Steve Dusek

Lifegroup Discussion Questions: For A Season

These questions are from Palm Sunday’s message, “For A Season.” You can find the message at our podcast link here. If you’re the lifegroup discussion leader, read through these questions and pick the ones that are a best fit for your group. Have your group members open this page on their smartphone or tablet to follow along. They can click straight to the listed verses at Bible.com.

Have you ever been unexpectedly stuck somewhere for an extended period of time without a phone, book, or the project you’re working on? Nothing for you to do except sit and wait? How does this feel? What does it stir in you?

What about the same scenario on the eve of a large, important project that is due? You know… The kind of project that your business or your job depends on? How do you feel then? How do you respond?

We are creatures practically defined by time. When we’re gone, there will be a stone in a cemetary somewhere that defines us by two numbers, right? What are those two numbers?

We are really bound by time in a big way. Always late, running from one thing to another. Is God that way?

What does God tell us about his relationship to time? 2 Peter 3:8

God created the universe. This includes space, and TIME. God made time, so He exists outside of it. If that is true, then is God concerned about how we use our time?

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. -Ephesians 5:15-16 ESV

How did Jesus spend his time? Mark 1 :14-15 Jesus took no moments for granted. He used every available moment of his time for the sake of the Good News.

Jesus took no moments for granted.

In Ephesians 5, the word for “days” is “kairos.” It is a different word than you often find for “time” in the NT. Often the word for “time” is “hora,” which means “hour.” It is a specific, appointed moment or short, immediate span of time. (think “lunch hour,” or “The Walking Dead starts at 10:00 on the hour.”

“Kairos,” used here, means “season.” it means a longer, indefinite span of time. You can think of “harvest season.” or “puberty.” Kairos is a very specific span of time that we don’t have an exact end date for. It is a definite period, but we don’t have the exact dates on our calendar. What does Jesus say about this in Mark 13:31-33?

So… How do you think Jesus feels for us to be idle, not producing anything just before the big project is due? How does Jesus describe it in this parable?

So, we are to “redeem the time,” or literally, to “buy back the season.” To make the best use of it as possible. How can we redeem the time in our homes? What about at work? How can we use Easter to redeem the time? How are you leveraging Easter for the sake of the Good News?

2 Peter 3:8-10

Lifegroup Discussion Questions: The Metronome

This entry is for discussion around Sunday’s message, “The Metronome,” which can be found right here. It is part of our ongoing “New Rhythm” series. If you are the lifegroup discussion leader, read through these questions ahead of time, and pick the ones that best fit your group. Have your group open their Bibles to the passages and be ready to discuss.

Ephesians 4:30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

What are the Holy Spirit’s purposes in your life?

John 14:26
Gal 5:22
1 John 2:26-27
John 14:16
1 Corinthians 2:9-12
Matthew 10:20
Romans 8:26-28

What does it feel like to grieve. What is the basic definition of “to grieve?”

(λυπεῖν, “to cause pain,” λυπεῖσθαι, “to experience sorrow,” “to be sad”) or to give regret -The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament

How do we “grieve” the Holy Spirit? How does he respond to us when grieving?

One way we grieve the Holy Spirit

Often, believers will use Him to disguise our laziness, or irresponsibility. You know what that’s like. It’s when we had an opportunity to help someone, or to share our faith, but we “didn’t feel led at that time.” That CAN be the case, but far more often, this isn’t a lack of leading, it is really a lack of obedience on our part.

Can you think of other ways?

Read Galatians 5:18-24. Is a person’s heart revealed by what he or she “produces?” How do we deal with that?

What happens when we openly produce disobedience against the Holy Spirit? Read 1 Corinthians 5:1-5.

What do you think it means for a church to “pronounce judgement,” and to “deliver him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” Does that sound harsh?

“this does not mean we should close our eyes to sin that is known by sinners and saints alike! We cannot judge another believer’s motives (which is what Matt. 7 refers to), but we can and must judge the actions of God’s people.” -Warren Wiersbe

“Delivering over to Satan” doesn’t mean that a person is abandoned by the church or by God… It means that the Holy Spirit withdraws, leaving you to fight the battle on your own power (which is what this man in 1 Corinthians was asking for) and ultimately face the destruction of your sinful inclinations- the flesh.

