Aug 4, 2019
“The Church: Is It Worth It? Part II
Scripture passages: Matt 16:18, 1 Pet. 2:1-10, Acts 2:42
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  • Aug 4, 2019“The Church: Is It Worth It? Part II
    Aug 4, 2019
    “The Church: Is It Worth It? Part II
    Scripture passages: Matt 16:18, 1 Pet. 2:1-10, Acts 2:42
  • Jul 28, 2019“The Church: Is It Worth It?” Part I
    Jul 28, 2019
    “The Church: Is It Worth It?” Part I
    Acts 20:14-38
  • Jul 21, 2019“The Bible Can It Be Trusted?” Part II
    Jul 21, 2019
    “The Bible Can It Be Trusted?” Part II
    Psalm 119: 1-88
  • Jul 14, 2019“The Bible, Can It Be Trusted?” Part I
    Jul 14, 2019
    “The Bible, Can It Be Trusted?” Part I
    2 Timothy 3:16-17 
  • Jul 7, 2019“But There is a God in Heaven”
    Jul 7, 2019
    “But There is a God in Heaven”
    Join  Pastor Ronnie Seppala (visiting from Nicaragua) as he teaches from Daniel Chapter Two. 
  • Jun 30, 2019“Finding Spiritual Life by Following Jesus”
    Jun 30, 2019
    “Finding Spiritual Life by Following Jesus”
    Luke 9:21-51 
    Hope Group Sermon Discussion Questions 
    1. To aid our memory, rehash some major points, illustrations and applications of the sermon. How did God speak to you? 
    2.  Should we listen to Jesus? Why or why not? What evidence and reason do we have to follow him? 
    3. How do you think Luke 9 can be a capstone and climax to our study through the gospel of Luke so far? What do we learn about Jesus, his identity, mission and power, that compels us to follow him from this chapter? 
    4. In what ways do you think Jesus' statements in Luke 9:23-25 are so "counter-cultural" today? 
    5. Discuss the paradoxes of Christianity and following Jesus by comparing Luke 9:23-27 and 9:57-62. What is Jesus teaching us? 
    6. What do you think picking up a cross and following Jesus means for you today? 
  • Jun 23, 2019“Send it. Who’s it? Eat it!”
    Jun 23, 2019
    “Send it. Who’s it? Eat it!”
    Luke 9:1-20 
    Hope Group Sermon Discussion Questions 
    1. Discuss spiritual hunger. What is it like to be hungry for God? What does it feel like to you? 
    2. Compare and contrast the feeding of the 5,000 in Luke 9 with the feeding of Israel in Exodus 16. 
    3. What was the response of the people in John 6 to Jesus Bread of Life message (John 6:41-43;52). Why? 
    4. What was the result/response of Jesus' preaching and message after the miracle of feeding the 5,000 in John 6:60-66? More disciples and bigger crowds  or less? Who was left? Why? 
    5. Discuss Simon Peter's response to Jesus' preaching and questioning in John 6:67-69 and Luke 9:18-20. What is your response to Jesus as the bread of life? 
  • Jun 16, 2019“Our Father”
    Jun 16, 2019
    “Our Father”
    Series: None
    Psalm 136
    Hope Group Sermon Discussion Questions
    This week we are asking all the groups to spend more of a focused time in prayer. Please feel free to use the list and prompts to guide your prayer time. 
     
