Review this week's message.
Key Thought: What is keeping you stuck, and what is Jesus asking you to do next?
Key Quote
"Freedom rarely begins with understanding everything. It begins with obeying the next thing Jesus makes clear." Pastor Bil Cornelius
Start talking. Find a conversation starter for your group.
- What is something you’ve done so many times that you could almost do it automatically?
- Share a high point and low point from your week.
- If you could instantly become an expert at one thing, what would it be?
Start thinking. Ask a thoughtful question.
- Why do you think we can continue doing something long after it has stopped giving us anything good?
- What are some of the “familiar explanations” we use to explain why we're stuck?
- What is the danger of allowing “This happened” to become “This always happens” and eventually “This will always happen”?
Start sharing. Choose questions that create openness.
- What habit, relationship, fear, excuse, or environment tends to keep pulling you back to the same place?
- Which of these statements do you find yourself believing most easily: “This happened because something is wrong with me,” “This affects everything in my life,” or “This is how it will always be”?
- What is something you sense Jesus is asking you to do, even though you may not feel ready yet?
Start doing. Commit to a step and live it out this week.
- What is one specific new rhythm, relationship, or boundary you need to put in place to protect the freedom you’re stepping into?
- Recognize your rut. Identify the habit, relationship, fear, excuse, or environment that keeps returning you to the same place. Reject your script. Write down the explanation you’ve been rehearsing for why you’re stuck. Respond to Jesus. Ask God what the next clear step of obedience is and take it. Rebuild your routines. Put a new rhythm, relationship, or boundary in place so you aren't simply relying on the old pattern to stay away.
Scriptures
Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. John 5:1-5 NLT
Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. Proverbs 26:11 ESV
When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” John 5:6-7 NLT
The lazy person says, “There’s a lion in the road! There’s a lion in the streets!” Proverbs 26:13 NCV
Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! John 5:8-9a NLT
The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son...as a sacrifice for our sins. Romans 8:3-4NLT
He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! John 5:9a NLT
Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” John 5:14 NLT
You were taught not to live the way you used to. You must get rid of your old way of life. That’s because it is polluted by longing for things that lead you down the wrong path. Ephesians 4:22 NIrV
