A Blueprint for Building | Ephesians 4:1-16

Discussion Questions

  • The sermon mentioned the importance of living with each other in humility, gentleness, and patience. Which of these characteristics do you need to grow in the most with your church family?

  • How do you think God has gifted you to build up his body? Are you use that gift? How?

  • Who speaks both regular grace and truth into your life?

  • Share about a time you felt discouraged in your area of ministry? What helped you push through?

Prayer

  • Pray that God would make us more humble, gentle, and patience with each other as a church family

  • Ask the Lord to show you if there are certain gifts he’s given you that you aren’t using for the good of others.

  • Thank Jesus for how he humbled himself to lift you up

Why the Church? | Ephesians 3:1-13

Discussion Questions

  • Do you know people who have given up on the church? What were their main reasons?

  • Do you ever struggle to see the relevance of the church for our day and age?

  • What are some of the invisible walls that are dividing our culture today?

  • How have you seen the gospel bring people together that wouldn’t normally live in community?

  • What are some of the main things that get in the way of our unity within the church?

  • What things (if any) make it hard for you to commit to the church?

Prayer Points

  • Pray that God would continue to unify us a as a church

  • Pray that our unity would draw in people outside the church

  • Ask the Lord to reveal anything that’s keeping your from living in unity with your church family


A New Community | Ephesians 2:11-22

Discussion Questions

  • Reflect on and describe how your adoption into God’s family and citizenship into his kingdom brings healing to your life.

  • Do you struggle to believe in a horizontal reconciliation with others? Share some of your hurdles when it comes to living life in community?

  • Within your sphere of influence, how can you individually and as a group live as citizens and not tourists?

Prayer Points

  • Pray a prayer of thanksgiving for the gift of adoption and citizenship in Jesus.

  • Ask the Holy Spirit to help you remember and share the good news of Jesus that brings vertical and horizontal reconciliation.

  • Pray for Sound City to be a body of believers who live as citizens and not tourists.

The Story of the Gospel | Ephesians 2:1-10

Discussion Questions

  • How did you first hear the Good News of Jesus?

  • How would you explain the Gospel in your own words?

  • Where are you in the story of the Good News of Jesus?

  • What does God’s work inspire in you?

  • Who is God leading you to share the Good News with?

Prayer Points

  • Pray a prayer of thanksgiving for how God reached into your life with the Gospel.

  • Pray that God would help each of us at Sound City Bible Church internalize the Gospel in a

  • way that we can preach to ourselves and share with others.

  • Pray that God would soften the hearts of our neighbors to be ready to hear the Good

  • News, and for God to help us see and seize the opportunities to share with them.

Called into Purpose | Ephesians 1:3-10, 22-23, 2:10

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Discussion Questions

  • Do you struggle with the tension between human free will and God’s sovereignty? In what way?

  • Do you think human free will and God’s providence are ultimately compatible? Explain.

  • How have you experienced the brokenness of the world this week?

  • Pauls says in Ephesians 2:10 that we have each been created to walk in specific good works that God has planned beforehand. Do you have a good idea of what your good works are? In other words, how has God hand-crafted you for good in the world?

  • Do you struggle with a lack of meaninglessness in your life? If so, how might Ephesians help you reclaim a sense of significance in your everyday life?

Prayer

  • Pray that God would give you greater self-awareness so that you might grow in understanding how he’s designed you to serve the world

  • Ask God to help you see the significance in your day to day work

  • Ask the Lord to give our church clarity on how he wants to use us to repair or corner of the world for his glory

Called Into Blessing | Ephesians 1:1-14

Discussion Questions

  • What do you think it means to be “in Christ”?

  • How often do you think on the spiritual blessings you have in Christ?

  • Paul talks about how those in Christ are chosen, adopted, and inherited. Which of these “spiritual blessings” do you need to remember most in this season of life?

  • Do you struggle with the doctrine of election?

  • As our Father, God is committed to our growth. Share about a time God allowed a hard circumstance in your life in order to help you grow.

Prayer Points

  • Pray that God would help us as a church realize more of what we have in Christ as we work through Ephesians

  • Ask the Lord to reveal the ways in which you are subtly trying to earn his blessing rather than receive it freely in Christ

God’s Mission Over Our Comfort | Jonah 4:5-11

Discussion Questions

  • Jonah quotes from Exodus 34:6 to share his displeasure with God who is gracious, merciful and slow to anger. Has there been a time in your life where like Jonah, you’ve been angry with the very character of God?

  • Unrighteous anger isolates and separates. How have you experienced this to be true?

  • In what areas of your life are you building your own kingdom? How is God’s kingdom a better kingdom than ours?

  • Discuss ways in which you can individually and collectively create rhythms to remember and share the grace and mercies of God.

Prayer Points

  • Pray a prayer of thanksgiving for the grace and mercies of God in your life.

  • Pray for Sound City to be a body of believers joining together to build the kingdom of God.

  • Ask the Holy Spirit to help you remember and share the grace and mercies of God with others.

When Hearts Clash | Jonah 4:1-4

Discussion Questions

  • As we learn in Jonah 4:2, the baseline posture of God’s heart towards his children is one of grace and mercy. When’s the last time you remember experiencing his grace and mercy in a vivid way?

  • What things are you tempted to love as much or more than God? How do these rival gods influence your life?