    1. Pray with confession and supplication in mind for your group and for our church. (Read through and use Psalm 51 as a guide to help
    2. Pray to simply praise and adore our God. (Read through and use Psalm 66 as a guide to help prompt your prayers)
    3. Pray for the authorities in our land to reward the good and punish the evil. Pray for our government on all levels. (NH State government: Gov. Sununu, our senators and representatives if you know them by name for your town or just for the Jaffrey Reps: Richard Ames, Douglas Ley; State Senator Jeanne Dietsch)
    4. Pray for our church: (pray for our elders, pray for our deacons, pray for volunteers, pray for spiritual growth, pray for community outreach, pray we see more salvations and baptisms, pray for maturity and unity among our body, pray for future direction and insight regarding space constraints on our current building, pray for wisdom in all these areas and God’s grace to fill his church and spill out into the community)
    5. Pray for specific requests: (use this space to write down some of your own)
  • Jun 9, 2019“Jesus Brings Change”
    Jun 9, 2019
    “Jesus Brings Change”
    Luke 8:22-56 
    Hope Group Sermon Discussion Questions  
    1. Talk through each major encounter with Jesus in Luke 8:22-56. How does Jesus bring security, stability, sanctity and salvation through relationship? 
    2. Can you resonate and relate with the disciples in Luke 8:22-25? How So? (or any of the characters given in the chapter?) 
    3. How does much of Luke 8 and 9 build up to the confession in Luke 9:20? What is Luke doing in showing us this progression? What are you forced as the reader to do when reading through Luke and finally arriving at chapter 9 verse 20? 
    4. Discuss the presence of faith and/or the lack of faith in each major encounter here with Jesus? Especially as each encounter with Jesus asks us, in direct and indirect way, the question, "Where is your faith?" (8:25) 
    5. Pray together for God increase our faith in his power and ability to bring change into our broken and seemingly impossible situations. Pray for faith to overcome and pray for faith to endure whatever he has for us to face. 
     
  • Jun 2, 2019“Some Do, Some Don’t”
    Jun 2, 2019
    “Some Do, Some Don’t”
    Hope Group Sermon Discussion Questions 
    1. Talk through the parables given in this chapter of Luke. Which part of the parables most stuck out to you? (parable of soils/sower, soils explained, lamp and jar, story of Jesus' mother and brothers) 
    2. Today we must be careful of allowing the culture of constant arena entertainment to infect our hearts at church. While also remembering the culture of a church is more a posture of your heart than is is a style, genre, or denomination. How can you create an atmosphere of being a true hearer and a true doer of the Word here at HFC, rather than just simply wanting to be entertained by an experience. 
    3. What is a parable? Why would Jesus speak using parables and not just "say it as it is?" 
    4. What are the details and elements of good soil? Luke 8:15 
    5. Who does the work, God or man? Both? 1 Cor. 3:6-8.
  • May 26, 2019“Does the Bible Value Women?”
    May 26, 2019
    “Does the Bible Value Women?”
    Hope Group Sermon Discussion Questions 
    1. To aid our memory, rehash some major points, illustrations, and applications of the sermon. How did God speak to you? 
    2. How would you describe the cultural environment for men and woman today? How is it different than the past, positive or negative? (Extra credit: How could John 3:3 be an answer for the culture?) 
    3. What do you notice as significant and what can we learn from this account in John 20:11-18? 
    4. Discuss this quote in relation to the roles of men and women. Do you agree or disagree? "God's oneness is not sameness... It is unity in difference, not uniformity" - Sam Allberry. 
    5. What role does the church play in valuing men and women equally for their differences?
  • May 19, 2019“Much Love or Love Much?”
    May 19, 2019
    “Much Love or Love Much?”
    Hope Small Group Sermon Discussion Questions
    1. What is grace? What does it look like? What does it not look like? 
    2. What is Jesus talking about in Luke 7:33-35? Unpack these verses as a group. 
    3. How are those verses (7:33-35) illustrated and woven into the story given to us by Luke in 7:36-50? 
    4. Discuss the tension and the atmosphere of this situation described to us in Luke 7:36-50. Can you feel the emotion? Is this helpful for us to feel what is going on?
    5. Read Ephesians 2:4-10 as a group. How does this passage relate to the story in Luke and to your life?  
     
