Session 9: Leader's Guide

Session 9: Living a Focused Life

Key point:  Living a focused life helps me better enjoy the gifts God’s given me and maximizes my impact for the Kingdom.

• subpoint: Knowing how God has made me helps me live a focused life
• subpoint: Placing God’s priorities first in my life help me live a focused life

*Leader notes

• Give the groups time to share what they filled in from the previous week

(Life timeline, spiritual gifts, personality preference)

• Give time to share spiritual markers, explain how spiritual markers tell our testimony

REVIEW

How is good spiritual leadership different from leadership in other contexts?

What does Matthew 22:37-40 tell us about our relationship with God?  With other people?

According to 2 Peter 1:5-8 how do we become more spiritually mature?

How would you explain the process of Spiritual Maturity to an 8yr old?

Fill in the blank

The Bible is written __________________ from God.  The purpose of communication is to _____________ information.  When I communicate with God through ____________ and reading the Bible God reveals Himself to me.  I learn _______ things about the natural world, new things about _________, and new things about myself.  When God communicates with me He expects me to ______________ to Him.  I can better respond to God by knowing ____________ He is ___________, understanding what He ____________ so that I can know how to apply the information God’s given to my life.  When I get am having a hard time understanding what God is saying I can ask myself three questions to help me make sense of what God is saying.  I ask myself, “What is something _________ I’ve learned in my communication with God? What have I _______________ about God in this?  What have I learned about ____________ from my experience with God?”  Learning to communicate with God allows me to __________ in my relationship with Him.  The true sign of growth in my relationship with God shows in how I _____________ Him.  I demonstrate my trust by expressing love for God through _______________ His commands.  

Matching

_______ John 14:21	a.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
_______ John 15:7	b.  And He was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up His cross daily and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save His life will lose it , but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
_______ Luke 9:23-24	c.  If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  then you will know the truth and the Truth will set you free.
_______ John 13:34-35	d.  If you remain in Me and My Words remain in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
_______ John 15: 16	e.  A new commandment I give to you that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
______ John 8:31-32	f.  Whoever has my commands and obeys them he is the one who loves me.  He who loves me will be loved by My Father and I too will love him and show Myself to him.

Introduction:

The past few weeks we’ve been trying to discover who we are by learning more about who Jesus is and what His purposes are.  Last week we talked about how our lives are hidden with Christ and how God appointed His children to bear fruit and do good works.  The reason why it’s important for us to know how God’s shaped us and what gifts He’s given us is because living out God’s purpose for our lives and using the gifts He’s given express our love for Him.  At the heart of everything we’ve learned lies our relationship with God and how it affects the way we do life with others.  

Last week we had the opportunity to reflect on where we’ve been to discover where we are today so that we can start plotting out our course toward a deeper and more intimate relationship with Jesus.  The Life Reflection Timeline  helped us identify various phases of life and the roles we had during each phase that led to our growth points. We also examined our life circumstances and relationships so that we could understand what our current life roles might be.  We tried to identify the time and resources God’s blessed us with so that we’d understand what work/ministry roles we have.  Discovering our life/relational roles and our work/ministry roles help us set focused goals so that we live focused lives.  This week we’ll be discussing the benefits that come from living a focused life.  We’ll discuss how focus allows us to take better advantage of the gifts God’s given us.  We’ll also explore how limiting the scope of our activities maximizes our effectiveness and enjoyment.  

Jar Analogy: Supplemental Reading

*Leader notes

• Try to have the materials on hand to physically go through the analogy
• Give the students time to read the two different articles then facilitate discussion afterward

Discussion Questions:

1.  What is one new concept you’ve learned from these articles?

2.  Which of the scenarios in the Gauthier article best describe you?

3.  How does your relationship with God affect your priorities?

3.  What are some examples of Rocks in your life? Pebbles?  Sand?

4.  Use the space below to write down some of your rocks, pebbles, and sand.

*Leader notes

• Divide the passages between the groups of students
• Explain how the key themes are notes that help you retell what you’ve read
• Emphasize how important it is to try and fit the Key point to one phrase or sentence
• Remind the students to limit key points to 3 per passage so that individual application can be more focused

Read Matthew 6:19-24

Key Themes

Key Point(s)

Read Matthew 6:25-34

Key Themes

Key Point(s)

Activity

Draw a Brick wall

Draw a Brick Wall

PENETRATING EFFECT FOR THE KINGDOM

Now that you’ve drawn your two walls think of what might happen if you were to shoot the wall with a shotgun.  On the left side draw the kind of damage that would be inflicted if you shot the wall with bird shot.  On the right side draw the kind of damage that would be inflicted if you shot the wall with a slug.  