  • Have you ever experienced a heart idol keep you from God’s call on your life to love others? Explain.

  • Who do you find it most difficult to feel mercy for rather than frustration?

  • Do you ever struggle to reconcile the love and justice of God. Explain.

Prayer Points

  • Pray that God would expose any rival gods in your heart that might be keeping you from loving those around you well

  • Ask that God would give us his heart of mercy towards those we encounter in our day to day life

  • Ask the Lord to provide opportunities to be the hands and feet of Christ to those you encounter this week

How God Saves Cities | Jonah 3:1-10

Discussion Questions

  • What makes it challenging for you to believe God could use you to reach those who are far from him?

  • Share a time when God saved you out of a dark place in your life

  • In the sermon, we talked about the difference between a “come and see” model of mission and a “go and love” model. Do you think the church needs to move from the first to the latter? Explain.

  • Who are you intentionally moving towards with the love of Jesus? Is there anyone you think God is asking you to “arise, and go” to in order to share the love of Jesus?

  • How have you seen God use the hard parts of your story to minister to others?

  • What’s the right balance in sharing vs. showing the love of Jesus?

Prayer Points

  • Pray that God would give you opportunities to minister to those who don’t yet know the Lord in your everyday life

  • Ask the Lord to show you if there are parts of your story he wants to use to give hope to others

  • Pray that God would continue to grow our hearts as a church for those who are far from him

From Runaway to Reluctant | Jonah 2:1-10

Discussion Questions

  • How has God hounded you in your life like he did Jonah’s steps by sending the storm and then saving him by sending a great fish?

  • How would you describe God’s mercy and how have you seen it at work?

  • What does it mean that God is committed to the slow process of teaching us the mystery of his mercy?

  • Where would you say you are in the process of being changed from runaway to reluctant to faithfully on mission with God?

  • How can we move along on that journey?

Prayer Points

  • Pray that God will reach into our hearts to truly see where we are like Jonah and how we might be reluctant to join God on his mission to save the world.

  • Pray that we will not pretend with outward actions but not surrender our hearts.

  • Pray that God will prepare our hearts to encounter people where they are without reluctance, and that their hearts will be ready to hear without reluctance.

The God Who Runs After Runaways | Jonah 1:1-17

Discussion Questions

  • When you think of our church’s value of “everyday mission” what comes to mind?

  • What are some of the challenges you face personally to engaging in everyday mission?

  • Is there a particular part of your life you find it difficult to allow God’s word to speak into? If you feel comfortable, share why.

  • God is a God who runs after runaways. How might God be challenging you to emulate his heart for those who are far from him?

Prayer Points

  • Pray that God would grow Sound City into a church that more and more engages in everyday mission.

  • Pray that God would give you opportunities to show and share the love of Christ with those people in your life who don’t yet know him.

  • Thank God for how he ran after you when you were running after him.

Easter Sunday | United in His Resurrection | Luke 24:36-43

Discussion Questions

  • What role does the fear of death play in everyday life? What things do you do (or not do) in light of your own immortality?

  • How often do you think about the implications of the resurrection?

  • How has the resurrection helped you navigate life in the past?

  • Our ultimate hope as believers is of a personal, physical, and perfected future. How can this hope bring us comfort and strength today?

  • What about the new heavens and earth are you most eager for?

Prayer Points

  • Pray that the hope we in Christ would comfort us when the shadow of death looms large

  • Pray for those in your life who are living without the hope of the resurrection, that they may come to know the grace of God

Palm Sunday | United in His Humanity | Mark 11:1-10

Discussion Questions

  • What comes to mind when you think of Holy Week?

  • What stands out to you about the Triumphal Entry/Palm Sunday?

  • Is there a way to describe Jesus being fully God and fully man that has helped you understand the concept?

  • What about Jesus’ humanity impacts you the most?

  • Why is it important that Jesus became human?

  • What about his humanity helps you relate to Jesus? To trust him?

  • How does Jesus’ humanity affect your thinking about the rest of Holy Week?

Prayer Points

  • Pray that God will give you a renewed sense of wonder and worship by reflecting on Jesus’ being fully God and fully man.

  • Pray that God will draw to Christ people in our community who are far from God.

  • Pray that our church, individually and together, will shine the light on Jesus this Holy Week.

Worshiping with God’s People | Psalm 95

Discussion Questions

  • How would you define worship?

  • Is it always a sin to worship something besides God? Why or why not?

  • How can we know if God is the ultimate object of our worship or something else?

  • How would you explain why we need Christian community?

  • What makes it challenging for us to live deeply rooted in a worshiping community?

Prayer

  • Pray that the Lord would give you a heart that sees him as the most valuable thing in life

  • Ask the Lord to show you any lower-case “g” gods that are competing for your worship

Draw Near: Responding to God's Word | Psalm 102

Discussion Questions

  • What is the significance of the psalmist starting with “LORD”

  • This psalm shows us we can be honest with God during our difficulties. How should this inform how we relate to each other in the church?

  • Sometimes we need to help each other move forward in our lamenting to put our focus on God. How did the psalmist do that?

  • What comfort does this passage give us that we can then comfort others with?

Prayer Points

  • Pray we would be long suffering together with each other as a church body as we experience various difficulties.

  • Pray we would be seeking out those around us that are suffering and need the hope of the gospel to comfort them.