highlights the importance of worship (individually and corporately), being thankful for everything, & choosing to elevate others & their needs above our own. 

Given your group’s conversation thus far, how do these specific activities & practices combine to highlight an image of spiritual maturity? Which do you need to grow into more in your own spiritual life? 

Getting Out of the Hole

Take time to reflect on the Sunday sermon & how this week’s section of Ephesians might speak into your daily life.

• Read Ephesians 4:17-5:20. Highlight & make note of key terms & images that stand out to you or speak to you in this season. 
• How does Paul understand the cause & power behind Christian transformation? Why is this encouraging for us as we seek to transform?
• Consider the contrasts that Paul makes between our old & new self. Which do you find most intriguing & challenging? 
• Identify one image of transformation from this passage & commit to seeking growth within it during this next season of life. 
• Re-read Ephesians 4:17-5:20 & pray over your answers to the previous questions.

Journal, reflect, & pray on how God might be speaking to you through each week’s teaching. Share your experience with your growth group next week!

Additional Resources*

A Journey Through Ephesus by David Gwartney

The Bible for Everyone: Ephesians by NT Wright

TheBibleProject.com 

Coming Up This Week:* 

Saturday, July 30th: Join us next Sunday for week 9 of our series on The Book of Ephesians! 

* Please see mye3.org for details.