  • May 12, 2019“What is Faith?”
    May 12, 2019
    “What is Faith?”
    Hope Group Sermon Discussion Questions
    1. In what ways did you operate on faith today?  Give examples. You had faith that... 
    2. What is Faith? Is faith different from blind faith? (John 20:30-31, Heb. 11:1) 
    3. What is humility? How is humility related to faith and can faith not exist without humility? 
    4. Look up the two times Jesus was amazed: Luke 7:9 and Mark 6:6. What can we learn from these two passages? 
    5. Consider Jesus' compassion. Notice the tenderness of the passage in Luke 7:13-15. Point out each detail of Jesus' tender compassion for the mother and widow. What does this teach us? 
  • May 5, 2019“Check Your Heart”
    May 5, 2019
    “Check Your Heart”
    Hope Group Sermon Discussion Questions
     Luke 6:43-49
    1. Ever had a "check your heart" moment? (when our actions, even small things, reveal what's really going on in our heart) Can you name any, even little things we do all the time, that reveal our heart isn't following the words of Jesus?  
     
    2. Compare and contrast Luke 6:43-49 and Matt. 7:15-27. What's the over-all emphasis of the Luke passage and the Mathew passage?
     
    3.  Why would you say the heart is so important and so often emphasized by Jesus? 
     
    4. As a group, examine and discuss the multitude of scriptures that reinforce Jesus' sermon in Luke 6:43-49. 
    Isaiah, 28:16-17, Jeremiah 17:1-13, Psalm 1, Ephesians 2:20, Colossians 2:6-7, James 1:22 and James 3:1-11. 
  • Apr 28, 2019“To Judge or Not to Judge”
    Apr 28, 2019
    “To Judge or Not to Judge”
    Hope Group Sermon Discussion Questions

    1. What was your take away from this message?

    2. How do you think people generally view Christians as a whole? How about in our state? Or in our town?

    3. What is mercy? What does it look like? Examples.

    4. What is discernment/judgment? What does it look like? Examples.

    5. Is it possible to be merciful and discerning at the same time?

    6. What does this passage (Luke 6:37-42) mean? What does it not mean? (judging, condemning, forgiving, giving, the parable of the beam and the speck)

    7. EXTRA CREDIT: Reconcile and explain how these passages work together: 1 Cor. 4:4-5 and 5:12-13 (always look at their context)

     
  • Apr 21, 2019“Easter Changes Everything”
    Apr 21, 2019
    “Easter Changes Everything”
    Series: Easter 2019
    "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, 'Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.'"
    -Revelation 1:17-18 (ESV) 
  • Apr 14, 2019“Behold Your King”
    Apr 14, 2019
    “Behold Your King”
    Series: Easter 2019
    "Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. With righteousness He judges and wages war.  He has eyes like blazing fire, and many royal crowns on His head. He has a name written on Him that only He Himself knows. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood,  and His name is The Word of God."  -Revelation 19:11-13 (ESV) 
  • Apr 7, 2019“Why the Bread and the Wine?”
    Apr 7, 2019
    “Why the Bread and the Wine?”
    "So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."
    -John 6:53 (ESV) 
  • Mar 31, 2019“Family and Faith Passed Down”
    Mar 31, 2019
    “Family and Faith Passed Down”
     "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."  - Deuteronomy  6:5-7 (ESV) 
  • Mar 24, 2019“From the Gutter to Grace”
    Mar 24, 2019
    “From the Gutter to Grace”
    Luke 6:27-36 
     
    Hope Group Sermon Discussion Questions 
    1. To aid our memory, rehash some major points, illustrations, and applications of the sermon. How did God speak to you? 
    2. How can you compare this passage from Luke on loving your enemies to the narratives of Joseph and Jonah? 
    3. How is the "Golden Rule" really the essence of the gospel? (consider Romans 5:6-8 and 1 Cor. 6:9-11) 
    4. Read through the "marks of the true Christian" in Romans 12:9-21. Discuss these and compare them to Jesus' message in Luke 6. Then pray for the Holy Spirit to empower us to live these out and bear this fruit though his grace.