The brick walls represent obstacles, tasks and goals.  In order to demolish the wall effectively and efficiently we need to be using the right type of ammo.  If we shoot the wall with birdshot we end up affecting a large area of the wall.  On the surface it looks like we’re doing a lot and like we’ll demolish the wall quickly.  However, the birdshot contains small pellets with insufficient mass to penetrate deep into the wall.  The dispersal of the birdshot also restricts the effectiveness of the shotgun because the force isn’t concentrated in a single spot.  

When we shoot the wall with the slug the difference is that only one part of the wall is affected.  The slug is one solid mass that has the ability to punch through the brick wall.  On the surface it might not look like much is happening because only one part of the wall is being affected.  however the focus of the slug allows it to punch through the wall taking chunks out piece by piece until the wall comes tumbling down.  

Discussion Questions

1.  Which type of ammo best describes you?  Birdshot or slug?

2.  What do you think about this idea of focus to increase effectiveness?

3.  What affect will focus have on your life?  Recreation? Stress/Anxiety levels? Productivity?

Activity

Draw a1  glass of water

Draw 3  glasses of water

Draw a pitcher of water

Draw a packet of kool-aid 1- packet of koolaid mix= 1 glass of koolaid

Draw a tub of kool-aid 1 tub of koolaid mix=24 glasses of koolaid

PRODUCING “TASTY” LIFE

If you’ve ever made a beverage with drink mix you know producing a great drink is all about the right ratio between the water and the drink mix.  If you don’t have the right amount of drink mix for the water then you end up producing colored nasty tasting water.  However when you get the ratio right then the drink tastes good.  If you use too much drink mix you can also wreck the way the drink tastes.  Instead of producing a drink you might just create wet drink mix instead of a refreshing drink.   Before we start tackling tasks and activities  we need to figure out how much we can handle.  If we spread ourselves too thin and try operating outside of our ability, life sucks.  We produce nasty tasting water.  Other times we may not do enough and that also makes life less enjoyable because we aren’t fulfilling the purpose for which we were made.  We don’t get to take advantage of all the opportunities and experiences God’s given us when we hoard our time and resources to ourselves.  We end up making wet drink mix.  

To enjoy life and produce something good we need to figure what the right ratio is so that we fulfill the purpose God’s created us for and enjoy life the God intended it to be enjoyed.  We may start as a 1 packet of koolaid kind of person but as we are faithful with what God’s given us we may become 3 packet or 10 packet koolaid kind of people.  

Discussion

1.  What kind of koolaid do you produce?

2.  How can you increase the amount of kool-aid you make?

3.  What causes a person to make more kool-aid than their capable of producing?

Activity:

During the next week Read Ephesians 4: 1-16, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, and 1 Corinthians 12:12-31.  Use what you’ve learned this semester to fill in the Key themes with what the passage says.  Fill in the Key Points with what the passages means.  And the Individual Challenge with how this applies to me.  Next week we’ll take turns sharing what God has revealed to us through these passages and how it relates to what we’ve talked about in Journey in the Wilderness.

Ephesians 4:1-16

Key Themes

Key point(s)

Individual Challenge

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Key Themes

Key point(s)

Individual Challenge

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Key Themes

Key point(s)

Individual Challenge

Matthew 22:37-40(Memory Verse)

“Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the First and Greatest Commandment.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commands.”

Summary

Living a focused life helps us enjoy life to the fullest.  We don’t over extend ourselves or abuse the gifts that God’s given to us.  We also in living focused lives not only enjoy life ourselves but bless others in how we live.  Above all, living a focused life helps us to Love God and Love others.  We demonstrate our love for God by living out His priorities and using the gifts He’s given us for their intended purpose.  

Before the next Session

Check when completed	Activity
	Read Ephesians 4:1-16 and 1 Corinthians 12
	Prepare a lesson plan from the reading above using the guides from this week(Key themes, Key points, Individual Challenge)
	Find 1 person to recite your verses to and try to explain what they mean
	Prepare to share 1 of your spiritual markers next week
	Work on memorizing Matthew 22:37-40
	Review all of the previous week's memory verses
	Ask God to reveal 3 people He’s brought into your life to invest in
	Pray for Clan Group