Life Group - Study Guides

How you spend your time really matters, whether good, bad or wasted. If we want to add value and honor God, we need to start by evaluating our schedules.

The relationships we already have really, really matter, whether for good or bad. If we want to add value and strengthen our relationships, we need to start with what we say or don’t say. The words we speak can injure, tear down, and destroy. However, they also have the power to heal, build up, and empower.

The story of Jesus—His death and His Resurrection—is well known. For some, Easter is just another holiday to remember a great man. Yet Easter makes everything whole. It brings freedom from guilt; it opens the door to real life; and is the only way to eternal salvation. It all starts with acknowledging the penalty of sin and the payment Jesus made on our behalf. It continues as we begin to live in the hope and assurance that our God can give us a clean slate. Nothing is impossible for our God.

As we finish the series on the Tabernacle, we are entering the most holy place. But more than that, we are learning that we are now that special place, the residence of God’s Spirit. How we are preparing our hearts for Him and how we are living our lives for Jesus—these are the questions we will discuss this week.

Entering the temple courts required sacrifice. Solomon’s temple was dedicated with much ceremony, prayers, worship, and many sacrifices. We, too, must bring the sacrifice of a holy life to please God, whose Spirit lives within us. We, too, need revival in our lives and our church.

In so many ways, God was revealing Jesus as the Way even in the architecture of the tabernacle and temple. Let’s enter a study of the temple gate and outer courts and find truth about Jesus there.

The temple is in you. You are a part of the place God dwells on earth. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;” (1 Corinthians 6:19, ESV). Throughout this series we will be learning about the temple, the sacred place God inhabits on earth. As broken as people are, He chose us. He offered up His son as an atoning sacrifice to allow us into His presence.

This week, we are challenged to answer this question: are you standing out for Jesus, or are you slowly changing and becoming more like the world? Let’s look at the difference between conforming and transforming. Let’s choose to be “in this world, but not of it.”

This culture and the world are negative in so many ways. You may be optimistic, naïve, or try to put it out of your mind, but bad things still take place and humanity is flawed. How can you live with joy, peace, hope, and confidence in God? How can you face the future with boldness? How can you overcome the power of sin, even in your thought life? Let’s look at Romans, Chapter 8.

Anger is a basic human emotion which has been causing trouble since creation. We see it in our families, our workplaces, on the news, and we find it in the Bible! Adam and Eve’s son Cain was “furious” and murdered his brother. How do we control this physical reaction so that it does not become sin, and instead react in ways that honor God?