Does this mean you are alone? Read Romans 8:15-16.

You are SEALED by the Spirit. He is an “ever present help” in time of need, and NOTHING can separate you from His love. He is committed to this relationship with you, and you can’t change that.

Let him “guide into all truth.” (John 16:13)

He does this by reminding and reinforcing the teaching of Jesus (John 14:26)

Lifegroup Discussion Questions: Working

These questions are from this past week’s message, “I’m Not A Crook,” which can be found right here. All of the podcasts from the New Rhythm series are available at this link.

What is the worst job you ever had? Why was it bad, and how long did you stay there?

Scripturally, work is dignifying to a person, right? What do these verses say about the Godly dignity of work?

Jesus himself worked all his life before starting his ministry. We are told we will have jobs in the next life. We are designed to work.

If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need. -Ephesians 4:28

According to this passage, what is the purpose for our work?

Martin Luther taught that “God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does.” A Gospel-centered view of work shows us that God places us uniquely into our vocations next to other human beings that we are to love and serve. He says we are to be salt and light to the people that we work with. Not only this, but the results of our work… Our money… Should be a source of blessing also.

1 Corinthians 10:31

James 2:14-17

What could be the result of each of us using our work for God’s glory?

4 Steps To Getting Past The Fear Of Inviting Someone

Easter Sunday is coming up very soon, and we are going all out to leverage the momentum of Easter for the Gospel! You know, it turns out that a recent survey says that between 80% and 90% of non-church people will accept an invitation to church on Easter Sunday. That means the doors are WIDE OPEN for us to be inviting people for that big day! BUT, it turns out that most believers are afraid to actually take the step of inviting someone. So, with that in mind, here are 4 steps to getting past that fear and being used by God to change someone’s life.

Remember Who You Are

The whole reason you are here is because God has intentionally created and placed you for His own purpose. You are a child of the King, and an ambassador for Christ. In our study of Ephesians, we’ve learned that he has you here to use you “to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” (Eph 3:10) You are in no way an accident or an afterthought. You are here on behalf of the King. Remember that you speak for Him here.

Pray for Specific People

I believe that God answers specific prayers specifically. The good news is that God has probably already put that specific person in your path for you. Be praying for that co-worker, neighbor, friend, or acquaintance by name as God prepares your heart to be used in their life.

Trust in the Holy Spirit

Your job isn’t to make anyone a Christian. The Holy Spirit does that work. My responsibility is to be obedient to be light and salt. We are to “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) We do what we can, and HE does the rest!

Use Your Built-In Credibility

We’re providing you with resources to make your invitation credible… We have your back. Use our church facebook page, my personal invite video, the invite cards we give you on the weekends, refer to the newspaper ads, and more. You aren’t alone in this.

Easter is going to be a BIG DAY… We just want to leverage that momentum for the sake of the Gospel. I am praying for God to use each of us this Easter to change lives all around us here in Gilmer County.

LifeGroup Discussion Questions: My Rage Issues

This discussion is about last Sunday’s message, “My Rage Issues,” which can be heard here. Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our podcast!

Do your group members have their Bibles ready? We’ll be looking up verses together to discuss tonight. If you are the discussion leader, read over these questions yourself first, and pick ones that will work best with your group.

On Sunday, we talked about getting angry, and what that does to us and to those around us. Steve showed part the “Christian Road Rage” video, the whole video is right HERE on YouTube.

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. -Ephesians 4:26-27, 29

Do you have a good story about how you did or didn’t react in anger in a tense situation?

What are the things that make us angry? How do we usually deal with our anger? Who/what do we take it out on?

Do we like to think about GOD getting angry? Why, or why not? What does His Word say about His anger?

Isaiah 30:27-28

Did you ever have to read the famous sermon “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God” by Johnathan Edwards? Why don’t we talk like that any more?

What is the ONE thing that makes God angry? Is His anger justified? Why or why not?

Romans 1:18

My anger… What are the things that make ME angry? (road rage) how is that different from Godly anger?

On Sunday, Steve said “Godly anger eliminates sin, it doesn’t create sin.” What does that mean for me?

How I deal with my anger affects those around me. If you are the discussion leader in your group, read through these verses, and pick one or two that you feel would be most appropriate for your group to discuss.

Listen to this week’s podcast right here.

Lifegroup Discussion Questions: What’s the Big Deal about Cussing?

Special guest Dave Edwards did a GREAT job with his teaching on Sunday. You can listen to his message at the link below. This discussion guide follows up on Sunday’s topic of putting off the old nature and putting on the new nature by controlling the words we say.

Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. -Ephesians 4:29

How does it make you feel when you hear the f-bomb dropped a couple of times in the latest comedy movie that you and your spouse are sitting in?

What do you think when a co-worker lets a cussword or two fly in your workplace? Is that different than in the movies?

How would it feel to you if your lifegroup leader started your time together off with a few choice cuss words this evening? (maybe that has happened before!)

Doesn’t it seem that cussing is much more acceptable to us at certain times, in certain environments than in others? Does that mean that at some level, we are “okay” with “foul, abusive language?” (Eph 4:29) How does this affect us? Which nature does that feed? Is this really that big of a deal?

The words we use really are a big deal to God. Here are some of the things His Word has to say about the way we use our words:

One of the main reasons that God makes a big deal to us about our words is because of this simple principle:

the way we honor others is the way we honor God.

We’ve also said it like this: “When under pressure, what is inside is what comes out.” Is that true? How so? What does James, the brother of Jesus have to say about this in James 3:11-13?

On Sunday, Dave gave us some great, specific tips for putting off the old nature, and putting on the new nature in this way.

Screen out the hurt

He says the we should protect ourselves from the things that feed this old nature. Screen out the things that are averse to the new nature. So, if whatever is inside is what comes out under pressure, we should be diligent to only put in the good, new stuff… Not feed the old nature. Proverbs 21:23, Psalm 141:3

How can we do this? Have you had to do this at some point in your life in the past? How did that work out for you?

Stick to what is helpful

I really liked his phrase, “reverse the curse with a verse.” In other words, if you’re going to speak Godliness into someone, rather than old nature, you’ve got to have it in you to begin with! Do you know of some verses to memorize and meditate on that can reverse the curse? How about Psalm 19:7, Psalm 19:14, or Proverbs 10:32?

Speak the heart of God

We should always be looking to speak God’s heart… To allow HIS nature to flow through us into others. All of our words should point to HIM, rather than to us. If what is inside comes out, then our speech should always be seasoned with whatever is in our hearts. Colossians 4:6

If you missed it, you can catch Dave’s message from Sunday right here on our podcast feed. Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our podcast so you can always be ready for lifegroup discussion before it happens!

Son Of God In Theaters Feb 28

Production team Roma Downey and Mark Burnett made television history last year with the very popular “The Bible” miniseries. Now, they have remade part of this epic story into “Son Of God,” a major motion picture, due out February 28.

Of all of the upcoming Christian-themed crossover movies coming out in 2014, I believe this will most likely be the most true to scripture… I really believe that Downey and Burnett truly want to tell the story, not just cash in.

My big question will be, if you are telling Jesus’ story, will you frame it up in the context of his purpose? In other words, will the movie just show us the narrative of Jesus’ life, or will it give us the bad news and the good news? Will we viewers be confronted with the fact that we are sinners, hopelessly separated from God, and that Jesus came to pay the price to restore my relationship with God?

Even if it doesn’t, I think this movie could be a good tool to use in reaching people for Jesus… I think it would be great to take someone to, and then to talk about afterwards over coffee. What do you think?

BY THE WAY… Did you know that there is a “Left Behind” remake coming out with Nicholas Cage playing Pilot Rayford Steele?? What is happening??

Lifegroup Discussion Questions: The Effective Prayer Paradigm

This post is about last Sunday’s message, “The Effective Prayer Paradigm,” which can be heard below. If you aren’t already subscribed to our podcast, you should be! Sign up for our weekly message podcast in your Podcasts app smartphone, or in iTunes on your computer.

On Sunday, Steve talked about being frustrated in our prayer lives. Be honest… What is one thing you find to be challenging, surprising, boring, or annoying about prayer? Do you ever feel awkward during a prayer situation?

Read these Old Testament verses about prayer: Psalm 65:2, Psalm 91:15, Psalm 145:18. How do those line up with the New Testament verses here: 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Ephesians 6:18? Are they different? Do they align? How? What is the primary difference in prayer between the Old Testament and the New Testament?

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. -Hebrews 4:14-16

Steve’s main point was that prayer connects us to the presence and the power of God. How is that a different paradigm than most people have? In fact, he said that we often confuse God with Santa. How did that thought hit you?

“Pray, then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name… -Matthew 6:9

On Sunday, Steve talked about “flippant prayers.” What did you think about that? How do you contrast that with verses like Romans 8:15-16?

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”… “Safe?” said Mr Beaver… “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” -C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe

I read an online discussion of people who were “ex-Christians,” claiming that they turned away from God after years of following him, but with no answer to their prayers. They prayed for healing in their families, yet had death. They prayed for restoration, but they continued to experience brokenness? The overwhelming message of the discussion was that prayer had no real power. That you could get the same result from praying to a milk carton. How is this paradigm different from the Jesus prayer paradigm? Hint: Philippians 3:8-11

What are some ways that we can cultivate a growing prayer life ourselves?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Youversion Bible App and the Big Game!

At The Orchard, we love the Bible App from Lifechurch.TV. Each weekend all of our message notes and Scripture references are available via this handy, free app. Not only do many of our folks take notes in church, but they take advantage of the awesome reading plans, and listen to the audio Bible as they are running, driving, or whatever. We’ve been talking about how great this app is for a long time, but it is really good to hear these NFL players talking about it.

How Do You Communicate Best?

Communication methods sure are different today than they used to be, aren’t they? I really try hard to stay on top of the latest tools, because, after all, we’re in the communication business! We are here to communicate the Gospel message to anyone in any way possible.

With culture and technology these days, there are SO MANY different ways that people communicate. Some prefer email, some text, some Instagram. A few even place a telephone call! (remember when we used our phones like, you know… Phones?) So, with such diversification of communication styles, we at The Orchard Church work really hard to communicate. All told, we have around 16 or 18 different tools or channels through which we communicate… And each of them has to be handled differently! It really is a lot of work, but we’re committed to making the Gospel relevant. Relevant means that it connects to people where they are. So if they’re on Twitter, that’s where we go. If they’re on Facebook, we will be there. All of this really takes a lot of effort, so to try to figure out where to best make our time investment, we did a quick survey to see how our people liked to communicate. Everyone was asked which of 11 channels were most useful to them. Participants were able to check as many options as they wanted. Here’s what we found out:

What can we learn from this?

Email is still king

When it comes to communicating to a reasonable amount of people, email remains the number one chosen format. We try not to overload our group with too many emails. Typically, we send one or so a week, unless there is a special event or something. I get feedback from this venue all the time, and it seems to be working pretty well overall.

Facebook still owns our social scene

This is awesome because YOU get to use this channel to influence people for Christ. When you repost and “like” Orchard info on Facebook, you are connecting your friends to us, also. Keep up the great work!

Our best content isn’t connecting

We make our best available on my blogsite here. Either it really isn’t that great, or I’m just not connecting it well.

Our most immediate content is ignored

For prayer requests, last-minute schedule changes, updates, and other time-sensitive info, nothing beats Twitter. But Ellijay people still haven’t started using this channel.

Text messaging. Who knew?

This one ranked as the third most popular communication channel… We use it extensively for individuals and small groups, but don’t take advantage of it on a broader basis. That may need to change.

Print may not be quite dead yet!

We work for hours to produce an attractive, up-to-date printed newsletter each week. The drawback is that you have to BE there, AND you have to actually read it for it to be effective. This is by far the most expensive and difficult communication piece for us to produce. It takes hours each week. Always looking for ways to make this more effective.

So, communication in the 21st century is rapidly changing. Whatever we’re doing today won’t be the same thing we’re doing next year. Even if we aren’t hitting everyone, we are certainly trying hard. It looks like communication channels are only diversifying more and more, so expect us to add channels as things continue to evolve in this area.

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